1 . COVID-19 changed a lot—how we socialized, where we went, and even what work looked like. A new study shows the pandemic (流行病) may have changed our personalities as well.
Psychologists have long believed that a person’s characters stayed pretty much the same, even in the wake of stressful events. But by looking at pre-pandemic levels of neuroticism (神经质), extraversion (外向), openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness (勤奋而细心) and comparing that to data collected in 2021 and 2022, researchers found clear personality changes among the United States population.
“The pandemic was an opportunity to see how a collective stressful event may impact personality,” said lead study author Angelina Sutin, a professor of medicine at Florida State University.
Extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness all declined in the US population in the years following the start of the pandemic, particularly in young adults, according to the study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One.
Why were younger adults more impacted? We don’t know for sure, Sutin said, but there are theories. “Personality is less stable in young adults. Then at the same time, the pandemic disturbed what young adults are supposed to be doing. They’re supposed to be in school or starting their careers. Then, everything was changed. However, the results didn’t hold true for each person.”
Researchers examined the data through the five-factor model, which hypothesizes (提出假说) that the various personality characters can come down to five important qualities: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Over the entire population they examined, researchers found a declining trend in neuroticism in 2020, but the changes were small. Once they took 2021 and 2022 data into account, researchers saw a more significant decrease in extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. Neuroticism also increased over this time. That is especially significant considering how important those characters are, Sutin said. For example, conscientiousness is important for academic and work outcomes, as well as relationship and physical health, she added.
1. How do researchers get their study results?| A．By comparing data collected in different periods. |
| B．By collecting data from different people. |
| C．By making experiments in a university. |
| D．By building a five-factor model. |
| A．Personality is more stable in old adults. |
| B．The study results hold true for every person. |
| C．Younger adults are less impacted during the pandemic. |
| D．American people are more likely to be influenced. |
| A．Neuroticism. | B．Extraversion. |
| C．Openness. | D．Conscientiousness. |
| A．Pandemic Has a Great Impact on People’s Life |
| B．Young Adults Adapted Quickly During the Pandemic |
| C．Different Personality Characters Influence Social Relationships |
| D．People Experienced Personality Changes During the Pandemic |
2 . I liked being a mess. My desk was always surrounded with bowls of food grain, yogurt and old magazines. My floor was full of sweaters, stuffed animals, socks, shoes… I couldn’t always see these things, but I knew that they were safe, lying somewhere.
One day in August, all of my friends and family members were doing their own businesses. I told my mom that I didn’t know what to do and she advised me to clean my room. When I opened the door to my bedroom, everything was in its usual messy arrangement. I became aware of the moldy (发霉的) smell and noticed a spider (蜘蛛) on top of my mirror. I suddenly felt terrible for everything in my room that I had buried and had an urge to make them reappear.
In a box buried under old textbooks, I found a letter that my grandfather had written me at camp. I remembered my dad rocking me to sleep the night Grandfather died, and how the tears wouldn’t stop. Tears began to roll down my cheeks again.
In the drawer next to my bed, I found a friendship watchband from my childhood best friend, Aubrey, who had given it to me before she moved to California. I had lost so many precious childhood memories over time, letting them slip (溜走) away into the tide like grains of sand.
Under my bed I even found that picture of my mom and me in Jamaica. I stared at that girl, hardly able to recognize this person who had drowned in the mess of my room so many years before. I decided to completely re-organize and clean my room so that all the books, belts and baskets were in their right place. It was like finding the missing pieces of the puzzle.
The finishing touch was framing that photo and hanging it high up on my wall. After all, it was me I had been searching for.
1. Paragraph 1 is mainly about the author’s ________.| A．regular study habits | B．disorganized lifestyle |
| C．unusual hobbies | D．busy life |
| A．Frightened | B．Upset | C．Ashamed | D．Excited |
| A．Her mom loved her very much. | B．It was important to find her place. |
| C．She had lost many fond memories. | D．Friendship didn’t change over time. |
| A．Thinking of the past | B．Tidying up the room. |
| C．Recognizing old photos. | D．Reading letters from friends. |
