今天下午的完形填空初看的是一篇關(guān)于動(dòng)物智能方面的文章，可能算得上是一篇偏重科技的文章，但文章的作者在行文中卻閃爍著人文的光輝。此文章最先刊登在2008年5月7日的《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》上，原文的標(biāo)題是 The Cost of Smarts，翻譯過來就是“聰明的代價(jià)”，考研命題專家在選擇時(shí)，原文的四段只選用了其中的三段。
Research on animal intelligence always makes me wonder just how smart humans are. Consider (第1題答案為B) the fruit-fly experiments described in Carl Zimmer’s piece in the Science Times on Tuesday. Fruit flies who were taught to be smarter than the average fruit fly tended (第2題答案為A) to live shorter lives. This suggests that dimmer (第3題答案為D)bulbs burn longer, that there is an advantage (第4題答案為B)in not being too terrifically bright.
Intelligence, it turns out (第5題答案為C), is a high-priced option. It takes more upkeep, burns more fuel and is slow off (第6題答案為A)the starting line because it depends on learning — a gradual (第7題答案為D)process— instead of instinct. Plenty of other species are able to learn, and one of the things they’ve apparently learned is when to stop. (第8題答案為C)
Is there an adaptive value to limited(第9題答案為B) intelligence? That’s the question behind this new research. I like it. Instead of casting a wistful glance backward (第10題答案為D) at all the species we’ve left in the dust I.Q.-wise, it implicitly asks what the real costs (第11題答案為D) of our own intelligence might be. This is on (第12題答案為B) the mind of every animal I’ve ever met.
(Every chicken that looks at you sideways — which is how they all look at you — is really saying what Thoreau said less succinctly: you are endeavoring to solve the problem of a livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. Thoreau himself would not dispute that he was hoping to recover the chicken’s point of view. He went to Walden Pond “to remember well his ignorance.”)
Research on animal intelligence also makes me wonder what experiments animals would perform (第13題答案為C) on humans if they had the chance. Every cat with an owner, for instance(第14題答案為D), is running a small-scale study in operant conditioning. I believe that if(第15題答案為A) animals ran the labs, they would test us to determine(第16題答案為C) the limits of our patience, our faithfulness, our memory for terrain. They would try to decide what intelligence in humans is really for(第17題答案為B), not merely how much of it there is.Above all(第18題答案為A), they would hope to study a fundamental (第19題答案為A) question: Are humans actually aware of the world they live in? So far (第20題答案為C) the results are inconclusive.
