2014年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解C

Choosing the Right Resolution
选择正确的方案

Millions of Americans began 2014 with the same resolution they started 2013 with, a goal of losing weight. However, setting weight loss as a goal is a mistake.
2014年，数以百万计的美国人怀着与2013年一样的决心开始了减肥。然而，把减肥作为目标是错误的。

To reach our goal of losing weight --- the output, we need to control what we eat --- the input. That is, we tend to care about the output but not to control the input. This is a bad way to construce goals. The alternative is to focus your resolution on the input. Instead of resolving to lose weight, try an actionable resolution: “I’ll stop having desert for lunch,” or “I’ll walk every day for 20 minutes.” Creating a goal that focuses on a well-specified input will likely be more effective than concentrating on the outcome.
为了达到减肥的目标——输出，我们需要控制我们的饮食——输入。也就是说，我们倾向于关注输出，而不是控制输入。这是一种不好的构建目标的方式，另一种方式是将你的关注集中在输入上。与其下定决心减肥，不如尝试一个可行的方案：“午餐不吃甜食”，或者“每天步行20分钟”。创建一个专注于明确输入的目标可能比专注于结果更有效。

Recently a new science behind incentives , including in education, has been discussed. For example, researcher Roland Fryer wanted to see what works best in motivating children to do better in school. In some cases, he gave students incentives based on input, like reading certain books, while in others, the incentives were based on output, like results on exams. His main finding was that incentives increased achievement when based on input but had no effect on output. Fryer’s conclusion was that the intensives for inputs might be more effective because do not know how to do better on exam, aside from general rules like “study harder.” Reading certain books, on the other hand, is a well-set task over which they have much more control.
最近，一项新的科学揭示了激励机制 , 包括在教育方面，已经进行了讨论。例如，研究人员罗兰·弗莱尔想知道怎样才能最好地激励孩子们在学校的表现。某些情况下，他根据输入给学生奖励，比如阅读某些书籍，而在另一些情况下，基于输出进行奖励，比如考试成绩。他的主要发现是，当激励基于输入时，效果会增加，但基于输出没有效果。弗莱尔的结论是，强调输入可能更有效，因为除了“更努力学习”等一般规则外，他们不知道如何考得更好。另一方面，阅读某些书籍也是一项精心安排的任务，可以更好地控制。

As long as you have direct control over your goal, you have a much higher chance of success. And it’s easier to start again if you fail, because you know exactly what you need to do.
只有你能更直接地控制目标，你才更有可能成功。如果你失败了，重新开始会更容易，因为你知道自己真正的需要。

If you want to cut down on your spending, a good goal would be making morning coffee at home instead of going to a cafe, for example. This is a well-specified action-based goal for which you can measure your success easily. Spending less money isn’t a goal because it’s too general. Similarly, if you want to spend more time with your family, don’t stop with this general wish. Think about an actionable habit that you could adopt and stick to, like a family movie night every Wednesday.
例如，如果你想减少开支，一个好的目标是在家煮早咖啡，而不是去咖啡馆。这是一个明确的基于行为的目标，你可以很容易地衡量你的成功。少花钱不是目标，因为这太笼统了。同样，如果你想花更多的时间和家人在一起，不要只满足于这个通用愿望。想一想你可以采纳并坚持的可操作习惯，比如每周三的家庭电影之夜。

In the long run, these new goals could become a habit.
从长远看，这些新目标可能会成为一种习惯。