Question

A pretty face is never forgotten. Do you believe so? But maybe it is untrue! Psychologists believe beautiful people are less likely to be recognized. A new study suggests that attractiveness can actually prevent the recognition of faces, unless a pretty face has particularly distinctive features, such as Angelina Jolie’s.

German psychologists think the recognition of pretty faces is distorted (扭曲) by emotions. Researchers Holger Wiese, Carolin Altmann and Stefan Schweinberger at the University of Jena, Germany, discovered in a study that photos of unattractive people were more easily remembered than pretty ones when they showed them to a group of people.

For the study, which was published in science magazine Neuropsychologia, the psychologists showed photos of faces to test subjects. Half of the faces were considered to be more attractive and the other half as less attractive, but all of them were being thought of as similarly distinctive looking. The test subjects were shown the faces for just a few seconds to memorize them and were shown them again during the test so that they could decide if they recognized them or not.

The researchers were surprised by the result. “Until now we assumed that it was generally easier to memorize faces which are being considered as attractive, just because we prefer looking at beautiful faces,” Dr. Wiese said. But the study showed that such a connection cannot be easily proven. He assumes that remembering pretty faces is distorted by emotional influences, which enhance the sense of recognition at a later time. The researchers’ idea is backed up by evidence from EEG-recordings (脑电图记录) they used during their experiment which show the brains’ electric activity.

The study also revealed that in the case of attractive faces, considerably more false positive results were detected. In other words, people thought they recognized a face without having seen it before. “We obviously tend to believe that we recognize a face just because we find it attractive.” Dr. Wiese said.

1.What do we know about the photos from Paragraph 3?

A. They were all of pretty faces.

B. They were selected at random.

C. They were not distinctive at all.

D. They were showed twice to the test subjects.

2.What does the underlined phrase “false positive results” in the last paragraph mean?

A. People actually only recognize few pretty faces.

B. People recognize more ugly faces than pretty ones.

C. People claim to recognize a face they have never seen.

D. People recognize fewer faces than they have thought.

3.What can be inferred from the new study?

A. People are reluctant to recognize ugly faces.

B. Beautiful people are particularly distinctive.

C. Attractiveness  prevents the recognition of faces.

D. Attractive faces are always easy to be recognized.

4.Which word can show the author’s attitude towards the findings of the research?

A. Doubtful.    B. Disapproving.

C. Favorable.    D. Objective.

Answer

1. D

2. C

3. A

4. D

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。一项新的研究表明人们会因为觉得一张脸很好看，就倾向于相信他们能认出一张从未见过的面孔，因此表明吸引力实际上会阻碍人们对面孔的识别，除非一张美丽的脸有特别鲜明的特征。

1.细节理解题。第三段最后一句“The test subjects were shown the faces for just a few seconds to memorize them and were shown them again during the test so that they could decide if they recognized them or not.”可知在测试中，研究人员只给受试者看了几秒钟的面孔，让他们记住这些面孔，然后在测试过程中再给他们看一遍，这样他们就能判断自己是否认出了这些面孔。即这些照片被展示了两遍，故选D。

2.细节理解题。最后一段第二句“In other words, people thought they recognized a face without having seen it before.”可知下文是对上一句的解释，换句话说，人们认为他们认出了一张从未见过的脸。故选C。

3.推理判断题。第四段第二句“Until now we assumed that it was generally easier to memorize faces which are being considered as attractive, just because we prefer looking at beautiful faces”可知人们普遍更容易记住好看的脸，仅仅因为我们更喜欢看漂亮的面孔。则可以推理研究表明人们不愿意辨认难看的面容，故选A。

4.态度观点题。文章通过说明实验过程和引用实验组织人员的观点进行论述，并没有表明作者自己的观点和看法，因此可知作者对文章的态度是客观的。故选D。