What are feelings for? Most nonscientists will find it a strange question. Feelings justify themselves. Emotions give meaning and depth to life. They exist without serving any other purposes. On the other hand, many evolutionary biologists acknowledge some emotions primarily for their survival function. For both animals and humans, fear motivates the avoidance of danger, love is necessary to care for the young, and anger prepares one to hold ground. But the fact that a behavior functions to serve survival need not mean that. Other scientists have regarded the same behavior as conditioning and learned responses. Certainly reflexes and fixed action patterns can occur without feeling or conscious thought. A baby seagull pecks at a red spot on the bill of its parent. The seagull parent feeds its baby when pecked on the bill and the baby gets fed. The interaction need have no emotional content. At the same time, there is no reason why such actions cannot have emotional content. In mammals that have given birth including humans, milk is often released automatically when a new baby cries. This is not under intended control but it is reflex. Yet this does not mean that feeding a new baby is exclusively reflex and expresses no feeling like love. Humans have feelings about their behavior even if it is conditioned or reflexive. Yet since reflexes exist and conditioned behavior is widespread, measurable, and observable, most scientists try to explain animal behavior by using only these concepts. It is simpler. Preferring to explain behavior in ways that fit science's methods most easily, scientists have refused to consider any causes for animal behavior other than reflexive and conditioned ones. Scientific orthodoxy holds that what cannot be readily measured or tested cannot exist, or is unworthy of serious attention. But emotional explanations for animal behavior need not be impossibly complex or unstable. They are just more difficult for the scientific method to check on in the usual ways, so cleverer and more... The example of the baby seagull pecking the parent's bill is used to support that _ . A) it is an inborn ability for adults to look after the young B) behaviors can be learned and involve no emotions C) emotions are of great importance for survival D) it takes time for animals to be conditioned
B
(Question)
The unknown world's mystry The sea is the biggest unknown part of our world. It covers seventy-one percent of the earth. There is still much to be discovered about this vast blanket of water. If the waters of the ocean could be removed, the sea floor with its wide valleys, irregular mountains and rivers in the sea would be an unbelievable sight. Tourism under the deep blue sea Tourists can now explore the world beneath the waves without ever getting wet. From tourist submarines to underwater dining, undersea tourism is making a big splash. Tourist submarines The popularity of submarine tours has grown rapidly in the last decade. Now, tourist submarines operate in more than 20 locations worldwide, including the waters around Okinawa and Taiwan's Green Island. The submarines carry nearly 2 million tourists each year. Large windows offer passengers spectacular views as the submarines explore colorful coral reefs and sunken ships. Most one-hour tours cost about US $80. Under water dinning For a more upscale experience, tourists can enjoy fine dining under the sea. Last summer the Hilton Maldives Resort opened the world's first underwater restaurant, Ithaa. Diners walk down a staircase into the restaurant, which rests 35 feet beneath the waves of the Indian Ocean. Transparent walls surround the dining area, and you can treat guests to a panoramic ocean view. But this excellent view doesn't come cheap. The tasting menu costs US $200 per person. Be sure to make reservations early, too. The restaurant seats only 14 people. What does the author really mean by saying "undersea tourism is making a big splash" in Para2 ? A) Undersea tourism is a new fashion in travelling. B) Your clothes will be made wet by the water splash. C) Undersea tourism is dangerous. D) There is still a long way for undersea tourism to go.
(Answer)
A
Ques: One evening in February 2007, a student named Paula Ceely brought her car to a stop on a remote road in Wales. She got out to open a metal gate that blocked her path. That's when she heard the whistle sounded by the driver of a train. Her Renault Clio was parked across a railway line. Seconds later, she watched the train drag her car almost a kilometre down the railway tracks. Ceely's near miss made the news because she blamed it on her GPS . She had never driven the route before. It was dark and raining heavily. Ceely was relying on her GPS, but it made no mention of the crossing. "I put my complete trust in the device and it led me right into the path of a speeding train." she told the BBC. Who is to blame here? Rick Stevenson, who tells Ceely's story in his book When Machines Fail Us, points the finger at the limitations of technology. We put our faith in digital devices, he says, but our digital helpers are too often not up to the job. They are filled with small problems. And it's not just GPS devices: Stevenson takes us on a tour of digital disasters involving everything from mobile phones to wireless keyboards. The problem with his argument in the book is that it's not clear why he only focuses on digital technology, while there may be a number of other possible causes. A map-maker might have left the crossing off a paper map. Maybe we should blame Ceely for not paying attention. Perhaps the railway authorities are at fault for poor signalling system. Or maybe someone has studied the relative dangers and worked out that there really is something specific wrong with the GPS equipment. But Stevenson doesn't say. It's a problem that runs through the book. In a section on cars, Stevenson gives an account of the advanced techniques that criminals use to defeat computer-based locking systems for cars. He offers two independent sets of figures on car theft; both show a small rise in some parts of the country. He says that once again not all new locks have proved reliable. Perhaps, but maybe it's also due to... What is the real concern of the writer of this article? A) The major causes of traffic accidents and car thefts. B) The relationship between human and technology. C) The shortcomings of digital devices we use. D) The human unawareness of technical problems.
Ans: D
Ques: Peter Fern was mad on mountains. Climbing was the love of his life. Church towers, seaside cliffs, rock faces, ice mountains, anything --- "If it's there," he used to say, "then I want to climb it." so the news of his marriage gave me surprise. I'd never known him to take much interest in girls. Well, well, Peter Fern, a married man! I couldn't get over it. I wondered whether his wife would try to stop some of his risky adventures. She was French perhaps --- from that place where he usually spent his holidays. Chamonix, wasn't it? From Chamonix he's climbed Mont. Blanc on his seventeenth birthday, and one of the Aifuilles the day after! That was it, then; she was French, from a family, most of whom liked climbing. No doubt --- No other explanation. A month later I met them both in town. Anna surprised me because she was English. She was a dancer in the theatre. "never climbed more than sixty steps in my life." she told me. "Peter has his interests, and I've got mine. No problem." "None at all, " Peter said, smiling. "Where did you spend your honeymoon?" I asked. "Somewhere far from theater and mountains, was it?" "We had a week's holiday," Anna said, "I flew toprefix = st1 /New Yorkto see the drake Dancers on Broadway. a wonderful show!" Peter said, "Didn't want to miss the good weather. So I went toSwitzerlandand climbed the north face of the Eiger with Allen Dunlop. Great fun, the Eiger. Grand place for a honeymoon! I'll show you the photographs we took one day." Peter's marriage surprised the writer because A) Peter didn't like girls B) Peter was too absorbed in mountain climbing C) Peter was mad D) Peter's wife was a dancer
Ans:
B