You’re walking down a quiet street and suddenly you hear some footsteps. Undoubtedly, it means that there’s someone around. But have you ever wondered why it occurs to us that it’s someone else’s footsteps, not ours?
According to a new study published in the journal Nature in September, this phenomenon arises from a function in our brain to ignore the noise we make ourselves.
In order to explore how our brain does this, a group of scientists carried out an experiment with mice at Duke University. The research entered on an intuition-that we are usually unaware of the sound of our own footsteps-as a vehicle for understanding larger neural phenomena; how this behavior reveals the ability to monitor, recognize, and remember the sound of one’s own movements in relation to those of their larger environments.
In the experiment, research controlled the sounds of a group of mice could hear, reported Science Daily. During the first several days, the mice would hear the same sound each time they took a step. This was just like “running on a tiny piano with each key playing exactly the same note”, senior study author Richard Mooney, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University, told Live Science.
Scientists found that their auditory cortex (听觉皮层) – the area of the brain that processes sound –became active at first but decreased its response to the sound after two or three minutes when the mice became familiar with it.
“ It’s almost like they were wearing special headphones that could filter (过滤) out the sound of their own movements.” David Schneider, an assistant professor at the Center for Neutral Science at New York University, told HuffPost.
But once the sound changed, their auditory cortex became active again. This suggests that the “sensory filter” in a mouse’s brain could help it detect new sounds or abnormal noise in the environment easily after tuning out familiar sounds.
“For mice, this is really important,” said Schneider. “They are prey animals, so they really need to be able to listen for a cat creeping up on them, even when they’re walking and making noise.
Being able to ignore the sounds of one’s own movements is likely important for humans as well. But the ability to predict the sounds of our own actions is also important for more complex human behaviors such as speaking or playing an instrument.
“When we learn to speak or to play music, we predict what sounds we are going to hear – such as when we prepare to strike keys on a piano – and we compare this to what we actually hear, “explains Schneider. “We use mismatches between expectation and experience to change how we play – and we get better over time because our brain is trying to minimize these errors.”
1.What can be discovered about mice in the experiment?
A.Their brain responds inactively to the familiar sounds
B.They are able to detect sounds other animals don’t notice.
C.They cannot identify different sounds except their own footsteps.
D.Different areas of their brain are responsible for different sounds.
2.What’s the function of the sensory filter?
A.Ignoring the sounds made by our companions.
B.Getting used to abnormal or unfamiliar sounds.
C.Identifying the sounds from a larger environment.
D.Being sensitive to the sounds of our own movement.
3.Why can a good symphony conductor immediately recognize it when a wrong note is played?
A.He has the ability to match the wrong note with the instrument player.
B.He has an intuition that he should ignore the sound of his own movement.
C.He has a low expectation and knows where players are likely to make errors.
D.He has a good prediction of how each note should be played in the orchestra.
4.What can be inferred from the passage?
A.Noise-filtering ability ensures us a quiet and undisturbed environment.
B.The ability to ignore familiar noises helps to detect potential dangers.
C.The activeness of auditory cortex determines our activity performance.
D.Sound-predicting ability seems not so important for humans as for animals.
The possibility of self-driving robot cars has often seemed like a futurist’s dream, years away from materializing in the real world. Well, the future is apparently now. The California Department of Motor Vehicles began giving permits in April for companies to test truly self-driving cars on public roads. The state also cleared the way for companies to sell or rent out self-driving cars, and for companies to operate driverless taxi services. California, it should be noted, isn’t leading the way here. Companies have been testing their vehicles in cities across the country. It’s hard to predict when driverless cars will be everywhere on our roads. But however long it takes, the technology has the potential to change our transportation systems and our cities, for better or for worse, depending on how the transformation is regulated.
While much of the debate so far has been focused on the safety of driverless cars (and rightfully so), policymakers also should be talking about how self-driving vehicles can help reduce traffic jams, cut emissions and offer more convenient, affordable mobility options. The arrival of driverless vehicles is a chance to make sure that those vehicles are environmentally friendly and more shared.
Do we want to copy - or even worsen - the traffic of today with driverless cars? Imagine a future where most adults own individual self-driving vehicles. They tolerate long, slow journeys to and from work on packed highways because they can work, entertain themselves or sleep on the ride, which encourages urban spread. They take their driverless car to an appointment and set the empty vehicle to circle the building to avoid paying for parking. Instead of walking a few blocks to pick up a child or the dry cleaning, they send the self-driving minibus. The convenience even leads fewer people to take public transport - an unwelcome side effect researchers have already found in ride-hailing (叫车)services.
A study from the University of California at Davis suggested that replacing petrol-powered private cars worldwide with electric, self-driving and shared systems could reduce carbon emissions from transportation 80% and cut the cost of transportation infrastructure and operations 40% by 2050. Fewer emissions and cheaper travel sound pretty appealing. The first commercially available driverless cars will almost certainly be fielded by ride-hailing services, considering the cost of self-driving technology as well as liability and maintenance issues (责任与维护问题). But driverless car ownership could increase as the prices drop and more people become comfortable with the technology.
Policymakers should start thinking now about how to make sure the appearance of driverless vehicles doesn’t extend the worst aspects of the car-controlled transportation system we have today. The coming technological advancement presents a chance for cities and states to develop transportation systems designed to move more people, and more affordably. The car of the future is coming. We just have to plan for it.
1.As for driverless cars, what is the author’s major concern?
A.Safety. B.Side effects. C.Management. D.Affordability.
2.What does the underlined word “fielded” in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A.Shared. B.Replaced. C.Reduced. D.Employed.
3.What is the author’s attitude to the future of self-driving cars?
A.Positive. B.Doubtful. C.Disapproving. D.Sympathetic.
Over the years, the term Wall Street has come to represent the world of high finance, but it’s also just a street! And before that, it was actually a wall--hence the name. The wall used to protect New Yorkers from attacks by Native American Indians. But eventually, the English knocked the wall down. There are a number of important landmarks on Wall Street. Here are a few of them. | |
| TRINITY CHURCH Trinity Church is located at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway. The original church was destroyed in the Great New York City fire of 1776. The current church was built in 1846. These days, Trinity Church has several choirs, and offers free classical and contemporary music concerts. |
| FEDERAL HALL NATIONAL MEMORIAL Federal Hall was built in 1700 as New York’s City Hall. Later, it became the first capitol building of the United States of America. It was the place where George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States in 1789, and it is also where the United States Bill of Rights was drafted. These days, the building is run by the National Park Service as a museum commemorating the historic events. |
| THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE The New York Stock Exchange is a neo-classical building located at 11 Wall Street. It is the world’s largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies. You can visit the building and watch from the third floor as traders buy and sell shares from companies around the world. |
| BANKERS TRUST COMPANY BUILDING At 14 Wall Street you can find the Bankers Trust Company Building. It’s a 227-metre skyscraper that occupies an entire block. The building was originally the headquarters of Bankers Trust. These days, it serves as the American headquarters of Deutsche Bank.
|
1.How did Wall Street acquire its name?
A.Local New Yorkers named it after a certain man.
B.Some Native American Indians gave it the name.
C.The street got its name due to the original architecture there.
D.The English adopted the name in memory of the original wall.
2.Among the important landmarks, which used to stage certain political events?
A.Trinity Church.
B.Federal Hall National Memorial.
C.The New York Stock Exchange.
D.Bankers Trust Company Building.
I come from one of those families where you have to yell at the dinner table to get in a word. Everyone has a strong _________ , and talks at the same time, and no one has a _________ leading to heated arguments. We often talk or even _________ with each other on different topics. _________ a family like mine has made me more _________ about the world around me, making me tend to question anything anyone tells me. But it has also made me realize that I’m not a good listener. And when I say “listening”, I’m not ______ to the nodding-your-head-and-__________ -answering-Uh-huh-or-Ooh-I-see variety. I mean the kind of listening where you find yourself deeply __________ with the person you’re speaking with, when his story becomes so ___________that your world becomes less about you and more about him. No, I was never very good at that.
I spent summer in South Africa two years ago. I worked for a good non-profit organization called Noah, which works _________ on behalf of children affected by AIDS. But _________ you asked me what I really did in South Africa, I’d tell you one thing: I listened, and I listened. Sometimes I _________ , but mostly listened.
And had I not spent two months _________ , I might have missed the _________ moment when a quiet little girl at one of Noah’s community centers, orphaned(孤儿)at the age of three, whispered after a long ______ , “I love you.”
______ that summer, I knew how to hear. I could sit down with anyone and hear their _________ and nod and respond at the __________ time-but most of the time I was _________ about the next words out of my own mouth. Ever since my summer in South Africa, I have noticed that it’s in those moments when my mouth is closed and my _________ is wide open that I’ve learned the most about other people, and perhaps about myself.
1.A.qualification B.influence C.assumption D.opinion
2.A.problem B.commitment C.schedule D.request
3.A.discuss B.debate C.consult D.compromise
4.A.Bringing up B.Growing up C.Belonging to D.Believing in
5.A.anxious B.curious C.nervous D.concerned
6.A.objecting B.appealing C.turning D.referring
7.A.rudely B.loudly C.politely D.deliberately
8.A.quarreling B.meeting C.competing D.identifying
9.A.vivid B.entertaining C.mind-numbing D.time-consuming
10.A.effortlessly B.timelessly C.aimlessly D.tirelessly
11.A.unless B.although C.if D.because
12.A.worked B.spoke C.wept D.applauded
13.A.working B.traveling C.listening D.studying
14.A.astonishing B.fascinating C.frustrating D.touching
15.A.delay B.silence C.journey D.course
16.A.Before B.After C.Since D.Except
17.A.needs B.stories C.comments D.cases
18.A.valuable B.free C.right D.same
19.A.talking B.thinking C.learning D.arguing
20.A.mind B.spirit C.sympathy D.family
-Did you take sides when Mom and Dad were arguing again?
-No. I’ve learnt that it’s best to until it blows over.
A.call it a day B.pull their legs C.sit on the fence D.wash my hands off
All the passengers, according to the new regulation, before boarding the subway.
A.are to be inspected B.are going to be inspected
C.will be inspected D.are about to be inspected
