新标准大学英语综合教程第二单元reading practise.docx

Anger is a negative emotion. But, like being happy or excited, feeling angry makes people want to seek rewards, according to a new study of emotion and visual attention. The researchers found that people who are angry pay more attention to rewards than to threatsthe opposite of people feeling other negative emotions like fear.Previous research has shown that emotion affects what someone pays attention to. If a fearful or anxious person is given a choice of a rewarding picture, like a sexy couple, and a threatening picture, like a person waving a knife threateningly, they will spend more time looking at the threat than at the rewarding picture. People feeling excited, however, are the other waythey will go for the reward.But nobody knows whether those reactions occur because the emotions are positive or negative, or because of something else, says Brett Ford of Boston College, who wrote the study with Maya Tamir, also of Boston College, and four other authors. For example, she says, emotions can vary in what they make you want to do. Fear is associated with a motivation to avoid, whereas excitement is associated with a motivation to approach. It can make you want to seek out certain things, like rewards. The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.For her study, Ford focused on anger. Like fear, anger is a negative emotion. But, like excitement, anger motivates someone to go out and get rewards. First, participants in the study were assigned to write for 15 minutes about one of four memories in their past: a time when they were angry, afraid, excited and happy, or felt little or no emotion. A five-minute piece of music reinforced whichever emotion the participant had been assigned. Then they completed a task in which they had to examine two side-by-side pictures. An eye-tracking device monitored how much time they spent looking at each picture.Angry people spent more time looking at the rewarding pictures. Looking at something is the first step before the thoughts and actions that follow, says Ford. Attention kicks off an entire string of events that can end up influencing behavior. The people who felt happy and excited also looked more at the rewarding photos, but the two groups might act differentlyan angry person might be motivated to approach something in a confrontational or aggressive way, while a happy person might go for something they want in a nicer wayby collaborating, being sociable and friendly.1.When people feel frightened, more attention is paid to _.A. negative emotionsB. positive emotionsC. threatsD. rewards2.What is known in the previous research mentioned in Paragraph 2?A. Anxious people pay more attention to threats.B. Excited people pay more attention to threats.C. Attention to threats or rewards is determined by emotion.D. Attention to threats or rewards may vary from person to person.3.According to Ford, _.A. similar emotions always produce similar reactions from peopleB. anger, like excitement, makes people pay more attention to rewardsC. negative emotions are related to a motivation to approachD. positive emotions are related to a motivation to avoid4.The participant in Fords study _.A. listened to a piece of music to help produce a special emotionB. looked at two pictures when they have a specific emotion or no emotion at allC. record the length of the time they spent looking at picturesD. were made to become angry, excited and happy, or felt little or no emotion5.What is illustrated in Fords study?A. Angry people tend to get something they want in an uncooperative way.B. Excited people tend to get something they want in a threatening way.C. Both angry people and excited people focus on rewards because rewards are nicer.D. Both angry people and excited people have a series of action in a similar way.Questions 6 to 10 are based on the following passage or dialog.Dogs are prone to bouts of envy and refuse to play if they are not treated fairly, scientists have found. The animals stopped cooperating with researchers and began to show signs of distress if they were not offered the same tasty rewards given to other dogs, the study showed.Affronted dogs refused to offer their paws when invited to and began scratching and yawning, indicating that their stress levels were rising, the scientists report. The finding suggests that dogs may share the sense of fairness seen in other social animals that engage in cooperative behavior, such as monkeys.Some scientists believe a sense of justice could be crucial for social animals and may have played a role in the evolution of cooperation. Experiments led by Friederike Range at the University of Vienna tested how pairs of dogs reacted when each was given a different rewardeither a piece of bread, some sausage, or nothingin return for offering a paw to researchers.In one of the tests the first dog was given a piece of bread as a reward, while the second received nothing. When the test was repeated a number of times, the dog that got nothing quickly began to display what appeared to be envy. When the dogs were tested on their own, they continued to offer a paw even if they were not given a reward, suggesting they only became distressed if they thought they were being treated unfairly.It tells us that dogs are sensitive to unequal rewards. Is it envy; is it a sense of fairness? Its hard to say, because a lot depends on how you define those words, said Range. The researchers conclude, Our results suggest that species other than primates (灵长目动物) show at least a primitive version of inequity aversion. They now plan to test wolves in the same way.Last year, Frans de Waal at Emory University in Atlanta conducted similar experiments on capuchin monkeys (卷尾猴). In this case, the monkeys were trained to give small stones in return for an edible treat. When de Waal tried to give out the treats unfairly, by offering some monkeys cucumbers instead of tastier grapes, the monkeys either refused the food, or took it and threw it on the floor.6.Dogs will not cooperate well when researchers _.A. give them no food after their playB. give them the same food as the other dogsC. treat them in different waysD. treat them in the same way as the other dogs7.What does the word affronted (Line 1, Para 2) most probably mean?A. confrontedB. ashamedC. lazyD. angry8.According to experiments led by Friederike Range, which of the following findings is right?A. Dogs usually behave themselves without realizing the existence of unfairness.B. Dogs usually become miserable with the existence of unfairness.C. Compared with monkeys, dogs are more likely to become envious.D. It is true that dogs are similar to monkeys in that they share the sense of fairness.9.Which kind of animals have been proved to share the same sense of fairness as dogs?A. wolvesB. capuchin monkeysC. human beingsD. cooperative wolves10.Whats the main idea of the passage?A. Dogs will have negative feelings when they find they are treated unfairly.B. Dogs have a strong sense of fairness, which is quite similar to wolves.C. Dogs react to unfair treatment very well because of their sense of fairness.D. Dogs hate inequality even since the primitive times, unlike capuchin monkeys.Questions 11 to 15 are based on the following passage or dialog.Experts at University of Washington have warned that the way modern technology has been breaking peoples connections with the natural world may give rise to a major psychological problem. We are a technological species, but we also need a deep connection with nature in our lives, said Peter Kahn, a UW developmental psychologist.Kahn and two of his UW graduate students, Rachel Severson and Jolina Ruckert, explored how humans connect with nature and technological nature. Writing in the current issue of the journal Current Directions in Psychological Science, the researchers revealed that they looked at the psychological effects of interacting with various forms of technological nature and explore humanitys growing estrangement (疏远) from nature. They even cited an earlier experiment that showed that people recovered better from low level stress by looking at an actual view of nature rather than seeing the same real-time high-definition television scene displayed on a plasma (等离子) window.What do we compare technology to? If we compare it to no nature, technological nature works pretty well. But if we compare it to actual nature, it doesnt seem to provide as many psychological benefits, Kahn said. They have also talked about a study that showed that compared to interacting with a real dog, childrens interactions with robots were not as social or deep. Robots and virtual pets are beginning to replace childrens interactions with biologically live pets.The larger concern is that technological nature will shift the baseline of what people perceive as the full human experience of nature, and that it will contribute to what we call environmental generational amnesia (环境失忆症), Ruckert said.Kahn added that poor air quality is a good example of physical degradation. We can choke on the air, and some people suffer asthma (哮喘), but we tend to regard that as a pretty normal part of the human condition. 11.Serious psychological problems may arise because _.A. people are increasingly isolated from natureB. technological nature has governed every aspect of human beings lifeC. human beings have become a technological speciesD. modern technology has developed too fast for humans to catch up with12.According to Paragraph 2, which of the following statement is true?A. Researchers focus their study on the relationship between humans and nature.B. Technological nature influences human beings more than nature.C. Technological nature and actual nature function in peoples lives differently.D. People enjoy technological nature more than nature.13.What is the relationship between technological nature and actual nature?A. Technological nature will replace actual nature because it works so well.B. Actual nature will replace technological nature because it is so welcomed.C. Actual nature and technological nature can never coexist peacefully.D. Actual nature and technological nature should coexist peacefully.14.According to this passage, which will influence children in a more positive way?A. Robots.B. Virtual pets.C. Model planes.D. Real dogs.15.Hahn and his students tend to show more _ to technological nature.A. approvalB. disapprovalC. indifferenceD. sympathyQuestions 16 to 20 are based on the following passage or dialog.When large sums of money are concerned, it is advisable to trust nobody, mystery writer Agatha Christie once said. But what if there is a biological reason for why we would trust others with our cash? Scientists have discovered that the hormone oxytocin (脑下垂体后叶荷尔蒙), when sniffed, makes people more prone to trust others to look after their money.To test the trusting effect of oxytocin, the researchers studied people who played an investment game. In the game, participants would choose how much money to hand over to a trustee. Investors were far more trusting after inhaling the hormone, researchers found. The findings have important implications for the study of conditions in which trust is diminished or augmented. Ongoing research suggests that inhaling oxytocin may help reduce anxiety in people with social phobia (社交恐惧症), for example, and help them to interact better with others.In the trust game participants played either the role of investor or trustee. Investors chose how much money to hand over to the trustee. The trustee, in turn, would then decide how much money to hand back after the financial stake quadrupled in size.Notably, the effect was not seen when the trustee was replaced with a computer. This suggests that oxytocin makes people more willing to engage in social interaction and not just more likely to take risks. Scientists believe oxytocin could work as a kind of neurotransmitter in brain regions associated with emotional and social behaviours. A persons appraisal of a situation could trigger a chain of neural events, including the release of oxytocin. Particular social mechanisms and social cues that foster trust, like a smiling face of the other person, may perhaps lead to increases in oxytocin levels and therefore to higher probabilities of trust, said Kosfeld, the economist. The findings may have direct clinical implications. Heinrichs, the psychologist, has been conducting several studies on the use of oxytocin in treating anxiety disorders, such as social phobia. The role of oxytocin could also help scientists to better understand disorders that cause some people to display too much trust. Children with a rare genetic disorder known as Williams syndrome, for example, approach strangers indiscriminately. The childrens high level of trust could be due to excessive oxytocin