Hormone levels and hence our moods may be affected by the weather. Gloomy weather can cause depression, but sunshine appears to

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问题     Hormone levels and hence our moods may be affected by the weather. Gloomy weather can cause depression, but sunshine appears to raise the spirits, In Britain, for example, the dull weather of winter drastically cuts down the amount of sunlight that is experienced which strongly affects some people. They become so depressed and lacking in energy that their work and social life are affected. This condition has been given the name SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). Sufferers can fight back by making the most of any sunlight in winter and by spending a few hours each day under special, full-spectrum lamps. These provide more ultraviolet and blue-green light than ordinary fluorescent and tungsten lights. Some Russian scientists claim that children learn better after being exposed to ultraviolet light. In warm countries, hours of work are often arranged so that workers can take a break, or even a siesta, during the hottest part of the day. Scientists are working to discover the links between the weather and human beings’ moods and performance.
    It is generally believed that tempers grow shorter in hot, muggy weather. There is no doubt that crimes against the person’ rise in the summer, when the weather is hotter and fall in the winter when the weather is colder. Research in the United States has shown a relationship between temperature and street riots. The frequency of riots rises dramatically as the weather gets warmer. Hitting a peak around 27-30℃. But is this effect really due to a mood change caused by the heat? Some scientists argue that trouble starts more often in hot weather merely because there are more people in the street when the weather is good.
    Psychologists have also studied how being cold affects performance. Researchers compared divers working in icy cold water at 5℃ with others in water at 20℃ about swimming pool temperature). The colder water made the divers worse at simple arithmetic and other mental tasks. But significantly, their performance was impaired as soon as they were put into the cold water before their bodies had time to cool down. This suggests that the low temperature did not slow down mental functioning directly, but the feeling of cold distracted the divers from their tasks.
    Psychologists have conducted studies showing that people become less skeptical and more optimistic when the weather is sunny. However, this apparently does not just depend on the temperature. An American psychologist studied customers in a temperature-controlled restaurant. They gave bigger tips when the sun was shining and smaller tips when it wasn’t, even though the temperature in the restaurant was the same. A link between weather and mood is made believable by the evidence for a connection between behavior and the length of the daylight hours. This in turn might involve the level of a hormone called melatonin, produced in the pineal gland in the brain. The amount of melatonin falls with greater exposure to daylight. Research shows that melatonin plays an important part in the seasonal behavior of certain animals. For example, food consumption of stags increases during the winter, reaching a peak in February/March. It falls again to a low point in May, then rises to a peak in September, before dropping to another minimum in November. Theses changes seem to be triggered by varying melatonin levels.

选项 A、They were less able to concentrate.
B、Their body temperature fell too quickly.
C、Their mental functions were immediately affected by the cold.
D、They were used to swimming pool conditions.

答案A

解析 本题为细节题,在本文的第三段中部我们看到:"The colder water made the divers worse at simple arithmetic and other mental tasks.But significantly,their performance was impaired as soon as they were put into the cold water-before their bodies had time to cool down.This suggests that the low temperature did not slow down mental functioning directly,but the feeling of cold distracted the divers from their tasks".从这两句英文中我们可以看到在更冷的环境中,司机不能集中精力。"在更冷的环境中,他们的体温下降很快"。"他们的大脑功能立刻受到寒冷的影响"。"他们早已习惯游泳池的水温"都不对。
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