A quick shower

Lesson 43 – Quiz

1. 
   Aaron is so arrogant; he seems to have an unfeasible / unlikeable / unshakable belief in his own superiority.
   
2. 
   After another / further / supplemental consideration, we decided to buy a van rather than a car.
   
3. 
   Although I was hired for the job, I still have a bothering / nagging / staying doubt about whether or not I'm truly qualified for it.
   
4. 
   Bill Clinton's affair cast / put / thrust doubt on his honesty as a president.
   
5. 
   Against / Contrary / Opposite to popular belief, blonde and blue-eyed Brazilians do exist.
   
6. 
   Don't let your fears color / light / sound your judgment.
   
7. 
   I hate it when people make assumptions / inferences / suspicions about me based on my skin color.
   
8. 
   I have a cunning / sneaking / tricky suspicion that my friends are planning a surprise birthday party for me.
   
9. 
   I heavily / securely / strongly believe that everything happens for a reason.
   
10. 
    If you have a psychic / subconscious / unaware belief that you don't deserve success, then you'll probably never attain it.
    
11. 
    Meeting an 80-year-old professional athlete enlarged / hardened / strengthened my belief that age is no limit!
    
12. 
    The evidence proved, before / beside / beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Carson was guilty of the crime.
    
13. 
    The results of the customer satisfaction survey lead / put / take us to the conclusion that our service needs to be improved.
    
14. 
    There's a common misconception / misconstruction / misunderstanding that tomatoes are vegetables - but they're technically fruits.
    
15. 
    We sounded / told / voiced doubts about the feasibility of the plan, but our colleagues said we were worrying too much.
    

Lesson 44 – Deciding & Choosing

How do you make a decision? Do you make lists of pros and cons (advantages and disadvantages) and carefully consider all the options… or do you trust your intuition (listen to your deep, instinctive feelings) and then make a choice based on your feelings?

If it’s an especially tough decision, you might want to ask for advice from a good friend. After discussing the issue in-depth (talking about it in a lot of detail) and listening to your friend’s suggestions, you can choose to either take their advice (implement their advice) or ignore their advice.

When you make a decision very quickly, we call it a snap decision. That’s somewhat similar to a spur-of- the-moment decision - a decision made spontaneously, without very much thinking or planning. If you do this, then you might need to defend your decision against people who believe it was an arbitrary decision (one determined by chance or impulse, not by logic or principle).

Some people remain undecided because they’re afraid to make a costly mistake (a mistake with serious negative consequences). In this case, weighing the possible outcomes (analyzing the possible future results) can be helpful. Other people are always questioning themselves and having second thoughts (reconsidering, doubting your previous decision) about the choices they’ve already made.

Although it might seem attractive to keep your options open as long as possible, you run the risk of waiting so long that you end up having no choice (being limited to only one course of action). It’s far better to develop sound judgment (the intelligent ability to decide things) so that you can make wise decisions (good and smart decisions) and be confident about them.