英語聽力文摘 利用腦力
Harnessing Brain Power
美國(guó)科學(xué)家發(fā)表研究報(bào)告說，他們已訓(xùn)練兩只腦中裝了電極的獼猴，光靠意念即可操作仿生機(jī)械手臂拿取食物，甚至能調(diào)整送進(jìn)嘴巴食物的大小與黏稠程度?？茖W(xué)家希望兩年內(nèi)也可在人體裝上相同的微小電極感應(yīng)器，協(xié)助截肢、脊椎受傷與中風(fēng)癱瘓者，做相同的動(dòng)作。這是至今所發(fā)表的、大腦一機(jī)械界面科技領(lǐng)域中最驚人的發(fā)展。雖然大腦控制的義肢尚不存在，但至少技術(shù)上證明可行。
Here’s an experiment that gives new meaning to mental (1)telepathy(心靈感應(yīng)).
Want to hear something amazing? Sure!Scientists at Duke University have trained a monkey to control a robot arm! Monkeys have been doing everything from using sign language(手語) to playing video games for years now.True! But this monkey is different–he can control a robot arm just by thinking about it.
Now that's impressive,but how is it possible? It’s all about harnessing brain power. See, every voluntary movement we make corresponds to electrical activity in the brain that tells our muscles how and when to contract. When we clap our hands, for example, there is a series of “clap hands” electrical signals going on in the brain.
Let me guess,the scientists (2)figured out(想出) a way to tap into those signals. Exactly!They fixed special electrodes(電極) in the monkey’s brain and then taught it to use a joystick(操縱桿) to move a cursor(光標(biāo)) around a computer screen. Each time the monkey moved the joystick the electrodes transmitted its brain’s electrical signals to a computer.
Soon the computer learned to recognize the electrical patterns and the movements they represented. Then the scientists disabled the joystick and trained the monkey to only think about moving the cursor across the screen. The computer translated the monkey’s brain activity into movement commands and sent them to a robotic arm.
Sure enough, when the monkey thought “move up,” the computer arm moved up. Hopefully, some day this research will allow paraplegics(下身麻痹患者) and other disabled people to control robotic limbs with their thoughts.That is amazing!
注釋：
(1)telepathy [ti'lep?θi]
n.
1.心靈感應(yīng),傳心術(shù)[U]
We are particularly interested in phenomena such as telepathy and levitation.
我們對(duì)心靈感應(yīng)及空中漂浮這樣的現(xiàn)象特別有興趣。
(2)figure out['fig?r aut]
1.算出;想出
The purchase price figures out at about two million dollars.
交易的價(jià)格計(jì)算在200萬美元左右。
2.理解
I can't figure him out.
我看不透他。
