Question

    People are more willing to change their mind about people they initially hold. Common wisdom holds that negative first impressions are hard to shake-and some research backs this up. But such studies often unfairly compare impressions based on immoral deeds that are extreme and relatively rare with impressions based on kindnesses that are more common. A new set of studies involving precisely balanced behaviors finds that people are more willing to change their mind about individuals who initially come off as selfish than about those they think selfless.

In three of the experiments, 336 laboratory and online participants read about two people who each made a series of 50 decisions regarding how many electric shocks to give someone in exchange for money. One fictional subject required more money per shock than the average person did to inflict (施加) pain on others. The other’s price-per-shock threshold (界限) was comparably lower than the average person’s. Study participants read about each subject’s decisions one at a time. Before seeing each decision, they predicted what it would be. After every three decisions the fictional subject made, participants rated the individual on a scale from “nasty” to “nice,” and then specified their confidence in the rating.

As expected, participants rated the person who gave shocks for a lower price as nastier than the higher-price shocker. But they expressed less confidence in the “nasty” ratings, and their predictions of how many shocks that person would give fluctuated (波动) more. In other words, their beliefs about the “bad” subject were more changeable. “A well-designed brain system would not write someone off completely at the first sign of trouble,” says Molly Crockett, a psychologist at Yale University.

The test scenarios (情况) are a far cry from real-world interactions. Still, the experiment offers “a really elegant pattern that drills down on a question that’s so central to our everyday human life,” says Peter Mende-Siedlecki, a psychologist at the University of Delaware.

1.According to the passage, what does the new set of studies find?

A.Bad first impressions may be lasting.

B.Bad first impressions are not set in stone.

C.People often judge others by first impressions.

D.People are reluctant to change first impressions.

2.What are the researchers’ findings based on?

A.The number of electric shocks someone was given.

B.Some specific laboratory and online questionnaires.

C.Comparisons between decisions made by two subjects.

D.An analysis of information collected from participants.

3.The underlined phrase in Paragraph 4 means “______”.

A.very secure B.much different

C.completely hidden D.almost withdrawn

Answer

1.B

2.D

3.B

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文。研究发现，人们更愿意改变对那些一开始显得自私的人的看法，而不是那些他们认为无私的人。

1.

推理判断题。根据文章第一段“A new set of studies involving precisely balanced behaviors finds that people are more willing to change their mind about individuals who initially come off as selfish than about those they think selfless.”可知，新研究发现，人们更愿意改变对那些一开始显得很自私的看法。从而可以推断出，不好的第一印象不是一成不变的。故选B。

2.

推理判断题。根据第二段和第三段实验过程的描述“In three of the experiments, 336 laboratory and online participants read about two people who each made a series of 50 decisions regarding how many electric shocks to give someone in exchange for money.其中三个实验中，336名实验室和在线参与者阅读了两个人的资料，每个人都做了一系列的50个决定，决定用多少电击来换取金钱和As expected, participants rated the person who gave shocks for a lower price as nastier than the higher-price shocker.”正如预期的那样，参与者认为，给出较低价格冲击的人比给出较高价格冲击的人更令人讨厌。可以判断出，研究人员的发现是基于从参与实验的人收集的信息得出的。故选D。

3.

词义猜测题。根据上文实验内容 One fictional subject required more money....个虚构的实验对象)以及句中real-world interactions可知实验的情形和真实世界的互动有很大不同。而且下文的转折句Still, the experiment offers “a really elegant pattern that drills down on a question that’s so central to our everyday human life尽管如此，该实验还是提供了“一种非常优雅的模式，深入研究了一个对我们日常生活至关重要的问题。也起了上下文承转作用。从而猜测出a far cry为“与……大不相同”，故选B。