雅思考试典型话题阅读练习（1）

　　I.

　　That makes perfect sense as an evolved mechanism for trading. If one useful object is being traded for another (hard cash in modern time), the future utility of what is being given up is embedded in the object being traded. Emotion is as capable of assigning such a value as reason. Buying on credit, though, may be different. The abstract nature of credit cards, coupled with the deferment of payment that 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 three researchers are now designing. These will test whether people with distinctly different spending behaviour, such as miserliness and extravagance, experience different amounts of pain in response to prices. They will also assess whether, in the same individuals, buying with credit cards eases the pain compared with paying by cash. If they find that it does, then credit cards may have to join the list of things such as fatty and sugary foods, and recreational drugs, that subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable at the time but can have a long and malign aftertaste.

　　Questions 1-6

　　Do the following statemets reflect the claims of the writer in Reading Passage 1?

　　Write your answer in Boxes 1-6 on your answer sheet.

　　TRUE if the statement reflets the claims of the writer

　　FALSE if the statement contradicts the claims of the writer

　　NOT GIVEN if it is possbile to say what the writer thinks about this

　　1. The belief of neoclassical economics does not accord with the increasing evidence that humans make use of the emotions to make decisions.

　　2. Animals are urged by emotion to strive for an optimal outcomes or extract maximum utility from any situation.

　　3. George Loewenstein thinks that modern ways of shopping tend to allow people to accumulate their debts.

　　4. The more active the nucleus accumens was, the stronger the desire of people for the product in question became.

　　5. The prefrontal cortex of the human brain is linked to monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures.

　　6. When the activity in nucleus accumbens was increased by the sense of a good bargain, people tended to purchase coffee.

　　Questions 7-9

　　Choose the appropriate letters A-D and write them in boxes 7-9 on your answe sheet.

　　7. Which of the following statements about orthodox economics is true?

　　A. The process which people make their decisions is rational.

　　B. People have a clear idea of their best interests in any situation.

　　C. Humans make judgement on the basis of reason rather then emotion.

　　D. People weigh the present good against future alternatives in shopping.

　　8. The word “miserliness” in line 3 of Paragraph J means__________.

　　A. people’s behavior of buying luxurious goods

　　B. people’s behavior of buying very special items

　　C. people’s behavior of being very mean in shopping

　　D. people’s behavior of being very generous in shopping

　　9. The three researchers are now designing the future experiments, which test

　　A. whether people with very different spending behaviour experience different amounts of pain in response to products.

　　B. whether buying an item with credit cards eases the pain of the same individuals compared with paying for it by cash.

　　C. whether the abstract nature of credit cards may modulate the “con” side of the calculation in favour of the “pro”.

　　D. whether the credit cards may subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable but with a terrible effect.

　　Questions 10-13

　　Complete the notes below.

　　Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from Reading Passage 1 for each answer.

　　Write your answers in boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet.

　　To find what happens in the brain of humans when it is deciding things to buy, George Loewenstein and his co-researchers did an experiment by using the technique of fMRI. They found that different parts of the brain were invloved in the process. The activity in …10… was greatly increased with the displaying of certain product. The great activity was found in the insular cortex when …11…and the subject decided not to buy a product. The activity of the medial prefrontal cortex seemed to associate with both …12…informaiton. What interested Dr Loewenstein was the …13… of the assessment of the product and its price in different parts of the brain.