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情境 素材 自我认知偏差 「2026 北京三帆中学期中改编」
“Do not get the idea that you're anything special, because you're not.” This is what English teacher David McCullough told graduates at Wellesley High School. Mothers and fathers present at the ceremony disagreed with McCullough's words. But in all that anger and disagreement, we missed something we really should keep in mind: our young people actually have no idea whether they're really talented or not. In our hope to build their confidence, we forgot to teach them how to correctly evaluate(评估) their own abilities. In fact, it's not just these high-school students; we all tend to view ourselves as above-average. Therefore, it is of great importance for us to learn and teach our kids how to evaluate themselves objectively(客观地).
Inflated (膨胀的) self-judgments have been found in study after study. Usually, when we perform worst at a given task, we feel most satisfied with our performance. In a 2020 study published in the journal Medical Education, for example, medical students who scored the lowest on a test were the most sympathetic in their self-evaluations, while high-scoring students judged themselves much more strictly. Poor learners, the authors say, cannot realize their own inability. Why should this be? Another study offers an explanation. People who have a low level of ability suffer from a “dual burden”: they're not good at what they do, and their inability prevents them from recognizing how bad they are.
In Dunning's study, participants scoring at the bottom on tests of logic, grammar and humor “extremely overestimated (高估)” their talents. Although their test scores put them in the 624th, they guessed they were in the 12th. What these individuals didn't have was “meta-cognitive skill(元认知技巧)”:
the ability to monitor how well (or badly) they're performing. Without that ability, the participants arrived at an overly hopeful view of their own abilities.
Luckily, there are a couple of ways to deal with it. First, we can learn to make honest comparisons with others. Train yourself to recognize excellence, even when you don't have it. Then compare what you can do with what excellent people are able to do. Second, often ask others for opinions and try to make sure they are correct and specific. Find someone who will tell you not only how poorly you're doing, but also what you're doing wrong.
If we use these ways—and most importantly, teach them to our children—they won't need parents, or a graduation ceremony speaker, to tell them whether they're special or not. If they are, they'll already know that they are. Or they'll have a plan to get that way.
1. Why does the writer mention David McCullough's speech at the beginning of the passage?
A.To introduce the problem of wrong self-view.
B.To show the anger of parents at the ceremony.
C.To discuss what makes a person truly special.
D.To criticize the wrong ideas of an English teacher.
2. The underlined word “sympathetic” in Paragraph 2 probably means “”.
A.serious B.negative C.honest D.kind
3. 特色 考法 写作目的题 What is the writer's main purpose in writing this passage?
A.To explain what “meta-cognitive skill” is and how to develop it.
B.To stress the need for objective self-evaluation and offer solutions.
C.To introduce studies on self-judgment and ways to accept ourselves.
D.To discuss why we view ourselves as below-average and offer advice.

1.A 推理判断题。文章开篇引用David McCullough的话"不要认为自己很特别,因为你并不特别",随后指出家长对此感到愤怒,但真正值得关注的是年轻人无法正确评估自己的能力。由此可知,作者提及David McCullough的话是为了引出自我认知偏差这一问题。故选A。
2.D 词义猜测题。根据第二段中的"medical students who scored the lowest on a test were the most sympathetic in their self-evaluations, while high-scoring students judged themselves much more strictly"可知,得分最低的学生在自我评价中更为"sympathetic",而高分学生则更严格。结合语境可推断,sympathetic意为"宽容的",与kind意思相近。故选D。
3.B 写作目的题。文章首先指出人们普遍存在自我认知偏差的问题,随后分析了原因,并在第四段提出应对方法,最后强调教会孩子客观自我评价的重要性。由此可知,作者的主要写作目的是强调客观自我评价的必要性并提供解决方案。故选B。