首次使用Maven执行mvn test遭遇NullPointerException报错求助

我刚接触Maven，现在碰到个棘手的问题：运行mvn clean、mvn validate、mvn compile这些命令时，项目都能正常构建成功，但一执行mvn test就直接失败了，报错内容如下：

[INFO] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---
[INFO] BUILD FAILURE
[INFO] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---
[INFO] Total time: 4.410 s
[INFO] Finished at: 2018-05-25T11:33:07+02:00
[INFO] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ---
[ERROR] Failed to execute goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.20.1:test (default-test) on project gdp: Execution default-test of goal org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-surefire-plugin:2.20.1:test failed. :NullPointerException -> [Help 1]
[ERROR]
[ERROR] To see the full stack trace of the errors, re-run Maven with the -e switch.
[ERROR] Re-run Maven using the -X switch to enable full debug logging.
[ERROR]
[ERROR] For more information about the errors and possible solutions, please read the following articles:
[ERROR] [Help 1] http://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/PluginExecutionException

我的Maven版本是3.5.3，已经在settings.xml里配置了代理，试了好几种方法都没解决，有没有大佬能帮忙分析下问题出在哪？谢谢！

内容的提问来源于stack exchange，提问作者Mou