You’ve probably heard or read the saying, “The eyes are the window to the soul.” The saying means that we can tell a lot about others’ authentic feelings by closely examining their eyes. Often, we can tell how a person really feels—sad, bored, or deceived—with a steady gaze into their eyes. Also, humans have another ability that often __1__: we can recognize people by their faces.
This may seem obvious because nearly everyone has the ability to recognize others from their facial __2__. We can quickly pick out a person we are looking for from a crowd or a picture of a group of people, even one taken years earlier. With widespread masking going on due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some researchers have wondered if this would __3__ this ability of facial recognition.
The average person recognizes about 5,000 faces over a lifetime. Psychologists wondered whether masking would weaken people’s facial recognition ability. They prepared pairs of photographs of the same person, one without any facial obstruction and __4__ with either a medical mask or a pair of sunglasses. Test subjects were asked to decide whether the photographs belonged to the same person or not. The photographs were of either unfamiliar or familiar people, such as celebrities or politicians.
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock 照片：Shutterstock提供
Even with a face half-covered by a mask, subjects could __5__ familiar faces 90% of the time. The psychologists concluded that facial recognition is a genetic capability and face masks probably won’t affect it too much.
你可能聽過或讀過這句諺語：「眼睛是靈魂之窗。」這句諺語的意思是，我們可以透過仔細觀察他人眼睛來知道很多關於對方的真實感受。通常，我們可以透過目不轉睛地凝視一個人的眼睛來判斷其真實感受──覺得悲傷、無聊或被欺騙。此外，人類還有另一種往往未受賞識的能力：我們可以辨別人臉。
這似乎很理所當然，因為幾乎每個人都有能力從面部特徵來辨識他人。我們可以從人群或一群人的照片中快速挑出我們正在尋找的人，即使是幾年前拍的照片也可以。由於新冠肺炎大流行，大家普遍需要戴口罩，一些研究人員想知道這是否會干擾面部辨識的能力。
Photo courtesy of Shutterstock 照片：Shutterstock提供
一般人一生能認出大約五千張面孔。心理學家想知道戴口罩是否會削弱人們辨識臉部的能力。他們準備了同一個人的兩張照片，一張臉上沒有任何遮掩，另一張則戴著醫用口罩或太陽眼鏡。測試對象被要求判斷兩張照片是否為同一人。這些照片不是不熟的人就是熟人，例如名人或政治家。
即使照片中的人用口罩半遮著臉，受試者還是有90%的準確度能認出熟悉的面孔。心理學家得出結論，面部辨識是一種遺傳的能力，口罩可能不會產生太大影響。
What Did You Learn?
1. (A) ensures privacy (B) handles pressure (C) gets
unattended (D) goes unappreciated
2. (A) operations (B) impressions (C) characteristics
(D) representatives
3. (A) interfere with (B) appeal to (C) protest against
(D) recover from
4. (A) other (B) one another (C) others (D) the other
5. (A) resist (B) identify (C) fulfill (D) estimate
參考答案：
1. (D) 2. (C) 3. (A) 4. (D) 5. (B)
Words in Use
1. recognition n. 認出
recognize vt. 認出
The small town has changed beyond all recognition.
這座小鎮已變得讓人完全認不出來。
Bill recognized the handwriting and knew who had signed the check.
比爾認出筆跡，知道是誰簽了那張支票。
2. authentic a. 真實的，真正的
It’s important to learn how to distinguish an authentic account from a fake one.
學習如何分辨真實及捏造的報導是很重要的。
3. deceive vt. 欺騙（本文為過去分詞作形容詞用）
Rita was angry when she found that she had been deceived by her best friend.
當麗塔發現自己被最好的朋友欺騙時，她很生氣。
4. widespread a. 普遍的；廣泛的
The widespread use of computers has made it more convenient to communicate.
電腦的普遍使用讓溝通更加方便了。
5. capability n. 能力
In this company, no one doubted the manager’s capability to do his job.
在這間公司裡，沒有人懷疑該經理的工作能力。
Practical Phrases
1. pick out... / pick... out 挑選…
Can you pick out my brother in that picture?
你能從那張相片裡找出哪一個是我哥哥嗎？
2. belong to... 是…的，屬於…
This old watch belonged to my great grandfather.
這只舊手錶以前是我曾祖父的。
聽文章朗讀及講解: https://ivy.pse.is/455bfu
本文出自常春藤解析英語雜誌: www.ivy.com.tw
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