Scientists have been surprised at how deeply culture—the language we speak, the values we absorb—shapes the brain, and are rethinking findings derived from studies of Westerners. To take one recent example, a region behind the forehead called the medial prefrontal cortex supposedly represents the self: it is active when we (“we“ being the Americans in the study) think of our own identity and traits. But with Chinese volunteers, the results were strikingly different. The “me“ circuit hummed not only when they thought whether a particular adjective described themselves, but also when they considered whether it described their mother. The Westerners showed no such overlap between self and mom. Depending whether one lives in a culture that views the self as autonomous and unique or as connected to and part of a larger whole, this neural circuit takes on quite different functions. “Cultural neuroscience,“ as this new field is called, is about discovering such differences. Some of the findings, as with the “me/mom“ circuit, buttress longstanding notions of cultural differences. For instance, it is a cultural cliche that Westerners focus on individual objects while East Asians pay attention to context and background (another manifestation of the individualism-collectivism split). Sure enough, when shown complex, busy scenes, Asian-Americans and non-Asian-Americans recruited different brain regions. The Asians showed more activity in areas that process figure-ground relations—holistic context—while the Americans showed more activity in regions that recognize objects. Psychologist Nalini Ambady of Tufts found something similar when she and colleagues showed drawings of people in a submissive pose (head down, shoulders hunched) or a dominant one (arms crossed, face forward) to Japanese and Americans. The brain’s dopamine-fueled reward circuit became most active at the sight of the stance—dominant for Americans, submissive for Japanese— that each volunteer’s culture most values, they reported in 2009. This raises an obvious chicken-and-egg question, but the smart money is on culture shaping the brain, not vice versa. Cultural neuroscience wouldn’t be making waves if it found neurobiological bases only for well-known cultural differences. It is also uncovering the unexpected. For instance, a 2006 study found that native Chinese speakers use a different region of the brain to do simple arithmetic (3 + 4) or decide which number is larger than native English speakers do, even though both use Arabic numerals. The Chinese use the circuits that process visual and spatial information and plan movements (the latter may be related to the use of the abacus). But English speakers use language circuits. It is as if the West conceives numbers as just words, but the East imbues them with symbolic, spatial freight. (Insert cliche about Asian math geniuses.) “One would think that neural processes involving basic mathematical computations are universal,“ says Ambady, but they “seem to be culture-specific “ Not to be the skunk at this party, but I think it’ s important to ask whether neuroscience reveals anything more than we already know from, say, anthropology. For instance, it’s well known that East Asian cultures prize the collective over the individual, and that Americans do the opposite. Does identifying brain correlates of those values offer any extra insight? After all, it’ s not as if anyone thought those values are the result of something in the liver. Ambady thinks cultural neuro-science does advance understanding. Take the me/mom finding, which, she argues, “attests to the strength of the overlap between self and people close to you in collectivistic cultures and the separation in individualistic cultures. It is important to push the analysis to the level of the brain.“ Especially when it shows how fundamental cultural differences are—so fundamental, perhaps, that “universal“ notions such as human rights, democracy, and the like may be no such thing.

Why does the author cite the findings of previous studies in Paragraph 3?

A．To introduce a new topic.

B．To place a topic in a larger context.

C．To discuss a solution to a certain problem.

D．To provide empirical data to confirm a prior belief.

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

A．Neural processes are likely to be culturally neutral.

B．The brain is believed to be influenced by different cultures.

C．Westerners focus on individualism while East Asians on collectivism.

D．Neuroscience reveals nothing more than we know from anthropology.

Which of the following is a significant breakthrough achieved by cultural neuroscience according to the passage?

A．It proves that some values are deeply rooted in human liver.

B．It correlates cultural differences with different brain activities.

C．It suggests that some universal concepts are shared across cultures.

D．It disputes our usual understanding of fundamental cultural differences.

Of all the following pairs of words, ____ is a minimal pair. boot and bought deep and dog either and neither ghost and best

_____can fly very high in______sky. The birds ... the The birds ... / Birds ... the Birds ... /

With spring approaching, the pink of the apple-blossom is beginning to______. show grow rise ascend

What is the main rhetoric device used in “The Pentagon was divided on the air strike.“? Synecdoche. Metonymy. Metaphor. Oxymoron.

Diagnostic test is often used for the purpose of______. finding out what students know and don’t know measuring students’ general language proficiency knowing whether students have the right language aptitude checking whether students have achieved the teaching objectives

If a teacher asks students to fill in the blanks in a passage with “that“, “which“ or “whom“, he/she is least likely focusing on grammar at______. lexical level “ syntactic level discourse level morphological level

简述教学日志(teaching journal)的含义和三个作用，并列出教师撰写教学日志的三点注意事项。

The sound of “th“ in “thin“ is______. voiceless, dental, and fricative voiced, dental, and fricative voiceless, dental, and affricative voiced, dental, and affricative

In my opinion she is kind and polite, so I put her rudeness today down as______. ordinary untimely progressive accidental

Tom, take this baggage and put it______you can find enough space. which in which wherever whereas

Which of the following instructions is helpful in developing students’ ability to make inferences? Listen to a story and write a summary. Listen to a story and work out the writer’ s intention. Listen to the story of a boy and then draw a picture of him. Listen to a story and note down the specific date of an event.

The most suitable question type to check students’ comprehension and develop their critical thinking is______. rhetorical questions referential questions close questions display questions

Which of the following is the last step in the process of writing essays? Editing the writings. Writing topic sentences for paragraphs. Gathering information and ideas relevant to the topic. Organizing the information and ideas into a logical sequence.

If a teacher asks students to talk about their hobbies in groups, he/she is trying to encourage______. peer correction peer feedback peer interaction peer assessment

设计任务：阅读下面学生信息和语言素材，设计20分钟的英语写作教学方案。教案没有固定格式，但必须包含下列要点： teaching objectives teaching contents key and difficult points major steps and time allocation activities and justifications 教学时间：20分钟学生概况：某城镇普通中学高中一年级学生，班级人数40人。多数学生已经达到《普通高中英语课程标准(实验)》五级水平。学生课堂参与积极性一般。语言素材： Dear Zhou Kai, How are you? We ’re doing a class survey and I have to write emails to all my pen friends in other countries. I hope you don’t mind answering these questions. 1 Do most adults smoke in China? 2 In most states in the US, it is now against the law to smoke in public buildings, such as banks and offices, on public transport and in restaurants and cafes. Is it the same in China? 3 Is the government planning to change the law about smoking in public? Hope you can answer my three questions! Best wishes, Paul

Mr. Woods, I am here just in case anything out of the ordinary______. happens happen would happen will happen

I look back on this pleasant holiday in Beijing with______pleasure. anything but all but everything but nothing but

Which inference in the brackets of the following sentences is a presupposition? Ede caught a trout. (Ede caught a fish.) Don’ t sit on Carol’ s bed. (Carol has a bed.) This blimp is over the house. (The house is under the blimp.) Coffee would keep me awake all night. (I don’t want coffee.)

Which of the following activities is often used to develop students’ speaking accuracy? Identifying and correcting oral mistakes. Acting out the dialogue in the text. Having discussions in groups. Describing people in pair.

If a teacher asks students to make their own learning plan, he/she is trying to develop their______. cognitive strategy affective strategy communicative strategy metacognitive strategy

Which of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined phrase “making waves“ in Paragraph 3?

Why does the author cite the findings of previous studies in Paragraph 3?

Which of the following can be inferred from the passage?

Which of the following is a significant breakthrough achieved by cultural neuroscience according to the passage?

Which of the following may best describe the author’ s attitude towards universal cultural concepts in the last paragraph?