2. 外语
  3. People find that like humans chimpanzees (黑猩猩) use "tools": they strip twigs (小树枝) and use them to take out termites(白蚁) from th

People find that like humans chimpanzees (黑猩猩) use "tools": they strip twigs (小树枝) and use them to take out termites(白蚁) from th

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问题     People find that like humans chimpanzees (黑猩猩) use "tools": they strip twigs (小树枝) and use them to take out termites(白蚁) from their nests. The chimpanzees and the termites both live in social groups. Chimpanzee females live on individual home ranges within a territory that is defended by a group of related males. Termites live in a colony with three classes: queen, workers and soldiers.  Chimpanzees can be trained to respond in accordance with different symbolic gestures.
    So if we can build power stations, why can’t chimpanzees? A major reason is that they lack a laryrx(喉) and a mouth that make it possible to pronounce clearly and distinctly a wide range of distinguishable sounds. Without these they are doomed to making little progress. One can scarcely imagine us building and operating power stations or implementing a system of justice as intricate as ours without us having an extremely complex system of communication like that provided by our speech. Far simpler tasks require language., language for learning, language for planning, language for co-operation. Without speech it is, indeed, difficult to refer to anything that is removed from us in space and time, anything that we cannot point to here and now. This becomes clear as soon as you try to arrange to meet a friend outside the town hall at seven o’clock without saying or writing anything.
    Language allows human beings to learn and adapt to changing circumstances far more quickly than would be achieved by evolution. A word of warning passed from father to son is a much more direct and efficient way of adapting the species to its environment than is a process of natural selection. Human language is infinitely versatile. Honey-bees have a remarkable way of letting others know the direction in which a source of food lies and how far away it is by means of a "dance". But they could not begin to discuss the merits of other foodstuffs or alternative ways of constructing their homes.
The word "versatile" (Line 4, Para. 3) most probably means______.
选项 A、useful and changeable
B、adaptable and flexible
C、flexible and useful
D、adaptable and changeable
答案B
解析 第三段谈到语言使得人类能够更快地适应不断变化的环境。第四句指出蜜蜂虽然可以通过一种舞蹈语言告知同类蜜源在何处，但它们却无法谈论其它食物的好处以及建造家园的其他方法，相比之下人类的语言却可以灵活地应用于各种不同的情境，所以选项B符合题意．
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大学英语四级

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