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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 author cited the story about the child born alone on a desert island to exemplify
选项 A、social skills distinguish children from apes.
B、she has basic skills to deal with the material world.
C、language was created by human beings collectively.
D、human beings can live alone without social interaction.
答案A
解析 作者引用那个出生在荒岛上的孩子的故事是为了说明[A]社会技巧将儿童和猿区别开来。[B]她(这个孩子)有应对物质世界的基本技巧。[C]语言是人类集体创造的。[D]人类可以在没有社会交往的情况下独自生活。文章第三段第一句提到，这些社会技能才是产生差别的关键。根据该段第四、五、六句可以判断[B]和[C]虽然符合文意，但并非作者举例说明的目的。而[D]在文中没有明确表述。故[A]正确。
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