Question

PART THREE READING COMPREHENSION（30 points）

Directions: Read the following three passages．Each passage is followed by several questions or unfinished statements．For each of them there are 4 choices marked A,B,C and D．Choose the one that fits best according to the information given in the passage．

Next time you find yourself drenched (湿透) in an unexpected heavy rain, look on the bright side – it will be a memorable experience. While wet weather may make us feel gloomy, it sharpens the memory and improves our recall. But those who feel in a good mood because it’s a sunny day are able to remember less well, according to memory tests carried by Australian researchers.

Professor Joe Forgas, who led the research, said: “It seems strange but a little bit of sadness is a good thing. People performed much better on our memory test when the weather was unpleasant and they wee in a slightly negative mood. On bright sunny days, when they were more likely to be happy, the flunked it.”

The tests were carried out on shoppers at a store in Sydney, where researchers randomly placed ten small objects on the check – out counter. On rainy days, sad music was played in the store. When it was bright and sunny, customers heard cheery music. This was done to further influence them towards negative or positive moods. After shopping, customers were asked how many of the objects they could remember. Their scores were three times higher when the weather was had and they were feeling angry, compared with those tested on sunny days. The results were published in Journal of Experimental Psychology. A report on the findings said: “They point to a growing body of evidence that the way people think, the quality of their judgments and the accuracy of their memory are all significantly influenced by positive and negative moods.”

Professor Forgas said, “We found that weather – inducted negative mood improved memory accuracy. Shoppers in a negative mood showed better memory and higher discrimination ability.”

A worse mood helped to focus people’s attention on their surroundings and led to a more thorough and careful thinking style, while happiness increased confidence and forgetfulness.

Being happy tends to promote a thinking style that is less focused on our surroundings. In a positive mood we are less likely to make more snap (匆忙的) judgments about people we meet. Mild negative mood, in turn, tends to increase attention to our surroundings and produce a more careful, thorough thinking style.

Accurately remembering everyday scenes is a difficult task, yet such memories can be on importance in everyday life. Surprisingly, the influence of mood states on the accuracy of real-life memories is still poorly understood.

56．What’s the major function of Paragraph 1?

A．To attract readers’ interest.     

B．To introduce the theme of the whole passage.

C．To generalize the whole passage.   

D．To describe a memorable experience.

57．The underlined word “flunked” in Paragraph2 may mean “       ”.

A．conducted B．failed       C．passed      D．understood

58．In the research, researchers play different music to         .

A．make customers become sadder or happier

B．help customers choose what they want

C．promote customers to buy more goods

D．get customers to make a quick choice

59．According to Joe Forgas, on sunny days, people         .

A．will make careful judgments on others

B．tend to pay more attention to their surroundings

C．will have more confidence

D．will have a better recall

60．What can we know from the research?

A．Forgetfulness is rather troublesome.

B．It’s important to feel in a good mood.

C．It’s memorable to experience a rainy day.

D．Gloomy days are good for memorizing things.

Answer

56—60 BBACD   

【解析】略