eye

Examples

• A1

  She has beautiful blue eyes that sparkle when she laughs.

• A1

  Close your eyes and count to ten while I hide the surprise.

• A2

  The doctor examined his eyes carefully and prescribed new glasses.

• A2

  She kept her eyes on the road and both hands on the steering wheel.

• B1

  The human eye is often compared to a camera — with the cornea and lens focusing light, the iris regulating how much light enters, and the retina acting like film — but this analogy breaks down in important ways: unlike a camera, the eye is in constant motion, the retina processes information rather than merely recording it, and the visual system actively constructs perception rather than passively receiving images.

• B1

  The idiom "eye contact" — the social act of looking directly into another person's eyes during conversation — carries significant cultural variation in meaning: in many Western cultures, maintaining eye contact signals attention, honesty, and respect, while avoiding it may suggest dishonesty or lack of confidence; in some East Asian and many African cultures, however, prolonged eye contact with elders or authority figures can be seen as disrespectful or confrontational.

• B2

  The evolution of the eye — once cited by Darwin himself as a seemingly insuperable challenge to his theory of natural selection — is now one of the best-documented examples of evolutionary transition: complex camera-like eyes have evolved independently at least 40 times in different animal lineages, and each intermediate stage (from a light-sensitive patch of cells, to a cup, to a pinhole, to a full lens-and-retina eye) is advantageous, making the gradual evolution of the eye fully compatible with natural selection.

• B2

  The "all-seeing eye" or Eye of Providence — familiar from its appearance on the US dollar bill — is a symbol with complex religious and political history, originally representing the eye of God watching over humanity in Christian iconography, adopted by Freemasons, and later incorporated into American national symbolism; it has also become a popular symbol of surveillance and conspiracy in contemporary culture, illustrating how symbols change meaning as they move across cultural contexts.

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