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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

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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 emotional 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 implant (嵌入、插入 ) 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 and 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、enjoy being rewarded for doing the right thing
B、know what is vital to the progress of society
C、believe that emotions are fundamental for them to stay alive
D、benefit from providing help and support to one another
答案A
解析 由第三段第四句可知，“人类将无法学习，因为他们不能从以往的经验中获益。”这句话从另一角度可以这样理解：人类因为从以往的经验中获益，因此才使得他们愿意去学习。所谓“获益于经验”，是指做正确的事就可以获得奖赏和回报。这与A项意同。故选A项。
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