英语听力：自然百科 迷路者绕圈走？

 A familiar legend is that when people get lost in the woods, they walk in circles. Now, according to research conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tuebingen, Germany, this is a natural human behavior.

 

What we found was that people do really walk in circles. So that has been like a myth¹, if you want to, for a long time. People reported on it in all kinds of stories, in television shows, in books, but no one really ever measured whether it is true, whether people really walk in circles if they get lost. And that's what we did. So we sent people into the desert, we sent people into a big forest area and we measured their walking trajectories² with GPS and, in fact, they did walk in circles.

 

The research focused on nine people: 6 walking in a forest, and 3 in the Saharan desert in Tunisia. The people all tended to go in circles and all veer³ off a straight line.

 

When we started the study we didn't really believe that people really walk in circles. So, what we thought was that people would do something random⁴, like, if they don't know their way, they maybe all of a sudden go left and sometimes they all of a sudden turn right and just by chance they might end up in the same place again. I don't think they walked in circles but they actually did something completely random. And that's actually what we found in the desert. In the desert, people who walked there pretty much did something random, they didn't walk in circles they just went generally in the same direction, but then left, right, left, right. So then we went to the forest to get more data and there people actually did walk in circles and so we were really surprised that people did walk in circles.

 

With a blindfold⁵ on and ear plugs, people did all kinds of things.

 

With the blindfolded⁶ walking, there were no overall patterns. People did all sorts of things. There was one person who always walked in circles to the left. Then someone else sometimes went to the left; sometimes went to the right; sometimes did a kind of a zigzag⁷ course. So it's really hard to find a common denominator.

 

A young woman who took part in the experiment says it was difficult to sense direction wearing a blindfold.

 

So at one point I noticed that the sun, I mean, you feel a bit of where the warmth is, but I couldn't make any sense of it. I mean you just feel it changing and you can't make any sense out of it.

 

While the sample size is small, and further studies will be needed, the researchers say the findings can be used to help map how the human brain sorts sensory⁸ stimuli⁹ from sight and hearing to help guide people. And the lead researcher says if you’re headed to remote areas, don’t trust your senses; take a GPS and a compass.

1 myth   

n.神话，神话故事

参考例句：

• The story has points of resemblance to a Hebrew myth.这个故事与某个希伯来神话有相似之处。
• The story is a pure myth.这故事纯属虚构。

2 trajectories   

n.弹道( trajectory的名词复数 )；轨道；轨线；常角轨道

参考例句：

• To answer this question, we need to plot trajectories of principal stresses. 为了回答这个问题，我们尚须画出主应力迹线图。 来自辞典例句
• In the space program the theory is used to determine spaceship trajectories. 在空间计划中，这个理论用于确定飞船的轨道。 来自辞典例句

3 veer   

vt.转向，顺时针转，改变；n.转向

参考例句：

• He is unlikely to veer from his boss's strongly held views.他不可能背离他老板的强硬立场。
• If you fall asleep while driving,you'll probably veer off the road.假如你开车时打瞌睡，可能会驶离道路。

4 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。

5 blindfold   

vt.蒙住…的眼睛；adj.盲目的；adv.盲目地；n.蒙眼的绷带[布等]； 障眼物，蒙蔽人的事物

参考例句：

• They put a blindfold on a horse.他们给马蒙上遮眼布。
• I can do it blindfold.我闭着眼睛都能做。

6 blindfolded   

v.（尤指用布）挡住（某人）的视线( blindfold的过去式 )；蒙住（某人）的眼睛；使不理解；蒙骗

参考例句：

• The hostages were tied up and blindfolded. 人质被捆绑起来并蒙上了眼睛。
• They were each blindfolded with big red handkerchiefs. 他们每个人的眼睛都被一块红色大手巾蒙住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 zigzag   

n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行

参考例句：

• The lightning made a zigzag in the sky.闪电在天空划出一道Z字形。
• The path runs zigzag up the hill.小径向山顶蜿蜒盘旋。

8 sensory   

adj.知觉的，感觉的，知觉器官的

参考例句：

• Human powers of sensory discrimination are limited.人类感官分辨能力有限。
• The sensory system may undergo long-term adaptation in alien environments.感觉系统对陌生的环境可能经过长时期才能适应。

9 stimuli   

n.刺激（物）

参考例句：

• It is necessary to curtail or alter normally coexisting stimuli.必需消除或改变正常时并存的刺激。
• My sweat glands also respond to emotional stimuli.我的汗腺对情绪刺激也能产生反应。