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  3. The desire for achievement is one of life’s great mysteries. Social scientis

The desire for achievement is one of life’s great mysteries. Social scientis

游客2024-04-09  10
问题     The desire for achievement is one of life’s great mysteries. Social scientists have devoted lifetimes studying the drives that spur us out of bed in the morning, compel us to work or study hard and spark all manner of human endeavors. Indeed, a 1992 textbook actually documents 32 distinct theories of human motivation.
    Given this diversity of thought, it’s easy to forget that for half a century, American society has been dominated by the psychological school known as behaviorism, or Skinnerian psychology. Although behaviorism and its fundamental principle of "positive reinforcement" have long since lost their sway in academic circles, the Skinnerian legacy remains powerful in every realm of daily life, from the home and classroom to the workplace. Don’t want to take the trash out? Do it, and you can go to the movies Friday night. Not in the mood for work? Keep plugging away, and you might get a bonus. Not interested in calculus? Strive for an A in the class, and you’ll make the honor roll. The theory may be bankrupt, but incentives and rewards are so much a part of American culture that it’s hard to imagine life without them.
    Yet that’s exactly what a growing group of researchers are advocating today. A steady stream of research has found that rather than encouraging motivation and productivity, rewards actually can undermine genuine interest and diminish performance. "Our society is caught in a whopping paradox," asserts Alfie Kohn, author of the new book Punished by Rewards(Houghton Mifflin), which surveys recent research on the effectiveness of rewards. "We complain loudly about declining productivity, the crisis of our school and the distorted values of our children. But the very strategy we use to solve those problems—dangling rewards like incentive plans and grade and candy bars in front of people—is partly responsible for the fix we’re in."
    It’s tough argument to make in a culture that celebrates the spoils of success. Yet study after study shows that people tend to perform worse, to give up more easily and to lose interest more quickly when a reward is involved. Children who are given treats for doing artwork, for example, lose their initial love of art within weeks. Teenagers who are promised a reward for tutoring youngsters don’t teach as enthusiastically as tutors offered nothing. And chief executive officers who have been awarded long-term incentive plans have often steered their companies toward lower returns. [br] In paragraph 2, "calculus" probably refers to "_____".
选项 A、a course
B、a sport
C、a kind of public service
D、a position in the student union
答案 A
解析 本题要求通过上下文推测出生词的词义。calculus出现在原文第2段倒数第三句，设问之后紧接着作者回答说，只要在课堂努力争取得到A(美国课程评分系统中的一个等级水平)，就可以上光荣榜，可见calculus是一门课程，即a course。
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