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，F(xiàn)rance，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 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.

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.

詞匯：

threshold n.起點，開端；門檻

disposal n.處理,處置;配置

neutral adj.中性的；中立的

motive n.動機，目的

strive v.努力，力求;斗爭 注釋：

1.Our senses aren' t just delivering a strict view of ... in our heads:這個句子的大概意思是:我們的五官感覺不僅僅讓我們感知世界;五官感覺還受大腦活動的影響。

2.University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis:法國尼斯o索菲亞o安提波利斯大學，簡稱尼斯大學，1965年經(jīng)法國政令正式宣布成立。尼斯大學在尼斯市設有7處主校園，另外，還在索菲亞o 安提波利斯市(Sophia Antipolis)、戛納市（Cannes)和芒東市（Menton)設有校區(qū)。索菲亞o 安提波利斯是位于尼斯市西南側(cè)的科技園區(qū)，是許多髙等學府的所在地。

3.body mass index:身體質(zhì)量指數(shù)

4.at the threshold of:當……快要開始時

5.in perception：感知

6.at the disposal of:受到……的控制

練習：

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.

答案與題解：

1.C第一段第二句是本題答案的依據(jù)。饑腸轆轆的人只是看food-related words比較清楚，選項C的句意與上述句子的意思完全一致，是答案。選項A說的是every word, 所以不是答案。選項B和D文章中沒有提到。

2.B答案的根據(jù)可在第三段找到。Radel為了保證42名學生到達實驗室時是空腹，所以要求他們中午到達。然后告訴一部分學生實驗時間推遲了，請他們10分鐘后再來。他又請另外一部分學生用午餐。Radel用推遲實驗的方法造就了兩組實驗者，即饑餓組與飽食組。選項 B是答案。

3.C 雖然A、B、D選項均可在文中找到對應部分，但只屬于細節(jié)，而非主旨，因此不能選。本文最后一句給出了直接的答案。

4.A第四段第三行中consciously與A項中的intentionally是同義詞。B項neutral意思為"中性的"，在本文中的意思是與food-related相對的，即"與食物不相關的"，因此是錯誤選擇; C 項不符合課文原意; D項barely意為"僅僅，勉強，幾乎沒有"，因此也不符合句意。

5. D選項A所說的實驗樣本的大小與本題主旨無關，不是答案，而是干擾項;B、C內(nèi)容也不能直接從短文中推斷出來。選項D是答案。最后一段第二句的"Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for" 為選擇 D 項提供了依據(jù)。

第十一篇我們的視覺服務于我們的胃口

我們的五官不僅僅讓我們感知世界；還受大腦活動的影響。一項新研究發(fā)現(xiàn)：比起那些剛剛用過餐的人，饑餓的人能更清晰地看到與食品有關的詞。

數(shù)十年以來，心理學家已經(jīng)知道我們的心理活動直接影響到我們的視覺。例如，貧窮的孩子看到的硬幣比實際的要大；饑餓的人看到的食物圖片更明亮。法國的尼斯o索菲亞o安提波利斯大學試圖調(diào)查這一現(xiàn)象：發(fā)生這種情況的時間是在大腦從眼睛接收到視覺信號的即時還是稍后些，這時高級思維活動已經(jīng)介入了。

雷戴爾招募了健康指數(shù)正常的42位學生作為被試者。在測試的當天，每個學生被告知在中午到達實驗室，這時距上一次的用餐時間有3?4個小時。等他們到達實驗室時，他們被告知實驗時間有延遲。一半學生被告知十分鐘后再回來;其余的給1個小時的時間先吃午飯。所以一半學生餓著肚子，另一半學生飽腹參加了此次實驗。

實驗的步驟如下：要求被試者看電腦屏幕。屏幕上的80個字以1/300秒的頻率閃動。由于字體非常之小，被試者只能憑感覺捕捉到字形。1/4的字是與食物有關的。每閃動一個字，被試者回答字體的亮度并選擇看到的是哪類詞：一類是和食物有關的詞，比如"蛋糕"；一類是中性詞，比如"船"。由于每個詞的閃動在瞬間完成，被試者根本看不清楚那個詞是什么。

饑餓的人看到與食物有關的詞更明亮，且能更好地辨認出與食物有關的詞。由于每個詞的閃動太快，其實那些被試者根本不會確切地看到什么，這就說明：他們只是感覺不同，根本沒經(jīng)過思考。雷戴爾給出了這樣的解釋。

雷戴爾說："這就是重點所在。人類可以真正感知到自身的需要或者為之奮斗的目標。該實驗使我了解這樣的事實，即我們的大腦是受我們的動機和需要所支配的。"

編輯推薦：

2013年職稱英語考試報名專題

2012年職稱英語考試真題匯總

（責任編輯：vstara）

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