题目内容
An electric signal can trick a monkey’s brain into believing the animal’s finger has been touched.
Touch something, and your brain knows. The hand sends signals to the brain to announce contact was made. But that feeling of touch may not require making actual contact, tests on monkeys now show. Zapping brain cells can fool the animal into thinking its finger has touched something.
A person who has lost a limb or become paralyzed may need an artificial limb to complete everyday tasks. But such patients may not truly feel any objects they hold. The new findings point toward one day creating a sense of touch in those who use such artificial limbs. Psychologist Sliman Bensmaia of University of Chicago worked on the new tests. His team’s findings appeared on October 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
The sense of touch is crucial to everyday tasks: People without it may have difficulty cracking an egg, lifting a cup or even turning a doorknob. That’s why restoring it is a major goal for designers of artificial limbs.
In their new study, Bensmaia and his co-workers worked with rhesus monkeys (恒河猴). The scientists implanted electrodes (电极)--- small devices that can detect and relay an electrical signal—into the animals’ brains. The scientists used the electrode data to identify which neurons had become active. Then the scientists used the implanted electrodes to zap those same neurons. And the monkeys reacted as though their fingers had been touched. In fact, they hadn’t.
The monkeys couldn’t use words to tell the scientists what they had felt. Instead, they communicated by looking in a particular direction—just as when they had really been touched.
The new findings show how touch-sensitive devices could be built. The new study also offers “ a nice clear pathway” for figuring out how to restore a sense of touch to an amputee(被截肢者) or someone with a injury of spinal cord.
The study shows how artificial limbs might be connected to the brain so that a person can “feel” with such a prosthesis (假肢). But such a supersensory device doesn’t exist yet and scientists have a lot of work to do before people will benefit from it. Researchers must first figure out whether the electrodes would work in people in the same way they do in monkeys.
“ I think the foundation is laid for human trials,” Bensmaia said.
1.What does the underlined word “it” refer to ?
A. The sense of touch.
B. An artificial limb.
C. The turning of a doorknob.
D. The lifting of a cup
2.Bensmania tested monkeys to prove that the feeling of touch_________.
A. is important to everyday tasks
B. may not require making actual contact
C. is a problem of life and death
D. may be a challenge for designers of artificial limbs.
3.Monkeys tell researchers their sense of touch by _______.
A. putting up one of their fingers
B. making their brain cells active
C. looking in a particular direction
D. mimicking natural signals in the brain
4.The last sentence of the text suggests humans _________.
A. will use touch-sensitive devices
B. will test monkeys soon
C. lay foundations for monkey trials
D. will be tested on the electrodes
5.The passage is mainly about ________.
A. restoring a sense of touch
B. fooling a clever monkey
C. making new artificial limbs
D. sending a signal with a touch
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Simon Sinek is naturally shy and doesn’t like speaking to crowds. At parties, he says he hides alone in the corner or doesn’t even show up in the first place. He prefers the latter. Yet, with some 22 million video views under his belt, the optimistic ethnographer also happens to be the third most-watched TED Talks presenter of all time.
Sinek’s unlikely success as both an inspirational speaker and a bestselling author isn’t just dumb luck. It’s the result of fears faced and erased, trial and error and tireless practice, on and off stage. Here are his secrets for delivering speeches that inspire, inform and entertain.
Don’t talk right away.
Sinek says you should never talk as you walk out on stage. “A lot of people start talking right away, and it’s out of nerves,” Sinek says. “That communicates a little bit of insecurity and fear.”
Instead, quietly walk out on stage. Then take a deep breath, find your place, wait a few seconds and begin. “I know it sounds long and tedious and it feels excruciatingly awkward when you do it,” Sinek says, “but it shows the audience you’re totally confident and in charge of the situation.”
Show up to give, not to take.
Often people give presentations to sell products or ideas, to get people to follow them on social media, buy their books or even just to like them. Sinek calls these kinds of speakers “takers,” and he says audiences can see through these people right away. And, when they do, they disengage.
“We are highly social animals,” says Sinek. “Even at a distance on stage, we can tell if you’re a giver or a taker, and people are more likely to trust a giver — a speaker that gives them value, that teaches them something new, that inspires them — than a taker.”
Speak unusually slowly.
When you get nervous, it’s not just your heart beat that quickens. Your words also tend to speed up. Luckily Sinek says audiences are more patient and forgiving than we know.
“They want you to succeed up there, but the more you rush, the more you turn them off,” he says. “If you just go quiet for a moment and take a long, deep breath, they’ll wait for you. It’s kind of amazing.”
Turn nervousness into excitement.
Sinek learned this trick from watching the Olympics. A few years ago he noticed that reporters interviewing Olympic athletes before and after competing were all asking the same question. “Were you nervous?” And all of the athletes gave the same answer: “No, I was excited.” These competitors were taking the body’s signs of nervousness — clammy hands, pounding heart and tense nerves — and reinterpreting them as side effects of excitement and exhilaration.
When you’re up on stage you will likely go through the same thing. That’s when Sinek says you should say to yourself out loud, “I’m not nervous, I’m excited!”
Say thank you when you’re done.
Applause is a gift, and when you receive a gift, it’s only right to express how grateful you are for it. This is why Sinek always closes out his presentations with these two simple yet powerful words: thank you.
“They gave you their time, and they’re giving you their applause.” Says Sinek. “That’s a gift, and you have to be grateful.”
Passage outline | Supporting details |
1.to Simon Sinek | ●He is by2.shy and dislikes making speeches in public. ●Through his3.effort, he enjoys great success in giving speeches. |
Tips on delivering speeches | ●Avoid talking 4.for it indicates you’re nervous. ●Keep calm and wait a few seconds before talking, which will create an 5.that you are confident. |
●Try to be a giver rather than a taker because in6.with a taker, a giver can get more popular and accepted. ●Teach audience something new that they can7.from. | |
●Speak a bit slowly just to help you stay calm. ●Never speed up while speaking in case you8.the audience. | |
●Switch nervousness to excitement by 9.the example of Olympic athletes. | |
●Express your 10.to the audience for their time and applause to conclude your speech. |