SAT阅读OG第二篇原文
SAT是标准化考试，考生需要基于大量的正确题目的解法来构建良好的SAT“语感”，2017年12月2日还有最后一场考试，
This passage is adapted from Francis J.Flynn and Gabrielle S. Adams, “Money
Can’t Buy Love: Asymmetric Beliefs about Gift Price and Feeling of
Appreciation.”○ c 2008 by Elsevier Inc.
Every day, millions of shoppers hit the stores in full force-both online and on foot-searching frantically for the perfect gift. Last year, Americans spent over $30 billion at retail stores in themonth of December alone. Aside from purchasing holiday gifts, most people regularly buy presents for other occasions throughout the year, including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries,graduations, and baby showers. This frequent experience of gift-giving can engender ambivalent feeling in gift-givers. Many relish the opportunity to buy presents because gift-giving offers a powerful means to build stronger bonds with one’s closest peers. At the same time, many dread the thought of buying gifts; they worry that their purchases will disappoint rather than delight the intended recipients.
Anthropologists describe gift-giving as a positive social process, serving various political,religious, and psychological functions. Economists, however, offer a less favorable view.
According to Waldfogel(1993), gift-giving represents an objective waste of resources. People buy gifts that recipients would not choose to buy on their own, or at least not spend as much money on to purchase(a phenomenon referred to as “the deadweight loss of Christmas”). To wit, givers are likely to spend $100 to purchase a gift that receivers would spend only $80 to buy themselves. 15 This “deadweight loss” suggests that gift-givers are not very good at predicting what gifts others will appreciate. That in itself is not surprising to social psychologists. Research has found that people often struggle to take account of others’ perspectives---their insights are subject to egocentrism, social projection, and multiple attribution errors.
What is surprising is that gift-givers have considerable experience acting as both gift-givers and gift-recipients, but nevertheless tend to overspend each time they set out to purchase ameaningful gift. In the present research, we propose a unique psychological explanation for this overspending problem-i.e., that gift-givers equate how much they spend with how much recipients will appreciate the gift(the more expensive the gift, the stronger a gift-recipient’s feeling of appreciation). Although a link between gift price and feeling of appreciation might seem intuitive to gift-givers, such an assumption may be unfounded. In deed, we propose that gift-recipients will be less inclined to base their feelings of appreciation on the magnitude of a gift than givers assume.
Why do gift-givers assume that gift price is closely linked to gift-recipients’ feelings of appreciation? Perhaps givers believe that bigger (i.e. more expensive) gifts convey stronger 30signals of thoughtfulness and consideration. According to Camerer (1988) and others, gift-giving represents a symbolic ritual, whereby gift-givers attempt to signal their positive attitudes toward resources in a future relationship. In this sense, gift-givers may be motivated to spend more money on a gift in order to send a “stronger signal” to their intended recipient. As for gift-recipients, they may not construe smaller and larger gifts as representing smaller and larger signals of thoughtfulness and consideration.
The notion of gift-givers and gift-recipients being unable to account for the other party’s perspective seems puzzling because people slip in and out of these roles every day, and , in some cases, multiple times in the course of the same day. Yet, despite the extensive experience that people have as both givers and receivers, they often struggle to transfer information gained from 40 one role (e.g., as a giver) and apply it in another, complementary role (e.g., as a receiver). In theoretical terms, people fail to utilize information about their own preferences and experiences in order to produce more efficient outcomes in their exchange relations. In practical terms,people spend hundreds of dollars each year on gifts, but somehow never learn to calibrate their gift expenditure according to personal insight.
具体解析请见下：
SAT阅读OG第二篇全解析
11. The authors most likely use the examples in lines 1-5 of the passage(“Every…showers”) to highlight the
(A) regularity with which people shop for gifts.
(B) recent increase in the amount of money spent on gifts.
(C) anxiety gift shoppings causes for consumers.
(D) number of special occasions involving gift-giving.
正确答案：A
分析：第 1-5 行，文章举例说明了有多少人购物( “millions of shoppers” ),在购物上花费多少钱( “over $30 billion at retail stores in the month of December alone” ),以及购物的很多情形( “including weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and baby showers” ).这些例子组合到一起，可以说明美国人购买礼物的频率。
12. In line 5, the word “ambivalent” most nearly means
(A) unrealistic
(B) conficted
(C) apprehensive
(D) supportive
正确答案：B
分析：文章第 5 行提到：高频购物行为会让礼物馈赠者产生矛盾情绪。在接下来的内容又提到，这种矛盾情绪是既令人欣喜的(relish)又令人恐惧的(dread).
13. The authors indicate that people value gift-giving because they feel it
(A) functions as a form of self-expression
(B) is an inexpensive way to show appreciation
(C) requires the gift-recipient to reciprocate
(D) can serve to strengthen a relationship
正确答案：D
分析：文章第 6-7 行提到，人们相信馈赠礼物有助于增进友谊，因为它是一种能够与朋友建立更强纽带的有利方式。
14. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
(A) Lines 6-7 (“Many…peers”)
(B) Lines 12-13(“People…own”)
(C) Lines 17-18 (“Research…perspectives”)
(D) Lines 25-26 (“Although …unfounded”)
正确答案：A
分析：见第 13 题分析。
15. The “social psychologists” mentioned in paragraph 2 (lines 10-19) would likely describe the
“deadweight loss” phenomenon as
(A) predictable
(B) questionable
(C) disturbing
(D) unprecedented
正确答案：A
分析：相对于礼物接受者而言，礼物馈赠者通常愿意为礼物支付更高的价格。这个价格高出的部分，文章当中称之为“无谓损失” (deadweight loss).社会心理学家通常能够预测到这种“无谓损失” ，因为他们的研究发现人们会受制于自我局限性、社会投射和归属错误等因素。
16. The passage indicates that the assumption made by gift-givers in lines 23-25 may be
(A) insincere
(B) unreasonable
(C) incorrect
(D) substantiated
正确答案：C
分析：文章第 23 行到 25 行提到，礼物馈赠者认为礼物越贵，接受礼物的人会越喜欢。但是作者认为这种假设是不正确的。因为34-36 行提到，接受礼物的人不会将礼物的价格高低与感情深浅相联系。
17. Which choice provides the best evidence for the answer to the previous question?
(A) Lines 30-31 (“Perhaps…consideration”)
(B) Lines 31-33 (“According…relationship”)
(C) Lines 34-36(“As…consideration”)
(D) Lines 41-43 (“In …relations”)
正确答案：C
分析：见第 16 题解释。
18. As it is used in line 30,”convey” most nearly means
(A) transport
(B) counteract
(C) exchange
(D) communicate
正确答案：D
分析：30 行的“convey”表示“传递、传达”的意思，而 D 选项的 communicate 正是此意。 此处要注意， 很多同学只知道 communicate…with…是与某人沟通之意，但是 communicate单独使用时则是“传达”的意思。
19. The authors refer to work by Camerer and others (line 31) in order to
(A) offer an explanation
(B) introduce an argument
(C) question a motive
(D) support a conclusion
正确答案：A
分析：文章提到了礼物馈赠者关于“礼物越贵情谊越深”的观点。Camerer 等人的作品对这一观点进行了合理化解释：礼物馈赠者希望向接受礼物的人表达出重视，并愿意为未来关官方网站：系投入资源。
20. The graph following the passage offers evidence that gift-givers base their predictions of how much a gift will be appreciated on
(A) the app reciation level of the gift-recipients
(B) the monetary value of the gift
(C) their own desires for the gifts they purchase
(D) their relationship with the gift-recipients.
正确答案：B
分析：在文中，礼物馈赠者认为：越贵的礼物，越会得到礼物接受者的重视。因此，他们会根据一个礼物的价格预测礼物被对方接受的可能性。
21. The authors would likely attribute the differences in gift-giver and recipient mean appreciation as represented in the graph to
(A) an inability to shift perspective
(B) an increasingly materialistic culture
(C) a growing opposition to gift-giving
(D) a misunderstanding of intentions.
正确答案：A
分析：文章 39-41 行认为，尽管大部分人具有礼物馈赠者和礼物接受者双重角色，但是他们在用双重角色看待问题时仍有困难。他们不能很好地换角度看问题，所以导致了礼物馈赠者总是以更高的价格来购物。