Question

    You feel especially smart and funny when talking to a particular person, only to feel hopelessly unintelligent and tongue-tied in the presence of another.

Experiments show when people report feeling comfortable with a conversational partner, they are judged by those partners and by observers as actually being more witty (机智的）。

It's just one example of the powerful influence that social factors can have on intelligence. As parents, teachers and students settle into the school year, this work should encourage us to think about intelligence not as a “lump of something that's in our heads,” as the psychologist Joshua Aronson puts it, but as “a transaction among people.”

Mr. Aronson, an associate professor at New York University, has been a leader in investigating the effects of social forces on academic achievement. Along with the psychologist Claude Steele, he identified the phenomenon known as “stereotype (刻板印象） threat.” Members of groups believed not to be academically good score much lower on tests when reminded in advance of their race or gender.

The pair's experiments in the 1990s concluded that the performance of these students suffered because they were worried about confirming negative stereotypes about their group.

Minorities aren't the only ones easily hurt by stereotype threat. We all are. A group of people especially confident about their mathematical abilities did worse on a math test when told that the experiment was intended to investigate “why Asians appear to perform better than other students on tests of math ability.”

And in a study published earlier this year in the journal Learning and Individual Differences, high school students did worse on a test of spatial (空间的） skills when told that males are better at solving spatial problems because of genetic differences between males and females. The girls were anxious about confirming assumptions about their gender, while the boys were anxious about living up to them.

The evolving literature on stereotype threat shows that performance is always social in nature. Even alone in an exam room, we hear a chorus of voices assessing, evaluating, passing judgment. And as social creatures, humans are strongly affected by what these voices say.

1.What does the underlined word “transaction” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A.Spatial reasoning skills. B.The ability to remember information.

C.Interaction between us and the environment. D.Passing on knowledge from teachers to students.

2.After being told males typically perform better than females in math, males are most likely to perform      .

A.better than females B.the same as females

C.worse than usual D.worse than females

3.Which of the following “voices” in our head may influence performance on an exam?

A.“I am as prepared as I can be.”

B.“I am supposed to do well on this.”

C.“The testing room is different from my classroom.”

D.“I am solving the problems faster than the one sitting in front of me.”

4.How do stereotypes threaten our academic achievement?

A.Making us unintelligent. B.Reminding us of our weaknesses.

C.Limiting our spatial reasoning skills. D.Raising our anxiety level.

Answer

1.C

2.C

3.B

4.D

【解析】

本文为说明文。本文讲述了刻板印象对人们的影响。

1.

猜测词义题。根据第一、二自然段的意思，以及第三自然段中this work should encourage us to think about intelligence not as a“lump of something that's in our heads," as the psychologist Joshua Aronson puts it, but as“a transaction among people.”( 这项工作应该促使我们去把智力不是作为“我们头颅里面一团什么东西”来思考，.... 而是作为“人们之间.....”.来思考。)一句，可以猜测出“transaction”的意思应该是“人与所处环境之间的相互作用相互影响”。故选C。

2.

细节理解题。根据第7段high school students did worse on a test of spatial (空间的） skills when told that males are better at solving spatial problems because of genetic differences between males and females.（因为男性和女性之间的基因差异，当高中生被告知男性更擅长解决空间问题时，他们在空间技能测试中的表现更差，）可以知道，在男生被告知在数学上通常比女生表现更好之后，男性很可能表现得比平时差，故选C。

3.

推理判断题。文章讲的是stereotype threat 对人的影响，这种影响主要体现在stereotype事先对人设定了assumption，这种事先设定的assumption会使人产生压力和焦虑，这个“voice”会增加自我压力和焦虑，影响应试者考试表现。因此选项B. I am supposed to do well on this.（这场考试我应该考好）与文章所讲内容吻合。故选B。

4.

推理判断题。根据第5、6、7三个自然段中所讲的实验结论，以及文中如下句子: the performance of these students suffered because they were worried about confirming negative stereotypes about their group（这些学生的表现受到影响，因为他们担心会证实对自己所在群体的负面刻板印象）; The girls were anxious about confirming assumptions about their gender, while the boys were anxious about living up to them （女孩们担心确认对自己性别的假设，而男孩们则担心是否能达到这些假设）; And as social creatures, humans are strongly affected by what these voices say（作为社会生物，人类强烈地受到这些声音的影响）可以推断出，刻板印象通过提高焦虑水平来影响我们的学习成绩。故选D。