Question

    Have you ever heard someone say “You totally look like you’re a Jessica” or something similar? People seem to think that they know what kind of person a “Jessica” or a “Michael” looks like. Why is this?

According to a study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, humans tend to associate people’s names with their appearances, and can even guess someone’s name based on how they look.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, collected thousands of photos of people’s faces. They labeled (贴标签于) each photo with four names. Then, they asked volunteers to guess which of the four names was correct.

The volunteers were able to guess the right name 38% of the time. It seems that certain characteristics of faces give them clues about someone’s name, Reader’s Digest reported.

However, this only worked when the volunteers looked at names from their own culture. In addition, the volunteers were not as good at guessing the real names of people who used nicknames(昵称)more often than their real names. This may show that a person’s appearance is affected by their name only if they use it often.

“This kind of face-name matching happens because of a process of self-fulfilling prophecy(预言), as we become what other people expect us to become,” Ruth Mayo from tile university told science news website EurekAlert.

Earlier studies have shown that gender(性别)and race stereotypes(刻板印象)can affect a person’s appearance. The researchers believe there are also similar stereotypes about names. For example, people tend to think that men named Bob should have rounder faces because the word itself looks round. People may think that women named Rose are beautiful. They expect them to be “delicate” and “female”, just like the flower they are named for.

1.How is this article developed?

A. By giving examples. B. By asking questions.

C. By doing an experiment. D. By comparing different cases.

2.What can be inferred from the study?

A. Volunteers found it much easier to guess nicknames.

B. Names have different associations in different cultures.

C. Volunteers could guess the characteristics of the interviewees.

D. The people in the photos and volunteers were from the same culture.

3.Why do some people look like their names according to Ruth Mayo?

A. They want to please everyone around them.

B. They don’t want to be different from others.

C. They tend to become what others expect them to become.

D. They like to copy famous people who share the same name.

4.What may be the best title for this passage?

A. What determines our names B. Why we look like our names

C. How we get rid of our stereotypes D. How stereotypes affect people’s looks

Answer

1.C

2.B

3.C

4.B

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文。文章通过一项实验证明了一个很有意思的现象：人们倾向于通过相貌可以判断一个人的名字。研究人员认为这一现象主要是由于人们对一些名字形成了刻板的印象。

1.篇章结构题。本文第一段通过疑问句Why is this?引出话题，第二段介绍了研究结果，第三段起开始介绍实验过程及结果。由此可知这篇文章是通过做一项实验来展开的。故选C。

2.推理判断题。根据文章第五段However, this only worked when the volunteers looked at names from their own culture.一句可知这一实验结果仅对于判断自己文化里的名字有效，因此可知在不同的文化里名字的含义不同。故选B。

3.推理判断题。根据地六段This kind of face-name matching happens because of a process of self-fulfilling prophecy(预言), as we become what other people expect us to become一句可知脸和名字之间的联系是由于自证预言的结果，因为我们会变成人们期待我们成为的样子。故选C。

4.主旨大意题。本文第一段通过疑问句Why is this?引出话题，文章通过一项实验证明了一个很有意思的现象：人们倾向于通过相貌可以判断一个人的名字。研究人员认为这一现象主要是由于人们人对一些名字形成了刻板的印象。由此可知B选项符合，故选B。