Thanks to their ability for introspection (反省), human beings are able to estimate how long their actions last. When they perform a task, especially a time-based task, they can evaluate their performance and correct themselves in order to do better next time. This ability is not unique to the human species. New research has just attested for the first time that the rat can also do so!
Scientists developed a task in which rats were taught to press a lever (杠杆) for at least 3.2 seconds. In a second stage, two feeders distributed a reward according to the animal’s performance: if it completed the task with a small error, just above 3.2 seconds, it received food in the left feeder, and in case of a larger error, in the right feeder. The rats thus learned that the location of the reward depended on their accuracy.
In a third stage, the rats were given a choice of both feeders, but the reward was only distributed after they chose one feeder. The result was that the rats chose the correct side, i.e. the one in keeping with their temporal error — “precise” for the left-hand feeder or “not precise” for the right-hand one — and, confident in finding food there, they did this all the more quickly.
The research team explains this behaviour by the animals’ past experience (track record of rewards obtained), but also by the rats’ analysis of their performance: during each trial, the rats evaluated the precision with which they had carried out the task requested and were able to engage in “error monitoring”.
Demonstrating this ability in rats opens doors to new kinds of animal research to better understand these behaviours in humans. And future research will be able to deepen fundamental knowledge on brain structures involved in our internal representation of time.
1. What does the underlined word “attested” in Paragraph 1 mean?| A．Challenged. | B．Suspected. | C．Proved. | D．Analyzed. |
| A．choose where to eat. | B．eat in the left feeder. |
| C．eat in the right feeder. | D．choose their favorite food. |
| A．Rats can know where food is placed correctly. |
| B．Rats can understand the thoughts of human beings. |
| C．Rats can evaluate their performance based on time. |
| D．Rats can find the right feeder quickly and accurately. |
| A．Prejudicial. | B．Neutral. | C．Indifferent. | D．Satisfied. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Chinese researchers say they have come up with a simple way to find out a person’s biological age —how much the body has aged physically – through a urine (尿) test.
Their findings will help researchers conduct numbers of ageing studies and even predict a person’s risk of age-related diseases, according to a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience.
Another paper by researchers at the Beijing Hospital and the West China Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province, said on Tuesday that people aged at different rates due to changes in their genetic make-up and their environment.
Chronological age – which is based on one’s birth date —was an inaccurate measure of biological age so a more accurate method was needed, the team said.
Ageing is driven by the lifelong gradual accumulation of a broad variety of molecular (分子) faults in the body’s cells. The team said they had identified a matter —8-oxoGsn — that indicated increases in oxidative (氧化性) damage in urine as people’s bodies aged.
Cai Jianping, a co-author at the Beijing Hospital, said: “As we age, we suffer increasing oxidative damage and so the levels of oxidative matters increase in our body.” The team tested the levels of 8-oxoGsn in urine samples from 1,228 Chinese people aged two to 90 and concluded the marker helped accurately determine the stage of biological ageing in adults.
They had previously found that 8-oxoGsn levels also increased with age in the urine of animals such as mice.
The team has also developed a rapid analysis technique called ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography, which can process up to 10 urine samples an hour, according to the study.
1. Scientifically speaking, by what does a doctor judge the stage of a person getting old?| A．His condition. | B．His biological age. |
| C．His psychology. | D．His chronological age. |
| A．One’s birth date. |
| B．The increases in oxidative damage in urine. |
| C．The changes in their genetic make-up and their environment. |
| D．The accumulation of various molecular faults in the body’s cells. |
| A．8-oxoGsn. |
| B．Molecular faults. |
| C．Oxidative damage. |
| D．Stage of biological ageing in adults. |
| A．Why people are ageing. |
| B．How to delay people’s ageing physically. |
| C．What determines the stage of people’s ageing physically. |
| D．A rapid method with which to judge how much people are aging physically. |
【推荐2】During the 2022 Winter Olympics, at the hotels in the competition area located in Yanqing District, Beijing, a smart robot “Coffee Master” with skilled tea brewing techniques became an eye-catching feature among the attending athletes. Besides it, other robots have carried out their duties in many unnoticed corners, supporting the event.
Following the Olympics success, the outstanding performance of Chinese-made robots at the global sports gala have attracted customers across the world, representing the country’s innovation ability while boosting Chinese people’s pride.
Many industry insiders believe that the Beijing Winter Olympics is an “accelerator” for the development of the robotics industry.
“In recent years, China’s robotics industry has made many technological advances. However, before the Winter Olympics, many customers had a wait-and-see attitude toward robot products,” Yang Rui, a director from Gaussian Robotics told the Global Times, noting that with Olympics success, a large number of foreign customers have come to cooperate with the company.
According to a report by CCID Consulting, a research institute under the MIIT, in 2020, the market demand for service robots in China saw explosive growth due to the epidemic, with the market size reaching 28.38 billion yuan ($3.7 billion), up 37.4 percent year-on-year. With an aging population and rising labor costs, domestic service robots enjoy huge demand potential with the market size expected to reach 75.18 billion yuan by 2023.
Wang Peng, assistant professor at the Gaoling School of Artificial Intelligence at the Renmin University of China, noted that domestic robot sensors and computing chips are still relying on imports, leading to elevated cost of the highly sophisticated robots.
“China’s robotics industry has seen booming development, but still has a long way to go,” Wang said.
1. What does the underlined word “accelerator” mean in the third paragraph?| A．Promotor. | B．Inventor. | C．Hunter. | D．Turning. |
| A．To present a fact. | B．To make a prediction. |
| C．To support Yang’s opinion. | D．To prove the robots success. |
| A．China’s robotics industry is having a great boom. |
| B．Domestic robot sensors can be produced independently. |
| C．The market demand for service robots in China grows rapidly. |
| D．Foreign customers prefer to cooperate with domestic robot company. |
| A．China’s robotics techniques become eye catching in the world. |
| B．Robots’ functions in hotels during Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics |
| C．Robots make no difference to the success of Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. |
| D．Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics contribute much to China’s robotics industry. |
【推荐3】If you’re concerned about climate change, should you feel guilty about hanging out online? Maybe not.
Data, or information, is often processed and stored on a computer. A computer that provides data to other computers is called a server. Servers also store data such as videos, pictures and emails. A building that holds many servers is known as a data center. Without data centers and servers, we could not access websites on our own computers and phones every day.
Some people worry that data centers use a lot of energy, which could be bad for the environment. But recent studies found that data centers do not use as much energy as they thought.
Eric Masanet, a professor at Northwestern University, is the study’s main author. Masanet and his team looked at the energy used by data centers around the world, and found that data centers have improved. They saw a 20 percent energy improvement each year.
These improvements are due to better servers. They use less energy than servers once did. Other technologies have also improved.
Masanet said to make sure computers use energy effectively, some things need to happen. Businesses and governments should get involved. Countries need to be open about how much electricity their data centers use. Large data companies also need to source their electricity from renewable energy, such as sunlight and wind. For example, Google and Apple both purchased or generated enough renewable electricity to match 100 percent of their data center energy use in 2018.
“People should care about the energy data centers need,” said Masanet. “But we don’t have to feel bad about staying connected.”
1. Why do people need data centers?| A．To help people reduce time on computers. |
| B．To store information and let them use websites. |
| C．To provide energy needed to run people’s phones. |
| D．To save data on the Internet instead of on servers |
| A．Less fuel is being burned in the atmosphere. | B．Fewer people are online at the same time. |
| C．Servers and technologies have improved. | D．More information is stored in phones. |
| A．Measure. | B．Store. | C．Choose. | D．Obtain. |
| A．Businesses and governments should be involved. | B．The boundaries of countries should be opened. |
| C．People need to spend less time online. | D．People need to rely on big data companies. |
【推荐1】I used to think that the most effective way to resist depression (抑郁) was to have my heart set on happiness. If you valued happiness instead of sorrow as your goal, I thought, one would not suffer from depression.
However, a study, carried out among students living in the UK, found those who said they valued happiness extremely highly tended to show greater signs of depression.
Vogt and colleagues presented 151 students, the majority of them female, with a series of online questionnaires, These examined attitudes from how much they valued happiness to how much their emotions affected them, how easy they found it to put aside emotions, and their levels of depression-related symptoms.
The results, published in the Journal of Happiness Studies, reveal that those who valued happiness more had higher scores for symptoms of depression. The reason is in part because individuals become distracted by their feelings and a lower ability to reframe thoughts or experiences. It is also in part because. of bottling up emotions. “Suppression is not considered a successful emotional regulation strategy because when you try not to think of something you think of it all the time," said Vogt.
While Vogt said the study cannot prove that valuing happiness too much causes symptoms of depression, she said it was highly possible. She also noted that in Russia and east Asian countries the opposite trend had been found.
However, the study has limitations - including that it mainly involved women and did not account for the health or socioeconomic status or participants, although all were young and at university.
1. What did the study find?| A．If you value happiness, you won't get upset. |
| B．The goal of happiness leads to depression. |
| C．Negative :emotions affects one's happiness. |
| D．Female college students are easier to become depressed. |
| A．They are distracted by their feelings. | B．They fail to adjust their thought. |
| C．They welcome every kind of emotions. | D．They think about happiness all the time. |
| A．expression | B．hiding |
| C．value | D．happiness |
| A．objective | B．indifferent |
| C．supportive | D．critical |
Here are four of the eight most amazing Chinese food cities I’ve come across so far. The list is in no particular order.
1. Chengdu, Sichuan Province
Crowned as Asia’s first UNESCO City of Gastronomy(美食学) in 2010, Chengdu is best-known for its fiery hot pot and spicy dishes, which are characterized by the use of Sichuan pepper and are usually layered with salty, sour and sweet flavors. There are also dishes that aren’t spicy at all, such as beer-braised duck.
Hot pot is as ubiquitous in the city as the smell of chili. At Zigong Delicious Hotpot, the house specialty(招牌菜) tiaoshui wa is a cauldron(大锅) of fiery chili(辣椒) to which vegetables, noodles or other meats can be added.
For a real taste of Sichuan’s signature（招牌）pepper, hua jiao, spend a morning at the Chengdu Spice Market where the locals sell and buy it by the sack.
2. Lanzhou, Gansu Province
Synonymous in the minds of food-lovers with hand-pulled beef noodles, Lanzhou also has one of the liveliest street food night markets in China.
Just west of the city center, the buzzing Zhengning Road bazaar（集市）houses more than 100 street food stalls. Available is a broad selection of hot and cold dishes with emphasis on local Hui cuisine.
No trip to Lanzhou is complete without feasting on noodles at Wumule Penhui, the 2012 winners of Lanzhou’s annual pulled noodle competition. The halal restaurant makes noodles spicy enough to satisfy even the most hardened heat-seekers.
3. Guangzhou, Guangdong Province
The birthplace of Cantonese food, Guangzhou is thought by many as the best place to eat in China. The city of 12 million has a passionate food culture, with equal excitement reserved for the opening of a hole-in-the-wall congee joint（粥店）and a high-end restaurant.
The local cuisine is characterized by fresh clean flavors（口味）, seafood, barbecued meats and the wonderful tradition of yum cha, which is tea drinking accompanied by dumplings and small dishes.
Congee is the way locals love to start their day, and one of the most popular vendors is Ru Xuan Sha Guo Zhou. Here, one can get a bowl of signature seafood congee any hour of the day.
Roast meats are Bing Sheng’s most popular order—their roast goose is marinated（腌制）with five-spice, boiled, air-dried, then roasted by a flame oven to give a crisp skin.
For something more home style and removed from the madness of downtown, head to Ji Cun for steamed chicken and simple farmer-style dishes.
4. Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province
This ancient canal city is home to huangjiu, an amber-colored rice wine that’s important in Chinese cooking.
Open since 1894, the dining chain is known by almost every Chinese for its appearance in early 20th century novels by Chinese literati Lu Xun.
Xianheng’s delicacies（佳肴）include crispy-skinned chicken, smoked red dates in rice wine, beans flavored with fennel(茴香), and crispy bream in rice wine.
Fried fermented（发酵的）tofu is also a local specialty, which is available all over town at small street stalls including one just outside Xianheng.
1. The writer’s purpose of the passage is to ____________.
| A．share her story and impression on Chinese cuisines |
| B．tell readers how to comment on amazing Chinese food cities |
| C．talk the readers into enjoying the signature food such as hand-pulled noodles |
| D．express her preference for fiery hot pot and spicy dishes in Chengdu. |
| A．charming and attractive |
| B．smelly and disgusting |
| C．common and popular |
| D．fiery and spicy |
| A．Chengdu, Lanzhou | B．Lanzhou, Guangzhou |
| C．Guangzhou, Shaoxing | D．Shaoxing, Chengdu |
| A．Cantonese food is characterized by a sea of marinated dishes. |
| B．Huangjiu is widely believed to be essential in Chinese cooking. |
| C．Pepper, chili and huajiao play an important role in all Sichuan dishes. |
| D．Hand-pulled beef noodle is a speciality in local Hui cuisine. |
【推荐3】In the first test of its kind in Europe, and only the second in the world, Belgian researchers tested 39 brands of straws (吸管) for the group of synthetic (合成的) chemicals known as poly-and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The straws are made from five materials — paper, bamboo, glass, stainless steel and plastic. PFAS were found in the majority of the straws tested and were most common in those made from paper and bamboo. They were not found only in steel straws tested.
PFAS are used to make everyday products, from outdoor clothing to non-stick pans, resistant (抵抗to water, heat and stains. They are, however, potentially harmful to people, wildlife and the environment. They have been related to a number of health problems, including lower response to vaccines (疫苗), lower birth weight, thyroid disease, liver damage, kidney cancer and testicular cancer. They break down very slowly over time and can last thousands of years in the environment, a property that has led to them being known as “forever chemicals”.
A growing number of countries, including the UK and Belgium, have sopped the sale of single-use plastic products, including drinking straws, and plant-based versions have become popular. The PFAS concentrations (浓缩物) were low in them and, bear in mind that most people tend to only use straws occasionally, bringing a limited risk to human health. However, PFAS can remain in the body for many years and concentrations can build up over time.
It isn’t known whether the PFAS were added to the straws by the producer for waterproofing or the PFAS were the result of contamination. Potential sources of contamination include the soil the plant-based materials were grown in and the water used in the production process. However, the presence of the chemicals in almost every brand of paper straws means it is likely that it was, in some cases, being used as a water-resistant coating, say the researchers.
1. Why are PFAS called “forever chemicals”?| A．They are commonly seen in daily life. |
| B．They bring humans health problems. |
| C．They remain in the environment for long. |
| D．They can resist water, heat and stains. |
| A．By bringing people air pollution. |
| B．By polluting humans’ food. |
| C．By building up little by little in humans’ body. |
| D．By making people addicted to drinking easily. |
| A．Pollution. | B．Discovery. | C．Experiment. | D．Development. |
| A．More and more countries give up single-use plastic products. |
| B．PFAS are widely used in the production of daily necessities. |
| C．Certain kinds of new synthetic chemicals were discovered. |
| D．Environment-friendly drinking straws are actually harmful. |
