Question

【题目】Why Do People Blink (眨眼) Their Eyes?

People blink their eyes tens of thousands of times every day. Scientists have long believed blinking was an involuntary movement and served mainly to keep the eyeballs wet. But a new study suggests it has a more important purpose.

An international team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley studied the blinking of human eyelids. The journal Current Biology published their findings. The team said they found that blinking “repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused” on what we are seeing. They said that when we blink our eyelids, the eyes roll back into their sockets—the bony area that surrounds and protects the eyes. However, the researchers found the eyes don’t always return to the same position (位置). They said this causes the brain to tell the eye muscles (肌肉) to reorganize our eyesight.

Gerrit Maus is the lead writer of the report. He serves as an assistant professor of psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Maus said, “Our eye muscles are quite sluggish (迟缓的) and imprecise (不精确的), so the brain needs to constantly adapt (改编) its motor signals to make sure our eyes are pointing where they should be. Our findings suggested that the brain measures the difference in what we see before and after a blink, and orders the eye muscles to make the needed corrections.” The researchers said that without such corrections our surroundings would appear unclear and even jumpy. They said the movement acts “like a steadicam (摄影稳定器) of the mind.”

The researchers said they asked volunteers to sit in a dark room while storing at a small dot on a flat surface. They used special cameras to follow the volunteer’s blinks and eye movements. After each blink, the dot was moved one centimeter to the right. The volunteers did not notice this, but the brain did. It followed the movement and directed the eye muscles to refocus on the dot. After the dot was moved in this way 30 times, the volunteers’ eyes changed their focus to the place where they predicted it would be.

Professor Maus said. “Even though the volunteers did not consciously register that the dot had moved, their brains did, and adjusted (调整)with the corrective eye movements. These findings add to our understanding of how the brain constantly adapts to (适应) changes directing our eye muscles to correct for errors in our bodies’ own hardware.”

【1】According to the new study, blinking eyes can ________.

A.serve keep the eyeballs wetB.reposition eyeballs to stay focused

C.consciously correct eye movementsD.make our eyes adapt to motor signals

【2】From the experiment, we can learn that ________.

A.the brain directed the eye muscles to refocus on the dot

B.volunteers could see the moving dot with special cameras

C.the eyeballs could stay in the place as they were predicted

D.volunteers were aware of the dot’s movements to the right

【3】The underlined word “register” in Paragraph 5 probably means ________.

A.reasonB.refocusC.realizeD.reserve

【4】This passage shows that ________.

A.eye muscles are quite inactive and imprecise

B.the research is of great value in the eye movement

C.the brain plays an important role in seeing things clearly

D.volunteers control their blinks to follow the changes of the dots

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】A

【3】C

【4】C

【解析】

人们每天眨眼成千上万次，这主要是为了保持眼球的湿润。但一项新的研究表明，眨眼还有另外一个更重要的目的——让我们的眼球重新定位，重新聚焦新的事物。

【1】细节理解题。根据短文第二段The team said they found that blinking “repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused” on what we are seeing. They said that when we blink our eyelids, the eyes roll back into their sockets—the bony area that surrounds and protects the eyes.，最新的研究表明，人们眨眼睛是为了让我们更好的聚焦我们要看的事物，当眨眼睛的时候，我们的眼球会回滚到眼窝里，那样可以保护我们的眼睛。故选B

【2】细节理解题。根据短文第二段中However, the researchers found the eyes don’t always return to the same position (位置). They said this causes the brain to tell the eye muscles (肌肉) to reorganize our eyesight.可知，研究表明，眼睛不会回到同一个点，科学家说我们的大脑支配着眼睛的肌肉去重新聚焦新的点。故选A。

【3】词义猜测题。根据划线单词所在的语境After the dot was moved in this way 30 times, the volunteers’ eyes changed their focus to the place where they predicted it would be.

Professor Maus said. “Even though the volunteers did not consciously register that the dot had moved, their brains did, and adjusted (调整)with the corrective eye movements. 移动圆点30次后，志愿者的眼睛将焦点转移到他们预测的地方。尽管志愿者们无意识地……那个点的移动，可是他们的大脑是意识到了，并相应的给眼睛传递信号，做适当的调整。由此可猜测register的意思应为“意识到”，与realize同义，故选C。

【4】主旨大意题。根据短文的最后These findings add to our understanding of how the brain constantly adapts to (适应) changes directing our eye muscles to correct for errors in our bodies’ own hardware.，这些发现增加了我们对大脑如何不断适应变化的理解，引导我们的眼部肌肉纠正我们身体自身硬件的错误。因此我们的大脑在支配我们看事物方面起着非常重要的作用。故选C。