Have you ever met someone who “looks like” their names? 【小题1】 Scientists are suggesting that humans tend to associate people’s names with their looks, and can even guess someone’s name based on how they look.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel collected thousands of photos of people’s faces. They labeled (贴标签) each photo with four names. Then, they asked volunteers to guess which of the four names was correct.

【小题2】 It seems that humans recognize certain characteristics (特点) that can give them clues (线索) about someone’s name, Reader’s Digest reported.

【小题3】 Volunteers were also not as good at guessing the real names of people who use nicknames (昵称). This shows that a person’s appearance is affected by their name only if they use it often.

This kind of face-name matching happens “because of a process of self- fulfilling prophecy (自我实现预言), as we become what other people expect us to become,” Ruth Mayo, from the university, told science news website Eurek Alert.

Previous studies have shown that gender and race (种族) stereotype (偏见) can affect a person’s appearance. 【小题4】 For example, people tend to think that men named Bob should have rounder faces because the word itself looks round.

【小题5】. They expect them to be delicate (娇弱的) and feminine (有女性气质的), just like the flower they are named for.

Do you know anyone born in the Year of the Tiger? What’s their personality like? Are they brave, strong and tenacious (坚韧的)? If so, then they are a typical “tiger”.

In the Chinese culture, tigers are considered the king of all animals. They mean power, energy and protection. Tiers are regarded as fearless animals, so that’s why in China you can see pictures of tigers on the walls of houses to keep away danger.

Tigers have an important cultural meaning not just in China, but across Asia. As they mostly live in Asia, for many people in the West, they have become a cultural symbol of Eastern countries. For example, strong economies (经济体) in the East - Singapore, South Korea, China’s Hong Kong and Taiwan - were called “The Four Asian Tigers”. In the book Life of Pi, Canadian writer Yann Martel chose a Bengal tiger as the partner for Indian boy Pi on his adventure in the Pacific Ocean.

In the West, ▲ . A famous phrase is: “Eye of the Tiger”, which means power and strength. In English, if you want someone to calm down, you can Say to them, “easy tiger”.

Tigers are also one of my favorite animals. I first learned about the beauty of tigers as a child, while watching animal programs. If you ask my mom, she’ll tell you that my favourite toy while growing up was my toy tiger, which I still treasure dearly to this day. As a young animal lover, I felt so sad that they were in danger and I wanted to help protect them.

Just like tigers serve as a symbol of protection in the Chinese culture, we can only hope that in the Year of the Tiger more people can learn about tigers and help protect them better.

Sometimes, using hand gestures can bring more information and be more convenient than words, especially when you are speaking to someone with no language in common. But the same gesture can mean something quite nasty and offensive (冒犯的) to a person from a different cultural background.

“V” Shape

In many countries, if you have your index and middle fingers pointed up in the “V” shape. It stands for winning. However, when you make the sign, be sure to have the front of your palm facing outward instead of inward, because showing people the back of your hand is impolite in some countries like the UK and Australia.

Snapping your thumb and middle finger over and over may mean one is trying to remind someone of something forgotten. While, in Latin America, snapping them means asking one to hurry up. But one thing you should remember is that, in many cultures, snapping fingers close to someone’s face is considered to be an offensive gesture.

Crossing the index and middle fingers is regarded as a sign of wishing for good luck or fortune. At other times, people cross their fingers before telling a lie, as it is believed to countervail (抵消) the bad things coming from the lie. So it is both a positive and negative symbol.

This is always a nice hand gesture from American Sign Language. It combines the letters “I”, “L” and “Y” to mean “I love you.” People use this gesture very often to show their love for their family, friends and all the other people they love.

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