Imagine you’re in a dark room, running your fingers over a smooth surface in search of a single dot the size of this period, How high do you think the dot must be for your finger to feel it?
Scientists have determined that the human finger is so sensitive it can detect a surface bump just one micron(l0-6m)"high. The human eye, by contrast, can't tell anything much smaller than100 microns.No wonder we rely on touch rather than eyesight when faced with a new roll of toilet paper.
Biologically, touch is the mother of all sensory(感覺的) systems.It is an ancient sense in evolution: even the simplest single-celled living things can feel when something brushes up against them and will respond by moving closer or pulling away. It is the first sense aroused during a baby’s development and the last to weaken at life's peak. Patients in a deep coma (昏迷)who seem otherwise lost to the world will show skin reaction when touched by a nurse.
“Touch ,is so central to what we are that we almost cannot imagine ourselves without it,” said Chris Dijkerman.“It's 'not like eyesight, where you close your eyes and you don't see anything. You can't do that with touch.It's always there."
Long ignored in favor of the sensory heavyweights of eyesight and hearing, the study of touch lately:: has been gaining new concern among scientists.They're exploring the effects of recently reported false touch impressions, of people being made to feel as though they had three arms, for example, with the hope of gaining the true understanding of how the mind works.
Others are turning to touch for more practical purposes: to build better touch screen instruments and robot hands, a more well-rounded virtual life.!癟here's a fair amount of research into new ways of offloading information onto our sense of touch," said Lynette Jones. "To have your cell phone buzzing (making a low sound) as opposed to ringing turned out to have a lot of advantages in.some situations."
Touch is our most active sense, our means of seizing the world and experiencing it 'first hand. Dr.Susan Lederman pointed out that while we can become aware of something by seeing or hear,ing7;-.from a distance and without really trying, if we want to learn about something by means of touch, we must make a move.We must rub the cloth, or pet the cat. Touching is a two-way street, and that's not true for seeing or hearing. If you have a soft object and you squeeze it, you change its shape. The physical world reacts back."
Our hands are smart and can do many tasks automatically - button a shirt, fit a key in a lock, play the; piano for others.Dr.Lederman and her colleagues have shown that blindfolded subjects can easily recognize a wide range of common -objects placed.in their hands.But on some feeling tasks, touch is all thumbs (very clumsy). When people are given a raised line drawing of a common object, they're puzzled.“If all we've got is outline information;" Dr.Lederman said,.“no weight, no texture, no temperature information, well, we're very, very bad with that."
Touch also turns out to be easy to fool, Among the sensory tricks now being investigated is something called the Pinocchio illusion. Researchers have found that if they shake the band of the biceps(二頭。, many people report feeling that their forearm is getting 'longer, their hand floating ever further from their elbow(肘). And if they are told to touch the forefinger of the shaken arm to the tip of their nose, they feel as though their nose was lengthening, too.
【小題1】Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A.Our eyes are more sensitive than our fingers. |
B.Our fingers are more sensitive than our eyes. |
C.Our eyes are more sensitive than our ears. |
D.Our noses are less sensitive than our ears. |
A.sight | B.taste | C.hearing | D.touch |
A.close your skin | B.close your eyes ' | C.touch anything | D.see anything |
A.living a well-rounded virtual life |
B.understanding how the mind works |
C.favoring eyesight and hearing |
D.building better 'touch screen objects |
A.the author | B.Chris Dijkerman |
C.Lynette Jones | D.Susan Lederman |
【小題1】B
【小題2】D
【小題3】A
【小題4】C
【小題5】D
解析試題分析:文章介紹人的觸覺是最靈敏的,是幾種感覺里面發(fā)展最早,消失最遲的,文章也介紹關(guān)于觸覺的一些發(fā)現(xiàn)。
【小題1】細節(jié)題:從文章第二段的句子:Scientists have determined that the human finger is so sensitive it can detect a surface bump just one micron(l0-6m)"high. The human eye, by contrast, can't tell anything much smaller than100 microns.可知我們的手指比感覺更加靈敏,選B
【小題2】細節(jié)題:從文章第三段的句子:It is the first sense aroused during a baby’s development可知在孩子發(fā)展的過程中首先喚起的是觸覺,選D
【小題3】句意理解題:從文章第四段的句子:.“It's 'not like eyesight, where you close your eyes and you don't see anything.可知這句話“You can't do that with touch”的意思是“你不能關(guān)閉你的皮膚”,選A
【小題4】細節(jié)題:從文章第五段和第六段的句子:with the hope of gaining the true understanding of how the mind works. Others are turning to touch for more practical purposes: to build better touch screen instruments and robot hands, a more well-rounded virtual life可知科學(xué)家最近感興趣的事情有:生活在一個虛擬世界,理解思維是怎么運作的,建立更好的觸覺屏幕物體,沒有說更喜歡視力和聽力,選C
【小題5】細節(jié)題:從文章倒數(shù)第三段的句子:if we want to learn about something by means of touch, we must make a move.可知在Susan Lederman看來,當(dāng)我們通過觸覺知道什么事情的時候,需要運動。選D。
考點:考查科普類短文
科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
Many of our favorite travel destinations are in danger of being changed badly by increased temperatures and rising seas. The following are some of the places that may be in danger and some that are already experiencing the effects of global warming.
The Everglades, Florida: Perhaps no region of the country is as unprotected to climate change as Florida. Even a slight increase in temperature and water level could devastate popular destinations like the Everglades, Miami Beach and the Keys.
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef: One of the most impressive natural habitats in the world, the Great Barrier Reef could be killed by increased water temperatures and the resulting coral bleaching (漂白法). Australia is particularly easily damaged by global warming because of its large number of fragile (脆弱的) ecosystems, uncertain water sources and a large group of people gathering on the coast.
Dalian, China: Fast-growing China, shown here during a heat wave last year, is opening about one coal factory every day this year. Along with the U.S., China is one of the world's leading contributors to the greenhouse gases , which can lead to the increase in the Earth's temperature.
Venice, Italy: No stranger to flooding, Venice has invested $4.5 billion in a floodgate system that is due to open in 2012. But the frequent changing ocean levels have made people question the floodgates' ability to hold out the rising waters.
London, England: Designed to protect London from storms and extremely high tides, the Thames Barrier was opened in 1984. Some analysts fear that rising oceans will create conditions beyond the capabilities the barrier was designed to meet.
【小題1】The word “devastate” in paragraph 2 means “_____________”.
A.protect | B.destroy | C.swallow | D.enlarge |
A.Fragile ecosystem |
B.Uncertain water sources. |
C.The large group of people. |
D.Increased water temperatures and the coral bleaching |
A.flooding is common in Venice |
B.everyone is familiar with flooding |
C.it is strange for Venice to experience flooding |
D.there is no flooding in Venice |
A.the dangerous destinations |
B.the most popular destinations |
C.the fascinating destinations |
D.the endangered destinations |
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions — and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly(均勻的) across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.
"We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions," Jack said. "Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and neglect (忽略) the mouth."
According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Caucasian and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of. expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than did Westerners. "The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions," Jack said. "Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less."
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.
【小題1】 The discovery shows that Westerners .
A.pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth |
B.consider facial expressions universally reliable |
C.observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways |
D.have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions |
A.To make a face at each other. | B.To get their faces impressive. |
C.To classify some face pictures. | D.To observe the researchers' faces. |
A.The participants in the study. |
B.The researchers of the study. |
C.The errors made during the study. |
D.The data collected from the study. |
A.do translation more successfully |
B.study the mouth more frequently |
C.examine the eyes more attentively |
D.read facial expressions more correctly |
A.The Eye as the Window to the Soul |
B.Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions |
C.Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills |
D.How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding |
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
Many people think of the brain as a mystery.They don't know much about intelligence and how it works.When they do think about what intelligence is,many people believe that a person is born smart,average,or dumb—and stays that way in the whole life.But new research shows that the brain is more like a muscle—it changes and gets stronger when you use it.And scientists have been able to show just how the brain grows and gets stronger when you learn.
Everyone knows that when you lift weights,your muscles get bigger and you get stronger.A person who can't lift 20 pounds when he/she starts exercising can get strong enough to lift 100 pounds after working out for a long time.That's because the muscles become larger and stronger with exercise.And when you stop exercising,the muscles shrink and you get weaker.That's why people say “Use it or lose it!”
But most people don't know that when they practice and learn new things,parts of their brain change and get larger a lot like muscles do when they exercise. Inside the cortex(皮層)of the brain are billions of tiny nerve cells,called neurons. The nerve cells have branches connecting them to other cells in a complicated network. Communication between these brain cells is what allows us to think and solve problems. When you learn new things,these tiny connections in the brain actually multiply and get stronger.The more you challenge your mind to learn,the more your brain cells grow.Then,things that you once found very hard or even impossible to do—like speaking a foreign language or doing algebra(代數(shù))—seem to become easy after learning them for a period of time.The result is a stronger,smarter brain.
Scientists started thinking that the human brain could develop and change when they studied animals'brains.They found out that animals that lived in a challenging environment were more perspicacious—they were better at solving problems and learning new things.
【小題1】According to the first paragraph,________.
A.the function of our brain is like that of the muscle |
B.until now it's impossible to explain the brain's mystery |
C.many people believe one's intelligence is naturally determined |
D.one's brain grows stronger as the age increases |
A.using the brain |
B.connecting things in your brain |
C.lifting weights |
D.doing research about the brain |
A.Strong. | B.Smart. |
C.Popular. | D.Active. |
A.the differences between animals'brains and humans'brains |
B.the relation between human brains and muscles |
C.scientists' findings about animals' brains |
D.how to make your brain smarter through self?development |
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
Scientists discovered 163 new species in Southeast Asia’s Greater Mekong region last year,but all are at risk of extinction due to climate change,the WWF said in a report released Friday.
The newly discovered creatures include a birdeating frog with fangs (毒牙),a bird that would rather walk than fly and a gecko (壁虎) whose alien appearance inspired the report’s title of “Close Encounters”,the conservation group said.
The report was released ahead of major UN talks on climate change in Bangkok next week,which are being held before a makeorbreak summit in Copenhagen this December.
“Some species will be able to adapt to climate change,and many will not,potentially resulting in massive extinction,” Stuart Chapman,director of the WWF Greater Mekong program,said in the report.“Rare and endangered species like those newly discovered are especially vulnerable (易受傷害的) because climate change will further shrink their already restricted habitats,” he said.
“The new discoveries in 2010 include 100 plants,28 fish,18 reptiles,14 amphibians,2 mammals and a bird,”the WWF report said.The area spans Cambodia,Laos,Myanmar,Thailand,Vietnam and China’s Yunnan Province.
“Among the new species is the birdeating fanged frog,which remains hidden in a protected area of Thailand despite the fact that scientists are studying there for 40 years,” the report said.
The tigerstriped pit viper was discovered accidentally on an island off the coast of Vietnam when a scientist was looking for a lizard and his son pointed out that his hand was on a rock right next to the snake’s fangs.“We caught the snake and the gecko and they both proved to be new species,” researcher Lee Grismer of La Sierra University in California was quoted as saying in the report.The leopard gecko,found on another Vietnamese island,has the coloring of a leopard and bizarre orange,catlike eyes and thin legs.
The Greater Mekong region has proved a rich area for scientists.The WWF said in December 2010 that it had found 1,068 new species there between 1997 and 2009.
【小題1】What is special about the newly discovered bird?
A.It usually walks. |
B.It likes walking and flying. |
C.It can eat other birds. |
D.It can eat frogs. |
A.most of the newly discovered species can adapt to climate change |
B.climate change can cause massive extinction of the newly discovered species |
C.the newly discovered species are not so vulnerable to climate change |
D.many species have already died out because of climate change |
A.frightened | B.disappointed |
C.excited | D.puzzled |
A.The Greater Mekong region is a rich area for scientists. |
B.Many rare species remain to be discovered in the Mekong region. |
C.Scientists have discovered many new species in the Mekong region. |
D.Climate change threatens Mekong new species. |
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
Boredom and Creativity
Most of us think of being bored at work as a negative experience, but a new study suggests it can have positive results including an increase in creativity because it gives us time to daydream.
That is the finding of Dr. Sandi Mann from the University of Central Lancashire. Dr. Mann conducted two studies. In the first experiment, 40 people were asked to carry out a boring task. They were told to copy numbers out of a telephone directory for 15 minutes. After that they were asked to complete another task. A pair of cups were given to each of them. Everyone tried to come up with different uses of the cups, and was given a chance to display their creativity. Meanwhile, another group of 40 people were just asked to come up with uses for the cups without doing any boring tasks before. It turned out that the 40 people who had first copied out the telephone numbers were more creative than the control group(對照組).
To see if daydreaming was a factor in this effect, a second boring task was introduced that allowed even more daydreaming than the boring writing task. This second study saw 30 people copying out the numbers as before, but also included a second group of 30 reading rather than writing them.
Again the researchers found that the people in the control group were least creative, but the people who had just read the names were more creative than those who had to write them out. This suggests that more passive boring activities, like reading or perhaps attending meetings, can lead to more creativity. Compared with reading, writing reduced the scope(范圍) for daydreaming. As a result, it reduces the effects of boredom on creativity.
Dr. Mann says: “Boredom at work has always been seen as something to be avoided, but perhaps we should accept it in order to promote our creativity. What we want to do next is to see what the practical implications of this finding are. Do people who are bored at work become more creative in other areas of their work -- or do they go home and write novels?”
【小題1】Who proved to be the most creative in the two studies?
A.The people who attended meetings. |
B.The people who did the reading task. |
C.The people who invented uses for cups. |
D.The people who copied telephone numbers. |
A.creative tasks |
B.controlled activities |
C.the range of daydreaming |
D.reading and writing ability |
A.Positive. |
B.Skeptical. |
C.Subjective. |
D.Disapproving. |
A.The real causes of creativity. |
B.The actual use of boredom. |
C.The practical reasons of boredom. |
D.The writing ability improved by boredom. |
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
Many people believe that teaching children music makes them smarter, better able to learn new things. But the organizers of a new study say there's no scientific evidence that early musical training affects the intelligence of young people.
An estimated 80 percent of American adults think music lessons improve children's abilily to learn or their performance in school. They say that the satisfaction for learning to play a new song helps a child express creativity.
Researchers at Harvard University, however, have found that there's one thing musical training does not do. They say it does not make children more intelligent. Samuel Mehr is a graduate student at Harvard's School of Education. He said it is wrong to think that learning to play a musical instrument improves a child's intellectual development. He says the evidence comes from studies that measured the mental ability of two groups of 4-year-olds and their parents. One group attended music class, the other went to a class that places importance on the visual arts—arts that can be seen.
"The evidence there is 'no'. We found no evidence for any advantage on any of these tests for the kids participating in these music clases," said Mehr.Samuel Mehr says researchers have carried out many studies in an effort to learn whether musical training can make children smarter. He says the results have been mixed. He says only one study seems to show a small percentage increase in IQ, intellectual scores among students after one year of music lessons. He does not believe that IQ is a good measure of child's intelligence. He says researchers in his study compared how well children in the musical training group did on mental processing tasks or projects, then the results were compared to those of children who did not take lessons. There was no evidence that the musical training group did much better on the mental tasks than the other group.
The researchers comfirmed the results with a larger group of children and their parents.Mr Mehr says music lessons may not offer children a fast easy way to gain entry to the best schools later of their life. But he says the training is still important for cultural reasons. In his words, "We teach music because music is important for us."
【小題1】According to the new study, musical training______.
A.makes children smarter |
B.helps a child express creativity |
C.does not make children more intelligent |
D.improve children's ability to learn in school |
A.the children who attended music class are smarter than those who attended arts class |
B.IQ is a good measure of a child's intelligence |
C.we needn't to teach children music |
D.music training is still important for cultural reasons |
A.conducted more than one research |
B.interviewed many American adults |
C.taught two groups of 4-yetr-olds music and arts |
D.offered children a fast way to be admitted to the best schools |
A.health | B.education | C.culture | D.economy |
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
What's going to happen in the future? Will robots take over our planet? Will computers become smarter than us? Not likely. But here are some things that scientists say are most likely to happen 10 to 30 years later from now, according to the BBC.
1.Digital money
We used to pay with cash for everything we bought. Now when we swipe(刷) our bus pass or use a credit card to shop online, money is spent without us even seeing it. In fact, we are already using one type of digital money.
You have to admit that using a card is much easier than searching your pockets for change. It is also safer than carrying a lot of cash.
When ATM cards were first introduced, they were not accepted everywhere. But now it's hard to live without them. People in Sweden completely stopped using cash last year, according to the Associated Press, and the US might be next.
2.Bionic(能力超人的)eye
It's no longer something only in a scifi movie. People who are blind may have a chance to get their sight back—by wearing bionic eyes.
A blind eye can no longer sense light, but a bionic eye can use a camera to “see” the environment and send data directly to the brain.
Although the bionic eye that's out now only allows patients to see lights and unclear shapes, a highresolution(高清晰度的) version could be just a few years away.
3.Selfdriving cars
Everything is going automatic these days—washing machines, ticket selling machines and even cars. Unlike a human driver, a selfdriving car won't get distracted by a phone call, the radio or something outside the window. Sensors and cameras on the car would allow it to stick strictly to the rules of the road and keep a safe distance from other cars. This would greatly reduce the number of road accidents. You could even take a nap while the car drives itself.
Many vehicle companies are now planning selfdriving cars. “By 2040, driverless vehicles will be widely accepted and possibly be the dominant vehicles on the road,” said Jeffrey Miller, professor at the University of Alaska Anchorage, US, in Wired magazine.
【小題1】The underlined word “distracted” in the article is closest in meaning to “________”.
A.directed | B.discouraged |
C.a(chǎn)ttacked | D.disturbed |
A.optimistic | B.pessimistic |
C.doubtful | D.cautious |
A.Learning Kit | B.Campus Trends |
C.Entertainment | D.Technology |
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科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
The United States is not part of the Kyoto Protocol.But since 2005 more than 1,000 mayors across the country have agreed to sign their own version of the protocol.
It is called the United States Conference of Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement.Local leaders have agreed to follow the suggestions of the Kyoto Protocol in their communities.They have also agreed to urge state and federal governments to follow these suggestions.One goal is to reduce air pollution to the 1990 levels by 2012.
A “green” city might work on several kinds of environmental goals and programs.These include air quality,reducing electricity use, green building, public health, the reuse of materials, water quality and clean transportation.
The Natural Resources Defense Council works to protect the environment through action, law and science.One of its online projects is called Smarter Cities, which lists some cities that have made important environmental steps.
Washington,D.C.is also a leading city for green roofs,with over 92,000 square meters of green rooftops.The city also launched a program called “Skip the Bag,Save the River.”Stores charge people a fivecent tax for using plastic or paper shopping bags instead of reusable bags.Money from the tax will be used to clean up a local river.
New York City is using water as a renewable energy source.For several years, the city has experimented with water in the East River to create energy.Officials operating the program recently asked for permission to put into place 30 river turbine devices.
The people of Portland, Oregon are among the top recyclers in the nation.People living there recycle over half of the waste they throw out.The city has also worked to provide green transportation by providing safe bike paths and free parking spaces where electric cars can get recharged.
In Oakland, California, you can ride on one of several public hydrogenpowered(氫氣作燃料的) buses.These buses release zero pollution into the air.However,they cost about five times more than common buses.
【小題1】The United States Conference of Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement is aimed at________.
A.reducing energy use |
B.reducing air pollution |
C.improving public health |
D.reusing waste materials |
A.To clean a local lake that has been polluted. |
B.To get enough money for the green roof project. |
C.To prevent shoppers from using reusable bags. |
D.To collect money for an environmental project. |
A.building green rooftops |
B.making transportation clean |
C.being good at recycling waste |
D.using renewable energy source |
A.its high cost | B.side effect |
C.zero pollution | D.large space |
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