2007考研英语强化班授课讲义(十)

arkably penetrating and can significantly help us understand human behavior whereas in the physical sciences such commonsense knowledge is relatively primitive. If we erased all knowledge of scientific physics from our world, not only would we not have cars and television sets, we might even find that the ordinary person was unable to cope with the fundamental mechanical problems of pulleys and levers. On the other hand, if we removed all knowledge of scientific psychology from our world, problems in interpersonal relations might easily be coped with and solved much as before. We would still “know” how to avoid doing something asked of us and how to get someone to agree with us; we would still “know” when someone was angry and when someone was pleased. One could even offer sensible explanations for the “whys” of much of the self’s behavior and feelings. In other words, the ordinary person has a great and profound understanding of the self and of other people which, though unformulated or only vaguely conceived, enables one to interact with others in more or less adaptive ways. Kohler in referring to the lack of great discoveries in psychology as compared with physics, accounts for this by saying that “people were acquainted with practically all territories of mental life a long time before the founding of scientific psychology.”

    Paradoxically, with all this natural, intuitive, commonsense capacity to grasp human relations, the science of human relations had been one of the last to develop. Different explanations of this paradox have been suggested. One is that science would destroy the vain and pleasing illusions people have about themselves; but we might ask why people have always loved to read pessimistic, debunking writings, from Ecclesiastes to Freud. It has also been proposed that just because we know so much about people intuitively, there has been less incentive for studying them scientifically: why should one develop a theory, carry out systematic observations, or make predictions about the obvious? In any case, the field of human relations, with its vast literary documentation but meager scientific treatment, is in great contrast to the field of physics in which there are relatively few nonscientific books.  (435 words)

注：command vt. 博得；命令。account for 解释,说明。paradoxically反常的是。illusion 幻想。debunking暴露真相的。 Ecclesiastes 圣经传道书。Freud 弗洛伊德(谮意识论)。incentive刺激，激励。meager 贫乏的。scientific treatment科学阐述。

1. The author’s statement that “psychology holds a unique position among the sciences” (line 4) is supported by the claim that ______________.

A. the full meaning of a human relationship may not be obvious
B. commonsense understanding of human relations can be clear and precise
C. intuitive knowledge in the physical sciences is relatively advanced
D. subjective bias is difficult to control in psychological research

2. It can be inferred that when it comes to people who lived before the coming of scientific psychology, the author would most likely agree that _______________.

A. their understanding of human relations was quite limited
B. they were uninterested in acquiring knowledge of the physical world
C. they misunderstood others more frequently than do people today
D. their intuitions about human relations were reasonably sophisticated

3. The author refers to people who are attracted to “pessimistic, debunking writing “ (line 4, the last paragraph) in order to support the idea that ______________.

A. interesting books about human relations are typically pessimistic
B. people tend to ignore scientific explanations of human relations
C. people rarely hold pleasing illusions about themselves
D. it is doubtful that the science of human relations developed slowly because of a desire to maintain pleasing illusions

4. It can be inferred that the author assumes that commonsense knowledge of human relations is _______________.

A. usually sufficiently accurate to facilitate interactions with others
B. equally well developed among all adults within a given society
C. biased insofar as it is based on myths and folktales
D. typically unrelated to an individual’s interactions with other people

5. According to the text, it has also been suggested that the science of human relations was slow to develop because________.

A. intuitive knowledge of human relations is derived from philosophy
B. early scientists were more interested in the physical world
C. scientific studies of human relations appear to investigate the obvious
D. the scientific method is difficult to apply to the study of human relations 转贴于：博学在线_考研

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Word Study

1. 词汇辨异：sensible，sensitive, sensational, sentimental sensible 明智的，通情达理的；可觉察的，明显的：1) She felt this was the sensible way out of this embarrassing situation. (她觉得这是摆脱这种尴尬局面的明智出路。)  2) Why don’t you do something sensible in your spare time? (你为什么在空余时间不做一点有实际意义