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  3. Hormone level—and hence our moods—may be affected by the weather. Gloomy weather can cause depression, but sunshine appears to r

Hormone level—and hence our moods—may be affected by the weather. Gloomy weather can cause depression, but sunshine appears to r

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问题     Hormone level—and hence our moods—may be affected by the weather. Gloomy weather can cause depression, but sunshine appears to raise the spirits. In Britain, for example, the dull weather winter drastically cuts down the amount of sunlight that is experienced which strongly affects some people. They become so depressed and lacking in energy that their work and social life are affected. The term SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) is used to describe such a condition. Sufferers can fight back by making the most of any sunlight in winter and by spending a few hours each day under special, full-spectrum lamps. These provide more ultraviolet and blue-green light than ordinary fluorescent and tungsten lights. Scientists are working to discover the links between the weather and human beings’ moods and performance.

    It is generally believed that tempers grow shorter in hot, muggy weather. There is no doubt that " crimes against the person" rise in the summer, when the weather is hotter and fall in the winter when the weather is colder. Research in the United States has shown a relationship between temperature and street riots. The frequency of riots rises drastically as the weather warmer, hitting a peak of 21℃~30℃.
    Psychologists have also studied how being cold affects performance. Researchers compared divers working in icy cold water at 5℃. with others in water at 20℃. The result suggests that the low temperature did not slow down mental functioning directly, but the feeling of the cold distracted the divers from their tasks.
    Psychologists have conducted studies showing that people become less skeptical and more optimistic when the weather is sunny. However, this apparently does not just depend on the temperature. A link between weather and mood is made believable by the evidence for a connection between behavior and the length of the daylight hours. This in turn might involve the level of a hormone called melatonin, produced in the pineal gland in the brain. The amount of melatonin falls with greater exposure to daylight. Research shows that melatonin plays an important part in the seasonal behavior of certain animals. For example, food consumption of stags increases during the winter, reaching a peak in February/ March. It falls again to a low point in May, then rises to a peak in September, before dropping to another minimum in November. These changes seem to be triggered by varying melatonin levels.
    It seems that time cues provided by the changing lengths of day and night trigger changes in animals, behavior-changes that are needed to cope with the cycle of the seasons. People’s moods too, have been shown to react to the length of the daylight hours. Skeptics might say that longer exposure to sunshine puts people in a better mood because they associate it with the happy feelings of holidays and freedom from responsibility. However, the belief that rain and murky weather make people more unhappy is borne out by a study in Belgium, which showed that a telephone counseling service gets more telephone calls from people with suicidal feelings when it rains.
    When there is a thunderstorm brewing, some people complain of the air being "heavy" and of feeling irritable, moody and on edge. High levels of serotonin in certain areas of the nervous system make people more active and reactive and possibly, more aggressive. When certain winds are blowing, mood can be affected-and the number of traffic accidents rises. It may be significant that the concentration of positively charged particles is greater than normal in these winds. More people claim they feel better in negatively charged air.
    Scientists are working to discover the connections between the weather and the human beings, moods and performance. The word that is used to describe the situation is SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder). In winter, the sharp cut-down of the amount of sunlight makes people depressed and lacking in【A1】________. Psychologists find that being cold affects the【A2】________of human beings, too. When it is cold, " crimes against the person" fall. The feeling of cold【A3】________us from our tasks. However, with warming weather, the frequency of riots rises【A4】________. When it is sunny, people are more optimistic and less doubtful. Besides, our moods can be influenced by【A5】________air.
【A2】
选项
答案performance
解析 根据文章第三段第一句可知，科学家们研究了寒冷对人们表现的影响。通过对比潜水员在5℃的冷水中工作与在200℃的水中工作，他们发现，低温不会直接减缓精神功能，但是冷的感觉会使潜水员分心。从中，我们可以得知，寒冷也会影响人们的表现。
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本试题收录于： A类竞赛（研究生）题库大学生英语竞赛（NECCS）分类
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