Scientists have discovered why the Mona Lisa's expression looks so different to different people and at different times.
For centuries, art lovers and critics have been confused by and debated the Leonardo Da Vinci painting's gaze and slight smile.
But new research from the University of California, San Francisco has shed new light on the shining and seemingly changing face of the Mona Lisa.
Through experiments, they discovered that our emotions really do change how we see a neutral face.
Dr Erika Siegel and her colleagues study how our emotions change our perceptions of the world around us—even when we aren't aware that something has changed our feelings.
This relies on the modern theory of" the brain as a predictive organ, instead of a reactive one,” says Dr Siegel.
In other words, “we have a lifetime of experience and we use those experiences to predict what we are going to experience next.”
We all have one dominant eye and one more passive non-dominant one. If each eye is receiving different information, we only consciously perceive what dominant one sees. But non-dominant sights can still enter our subconscious.
They showed 43 people two sets of flashing images simultaneously, so that the dominant eye saw and registered neutral expressions, while the non-dominant eye “saw” flashes of neutral, or smiling faces, which they would only subconsciously be aware of.
After viewing the flashing faces, the researchers showed the participants options of faces and asked them to pick out which ones they had seen.
When their non-dominant eyes had seen a happy face, they were more likely to think the neutral face had actually been smiling, and the same was true for other expressions.
This means that “if you see the Mona Lisa after you have just had a screaming fight with your husband, you're going to see the painting differently,” says Dr Siegel.
“But if you're having the time of your life at the Louvre, you're going to see the mysterious smile,” she adds.
“We are the architects of our own experience. Our brain makes predictions about what it expects to see and uses information from the world to update its expectations,”Dr Siegel says.
1.What is the purpose of Dr Siegel's research?
A.To discover why people perceive the same thing differently.
B.To help appreciate the Mona Lisa.
C.To win a debate.
D.To tell a smiling face from a neutral face.
2.Which of the following is the closest in meaning to “shed new light” in Paragraph 3?
A.Made something bright. B.Provided new explanations.
C.Added light-colored paints. D.Increased amount of natural light.
3.Why did the researchers show the participants two sets of flashing images?
A.To play a game.
B.To pick out their dominant and non-dominant eyes.
C.To strengthen the effect of the non-dominant eyes.
D.To provide images of more expressions.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A.Effects of Emotions B.Seeing Is Believing
C.A Mysterious Research D.Is Mona Lisa Smiling?
Most heroes are not super. They don’t appear in comic books, on television, or in movies. They just do what they believe needs to be done to make their world a better place. Bike Batman is one of them.
Bike Batman is a 30-year-old married engineer who lives in Seattle, Washington. He’s a cyclist who also buys and sells bikes as a hobby.
About three years ago, he was looking for a bike for his wife. He found one on Craigslist, a website where people list things they want to sell. As he often does, he also looked at Bike Index, a popular website that allows users to register their bikes and post reports when they’re taken. The bike, which he was considering purchasing, clearly matched one reported stolen on Bike Index. Then he called the person who claimed to be the bike’s owner and arranged to meet him— supposedly to complete the sale. When the two men met, Bike Batman told the thief, “You’ve got two options. You can wait until a police officer gets here, or you can just get out of here.” You can imagine what the thief did.
After that first success, Bike Batman developed a safer routine. When he sees questionable bike ads on Craigslist, he cross-references the image with bikes reported on Bike Index. Once he has confirmed it with the owner, he arranges a meet-up with the thief and will call the Seattle police department so that officers can participate in the action. In more than half of the 22 cases in which he has got back and returned bikes, the thieves have been arrested. In one case, Bike Batman even helped a family recover a wide range of prized possessions that suspects had stolen during a home burglary.
His nickname came from a discussion with a police officer who suggested he be called “Robin Hood”. Since he wasn’t exactly stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, “Batman” seemed a better fit. The idea of a superhero punishing criminals feels pretty silly to him, but the main reason he continues his work is to keep up Seattle’s reputation as a friendly city.
1.What is Bike Batman?
A. A superhero. B. A website manager.
C. A Seattle citizen. D. A police officer.
2.What will Bike Batman first do when he discovers a questionable bike?
A. Arrange to meet the thief.
B. Call the police department.
C. Contact the owner of the stolen bike.
D. Look up the bike’s information on Bike Index.
3.Why does Bike Batman help find the lost bikes?
A. To become famous. B. To help poor people.
C. To punish bike thieves. D. To build a friendly city.
4.What can we learn from the passage?
A. the thieves refused to return the bikes.
B. the police failed to perform their duties.
C. Bike Batman began his good deeds by accident.
D. Bike Batman felt relieved to see the thieves arrested.
Where should an adventurous tourist go? After you've done sightseeing in London, shopping in New York, enjoyed the local food in Paris, and danced to your heart's content at the Brazilian carnival, where else can you go? What attractive tourist destination awaits you?
Well, Antarctica sounds like the holiday of a lifetime! It's considered the last great wilderness on Earth. Just a few scientists in research stations share the icy landscape with penguins and other animals which can struggle with the low temperatures.
Tourism began in Antarctica in the 1950s and it's still small part. About 37,000 tourists are expected there this season, but many won't even leave the boat.
The BBC’s Juliet Rix visited the frozen continent and asked herself if she should be there at all, causing potential problems to such a sensitive environment. Her tour guide admitted that all visitors leave a footprint and they all go to the same places, the accessible coastline, which is also where the penguins and seals go to raise.
But some people believe that if carefully controlled, tourism can be good for Antarctica. It has no native population and it needs advocates. Visitors to the icy continent might be ready to support and even to fund its preservation. And they're likely to engage in the discussion about global warming, which has led to the melting of glaciers.
According to Rix, guidelines are followed when you're about to set foot in Antarctica and tourists have to disinfect their boots to make sure no alien species are introduced.
And once on land, there's no eating or smoking. Rocks, bone fragments—nothing should be taken as a souvenir and nothing should be left behind.
Tourists fortunate enough to visit the Antarctic must be aware that this is not their home and keep their fingers crossed that future generations will also be able to enjoy such breathtaking views.
1.What can we infer from the second paragraph?
A.The Antarctic has become the best place for people to travel.
B.Only scientists can be allowed to go to Antarctic.
C.Antarctic is less affected by human activities.
D.No animals can survive in Antarctic expect penguins.
2.Juliet Rix’s travel in Antarctic mentioned in the fourth paragraph indicates that .
A.whether tourists should go to Antarctic or not should be considered carefully
B.governments should take measures to stop tourists from going to Antarctic
C.the animals’ habitat in Antarctic has been seriously affected by tourism
D.only journalists begin to pay attention to the environmental protection in Antarctic
3.What does the underlined word “disinfect” in the sixth paragraph probably mean?
A.Clean. B.Move.
C.Remove. D.Change.
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
192 pages. Little Brown UK via LBS. $ 10.36
Hanff was in search of classic British literature titles that she had been unable to find in New York City when she noticed an ad in The Saturday Review of Literature. She first contacted the shop in 1949 and it fell to Doel to fulfil her requests. In time, a long-distance friendship developed in the form of twenty-year correspondence（通信）between the two and between Hanff and other staff members as well, with an exchange of Christmas packages, birthday gifts and food parcels to help with the post-World War II food shortages in Britain.
Fool by Christopher Moore
311 pages. William Morrow. $26.99
In Fool Christopher Moore takes on Shakespeare, with a retelling of “King Lear” through the eyes of Lear's fool named Pocket. The plot and cast of characters are borrowed more or less from the original, with several Mooreian additions-a second fool, named Drool, and a refrain （叠句）that could come in handy for any adapter of Shakespeare, “There's always a bloody ghost”.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
372 pages. Bloomsbury. $24.93
Mariam is only fifteen when she is sent to Kabul to marry rough Rasheed, who is thirty years her senior. Nearly two decades later, in a climate of growing unrest, tragedy strikes fifteen-year-old Laila, who must leave her home and join Mariam's unhappy household. Laila and Mariam are to find comfort in each other to struggle against starvation, cruelty and fear in a desperate life. Their friendship grows as deep as the bond between sisters and as strong as the ties between mother and daughter.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
541 pages. Knopf. $26.95
Like his main character, Marion Stone, Abraham Verghese is a doctor born in Ethiopia who immigrated to the United States. Marion and his twin brother, Shiva, were left alone at birth when their mother died, and their father, a doctor, disappeared. Fleeing an act of political violence, Marion lands in New York, at a charity hospital called Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, where the events that happen force him to face his past.
1.Which two books mainly focus on friendship?
A.Fool and Cutting for Stone .
B.84, Charing Cross Road and Fool.
C.Cutting for Stone and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
D.84, Charing Cross Road and A Thousand Splendid Suns.
2.Which book is the best choice to learn more about “King Lear”?
A.84, Charing Cross Road. B.Fool.
C.A Thousand Splendid Suns. D.Cutting for Stone.
3.What do we know about Shiva from the passage?
A.He is Mariam's husband. B.He is Laila's mother.
C.He is Verghese’s twin brother. D.He is Marin's twin brother.
4.What can we know from the passage?
A.Cutting for Stone is published by William Morrow.
B.Abraham Verghese was not born in the U. S. A.
C.A Thousand Splendid Suns is a book about history.
D.Fool is the thinnest book and costs the most.
假定你是李华,你校戏剧社正在招收新成员。请你给交换生Peter写封邮件,鼓励他加入，内容包括:
1.个人条件和优势;
2.戏剧社特点;
3.加入的好处及报名截止日期等。
注意:1.词数100左右;
2.可以适当增加细节,以使行文连贯。
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假定英语课上老师要求同桌之间交换修改作文,请你修改你同桌写的以下作文。文中共有10处语言错误,每句中最多有两处。每处错误仅涉及--个单词的增加、删除或修改。
增加:在缺词处加一个漏字符号( ^) ,并在其下面写上该加的词。
删除:把多余的词用斜线( \)划掉。
修改:在错的词下划一-横线,并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意:1.每处错误及其修改均仅限- -词;
2.只允许修改10处,多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Passing exams are every student's dream. Fail them is their frightening dream. So, to realize our dreams, many students try anything. They even go to fortunetellers, buy lucky charms and follow lots of old custom. In Korea, many students bury something personal in the university they want to enter. They believed that those things are amazing and will “pull" them into the university. If it works or not, nobody real knows. At least it does ease the students' minds about passing exams. Remembering, though, you can't always rely luck. There is no substitute for a hard work.
