1 . In recent decades, it has become clear that consumers’ decision-making process is influenced by their emotions. Traditionally, people have been asked how they feel about products and services, but since individuals are often unaware of their own emotions, their responses may not accurately reflect reality.
Consumer neuroscience investigations have helped create a deeper understanding of the role of emotions in consumer-related choices. Emotions can be broadly categorized as positive or negative; examples of positive emotions include love, pride, and happiness, while negative emotions include anger, disgust, and fear. Both types of emotions cause physiological responses.
Distinguishing between different types of emotions is more important than classifying them as positive or negative. When sad, consumers tend to be willing to pay more for goods and are drawn towards high-risk, high-reward options. For instance, an environmentalist shopping at a supermarket might focus on getting one item for free in a two-for-one offer rather than thinking they don’t need two identical products.
Anxiety can reduce the likelihood of making risky choices and make individuals careless about rewards, similar to the effect of some positive emotions. Negative moods like fear and anger also influence risk-related decision-making differently: anger leads to more optimistic assessments, while fear results in more pessimistic risk assessments. Stress is perhaps the most problematic emotion for consumers when it comes to risk-seeking. It’s common for consumers to rush into decisions between work or social activities, feeling pressured to make quick choices. This stress can increase risk-seeking behavior, leading to regrettable decisions.
Purchases often involve making predictions about how we may feel when we have bought something. For example, will buying a new hat make me feel good? Unfortunately, consumers are not good at predicting how they will feel in the future. This means that people often purchase something on the basis that they think it will make them happy. However, as it is common to overestimate the future emotions of happiness linked to products, consumers often feel disappointed with the item as it does not live up to their emotional expectations.
1. What probably causes consumers to make improper decisions?| A．Misjudgement of reality. | B．Unaware of emotions. |
| C．Slow reflection to service. | D．Preference for certain products. |
| A．Love. | B．Pride. | C．Anxiety. | D．Sadness. |
| A．Consider only immediate rewards. |
| B．Avoid making decisions under pressure. |
| C．Focus on product quality when shopping. |
| D．Predict future emotions before making a purchase. |
| A．They accurately predict their future emotions. |
| B．They underestimate the happiness linked to products. |
| C．They have very high requirements for products. |
| D．They don’t get the pleasure they expected of the products. |
2 . Whether you’re eating a slice of delicious bread or an extra-chewy chocolate cookie, it’s always fun to be the taste tester for a friend or relative who loves to bake. And, while eating products created with love and sugar probably makes you feel good, the baker is obtaining some psychological benefits, too.
Studies have shown that creative activities like baking contribute to an overall sense of well-being. Boston University professor of brain sciences Donna Pincus explained that there’s “stress relief that people get from having some kind of an outlet (发泄方式) and a way to express themselves”.
Baking is also a great way to practice mindfulness, because it requires you to focus on following very straightforward directions in a specific order. In other words, most of the decisions have already been made for you, allowing you to concentrate on the details while nudging (轻推) your mind away from the stressors and anxieties of your life outside the kitchen. Julie Ohana, a clinical social worker, explained that baking is effective because it helps you practice the “balance of the moment and the bigger picture”. While you’re measuring and mixing ingredients, you’re probably visualizing how they’ll all come together to create a fulfilling final product and deciding how and when you’ll share it with others.
Sharing your desserts selflessly rather than for attention or competition is another mood-booster, making you “feel like you’ve done something good for the world, which perhaps increases your meaning in life and connection with other people,” Pincus said. It can also function as a mode of communication. Susan Whitbourne, professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts, said that “it can be helpful for people who have difficulty expressing their feelings in words to show appreciation, or sympathy with baked goods”.
Baking may not be the be-all and end-all of the cure for mental illness, but anyone in need of lifted spirits should consider pulling out the flour and warming up the oven.
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce the theme. | B．To draw a conclusion. |
| C．To offer some advice. | D．To illustrate the background. |
| A．It is of importance to physical health. |
| B．It is a great way to encourage exercise. |
| C．It ensures everything will be in a right order. |
| D．It helps you to have positive expectations. |
| A．Competing can effectively boost our moods. |
| B．We can catch others’ attention through sharing. |
| C．Baking contributes to closer social relations. |
| D．Sharing enables us to express our feelings accurately. |
| A．Technology. | B．Lifestyle. | C．Society. | D．Education. |
3 . We all want to know what happiness means and try to find ways to help make our life better. Happiness — you know it when you see it, but it’s hard to define. You might call it a sense of well-being, optimism or meaningfulness in life, although those could also be treated separately.
We also know that we don’t always have control over our happiness. Research suggests that genetics may play a big role in our level of happiness, so some of us may start out at a disadvantage. On top of that, environmental factors can bring down mood and dry up our thirst for living.
A 2022 review of more than 200 studies found a connection between positive psychological features, such as happiness, optimism and life satisfaction, and a lowered risk of heart disease.
If what you mean by happiness is specifically “enjoyment of life”, there’s newer evidence to support that, too. A study in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that people aged 60 and over who said they enjoyed life less were more likely to develop disability over an 8-year period.
| A．But whatever happiness really is. |
| B．It might take more work if your mood is low. |
| C．For now these studies can only show associations. |
| D．That refers to the person, and the situation he or she is in. |
| E．Being able to travel around was also related to enjoyment of life. |
| F．To manage our emotions is important for both our body and mind. |
| G．It’s not as simple as “you must be happy to prevent heart attacks”, though. |
Hudson is 8 years old now. He has a favorite little toy, a crocheted little ghost named Casper. The toy was given to him by his grandmother on his 5th birthday, and he has treasured it ever since, Hudson loves Casper so much that he often brings it with him wherever he goes. He even talks to Casper as if it’s his best friend.
One day, while playing with Casper, Hudson turned to his mother Ruthie with a worried look on his face. “Mommy, if I should get Casper lost, I would cry so much and be sad forever,” he confessed, tears welling up in his eyes.
Ruthie couldn’t help but smile at her son’s innocence and affection for his little toy. She gently reassured him, “You haven’t lost Casper yet, sweetheart. You take good care of it, and I’m sure you won’t lose it. But even if you do, remember that I’ll always be here to comfort you.”
Curiosity sparked in Hudson’s eyes as he listened to his mother’s words. He looked up at her with a serious expression and asked, “Mommy, have you ever lost a toy?”
Looking at her lovely kid, Ruthie shared her story with her son. When she was six years old, her world turned upside down when her father tragically passed away. Their family was in trouble, and they faced financial struggles. Ruthie’s mother had to take up odd jobs to make ends meet, and they had to move frequently to save money.
During one of her moves, she found that every one of her favorite girl toys was missing including Molly, an American Girl doll. Everywhere she went, she would bring the doll and she was obsessed with it. After hearing his mother’s story, the boy hugged his mother tightly, without saying anything.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150 左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Days turned into weeks, and soon it was New Year’s Day.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Ruthie carefully unwrapped the gift box.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________5 . Cheerfulness is a powerful way to deal with a world that will always be tough and unjust in one way or another. It is a sign of strength in the face of difficulties. Different from fear, joy, or anger, cheerfulness isn’t something that overcomes you.
◎Acknowledge the difficulties.
Cheerfulness is an honest emotion because you’re not hiding from reality.
◎Don’t focus on the negative.
Whether in your personal life or in society, it’s easy to focus on what’s going wrong. But whatever you focus on, it grows. If you decide to focus on what’s going wrong, those problems will grow in your mind until they consume you.
◎Be grateful for what you have.
◎
No cheerfulness without laughter. So you can watch comedies, browse memes, or joke around with friends. Laughter strengthens your immune system, boosts your mood, makes you feel less pain, and protects you from stress. Laughter is cathartic (精神宣泄的) and infectious. Laugh and brighten the room.
| A．Find your sense of humor. |
| B．Deal with difficulties seriously. |
| C．Focus on the good things you have. |
| D．To a large degree, cheerfulness is a choice. |
| E．You’re not covering your eyes and looking away. |
| F．Acknowledge the problems, but don’t give them too much attention. |
| G．Being cheerful will make you see the world and your own life in a different way. |
6 . During my first year in college, I was silent. I was too afraid of saying something wrong.
I declared a religion major as a sophomore and took a class from Barbara, a young theologian. My mind was split open by a range of new thinkers and writers and by the quality of Barbara’s questions, I finally had something to say and the energy to say it. I was a frequent visitor during Barbara’s office hours, a rocket of words. She listened and calmly responded, a perfect contrast to my feverish ramblings. I loved what she saw in me, which was a range of abilities I had never seen in myself. In the following years, our relationship gradually deepened, but I was always conscious of a teacher-student dynamic.
This changed fundamentally when I became a parent. I had my son in March 2010, and Barbara was one of the first to congratulate me. When, nine months later, my child was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a rare and always terminal illness with no treatment and no cure, she sent me a letter-handwritten on a white legal pad. For the next two and a half years, Barbara wrote me regular, sometimes weekly, letters, remarkable letters that are revealing, loving, and kind.
The letter written right before my son died, when he was three, was the most personal and perhaps the most profound. “I think he’s made you better by opening up the great fire of your love,” she wrote, “with his small but magnificent existence.” I have never in my life read a more deeply comforting sentence, one that spoke to my grandest hopes, my deepest fears, and the only faith that remains to me, which is a belief in chaos. Our love had bloomed and deepened from a guarded mutual respect to a richer, deeper friendship.
Mentors are meant to lead those in their charge into fresh understanding, help them sort and filter new experiences, assist in the project of making sense out of the chaos that is human life. Mentors observe and accompany the darkest despair, the wildest sorrow, and the most unexpected joy.
1. What can we learn from paragraph 2?| A．The author took the class because she excelled1 in theology. |
| B．Their relationship changed significantly beyond a teacher-student mode. |
| C．The author was a frequent visitor to Barbara’s home after working hours. |
| D．Barbara’s peaceful exterior was a contrast to the author’s overexcited talk. |
| A．The way Barbara treated her students. | B．The fact that the author kept silent in class. |
| C．The role of the author as a college student. | D．The relationship between Barbara and the author. |
| A．Barbara’s efforts to solve the problem. |
| B．Barbara’s sympathy shown in the letter. |
| C．The author’s in-depth understanding of Barbara. |
| D．Barbara’s congratulations on the birth of the author’s son. |
| A．Demanding and dedicated. | B．Responsible and reasonable. |
| C．Insightful and inspiring. | D．Aggressive and ambitious. |
7 . I’ve spent my life avoiding uncomfortable or dangerous situations. I’ve always sought
Hearing I felt trapped and lived a life of fear, a
Knowing something in my life needed to
Years of
Now one year into our life
| A．curiosity | B．satisfaction | C．safety | D．pride |
| A．trusted | B．talented | C．pretty | D．talkative |
| A．lesson | B．truth | C．invitation | D．advice |
| A．meaningless | B．small | C．insignificant | D．comfortable |
| A．change | B．recover | C．exist | D．unite |
| A．research | B．test | C．prove | D．explore |
| A．forced | B．motivated | C．expected | D．requested |
| A．ever | B．once | C．even | D．soon |
| A．practising | B．following | C．pretending | D．promising |
| A．partly | B．totally | C．exactly | D．hardly |
| A．supported | B．doubted | C．conquered | D．challenged |
| A．response | B．assumption | C．possibility | D．requirement |
| A．dreamed | B．learnt | C．complained | D．heard |
| A．regret | B．failure | C．fear | D．sorrow |
| A．barrier | B．step | C．secret | D．trend |
| A．calm down | B．hold on | C．take over | D．give up |
| A．abroad | B．onboard | C．home | D．ahead |
| A．flexible | B．tough | C．creative | D．pleasant |
| A．except for | B．rather than | C．due to | D．regardless of |
| A．unafraid | B．unfortunate | C．unknown | D．unimportant |
8 . How to Stop Being Angry?
Anger is the most harmful emotion. When you are in a temper, you make rush or ill-considered decisions that you will probably regret. You will also regret terrible language spoken without thought. Anger arrives quickly, in response to an event, action, or wrong remarks.
Firstly, you need to change your attitude to the way the world works. No one is perfect. Also, you need to accept that not everyone has the same standards as you, nor will they behave in the same way that you would in a given situation.
Try to get to the root cause of your anger.
In conclusion, you must recognize that anger is something you can control. That control will come once you identify what is at the root of your anger. Make changes to your lifestyle and attitudes, and you will find that you will turn angry much less often, if at all. Angry people are not nice people.
| A．Anger can be used to fuel action. |
| B．By contrast, anger is slow to pass. |
| C．When doing this, be honest with yourself. |
| D．Anger is really a bad habit that is hard to break. |
| E．This applies to work, day-to-day life, and relationships. |
| F．When you lose temper, you may do more harm to yourself than good. |
| G．They will fail to achieve more often than those people who are calm and considerate. |
9 . “Regret is a possible element of any decision that we make,” says psychologist Robert Leahy. “But the likelihood that you will regret your decisions will depend on how you think about making your decisions and how you cope with living with the result.”
If you’re someone who lets past regrets fester(溃烂)in your mind, Leahy recommends that you fight against irrational(非理性的)thinking and think more realistically about where you are in life.
Remember that you don’t know things would have turned out better. If you imagine your life would have been better if only…, keep in mind that your assumption is not based on real evidence.
Don’t forget that sometimes things don’t turn out the way you wanted them to.
Accept tradeoffs(折中)and compromises. Not everything has to turn out just the way you wanted it to. You won’t make progress if you insist otherwise and make yourself miserable(痛苦的)in the process.
| A．Be grateful for your past mistakes. |
| B．Don’t focus on where you might have been. |
| C．We will share some effective methods with you. |
| D．Focus on the positive aspects of your current life. |
| E．So, aim to be a satisficer rather than a maximizer. |
| F．Life can hand you lemons, but that’s not necessarily your fault. |
| G．He suggests using scientific approaches to question your assumptions. |
10 . How to Overcome Anxiety
Anxiety is a healthy and normal emotion that everyone often feels. Anxiety may, however, develop into a mental disorder that reduces your capacity to cope with daily stress. When trying to overcome it, you should not try to get rid of your feelings of anxiety but should aim to develop your coping abilities when you do feel anxiety.
Examine your anxiety
Identify the source of your anxiety
Whether you have a panic attack or a sudden round of worry and fear, it is important to determine what is causing your anxiety. Is something in your environment the primary source?
Determine if your worry is solvable
If you know what your fear is, the next step is to determine if it is something you can deal with, or something that only time can manage. If your fear is largely imagination or can’t be dealt with now,
If your fear is mind-consuming, take a moment to think about the honest and absolute worst thing that could happen as a result of it. Perhaps you’re getting ready to do a huge presentation, and you begin to panic. Stop and think “what is the worst that could happen?” No matter how creative your response may be, thinking critically will lead to find that should it occur, there are few endings that can’t be dealt with in a reasonable manner.
| A．Consider the worst |
| B．Think out of the box |
| C．Understand and acknowledge that you are anxious |
| D．make the conscious effort to put it out of your mind |
| E．You can handle anxiety more easily when you are clear about what it is |
| F．Having the ability to cope with anxious thought is the key to overcoming it |
| G．try whatever it takes to solve the problem because you cannot get away with it |
