2015年1月11日托福阅读真题P1+题目+答案：Birdsong

2015年1月11日托福阅读真题P1+题目+答案：Birdsong

Birdsong is the classic example of how genes (hereditary information) and environment both have a crucial role to play in the behavioral development of animals. Since the pioneering work of W. H. Thorpe on chaffinches (a common European bird), many species have been studied, and it has become clear both that learning plays an important role for all species and also that there are constraints on what they are able to learn.

1. The word “pioneering” in the passage is closet in meaning to

A.recent

B.famous

C.original

D.controversial

Thorpe was able to show that learning from others was involved in chaffinch birds through a series of experiments on hand-reared chicks (young birds). As in most other species, only the males sing. Thorpe found that, if he raised young males in total isolation from all others, the song they produced was quite different from that of a normal adult. It was about the right length and in the correct frequency range. It was also split up into a series of notes as it should be. But these notes lacked the detailed structure found in wild birds, nor was the song split up into distinct phrases as it usually is. This suggested that song development requires some social influence. Later experiments in which researchers played recordings of songs to young birds showed just how precise this influence was: many of them would learn the exact pattern of the recording they had heard. A remarkable feature here was that birds were able to copy precisely songs that they only heard in the first few weeks of life, yet they did not sing themselves until about eight months old. They are thus able to store a memory of the sound within their brain and then match their own output to their recollection of it when they mature.

2. The word “distinct” in the passage is closet in meaning to

A.short

B.simple

C.separate

D.similar

3. According to paragraph 2, all of the following are characteristics of the songs of the young chaffinches in Thorpe’s experiment EXCEPT:

A.They were not identical to the songs of normal adult chaffinches.

B.They lacked the complex form of the songs of wild chaffinches.

C.They were as long as the songs of normal adult chaffinches.

D.They were clearly different from each other.

4. According to paragraph 2, researchers discovered which of the following by playing recordings of songs to chaffinches?

A.Chaffinches could no longer be taught to reproduce sounds after the first few weeks of life.

B.Chaffinches could not reproduce songs with exactly the same patterns of recorded songs.

C.Chaffinches at the age of eight months could recall and reproduce a song that they heard in the first few weeks of life.

D.Chaffinches that learned a song from recordings in the first few weeks of life were later unable to copy the sounds of mature chaffinches.

5.All of the following are mentioned in paragraph 2 as characteristics of wild chaffinches EXCEPT:

A.They are able to copy songs very precisely.

B.Their song development requires interaction with other chaffinches.

C.Their songs are not as well-structured as the songs of other birds.

D.It is the males of the species that do the singing.

Young chaffinches normally learn only chaffinch song, though Thorpe found they could be trained to sing the song of a tree pipit (another type of bird), which is very similar to that of their own species. In general, however, the constraints on learning which birds have ensure that they only learn songs appropriate to the species to which they themselves belong. These constraints may be in their brain’s circuitry, the young bird hatching with a rough idea of the sounds that it should copy. The crude song of a bird reared in isolation gives some clues as to what this rough idea may be: the length, the frequency range and the breaking up into notes are all aspects of chaffinch song shared between normal birds and those reared in isolation. In other cases the constraints are more social, young birds only being prepared to learn from individuals with whom they have social interactions. Thus, in a number of species, it has been found that they will not copy from recordings, but will do so from a live tutor. In some cases this may occur when they are young birds, but in others the main learning period is when they set up their territories and interact with neighbors for the first time, enabling them to match their neighbor’s songs and so countersing with them. Whatever the nature of the learning rules in a particular species, there is no doubt that they are effective; it is very unusual to hear a wild bird singing a song which is not typical of its own species despite the many different songs which often occur in a small patch of woodland.

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