Question

“A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smart phone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website” is the definition of “selfie” in the Oxford English Dictionary. In fact, it wasn't even in the dictionary until August of last year. It earned its place there because people are now so obsessed with (對……癡迷) selfies ─ we take them when we try on a new hat, play with our pets or when we meet a friend whom we haven't seen in a while.

But is there any scientific explanation for this obsession? Well, you should probably ask James Kilner, a neuroscientist(神經(jīng)系統(tǒng)科學(xué)家) at University College London.

Through our lifetime we become experts at recognizing and interpreting other people's faces and facial expressions. In contrast, according to Kilner, we have a very poor understanding of our own faces since we have little experience of looking at them ─ we just feel them most of the time.

This has been proved in previous studies, according to the BBC.

Kilner found that most people chose the more attractive picture. This suggests that we tend to think of ourselves as better-looking than we actually are. To further test how we actually perceive our own faces, Kilner carried out another study. He showed people different versions of their own portrait ─ the original, one that had been edited to look less attractive and one that was made more attractive ─ and asked them to pick the version which they thought looked most like them. They chose the more attractive version.

But what does it say about selfies? Well, isn't that obvious? Selfies give us the power to create a photograph ─ by taking it from various angles, with different poses, using filters (濾色鏡) and so on ─ that better matches our expectations with our actual faces.

“You suddenly have control in a way that you don't have in non-virtual(非虛擬的) interactions," Kilner told the Canada-based CTV News. Selfies allow you “to keep taking pictures until you manage to take one you're happy with”, he explained.

1.What is the passage mainly about?

A. The definition and fun of taking selfies.

B. A study of why people love taking selfies.

C. How taking selfies influences people’s daily lives.

D. How to interpret people’s facial expressions in their selfies.

2.The underlined word “perceive” in Paragraph 5 can be replaced by “______”.

A. interpret B. beautify C. choose D. explain

3.What did Kilner discover from his researches?

A. People tend to believe they look more attractive than they actually are.

B. People tend to spend more time looking at their faces than at others’.

C. People interpret others’ facial expressions worse than their own.

D. People who like taking selfies know more about their facial expressions.

4.According to Kilner, people like taking selfies probably because they think ______.

A. it is a good chance to learn more about their actual faces

B. it allows them to satisfy their expectations with their appearances

C. it enables them to interact with their friends in social media

D. it is a way to respond to others’ facial expressions correctly

Answer 1