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(均匀的) 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 (忽略) 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 Caucasian 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 did Westerners. "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 |
After spending a year in Brazil on a student exchange program, her mother recalled, Marie Colvin returned home to find that her classmates had narrowed down their college choices. “Everyone else was already admitted to college,” her mother, Rosemarie Colvin, said from the family home. “So she took our car and drove up to Yale and said, ‘You have to let me in.’”
Impressed—she was a National Merit(全国英才) finalist who had picked up Portuguese in Brazil—Yaledid, admitting her to the class of 1978, where she started writing for The Yale Daily News “and decided to be a journalist,” her mother said.
On Wednesday, Marie Colvin, 56, an experienced journalist for The Sunday Times of London, was killed as Syrian forces shelled the city of Homs. She was working in a temporary media center that was destroyed in the attack.
“She was supposed to leave Syria on Wednesday”, Ms. Colvin said. “Her editor told me he called her yesterday and said it was getting too dangerous and they wanted to take her out. She said she was doing a story and she wanted to finish it. ”
Ms. Colvin said it was pointless to try to prevent her daughter from going to conflict zones. “If you knew my daughter,” she said, “it would have been such a waste of words. She was determined, she was enthusiastic about what she did, it was her life. There was no saying ‘Don’t do this.’ This is who she was, absolutely who she was and what she believed in: cover the story, not just have pictures of it, but bring it to life in the deepest way you could.” So it was not a surprise when she took an interest in journalism, her mother said. From the underlined sentence in Paragraph 1 we can infer that_______.
| A．Yale University was her last choice |
| B．Yale must keep its promise to Marie |
| C．Marie Colvin was confident of herself |
| D．Marie Colvin was good at persuading |
Marie Colvin’s story suggests some of the best qualities of being a journalist are_______.
| A．patience and confidence |
| B．honesty and curiosity |
| C．flexibility and creativity |
| D．determination and courage |
Which of the following is the correct order to describe Marie Colvin’s life?
a. She was doing a story in Syria and got killed.
b. She was admitted to Yale University.
c. She studied in Brazil as an exchange student.
d. She was hired by The Sunday Times of London.
e. She began to take an interest in journalism.
| A．d→e→c→a→b |
| B．c→b→e→d→a |
| C．e→d→c→b→a |
| D．b→c→d→e→a |
From the last paragraph we can know that Ms. Colvin ________.
A. knows her daughter very well
B. cares little about her daughter
C. dislikes the choice of her daughter
D. doesn’t fully appreciate her daughter
5. What can be the best title of the text?
A．Covering Stories in a Dangerous Conflict Area
B．Applying for Top Universities, a Successful Case
C．Recalling Her Daughter, a Journalist Killed in Syria
D．Choosing Lifelong Careers Based on Your Own Interest
life comes in a package. this package includes happiness and sorrow, failure and success, hope and despair. life is a learning process. experiences in life teach us new lessons and make us a better person. with each passing day we learn to handle various situations.
love
love plays a pivotal role on out life. love makes you feel wanted. without love a person could go hayward and also become cruel and ferocious. in the early stage of our life, our parents are the ones who shower us with unconditional love and care, they teach us about what is right and wrong, good and bad. but we always tend to take this for granted. it is only after marriage and having kids that a person understands and becomes sensitive to others feelings. kids make a person responsible and mature and help us to understand life better.
happiness and sorrow
materialistic happiness is short-lived, but happiness achieved by bringing a smile on others face gives a certain level of fulfillment. peace of mind is the main link to happiness. no mind is happy without peace. we realize the true worth of happiness when we are in sorrow. sorrow is basically due to death of a loved one, failure and despair. but these things are temporary and pass away.
failure and success
failure is the path to success. it helps us to touch the sky, teaches us to survive and shows us a specific way. success brings in money, fame, pride and self-respect. here it becomes very important to keep our head on out shoulder. the only way to show our gratitude to god for bestowing success on us is by being humble, modest, courteous and respectful to the less fortunate ones.
hope and despair
hope is what keeps life going. parents always hope their children will do well. hope makes us dream. hope builds in patience. life teaches us not to despair even in the darkest hour, because after every night there is a day. nothing remains the same we have only one choice keep moving on in life and be hopeful.
life teaches us not to regret over yesterday, for it has passed and is beyond our control. tomorrow is unknown, for it could either be bright or dull. so the only alternative is work hard today, so that we will enjoy a better tomorrow.In the passage, the author compares life to ________.
| A．a package |
| B．joy and sorrow |
| C．failure and success |
| D．hope and despair |
In which section can readers probably read the passage?
| A．Opinions. |
| B．Politics. |
| C．Educatuon. |
| D．Lifestyles. |
How is the passage organized?
| A．In order of rules. |
| B．In order of frequency. |
| C．By making comparision. |
| D．In order of importance. |
What’s the general meaning of the last sentence of the whole passage?
| A．If you work hard, you’ll have a better life in the future. |
| B．When choosing between “today”and“tomorrow”,you’d better enjoy tomorrow. |
| C．What you only can choose is to work hard today rather than tomorrow. |
| D．Enjoying a better tomorrow is your only choice. |
What’s the purpose of the passage?
| A．To encourage people to love each other. |
| B．To tell people how to deal with happiness and sorrow. |
| C．To remind people of keeping having a beautiful dream. |
| D．To give readers some information about life. |
Schools are almost all connected to the Internet. But some have more technology, and use it more, than others. For example, some schools use computers for activities like video conferencing, to bring the world into the classroom.
And some classrooms are equipped with things like a Smart Board, a kind of interactive whiteboard. Interactive whiteboards are large displays for presentations. They connect to a computer and can operate by touch. They can be used for documents or writing or to project video.
Some teachers are trying creative new ways to teach with devices like iPods and mobile phones. But educators say the most important thing, as always, is the content.
Yet technology can have special importance in some cases. Cosmobot is a therapy robot. It stands about half a meter tall and has a blue body and a friendly face with big eyes.
One child who works with it is six-year-old Kevin Fitzgerald. Kevin has developmental dyspraxia; he has difficulty moving his mouth and tongue.
He works with Carole Semango-Sprouse as he interacts with the Cosmobot during therapy for his condition. Here, he uses a set of buttons attached to a computer to make the silent robot move forward, backward or around in circles.
Kevin’s mother thinks the robot has had a calming influence, helping her son get along better with his friends.
Cosmobot was developed by Anthro Tronix. Corinna Lathan started the company ten years ago to work with children with cerebral palsy, Down’s syndrome, autism and other developmental disabilities.
Children become friends with the robot, she says. That can have a big effect on their behavior, helping them work harder and longer in therapy sessions.
Corinna Lathan is currently working with a British company to develop other socially helpful robots. She says they are still considered research tools in the United States, and not used as much as in places like Britain and Japan. But she hopes to change that. It’s known from the text that ________.
| A．schools have easy access to the Internet today |
| B．new technology is seldom applied to teaching |
| C．the Internet is of equal importance in schools |
| D．using computers for activities is labor-saving |
Which of the following is NOT right about Smart Board?
| A．It’s a kind of teaching facility. |
| B．It can be used to project video. |
| C．It’s a display for presentation. |
| D．It’s not easy to be connected to computers. |
What’s “dyspraxia” according to the text?
| A．Speech barrier. |
| B．Movement disorder. |
| C．Visual impairment. |
| D．Loss of memory. |
Which of the following is RIGHT according to the text?
| A．Cosmobot is designed to play with. |
| B．Cosmobot is costly and not user-friendly. |
| C．Cosmobot can be controlled by a computer. |
| D．Anthro Tronix is a designer of a certain company. |
What can we learn from Corinna Lathan?
| A．She’s employed by a British company. |
| B．Cosmobot is popular around the world. |
| C．She wants to make previous products widespread. |
| D．IPods and mobile phones are valued in class. |
"Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move," said David Belle, the founder of parkour (跑酷).
Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like the James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond's wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.
Yes, that's parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the obstacles in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from rooftop to rooftop.
Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much morethan that.
Overcoming all the obstacles on the course and in life is part of the philosophy behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, jump over all the barriers as if in
parkour and never fall back from them in your life, to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, "I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything."
Another philosophy we've learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself that you earn energy and confidence. Parkour has become popular throughout the world because of _______.
| A．its founder, David Belle |
| B．the film, Casino Royale |
| C．its risks and tricks |
| D．the varieties of participants |
The underlined word "obstacles" in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to"_______".
| A．streets |
| B．objects |
| C．barriers |
| D．roofs |
Which of the following is TRUE of parkour?
| A．It challenges human abilities. |
| B．It is a good but boring sport. |
| C．It needs special training. |
| D．It is a team sport. |
As its participants move around a city, ________.
| A．they can ask for help |
| B．they may choose to escape |
| C．they should run to extremes |
| D．they must learn to survive |
Which of the following is the philosophy of parkour?
| A．Sports and extremes. |
| B．Excitement and popularity. |
| C．Dreams and success. |
| D．Determination and freedom. |
Grace Kane hangs onto an Olympic dream of clinging to a granite(花岗岩)wall by her fingertips 70 feet from the ground.The fearless girl is only 10，but already has scaled great heights in the sport of rock climbing.
Last week，Kane won a bronze in the 11 and younger sport class at the USA Climbing Youth National Championships in Atlanta.She was the only competitor of the 31 there with no climbing coach or topflight facilities in which to train.Climbing will become an exhibition at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics in Brazil.The hope of enthusiasts is that the sport will gain full status in 2020.“I'm already training for that，” said Kane.“Climbing is my passion，my love，and I want to make something of it.”
Her dad took her to climb rocks on her fourth birthday for the first time and today he can't keep up with her.“It's the freedom to let loose，” she said.“When I'm up there，I'm so focused and don't hear anything.I always feel comforted knowing people are supporting me.”
The bronze in Atlanta qualified Kane for the USA team and November's International Championships in Ecuador.That's a trip she might have to miss because it's too expensive.
Kane held a backyard music concert—she played the guitar and the piano and wrote inspirational songs—and raised $600 for her $1,500 trip to Atlanta.She's also been sponsored by a shoe company，but must rely heavily on donations from family and friends for travel expenses.
Her mom Heather Kane said the family has chosen “to do whatever we need to help her achieve her goals”．One of Grace's biggest challenges is finding balance in her life.There's school，her music and church to fit around climbing.
“Climbing is going to mean sacrificing things other kids might pursue，” Grace said.“But it doesn't bother me.It's like playing the piano；you can't take a break or you'll lose your touch.”What would be the best title of the passage?
| A．Rock Climbing Gains Popularity |
| B．Grace Kane Likes Challenges |
| C．A Young Climber Follows Her Dream |
| D．An Amazing Victory for a Young Rock Climber |
We can learn from the second paragraph that rock climbing ______.
| A．is not an exhibition at the Olympics now |
| B．is an official event at the Olympics now |
| C．is not open to children |
| D．will gain full status in 2020 |
Which of the following is TRUE about Grace Kane?
| A．She is only interested in rock climbing. |
| B．She is a girl with many talents. |
| C．Rock climbing has affected her study. |
| D．She has won gold medals in several matches. |
One of Grace's biggest challenges is to ______.
| A．find a capable coach for her |
| B．get qualified for the USA team |
| C．raise enough money for International competitions |
| D．keep balance between rock climbing and other activities |