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
SUMMER OUTDOOR MOVIES
Pre-movie activities | |
July 2: | The Great SBCC Challenge ----SBCC |
July 9: | Magician ---- Jeff Evans |
July 16: | Pizza Toss ---- Pagliacci |
July 23: | Name the Right Price ---- Whole Foods Market |
July 30: | Banana Races ---- Edible Arrangements |
Aug 6: | 60 Second Challenge ---- Inome |
Aug 13: | Zumba Fitness ---- SBCC |
Aug 20: | Movie Trivia Night ---- Bellevue. com |
Family, Friends, and Neighbors, get cool !
Bring your picnics, blankets and low-back chairs!
The Parks & Community Services Department presents free outdoor movies with popcorn at Bellevue Downtown Park this summer. Grab a blanket, a low-back chair, family, friends, neighbors or co-workers, and head to the park. Sponsored by Inome, films will be shown under the stars on a huge, 40-foot inflatable(可充气的) screen with a state-of-the-art projection(放映) and sound system.
The movie series begins on Tuesday, July 2, 2014. Activities, which last about one hour, begin at 8 pm before each movie, so come early, stake your ground and have some fun. Movies are family-friendly and carry a PG (parental guidance) rating.
Support a great cause; each movie night is accompanied by a different charity. Please bring suggested donated items to support the organization of the night. Your donations will make a difference to the poor, disabled and disadvantaged.
● Location- Bellevue Downtown Park, 10201 NE Fourth St. Bellevue at Downtown Park’s parking lots.
● In case of inclement weather, such as heavy rains, or violent storms, movies will be held indoors at the South Bellevue Community Center, 14509 SE Newport Way.
● Movies and activities are subject to change without notice.
1.The movie series lasts about __________.
A. eight weeks B. five weeks
C. seven weeks D. ten weeks
2.Movies begin at about __________.
A. 6 pm B. 7 pm C. 8 pm D. 9 pm
3.We can infer that the Summer Outdoor Movies is mainly intended to _________.
A. provide amusements and entertainments for the kids
B. collect money for the poor, disabled and disadvantaged
C. promote new products made by Whole Foods Market
D. offer chances to young people to display their talents
4.The underlined word “ inclement” means “______”.
A. fine B. bad C. cool D. Hot
I was 18 when Tim and I began to date. Shy and quiet, I’d met his parents once before but hadn’t ventured to say more than “ Hello”. This particular evening, however, we were taking them out to dinner for their anniversary and I wanted to make a good impression.
Tim and his parents arrived and I was out the door in a flash. My good impression began with “ punctual”. I sat in the backseat beside Tim nervously watching his father’s eyes glance into the rearview mirror to examine me.
Tim and his parents had already decided on their favorite Mexican restaurant and that was fine with me; the dim lighting would hide the rising flush of my cheeks, and if anyone noticed, I could blame it on the peppers. With proper table manners I managed to survive halfway through dinner without making any unforgivable mistakes. However, in the midst of conversation I reached for my iced tea, raised the glass to my lips and very quickly discovered I had picked up the wrong glass.
I quickly lowered the glass and set it back but it was too late; I had burnt my eyebrows, the hair in my nose, and curl over my forehead! I looked up slowly, praying no one had seen me, but all eyes at the table had seen and each face stared at me in shocked silence. Excusing myself, I ran to the restroom.
I would have hidden there forever but I’d barely gotten in the door when Tim’s mother arrived. “ Ah, honey,” she said, holding out her arms to me. “ Everything will be just fine.”
Tim and I eventually married. We had a small ceremony and a family reception afterwards held at the very restaurant where this incident occurred. This time, however, I didn’t drink any candles… only a Margarita（一种鸡尾酒名）; they were served in different glasses.
1.It can be inferred from the passage that___________.
A. the author had never met her parents-in-law before dinning together
B. Tim and the author took the bus to get to the restaurant
C. Tim’s father was curious to know about the author
D. Tim’s mother was not satisfied with the author’s behavior
2.According to the passage, the author______________.
A. felt very sorry for being late meeting Tim’s parents
B. mistook wine for drinks and got drunk
C. had her eyebrows burnt because of her nervousness
D. left a bad impression on Tim’s parents
3.What would be the best title of the passage?
A. Please Don’t Drink the Candles
B. Please Don’t Light the Candles
C. Please Behave Yourself
D. You Can Never Make a First Impression for a Second Time
If you bought some candy months ago but never ate it, how can you tell whether it’s still safe to eat? The easiest way is to check the “expiration date (保质期)” printed on the wrapper. If that date has already passed, you’re likely to throw the candy away. But is that really necessary?
According to a new report from the US Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), tons of food is wasted each year, largely because people don’t fully understand what expiration dates, or “use-by dates”, actually mean.
Food dating was introduced in 1970s because customers wanted more information about the things that they were eating. When they first showed up, use-by dates were only supposed to indicate freshness because producers wanted their products to be tasted in their best conditions.
But the truth is that these dates aren’t related to the risk of food poisoning or food-born illness, according to Time News. However, most customers misinterpreted use-by dates and related them to the safety of the food, and they still largely do now.
Eggs, for example, can still be eaten three to five weeks after purchase even though the use-by date is much earlier. When their use-by dates pass, strawberry juice may lose its red color and biscuits may lose their crunch（松脆的口感）, but they are not harmful.
“It’s a confusing subject, the difference between food quality and food safety,” said Jena Roberts, vice president of National Food Lab, a US food testing company. “Even in the food industry I have colleagues who get confused.”
This is why scientists are calling for a standard explanation to be printed following the use-by dates. “We want this to be clearly communicated so customers are not misinterpreting the date and contributing to a lot of waste,” said Dana Gunders, a staff scientist with the NRDC.
But this won’t be a mistake that is easy to correct since people have believed it for so long. Another problem is that the quality levels of different foods change differently-some are still eatable long after their use-by date while others are not.
As a result, food industry officials are now thinking of changing the use-by date to a date indicating when food is most likely to throw away.
1.According to the text, use-by date was first intended to ________.
A. reduce the waste of food
B. show whether the food was fresh
C. show the safety of food
D. give a warming of food poisoning
2.Which of following is TRUE?
A. Most customers understand what use-by date mean.
B. Biscuits can’t be eaten when not as crunchy as they were bought.
C. “ Use-by dates” have existed for more than 50 years.
D. Even after their use-by dates pass, some food are still safe to eat.
3.Scientists are calling for a standard explanation to be printed together with the use-by dates because________.
A. Most consumers often misunderstand use-by dates
B. use-by dates are not helpful or reliable
C. more consumers get worried about food safety
D. the quality level of different foods changes differently
书面表达
请阅读下面短文,并按照要求用英语写一篇150词左右的文章。
Cleanliness is important to academic success at one Chinese university where compulsory labor is part of a program designed to award class credits while teaching students with proper moral values.
During winter, the sky is still dark at 6:30 a.m. when the first-year students in Trade and Management College in Zhengzhou begin sweeping the 165-acre campus and it can take up to an hour.
Mr. Sun, the university official, said labor is good for building character and promotes “the spirit of hard work.” Some students also claim that they are always proud of the clean campus. They never litter because they’ve been through the labor and understand that they should respect the fruits of labor of others.
Some students, however, are against it because they feel the demands of the cleaning program are a distraction. Some often show up late and hungry to their morning classes after rushing to sweep the campus and clean their rooms.
【写作内容】
1. 用约30个单词写出上文概要；
2. 用约120个单词发表你的观点，内容包括：
(1) 支持或反对这个学校的做法；
用2-3个理由或论据支撑你的观点。
【写作要求】
1. 可以支持文中任一观点，但必须提供理由或论据；
2. 阐述观点或提供论据时，不能直接引用原文语句；
3. 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；
4. 不必写标题。
【评分标准】
内容完整，语言规范，语篇连贯，词数适当。
任务型阅读
请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入一个最恰当的单词。
注意：请将答案写在答题卡上相应题号的横线上。每个空格只填1个单词。
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. |
