Multitasking Debate

Can you do them at the same time?

A

Talking on the phone while driving isn’t the only situation where we’re worse at
multitasking than we might like to think we are. New studies have identified a bottleneck
in our brains that some say means we are fundamentally incapable of true multitasking. If
experimental findings reflect real-world performance, people who think they are
multitasking are probably just underperforming in all – or at best, all but one – of their
parallel pursuits. Practice might improve your performance, but you will never be as good
as when focusing on one task at a time.

The problem, according to René Marois, a psychologist at Vanderbilt University in

Nashville, Tennessee, is that there’s a sticking point in the brain. To demonstrate this,
Marois devised an experiment to locate it. Volunteers watch a screen and when a
particular image appears, a red circle, say, they have to press a key with their index
finger. Different coloured circles require presses from different fingers. Typical response
time is about half a second, and the volunteers quickly reach their peak performance.
Then they learn to listen to different recordings and respond by making a specific sound.
For instance, when they hear a bird chirp, they have to say “ba”; an electronic sound
should elicit a “ko”, and so on. Again, no problem. A normal person can do that in about
half a second, with almost no effort.

The trouble comes when Marois shows the volunteers an image, and then almost
immediately plays them a sound. Now they’re flummoxed. “If you show an image and
play a sound at the same time, one task is postponed,” he says. In fact, if the second
task is introduced within the half-second or so it takes to process and react to the first, it
will simply be delayed until the first one is done. The largest dual-task delays occur when
the two tasks are presented simultaneously; delays progressively shorten as the interval
between presenting the tasks lengthens.

D
There are at least three points where we seem to get stuck, says Marois. The first is in
simply identifying what we’re looking at. This can take a few tenths of a second, during
which time we are not able to see and recognise a second item. This limitation is known
as the “attentional blink”: experiments have shown that if you’re watching out for a
particular event and a second one shows up unexpectedly any time within this crucial
window of concentration, it may register in your visual cortex but you will be unable to act
upon it. Interestingly, if you don’t expect the first event, you have no trouble to respond to
the second. What exactly causes the attentional blink is still a matter for debate.

A second limitation is in our short-term visual memory. It’s estimated that we can keep
track of about four items at a time, fewer if they are complex. This capacity shortage is
thought to explain, in part, our astonishing inability to detect even huge changes in
scenes that are otherwise identical, so-called “change blindness”. Show people pairs of
near-identical photos – say, aircraft engines in one picture have disappeared in the other
– and they will fail to spot the differences. Here again, though, there is disagreement
about what the essential limiting factor really is. Does it come down to a dearth of storage
capacity, or is it about how much attention a viewer is paying?

A third limitation is that choosing a response to a stimulus – braking when you see a child
in the road, for instance, or replying when your mother tells you over the phone that she’s
thinking of leaving your dad – also takes brainpower. Selecting a response to one of
these things will delay by some tenths of a second your ability to respond to the other.
This is called the “response selection bottleneck” theory, first proposed in 1952.

But David Meyer, a psychologist at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, doesn’t buy the
bottleneck idea. He thinks dual-task interference is just evidence of a strategy used by
the brain to prioritise multiple activities. Meyer is known as something of an optimist by
his peers. He has written papers with titles like “Virtually perfect time-sharing in dual-task
performance: Uncorking the central cognitive bottleneck”. His experiments have shown
that with enough practice – at least 2000 tries – some people can execute two tasks
simultaneously as competently as if they were doing them one after the other. He
suggests that there is a central cognitive processor that coordinates all this and, what’s
more, he thinks it used discretion: sometimes it chooses to delay one task while
completing another.

H
Marois agrees that practice can sometimes erase interference effects. He has found that
with just 1 hour of practice each day for two weeks, volunteers show a huge improvement
at managing both his tasks at once. Where he disagrees with Meyer is in what the brain
is doing to achieve this. Marois speculates that practice might give us the chance to find
less congested circuits to execute a task – rather like finding trusty back streets to avoid
heavy traffic on main roads – effectively making our response to the task subconscious.
After all, there are plenty of examples of subconscious multitasking that most of us
routinely manage: walking and talking, eating and reading, watching TV and folding the
laundry.

It probably comes as no surprise that, generally speaking, we get worse at multitasking

as we age. According to Art Kramer at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign,
who studies how ageing affects our cognitive abilities, we peak in our 20s. Though the
decline is slow through our 30s and on into our 50s, it is there; and after 55, it becomes
more precipitous. In one study, he and his colleagues had both young and old
participants do a simulated driving task while carrying on a conversation. He found that
while young drivers tended to miss background changes, older drivers failed to notice
things that were highly relevant. Likewise, older subjects had more trouble paying
attention to the more important parts of a scene than young drivers.

It’s not all bad news for over-55s, though. Kramer also found that older people can
benefit from the practice. Not only did they learn to perform better, but brain scans also
showed that underlying that improvement was a change in the way their brains become
active. While it’s clear that practice can often make a difference, especially as we age,
the basic facts remain sobering. “We have this impression of an almighty complex brain,”
says Marois, “and yet we have very humbling and crippling limits.” For most of our
history, we probably never needed to do more than one thing at a time, he says, and so
we haven’t evolved to be able to. Perhaps we will in future, though. We might yet look
back one day on people like Debbie and Alun as ancestors of a new breed of true
multitaskers.
Questions 1-5
The Reading Passage has ten paragraphs A-J.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-J, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

1 ABCDEFGHIJ A theory explained delay happens when selecting one reaction

Answer: F

2 ABCDEFGHIJ Different age group responds to important things differently

Answer: I

3 ABCDEFGHIJ Conflicts happened when visual and audio element emerge

simultaneously
Answer: C

4 ABCDEFGHIJ An experiment designed to demonstrates the critical part of the brain

for multitasking
Answer: B

5 ABCDEFGHIJ A viewpoint favors the optimistic side of multitasking performance

Answer: G

Questions 6-8
Choose the correct letter, A, B, C or D.

Write your answers in boxes 6-8 on your answer sheet.

6. Which one is correct about the experiment conducted by René Marois?

A participants performed poorly on the listening task solely

B volunteers press a different key on different color

C participants need to use different fingers on the different colored object

D they did a better fob on Mixed image and sound information
Answer: C

7. Which statement is correct about the first limitation of Marois’s experiment?

A “attentional blink” takes about ten seconds

B lag occurs if we concentrate on one object while the second one appears

C we always have trouble in reaching the second one

D first limitation can be avoided by certain measures

Answer: B

8. Which one is NOT correct about Meyer’s experiments and statements?

A just after failure in several attempts can people execute dual-task

B Practice can overcome dual-task interference

C Meyer holds a different opinion on Marois’s theory

D an existing processor decides whether to delay another task or not

Answer: A

Questions 9-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

In boxes 9-13 on your answer sheet, write

YES if the statement is true

NO if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

9 YESNONOT GIVEN The longer gap between two presenting tasks means shorter
delay toward the second one.
Answer: YES
10 YESNONOT GIVEN Incapable of human memory cause people to sometimes miss
the differences when presented two similar images.
Answer: YES

11 YESNONOT GIVEN Marois has a different opinion on the claim that training
removes the bottleneck effect.
Answer: NO

12 YESNONOT GIVEN Art Kramer proved there is a correlation between multitasking

performance and genders
Answer: NOT GIVEN

13 YESNONOT GIVEN The author doesn’t believe that the effect of practice could
bring any variation.
Answer: NO
Corporate Social Responsibility

Broadly speaking, proponents of CSR have used four arguments to make their case:
moral obligation, sustainability, license to operate, and reputation. The moral appeal –
arguing that companies have a duty to be good citizens and to “do the right thing” – is
prominent in the goal of Business for Social Responsibility, the leading nonprofit CSR
business association in the United States. It asks that its members “achieve commercial
success in ways that honour ethical values and respect people, communities, and the
natural environment. “Sustainability emphasises environmental and community
stewardship.

A.

An excellent definition was developed in the 1980s by Norwegian Prime Minister Gro
Harlen Brundtland and used by the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development: “Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.” Nowadays, governments and companies
need to account for the social consequences of their actions. As a result, corporate social
responsibility (CSR) has become a priority for business leaders around the world. When
a well-run business applies its vast resources and expertise to social problems that it
understands and in which it has a stake, it can have a greater impact than any other
organization. The notion of license to operate derives from the fact that every company
needs tacit or explicit permission from governments, communities, and numerous other
stakeholders to justify CSR initiatives to improve a company’s image, strengthen its
brand, enliven morale and even raise the value of its stock.

B.

To advance CSR. we must root it in a broad understanding of the interrelationship

between a corporation and society. Successful corporations need a healthy society.
Education, health care, and equal opportunity are essential lo a productive workforce.
Safe products and working conditions not only attract customers but lower the internal
costs of accidents. Efficient utilization of land, water, energy, and other natural resources
makes business more productive. Good government, the rule of law, and property rights
are essential for efficiency and innovation. Strong regulatory standards protect both
consumers and competitive companies from exploitation. Ultimately, a healthy society
creates expanding demand for business, as more human needs are met and aspirations
grow. Any business that pursues its ends at the expense of the society in which it
operates will find its success to be illusory and ultimately temporary. At the same time, a
healthy society needs successful companies. No social program can rival the business
sector when it comes lo creating the jobs, wealth, and innovation that improve standards
of living and social conditions over time.

C.

A company’s impact on society also changes over time, as social standards evolve and
science progresses. Asbestos, now understood as a serious health risk was thought to
be safe in the early 1900s, given the scientific knowledge then available. Evidence of its
risks gradually mounted for more than 50 years before any company was held liable for
the harms it can cause. Many firms that failed to anticipated the consequences of this
evolving body of research have been bankrupted by the results. No longer can
companies be content to monitor only the obvious social impacts of today. Without a
careful process for identifying evolving social effects of tomorrow, firms may risk their
very survival.

D.

No business can solve all of society’s problems or bear the cost of doing so. Instead,
each company must select issues that intersect with its particular business. Other social
agendas are best left to those companies in other industries, NGOs, or government
institutions that are better positioned to address them. The essential test that should
guide CSR is not whether a cause is worthy but whether it presents an opportunity to
create shared value – that is, a meaningful benefit for society that is also valuable to the
business. Each company can identify the particular set of societal problems that it is best
equipped to help resolve and from which it can gain the greatest competitive benefit.

E.

The best corporate citizenship initiatives involve far more than writing a check: They
specify clear, measurable goals and track results over time. A good example is General
Electronics’s program to adopt under-performing public high schools near several of its
major U.S. facilities. The company contributes between $250,000 and $1 million over a
five-year period to each school and makes in-kind donations as well. GE managers and
employees take an active role by working with school administrators to assess needs and
mentor or tutor students. In an independent study of Ion schools in the program between
1989 and 1999, nearly all showed significant improvement, while the graduation rate in
four of the five worst performing schools doubled from an average of 30% to 60%.
Effective corporate citizenship initiatives such as this one create goodwill and improve
relations with local governments and other important constituencies. What’s more, GE’s
employees feel great pride in their participation. Their effect is inherently limited,
however. No matter how beneficial (he program is, it remains incidental to the company’s
business, and the direct effect on GE’s recruiting and retention is modest.

F.

Microsoft s Working Connections partnership with the American Association of

Community Colleges (AACC) is a good example of a shared-value opportunity arising
from investments in context. The shortage of information technology workers is a
significant constraint on Microsoft’s growth; currently, there are more than 450,000
unfilled IT positions in the United States alone. Community colleges, with an enrollment
of 11.6 million students, representing 45% of all U.S. undergraduates, could be a major
solution. Microsoft recognizes, however, that community colleges face special
challenges: IT curricula are not standardized, technology used in classrooms is often
outdated, and there are no systematic professional development programs to keep
faculty up to date. Microsoft’s $50 million five-year initiative was aimed at all three
problems. In addition to contributing money and products, Microsoft sent employee
volunteers to colleges to assess needs, contribute to curriculum development, and create
faculty development institutes. Microsoft has achieved results that have benefited many
communities while having a direct-and potentially significant-impact on the company.

G.

At the heart of any strategy is a unique value proposition: a set of needs a company can
meet for its chosen customers that others cannot. The most strategic CSR occurs when a
company adds a social dimension to its value proposition, making social impact integral
to the overall strategy. Consider Whole Foods Market, whose value proposition is to sell
organic, natural, and healthy food products to customers who are passionate about food
and the environment. The company’s sourcing emphasises purchases from local farmers
through each store’s procurement process. Buyers screen out foods containing any of
nearly 100 common ingredients that the company considers unhealthy or environmentally
damaging. The same standards apply to products made internally. Whole Foods’
commitment to natural and environmentally friendly operating practices extends well
beyond sourcing. Stores are constructed using a minimum of virgin raw materials.
Recently, the company purchased renewable wind energy credits equal to 100% of its
electricity use in all of its stores and facilities, the only Fortune 500 company to offset its
electricity consumption entirely. Spoiled produce and biodegradable waste are trucked to
regional centers for composting. Whole Foods’ vehicles are being converted to run on
biofuels. Even the cleaning products used in its stores are environmentally friendly. And
through its philanthropy, the company has created the Animal Compassion Foundation to
develop more natural and humane ways of raising farm animals. In short, nearly every
aspect of the company’s value chain reinforces the social dimensions of its value
proposition, distinguishing Whole Foods from its competitors.
Questions 14-20

Reading passage has seven paragraphs, A–G

Choose the correct heading for each paragraph from the list of heading below.

Write the correct number, i-viii, in boxes 14-20 on your answer sheet.

List of Headings

i How CSR may help one business to expand

ii CSR in many aspects of a company’s business

iii A CSR initiative without a financial gain

iv Lack of action by the state of social issues

v Drives or pressures motivate companies to address CSR

vi The past illustrates business are responsible for future outcomes

vii Companies applying CSR should be selective

viii Reasons that business and society benefit each other

14. Paragraph A

15. Paragraph B

16. Paragraph C

17. Paragraph D

18. Paragraph E

19. Paragraph F

20. Paragraph G
Questions 21-22

Complete the summary below.

Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS from the passage of each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 21-22 on your answer sheet

Check answers

The implement of CSR, HOW?

Promotion of CSR requires the understanding of interdependence between

business and society. Corporations workers’ productivity generally needs
healthcare, education, and given 21. Restrictions imposed by
government and companies both protect consumers from being treated
unfairly. Improvement ofthe safety standard can reduce the 22. of
accidents in the workplace. Similarly society becomes a pool of more human
needs and aspirations

Questions 23-26

Look at the following opinions or deeds (Questions 23-26) and the list of
companies below.

Match each opinion or deed with the correct company, A, B or C.

Write the correct letter, A, B or C in boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once

A General Electronics

B Microsoft

C Whole Foods Market

23. The disposable waste

24. The way company purchases as goods

25. Helping the undeveloped

26. Ensuring the people have the latest information

14-20:

14. v

Nowadays, governments and companies need to account for the social

consequences of their actions. As a result, corporate social responsibility
(CSR) has become a priority for business leaders around the world... justify
CSR initiatives to improve a company's image, strengthen its brand, enliven
morale and even raise the value of its stock.

15. viii

To advance CSR. we must root it in a broad understanding of the

interrelationship between a corporation and society. Successful corporations
need a healthy society: Education, health care, and equal opportunity are
essential to a productive workforce....... Ultimately, a healthy society creates
expanding demand for business, as more human needs are met and
aspirations grow..... At the same time, a healthy society needs successful
companies. No social program can rival the business sector when it comes to
creating the jobs, wealth, and innovation that improve.

16. vi

Asbestos, now understood as a serious health risk was thought to be safe.....

Evidence of its risks gradually mounted for more than 50 years before any
company was held liable for the harms it can cause. Many firms that failed to
anticipate the consequences of is evolving body of research have been
bankrupted by the results. No longer can companies be content to monitor
only the obvious social impacts of today. Without a careful process for
identifying evolving social effects of tomorrow, firms may risk their very
survival.

17. vii
No business can solve all of society's problems or bear the cost of doing so.
Instead, each company must select issues that intersect with its particular
business.

18. iii

No matter how beneficial the program is, it remains incidental to the compari's
business, and the direct effect on GE's recruiting and retention is modest.

19. i

The shortage of information technology workers is a significant constraint on

Microsoft's growth;....Microsoft has achieved results that have benefited many
communities while having a direct - and potentially significant - impact on the
company.

20. ii

In short, nearly every aspect of the company's value chain

reinforces the social dimensions of its value proposition, distinguishing Whole

Foods from its competitors.

21-22:

原文：

To advance CSR, we must root it in a broad understanding of the

interrelationship between a corporation and society. Education, health care,
and equal opportunity are essential to a productive workforce. Safe products
and working conditions not only attract customers but lower the internal costs
of accidents.
23-26:

23. G

Whole Foods' commitment to natural and environmentally friendly operating

practices extends well beyond sourcing ..... Spoiled produce and
biodegradable waste are trucked to regional centers for composting.

24. G

Consider Whole Foods Market, whose value proposition is to sell

organic....The company's sourcing emphasises purchases from local farmers
through each store's procurement process. Buyers screen out foods
containing any of nearly 100 common ingrediWits that the company considers
unhealthy or environmentally damaging.

25. E

A good example is General Electronics's program to adopt underperforming

public high schools near several of its major U.S. facilities.

26. F

IT curricula are not standardized, technology used in classrooms is often

outdated, and there are no systematic professional development programs to
keep faculty up date. Microsoft's $50 million five-year initiative was aimed at
all three problems.
Copy your neighbor
A

THERE’S no animal that symbolises rainforest diversity quite as spectacularly as the

tropical butterfly. Anyone lucky enough to see these creatures flitting between patches of
sunlight cannot fail to be impressed by the variety of their patterns. But why do they
display such colourful exuberance? Until recently, this was almost as pertinent a question
as it had been when the 19th-century naturalists, armed only with butterfly nets and
insatiable curiosity, battle through the rainforests. These early explorers soon realised
that although some of the butterflies’ bright colours are there to attract a mate, others are
warning signals. They send out a message to any predators: “Keep off, we’re poisonous.”
And because wearing certain patterns affords protection, other species copy them.
Biologists use the term “mimicry rings” for these clusters of impostors and their
evolutionary idol.

But here’s the conundrum. “Classical mimicry theory says that only a single ring should
be found in any one area,” explains George Beccaloni of the Natural History Museum,
London. The idea is that in each locality there should be just the one pattern that best
protects its wearers. Predators would quickly learn to avoid it and eventually, all mimetic
species in a region should converge upon it. “The fact that this is patently not the case
has been one of the major problems in mimicry research,” says Beccaloni. In pursuit of a
solution to the mystery of mimetic exuberance, Beccaloni set off for one of the mega
centres for butterfly diversity, the point where the western edge of the Amazon basin
meets the foothills of the Andes in Ecuador. “It’s exceptionally rich, but comparatively well
collected, so I pretty much knew what was there, says Beccaloni.” The trick was to work
out how all the butterflies were organised and how this related to mimicry.

Working at the Jatun Sach Biological Research Station on the banks of the Rio Napo,
Beccaloni focused his attention on a group of butterflies called ithomiines. These distant
relatives of Britain’s Camberwell Beauty are abundant throughout Central and South
America and the Caribbean. They are famous for their bright colours, toxic bodies and
complex mimetic relationships. “They can comprise up to 85 per cent of the individuals in
a mimicry ring and their patterns are mimicked not just by butterflies, but by other insects
as diverse as damselflies and true bugs,” says Philip DeVries of the Milwaukee Public
Museum’s Center for Biodiversity Studies.
D

Even though all ithomiines are poisonous, it is in their interests to evolve to look like one
another because predators that learn to avoid one species will also avoid others that
resemble it. This is known as Müllerian mimicry. Mimicry rings may also contain insects
that are not toxic but gain protection by looking likes a model species that is: an
adaptation called Batesian mimicry. So strong is an experienced predator’s avoidance
response that even quite inept resemblance gives some protection. “Often there will be a
whole series of species that mimic, with varying degrees of verisimilitude, a focal or
model species,” says John Turner from the University of Leeds. “The results of these
deceptions are some of the most exquisite examples of evolution known to science.” In
addition to colour, many mimics copy behaviours and even the flight pattern of their
model species.
E

But why are there so many different mimicry rings? One idea is that species flying at the
same height in the forest canopy evolve to look like one another. “It had been suggested
since the 1970s that mimicry complexes were stratified by flight height,” says DeVries.
The idea is that wing colour patterns are camouflaged against the different patterns of
light and shadow at each level in the canopy, providing the first line of defence against
predators.” But the light patterns and wing patterns don’t match very well,” he says. And
observations show that the insects do not shift in height as the day progresses and the
light patterns change. Worse still, according to DeVries, this theory doesn’t explain why
the model species is flying at that particular height in the first place.

“When I first went out to Ecuador, I didn’t believe the flight height hypothesis and set out
to test it,” says Beccaloni. “A few weeks with the collecting net convinced me otherwise.
They really flew that way.” What he didn’t accept, however, was the explanation about
light patterns. “I thought if this idea really is true, can I can work out why it could help
explain why there are so many different warning patterns in any not place. Then we might
finally understand how they could evolve in such a complex way.” The job was
complicated by the sheer diversity of species involved at Jatun Sach. Not only were there
56 ithomiine butterfly species divided among eight mimicry rings, but there were also 69
other insect species, including 34 day-flying moths and a damselfly, all in a 200-hectare
study area. Like many entomologists before him, Beccaloni used a large bag-like net to
capture his prey. This allowed him to sample the 2.5 metres immediately above the forest
floor. Unlike many previous workers, he kept very precise notes on exactly where he
caught his specimens.
G

The attention to detail paid off. Beccaloni found that the mimicry rings were flying at two
quite separate altitudes. “Their use of the forest was quite distinctive,” he recalls. “For
example, most members of the clear-winged mimicry ring would fly close to the forest
floor, while the majority of the 12 species in the tiger-winged ring fly high up.” Each
mimicry wing had its own characteristic flight height.

However, this being practice rather than theory, things were a bit fuzzy. “They’d spend
the majority of their time flying at a certain height. But they’d also spend a smaller
proportion of their time flying at other heights,” Beccaloni admits. Species weren’t
stacked rigidly like passenger jets waiting to land, but they did appear to have preferred
airspace in the forest. So far, so good, but he still hadn’t explained what causes the
various groups of ithomiines and their chromatic consorts to fly in formations at these
particular heights.

Then Beccaloni had a bright idea. “I started looking at the distribution of ithomiine larval
food plants within the canopy,” he says. “For each one, I’d record the height to which the
host plant grew and the height above the ground at which the eggs or larvae were found.
Once I got them back to the field station’s lab, it was just a matter of keeping them alive
until they pupated and then hatched into adults which I could identify.”
Questions 1-5
The reading Passage has seven paragraphs A-I
Which paragraph contains the following information?
Write the correct letter A-I, in boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet.

NB You may use any letter more than once.

1 ABCDEFGHI Criticism against flight height theory of butterfly

Answer: E

2 ABCDEFGHI Explained why Beccaloni carried out research in Ecuador.

Answer: B

3 ABCDEFGHI Different mimicry ring flies at different height

Answer: G

4 ABCDEFGHI The method of catching butterfly by Beccaloni

Answer: F

5 ABCDEFGHI Not all Mimicry patterns are toxic information sent out from insects.
Answer: D

Questions 6-11
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 1?
In boxes 6-11 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

6 TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN All butterflies’ colours of wings reflect the sense of warning
to other predators.
Answer: FALSE
7 TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN Insects may imitate butterflies’ wing pattern as well.
Answer: TRUE

8 TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN Flying Altitude of the butterfly is determined by their food.

Answer: NOT GIVEN

9 TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN Beccaloni agreed with the flight height hypothesis and
decided to reassure its validity.
Answer: FALSE

10 TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN Jatun Sacha has the richest diversity of breeds in the
world.
Answer: NOT GIVEN

11 TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN Beccaloni has more detailed records on the location of

butterfly collection than others.
Answer: TRUE

Questions 12-13
Choose the correct letter A, B, C or D
Write your answers in boxes 12-13 on your answer sheet.

12 Which is correct about butterflies flight altitude?

A Flight height theory already established

B Butterfly always flies at a certain height

C It is like the airplane’s flying phenomenon

D Each butterfly has its own favorable height

Answer: D

13 Which is correct about Beccaloni next investigation after flight height?

A Some certain statistics have already been collected

B Try to find connections between larval height and adult ones

C It’s very difficult to raise butterfly larval

D Different larval favors different kinds of trees

Answer: B
The secret of the Yawn
A

When a scientist began to study yawning in the 1980s, it was difficult to convince some of
his research students of the merits of “yawning science.” Although it may appear quirky,
his decision to study yawning was a logical extension to human beings of my research in
developmental neuroscience, reported in such papers as “Wing-flapping during
Development and Evolution.” As a neurobehavioral problem, there is not much difference
between the wing-flapping of birds and the face – and body-flapping of human yawners.
B

Yawning is an ancient, primitive act. Humans do it even before they are born, opening
wide in the womb. Some snakes unhinge their jaws to do it. One species of penguins
yawns as part of mating. Only now are researchers beginning to understand why we
yawn, when we yawn and why we yawn back. A professor of cognitive neuroscience at
Drexel University in Philadelphia, Steven Platek, studies the act of contagious yawning,
something done only by people and other primates.

In his first experiment, he used a psychological test to rank people on their empathic
feelings. He found that participants who did not score high on compassion did not yawn
back. “We literally had people saying, ‘Why am I looking at people yawning?’” Professor
Platek said. “It just had no effect.”

For his second experiment, he put 10 students in a magnetic resonance imaging

machine as they watched video tapes of people yawning. When the students watched
the videos, the part of the brain which reacted was the part scientists believe controls
empathy – the posterior cingulate, in the brain’s middle rear.” I don’t know if it’s
necessarily that nice people yawn more, but I think it’s a good indicator of a state of
mind,” said Professor Platek. “It’s also a good indicator if you’re empathizing with me and
paying attention.”

His third experiment is studying yawning in those with brain disorders, such as autism
and schizophrenia, in which victims have difficulty connecting emotionally with others. A
psychology professor at the University of Maryland, Robert Provine, is one of the few
other researchers into yawning. He found the basic yawn lasts about six seconds and
they come in bouts with an interval of about 68 seconds. Men and women yawn or half-
yawn equally often, but men are significantly less likely to cover their mouths which may
indicate complex distinction in genders.” A watched yawner never yawns,” Professor
Provine said. However, the physical root of yawning remains a mystery. Some
researchers say it’s coordinated within the hypothalamus of the brain, the area that also
controls breathing.

Yawning and stretching also share properties and may be performed together as parts of
a global motor complex. But they do not always co-occur – people usually yawn when we
stretch, but we don’t always stretch when we yawn, especially before bedtime. Studies by
J.I.P, G.H.A. Visser and H.F. Prechtl in the early 1980s, charting movement in the
developing fetus using ultrasound, observed not just yawning but a link between yawning
and stretching as early as the end of the first prenatal trimester.

The most extraordinary demonstration of the yawn-stretch linkage occurs in many people
paralyzed on one side of their body because of brain damage caused by a stroke. The
prominent British neurologist Sir Francis Walshe noted in 1923 what when these
hemiplegics yawn, they are startled and mystified to observe that their otherwise
paralyzed arm rises and flexes automatically in what neurologists term an “associated
response.” Yawning apparently activates undamaged, unconsciously controlled
connections between the brain and the cord motor system innervating the paralyzed limb.
It is not known whether the associated response is a positive prognosis for recovery, nor
whether yawning is therapeutic for reinnervation or prevention of muscular atrophy.

Clinical neurology offers other surprises. Some patients with “locked-in” syndrome, who
are almost totally deprived of the ability to move voluntarily, can yawn normally. The
neural circuits for spontaneous yawning must exist in the brain stem near other
respiratory and vasomotor centers, because yawning is performed by anencephalic who
possess only the medulla oblongata. The multiplicity of stimuli of contagious yawning, by
contrast, implicates many higher brain regions.
Questions 1-5
Complete the Summary paragraph described below.

In boxes 1-5 on your answer sheet, write the correct answer with NO MORE THAN
THREE WORDS.

A psychology professor drew a conclusion after observation that it takes about six
seconds to complete average yawning which needs 1
Answer: 68 seconds before the following yawning comes. It is almost at the same
frequency that male and female yawn or half, yet behavior accompanied with yawning
showing a 2
Answer: distinction in genders. Some parts within the brain may affect the movement
which also has something to do with 3
Answer: breathing another finding also finds there is a link between a yawn and 4
Answer: stretch before a baby was born, which two can be automatically co-operating
even among people whose 5
Answer: brain is damaged.

Questions 6-10
Read paragraph A-H.

Which paragraph contains the following information?

Write the correct letter A-H for questions 6-10

NB You may use any letter more than once.

6 ABCDEFGH The rate for yawning shows some regular pattern.

Answer: E

7 ABCDEFGH Yawning is an inherent ability that appears in both animals and humans.
Answer: B

8 ABCDEFGH Stretching and yawning is not always going together.

Answer: F
9 ABCDEFGH Yawning may suggest people are having positive notice or response in
communicating.
Answer: D

10 ABCDEFGH Some superior areas in the brain may deal with the infectious feature
of yawning.
Answer: H

Questions 11-13
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage?

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In boxes 11-13 on your answer sheet, write

TRUE if the statement is true

FALSE if the statement is false

NOT GIVEN if the information is not given in the passage

11 TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN Several students in Platek’s experiment did not

comprehend why their tutor ask them to yawn back.
Answer: NOT GIVEN

12 TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN Some results from the certain experiment indicate the link
between yawning and compassion.
Answer: TRUE

13 TRUEFALSENOT GIVEN Yawning can show an affirmative impact on the recovery

from brain damage brought by s stroke.
Answer: FALSE