Question

【題目】In the story of “The crow and the Pitcher” from Aesop’s Fables, a thirsty crow(烏鴉) drops stones into a narrow jar to raise the low level of water inside so he can take a drink.

Now scientists have evidence to back up that story. New Caledonian crows actually do understand how to make water displacement work to their advantage, experiments showed. The results suggest that the birds are, at least in some aspects, as smart as first-graders, according to the study.

Researchers, led by Sarah Jelbert at the university of Auckland in New Zealand, presented six crows with tubes filled with water. Inside the tubes, a worm or piece of meat on a piece of wood was floating, just out of reach of the crow. In front of the tubes, the researchers arranged a bunch of heavy rubber erasers that would sink, and light plastic objects that would float. The crows found out that they could drop the heavy objects into the tubes in order to raise the water level and get their snack.

However, the birds handled awkwardly in experiments in which they could choose to drop objects in either a wide tube or a narrow tube to get a snack, the researchers said. Dropping objects into narrow tube would lift the water level by a greater amount and put the treat within reach after just two drops. In contrast, it took around seven drops to raise the snack to the same level in the wide tube. The crows obviously didn’t realize this, and most of them went for the wide tube first.

Previous studies showed that chimps and human children can solve similar tasks. In a 2011 study, chimps and kids found out that they could put water into a tube to reach a peanut that was floating in small amount of water at the bottom.

【1】What does the text focus on?

A. Aesop’s prediction B. Crow’s intelligence

C. The development of crows D. Human-animal communication

【2】How did the crows get the worm in a tube in Sarah’ experiment?

A. By dropping in the heavy erasers. B. By removing the plastic objects.

C. By standing on the wood. D. By breaking the tube.

【3】What does the underlined part “the treat” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A. The tube. B. The object.

C. The snack D. The water.

【4】What did the experiment with wide and narrow tubes show?

A. Crows are sensitive to surroundings.

B. Crows have the ability to recognize shapes.

C. Crows are cleverer than chimps and children.

D. Crows understand water displacement incompletely.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】B

【2】A

【3】C

【4】D

【解析】“烏鴉和投手”的故事來(lái)自伊索寓言。一只口渴的烏鴉(烏鴉)滴石頭進(jìn)入了一個(gè)狹窄的jar提高低水平的水里面,所以他可以喝�，F(xiàn)在科學(xué)家有證據(jù)支持這個(gè)說(shuō)法。

【1】B

推理判斷題。根據(jù)第二段中New Caledonian crows actually do understand how to make water displacement work to their advantage, experiments showed. The results suggest that the birds are, at least in some aspects, as smart as first-graders, according to the study.可知，這篇課文講的是Crow的智力。故選B。

【2】A

細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第三段中The crows found out that they could drop the heavy objects into the tubes in order to raise the water level and get their snack.可知，在Sarah的實(shí)驗(yàn)中烏鴉通過(guò)落下沉重的橡皮擦進(jìn)入管子里來(lái)得到蟲子。根據(jù)句意可知答案為A。

【3】C

詞義猜測(cè)題。根據(jù)第四段第一句the birds handled awkwardly in experiments in which they could choose to drop objects in either a wide tube or a narrow tube to get a snack, the researchers said. 研究人員說(shuō)，這些鳥在實(shí)驗(yàn)中笨拙地進(jìn)行了實(shí)驗(yàn)，在實(shí)驗(yàn)中，它們可以選擇將物體放入寬管或窄管中，以獲得零食�？芍�，Dropping objects into narrow tube would lift the water level by a greater amount and put the treat within reach after just two drops. （將物體放入狹窄的管道中，將會(huì)使水位上升更多，并在兩滴之后將其置于可及的范圍內(nèi)。）中的the treat指的是The snack。

【4】D

推理判斷題。根據(jù)第四段中Dropping objects into narrow tube would lift the water level by a greater amount and put the treat within reach after just two drops. In contrast, it took around seven drops to raise the snack to the same level in the wide tube. The crows obviously didn’t realize this, and most of them went for the wide tube first.可知，烏鴉不完全理解水的位移。由此可知答案為D。

任何一篇文章中的句子在內(nèi)容上都不是絕對(duì)孤立的，都跟句子所在的段落及整整篇文章有關(guān)。利用上下文提供的情景和線索，進(jìn)行合乎邏輯的綜合分析進(jìn)而推測(cè)詞義，是閱讀過(guò)程中的一大關(guān)鍵，這也是近年來(lái)高考考查的熱點(diǎn)。最常見的就是利用上下文語(yǔ)境、常識(shí)和語(yǔ)法關(guān)系推斷詞義，抓住所需推斷詞匯前后的含義找出正確答案。本題第3小題是詞義猜測(cè)題，根據(jù)第四段第一句the birds handled awkwardly in experiments in which they could choose to drop objects in either a wide tube or a narrow tube to get a snack, the researchers said. 研究人員說(shuō)，這些鳥在實(shí)驗(yàn)中笨拙地進(jìn)行了實(shí)驗(yàn)，在實(shí)驗(yàn)中，它們可以選擇將物體放入寬管或窄管中，以獲得零食。可知，Dropping objects into narrow tube would lift the water level by a greater amount and put the treat within reach after just two drops. （將物體放入狹窄的管道中，將會(huì)使水位上升更多，并在兩滴之后將其置于可及的范圍內(nèi)。）中的the treat指的是The snack。