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 (负面的) 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.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 |
According to the research, stress affects people most probably in their ______.
| A．ways of making choices | B．preference for pleasure |
| C．tolerance of punishments | D．responses to suggestions |
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 |
The first day of school our professor introduced himself and challenged us to get to know someone we didn’t know. I stood up to look around when a gentle hand touched my shoulder. I turned around to find a wrinkled, little old lady beaming up at me with a smile that lit up her entire being.
She said, “Hi, girl! My name is Rose. I’m 87 years old. Can I give you a hug?”
I laughed and enthusiastically（热情地）responded, “Of course you may!” and she gave me a giant squeeze.
“Why are you in college at such a young, innocent age?” I asked. She jokingly replied, “I’m here to meet a rich husband, get married, have a couple of children, and then retire and travel!”
“No seriously,” I said. I was curious what may have motivated her to be taking on this challenge at her age.
“I always dreamed of having a college education and now I’m getting one!” she told me.
Over the course of the year, Rose became a campus icon and she easily made friends wherever she went. She loved to dress up and she reveled in the attention bestowed upon her from the other students. She was living it up.
At the end of the semester we invited Rose to speak at our football banquet. I’ll never forget what she taught us.
“We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing. There are only two secrets to staying young, being happy, and achieving success. You have to laugh and find humor everyday. You’ve got to have a dream. When you lose your dreams, you die!” she said.
“There is a huge difference between growing older and growing up. If you are nineteen years old and lie in bed for one full year and don’t do one productive thing, you will turn 20 years older. If I am 87 years old, and stay in bed for a year, and never do anything, I will turn 88. Anybody can grow older. But every minute counts for young men,” she added.
“The idea is to grow up by always finding the opportunity in change. Have no regrets. The elderly usually don’t have regrets for what we did, but rather for things we did not do. The only people who fear death are those with regrets.”
She concluded her speech by courageously singing “The Song of Rose”. She challenged each of us to study the lyrics（歌词）and live them out in our daily lives.
At the year’s end, Rose finished the college degree she had begun all those years ago. One week after graduation Rose died peacefully in her sleep.
17. Rose made herself known to the author in a ______ manner.
A. serious B. cold C. humorous D. crazy
18. From the information provided in the passage, we know ______.
A. Rose finished the college degree within a year
B. Rose did realize her dream of meeting a rich husband and getting married through college education
C. Rose enjoyed her campus life very much
D. Rose grew so old that she stopped playing
19. Rose delivered the speech ______.
A. at the graduation B. which she prepared carefully
C. ended with “The Song of Rose” D. to challenge all the other speakers
20. According to her speech, ______.
A. whenever you have a dream, you succeed
B. all people don’t grow up while growing older
C. Rose usually regretted having done something
D. a nine-year-old is as old as a 87-year-old if he doesn’t do anything
James Stallman Rockefeller, the oldest-known U.S. Olympic medal winner and the former head of the bank that became Citigroup, died Tuesday. He was 102. Records of the U.S. Olympic Committee show that Rockefeller was the oldest American medal winner. He was the captain of Yale University's eight-man rowing team with coxswain that won gold at the 1924 Paris Olympics - beating the Canadian team by less than 16 seconds. The oars from the winning race and the gold medal were prominently displayed in Rockefeller's house. "I think he was really proud of that - probably more than the bank career," said his grandson。
Rockefeller suffered a stroke on Thursday, said his grandson, who lived with him at his Greenwich home for two years, attributed his long life to a regimented(严密组织的) lifestyle: breakfast at eight a.m., lunch at 1 p.m., cocktails at 6 p.m. and dinner promptly at 7 p.m.. He liked plain food, without sauces or cheese, and plenty of fresh vegetables, including those grown in the garden of his estate. Rockefeller was in good health until shortly before he died. He drove his car up until last year and would review documents from the various charities and businesses he helped lead.
Rockefeller, born June 8, 1902, was a grandson of William Rockefeller, who founded Standard Oil with his brother, John D. Rockefeller. He graduated from Yale in 1924 and served in the Airborne Command during World War II. He started at the bank, and then called the National City Bank, in 1930, following his uncle and grandfather, who were leaders of the bank. He was became president in 1952, chairman in 1959 and retired in 1967. In 1955, under Rockefeller's leadership, the bank merged with the First National Bank of New York to form Citigroup. Rockefeller also was a director of numerous companies, including Pan American Airways, Northern Pacific Railroad, NCR and Monsanto, and served on the boards of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the American Museum of Natural History.
Rockefeller and his wife, Nancy Carnegie Rockefeller, had four children. His wife died in 1994.
16. Rockefeller lost his wife when he was ___________.
A. at the age of 91 B. in his eighties C. in his nineties D. in his 1994
17. We can learn from the passage that ____________.
A. the American rowing team beat the Canadian team in less than 16 seconds in 1924.
B. Rockefeller was the first American medal winner.
C. James Stallman Rockefeller founded the National City Bank and became president.
D. His grandson thought Rockefeller had long life because of a regimented lifestyle.
18. What does the underlined word in the last paragraph but one mean?
A. combined B. joined C. took on D. together with
19. What we can infer from the passage is that __________.
A. James Stallman Rockefeller is a great Olympic medal winner.
B. James Stallman Rockefeller was in good health until he died.
C. James Stallman Rockefeller was very active in American society.
D. James Stallman Rockefeller was the only grandson of William Rockefeller.
Working AT home is increasing in popularity as a means of escaping from nine-to-five office life. Why work under the constant watch of your boss when you can work in front of the TV in your carpet slippers? Armed with all the office essentials—telephone, computer, e-mail and fax, many workers believe they can work as effectively as their colleagues in the office. Being able to work wherever you like: from a busy city to a beautiful village, and make working from home an attractive choice, you can even work on a canal boat, like one Internet firm in the Midlands, US.
So what will become of the office of tomorrow? I believe it is likely that many could disappear into cyberspace. To minimize office overheads in inner-city areas, companies will apply a workforce made up of a network of home workers linked by an advanced communication and information system. A central processing computer would be controlled by the manager who sends out work schedules and oversees the activity of each employee.
As a successor to the Web Cam, a video screen would be created, as the need for more natural form of interaction than e-mail or telephone becomes greater. Capturing the mood and expressions of work colleagues, managers would have the ability to view several employees at once on their screen. Employees would be encouraged to feed any information that may be useful to fellow workers into the computer to make the company work more effectively. As the company's life blood, the computer would contain a record of all conversations and correspondence for future reference, and hold confidential information such as accounts in password protected areas. In the office of tomorrow, with daily life captured in detail, the case for firing employees could be more clear cut.
6．The first paragraph mainly focuses on _________.
A. the office to working at home B. preference to working at home
C. working effectively in the office D. one Internet firm in the Midlands, UK
7．The office of the future will be ________.
A. in space B. a network
C. in inner-city areas D. a central processing computer
8．In Paragraph 2, the word “ oversee” probably means “_________”.
A. overlook B. organize C. make out D. watch over
9．A video screen would be built because _________.
A. the Web Cam needs it B. it is useful to fellow workers
C. e-mail or telephone is out of date D. managers can clearly spot employees
10．Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A. You can get accounts without password.
B. Computers would record workers’ blood types.
C. You can get informationg of your fellow workers easily.
D. Firing employees in the office of tomorrow could be largely reduced.
Eat, drink and be merry. That’s what the Spring Festival is all about. But there are millions of people, too, who love to let happiness go up in smoke.
Offering cigarettes to guests is a traditional Chinese way of showing respect to them. A cup of tea and cigarettes are perhaps the most common way of welcoming a guest in China, especially during festive occasions such as the Lunar New Year.
No wonder, 40 percent of the people surveyed recently said they would smoke at least twice the usual number of cigarettes during the Spring Festival holiday because of all those gatherings and parties. Only 20 percent of the respondents said they would refuse a cigarette when offered one. Why can't the others do the same? Because they could be seen as being rude, said more than half of the respondents. Fifteen percent feared they could be taken as "someone who cannot get along well with others".
The Think-tank Research Center for Health Development and Sohu.com survey shows 61 percent Chinese think offering a cigarette is useful for socializing, and 52 percent have offered cigarettes to others. The study polled 3,800 people, 64 percent of them men.
One-third of those polled were smokers, out of which 57 percent said they couldn't give up smoking because of the offering-and-accepting culture. "People have accepted offering cigarettes as an effective way of making friends." research center director Wu Yiqun says.
China has more than 350 million smokers, catering to the tobacco market that is worth 500 billion yuan. "The survey shows we still have a lot of work to do," she says. "Since Beijing is trying to make the Olympic Games smoke-free, it is time to let people know that offering a cigarette is a bad habit and it should be given up immediately."
1．The passage is written with the purpose of .
A．telling us a custom about the Chinese Spring Festival
B．introducing a way to make friends with Chinese
C．stopping smoking during the Beijing Olympics
D．telling us that offering cigarettes is a bad habit
2．The third paragraph mainly tells us .
A．the fact that smokers are greatly increasing during the festival
B．the reason why refusing cigarettes is acceptable
C．the fact that many people have to smoke more cigarettes during the festival
D．it is rude to attend parties without smoking cigarettes
3．Which of the following may not be the reason that makes many people fail to refuse the offered cigarette?
A．It’s impolite to refuse. B．Smoking is harmful to non-smokers.
C．They want to be friendly. D．It’s a kind of social habit.
4．The writer mentions the 500 billion yuan tobacco market because .
A．the tobacco market is not developing smoothly
B．the writer thinks that smoking wasters a lot of money.
C．smoking is helpful to the tobacco market
D．the tobacco market attracts too many smokers
5．We can infer from the passage that .
A．people will be free to smoke during the Beijing Olympic Games.
B．only a few smokers still have the habit of offering cigarettes
C．offering cigarettes is the most effective way for socializing
D．some non-smokers will even accept the offered cigarettes
Many children first learn the value of money by receiving an allowance. The purpose is to let children learn from experience at an age when financial mistakes are not very costly. The amount of money that parents give to their children to spend as they wish differs from family to family. Timing is another consideration. Some children get a weekly allowance. Others get a monthly allowance. In any case, parents should make clear what, if anything, the child is expected to pay for with the money.
At first, young children may spend all of their allowance soon after they receive it. If they do this, they will learn the hard way that spending must be done within a budget. Parents are usually advised not to offer more money until the next allowance. The object is to show young people that a budget demands choices between spending and saving. Older children may be responsible enough to save money for larger costs, like clothing or electronics.
Many people think it is not a good idea to pay your child for work around the home. These jobs are a normal part of family life. Paying children to do extra work around the house, however, can be useful. It can even provide an understanding of how a business works.
Allowances give children a chance to experience the three things they can do with money. They can share it in the form of gifts or giving to a good cause. They can spend it by buying things they want. Or they can save it. Saving helps children understand that costly goals require sacrifice: you have to cut costs and plan for the future.
Requiring children to save part of their allowance can also open the door to future saving. A saving account is an excellent way to learn about the power of compound interest. Compounding works by paying interest on interest. So, for example, one dollar invested at two percent interest for two years will earn two cents in the first year. The second year, the money will earn two percent of one dollar and two cents, and so on. That may not seem like a lot. But over time it adds up.
14. Many parents give children an allowance regularly to ______.
A. meet children’s basic need for life B. give control over their children
C. see whether they have financial mistakes D. help children learn how to manage money
15. For Children who receive allowances, they’d better not ________.
A. waste money to buy gifts for their parents or friends
B. buy their favorite clothing or electronics for themselves
C. save money like their parents or other adults
D. ask for the next allowance before the decided date.
16. If children are required to save their allowance, they ______.
A. can experience the three things related to money
B. can understand the relation between goals and sacrifice
C. will do more work around the house
D. help themselves found the basis for their future life
17. What does the underlined phrase “compound interest” mean?
A. The interest based on the original money and unpaid interest.
B. A way of helping children earn two percent interest.
C. The interest intended for children to earn money.
D. A saving account opened for children’s allowance.
18. What would be the best title for the text?
A. How to Give Children an Allowance
B. Spend Your Allowance within a Budget
C. Allowance Helps Children Learn about Money
D. Doing Housework Earns Children Allowance