When do you get the highest self-esteem?

甘肃山丹县丹尼辅导学校 刘欣然

题材心理文章词数 难度 建议用时说明文体裁332 ★★★ 6 分钟

难词探意

1.obsess /əb'ses/ v.使着迷；唠叨

2.plateau /'plætəʊ/ n.高原；稳定期；停滞期

3.spouse /spaʊs/ n.配偶

In our youth-obsessed culture, one would assume that your self-esteem peaks in your 20s—but that's not the case.Researchers from the University of Bern in Switzerland set out to determine when the average person's self-esteem is the highest, and the good news is that your peak comes decades later.

The study, published in the journal Psychological Bulletin, analyzed 191 self-esteem research articles covering over 165,000 people.Researchers have found that self-esteem increases throughout one's lifetime, with a slight plateau during those awkward teen years.Between ages 11 and 15, self-esteem stops rising—but it never drops.Our self-esteem levels then start rising again and don't peak until well into midlife.The highest point for self-esteem level happens at age 60 and stays there until a slight decline in one's 70s and 80s.

This news that our self-esteem will continue to rise or stay steady during the majority of our lives is exciting.We often hear of increased stress in the decades of raising teens and caring for aging parents, but there are upsides, too.“Midlife is, for many adults, a time of highly stable life in domains such as relationships and work.Moreover, during middle adulthood, most individuals further invest in the social roles they hold, which might promote their self-esteem,”study co-author Ulrich Orth, a professor of psychology at the University of Bern in Switzerland,told Time magazine.“For example, people take on managerial roles at work, maintain a satisfying relationship with their spouses or partners,and help their children to become responsible and independent adults.”

As we age and our roles tend to change, it's natural for self-esteem to take a small hit.“Old age frequently involves loss of social roles as a result of retirement, the empty nest, and,possibly, widowhood, all of which are factors that may threaten self-esteem,” Dr Orth told Time.Dr Orth believes that most people maintain a high self-esteem level even into their 90s and beyond.

Language Study

Ⅰ.Difficult sentences

1.In our youth-obsessed culture, one would assume that your self-esteem peaks in your 20s.

译文：在我们崇尚青春的文化中，人们会认为一个人的自尊感在20 多岁时达到顶峰。

分析：本句中，obsess 本意是“使痴迷；使迷恋”。 此处的youth-obsessed 可以理解为“崇尚青春，青春主导”。 此处的 assume 意为“认为”。 而 peak 在这里为动词，意为“达到高峰”。

2.Researchers have found that self-esteem increases throughout one's lifetime, with a slight plateau during those awkward teen years.

译文：研究人员发现，自尊心在人的一生中都会增强，在那些尴尬的青少年时期会有轻微的停滞。

分析：本句的关键词是“plateau”， 其本意是“高原；稳定期”。 根据文章的上下文可知，此处的plateau 意为“停滞期”。

Ⅱ.Useful sentence patterns

Old age frequently involves loss of social roles as a result of retirement, the empty nest, and,possibly, widowhood, all of which are factors that may threaten self-esteem.

译文：老年人经常会因为退休、空巢，可能还有丧偶而失去社会角色，所有这些都是可能威胁自尊的因素。

本句中， all of which 是一个介词前置于关系词作引导词的结构。再如：The people with whom we are staying are very friendly to us.和我们一起的人对我们非常友好。Practice: 用介词前置于关系词的结构完成句子。

1.This is the house _________________________.(著名的作家曾经居住过的地方)

2.There are many factors accounting for this，_________.(其中，最重要的是经验不足）

Reading Check

阅读短文，根据其内容写一篇60词左右的内容概要。

写作导引

一、析结构，理要点

二、依体裁，巧行文

在对不同的文本进行概要写作时，第一步就是明确原文的体裁，根据不同的体裁（如说明文、议论文、记叙文、新闻等）来确定概要写作的思路与框架。 本文是一篇说明文的写作，写作时要突出说明对象及其特征或性质这两个重要的要素，而对于原文的说明方法可以忽略。 通过对这两个要素的回答，并对原文加以信息提取与整合，辅以适当的衔接手段，我们即可写出一篇较为准确的概要文章。

另外，考试中说明文概要写作的语言要力求精准、具体、朴实，尽量避免使用生动的语言。