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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 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 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 (刑法的) system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.
The emotional aspects of an object are more important than its physical aspects in that they _______.
选项 A、help society exploit its members for profit
B、encourage us to perform important tasks
C、help to perfect the legal and penal system
D、help us adapt our behavior to the world surrounding us
答案D
解析 要点归纳题。由文章第二段第三句中"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．”可知，“情感比事物具体的物理特性更重要是因为它从内部激励人们调节自己的行为以适应周围的环境”，因此D为正确答案。 A、B和C选项均为人们调节行为的具体方式。
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