Question

That Upper class people generally have more educational opportunities, greater financial security, and better jobs than people from lower social classes, but that doesn’t mean they’re more skilled at everything. A new study finds, surprisingly, that lower class people are better at reading the emotions of others.

The researchers were inspired by observing that, for lower class people, success depends more on how much they can rely on other individuals. For example, if you can’t afford to  buy support services, you have to rely on your neighbors or relatives to watch the kids while you’re busy.

One experiment researched on volunteers who worked at a university: some had graduated from college and others had not. Researchers used the educational level as an indicator（标志）for social classes. The volunteers did a test of emotion perception（感知）, in which they were instructed to look at pictures of faces and indicate which emotions each face was displaying. People with more education performed worse on the task than people with less education.

In another study, university students who were of higher social status had a more difficult time accurately（准确）reading the emotions of a stranger.

These results suggest that people of upper-class status aren’t very good at recognizing the emotions other people are feeling. This is because they remember their upper status and they think they can solve their problems without relying on others.

In the third experiment, people were made to feel that they were at a lower social class than they actually were, and they got better at reading emotions.

“The differences between upper-class people and lower-class people are not something ingrained（根深蒂固的）,” Kraus says. “It’s the cultural environment leading to them.” This work helps show that the traditional image of the classes is wrong. “It’s not true that a lower-class person, no matter what kind of person, is going to be less intelligent than an upper-class person. It’s all about the social environment the person lives in, and the specific challenges the person faces. If you can change the environment even temporarily, social class differences in lots of behaviors can be removed.”

1.According to the passage, when lower-class people meet problems, they tend to ______.

A．turn to others                          B．work even harder

C．feel more frustrated                     D．learn from upper-class people

2.Why did people perform better in emotion perception in the third experiment?

A．Because they became less independent.

B．Because they didn’t know they were cheated.

C．Because they felt they must ask for help from other.

D．Because they were made to understand lower-class people.

3.What does the passage mainly talk about?

A．Upper-class people are not skilled at everything.

B．Upper-class people have trouble recognizing others’ emotion.

C．Lower-class people need to be given more employment opportunities.

D．There are many differences between upper-class people and lower-class people.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.A

2.A

3.B

【解析】

试题分析：本文是一个调查报告，研究发现上层社会的人与下层社会的没有受过很好教育的人在认知其他的人的感情方面的不同，因为下层社会的人他在无助时，爱去求助其他的人帮忙，他们对于感情的认知比较好，而在这个方面上层社会的人比较独立，他们对于认知其他的人的感情方面的做的稍微差一些。不过如果适时地改变环境，他们之间的差异会有改变的。

1.细节理解题。根据for lower class people, success depends more on how much they can rely on other individuals. 故选A。

2.细节理解题。根据People with more education performed worse on the task than people with less education.故选A。

3.主旨大意题。根据A new study finds, surprisingly, that lower class people are better at reading the emotions of others.可知上层社会的人在认知其他人的感情这方面有困难，故选B。

考点：新闻报道类短文阅读。

点评：主旨大意题主要是测试考生对一篇文章或一段文字的深层理解程度及在速读中准确把握文章大意的能力，一般针对某一语段或某一语篇主题标题或目的设题。做这类题，关键在于抓住文章要旨。