Want to Learn Quicker? Use Your Body
A) Ever dealt with a problem? Picked up a new skill? Grasped a difficult concept? The language of learning is full of references to parts of the body outside the brain. Researchers discover that learning is easier, quicker and more long-lasting if lessons involve the body as well as the mind--whether it's gesturing with the arms or moving around a room. Can these insights enhance teaching and learning in the future? And should it inform the way technology is employed in the classroom?
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/B) "In the past, people have argued that as we learn we become more able to think abstractly," says Andrew Manches, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. Conventional thinking might suggest that teachers should help children get rid of physical objects and body gestures to prepare them for the adult world.But in truth, the physical world never really leaves our thinking. For example, when we process verbs such as lick, kick and pick, medical scanners show that the parts of our brain that control the muscles in our face, legs and hands, respectively, light up with activity. And even the most abstract of concepts may have grounding in the real word.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/C ) Body and mind—his theory is called embodied cognition( 体验认知), and it suggests that what goes on in our minds stems from our actions and interactions with the world around us. It means that encouraging children to think and learn in a purely abstract way might actually make lessons harder for them to understand and remember. Science is beginning to back up the idea that actions really might speak louder than words in the classroom.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/D) Spencer Kelly, a psychologist at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, has found that people spend three times as much time gesturing when they think it is particularly important that they get a message across, suggesting that even at the subconscious level, we appreciate the communicative value of our body language. Studies show that young children learn more if their teacher uses gestures when explaining a concept.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/E) Meanwhile, Susan Wagner Cook, a psychologist at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, has found that children pick up new concepts more effectively if they are taught to mirror and repeat the gestures their teacher uses, and that lessons involving words and gestures live longer in a student's memory than lessons using words alone.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/F) There's a place for technology--particularly with the rise of gesture-recognition devices like the Nintendo Wii(任天堂游戏机), Microsoft's Kinect add-on (外设设备) for the Xbox and touchscreen tablet PCs. Resear-chers at the University of California, Berkeley, turned two Wii-mote video game controllers into a device that helps children visualize equivalence ratios (等值比)—for instance, understanding how if one plant grows twice as fast as another, the difference between their respective heights will become larger over time. This can be a tricky concept for children to understand. When asked to use their hands to represent the different growth rates, some students will place one hand slightly higher than the other, but then raise both hands at the same speed. The Berkeley team's device gives the children instant feedback, helping them work out when their hand gestures correctly match what would happen as the two plants grow. Afterwards, almost all students say that they actually understand why moving their hands at different speeds is the correct response.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/G) The Kinect sensor, meanwhile, is being used in studies to help children learn to more accurately map numbers onto physical space—a simple skill but one that is fundamental to our understanding of mathematics. Most people know, for instance, to place the number 50 exactly midway along a line marked "0" at one end and "100" at the other. Researchers at Eberhard Karls University in Tuebingen, Germany, found that seven-year-olds can place numbers along such a line more accurately if they physically walk the line on the floor'—with their motion captured and analysed by the Kinect sensor—than if they use a mouse to interact with a computer screen representation of the line. Manches has begun exploring whether Kinect offers a way to re-imagine traditional children's blocks(积木). The technology allows children to pick up and manipulate virtual blocks on the screen using the same gestures they would use to play with real blocks--but the virtual blocks can do new things like change colour as they are pulled apart into smaller units, giving children fresh ideas about the way numbers can be broken down.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/ H) In light of all this, it's tempting to conclude that teachers, and their students, should be jumping up and down, or waving their arms about during lessons. Manches, however, advises caution. The trouble is, science has not quite worked out exactly how the relationship between body and mind effects work. "You can't jump into the prediction and intervention stage too early," says Manches.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/I) This isn't to say there aren't working theories for what's going on, particularly when it comes to understanding why gesturing helps store information more firmly in the mind, says Cook. The lessons we learn at school usually involve declarative memory( 陈述性记忆)--these are the facts that we can consciously recall or "declare" at a later date. But some of our memories are non-declarative--things we can remember without really being able to explain why.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/ J)The classic example is how we never really forget how to ride a bike. Physical movements seem to be particularly suitable fodder(素材) for making non-declarative memories, and so by both speaking and gesturing, we may encourage our brains to make two independent memories of an event, boosting our chances of remembering the event later.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/ K) Even though researchers like Manches and Cook remain reluctant to set out prescriptive guidelines for teachers, their caution is beginning to weaken. "Five years ago I might have said there's potential for real harm in giving teachers instructions from this research," says Cook. Today, she is less worried of the potential to do damage—in part because none of her studies to-date has uncovered any evidence of side effects.

　A)Earlier this month, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would appoint" critical habitat" for the endangered jaguar. Jaguars--the world's third-largest wild cats, weighing up to 250 pounds, with distinctive black rosettes ( 玫瑰花色 ) on their fur--are a separate species from the smaller, tawny (黄褐色的 ) mountain lions, which still roam large areas of the American West in the United States and take the first steps toward mandating (批准) a jaguar recovery plan. This is a policy reversal and, on the surface, it may appear to be a victory for the conservation community and for jaguars, the largest wild cats in the Western Hemisphere.
　　B) But as someone who has studied jaguars for nearly three decades, I can tell you it is nothing less than a slap in the face to good science. What's more, by changing the rules for animal preservation, it stands to weaken the Endangered Species Act.　　C)The debate on what to do about jaguars started in 1997, when, at the urging of many biologists ( including me), the Fish and Wildlife Service put the jaguar on the United States endangered species list, because there had been occasional sightings of the cats crossing north over the United States-Mexico border. At the same time, however, the agency ruled that it would not be "prudent" (谨慎的 ) to declare that the jaguar has critical .habitat--a geographic area containing features the species needs to survive--in the United States. Determining an endangered species' critical habitat is a first step toward developing a plan for helping that species recover.　　D)The 1997 decision not to determine critical habitat for the jaguar was the one, because even though they cross the border from time to time, jaguars don't occupy any territory in our country--and that probably means the environment here is no longer ideal for them.　　E)In prehistoric times, these beautiful cats inhabited significant areas of the western United States, but in the past 100 years, there have been few, if any, resident breeding populations here. The last time a female jaguar with a cub ( 幼兽 ) was sighted in this country was in the early 1900s.　　F)Two well-intentioned conservation advocacy groups, the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife, sued the Fish and Wildlife Service to change its ruling. Thus in 2006, the agency reassessed the situation and again determined that no areas in the United States met the definition of critical habitat for the jaguar. Despite occasional sightings, mostly within 40 miles of the Mexican border, there were still no data to indicate jaguars had taken up residence inside the United States.　　G ) After this second ruling was made, an Arizona rancher ( 牧场主 ), with support from the state Game and Fish Department, set infrared-camera (红外摄像机 ) traps togather more data, and essentially confirmed the Fish and Wildlife Service's findings. The cameras did capture transient jaguars, including one male jaguar, nick named Macho, B, who roamed the Arizona borderlands for more than a decade. But Macho B, now dead, might have been the sole resident American jaguar, and his extensive travels indicated he was not having an easy time surviving in this dry, rugged region.　　H) Despite the continued evidence, the two conservation advocacy groups continued to sue the government. Apparently, they want jaguars to repopulate the United State seven if jaguars don't wan! to. Last March, a federal district judge in Arizona ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to revisit its 2006 determination on critical habitat.　　I)The facts haven't changed: there is still no area in the United States essential to the conservation of the jaguar. But, having asserted this twice already, the service, nowunder a new president, has bent to the tiresome litigation (诉讼). On Jan. 12, Fish and Wildlife officials, claimed to have evaluated new scientific information that had become available after the July 2006 ruling. They determined that it is now prudent to appoint critical habitat for the jaguar in the United States.　　J)This means that Fish and Wildlife must now also formulate a recovery plan for the jaguar. And since jaguars have not been able to reestablish themselves naturally over the past century, the government will likely have to go to significant expense to attempt to bring them back--especially if the cats have to be reintroduced.　　K)So why not do everything we can, at whatever cost, to bring jaguars back into the United States? To begin with, the American Southwest is, at best, marginal habitat for the animals. More important, there are better ways to help jaguars. South of our border, from Mexico to Argentina, thousands of jaguars live and breed in their true critical habitat. Governments and conservation groups (including the one I head) are already working hard to conserve jaguar populations and connect them to one another through an initiative called the Jaguar Corridor.　　L).The jaguars that now and then cross into the United States most likely come from the northernmost population of jaguars, in Sonora, Mexico. Rather than demand jaguars return to our country, we should help Mexico and other jaguar-range countries conserve the animals' true habitat it　　M )The recent move by the Fish and Wildlife Service means that the rare federal funds devoted to protecting wild animals will be wasted on efforts that cannot help save jaguars. It also stands to weaken the Endangered Species Act, because if critical habitat is redefined as any place where a species might ever have existed, and where you or I might want it to exist again, then the door is open for many other sense less efforts to bring back long-lost creatures.　　N)The Fish and Wildlife officials whose job is to protect the country's wild animals need to grow a stronger backbone--stick with their original, correct decision and save their money for more useful preservation work. Otherwise, when funds are needed to preserve all those small, ugly, non-charismatic endangered species at the back of the line, there may be no money left.

style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/B ) In fact, a lack of understanding concerning the purposes of Egyptian art has often led it to be compared unfavorably with the art of other cultures: Why did the Egyptians not develop sculpture in which the body turned and twisted through space like classical Greek statuary? Why do the artists seem to get left and confused? And why did they not discover the geometric perspective as European artists did in the Renaissance? The answer to such questions has nothing to do with a lack of skill or imagination on the part of Egyptian artists and everything to do with the purposes for which they were producing their art.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/C) The majority of three-dimensional representations, whether standing, seated, or kneeling, exhibit what is called frontality: they face straight ahead, neither twisting nor turning. When such statues are viewed in isolation, out of their original context and without knowledge of their function, it is easy to criticize them for their rigid attitudes that remained unchanged for three thousand years. Frontality is, however, directly related to the functions of Egyptian statuary and the contexts in which the statues were set up. Statues were created not for their decorative effect but to play a primary role in the cults of the gods, the king, and the dead. They were designed to be put in places where these beings could manifest themselves in order to be the recipients of ritual actions. Thus it made sense to show the statue looking ahead at what was happening in front of it, so that the living performer of the ritual could interact with the divine or deceased recipient.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/D) Very often such statues were enclosed in rectangular shrines or wall niches whose only opening was at the front, making it natural for the statue to display frontality. Other statues were designed to be placed within an architectural setting, for instance, in front of the monumental entrance gateways to temples known as pylons, or in pillared courts, where they would be placed against or between pillars: their frontality worked perfectly within the architectural context.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/E) Statues were normally made of stone, wood, or metal. Stone statues were worked from single rectangular blocks of material and retained the compactness of the original shape.. The stone between the arms and the body and between the legs in standing figures or the legs and the seat in seated ones was not normally cut away. From a practical aspect this protected the figures against breakage and psycho- logically gives the images a sense of strength and power, usually enhanced by a supporting back pillar. By contrast, wooden statues were carved from several pieces of wood that were pegged together to form the finished work, and metal statues were either made by wrapping sheet metal around a
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/wooden core or cast by the lost wax process.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/F) The arms could be held away from the body and carry separate items in their hands; there is no back pillar. The effect is altogether lighter and freer than that achieved in stone, but because both perform the same function, formal wooden and metal statues still display frontality.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/G) Apart from statues representing deities, kings, and named members of the elite that can be called formal, there is another group of three-dimensional representations that depicts generic figures, frequently servants, from the non-elite population. The function of these is quite different. Many are made to be put in the tombs of the elite in order to serve the tomb owners in the afterlife. Unlike formal statues that are limited to static poses of standing, sitting, and kneeling, these figures depict a wide range of actions, such as grinding grain, baking bread, producing pots, and making music, and they are shown in appropriate poses, bending and squatting as they carry out their tasks.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/H) It is suggested that one choose something to read about the archaeology before he goes to carry on the research. It is interesting that many try to understand the old things in their own perspective. One tends to consider that the big bowl is for the ancient male and the small one for the female because that is basically the case in the world now. However, in most of the ancient time, female individuals use the bigger one instead of their husbands because there used to be a period--or there is in some remote are-as-when the mother enjoys a greater respect over the father. That is very different from today's situation.
style=color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Microsoft YaHei"; white-space: normal; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);/I) No one is sure of the reason for setting the statues into the tomb. The first group thinks that the servants taking the forms of the statues would still be with those who died there, in the afterlife. There come the same cases in other Asian countries including China, Japan and India. And there may be something more horrific. In the ancient China, nobles seldom died lonely since shortly after their death, their emperors would choose some children to follow them. And this is said to set up a group of servants who would make service for the dead. However, the second group counters this opinion by saying that this may be a way to reserve the love from the living family members and from other friends. When laid in the tomb, the servants could represent those who love the dead and still be with them.