That orientals and occidentals think in different ways is not mere prejudice. Many psychological studies conducted over the past two decades【C1】______Westerners have a more individualistic, analytic and abstract【C2】______life than do East Asians. Several hypotheses have been put forward to【C3】______this. One, that modernization promotes individualism, falls at the first obstacle: Japan, an ultra-modem country whose people have【C4】______a collective outlook. A second, that a higher prevalence of【C5】______disease in a place makes contact with【C6】______more dangerous, and causes groups to turn inward, is hardly better. Europe has had its【C7】______of plagues; probably more than either Japan or Korea. That【C8】______Thomas Talhelm of the University of Virginia and his colleagues to【C9】______into a third suggestion: that the crucial difference is【C10】______The Wests staple is wheat; the Easts, rice.【C11】______the mechanization of agriculture a farmer who grew rice had to【C12】______twice as many hours doing so as one who grew wheat To allocate labor【C13】______, especially at times of planting and【C14】______, rice-growing societies as far【C15】______as India, Malaysia and Japan all developed【C16】______labor exchanges which let【C17】______rearrange their farms schedules in order to assist each other during these crucial periods.【C18】______until recently, almost everyone alive was a farmer, it is a reasonable hypothesis that such a collective outlook would【C19】______a societys culture and behavior, and might prove so deep-rooted that even now, when most people earn their living in other ways, it helps to【C20】______their lives. 【C1】