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  3. Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion -- a world in which human beings could feel no love or happiness, no terr

Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion -- a world in which human beings could feel no love or happiness, no terr

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问题       Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion -- a world in which human beings could feel no love or happiness, no terror or hate. Try to imagine the consequences of such a transformation. People might not be able to stay alive; knowing neither joy nor pleasure, anxiety nor fear, they would be as likely to repeat acts that hurt them as acts that were beneficial. They could not learn; they could not benefit from experience because this emotionless world would lack rewards and punishments. Society would soon disappear; people would be as likely to harm one another as to provide help and support. Human relationships would not exist; in a world without friends or enemies, there could be no marriage, affection among companions, or bonds among members of groups. Society’s economic underpinnings would be destroyed; since earning $10 million would be no more pleasant than earning $10, there would be no incentive to work. In fact, there would be no incentives of any kind. For as we will see, incentives imply a capacity to enjoy them.
      In such a world, the chances that the human species would survive are next to zero, because emotions are the basic instrument of our survival and adaptation. Emotions structure the world for us in important ways. As individuals, we categorize objects on the basis of our emotions. True we consider the length, shape, size, or texture, but an object’s physical aspects are less important than what it has done or can do to us — hurt us, surprise us, anger us or make us joyful. We also use categorizations colored by emotions in our families, communities, and overall society. Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement that certain things and actions are good and others are bad, and we apply these categories to every aspect of our social life -- from what foods we eat and what clothes we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept. In fact, society exploits our emotional reactions and attitudes, such as loyalty, morality, pride, shame, guilt, fear and greed, in order to maintain itself. It gives high rewards to individuals who perform important tasks such as surgery, makes heroes out of individuals for unusual or dangerous achievements such as flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal penal system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.  
Emotions are the basic structure of the world because ______.
选项 A、they outweigh the physical aspects in establishing the superstructure of society
B、they form a social feeling of agreement that maintains society
C、they categorize objects that are applied to every aspect of life
D、they rewards individuals performing dangerous achievements
答案B
解析 推断题。第二段一开始就说情感用一种重要方式构建了世界。第五、六句中提到，源于对事物及事件情感的经历，我们产生了对事物和行为“好”与“坏”的社会认同感，我们把这种分类用于社会生活的每一方面——从我们吃的食物、穿的衣服，到信守诺言及我们的群体认可哪些人。事实上，社会利用我们情感的反应和态度——如忠诚、道德、自豪、羞耻、内疚、恐惧和贪婪等——才得以维持。由此推断社会维系的基础是人类情感反应，即一种由情感决定的社会认同感，故B正确。
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