Why Do People Blink Their Eyes?

People blink(眨眼) 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. They said this causes the brain to tell the eye muscles 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, so the brain needs to constantly adapt its motor signals to make

sure our eyes are pointing where they’re supposed to. Our findings suggested that the brain measures the difference in what we see before and after a blink, and commands 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 staring 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 participants did not consciously register that the dot had moved, their brains did, and adjusted with the corrective eye movements. These findings add to our understanding of how the brain constantly adapts to changes, commanding our eye muscles to correct for errors in our bodies’ own hardware.”

1.According to the new study, blinking eyes can .

A. serve to keep the eyeballs wet B. reposition eyeballs to stay focused

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

2.From the experiment, we can learn that .

A. volunteers could see the moving dot with special cameras

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

C. participants were aware of the dot’s movements to the right

D. the brain commanded the eye muscles to refocus on the dot

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

A. realize B. refocus

C. reserve D. reason

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

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科目:高中英語 來源:河南省南陽市聯(lián)合體2016-2017學(xué)年高一下學(xué)期期末考試英語試卷 題型:閱讀理解

In my mind, there is a moving story about a skinny young boy who loved football with all his heart.

Practice after practice, he eagerly gave everything he had. Being half the size of the other boys, he got absolutely nowhere. Despite his hard training at all the games, this hopeful athlete sat on the bench and hardly ever played.

This teenager lived alone with his father, and the relationship between the two of them was very special. Even though the son was always on the bench, his father was always in the stands cheering. He never missed a game. This young man was still the smallest of the class when he entered high school. But his father continued to encourage him.

The young man loved football and was determined to try his best at every practice, and perhaps he’d get to play when he became a senior. All through high school he never missed a practice nor a game but remained a benchwarmer. Besides, his faithful father was always in the stands, always with words of encouragement for him. When the young man went to college, he decided to try out for the football team as a “walk—on”. Everyone firmly believed that he could never make the cut, but he did.

The news that he had survived the cut thrilled him so much that he rushed to the nearest phone and called his father. His father shared his excitement and was sent season tickets for all the college games. This persistent young athlete never missed practice during his four years at college, but actually he never got the real chance to play in a game.

It was at the end of his senior football season that the coach met him with a telegram. The young man read the telegram and he became totally silent. Swallowing hard, he mumbled to the coach, “My father died this morning. Is it all right if I miss practice today?” The coach put his arm gently around his should and said, “Take the rest of the week off, son. And don’t even plan to come back to the game on Saturday.”

Saturday arrived, and the game was not going well. In the third quarter, when the team was ten points behind, a silent young man quietly slipped into the empty locker room and put on his football gear. As he ran onto the sidelines (邊線), the coach and his players were surprised to see their faithful teammate back so soon. “Coach, please let me play. I’ve just got to play today,” said the young man.

The coach pretended not to hear him. There was no way he wanted his worst player in this close play—off game. But the young man insisted, and finally feeling sorry for the kid, the coach gave in. “All right,” he said. “You can go in.’’ Before long, the coach, the players and everyone in the stands could not believe their eyes. This little unknown, who had never played before, was doing everything right. The opposing team could not stop him. He ran, passed, blocked, and tackled like a star. His team began to succeed. The score was soon tied. In the closing seconds of the game, this kid got a pass and ran all the way for the winning touchdown.

Finally, after the stands had emptied, the coach noticed that this young man was sitting quietly in the corner all alone. The coach came to him and said, “Kid, you were unbelievably fantastic! Tell me what got into you? How did you do it?”

He looked at the coach, tears in his eyes, and said “Well, you knew my had died, but did you know that my dad was blind?” The young man swallowed hard and forced a smile, “Dad came to all my games, but today was the first time he could see me play, and I wanted to show him I could make it!”

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C. not until his father passed away did the young man train hard

D. the young man’s road to success in football was always smooth

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A. He hoped his dead father could be proud of his performance.

B. He thought he was much better than other players in his team.

C. He wanted to defeat the opposing team in this significant game.

D. He planned to make money to cure his father of his blindness.

4.What’s the best title of the passage?

A. A thrilling football match B. Determined father and son

C. The power of dreams D. The encouragement of a coach

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With time going by, people have come to understand the importance of protecting the environment. But they can’t deal with everything by themselves. Take small steps, and you can make a difference.

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假定英語課課上老師要求同桌之間交換修改作文,請你修改你同桌寫的以下作文。文中共有10 處語言錯誤,每句中最多有兩處。每處錯誤僅涉及一個單詞的增加、刪除或修改。 增加:在缺詞處加一個漏字符號(∧),并在其下面寫出該加的詞。

刪除:把多余的詞用斜線(\)劃掉。

修改:在錯的詞下畫一橫線,并在該詞下面寫出修改后的詞。

注意:1.每處錯誤及其修改均僅限一詞;

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We are aiming to build a peaceful school. I thought it is every student’s duty to work hard to achieve this goal. As high school student, what should we do? First for all, we should love our school. Meanwhile, you should respect our teachers and obeying the rules in our school. Secondly, we should show our respect for our parents and do which we can help them. Besides, we classmates should also try to be kind and friendly. Most important, all of us must believe in each other and been honest in our daily life. And we will study even more harder and try out best to do all.

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Last year, two days before  Christmas, my friends called, telling me their kitchen caught fire, 1.(destroy) everything in it. I drove to their house, taking all the food that I had. They were so happy to see me, but felt 2.(embarrass) having nothing to give me in return.

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注意:

1. 詞數(shù)100左右; 書信開頭和結(jié)尾已給出,不計入總詞數(shù)。

2. 內(nèi)容要點:

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② 提出參考意見:認清自己興趣和優(yōu)勢,不盲從他人;向高年級的同學(xué)請教 ……

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Dear Lucy,

I’m sorry to learn in your letter that you are upset about the coming choice of arts or science. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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科目:高中英語 來源:陜西省延安市大學(xué)區(qū)校際聯(lián)盟2016-2017學(xué)年高一下學(xué)期期中考試(B)英語試卷 題型:閱讀理解

Jean Driscoll can go faster in her wheelchair than the world’s best marathoners(馬拉松運動員) can run!

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Jean doesn’t like to be told she’s brave. “I’m in sports because I’m a competitive person!” Jean was born with spina befida(脊柱裂), a birth illness that damages the spine(脊椎). She began to use a wheelchair to get around in high school. Then she tried wheelchair race and was amazed.” Players crashed into each other and fell out of their chairs,” she says, “It was fun.”

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1.A. meeting B. working C. personal D. religious

2.A. raised B. handled C. reported D. discussed

3.A. worried B. angry C. doubtful D. curious

4.A. practical B. precious C. reliable D. expensive

5.A. then B. still C. even D. rather

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7.A. large B. public C. distant D. safe

8.A. Fortunately B. Surprisingly C. Seriously D. Secretly

9.A. starting B. parking C. filling D. testing

10.A. stop B. help C. warn D. rescue

11.A. intended B. pretended C. happened D. agreed

12.A. war B. night C. building D. way

13.A. put B. opened C. passed D. threw

14.A. hid B. exchanged C. burnt D. distributed

15.A. approached B. erupted C. continued D. ended

16.A. restaurant B. library C. city D. wall

17.A. neighbours B. soldiers C. friends D. customers

18.A. sold B. read C. saved D. moved

19.A. occupied B. bombed C. quiet D. busy

20.A. dreamed of B. believed in C. cared about D. looked for

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