With no attempt there can be no failure and with no failure no humiliation. So our self-esteem in the world depend entirely on what we back ourselves to be and do. it is determined by the ratio or our supposed potentialities. Thus                       . this illustrated how every rise in our levels of expectation entails a rise in the dangers of humiliation. What we understand to be normal is critical in determining our chances of happiness. It also hints at two ways for raising our self-esteem. On the one hand, we may try to achieve more; and on the other, we may reduce the number of things we want to achieve. The advantages of the latter approach lie in the following statement: To give up pretension is as blessed a relief as to get them gratified.

1. the higher your expectations are, the more you will achieve

2. self-esteem can be increased by lowering actualities

3. success divided by pretensions equals self-esteem

4. early failures in life may lead to happiness later in life

5. more supposed potentialities increase chances of happiness

2011년 9월 평가원 28번 문제입니다. 참 악명 높던 문제였죠. 한 번 풀어보세요. 

참고로 이 문제가 가장 정답률이 낮았는데 여기서 중요한건 이게 논문인가? 거기서 나온 것이었는데 정작 원문에서는 정답은 분수식으로 표현이 되었다는거죠.

즉 이 시험 이후 평가원에겐 엄청난 욕이 배달되었는데 문제는

그 이후였으니..

So far as your are wholly concentrated on bringing about a certain result, clearly the quicker and easier it is brought about the better. Your resolve to secure a sufficiency of food for yourself and your family will induce you to spend weary days in tilling the ground and tending livestock; but if Nature provided food and meat in abundance ready for the table, you would thank Nature for sparing you much labor and consider yourself so much the better off. An executed purpose, in short, is a transaction in which the time and energy spent on the execution are balanced against the resulting assets, and the ideal case is one in which                              . Purpose, then, justifies the efforts it exacts only conditionally, by their fruits.

1. demand exceeds supply, resulting in greater returns.

2. life becomes fruitful with our endless pursuit of dreams.

3. the time and energy are limitless and assets are abundant

4. Nature does not reward those who do not exert efforts

5. the former approximates to zero and the latter to infinity 

수능 때 저 문제 하나로 아주 불을 질러버렸죠.

저 문제 정답률이 아마 18%? 15% 정도 했을 겁니다. 

물론 지금이야 공략(?)이 다 된 지문들이지만 당시로선 공포 그 자체였죠