第二节 完形填空（共20小题；每小题1分，满分20分）
阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36~55各题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
We often talk about ourselves as if we have genetic defects (基因缺陷) that can never be changed. “I’m impatient.” “I’m always behind.” “I always put things   36  !” You’ve surely heard them. Maybe you’ve used them to describe   37  .
These comments may come from stories about us that have been   38  for years. These stories may have no   39   in fact. But they can set   40   expectations for us. As a child, my mother said to me, “Marshall, you have no mechanical (操作机械的) skills, and you will never have any mechanical skills for the rest of your life.” How did these expectations   41  my development? I was never   42  to work on cars or be around tools. When I was 18, I took the US Army’s Mechanical Aptitude Test. My scores were in the   43   for the whole nation!
Six years later,   44  , I was working on my doctor’s degree. My professor, Dr. Bob Tannbaum, asked me to write down things I did  45    and things I couldn’t do. On the  46    side, I took down, “research, writing, analysis, and speaking.” On the other side, I wrote, “I have no mechanical skills.”
Bob asked me   47   I knew I had no mechanical skills. I explained my life   48  and told him about my   49  performance on the Army test. Bob then asked, “Why is it that you can solve   50  mathematical problems, but you can’t solve simple mechanical problems?”
Suddenly I realized that I didn’t   51  from some sort of genetic defect. I was just living out expectations that I had chosen to   52  . At that point, it wasn’t just my family and friends who had been   53  my belief that I was mechanically hopeless. And it wasn’t just the Army test, either. I was the one who kept telling myself, “You can’t do this!” I realized that   54  we don’t treat ourselves as if we have incurable genetic defects, we can   55   in almost anything we choose.
36. A. away                       B. off                            C. up                              D. down
37. A. them                      B. myself                  C. yourself                  D. others 
38. A. said                       B. spoken                  C. spread                  D. repeated 
39. A. basis                      B. plot                             C. cause                    D. ending 
40. A. high                             B. low                       C. general                  D. realistic 
41. A. lead                     B. improve                C. affect                   D. quicken  
42. A. encouraged              B. forced                  C. forbidden                     D. ordered   
43. A. middle                   B. bottom                         C. front                     D. beginning  
44. A. therefore                B. moreover              C. instead                   D. however 
45. A. well                      B. badly                    C. carefully                         D. honestly  
46. A. passive                   B. positive                       C. negative                        D. subjective 
47. A. when                     B. where                    C. how                        D. whether  
48. A. values                      B. styles                              C. experiences                      D. goals  
49. A. unexpected                    B. poor                          C. excellent                 D. average 
50. A. complex                  B. special                   C. common                  D. primary 
51. A. arise                      B. separate                  C. come                    D. suffer
52. A. believe                   B. suspect                 C. drop                     D. resist  
53. A. weakening            B. abandoning             C. strengthening           D. accepting 
54. A. as                          B. though                         C. unless                          D. if 
55. A. compete                     B. cooperate              C. fight                       D. succeed