单选题
Nearly all cultures have a version of the arrow of time, a process by which they move towards the future and away from the past. According to a paper to be published in Psychological Science this has an interesting psychological effect. A group of researchers, led by Eugene Caruso of the University of Chicago, found that people judge the distance of events differently, depending on whether they are in the past or future. The paper calls this the "Temporal Doppler Effect". In physics, the Doppler effect describes the way that waves change frequency depending on whether their source is traveling towards or away from you. Mr Caruso argues that something similar happens with people's perception of time. Because future events are associated with diminishing distance, while those in the past are thought of as receding, something happening in one month feels psychologically closer than something that happened a month ago. This idea was tested in a series of experiments. In one, researchers asked 323 volunteers and divided them into two groups. A week before Valentine's day, members of the first were asked how they planned to celebrate it. A week after February 14th the second group reported how they had celebrated it. Both groups also had to describe how near the day felt on a scale of one to seven. Those describing forthcoming plans were more likely to report it as feeling "a short time from now", while those who had already experienced it tended to cluster at the "a long time from now" end of the scale. To account for the risk that recalling actual events requires different cognitive functions than imagining ones that have not yet happened, they also asked participants to rate the distance of hypothetical events a month in the past or future. The asymmetry remained. Interestingly, the effect can be reversed by manipulating time's arrow. In another experiment, participants were plugged into a virtual reality machine, with some moving forwards along a tree-lined street others backwards. Those who were moving backwards reported that past events began to feel closer. Mr Caruso speculates that his research has implications for psychological well-being. He suspects that people who do not show this bias—those who feel the past as being closer—might be more subject to depression, because they are more likely to dwell on past events. There may also be lessons for politicians and business leaders. Talking of future plans may be more effective than boasting about past successes. "People want to know what are you going to do for me next, not what have you done for me lately," suggests Mr Caruso.
单选题
According to Paragraph 1, the arrow of time may have an impact on _____.
【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】解析:根据题干可直接定位到第一段。该段①句首先提出arrow of time的概念,并在②句指出这(this)会产生有趣的心理效应,最后一句则借研究的结论指出具体的心理效应:人们对事件距离的判断,往往取决于该事件发生在过去还是未来(judge the distance…depending on…),即①句中的arrow of time产生了③句中的现象,故可推知,arrow of time会影响人们对事件距离的判断,B项所述与此一致,故为本题答案。
单选题
Doppler effect illustrates that waves change frequency based on _____.
【正确答案】
A
【答案解析】解析:根据题干中的关键词Doppler effect可定位到第二段。该段②句从物理学的角度阐释了多普勒效应的原理和含义,本题题干中的based on“基于”与句中的depending on“取决于”相对应,答案就在depending on之后由whether引导的从句里,“波源朝向你或是离你而去的方向(traveling towards or away from you)”,A项正是对该内容的概括,故为本题答案。
单选题
According to Paragraph 3, which of the following is true of the experiments?
【正确答案】
D
【答案解析】解析:根据题干可直接定位到第三段。该段介绍了科研人员的实验。在实验过程中,人们要对同样远近的一周按照1~7的范围标注不同程度的距离感。该段⑥句用while引导的并列句,表明两组人之间的对比:第一组人认为是“a short time from now”;第二组人认为是“a long time from now”。两组人的观点形成很大的反差,由此可知两组的距离值应当是相反的两端,因此D项正确。
单选题
It can be learned from Paragraph 4 that _____.
【答案解析】解析:根据顺序出题的原则可定位到末段。该段①句提到关于“时间距离感”的研究对心理健康有启示意义。②句提到对过去事件距离感更近的人更容易陷入沮丧,B项的are more vulnerable to depression对应原文该句的more subject to depression,B项为本题答案。