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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 terror

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

admin2009-01-05  57
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 (支柱) 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 ever y 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 (刑法的) system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.
According to the passage, people’s learning activities are possible because they ______.
选项 A、believe that emotions are fundamental for them to stay alive
B、benefit from providing help and support to one another
C、enjoy being rewarded for doing the right thing
D、know what is vital to the progress of society
答案C
解析 要点归纳题。虽然文中没有明确谈到人们的学习活动和情感存在的必要性，但由文章最后一段最后一句话“It gives high rewards to individuals who perform important tasks...”可以推断，学习是一种个人“完成重要任务”的行为，因此可以得到嘉奖。所以，C选项为正确答案。A、B和D选项均为结果而非原因．
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