单选题 Why does storytelling endure across time and cultures? Perhaps the answer lies in our evolutionary roots. A study of the way that people respond to Victorian literature hints that novels act as a social glue, reinforcing the types of behaviour that benefit society.
Literature "could continually condition society so that we fight against base impulses and work in a cooperative way", says Jonathan Gottschall of Washington and Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. He and co-author Joseph Carroll at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, study how Darwin"s theories of evolution apply to literature. Along with John Johnson, an evolutionary psychologist at Pennsylvania State University in DuBois, the researchers asked 500 people to fill in a questionnaire about 200 classic Victorian novels. The respondents were asked to define characters as protagonists or antagonists and then to describe their personality and motives, such as whether they were conscientious or power hungry.
The team found that the characters fell into groups that mirrored the egalitarian dynamics of a society in which individual dominance is suppressed for the greater good (Evolutionary Psychology. vol 4, p 716). Protagonists, such as Elizabeth Bennett in Jane Austen"s Pride and Prejudice, for example, scored highly on conscientiousness and nurturing, while antagonists like Bram Stoker"s Count Dracula scored highly on status-seeking and social dominance. In the novels, dominant behaviour is "powerfully stigmatized", says Gottschall "Bad guys and girls are just dominance machines; they are obsessed with getting ahead, they rarely have pro-social behaviours."
While few in today"s world live in hunter-gatherer societies, "the political dynamic at work in these novels, the basic opposition between communitarianism and dominance behaviour, is a universal theme", says Carroll. Christopher Boehm, a cultural anthropologist whose work Carroll acknowledges was an important influence on the study, agrees. "Modem democracies, with their formal checks and balances, are carrying forward an egalitarian ideal".
A few characters were judged to be both good and bad, such as Heathcliff in Emily Bronte"s Wuthering Heights or Austen"s Mr.Darcy. "They reveal the pressure being exercised on maintaining the total social order," says Carroll.
Boehm and Carroll believe novels have the same effect as the cautionary tales told in older societies. "Novels have a function that continues to contribute to the quality and structure of group life," says Boehm. "Maybe storytelling--from TV to folk tales- actually serves some specific evolutionary adaptation," says Gottschall. They"re not just products of evolutionary adaptation.
单选题 According to the study mentioned in the passage, which one of the following best defines the function of literature in human society?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 主旨题目。题目问的是，根据文章内容，下面哪个选项最能定义小说在人类社 会中的作用?选项B、C、D均为小说某一方面的作用，不能完全涵盖其作用。由文章最后 一句话“actually serves some specific evolutionarb adaptation”，可知，小说促进了社会的进步。 所以，答案是A。
单选题 What were the respondents in the research asked to do ?
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题目。由文章第二段最后一句“The respondents were asked to define characters as protagonists or antagonists and then to describe their personality and motives” 知，被调查人要定义角色是主角还是反派，然后再描述他们的个性和动机，就是identify 和describe的意思。所以，答案是A。
单选题 What is said about the bad guys and girls in novels?
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】[解析] 细节题目。题目问的是文章关于坏男孩和坏女孩的内容。根据文章第三段最后 一句话“they are obsessed with getting ahead”知，他们贪恋于出人头地，与D选项中seek dominant status的意思一致。所以，答案是D。
单选题 In the political dynamic of literature, to what is dominant behavior set opposed ?
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】[解析] 细节理解题目。题目问的是在文学的政治动力中，什么是和支配行为相对立的? 根据文章第三段第一句“the egalitarian dynamics of a society in which individual dominance is suppressed for the greater good”和第四段第一句“the basic opposition between communitarianism and dominance behaviour”知，与dominant behavior相对的是egalitarian。所以，答案是B。