阅读理解。
Now comes word from the University of California, Berkeley, a new study has confirmed that the
richer you are the less compassionate you are
In a study just published in the journal Emotion, psychologist Jennifer Stellar sought to determine the
empathic (感情移入的) capacities of a group of 300 college students, who had been hand-selected for
maximum economic diversity. As a rule, college students have just one income level: poor. Stellar thus
chose her subjects based on the income of the people who respond to the requests and write the checks:
the parents.
In the first of three experiments, she had 148 of her subjects fill out reports how often they experience
emotions such as joy, love, compassion and horror. She also had them agree or disagree with statements
like "I often notice people who need help." When the numbers on these lists were processed, Stellar
found no meaningful personality differences among the students that could be attributable to income
except one: across the board, the lower the subjects' family income, the higher their score on compassion.
The second study involved 64 subjects who watched two videos - an emotionally neutral instructional
video on construction techniques, and a far more charged one that involved real families coping with a
cancer-stricken child. Again, the subjects filled out emotional lists and again they scored similarly. But the
lower-income volunteers continued to come out higher on the compassion-and-empathy scale.
During this study, Stellar also used heartbeat monitors to determine their physical reactions to the two
videos. There was, not surprisingly, no difference in heart rate when the instructional video was playing,
but when the cancer stories began, the heartbeats of the lower-income volunteers slowed noticeably-a
counterintuitive (违反直觉的) sign of caring. An immediate threat to ourselves or another causes heart
rate to jump, the better to snap into action to respond to the danger. An emotional crisis can have the
opposite physical effect on observers - helping them settle down to provide the quieter attention that
simply listening and comforting requires.
In the final part of the study, 106 of the participants were paired off and told to interview each other
as if they were applying for a position as lab manager. So that the subjects would have real skin in the
game, the ones who performed best in the interviews - as judged by Stellar- would win a cash prize. All
of the subjects reported feeling the same levels of stress or anxiety when they were being interviewed,
but only the lower-income subjects were reliably able to detect the same feelings in their partner when the
roles were reversed.
So does this mean the rich really can't feel the poor? A low score on the compassion scale doesn't
mean a lack of capacity for the feeling, Stellar argues. It may just mean a lack of experience
observing-and tending to - the hardship others. Perhaps that helps explain why so many wealthy college
kids find their way into the Peace Corps and other volunteer groups.
1. According to the text, which of the following statement is true?
A. All the subjects went through all the 3 experiments.
B. Stellar carefully chose 300 college students according their personal income level.
C. The rich really lacks the ability to feel pity for the poor.
D. All the 3 experiments proved the same result.
2. In Stella's opinion, the lower-income volunteers' heart rate lowers when ______.
A. When they are having their first lesson in a new school.
B. They are talking to someone they admire so much.
C. They are trapped in a building suddenly on fire.
D. They find someone is injured in an accident on the road.
3. We can infer from the third experiment that ________.
A. Lab manager is a position with low income.
B. The lower-income subjects win the cash prize.
C. The interviewers are stressed and anxious when interviewing others.
D. Both the interviewers and interviewees know the feelings in each other.
4. The underlined "across the board" probably means ________.
A. applying to all
B. on the opposite
C. from one side to the other
D. for instance
5. What can be the best title of the text?
A. Without money? That's not a big deal
B. Hate money? Then try to be low-income
C. Got money? Then you might lack sympathy
D. Too much money? Come to experience hardships
