Several decades ago, US sociologists developed a series of universal facial images supposed to represent the seven basic human emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, disgust, anger and neutrality . But now, a new study by researchers at the University of Glasgow indicates that these standardized facial images aren't so universal at all. For the study, the Scottish researchers found 13 Western Caucasians (mainly Europeans) and 13 East Asians (mostly Chinese students). The volunteers were shown the standardized facial images and asked to identify the emotions being expressed. At the same time, the researchers electrically monitored the eye movements of the volunteers. According to the results, published in the journal Current Biology, the Asian participants had a harder time than the Caucasians telling the difference between a face meant to look fearful compared with one showing surprise, and a face supposedly expressing disgusting compared with one displaying anger. "This strongly suggests that the meanings of facial expressions are different across cultures," says Rachael Jack, who led the study. The study also showed that the volunteers focused on different parts of the face in their efforts to understand the underlying emotions. "Westerners look at both the eyes and the mouth to the same degree, yet Easterners favor the eyes and overlook the mouth. This means that Easterners has difficulty distinguishing facial expressions that are similar around the eyes," Ms Jack says. The faces representing fear and surprise" both have big, wide open eyes, while the mouths are very different," she notes. "It would be difficult to distinguish between the two if you didn't look at the mouth." So why would different cultures express emotions in different ways? Ms Jack thinks it may be considered impolite in some Asian cultures to display certain emotions in an obvious manners, and that they use more subtle ways to express them. In particular, muscle movements around their eyes could be more important for expressing... The fact that the Asian volunteers confused some facial expressions shows that _ . A) different cultures have different meanings of facial expressions B) people of different backgrounds share similar facial expressions C) Easterners have a more complex system of facial expressions D) Westerners and Easterners express their emotions in similar ways
A
(Question)
BERLIN-With the crisis in Japan raising fears about nuclear power, Germany and Switzerland said on Monday that they would reassess the safety of their own reactors. Doris Leuthard, the Swiss energy minister, said Switzerland would put off plans to build nuclear plants. She said no new ones would be permitted until experts had reviewed safety standards. Germany will put off "the recently decided extension of the running time of Cerman nuclear plants," Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters. "This moratorium will run for three months and it will allow for a thorough exanunation of the safety standards of the country's 17 nuclear power plants. The European Union called for a meeting on Tuesday of nuclear safety authorities to assess Europe's preparedness. Germany's foreign minister, Cuido Westerwelle, called for a new risk analysis of the counitry' snuclear plants, particularly regarding their cooling systems. He is the leader of the Free Democratic Party, which strongly supports nuclear power. A previous government,led by the Social Democrats, passed a law in 2001 to close all the country's nuclear plants by 2021. But Mrs. Merkel' s government changed that decision last year to extend the lives of the plants by an average of 12 years. In Switzerland, Doris Leuthard said she had already asked to analyze the exact cause of the problems in Japan and draw up new or tougher safety standards "particularly in terms of seismic( )safety and cooling." In Russia, the Prime Minister said his govemment would "draw conclusions from what's going on in Japan." How will Germany react to Japan's nuclear crisis? A) Germany will change the decision made last year. B) Germany will close all the country's nuclear plants, C) Germany will hold a meeting of nuclear safety authorities. D) Germany will delay the extension of nuclear plants running time.
(Answer)
D
Ques: If you live in the United States, the law says you can't have a full-time job until you are 16 years old. At 14 or 15, you can work part-time after school or on weekends, and during summer holidays you can work 40 hours each week. Does all that mean that if you are younger than 14, you can't earn your own money? Of course not ! Kids who are between the ages of 10 and 13 can earn money by doing lots of things. Valerie, 11, told us that she made money by cleaning up other people's yards. Susan, 12, said she had started taking art classes and showing her work to people. People ask her to draw pictures for them and they pay her for them. Jasmine, 13, writes articles for different magazines! Earning is learning. By working to earn your own money, you are learning the skills you will need to succeed in life. When you make your own money ,you don't have to depend on someone else. The five dollars that you earn will probably make you feel a lot better in your hand than the twenty dollars you ask for. Kids can have full-time jobs at the age of _ in the USA. A) 16 B) 14 C) 13. D) 10
Ans: A
Question: The Internet has greatly changed the way people communicate. But some teachers think the changes are not all for the better. Eleanor Johnson, an English professor, thinks that text messaging has made students believe that it is far more acceptable than it actually is to just make terrible spelling and grammatical errors. And she says her students over the past several years have increasingly used less formal English in their writing. Words and phrases like "guy" and "you know" now appear in research papers. Professor Johnson supposes there is a strong relationship between the rise of informal online communication and an increase in writing mistakes. But she says there may not be much scientific information, at least not yet. David Crystal, a British linguist , says the actively changing nature of the Internet makes it difficult to keep up-to-date in studying its effects. But he believes its influence on language is small. The main effect of the Internet on language is the way it has added to the expressive richness of language, providing language with a new set of communicative tools that haven't existed in the past. Erin Jansen is founder of NetLingo.com, an online dictionary of the Internet and text messaging terms. She says the new technology has not changed existing language but has greatly added to its vocabulary. Basically it's freedom of expression. And what about those teachers who find these new kinds of mistakes in spelling and grammar in their students' work? What is her message to them? Erin Jansen said, "I am always on the students' side and won't get angry or upset about that. If it's helping the kids write more or communicate more, that's great. That's what teachers and educators want--to get kids communicating." But Erin Jansen and David Crystal agree with Eleanor Johnson on at least one thing. Teachers need to make sure students understand the uses and rules of language. Which of the following is Eleanor Johnson's view on text messaging? A) It becomes far more acceptable. B) It causes an increase in writing mistakes. C) It helps students learn informal expressions. D) It makes informal expressions accepted by educators.
Answer:
B