Anyone who doubts that children are born with a healthy amount of ambition need spend only a few minutes with a baby eagerly learning to walk. No matter how many times the little ones stumble in their first efforts, most keep on trying, determined to master their amazing new skill. It is only several years later, many psychologists and teachers agree, that a good number of kids seem to lose their natural drive to succeed. For the parents of such kids, whose own ambition is often tied to their children’s success, it can be a painful experience.
Figuring out why the fire went out is the first step. Assuming that a kid doesn’t suffer from a learning disability, or isn’t involved in some family crisis at home, many educators attribute a sudden lack of motivation to a fear of failure or classmate pressure. “Everything is within the kids’ control; their intelligence is changeable,” says Lisa Blackwell, a research scientist at Columbia University. “More than any teacher or workshop,” Blackwell says, “parents can play a key role in conveying this message to their children by praising their effort, and progress rather than emphasizing their ‘smartness’ or praising high performance alone. Most importantly, parents should let their kids know that mistakes are a part of learning.”
Some experts say our education system, with its strong emphasis on testing and separation of students into different levels of ability, also bears blame for the disappearance of drive in some kids. “These programs shut down the motivation of all kids who aren’t considered gifted and talented. They destroy their confidence,” says Jeff Howard, a social psychologist. Howard and other educators say it’s important to expose kids to a world beyond homework and tests, through volunteer work, sports, hobbies and other extracurriculum activities.
“The problem of the issue is that many students experience education as irrelevant to their life goals and ambitions,” says Michael Nakkual, a Harvard education professor. The key to getting kids to aim higher at school is to free them of the idea that class work is irrelevant, to show them how doing well at school can actually help them fulfill their dreams beyond it. They need to understand that you have to learn to walk before you can run.
According to the passage, the parents of kids with no ambition       .

A．don’t do a very good job teaching them to walk

B．are to blame if the kids do poorly in school

C．feel pain because ambitions are connected to their success

D．should take part in extra-curriculum activities with kids

The underlined part “the fire went out” probably means       .

A．the motivation was suddenly lost

B．the fear of failure was suddenly gone

C．the learning disability was suddenly lost

D．the fire was suddenly gone

All the following can contribute to a sudden lack of ambition EXCEPT       .

A．learning disability	B．classmate pressure
C．emphasis on testing	D．extracurricular activities

What is the most important thing for parents in motivating their kids?

A．By punishing kids who don’t display ambition.

B．By emphasizing smartness and high performance.

C．By telling kids that mistakes are a part of learning.

D．By praising the effort and progress they have made.

We can infer from the passage that       .

A．children who have lost their ambition will never succeed in life

B．school performance has much to do with students’ later success

C．both the parents and the school are to blame for the lost ambition

D．younger kids learning to walk are more ambitious than older ones

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