Question

【題目】 You are walking alone down the street. Suddenly, you hear footsteps. Is someone following you? How do you know the footsteps are someone else’s and not your own?

You can tell because your brain has the ability to ignore certain sounds, according to a study from New York University. Because of this, we often ignore our own footsteps. But we may easily hear others’ footsteps.

Scientists tested this on mice. They found that when mice became familiar with the sound of their own footsteps, they developed a “sensory filter (感覺過濾器)”, according to David Schneider, one of the lead authors of the study. This allowed the mice to ignore the sounds of their own footsteps. They could more easily notice the sounds of their environment.

“For mice, this is really important,” Schneider told Science Daily. “They need to listen for a cat getting close to them, even when they’re walking and making noise.”

Our brains don’t just ignore our footsteps. We also ignore some other sounds that we make ourselves, including the sound of eating, breathing heavily and typing on a keyboard. Being able to ignore these unimportant noises lets us focus on more important and dangerous ones. For example, we are quick to notice the sound of a baby crying. So we can rush to make sure they are okay and keep them alive. The same idea applies to humans screaming. When we hear this sound, we can quickly go to help the screaming person.

【1】What help(s) mice ignore the sounds of their own footsteps?

A. The environment.B. Their sensory filters.

C. Cats’ footsteps.D. A study from New York.

【2】What do human brains normally fail to notice?

A. Others’ footsteps.B. Human’s screaming.

C. a baby crying.D. Self-made sounds.

【3】How does ignoring some sounds benefit humans?

A. More important things can be focused on.

B. People can stay calm in face of danger.

C. It’s easy to stay healthy and strong.

D. People tend to do dangerous things.

【4】What can we learn from the text?

A. More studies on human brains are needed.

B. Mice are very helpful in human brain studies.

C. Ignoring certain sounds helps mice survive.

D. Screaming and crying are unimportant noises.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】D

【3】A

【4】C

【解析】

這是一篇說明文。根據(jù)紐約大學的一項研究，你可以分辨出來，因為你的大腦有能力忽略某些聲音。人類大腦通常不會注意到自己發(fā)出的聲音，而忽略這些不重要的噪音讓人類們專注于更重要和危險的噪音。

【1】細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第三段中They found that when mice became familiar with the sound of their own footsteps, they developed a “sensory filter”, according to David Schneider, one of the lead authors of the study. This allowed the mice to ignore the sounds of their own footsteps.（該研究的主要作者之一大衛(wèi)施耐德說，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，當老鼠熟悉了自己的腳步聲時，它們就形成了一種“感官過濾器”。這使得老鼠可以忽略自己的腳步聲。）可知感官過濾器幫助老鼠忽略自己的腳步聲。故選B。

【2】細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)最后一段第二句We also ignore some other sounds that we make ourselves, including the sound of eating, breathing heavily and typing on a keyboard.（我們也會忽略一些我們自己發(fā)出的聲音，包括吃飯的聲音、沉重的呼吸聲和敲擊鍵盤的聲音。）可知人類大腦通常不會注意到自己發(fā)出的聲音。故選D。

【3】細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)最后一段中Being able to ignore these unimportant noises lets us focus on more important and dangerous ones.（能夠忽略這些不重要的噪音讓我們專注于更重要和危險的噪音。）可知忽略一些聲音可以讓人類對更重要的事情集中精力。故選A。

【4】細節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第四段“For mice, this is really important,” Schneider told Science Daily. “They need to listen for a cat getting close to them, even when they’re walking and making noise.”（“對老鼠來說，這真的很重要，”施耐德告訴《科學日報》。“他們需要聽到貓靠近他們的聲音，即使是在他們走路和制造噪音的時候�！保┛芍�忽略某些聲音可以幫助老鼠存活。故選C。