Question

【題目】Decision-making under Stress

A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative (負(fù)面的) consequences of a decision.

The research suggests that stress may change the way people make choices in predictable ways.

“Stress affects how people learn,” says Professor Mara Mather. “People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress.”

For example, two recent studies looked at how people learned to connect images(影像) with either rewards or punishments. In one experiment, some of the participants were first stressed by having to give a speech and do difficult math problems in front of an audience; in the other, some were stressed by having to keep their hands in ice water. In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn’t gone through the stress.

This phenomenon is likely not surprising to anyone who has tried to resist eating cookies or smoking a cigarette while under stress –at those moments, only the pleasure associated with such activities comes to mind. But the findings further suggest that stress may bring about a double effect. Not only are rewarding experiences remembered better, but negative consequences are also easily recalled.

The research also found that stress appears to affect decision-making differently in men and women. While both men and women tend to focus on rewards and less on consequences under stress, their responses to risk turn out to be different.

Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way. In stressful situations in which risk-taking can pay off big, men may tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win.

This tendency to slow down and become more cautious when decisions are risky might also help explain why women are less likely to become addicted than men: they may more often avoid making the risky choices that eventually harden into addiction.

【1】We can learn from the passage that people under pressure tend to ______.

A.keep rewards better in their memory

B.recall consequences more effortlessly

C.make risky decisions more frequently

D.learn a subject more effectively

【2】According to the research, stress affects people most probably in their ______.

A.ways of making choicesB.preference for pleasure

C.tolerance of punishmentsD.responses to suggestions

【3】The research has proved that in a stressful situation, ______.

A.women find it easier to fall into certain habits

B.men have a greater tendency to slow down

C.women focus more on outcomes

D.men are more likely to take risks

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】A

【2】A

【3】D

【解析】

本文是一篇說明文。文章介紹了在壓力之下人們作出決定時(shí)的考慮是不一樣的，并通過實(shí)驗(yàn)說明人們?cè)谟袎毫Φ臅r(shí)候通常想到的是積極的一面比較多，同時(shí)也介紹了男人和女人在面對(duì)不同的壓力時(shí)反映也是不同的。

【1】推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章第二段“People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress.(人們?cè)趬毫χ�下記住更多的是積極方面而不是消極后果。)”和第三段“In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn’t gone through the stress.(在以上兩個(gè)案例中，受到壓力的這些參與者相對(duì)于那些沒有經(jīng)歷壓力的人來說記得更多更清楚的是獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)的物資而不是懲罰。)”由此可知，人們?cè)趬毫ο峦�往�?huì)更好地記住獎(jiǎng)勵(lì)。故選A。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)文章的標(biāo)題及第一自然段的總結(jié)可知壓力影響的是人們做出決定的方式，即如何作出選擇。第一自然段為文章的中心， 一項(xiàng)新的研究表明壓力影響了人們對(duì)有利條件和不利條件的考慮方式，導(dǎo)致了人們更多的去思考好的一面而忽視了消極的一面，故選A。

【3】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)文章最后一段“Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way. ”實(shí)驗(yàn)中，在受到冰冷的水的壓力之下男士趨向于冒更大的險(xiǎn)，而女士的反映則相反，故選D。