British researchers have explored how a robotic finger can affect a person’s ability to play the piano. The experiment involved attaching a robotic finger on the right hand of 12 test subjects. Six of the individuals were piano players. Six were not.

The leader of the project was Professor Aldo Faisal, a neuroscientist(神经学家) at Britain’s Imperial College of London. Being a piano player himself, he said he wondered how his playing ability would be affected if he had an extra finger. “So I started really with a robotics challenge,” Faisal said. “Can we build a robotic thumb that can sit on the opposite side of the right hand and play music with it?”

The robotic finger was controlled by electrical signals produced by the foot movements of the piano players. Faisal said the robotic finger felt very unnatural and was difficult for players to get used to at first. But after a few hours using the device, he said it almost felt like “an extension of you.”

Faisal noted that within an hour of being fitted with the robotic finger, six players had learned to use it effectively with the piano keys. “There’s a dedicated area of your brain responsible for every single finger,” Faisal said. “If I give you an eleventh finger...are you processing it the same way as you’re processing a regular limb?”

Researchers involved in the experiment reported that the six pianists and six non-playing volunteers all quickly adapted to using the extra thumb. They said this result suggests people are not limited to using an extra finger only for things they already know how to do.

“The fact that you can actually play with eleven fingers...has to do with how your brain is actually wired up,” Faisal said. “So what we can say is it’s a proof of existence. We can do it. So the next challenge would be, can we do two thumbs, so 12 fingers?” He added, “It’s a very exciting moment in time now to see what we can do.”

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1.What’s the purpose of the experiment according to the passage?

A To compare the finger habits of different people.

B To prove humans can play the piano with an extra finger.

C To explore if the extra finger will influence the piano player.

D To know the difference between the two groups using the robotic finger.

解析：选C。C 细节理解题。根据第一段British researchers have explored how a robotic finger can affect a person’s ability to play the piano.可知，英国研究人员探索了机械手指如何影响人的钢琴弹奏能力。故选C。

2.Which of the following about the robotic finger is TRUE?

A The players never felt natural with it at first.

B It took the players a long time to get used to it.

C The piano players’ foot movements controlled it.

D Half of the players failed to continue playing with it.

解析：选A。A 细节理解题。根据第三段Faisal said the robotic finger felt very unnatural and was difficult for players to get used to at first.可知，机械手指感觉非常不自然，弹奏者一开始很难习惯。故选A。

3.What does the result of the research mainly tell us?

A People are sometimes unable to deal with things they don’t know.

B The extra finger has a great influence on the player’s thinking.

C Humans can recognize unknown fields according to the experience.

D People probably can do many things with an extra robotic finger.

解析：选D。D 推理判断题。根据第五段They said this result suggests people are not limited to using an extra finger only for things they already know how to do.可知，这一结果表明，人们并不局限于只在已经知道如何做的事情上使用额外的一根手指。由此说明人们可能可以用一根多余的机械手指做很多事。故选D。

4.What will be most likely to happen to the researchers?

A They will turn to the researches on human’s brain.

B They will develop a new kind of robotic fingers.

C They will start to find the proof of existence.

D They will do another experiment involving two robotic fingers.

解析：选D。D 推理判断题。根据最后一段 “...So the next challenge would be, can we do two thumbs, so 12 fingers?” He added, “It’s a very exciting moment in time now to see what we can do.” 可知，费萨尔表示，下一个挑战是他们可以做两个拇指，看看人们用12根手指弹钢琴的情况是怎样的。由此推断他们接下来可能会做涉及两根机器手指的试验，故选D。