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.
【小题1】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

【小题2】 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.

【小题3】 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.

【小题4】 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

【小题5】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

Cyberspace,data superhighway,multimedia,for those who have seen the future,and the linking of computers,televisions and telephones will change our lives for ever.Yet for all the talks of a forthcoming technological utopia,little attention has been given to the implications of these developments for the poor.As for all the new high technology,the West concerns itself with the “how”,while the question of “for whom” is put aside once again.

Economists are only now realizing the full extent to which the communication revolution has affected the world economy.Information technology allows the extension of trade across geographical and industrial boundaries,and transnational corporations take full advantage of it. Terms of trade and exchange, interest rates and money movements are more important than the production of goods.The electronic economy made by information technology allows the haves to increase their control on global markets — with a destructive impact on the have-nots.
For them the result is unstable. Developing countries which rely on the production of a small range of goods for export are made to feel like small parts in the international economic machine. As “futures” are traded on computer screens, developing countries simply have less and less control of their destinies.
So what are the options of regaining control？One alternative for developing countries is to buy in the latest computers and telecommunications. Yet this leads to long-term dependency and perhaps permanent constraints on developing countries’ economies.
Communication technology is generally exported from the US, Europe or Japan；the patents, skills and ability remain in the hands of a few industrialized countries. It is also expensive, therefore imported products and services must be bought on credit usually provided by the very countries whose companies stand to gain.
【小题1】 From the passage we know that the development of high technology is in the interests of________.

A．the rich countries	B．scientific development
C．the local elites	D．the world economy

【小题2】It can be inferred from the passage that________.

A．international trade should be expanded

B．the interests of the poor countries have not been given enough consideration

C．the exports of the poor countries should be increased

D．communication technology in developing countries should be modernized

【小题3】Why does the author say that the electronic economy may have a destructive impact on developing countries?

A．Because it enables the developed countries to control the international market.

B．Because it destroys the economic balance of the poor countries.

C．Because it violates the national boundaries of the poor countries.

D．Because it inhibits the industrial growth of developing countries.

【小题4】The development of modern communication technology in developing countries may________.

A．hinder their industrial production

B．cause them to lose control of their trade

C．force them to reduce their share of exports

D．cost them their economic independence

【小题5】The author’s attitude towards the communication revolution is________.

A．positive	B．critical
C．indifferent	D．tolerant

      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.
【小题1】 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

【小题2】 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.

【小题3】 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.

【小题4】 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

【小题5】 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

Even plant can run a fever, especially when they’re under attack by insects or disease. But unlike human, plants can have their temperature taken from 3, 000 feet away straight up. A decade ago, adopting the infrared （红外线）scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide （杀虫剂）spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don’t have pest （害虫）problems.
Even better, Paley’s Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3, 000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded map showing where plants were running“fevers”. Farmers could then spot-spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would.
The bad news is that Paley’s company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long - term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. “This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States, ” says George Oerther of Texas A & M. Ray Jackson , who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only ff Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.
【小题1】 Plants will emit an increased amount of heat when they are______________.

A．sprayed with pesticides

B．facing an infrared scanner

C．in poor physical condition

D．exposed to excessive sun rays

【小题2】．In order to apply pesticide spraying precisely, we can use infrared scanning to____________.

A．estimate the damage to the crops

B．measure the size of the affected area

C．draw a color-coded map

D．locate the problem area

【小题3】 Farmers can save a considerable amount of pesticide by______________.

A．resorting to spot-spraying

B．consulting infrared scanning experts

C．transforming poisoned rain

D．detecting crop problems at an early stage

【小题4】 The application of infrared scanning technology to agriculture met with some difficulties
_______________.

A．the lack of official support

B．its high cost

C．the lack of financial support

D．its failure to help increase production

【小题5】 Infrared scanning technology may be brought back into operation because of_____________.

A．the desire of farmers to improve the quality of their produce

B．growing concern about the excessive use of pesticides on crops

C．the forceful promotion by the Department of Agriculture

D．full support from agricultural experts

Almost every machine with moving parts has wheels，yet no one knows exactly when the first wheel was invented or what it was used for.We do know，however，that they existed over 5,500 years ago in ancient Asia.
The oldest known transport wheel was discovered in 2002 in Slovenia.It is over 5,100 years old.Evidence suggests that wheels for transport didn’t become popular for a while，though.This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around.
But it could also be because of a difficult situation.While wheels need to roll on smooth surfaces，roads with smooth surfaces weren’t going to be constructed until there was plenty of demand for them.Eventually，road surfaces did become smoother，but this difficult situation appeared again a few centuries later.There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modern road design.
In the mid­1700s，a Frenchman came up with a new design of road—a base layer(层) of large stones covered with a thin layer of smaller stones.A Scotsman improved on this design in the 1820s and a strong，lasting road surface became a reality.At around the same time，metal hubs (the central part of a wheel)came into being，followed by the pneumatic tyre(充气轮胎) in 1846.Alloy wheels were invented in 1967，sixty years after the appearance of tarmacked roads(柏油路)．As wheel design took off，vehicles got faster and faster.                          (2013·重庆，C)
【小题1】What might explain why transport wheels didn’t become popular for some time?

A．Few knew how to use transport wheels.

B．Humans carried farming tools just as well.

C．Animals were a good means of transport.

D．The existence of transport wheels was not known.

【小题2】What do we know about road design from the passage?

A．It was easier than wheel design.

B．It improved after big changes in vehicle design.

C．It was promoted by fast­moving vehicles.

D．It provided conditions for wheel design to develop.

【小题3】How is the last paragraph mainly developed?

A．By giving examples.

B．By making comparisons.

C．By following time order.

D．By making classifications.

【小题4】What is the passage mainly about?

A．The beginning of road design.

B．The development of transport wheels.

C．The history of public transport.

D．The invention of fast­moving vehicles.

Boiler rooms are often dirty and steamy，but this one is clean and cool.Fox Point is a very new 47­unit living building in South Bronx，one of the city’s poorest areas.Two­thirds of the people living there are formerly (以前) homeless people，whose rent is paid by the government.The rest are low­income families.The boiler room has special equipment，which produces energy for electricity and heat.It reuses heat that would otherwise be lost to the air，reducing carbon emissions(碳排放)while also cutting costs.
Fox Point is operated by Palladia，a group that specializes in providing housing and services to needy people.Palladia received support from Enterprise Community Partners (ECP)，which helps build affordable housing by providing support to housing developers.
ECP has created national standards for healthy，environmentally (环境方面) clever and affordable homes which are called the Green Communities Standards.These standards include water keeping，energy saving and the use of environmentally friendly building materials.Meeting the standards increases housing construction costs by 2%，which is rapidly paid back by lower running costs.Even the positioning of a window to get most daylight can help save energy.
Michael Bloomberg，New York’s mayor，plans to create 165,000 affordable housing units for 500,000 New Yorkers.Almost 80% of New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings，and 40% of those are caused by housing.So he recently announced that the city’s Department of Housing and Preservation and Development (DHPD)，whose duty is to develop and keep the city’s supply of affordable housing，will require all its new projects to follow ECP’s green standards.
Similar measures have been taken by other cities，such as Cleveland and Denver，but New York’s DHPD is the largest city developer of affordable housing in the country.(2010·四川，B)
【小题1】What is the purpose of describing the boiler rooms in the first paragraph?

A．To explain the measures the city takes to care for poor people.

B．To suggest that affordable housing is possible in all areas.

C．To show how the environment­friendly building works.

D．To compare old and new boiler rooms.

【小题2】What is an advantage of the buildings meeting the Green Communities Standards?

A．Lower running costs.

B．Costing less in construction.

C．Less air to be lost in hot days.

D．Better prices for homeless people.

【小题3】It can be learned from the text that________.

A．New York City is seriously polluted

B．people’s daily life causes many carbon emissions in New York City

C．a great number of people in New York City don’t have houses to live in

D．some other cities have developed more affordable housing than New York City

【小题4】What is the main purpose of this text?

A．To call on people to pay more attention to housing problems.

B．To prove that some standards are needed for affordable housing.

C．To ask society to help homeless people and low­income families.

D．To introduce healthy，environmentally clever and affordable housing.

Businesses are witnessing a difficult time，which has in turn produced influence on consumers’ desire to go green.However，shoppers are still laying stress on environmental concerns.
Two thirds of customers say that environmental considerations inform their purchases to the same degree as they did a year ago，while more than a quarter say that they are now even better aware of the environmental effect on what they buy.
This may help to influence how shops store goods on their shelves.And the companies should still make efforts to become more environmentally friendly.Two out of three people think it is important to buy from environmentally responsible companies，with about one in seven saying that they had even decided to take their custom elsewhere if they felt a company’s environmental reputation was not good enough.
Harry Morrison，chief executive(主管)of the Carbon Trust，sympathizes：“I understand this situation where survival is very important now.But from environmental considerations，the clock is ticking—we don’t have much time.In addition，cutting carbon has an immediate effect as costs drop and a medium­term benefit for the brand.”
Larger companies have an extra motivation to look at reducing their carbon footprint，as new rules next year will require businesses to buy carbon allowances to make up for their emissions(排放)．Those that have taken early action will have a head start.More than two thirds of consumers are not clear about which companies are environmentally responsible.This suggests that firms that are able to relay clearly their message to the public will be in a pole position to attract shoppers.
The Carbon Trust believes that it can help by informing customers about the good work companies are doing.“When companies are granted(授予) the standard，they can use a logo(标识) in all their marketing which makes it clear that they are working towards cutting emissions，” Mr.Morrison said.                                                  (2010·福建，C)
【小题1】What’s the main idea of the passage?

A．Businesses are finding ways to send their message to the shoppers.

B．Companies will soon get information about cutting carbon emissions.

C．Firms are making efforts to encourage customers to keep goods at home.

D．Firms are urged to cut carbon emissions by shoppers’ environmental awareness.

【小题2】The underlined word “inform” in Paragraph 2 probably means “________”．

A．affect

B．change

C．disturb

D．reject

【小题3】According to Harry Morrison，businesses ________.

A．will benefit from cutting carbon emissions

B．should buy carbon allowances for shoppers

C．are required to make up for their carbon emissions

D．have encouraged shoppers to take their custom elsewhere

【小题4】We can learn from the passage that businesses will________.

A．have a strong desire to reduce costs

B．use the same logo in their marketing

C．gain advantages by taking early action

D．attract more shoppers by storing goods

Why do human beings still risk their lives under ground and doing one of the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in the world？It’s an increasingly urgent question，given the recent high­profile(引人注目的) mining accidents in Sago，W.Va.and Huntington，Utah.A small group of engineers and robotics experts look forward to a day in the not­too­distant future when robots and other technology do most of the dangerous mining work.
Robotic technology，in particular，holds much promise，McAteer says，especially when it comes to mapping mines and rescuing trapped miners—the special operations of the mining industry.
One of the first mining robots was developed five years ago at Carnegie­Mellon University’s Robotics Institute.It was called Groundhog and it looked like a golf cart.It used lasers(激光器) to “see” in dark tunnels and map abandoned mines—some of the most dangerous work in the business.
The latest design is called Cave Crawler.It’s a bit smaller than Groundhog，and even more advanced.It can take photos and video and has sensors mounted(增加) that can detect the presence of dangerous gases.Incredibly，the robot has a real sense of logic.If it comes across an obstacle it gets confused.It has to think through the process and where to go next，and sometimes it throws_a_fit just like a real person.
The biggest obstacle，though，is cost.The original research project was federally funded，but that money has dried up，and it’s not clear where future funding will come from. Partly for that reason，and partly because of advances in safety，mining is not nearly as dangerous as it was in the past.Since 1990，fatalities(致命性) have declined by 67 percent and injuries by 51 percent，according to the National Mining Association.
Some experts predict that robots in mines will serve much of the same function that they do in the automotive industry.The robots do the most repetitive and dangerous jobs，but don’t eliminate(消除) the need for human workers.
【小题1】The underlined phrase “throws a fit” in Paragraph 4 probably means “________”．

A．gets angry	B．gets sick
C．becomes hungry	D．becomes cheerful

【小题2】We can infer from the last paragraph that ________.

A．robots in mines will serve much in the automotive industry

B．there will be no need for human workers in mines

C．the mine robots will have a very bright future

D．robots in mines have a long way to go

【小题3】Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A．Mining robots do most of the mining work at present.

B．Groundhog can discover the presence of dangerous gases.

C．Experts are trying to make robots save miners in danger.

D．Robots cannot do dangerous work in dark areas.

【小题4】What can be the best title for the text?

A．Mining Accidents in America

B．Could Robots Replace Humans in Mines?

C．Cave Crawler，the Latest Robot

D．The Development of Robots

The year is 2094,It has been announced that a comet is heading towards the Earth.Most of it will miss our planet, but two pieces will probably hit the southern half of the Earth.
On 17 July, a piece four kilometers wide enters the Earth’s atmosphere with a massive explosion.About half of the piece is destoryed but the remaining part hits the South Atlantic at 200times the speed of sound.The sea boils and a huge gole is made in the sea bed.Huge waves are created and spread outwards form the hole.The eall of water,a kilometer high,rushes towards southern Africa at 800 kilometers an hour.Cities on the African coast are totally destroyed and millions of people are drowned.
Before the waves reach South America.the second piece of the comet lands in Argentina.Earthquakes and volcanoes are set off in the Andes Moutains.The shock waves move north into California and all around the Pacific Ocean. The cities of Los Angeles,San Francisco and Tokyo are completely destroyed by earthquakes,Millions of people in the southern half of the earth are already dead,but the north won’t eacape for long.Because of the explosions the sun is hidden by clouds of dust,and temperatures around the world fall to almost zero.Crops are ruined.The sun won’t be seen again for many years.Wars break out as countries fight for food.A year later,no more than 10 million remain laive.
Could it really happen?In fact,it has already happened more than once in the history of the Earth.The dinesaurs were on the Earth for over 160 million years,Then 65 million years ago they suddenly disappeared.Many scientists believe that the Earth was hit by a piece of object in space. The dinosaurs couldn’t live through the cold climate that followed and they died out .Will we meet the same end ?
【小题1】What is mainly described in the passage ?

A．A historic discovery	B．A research on space
C．A scientific adventure	D．An imaginary event

【小题2】When the first piece hits the South Atlantic,it causes_______.

A．an earthquake	B．huge waves
C．damages to cities	D．an Earth explosion

【小题3】Why can’t the northern half of the earth escape ofr long?

A．Because the land is covered with water.

B．because people there can not live at the temperature of zero.

C．Because wars break out among countries.

D．Because the light and heat from the sun can not reach the earth.

【小题4】By giving the example if dinosaurs,the author tries to prove________.

A．animals could not live in the cold climate.

B．what happened 65 mollion years ago was an invented story.

C．the human beings will die out in 2094

D．the Earth could be hit by other objects in space

【小题5】We may guess that the writer is_________.

A．worried

B．full of imagination

C．practical

D．a scientist

Why Doesn’t Anybody Copy Apple?
Apple’s products are the envy of the world. They have been spectacularly successful and are widely imitated, if not copied. The minute Apple crystallizes a product, everyone knows how to compete．This idea that the basis of competition is set by Apple and then the race is on to climb the path of improvement is unquestionable．When Apple releases a product that defines a category or dramatically changes the structure of an industry, it becomes obvious what needs to be built. But what I wonder is why everyone wants to copy Apple’s products but nobody wants to copy being Apple?
I can think of two reasons. Firstly, Apple is not worth copying because it's not successful; secondly, Apple’s success cannot be copied because it is a magical process．
There is a great deal of evidence for the first hypothesis. The idea of Apple being successful is not something reflected in its stock price．Being valued lower than the average company in the S&P（标准普尔）500 indicates that to whatever degree Apple was successful in the past, it's not seen by the vast majority of observers as successful in the future．Why should one bother copying Apple if it results in being punished with a low valuation? If one works really hard at innovation and then that innovation becomes commoditized（商品化）very quickly, why should one bother?
When innovation practitioners are asked what makes Apple successful, the answers regarding the cause of this success border on the mythical. The climax of this hypothesis is the “chief-sorcerer” theory of success which places one magician, like Steve Jobs, in charge of casting all the right spells（符咒）．
What about Apple’s own opinion of what makes it tick? Tim Cook refers to a great team and integration of hardware, software and services as unique Apple advantages. It’s a better explanation．Integration is something that can take a long time, but it is possible with great effort．A few companies are starting to make moves in that direction, but efforts are half-hearted．There is no “move the Earth” panic to become an integrated company from Samsung, Google or Microsoft．
My own suspicion is that Apple is more aware of what makes it special than it lets out． However, as Tim points out, it’s not a formula．It’s complex, it’s subtle, but it’s not magic．It’s a process that requires a degree of faith and courage．
【小题1】When a new product of Apple comes out, often it ______．

A．ruins an industry dramatically

B．starts a revolution of an industry

C．puts itself in an unbeatable position

D．is soon overtaken by imitated products

【小题2】According to the passage, other companies don’t “copy being Apple” because ______.

A． Apple is not a successful company

B． they have no access to relevant resources

C． It’s hard to find a magician like Steve Jobs

D．being Apple takes more than time and efforts

【小题3】We can infer from Para. 5 that ______．

A．other companies are dedicated to integration

B．Apple itself is fully aware of its unique advantages

C．Apple will hold the leading position in this industry

D．other companies don't have a great team as Apple does

【小题4】What does the author think of Tim Cook's statement?

A．Acceptable．

B．Disappointing．

C．Unquestionable．

D．Convincing．