Directions: Read the following text. Choose the best word (s) for each numbered blank and mark A, B, C or D on Answer Sheet 1. 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-dlscipline," 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. sturdy
B. elastic
C. flexible
D. smooth