Question

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 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. Rémi 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-1evel 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.

1.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 testers, 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.

2.What does the writer want to tell us?

A. Human’s 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.

3.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

 

Answer 1

【答案】

 

1.B

2.C

3.D

【解析】

试题分析：文章大意：我们的五官感觉不仅仅让我们感知世界；五官感觉还受大脑活动的影响，但是文章用一项Radel做的调查测试证明人类可以不受大脑思维的影响感知需要的东西。人的大脑是受我们的动机和需要支配。

1.细节题：根据文章第三段的描述： Radel为了保证42名学生到达实验室时是空腹, 所以要求他们中午到达. 然后告诉一部分学生实验时间推迟了, 请他们10分钟后再来. 他又请另外一部分学生用午餐. Radel用推迟实验的方法造就了两组实验者, 即饥饿组与饱食组. 选项B是答案.

2.主旨题：虽然A、B、D选项均可在文中找到对应部分, 而只属于细节, 而非主旨, 因此不能选. 本文最后一句From the experiment, I know that our brain can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs. "Radel says.给出了直接的答案，人的大脑受我们的动机和需要支配。选C。

3.细节题：选项A所说的实验样本的大小与本题主旨无关, 不是答案, 而是干扰项；B、C内容也不能直接从短文中推断出来. 选项D是答案. 最后一段第二句的“Humans Can really perceive what they need or what they strive for”可知人类可以不受大脑思维的影响感知需要的东西。为选择D项提供了依据.

考点：考查科普类短文