2022年考博英语-福建师范大学考前提分综合测验卷（附带答案及详解）1. 单选题1. Love has toppled kings, inspired poets, sparked wars, soothed beasts, and changed the course of history. It is credited for lifes greatest joys, blamed for the most crushing sorrows. And of course, it makes the world go around.2. All of which is no surprise to biologists. They know that love is central to human existence. We are not just programmed for reproduction. The capacity for loving emotions is also written into our biochemistry, essential if children are to grow and to thrive. And loves absence can be devastating. The loss of a spouse often hastens death in older people.3. Love began with motherhood. For mammalian young to survive, mothers must invest considerable time and energy in them. Of course, the varying growth rates of mammalian species require some mothers to invest more time and energy than others. An elephant seal suckles her pup for only a few weeks before abandoning it; other species, including elephants, some primates, and especially people, lavish attention on their young for years.4. With the help of oxytocin (a chemical that fosters the bond between mothers and children), doting mothers are able to cater to their offsprings every whim and whimper. When females of most mammalian species give birth, their bodies are flooded with oxytocin, known since 1906 as a hormone that stimulates uterine contractions and allow the breasts to let down milk. But oxytocin also acts as a neurotransmitter, or chemical messenger, that can guide behavior. Without it, a ewe cannot recognize her own lamb. A virgin female rat given a shot of oxytocin will nuzzle another females pups, crouching over them protectively as if they were her own.5. Studies of a small rodent known as the prairie vole, a cuddly ball of fur, whose mating bond of lifelong monogamy would put most human couples to shame, indicate oxytocin may also play a role in the heady feelings associated with romance. You just cant imagine how much time these animals spend together. Prairie voles always want to be with somebody, says Carter. The voles undying devotion is the work not only of oxytocin but also of a related hormone, vasopressin. When single male and female prairie voles meet; they commence a two-day-long bout of sex that releases oxytocin in the females brain, bonding her to the male, who prefers his mates company above all others, guarding his family against intruders with a jealous husbands zeal.6. Like some human playboys, male prairie voles seem to get a kick out of courtship mixed with danger. Carter and colleague Courtney De Vries made young, unmated voles swim for three minutes before allowing them to meet a prospective mate. The exercise elevated the animals stress hormones, which are also heightened by fear. But while females scurried off after the swim without bonding to the males as they normally would, male voles bonded faster than ever.7. Human beings unlike rodents are not entirely slaves to their hormones. But the behavior of voles may hold clues to why men and women sometimes hold divergent views of sex and romance. While many women prefer candlelight and sweet talk, men are more apt to welcome a roll in the hay anytime, anywhere. For some men (and some women), sex is especially enticing when forbidden. Carter and De Vries suspect stress hormones can interfere with oxytocins action in the brain, keeping a female vole from bonding, and perhaps preventing most women from finding danger sexually exciting. Vasopressin, in contrast, appears to work better in the presence of certain stress hormones, possibly making danger an aphrodisiac for many males.8. Passionate or platonic, love affects the whole body, setting the heart pounding, making the stomach do flip-flops, and of course, lighting the lions on fire. These visceral sensations are the work of the vagus nerve, which traces a meandering path through the body, coordinating the activities of internal organs, says the University of Marylands Stephen Porges. The vagus ferries signals between our innards and our brains, conveying information upward about our internal state and sending orders down from the brain to the heart, the stomach, the lungs, and the sex organs.9. Without the vagus, says Porges, love would be impossible. One part of the nerve is evolutionarily ancient, controlling primitive functions such as sex, hunger, and fear. This old vagus responds to oxytocin and serves as the pathway between sexual organs and the brain for feelings of both arousal and satiation after sex. But Porges argues that in mammals, newer branches of the vagus also connect emotional brain centers with the heart, the face, and the vocal equipment, helping to coordinate feelings with facial and verbal expression.10. In other words, the poets and bards were fight about one thing. The heart speaks the language of love. As English poet W. H. Auden wrote: Where love is strengthened, hope restored, in