A study reveals that the brain areas that respond when fear is learned through personal experience are al-so triggered when we see someone else in distress.
In the study, participants watched a short video of a person conditioned to fear a so-called neutral stimulus-something people normally wouldn't fear--paired with something they find naturally aversive (令人讨厌的), in this case an electrical shock. The person in the video watched colored squares on a computer screen: When a blue square appeared, the person received a mild shock; when a yellow square appeared, there was no shock. The participant in the video responded with distress when the blue square appeared—he would blink hard, tense his cheek muscles and move his hand. "So it's clear that he's uncomfortable, he's in distress," said study team member Andreas Olsson of Columbia University. "And he's already in distress before he receives the shock, you see him anticipate receiving the shock." By contrast the participant in the video appeared relaxed when the yellow square popped up,
Participants were told they would take part in a similar experiment, and when presented with the blue square, they responded with fear, anticipating a shock, though they were never actually shocked. "Just by watching, they learn themselves," Olsson explained.
This second learning was reflected in the brain. In previous classical conditioning experiments where a fear is learned firsthand, a part of the brain called the amygdala (扁桃核) has been shown to be critical to the development and expression of fears. The scientists monitored the brain activity of each participant during the experiment. Imaging showed that the amygdala responded both when the subjects watched the video of someone else receiving shocks and when they were presented with the blue squares themselves.
"We found that the amygdala is involved both when you're watching somebody receiving shocks, and when you're expecting to receive shocks later on yourself," Olsson said. So it seems that similar processes in the brain are triggered both when fears are experienced first-hand and when they are observed in others.
In the real world, the finding could explain why some people are afraid of things despite little contact with them. "You learn by observing other people's emotional expressions, and what we are showing is that that can be as effective as having those direct experiences yourself," Olsson said. "That's probably one of the reasons why a lot people are having phobias (恐怖症) of certain kinds of stimuli, such as snakes and spiders."
What's people's response to a neutral stimulus？
A．Normally they are not scared by it.
B．Usually they are seriously scared by it.
C．They feel ridiculous when seeing it.
D．They often feel uncomfortable at it.
听力原文：Conversations are really kind of interesting. I guess it's a kind of hobby of mine to listen to conversations that I can hear in public. It is amazing how different the style, or the tone or the content of different conversations can be and to listen to the differences in the language that people use when they speak to different people.
If you're ever in a bookstore or department store, it's interesting to hear how the same salesperson talks to different people. There're other interesting places to listen to conversations too. I think, and one place that I've found is on bus trips. People often talk to each other as if no one else were there. I guess they think people can't hear their conversations.
Recently I was on a bus, and I was listening to a conversation of two people behind me. I can't really say I was listening. I guess it would have been hard not to hear it. it was amusing to listen to the two people, though, because they were playing a kind of language, uh, word game about states and state capitals. One person would say the name of the state, and the other person would say the name of the capital.
It sounds like a kind of simple game that doesn't involve much language, and you wouldn't think that it would involve very much conversation, but actually this wasn't the case because they were playing this game. They continued to compliment one another and talk about how much they knew about history and how many of the other things that they could or couldn't remember about those places from their trips or from their reading. It was really kind of fun to listen to them.
(30)
A．Criticizing others on bus.
B．Amusing people in pubic.
C．Enjoying talking to people.
D．Listening to people's in public.
When we talk about intelligence, we do not mean the ability to get a good score on a certain kind of test, or even the ability to do well in school. These are at best only indicators of something larger, deeper, and far more important. By intelligence we mean a style. of life, a way of behaving in various situations. The true test of intelligence is not how much we know what to do, but how we behave when we don’t know what to do.
The intelligent person, young or old, meeting a new situation or problem, opens himself up to it. He tries to take in with mind and senses everything he can about it. He thinks about it, instead of about himself or what it might cause to happen to him. He grapples (努力克服) with it boldly, imaginatively, resourcefully (机智地), and if not confidently, at least hopefully: if he fails to master it, he looks without fear or shame at his mistakes and learns what he can from them. This is intelligence. Clearly its roots lie in a certain feeling about life, and one’s self with respect to life. Just as clearly, unintelligence is not what most psychologists seem to suppose, the same thing as intelligence, only less of it. It is an entirely different style. of behavior, arising out of entirely different set of attitudes.
Years of watching and comparing bright children with the not-bright, or less bright, have shown that they are very different kinds of people. The bright child is curious about life and reality, eager to get in touch with it, embrace (捉住机会) it, unite himself with it. There is no wall; no barrier, between himself and life. On the other hand, the dull child is far less curious, far less interested in what goes on and what is real, more inclined (倾向于) to live in a world of fantasy. The bright child likes to experiment, to try things out. He lives by the maxim (格言) that there is more than one way to skin a cat. If he can’t do something one way, he’ll try another. The dull child is usually afraid to try at all. It takes a great deal of urging to get him to try even once; if that try fails, he is through.
Nobody starts off stupi
D.Hardly an adult in a thousand, or ten thousand, could in any three years of his life learn as much, grow as much in his understanding of the world around him, as every infant (婴儿) learns and grows in his first three years. But what happens, as we grow older, to this extraordinary capacity for learning and intellectual growth？ What happens is that it is destroyed, and more than by any other one thing, it is destroyed by the process that we misname education – a process that goes on in most homes and schools.
11. The writer believes that intelligence is doing well on some examinations.
A.True
B.False
12. The writer believes that “unintelligence” is a particular way of looking at the world.
A.True
B.False
13. Why does the writer say that education is misnamed？
A.Because it takes place more in homes than in school.
B.Because it discourages intellectual growth.
C.Because it helps dull children with their problems.
D.Because it helps children understand the world around them.
14. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Which of the following maxims has a similar meaning to this one？
A.If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, and try again.
B.All work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy.
C.Make new friends and keep the old; one is silver and the other is gold.
D.Make hay while the sun shines.
15. “It is an entirely different style. of behavior, arising out of an entirely different set of attitudes.” “It” in this sentence refers to （） .
A.intelligence
B.behavior
C.life
D.unintelligence
