题目

If a stranger offered you a free cookie, you might well eat it. But what if they offered to also give you $2? You might politely decline and walk away thinking, "Something smells fishy." In a study published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, researchers found that people tend to turn down offers of "free money" (as well as unusually high salaries or suspiciously cheap services) because they seem "too good to be true". The research bridges economics and psychology to explain why financial attraction can backfire.In the initial experiment, nearly 40 percent of participants ate a cookie offered freely, compared with about 20 percent of those offered $2 as well. "People typically imagine things like that someone did something disgusting to the cookie," says study lead author Andrew J. Vonasch, a psychological scientist at University of Canterbury in New Zealand. Nine further experiments, involving more than 4,000 participants, used online questionnaires to present other cases. These included being offered money to accept a ride home, incredibly high construction-job wages and surprisingly cheap flights. In each case, past a certain threshold (门槛), higher financial profit reduced participants' potential of accepting the offer.If someone seems to go against accepted norms such as self-interest without explanation, we assume they have hidden motives and infer there will be "phantom costs": imagined consequences that reduce what Vonasch calls an offer's "psychological value".Factors beyond the present moment may come into play. "Understanding that others' perceived over generosity may put us in their debt could also help explain people's reluctance," says Rachel McCloy, a psychologist studying decision-making at England's University of Reading. "The old saying ‘there's no such thing as a free lunch' is clearly alive and well."Another experiment found that high scorers on measures of distrust inferred more phantom costs. The researchers also showed how to alleviate the effect: simply provide a reason for the deal. The "cheap flights" experiment included a condition where the seats were revealed to be very uncomfortable. "Uncomfortable seats aren't typically a selling point," Vonasch says. "But telling people the seats were uncomfortable made them more willing to take them because it was sufficient explanation." （1） What does the underlined word "backfire" in Para. 1 mean? A . Result in an opposite effect. B . Boost the success of an offer. C . Increase the appeal of a proposal. D . Cause a positive outcome unexpectedly. （2） Why is the quote "there's no such thing as a free lunch" mentioned by the author? A . To prove the phantom costs. B . To promote generosity in society. C . To doubt hidden costs of generous offers. D . To remind people to be cautious of free items. （3） What helps make the "cheap flights" more acceptable according to the experiment? A . Offering more flight credits. B . Discounting the price further. C . Providing additional unrelated gifts. D . Giving a seemingly reasonable explanation. （4） Which could be the best title for the text? A . Why People Embrace High-Value Offers B . Why People Reject Free Money and Offers C . Why Some Deals Seem Too Good to Be True D . How Offers of Money Increase Acceptance Rates 答案： A A D C

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