7.
阅读短文,从每题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中,选出最佳选项。
Last week I did something that scared me. I stood in front of nearly 200 financial
planners and I talked to them about why financial blogs are a good thing. I'm a
confident writer. I've been doing this long enough that I know my strength and my
limitations. I'm less confident as a speaker. I don't have time to pause to collect
my thoughts. I'm not able to edit. I'm afraid of being trapped in a corner without
being able to talk my way out. Basically, I'm scared to speak.
It would be easy to simply refuse the chances that come my way. When somebody
asks me to speak in front of a group, I could say "no". When radio and
television stations call for an interview, I could say "no". But for the
past two years, I've been following my own policy to say "yes"
to new chances.
To say "yes" is to live in fear. My goal is to continually improve
myself to become better than I am today. One way to do that is to do the things
that scare me, to take them on as challenges, and to learn from them—even if I fail.
In mid-November, a local station asked me to appear on live television.
"I realize it's short notice," the producer wrote, "but we'd love
to have you on the show if you're available tonight." I was frightened. I thought
about recent taped television interviews that I had hated. I was afraid of what
might happen.
But I also thought about the things that had gone right. I thought of how
my speaking skills had improved over the past year. And then I thought of the book
I was reading, a book that I had bought for $1.29 at the local store. The Magic
of Thinking Big was a huge bestseller during the 1960s. Written by Dr. David Schwartz,
a professor at Georgia State University, the book contains dozens of practical tips
on how to take risks to achieve big goals. Schwartz argues that nobody will believe
in you until you believe in yourself.
So when the television producer asked if I wanted to appear on his show,
I thought big. "Sure," I said. "I'll do it." I acted confidently,
but on the inside I was frightened. What I needed was techniques to build up my
confidence and to overcome my fear.