1、Visual Symbols and the BlindPart 1From a number of recent studies, it has become clear that blind people can appreciate the use of outlines and perspectives to describe the arrangement of objects and other surfaces in space. But pictures are more than literal repersentations. This fact was drawn to
2、my attention dramatically when a blind woman in one of my investigations decided on her own initiative to draw a wheel as it was spinning 旋转. To show this motion, she traced a curve 曲线 inside the circle. I was taken aback. Lines of motion, such as the one she used, are a very recent invention in the
3、 history of illustration. Indeed, as art scholar David Kunzle notes, Wilhelm Busch, a trend-setting nineteenth-century cartoonist, used virtually no motion lines in his popular figures until about 1877.When I asked several other blind study subjects to draw a spinning wheel, one particularly clever
4、rendition 表演 appeared repeatedly: several subjects showed the wheels spokes as curved lines. When asked about these curves, they all described them as metaphorical 比喻性的 ways of suggesting motion. Majority rule would argue that this device 设备 somehow indicated motion very well. But was it a better in
5、dicator than, say, broken or wavy 慎重的 linesor any other kind of line, for that matter? The answer was not clear. So I decided to test whether various lines of motion were apt 适当的 ways of showing movement or if they were merely idiosyncratic 异质的 marks. Moreover, I wanted to discover whether there wer
6、e differences in how the blind and the sighted interpreted 解释的 lines of motion.To search out these answers, I created raised-line drawings of five different wheels, depicting 描写 spokes with lines that curved, bent, waved, dashed and extended beyond the perimeter 周围 of the wheel. I then asked eightee
7、n blind volunteers to feel the wheels and assign one of the following motions to each wheel: wobbling 摇晃的, spinning fast, spinning steadily, jerking 猛拉or braking. My control group consisted of eighteen sighted undergraduates from the University of Toronto.All but one of the blind subjects assigned d
8、istinctive motions to each wheel. Most guessed that the curved spokes indicated that the wheel was spinning steadily; the wavy spokes, they thought, suggested that the wheel was wobbing; and the bent spokes were taken as a sign that the wheel was jerking. Subjects assumed that spokes extending beyon
9、d the wheels perimeter signified that the wheel had its brakes on and that dashed spokes indicated the wheel was spinning quickly.In addition, the favoured description for the sighted was the favoured description for the blind in every instance. What is more, the consensus 一致的 among the sighted was
10、barely higher than that among the blind. Because motion devices are unfamiliar to the blind, the task I gave them involved some problem solving. Evidently, however, the blind not only figured out meanings for each line of motion, but as a group they generally came up with the same meaning at least a
11、s frequently as did sighted subjects.Part 2We have found that the blind understand other kinds of visual metaphors as well. One blind woman drew a picture of a child inside a heartchoosing that symbol, she said, to show that love surrounded the child. With Chang Hong Liu, a doctoral student from Chi
12、na, I have begun exploring how well blind people understand the symbolism behind shapes such as hearts that do not directly represent their meaning.We gave a list of twenty paris of words to sighted subjects and asked them to pick from each pair the term that best related to a circle and the term th
13、at best related to a square. For example, we asked: What goes with soft? A circle or a square? Which shape goes with hard?All our subjects deemed the circle soft and the square hard. A full 94% ascribed happy to the circle, instead of sad. But other paris revealed less agreement: 79% matched fast to
14、 slow and weak to strong, respectively. And only 51% linked deep to circle and shallow to square. When we tested four totally blind volunteers using the same list, we found that their choices closely rexembled those made by the sighted subjects. One man, who had been blind since birth, scored extrem
15、ely well. He made only one match differing fro the consensus, assigning far to square and near to circle. In fact, only a small majority of sighted subjects53%-had paired far and near to the opposite partners. Thus, we concluded that the blind interpret abstract shapes as sighted people do. Question
16、s:1. In the first paragraph the writer makes the point that blind peopleA. may be interested in studying art.B. can draw outlines of different objects and surfaces.C. can recognize conversations such as perspective.D. can draw accurately.2. The writer was surprised because the blind womanA. drew a c
17、ircle on her own initiative.B. did not understand what a wheel looked like.C. included a symbol representing movement.D. was the first person to use lines of motion.3. From the experiment described in Part 1, the writer found that the blind subjectsA. had good understanding of symbols representing m
18、ovement.B. could control the movement of wheels very accurately.C. worked together well as a group in solving problems.D. got better results than the sighted undergraduates.4. Which of the following statements best summarises the writers general conclusion?A. The blind represent some aspects of real
19、ity differently from sighted people.B. The blind comprehend visual metaphors in similar ways to sighted people.C. The blind may create unusual and effective symbols to represent reality.D. The blind may be successful artists if given the right training.Complete the summary below using the words give
20、n.In the experiment described in Part 2, a set of word _ was used to investigate whether blind and sighted people perceived the symbolism in abstract _ in the same way. Subjects were asked which word fitted best with a circle and which with a square. From the _blind_ volunteers, everyone thought a circle fitted soft while a square fitted hard. However, only 51% of the _ volunteers assigned a circle to _. When the test was later repeated with _ volunteers, it was found that they made _ choices.associations blind deep hard hundredidentical pairs shapes sighted similarshallow soft words
