单选题 Passage Three 　　Last week, I read a story about a 34-year-old British woman who is extremely afraid of metal forks. She's been using plastic ones for 17 years because the sound of a fork rubbing against a plate g:ives her a panic attack. 　　Strange, right? But she's not alone. While popular phobias(恐惧症) about snakes and spiders might get all of the attention, there are a wide variety of not-so-obvious horrors that make people nervous. 　　While some phobias might seem a bit silly, they can cause serious emotional distress. My co-worker Magda is terrified of pigeons, a phobia that is taking over her life. She won't walk in certain parts of the city and runs screaming from the subway when one of these "rats with wings" finds its way onto the platform. Another friend isdisgusted with cheese. Once I saw her run away from a slice of it. So where does anirrational fear of cheese come from? 　　Are phobias something we inherit from our genes or do we acquire these unusualanxieties over time? 　　Ever since I can remember I have been unreasonably frightened of elevators. Therewas no terrible childhood experience and I am fine with confined spaces, but something about elevators makes me nervous. And so, when my boyfriend and I found ourselvestrapped in an elevator last year - because these sorts of things always happen eventually- I was anticipating the worst. 　　While he gave me a suggestive eyebrow raise and proposed we "take advantage ofthe situation," I began screaming uncontrollably. I was far from turned on by the wholefacing my worst nightmare thing. 　　However, after the fear subsided(消退)I realized that, yes, this was my greatest fear come true, and yet - it wasn't all that bad. Nervous and inconvenient maybe, butterrifying? Not so much. 　　Liberating yourself from a deep-seated phobia can be a long and difficult process,but sometimes it can be as simple as confronting it head on.