2014考研英语：阅读理解试题及答案(第十二篇)
Passage 12
According to psychologists(心理学家), an emotion is aroused when a man or animal views something as either bad or good. When a person feels like running away from something he thinks will hurt him, we call this emotion fear. if the person wants to remove the danger by attacking it, we call the emotion anger. The emotions of joy and love are aroused when we think something can help us. An emotion does not have to be created by something in the outside world. it can be created by a person's thoughts.
Everyone has emotions. Many psychologists believe that infants are born without emotions. They believe children learn emotions just as they learn to read and write. A growing child not only learns his emotions but learns how to act in certain situations because of an emotion.
Psychologists think that there are two types of emotion: positive and negative. Positive emotions include love, liking, joy, delight, and hope. They are aroused by something that appeals to a person. Negative emotions make a person unhappy or dissatisfied. They include anger, fear,despair, sadness, and disgust. in growing up, a person learns to cope with the negative emotions in order to be happy.
Emotions may be weak or strong. Some strong emotions are so unpleasant that a person will try any means to escape from them. in order to feel happy, the person may choose unusual ways to avoid the emotion.
Strong emotions can make it hard to think and to solve problems. They may prevent a person from learning or paying attention to what he is doing. For example, a student taking an examination may be so worried about failing that he cannot think properly. The worry drains valuable mental energy he needs for the examination.
