59. What can we learn about today’s music business? A. New technology improves the quality of music. B. Young listeners today prefer louder sound. C. Music companies sacrifice quality for loudness. D. Sound engineers face tough competition. 60. What is probably the best title for the passage? A. The Loudness War C. The Damaged Ears
C
What inspires people to act selflessly, help others, and make personal sacrifices? Each quarter, this column features one piece of scholarly research that provides insight into what motivates people to engage in what psychologists call “pro-social behavior”.
This quarter we focus on how recognitions of “group membership” can influence whether others decide to help us in emergency situations. A 2005 British study reported in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin shows that bystanders are more likely to help strangers in distress when they recognize such strangers as belonging to a common group. However, what counts as group membership is not fixed. When people are encouraged to see greater commonalities with strangers, they will extend help to those whom they may have otherwise considered part of the “out group.”
Two studies conducted between fans of two English football teams, Manchester United and Liverpool. In the first study, Manchester United fans were required to fill out questionnaires about their interest in the team and the degree to which they identified as fans and then invited to walk across campus to see a video about football teams. Along the way, an accident was staged in which a runner slipped and fell, groaning in pain. Hidden observers watched the incident, and those taking part in the study were asked about it when they reached the projection room. Participants, all of whom had a strong identification as Manchester fans, were more likely to ask the runner if he needed help when he was wearing a Manchester United shirt than when he was wearing a Liverpool shirt or an ordinary unbranded shirt.
In the second study, Manchester United fans were again required, but when they arrived they were told that they were participating in a study about football fans in general (not Manchester United fans,
B. Your Hearing Is Going! D. Are You a Good Listener?
specifically). They were also told that the study aimed to focus on the positive aspects of fan-hood as opposed to the negative incidents and stories that usually get attention. The study questionnaires asked them about their broader interest in the game and what they shared with other fans. They then were instructed to cross campus to head to the projection room, and along the way witnessed the same staged incident described in the first study. In this case, participants were as likely to help a victim in a Manchester United shirt as they were to help someone in a Liverpool shirt. And they were more likely to help those wearing team shirts than those who were not.
When people expand their notion of the “in-group” they are more likely to reach out to those in the “other camp.”
The results indicate that when people are encouraged to see social category boundaries at a more inclusive level—all football fans, versus fans of one team — they will extend help to more individuals. Even in a country in which bitter inter-group rivalry(对抗) exists between fans of one football team and another, when people expand their notion of the “in-group” they are more likely to reach out to those in the “other camp”.
One noteworthy strength of this research is that it offers an analysis of actual helping behavior rather than “beliefs about” or “intentions” to act. Evidence of dramatic shifts in such behavior across deeply entrenched antagonisms(根深蒂固的敌对情绪) in response to simple changes in levels of categorization is striking.
Indeed, the studies bring up questions regarding how we may insert more pro-social behavior not only in emergency situations, but in all circumstances. How may we promote a greater feeling of inclusiveness among members of society at wider levels such that boundaries become meaningless, and empathetic concern leads to more consistent positive action? Clearly this research offers inspiration for new approaches to camaraderie building across groups, communities, states, and even nations. 61. The purpose of the passage is to ________. A. reveal some psychological factors. B. come up with some different ideas C. present two scientific studies D. promote positive energy
62. In the third paragraph, the underlined word “staged” is closest to _______ in meaning. A. removed
B. photographed
C. performed
D. caused
63. People tend to help strangers if _______. A. they share something in common C. they get something in return
B. they are in distress
D. they are of different groups
64. What contributes to different results of the two studies? A. Both of groups witness a different accident. B. Both of groups aren’t football fans. C. Both of groups are from different cities.
D. Both of groups haven’t known the purpose of their studies in advance.
D
My mother never talked about her Chinese childhood when my siblings and I were growing up, and we never asked. From her we learned that family history was not of interest, and in our ignorance we turned our backs on what had gone before. We lived on a plateau in a land of canyons, separated from our past by chasms(断裂) of time, language, and culture. My mother was a native guide who could have led us along the sheer cliff walls and dangerous riverbeds of the old days, but she never did.
For her, the past was divided into parts, each occupying a separate memory bank, some of which she tried never to visit. For me, her past was just a hopeless jumble(混乱), like a creaky, junk-ridden attic to which I was not allowed entry. China, America, and somewhere, vaguely, in between, Taiwan: I could not comprehend how the three came together to form the person who had formed me.
My mother never told stories; she only mentioned facts and casual references to her past. She described the most thrilling events as casually as she would trip to a local supermarket. “When we left China, I had to wear gold bars sewn into my belt. They were so heavy.” She might as well have been talking about a bag of groceries for all the emotions she displayed. When she happened to mention the fact that her grandmother had bound feet, I accepted the news with equal equanimity(泰然). Her delivery was so matter-of-fact I assumed everyone’s grandmother wore shoes that measured a mere three-and-a-half inches.
Now I begin to understand. To reflect on the past means to reexperience it. A onetime high-school quarterback remembers the touchdown that won the state finals in vivid detail. Doting(溺爱的) parents tirelessly and tiresomely recount the same dull anecdotes from their children’s lives. But the process works in the negative as well, and the terror that wakes my mother up at night gasping and pressing hand
to heart, is very real. She did not want to share it with me. Perhaps she wished to protect me. Her secrecy was a gift, I in turn, did not want to receive.
My physical features marked me as a stranger in my own country, but I knew nothing of the land of my ancestors. I could not even converse(交谈) with the various relatives and old family friends who crowded around the dinner table at holiday times. Their jokes and discussions swirled meaninglessly about my head. Among aliens, I myself was an alien. I grew up, self-contained, and removed from the world around me, unable to explain anything to anyone because nothing had ever been explained to me. At the same time I longed to—a bird beating its head against glass, wanting to be let inside. If I could somehow capture my mother’s essence(实质), the glass would disappear. The path forward would be clear. I was an adult and a writer in search of a subject when I finally asked my mother to talk about her life. That first conversation, she spoke practically in monosyllables(单调). “Yes” and “No” were the only response I could induce out of her. If a question demanded a more detailed answer, she responded by saying, “I don’t know.” I was the customer at an information store; she was its surly clerk. Eventually I ended up inventing my own time frame for the worthless trickle of memories she reluctantly let drip forth. She did not care if the dates were accurate or not. The conversation took on a surrealistic tinge(色彩). She would mention that she had moved to a certain city in 1943. “Oh, no.” I would respond. “It had to be 1945.” She would shrug. Together, we were reinventing her past, not exploring as I had wished. The process left me so frustrated that when she got up to go to sleep, I badgered(缠着) her all the way to her bedroom. She lay on one side while I hovered(蜷缩) in a chair over her.
“Tell me more.” I begged. “What do you remember?”
“Ai-you” she was finally annoyed, her eyes blinking open. “I just don’t want to remember.”
I think my mother was sorry she could not help me more. She gave me something before I left. At the time I doubted that it would do me any good. It was a list of names of some of the eager voices who used to call asking for her in Chinese when I was a young girl. Much later, I would realize it was a map to my mother’s heart. At the time, I simply had no other direction to follow. I began returning the phone calls from my mother’s past.
65. The primary purpose of the passage is to _______. A. celebrate a discovery C. criticize an attitude
B. explain a difficult undertaking D. imagine a person’s history
66. The mother gave the impression that “family history was not of interest” probably because _______