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  3. We are all familiar with the phrase "monkey see, monkey do"—but have we actually thought about what it means? Over the last two

We are all familiar with the phrase "monkey see, monkey do"—but have we actually thought about what it means? Over the last two

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问题     We are all familiar with the phrase "monkey see, monkey do"—but have we actually thought about what it means? Over the last two decades, neuroscience research has been investigating whether this popular saying has a real basis in human behaviour.
    Over twenty years ago, a team of scientists, led by Giacomo Rizzolatti at the University of Parma, discovered special brain cells, called mirror neurons, in monkeys. These cells appeared to be activated both when the monkey did something itself and when the monkey simply watched another monkey do the same thing.
    The function of such mirror neurons in humans has since become a hot topic. In the latest issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a team of distinguished researchers debate whether the mirror neuron system is involved in such diverse processes as understanding speech, understanding the meaning of other people’s actions, and understanding other people’s minds.
    The mirror neuron system probably plays some role in how we understand other people’s speech, but it’s likely that this role is much smaller than has been previously claimed. In fact, the role is small enough that it’s unlikely that mirror neurons would be causal factors in our ability to understand speech. Mirror neuron-related processes may only contribute to understanding what another person is trying to say if the room is very noisy or there are other complications to normal speech perception conditions.
    Mirror neurons are believed to play a critical role in how and why we understand other people’s actions. There are many physical actions, like Tiger Woods’ golf swing, that we ourselves can’t do, but we understand those actions anyway. However, contrary to what some mirror neuron proponents have suggested, doing isn’t required for understanding. In fact, neuro-imaging data reviewed in this article demonstrate that the actions we ourselves have the most experience doing—the actions we are best at doing and understand best—actually show less mirror neuron activity. Such findings suggest a need to reappraise the role of mirror neurons in guiding how we understand actions.
    One of the most powerful roles suggested for the mirror neuron system in humans is that of understanding not just other people’s physical actions or speech, but their minds and their intentions. It has been suggested that some persons, such as persons with autism, have difficulty understanding other people’s minds and, therefore, might lack mirror neurons. However, numerous research studies reviewed in this article consistently show that persons with autism are highly capable of understanding the intentions of other people’s actions, suggesting that our intuitions about persons with autism and mirror neurons needs to be revised.
What is the main idea of the passage?
选项 A、The role of mirror neurons play in human behavior.
B、How mirror neurons function in human body.
C、Mirror neurons system in monkey brain.
D、Mirror neurons and autism.
答案A
解析 主旨大意题。本文由猴子大脑内镜像神经元细胞对猴子模仿行为的解释作用，类比指出人类大脑可能也存在这种细胞；接着由实验引出镜像神经元细胞对人类理解他人言语、行为和意图的不同作用进行了全面论述，可见本文的主题是关于镜像神经元对人类行为的作用，故[A]符合文意。其他选项都比较片面，故均排除。
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