Сборник текстов по психологии для чтения на английском языке с упражнениями Г.В. Бочарова, М.Г. Степанова

T e x t 3

RICH AND POOR

All over the world, Americans are known for their easy way of spending money. Abroad, they often stay in the best hotels and go to the most expensive stores. At home, too, they are used to the best of everything. An ordinary American house has two bathrooms, a separate bedroom for each child, a garage, and several TV sets. Most families have a car, and many have a mobile home. Kitchens are full of expensive electrical appliances.

Americans work hard for their wealth, and they enjoy it. They respect people who have become millionaires. They enjoy watching TV programs and reading about super rich, the “big spenders.” They admire women who can buy dresses for over $20,000, and rich businesspeople who can travel in their own private airplanes.

People like to feel that they, too, could be rich if they worked hard enough. They feel good about the future. To be free to do well, to be rewarded properly for honest, hard work — this, they say, is the real meaning of America. It was to this country, after all, that the poor of the world came to find a new life and a fair chance for their children, and many of them found it.

But not all. In recent years, more and more people have become trapped in an “underclass.” Many, but not all of them, are black. Many, but not all, live in the old “inner” cities. These people seem to be unable to escape from bad housing, unemployment, and a life of crime and hopelessness. For them, drugs and alcohol are especially serious problems.

Politicians cannot decide on how to improve the situation. Some ask for more payments for the poor, for better housing, more free food, better medical help. Others feel that the poor will only learn to help themselves if they receive no help at all from others.

Americans have always loved stories about poor people who worked hard and reached the top. They find it much harder to accept the idea of poor people who have no hope, no work to do, and who have to stay at the bottom.

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I. Find English equivalents for the following words and expressions.

Легкий способ; упорно трудиться ради своего благосостоя ния; чувствовать уверенность в будущем; быть вознагражденным должным образом; безнадежность.

II. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and expressions.

“Inner” cities; to be unable to escape from smth.; to improve the situation; for better housing; to reach the top; to accept the idea.

III.Rearrange the statements as they occur in the text. (Give num bers.)

1.Americans have always loved stories about poor people who worked hard and reached the top.

2.They respect people who have become millionaires.

3.Americans work hard for their wealth, and they enjoy it.

4.People like to feel that they, too, could be rich, if they worked hard enough.

5.For them drugs and alcohol are especially serious problems.

6.They find it much harder to accept the idea of poor people who have no hope, no work to do, and who have to stay at the bottom.

7.In recent years, more and more people have become trapped in an “underclass.”

8.But not all.

T e x t 4

BRAIN AND BODY

One day in 1935, in an ordinary English garden, an Indian called Kuda Bux was watched by a group of scientists while he walked more than two metres across a bed of fire. He seemed to feel no pain, and his feet were not damaged, although the temperature on top of the fire was measured as 430°C.

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People walk through fire without getting hurt in Greece, India, Japan, Africa, and the islands of the Pacific. How do they do it? Some scientists think that it is important for their feet to be wet; some think that they must walk in a special way; and some believe that they are able to slow down their brain waves, so that they do not feel pain.

We know that when we walk, or talk, or play music or football, our brain is controlling our body. But some people seem able to do this better than others.

People who practice yoga seem able to slow down their brain waves, and even their heart. After years of practice, some of them can stop themselves from feeling the cold, or from bleeding when cut with a knife.

At one time, scientists thought that this also explained how people could lie on nails without feeling pain. But in 1981, an American university teacher was introduced to his new class while lying on a bed of nails. He explained that it was not dangerous because there were so many nails that each one was only holding about 50 or 60 grams of his body.

Doctors are also interested in using hypnotism to control illnesses of the body and the brain. When you are hypnotized, you are no longer controlling your own body: another person is controlling you. Perhaps you have seen a magician do it at the theatre or on television? The person who is hypnotized appears to be both awake and asleep, and they obey the magician, instead of their own brain.

Hypnotism can be frightening to watch; the person seems almost to become somebody different. Sometimes people even remember things that they did not know that they knew. In one test, a young man started speaking Japanese, a language that he had only heard when he was a very small child. In another, a girl sang a song in a foreign language that she had once seen in a library many years before. Although hypnotism appears at first to be magic, scientists can study and use it. The police sometimes hypnotize people to help them remember car numbers, or the faces of robbers. But this is not something to try for yourself!

I. Find English equivalent for the following words and expressions.

Идти по раскаленным углям; не чувствовать боли; особым образом; замедлить; заниматься йогой; кровоточить, истекать кровью.

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II. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and expressions.

To lie on a bed of nails; to control illnesses of the body and the brain; to be both awake and asleep; instead of smth.; to be frightening to watch; to hypnotize.

III.Rearrange the statements as they occur in the text. (Give num bers.)

1.When you are hypnotized, you are no longer controlling your own body: another person is controlling you.

2.Some scientists think that they are able to slow down their brain waves, so that they do not feel pain.

3.Although hypnotism appears at first to be magic, scientists can study and use it.

4.Doctors are also interested in using hypnotism to control illnesses of the body and the brain.

5.The person who is hypnotized appears to be both awake and asleep.

6.The person hypnotized seems almost to become somebody different.

7.People walk through fire without getting hurt in Greece, India, Japan, Africa, and the islands of Pacific.

T e x t 5

BODILY COMMUNICATION

Bodily nonverbal communication has several dimensions, one of which is kinesics, or physical movements of the body, such as gestures, the way one holds one’s body (tense or relaxed posture), and how one uses the body in given contexts. Powerful persuaders want to be physically or perceptually “above” their audiences. They also demonstrate relaxed but erect posture, dynamic gestures, good eye contact, and variation in speaking rate and inflection. Powerless

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persuaders behave more submissively and exhibit lots of body tension, little direct eye contact, “closed” postures (for example, legs and arms crossed), and few gestures.

Knapp identifies several head movements that convey meaning: cocking of the head, tilting or nodding of the head, and the thrusting out of the jaw or the shaking of the head. And, of course, there are other movements that convey meaning: clenching one’s fist, having one’s arms akimbo on the waist, and standing in an “open” stance with legs spread apart. These movements can indicate anger, intensity, and degree of commitment or dedication.

In some cases, gestures and bodily movements are emblematic — they stand for a particular meaning. For example, stroking the index finger while pointing it at someone is emblematic of “shame on you,” crossed fingers indicate “good luck,” and the hitchhiker’s closed fist and extended thumb are emblematic of wanting a ride (although the same gesture means “gig them” to a student of Texas A&M). Orban points out several others including the “A OK” sign (which conveys the same meaning to Latin Americans as “the bird” does to us), the “be quiet” sign and the “peace” sign. He says these emblems can do many things such as perform a function (“shush”), communicate positive, negative or neutral values (“thumbs up,” “thumbs down,” or shoulder shrugging), or provide an evaluation such as the “A OK” emblem does in the United States. And there are many obscene gestures that quickly arouse anger or other emotions.

I. Find English equivalents for the following words and expressions.

Невербальная коммуникация; параметры; поза, положение; изменение интонации; прямой зрительный контакт; передавать значение.

II. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and expressions.

Cocking of the head; thrusting out of the jaw; akimbo; to stand in an “open” stance; commitment; to be emblematic; obscene gestures.

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III.Rearrange the statements as they occur in the text. (Give numbers.)

1.There are many obscene gestures that can quickly arouse anger or other emotions.

2.Powerless persuaders behave more submissively.

3.These movements can indicate anger, intensity, and degree of commitment.

4.Bodily nonverbal communication has several dimensions, one of which is kinesics, or physical movements of the body.

5.Powerful persuaders want to be physically and perceptually “above” their audience.

6.Knapp identifies several head movements that convey meaning.

7.In some cases, gestures and bodily movements are emblema tic — they stand for a particular meaning.

T e x t 6

THE FACE OF FEELING — FACIAL EXPRESSIONS

AND PRODUCTION OF EMOTION

The 80 muscles in the face can create more than 7,000 expressions. Facial expressions are so much a part of our lives that it is easy to overlook the fact that the need for them is not immediately obvious. Charles Darwin argued that expressions are adaptive responses necessary for survival. They communicate internal states, signal when danger is near and so on.

In this view the term expression implies the existence of something that must be revealed, a perception, thought or feeling that takes form on the face. Accordingly, emotion is organized in the brain. Once emotion is constructed there, the brain sends signals to the face, which assumes an expression.

It is by no means clear, however, that the experience of emotion necessarily precedes its expression. In fact, recent research suggests

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that by providing “feedback” to the brain, facial movements themselves may be tied to the production of emotion.

Psychologists Robert Levenson, Paul Ekman, and Wallace Friesen have analyzed the effect particular expressions have on those physical responses not under voluntary control: heart rate, finger temperature and skin conductivity. The researchers used two methods to study the link between expressions and emotions. One was to have actors and actresses make faces as though they were angry, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted or happy. The researchers did not say, “Look sad.” Instead, without naming emotions, they had the subjects model their faces on archetypes developed by Ekman.

Ekman studied facial expressions in several disparate cultures, mapping the most minute twitches in thousands of expressions. From these he distilled faces that he believes quintessentially and universally portray six emotions: the same six the researchers chose to examine.

The researchers found that when people assumed expressions of anger, fear or sadness their heart rate increased. When they stimulated disgust their heart rate slowed. Finger temperature also responded to particular feelings, rising with anger and decreasing with fear.

“The easiest explanation for this, Levenson says, is a sociobiological one.” Emotions are often associated with the need to behave in a certain way on very short notice. Anger and fear are associated with either fighting or fleeing, and both activities start the heart pumping. By the same token, situations that provoke anger often require more blood in the hands, which would necessarily raise the temperature in the fingertips.

Levenson and colleagues also had the actors and actresses use their method training to recall emotional memories. When they called up a single emotion it triggered results similar to those observed in people who merely mimicked an expression.

Levenson points out that these results do not support any particular evolutionary model. The fact that heart rate and skin temperature changed when subjects assumed an expression without knowing what emotion they were portraying provides some backing for the “feedback” model. Facial musculature and involuntary physical response may both be so integral a part of emotions that they cannot be uncoupled.

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I. Find English equivalents for the following words and expressions.

Выражение лица; недооценивать факт; передавать внутрен нее состояние; принять выражение; способность кожи реагиро вать на стимул; выделять лица.

II. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and expressions.

Not under voluntary control; to portray emotions; to provoke anger; to mimic an expression; to move facial muscles voluntarily; to recall emotional memories.

III.Rearrange the statements as they occur in the text. (Give num bers.)

1.Emotions are often associated with the need to behave in a certain way on very short notice.

2.Once emotion is constructed in the brain, it sends signals to the face, which assumes an expression.

3.Facial musculature and involuntarily physical response may both be so integral a part of emotions that cannot be uncoupled.

4.Emotion is organized in the brain.

5.The researches used two methods to study the link between expressions and emotions.

6.Charles Darwin argued that expressions are adaptive responses necessary for survival.

T e x t 7

PROXEMIC COMMUNICATION

Proxemic communication (or how one uses physical space) is the fourth category of nonverbal channels in Leathers’ system. You have undoubtedly noticed how most people fall silent and don’t look at one another when they are in crowded elevators or public restrooms, for example. Edward T. Hall identifies four kinds of space in his book The

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Silent Language. They have been confirmed by numerous researchers since then.

1.Public distance. This type of distance is often in public speaking situations where speakers are fifteen to twenty five or more feet from their audiences. Informal persuasion probably will not work in these circumstances. Persuaders who try to be informal in a formal situation meet with little success.

2.Social or formal distance. This type of distance is used in formal but nonpublic situations, such as interviews or committee reports. The persuader in these situations, although formal in style, need not to be oratorical. Formal distance ranges from about seven to twelve feet between persuader and persuadee. Persuaders never become chummy in this kind of situation, yet they do not deliver a “speech” either. You probably select this distance when you go to your professor’s office for a conference.

3.Personal or informal distance. Two colleagues might use this distance when discussing a matter of mutual concern. Roommates discussing a class or a problem they share use this distance. In these situations, communication is less structured than in the formal situation; both persuadee and persuader relax and interact often with each other, bringing up and questioning evidence or asking for clarification. In our culture, informal distance is about three and one half to four feet — the eye to eye distance when sitting at the corner of a teacher’s desk as opposed to the formal distance created when you sit across the desk.

4.Intimate distance. People use this distance when they mutter or lovingly whisper messages they do not want others to overhear or when they are involved in a conspiratorial or other “secret” conversation. Persuasion may or may not occur in these instances; usually the message is one that will not be questioned by the receiver — he or she will nod in agreement, follow the suggestion given, or respond to the question asked. When two communicators are in this kind of close relation to one another, their aims are similar, in all probability. The distance ranges from six to eighteen inches.

How do persuaders use these distance boundaries? Are you and I vulnerable to persuasion using proxemics? The examples that surround us often escape our notice because proxemic communication is

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transmitted at such a low level of awareness. Take automobile sales as an example. When customers come into a new car showroom, imagine the results if the salesperson rushed over to them and within personal or even intimate distance asked something like, “What can I do for you folks today?” The customers would probably retreat from the showroom or at least from the salesperson, saying something like, “Well, we’re just looking around.” Clever sales representatives stay within public distance of the customer until they get an indication of interest or a verbal or nonverbal signal that the customer wants help. Only then will the salesperson move into informal or even formal distance.

I. Find English equivalents for the following words and expressions.

Замолкать; в этих обстоятельствах; мастер убеждать; произ носить речь; вопрос, представляющий взаимный интерес; при водить доводы; подвергать сомнению факты; бормотать, гово рить тихо.

II. Give Russian equivalents for the following words and expressions.

To overhear; conspiratorial; to nod in agreement; to range from… to…; distance boundaries; verbal signal; proxemics.

III.Rearrange the statements as they occur in the text. (Give numbers.)

1.The distance ranges from six to eighteen inches.

2.Informal distance is about three and one half to four feet.

3.This type of distance is used in formal but nonpublic situations.

4.Public distance is often found in public speaking situations where the speakers are fifteen to twenty five or more feet from their audiences.

5.People use intimate distance when they do not want others to overhear or when they are involved in a “secret” conversation.

6.Edward T. Hall identifies four kinds of space in his book “The Silent Language”.

7.Formal distance ranges from about seven to twelve feet between persuader and persuadee.

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