Why Would They Falsely Confess?
Why on earth would an innocent person falsely confess to committing a crime? To most
people, it just doesn't seem logical. But it is logical, say experts, if you understand what can happen in a police interrogation (審訊) room. Under the right conditions, people's minds are susceptible(易受影響的) to influence, and the pressure put on suspects during police grillings (盤問) is enormous. _________ (46) "The pressure is important to understand, because, otherwise, it's impossible to understand why someone would say he did something he didn't do. The answer is: to put an end to an uncomfortable situation that will continue until he does confess." Developmental psychologist Allison Redlich recently conducted a laboratory to determine how likely people are to confess to things they didn't do._________ (47) The researchers then intentionally crashed the computers and accused the participants of hitting the "alt" key to see if they would sign a statement falsely taking responsibility.
Redlich's findings clearly demonstrate how easy it can be to get people to falsely confess: 59 percent of the young adults in the experiment immediately confessed._________(48) Of the 15-to- 16-year-olds, 72 percent signed confessions, as did 78 percent of the 12-to 13-year-olds.
"There's no question that young people are more at risk," says Saul Kassin, Professor at Williams College, who has done similar studies with similar results. _________(49) Both Kassin and Redlich note that the entire "interrogation" in their experiments consisted of a simple accusation--not hours of aggressive questioning--and still, most participants falsely confessed.
Because of the stress of a police interrogation, they conclude, suspects can become convinced that falsely confessing is the easiest way out of a bad situation. _________ (50)
A. In her experiment, participants were seated at computers and told not to hit the "alt" key, because doing so would crash the systems.
B. "In some ways," says Kassin, "false confession becomes a rational decision."
C. "It's a little like somebody's working on them with a dental (牙齒的) drill," says Franklin Zimring, a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
D. "But adults are highly vulnerable too."
E. How could an innocent person admit to doing something he didn't do?
F. Redlich also found that the younger the participant, the more likely a false confession.
2017年職稱英語考試試題《綜合A》補全短文專項練習題
試題答案解析
46.C。這一段談的是pressure方面的事。請注意在這個空格后面是一段引言,但沒有原說話人的名字,這也給我們提示,在填入部分里應(yīng)該有原說話人的名字,這樣可以考慮的有B、C、F三個選項。從內(nèi)容上進一步考慮,應(yīng)選C。
47.A。這里填入的部分是對Redlich所做試驗的描述,下文又講到計算機,所以不難確定選A。
48.F。這一段講的是Redlich試驗的結(jié)果,一開始就講了她的finding,填入的部分里有also這個詞,正好接上。而后面的一句話則用更具體的數(shù)據(jù)來支持她的結(jié)論:越年輕,越可能做假供。
49.D。Saul Kassin同意Redlich的結(jié)果,她認為年輕人風險大(more at risk),但同時她又認為成年人也十分脆弱(vulnerable)。
50.B。由于在審訊過程中受到壓力,許多人認為做假供是一種擺脫厄境的方法,因而也是 一種合理的決定。