外研社英语平台考试答案

外研社英语平台考试 Directions: Read the following passages carefully and choose the best answer from the four choices marked A, B, C and D. Questions 1 to 5 are based on the following passage or dialog. Anger is a negative emotion. But, like being happy or excited, feeling angry makes people want to seek rewards, according to a new study of emotion and visual attention. The researchers found that people who are angry pay more attention to rewards than to threats?ªthe opposite of people feeling other negative emotions like fear. Previous research has shown that emotion affects what someone pays attention to. If a fearful or anxious person is given a choice of a rewarding picture, like a sexy couple, and a threatening picture, like a person waving a knife threateningly, they will spend more time looking at the threat than at the rewarding picture. People feeling excited, however, are the other way?ªthey will go for the reward. But nobody knows whether those reactions occur because the emotions are positive or negative, or because of something else, says Brett Ford of Boston College, who wrote the study with Maya Tamir, also of Boston College, and four other authors. "For example," she says, "emotions can vary in what they make you want to do. Fear is associated with a motivation to avoid, whereas excitement is associated with a motivation to approach. It can make you want to seek out certain things, like rewards." The research is published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. For her study, Ford focused on anger. Like fear, anger is a negative emotion. But, like excitement, anger motivates someone to go out and get rewards. First, participants in the study were assigned to write for 15 minutes about one of four memories in their past: a time when they were angry, afraid, excited and happy, or felt little or no emotion. A five-minute piece of music reinforced whichever emotion the participant had been assigned. Then they completed a task in which they had to examine two side-by-side pictures. An eye-tracking device monitored how much time they spent looking at each picture. Angry people spent more time looking at the rewarding pictures. "Looking at something is the first step before the thoughts and actions that follow," says Ford. "Attention kicks off an entire string of events that can end up influencing behavior." The people who felt happy and excited also looked more at the rewarding photos, but the two groups might act differently?ªan angry person might be motivated to approach something in a confrontational or aggressive way, while a happy person might go for something they want in a nicer way?ªby collaborating, being sociable and friendly. ?ð???ºCCBBA In order to separate doting parents from their freshman sons, Morehouse College in Atlanta has instituted a formal "Parting Ceremony". It began on a recent evening, with speeches in the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel (Ð??ÌÌÃ). Then the incoming freshmen marched through the gates of the campus?ªwhich slowly shut, literally leaving the parents outside. When University of Minnesota freshmen move in at the end of August, parental separation was a little more artful: mothers and fathers were invited to a reception elsewhere so students can meet their roommates and negotiate dorm room space?ªwithout adult interference. Grinnell College here, like others, has found it necessary to be explicit about when parents really, truly must say goodbye. After computer printers and bags had been carried to dorm rooms, everyone gathered in the gymnasium, students on one side of the bleachers (??Ì?×ùÎ?), parents on the other. The president welcoming the class of 2011 had his back to the parents?ªa symbolic staging meant to inspire parents to realize, "My student is feeling more comfortable sitting with 400 people they just met." Shortly after, mothers and fathers were urged to leave campus. Most deans can tell stories of parents who lingered around campus for days. At Colgate University, a mother and father once went to their daughter's classes on the first day of the semester and went to the registrar's office to change her schedule, recalled Beverly Low, the dean of first-year students. "We recognize it's a huge day for families," she said. A more common approach is for colleges to introduce frank language into drop-off schedules stating clearly the hour for last hugs. As of 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 11, for example, the parents of Princeton freshmen learn from the move-in schedule, "subsequent events are intended for students only." The language was added in recent years to draw a clear line. It's easy for students to point to this and say "Hey, Mom, I think you're supposed to be gone now". ?ð??DBCDB Lord Browne, the former head of BP (Ó??úÊ?ÓÍ??Ë?), is conducting a review of student finance with a report expected to be published in the coming weeks. The report's anticipated recommendations would result in new graduates facing an extra ?ê5,000 burden of debt in addition to the current average of ?ê20,000, it was claimed. Among the options being considered by the panel is a limit on the amount of funding per student supplied by the government, with universities being forced to subsidize (??Öú) teaching from their own funds. This measure could see the cap on tuition fees removed completely, but would be likely to result in reduced applications for the most expensive courses, particularly from poorer students. The recommendation of higher tuition fees would appear to contradict statements by Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, earlier this summer when he spoke in favor of a tax on graduates. A source with knowledge of the review reportedly claimed that the proposals will establish a competitive market between universities, with fees likely to rise to between ?ê6,000 and ?ê7,000. Tuition fees are currently capped at ?ê3,290 a year, with virtually every institution charging the maximum amount. But a university source reportedly expressed concerns the recommendations would not sit well with the Liberal Democrats (×ÔÓÉÃñÖ?µ?), who are opposed to fee rises, and suggested Lord Browne was "operating in a parallel universe". The Browne Review could also result in universities incurring extra costs, with student loans set to be extended to part-time students for the first time. It comes as universities are preparing themselves for massive funding cuts in the Comprehensive Spending Review, with budgets expected to be brought down by up to ?ê5 billion. The expected increase in fees is likely to be introduced in 2013. ?ð??DCABC The case for college has been accepted without question for more than a generation. All high school graduates ought to go, says conventional wisdom and statistical evidence, because college will help them earn more money, become "better" people, and learn to be more responsible citizens than those who don't go. But college has never been able to work its magic for everyone. And now that close to half our high school graduates are attending, those who don't fit the pattern are becoming more numerous, and more obvious. College graduates are selling shoes and driving taxis and write false letters of recommendation in the intense competition for admission to graduate school. Others find no stimulation in their studies, and drop out?ªoften encouraged by college administrators. Some observers say the fault is with the young people themselves?ªthey are spoiled and they are expecting too much. But that doesn't explain all campus unhappiness. Others blame the state of the world, and they are partly right. We have been told that young people have to go to college because our economy can't absorb an army of untrained eighteen-year-olds. But disappointed graduates are learning that it can no longer absorb an army of trained twenty-two-year-olds, either. Some educators have openly begun to suggest that college may not be the best, the proper, the only place for every young person after the completion of high school. Perhaps college doesn't make people intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, or quick to learn things?ªmaybe it is just the other way around, and intelligent, ambitious, happy, liberal, quick-learning people are merely the ones who have been attracted to college in the first place. And perhaps all those successful college graduates would have been successful whether they had gone to college or not. This is unacceptable to those who have been brought up to believe that if a little schooling is good, more has to be much better. But contrary evidence is beginning to mount up. ?ð?? BCCAA Anne Whitney, a sophomore at Colorado State University, first had a problem taking tests when she began college. "I was always well prepared for my tests. Sometimes I studied for weeks before a test. Yet I would take the test, only to find I could not answer the questions correctly. I would blank out because of nervousness and fear. I couldn't think of the answer." Another student in biology had similar experiences. He said, "My first chemistry test was very difficult. My hands were moving up and down so quickly that it was hard to hold my pencil. I knew the material and I knew the answers. Yet I couldn't even write them down!" These two young students were experiencing something called test anxiety. The student cannot write or think clearly because of the extreme tension and nervousness. Although poor grades are often a result of poor study habits, sometimes test anxiety causes the low grades. Recently, test anxiety has been recognized as a real problem, not just an excuse or a false explanation of lazy students. Special university advising courses try to help students. In these courses, advisors try to help students by teaching them how to manage test anxiety. At some universities, students take tests to measure their anxiety. If the tests show their anxiety is high, the students can take short courses to help them deal with their tensions. These courses teach students how to relax their bodies. Students are trained to become calm in very tense situations. By controlling their nervousness, they can let their minds work at ease. Learned information then comes out without difficulty on a test. An expert at the University of California explains, "With almost all students, relaxation and less stress are felt after taking our program. Most of them experience better control during their tests. Almost all have some improvement. With some, the improvement is very great." ?ð?? CDCAB