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  3. An Imaginary World Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion—a world in which human beings could feel no love

An Imaginary World Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion—a world in which human beings could feel no love

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问题                           An Imaginary World
     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, neither 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 would he destroyed: since earning $10 million would be 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 coloured 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 when perform important tasks such as surgery, makes heroes out of individuals for unusual or dangerous  achievements such flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal and penal system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.  
Emotions are significant for man’s survival and adaptation because______.
选项 A、they provide the means by which people view the size or shape of objects
B、they are the basis for the social feeling of agreement by which society is maintained
C、they encourage people to perform dangerous achievements
D、they generate more love than hate among people
答案B
解析 本题涉及的相关信息在文章的第二段。综合第二段所有信息，只有选项B最贴近题意。其余三个选项或者不够全面，或者与原文无关。所以本题答案应当为B。
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