2014年12月大学英语四级仔细阅读练习及答案（9）

　　Section C

　　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.

　　Questions 56-60 are based on thefollowingpassage.

　　You had me at“Hello”!It turns out our opening words make people take less than a second to form an impression of someone’s personality based on their voice alone.

　　We know that our voices Call transmit subtle signals about our gender，age，even body strength and certain personality traits，but Phil Mcaleer at the University of Glasgow and his colleagues wondered whether we make an instant impression.To find out，mey recorded 64 people as they read a passage.They then extracted the word“hello”and asked 320 people to rate the voices on a scale of 1 to 9 for one of 10 perceived personality traits—including trustworthiness，dominance and attractiveness.

　　Although it’s not clear how accurate such snap judgments are，what is apparent is that we all make them，and very quickly.“We were surprised by just how similar people’s ratings were.”says Mcaleer.Using a scale in which orepresents no agreement on a perceived trait and l reflects complete agreement，all10 traits scored on average 0.92—meaning most people agreed very closely to what extent each voice represented each trait.

　　It makes sense that decisions about personality should happen really fast，says Mcaleer.“There’s this evolutionary‘approach/avoidance’idea—vou want to quickly know if you call trust a person so you can approach them or run away and that would be redundant if it took too long to figure it out.”

　　The impression that our voices convey—even from an audio clip lasting just 390 milliseconds—appears to be down to several factors，for example，the pitch of a person’s voice influenced how trustworthy they seemed.“A guy who raises his pitch becomes more trustworthy,”says Mcaleer.“While girls are on the opposite.”

　　The methods used in this paper are familiar,but the conclusions are novel and interesting.The way the study links personality to attractiveness and reproductive fitness makes sense biologically.The team hope that their work can be used to help create artificial voices for people who have lost their own due to a medical condition and create likable and engaging voices for satnavs，and other robotics.

　　56、What’s the meaning of“You had me at‘Hello”’?

　　A.When I say“hello”，you will get my greeting.

　　B.When I say“hello”,you will give me a response.

　　C.When I say“hello”,you will form an impression of my voice.

　　D.When I say“hello”，you will reA.ize my personA.ity in a second.

　　57、 What conclusion Call we get from the research performed by professor Mcaleer and his colleagues?

　　A.Most people agreed each voice represented each trait.

　　B.0ur voices can tansmit subtle signals about ourselves.

　　C.People can make accurate snap judgments very quickly.

　　D.People cannot form all instant impression through voice.

　　58、 What does Mcaleer mean by saying the line that‘'there’s this evolutionary approach/avoidance’idea”(Line 2，Para.4)?

　　A.People can avoid others quickly if they trust them.

　　B.People can approach others quickly if they distrust them.

　　C.People hope to know others quickly to approach or avoid them.

　　D.People dislike to spend much time to understand others.

　　59、 When does a girl become more trustworthy compared with a guy?

　　A.A girl would be more trustworthy when she raises her voice up at the end of word.

　　B.A girl would be more trustworthy as she glides from a high to a low pitch.

　　C.A girl would be more trustworthy as she keeps the same pitch during conversation.

　　D.A girl would be more trustworthy when she alter the pitch from time to time.

　　60、 What is the purpose of this study?

　　A.To help create artificiA.voices for people who have lost it.

　　B.To create likable and engaging voices for satnavs.

　　C.To make contribution to the creation of voices for robots.

　　D.All ofthe above.