2013年考试用书职称英语考试用书新增文章(理工B)

第十一篇When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach

Our senses aren’t just delivering 汪strict view of what’s going on in the world；they’re affected by what’s going on in our heads. A new study finds that hungry people see food-related

words more clearly than people who’ve just eaten.

Psychologists have known for decades that what’s going on,inside our head affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Remi Radel of University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis，France，wanted to investigate how this happens. Does it happen right away as the brain receives signals from the eyes or a little later as the brain’s high-level thinking processes get involved.Radel recruited 42 students with a normal body mass index. On the day of his or her test, each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating. Then theywere told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch first. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.

For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen for about l/300th of a second each. They flashed at so small a size that the students could only consciously perceive. A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word，each person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they’d seen —a food-related word like cake or a neutral word like boat. Each word appeared too briefly for the participant to really read it.

Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food- related words. Because the word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception ,not in thinking processes, Radel says.

“This is something great to me. Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for. From the experiment, I know that our brain can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs,” Radel says.

词汇：

threshold n.起点，开端；门槛

disposal n.处理,处置;配置

neutral adj.中性的；中立的

motive n.动机，目的

strive v.努力，力求;斗争注释：

1. Our senses aren’t just delivering a strict view of ... in our heads:这个句子的大概意思是:我们的五官感觉不仅仅让我们感知世界;五官感觉还受大脑活动的影响。

2. University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis:法国尼斯•索菲亚•安提波利斯大学，简称尼斯大学，1965年经法国政令正式宣布成立。尼斯大学在尼斯市设有7处主校园，另外，还在索菲亚•安提波利斯市(Sophia Antipolis)、戛纳市（Cannes)和芒东市（Menton)设有校区。索菲亚•安提波利斯是位于尼斯市西南侧的科技园区，是许多髙等学府的所在地。

3. body mass index:身体质量指数

4. at the threshold of:当……快要开始时

5. in perception：感知

6. at the disposal of:受到……的控制

练习：

1. What does the new study mentioned in Paragraph 1 find?

A Hungry people see every word more clearly than ordinary people.

B Hungry people are always thinking of food-related words.

C Hungry people are more sensitive to food-related words than stomach-full people.

D Hungry people do not have lower-level of thinking process.

2. Why was there a delay on the day of the experiment?

A Because hungry people needed time to fill their stomach.

B Because Radel wanted to create two groups of testees, hungry and non-hungry.

C Because noon was not the right time for any experiment.

D Because Radel needed time to select participants in terms of body mass index.

3. What does the writer want to tell us?

A Human9s senses aren’t just delivering a strict view of what’s going on in the world.

B What’s perceived by our senses affects our way of thinking.

C Human brains can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs.

D Thinking processes guarantee the normal functions of our senses.

4. What did the results of the experiment indicate?

A 80 words flashed on the screen too fast for the participant to intentionally perceive.

B Hungry people were better at identifying neutral words.

C People who had just eaten were better at identifying food-related words.

D The participants could barely perceive what they needed or what they strived for.

5. What can we infer from the passage?

A 42 participants are too small a number for a serious investigation.

B An experiment with hungry and non-hungry participants is not reliable.

C Our thinking processes are independent of our senses.

D Humans can perceive what they need without involving high-level thinking processes.

答案与题解：

1. C第一段第二句是本题答案的依据。饥肠辘辘的人只是看food-related words比较清楚，选项C的句意与上述句子的意思完全一致，是答案。选项A说的是every word, 所以不是答案。选项B和D文章中没有提到。

2. B答案的根据可在第三段找到。Radel为了保证42名学生到达实验室时是空腹，所以要求他们中午到达。然后告诉一部分学生实验时间推迟了，请他们10分钟后再来。他又请另外一部分学生用午餐。Radel用推迟实验的方法造就了两组实验者，即饥饿组与饱食组。选项B是答案。

3. C 虽然A、B、D选项均可在文中找到对应部分，但只属于细节，而非主旨，因此不能选。本文最后一句给出了直接的答案。

4. A第四段第三行中consciously与A项中的intentionally是同义词。B项neutral意思为“中性的”，在本文中的意思是与food-related相对的，即“与食物不相关的”，因此是错误选择; C 项不符合课文原意; D项barely意为“仅仅，勉强，几乎没有”，因此也不符合句意。

5. D选项A所说的实验样本的大小与本题主旨无关，不是答案，而是干扰项;B、C内容也不能直接从短文中推断出来。选项D是答案。最后一段第二句的“Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for”为选择D 项提供了依据。

第十一篇我们的视觉服务于我们的胃口

我们的五官不仅仅让我们感知世界；还受大脑活动的影响。一项新研究发现：比起那些刚刚用过餐的人，饥饿的人能更清晰地看到与食品有关的词。

数十年以来，心理学家已经知道我们的心理活动直接影响到我们的视觉。例如，贫穷的孩子看到的硬币比实际的要大；饥饿的人看到的食物图片更明亮。法国的尼斯•索菲亚•安提波利斯大学试图调查这一现象：发生这种情况的时间是在大脑从眼睛接收到视觉信号的即时还是稍后些，这时高级思维活动已经介入了。

雷戴尔招募了健康指数正常的42位学生作为被试者。在测试的当天，每个学生被告知在中午到达实验室，这时距上一次的用餐时间有3〜4个小时。等他们到达实验室时，他们被告知实验时间有延迟。一半学生被告知十分钟后再回来;其余的给1个小时的时间先吃午饭。所以一半学生饿着肚子，另一半学生饱腹参加了此次实验。

实验的步骤如下：要求被试者看电脑屏幕。屏幕上的80个字以1/300秒的频率闪动。由于字体非常之小，被试者只能凭感觉捕捉到字形。1/4的字是与食物有关的。每闪动一个字，被试者回答字体的亮度并选择看到的是哪类词：一类是和食物有关的词，比如“蛋糕”；一类是中性词，比如“船”。由于每个词的闪动在瞬间完成，被试者根本看不清楚那个词是什么。

饥饿的人看到与食物有关的词更明亮，且能更好地辨认出与食物有关的词。由于每个词的闪动太快，其实那些被试者根本不会确切地看到什么，这就说明：他们只是感觉不同，根本没经过思考。雷戴尔给出了这样的解释。

雷戴尔说：“这就是重点所在。人类可以真正感知到自身的需要或者为之奋斗的目标。该实验使我了解这样的事实，即我们的大脑是受我们的动机和需要所支配的。”

第十九篇Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience Shimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. The smartphone-enabled, one-foot-tall robot is billed as an interactive “musical friend”.

“Shimi is designed to change the way that people enjoy and think about their music，”said Professor Gil Weinberg, the robot’s creator. He will unveil the robot at the June 27th Google I/O conference in San Francisco. A band of three Shimi robots will perform for guests, dancing in sync with music created in the lab and composed according to its movements.

Shimi is essentially a docking station with a “brain”powered by an Android phone. Once docked, the robot gains the sensing and musical generation capabilities of the user’s mobile device.

In other words, if there’s an “app”for that, Shimi is ready. For instance, by using the phone’s camera and face-detecting software，Shimi can follow a listener around the room and position its “ears”，or speakers, for optimal sound. Another recognition feature is based on rhythm and tempo. If the user taps a beat, Shimi analyzes it, scans the phone’s musical library and immediately plays the song that best matches the suggestion. Once the music starts，Shimi dances to the rhythm.

“Many people think that robots are limited by their programming instructions, said Music Technology Ph. D. candidate Mason Bretan. “Shimi shows us that robots can be creative and interactive. ’’Future apps in the works will allow the user to shake their head in disagreement or wave a hand in the air to alert Shimi to skip to the next song or increase/decrease the volume. The robot will also have the capability to recommend new music based on the user’s song choices and provide feedback on the music play list.

Weinberg hopes other developers will be inspired to create more apps to expand Shimi’s creative and interactive capabilities. “I believe that our center is ahead of a revolution that will see more robots in homes.” Weinberg said.

Weinberg is in the process of commercializing Shimi through an exclusive licensing agreement with Georgia Tech. Weinberg hopes to make the robot available to consumers by the 2013 holiday season. “If robots are going to arrive in homes, we think that they will be this kind of machines一small, entertaining and fun，，，Weinberg said. “They will enhance your life and pave the way for more intelligent service robots in our lives.”

词汇：

pump v.用抽水机抽;不断播放（音乐）

scan v.扫描;浏览

skip v.轻跳，跳跃

sync n.同步，同时;v.使同步

tempo n.速度;节奏

注释：

1. Georgia Tech:全称是Georgia Institute of Technology,佐治亚理工学院，建于1885 年，位于亚特兰大市中心。佐治亚理工学齒是美国南部最大的公立理工学院,也是全美最顶尖的理工学院之一，排名仅次于麻省理工学院(MIT)和加州理工学院(CalTech)。

2. pump:不断播放(音乐）。例如:This radio station recently pumps out pop music. (这家广播电台近来连续播放流行音乐。)

3. smartphone-enabled:由智能手机系统支持的

4. is billed as:相当于is advertised as，意为“被标榜为”。