Answer the multiple-choice question about main idea based on the content of the paragraph below.

Question

What makes life difficult is that the process of confronting and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending upon their nature, evoke in us frustration, grief, sadness, loneliness, guilt, regret, anger, fear, or despair. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as painful as any kind of physical pain. And since life poses an endless series of problems, life is always difficult. Fearing the pain involved, almost all of us, to a greater or lesser degree, attempt to avoid problems. We procrastinate, hoping that they will go away, and even take drugs to assist us in ignoring them so that by deadening ourselves to the pain, we can forget the problems that cause the pain. We attempt to skirt around problems rather than meet them head on. We attempt to get out of them rather than suffer through them. In any case, when
we avoid the legitimate suffering that results from dealing with problems, we also avoid the growth that
problems demand from us. Problems call forth our courage and our wisdom; indeed, they create our courage and our wisdom. It is only because of problems that we grow mentally and spiritually. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those things that hurt, instruct.” It is through the pain of confronting and resolving problems that we learn. It is in this whole process of meeting and solving problems that life has its meaning.

What is the central focus of the passage?

a. Life is difficult, so you might as well resign yourself to that fact.
b. Problems evoke a range of emotions, so individuals attempt to numb the pain with drugs.
c. If we are willing to confront and resolve problems, we will experience the growth needed to make life more meaningful.

Answer 1

c. If we are willing to confront and resolve problems, we will experience the growth needed to make life more meaningful.