Question

【題目】 Can We Learn More by Trusting than by Not Trusting?

Most of us have been burned by misplaced trust. These experiences lead us to believe that people are too trusting.

But in fact we don't trust enough. A survey about trust in the United States has found that interpersonal trust, a measure (測量) of whether people think others are in general trust worthy is at its lowest in nearly 50 years.

If people are more trustworthy, why don't we trust more?

When you trust someone, you end up working out whether your trust is justified (證明合理) or not. A child next door asks if he can visit your place. If you accept you will find out whether or not he's a good neighbor. A classmate advises you to adopt a new reading method. If you follow the advice you will find out whether the new method works better than the one you were used to.

However, when you don't trust someone. You never find out whether you should trust them. If you don't invite the child over, you won't know whether he would have made a good neighbor or not. If you don't follow your classmate's advice, you won't know if the new method is in fact superior.

This information means that we learn more by trusting than by not trusting. Moreover, when we trust, we learn not only about specific persons, we learn more generally about the type of situations in which we should or shouldn't trust. We get better at trusting.

When our trust is disappointing, the coats are visible (明顯的), and our reaction (反應(yīng)) changes from trouble all the way to hopelessness. The benefit that we've learnt from our mistake is easy to overlook. However, the costs of not trusting someone we could have trusted are invisible. We won't know about the friendship we could have built if we don't let that child go into our place. We won't realise how useful some advice would have been if we don't use our classmate's tip about the new reading method.

Giving people a chance isn't only the moral (道德的) thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do.

【1】The writer mentions the survey about trust in the United States in Paragraph 2 to show that ________.

A.Americans are popularB.the measure is unbelievable

C.interpersonal trust is importantD.people are short of enough trust

【2】We can ________ to make us get better at trusting.

A.try to refuse other people's help

B.change our feelings of disappointment

C.find out the balance between trust and mistrust

D.make a smart decision and give people a chance

【3】What can we learn from the passage?

A.The friendship between friends is trustworthy.

B.The costs of mistaken mistrust are largely hidden.

C.We can get more from not trusting than from trusting.

D.It is unlikely that people are less trustworthy than before.

【4】What is the writer's main purpose in writing this passage?

A.To stress we should trust other people.

B.To question all the experiences of misplaced trust.

C.To introduce some of the trust that can bring us benefits.

D.To discuss which situation we should or shouldn't trust in.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】D

【2】D

【3】B

【4】A

【解析】

本文舉例說明信任比不信任能學(xué)到更多的東西。不信任我們本可以信任的人的代價是看不見的。為了讓我們更好地信任別人，我們應(yīng)該做出明智的決定和給人們一個機會。

【1】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第2段第1句“But in fact we don't trust enough.”，事實上我們信任的還不夠多。和第2句“A survey about trust in the United States has found that interpersonal trust, a measure (測量) of whether people think others arc in general I rust worthy is at its lowest in nearly 50 years.（美國一項關(guān)于信任的調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，人際信任（一種衡量人們是否認為他人值得信任的指標）是近50年來最低的。）”可知“在第二段中作者提到了關(guān)于美國信任的調(diào)查，是為了表明人們?nèi)狈ψ銐虻男湃��！惫蔬xD。

【2】推理判斷題。根據(jù)最后一段“Giving people a chance isn't only the moral (道德的) thing to do. It's also the smart thing to do.（給人們一個機會不僅僅是道德上的事情。這也是明智之舉。）”，這里的a chance就是指去信任別人�？芍�“為了讓我們更好地信任別人，我們可以做出明智的決定，給人們一個機會�！惫蔬xD。

【3】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第7段第3句“However, the costs of not trusting someone we could have trusted are invisible.（然而，不信任我們本可以信任的人的代價是看不見的。）”，這里的invisible意為看不見的，和選項中的hidden意義相近，因此B。

【4】主旨大意題。本文舉例說明信任比不信任能學(xué)到更多的東西。不信任我們本可以信任的人的代價是看不見的。為了讓我們更好地信任別人，和最后一段作者提到的我們應(yīng)該做出明智的決定和給人們一個機會�？芍�“作者寫這篇文章的主要目的是強調(diào)我們應(yīng)該相信別人。”故選A。