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  3. Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion -- a world in which human beings could feel no love or happiness, no terr

Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion -- a world in which human beings could feel no love or happiness, no terr

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问题       Imagine a world in which there was suddenly no emotion -- a world in which human beings could feel no love or happiness, no terror or hate. Try to imagine the consequences of such a transformation. People might not be able to stay alive; knowing neither joy nor pleasure, anxiety nor fear, they would be as likely to repeat acts that hurt them as acts that were beneficial. They could not learn; they could not benefit from experience because this emotionless world would lack rewards and punishments. Society would soon disappear; people would be as likely to harm one another as to provide help and support. Human relationships would not exist; in a world without friends or enemies, there could be no marriage, affection among companions, or bonds among members of groups. Society’s economic underpinnings would be destroyed; since earning $10 million would be no more pleasant than earning $10, there would be no incentive to work. In fact, there would be no incentives of any kind. For as we will see, incentives imply a capacity to enjoy them.
      In such a world, the chances that the human species would survive are next to zero, because emotions are the basic instrument of our survival and adaptation. Emotions structure the world for us in important ways. As individuals, we categorize objects on the basis of our emotions. True we consider the length, shape, size, or texture, but an object’s physical aspects are less important than what it has done or can do to us — hurt us, surprise us, anger us or make us joyful. We also use categorizations colored by emotions in our families, communities, and overall society. Out of our emotional experiences with objects and events comes a social feeling of agreement that certain things and actions are good and others are bad, and we apply these categories to every aspect of our social life -- from what foods we eat and what clothes we wear to how we keep promises and which people our group will accept. In fact, society exploits our emotional reactions and attitudes, such as loyalty, morality, pride, shame, guilt, fear and greed, in order to maintain itself. It gives high rewards to individuals who perform important tasks such as surgery, makes heroes out of individuals for unusual or dangerous achievements such as flying fighter planes in a war, and uses the legal penal system to make people afraid to engage in antisocial acts.  
Why might people unable to stay alive in a world without emotion?
选项 A、They would not be able to categorize objects in the real world,
B、They would not live with happiness, but only with anguish and terror.
C、They would not know what was beneficial and what was harmful.
D、They would repeat acts that hurt each other.
答案C
解析 细节题。文章第一段第三句话说人们也许不能活下去：既不知道喜悦也不知道快乐，既不知道焦虑也不知道恐惧，他们可能会不断重复伤害自己的行为，就像不断重复对他们有益的行为一样，可见C正确。
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