Passage 4

One of the many theories about alcoholism ( 酗酒) is the learning and reinforcement theory, which explains alcoholism by considering alcohol drinking as a reflex response to some stimulus and as a way to reduce an inner drive state such as fear or anxiety. Characterizing life situations in terms of approach and
family discord, loss of job, and illness is explained by the proximity of the drive of reduction to the consumption of alcohol; that is, alcohol has the immediate effect of reducing tension while the unpleasant consequences of drunken behavior came only later. The learning pattern, therefore, favors the
condition may trigger renewed drinking.

56. The main purpose of the text is to
A. introduce some existing theories about alcoholism.
B. show the most effective new treatment of alcoholism.
C. explain the application of a approach to alcoholism.
D. help alcoholics and others know the cause of alcoholism.

avoidance, this theory holds that persons tend to be drawn to pleasant situations or repelled by unpleasant ones. In the latter case, alcohol drinking is said to reduce the tension or feelings of unpleasantness and to replace them with the feeling of pleasure generally observed in most persons after they have consumed one or more drinks. Some experimental evidence tends to show that alcohol reduces fear in an approach-avoidance situation. Conger trained one group of rats to approach a food goal and trained another group to avoid electric shock. After an injection of alcohol the pull away from the shock was measurably weaker, while the pull toward food was unchanged. The obvious troubles experienced by alcoholic persons appear to contradict the learning theory in the planation of alcoholism. The discomfort, pain, and punishment they experience should presumably discourage the alcoholics from drinking. The fact that lcoholic persons continue to drink in the face of establishment and repetition of the resort to alcohol. In fact, the anxieties and feelings of guilt caused by the consequences of excessive alcohol drinking may become the signal for another time of alcohol abuse. The way in which the desire for another drink could be caused by anxiety is explained by the process of stimulus generalization: conditions or events occurring at the time of reinforcement tend to acquire all the features of stimuli. When alcohol is consumed in association with a state of anxiety or fear, the emotional state itself takes on the properties of a stimulus, thus triggering another time of drinking. The role of punishment is becoming increasingly important in explaining a cause of alcoholism based on the principles of learning theory. While punishment may serve to suppress a response, experiments have shown that in some cases it can serve as a reward and reinforce the behavior. Thus if the alcoholic person has learned to drink under conditions of both reward and punishment, either type of

57. The description of Conger’s experiment with two groups of rats was intended to
A. show that alcohol drinking does not affect appetite.
B. confirm the findings of other academic researchers.
C. show people that alcohol can minimize fear.
D. disprove the learning and reinforcement theory.

58. We can learn from paragraph 3 that
A. the learning theory sometimes contradicts itself in some fields.
B. drinking alcohol can solve the problem of family discord.
C. tension reduction usually appear first after drinking alcohol.
D. alcoholics can’t recall the unhappy consequence of alcoholism.

59. The author provides enough information to answer the question of
A. why alcoholics continue to drink despite the unhappy consequences.
B. how Conger explained the behavior of alcoholics by shock therapy.
C. under what circumstances an alcoholic benefits from anxiety attacks.
D. which treatment is the best one of alcoholism in the world now.

60. It can be inferred from the text that
A. the behavior of alcoholics contradicts the approach-avoidance theory.
B. punishment may become the stimulus for another time of drinking.
C. the behavior of most alcoholics often proves the learning theory.