Happy people work differently. They’re more productive, more creative, and willing to take greater risks. And new research suggests that happiness might influence (1) _____ firms work, too.

    Companies located in places with happier people invest more, according to a recent research paper. (2) _____ , firms in happy places spend more on R&D (research and development). That’s because happiness is linked to the kind of longer-term thinking (3) _____ for making investments for the future.

    The researchers wanted to know if the (4) _____ and inclination for risk-taking that come with happiness would (5) _____ the way companies invested. So they compared U.S. cities’ average happiness (6) _____ by Gallup polling with the investment activity of publicly traded firms in those areas.

    (7) _____ enough, firms’ investment and R&D intensity were correlated with the happiness of the area in which they were (8) _____ . But is it really happiness that’s linked to investment, or could something else about happier cities (9) _____ why firms there spend more on R&D? To find out, the researchers controlled for various (10) _____ that might make firms more likely to invest—like size, industry, and sales—and for indicators that a place was (11) _____ to live in, like growth in wages or population. The link between happiness and investment generally (12) _____ even after accounting for these things.

    The correlation between happiness and investment was particularly strong for younger firms, which the authors (13) _____ to “less codified decision making process” and the possible presence of “younger and less (14) _____ managers who are more likely to be influenced by sentiment.” The relationship was (15) _____ stronger in places where happiness was spread more (16) _____. Firms seem to invest more in places where most people are relatively happy, rather than in places with happiness inequality.

    (17) _____ this doesn’t prove that happiness causes firms to invest more or to take a longer-term view, the authors believe it at least (18) _____ at that possibility. It’s not hard to imagine that local culture and sentiment would help (19) _____ how executives think about the future. “It surely seems plausible that happy people would be more forward-thinking and creative and (20) _____ R&D more than the average,” said one researcher.

答案精析：空格处所在句指出“是幸福与投资真的相关，还是……”。空格所在句是对前半句的进一步说明，是在询问是否还会有其他因素影响公司投资。空格后的why引导宾语从句，explain经常和why连用，表示对后面问题的解释。因此填入A项explain（解释），表示“还是有其他因素能够解释为什么幸福指数更高的城市对研发投入更多？”

错项排除：文章讨论了幸福感与公司投资研发之间的关系，B项overstate（夸大）和D项emphasize（强调）不能与后面呢的why搭配，故排除。文章仍在寻找原因，并未作出总结，故排除C项。