首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
How Your Language Affects Your Wealth and Health A.)Does the language we speak determine how healthy and rich we will be? New re
How Your Language Affects Your Wealth and Health A.)Does the language we speak determine how healthy and rich we will be? New re
admin
2014-08-29
32
问题
How Your Language Affects Your Wealth and Health
A.)Does the language we speak determine how healthy and rich we will be? New research by Keith Chen of Yale Business School suggests so. The structure of languages affects our judgments and decisions about the future and this might have dramatic long-term consequences.
B)There has been a lot of research into how we deal with the future. For example, the famous marshmallow(棉花软糖)studies of Walter Mischel and colleagues showed that being able to resist temptation is predictive of future success. Four-year-old kids were given a marshmallow and were told that if they did not eat that marshmallow and waited for the experimenter to come back, they would get two marshmallows instead of one. Follow-up studies showed that the kids who were able to wait for the bigger future reward became more successful young adults.
C)Resisting our impulses for immediate pleasure is often the only way to attain the outcomes that are important to us. We want to keep a slim figure but we also want that last slice of pizza. Some people are better at delaying satisfaction than others. Those people have a better chance of accumulating wealth and keeping a healthy life style. They are less likely to be impulse buyers or smokers.
D)Chen’s recent findings suggest that an unlikely factor, language, strongly affects our future-oriented behavior. Some languages strongly distinguish the present and the future. Other languages only weakly distinguish the present and the future. Chen’s recent research suggests that people who speak languages that weakly distinguish the present and the future are better prepared for the future. They accumulate more wealth and they are better able to maintain their health. The way these people conceptualize(概念化)the future is similar to the way they conceptualize the present. As a result, the future does not feel very distant and it is easier for them to act in accordance with their future interests.
E)Different languages have different ways of talking about the future. Some languages, such as English, require their speakers to refer to the future explicitly. Every time English-speakers talk about the future, they have to use future markers such as " will". In other languages, such as Mandarin(汉语普通话), future markers are not obligatory. The future is often talked about similar to the way present is talked about and the meaning is understood from the context. Languages such as English constantly remind their speakers that future events are distant. For speakers of languages such as Mandarin, future feels closer. As a consequence, resisting immediate impulses and investing for the future is easier for Mandarin speakers.
F)Chen analyzed individual-level data from 76 developed and developing countries. This data includes people’s economic decisions, such as whether they saved any money last year, the languages they speak at home, demographics(人口统计特征), and cultural factors such as " saving is an important cultural value for me". He also analyzed individual-level data on people’s retirement assets, smoking and exercising habits, and general health in older age. Lastly, he analyzed national-level data that includes national savings rates, country GDP and GDP growth rates, country demographics, and proportions of people speaking different languages.
G)People’s savings rates are affected by various factors such as their income, education level, age, religious affiliation(隶属关系), their countries’ legal systems, and their cultural values. After those factors were accounted for, the effect of language on people’s savings rates turned out to be big. Speaking a language that has obligatory future markers, such as English, makes people 30 percent less likely to save money for the future. This effect is as large as the effect of unemployment. Being unemployed decreases the likelihood of saving by about 30 percent as well.
H)Similar analyses showed that speaking a language that does not have obligatory future markers, such as Mandarin, makes people accumulate more retirement assets, smoke less, exercise more, and generally be healthier in older age. Countries’ national savings rates are also affected by language. Having a larger proportion of people speaking a language that does not have obligatory future markers makes national savings rates higher.
I)This is an unconventional way of explaining people’s consumption-saving decisions and health-related behavior. More conventional factors include dispositional(意向的), situational, motivational, and cultural factors. The marshmallow studies focus on dispositional factors—being able to delay satisfaction is an inherent ability. Other researches have looked at situational factors. For example, researches have shown that simply rearranging the placement of food and beverages (饮料)in a cafeteria can improve sales of healthy items. Other research has focused on motivational factors. People often need to curb their current desire to consume in order to reach their future goal of getting out of debt. Researches have shown that closing smaller debt accounts first gives a sense of accomplishment early on, boosts motivation, and increases the likelihood of completely getting rid of debt. The motivational effect is beneficial even if closing off smaller debt accounts does not make economic sense, for instance when the bigger debt accounts have higher interest rates attached to them. Other research has investigated cultural factors. It has been argued that Americans spend more than they need to because they want to emulate(仿效)the lifestyles and spending patterns of people who are much richer than themselves. Chen’s findings suggest that maybe we should focus more on how we talk about the future in order to improve our intertemporal(跨期的)decision making.
J)These results also provide evidence for the language-cognition link, which has stirred some controversy among researchers. Early 20th century thinkers such as Ferdinand de Saussure and Ludwig Wittgenstein were among the first who argued that language can impact the way people think and act. More recently, Steven Pinker argued that we think in a universal grammar and languages do not significantly shape our thinking. The issue is still hotly debated.
K)At a more practical level, researchers have been looking for ways to help people act in accordance with their long-term interests. Recent findings suggest that making the future feel closer to the present might improve future-oriented behavior. For instance, researchers recently presented people with renderings of their future selves made using age-progression algorithms(运算法则)that forecast how physical appearances would change over time. One group of participants saw a digital representation of their current selves in a virtual mirror, and the other group saw an age-morphed (演变的)version of their future selves. Those participants who saw the age-morphed version of their future selves allocated more money toward a virtual savings account. The intervention brought people’s future to the present and as a result they saved more for the future.
L)Chen’s research shows that language structures our future-related thoughts. Chen’s research points at the possibility that the way we talk about the future can shape our mindsets. Language can move the future back and forth in our mental space and this might have dramatic influences on our judgments and decisions.
Steven Pinker thought we think in a universal grammar and languages do not have an important effect on shaping our thinking.
选项
答案
J
解析
根据定位句可知,史蒂芬·平克认为我们以普遍语法的方式思考,语言对于塑造我们的思维没有重要影响。题干中的have an important effect on与定位句中的significantly为同义转述,故答案为J)。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/5Dv7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
IstheBanonAbusiveLanguageOnlineHelpful?1.目前网络粗话非常盛行2.禁止网络粗话是否有用,人们观点不一3.我的看法
WanttoKnowYourDiseaseRisk?CheckYourExposomeA)Whenitcomestohealth,whichismoreimportant,natureornurture?Youm
WanttoKnowYourDiseaseRisk?CheckYourExposomeA)Whenitcomestohealth,whichismoreimportant,natureornurture?Youm
Britonsareincreasinglyentertainingguestsathomewithdinner,filmandkaraokenights,(1)______bytelevisionshowsoncookin
A、Itcancausenodamagesatall.B、Itcancausedamagestothecomputersystems.C、Itcancopyyourfilesincomputers.D、Itca
Trafficlightsarecrucialtoolsforregulatingtrafficflow.Theyarenot,however,perfect.Atunmanagedjunctions,apattern
Trafficlightsarecrucialtoolsforregulatingtrafficflow.Theyarenot,however,perfect.Atunmanagedjunctions,apattern
A、AllthefishingintheGulfofMexicoisbanned.B、Thefishingindustryisgreatlydamagedbythehugeoilspill.C、Thefishin
Trafficlightsarecrucialtoolsforregulatingtrafficflow.Theyarenot,however,perfect.Atunmanagedjunctions,apattern
随机试题
经转氨作用可生成草酰乙酸的氨基酸是
鹅口疮的临床表现是()。
高新技术产业开发区是一种以内部变量为推动力的()。
BOT有多种形式,其中TBT模式指的是()。
下列关于流水施工的说法中,正确的有()。
在建的建筑工程因故中止施工的,建设单位应当自中止施工之日起()个月内,发证机关报告,并按照规定做好建筑工程的维护管理工作。
(2014年)变量X和变量Y的Pearson相关系数r=1,这说明变量X和变量Y间的相关关系是()。
阅读下面的短文,回答以下问题。现在电话已经普及,传真机使用得也越来越广泛,人们写信也就越来越少。现在哪些人写信比较多呢?据调查,写信多的是三种人:一是正在恋爱的人。因为恋人有时心里想要说的话,嘴上却不好意思讲,多是借助书信表达出来。二是军人。军人
第一次把教育学作为一门独立的科学提出来的著作是
Everyhumanbeinghasuniquearrangementofskinonhisfingersandthisarrangementisunchangeable.Scientistsandexpertshav
最新回复
(
0
)