Question

Trying to make a big decision while you’re also preparing for a scary presentation? You might want to hold off on that. Feeling stressed changes how people weigh risk and reward. However, an article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests stressed people pay more attention to the positive sides of a possible outcome.

It’s a bit surprising that stress makes people focus on the way things could go right, says Mara Mather of the University of Southern California. She co-wrote the review paper with Nichole R.Lighthall. “This is sort of not what people would think, ” Mather says. “Stress is usually associated with negative experiences, so you’d think, maybe I’m going to be more focused on the negative outcomes.”

But researchers have found that when people are under stress, they start paying more attention to positive information and discounting negative information. “Stress seems to help people learn from positive feedback and impairs（削弱）their learning from negative feedback, ” Mather says.

When people under stress are making a difficult decision, they may pay more attention to the good sides of the alternatives they’re considering and less to the problems. So someone who’s deciding whether to take a new job and is feeling stressed by the decision might focus on the increase in salary more than the longer commute（上下班往返）.

The increased focus on the positives also helps explain why stress plays a role in addictions. People under stress have a harder time controlling their urges. “The compulsion to get that reward comes stronger and they’re less able to resist it,” Mather says. A person who’s under stress might think only about the good feelings they’ll get from a drug, while the downsides shrink into the distance.

Stress also increases the differences in how men and women think about risk. When men are under stress, they become even more willing to take risks; when women are stressed, they get more conservative(保守的). Previous research backs this up — men usually react to difficulties while trying to fight them or escape them; women try to find friends and improve their relationships.

1.By saying “You might want to hold off on that” in the first paragraph, the writer suggests that      .

A．you might want to delay making your big decision

B．you should save the presentation for later

C．you should avoid taking risks

D．you might benefit from the stress

2.From the article, we can conclude that stress       .

A．often leads people to take more risks

B．often leads people to make balanced decisions

C．makes people think more of negative results

D．makes people ignore the negative side of problems

3.Which of the following is TRUE according to the article?

A．Stress is helpful in getting rid of addictions.

B．People who are addicted to drugs are easily stressed.

C．When women are stressed, they do not tend to take risks.

D．When men are stressed, they are more likely to develop an addiction.

4.What is the central theme of the article?

A．Stress can affect decision-making.

B．Stress increases our desire to get rewards.

C．We should think more about the upside of problems.

D．There is a link between stress and negative experiences.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.A

2.D

3.C

4.A

【解析】

试题分析：这篇文章主要讲了压力影响人的决定。

1.根据Feeling stressed changes how people weigh risk and reward. However, an article published in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests stressed people pay more attention to the positive sides of a possible outcome.故选A。

2.根据When people under stress are making a difficult decision, they may pay more attention to the good sides of the alternatives they’re considering and less to the problems.故答案应为D。

3.根据when women are stressed, they get more conservative(保守的)，故选C。

4.通过全文以及Feeling stressed changes how people weigh risk and reward，故选A。

考点：教育类短文阅读理解

点评：本题型考查了对文章段落或某一板块的理解概括能力。先阅读问题，然后带着问题，再读全文，找出答题所需要的依据，完成阅读。在词义与句义理解的基础上，结合上下文总结归纳某一段或几段的大意，对于把握文章主旨，分析全文结构都是至关重要的。纵观历年高考试题，阅读理解试题一般有以下几种题型：一是直接回答who, whom, which, what, where, when, why, how等疑问词引起的细节问题；二是猜测词义题；三是推理判断题；四是综合概括题。在做阅读理解题时，一定要仔细看完，看清楚试题要求再作答，特别要注意NOT，TRUE，EXCEPT等词。有时，要先看题，后阅读文章，带着问题去读短文，可缩短阅读时间，效果也许会更好。