Question

Which quote from the text best supports the answer to part a in "What Fear Can Teach Us" By Karen Thompson? As we grow up, we're often encouraged to think of fear as a weakness, just another childish thing to discard like baby teeth or roller skates. And I think it's no accident that we think this way. Neuroscientists have actually shown that human beings are hard-wired to be optimists. So maybe that's why we think of fear, sometimes, as a danger in and of itself. "Don't worry," we like to say to one another. "Don't panic." In English, fear is something we conquer. It's something we fight. It's something we overcome. But what if we looked at fear in a fresh way? What if we thought of fear as an amazing act of the imagination, something that can be as profound and insightful as storytelling itself?

Answer 1

Answer:

The last part

Explanation:

With a title What Fear can Teach us it is quite obvious that the answer to the question in the title can be found from But what if we looked at fear... on.

The profound insights we can get out of the emotion Fear reminds me of what Matt Johnson (The The) sang on his album The Naked Self:

...and pain can be your friend as it explains

the answers to your questions/consoles you in blue reflections/

listens to your soul´s reflections/then lead you to new directions.

Answer 2

This question is incomplete, here´s the complete question.  

PART A: Which of the following best identifies a central idea of the text?

A. While stories are usually based on fiction, fears are based on facts and allow us  to adequately prepare for threatening situations.

B. Fears operate through the imagination much like storytelling does, and we can  learn from our fears just as we can learn from stories.

C. Because the human mind is naturally attracted to dramatic narratives, the most  elaborate fears usually draw the most attention.

D. Basing decisions off of a fear or a story can have disastrous consequences for  ourselves and others, as neither are based on fact.

PART B: Which quote from the text best supports the answer to Part A?

A. “at a certain point, most of us learn to leave these kinds of visions behind and  grow up. We learn that there are no monsters hiding under the bed, and not  every earthquake brings buildings down.” (Paragraph 4)

B. “just as importantly, we need to think of ourselves as the readers of our fears,  and how we choose to read our fears can have a profound effect on our lives.”  (Paragraph 7)

C. “Terrified of cannibals, they decided to forgo the closest islands and instead  embarked on the longer and much more difficult route to South America.”  (Paragraph 9)

D. “Maybe then we’d spend less time worrying about serial killers and plane  crashes, and more time concerned with the subtler and slower disasters we  face” (Paragraph 11)

Answer:

B. Fears operate through the imagination much like storytelling does, and we can  learn from our fears just as we can learn from stories.

B. “just as importantly, we need to think of ourselves as the readers of our fears,  and how we choose to read our fears can have a profound effect on our lives.”  (Paragraph 7)

Explanation:

Thompson explores how fear affects the decision-making process. She explains that the way we think about the things that scare us is a kind of a story we tell our selves.

Acknowledging ourselves as the authors, as well as "readers" of those stories, can help us better understand that way we decide to express those fears can have a great impact on our experiences and teach us about ourselves.