雅思阅读真题（Part 3）
雅思阅读风险承担：人们为何害怕损失
本篇也叫：风险承担、冒险、风险认知、风险与损失、怕损失
Part 3 · 考频：中频 · 最近考试：2023.12.3
本篇为雅思阅读真题（Part 3）《Risk taking》，共 14 题，2023.12.3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。
文章讨论人们如何面对风险：日常生活中我们常忽略风险，有时权衡利弊后行动。社会评估风险时，科学证据未必被充分重视，如吸烟者明知危险仍继续。风险感知比事实更重要，人们对损失和收益的计算尺度不同，往往为防损失冒大险，却不愿为可能收益冒险。组织在政策巨变时也面临类似心理障碍。
A
We run risks. Most of the time we ignore them; sometimes we stop and decide how to deal with them. That's life. Risk arise in sports, in personal relationships; they are present in the laboratory, in political calculations, everywhere. Acting individually, we often prefer to gain some benefit by accepting some danger. Acting collectively, we make similar trade-offs.
B
When society must assess risks, and those risks can be clarified, at least in part, by science, technology or mathematics, the responsibility of the research community is to be clear and complete. But that is not always so easy. Furthermore, too few people pay full attention to the best evidence, much less modify their behaviors as a result. Even when the evidence of high risk is clear about smoking, for instance many will deny the risk, or dispute it, or accept that it exists and still go ahead. As a former cigarette smoker, I understand denial.
C
Perhaps more important than the basic facts of risk are perception of it. Hearing the prediction of 60% chance of rain, or recognizing the minuscule likelihood of becoming ill from a flu shot, most people understand the right responses: take your umbrella and get your flu shot. But some, fearfully but irrationally, go to the extreme and stay at home and avoid all contact with other people. Irrational decisions occasionally affect us all. When it comes to risks the best odds do not always influence people to make the correct decision.
D
In her book The Universe and the Teacup, the science writer K. C. Cole reminds us that the risks of losing something and gaining something appear to be calculated in our minds according to quite different scales. People will risk a lot to prevent a loss, she notes; some people will rush into a burning building to save a pet. But they will usually risk very little if the only perceived outcome is a possible gain. Many people won't even risk pursuing an exciting job, if the current job, though unfulfilling, remains comfortable. That psychological mechanism, a desire to maintain the status quo, may explain the high hurdles that any rational risk assessment must confront.
E
Organizations face the same hurdles whenever they must cope with major shifts in policy. In his classic examination of the computer industry, Only the Paranoid Survive, Andrew S. Grove gives a perceptive account of a crisis that took place during his tenure as Chairman of the Intel Corporation. The business environment for Intel and its competitors was transformed by a flood of low-cost memory chips from Japan, and Intel made the difficult decision to abandon its chip-making business. Such a period of change in the outside world is filled with danger, Grove notes, precisely because it is so easy for executives to try to disregard it or misinterpret the mounting evidence showing the profound risks of not making change at the very core. The distinction Cole cites is instructive here: one reason management and staff may not act is that they tend to focus on the potential gains of risking change (which they characterize as small), rather than on the catastrophic losses that risking change could prevent. The period becomes critical for a company, according to Grove, and deadly when unattended to.
F
Likewise, at the national level, and even the global one, institutions tend to be more willing to take a risk if it means avoiding a loss, than they are if it might confer a gain. Almost everyone, for instance, sees the signs of ecological decay. Reid J. Lifset's article, 'Full Accounting', describes newly developed techniques for clarifying which critical decision would have the highest pay-offs for the environment. Once these 'leverage points' as he calls them, are located, many environmental organizations will be willing to risk the resources needed to prevent further deterioration.
G
More complicated are decisions by nations to invest broadly in educational research. Some governmental leaders are oblivious to the risks posed by social under-investment, because the urgent needs of the present take precedence over actions that would give rise to even more substantial gains in the future. Their attitude is that today's risks must be manageable, and that tomorrow's gains are, at the very least difficult to measure. Better consideration and decision making for what lies ahead is essential.
H
Nevertheless, I confess to being an optimist. My glass is generally half full though that may not help me handle risk. Whether one's temperament is optimistic or pessimistic, everyone in our scientific and engineering community has a social responsibility: measure with care and portray with honesty the level of risk involved in any action or decision.
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答案：achieving a gain
原文定位：the risks of losing something and gaining something appear to be calculated in our minds according to quite different scales. People will risk a lot to prevent a loss;But they will usually risk very little if the only perceived outcome is a possible gain
答案：changes occurring externally
原文定位：Such a period of change in the outside world is filled with danger, Grove notes, precisely because it is so easy for executives to try to disregard it or misinterpret the mounting evidence showing the profound risks of not making change at the very core
答案：recent findings on the most effective solutions to problems
原文定位：Reid J. Lifset's article, 'Full Accounting', describes newly developed techniques for clarifying which critical decision would have the highest pay-offs for the environment. Once these 'leverage points' as he calls them, are located, many environmental organizations will be willing to risk the resources needed to prevent further deterioration
答案：planning for the future
原文定位：Some governmental leaders are oblivious to the risks posed by social under-investment, because the urgent needs of the present take precedence over actions that would give rise to even more substantial gains in the future;Better consideration and decision making for what lies ahead is essential
答案：B
原文定位：When society must assess risks, and those risks can be clarified, at least in part, by science, technology or mathematics
答案：F
原文定位：Reid J. Lifset's article, 'Full Accounting', describes newly developed techniques for clarifying which critical decision would have the highest pay-offs for the environment. Once these 'leverage points' as he calls them, are located, many environmental organizations will be willing to risk the resources needed to prevent further deterioration
答案：C
原文定位：Hearing the prediction of 60% chance of rain, or recognizing the minuscule likelihood of becoming ill from a flu shot, most people understand the right responses: take your umbrella and get your flu shot
答案：A
原文定位：Risk arise in sports, in personal relationships; they are present in the laboratory, in political calculations, everywhere
答案：B
原文定位：Even when the evidence of high risk is clear about smoking, for instance many will deny the risk, or dispute it, or accept that it exists and still go ahead
答案：E
原文定位：The business environment for Intel and its competitors was transformed by a flood of low-cost memory chips from Japan, and Intel made the difficult decision to abandon its chip-making business
答案：H
原文定位：Nevertheless, I confess to being an optimist. My glass is generally half full though that may not help me handle risk
答案：D
原文定位：Many people won't even risk pursuing an exciting job, if the current job, though unfulfilling, remains comfortable. That psychological mechanism, a desire to maintain the status quo, may explain the high hurdles that any rational risk assessment must confront
答案：C
原文定位：But some, fearfully but irrationally, go to the extreme and stay at home and avoid all contact with other people
答案：B experts should be truthful about risk to the public
原文定位：Whether one's temperament is optimistic or pessimistic, everyone in our scientific and engineering community has a social responsibility: measure with care and portray with honesty the level of risk involved in any action or decision