Question

           B  ★★★★☆

    Sperm whles (抹香鲸) talk to each other in (短而尖的声音) .“There's a lot of debate if culture is exclusive to humans or if you can find it in animals,too,” says Mauricio Cantor,a biologist. Earlier research has suggested that dolphins,birds and a few other wild animals have it too.

    Sperm whales can make som? of the deepest dives among all the animals in the sea. They usually swim in small units of 12 or so,moms,grandmas,aunts and friends. These units are part of larger groups of 30 to 300 whales,or a clan (家族) . Individuals in each clan talk to each other using different patterns of clicks. These varying patterns are similar to dialects in human speech. Females do most of the talking.

    Cantor and his colleagues wanted to know how the whales got their unique dialects. They recorded the whales’s behavior. Back in their lab,the scientists loaded all of these data into a computer. The research showed that the whales had to learn their dialects from other whales around them. 

    Scientists refer to this as social learning. a Social ;learning is the foundation(基础) of culture,” Cantor says. Because sperm whales learn their dialects from their families,there are cultural differences between  clans .

    Luke Rendell in Scotland points out that the new findings are based on a computer model of how the sperm whale dialects come to be. "Like all models,they may be wrong,but the?v,are also usefill. They may help improve more researchN on cultural processes in non-human societies,” he says.

5. The underlined word “exclusive” in Paragraph 1 means

   A. important 'v   B. limited 

    C. meaningful   D. common

6. What do we know about sperm whales from Paragraph 2 ?

   A. Males talk a lot.

   B. They fail to understand each other,

    C. They can understand human speech.

   D. Each family has its own communicative pattern.

7. How do sperm whales get their dialects?

   A. They copy other whales.

   B. They are bom with them.

    C. They create them themselves.

   D. They learn them from visitors.

8. What does Rendell think of the new findings?

   A. They are inspiring. 

    B. They are successful,

    C. They are misleading. 

    D. They are meaningless.

Answer 1

5.B 6.D 7.A 8.A

B篇抹香鲸会用语言互相沟通，也可能有自己的文化。

5.B. 词义猜测题。根据划线单词后的or if you can find it in animals,too可知，划线单词意思应 该为“排外的，局限的'

6.D. 细节理解题。根据第二段中的These units are part of larger groups of 30 to 300 whales,or a clan. Individuals in each clan talk to each other using different patterns of clicks 可知，不同的抹 香鲸家族交流方式不一样。

7.A. 细节理解题。根据第三段中的Theresearch showed that the whales had to learn the? dialects from other whales around them 可知，抹香餘从身 边其他鲸鱼那里学习语言。

8.A. 推断理解题。根据最后一段中的It may help improve more research on cultural processes in non-human societies 可知，Rendell 认为这个发现对非人类文化发展的研宄有一定的启发意义。