Question

Next time a customer comes to your office, offer him a cup of coffee. And when you’re doing your holiday shopping online, make sure you’re holding a large glass of iced tea. The physical sensation of warmth encourages emotional warmth, while a cold drink in hand prevents you from making unwise decisions—those are the practical lesson being drawn from recent research by psychologist John A. Bargh.
Psychologists have known that one person’s perception (知覺) of another’s “warmth” is a powerful determiner in social relationships. Judging someone to be either “warm” or “cold” is a primary consideration, even trumping (打敗) evidence that a “cold” person may be more capable. Much of this is rooted in very early childhood experiences, Bargh argues, when babies’ conceptual sense of the world around them is shaped by physical sensations, particularly warmth and coldness. Classic studies by Harry Harlow, published in 1958, showed monkeys preferred to stay close to a cloth “mother” rather than one made of wire, even when the wire “mother” carried a food bottle. Harlow’s work and later studies have led psychologists to stress the need for warm physical contact from caregivers to help young children grow into healthy adults with normal social skills.
Feelings of “warmth” and “coldness” in social judgments appear to be universal. Although no worldwide study has been done, Bargh says that describing people as “warm” or “cold” is common to many cultures, and studies have found those perceptions influence judgment in dozens of countries.
To test the relationship between physical and psychological warmth, Bargh conducted an experiment which involved 41 college students. A research assistant who was unaware of the study’s hypotheses (假定), handed the students either a hot cup of coffee, or a cold drink, to hold while the researcher filled out a short information form. The drink was then handed back. After that, the students were asked to rate the personality of “Person A” based on a particular description. Those who had briefly held the warm drink regarded Person A as warmer than those who had held the iced drink.
“We are grounded in our physical experiences even when we think abstractly,” says Bargh.
【小題1】 In Bargh’s experiment, the students were asked to _______.

A．evaluate someone’s personality

B．write down their hypotheses

C．fill out a personal information form

D．hold coffee and cold drink alternatively

【小題2】We can infer from the passage that _______.

A．abstract thinking does not come from physical experiences

B．feelings of warmth and coldness are studied worldwide

C．physical temperature affects how we see others

D．capable persons are often cold to others

【小題3】What would be the best title for the passage?

A．Drinking for Better Social Relationships

B．Experiments of Personality Evaluation

C．Developing Better Drinking Habits

D．Physical Sensations and Emotions

Answer 1

【小題1】A
【小題1】C
【小題1】D

解析【小題1】A細節理解題。由文中倒數第二段中的“After that，the students were asked to rate the personality of‘Person A’based on a particular description.”可知選A。在試驗中，學生被要求評價某人的性格。
【小題1】C推理判斷題。全文都在論述人們對“溫暖”或“寒冷”的感覺可以影響人們對事物的評價。因此，物理溫度會影響我們看待他人的方式。因此選C。
【小題1】D主旨大意題。本文主要介紹的是人們對物理溫度的感覺對人們情緒的影響， D項概括性比較強。