首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
To call someone bird-brained in English means you think that person is silly or stupid. But will this description soon disappear
To call someone bird-brained in English means you think that person is silly or stupid. But will this description soon disappear
admin
2017-03-25
38
问题
To call someone bird-brained in English means you think that person is silly or stupid. But will this description soon disappear from use in the light of recent research? It seems the English may have been unfair in associating bird’s brains with stupidity.
In an attempt to find out how different creatures see the world, psychologists at Brown University in the USA have been comparing the behaviour of birds and humans. One experiment has involved teaching pigeons to recognize letters of the English alphabet. The birds study in "classrooms", which are boxes equipped with a computer. After about four days of studying a particular letter, the pigeon has to pick out that letter from several displayed on the computer screen. Three male pigeons have learnt to distinguish all twenty-six letters of the alphabet in this way.
A computer record of the birds’ four-month study period has shown surprising similarities between the pigeons’ and human performance. Pigeons and people find the same letters easy, or hard, to tell apart. For example, 92 per cent of the time the pigeons could tell the letter D from the letter Z. But when faced with U and V(often confused by English children), the pigeons were right only 34 per cent of the time.
The results of the experiments so far have led psychologists to conclude that pigeons and humans observe things in similar ways. This suggests that there is something fundamental about the recognition process. If scientists could only discover just what this recognition process is, it could be very useful for computer designers. The disadvantage of a present computer is that it can only do what a human being has programmed it to do and the programmer must give the computer precise, logical instructions. Maybe in the future, though, computers will be able to think like human beings.
The writer suggests that the expression "bird-brained" might be out of use soon because it is______.
选项
A、silly
B、impolite
C、unnecessary
D、inappropriate
答案
D
解析
根据文中第一段的“To call someone birdbrained in English means you think that person is silly or stupid.But will this description soon disappear from use in the light of recent research?It seems the English may have been unfair in associating bird’s brains with stupidity.”可知:在英语中,如果称某人的大脑像鸟脑袋般,意思就是这个人没有头脑或非常愚蠢。不过最近的项研究显示,这个用于形容人的词语可能很快会不再使用。看来英国人将鸟的大脑与愚蠢联系在起或许是不公平的。据此可知,作者认为,“birdbrained”可能不再使用的原因是这个用词不恰当。D项正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/aEyYFFFM
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Anorganizationisonlyasgoodasthepeopleitemploys.Selectingtherightpersonforthejobinvolvesmorethanidentifying
Manyyearsagopeoplethoughttheearthwasflat.Theybelievedthatthesky【C1】______abigupside-downbowlandthatthesun,m
Therain______ourspiritsbecausewewereplanningtogoforapicnic.
Themiserwillnotdonateanymoneytocharitybecauseheis______.
Chemistrydidnotemergeas:scienceuntilafterthescientificrevolutionin17thcenturyandthenonlyratherslowlyandlabor
Chemistrydidnotemergeas:scienceuntilafterthescientificrevolutionin17thcenturyandthenonlyratherslowlyandlabor
Thefinaldocumentwasofcourse,supposedtomendthedamage______upontheworldbythewar.
Doctorssaythatmoderatedrinkingcanhaveabeneficial______onyourhealth.
Definitionof"culture"aremultiple,broad,andnotablyambiguous.Whilethereisnoagreed-upondefinitionofculture,thecla
Thebasic______oftheirphilosophyisthateveryoneshouldbefreetodoastheyplease,aslongastheydonotharmothers.
随机试题
在微机中,应用最普遍的字符编码是()。
半夏白术天麻汤中,君药是半夏白术天麻汤中,臣药是
临产后期主要作用的产力是指
保险监管的形式主要有( )。
商业银行将业务活动归类到对应业务条线时,须使其与信用风险或市场风险计量时所采用的业务条线分类定义一致。()
下列关于公民和法人的不同之处正确的是()。
Ourresearchhasfocusedonadrugwhichisso______astobeabletochangebrainchemistry.
【2013年烟台龙口市真题】古希腊把“三艺”作为教育内容,这“三艺”是指()。
下列各项关于我国的特别行政区的表述正确的是()。
CAD指的是
最新回复
(
0
)