SSS 2010-02-01_在线英语听力室_免费在线英语听力学习网站

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Bees’ bread and butter is flowers—there’s no reason they should be able to recognize human faces. But they can.

Back in 2005, Arian Dyer at Monash University showed that bees could identify people who they associated who with sugary snacks. But could they recognize humans, or did they just see them as weird¹ flowers?

Martin Giurfa at France’s Université de Toulouse contacted Dyer to work on that question. First, they drew simple images of facial features—dots for eyes, slashes² for nose and mouth. The bees were trained to distinguish between an image with narrower features and one with wider ones.

Then the scientists asked could the insects distinguish face-like features from non-faces? The bees won sugary rewards when they picked out faces as opposed to pictures that just had random³ dots and dashes.

Finally, the critters faced their ultimate task: to pick out real faces from those that had the features scrambled⁴. And: score. Bees could indeed differentiate⁵ faces from non-faces. The study was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology. Scientists hope that the simple bee brain could be a model for automated⁶ facial recognition, which could help in FBI stings.

—Cynthia Graber

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1 weird
adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的
参考例句：
From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。 His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

2 slashes
n.（用刀等）砍( slash的名词复数 )；（长而窄的）伤口；斜杠；撒尿v.挥砍( slash的第三人称单数 )；鞭打；割破；削减
参考例句：
They report substantial slashes in this year's defense outlays. 他们报道今年度国防经费的大量削减。来自辞典例句 Inmates suffered injuries ranging from stab wounds and slashes to head trauma. 囚犯们有的被刺伤，有的被砍伤，而有的头部首创，伤势不一而足。来自互联网

3 random
adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动
参考例句：
The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。 On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

4 scrambled
v.快速爬行( scramble的过去式和过去分词 )；攀登；争夺；（军事飞机）紧急起飞
参考例句：
Each scrambled for the football at the football ground. 足球场上你争我夺。来自《现代汉英综合大词典》 He scrambled awkwardly to his feet. 他笨拙地爬起身来。来自《简明英汉词典》

5 differentiate
vi.(between)区分；vt.区别；使不同
参考例句：
You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。 He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。

6 automated
a.自动化的
参考例句：
The entire manufacturing process has been automated. 整个生产过程已自动化。 Automated Highway System (AHS) is recently regarded as one subsystem of Intelligent Transport System (ITS). 近年来自动公路系统(Automated Highway System,AHS)，作为智能运输系统的子系统之一越来越受到重视。