练习说明
Questions 24 – 26
Complete the summary below.
Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.
Write your answers in boxes 24-26 on your answer sheet.
原文
D True episodic memory, argues Dr Thomas Suddendorf of Australia’s Queensland University, involves more than just memory of information. It requires an awareness of the self and an ability to use the past to predict the future. He points to the discovery of stone tools which primitive humans used for killing animals 1.6 million years ago. Scientists assume that primitive humans had to find a way of adding much needed protein to their diet. Paleontologists have determined that some of these tools were moved many kilometres from where they were originally made. ‘If you’ve just eaten, the only reason you’re going to take a tool with you is if you anticipate using it in the future,’ said Dr Suddendorf.
F Dr Suddendorf’s notions have spurred comparative psychologists to look for evidence that animals can also think ahead. Some studies suggest not. Cebus monkeys, for example, will eat until they are full and throw the rest of the food out of their cage, despite the fact that they will not have anything to eat the next morning. But in other studies, animals show more promise. ‘We tested squirrel monkeys to see if they could anticipate the future, and to our surprise it looks like they could,’ said Dr William Roberts, a comparative psychologist at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He and his colleagues ran a test in which they gave squirrel monkeys a choice of between one or four dates to eat. Not surprisingly, the monkeys took four. But the scientists then began to take away water from the monkeys before they gave them the choice. If the monkeys took four, the scientists kept the water away for three hours. If the monkeys took one, the scientists returned it in half an hour. The monkeys learned to choose one. Though they were not thirsty at the time, they seemed to understand that they would become so in future.