2. 外语
  3. Polygraphs, or "lie detectors", are used widely in America, including on sex offenders, but in Britain many remain skeptical. Po

Polygraphs, or "lie detectors", are used widely in America, including on sex offenders, but in Britain many remain skeptical. Po

admin2016-09-08  9
问题     Polygraphs, or "lie detectors", are used widely in America, including on sex offenders, but in Britain many remain skeptical. Polygraphs do not detect lies. They measure changes in physiology, such as breathing rate, sweating and blood pressure. Telling lies is often stressful and can prompt jumps in the readings. But other things—fear, embarrassment, worries about being wrongfully accused—can do the same. Enthusiasts say that polygraphs accurately detect lies 80 - 90% of the time. The British Psychological Society cites studies showing similar figures but cautions that problems in the research mean that the real rate is probably much lower. And "false positive" rates(defining a truthful person a liar)can be as high as 47% .
    Boosters of the government’s scheme say the point is that using polygraphs encourages sex offenders to reveal more information, before, during and after the test. In a 2010 -2011 pilot study offenders who took polygraph tests made more than twice as many "clinically significant exposures" — information that could prompt changes in the way they are managed—as those that did not. Many said they would not have done so without undergoing the test. Jane Wood, a psychologist at the University of Kent who co-authored the report on the pilot, says that some offenders found the tests helpful as way to convince their families they were being honest about their behaviour. Others said that the discussions prompted when they failed the test helped them better to understand the conditions of their license.
    Polygraph tests do not stand on their own, argues Don Grubin, a professor of psychiatry at Newcastle University: they should be one of a number of tools used to assess offenders. Nonetheless some remain uneasy. Those using the tests may become contented, worries Anne McAlinden of Queen’s University, Belfast, and give them excessive weight. In the government’s study, the more tests offenders took, the fewer lies were labeled. That might indicate that they became more truthful, or it might suggest that they were getting better at gaming the test.
Which of the following could be the best title of this passage?
选项 A、Lies, Damn Lies
B、Polygraphs, Unreliable but Useful
C、Magical Polygraphs
D、Lie Detectors
答案B
解析 主旨大意题。本题要求选出文章最适合的标题。根据原文，文章第一段阐述测谎仪的不可靠性；第二段阐述了测谎仪在犯罪评估时的积极作用；第三段继续阐述测谎仪可能被误用的情况。因此，B)“测谎仪——不可靠但仍然有用”更能概括文章大意，故为答案。A)“谎言，可怕的谎言”和C)“神奇的测谎仪”都与原文内容相去甚远，故排除；D)“谎言探测器”是最强干扰项，该词只在文章第一句话中出现，用以解释polygraphs，文章其他部分都是使用主题词polygraphs，而且相对于B)，D)没有任何态度倾向，不能全面地概括文章内容，故排除。
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