教材1第1课-final(18)

7 She calls the baby‘s name, jingles the bell, claps her hands. Then she picks up the

baby, who immediately becomes lively and makes happy sounds.

8 ―My God,‖ the father says. ―She‘s deaf.‖

9 ―No, she‘s not,‖ the mother says. ―I mean, it‘s too soon to say a thing like that. Look, she‘s brand-new. Her eyes don‘t even focus yet.‖

10 ―But there wasn‘t the slightest movement, even when you clapped as hard as you could.‖

11 The mother takes a book from the shelf. ―Let‘s read what‘s in the baby book,‖ she says. She looks up ―hearing‖ and reads out loud: ― ‗Don‘t be alarmed if your newborn fails to be startled by loud noises or fails to turn toward sound. Reactions to sound often take some time to develop. Your pediatrician ca n test your child‘s hearing neurologically.‘‖

12 ―There3,‖ the mother says. ―Doesn‘t that make you feel better?‖

13 ―Not much,‖ the father says. ―It doesn‘t even mention the other possibility, that the baby is deaf. And all I know is that my baby doesn‘t hear a thing. I‘ve got the worst feeling about this. Maybe it‘s because my grandfather was deaf. If that beautiful baby is deaf and it‘s my fault, I‘ll never forgive myself.‖

14 ―Hey, wait a minute,‖ says the wife. ―You‘re worrying too much. We‘ll cal l the pediatrician first thing Monday. In the meantime, cheer up. Here, hold the baby while I fix4 her blanket. It‘s all pulled out.‖

15 The father takes the baby but gives her back to his wife as soon as he can. All weekend he finds himself unable to pr epare for next week‘s work. He follows his wife around the house, thinking about the baby‘s hearing and about the way deafness would ruin her life. He imagines only the worst: no hearing, no development of language, his beautiful child cut off from society, locked in a soundless world. By Sunday night he has sunk into despair.

16 The mother leaves a message with the pediatrician‘s answering service5 asking for an early appointment Monday. She spends the weekend doing her exercises, reading, and trying to calm her husband.

17 The pediatrician‘s tests are reassuring, but the father‘s spirits remain low. Not until a week later, when the baby shows her first startle to the loud sound of a passing truck, does he begin to recover and enjoy his new daughter again.6

18 This father and mother have two different ways of looking at the world. Whenever something bad happens to him—a call from the bank manager, a disagreement with his wife, even a frown from his employer—he imagines the worst: bankruptcy, jail, divorce, and dismissal. He is prone to depression; he often feels extremely tired; his health suffers. She, on the other hand, sees bad events in their least threatening light. To her, they are temporary challenges to be overcome. After a reversal, she bounces back quickly, and finds all her energy again. Her health is excellent.

19 The optimists and the pessimists: I have been studying them for the past twenty-five years. The defining characteristic of pessimists is that they tend to believe bad events will last a long time, will undermine everything they do, and are their own fault. The optimists, who are confronted with the same hard knocks7 of this world, think about misfortune in the opposite way. They tend to believe defeat is just a temporary setback, that its causes are confined to this one case. The optimists believe defeat is not their fault: circumstances, bad 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55

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