蘇大英語閱讀理解-1

What does a scientist do when he or she"explains something? Scientific explanation comes in two forms:generalization and reduction. Most psychologists deal with generalization. Theyexplain parlicular instances of behavior as example of general laws. Forinstance, most psychologists would explain a pathologically (病態) strong fear of dogs as example of classicalconditioning. Presumably, the person was frightened earlier in life by a dog.An unpleasant stimulus was paired with the sight of the animal (perhaps theperson was knocked down by a vigorous dog and the subsequent sight of dogsevokes the earlier response of fear.

Most physiologists deal with reduction.Phenomena are explained in terms of simpler phenomena. For examjle, themovement of a muscle is explained in terms of changes in the membrane (生物膜)of muscle cells, entry of particular chemicalsand interactions between protein molecules within these cells. A molecularbiologist would "explain" these events in terms of forces that bindvarious molecules together and cause various parts of these molecules to beattracted to one another.

The task of physiological psychology is to"explain" behavior in physiological terms. Like other scientists,physiological psychologists believe that all natural phenomena-- includinghuman behavior--are subject to the laws of physics. Thus, the law of behaviorcan be reduced to description of physiological processes.

How does one study the physiology of behavior? Physiologicalpsychologists cannot simply be reductionists. It is not to observe behaviorsand correlate them with physiological events that occur at the same time.Identical behaviors, under different conditions, may occur for differentreasons, and thus be initiated by different physiological mechanisms. Thismeans that we must understand " psychologically" why a particularbehavior occurs before we can understand what physiological events made itoccur.

1. The passage mainly discusses .

A) The difference between “scientific” and “unscientific” explanations

B) The difference between human and animalbehavior

C) How fear would be explained by thepsychologist, the physiologist, and molecular biologist

D) How scientists differ in their approachesexplaining natural phenomena

2. In the first paragraph the word"deal" could best be replaced by .

A) barter B) bargain

C) are playing D) are concerned

3 Which of the following is most similiar to theexample in the passage of the person who fears dogs?