Why do we make people do exams It’s a strange form of torture to go through just for a piece of paper.
In the months before the exam it seems all right. You tell yourself that what you don’t know today you can learn tomorrow. Then come the last few weeks, and the desperate rush to learn all the things you put off till tomorrow that never comes, culminating (达到顶点) in the last few days, as you realize that what you don’t know you’ll never learn.
The day of the exam arrives, and you have to make sure you go to the right place on time, well supplied with pens, pencils and tranquillizers (镇静剂). What really undermines your confidence is that all the other candidates seem so calm and self-assured.
When you finally look at the paper, it’s a bit of an anti-climax (令人扫兴的结局). It’s never as bad as you feared, and you remember most of the things you thought you’d forgotten.
The word "torture" (in Paragraph 1) most probably means ______.