5th grade - English Team /, 22nd September 2020

OPTIMISTS AND PESSIMISTS

READ THE TEXT
1.

Read this passage from a psychology textbook. Write a check ( √) by the sentence that
best describes the topic of each paragraph.

Paragraph 1

a. Many people do not fully understand the terms optimist and pessimist _____
b. Optimists and pessimists are very common words. _____
c. It´s better to be optimists than a pessimist. _____

Paragraph 2

a. Optimism and pessimism are related to personality and physical characteristics. ______
b. It´s difficult to distinguish between optimists and pessimists. ______
c. There´s a connection between optimism and pessimism and other
Personality characteristics. ______

Optimist and pessimist

optimist and pessimist are terms that we often use in everyday life, and they tend to
have different meanings for different people. For some people, an optimist is someone who
always thinks that everything is fine and a pessimist is someone who thinks that everything is
terrible. In fact, the distinction is much more subtle. More accurately, an optimist has a more
positive attitude to problems: he o she accepts that a problem may be serious, but concentrates
on trying to find solutions. A pessimist, on the other hand, concentrates on how terrible a
problem is and doesn´t try to find solutions.

Optimism is related to other aspects of personality.

Extroverts are usually more optimistic than introverts, and optimists tend to be happier about
their lives than pessimists. But there are always exceptions: it´s easy to find optimistic introverts
and unhappy optimists! Some interesting psychological studies have tried to relate optimism
and pessimism to physical characteristics such as height, weight and build,but no connection has
been found.
2. Circle True or False.
1. The terms ´optimism ‘and `pessimism ‘are not understood
in the same way by everyone. True - False
2. Optimists try to find solutions to problems. True - False
3. Optimists are always happy. True - False
4. Pessimists are often introverts. True - False
5. Optimists are always extroverts. True - False
6. Psychologists have tried to find a connection between
Optimism and physical characteristics. True - False

3. GIVE YOUR OPINION

1. Pessimists are more realistic than optimists

Not at all because optimists can see the reality, but
they try to have a positive attitude to problems.
2. It´s better to be optimist than a pessimist.
It is better to be optimist than pessimist because
we’ll see problems easier and we will be able to
overcome them. That is my opinion.
3. Most people are a mixture: sometimes optimistic,
sometimes pessimistic.
It depends on your self-esteem. If you have a good
self-esteem, you will see the problems easier and
in a fun way.