TEXT C
In the first test, each subject sat before a computer screen and pressed a key as soon as he or she recognized a target letter among a grouping of 96. In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and nonsmokers performed equally well.
The next test was more complex, requiring all to scan sequences of 20 identical letters and respond the instant one of letters transformed into a different one. Nonsmokers were faster, but under the stimulation of nicotine active smokers were faster than deprived smokers.
In the third test of short-term memory, nonsmokers made the fewest errors,but deprived smokers committed fewer errors than active smokers.
The fourth test required people to read a passage, then answer questions about it. Nonsmokers remembered 19 percent more of the most important informationthan active smokers, and deprived smoker bested those who had smoked a cigarette just before testing. Active smokers tended not only to have poorer memories but also had trouble separating important information from insignificant details.As our tests became more complex, sums up Spilich, “nonsmokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins.” He predicts, “smokers might per form adequately at many jobs——until they got complicated. A smoking airline pilot could fly adequately if no problems arose, but if something went wrong, smoking might damage his mental capacity.”
74. The purpose of George Spilich’s experiments is ____.
A.to test whether smoking has a positive effect on the mental capacity of smokers
B.to show how smoking damages people’s mental capacity
C.to prove that smoking affects people’s regular performance
D.to find out whether smoking helps people’s short-term memory
75. George Spilich’s experiment was conducted in such a way as to ___.
A. compel the subjects to separate major information from minor details
B. put the subjects through increasingly complex tests
C. check the effectiveness of nicotine on smokers
D. register the prompt responses of the subjects
76. The bold word “bested” most probably means ____.
A. beat
B. envied
C. caught up with
D. made the best of
77. We can infer from the last paragraph that ____.
A. smokers should not expect to become airline pilots
B. smoking in emergency cases causes mental illness
C. no airline pilots smoke during flights
D. smokers may prove unequal to handing emergency cases
TEXT D
The process of perceiving other people is rarely translated (to ourselves or others) into cold, objective terms. “She was 5 feet 8 inches tall, had fair hair, and wore a colored skirt.” More often, we try to get inside the otherpers on to pinpoint his or her attitudes, emotions, motivations, abilities, ideas and characters. Furthermore, we sometimes behave as if we can accomplish this difficult job very quickly ——perhaps with a two-second glance.
We try to obtain information about others in many ways. Berger suggests several methods for reducing uncertainities about others: watching, without being noticed, a person interacting with others, particularly with others who are known to you so you can compare the observed person’s behavior with the known others’behavior; observing a person in a situation where social behavior is relatively unrestrained or where a wide variety of behavioral responses are called for; deliberately structuring the physical or social environment so as to observe the person’s responses to specific stimuli; asking people who have had or have frequent contact with the person about him or her; and using various strategies in face-to-face interaction to uncover information about another person —— questions, self-disclosures, and so on. Getting to know someone is a never-ending task, largely because people are constantly changing and the methods we use to obtain information are often imprecise. You may have known someone for ten years and still know very little about him. If we accept the idea that we won’t ever fully know another person, it enables us to deal more easily with those things that get in the way of accurate knowledge such as secrets and deceptions. It will also keep us from being too surprised or shocked by seemingly inconsistent behavior. Ironically, those things that keep us from knowing another person well (e.g., secret and deceptions) may be just as important to the development of a satisfying relationship as those things that enable us to obtain accurate knowledge about a person (e.g., disclosures and truthful statement).
78. What do we learn from the first paragraph?
A.People are better described in cold, objective terms.
B.The difficulty of getting to know a person is usually underestimated.
C.One should not judge people by their appearance.
D.One is usually subjective when assessing other people’s personality.
79. It can be inferred from Berger’s suggestions that ____.
A. people do not reveal their true self on every occasion
B. in most cases we should avoid contacting the observed person directly
C. the best way to know a person is by making comparisons
D. face-to-face interaction is the best strategy to uncover information about a person
80. The author’s purpose in writing the passage is ____.
A. to give advice on appropriate conduct for social occasions
B. to provide ways of how to obtain information about people
C. to call the reader’s attention to the negative side of people’s characters
D． to discuss the various aspects of getting to know people