石油大学工程硕基础英语考试内容整理.docVIP

阅读： Unite three； Rats and men 47页1-3段， [ 1 ] Professor N. R. F. Maier of the University of Michigan [ 2 ] Next, the rats are forced to make a choice, being driven to it by blasts* of air or an electric shock. Animals which are induced to respond in the insoluble* problem situation, says Dr. Maier, settle down to a specific reaction (such as jumping solely at the left hand door) which they continue to execute* regardless of consequences.... The response chosen under these conditions becomes fixated.... Once the fixation* appears, the animal is incapable of learning an adaptive response in this situation. When a reaction to the left-hand door is thus fixated, the right-hand door may be left open so that the food is plainly visible. Yet the rat, when pushed, continues to jump to the left, becoming more panicky* each time. When the experimenter persists in forcing the rat to make choices, it may go into convulsions*, racing around wildly, injuring its claws, bumping into chairs and tables, then going into a state of violent trembling, until it falls into a coma*. In this passive state, it refuses to eat, refuses to take any interest in anything: it can be rolled up into a ball or suspended* in the air by its legs—the rat has ceased to care what happens to it. It has had a nervous breakdown①. [ 3 ] It is the insolubility of the rats problem that leads to its nervous breakdown, and, as Dr. Maier shows in his studies of disturbed children and adults, rats and human beings seem to go through pretty much the same stages. First, they are trained to make habitually a given choice when confronted by a given problem; secondly, they get a terrible shock when they find that the conditions have changed and that the choice doesnt produce the expected results; third, whether through shock, anxiety, or frustration*, they may fixate on the original choice and continue to make that choice regardless of consequences; fourth, they sullenly refuse to act at all; fifth, when by exte