聪明有创造力的人更容易成为骗子?

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It seems for the past few years, the news has been filled with stories of people who cheat: bankers bilking investors out of millions of dollars, politicians who cheat on their wives and constituents.

The cheaters were always smart, creative people―who got caught. This prompted several psychological researchers to examine the relationship between cheating and creativity.

Francesca Gino, a behavioral economist who teaches at Harvard Business School, uses ideas from psychology to study how people make economic choices.

Gino finds the behavior of many notable cheaters fascinating, and it got her wondering why so many creative people seem to take the low road.

“Interestingly, there are actually a lot of examples in the literature, novels, movies, comic books about this idea of the evil genius, but really no empirical evidence for this relationship,” she says.

So Gino spent several years testing volunteers to see how creative they were. Then, she put them in situations where they could profit from cheating―where just bending the rules a little bit put a few extra dollars in their pockets.

“What we find is that creativity leads people to be more morally flexible, “she says,” so they are much more able to come up with justification for the behavior that they’re about to engage in and as a result, they are more likely to cheat.”

But where cheating really matters is in the workplace. And in a competitive, global economy, innovation and creativity are particularly prized. After studying people at work, Gino found that fostering creativity in workers also opens up opportunities for that moral flexibility where people are tempted to bend the rules in their favor.

“We think that the creativity really helps people resolve this conflict between something that is more longerterm, which is the idea of being good and moral and then, something that is more short term and that is the idea of advancing your own selfinterest, “Gino says.” And that does not necessarily mean getting money out of cheating, but it could also be getting other types of pleasures or utilities.”

Such as cheating on your spouse. In short, Gino says her study is a warning that creativity has a dark side.

“It’s not that we are trying to say that people shouldn’t be creative, we are trying to say that they should be creative but they should be thinking about the fact that their creativity can be used for the wrong reasons.”

原创试题

1. This article tells us that some psychologists studied the relationship between____.

A. cheating and being cheated

B. cheating and its reasonss

C. cheaters and cheating

D. cheating and creativity

2. A behavioral economist must be a scholar who studies how people make____ by____.

A. high road; ideas of common knowledge

B. low road; ideas of special knowledge

C. economic choice; ideas of psychology

D. political choice; ideas of politics

3. Gino finds that creativity makes people____.

A. be more able to raise their reasons for the things they are going to do

B. be more morally adaptable and variable

C. be more likely to trick

D. all above

Great works are performed not by strengh, but by perseverance.(Samuel Johnson)

4. Gino thinks, creativity really helps people____.

A. deal with some economic and political problems as well as their private problems

B. deal with some problems that they are faced with；and that are good, moral and even for their interest

C. get other types of pleasures or utilities

D. get more money out of cheating

5. What does Gino worry about when thinking about some creative people____ .

A. their creativity can be used for the wrong way

B. their creativity can be used for the world

C. their creativity can be used only for themselves

D. their creativity can be wasted

完美答案

1. D。该题是细节题。根据第二段的第二句可知本文所谈及是“欺骗与创造力”。

2. C。该题是判断题。从“uses ideas from psychology to study how people make economic choices.”可知：“行为经济学家使用心理学观点研究人们如何做出经济抉择。”

3. D。该题是细节题。从 What we find is that creativity leads people to be more morally flexible, “she says,” so they are much more able to come up with justification for the behavior that they’re about to engage in and as a result, they are more likely to cheat.”可知。

4. B。该题是细节题。 我们从“We think that the creativity really helps people resolve this conflict… selfinterest,”可知。

5. A。该题是归纳题也是细节题。我们从文章那中的…creativity has a dark side.以及文章的最后一句话可以看出Gino的担忧: “It’s not that we are trying to say that people shouldn’t be creative, we are trying to say that they should be creative but they should be thinking about the fact that their creativity can be used for the wrong reasons.” “所以我们并不是想说人们不应该富有创造力，我们想说的是，他们应该富有创造力，但他们应该考虑到一个事实，那就是他们的创造力也可能被用到歧途。”

素材观察

本文中有不少的单词是《2012年江苏省考试说明》中的重点词汇。 笔者精选了 seem creative cheat situation matter等5个高频词汇作简要的讲解。

Seem

可用作连系动词或不及物动词，意为“似乎；好像”。

1. “主语+seem+（to be ）+表语”，表语以说明主语的特征或状态，多为名词或形容词。如：

Tom seems （to be ） a very clever boy. 汤姆看上去是一个非常聪明的男孩。

The man over there seems to be a new teacher. 那边的那个人看上去像一个新老师。

Mr Black seemed to be quite happy. 布莱克先生好像十分快乐。

This small town seems changed a little. 这个小城镇似乎有点儿变化。

2. “主语+seem+不定式”。如：

Mrs Green doesn’t seem （或seems not ） to like the idea. 格林夫人似乎不太喜欢这个主意。

The children seemed to be eating something in the room. 孩子们好像正在房间里吃东西呢。

The young man seemed to have changed much. 这个年轻人看起来变化很大。

完成伟大的事业不在于体力，而在于坚韧不拔的毅力。(约翰逊.S.)

3. “It seems+that从句”，其中it 是形式主语，that引导主语从句。如：

It seems that no one knows what has happened in the park. 似乎没有人知道在公园里发生了什么事。

It seems to me that Mr Brown will not come again. 在我看来布朗先生不会再来了。

4. “There+seem to be+名词”，其中to be 可省略。seem 的单复数形式要根据后面作主语的名词的单复数形式而定。如：

There doesn’t seem to be much hope of our beating that team. 看来我们战胜那个队没有多大希望。

There seems no need to wait longer. 看来没有再等的必要了。

creative

a. 创造性的。

词形变化:副词 creatively；名词 creativity。

如：

Painters are creative artists. 画家是具有创造性的艺术家。

The writing of poems, stories or plays is often called creative writing.

诗歌、小说和剧本的写作常常被称作创作。

She’s very creative; she writes and paints. 她很有创作能力, 从事写作又绘画。

cheat

及物动词 vt.

1. 欺骗;骗取,诈取； 后接sb.+of/out of sth。如：

They cheated the old woman of her house and money. 他们骗取了老妇人的房屋和钱财。

2. 哄骗； 后接 sb+into doing sth。如：

The salesman cheated me into buying a fake. 那个推销员骗我买了假货。

不及物动词vi. 行骗;作弊； 后接+at/on/in sth。如：

He never cheated in exams. 他考试从不作弊。

cheat 可数名词， 骗子， 也可用cheater。

situation

可数名词 n. 处境,境遇；形势;情况;局面；地位；职位, ；(建筑物等的)位置;地点

如：He is in a difficult situation. 他处境困难。

The economic situation is now different. 现在经济形势不同了。

The house has a beautiful situation on a hill. 房子坐落在小山上,环境优美。

需值得关注的。 近几年来高考试题中常见先行词为situatuin,后接where引导的定语从句。

在此句中， situatuin 意为“在此情况、情景下”。如：

（2001年上海）He’s got himself into a serious situation____ he is likely to lose control over the plane.

A. whereB. which

C. whileD. why

答案： A

（2009年福建）It’s helpful to put children in a situation____ they can see themselves differently.

A. thatB. when

C. whichD. where

答案： D

matter

可数名词，意为“事情；问题；情况”。作不可数名词，意为“物质；材料；东西”如：

Let’s leave that for the moment. We have more important matters to think about.

让我们先把那事搁一边吧。我们还有更重要的事情需要考虑呢。

The universe is made up of matter. 宇宙是由物质组成的。

I have nothing to do now. Could you offer me some reading matter? 我现在无事可做。你能给我点儿可读的东西吗？

matter作动词，意为“有关系；要紧”。通常用于否定句和疑问句，句中常常含有what, who, where, if等词，一般以it作主语。如：

It doesn’t matter if I miss the train, because there’s another later.

我要是误了这趟火车也不要紧，因为晚些时候还有一趟车呢。

Does it matter a great deal to her whether they come or not？

他们是否来，这与她有很大关系吗？

由matter构成的常用短语。

1. no matter

①不要紧；无关紧要。此短语可单独用，也可接that, whether引导的从句。如：

―I can’t repair the mobile phone. 我不会修手机。

―No matter. I’ll do it myself. 没关系。我自己来。

②no matter+特殊疑问词；意为“无论……”，用来引导让步状语从句。如：

No matter where you go, please let me know. 无论你去哪里，请告诉我一声。

2. the matter意为“故障；困扰的事；麻烦事”，常常同不定代词anything, something, nothing等连用，意为“有点儿什么问题”或“没有什么问题”等。如：

―Is there anything the matter? 有什么问题吗？

―Of course, there’s something the matter. 当然，有问题。

3. as a matter of fact 事实上(用来加强语气)。如：

As a matter of fact, I know nothing about the matter.

事实上，我对此事一无所知。

（作者：杨定生，南京市第四高级中学）