III. Reading Comprehension

Section A

Directions: For each blank in the following passage there are four words or phrases marked A, B, C and D. Fill in each blank with the word or phrase that best fits the context.

Feeling good about our actions — not guilt or pity— motivates giving, according to the latest research.
    51  seeing or hearing about suffering children makes most people uncomfortable, that grief is not what drives them to dig into their pockets and donate. The reasons people decide to be selfless, it turns out, may be slightly more   52  .

In the study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers found that people are more likely to give when they think it will make them feel better. They donate,   53  , when they feel hope about putting smiles on those expectant and suffering faces. And that hope, or similar feel-good sensations, are driven by the brain’s reward systems.

Researchers — and charities — have long known that putting a(n)  54  face on an abstract problem opens hearts and wallets. Josef Stalin once said that while one death is a(n)  55  , a million is merely a number. Studies have since found that quantifying the size of a disaster or particular need actually  56   giving, while presenting a single story is more likely to cause a desire to help.

But it wasn’t clear whether this “identifiable victim” effect resulted from people’s   57   over their own privilege and resources— or from a sense of connection with the   58    and an urge to feel good about making a difference.

To find out, researchers led by Alexander Genevsky, a graduate student in psychology at Stanford, imaged the brains of 22 young adults. In the scanner, they saw either a silhouette(剪影) or a head shot of a young African child. As in previous studies, participants were far more likely to give if they saw a face than a blank silhouette— donating almost twice as much in photo trials than in the others. However, this decision was related strongly to their    59  . If they showed little activity in their nucleus accumbens— a brain region linked to every type of pleasurable experience— they were actually less likely to give. But if there is a sharp   60    of activity in this reward area, they felt good and gave more. And the photos of the children were more likely to     61    this reward center. Activity in the accumbens, in fact, completely   62    the difference in giving seen between the silhouette-based requests and the photo-based ones.

While the findings point to the feel-good   63  behind giving, other research will have to address the question of why givers get that positive emotional boost. Do people feel rewarded when they give because they think about the happiness of the recipient — or do they feel good because they see themselves as   64   and that self-esteem boost(自信心增强) is mood-enhancing?Such information could help charities   65   their messages to maximize their effectiveness

. 

51. A. Since B. Although C. If D. As

52. A. passive B. earnest C. impersonal D. selfish

53. A. for example  B. on the contrary C. as a result D. on the other hand

54. A. plain B. ugly C. specific D. frightened

55. A. accident B. threat C. solution D. tragedy

56. A. ruins B. stimulates C. lowers D. skips

57. A. anger B. guilt C. regret D. joy

58. A. desire B. mind C. victim D. stuff

59. A. actions B. beliefs C. images D. emotions

60. A. edge B. rise C. turn D. division

61. A. monitor B. target C. activate D. interrupt

62. A. resulted from B. counted on C. accounted for D. subjected to

63. A. motivations B. compliment s C. ambitions D. requests

64. A. executive B. justified C. innocent D. generous

65. A. conceal B. tailor C. obtain D. delete

答案：

51. B 52. D 53.A   54.C 55.D

56.C 57.B 58.C 59.D 60.B

61. C 62. C 63.A 64.D 65.B

解析：

51. 前后两句之间表达的是转折的逻辑，因此填Although虽然。虽然看到或听到受难儿童会让人感到悲伤，但是并不是悲伤让人们慷慨解囊。

52. 联系上下文，本题难度不大，句子意思为：事实证明，人们无私地慷慨解囊的原因反而是处于自私。

53. 这句话是对上一句话的举例说明，因此填for example。

54. 本题选specific，与后面的abstract相对。研究人员和慈善机构一直都知道：遇到抽象问题，给出具体的形象会让人们打开腰包。

55. 斯大林的一句话：“死一个人是一场悲剧，而死一百万只不过是一个数字而已。”

56. 根据前文可得知：一味强调死亡人数只会让人们不愿意捐钱，而讲一个故事更能让人们捐助。

57. 受难者失去了一切，而自己拥有各种权利和资源，因此让人感觉到愧疚，选guilt。

58. 对受难者的同情之情，选victim。

59. 根据上下文可知：人们的决策收到他们情感的影响，因此选emotions。

60. 根据上文可知：如果人们伏隔核活动度增大，人们更有可能捐款。

61. 非洲受难儿童的照片更容易激活伏隔核，因此选activate。

62.伏隔核活跃度依赖于人们看到不同照片时的不同反应。

63. 研究成果指出了捐助背后的激励，选motivations。

64. 捐款的人感觉自己慷慨，因此选generous。

65. 这些信息可以帮助慈善机构调整自己的信息，因此选tailor。注意：tailor一词解释为：裁剪、使合适，多次出现在完形填空的选项中！

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