While learning the science lessons, I used to get a doubt-why ears, nose, tongue and eyes should be called as special senses? The basic reason is that these are the channels through which we maintain contact with the surroundings. Though apparently it may feel like these are individual sensory organs, they do show some connectivity. Interestingly, our hearing is less sharp after we eat a heavy food. Isn't it good for a sound nap after a stomach-full meal? That does not mean we go deaf after a meal, but the hearing pitch does change after a heavy meal.
We usually give credit of the taste to our tongue, but do you know that unless saliva dissolves something, our tongue cannot recognize the taste of the food eaten？Taste is nothing but the food chemicals dissolved in the saliva being sensed by the taste buds present on the tongue. Try to dry off your tongue and mouth with a tissue paper and then taste something.
Women are much better smellers than men. They are born with this characteristic ability and can correctly pinpoint the exact fragrance of the sample. We all can store almost 50, 000 different scents, which are strongly tied to the memories.
Pupils do not respond to light alone, but to the slightest bit of noise around too. Thus surgeons, watchmakers and those professionals who have to perform a much delicate job do prefer to have a sound-free environment. Even a small noise can dilate their pupils, change the focus and blur their vision. If you do not wear glasses or contact lens due to having a 6/6 vision, you are just among the one third of the human population. It is now statistically proved that only one third of the population has perfect vision, the rest all are either wearing glasses or are trying to read with a compromised vision.
Each and every one of us has a particular or individualistic or characteristic smell, which is unique to us, except for the identical twins. This smell is very subtle yet can be sensed even by a newborn. It may be due to this scent that the newborn recognizes the presence of his parents around. Many of us can pinpoint the smell of our significant friends and colleagues. A significant part of this phenomenon is guided by genetics but it is also changed by the environment, diet and personal hygiene. This all together creates the unique chemistry that is individualistic for each person.
1. What does the example of “heavy meal and hearing” in the first paragraph prove?| A．Every sensory organs has its specific function. |
| B．We easily fall asleep after eating a heavy meal. |
| C．We feel the world through our eyes, ears, nose and tongue. |
| D．All the individual sensory organs are actually connected. |
| A．Our sense of taste becomes sharper when our tongue is dry. |
| B．The chemical dissolved in the saliva helps digest food eaten. |
| C．Saliva plays an important role in identifying the taste of food. |
| D．The taste buds works better when there is less saliva in the mouth. |
| A．A craftsman who is working on a diamond. |
| B．An actor who is doing rehearsal. |
| C．A pilot who is flying a plane. |
| D．An engineer who is checking machines. |
| A．The identical genes guide him. |
| B．He can recognize their unique smell. |
| C．He can hear their individual voices. |
| D．The sensor in his brain picks them out. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Have you ever wondered why certain pop songs just make you feel so good? Researchers studying the question found that uncertainty and surprise give listeners the most pleasure. The study included 80,000 chords (和弦) in 745 pop songs between 1958 and 1991.
Each song was stripped of its melody (旋律) and lyrics (歌词) so that only chords were left and the results couldn’t be misunderstood by other imaginations of the songs that listeners might have had.
They found two things. Listeners got great pleasure from unexpected chords when they knew what would happen. However, they still found it pleasant to hear familiar chords when they did not know what would follow.
Vincent Cheung, the lead researcher, said, “Pleasant songs are likely those which keep a good balance (平衡) between knowing what is going to happen next and surprising us with something we did not expect. Understanding how music starts our pleasure system in the brain could explain why listening to music might help us feel better when we are feeling blue.”
Cheung told CNN that pleasure in music is connected to expectation. The study before had looked into the effects of surprise on pleasure, but his team’s study also paid attention to the uncertainty of listeners’ expectations.
1. What does the underlined word in Paragraph 2 mean?| A．Taken. | B．Added. |
| C．Played. | D．Recorded. |
| A．Expected music is exciting. | B．Unexpected chords bring pleasure. |
| C．Familiar music is boring. | D．Unfamiliar chords are hard to follow. |
| A．They can explain human nature. | B．They can improve our pleasure system. |
| C．They make some people feel blue. | D．They balance expectation and surprise. |
| A．To introduce a scientific study’s finding. | B．To show music’s importance in our life. |
| C．To compare different studies on music. | D．To experiment music in science. |
【推荐2】An artificial intelligence can now predict the location and rate of crime across a city a week in advance with up to 90 percent accuracy. Similar systems have been shown to perpetuate (延长) racist bias (偏见) in policing, and the same could be true in this case, but the researchers who created thisAI claim that it can also be used to expose those biases.
Ishanu Chattopadhyay at the University of Chicago and his colleagues created an AI model that analysed historical crime data from Chicago, Illinois, from 2014 to the end of 2016, then predicted crime levels for the weeks that followed this training period. The model predicted the likelihood of certain crimes occurring across the city, which was divided into squares about 300 metres across, a week in advance with up to 90 percent accuracy. It was also trained and tested on data for seven other major US cities, with a similar level of performance.
Previous efforts to use AIs to predict crime have been controversial because they can perpetuate racial bias. In recent years, Chicago Police Department has tested an algorithm (算法) that created a list of people assumed most at risk of being involved in a shooting, either as a victim or as a criminal. Details of the algorithm and the list were initially kept secret, but when the list was finally released, it turned out that 56 percent of Black men in the city aged between 20 to 29 featured on it.
Chattopadhyay acknowledges that the data used by his model will also be biased, but says that efforts have been taken to reduce the effect of bias and the AI doesn’t identify suspects, only potential sites of crime. “It’s not Minority Report,” he says. Chattopadhyay says the AI’s predictions could be more safely used to inform policy at a high level, rather than being used directly to allocate (分配) police resources. He has released the data and algorithm used in the study publicly so that other researchers can investigate the results.
The researchers also used the data to look for areas where human bias is affecting policing. They analysed the number of arrests following crimes in neighbourhoods in Chicago with different socioeconomic levels. This showed that crimes in wealthier areas resulted in more arrests than they did in poorer areas, suggesting bias in the police response.
1. What can a new AI show according to researchers?| A．The exposure of some biases. | B．The reasons for racist bias. |
| C．The similarity with other systems. | D．The truth of the previous cases. |
| A．By dividing criminals into groups. | B．By following the training period. |
| C．By training the model in big cities. | D．By looking into the past information. |
| A．Negative. | B．Positive. | C．Neutral. | D．Indifferent. |
| A．Crimes in wealthier areas would drop. |
| B．Crimes in poorer areas would remain the same. |
| C．Disadvantages caused by bias would decrease. |
| D．Crime data would be further investigated. |
【推荐3】When you were at school, were you ever told to stop daydreaming and concentrate?
Scientists have looked at what makes us time delay and found a number of ways to help us stay in the zone.
Another possible cure for a short attention span is brain training. Psychologists and neuroscientists are increasingly interested in our ability to get serious and have looked at what we can change inside our head to make us concentrate. It proves that making a task more visually demanding takes up more processing power and leaves the brain nothing left to process distractions.
There are more practical tips to keeping your mind focused.
| A．When you were concentrating on your study |
| B．So, keeping your mind busy might be the answer |
| C．One of the most obvious things is excluding noise |
| D．If you weren’t interested in what you were learning |
| E．However, distraction isn’t all bad under some conditions |
| F．On the whole, we should make efforts to get rid of the bad impact of distraction |
| G．These include making a list of the tasks, finding a suitable workspace, or chewing some gum |
Eat Blueberries
Aside from being a healthy and delicious snack, blueberries contain pterostilbene, which has important colon cancer-fighting prosperities. But wait, it gets better. Blueberries also offer a large dose of vitamins C (14 milligrams per cup). So at breakfast, try to take in a cup and a half of blueberries in your cereal or yogurt, or mixed with other berries.
Drink Pomegranate（石榴）Juice
The deep red juice of the pomegranate contains various chemicals, which together create a powerful anticancer mixture. Most recently, researchers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison has discovered that 16 ounces of pomegranate juice per day also may inhibit(阻碍) the growth of lung cancer.
Relax
Feeling stressed or worried? Find ways to relax and you may reduce your chances of developing cancer. Purdue University researchers tracked 1,600 men over 12 years and found that half of those with high levels of worry died during the study period. Only 20 percent of the optimists died before the study were completed, while 34 percent of the extremely anxious men died of some type of cancer. Instead of stressing about the past or future, focus on the present and relax!
Take Selenium（硒）
Selenium is well known for its cancer-fighting properties. In a study of almost 1,000 men, researchers from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that when men with the lowest initial levels of selenium in their bodies received a daily supplement over a 4-year period, they cut their prostate（前列腺）cancer risk by a remarkable 92 percent. However, it is possible to get too much of a good thing, so monitor your intake of selenium-containing supplements, Brazil nuts, tuna, meats and grains carefully.
Break a Sweat
Even a small amount of exercise can offer major cancer-fighting benefits. In a study of 29,110 men published in the International Journal of Cancer, men who exercised just once a week had a percent lower risk of prostate cancer than men who didn’t work out at all. The better the frequency, duration and intensity of the exercise, the bigger the reduction in risk, according to the study.
1. To prevent yourself from catching colon cancer, you should eat ____ as often as possible.
| A．selenium | B．blueberries |
| C．pomegranates | D．Vitamin D |
| A．he is very fond of exercise every day. |
| B．he is addicted to drinking |
| C．he always feels extremely stressed or worried |
| D．he likes to have meals in restaurants |
| A．Having a proper supplement of selenium |
| B．Drinking a cup of pomegranate juice every day |
| C．Breathing fresh air now and then |
| D．Taking exercise at least once a week |
| A．have a daily supplement of vitamins B and C |
| B．try to ignore the secondhand smoking |
| C．take in as much selenium as possible |
| D．have exercise as often as possible |
Thailand’s disaster specialists have been warning of this coming disaster for years. One expert has said he’s worried about Bangkok resembling Atlantis. Another previously told Global post that the city will be under five feet of water by 2030. The latest estimates suggest that Bangkok is now sinking as fast as two centimeters per year in parts of the city. The predictions for 2100 are even more terrible. By then , Bangkok will be fully submerged and unlivable.
Like global warming, which will accelerate the city’s submersion by raising the sea leavel, Bangkok’s sinking problems are repeatedly
Anond Snidvongs, director of the Southeast Asia Regional Research Center, predicts the city’s outskirts will be the first to go. Parts of the shoreline ebyong Bangkok are already liend with pumps that make noises and help to transform invading seawater. They don’t always work. During heavy rains, salt water flows in the streets of the city.
Bangkok is swallowed up a little more each day. Experts tend to offer two solutions. The first is to pu up a massive seawall that could cost nearly $3 billion-nearly 1 percent of Thailand’s current GDP. The second option is to give up entirely and move the capital to higher ground.
1. Why is Bangkok sinking into the earth?
| A．Its buildings are too heavy. |
| B．It has an overlarge population. |
| C．Its underground is too loose. |
| D．It is resting on top of a lake. |
| A．ignored |
| B．valued |
| C．agreed |
| D．misunderstood |
| A．The optimism and wisdom shown by the city people. |
| B．The present serious situation Bangkok is faced with. |
| C．The weakness of the pumps to transform water. |
| D．The huge power produced by the surrounding seawater. |
| A．Bangkok is disappearing |
| B．The removal of Bangkok |
| C．Thailand’s capital needs a seawall |
| D．An attractive city under water |
【推荐3】For lots of kids, toddlerhood(幼儿期)is an important time for friendship. Studies show that the earlier kids learn to form positive relationships, the better they are at relating to others as teenagers and adults. Playing together also helps these kids practice social behaviors, such as kindness, sharing, and cooperation.
Even so, how quickly your child develops into a social creature may also depend on his temperament. Some toddlers are very social, but others are shy. In addition, the way that toddlers demonstrate that they like other children is markedly different from what adults think of as expressions of friendship. Research at Ohio State University in Columbus found that a toddler’s way of saying “I like you” during play is likely to come in the form of copying a friend’s behavior.
This seemingly unusual way of demonstrating fondness can result in unpleasant behavior. Regardless of how much they like a playmate, they may still grab his toys, refuse to share, and get bossy. But experts say that this is a normal and necessary part of friendship for kids this age. Through play experiences, toddlers learn social rules. That’s why it’s so important to take an active role in your toddler’s social encounters by setting limits and offering frequent reminders of what they are. When you establish these guidelines, explain the reasons behind them.
Begin by helping your child learn sympathy (“Ben is crying. What’s making him so sad?”), then suggest how he could resolve the problem(“Maybe he would feel better if you let him play the ball.”). When your child shares or shows empathy(同理心)toward a friend, praise him(“Ben stopped crying! You made him feel better.”).
Another way to encourage health y social interaction is by encouraging kids to use words—not fists—to express how they feel. It’s also important to be mindful of how your child’s personality affects playtime. Kids are easy to get angry when they’re sleepy or hungry, so schedule playtime when they’re refreshed.
1. What does the underlined word “temperament” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Appearances. | B．Ages. | C．Characters. | D．Interests. |
| A．They are fond of their playmates. |
| B．They are interested in acting. |
| C．They are shy with the strangers. |
| D．They are tired of playing games. |
| A．Find them suitable playmates. |
| B．Design games for them. |
| C．Play together with them. |
| D．Help them understand social rules. |
| A．Explaining concepts. | B．Giving examples. |
| C．Providing evidence. | D．Making comparisons. |
