Passage C
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, 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 be destroyed: since earning $10 million would be no 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 colored 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 who perform important tasks such as surgery, makes heroes out of individuals for unusual or dangerous achievements such as flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal penal system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.
The reason why people might not be able to stay alive in a world without emotion is that ________.
根据第一段第三句“People might not be able to stay alive: knowing neither joy nor pleasure, anxiety nor fear, they would be as likely to repeat acts that hurt them as acts that were beneficial.”可知，如果没有情感，人们 将无法生活下去；不知道什么是喜悦、快乐、焦虑或恐惧，他们有可能像做对自己有利的事情一样做对自 己有害的事情。也就是人们将无法分清利害，因此答案选B。
According to the passage, people’s learning activities are possible because they ________.
根据第一段第四句“They could not learn: they could not benefit from experience because this emotionless world would lack rewards and punishments.”可知，如果没有感情，人们不能从经验中受益，因为这冷漠的世 界也没有奖励和惩罚。所以有感情的世界中，人们享受奖励的感觉，因此答案选C。
It can be inferred from the passage that the economic foundation of society is dependent on ________.
根据第一段最后两句“Society’s economic underpinnings would be destroyed...incentives imply a capacity to enjoy them.”可知，没有感情的世界，社会经济基础也会被摧毁，赚1000万美元不会比赚10美元更令人愉 快，也就没有工作的动力。所以激励意味着有能力去享受，因此答案选C。
Emotions are significant for man’s survival and adaptation because ________.
根据第二段第六句“Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement...we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept.”可知，情感能够让人产生 社会认同感，判定即某些事物和行为是“好的”，而另一些是“坏的”，我们将这些范畴应用到社会生活的各 个方面，进而维系社会，因此答案选B。
The emotional aspects of an object are more important than its physical aspects in that they ________.
根据第二段第四句“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.”可知，一个 物体的物理方面比它对人们所产生的影响相比是不重要的，情感帮助人们建立适应周围环境的行为。因此 答案选D。