Question

    Can We Learn More by Trusting than by Not Trusting?

Most of us have been burned by misplaced trust. These experiences lead us to believe that people are too trusting.

But in fact we don't trust enough. A survey about trust in the United States has found that interpersonal trust, a measure (测量) of whether people think others are in general trust worthy is at its lowest in nearly 50 years.

If people are more trustworthy, why don't we trust more?

When you trust someone, you end up working out whether your trust is justified (证明合理) or not. A child next door asks if he can visit your place. If you accept you will find out whether or not he's a good neighbor. A classmate advises you to adopt a new reading method. If you follow the advice you will find out whether the new method works better than the one you were used to.

However, when you don't trust someone. You never find out whether you should trust them. If you don't invite the child over, you won't know whether he would have made a good neighbor or not. If you don't follow your classmate's advice, you won't know if the new method is in fact superior.

This information means that we learn more by trusting than by not trusting. Moreover, when we trust, we learn not only about specific persons, we learn more generally about the type of situations in which we should or shouldn't trust. We get better at trusting.

When our trust is disappointing, the coats are visible (明显的), and our reaction (反应) changes from trouble all the way to hopelessness. The benefit that we've learnt from our mistake is easy to overlook. However, the costs of not trusting someone we could have trusted are invisible. We won't know about the friendship we could have built if we don't let that child go into our place. We won't realise how useful some advice would have been if we don't use our classmate's tip about the new reading method.

Giving people a chance isn't only the moral (道德的) thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do.

1.The writer mentions the survey about trust in the United States in Paragraph 2 to show that ________.

A.Americans are popular B.the measure is unbelievable

C.interpersonal trust is important D.people are short of enough trust

2.We can ________ to make us get better at trusting.

A.try to refuse other people's help

B.change our feelings of disappointment

C.find out the balance between trust and mistrust

D.make a smart decision and give people a chance

3.What can we learn from the passage?

A.The friendship between friends is trustworthy.

B.The costs of mistaken mistrust are largely hidden.

C.We can get more from not trusting than from trusting.

D.It is unlikely that people are less trustworthy than before.

4.What is the writer's main purpose in writing this passage?

A.To stress we should trust other people.

B.To question all the experiences of misplaced trust.

C.To introduce some of the trust that can bring us benefits.

D.To discuss which situation we should or shouldn't trust in.

Answer

1.D

2.D

3.B

4.A

【解析】

本文举例说明信任比不信任能学到更多的东西。不信任我们本可以信任的人的代价是看不见的。为了让我们更好地信任别人，我们应该做出明智的决定和给人们一个机会。

1.推理判断题。根据第2段第1句“But in fact we don't trust enough.”，事实上我们信任的还不够多。和第2句“A survey about trust in the United States has found that interpersonal trust, a measure (测量) of whether people think others arc in general I rust worthy is at its lowest in nearly 50 years.（美国一项关于信任的调查发现，人际信任（一种衡量人们是否认为他人值得信任的指标）是近50年来最低的。）”可知“在第二段中作者提到了关于美国信任的调查，是为了表明人们缺乏足够的信任。”故选D。

2.推理判断题。根据最后一段“Giving people a chance isn't only the moral (道德的) thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do.（给人们一个机会不仅仅是道德上的事情。这也是明智之举。）”，这里的a chance就是指去信任别人。可知“为了让我们更好地信任别人，我们可以做出明智的决定，给人们一个机会。”故选D。

3.推理判断题。根据第7段第3句“However, the costs of not trusting someone we could have trusted are invisible.（然而，不信任我们本可以信任的人的代价是看不见的。）”，这里的invisible意为看不见的，和选项中的hidden意义相近，因此B。

4.主旨大意题。本文举例说明信任比不信任能学到更多的东西。不信任我们本可以信任的人的代价是看不见的。为了让我们更好地信任别人，和最后一段作者提到的我们应该做出明智的决定和给人们一个机会。可知“作者写这篇文章的主要目的是强调我们应该相信别人。”故选A。