Birds Can “Read” Human Gaze
We all know that people sometimes change their behavior when someone is looking their way. Now, a new study reported online on April 2nd in Current Biology shows that jackdaws (寒鸦) — birds related to crows with eyes that appear similar to human eyes — can do the same.
“Jackdaws seem to recognize the eye’s role in visual perception (视觉), or at the very least they are extremely sensitive to the way that human eyes are directed,” said Auguste von Bayern, formerly of the University of Cambridge and now at the University of Oxford.
When presented with a preferred food, hand-raised jackdaws took longer to get the reward when a person was directing his eyes towards the food than when he was looking away, according to the research team led by Nathan Emery of the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University of London. The birds hesitated only when the person was not known to them and thus potentially threatening.
In addition, the birds were able to understand human communicative gestures, such as stare change and pointing, to help them find hidden food, they found. The birds were unsuccessful in using unmoving signals, including eye stare or head direction.
Unlike most birds, jackdaws’ eyes have a dark pupil (瞳孔) surrounded by a silvery white iris (虹膜). The researchers said they believe jackdaws are probably sensitive to human eyes because, as in humans, eyes are an important means of communication for them. The hand-raised birds examined in the study may be even better than wild jackdaws at attending to human stare and responding to the gestures of the people who have raised them.
The findings are particularly notable given that most other species examined so far, including our closest relatives, the chimpanzee and “man’s best friend,” the dog, are not particularly sensitive to eye direction and eye stare, von Bayern said. Rather, she continued, chimps and dogs seem to rely on other signals such as head or body direction in determining the looking direction of others. The results suggest that birds may deserve more respect for their mental abilities.
“We may have understated the psychological world of birds,” von Bayern said. “Jackdaws, among many other birds, form pair ties for life and need to have much in common and work together with their partner, which requires an efficient way of communicating and sensitivity to their partner’s viewpoint.”
1.A hand-raised jackdaw hesitates to take a preferred food when the feeder ______.
A. is unfamiliar to the bird B. is looking away from the food
C. holds the food in his hand D. is looking at the food
2.According to the researchers, jackdaws can notice human eye direction probably because ______.
A. their eyes also have a dark pupil
B. they are far more intelligent than other birds
C. they are mostly hand-raised by humans
D. like humans, they also use eyes to communicate
3.Why does the author refer to chimpanzees and dogs?
A. To suggest that they are much better at understanding stare change.
B. To make clear that they rely on other means in determining people’s intention.
C. To show that they communicate more frequently with humans than jackdaws.
D. To reflect how unique jackdaws are in being able to notice stare direction.
4.What does the research finding suggest?
A. We know embarrassingly less about birds than we assume.
B. Not all jackdaws are good at attending to human stare.
C. We may have understated jackdaws’ mental abilities.
D. The closer we communicate with animals, the better we understand them.
Almost every day we come across situations in which we have to make decisions one way or another. Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. But for a good many people in the world in rich and poor countries, choice is a luxury—something wonderful but hard to get, not a right. And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices, the whole system is just an illusion — a false idea created by companies and advertiser, hoping to sell their products.
The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people’s lives. Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple. Easy access to a wide range of everyday goods leads to a sense of powerlessness in many people, ending in the shopper giving up and walking away, or just buying an unsuitable item that is not really wanted. Recent studies in England have shown that many electrical goods bought in almost every family are not really needed. More difficult decision-making is then either avoided or trusted into the hands of the professionals, lifestyle instructors, or advisors.
It is not just the availability of the goods that is the problem, but the speed with which new types of products come on the market. Advances in design and production help quicken the process. Products also need to have a short life so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time. The typical example is computers, which are almost out-of-date once they are bought. This indeed makes choice a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with ease into a shop and buy one thing; no choice, no anxiety.
1.What does the author try to argue in Paragraph 1?
A. The exercise of rights is a luxury.
B. The right of choice is given but at a price.
C. The practice of choice is difficult.
D. Choice and right exist at the same time.
2.Why do more choices of goods cause anxiety?
A. Professionals find it hard to decide on a suitable product.
B. People are likely to find themselves overcome by business persuasion.
C. Companies and advertisers are often misleading about the range of choice.
D. Shoppers may find themselves lost in the broad range of items.
3.By using computers as an example, the author wants to prove that _______.
A. advanced products meet the needs of people
B. competitions are fierce in high-tech industry
C. products of the latest design flood the market
D. everyday goods need to be replaced often
4.What is this passage mainly about?
A. The variety of choices in modern society.
B. The opinions on people’s right in different countries
C. The helplessness in buying decisions
D. The problems about the availability of everyday goods.
My favorite English teacher could draw humor out of the driest material. It wasn’t forced on us either. He took Samuel Johnson’s dictionary, Addison’s essays, and many other literary wonders from the eighteenth century and made them funny, even at eight o’clock in the morning. The thing that amazed me most was that the first time I read these works on my own some of them seemed dead, but the second time, after his explanation, I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen the humor. The stories and poems and plays were suddenly filled with hilarious moments. I learned more from him than from any other teacher.
My least favorite English teacher also made people laugh. Some students found him to be wonderfully funny. Many others did not. He asked us to keep journals. At the end of the six weeks I had a notebook full of bits and pieces about my ideas, short stories, reactions to what we had read, and so on. Our teacher announced that we would be grading each other’s journals. Mine was passed to Joe, who always behaved in a funny or silly way. He saw it fit to make a joke of and said, “This writing isn’t fit to line the bottom of a birdcage.” Our teacher laughed at that funny remark. It hurt me so much that the anger from it has driven away my writing and teaching ever since.
So what makes the difference? Humor is one of the most powerful tools teachers or writers have. It can build up students and classes and make them excited about literature and writing, or it can tear them apart. It is true that humor is either productive or self-defeating.
1.The passage mainly discusses _____.
A. teaching B. literature
C. knowledge D. humor
2.The underlined word “hilarious” in Paragraph 1 probably means _____.
A. inspiring B. tiring
C. funny D. brilliant
3.With his favorite English teacher, the writer found it most amazing that _____.
A. his teacher was very learned
B. his teacher was very humorous
C. few were able to find humor in works by Johnson and others
D. the works by Johnson and Addison were very humorous
4.The English teacher the writer disliked most _____.
A. was not able to make students laugh B. had no sense of humor
C. didn’t let his students do the grading D. hurt his students’ feelings
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1.What is mainly discussed in Paragraph 3?
A. The different types of the products. B. The quick service of 1234 PENS.
C. The trade shows of 1234 PENS. D. The high quality of the products.
2.What is special about the pens produced in 1234 PENS?
A. They are designed in 16 styles. B. They come in 48 different colours.
C. Their price is much lower in the pen market. D. Their material is less harmful to the earth.
3.The main purpose of the passage is to ______.
A. show people how to choose different pens B. explain the process of making logo pens
C. persuade people to order the products D. introduce the different services of 1234 PENS
假设你是李华，昨天收到某报社编辑王先生的邮件，得知自己在本报社主办的英语征文大赛中获得了一等奖，他代表报社邀请你参加今年八月份举办的英语夏令营。
请你根据以下要点用英语给王先生写—封邮件：
1.感谢他的邮件通知；
2.接受邀请，期待参加夏令营；
3.咨询夏令营的具体相关信息（如费用、注意事项等)。
要求：1．语言通顺连贯，可以适当增加情节，以使行文连贯。
2．100词左右，开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Mr.Wang,
My name is Li Hua.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
Yours truly,
Li Hua
翻译句子
1.只有用这方法你们才能把他从火灾中救出。(rescue)
2.毫无疑问他已经丧失了信心。(doubt)
3.大量的学生愿意回到汕头工作。(number, willing)
4.杰克坚持要我们建立新俱乐部。(insist)
5.我不喜欢你跟我说话的方式。(用上定语从句)
