Section C: Reading Comprehension
Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide on the best choice and mark the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet 2 with a single line through the centre.
Passage One
Questions 46 to 50 are based on the following passage.
If you’re someone who has turned to snacking on junk food more in the pandemic (大流行病), you’re not alone. Investigative reporter Michael Moss says processed food is engineered to hook you, not unlike alcohol, cigarettes, or other harmful substances. His 2013 book, Salt Sugar Fat, explored food companies’ aggressive marketing of those products and their impact on our health. In his new book, Hooked, Moss updates the food giants’ efforts to keep us eating what they serve, and how they’re responding to complaints from consumers and health advocates.
Processed food is inexpensive, it’s legal, and it’s everywhere. Companies’ advertising is cueing us to remember those products and we want those products constantly. So the food environment is one of those key things that makes food even more problematic for so many people. Memory, nostalgia (怀旧) in particular, plays a big role in the foods we crave. Soda companies discovered that if they put a soda in the hands of a child when they’re at a ball game with their parents, that soda will forever be associated with that joyous moment. Later in life, when that child wants to experience a joyous moment, they’re going to think of soda. Many people seek comfort in the snacks they remember from childhood.
Moss examines the way companies capitalize on our memories, cravings and brain chemistry to keep us snacking.
One of the reasons I came to think that some of these food products are even more powerful, more troublesome than drugs can be is memory. What we eat is all about memory. And we begin forming memories for food at a really early age. And we keep those memories for a lifetime. Knowing this, the food industry spends lots of time trying to shape the memories that we have for their products. One of the features of addiction that scientists studying drug addiction discovered back in the 1990s was that the faster a substance hits the brain, the more apt we are as a result to act impulsively. There’s nothing faster than food in its ability to hit the brain. For Moss, this puts the notion of “fast food” in an entirely new light as this isn’t limited to fast food chains—almost 90% of food products in grocery stores are processed foods. Everything in the industry is about speed, from manufacturing to packaging.
Overall, Moss outlines the industry’s dependence on making their products inexpensive, super delicious, and incredibly convenient for consumers. Now that more and more people care about what they put in their bodies and are wanting to eat healthier, these companies are finding it really difficult to meet that new demand because of their own addiction to making these convenience foods.
46. In what way does Michael Moss think processed food is comparable to alcohol and cigarettes?
47. What does the author say plays a key role in the foods we crave?
48. What do food companies do to capitalize on consumers’ association with their food products?
49. How does the food industry operate from manufacturing to packaging, according to Moss?
50. Why are companies finding it difficult to satisfy consumers’ demand for healthier food products?
Passage Two
Questions 51 to 55 are based on the following passage.
Chimpanzees (黑猩猩), human beings’ closest animal relatives, share up to 98% of our genes. Yet humans and chimpanzees lead very different lives. Fewer than 300,000 wild chimpanzees live in a few forested corners of Africa today, while humans have colonized every corner of the globe. At more than 7 billion, human population dwarfs that of nearly all other mammals—despite our physical weaknesses.
What could account for our species’ incredible evolutionary successes?
One obvious answer is our big brains. It could be that our raw intelligence gave us an unprecedented ability to think outside the box, innovating solutions to thorny problems as people migrated across the globe.
But a growing number of cognitive scientists and anthropologists (人类学家) are rejecting that explanation. They think that, rather than making our living as innovators, we survive and thrive precisely because we don’t think for ourselves. Instead, people cope with challenging climates and ecological contexts by carefully copying others.
In a famous study, psychologists Victoria Horner and Andrew Whiten showed two groups of test subjects—children and chimpanzees—a mechanical box with a treat inside. In one condition, the box was opaque, while in the other it was transparent. The experimenters demonstrated how to open the box to retrieve the treat, but they also included the irrelevant step of tapping on the box with a stick.
Oddly, the children carefully copied all the steps to open the box, even when they could see that the stick had no practical effect. That is, they copied irrationally: Instead of doing only what was necessary to get their reward, children slavishly imitated every action they’d witnessed.
Of course, that study only included three- and four-year olds. But additional research has shown that older children and adults are even more likely to mindlessly copy others’ actions, and infants are less likely to over-imitate—that is, to precisely copy even impractical actions.
By contrast, chimpanzees in the study only over imitated in the opaque condition. In the transparent condition—where they saw that the stick was mechanically useless—they ignored that step entirely. Other research has since supported these findings.
When it comes to copying, chimpanzees are more rational than human children or adults.
Where does the seemingly irrational human preference for over-imitation come from? Anthropologist Joseph Henrich points out that people around the world rely on technologies that are often so complex that no one can learn them rationally. Instead, people must learn them step by step, trusting in the wisdom of more experienced elders and peers.
So the next time you hear someone arguing passionately that everyone should embrace nonconformity and avoid imitating others, you might laugh a little bit. We’re not chimpanzees, after all.
51. What might explain humans’ having the largest population of almost all mammals?
52. What accounts for humans’ evolutionary successes according to a growing number of cognitive scientists and anthropologists?
53. What does the author think is odd about the findings of the study by Victoria Horner and Andrew Whiten?
54. What is anthropologist Joseph Henrich’s explanation for the human preference for copying?
55. What point does the author want to emphasize when he says “We’re not chimpanzees”?
Answers & Explanations (答案与解析)
Passage One
46. A。解析：题干问 Michael Moss 认为加工食品在什么方面可与酒精和香烟相提并论。第一段指出“processed food is engineered to hook you, not unlike alcohol, cigarettes...”（加工食品被设计成让你上瘾，就像酒精和香烟一样）。hook you 即让你上瘾，对应选项 A (They are all addictive)。
47. D。解析：题干问作者认为什么在我们渴望的食物中起着关键作用。第二段明确指出“Memory, nostalgia in particular, plays a big role in the foods we crave.”（记忆，特别是怀旧，在我们渴望的食物中起着重要作用）。直接对应选项 D (Memory)。
48. A。解析：题干问食品公司做什么来利用消费者对其食品的联想。第四段提到“Knowing this, the food industry spends lots of time trying to shape the memories that we have for their products.”（食品工业花大量时间试图塑造我们对其产品的记忆）。shape the memories 对应选项 A 的 influence how consumers remember their products（努力影响消费者如何记住他们的产品）。
49. C。解析：题干问根据 Moss 的说法，食品工业从制造到包装是如何运作的。第四段末尾指出“Everything in the industry is about speed, from manufacturing to packaging.”（该行业的一切都是关于速度，从制造到包装）。这对应选项 C (Focusing on how quickly the work is done. 关注工作完成得有多快)。
50. D。解析：题干问为什么公司发现很难满足消费者对更健康食品的需求。最后一段指出“these companies are finding it really difficult to meet that new demand because of their own addiction to making these convenience foods.”（这些公司发现很难满足这种新需求，因为他们自己也沉迷于制造这些方便食品）。对应选项 D (They are hooked on manufacturing convenience foods. 他们对制造方便食品上瘾)。
Passage Two
51. B。解析：题干问什么可以解释人类拥有几乎所有哺乳动物中最多的人口。前两段引出问题：为什么人类在身体处于劣势的情况下能在进化上取得令人难以置信的成功？第四段给出了解释：“people cope with challenging climates and ecological contexts by carefully copying others.”（人们通过仔细模仿他人来应对具有挑战性的气候和生态环境）。对应选项 B (他们比他们的动物亲戚更有效地应对外部世界)。
52. D。解析：题干问越来越多的认知科学家和人类学家认为人类进化成功的原因是什么。第四段指出“They think that... we survive and thrive precisely because we don’t think for ourselves. Instead, people cope with challenging climates... by carefully copying others.”（他们认为...我们生存和繁荣恰恰是因为我们不独立思考，而是通过仔细模仿他人来应对挑战）。对应选项 D (They meet challenges by imitating others carefully)。
53. A。解析：题干问作者认为关于 Victoria Horner 和 Andrew Whiten 研究的发现中，什么是奇怪的 (odd)。第六段开头指出“Oddly, the children carefully copied all the steps... That is, they copied irrationally... slavishly imitated every action they’d witnessed.”（奇怪的是，孩子们仔细复制了所有步骤...也就是说，他们非理性地复制...盲目模仿他们目睹的每一个动作）。对应选项 A (Children irrationally imitated every action of the experimenters)。
54. B。解析：题干问人类学家 Joseph Henrich 对人类偏好模仿的解释是什么。倒数第二段指出“Anthropologist Joseph Henrich points out that people around the world rely on technologies that are often so complex that no one can learn them rationally. Instead, people must learn them step by step...”（人类学家 Joseph Henrich 指出，世界各地的人们依赖的技术通常非常复杂，没有人能理性地学习它们。相反，人们必须一步一步地学习...）。这对应选项 B (It stems from the way people learn complex technologies. 它源于人们学习复杂技术的方式)。
55. B。解析：题干问作者说“我们毕竟不是黑猩猩”时想强调什么。文章的主旨是对比人类和黑猩猩，指出黑猩猩在某些情况下比人类更“理性”（不盲目模仿），而人类的进化成功恰恰依赖于“非理性”的过度模仿（over-imitation）。因此，说“我们不是黑猩猩”是为了强调模仿他人是人类的特征，对应选项 B (It is characteristic of human beings to copy others)。
核心搭配与高分句型
【核心搭配与高频短语】
turn to：求助于，转向（turned to snacking on junk food）
not unlike：非常像，和...没两样（not unlike alcohol, cigarettes...） 双重否定表肯定
capitalize on：利用（capitalize on our memories）
think outside the box：打破常规思考（unprecedented ability to think outside the box）
when it comes to：当涉及...时（When it comes to copying, chimpanzees are more rational...）
step by step：一步一步地（people must learn them step by step）
【亮点句型解析】
The more... the more... 比较级句型：
"...the faster a substance hits the brain, the more apt we are as a result to act impulsively."
（一种物质到达大脑的速度越快，我们因此就越容易冲动行事。）经典句型，表达了食物对大脑刺激速度与人类冲动行为之间的正相关性。
"...the faster a substance hits the brain, the more apt we are as a result to act impulsively."
（一种物质到达大脑的速度越快，我们因此就越容易冲动行事。）经典句型，表达了食物对大脑刺激速度与人类冲动行为之间的正相关性。
Instead of 引导的对比结构：
"Instead of doing only what was necessary to get their reward, children slavishly imitated every action they’d witnessed."
（孩子们不是只做获得奖励所必需的事情，而是盲目模仿他们目睹的每一个动作。）通过 `instead of` 形成强烈的反差，突出了人类儿童“过度模仿（over-imitation）”的独特性。
"Instead of doing only what was necessary to get their reward, children slavishly imitated every action they’d witnessed."
（孩子们不是只做获得奖励所必需的事情，而是盲目模仿他们目睹的每一个动作。）通过 `instead of` 形成强烈的反差，突出了人类儿童“过度模仿（over-imitation）”的独特性。