基础提升考研真题阅读每日一篇(33)(2013.4.8)

2005 Text 1

Everybody loves a fat pay rise. Yet pleasure at your own can vanish if you learn that a colleague has

been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he has a reputation for slacking, you might even be outraged. Such

behaviour is regarded as “all too human”, with the underlying

assumption

that other animals would not

be capable of this finely developed sense of

grievance

. But a study by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal

of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all

too monkey, as well.

The researchers studied the behaviour of female brown capuchin monkeys. They look cute. They

are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food

tardily

. Above all, like their female

human

counterpart

s,

they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of “goods and services” than

males.

Such characteristics make them perfect candidates for Dr. Brosnan's and Dr. de waal's study. The

researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange

token

s for food. Normally, the monkeys

were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for slices of cucumber. However, when two monkeys

were placed in separate but adjoining chambers, so that each could observe what the other was getting in

return for its rock, their behaviour became markedly different.

In the world of capuchins grapes are luxury goods (and much preferable to cucumbers) So when

one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was

reluctant

to hand hers over

for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in

exchange at all, the other either tossed her own token at the researcher or out of the chamber, or refused

to accept the slice of cucumber .Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other chamber (without an

actual monkey to eat it) was enough to induce resentment in a female capuchin.

The researches suggest that capuchin monkeys, like humans, are guided by social emotions. In the

wild, they are a co- operative, group-living species, Such co-operation is likely to be stable only when

each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of righteous

indignation

, it seems, are not the

preserve of people alone, Refusing a lesser reward completely makes these feelings abundantly clear to

other members of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness evolved independently in

capuchins and humans, or whether it stems from the common ancestor that the species had 35 million

years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.

21. In the opening paragraph, the author introduces his topic by

[A]. posing a contrast.

[B]. justifying an assumption.

[C]. making a comparison.

[D]. explaining a phenomenon.

22. The statement “it is all too monkey” (Last line, paragraph l) implies that

[A]. monkeys are also outraged by slack rivals.

[B]. resenting unfairness is also monkeys' nature.

[C]. monkeys, like humans, tend to be jealous of each other.

[D]. no animals other than monkeys can develop such emotions.

23. Female capuchin monkeys were chosen for the research most probably because they are

[A]. more inclined to weigh what they get.

[B]. attentive to researchers' instructions.

[C]. nice in both appearance and temperament.

[D]. more generous than their male companions

24. Dr. Brosnan and Dr. de Waal have eventually found in their study that the monkeys

[A]. prefer grapes to cucumbers.

[B]. can be taught to exchange things.

[C]. will not be co-operative if feeling cheated.

[D]. are unhappy when separated from others.

25. What can we infer from the last paragraph?

[A]. Monkeys can be trained to develop social emotions.

[B]. Human indignation evolved from an uncertain source.

[C]. Animals usually show their feelings openly as humans do.

[D]. Cooperation among monkeys remains stable only in the wild.

21

题

[C]

难度

0.246

考察第一段的写作手法，明显用的 是猴和人之间的相似形的比较关系。关于

contrast

和< /p>

compare

，

两者的词性不同。

contrast

多用来进行对比，即不同事物之间的比较。而

compare

多用于类比，即

同类事物之 间的比较。

A

选项

posing a contrast

意思是提出一个对比，< /p>

但是请注意，

提出不代表对这个对比做出分析。

< br>而原文第一段明显是对人和猴子这个对比做出了分析，因此应该是

making a comparison

，即对一

个对比做出了分析。

post

仅仅是

“

提 出

”

的意思，而原文中作者是通过做具体的对比而得出结论，< /p>

所以，

“make”

这个词应该更准确。 而且，参考上面所说的

contrast

和

compare

的区别，更应该选

择

C

选项。

B

选项

justifying an assumption

意思是证明一种假设，但是第一段的意思是人与猴子的比较，

而不是什么假设。这个也是很强的干扰项。

D

选项

explaining a p henomenon.

意思是解释一种现象，

但是文章第一段的 意思是人与猴之间的

比较，而不是在解释什么东西，只是进行一种比较罢了。