雅思阅读练习题：药物研究失败的因素

　　新东方在线雅思网特为大家准备了雅思阅读练习题：药物研究失败的因素，供大家学习参考。雅思阅读备考阶段，同学们需要通过适量的练习题来检测自己的备考效果。希望以下内容能够对大家的雅思备考有所帮助!

　　The Triumph of Unreason

　　A.

　　Neoclassical economics is built on theassumption that humans are rational beings whohave a clear idea of their best interests and strive toextract maximum benefit (or "utility"， ineconomist-speak) from any situation. Neoclassicaleconomics assumes that the process of decision-making is rational. But that contradicts growing evidence that decision-making draws on theemotions—even when reason is clearly involved.

　　B.

　　The role of emotions in decisions makes perfect sense. For situations met frequently in thepast， such as obtaining food and mates，and confronting or fleeing from threats，the neuralmechanisms required to weigh up the pros and cons will have been honed by evolution toproduce an optimal outcome. Since emotion is the mechanism by which animals are proddedtowards such outcomes， evolutionary and economic theory predict the same practicalconsequences for utility in these cases. But does this still apply when the ancestral machineryhas to respond to the stimuli of urban modernity?

　　C.

　　One of the people who thinks that it does not is George Loewenstein，an economist atCarnegie Mellon University，in Pittsburgh. In particular， he suspects that modern shoppinghas subverted the decision-making machinery in a way that encourages people to run updebt. To prove the point he has teamed up with two psychologists， Brian Knutson of StanfordUniversity and Drazen Prelec of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology， to look at whathappens in the brain when it is deciding what to buy.

　　D

　　In a study，the three researchers asked 26 volunteers to decide whether to buy a series ofproducts such as a box of chocolates or a DVD of the television show that were flashed on acomputer screen one after another. In each round of the task， the researchers first presentedthe product and then its price， with each step lasting four seconds. In the final stage，whichalso lasted four seconds，they asked the volunteers to make up their minds. While thevolunteers were taking part in the experiment，the researchers scanned their brains using atechnique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This measures blood flowand oxygen consumption in the brain，as an indication of its activity.

　　E.

　　The researchers found that different parts of the brain were involved at different stages ofthe test. The nucleus accumbens was the most active part when a product was beingdisplayed. Moreover，the level of its activity correlated with the reported desirability of theproduct in question.

　　F.

　　When the price appeared，however，fMRIreported more activity in other parts of the brain.Excessively high prices increased activity in theinsular cortex，a brain region linked to expectationsof pain，monetary loss and the viewing of upsettingpictures. The researchers also found greater activityin this region of the brain when the subject decidednot to purchase an item.

　　G.

　　Price information activated the medial prefrontal cortex，too. This part of the brain isinvolved in rational calculation. In the experiment its activity seemed to correlate with avolunteer's reaction to both product and price，rather than to price alone. Thus，the sense ofa good bargain evoked higher activity levels in the medial prefrontal cortex，and this oftenpreceded a decision to buy.

　　H.

　　People's shopping behaviour therefore seems to have piggy-backed on old neural circuitsevolved for anticipation of reward and the avoidance of hazards. What Dr Loewenstein foundinteresting was the separation of the assessment of the product (which seems to beassociated with the nucleus accumbens) from the assessment of its price (associated with theinsular cortex)，even though the two are then synthesised in the prefrontal cortex. Hishypothesis is that rather than weighing the present good against future alternatives，asorthodox economics suggests happens， people actually balance the immediate pleasure ofthe prospective possession of a product with the immediate pain of paying for it.

　　I.

　　That makes perfect sense as an evolved mechanism for trading. If one useful object isbeing traded for another (hard cash in modern time)，the future utility of what is being given upis embedded in the object being traded.

　　Emotion is as capable of assigning such a value as reason. Buying on credit，though，maybe different. The abstract nature of credit cards， coupled with the deferment of paymentthat they promise，may modulate the “con” side of the calculation in favour of the "pro".

　　J.

　　Whether it actually does so will be the subject of further experiments that the threeresearchers are now designing. These will test whether people with distinctly different spendingbehaviour，such as miserliness and extravagance， experience different amounts of pain inresponse to prices. They will also assess whether， in the same individuals，buying with creditcards eases the pain compared with paying by cash. If they find that it does，then credit cardsmay have to join the list of things such as fatty and sugary foods， and recreationaldrugs，that subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable at the time but can have along and malign aftertaste. Questions 1-6 Do the following statemets reflect the claims of thewriter in Reading Passage 1?