考研英語(yǔ)美文閱讀欣賞
在全國(guó)碩士研究生入學(xué)英語(yǔ)考試中,閱讀理解試題在整個(gè)試卷中占很大比重,其重要程度不言而喻。想要提高英語(yǔ)閱讀能力，最好的辦法就是多看多練。為了提高大家的閱讀水平，下面是學(xué)習(xí)啦小編為大家?guī)?lái)考研英語(yǔ)美文閱讀欣賞，希望大家喜歡!
考研英語(yǔ)美文閱讀欣賞：梳子能讀懂你的心
No, this brush is not a mind-reader in the psychic sense. What it does is take precise measurements of the levels of neurological activity in a brain.
梳子能讀懂你的心，這可不是從什么神秘莫測(cè)的讀心術(shù)。這把神奇的數(shù)字能夠精確地測(cè)量你大腦內(nèi)部神經(jīng)活動(dòng)的水平。
Technology already exists to track your mental activity. It’s called functional near infraredspectroscopy (fNIRS), which images blood flowing through the brain and measures the difference of levels of oxygen in the blood in order to evaluate mental activity.
最早的追蹤大腦活動(dòng)的技術(shù)稱之為功能性近紅外光譜方法，這種方法可以對(duì)你大腦里的血液流動(dòng)成像，并且記錄大腦學(xué)血液里面的氧氣含量以評(píng)估你的精神狀態(tài)。
But it has a major drawback: it’s usually impaired by hair.
但是這種方法有一個(gè)致命的弱點(diǎn)，它會(huì)傷害到你的頭發(fā)。
That’s why researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas and University of Texas at Arlington have been working on a device that is essentially a hairbrush that can measure and monitor brain activity.
這就是為什么德克薩斯大學(xué)位于達(dá)拉斯和阿靈頓的分校要聯(lián)合致力于發(fā)明這種能夠測(cè)量和檢測(cè)大腦活動(dòng)的梳子的緣由。
The device is officially known as a “brush optrode,” which uses that same fNIRS technology, but in a way no other device has been able to up to this point. It’s designed to provide increased sensitivity with fiber tips that thread through hair to increase direct scalp contact. The technique is much more accurate when its sensors can actually touch the scalp.
這種梳子的學(xué)名稱之為“梳子光極”，它的原理和近紅外光譜法差不多，但是卻超越了之前所有的設(shè)備。這種設(shè)備的敏感度很高，它的光纖觸頭能夠在頭發(fā)之間穿過(guò)，直接接觸到頭皮，因此這種傳感器的測(cè)量結(jié)果要比其他傳感器精確很多。
Duncan MacFarlane is a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas, and one of the lead researchers on this project. He says, “It is easy for a patient’s hair to get in the way and block the signal” with conventional fNIRS technology. “So we developed a new tip for the fNIRS fibers-a brush optrode that slides the fibers between the hair follicles. Signal levels increase three- to five-fold, and patients report that the brush optrode is considerably more comfortable than the conventional fiber ends.”
杜康·麥克法蘭是德克薩斯大學(xué)達(dá)拉斯分校電子工程學(xué)院的一名教授，也是這個(gè)項(xiàng)目的帶頭人。他說(shuō)，“用傳統(tǒng)的近紅外光譜分析法，頭發(fā)很容易就糾纏在一起，影響到信號(hào)的傳遞。因此我們發(fā)明了一種新的光纖，一種近似梳子的光極，它使得光纖可以在頭皮的小囊之間自由地穿梭。信號(hào)的傳遞程度增加了三到五倍，治療者也反映這種梳子的光極要比傳統(tǒng)的設(shè)備舒服很多。”
考研英語(yǔ)美文閱讀欣賞：大猩猩和人類一樣偏好用右手
Humans are not the only species to prefer to use their right hand-chimpanzees also share the trait, according to a new study by Spanish scientists.
根據(jù)西班牙科學(xué)家的一項(xiàng)最新研究顯示，人類并不是唯一偏好用右手的物種，大猩猩和人類一樣具備這個(gè)特點(diǎn)。
The researchers reached their findings, published in the latest edition of the American Journal of Primatology, after observing 114 chimpanzees from two primate rescue centers, one in Spain and the other in Zambia.
這項(xiàng)最新研究發(fā)表在美國(guó)期刊《靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物學(xué)》上?？茖W(xué)家們是通過(guò)對(duì)兩個(gè)靈長(zhǎng)類動(dòng)物救助中心里的114 只大猩猩進(jìn)行觀察而得出這一結(jié)論的。這兩個(gè)救助中心一個(gè)在西班牙，一個(gè)在贊比亞。
The primates were provided with food hidden inside tubes and the scientists monitored them to see which hand they used to get at it, either their fingers or with the help of tools.
科學(xué)家在大猩猩面前放了一個(gè)管子，管子內(nèi)藏著食物。研究者就是想觀察大猩猩到底是用哪知手取出食物，不管是用手指還是借助工具。
“The chimpanzees showed a preferential use of the right hand to get the food from the tube,” the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution, which coordinated the study, said in a statement. “This feature had traditionally been considered exclusively human and had been believed to be caused by asymmetries observed in the human brain that are related to the realization of complicated activities that require the use and coordination of both hands.”
大猩猩偏好用右手取食物，” 協(xié)助這項(xiàng)研究的加泰隆尼亞古生態(tài)學(xué)和社會(huì)發(fā)展研究所在報(bào)告中稱。“使用右手一直以來(lái)被認(rèn)為是人類獨(dú)有的特點(diǎn)，這個(gè)特點(diǎn)是由于人類左右腦發(fā)展不平衡造成的。人類為了完成復(fù)雜的活動(dòng)，往往需要兩手并用。”
The study also found that female chimpanzees, like their human counterparts, are more likely to be right-handed than males.
這項(xiàng)研究還發(fā)現(xiàn)，母猩猩同人類女性一樣，比起他們的另一半來(lái)說(shuō)更偏好用右手。
The researchers said this suggests “that just like in our species, there are shared biological factors, genetic and hormonal, that modulate the functioning of our brain.”
這項(xiàng)研究表明，“就像在人類內(nèi)不一樣，物種之間也存在共同的生理基因和荷爾蒙特征，這些特征控制著我們的大腦。”
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