阅读理解   Optical illusions are like magic, thrilling us because of their capacity to reveal the fallibility of our senses. But there's more to them than that, according to Dr. Beau Lotto, who is wowing the scientific world with work that crosses the boundaries of art, neurology, natural history and philosophy.
    What they reveal, he says, is that the whole world is the creation of our brain. What we see, what we hear, feel and what we think we know is not a photographic reflection of the world, but an instantaneous unthinking calculation as to what is the most useful way of seeing the world. It's a best guess based on the past experience of the individual, a long evolutionary past that has shaped the structure of our brains. The world is literally shaped by our pasts.
    Dr. Lotto, 40, an American who is a reader in neuroscience at University College London, has set out to prove it in stunning visual illusions, sculptures and installations, which have been included in art-science exhibitions. He explains his complex ideas from the starting point of visual illusions, which far from revealing how fragile our senses are show how remarkably robust they are at providing a picture of the world that serves a purpose to us. For centuries, artists and scientists have noted that a grey dot looks lighter against a dark background than being against a light background. The conventional belief was that it was because of some way the brain and eye is intrinsically wired. But Dr. Lotto believes it's a learnt response; in other words, we see the world not as it is but as it is useful to us.
    'Context is everything, because our brains have evolved to constantly re-define normality,' says Dr. Lotto. 'What we see is defined by our own experiences of the past, but also by what the human race has experienced through its history.'
    This is illustrated by the fact that different cultures and communities have different viewpoints of the world, conditioned over generations. For example, Japanese people have a famous inability to distinguish between the 'R' and the 'L' sound. This arises because in Japanese the sounds are totally interchangeable. 'Differentiating between them has never been useful, so the brain has never learnt to do it. It's not just that Japanese people find it hard to tell the difference. They literally cannot hear the difference.'
    Dr. Lotto's experiments are grounding more and more hypotheses in hard science. 'Yes, my work is idea-driven,' he says. 'But lots of research, such as MRI brain scanning, is technique-driven. I don't believe you can understand the brain by taking it out of its natural environment and looking at it in a laboratory. You have to look at what it evolved to do, and look at it in relationship to its ecology.'
单选题     What does the word 'them' in the first paragraph refer to?
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】 词汇题。题目问的是第一段中的“them”指的是?A项“人的感觉”；B项“感觉的不可靠性”；C项“揭示能力”；D项“视错觉”。原句中“But there's more to them than that,...”明显是在指代前一句提过的部分。而第一句主要讨论的是视错觉的问题，故选D。
单选题     According to the passage, what is known about Dr. Beau Lotto?
 
【正确答案】 C
【答案解析】 细节题。题目问的是从文中我们可以知道关于洛托博士的什么信息?A项“虽然他是神经学家，但他凭着在艺术、神经学、自然历史和哲学方面广泛的研究震惊了科学界”；B项“洛托博士是英国伦敦大学学院的教授，研究诸如艺术、神经学、自然历史和哲学一系列学科”；C项“洛托博士试图通过在艺术科学展上展示他具有创造力的作品来证明自己关于视觉幻象的观点”；D项“结合艺术、神经学、自然历史和哲学方面的知识，洛托博士已经着手创造视觉幻象、雕塑和装置”。第一段第二句中“博·洛托博士用超越了艺术、神经学、自然历史和哲学界限的作品让科学界为之惊叹”和第三段第一、二句“洛托博士在英国伦敦大学学院研究神经学”和“他已经着手从艺术科学展上那些令人吃惊的视觉幻象、雕塑和装置来证明这一点”可知，A，B和D项都不正确，故选C。
单选题     Which of the following statements can be inferred from Dr. Lotto's study?
 
【正确答案】 D
【答案解析】 推断题。题目问的是下列哪项可从洛托博士的研究中推测出来?A项“人们应该相信头脑而不是眼睛，因为世界很大程度上是由人的头脑创造和塑造的”；B项“人们应该永远不相信自己的感官，因为他们看到的，听到的，感觉到的以及事实都可能与世界真实的样子相反”；C项“人们应该永远不相信自己的眼睛，因为他们只能看到世界偶然的、暂时的样子，而这个样子是和环境有关的”；D项“人们应该意识到他们的眼睛可能会欺骗自己，因为他们看到的实际上是建立在过去经历基础上，由大脑创造出来的事物”。第四段第二句中洛托博土说“我们看到的东西不仅由我们个人过去的经验所定义，同时也由人类在历史上经历的过去而定义。”和D项相符，故选D。
单选题     According to Dr. Lotto, what is the reason for the fact that a grey dot looks lighter against a dark background than being against a light background?
 
【正确答案】 B
【答案解析】 细节题。题目问的是根据洛托博士，灰色的点在深色背景上比在浅色背景上更淡的原因是什么?A项“灰色的点在深色背景上比在浅色背景上更淡，这是一个客观事实”；B项“通过对过去经历的学习，人类的感官擅长为我们提供符合我们目的性的关于世界的图片”；C项“因为头脑和眼睛有某种内在关联”；D项“因为小点放置的背景变淡了”。根据第三段最后两句“传统的看法是这是因为我们的头脑和眼睛有某种内在关联。但是，洛托博士相信这是一种学习之后产生的反应；换句话说，我们不是按世界原有的样子看待它，而是按是否对我们有用的标准去看它。”可知，A和D不对。C项是传统的看法，而不是洛托博士的看法，可排除，故选B。
单选题     Which of the following statements is true about the research in neuroscience?
 
【正确答案】 A
【答案解析】 推断题。题目问的是下列哪个表述正确地描述了神经学科的研究?A项“对大脑的调查是一个网络般的观察，包括了环境和大脑共同的作用”；B项“以思考为基础的研究和以科技为基础的研究都是神经科学的研究方法”；C项“当大脑从人体中分离出来的时候，人们无法在实验室里对其进行研究”；D项“在合适的自然环境下，大脑可以脱离其他学科和器官进行单独的研究”。从最后一段洛托博士所说“是的，我的工作是以思考为基础的……但是很多研究，例如颅脑核磁共振扫描，是以科技为基础的。我不相信把大脑从自然环境中分离出来在实验室进行观察就能彻底了解大脑是怎么回事。你必须要去观察大脑进化到能做什么事情，并且观察它的生态关系。”可知，B，C和D项错误。而最后一句话说明大脑必须要和生态环境相结合，故选A。