People generally feel secure with certainty. To be certain is to have power and control. Certainty is often used as a metric (衡量标准) of value, shaping how people view themselves and others. For example, people tend to respect those who present themselves ascertain while viewing those who express uncertainty as wishy-washy, and untrustworthy. Young people growing up in a culture that identifies strongly with certainty are told that to be certain is to be secure, right, and good. It is the idea, more than uncertainty itself, that causes great anxiety.
But the reality is that certainty is transient; it is more a feeling than a fact. Too often people act as if certainties are drawn in permanent marker: Thick, clear, definitive, and rigid. But they are not. They are actually drawn with pencil—ready for revision, editing, and change.
Spring tide’s recent report, The State of Religion and Young People: Navigating Uncertainty, allows us to hear how young people are questioning certainty and increasingly rejecting the rules that isolate them from themselves and one another. Milly, a 25-year-old quoted in the report, described her experience in a group discussion where uncertainty was welcomed rather than criticized:
“Like, struggling to know what or what not to believe....That’s something we talked about in the group. It actually makes me feel a little bit better. It’s like, oh, like we can have doubts. We can struggle with these feelings and they’re still, we’re still accepted, you know? So that was actually kind of refreshing” (Spring tide, 2021, p.46).
Young people are not rejecting certainty, but they are not accepting prepackaged answers or one-dimensional solutions. They are reexamining pre-drawn labels, beliefs, and identities and daring to ask “Why?” Their courage to question is an invitation to all of us to reconsider and rediscover uncertainty. We can listen to and learn from young people, embracing(拥抱)this opportunity as a moment of critical self-reflection and growth. If we will accept uncertainties, we might discover the ways that multiple beliefs, practices, values, identities, and communities can coexist and develop together.
120. What is the purpose of paragraph 1?
A.To explain a concept. |
B.To advocate a culture. |
C.To introduce a different opinion. |
D.To confirm an assumption. |
121. What does the underlined word “transient” probably mean in paragraph 2?
A.Changeable. | B.Predictable. |
C.Popular. | D.Objective. |
122. What was Milly’s attitude towards the group discussion?
A.Intolerant. | B.Doubtful. |
C.Unconcerned. | D.Positive. |
123. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
A.Unmask the Culture of Certainty |
B.Embrace the Gift of Uncertainty |
C.Certainty: Should It Be Rejected by the Young? |
D.Uncertainty: Should It Be Blamed for Anxiety? |