⊙Like father, like son.

                                                                                — Chinese Proverb

Interpretation:

“Like father, like son.”(有其父必有其子) is a common quote that is used not only byChinese but also by many other races and cultures in the world. It could beused either as a compliment or as a criticism of the son (and the fatherimplicitly). The underlying assumption of this quote is that whatever traitsdemonstrated by the son are inherited from the father. Therefore, those whobelieve in this are proponents that nature has an overpowering influence onone’s character.

  Confucius

⊙When we see men of worth,we should think of equaling them; when we see men of a contrary (完全相反的) character, weshould turn inwards and examine ourselves.

— Confucius

Interpretation:

This quote from Confucius is a reminder to us that weshould first look into ourselves before we criticize others. The original inChinese is“见贤思齐焉，见不贤而内省也。”(《论语》第17章）

⊙Nearly all men can standadversity (困境), but if you want totest a man’s character, give him power.

                                                    —Abraham Lincoln

Interpretation:

Lincoln’s quote is an indication of how power, wealth andstatus could affect our behavior and actions. It addresses the belief thatpower tends to corrupt (腐败), implying that only aman of strong character can resist this tendency.

Word Bank

Answers forreference:

1)     Different psychologists explain personality in differentways.

2)     Introverts are people who are quiet or like to spend time at home reading and doing their own things whereas extroverts are those who enjoy goingout and spending time with other people.

3)     If we know a person’s personality,we will be able to understand him/her better, which will help tomake our relationship with this person stronger.

4)     One way to help an introvert is tomake him/her feel comfortable when he/she is with a group ofpeople he/she has never met before.

5)     We can change and improve ourselves if we know our own personality.

Script:

What is personality? How does knowledge aboutpersonality help us?

First of all, let us take a look at whatpersonality means. In general, when psychologists talk about personality, theyare usually looking for things that make a person different from others orthings that can explain how a person is not the same as others. However,different psychologists have different ways of explaining what personality is.They often use tests to put people into categories and compare them. Forexample, people who are quiet and like to spend more time at home reading anddoing their own things are called introverts. “Introverts” is speltI-N-T-R-O-V-E-R-T-S. Others who enjoy going out and spending time with otherpeople are called extroverts, E-X-T-R-O-V-E-R-T-S. Do you know whichpersonality type you are? Are you an introvert or an extrovert?

Second, how can knowledge about personalityhelp us? Well, one of the ways is that by knowing how people behave and whythey behave in a certain way, we can understand them better. This will help tomake our relationship with them stronger. For instance, if we know that someoneis an introvert, we will understand why he or she does not feel comfortablewhen he or she is with a big group of newly met people. We may then help thisperson to make friends and talk to others.

Another way knowledge about personality canhelp us is when we want to improve ourselves. If we know what personality typewe belong to and the reasons we behave the way we do, we can then try to changesome of the bad things so that they become good. In this way, we can make ourselvesa better person.

So, after listening to this short passageabout personality, do you want to find out more about yourself?