People from East Asia tend to have more difficulty than those from Europe in distinguishing facial expressions--and a new report published online in Current Biology explains why.
Rachael Jack, University of Glasgow researcher, said that rather than scanning evenly across a face as Westerners do, Easterners fix their attention on the eyes.
"We show that Easterners and Westerners look at different face features to read facial expressions," Jack said. "Westerners look at the eyes and the mouth in equal measure, whereas Easterners favor the eyes and neglect the mouth."
According to Jack and her colleagues, the discovery shows that human communication of emotion is more complex than previously believed. As a result, facial expressions that had been considered universally recognizable cannot be used to reliably convey emotion in cross-cultural situations.
The researchers studied cultural differences in the recognition of facial expressions by recording the eye movements of 13 Western Whites and 13 East Asian people while they observed pictures of expressive faces and put them into categories: happy, sad, surprised, fearful, disgusted, angry, or neutral. They compared how accurately participants read those facial expressions using their particular eye movement strategies.
It turned out that Easterners focused much greater attention on the eyes and made significantly more errors than Westerners did. "The cultural difference in eye movements that they show is probably a reflection of cultural difference in facial expressions," Jack said. "Our data suggest that whereas Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion, Easterners use the eyes more and mouth less."
In short, the data show that facial expressions are not universal signals of human emotion. From here on, examining how cultural factors have diversified these basic social skills will help our understanding of human emotion. Otherwise, when it comes to communicating emotions across cultures, Easterners and Westerners will find themselves lost in translation.The discovery shows that Westerners __
A.pay equal attention to the eyes and the mouth |
B.consider facial expressions universally reliable |
C.observe the eyes and the mouth in different ways |
D.have more difficulty in recognizing facial expressions |
What were the people asked to do in the study?
A.To make a face at each other. |
B.To get their faces impressive. |
C.To classify some face pictures. |
D.To observe the researchers' faces. |
What does the underlined word "they" in Paragraph 6 refer to?
A.The participants in the study. |
B.The researchers of the study. |
C.The errors made during the study. |
D.The data collected from the study. |
In comparison with Westerners, Easterners are likely to __
A.do translation more successfully |
B.study the mouth more frequently |
C.examine the eyes more attentively |
D.read facial expressions more correctly |
What can be the best title for the passage?
A.The Eye as the Window to the Soul |
B.Cultural Differences in Reading Emotions |
C.Effective Methods to Develop Social Skills |
D.How to Increase Cross-cultural Understanding |
The principles about applying for jobs have altered greatly lately. In the past, people preferred a hand-written application letter.However, nowadays it is becoming more and more common to apply for a job through the Internet.You can find information on the Internet about how to apply for jobs.Information can be found about how to fulfill your application letter, the clothes that you should wear and how to carry out the interview itself.
The importance of body language is often mentioned,but doesn’t always get the attention it deserves.After all,before a word has even been spoken,your body language will have already given people their first impression of you.Additionally, your body language will also give out a lot more information.Based on your body language it can be seen if you are self-confident.It can also show if you are a busy or a quiet type and it helps give an impression of whether you are speaking truthfully or not.Body language can show how enthusiastic you are and if you are a nice person.someone who will take his work seriously, but also someone who has a sense of humor and can enjoy a joke from time to time.The members of the application committee will ask you questions,but your answers won’t only be oral.The committee will not only pay attention to what you say, but also to how you say it! Body language will determine first if it ‘clicks’,and sometimes all it takes is just a few seconds.Everybody uses body language,but it takes place mostly at a subconscious(下意识的) level.Using body language appropriately, you can definitely increase your chances of getting a job.What kind of people is the text mainly meant for?
A.Interviewers | B.Job-hunting people | C.Employers | D.Lay-off workers |
We can learn form the first paragraph that_______.
A.hand-written letters are not used in finding a job |
B.the more expensive clothes interviewees wear, the better |
C.body language is more important than spoken words |
D.Internet is of significance in applying for a job |
Using body language well in a job interview will probably _______.
A.get rid of the interviewers’ prejudice | B.determine what position one will get |
C.increase the possibility to get the wanted job | D.help one remove nervousness |
Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
A.Those using body language are usually confident. |
B.Body language is often used on purpose in job hunting. |
C.Body language is a mirror to reflect one’s personality. |
D.People enjoying jokes are preferred in a job interview. |
The Best of Friends
The evidence for harmony may not be obvious in some families. But it seems that four out of five young people now get on with their parents, which is the opposite of the popularly held image (印象) of unhappy teenagers locked in their room after endless family quarrels.
An important new study into teenage attitudes surprisingly shows that their family life is more harmonious than it has ever been in the past. “We were surprised by just how positive today’s young people seem to be about their families,” said one member of the research team. “They’re expected to be rebellious (叛逆的) and selfish but actually they have other things on their minds; they want a car and material goods, and they worry about whether school is serving them well. There’s more negotiation (商议) and discussion between parents and children, and children expect to take part in the family decision-making process. They don’t want to rock the boat.”
So it seems that this generation of parents is much more likely than parents of 30 years ago to treat their children as friends. “My parents are happy to discuss things with me and willing to listen to me,” says 17-years-old Daniel Lazall. “I always tell them when I’m going out clubbing. As long as they know what I’m doing, they’re fine with it.” Susan Crome, who is now 21, agrees. “Looking back on the last 10 years, there was a lot of what you could call negotiation. For example, as long as I’d done all my homework, I could go out on a Saturday night. But I think my grandparents were a lot stricter with my parents than that.”
Maybe this positive view of family life should not be unexpected. It is possible that the idea of teenage rebellion is not rooted in real facts. A researcher comments, “Our surprise that teenagers say they get along well with their parents comes because of a brief period in our social history when teenagers were regarded as different beings. But that idea of rebelling and breaking away from their parents really only happened during that one time in the 1960s when everyone rebelled. The normal situation throughout history has been a smooth change from helping out with the family business to taking it over.” What is the popular image of teenagers today?
A.They worry about school. | B.They quarrel a lot with other family members |
C.They have to be locked in to avoid troubles. . | D.They dislike living with their parents. |
The study shows that teenagers don’t want to ______.
A.share family responsibility | B.make family decisions |
C.go boating with their family | D.cause trouble in their families |
Compared with parents of 30 years ago, today’s parents______.
A.go to clubs more often with their children | B.give their children more freedom |
C.care less about their children’s life | D.are much stricter with their children |
According to the author, teenage rebellion ______.
A.existed only in the 1960s | B.is common nowadays |
C.may be a f![]() |
D.resulted from changes in families |
What is the passage mainly about?
A.Harmony in family. | B.Education in family. |
C.Negotiation in family. | D.Teenage trouble in family. |
“Regardless of social class, race, age, men say they hate to shop,” says Zukin, City University of New York sociology professor. “Yet when you ask them deeper questions, it turns out that they like to shop. Men generally like to shop for books, music and hardware. But if you ask them about the shopping they do for books or music, they’ll say, ‘Well, that’s not shopping. That’s research.’”
In other words, what men and women call “buying things” and how they approach that task are different.
Women will wander through several 1,000-square-meter stores in search of the perfect party dress. Men will wander through 100 Internet sites in search of the perfect digital camcorder(摄录像一体机).
Women see shopping as a social event. Men see it as a special task or a game to be won.
“Men are frequently shopping to win,” says Ann, a marketing professor at Loyola University of Chicago. “They want to get the best deal. They want to get the best one, the latest one and if they do that it makes them happy.”
When women shop, “They’re doing it in a way that they want everybody to be very happy,” says Ann. “They’re kind of shopping for love.”
“Teenage girls learn to shop from their moms and older sisters, but they also learn to shop by examining articles in magazines like Seventeen,” City University Zukin says.
“And although men’s magazines such as GQ and Esquire have long had shopping articles, it’s TV that has the eye of young male shoppers,” says Ann and Zukin.
“Television shows are used by young men in the same way Seventeen magazine or Lucky are used by girls,” says Zukin, “to help make clothing and toiletry(化妆品) choices.”
“Of course, there are men who love to shop and are proud of it,” Loyola’s Ann says.
And that is important no matter whether you buy a car or a frying pan. All men love to buy but don’t want to get cheated.
Ann adds, “There actually are men who are interested, for example, in cooking or shopping or chinaware or things around the home --- they become kind of girl magnets. Women like it.”
78. From the first paragraph we can find that ______.
A. men are all dishonest B. men are all book lovers
C. men hate to shop actually D. men like to shop in fact
79. Compared to women men usually treat shopping ______.
A. honestly B. seriously C. frequently D. foolishly
80. The underlined word “magnets” in the last paragraph means ______.
A. magazines that attract young women B. persons that have a powerful attraction
C. tools that can help housewives much D. vegetables that make women beautiful
III. 阅读理解:(共10题,满分20分;每小题2分)
阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Generations of children who sat through endless lessons of "chalk and talk" in front of a bossy teacher could take some relief. But the "chalk and talk" method helped them achieve better exam results. Modern classroom techniques may make school days a great deal happier, but contentment(满意) is not the road to success in examinations, according to university researchers.
Their three-year study, monitoring the progress of 2,000 teenagers, tried to measure the influence of the "boredom factor" in 17 selected schools in the north of England. The researchers also found that the old-fashioned approach of teachers ordering pupils about is still alive and producing results. Their conclusions were welcomed yesterday by educationists who were worried by the shift to less formal lessons.
The pupils in the latest study were asked to award teachers marks to measure how frequently they followed or ignored today's fashion for "child-centred" education. A five-point scale was given to spot the teachers who always told them what they should know and what to write down. "It was significant and not something you would get by chance or accident. Certainly, when you compare the pupil's interest and attitude to school, there is a quite definite and highly significant difference," one of the researchers said. But the rankings were turned upside down when the team of four researchers looked at how the children did in examinations. The sort of methods now frowned upon (不认同) actually improve the final grades.
The researchers said, "There is nothing wrong with old-fashioned, didactic(说教式的) teaching in the right place, even if it isn't the flavor at the moment." However, he insisted the best teachers had always mixed the two techniques to match the needs of pupils, although certain examinations forced some to concentrate more on dictation and learning by rote(死记硬背).
71. We can infer from Paragraph 3 that ______.
A. child-centred education promotes friendship among children
B. the research findings are not significant enough for a conclusion
C. those who show greater interest in school did better in exams
D. those who don't show much interest in school may turn out to score higher in tests
72. The researchers suggest that ______.
A. more old methods be used in teaching
B. students be taught how to score high in exams
C. dictation be used as one of the best teaching methods
D. old and new methods be used together
73. The best title for this text would be ______.
A. The Examination-based Teaching B. Rote Learning Was the Winner
C. The Problem of Child-centred Education D. The Problem of the Traditional Method
One of the most difficult questions to answer is how much a job is worth. We naturally expect that a doctor’s salary will be higher than a bus conductor’s wage. But the question becomes much more difficult to answer when we compare, say, a miner with an engineer, or an unskilled man working on an oil-rig(钻油机) in the North Sea with a teacher in a secondary school. What the doctor, the engineer and teacher have is many years of training in order to obtain the necessary qualifications for their professions. We feel instinctively that these skills and these years, when they were studying instead of earning money, should be rewarded. At the same time we recognize that the work of the miner and the oil-rig laborer is both hard and dangerous, and that they must be highly paid for the risks they take.
Another factor we must take into consideration is how socially useful a man’s work is, regardless of the talents he may bring to it. Most people would agree that looking after the sick or teaching children is more important than, say, selling secondhand cars or improving the taste of toothpaste by adding a red stripe to it. Yet it is almost certain that the used car salesman earns more than the nurse, and that research chemist earns more than the school teacher.
Indeed, this whole question of just rewards can be turned on its head. You can argue that a man who does a job which brings him personal satisfaction is already receiving part of his reward in the form of a so-called “psychic(精神的) wage”, and that it is the man with the boring, repetitive job who needs more money to make up for the soul-destroying monotony(单调) of his work. It is significant that that those jobs which are traditionally regarded as “vocations” --- nursing, teaching and the Church, for example --- continue to be poorly paid, while others, such as those in the world of sport or entertainment, carry financial rewards out of all proportion to their social worth.
Although the amount of money that people earn is in reality largely determined by market forces, this should not prevent us from seeking some way to decide what is the right pay for the job. A starting point for such an investigation would be to try to decide the ratio which ought to exist between the highest and the lowest paid. The picture is made more complicate by two factors: firstly by the “social wage”, i.e, the welfare benefits which every citizen receives; and secondly, by the taxation system, which is often used as an instrument of social justice by taxing high incomes at a very high rate indeed. Allowing for these two things, most countries now regard a ratio of 7:1 as socially acceptable. If it is less, the highly-qualified people carrying heavy responsibilities become disillusioned, and might even end up by emigration(移民) (the so-called “brain-drain” is an evidence that this can happen). If it is more, the gap between rich and poor will be so great that it will lead social tensions and ultimately to violence.
74. The professional man, such as the doctor, should be well paid because ______.
A. he has spent several years learning how to do his job
B. his work involves much great intelligence than, say, a bus conductor’s
C. he has to work much harder than most other people
D. he knows more than other people about his subject
75. The “brain-drain” is an evidence that ______.
A. well-educated people are prepared to emigrate whenever they can get a better paid jobB. people with jobs or responsibility expect to be highly paid
C. high taxation is a useful and effective instrument of social justice
D. the poor are generally more patriotic(爱国的) than the rich
76. As far as rewarding people for their work is concerned, the writer, believes that ______.
A. we should pay for socially-useful work, regardless of the person’s talent
B. we should pay people according to their talents
C. market forces will determine how much a person is paid
D. qualified people should be the highest paid
77. The argument of the “psychic wage” is used to explain why ______.
A. people who do socially important work are not always well paid
B. people who do monotonous jobs are highly paid
C. you should not try to compare the pay of different professions
D. some professional people are paid more than others