Read
the text and complete it with some sentences or expressions from the box (A-P).
There are 6 extra sentences that you don’t need. (10 points, 1 point for each
correct answer)
HELP
YOURSELF
In the last couple of
decades, self-help books have been a publishing phenomenon ____0____. Readers have lapped up their advice on how to do a
wide variety of things, _____1______. If you’re facing a particular problem in your life,
there’s a host of self-help books for you. If you have the idea that you want
to improve yourself in some way, there are any number of self-help titles just
waiting to advise you. If you want a successful career, no problem –
step-by-step guides will tell you exactly what to do. But, ____2_____ there’s a question many people ask: do these books
actually do what they claim to? Obviously, as in any field of publishing, some
self-help books are better than others. Some may be based on actual research
and case studies – there’s some substance to them that suggests they can, ____3_____ be taken seriously. Others, however, amount to little more
than psychobabble – empty nonsense dressed up as serious psychological insight.
These books bombard the reader with a mass of meaningless jargon, ___4___ beyond the obvious that you would not need to buy a book
to know. It’s the latter category that has given self-help books a bad name
among critics of the genre.
The kind of advice given in
self-help books is often more or less the same. What could be considered pretty
standard statements are made in many of them, but does this advice stand up to
scrutiny? Psychologists who have studied a range of self-help books connected
with happiness say the answer to this is “not always”. They say that although
the emphasis the books place on aiming for good relationships with families,
friends and colleagues has, in some ways, some scientific basis in terms of
what does actually lead to personal happiness; ____5______.
For example, the books
commonly tell you that it is good to express your anger; the psychologists say
this simply causes you to remain angry. You are often told to try to think
happy thoughts when you are sad; the psychologists say that attempting to do
this simply emphasizes your unhappiness for you. The books tell you to focus
entirely on your aims in life, ___6___; psychologist say you need to focus just as much on
the problems you have to overcome in order to reach your goals. The books tell
you to keep praising yourself to increase and maintain a high level of
self-belief; the psychologists say that actually this doesn’t work because you
need praise from other people in order to increase your self-esteem.
Perhaps the key question on
self-help books is: do they work? Do people feel they have directly helped
them? ____7___, do the people who buy and read them get real
results from them? The answer to this question appears to be “sometimes”.
Research indicates that the kind of book that deals with a particular problem
can be effective in helping people with that problem, ____8_____, for example mild depression or anxiety. The situation is less
clear with books dealing with personal growth or development. Some people do
say that these books have helped them but it is by no means certain, and hard
to measure, ____9______.
What is clear about all
self-help books, however, is that they offer people hope. The kind of advice they give and whether or not this
is accurate or effective is probably less important than the fact that they
tell the reader that change is possible, that there is hope of a better life,
that people can overcome difficulties and improve themselves and their
situation. While this may sound like a good thing, ____10____. To get people to buy them, these books often make
exaggerated claims about what they will do for people. They can raise
unrealistic expectations in the reader, suggesting that a better life can quite
easily be achieved, that anyone can get what they want out of life. The truth
is of course that changing yourself and your life may be very difficult indeed
and require an immense amount of effort, if it is even achievable at all. So
self-help books are open to the claim that they present a false picture that
can only lead to disappointment in the end.
A.
ADDING TO THEIR
UNQUESTIONABLE SUCCESS
B.
AT LEAST TO SOME EXTENT
C.
BY ALL MEANS
D.
DESPITE THEIR ENORMOUS
SUCCESS
E.
DISGUISING THE FACT THAT
THEY HAVE NOTHING TO SAY
F.
ESPECIALLY IF IT IS A REALLY
BIG PROBLEM
G.
FROM BECOMING SUCCESSFUL AND
RICH TO IMPROVING THEIR RELATIONSHIPS
H.
IN OTHER WAYS, THE ADVICE
GIVEN IS ACTUALLY FALSE
I.
IN THE EXPERTS’ VIEW
J.
LOOKING ONLY AT THE DESIRED
OUTCOME
K.
PARTICULARLY IF THE PROBLEM
IN QUESTION ISN’T A SEVERE ONE
L.
SHOWING YOU ARE GOING TO NEED THEM
M.
THERE IS, HOWEVER, A
DOWNSIDE TO IT.
N.
WHATEVER CRITICS MAY SAY
O.
WHETHER THIS IS REALLY THE CASE
P.
WE MUSTN’T FORGET ALL THE ADVANTAGES
THESE BOOKS HAVE
Answers : 1G, 2D, 3B, 4E, 5H, 6J, 7N, 8K, 9O, 10M
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