C

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 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, while Easterners favor the eyes and ignore 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 reliably to convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.

The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the facial movements of 13 Western people and 13 Eastern people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, or angry. 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 Westerners did. “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 while 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.

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 expression

2.What were the people asked to do in the study?

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

3.What does the underlined word “they” in paragraph 6 refer to?

A. The participants in the study

B. The researchers of the study

C. The errors made in the study

D. The data collected from the study

4.In comparison with the Westerners, Easterners are likely to_____.

A. do translation more successfully

B. study the mouth frequently

C. examine the eyes more attentively

D. read facial expressions more correctly

D

People are being tricked into Facebook with the promise of a fun, free service without realizing they’re paying for it by giving up loads of personal information.

Most Facebook users don’t realize this is happening. Even if they know what the company is up to, they still have no idea what they’re paying for Facebook because people don’t really know what their personal data is worth.

The biggest problem, however, is that the company keeps changing the rules early on you keep everything private. That was the great thing about Facebook. You could create your own little private network. Last year. The company changed its privacy rules so that many things; your city, your photo, your friends’ names were set, by default (默认)to be shared with everyone on the Internet.

According to Facebook’s vice-president Elliot Schrage, the company is simply making changes to improve its service, and if people don’t share information. They have a “less satisfying experience.

Some critics think this is more about Facebook looking to make more money. In original business model, which involved selling ads and putting them. At the side of the pages totally, who wants to took at ads when they’re online connecting with their friends?

The privacy issue has already landed Facebook in hot water in Washington. In April. Senator Charles Schumer called on Facebook to change its privacy policy. He also urged the Federal Trade Commission to set guidelines for social networking sites. “I think the senator rightly communicated that we had not been clear about what the new products were and how people could choose to use them or not to use them,” Schrage admits.

I suspect that whatever Facebook has done so far to invade our privacy, it’s only the beginning,which is why I’m considering cancelling my account. Facebook is a handy site, but I’m upset by the idea that my information is in the hands of people I don’t know. That’s too high a price to pay.

1.What do we learn about Facebook from the first paragraph?

A. It is a website that sends messages to users who want to get married.

B. It earns money by putting on advertisements.

C. It makes money by selling its users’ personal data.

D. It provides loads of information to its users.

2. What does the author say about most Facebook users?

A. They are unwilling to give up their personal information.

B. They don’t know their personal data enriches Facebook.

C. They don’t identify themselves when using the website.

D. They care very little about their personal information.

3.Why does Facebook make changes to its rules according to Elliot Schrage?

A. To provide better service to its users.

B. To obey the Federal guidelines.

C. To improve its users’ connection

D. To expand its business.

4. Why does the author plan to cancel his Facebook account?

A. He is dissatisfied with its present service.

B. He finds many of its users untrustworthy.

C. He doesn’t want his personal data badly used.

D. He is upset by its frequent rule changes.

WHAT’S the most important thing of life?

People’s answers vary greatly. For British scientist Robert Edwards,the answer is having a child.“Nothing is more special than a child,”he told the BBC.

Edwards,the inventor of the In Vitro Fertilization(IVF)technology—more commonly known as“test?tube(试管)baby”technology—passed away on April 10 ,2013 at the age of 87.

Edwards changed the lives of millions of ordinary people who now rejoice(充满喜悦)in the gift of their own child,”said Peter Braude,professor at King’s College London.“He leaves the world a much better place.”

Edwards started his experiments as early as the 1950s,when he had just finished his PhD in genetics. At that time,much of the public viewed test-tube babies as“scary”,according to Mark Sauer,professor at Columbia University,US.

Edwards and his colleague Patrick Steptoe faced opposition from churches,governments and media,not to mention attacks from many of their fellow scientists.“People said that we should not play God and we should not interfere with nature,”Edwards once told Times. He said that he felt “quite alone” at the time.

“But Edwards was a fighter,and he believed in what he was doing,”said Sauer. Without support from the government,the two struggled to raise funds to carry on. And in 1968 they finally developed a method to successfully fertilize human eggs outside the body.

The first test-tube baby was born on July 25,1978.Her name was Louise Brown. Despite people’s safety concerns,Brown was just as healthy as other children.

“IVF had moved from vision to reality and a new era in medicine had begun,”BBC commented.

Ever since then,public opinion has evolved considerably. Couples who were unable to have babies began thronging(蜂拥)to Edwards’ clinic. Nowadays,Reuters reports,some 4.3 million other“test-tube” children exist. Edwards received a Nobel Prize in 2010 and was knighted(封为爵士)by Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ the following year.

Before his death,Edwards was still in touch with Louise.“He is like a granddad to me,”she said in an interview with the Daily Mail.

He is a granddad to millions, in fact.

1.What is the article mainly about?

A.The first test-tube baby.

B.A new era in medicine.

C.The inventor of IVF technology.

D.The changes IVF technology has brought.

2.The writer quoted Peter Braude to ________.

A.show how difficult it was for Edwards to do his work

B.describe what kind of person Edwards was

C.explain why he is loved by all children

D.comment on his achievement

3.The underlined word“opposition”in Paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to ________.

A.attack B.support

C.test D.influence

4.What is the CORRECT order of events in Edwards’ life?

a.He received a Nobel Prize.

b.He struggled to raise funds.

c.The first test-tube baby was born.

d.He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth Ⅱ.

e.He succeeded in fertilizing human eggs outside the body.

f.He started his experiments on IVF technology.

A.f—e—b—c—a—d B.f—b—e—c—d—a

C.f—b—e—c—a—d D.f—e—d—a—c—b

Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface(BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.

Recently, two researchers, Jose Milan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic School in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person’s thoughts.

In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right band. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.

“Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord (脊髓)to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles,” Tavella says. “Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices.”

The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.

Prof. Milan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. “The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair.”

He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.

1.BCI is a technology that can ________.

A. help to update computer systems

B. link the human brain with computers

C. help the disabled to recover

D. control a person's thoughts

2.How" did Tavella operate the wheelchair in the laboratory?

A. By controlling his muscles.

B. By talking to the machine.

C. By moving his hand.

D. By using his mind.

3.Which of the following shows the path of the signals described in Paragraph 5?

A. scalp→computer→cap→wheelchair

B. computer→cap→scalp→wheelchair

C. scalp→cap→computer→wheelchair

D. cap→computer→scalp→wheelchair

4. The team will test with real patients to ________.

A. make profits from them

B. prove the technology useful to them

C. make them live longer

D. learn about their physical condition

5.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

A. Switzerland, the BCI Research Center

B. New Findings About How the Human Brain Works

C. BCI Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled

D. Robotic Vehicles Could Help to Cure Brain Injuries

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