Question

The baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert (警觉). Twenty centimeters from her face researchers have placed a white card with two black spots on it. She stares at it carefully. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced. As the cards change from one to the other, her gaze(凝视) starts to lose its focus - until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns; she looks at it for twice as long as she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?

Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots shown before two, shows the same return of interest when the number of spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of objects(a comb, a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of objects had an effect separate from changing the objects themselves. Could it be the pattern that two things make, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to squares moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots became more excited when they then heard three drumbeats than when they heard just two; likewise(同样地) when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.

1.The experiment described in Paragraph 1 is related to the baby’s ______.

A．sense of hearing.

B．sense of sight.

C．sense of touch.

D．sense of smell.

2.Babies are sensitive to the change in ______.

A．the size of cards.

B．the colour of pictures.

C．the shape of patterns.

D．the number of objects.

3.Why did the researchers test the babies with drumbeats?

A．To reduce the difficulty of the experiment.

B．To see how babies recognize sounds.

C．To carry their experiment further.

D．To keep the babies’ interest.

4.Where does this text probably come from?

A．Science fiction.

B．Children’s literature.

C．An advertisement.

D．A science report.

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.B

2.D

3.C

4.D

【解析】

【文章大意】本篇是一篇说明文。文章对刚出生一天的婴儿做实验，通过变化纸上的黑点及鼓的敲打次数对婴儿的视觉、听觉进行的一个实验。

1.根据文章第一段文中的She stares it carefully. Her gaze starts to lose its focus.可知，本段是对孩子的视觉实验。故选B。

2.根据文章第二段中的Babies pay more attention to squares moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two.可知D正确。

3.根据文章第一段得知对孩子的视力进行试验，接下来用鼓来对孩子的听力继续试验。所以选C。

4.纵观文章，这是一篇医学试验报告，所以选D。