【正文】 erity, others say that petition is bad, that it sets one person against another and that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people. I have taught many children who held the belief that their selfworth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. For them, playing well and winning are often lifeanddeath affairs. In their singleminded pursuit(追求 ) of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly fotten. However, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. In a culture which values only the winners and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame petition. Among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under petitive pressures from their parents or society. Teaching these young people I often observe in them a desire to fail. They seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. By not trying, they always have an excuse: “I may have lost, but it doesn’t matter because I really didn’t try.” What is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost , that would mean a lot. Such a loss would be a measure of their worth. Clearly, this belief is the same as that of the true petitors who try to prove themselves. Both are based on the mistaken belief that one’s selfrespect relies on how well one performs in parison with others. Both are afraid of not being valued. Only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve(緩解 ) can we discover a new meaning in c ompetition. 46. What does this passage mainly talk about? A. Competition helps to set up selfrespect. B. Opinions about petition are different among people. C. Competition is harmful to personal quality development. D. Failures are necessary experiences in petition. 47. Why do some people favor petition according to the passage? A. It pushes society forward. B. It builds up a sense of duty. C. It improves personal abilities. D. It encourages individual efforts. 48. The underlined phrase “ the most vocal” in Paragraph 3 means ______. A. those who try their best to win B. those who value petition most highly C. those who are against petition most strongly D. those who rely on others most for success 49. What is the similar belief of the true petitors and those with a desire to fail? A. One’s worth lies in his performance pared with others. B. One’s success in petition needs great efforts. C. One’s achievement is determined by his particular skills. D. One’s success is based on how hard he has tried. 50. Which point of view may the author agree to? A. Every effort should be paid back. B. Competition should be encouraged. C. Winning should be a lifeanddeath matter. D. Fear of failure should be removed in petition. B Do you want to live with a strong sense of peacefulness, happiness, goodness, and selfrespect? The collection of happiness actions broadly categorized as “honor” help you create this life of good feelings. Here’s an example to show how honorable actions create happiness. Say a store clerk fails to charge us for an item. If we keep silent, and profit from the clerk’s mistake, we would drive home with a sense of sneaky excitement. Later we might tell our family or friends about our good fortune. On the other hand, if we tell the clerk about the uncharged item, the clerk would be grateful and thank us for our honesty. We would leave the store with a quiet sense of honor that we might never share with another soul. Then, what is it to do with our sense of happiness? In the first case, where we don’t tell the clerk, a couple of things would happen. Deep down inside we would know ourselves as a type of thief. In the process, we would lose some peace of mind and selfrespect. We would also demonstrate that we cannot be trusted, since we advertise our dishonor by telling our family and friends. We damage our own reputations by telling others. In contrast, bringing the error to the cler