Passage Three
　　Questions 31 to 35 are based on the following passage.
　　Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses (差錯) in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings, Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random (隨機的).
　　One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “the explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme,” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these “programme assembly failures.”
　　Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing—an average of twelve each, There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒謬可笑的). These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work.” Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men—probably because they were more reliable reporters.
　　A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse—even dangerous.
　　31. In his study Professor Smith asked the subjects ________.
　　A) to keep track of people who tend to forget things
　　B) to report their embarrassing lapses at random
　　C) to analyse their awkward experiences scientifically
　　D) to keep a record of what they did unintentionally（B）
　　32. Professor Smith discovered that ________.
　　A) certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents
　　B) many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness
　　C) men tend to be more absent-minded than women
　　D) absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness（D）
　　33. “Programme assembly failures” (Line 6, Para. 2) refers to the phenomenon that people ________.
　　A) often fail to programme their routines beforehand
　　B) tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry
　　C) unconsciously change the sequence of doing things
　　D) are likely to mess things up if they are too tired（D）
　　34. We learn from the third paragraph that ________.
　　A) absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day
　　B) women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods
　　C) women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness
　　D) men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations（A）
　　35. It can be concluded from the passage that ________.
　　A) people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses
　　B) hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at
　　C) people should be careful when programming their actions
　　D) lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration（A）
　　這篇材料為我們講述了一個有趣的實驗。段首先交代了實驗的基本信息。Smith教授勸使35個人在兩周內記錄自己全部的心不在焉的行為（absent-minded actions），在分析實驗結果時，他發現這些行為大體可以歸為幾個類別（all of them fell into a few groupings），而它們的出現也并不是隨機的。
　　第二段舉了一個具體的例子。一個女人在早上上班前把狗食當作了耳墜，而把自己的耳墜喂給了狗（threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear）。對這一行為的解釋是：在做某種活動的時候，人的大腦像計算機一樣程式化，女人的程式是先喂狗食而后戴耳墜，而這一次她的行為由于某種原因出現了顛倒（threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear）。
　　例子解說完畢，作者開始介紹該實驗的研究結果。首先，在一天之中，行為發生謬誤的情況具有時間特征，且往往以兩個小時為階段，比如下午4到6點就是發生荒唐可笑行為的高峰期之一。其次，對于男人來說，荒唐行為多發期常常是在生活內容的轉換階段，比如下班后與上班前之間的時間段（between going to and from work）。關于女人的平均犯錯率為何比男人高的現象，研究者是這么解釋的：they were more reliable reporters，也即女人在記錄犯錯事件時更為誠實一些。
　　后一段還介紹了一個研究發現：the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled。這句話比較難于理解，因為它是典型的英語思維方式，動作性質或形容詞性質的意義完全由名詞來表達（如absent-minded activity，hazard），與漢語完全不同。結合后文可以知道這里實際上是說我們在做擅長的事情時，會為了避免出現謬誤而精神過度集中，而這常常會帶來危險。
　　31. B
　　題目問Smith教授在他的實驗中要求受試者做什么事。注意這里的subjects并不是通常的意思，而是受實驗者的意思。
　　A，記錄愛丟三落四的人們身上發生的事情。Keep track of是追蹤、記錄的意思。文中段句：to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight，用日記記錄他們的心不在焉的行為，這里的their應該指的是受試者自己。而A是說要受試者去記錄別人的行為，并不正確。
　　B，報告他們令人尷尬的隨心謬誤。段第二句：When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses in a scientific report，當他撰寫科學報告來分析他們令人尷尬的行為謬誤時。這里的embarrassing lapses與B的說法一致。
　　C，對他們的尷尬經歷進行科學分析。從段可知，進行科學分析的是Smith教授，而不應是受試者。
　　D，記錄他們無意識所作的事情。what they did unintentionally 與文中的absent-minded actions意義類似，但在文中還用embarrassing lapses對absent-minded actions做了進一步限定，指的是因心不在焉而導致的令人尷尬的謬誤。這樣的話，what they did unintentionally所涵蓋的行為就顯得過于寬泛了。
　　32. A
　　這道題問Smith教授發現了什么。
　　A，可以把所記錄的事件歸納為某種類型。段寫到教授在分析實驗數據時——he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings，groupings是分組的意思，them是指所記錄的心不在焉的行為，那么教授的發現就是幾乎所有心不在焉行為都可以分為某種組別。也就是某幾種行為歸為一個類型，另外幾種行為又歸為一個類型，這與A的說法一致。
　　B，許多人不好意思承認他們的心不在焉行為。這是一個迷惑選項，因為段When he came to analyse their embarrassinglapse一句里出現了embarrassing，這個題支就用embarrassed來迷惑考生。其實原文很好理解，embarrassinglapse就是指的心不在焉行為本身，至于是否不好意思承認則沒有說明。不過，這些行為都是被受試者記錄下來提交給研究者的，可見受試者并沒有不愿承認，否則就不會記錄并提交了。
　　C，男人比女人更加心不在焉。Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men—probably because they were more reliable reporters一句與此相關。從數據來看，男人比女人的心不在焉行為更少，所以C的說法不對。
　　D，心不在焉是一種可以原諒的人類弱點。文中沒有提到類似的說法。
　　33. C
　　這道題問文中的Programme assembly failures是指發生在人們身上的哪種現象。
　　A，常常不能預先設計好他們的例行程式。
　　B，匆忙行事時往往會犯錯。
　　C，無意識地顛倒做事情的先后次序。
　　D，身體過于疲憊時常會將事情搞糟。
　　Programme assembly failures出現在第二段末尾，而第二段前面部分所敘述的就是Programme assembly failures的具體例子。這個例子講一個女人按照自己的例行程式，應該是先喂狗而后戴耳墜，而這天早晨她卻把耳墜喂了狗，把狗食當成了耳墜。從這個例子來看，她是有自己的例行程式的，所以A不對。她犯錯的原因在文中沒有給出，只提到是somehow，某種原因，那么B和D為犯錯特別加了前提條件就不對了。答案是C。
　　34. A
　　這道題問我們能從第三段得知什么。
　　A，心不在焉行為常在一天中的某些小時發生。第三段中有There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest一句，前半句是說一天中有一些高峰期，后半句的at our zaniest直譯是“我們愚蠢的時候”，也就是容易犯錯的時候。這句后面的一句例舉出這種高峰期往往是下午4-6點這樣的時間段。A的說法與這二句的意思一致。
　　B，女人在謬誤多發期會非常小心地行事。
　　C，女人的謬誤多發期更多。
　　D，男人的心不在焉行為經常導致搞笑的情形發生。
　　B、C、D三種情形在第三段都完全找不到相似內容。
　　35. D
　　題目問從這篇材料可以得出什么結論。
　　A，人們應該避免在謬誤多發期做重要的事情。第三段提到了謬誤多發期，不過沒有直接說是否應該避免在這個時候做重要的事情，我們也不能妄下結論。
　　B，人們在做擅長的事情時可以避免危險。根據篇章分析中關于后一段的內容，人們在做擅長的事情時會因為精神更為集中而使事情變得更糟（trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse），可見B的說法不正確。
　　C，人們在為自己的行動設計程式時應該多加小心。本文討論的不是程式設計問題（比如第二段的例子中女人的程式本身是沒有問題的），而是心不在焉行為會使程式出錯，因此C的說法不對。
　　D，謬誤并不總是由注意力缺失造成。后一段指出注意力過于集中也可能帶來危險，說明謬誤并不總是由注意力缺失造成，也可以由注意力過于集中造成。D是正確的。

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