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  3. There are more than 300 million of us in the U.S., and sometimes it seems like we’re all friends on Facebook. But the sad truth

There are more than 300 million of us in the U.S., and sometimes it seems like we’re all friends on Facebook. But the sad truth

admin2022-07-29  101
问题     There are more than 300 million of us in the U.S., and sometimes it seems like we’re all friends on Facebook. But the sad truth is that Americans are lonelier than ever. Between 2005 and 2019, the number of people who said there was no one with whom they discussed important matters tripled, to 25 percent, according to Duke University researchers. Unfortunately, as a new study linking women to increased risk of heart disease shows, all this loneliness can be detrimental to our health.
    The bad news doesn’t just affect women. Social isolation in all adults has been linked to a lot of physical and mental ailments, including sleep disorders, high blood pressure, and an increased risk of depression and suicide. How lonely you feel today actually predicts how well you’ll sleep tonight and how depressed you’ll feel a year from now, says John T. Cacioppo, a neuroscientist at the University of Chicago and coauthor of Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection. Studies have shown that loneliness can cause stress levels to rise and can weaken the immune system. Lonely people also tend to have less healthy lifestyles, drinking more alcohol, eating more fattening food, and exercising less than those who are not lonely.
    Though more Americans than ever are living alone (23 percent of U.S. households, up from 7 percent in 200O), the connection between single-living and loneliness is in fact quite weak. "Some of the most profound loneliness can happen when other people are present," says Harry Reis, professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. Take college freshmen: even though they’re surrounded by people almost all the time, many feel incredibly isolated during the first quarter of the school year with their friends and family members far away, Cacioppo says. Studies have shown that how lonely freshmen will feel can be predicted by how many miles they are from home. By the second quarter, however, most freshmen have found social replacements for their high-school friends. Unfortunately, as we age, it becomes more difficult to recreate those social relationships. And that can be a big problem as America becomes a more transient society, with an increasing number of Americans who say that they’re willing to move away from home for a job.
    Loneliness can be relative: it has been defined as an aversive emotional response to a perceived discrepancy between a person’s desired levels of social interaction and the contact they’re actually receiving. People tend to measure themselves against others, feeling particularly alone in communities where social connection is the norm. That’s why collectivist cultures, like those in Southern Europe, have higher levels of loneliness than individualist cultures, Cacioppo says. For the same reason, isolated individuals feel most acutely alone on holidays like Christmas Eve or Thanksgiving, when most people are surrounded by family and friends.
    Still, loneliness is a natural biological signal that we all have. Indeed, loneliness serves an adaptive purpose, making us protect and care for one another. Loneliness essentially puts the brain on high alert, encouraging us not to eat leftovers from the refrigerator but to call a friend and eat out. Certain situational factors can trigger loneliness, but long-term feelings of emptiness and isolation are partly genetic, Cacioppo says. What’s inherited is not loneliness itself, but rather sensitivity to disconnection.
    Social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter may provide people with a false sense of connection that ultimately increases loneliness in people who feel alone. These sites should serve as a supplement, but not replacement for, face-to-face interaction, Cacioppo says. For people who feel satisfied and loved in their day-to-day life, social media can be a reassuring extension. For those who are already lonely, Facebook status updates are just a reminder of how much better everyone else is at making friends and having fun. So how many friends do you need to avoid loneliness? An introvert might need one confidant not to feel lonely, whereas an extrovert might require two, three, or four bosom buddies. Experts say it’s not the quantity of social relationships but the quality that really matters.
Who tends to be the least lonely according to the passage?
选项 A、A person who is always surrounded by others.
B、A person who has a lot of friends on Facebook.
C、A person who often moves away from home for a job.
D、A person who lives in an individual culture.
答案D
解析 本题无明确关键词，问题是：谁最不可能感到孤独?本题也需定位全文内容进行判断。第四段第二、三句说，人们会以别人为标准衡量自己，在以社会关系为准则的社会中人们会感到孤独，因此生活在集体主义文化(collectivist cultures)中的人会比个人主义文化 (individualist cultures)中的人更容易感到孤独，也就是生活在个人主义文化中的人感到孤独的可能性较小，因此选项D与原文一致，为正确答案。选项A、B、C均属于正反混淆。第三段第二句指出，一些最深刻的孤独感往往发生在其他人在场时。故排除A。第一段和第六段都提到脸书，第一段说我们似乎都在脸书上交朋友，但却比以前更孤独，第六段第一句说脸书和推特这样的社交网站给人们带来一种联系的错觉。但最终却加重(increase)了孤独者的孤独感，故排除B。第三段最后两句指出，随着年龄的增长，人们越来越难重新建立社会关系，很多美国人因为工作而离家，这使得这些人远离原来的朋友，却又难以建立新的社会关系，故排除C。
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