1、第四部分完形填空阅读理解: 第四十篇 Teaching Math, Teaching Anxiety(1-2) 第十一篇:When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach (3-4) 第十九篇:Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience(5-6) 第六部分 完型填空:(7-8) 第十二篇 Free Statins With Fast Food Could Neutralize Heart Risk 第三篇:Giant Structures 第八篇:Why India Needs Its Dyi
2、ng Vultures 第四十篇 Teaching Math, Teaching Anxiety教数学,教焦虑 In a new study about the way kids learn math in elementary school, the psychologists at theUniversity of Chicagol1 Sian Beilock and Susan Levine found a surprising relationship between what female teachers think and what female studen
3、ts learn:If a female teacher is uncomfortable with her own math skills, then her female students are more likely to believe that boys are better than girls at math. 在最新一项关于小学生学数学的研究中,芝加哥大学的心理学家Sian Beilock和Susan Levine 发现,女教师的想法和女学生的学习之间有着惊人的联系:如果女教师对自己的数学能力感到焦虑,她的女学生很可能认为男孩子数学比女孩学得更好。 "If these g
4、irls keep getting math-anxious female teachers2 in later grades, it may create a snowball effect on their math achievement3 said Levine. In other words,girls may end up learning math anxiety from their teachers4. The study suggests that if these girls grow up believing that boys are better at math t
5、han girls are,then these girls may not do as well as they would have if they were more confident. "如果一直由对数学有焦虑的女教师教授数学,就会对她们的数学成绩产生雪球效应",Levine说。换言之,女孩子们最后从老师那里获得的是对数学的焦虑。该研究表明,如果女孩子们在一个认为男孩比女孩数学好的环境中成长,那么她们的数学可能会不如在更自信的状态下学得好。 Just as students find certain subjects to be difficult, teachers can
6、find certain subjects to be difficult to learn -- and teach. The subject of math can be particularly difficult for everyone.Researchers use the word "anxiety" to describe such feelings: anxiety is uneasiness or worry. 如同学生,教师也会觉得某些学科难学和难教,这就是研究者所言的"焦虑":不自在或担心。 The new study found that when a teach
7、er has anxiety about math, that feeling can influencehow her female students feel about math. The study involved 65 girls,52 boys and 17 first- andsecond-grade teachers in elementary schools in the Midwest. The students took math achievement tests at the beginning and end of the school year, and the
8、 researchers compared the scores. 此研究发现,教师对数学的焦虑能够传染给她的女学生们。该研究的研究对象包括65个女孩,52个男孩和17位在中西部教一二年级的教师。学生们在学年的开始和结束时都进行数学测试,研究者们比较得分。 The researchers also gave the students tests to tell whether the students believed that a math superstar had to be a boy. Then the researchers turned to the teachers:To
9、find out which teachers were anxious about math,the researchers asked the teachers how they felt at times when they came across math, such as when reading a sales receipt5. A teacher who got nervous looking at the numbers on a sales receipt, for example,was probably anxious about math. 研究者们测试学生是否认为
10、数学明星一定会是男孩。然后研究者们测试教师,试图找出哪些教师对数学感到焦虑,研究者们问教师们当碰到数学问题诸如阅读销售清单时的感受,如果一位教师一看到销售清单的数字就感到紧张,那么她很可能对数学存在焦虑。 Boys,on average,were unaffected by a teacher's anxiety. On average,girls with math-anxiousteachers scored lower on the end-of-the-year math tests than other girls in the study did.Plus,on the test
11、 showing whether someone thought a math superstar had to be a boy,20 girls showed feeling that boys would be better at math -- and all of these girls had been taught by female teachers who had math anxiety. 平均来说,教师的焦虑不会影响到男孩子。但是,一般说来,如果教女孩子的教师有数学焦虑症,那么女孩子们在学年结束时测试得分比其他的女孩要低。另外,在关于是否认为数学明星应该是男孩的测试中,
12、有20个女孩认为男孩数学比女孩好,这20个女孩的老师都是女性,且都患有数学焦虑症。 "This is an interesting study,but the results need to be interpreted as preliminary and in needof replication with a larger sample6," said David Geary,a psychologist at the University of Missouri7 in Columbia. 来自密苏里大学的心理学家David Geary说"这是一个有趣的研究,但是这只是初步结果,需
13、要用更大的调查样本进行重复验证"。 练习: 1. What is the result of the research at the University of Chicago,according to the first paragraph? A Girls comfortable with their own math skills are better than boys at math. B Girls uncomfortable with their own math skills are not as good as boys at math. C Female t
14、eachers' math skills have influence over girl students' math skills. D Female teachers' confidence in their math skills is related to girl's math skills. 2. What is implied in the third paragraph? A Math teachers,like math learners,do not like the subject due to its difficulty. B A difficult
15、subject like math may affect teachers' confidence in teaching the subject. C Teachers are more anxious teaching math than their students learning math. D Math is so difficult that no teachers like to teach it. 3. According to the experiment,those teachers were probably anxious about math when t
16、hey felt A nervous memorizing the numbers of a sales receipt. B helpless saving the numbers of a sales receipt. C uneasy reading the numbers of a sales receipt. D hopeless filling in the numbers of a sales report. 4. The sixth paragraph tells us that the research findings A prove a strong
17、 link between female teachers' math anxiety and their female students' math achievements. B show that male students are less likely to be affected by their math anxiety than female students. C provide strong evidence that math superstars are more likely to be males than females. D discover a s
18、trong link between teachers' math anxiety and their students' math achievements. 5. David Geary thinks that A the study is interesting but it is based on unreliable research process. B the research results need to be retested based on a larger sample. C the research results need to be reinter
19、preted to be meaningful. D the study is well based and produces significant results. 第十一篇 When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach我们的视觉服务于我们的胃口 Our senses aren’t just delivering a 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 hungr
20、y people see food-related words more clearly than people who’ve just eaten. 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。 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
21、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 involv
22、ed. 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。 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 o
23、r four hours of not eating. Then they were 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. 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
24、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。 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 coul
25、d 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 r
26、eally read it. 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。 Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food- related words. Because the
27、word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception ,not in thinking processes, Radel says. 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。 “This is something great to me. Humans can really percei
28、ve 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. 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。” 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 mot
29、ive n.动机,目的 strive v.努力,力求;斗争 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 pe
30、ople. 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 ti
31、me 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
32、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 wer
33、e 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 inve
34、stigation. 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. 第十九篇 Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Exper
35、ience 音乐机器人伴侣提升音乐欣赏体验 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是由佐
36、治亚理工大学音乐技术中心研发的一款音乐伴侣。它可以根据听者的反馈推荐合乎节拍的歌曲、舞蹈;并且不断播放音乐。这款髙1英尺的机器人是由智能手机系统支持的,因此被标榜为“一个可以互动的音乐朋友”。 “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
37、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. Gil Weinberg教授是该机器人的发明者,他解释说:“Shimi设计的宗旨是改变人们欣赏音乐、认识音乐的方式。”他将在今年6月27日在旧金山的谷歌I/O大会上展示这款机器人。一个由三个机器人组成的乐队将为来宾演奏,并伴随音乐起舞。而音乐是根据不同的运动形式编制的。 Shimi
38、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-dete
39、cting 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
40、the suggestion. Once the music starts,Shimi dances to the rhythm. Shimi实际上是一个扩充基座,它的“大脑”由安卓手机控制。一旦连接上,机器人便从用户的移动装置获得传感和音乐生成能力。换言之,只要有应用程序,机器人便能使用。例如,通过手机的照相机和辨认脸型的软件,Shimi就能在房间周围跟踪到听众,然后安置好它的“耳朵”或扬声器,以确保输送最佳声音。另外一种识别特征是基于节奏和速度。如果用户打出某个(音乐)拍子,Shimi会对此进行分析,然后浏览手机的音乐库,并立即演奏最符合要求的音乐。一旦音乐响起来,Shimi就随韵律起舞
41、 “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
42、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. “许多人认为机器人受到程序指令的限制,而Shiini给我们展示了机器人可以具有创造力和与人交互的能力。”音乐技术博士研究生Mason Bretan如是说。正在研发
43、中的程序将使用户能沟通过摇头或摆手表示不同意,来提醒Shimi跳到下一首歌或增减音量。机器人还可根据用户对歌曲的选择推荐新音乐,并对音乐播放列表提供反馈。 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.” Weinbe
44、rg said. Weinberg希望其他研发者会因此获得灵感,开发更多的应用程序,来扩展Shimi的创新和交互功能。他说:“我认为我们中心正在引领这场将更多机器人应用到家庭中去的变革。” 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 rob
45、ots 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.” Weinberg正在通过获得佐治亚理工学院的独家授权来对Shimi进行商业推广。Weinberg希望到2013年的节日季消费者可购买到Shimi。
46、Weinberg说:“如果机器人进入家庭,我们认为就应该是这种类型的机器人:小巧、令人愉快和有趣,它们能提高我们的生活质量,为更多智能服务型机器人进人我们的生活做好准备。 1. Which of the following is NOT true according to the first three paragraphs? A Shimi is a one-foot tall robot. B Shimi is the creator of the musical companion. C Shimi is a docking station with a“ brain” powe
47、red by an Android phone. D Shimi can gain the sensing and musical generation capabilities of the user’s mobile device. 2. What does Shimi do if the user taps a beat? A It stores the beat in the musical library. B It transmits the beat to the docking station. C It positions its speakers for opti
48、mal sound. D It selects a perfectly-matched song and plays it in sync with that beat. 3. Which of the following about Shimi is true? A Robots are limited by their programming instructions, and Shimi is no exception. B Present apps allow the user to shake their head to alert Shimi to skip to the
49、next song. C Existing apps allow the user to wave a hand to alert Shimi to turn up/down the volume. D Shimi can be creative and interactive. 4. What does the author want to tell us? A The research center is developing a stronger and more versatile Shimi. B Weinberg only expects staffs from Geor
50、gia Tech. to develop more apps for Shimi. C Shimi is not yet technologically ready for commercialization. D Robots such as Shimi are created for large corporations rather than homes. 5. Which of the following is Weinberg’s assertion? A Shimi as a robotic musical companion can be applied to all t






