Young Female Chimps² Outlearn Their Brothers

　　问题1. Why do young female chimps learn faster than young male chimps at fishing for termites⁴?

　　1.Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study, echoing differences seen in human girls and boys.

　　2.While young male chimps pass their time playing, young female chimps carefully study their mothers. As a result, they learn how to fish for tasty termite³(白蚁) snacks over two years before the boys.

　　A.Because young female chimps don't play with their bothers.

　　B.Because young female chimps begin to study their mothers earlier.

　　C.Because young male chimps never learn to fish for termites.

　　D.Because young male chimps are not interested in termites.

　　问题2.What are the tools with which chimps fish for termites?

　　3.Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, US, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, spent four years, watching how young chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania learned “cultural behavior”.

　　4.The sex differences in learning behavior were “consistent and strikingly apparent”, says the team. The researchers point out that similar differences are seen in human children with regard to skills such as writing. “A sex-based learning difference may therefore date back at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans,” they write in the journal Nature.

　　5.Chimps make flexible tools from vegetation and then insert them into termite mounds(土堆，土丘), extract them and then munch(大口咀嚼)the termites clinging onto the tool. The researchers used video cameras to record this feeding behavior and found that each chimp¹ mother had her own technique, such as how she used tools of different lengths.

　　A.Tree branches

　　B.Vegetables.

　　(Vegetations=plants)(此题课本中的答案出现错误，如果选项B正确，那么Vegetables 就应当改为Vegetations)

　　C.Fruits

　　D.Grass

　　问题3.Which of the following is true about chimps fishing for termites according to paragraph 6?

　　6.Analysis of the six infants whose ages were known showed that girl chimps were an average of 31 months old when they succeeded in fishing out their termites, where the boy chimps were aged⁶ 58 months on average. Females were also more skillful at getting out more termites with every dip and used techniques similar to their mothers while males did not.

　　A.Males often compete with females in fishing for termites.

　　B.Males could get out more termites with every dip.

　　C.Females could get out more termites with every dip.

　　D.Males are good at mastering techniques for fishing for termites.

　　问题4.How did the researchers explain the fact that boy chimps spent more time on playing?

　　7.Instead of studying their mothers, the boy chimps spent a significantly greater amount of time frolicking(嬉戏，嬉闹)around the termite mound⁵. Behaviors such as playing or swinging might help the male infants later in life when typically male activities like hunting or fighting for dominance become important, suggest the researchers.

　　A.They like hunting.

　　B.They enjoy fighting.

　　C.It helps them to stay fit. (保持健康)

　　D.It will make them good fighters and hunters in the future.

　　问题5.According to the last paragraph, which of the following is NOT true?

　　8.Lonsdorf adds that there are just two main sources of animal protein for chimps — the termites or colobus monkeys(疣猴). “Mature males often hunt monkeys up trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant. This makes hunting difficult,” she says. “Adult females spend more time fishing for termites than males.” So becoming proficient⁷ at(熟练地干…)termite fishing could mean adult females eat better, “They can watch their offspring at the same time. The young of both sexes seem to pursue activities related to their adult sex roles at a very young age.”

　　A.Adult chimps hunt monkeys while young chimps fish for termites.

　　B.The main source of animal protein for male chimps is colobus monkeys.

　　C.The main source of animal protein for male chimps is termites.

　　D.Female chimps fish for termites while watching their children.

　　本题印证了：一般说来，阅读理解的出题顺序和文章的叙述顺序是一致的。例如，在上面的阅读理解试题中，第一题答案出现在第2段，第二题的答案出现第5段，第三题的答案出现在第6段，第四题的答案出现在第7段，第五题的答案出现在第8段。