Part A

Read the following text and answer the questions by choosing A, B, C or D.

The True Meaning of Self-Help

According to self-help expert Tony Robbins, walking barefoot across 1,000-degree red-hot coals “is an experience in belief. It teaches people in the most intuitive sense that they can do things they never thought possible.”

I’ve done three fire walks myself, without chanting “cool moss” or thinking positive thoughts. I didn’t get burned. Why? Because charcoal is a poor conductor of heat, particularly through the dead calloused skin on the bottom of your feet and especially if you walk across the bed of coals as quickly as fire walkers are likely to do. Physics explains the “how” of fire walking. To understand the “why,” we must turn to psychology.

In 1980 I attended a bicycle industry trade convention whose keynote speaker was Mark Victor Hansen, well known coauthor of the wildly popular Chicken Soup for the Soul book series. I was surprised that Hansen didn’t require a speaker’s fee, until I saw what happened after his talk; people were lined up out the door to purchase his motivation tapes. I listened to those tapes over and over during training rides in preparation for bicycle races.

The “over and over” part is the key to understanding the “why” of what journalist Steve Salerno calls the Self-Help and Actualization Movement (SHAM). In his recent book: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless, he explains how the talks and tapes offer a momentary lift of inspiration that fades after a few weeks, turning buyers into repeat customers. Surrounding SHAM is a builetproof shield: if your life does not get better, it is your fault--your thoughts were not positive enough. The solution? More of the same self-help--or at least the same message repackaged into new products. Consider the multiple permutations of John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. SHAM takes advantage by cleverly marketing the dualism of victimization and empowerment. SHAM experts insist that we are all victims of our wild and cruel “inner children” who are produced by painful pasts that create negative “tapes” that replay over and over in our minds. Liberation comes themselves, for prices that range from $500 one-day work-shops to Robbins’s $5,995 “Date with Destiny” seminar. Do these programs work? No one knows. According to Salerno, no scientific evidence indicates that any of the countless SHAM techniques—from fire walking to 12-stepping—works better than doing something else or even doing nothing . The law of large numbers means that given the millions of people who have tried SHAMs. Inevitably some will improve. As with alternative, ineffective medicine, the body naturally heals itself and whatever the patient was doing to help gets the credit. Patient, heal thyself—the true meaning of self-help.

21. What does Tony Robbins say about fire walks?

[A] Fire walkers are actually cheaters.

[B] Fire walkers should have experience.

[C] Fire walking is a special experience.

[D] Fire walking requires much self-confidence.

22.”…turning buyers into repeat customers” implies

[A] SHAM may lead to a dramatic shopping inspiration.

[B] SHAM believers buy more books of similar content.

[C] usually SHAM will only last for several weeks.

[D]tapes of Steve Salerno’s talks are sold at different time.

23.the advantage that SHAM takes is possibly the

[A] economic benefit.

[B] scientific advances.

[C] public indulgence.

[D] believers’ vulnerability.

24. What is the author’s attitude towards SHAM?

[A] Critical.

[B] Understanding.

[C] Admiring.

[D] Indifferent.

25. The purpose of mentioning the prices (for prices that range from $500 … to …$5,995 …) is to

[A] tell readers the actual cost of such activities.

[B] satirize the high cost and a not-much-useful activity.

[C] recommend some of the worthwhile soul trainings.

[D] show the quality discrepancy among such activities.

26. Which of the following statements would the author agree with?

[A] SHAM will work together with certain medicine.

[B] SHAM techniques are better than other techniques.

[C] SHAM may work for only a small number of people.

[D] SHAM works as effectively as physical healing.