Question

【題目】Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.

Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting（收縮）and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.

Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said: “Our study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart.”

The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, “The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don’t see and guide whether we see fear.”

To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner（掃描儀）to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person’s feeling of fear.

“We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak’ to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear,” Dr Garfinkel said.

“We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders, and also for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder.”

【1】What is the finding of the study?

A. Fear is a result of one’s relaxed heartbeat.

B. One’s heart affects how he feels fear.

C. Fear has something to do with one’s heart health.

D. One’s fast heartbeats are likely to cause fear.

【2】The conclusion was drawn by analyzing .

A. volunteers’ heartbeats when they saw terrible pictures

B. the time volunteers saw fearful pictures and their health conditions

C. volunteers’ reactions to horrible pictures and data from their brain scans

D. different pictures shown to volunteers and their heart-brain communication

【3】Which of the following is closest in meaning to “mechanism” in Paragraph 6?

A. Order B. Treatment

C. Machine D. System

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】C

【3】D

【解析】

試題分析：這是一篇說明文。介紹了對20名健康的志愿者進行的恐懼反應(yīng)試驗，告訴讀者大腦與心臟都能感知到恐懼，而且心臟跳動的周期與人們感知恐懼的機會有關(guān)聯(lián)。這份研究成果未來有望更成功地用于治療憂慮癥以及應(yīng)激障礙疾病。

【1】B細(xì)節(jié)理解題。難度：較易。題干關(guān)鍵詞finding，定位第一段第一句according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear（依據(jù)研究，發(fā)現(xiàn)：心跳循環(huán)與人感知恐懼是有關(guān)聯(lián)的）。鎖定選項B。One’s heart affects how he feels fear（人的心臟影響他對恐懼的感知）。

【2】C 細(xì)節(jié)理解題。難度：較難。題干關(guān)鍵詞carried out。定位文章對實驗的介紹在3-6段。找到Para.4. The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces.（這項研究對20名健康的志愿者試驗了當(dāng)他們看到恐懼面孔圖片時的反應(yīng)）以及Para.5. the scientists also used a brain scanner(掃描儀) to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person’s feeling of fear.（為了演示大腦是如何影響心臟改變?nèi)藢�恐懼的感知方式，科學(xué)家們還使用掃描儀)。因此。選項C。volunteers’ reactions to horrible pictures and data from their brain scans.（志愿者們對恐懼圖片的反應(yīng)以及來自大腦掃描儀的數(shù)據(jù)）。

【3】D詞義猜測題。由題干的mechanism定位文章Para.6,找到此詞所在的句子，這個詞后面的句子就是答案。We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and the brain ‘speak’ to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear翻譯mechanism后面的句子：通過這個mechanism，心臟和大腦可以相互“交流”以便于改變我們的感覺減少恐懼。因此，mechanism是心臟與大腦交流的一個完整系統(tǒng)，而不是“命令、機器以及治療”。故D正確。