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1、新视野第大学英语读写教程2 (第三版) unit 6 课文原文Door closer, are you?1The next time youre deciding betweenrivaloptions, one which is primary and the other which issecondary, ask yourself this question: What wouldXiang Yudo?2Xiang Yu was a Chineseimperialgeneral in the third century BC who took his troops across theZ
2、hang Riveron araidinto enemyterritory.To his troops astonishment, he ordered their cooking pots crushed and their sailing ships burned.3He explained that he was imposing on them a necessity for attaining victory over theiropponents.What he said was surelymotivating, but it wasnt really appreciated b
3、y many of hisloyalsoldiers as they watched theirvesselsgo up in flames.But thegeniusof General Xiang Yusconvictionwould bevalidatedboth on the battlefield and in modern social science research.General Xiang Yu was a rareexceptionto the norm, aveteranleader who was highly respected for his manyconque
4、stsand who achieved thesummitof success.4He is featured inDan Arielysenlighteningnewpublication,PredictablyIrrational, a fascinatinginvestigationof seemingly irrational human behavior, such as the tendency for keeping multiple options open.Most people cantmarshalthe will for painful choices, not eve
5、n students at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where Dr. Ariely teachesbehavioraleconomics.In an experiment that investigated decision-making, hundreds of students couldnt bear to let their options vanish, even though it was clear they wouldprofitfrom doing so.5The experimentrevolveda
6、round a game that eliminated the excuses we usually have for refusing to let go.In the real world, we can always say, Its good topreserveour options.Want a good example?A teenager is exhausted from soccer, ballet, piano, and Chinese lessons, but her parents wont stop any one of them because they mig
7、ht come in handy some day!6In the experimentsessions, students played a computer game that provided cash behind three doors appearing on the screen.The rule was the more money you earned, the better player you were, given a total of 100 clicks.Every time the students opened a door by clicking on it,
8、 they would use up one click but wouldnt get any money.However, each subsequent click on that door would earn afluctuatingsum of money, with one door always revealing more money than the others.The important part of the rule was each door switch, though having no cash value, would also use up one of
9、 the 100 clicks.Therefore, the winning strategy was to quickly check all the doors and keep clicking on the one with the seemingly highest rewards.7While playing the game, students noticed amodifiedvisualelement: Any door left un-clicked for a short while would shrink in size and vanish.Since they a
10、lready understood the game, they should have ignored the vanishing doors.Nevertheless, they hurried to click on the lesser doors before they vanished, trying to keep them open.As a result, they wasted so many clicks rushing back to the vanishing doors that they lost money in the end.Why were the stu
11、dents so attached to the lesser doors?They would probablyprotestthat they wereclingingto the doors to keep future options open, but, according to Dr. Ariely, that isnt the truefactor.8Instead of the excuse to maintain future options open,underneathit all the students desire was to avoid the immediat
12、e, thoughtemporary, pain of watching options close.Closing a door on an option is experienced as a loss, and people are willing to pay a big price to avoid the emotion of loss, Dr. Ariely says.In the experiment, the price was easily measured in lost cash.In life, the corresponding costs are often le
13、ss obvious such as wasted time or missed opportunities.9Sometimes these doors are closing too slowly for us to see them vanishing, Dr. Ariely writes. We may work more hours at our jobs without realizing that the childhood of our sons and daughters is slipping away.10So, what can be done torestorebal
14、ance in our lives?One answer, Dr. Ariely says, is toimplementmore prohibitions on overbooking.We can work to reduce options on our own,delegatingtasks to others and even giving away ideas for others to pursue.He points to marriage as an example, In marriage, we create a situation where we promise ou
15、rselves not to keep options open. We close doors and announce to others weve closed doors.11Since conducting the door experiment, Dr. Ariely says he has made a conscious effort to lessen his load.He urges the rest of us to resign from committees,pruneholiday card lists, rethink hobbies and remember
16、the lessons of door closers like Xiang Yu.12In other words, Dr. Ariely is encouraging us todiscardthose things that seem to haveoutwardmerit in favor of those things that actually enrich our lives.We are naturallyprejudicedto believe that more is better, but Dr. Arielys research provides adoseof rea
17、lity that strongly suggests otherwise.13What price do we pay for trying to have more and more in life?What pleasure and satisfaction can be derived from focusing our energy and attention in a more concentrated fashion?Surely, we will have ourrespectiveanswers.14Consider these important questions: Will we have more by always increasing options or will we have more with fewer, carefully chosen options?What doors should we close in order to allow the right windows of opportunity and happiness to open?2 / 2