"Watch out, it’ll hurt for a second." Not only children but also many adults get uneasy when they hear those words from their do

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问题     "Watch out, it’ll hurt for a second." Not only children but also many adults get uneasy when they hear those words from their doctors. And, as soon as the needle touches their skin the piercing pain can be felt very clearly. "After such an experience it is enough to simply imagine a needle at the next vaccination appointment to activate our pain memory," knows Prof. Dr. Thomas Weiss from the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    As the scientist and his team from the Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology could show in a study for the first time it is not only the painful memories and associations that set our pain memory on the alert. "Even verbal stimuli lead to reactions in certain areas of the brain," claims Prof. Weiss. As soon as we hear words like "tormenting," "tiring" or "plaguing," exactly those areas in the brain are being activated which process the corresponding pain. The psychologists from Jena University were able to examine this phenomenon using functional magnetic resonance tomography (fMRT). In their study they investigated how healthy subjects process words associated with experiencing pain. In order to prevent reactions based on a plain negative affect the subjects were also confronted with negatively connotated words like "terrifying," "horrible" or "disgusting" besides the proper pain words.
    "Subject performed two tasks," explains Maria Richter in Weiss’s team. "In a first task, subjects were supposed to imagine situations which correspond to the words," the Jena psychologist says. In a second task, subjects were also reading the words but they were distracted by a puzzle. "In both cases we could observe a clear activation of the pain matrix in the brain by pain-associated words," Maria Richter states. Other negatively connotated words, however, do not activate those regions. Neither for neutrally nor for positively connotated words comparable activity patterns could be examined.
    "These findings show that words alone are capable of activating our pain matrix," underlines Prof. Weiss. To save painful experiences is of biological advantage since it allows us to avoid painful situations in the future which might be dangerous for our lives. "However, our results suggest as well that verbal stimuli have a more important meaning than we have thought so far." For the Jena psychologist the question remains open which role the verbal confrontation with pain plays for chronic pain patients. "They tend to speak a lot about their experiencing of pain to their physician," Maria Richter says. It is possible that those conversations intensify the activity of the pain matrix in the brain and therefore intensify the pain experience.
    And so far it won’t do any harm not to talk too much about pain. Maybe then the next injection will be only half as painful.
The research findings suggest that ________.

选项 A、words alone are able to help people to avoid painful situations
B、saving painful experiences might help men survive in the future
C、verbal confrontation with pain is important for chronic pain patients
D、conversations of pains reduce the activity of the pain matrix

答案B

解析 根据题干中的The research findings可定位到第四段。该段第二句提到,保存疼痛经历使我们避免某些危害性命的情况,也就是能让我们生存下去,B项表达的意思与此相符。第四段第一句说言语本身只能激活疼痛基质,而真正能让人避免疼痛情况的是人们对疼痛保存有记忆,而非语言本身就有这作用,所以A项不对。C项中的verbal confrontation with pain,important及chronic pain patients分别出现在第四段第三四句,该项是利用原文原词进行干扰,该段4句提到“与病痛有关的言语在慢性疼痛患者身上起什么作用,仍然未有结论”,故important的说法不能确定,所以排除C项。D项中的reduce“减少”和第六句中的intensify “加强”意思刚好相反,故D项错误。
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