CET-6 Listening Passages: The Anchoring Effect and the Brains of London Taxi Drivers

Passage One.

短文一。

Can a completely random number change the way you think?

一个完全随机的数字，能改变你的思考方式吗？

In 1974, the psychologists Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman showed that it can.

1974年，心理学家阿莫斯·特沃斯基和丹尼尔·卡尼曼证明了这一点。

They spun a wheel of fortune that was secretly set to stop at either ten or sixty-five.

他们转动一个幸运转盘，转盘被暗中设定为只会停在十或六十五。

Then they asked people what percentage of African countries were in the United Nations.

然后，他们问人们：在联合国成员国中，非洲国家占百分之几？

Those who saw ten guessed around twenty-five percent.

看到十的人估计大约是百分之二十五。

Those who saw sixty-five guessed around forty-five!

而看到六十五的人，估计大约是百分之四十五！

This is known as the anchoring effect.

这就是所谓的锚定效应。

The first number we hear becomes an anchor, and our guesses stay close to it.

我们听到的第一个数字会变成一个锚，之后的估计都会围着它打转。

Shops know this well, which is why a crossed-out high price makes a sale so tempting.

商家深谙此道，所以一个被划掉的高价，会让打折商品显得格外诱人。

Questions nine to eleven are based on the passage you have just heard.

第9题到第11题基于你刚才听到的短文。

Question nine. What was special about the wheel used in the experiment?

第9题。实验中使用的转盘有什么特别之处？

Question ten. How did people who saw the higher number answer?

第10题。看到较大数字的人是怎么回答的？

Question eleven. Why does the speaker mention crossed-out prices in shops?

第11题。说话者为什么提到商店里被划掉的价格？

Passage Two.

短文二。

To get a licence, London taxi drivers must pass a famously difficult test called the Knowledge.

要拿到执照，伦敦出租车司机必须通过一项出了名难的考试，叫作 the Knowledge。

They spend three to four years learning around twenty-five thousand streets.

他们要花三到四年时间，记住大约两万五千条街道。

In 2000, the neuroscientist Eleanor Maguire and her team scanned the brains of these drivers.

2000年，神经科学家埃莉诺·马奎尔和她的团队对这些司机的大脑进行了扫描。

The back of the hippocampus, an area linked to navigation, was larger than in other people!

他们海马体的后部——一个与导航有关的区域——比其他人更大！

And the longer someone had driven a taxi, the larger that area tended to be.

而且开出租车的时间越长，这个区域往往就越大。

But perhaps people with a bigger hippocampus simply chose to drive taxis?

不过，会不会只是海马体本来就大的人更愿意去开出租车呢？

A later study compared taxi drivers with London bus drivers.

后来的一项研究把出租车司机和伦敦公交车司机做了比较。

Bus drivers follow fixed routes, and they showed no such difference.

公交车司机按固定路线行驶，他们身上没有出现这种差异。

It seems the brain really does change with the way we use it.

看来，大脑确实会随着我们使用它的方式而改变。

Questions twelve to fifteen are based on the passage you have just heard.

第12题到第15题基于你刚才听到的短文。

Question twelve. What must London taxi drivers do to get a licence?

第12题。伦敦出租车司机要拿到执照必须做什么？

Question thirteen. What did Eleanor Maguire find in the taxi drivers' brains?

第13题。埃莉诺·马奎尔在出租车司机的大脑中发现了什么？

Question fourteen. Why did researchers compare taxi drivers with bus drivers?

第14题。研究人员为什么要把出租车司机和公交车司机作比较？

Question fifteen. What conclusion does the speaker draw?

第15题。说话者得出了什么结论？