Question

【題目】Why Do People Blink (眨眼) Their Eyes?

People blink their eyes tens of thousands of times every day. Scientists have long believed blinking was an involuntary movement and served mainly to keep the eyeballs wet. But a new study suggests it has a more important purpose.

An international team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley studied the blinking of human eyelids. The journal Current Biology published their findings. The team said they found that blinking “repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused” on what we are seeing. They said that when we blink our eyelids, the eyes roll back into their sockets—the bony area that surrounds and protects the eyes. However, the researchers found the eyes don’t always return to the same position (位置). They said this causes the brain to tell the eye muscles (肌肉) to reorganize our eyesight.

Gerrit Maus is the lead writer of the report. He serves as an assistant professor of psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Maus said, “Our eye muscles are quite sluggish (遲緩的) and imprecise (不精確的), so the brain needs to constantly adapt (改編) its motor signals to make sure our eyes are pointing where they should be. Our findings suggested that the brain measures the difference in what we see before and after a blink, and orders the eye muscles to make the needed corrections.” The researchers said that without such corrections our surroundings would appear unclear and even jumpy. They said the movement acts “l(fā)ike a steadicam (攝影穩(wěn)定器) of the mind.”

The researchers said they asked volunteers to sit in a dark room while storing at a small dot on a flat surface. They used special cameras to follow the volunteer’s blinks and eye movements. After each blink, the dot was moved one centimeter to the right. The volunteers did not notice this, but the brain did. It followed the movement and directed the eye muscles to refocus on the dot. After the dot was moved in this way 30 times, the volunteers’ eyes changed their focus to the place where they predicted it would be.

Professor Maus said. “Even though the volunteers did not consciously register that the dot had moved, their brains did, and adjusted (調(diào)整)with the corrective eye movements. These findings add to our understanding of how the brain constantly adapts to (適應(yīng)) changes directing our eye muscles to correct for errors in our bodies’ own hardware.”

【1】According to the new study, blinking eyes can ________.

A.serve keep the eyeballs wetB.reposition eyeballs to stay focused

C.consciously correct eye movementsD.make our eyes adapt to motor signals

【2】From the experiment, we can learn that ________.

A.the brain directed the eye muscles to refocus on the dot

B.volunteers could see the moving dot with special cameras

C.the eyeballs could stay in the place as they were predicted

D.volunteers were aware of the dot’s movements to the right

【3】The underlined word “register” in Paragraph 5 probably means ________.

A.reasonB.refocusC.realizeD.reserve

【4】This passage shows that ________.

A.eye muscles are quite inactive and imprecise

B.the research is of great value in the eye movement

C.the brain plays an important role in seeing things clearly

D.volunteers control their blinks to follow the changes of the dots

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】A

【3】C

【4】C

【解析】

人們每天眨眼成千上萬次，這主要是為了保持眼球的濕潤。但一項(xiàng)新的研究表明，眨眼還有另外一個更重要的目的——讓我們的眼球重新定位，重新聚焦新的事物。

【1】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)短文第二段The team said they found that blinking “repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused” on what we are seeing. They said that when we blink our eyelids, the eyes roll back into their sockets—the bony area that surrounds and protects the eyes.，最新的研究表明，人們眨眼睛是為了讓我們更好的聚焦我們要看的事物，當(dāng)眨眼睛的時候，我們的眼球會回滾到眼窩里，那樣可以保護(hù)我們的眼睛。故選B

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)短文第二段中However, the researchers found the eyes don’t always return to the same position (位置). They said this causes the brain to tell the eye muscles (肌肉) to reorganize our eyesight.可知，研究表明，眼睛不會回到同一個點(diǎn)，科學(xué)家說我們的大腦支配著眼睛的肌肉去重新聚焦新的點(diǎn)。故選A。

【3】詞義猜測題。根據(jù)劃線單詞所在的語境After the dot was moved in this way 30 times, the volunteers’ eyes changed their focus to the place where they predicted it would be.

Professor Maus said. “Even though the volunteers did not consciously register that the dot had moved, their brains did, and adjusted (調(diào)整)with the corrective eye movements. 移動圓點(diǎn)30次后，志愿者的眼睛將焦點(diǎn)轉(zhuǎn)移到他們預(yù)測的地方。盡管志愿者們無意識地……那個點(diǎn)的移動，可是他們的大腦是意識到了，并相應(yīng)的給眼睛傳遞信號，做適當(dāng)?shù)恼{(diào)整。由此可猜測register的意思應(yīng)為“意識到”，與realize同義，故選C。

【4】主旨大意題。根據(jù)短文的最后These findings add to our understanding of how the brain constantly adapts to (適應(yīng)) changes directing our eye muscles to correct for errors in our bodies’ own hardware.，這些發(fā)現(xiàn)增加了我們對大腦如何不斷適應(yīng)變化的理解，引導(dǎo)我們的眼部肌肉糾正我們身體自身硬件的錯誤。因此我們的大腦在支配我們看事物方面起著非常重要的作用。故選C。