2012年雅思阅读考试考前冲刺试题（15）_第2页

F.When the price appeared，however，fMRI reported more activity in other parts of the brain.Excessively high prices increased activity in the insular cortex，a brain region linked to expectations of pain，monetary loss and the viewing of upsetting pictures.The researchers also found greater activity in this region of the brain when the subject decided not to purchase an item.

　　G.Price information activated the medial prefrontal cortex，too.This part of the brain is involved in rational calculation.In the experiment its activity seemed to correlate with a volunteer's reaction to both product and price，rather than to price alone.Thus，the sense of a good bargain evoked higher activity levels in the medial prefrontal cortex，and this often preceded a decision to buy.

　　H.People's shopping behaviour therefore seems to have piggy-backed on old neural circuits evolved for anticipation of reward and the avoidance of hazards.What Dr Loewenstein found interesting was the separation of the assessment of the product (which seems to be associated with the nucleus accumbens) from the assessment of its price (associated with the insular cortex)，even though the two are then synthesised in the prefrontal cortex.His hypothesis is that rather than weighing the present good against future alternatives，as orthodox economics suggests happens，people actually balance the immediate pleasure of the prospective possession of a product with the immediate pain of paying for it.

　　I.That makes perfect sense as an evolved mechanism for trading.If one useful object is being traded for another (hard cash in modern time)，the future utility of what is being given up is embedded in the object being traded.Emotion is as capable of assigning such a value as reason.Buying on credit，though，may be different.The abstract nature of credit cards，coupled with the deferment of payment that they promise，may modulate the “con” side of the calculation in favour of the “pro”.

　　J.Whether it actually does so will be the subject of further experiments that the three researchers are now designing.These will test whether people with distinctly different spending behaviour，such as miserliness and extravagance，experience different amounts of pain in response to prices.They will also assess whether，in the same individuals，buying with credit cards eases the pain compared with paying by cash.If they find that it does，then credit cards may have to join the list of things such as fatty and sugary foods，and recreational drugs，that subvert human instincts in ways that seem pleasurable at the time but can have a long and malign aftertaste.

　　Notes to Reading Passage 1中华考试网(www．Examw。com)

　　1.the nucleus accumbens，the insular cortex，and the medial prefrontal cortex:

　　大脑的不同部位 (皮层，皮质等)

　　e.g.cerebellar cortex 小脑皮层cerebral cortex 大脑皮层

　　2.hone:

　　珩磨，磨快，磨练，训练使……更完美或有效.

　　3.subvert:

　　毁灭，破坏;摧毁：

　　4.piggyback：

　　骑在肩上;在肩上骑

　　5.deferment:

　　推迟、延迟、分期付款

　　6.aftertaste:

　　余味，回味事情或经历结束后的感觉，特指令人不快的感觉