Greg Focker, played by Ben Stiller, represents a generation of American kids (1)_____ in the 1980s on the philosophy that any achievement, however slight, (2)_____ a ribbon. (3)_____ replaced punishment; criticism became a dirty word. In Texas, teachers were advised to (4)_____ using red ink, the colour of (5)_____. In California, a task force was set up to (6)_____ the concept of self worth into the education system. Swathing youngsters in a (7)_____ shield of self-esteem, went the philosophy, would protect them from the nasty things in life, such as bad school grades, underage sex, drug abuse, dead-end jobs and criminality. (8)_____ that the ninth-place ribbons are in danger of strangling the (9)_____ children they were Supposed to help. America"s (10)_____ with self-esteem—like all developments in psychology, it gradually (11)_____ its way to Britain—has turned children who were (12)_____ with (13)_____ into adults who (14)_____ at even the mildest brickbats. Many believe that the feel-good culture has risen at the (15)_____ of traditional education, an opinion espoused in a new book, Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can"t Read, Write, or Add, by the conservative commentator Charles Sykes. Not only that, but the foundations (16)_____ which the self-esteem industry is built are being (17)_____ as decidedly shaky. Roy Baumeister, professor of psychology at Florida State University and once a self-esteem enthusiast, is now (18)_____ a revision of the populist orthodoxy. "After all these years, I"m sorry to say, my recommendation is this: forget about self-esteem and (19)_____ more on self-control and self-discipline," he wrote recently. "Recent work suggests this would be good for the individual and good for society—and might even be able to (20)_____ some of those promises that self-esteem once made but could not keep."
A. fill
B. take
C. commit
D. bring
Henri Matisse originally trained as a lawyer, turning to art whilst recovering from appendicitis. (46)Initially seduced by the Impressionists and, in particular, by Cezanne, Matisse brought together a circle of like-minded artists who became known as the Fauves (the Beasts) after their sensational exhibition of 1905.These early paintings revealed an intuitive and explosive color sense which was to become the defining feature of Matisse"s long career. (47)Believing art to be"" something like a good armchair in which one rests from physical fatigue", he was dedicated to producing work that expressed a harmony close to a musical composition.(48)There are two versions of La Danse, originally produced with another enormous panel entitled Musique for a Russian collector.Dance was a popular topic at the time as Diaghilev and the Russian Ballet had just visited Paris. (49)Despite, or because of, the simplification of color, form, and line, the figures appear to be full of life.Matisse made sculptures, designed sets and costumes and illustrated books. (50)He was also an important graphic artist who, in his bed-ridden final years, evolved his own method of arranging cut-out paper shapes.He is indisputably the greatest decorative artist of the twentieth century.