“When one of the doctors criticizes（批评）me, I get defensive. I feel like a child again, being scolded, and I want to explain that I'm not wrong,” says Viola, a nurse. This is a common reaction（反应）to criticism, but not a good one. There are better ways of dealing with criticism.
Try to be objective（客观的）. When Sol was criticized by his new employer for not having made a sale, Sol's reaction was to feel sorry for himself. “I had put everything I had into making that sale,” Sol says. “And I felt that I had failed as a person. I had to learn through experience not to react like that to each failure.”
Take time to cool down. Rather than react at once to criticism, take some time to think over what was said. Your first question should be whether the criticism is fair from the other person's position. The problem may be a simple misunderstanding of what you did or your reasons for doing it.
Take positive（积极的）action. After you cool down, consider what you can do about the situation. The best answer may be “nothing”. “I finally realized that my boss was having personal problems and taking them out on me because I was there,” says Sheila. “His criticisms didn't really have anything to do with my work, so nothing I said or did was going to change them.” In Sheila's case, the best way to deal with it was to leave her job. However, that's an extreme（极端的）reaction.
You may simply explain your opinion without expecting an in-depth(深入的) discussion. You may even decide that the battle isn't worth fighting this time. The key, in any case, is to have a reasonable plan.
When the writer says that “the best answer may be ‘nothing’”, he means you may decide ____.（ ）
“nothing”是针对其前一句而作出的回答，即冷静后想一下这种情况下你能做什么，最好的回答是“nothing”，也就是说，你什么也不用做，即不去理会这种批评(to take no notice of the criticism)。
