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Section B
Directions: In this section, you are going to read a passage with ten
statements attached to it. Each statement contains information given in one of
the paragraphs. Identify the paragraph from which the information is
derived.
You may choose a paragraph more than once. Each paragraph is marked with a
letter. Answer the questions by marking the corresponding letter on Answer Sheet
2.
How Your Language Affects Your Wealth and Health
A. Does the language we speak determine how healthy and rich we will be?
New research by Keith Chen of Yale Business School suggests so. The structure of
languages affects our judgments and decisions about the future and this might
have dramatic long-term consequences.
B. There has been a lot of research into how we deal with the future. For
example, the famous marshmallow ( 棉 花糖)studies of Walter Mischel and colleagues
showed that being able to resist temptation is predictive of future success.
Four-year-old kids were given a marshmallow and were told that if they do not
eat that marshmallow and wait for the experimenter to come back, they will get
two marshmallows instead of one. Follow-up studies showed that the kids who were
able to wait for the bigger future reward became more successful young
adults.
C. Resisting our impulses for immediate pleasure is often the only way to
attain the outcomes that are important to us. We want to keep a slim figure but
we also want that last slice of pizza. We want a comfortable retirement, but we
also want to drive that dazzling car, go on that dream vacation, or get those
gorgeous shoes.
Some people are better at delaying gratification ( 满足 ) than others. Those
people have a better chance of accumulating wealth and keeping a healthy life
style. They are less likely to be impulse buyers or smokers, or to engage in
unsafe sex.
D. Chen's recent findings suggest that an unlikely factor, language,
strongly affects our future-oriented behavior. Some languages strongly
distinguish the present and the future. Other languages only weakly distinguish
the present and the future. Chen's recent research suggests that people who
speak languages that weakly distinguish the present and the future are better
prepared for the future. They accumulate more wealth and they are better able to
maintain their health. The way these people conceptualize the future is similar
to the way they conceptualize the present. As a result, the future does not feel
very distant and it is easier for them to act in accordance with their future
interestS.
E. Different languages have different ways of talking about the future.
Some languages, such as English, Korean, and Russian, require their speakers to
refer to the future explicitly ( 明确地). Every time English-speakers tall about
the future, they have to use future markers such as "will" or "going to." In
other languages, such as Mandarin, Japanese, and German, future markers are not
obligatory (强制性的). The future is often talked about similar to the way present
is talked about and the meaning is understood from the context. A Mandarin
speaker who is going to go to a seminar might say "Wo qu ting jiangzuo," which
translates to "I go listen seminar." Languages such as English constantly remind
their speakers that future events are distant. For speakers of languages such as
Mandarin future feels closer. As a consequence, resisting immediate impulses and
investing for the future is easier for Mandarin speakers.
F.Chert analyzed individual-level data from 76 developed and developing
countries. This data includes people's economic decisions, such as whether they
saved any money last year, the languages they speak at home, demographics
(人口统计资料 ), and cultural factors such as "saving is an important cultural value
for me."
He also analyzed individual-level data on people's retirement assets,
smoking and exercising habits, and general health in older age. Lastly, he
analyzed national-level data that inchides national savings rates, country GDP
and GDP growth rates, country demographics, and proportions of people speaking
different languages.
G. People's savings rates are affected by various factors such as their
income, education level, age, religious connection, their countries' legal
systems, and their cultural values. After those factors were accounted for, the
effect of language on people's savings rates turned out to be big. Speaking a
language that has obligatory future markers, such as English, makes people 30
percent less likely to save money for the future. This effect is as large as the
effect of unemployment. Being unemployed decreases the likelihood of saving by
about 30 percent as well.
H. Similar analyses showed that speaking a language that does not have
obligatory future markers, such as Mandarin, makes people accumulate more
retirement assets, smoke less, exercise more, and generally be healthier in
older age. Countries' national savings rates are also affected by language.
Having a larger proportion of people speaking languages that does not have
obligatory future markers makes national savings rates higher.
I.At a more practical level, researchers have been looking for ways to help
people act in accordance with their long-term interests. Recent, findings
suggest that making the future feel closer to the present might improve
future-oriented behavior. For instance, researchers recently presented people
with renderings of their future selves made using age-progression algorithms
(算法) that forecast how physical appearances would change over time. One group of
participants saw a digital representation of their current selves in a virtual
mirror, and the other group saw an age-morphed version of their future selves.
Those participants who saw the age- morphed version of their future selves
allocated more money toward a hypothetical savings account. The intervention
brought people's future to the present and as a result they saved more for the
future.
J.Chen's research shows that language structures our future-related
thoughts. Language has been used before to alter time perception with surprising
effects. Ellen Langer and colleagues famously improved older people's physical
health by simple interventions including asking them to talk about the events of
twenty years ago as if it they were happening now. Talking about the past as if
it were the present changed people's mindsets and their mindsets affected their
physical states. Chen's research points at the possibility that the way we talk
about the future can shape our mindsets. Language can move the future back and
forth in our mental space and this might have dramatic influences on our
judgments and decisions.
46. Usually, preventing ourselves from enjoying immediate pleasure
impulsively is the only way to achieve the outcomes that are important to
us.
47. The structure of languages influences us when we are making a judgment
or decision about the future.
48. Speaking a language that has obligatory future markers and being
unemployed nearly share the same percentage of decreasing the likelihood of
saving.
49. According to the well-known marshmallow studies, people who can resist
temptation tend to be successful in the future.
50. People who speak languages like English are more likely to feel that
the future events are distant.
51. National savings rates of countries are influenced by language as
well.
52. In Chen's recent research, people who speak languages in which the
present and the future are weakly distinguished are more prepared for the
future.
53. Recent findings show that it is possible to improve future-oriented
behavior through making the future feel closer to the present.
54. Through simple interventions, Ellen Langer and colleagues made the
physical health of the older people changed for the better.
55. Chen made an analysis of individual-level statistics from 76 developed
and developing nations.
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发表于 2018-12-8 10:33:13