题文
Decision-making under Stress
A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative (负面的) consequences of a decision.
The research suggests that stress may change the way people make choices in predictable ways.
“Stress affects how people learn,” says Professor Mara Mather. “People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress.”
For example, two recent studies looked at how people learned to connect images(影像) with either rewards or punishments. In one experiment, some of the participants were first stressed by having to give a speech and do difficult math problems in front of an audience; in the other, some were stressed by having to keep their hands in ice water. In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn’t gone through the stress.
This phenomenon is likely not surprising to anyone who has tried to resist eating cookies or smoking a cigarette while under stress –at those moments, only the pleasure associated with such activities comes to mind. But the findings further suggest that stress may bring about a double effect. Not only are rewarding experiences remembered better, but negative consequences are also less easily recalled.
The research also found that stress appears to affect decision-making differently in men and women. While both men and women tend to focus on rewards and less on consequences under stress, their responses to risk turn out to be different.
Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way. In stressful situations in which risk-taking can pay off big, men may tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win.
This tendency to slow down and become more cautious when decisions are risky might also help explain why women are less likely to become addicted than men: they may more often avoid making the risky choices that eventually harden into addiction.
小题1:We can learn from the passage that people under pressure tend to ______.A．keep rewards better in their memoryB．recall consequences more effortlesslyC．make risky decisions more frequentlyD．learn a subject more effectively小题2:According to the research, stress affects people most probably in their ______.A．ways of making choicesB．preference for pleasureC．tolerance of punishmentsD．responses to suggestions小题3:The research has proved that in a stressful situation, ______.A．women find it easier to fall into certain habitsB．men have a greater tendency to slow downC．women focus more on outcomesD．men are more likely to take risks 题型：未知难度：其他题型
答案
小题1:A
小题2:A
小题3:D
解析
议论文，文章标题为压力下的决策，主要介绍了面对压力时人们往往能够找到积极的方面忽略消极的方面而且面对压力时，男性更容易采取冒险的策略。小题1:主旨题，原文第一段大意是面对压力的环境，人们会想到积极的东西，忽视消极的东西，故选A。
小题2:考查细节题，题干词为research，定位于第二段，原文说 stress may change the way peoplemake choices(压力可能改变人们做选择的方式).,故选A。
小题3:考查细节题，题干关键词为 stressful situation，定位于第三段最后一句话。即In stressful situation in which risk-taking can pay off big, men tend to do better, when caution weighs
more, however, women will win.(在压力情况下，如果冒险的回报很大，男人们会做的更好，但是，谨慎更重要时，女人们做的更好) ，D选项说男人们更倾向于冒险，故选D。
考点
据考高分专家说，试题“Decision-making unde.....”主要考查你对 [日常生活类阅读 ]考点的理解。日常生活类阅读
日常生活类阅读的概念：
日常生活这一话题主要涉及人们衣食住行等方面的活动。这一话题的选材主要针对人们日常的工作，生活以及学习情况。做这一类题时，最主要的是要把握好人物的活动内容，时间和地点。
日常生活类阅读题答题技巧：
【题型说明】
该类文章内容涉及到人们的言谈举止、生活习惯、饮食起居、服饰仪表、恋爱婚姻、消遣娱乐、节日起源、家庭生活等。文章篇幅短小，追根溯源，探索各项风俗的历史渊源，内容有趣。命题也以送分题为主，如事实细节题、语义转换题、词义猜测题和简单推理判断题等。虽然这类文章读起来感觉轻松，试题做起来比较顺手，但绝不能掉以轻心。因为稍不留神，就会丢分。
【备考提醒】
为了保证较高准确率，建议同学们做好以下几点：
1、保持正常的考试心态。笔者在教学中发现，越是容易的试题，同学们越是容易失分。为什么呢？因为在这种情况下，同学们极易产生麻痹思想，认为题目好做，就不引起高度重视，于是思维不发散、不周密。而命题人就是利用同学们的这一弱点，设计陷阱题。所以，无论试题难易与否，我们都要保持正常的考试心态。试题容易，不欣喜；试题难，不悲观。
2、根据前面讲到的方法，认认真真、细细心心做好事实细节题。
3、做好语义转换题。这类题是根据英语中一词多义和某些词语在文中能表达一定的修辞意义的原则而设计的。要求同学们解释某生词的含义，确定多义词或短语在文中的意思，确认文中的某个代词所指代的对象，或者对英语中特有的表达、格言、谚语进行解释。这种题要求同学们一定要根据上下文猜测词义或理解句子，切不可望文生义。
4、做好简单推理判断题。简单推理判断题要以表面文字为前提，以具体事实为依据进行推理，做出判断。这种推理方式比较直接，只要弄清事实，即可结合常识推断出合理的结论。
