The brain of an insect isn’t very big. But insects are somehow still able to make lots of important ——青夏教育精英家教网—

科目： 来源： 题型：阅读理解

The brain of an insect isn’t very big. But insects are somehow still able to make lots of important decisions. Bees, ants and roaches(蟑螂) build hives(巢穴)with thousands of workers doing specialized work. The jobs are done without a head or even a plan. How do insects manage this?

To solve the mystery, scientists in Belgium spent months building robotic roaches and then putting them among real roaches. The final goal of the research is to find out how the simple behavior of individuals gives rise to a collective decision. The roach is a good starting point for trying to answer the big question because its social system is simple enough for scientists to study.

The first step was to build robots that real roaches would accept as their own. Although the robotic roaches don’t look much like the real thing, they have similarities with them in three key ways: they naturally head toward dark areas, they are influenced by the behavior of other roaches, and even more importantly, they smell like roaches.

The next step was getting the robotic and real roaches to work together on common tasks. In experiments, the robots would collectively head towards a dark place, copying the behavior of natural roaches. That got the researchers wondering: if you program the robotic roaches to go toward the lighted place, would the real roaches follow, going against their natural instincts.(本能) ?

They will – it turned out. Many of the real roaches followed the robots to a lighter shelter. But influence turned out to be a two- way street. On occasion, the real roaches were able to override the programming of the robot roaches and get them to turn into dark hiding places. Being social creatures, both the robotic and natural roaches were paying attention to and following the example set by others.

In theory, it would be possible to create a robot that could influence collective decision-making in humans. To do this, researchers would have to invent a robot that people would accept. Fortunately, the technology isn’t there yet.

1．Why do scientists choose the roaches to study?

A．They are social creatures

B．Their social system is simple.

C．They are able to build their hives quite well.

D．It is easy to create robotic ones.

2．The robotic roaches are accepted by real ones because of all of the following EXCEPT that _________ .

A．they smell like real ones

B．they look exactly like real ones

C．what they do are somewhat influenced by other roaches

D．they naturally head toward dark areas

3．What’s the author’s attitude to creating a robot that would influence collective decision- making in humans?

A．Uninterested B．Positive C．Negative D．Doubtful

4．Which of the following might be the best title of the passage ?

A．Robotic Roaches B．Scientists’ Research

C．Amazing Insects D．Insects’ Social System

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科目： 来源： 题型：阅读理解

请认真阅读下列短文，并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词。

A new set of brain images shows why : Reading the Roman alphabets and Chinese characters uses different parts of the brain.

The results also suggest that Chinese schoolchildren have reading problems in a different part of the brain than the part used in reading alphabet-based languages. This shows that the learning disorder dyslexia (inability to read properly) is not the same in every culture and does not have a universal biological cause.

Scientists described the results as “ very important and revolutionary”. While dyslexia has certain common roots, they said, they now have some proof that this kind of functional problem works differently according to the different demands that Western and Eastern languages place on the brain.

Dyslexia is a common developmental disorder in which people of normal intelligence have difficulty learning to read, spell and master other language skills.

The results suggest that treating dyslexia around the world probably will require different treatments.

“Reading is complex,” said Guinevere Eden, Georgetown University professor. “ This shows we need to be more open-minded about diverse treatment approaches.”

Its origins are complex. There appears to be a genetic aspect to the illness. It also may result from brain injury before birth that changes visual and hearing pathways in the brain.

Earlier brain scans show that English-reading dyslexics don’t function properly in a left part of the brain associated with the awareness of 44 sounds from the English alphabet. However, according to the new study, reading Chinese uses some different parts of the brain located in the left-front of the brain. It is associated with symbol interpretation. Unlike alphabet letters, Chinese characters represent entire thoughts and physical objects.

Dyslexia

Definition	a learning (1) in which people of average IQ find it (2) to learn to read and acquire other language skills
Origins	genetic causes or brain (3) before birth, which affects (4) and hearing abilities
Finding of the earlier study	(5) reading dyslexics don’t function properly in a left part of the brain.
Discovery of the new study	Reading Chinese uses the (6) part of the brain.
Conclusion	Reading Roman alphabets and reading Chinese characters place different (7) on the brain. Dyslexia is not the same in every (8) and does not have the same (9) roots.
(10)	Dyslexia needs to be treated in different ways.