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Questions 20–24 are based on the following passages.
Passage 1 is adapted from Susan Milius, “A Different Kind of Smart.” ©2013 by Science News. Passage 2 is adapted from Bernd Heinrich, Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures with Wolf-Birds. ©2007 by Bernd Heinrich.
Passage 1
In 1894, British psychologist C. Lloyd Morgan published what’s called Morgan’s canon, the principle that suggestions of humanlike mental processes behind an animal’s behavior should be rejected if a simpler explanation will do.
Still, people seem to maintain certain expectations, especially when it comes to birds and mammals. “We somehow want to prove they are as ‘smart’ as people,” zoologist Sara Shettleworth says. We want a bird that masters a vexing problem to be employing human-style insight.
New Caledonian crows face the high end of these expectations, as possibly the second-best toolmakers on the planet.
Their tools are hooked sticks or strips made from spike-edged leaves, and they use them in the wild to winkle grubs out of crevices. Researcher Russell Gray first saw the process on a cold morning in a mountain forest in New Caledonia, an island chain east of Australia. Over the course of days, he and crow researcher Gavin Hunt had gotten wild crows used to finding meat tidbits in holes in a log.Once the birds were checking the log reliably, the researchers placed a spiky tropical pandanus plant beside the log and hid behind a blind.
A crow arrived. It hopped onto the pandanus plant, grabbed the spiked edge of one of the long straplike leaves and began a series of ripping motions. Instead of just tearing away one long strip, the bird ripped and nipped in a sequence to create a slanting stair-step edge on a leaf segment with a narrow point and a wide base. The process took only seconds. Then the bird dipped the narrow end of its leaf strip into a hole in the log, fished up the meat with the leaf-edge spikes, swallowed its prize and flew off.
That was my ‘oh wow’ moment,” Gray says. After the crow had vanished, he picked up the tool the bird had left behind. “I had a go, and I couldn’t do it,” he recalls. Fishing the meat out was tricky. It turned out that Gray was moving the leaf shard too forcefully instead of gently stroking the spines against the treat.
The crow’s deft physical manipulation was what inspired Gray and Auckland colleague Alex Taylor to test other wild crows to see if they employed the seemingly insightful string-pulling solutions that some ravens,kea parrots and other brainiac birds are known to employ. Three of four crows passed that test on the first try.
Passage 2
For one month after they left the nest, I led my four young ravens at least once and sometimes several times a day on thirty-minute walks. During these walks, I wrote down everything in their environment they pecked at. In the first sessions, I tried to be teacher. I touched specific objects—sticks, moss, rocks—and nothing that I touched remained untouched by them. They came to investigate what I had investigated, leading me to assume that young birds are aided in learning to identify food from the parents’ example. They also, however, contacted almost everything else that lay directly in their own paths. They soon became more independent by taking their own routes near mine. Even while walking along on their own, they pulled at leaves, grass stems, flowers, bark, pine needles, seeds, cones, clods of earth, and other objects they encountered. I wrote all this down, converting it to numbers. After they were thoroughly familiar with the background objects in these woods and started to ignore them, I seeded the path we would later walk together with objects they had never before encountered. Some of these were conspicuous food items: raspberries, dead meal worm beetles, and cooked corn kernels. Others were conspicuous and inedible: pebbles, glass chips, red winterberries. Still others were such highly cryptic foods as encased caddisfly larvae and moth cocoons. The results were dramatic.
The four young birds on our daily walks contacted all new objects preferentially. They picked them out at a rate of up to tens of thousands of times greater than background or previously contacted objects. The main initial criterion for pecking or picking anything up was its novelty. In subsequent trials, when the previously novel items were edible, they became preferred and the inedible objects became “background” items, just like the leaves, grass, and pebbles, even if they were highly conspicuous. These experiments showed that ravens’ curiosity ensures exposure to all or almost all items in the environment.
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#p#副标题#e#Question 20 of 24
Select an Answer
Within Passage 1, the main purpose of the first two paragraphs (lines 1–8) is to
A
offer historical background in order to question the uniqueness of two researchers’ findings.
B
offer interpretive context in order to frame the discussion of an experiment and its results.
C
introduce a scientific principle in order to show how an experiment’s outcomes validated that principle.
D
present seemingly contradictory stances in order to show how they can be reconciled empirically.
Question 21 of 24
Select an Answer
According to the experiment described in Passage 2, whether the author’s ravens continued to show interest in a formerly new object was dictated primarily by whether that object was
A
edible.
B
plentiful.
C
conspicuous.
D
natural.
Question 22 of 24
Select an Answer
The crows in Passage 1 and the ravens in Passage 2 shared which trait?
A
They modified their behavior in response to changes in their environment.
B
They formed a strong bond with the humans who were observing them.
C
They manufactured useful tools for finding and accessing food.
D
They mimicked the actions they saw performed around them.
Question 23 of 24
Select an Answer
One difference between the experiments described in the two passages is that unlike the researchers discussed in Passage 1, the author of Passage 2
A
presented the birds with a problem to solve.
B
intentionally made the birds aware of his presence.
C
consciously manipulated the birds’ surroundings.
D
tested the birds’ tool-using abilities.
Question 24 of 24
Select an Answer
Is the main conclusion presented by the author of Passage 2 consistent with Morgan’s canon, as described in Passage 1?
A
Yes, because the conclusion proposes that the ravens’ behavior is a product of environmental factors.
B
Yes, because the conclusion offers a satisfyingly simple explanation of the ravens’ behavior.
C
No, because the conclusion suggests that the ravens exhibit complex behavior patterns.
D
No, because the conclusion implies that a humanlike quality motivates the ravens’ behavior.
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Question 20 of 24
正确答案：B
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Choice B is the best answer. Passage 1 opens with an explanation of Morgan’s canon and continues with a discussion of people’s expectations regarding animal intelligence. Taken together, the first two paragraphs indicate that despite cautions to the contrary, people still tend to look for humanlike levels of intelligence in many animals, including birds. These two paragraphs provide a framework in which to assess the work of Gray and Hunt, presented in the rest of the passage. The passage’s characterization of the experiment Gray and Hunt conduct, in which they observe a crow’s tool-making ability and to which Gray responds by trying and failing to mimic the bird’s behavior (“I had a go, and I couldn’t do it,” Passage 1, line 27),suggests that Shettleworth, quoted in the second paragraph, is at least partially correct in her assessment that “We somehow want to prove [birds] are as ‘smart’ as people” (Passage 1, lines6–7).
Choice A is not the best answer because while the reference to Morgan’s canon in the first paragraph offers a sort of historical background (given that the canon was published in 1894), the second paragraph describes people’s continuing expectations regarding animal intelligence. Furthermore, the fact that Gray and Hunt may share with other people the tendency to look for humanlike intelligence in many animals does not by itself establish that the main purpose of the first two paragraphs is to question the uniqueness of Gray and Hunt’s findings.
Choice C is not the best answer because while the reference to Morgan’s canon in the first paragraph does introduce a scientific principle, the discussion in the second paragraph of people’s expectations regarding animal intelligence, as well as the passage’s characterization of Gray and Hunt’s experiment and how the researchers interpret the results, primarily suggest that people tend to violate the canon by attributing humanlike levels of intelligence to many animals.
Choice D is not the best answer because although the first two paragraphs do present different perspectives, they are not seemingly or genuinely contradictory. The second paragraph, particularly the quotation from Shettleworth, serves mainly to qualify (not contradict) the position staked out in the first paragraph by suggesting that while Morgan’s canon is probably a sound principle, people still tend to project humanlike levels of intelligence onto many animals. Moreover, the experiment depicted in the rest of the passage primarily bears out Shettleworth’s claim that “We somehow want to prove [birds] are as ‘smart’ as people” (Passage 1, lines 6–7) and thus does not reconcile the perspectives found in the opening paragraphs.
Question Difficulty:
HARD
Passage Complexity:
MEDIUM
Objective:
Students must determine the main purpose of two paragraphs in relation to the passage as a whole.
Question 21 of 24
正确答案：A
View Correct Answer
Choice A is the best answer. The last paragraph of Passage 2 presents the results of an experiment in which the author scattered unfamiliar objects in the path of some ravens. According to the passage, the birds initially “contacted all new objects preferentially” but in “subsequent trials” only preferred those “previously novel items” that “were edible” (Passage 2, lines 21-28).
Choice B is not the best answer because the ravens studied by the author only preferred those “previously novel items” that “were edible,” whereas “the inedible objects became ‘background’ items, just like the leaves, grass, and pebbles”(Passage 2, lines 21-28). In other words, plentiful items did not continue to interest the ravens unless the items were edible.
Choice C is not the best answer because the ravens studied by the author only preferred those “previously novel items” that “were edible,” whereas “the inedible objects became ‘background’ items, just like the leaves, grass, and pebbles, even if they were highly conspicuous” (Passage 2, lines 21-28). In other words, conspicuous items did not continue to interest the ravens unless the items were edible.
Choice D is not the best answer because the ravens studied by the author only preferred those “previously novel items” that “were edible,” whereas “the inedible objects became ‘background’ items, just like the leaves, grass, and pebbles”(Passage 2, lines 21-28). In other words, natural items did not continue to interest the ravens unless the items were edible.
Question Difficulty:
EASY
Passage Complexity:
MEDIUM
Objective:
Students must identify an explicitly stated relationship between events.
Question 22 of 24
正确答案：A
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Choice A is the best answer. Both bird species studied modified their behavior in response to changes in their environment. The researchers described in Passage 1 “had gotten wild crows used to finding meat tidbits in holes in a log”(Passage 1, lines 15–16). In other words, the researchers had repeatedly placed meat in the log—that is, changed the crows’ environment—and the birds had responded by modifying their behavior, a point reinforced in Passage 1, line 16,which note that the birds began “checking the log reliably.” The ravens in Passage 2 act in analogous fashion, responding to the introduction of new objects in their environment by “pick[ing] them out at a rate of up to tens of thousands of times greater than background or previously contacted objects”(Passage 2, lines 22–23).
Choice B is not the best answer because while there is some evidence that the ravens described in Passage 2 formed a bond with the author, going on walks with him and possibly viewing him as their “teacher,” there is no evidence that a similar bond formed between the researchers described in Passage 1 and the crows they studied. Indeed, these researchers “hid behind a blind” (Passage 1, line 18) in an effort to avoid contact with their subjects.
Choice C is not the best answer because while crows’ tool manufacture is the central focus of the experiment described in Passage 1, there is no evidence that the ravens in Passage 2 did anything similar. Passage 1 does mention that “some ravens” use “seemingly insightful string-pulling solutions” (Passage 1, line 33), but nothing in Passage 2 suggests that the ravens in that particular study had or displayed tool-making abilities.
Choice D is not the best answer because while there is some evidence that the ravens described in Passage 2 mimicked human behavior, going on walks with the author and possibly viewing him as their “teacher,” there is no evidence that the crows in Passage 1 did any mimicking. Passage 1, in fact, suggests that the ability of the crow to produce the meat-fishing tool was innate rather than a skill it had acquired from either humans or other birds.
Question Difficulty:
MEDIUM
Passage Complexity:
MEDIUM
Objective:
Students must synthesize information and ideas from paired texts.
Question 23 of 24
正确答案：B
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Choice B is the best answer. The researchers described in Passage 1 “hid behind a blind”(Passage 1, line 18) to avoid being seen by the crow. The author of Passage 2, on the other hand, made no attempt to conceal his presence; in fact, as he describes it, he “led” the ravens in his study on “walks” (Passage 2, lines 1–2), during which he “touched specific objects” (Passage 2, line 4) and then watched to see whether the birds touched the same objects. The author of Passage 2 notes that the ravens “soon became more independent”(Passage 2, line 9), going their own way rather than continuing to follow the author. From this it is clear that the author of Passage 2, unlike the researchers described in Passage 1, intentionally made the birds aware of his presence.
Choice A is not the best answer because while a case could be made that the author of Passage 2 gave the ravens a problem to solve (Which new objects are best to touch?), the researchers described in Passage 1 presented the crows with a problem as well: how to extract meat from a log. Thus, presenting birds with a problem to solve was not a difference between the experiments.
Choice C is not the best answer because both the researchers described in Passage 1 and the author of Passage 2 consciously manipulated the birds’ surroundings. The crow researchers placed meat pieces in a log and a pandanus plant behind the log (see Passage 1, lines 16–18). The author of Passage 2 put unfamiliar objects on a path for the ravens to find (see Passage 2, lines 14–16). Thus, conscious manipulation of the birds’ surroundings was not a difference between the experiments.
Choice D is not the best answer because there is no evidence that the author of Passage 2 tested the ravens’ tool-using abilities. The passage instead indicates that the author recorded observations about the birds’ interactions with objects naturally occurring in and artificially introduced into the environment.
Question Difficulty:
EASY
Passage Complexity:
MEDIUM
Objective:
Students must synthesize information and ideas from paired texts.
Question 24 of 24
正确答案：D
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Choice D is the best answer. According to Passage 1, Morgan’s canon is “the principle that suggestions of humanlike mental processes behind an animal’s behavior should be rejected if a simpler explanation will do” (Passage 1, lines 1–4). The main conclusion drawn by the author of Passage 2 is that “ravens’ curiosity ensures exposure to all or almost all items in the environment” (Passage 2, lines 28–29). In referring to the ravens’ behavior as reflecting “curiosity,” a human trait, the author of Passage 2 would seem to be ascribing a humanlike mental process to an animal’s behavior without explicitly considering alternate explanations.
Choice A is not the best answer because the main conclusion drawn by the author of Passage 2 is that “ravens’ curiosity ensures exposure to all or almost all items in the environment” (Passage 2, lines 28–29). In referring to the ravens’ behavior as reflecting “curiosity,” a human trait, the author of Passage 2 would seem to be ascribing a humanlike mental process to an animal’s behavior without explicitly considering alternate explanations. Morgan’s canon holds that such suggestions should be rejected unless a “simpler explanation” cannot be found (Passage 1, lines1–4); therefore, the conclusion the author of Passage 2 reaches is not consistent with Morgan’s canon. Moreover, by ascribing the ravens’ behavior to “curiosity,” the author of Passage 2 seems to reject environmental factors as the cause.
Choice B is not the best answer because the main conclusion drawn by the author of Passage 2 is that “ravens’ curiosity ensures exposure to all or almost all items in the environment” (Passage 2, lines 28–29). In referring to the ravens’ behavior as reflecting “curiosity,” a human trait, the author of Passage 2 would seem to be ascribing a humanlike mental process to an animal’s behavior without explicitly considering alternate explanations. Morgan’s canon holds that such suggestions should be rejected unless a “simpler explanation” cannot be found (Passage 1, lines1–4); therefore, the conclusion the author of Passage 2 reaches cannot be the type of “simpler explanation” Morgan was alluding to.
Choice C is not the best answer because while the main conclusion drawn by the author of Passage 2 is not consistent with Morgan’s canon (see explanation for choice D), nothing about how the canon is described in Passage 1 precludes the possibility that animals can exhibit complex behavior patterns. The canon merely rejects the idea that humanlike mental processes should quickly or easily be attributed to animals.
Question Difficulty:
MEDIUM
Passage Complexity:
MEDIUM
Objective:
Students must synthesize information and ideas from paired texts.