阅读理解. They may be small and not able to speak, but babies are proving their amazing cleverness. Sc——青夏教育精英家教网—

阅读理解。

     They may be small and not able to speak, but babies are proving their amazing cleverness. Scientists
began finding infants' skills are more than they are supposed to be.
_________
     Speaking of music, babies can't seem to resist it. Not only are their ears turned to the beats, babies
can actually dance to the music.
     To test babies' dancing ability, the researchers played recordings of classical music, rhythmic beats
and speech to infants, and recorded the results. They also invited professional dancers to analyze how
well the babies matched their movements to the music. The babies moved their arms, hands, legs feet
and heads in response to the music, much more than to the speech. The finding suggests this dancing
ability is innate(与生俱来的) in humans, though the researchers aren't sure why it becomes weaker
later in their life.
     Learning Quickly while Sleeping
     Babies can learn even while asleep, according to a 2011 study. In experiments with 26 sleeping
infants, each just 1 to 2 days old, scientists played a musical tone followed by a puff of air to their eyes
200 times over the course of a half-hour. 124 electrodes(电极) stuck on the head and face of each
baby recorded brain activity during the experiments. The babies rapidly learned to foretell a puff of air
upon hearing the tone, showing a four-time increase on average in the chances of tightening their eyelids
in response to the sound by the end of the experiments.
     As newborns spend most of their time asleep, this newfound ability might be crucial to rapidly
adapting to the world around them and help to ensure their survival, researchers said.
     Judging Characters Well
     Judging another person helpful or harmful is crucial when choosing friends. And that ability starts
early. Kiley Hamlin of Yale University showed both 6-and 10-month-olds a puppet(木偶) show, in
which one character helped another climb a hill. In another scene a third character pushed the climber
down. The little ones then got to choose which character they preferred. For both age groups, most
babies chose the helper character. This character-judging ability could be baby's first step in the
formation of morals, Hamlin thought.

1. Which of the following subtitles can fill in the underlined blank?

A. Dancing to Music
B. Babies' Amazing Abilities
C. Learning to Dance Quickly
D. Born to Dance

2. The underlined word "it" in the third paragraph refers to______.

A. the finding
B. the dancing ability
C. the response
D. the baby

3. The experiment with 26 sleeping infants prove that_______.

A. babies can learn even while asleep
B. babies can respond to the world around them
C. babies can tighten their eyelids in response to the sound
D. babies can communicate with others while asleep

4. In the last experiment, most babies chose the helper character, showing that________.

A. babies can judge a person helpful or harmful
B. babies love to see a puppet show
C. babies were born to help others
D. babes have learned to help others

阅读理解。

     We might like to think we're not influenced by other people, but a new study into the group-buying
mechanisms(机制) - like those used on coupon(优惠券) sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial-reveals
that telling buyers who come later to the offer how many have already signed up increases the number
of purchasers.
      Researchers at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management wanted to understand
why group buying sites that have entered the market recently have enjoyed greater success than those
operating a decade ago, such as Mercata and MobShop.
      Earlier attempts typically left potential buyers waiting for days before confirming whether or not they
had got the offer they had signed up for.
      "We think one of the reasons group-buying has been successful recently is because of the short tim
e horizon," says Rotman Professor Ming Hu, who co-wrote the study with Professor Mengze Shi and
PhD student Jiahua Wu. "It allows for a herding effect."
      Another reason is the use of an information structure that discloses to later arrivals how many have
already signed onto the deal.
      Researchers looked at two ways of designing the purchasing mechanism for a group buy: a
simultaneous mechanism, where no one knows how many buyers have come before them, and a
sequential(连续的) mechanism, where a second group of buyers has the advantage of knowing the
size of the first group.
      The researchers' analytical(分析的) model shows the most successful mechanism is the sequential
one because it eliminates uncertainty for those coming later to the deal, and improves the confidence of
those who sign on early, as they're able to track the numbers of those who come after them.
     "That boosts confidence," says Professor Hu, who teaches operations management. Deals for
"luxury" services, versus everyday items, work better in a group buy scenario(方案) because they offer
consumers a greater benefit.