Question

If you saw another kid ride her bike too fast around a corner and fall down, you might ride your bike more slowly on that turn. Yes, we humans are very sensitive to others' mistakes. And the same is true for other animals. Animals mess up all the time. They might eat poisonous leaves, fall off a tree or let their prey (獵物) slip away. By watching others fail, an animal can avoid making the same mistakes, thus improving its chance of survival.

Scientists suspected that one part of the brain helps animals process information about others' errors. Cells in that part appear to become more active when a person sees someone else making a mistake. But researchers didn't know whether individual cells in this part of the brain play different roles in detecting errors.

To investigate the brain's response to errors in more detail, the researchers taught a game to two macaques, a type of monkey. One monkey could press a yellow or green button while the other watched. If the first monkey pressed the right button, the team gave both animals a treat. Every couple of rounds, the two monkeys switched roles. Meanwhile, the scientists monitored individual cells in the animal's brains.

When the first monkey messed up the game by pressing the wrong button, a group of cells in the second monkey's brain fired. But if the second monkey also made the wrong choice during its turn, some of the cells in that group didn't respond. Those unresponsive cells reacted specifically to mistakes made by others, not to the monkey's own mistakes.

Scientists believe other parts of the brain also might help people process information about another's errors. "You start to think about this other person and see things from his angle. " Ellen de Bruijn, told Science News. She studies the brain at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands.

1. According to Paragraph 1 , animals' ability to learn from others' mistakes ______.

A. used to be ignored by humans

B. ensures that they will never fail

C. is being lost because of humans

D. helps them to survive better

2.The underlined word "detecting" in Paragraph 2 probably means "______".

A. correcting B. making

C. sensing D. drawing

3. In the experiment mentioned, those unresponsive cells are only sensitive to ______.

A. the same buttons B. others' mistakes

C. one's own mistakes D. the monkey's brain

Answer 1

1.D

2.C

3.B

【解析】本文是一篇說明文，人類對別人的錯誤很敏感，同樣，動物也是這樣。本文通過實驗說明了大腦只對別人的錯誤有反映，但是卻對自己不會有反映，這個發(fā)現(xiàn)引導人們從犯錯誤的人的角度看問題。

1. By watching others fail, an animal can avoid making the same mistakes, thus improving its chance of survival.通過觀察其他動物的失敗，一種動物可以避免犯相似的錯誤，這樣就提高了它生存的機會。故選D

2.

3. unresponsive cells reacted specifically to mistakes made by others, not to the monkey's own mistakes.。這些遲鈍的細胞尤其對別人犯的錯誤有反應，而不是對猴子自己的錯誤。故選B

考點：考察說明文閱讀。