Question

Psychologist George Spilich and colleagues at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, decided to find out whether, as many smokers say, smoking helps them to “think and concentrate.” Spilich put young non-smokers, active smokers and smokers deprived (被剥夺) of cigarettes through a series of tests.

In the first test, each subject (试验对象) 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 the letters transformed into a different one. Non-smokers were faster， but under the stimulation of nicotine (尼古丁), active smokers were faster than deprived smokers.

In the third test of short-term memory, non-smokers 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. Non-smokers remembered 19 percent more of the most important information than active smokers, and deprived smokers 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, “non-smokers performed better than smokers by wider and wider margins” He predicts, “smokers might perform 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.”

1.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

2.Which of the following statements is true?

A. Active smokers in general performed better than deprived smokers.

B. Active smokers responded more quickly than the other subjects.

C. Non-smokers were not better than other subjects in performing simple tasks.

D. Deprived smokers gave the slowest responses to the various tasks.

3.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

Answer 1

1.A

2.C

3.D

【解析】

试题分析: 本文是科普类阅读，讲述尼古丁对于抽烟者是否有积极的作用。

1.A 细节理解题。根据第一段提到Psychologist George Spilich and colleagues at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland, decided to find out whether, as many smokers say, smoking helps them to “think and concentrate.”这个心理学家决定做实验来发现是否抽烟有助于思考和注意力的集中，故选A项。

2.C 推断题。根据第二段提到In this simple test, smokers, deprived smokers and nonsmokers performed equally well.在简单的任务中，经常吸烟的人和不吸烟的人表现是一样的，故A是错误的而C是正确的。根据第三段提到but under the stimulation of nicotine (尼古丁), active smokers were faster than deprived smokers在尼古丁的作用下，吸烟的人比不吸烟的人反应要快，前提是在尼古丁的状态下，不是所有情况下，故选B和D项错误。

3.D 推断题。根据最后一段提到“smokers might perform adequately at many jobs until they got complicated.吸烟者在做许多工作时可以表现得很好，直到它们变得复杂起来，故选D项处理紧急问题时会变得不同。

考点：科普类阅读。