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  3. Human beings do not like to think of themselves as animals. It is thus with decidedly mixed feelings that we regard the frequent

Human beings do not like to think of themselves as animals. It is thus with decidedly mixed feelings that we regard the frequent

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问题     Human beings do not like to think of themselves as animals. It is thus with decidedly mixed feelings that we regard the frequent reports that activities once thought to be uniquely human are also performed by other species: chimpanzees who make and use tools, parrots who use language, ants who teach. Is there anything left?
    You might think that human beings at least enjoy the advantage of being more generally intelligent. To test this idea, my colleagues and I recently administered an array of cognitive tests—the equivalent of nonverbal I. Q. tests—to adult chimpanzees and orangutans and to 2-year-old human children. As it turned out, the children were not more skillful overall. They performed about the same as the apes on the tests that measured how well they understood the physical world of space, quantities and causality. The children performed better only on tests that measured social skills: social learning, communicating and reading the intentions of others.
    But such social gifts make all the difference. Imagine a child born alone on a desert island and somehow magically kept alive. What would this child’s cognitive skills look like as an adult—with no one to teach her, no one to imitate, no pre-existing tools, no spoken or written language? She would certainly possess basic skills for dealing with the physical world, but they would not be particularly impressive. She would not invent for herself English, or Arabic numerals, or metal knives, or money. These are the products of collective cognition; they were created by human beings, in effect, putting their heads together.
    Another subtle but crucial difference can be seen in communication. The great apes chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orangutans—communicate almost exclusively for the purpose of getting others to do what they want. Human infants, in addition, gesture and talk in order to share information with others—they want to be helpful. They also share their emotions and attitudes freely—as when an infant points to a passing bird for its mother and squeals with glee. This unprompted sharing of information and attitudes can be seen as a forerunner of adult gossip, which ensures that members of a group can pool their knowledge and know who is or is not behaving cooperatively. The free sharing of information also creates the possibility of pedagogy—in which adults impart information by telling and showing, and children trust and use this information with confidence. Our nearest primate relatives do not teach and learn in this manner.
The author and his colleagues’ cognitive tests proved that
选项 A、the children were more skillful in all aspects.
B、the children were not the same as the apes in dealing with the material world.
C、the children performed better only in social skills.
D、the apes were better in the physical world.
答案C
解析 作者和他的同事们做的认知测试证明了[A]儿童在所有的方面都具备更多的技巧。[B]在应对物质世界方面，儿童和猿不同。[C]儿童只在社会技巧方面表现得更好。[D]猿在物质世界方面表现得更好。根据第二段的第三、四、五句可知：结果显示，儿童总体上并没体现出更多的技巧。在考核理解物质世界……儿童的表现基本上与猿类相同。儿童只是在社会技巧方面表现得更好。由此可见，[A]、[B]、[D]是错误解读。故[C]正确。
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