hce_nthu
115年
英文
第 50 題
📖 題組：
Many of us suffer from a wish to be special. We toil away in the unconscious belief that a special person is a better person, and a special life is a better life. Whether that specialness is conferred by the glamour of celebrity or social media likes, or by the dignified success of reaching the top of your profession, or by the glow of being anointed head girl, this craving to be raised above others, to be “the special one”, can lie at the heart of everything we do. This wish might be lurking under the making and breaking of your relationships, as you seek the person who will make you feel special, and reject the ones who don’t. It might hide in the extra hours you spend in the office to get something “just right” for your boss, rather than settling for good enough. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since becoming a mother. I think it is very natural to want your child to feel special, perhaps more special than others, so they can develop self-confidence. But I don’t think real self-confidence comes from being elevated above others; it comes from knowing and being oneself and feeling loved for that in an ordinary way. It is not believing you are the best and striving to be that: it is understanding that you have value for being you. It is very easy to give a child, unconsciously, the impression that to be special, they need to try to be somebody else. Perhaps the most valuable gift you can give a child is the permission to be ordinary. Trying to be special, to live a special life, can in reality take you further and further away from a better one. It is very easy to get caught up in who’s climbing the ladder on LinkedIn and lose sight of the precious moments of the life you are actually living. It is quite possible the better life that you’re trying to build by reading this article is already right in front of you; you just can’t see it because you’re trying to live a different one. There is a disturbing vulnerability that comes with an unconscious wish to feel special. It means you can easily be drawn into relationships built on sand -- falling in love not with the other person, who they are, but with yourself through their eyes. Someone who can make you feel like you are the most special person in the world – far more special than anyone else – can also just as easily make you feel like you are the dirt on the bottom of their shoe. And you might be inclined to believe that’s who you are, too. It can be a huge relief to find a partner who can treat you in an ordinary way, as an ordinary person, as someone who does not need to be special and dazzling. At first, it might feel boring, if you’re used to the cycle of idealisation followed by denigration. But after a while, you might realise that boring is just a denigration of something far more precious. It might not always feel as exciting, but it can feel more real; it can feel like coming home.
Many of us suffer from a wish to be special. We toil away in the unconscious belief that a special person is a better person, and a special life is a better life. Whether that specialness is conferred by the glamour of celebrity or social media likes, or by the dignified success of reaching the top of your profession, or by the glow of being anointed head girl, this craving to be raised above others, to be “the special one”, can lie at the heart of everything we do. This wish might be lurking under the making and breaking of your relationships, as you seek the person who will make you feel special, and reject the ones who don’t. It might hide in the extra hours you spend in the office to get something “just right” for your boss, rather than settling for good enough. I’ve been thinking about this a lot since becoming a mother. I think it is very natural to want your child to feel special, perhaps more special than others, so they can develop self-confidence. But I don’t think real self-confidence comes from being elevated above others; it comes from knowing and being oneself and feeling loved for that in an ordinary way. It is not believing you are the best and striving to be that: it is understanding that you have value for being you. It is very easy to give a child, unconsciously, the impression that to be special, they need to try to be somebody else. Perhaps the most valuable gift you can give a child is the permission to be ordinary. Trying to be special, to live a special life, can in reality take you further and further away from a better one. It is very easy to get caught up in who’s climbing the ladder on LinkedIn and lose sight of the precious moments of the life you are actually living. It is quite possible the better life that you’re trying to build by reading this article is already right in front of you; you just can’t see it because you’re trying to live a different one. There is a disturbing vulnerability that comes with an unconscious wish to feel special. It means you can easily be drawn into relationships built on sand -- falling in love not with the other person, who they are, but with yourself through their eyes. Someone who can make you feel like you are the most special person in the world – far more special than anyone else – can also just as easily make you feel like you are the dirt on the bottom of their shoe. And you might be inclined to believe that’s who you are, too. It can be a huge relief to find a partner who can treat you in an ordinary way, as an ordinary person, as someone who does not need to be special and dazzling. At first, it might feel boring, if you’re used to the cycle of idealisation followed by denigration. But after a while, you might realise that boring is just a denigration of something far more precious. It might not always feel as exciting, but it can feel more real; it can feel like coming home.
50. In the sentence “boring is just a denigration of something far more precious,” what does the author most likely mean?
- A Ordinary relationships can become boring once novelty disappears.
- B Emotional intensity is necessary for relationships to feel worthwhile.
- C What is described as boring is often stable and genuinely meaningful.
- D People often fail to see the value in relationships when they feel bored.
- E Boring is mistakenly used to describe exciting relationships that contribute to personal growth.
思路引導 VIP
想像一下，如果一個人長年習慣了雲霄飛車般的刺激感，當他有一天走在平坦安穩的草地上時，他最初的感官反應可能會是什麼？而這種反應，究竟是因為這片草地沒有價值，還是因為他的「評價標準」出了問題？
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AI 詳解
AI 專屬家教
太棒了！你能準確捕捉到作者話語中的細微轉折，代表你對文章深層意涵與字裡行間的語氣變化有著非常敏銳的觀察力。
語境中的反諷與轉向
這句話出現在文章結尾，是作者對「平凡生活」的最終平反。作者指出，當我們習慣了那種「追求特別」所帶來的劇烈情緒起伏（忽而被捧上天、忽而墮入谷底）後，面對一份穩定且真實的情感，大腦可能會因為缺乏戲劇性的刺激而產生「無聊」的錯覺。然而，作者在這裡使用 denigration（貶低/抹黑） 一詞，正是在提醒讀者：這種「無聊感」其實是我們對安定與真實價值的一種誤讀。因此，選項 (C) 精準地點出，那些被標籤為無聊的狀態，本質上反而是更為穩定且具有深刻意義的。
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