Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions from 36 to 42
For more than a century, Western philosophers and psychologists have based their discussions of mental life on a cardinal assumption: that the same basic processes underlie all human thought, whether in the mountains of Tibet or the grasslands of the Serengeti. Cultural differences might dictate what people thought about. Teenage boys in Botswana, for example, might discuss cows with the same passion that New York teenagers reserve for sports cars.
But the habits of thought - the strategies people adopted in processing information and making sense of the world around them - were, Western scholars assumed, the same for everyone, exemplified by, among other things, a devotion to logical reasoning, a penchant for categorization and an urge to understand situations and events in linear terms of cause and effect.
Recent work by a social psychologist at the University of Michigan, however, is turning this long-held view of mental functioning upside down. In a series of studies comparing European Americans to East Asians, Dr. Richard Nisbett and his colleagues have found that people who grow up in different cultures do not just think about different things: they think differently.
We used to think that everybody uses categories in the same way, that logic plays the same kind of role for everyone in the understanding of everyday life, that memory, perception, rule application and so on are the same," Dr. Nisbett said. "But we're now arguing that cognitive processes themselves are just far more malleable than mainstream psychology assumed."
In many respects, the cultural disparities the researchers describe mirror those described by anthropologists, and may seem less than surprising to Americans who have lived in Asia. And Dr. Nisbett and his colleagues are not the first psychological researchers to propose that thought may be embedded in cultural assumptions: Soviet psychologists of the 1930's posed logic problems to Uzbek peasants, arguing that intellectual tools were influenced by pragmatic circumstances.
Still, to the extent that the studies reflect real differences in thinking and perception, psychologists may have to radically revise their ideas about what is universal and what is not, and to develop new models of mental processes that take cultural influences into account.
(Adapted from The New York Times)
Question 36. Which best serves as the title for the passage?
A. How culture molds habits of thought.                                      B. Different culture, same thoughts.
C. Case study: The disparity between individuality and mentality. D. Universal perception of different cultures.
Question 37. The word “exemplified” in paragraph 2 mostly means _______.
     A. simplified                       B. displayed                        C. demonstrated               D. determined
Question 38. According to the passage, what is the opinion of Western scholars on our habits of thought?
A. They believe that our habits of thoughts depend on our culture
B. They conclude that everybody has the same habits of thought.
C. They assume that people in different culture devote themselves to critical thinking
D. They claim that people start to use their mind to process information
Question 39. The word “they” in paragraph 3 refers to _______ .
A. People who relocate to another country                      B. Dr. Richard Nisbett and his colleagues
C. People belonging to different households                    D. Individuals who grow up in various cultures
Question 40. The word “malleable” in paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to _______ .
     A. firm                               B. flexible                          C. stunning                       D. thick
Question 41. Which of the following is true, according to the passage?
A. Teenagers in Botswana and in New York do not share the same interests
B. It has been proved that people from different cultures think in the same way
C. The concept of all people thinking the same is disputed by a researcher
D. Logic reasoning is of little importance when it comes to shaping people’s thoughts
Question 42. Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?
A. Soviet psychologists tried to make radical changes to pragmatic circumstances.
B. The way our brain processes information is kept unchanged.
C. We will have the same habits of thoughts when we immerse ourselves in another culture.
D. In-depth research is needed to shed light on the relationship between culture and thinking
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