Few people can stop themselves from looking at pictures of cute animals. Take the Internet sensation(引起轰动的人或事物) Sally chicken as an example.The chicken with a yellow body and a flat mouth always looks lovely. Seeing her cute picture cheers people up. But there’s another benefit of cuteness.
New research has found that looking at cute pictures of animals can also help us concentrate (专注)better. The finding comes from researchers at Hiroshima University in Japan.They invited 132 university students to take part in some experiments. In one experiment, students were asked to find a given number from a list of numbers within a time limit.They performed the given tasks twice-before and after looking at seven pictures of either baby cats and baby dogs, or cats and dogs. Researchers were surprised to find that students who were shown cute baby animal pictures made fewer mistakes.
However, baby animals look both “cuter” and more “pleasant” than adult animals. What if the test difference came from their being “pleasant”? To find the answer, the researchers chose some food pictures which looked pleasant but not cute, and gave them to another group of students. But seeing the foods did not make the students perform any better in the number test.This finding suggests that seeing cute pictures makes students behave more deliberately and perform tasks with greater time and care.
The “power of cuteness” could be of great use.Think about situations in-which people need to act carefully: driving, office work and exams, “In my first year of high school, I brought small plastic toys to school during tests. I would set them up in a row on my desk, facing me, and then get busy answering exam questions,” Susana Martinez-Conde wrote in Scientific American.
根据材料内容选择最佳答案。
11. Why is Sally chicken mentioned in the first paragraph?
A.She is the main character. |
B.She is a lovely Internet sensation. |
C.She is used to introduce the topic of the text. |
D.She is popular to cheer people up on the Internet. |
12. What’s the main finding of the study at Hiroshima University?
A.Seeing cute animals could cheer people up. |
B.Seeing pleasant things helps people concentrate better. |
C.Seeing pictures of cats and dogs helps people perform better. |
D.Seeing cute things could help people focus on something better. |
13. The underlined word “deliberately” has the closest meaning to “________”.
A.happily | B.correctly | C.actively | D.carefully |
14. What do Martinez-Conde’s words tell us?
A.It is popular for students to have toys. |
B.It is powerful for students to face toys. |
C.It is useful to look at cute things in daily life. |
D.It is good for students to look at toys after an exam |
15. In which situation could the findings of the experiment be useful to you?
A.Working in the lab. |
B.Relaxing in a room. |
C.Eating in a restaurant. |
D.Shopping in a supermarket. |