In America, people are faced with more and more decisions every day, ____1____ it’s pick-ing one of thirty-one ice cream ____2____, or deciding whether and when to get married. That sounds like a ____3____ thing, but as a recent study has shown, too many choices can make us confused, even paralyzed ____4____ indecision. “That’s particularly true ____5____ it comes to the work place,” says Barry Schwartz, an author of six books about human behavior. Students____6____ with a variety of skills and interests, but often fi nd themselves ____7____ when they are to choose an ultimate career ____8____ . In a study, Schwartz observed decision-making among college students ____9____ their senior year.

Based on answers to questions ____10____ their job hunting strategies and career decisions, he divided the students into two groups: maximizers, who ____11____ every possible option, and satisficers, who look until they find an option that is good enough. You might ____ 12____ that the student who had undertaken the most ____13____ search would be the most satisfi ed with their fi nal decision, but it ____14____ that’s not true. Schwartz found that while maximizers ended up ____15____ better-paying jobs than satisficers on ____16____, they weren’t ____17____ happy with their decision.

The reason why these people feel less satisfi ed is that a world of possibilities may also be a world of ____18____ opportunities. When you look at every possible option, you ____19____ to focus more on what was given up than what was gained. After surveying every option, a person is more acutely ____20____ of the opportunities they had to turn down to pursue just one career.

1.   A. such as          B. either                 C. whether                 D. even if

2.   A. tastes            B. fl avors               C. varieties                D. styles

3.   A. nasty             B. great                   C. reasonable            D. common

4.   A. with               B. of                        C. at                         D. from

5.   A. when              B. as                       C. before                   D. after

6.   A. graduate         B. are graduating      C. have graduated      D. graduated

7.   A. overwhelmed   B. overexcited           C. dumbfounded        D. stupefi ed

8.   A. direction          B. choice                  C. pursuit                  D. goal

9.   A. before             B. after                    C. from                      D. during

10.  A. regardless      B. regarding               C. regarding of          D. as regard

11.  A. like                B. choose                   C. consider               D. deny

12.  A. know             B. agree                     C. argue                   D. expect

13.  A. exhaust         B. exhausting             C. exhausted             D. exhaustion

14.  A. turns away     B. turns in                  C. turns out              D. turns against

15.  A. in                  B. at                           C. to                        D. with

16.  A. equal             B. average                   C. terms                   D. percentage

17.  A. so                 B. that                        C. as                        D. less

18.  A. missing          B. missed                    C. gaining                  D. gained

19.  A. tend              B. oblige                      C. used                      D. incline

20.  A. affi rmative    B. clear                        C. regretful                 D. aware