Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight. When he came to analyse their embarrassing lapses in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings. Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random .
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer, explains the professor. People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the womans custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed in the programme. About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these programme assembly failures .
Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing-an average of twelve each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest . These are two hours some time between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain programmes occurs, as for instance between going to and from work. Women on average reported slightly more lapses-12.5 compared with 10.9 for men-probably because they were more reliable reporters.
A startling finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a hazard of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse-even dangerous.
1. In his study Professor Smith asked the subjects _________ .
A) to keep track of people who tend to forget things
B) to report their embarrassing lapses at random
C) to analyse their awkward experiences scientifically
D) to keep a record of what they did unintentionally
2. Professor Smith discovered that _______ .
A) certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents
B) many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness
C) men tend to be more absent-minded than women
D) absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness
3. Programme assembly failures refers to the phenomenon that people _________ .
A) often fail to programme their routines beforehand
B) tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry
C) unconsciously change the sequence of doing things
D) are likely to mess things up if they are too tired
4. We learn from the third paragraph that _________ .
A) absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day
B) women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods
C) women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness
D) mens absent-mindedness often results in funny situations
5. It can be concluded from the passage that _________ .
A) people should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses
B) hazards can be avoided when people do things they are good at
C) people should be careful when programming their actions
D) lapses cannot always be attributed to lack of concentration
答案与解析：
1. D).根据第一段第一句 Professor...for a fortnight. 可知,正确答案为选项D).
2. A).根据第一段第二句 When he came to...fell into a few groupings. 可知,正确答案为选项A).
3. C).根据第二段倒数第二句 But somehow the action got reversed in the programme. 可知,正确答案为选项C).
4. A).根据第三段的主题句 There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest. 可知,正确答案为选项A).句中 when we are at our zaniest 即指 人们无意中出差错时 .
5. D).根据本文最后一句 But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse-even dangerous. 可知,正确答案为选项D).