Text 2
Human relations have commanded people’s attention from early times. The ways of people have been recorded in innumerable myths, folktales, novels, poems, plays, and popular or philosophical essays. Although the full significance of a human relationship may not be directly evident, the complexity of feelings and actions that can be understood at a glance is surprisingly great. For this reason psychology holds a unique position among the sciences.
“Intuitive” knowledge may be remarkably 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 解釋,說明。paradoxically反常的是。illusion 幻想。debunking暴露真相的。 Ecclesiastes 圣經(jīng)傳道書。Freud 弗洛伊德(譖意識(shí)論)。incentive刺激，激勵(lì)。meager 貧乏的。scientific treatment科學(xué)闡述。
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
Word Study
1. 詞匯辨異：sensible，sensitive, sensational, sentimental sensible 明智的，通情達(dá)理的；可覺察的，明顯的：1) She felt this was the sensible way out of this embarrassing situation. (她覺得這是擺脫這種尷尬局面的明智出路。) 2) Why don’t you do something sensible in your spare time? (你為什么在空余時(shí)間不做一點(diǎn)有實(shí)際意義的事呢？) 3) I am sensible of his danger. (我能覺察到他的危險(xiǎn)。) 4) Her grief was sensible from her manner. (從她的舉止可以明顯看到她的悲痛。)
同根詞：sensibly 明智地，有頭腦地。sensibility 感應(yīng)能力：She has an unusual sensibility for colors.
sensitive 敏感的；靈敏的：1) Mr. Povey was exceedingly sensitive to personal criticisms. (Povey先生對(duì)個(gè)人評(píng)論十分敏感。) 2) A sensitive person is one who is easily hurt or offended by things that people do or say. (一個(gè)敏感的人往往很容易被別人的所作所為所傷害或冒犯。) 3) A sensitive instrument is one that will measure very small quantities. (一種靈敏的儀器是能測(cè)出微小數(shù)量的儀器。)
sensational 造成轟動(dòng)的，帶刺激性的，令人吃驚的：1) A sensational story is one likely to excite people.（一個(gè)聳人聽聞的故事是一個(gè)可以激動(dòng)人心的故事。） 2) There were sensational developments in this murder case.
同根詞：sensation 知覺，感覺；轟動(dòng)：1) After the accident he had no sensation in his left thumb. (這次事故以后他的左手拇指失去知覺。) 2) The news created a great sensation. (這個(gè)消息產(chǎn)生了巨大轟動(dòng)。)
sentimental 傷感的，易動(dòng)感情的：1) She gets sentimental whenever she thinks of her childhood. (每當(dāng)她想起她的童年，她變得非常傷感。) 2) Sentimental movies always make me cry.（動(dòng)情的電影常使我哭泣。）
2. conceive vt./vi. 想出，想到：1) Who first conceived the idea of filling bags with gas to make balloons? (誰首先想到向口袋充氣來制造氣球？) 2) We could not conceive that they would do such a silly thing.（我們無法想象他們會(huì)做出這樣一件蠢事。）
用于成語：conceive of 想象，考慮：1) They could not conceive of the possibility of failure. 2) I refuse to conceive of such a solution to our problem.
同根詞：conceivable adj. 可以想象出的：There is no conceivable way to raise ten thousand dollars. (想不出辦法來籌集一萬美元。)
3. interact (inter + act) 相互作用(with sth. )，互動(dòng)；相互交往(with sb.)。
同根詞：interaction相互作用，相互交往；interactive（計(jì)算機(jī)用語）人機(jī)對(duì)話的，交互式的。[2004年試題RC I]
