Passage B
By 1950, the results of attempts to relate brain processes to mental experience appeared rather discouraging. Such variations in size, shape, chemistry, conduction speed, excitation threshold, and the like as had been demonstrated in nerve cells remained negligible in significance for any possible correlation with the manifold dimensions of mental experience.
Near the turn of the century, it had been suggested by Hering that different modes of sensation, such as pain, taste, and color, might be correlated with the discharge of specific kinds of nervous energy. However, subsequently developed methods of recording and analyzing nerve potentials failed to reveal any such qualitative diversity. It was possible to demonstrate by other methods refined structural differences among neuron types; however, proof was lacking that the quality of the impulse or its condition was influenced by these differences, which seemed instead to influence the developmental patterning of the neural circuits. Although qualitative variance among nerve energies was never rigidly disproved, the doctrine was generally abandoned in favor of the opposing view, namely, that nerve impulses are essentially homogeneous in quality and are transmitted as “common currency” throughout the nervous system.According to this theory, it is not the quality of the sensory nerve impulses that determines the diverse conscious sensations they produce, but rather the different areas of the brain into which they discharge, and there is some evidence for this view. In one experiment, when an electric stimulus was applied to a given sensory field of the cerebral cortex of a conscious human subject, it produced a sensation of the appropriate modality for that particular locus, that is, a visual sensation from the visual cortex, an auditory sensation from the auditory cortex, and so on. Other experiments revealed slight variations in the size, number, arrangement, and interconnection of the nerve cells, but as far as psychoneural correlations were concerned, the obvious similarities of these sensory fields to each other seemed much more remarkable than any of the minute differences.
However, cortical locus, in itself, turned out to have little explanatory value.Studies showed that sensations as diverse as those of red, black, green, and white, or touch, cold, warmth, movement, pain, posture, and pressure apparently may arise through activation of the same cortical areas. What seemed to remain was some kind of differential patterning effects in the brain excitation: it is the difference in the central distribution of impulses that counts. In short, brain theory suggested a correlation between mental experience and the activity of relatively homogeneous nerve-cell units conducting essentially homogeneous impulses through homogeneous cerebral tissue. To match the multiple dimensions of mental experience psychologists could only point to a limitless variation in the spatiotemporal patterning of nerve impulses.
The author suggests that, by 1950, attempts to correlate mental experience with brain processes would probably have been viewed with ________.
文章第一段第一句提出“By 1950, the results of attempts to relate brain processes to mental experience appeared rather discouraging.”到1950年， 试图将大脑过程与心理体验联系起来的研究结果显得相当令人沮丧。 由此可知， 作者对此事的态度是消极悲观的。 故选C。
The author mentions “common currency” (underlined) primarily in order to emphasize the ________.
文章第二段第四句提出“Although qualitative variance among nerve energies was never rigidly disproved, the doctrine was generally abandoned in favor of the opposing view, namely, that nerve impulses are essentially homogeneous in quality and are transmitted as “common currency” throughout the nervous system.”尽管神经能量之间的质性差异从未被严格地证明不成立， 但这一学说却被普遍抛弃， 转而支持相反的观点， 即神经冲动在质量上是同质的， 并且以一致的时效在整个神经系统中传播。 由此可知， 就是为了强调因为人类的神经冲动同质均匀， 所以提及了“common currency”。 故选A。
According to the passage, some evidence exists that the area of the cortex activated by a sensory stimulus determines which of the following?
a. The nature of the nerve impulse
b. The modality of the sensory experience
c. Qualitative differences within a modality
文章倒数第二段倒数第二句提出“...that is, a visual sensation from the visual cortex, an auditory sensation from the auditory cortex, and so on.”也就是说,从视觉皮层产生视觉,听觉皮层产生听觉,等等。 由此可知， 决定了感觉体验的形态。 故选A。
Which of the following best summarizes the author‟s opinion of the suggestion that different areas of the brain determine perceptions produced by sensory nerve impulses?
文章倒数第二段最后两句提出“In one experiment…Other experiments revealed slight variations in the size, number, arrangement, and interconnection of the nerve cells, but as far as psychoneural correlations were concerned, the obvious similarities of these sensory fields to each other seemed much more remarkable than any of the minute differences.”在一个实验里……其他的实验揭示了神经细胞的大小、 数量、 排列和相互连接的细微变化， 但就心理神经联系而言， 这些感觉区域彼此之间的明显相似性似乎比任何细微的差异都要显著得多。 由此可知， 是有证据证明此结论， 但是未能解释心理体验的多样性。 故选D。
It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following exhibit the LEAST qualitative variation?
文章第二段第四句提出“...that nerve impulses are essentially homogeneous in quality...”神经冲动在质量上基本同质。 故选B。