Over a decade ago, psychologist Barry Schwartz published what might be the ultimate psychological book, The Paradox(悖论)of Choice

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问题     Over a decade ago, psychologist Barry Schwartz published what might be the ultimate psychological book, The Paradox(悖论)of Choice-. Why More Is Less. In it, Schwartz argues that the modern world’s smorgasbord(大杂烩)of options—Coke Zero or Diet? Major in sociology or psychology? — makes us less happy, not more. "Choice overload" , as he calls it, makes us question our decisions, set our expectations too high, and blame ourselves for our mistakes.
    One of my favorite Schwartzisms is this: If you ever aren’t sure if you attended the very best party or bought the very best computer, just settle for " good enough". People who do this are called "satisficers" , and they’re consistently happier, he’s found, than are " maximizers"(完美主义者), people who feel that they must choose the very best possible option. Maximizers earn more, Schwartz has found, but they’re also less satisfied with their jobs. In fact, they’re more likely to be clinically depressed in general.
    The reason this happens, as Schwartz explained in a paper with his Swarthmore colleague Andrew Ward, is that as life circumstances improve, expectations rise. People begin comparing their experiences to peers who are doing better, or to past experiences they’ve personally had that were better.
    As people have contact with items of high quality, they begin to suffer from "the curse of insight". The lower quality items that used to be perfectly acceptable are no longer good enough. The cheerful zero point keeps rising, and expectations and aspirations rise with it. As a result, the rising quality of experience is met with rising expectations, and people are just running in place. As long as expectations keep pace with realizations, people may live better, but they won’t feel better about how they live.
    Schwartz’ solution, as he recently explained to the psychology blogger Eric Barker, is just to settle for something that’s acceptable—even if you know there’s likely something better out there. Whenever you need a new laptop, buy the laptop identical with your maximizer friends’. It is probably not the perfect laptop for you, but good enough for you. It takes you five minutes to make a decision instead of five weeks and it’s a " good enough" decision.
    It can be hard, in our culture, to force yourself to settle for "good enough". But when it comes to happiness and satisfaction, "good enough" isn’t just good—it’s perfect.
What can be inferred from Schwartz’s book?

选项 A、Striving for perfection is always a bad idea.
B、It is important not to have any expectation.
C、Too many options actually cause more mental distress.
D、Choice is one not merely of quantity, but of quality.

答案C

解析 推理判断题。本题考查我们可以从施瓦茨的书中推断出什么。该段最后一句提及,“选择超载”,正如他所说的,让我们质疑我们的决定,将我们的期望设置得太高,并且把我们的错误归咎于自己。由此可以推断出,过多的选择实际上会造成过多的精神困扰,故C)符合文意,为答案。A)“追求完美一直都不是明智的想法”和D)“选择不仅仅在于数量,还在于质量”,原文均未提及,故排除;B)“不要有任何期望很重要”是针对本段中的set our expectations too high设置的干扰项,原文该处说的是“选择超载”对我们的影响之一,而非施瓦茨书中可推断出的内容,故排除。
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