By
Talya Rachel Meyers
Published:
BBC, 5 October 2018, http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20181004-why-pride-evolved-and-its-benefits-versus-modesty
Level of
Difficulty: **
BEFORE YOU READ
·
Jessica
Tracy: "Take Pride”
QUESTIONS
1.
What misconception
is mentioned in the introduction? The belief that…
2.
What does “This”
refer to in the sentence “This makes sense”?
3.
What convincing
piece of evidence is offered to support the evolutionary basis of pride?
4.
What specific
conclusion can we draw from Leda Cosmides’ explanation?
5.
The display of
pride is important socially because in its absence …
6.
What interesting
parallelism was discovered to exist as a result of the 2017 study?
7. What does “it” refer to in the phrase “to figure it out”?
8. Did the result of the second study support or disprove the original
hypothesis concerning pride?
9. The second study also proved that level of……………..was not a contributing
factor as initially suspected.
10. What seemingly illogical reality
does the writer draw attention to at this point?
11. What distinction, often
overlooked, is the real reason pride is viewed in a negative light?
12. What does “this” refer to in the phrase Cheng and Tracy have observed
this…”?
13. What is the take-home point from
the discussion of pride you have just read?
WRITING TASK
Write an essay discussing why pride may be a positive as well as a
negative emotion.
WHY WE SHOULDN’T
BE TOO MODEST KEY AND TEACHERS’ NOTES
This simple and
straightforward text covers a very sophisticated concept: the nature and role
of pride. It is very well organized and will lead to a good writing activity.
The video at the beginning is longish but important as it overlaps so well with
the text.
1.
Pride makes us obnoxious at best and doomed
at worst.
2.
The fact that this emotion has an
evolutionary function, and that it plays an important role in the way that we
interact with the world.
3. An erect posture,
expanded arms, and uplifted head is produced even by people who have been blind since
birth
4. Pride evolved to provide us – and the people around us – with social
benefit
5. People don’t know
what your success is, and they don’t know how much they should value you.
6. The amount of
pride that we feel in an accomplishment is parallel to the amount of value that
other people place on it.
7. Whether this
closely-calibrated pride was an evolved, fundamentally human trait, or
something that was learned by members of a global culture.
8. It supported it
9. Industrialization
10. If pride is such
a vital part of how we navigate the world around us, then why is it seen so
negatively?
11. The distinction between hubristic
pride and authentic pride
12. People who have
authentic pride in their successes actually navigate the world beautifully
13. The key is to focus on achieving and accomplishing certain goals or qualities, rather than trying to achieve the recognition itself.
13. The key is to focus on achieving and accomplishing certain goals or qualities, rather than trying to achieve the recognition itself.
