Optimism is the art of always seeing the glass half full (1) half empty, finding something positive in even the most (2) of situations and last but not least the ability to expect the best even if the chances are (3) . It enables you to try new things, deal with failure as a learning experience (4) a stopping point. In general optimism gives you a reason to live. The world would be a better place if it was full of optimism, (5) unfortunately the trend in today’s youth is (6) the opposite way. Today it is (7) to be pessimistic. One could spend hours discussing how we arrived at this point, (8) our youth refuses to smell the roses and instead prefers to (9) themselves on their own pessimistic (10) .
Optimism is not an (11) gift but rather a learned behavior (12) . Like most behaviors optimism is best learned by watching examples, (13) you. The first step in creating a generation of people with a positive outlook on life, is to (14) life on the bright side yourself. (15) it would be wrong to (16) your child from all negativity, it is important that you are not the (17) of doubts and worries. Finding something positive in a negative situation needs to be (18) Show how to make the best of things by always (19) the positive, by encouraging your child after a(n) (20) and by explaining over and over that failure is just a part of progress.
1（）
A. apart from
B. opposite to
C. contrary to
D. instead of
参考答案：D
解析：
本句作者在解释什么是“乐观”——“乐观即总是将半杯水看成是半满杯______半空杯”，很明显空白前后是“满”与“______”的对比。instead of意为“而不是”，通常用来表示在两者对比中肯定前者、否定后者，所以正好符合题句意思。又如：Would you prefer that I come on Monday instead of on Tuesday“你喜欢我星期一而不是星期二来吗”[A]apart from用在肯定句中意为“除了……之外，还……”相当于besides，如：Apart from his earnings as a football coach，he also owns and runs a chain of sports shops.“除了当足球教练的收入外，他还拥有并经营体育用品连锁店”；[B]opposite to意为“与……相反”，如：The result was opposite to what we had expected.“结果和我们所期望的相反”；[C]contrary to“与……相反”，如：Contrary to my expectations，there was no need to he uneasy about the results of the match.“和我的预想相反，没有必要对比赛的结果感到不安。”