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  3. That Orientals and Westerners think in different ways is not mere prejudice. Many psychological studies conducted over the past

That Orientals and Westerners think in different ways is not mere prejudice. Many psychological studies conducted over the past

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问题     That Orientals and Westerners think in different ways is not mere prejudice. Many psychological studies conducted over the past two decades suggest Westerners have a more individualistic and abstract mental life than do East Asians. Several explanations are proposed to account for different ways of thinking.
    One explanation is that stepping into the modern social, economic and technological situation promotes individualism. However, in Japan, a pretty modern country, its people have retained a collective outlook. A second proposal is that if a place is liable to a higher frequency of infectious disease, it is more dangerous to make contact with strangers, which causes groups in this place to turn inward and tend to be collective. This explanation is also been questioned. Europe has had its share of plagues; probably more than either Japan or Korea. And though in southern China, a source of infection often starts there, this is not true of other parts of that enormous country.
    That led Thomas Talhelm of the University of Virginia and his colleagues to look into a third suggestion; that the crucial difference is agricultural. The West’s staple (主食)is wheat, while the East’s rice. Before the mechanical revolution of agriculture, a farmer who grew rice had to spend twice as many hours doing so as one who grew wheat. To promote efficient agricultural production, especially at times of planting and harvesting, rice-growing societies as far apart as India, Malaysia and Japan all developed cooperative labor exchanges. That is, neighbors arranged their farms’ schedules one after another in order to assist each other during these significant periods. Since, until recently, almost everyone was a farmer, it is a reasonable proposal that such a collective outlook would enjoy a controlling position in a society’s culture and behavior, and might prove so deep rooted that even now, when most people earn their living in other ways, it helps to define their lives. This proposal that the different ways of thinking of East and West are, at least in part, a consequence of their agriculture is worth further exploration.
What does the first explanation indicate?
选项 A、Individualism has little relationship with the modern development.
B、Individualism is inspired by modern society, economy and technology.
C、Japan can be counted as a modern country.
D、The Japanese prefer a more collective life.
答案B
解析 本题考查关于东西方思维方式差异的第一种解释所表明的信息。原文第二段第一句提到，现代的社会、经济和科技状况推进了个人主义，B是对这句话的同义转述，故答案为B。A“个人主义和现代发展几乎没有关系”是与个人主义的现代化解释相对立的观点，故排除；C“日本被认为是一个现代化国家”和D“日本人更偏好集体主义的生活”是举例说明对第一种解释的质疑，故排除。
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