45. What’s the best title of the passage?

A.   McDonald’s and Pizza       B. Global Pizza

C. Pizza in the United States     D. How to Make Pizza

C

Decisions, decisions! Our lives are full of them, from the small ones to the life-changing. The right to choose is central to everyone. Yet sometimes we make bad decisions that leave us unhappy or full of regret. Can science help?

Most of us know little about the mental processes that lie behind our decisions. Luckily, what psychologists are finding may help us all make better choices. Here are some of their amazing discoveries to help you make up your mind.

Consider your emotions. You might think that emotions are the enemy of decision-making, but in fact they are a part of it. Whenever you make up your mind, your brain’s emotional centre is active. University of Southern California scientist, Antonio Damasia, has studied people with damage to only the emotional parts of their brains, and found that they were unable to make basic choices about what to wear or eat. Damasia thinks this may be because our brains store emotional memories of past choice, which we use to help the present decision-making.

However, making choices under the influence of an emotion can greatly affect the result. Take anger for example. A study by Nitika Garg of the University of Mississippi and other scientists found the angry shoppers were more likely to choose the first thing they were offered rather than considering other choices. It seems that anger can lead us to make quick decisions without much thinking.

All emotions affect our thinking and motivation,so it may be best to avoid making important decisions under their influence. Yet strangely there is one emotion that seems to help us make good choices. The American researchers found that sad people took time to consider the various choices on offer, and ended up making the best choices. In fact many studies show that people who feel unhappy have the most reasonable view of the world.

40. The passage mainly tells us _____.

  A. the mobile phone is a big trouble to teenage students

  B. the use of the mobile phone can cause mental problems

  C. about a ban on the mobile phone in a middle school

D. a story happening at Shanghai Xianxia Middle School

B

So you thought the hamburger was the world’s most popular fast food? After all, McDonald’s Golden Arches span the globe. But no, there is another truly universal fast food, the ultimate(极好的)fast food. It’s easy to make, easy to serve, much more varied than the hamburger, can be eaten with the hands and it’s delivered to your front door or served in fancy restaurants. It’s been one of America’s favourite foods for over 50 years. It is, of course, the pizza.

   It’s kind of silly to talk about the moment when pizza was “invented”. It changed over the years, but one thing’s for certain-it’s been around for a very long time. The idea of using pieces of flat, round bread as plates came from the Greeks. They called them “plakuntos” and ate them with various simple toppings such as oil, garlic, onions and herbs. The Romans enjoyed eating something similar and called it “picea”. By about 1000 AD in the city of Naples, “picea” had become “pizza” and people were experimenting with more toppings: cheese, ham, anchovies and finally the tomato, brought to Italy from Mexico and Peru in the sixteenth century. Naples became the pizza capital of the world. In 1889, King UmbertoⅠand Queen Margherita heard about pizza and asked to try it. They invited pizza maker, Raffele Esposito, to make it for them. He decided to make the pizza like the Italian flag, so he used red tomatoes, white mozzarella cheese and green basil leaves. The Queen loved it and the new pizza was named “Pizza Margherita” in her honour.

   Pizza went to America with the Italians at the end of the nineteenth century. The first pizzeria in the United States was opened in 1905 at 53 Spring Street, New York City, by Gennaro Lombardi. But the popularity of pizza really exploded when American soldiers returned from Italy after World WarⅡ and raved about(夸赞) “that great Italian dish”. Americans are now the greatest producers and consumers of pizza in the world.

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