When you're in a stressful situation, are you confident or insecure? Do you react positively or negatively? The answer may depend in part on whom you're around. (4) A study by researchers at the University of Notre Dame found that negative thinking and depression stemming from it, can be contagious in certain circumstances. For example, the researchers studied 103 freshman college roommates who had been paired randomly. They measured each roommate's cognitive vulnerability, or tendency to give in to negative thinking and depression. (5) Specifically, the researchers measured the subject's likelihood to see negative events as a reflection of their abilities and flaws. (4) After only six months, it became clear that thinking patterns and styles can be contagious. Students paired with a negative-thinking roommate "caught" that style and became more depressed themselves. And students paired with more positive thinking roommates were more likely to become more positive in their thinking and report less depression. Now college freshman are in a unique, life changing environment. (6) So emotionally they might be easily influenced to adopt the thought and behavior patterns of people around them—perhaps more so than people in less intense situations at other stages of life.
But maybe not, other research has shown that, in general, people are affected by how those around them think. (7) So surrounding a negative, depressed person with people who think positively could be a powerful form of therapy.
短文全篇都在描述研究者对周围人对彼此影响的新发现，短文首先提到了negative thinking ...can be contagious in certain circumstances,即消极思想在某些环境里会蔓延，但后面也强调了人们也会被积极思想所影响，故选项D为答案。

此题问的是研究者们特别评估的内容是什么。对此，文中提到Specifically, the researchers measured the subject's likelihood to see negative events as a reflection of their abilities and flaws.即研究者特别评估的是受试者把消极事件看成是自己能力和不足的反映的可能性，符合选项D。选项A、B在文中都有提及，但不是特別测试的内容，所以排除；选项C与文章内容不符，排除。

短文中提到...emotionally they might be easily influenced to adopt the thought and behavior patterns of people around them,意为情绪上，他们可能容易受影响而采用周围人的想法和行为模式，符合选项D。

短文结尾处提到 surrounding a negative, depressed person with people who think positively could be a powerful form of therapy,即让消极、沮丧的人周围被积极思维的人围绕，这会是一个强有力的治疗方法，选项D为答案。

What did your school like? Was it noisy or peaceful? It might not seem important, but a growing body of research suggests that sounds can have an impact on learning, performance and creativity. Indeed, some head teachers have recently taken to broadcasting noises into their schools to see whether it can boost grades.
(8) There is certainly some well-established research to suggest that some noises can have a bad effect on learning. Numerous studies over the past 15 years have found that children attending schools under the flight paths of large airports lag behind in their exam results.
Whether background sounds are beneficial or not seems to depend on what kind of noise it is and the volume. In a series of studies published last year, Ravi Mehta from the College of Business at Illinois and colleagues tested people's creativity while exposed to a soundtrack made up of background noises, such as coffee-shop chatter and construction-site drilling, at different volumes. (9) They found that people were more creative when the background noises were played at a medium level than when volume was low. Loud background noise, however, damaged their creativity. Many teachers all over the world already play music to students in class. (10) Many are inspired by the belief that hearing music can boost IQ in subsequent tasks, the so-called Mozart effect. While the evidence actually suggests there's still no solid evidence showing classical music boosts brainpower, researchers do think pleasant sounds before a task can sometimes lift your mood and help you perform well. The key appears to be that you enjoy what you're hearing.
短文在谈论学校和机场时，提到...children attending schools under the flight paths of large airports lag behind in their exam results，即在机场飞机起落线上的学校的学生成绩不好，这样说是为了证明前面提到的噪音对学生的学习有不良影响，因此，选项A为答案。

对于对人们有益的噪音，短文中提到people were more creative when the background noises were played at a medium level,由此可知,适当的背景音量会使人更有创造力，因此，选项B为答案。

短文中提到Many are inspired by the belief that hearing music can boost IQ in subsequent tasks, the so-called Mozart effect.由此可知，教师们认为，播放音乐可以在后序的任务中提高学生的智商，因此，选项A为答案。选项中的intelligence是对原文中的IQ的同义转述。