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  3. That Orientals and Westerners think in different ways is not mere prejudice. Many psychological studies conducted over the past

That Orientals and Westerners think in different ways is not mere prejudice. Many psychological studies conducted over the past

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问题     That Orientals and Westerners think in different ways is not mere prejudice. Many psychological studies conducted over the past two decades suggest Westerners have a more individualistic and abstract mental life than do East Asians. Several explanations are proposed to account for different ways of thinking.
    One explanation is that stepping into the modern social, economic and technological situation promotes individualism. However, in Japan, a pretty modern country, its people have retained a collective outlook. A second proposal is that if a place is liable to a higher frequency of infectious disease, it is more dangerous to make contact with strangers, which causes groups in this place to turn inward and tend to be collective. This explanation is also been questioned. Europe has had its share of plagues; probably more than either Japan or Korea. And though in southern China, a source of infection often starts there, this is not true of other parts of that enormous country.
    That led Thomas Talhelm of the University of Virginia and his colleagues to look into a third suggestion; that the crucial difference is agricultural. The West’s staple (主食)is wheat, while the East’s rice. Before the mechanical revolution of agriculture, a farmer who grew rice had to spend twice as many hours doing so as one who grew wheat. To promote efficient agricultural production, especially at times of planting and harvesting, rice-growing societies as far apart as India, Malaysia and Japan all developed cooperative labor exchanges. That is, neighbors arranged their farms’ schedules one after another in order to assist each other during these significant periods. Since, until recently, almost everyone was a farmer, it is a reasonable proposal that such a collective outlook would enjoy a controlling position in a society’s culture and behavior, and might prove so deep rooted that even now, when most people earn their living in other ways, it helps to define their lives. This proposal that the different ways of thinking of East and West are, at least in part, a consequence of their agriculture is worth further exploration.
What do we learn about Easterners’ way of thinking?
选项 A、They often hold no prejudice.
B、They pursue abstract mental life.
C、They are in favor of individualism.
D、They emphasize the collective values.
答案D
解析 本题考查东方人的思维方式。原文第一段第二句提到，西方人比东亚人更看重个人主义和抽象型的精神生活。东西方思维方式不同，由此可推知，东方人强调集体主义价值观，故答案为D。A“他们经常不持有偏见”是对原文第一段第一句“东西方思维方式不同，这并不只是偏见”的曲解，故排除；B“他们追求抽象型的精神生活”和C“他们支持个人主义”都是西方人的思维方式，故排除。
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