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Does the language we speak determine how healthy and rich we will be? New research by Keith Chen of Yale Business School suggest

admin2015-02-09  57
问题     Does the language we speak determine how healthy and rich we will be? New research by Keith Chen of Yale Business School suggests so. Chen’s recent findings suggest that an unlikely factor, language, strongly affects our future-oriented behavior. Some languages strongly distinguish the present and the future. Other languages only weakly distinguish the present and the future.【C1】______The way these people conceptualize the future is similar to the way they conceptualize the present. As a result, the future does not feel very distant and it is easier for them to act in accordance with their future interests.
    Different languages have different ways of talking about the future. Some languages, such as English, Korean, and Russian, require their speakers to refer to the future explicitly. Every time English-speakers talk about the future, they have to use future markers such as "will" or "going to." In other languages, such as Mandarin, Japanese, and German, future markers are not obligatory.【C2】______A Mandarin speaker who is going to go to a seminar might say "Wo qu ting jiangzuo," which translates to "I go listen seminar." Languages such as English constantly remind their speakers that future events are distant. For speakers of languages such as Mandarin future feels closer. As a consequence, resisting immediate impulses and investing for the future is easier for Mandarin speakers.
    Chen analyzed individual-level data from 76 developed and developing countries.【C3】______He also analyzed individual-level data on people’s retirement assets, smoking and exercising habits, and general health in older age. Lastly, he analyzed national-level data that includes national savings rates, country GDP and GDP growth rates, country demographics, and proportions of people speaking different languages.
    【C4】______ After those factors were accounted for, the effect of language on people’s savings rates turned out to be big. Speaking a language that has obligatory future markers, such as English, makes people 30 percent less likely to save money for the future. This effect is as large as the effect of unemployment. Being unemployed decreases the likelihood of saving by about 30 percent as well.
    Similar analyses showed that speaking a language that does not have obligatory future markers, such as Mandarin, makes people accumulate more retirement assets, smoke less, exercise more, and generally be healthier in older age. Countries’ national savings rates are also affected by language.【C5】______
A. Having a larger proportion of people speaking languages that does not have obligatory future markers makes national savings rates higher.
B. Chen’s research points at the possibility that the way we talk about the future can shape our mindsets. Language can move the future back and forth in our mental space and this might have dramatic influences on our judgments and decisions.
C. The future is often talked about similar to the way present is talked about and the meaning is understood from the context.
D. Chen’s recent research suggests that people who speak languages that weakly distinguish the present and the future are better prepared for the future. They accumulate more wealth and they are better able to maintain their health.
E. People’s savings rates are affected by various factors such as their income, education level, age, religious affiliation, their countries’ legal systems, and their cultural values.
F. These results also provide evidence for the language-cognition link, which has stirred some controversy among researchers.
G. This data includes people’s economic decisions, such as whether they saved any money last year, the languages they speak at home, demographics, and cultural factors such as "saving is an important cultural value for me."
【C1】
选项
答案D
解析 第一段指出陈的研究结果发现，不同的语言的确会影响人们面对未来的行为。空格前提到某些语言对现在和未来的区分比较模糊，有些则非常明确；空格后提到人们构想未来和构思现在的方式是类似的。可见空格处的内容说的还是同一个问题，D项中的weakly distinguish出现在空格前一句中，内容与上下语义衔接，该项点明了文章中心观点，使用不怎么区分现在和未来的语言的人积累更多财富、更健康。
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