I. 阅读理解 A
The pressure of a watching audience can have positive or negative effects on human performance, and it turns out that the same is true of our closest relatives.
Christen Lin at Kyoto University, Japan, and his colleagues tested a group of six chimps (黑猩猩) on three numerical tasks with different difficulty.
In the first task, the numbers 1 to 5 appeared on a screen in different locations and the chimps simply had to touch the numbers in the correct order to get a food reward (奖赏). In the second task, the chimps had to press non-adjacent numbers (like 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 15) from smallest to largest for a reward. Finally, in the hardest test, when the first number was pressed, the rest of the numbers went dark on the screen. This meant the chimps had to remember the location of the numbers in order to press them in the correct order.
The chimps were tested on the tasks thousands of times over a six-year period with different audiences—from one to eight human observers. When the task was easy, the chimps performed worse when there were more people watching. But on the most difficult task, all six of the chimps did better as the size of the audience grew.
"It was very surprising to find a great increase in performance as human observer numbers increased, because we might expect more humans being present to be more distracting (分心的)," says Lin. "For the easiest task, the humans may be a stressor that actually drives them to perform better."
Miguel Llorente at the University of Girona, Spain, suggests further studies could be about how the audience effect is related to chimps' individual personalities. "It would also be interesting to understand these effects with chimp audiences to understand more fully how these interactions play out in a more natural social context," he says.
1. What is a unique challenge to the chimps in the third task?
A. Number ordering.
B. Location memory.
C. Audience pressure.
D. Reward system.
2. In what situation did the chimps perform the best?
A. During task 3 with 8 observers.
B. During task 1 with 7 observers.
C. During task 3 with 1 observer.
D. During task 1 with 8 observers.
3. What can we learn from Lin's words about humans in difficult tasks?
A. They may reduce task pressure.
B. They may serve as a driving force.
C. They may offer task guidance.
D. They may break concentration.
4. What does Llorente suggest studying about the audience effect?
A. Its relation with human presence.
B. Its influence on human personalities.
C. Its relation with chimps' personalities.
D. Its influence on chimps' memory.
答案:1. B
解析:根据第三段“Finally, in the hardest test...This meant the chimps had to remember the location of the numbers...”可知,第三项任务的独特挑战是位置记忆,B选项正确。
2. A
解析:根据第四段“But on the most difficult task, all six of the chimps did better as the size of the audience grew.”,第三项任务最难,观众越多表现越好,A选项“task 3 with 8 observers”正确。
3. B
解析:根据第五段“For the easiest task, the humans may be a stressor that actually drives them to perform better.”(此处原文可能笔误,结合前文,应是最难任务中人类是驱动力),林认为在困难任务中人类可能是驱动力,B选项正确。
4. C
解析:根据最后一段“Miguel Llorente...suggests further studies could be about how the audience effect is related to chimps' individual personalities.”可知,Llorente建议研究观众效应与黑猩猩个性的关系,C选项正确。
6. Success results from diligence while
laziness leads to failure
.
7. Technology
is developing at an amazing speed
, which brings about some problems.
8.
From my point of view / In my opinion
, she did care about her parents.
答案:6. laziness leads to failure
解析:“懒惰”名词“laziness”,“导致失败”“leads to failure”,用一般现在时。
7. is developing at an amazing speed
解析:“正以惊人的速度发展”用现在进行时,“is developing at an amazing speed”。
8. From my point of view / In my opinion
解析:“在我看来”固定短语“From my point of view”或“In my opinion”。