People’ s dishonesty escalated (升级) over the course of these trials. “This study is the first experimental evidence that dishonest behavior escalates,” said Neil Garrett, the lead author of the study and an experimental psychology researcher at University College London.
With 25 of the participants, the researchers conducted the penny-jar experiments while a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine scanned the person’s brain. The results showed that the amygdala, a part of the brain connected to emotions, showed a marked reduction in activity in response to self-serving dishonesty over the course of the trials.
In fact, researchers found that the amount of the reduction in the amygdala’s activity for each trial could predict the amount that the participant’s dishonesty would increase by in the next trial: The more the amygdala’s activity reduces during one trial, the bigger the lie would be the next time. “It is likely that brain’s blunted response to repeated acts of dishonesty reflects a reduced emotional response to these acts,” Garrett said.
The study also offers support for the idea that the activity in the amygdala “signals aversion (厌恶) to acts that we consider wrong or immoral,” Garrett said. In other words, whenever a person lies for personal gain, the amygdala produces a negative feeling that helps control that act-but the more often a person lies, the more the response fades, leading to a slippery slope that may encourage an escalation of dishonest behavior.
People in the study actually lied the most when their lies benefited both them and their partners. “This may be because it is easier to rationalize these lies,” said Tail Sharot, the senior author of the study and an associate professor of cognitive neuroscience at University College London. In this condition, the amygdala did not show the same response pattern as when people lied simply to benefit themselves.
Interestingly, though, the researchers found that study participants never lied as much as they could have. Participants’ estimates of the value of the coins in the jar were always significantly lower than the ceiling, meaning that the individuals “always had an opportunity to lie more than they actually did,” the paper said. Sharot explained that people usually lie by just a little bit, perhaps so they can still hold a relatively positive perception of themselves.
“Still, the results may have important implications for other types of decision-making, such as risk-taking or violent behavior,” the researchers said. “The results show the possible dangers of regular engagement in small acts of dishonesty, risks that are frequently observed in fields ranging from business to politics and law enforcement,” the scientists wrote in their findings. “The study suggests that repeated small lies may pave the way for larger lies over time,” the researchers said.
61. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 mean? A. Dishonesty can change a person as time goes on.
B. Dishonesty makes a person’s brain less sensitive. C. Dishonesty makes a person tend to feel ashamed. D. Dishonesty may lead to more dishonest behavior. 62. According to the study, lies easily occur when . A. lies benefit those who tell lies C. people have no choice but to lie
B. people have been lied to D. both sides benefit from these lies
63. It can be inferred that the study in the passage . A. makes no sense C. is very significant
B. is not reliable D. is quite comprehensive
64. Which would be the best title for the passage? A. Lies develop more lies
B. Dishonesty is bad manners D. The brain is less sensitive to lies D
Laws and Morality
All laws, whether prescriptive (约定俗成的) or prohibitive, legislate morality. All laws, regardless of their content or their intent, arise from a system of values, from a belief that some things are right and others wrong, that some things are good and others bad, and that some things are better and others worse. In the formulation and enforcement (实施) of law, the question is never whether or not morality will be legislated, but which one. That question is fundamentally important because not all systems of morality are equal. Some are wise, but others are foolish. For better or worse, every piece of legislation touches directly or indirectly on moral issues, or is based on moral judgments and evaluations concerning what we want or believe ought to be, and what we ought to produce and preserve.
Sometimes those who resist legislating morality do so not because they object to the morality being legislated, but because they value freedom and wish to defend it. They do not seem to understand, however, that their allegedly (宣称地) morals-free proposals will be the death of the freedom they value, not its protection. Without the guidance and constraint of morally informed laws, liberty degenerates (退化) into mere license, which is not the same as political freedom. One simply cannot reject moral authority and yet live in an orderly world. When a people banish morality from the public square, they give birth to an outlaw culture, not to freedom. Because human nature is what it is, without great volumes of enforceable laws, political freedom is short-lived, and finally impossible.
Almost no one in the South today argues that slavery is moral, even though many of their great-grandparents
C. The brain is used dishonestly
thought it was and, as a result, owned other human beings as property. What stands between today’s southern Americans and their slave-owning ancestors is morals-based laws, specifically the Civil Rights laws of the mid-twentieth century, all of which helped radically to reshape the behavior and beliefs of those who grew up in their wake. Similarly, before prohibition the average annual consumption of alcohol in America was nearly three gallons per person. After prohibition that number fell to slightly less than one gallon.
While legislating morality is an inevitability, I am not saying all sins ought to be made crimes. No government could effectively enforce laws against so-called “white lies”, even though such activities are sinful.
We are not born into the world as good and competent citizens. The civic virtues and public responsibilities that define good citizenship must be acquired. They need to be learned. In that sense, we all enter this world unequipped by natural endowment for effective citizenship and self-government. This is why one of the oldest political insights available to us is that we are always only one generation from barbarism. Every newly born generation needs to be civilized, or culturally housebroken. Those necessary but unnatural social skills and civic virtues require nurture and guidance for their growth — even for their existence. Consequently, moral education is a prerequisite (必备条件) for a sound and flourishing civil society.
Laws divorced from morality cannot accomplish that task. Instead, morals-free laws teach the citizens that moral conduct is not necessary, either for their own happiness or for the establishment and continuation of a good society and civil order. Perhaps an analogy (类比) will serve to clarify the point: computer programmers employ the acronym “gigo,” derived from the first letters of the words “garbage in, garbage out,” a phrase warning those programmers that no bad program yields (产生) good results.
65. What’s the author’s understanding of the relationship between laws and morality? A. Morality varies with laws.
B. Laws are based on morality.
D. Morality arises from the practice of laws.
C. Laws are superior to morality.
66. According to the passage, political freedom can be maintained by . A. creating an outlaw culture
B. supporting morals-free proposals D. enforcing morally informed laws
C. praising the nature of human beings
67. The author mentioned the examples of “slavery” and “alcohol” to prove that . A. laws can force people to behave in a particular way B. people used to misunderstand the meaning of morals C. moral standards have been changing since ancient times D. people addicted to alcohol are more likely to challenge morals
68. What’s the author’s attitude towards so-called “white lies”？ A. Critical.
B. Indifferent.
C. Tolerant.
D. Cautious.
69. The underlined word “barbarism” in the last but one paragraph probably means “ ” A. an absolutely new insight C. a well-regulated society
B. an advanced civilization D. an uncivilized and rude state
70. The author uses the words “garbage in, garbage out” to show that . A. some social systems can be easily abandoned B. a society with bad laws turns out to be a bad one C. citizens are responsible for building a good society D. establishing a harmonious society is really difficult
第II卷（非选择题，共35分）
第四部分 任务型阅读（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。注意：每个空格只填一个单词。
The most common use of intelligence test scores is to predict degree of academic success. Such scores are used in some communities as bases for admitting able children to schools at ages younger than normal, and they are very generally used to determine admissions to schools beyond public secondary school. Another use common in elementary schools involves comparing such scores with performances in various subjects to identify children who are working below capacity.
The greatest problem in using intelligence tests for the purpose of prediction is that no dependable criterion of their accuracy exists. The ideal criteria would be objective and reliable achievement tests following instructions in each subject, but there are few such tests, especially at the college level. Studies have shown that correlations (相关性) between intelligence tests and achievement tests in various subjects through secondary school range roughly from 0.5 to 0.8. Such correlations are fairly high, but they do not suggest anywhere near complete agreement.
At the college level there are two major tests used as criteria of admission. By far the more important is the College Entrance Examination, constructed by the Educational Testing Service authorized by the College Entrance Examination Board. These tests are returned to the Educational Testing Service for scoring, and the results are then made available to the various colleges authorized by the students to receive them. The second test of this type is the American College Test, which operates in essentially the same fashion.
Both tests constitute (组成) measures of certain skills, abilities, and knowledge that have been found to be