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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 phrase "putting their heads together"(Lines 7-8, Paragraph 3)means
选项 A、making efforts collectively.
B、always getting together.
C、thinking in the same way.
D、chatting together.
答案A
解析 第三段第七至八行的短语putting their heads together的意思是[A]集体努力。[B]经常在一起。[C]按同样的方式思考。[D]一起聊天。第三段最后一句提到“它们是人类集体智慧的结晶”，可以推断出[A]正确。其他选项是错误的理解。
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考研英语一

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