雅思阅读真题（Part 3）
鲜花的力量：花如何影响情绪与社交
本篇也叫：鲜花的力量、花的力量、花力、鲜花效应、送花心理学、花与情绪
Part 3 · 考频：高频 · 最近考试：2025.3.15/2017.9.9
本篇为雅思阅读真题（Part 3）《Flower power》，共 14 题，2025.3.15/2017.9.9雅思考试真题回忆，页面提供完整原文、题目、答案与解析，并支持在线机考模式免费练习。本页同时提供 Markdown 版本 供 AI 助手与搜索引擎直接读取。
文章介绍罗格斯大学心理学系关于鲜花心理效应的研究：给150名女性送花、水果或糖果，收花者情绪更积极且持续数天；在电梯中送单支花，收花者更爱微笑、靠近并主动交谈，说明鲜花能改善情绪并促进人际亲近。
A
Why do we give people flowers? To offer condolence to those who are grieving To celebrate. To woo. To ask for forgiveness. We all know intuitively that there is something psychologically a universal emotional response.In the US alone,the flower industry is now worth about $5bn a year-which suggests that, at the very least, they service a compelling human need.
B
Recent studies at the Department of Psychology at Rutgers State University of New Jersey investigated claims that flowers are unique among living organisms in their ability to induce profound changes in our emotional state. As the fist part of their research, the Rutgers team visited 150 women in their homes.Each was presented with a variety of gits such as flowers, fruit or sweets. The women were unaware that the study was about the effect of the flowers on their emotions. They were told that t was a study about their daily moods, and that they would receive a gift in return for taking part. Following the presentation of the gift, those receiving flowers were assessed as displaying a much more positive mood than those who got other gits,and this effect lasted for several days. After receiving flowers, they were also more willing to answer questions concerning their social circle and intimate conversations with friends and family. The results suggest that flowers influence our secondary socio-emotional behaviours, as well as having a strong effect on our immediate emotional expression.
C
In the second study,the psychologists observed participants being handed single flowers,or alternative gifts, in a constrained and stressful situation -inside an elevator. Contrary to predictions regarding gender differences, both men and women presented with flowers were more likely to smile, to stand closer and to initiate conversation. Several subjects who were given the alternative gift then learnt that flowers were also being handed out,and returned to the elevator and demanded a flower. The scientists used elevators for this study precisely because the most typical behaviour in sparsely occupied elevators is for people to retreat to opposite corners. The subjects who received flowers, however, closed up that space to a considerable extent-indicating that the flowers not only induced a strong positive mood, but brought a significant affilliation among people who had never previously met.
D
The third study involved regularly sending flowers to a selected sample of men and women. The researchers found not only a profound elevation of mood,but also reliable improvements in other measures of cognitive function,like memory In this series of experiments, some participants produced such extraordinary emotional displays that the psychologists were totally unprepared for them Subjects gave spontaneous hugs and kisses to the people who delivered the flowers, and sent invitations to the psychologists to come to their homes for refreshments.
E
Various evolutionary hypotheses attempt to explain the remarkably powerful psychological effect of flowers. One is that our aesthetic preferences for fertile locations and growing things stem from prehistory, when these clues in our environment could mean the difference between starvation and survival. We may have become hardwired to respond positively to flowers because for early man, finding them in a particular location predicted future food supplies and possibly a better place to rear children Yet the flaw in this argument is that the showy flowers which humans seem to find most visually attractive are generally found on those plants which yield no edible products.
F
The Rutgers psychologists' findings show that the various physical attributes of flowers combine to directly affect our emotions through muti channel interactions.We have evolved preferences for the particular colours, textures, patterned symmetries and specific floral odours which influence our moods.Indeed,previous research has established that popular perfumes,which often have a floral top-note',will actually reduce depression. The origins of these inclinations may well be as the evolutionary theories suggest the patterned symmetries of flowers can be detected easily as a recognizable signal within a wide variety of visual arrays, and a response to certain colour tones is important in finding ripe fruit against a leafy background. But, claim the Rutgers team, these preferences have long been separated from their primary evolutionary use,and become rewarding to us more generally. Thus plants with preferred colours, shapes and odours - despite having no other products - would therefore be protected and dispersed.
G
The Rutgers study suggests that flowers may have actually evolved to exploit their peculiar impact on humans. The team's theory proposes a plant-human co-evolution, or even domestication, based on the intense emotional rewards that flowers provide. The idea that flowering plants, with no known food or other basic survival value to man, have co-evolved with us by exploiting an emotional niche instead, is very much like the scenario presented for the evolution of dogs. Flowers may be the plant equivalent of 'companion animals': If this is true, then there is a very real sense in which, when you next give flowers, they are using you just as much as you are using them.
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答案：some common social functions of flowers
原文定位：Why do we give people flowers? To offer condolence to those who are grieving To celebrate. To woo. To ask for forgiveness
同义替换：「common social functions」↔「offer condolence」
答案：becoming more open about personal matters
原文定位：After receiving flowers, they were also more willing to answer questions concerning their social circle and intimate conversations with friends and family
同义替换：「open」↔「more willing to」，「personal matters」↔「social circle」
答案：bridging the gap between strangers in an enclosed space
原文定位：The subjects who received flowers, however, closed up that space to a considerable extent-indicating that the flowers not only induced a strong positive mood, but brought a significant affilliation among people who had never previously met
同义替换：「bridging the gap」↔「affilliation」，「strangers」↔「people who had never previously met」
答案：some surprisingly strong responses to flowers
原文定位：In this series of experiments, some participants produced such extraordinary emotional displays that the psychologists were totally unprepared for them
同义替换：「surprisingly」↔「extraordinary」，「strong responses」↔「emotional displays」
答案：an imperfect theory
原文定位：Yet the flaw in this argument is that the showy flowers which humans seem to find most visually attractive are generally found on those plants which yield no edible products
同义替换：「imperfect theory」↔「flaw in this argument」
答案：sensory appeal versus practical purpose of flowers
原文定位：We have evolved preferences for the particular colours, textures, patterned symmetries and specific floral odours which influence our moods;these preferences have long been separated from their primary evolutionary use
同义替换：「sensory appeal」↔「colours, textures, patterned symmetries and specific floral odours」，「practical purpose」↔「primary evolutionary use」
答案：a mutually beneficial relationship?
原文定位：The Rutgers study suggests that flowers may have actually evolved to exploit their peculiar impact on humans. The team's theory proposes a plant-human co-evolution
同义替换：「mutually beneficial relationship」↔「plant-human co-evolution」
答案：the second study
原文定位：In the second study;in a constrained and stressful situation;inside an elevator
答案：the first study
原文定位：The women were unaware that the study was about the effect of the flowers on their emotions. They were told that t was a study about their daily moods
同义替换：「deliberately misled」↔「unaware the real aim」
答案：the third study
原文定位：The researchers found not only a profound elevation of mood, but also reliable improvements in other measures of cognitive function, like memory
同义替换：「mental capacities」↔「cognitive function」，「notable effect」↔「reliable improvements」
答案：the second study
原文定位：Contrary to predictions regarding gender differences, both men and women presented with flowers were more likely to smile, to stand closer and to initiate conversation
同义替换：「male and female」↔「men and women」，「more uniform than expected」↔「contrary to predictions regarding gender differences」
答案：food
原文定位：finding them in a particular location predicted future food supplies
同义替换：「potential source of」↔「future food supplies」
答案：children
原文定位：a better place to rear children
同义替换：「raise」↔「rear」
答案：edible
原文定位：the showy flowers which humans seem to find most visually attractive are generally found on those plants which yield no edible products
同义替换：「do not usually have fruit which is」↔「plants which yield no edible products」