托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Brain Size of Bottlenose Dolphins

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Brain Size of Bottlenose Dolphins

Large brain size does not always mean that an animal is highly intelligent. Brain size is necessarily associated with overall body size, with large animals having large brains and small animals having small brains. However, it is still necessary for there to be some minimum amount of circuitry (brain cells and processes) present for a species to have the potential to be highly intelligent, whatever way the term intelligence is defined. A measure of relative brain size that has been applied to a variety of species is the encephalization quotient (EQ), the radio of brain mass to body size. The EQ is calculated by measuring the relative size of different body parts over a wide range of species. An EQ of 1.0 means that the brain is exactly the size one would expect for an animal of a particular size, an EQ higher than 1.0 means that a species is relatively brainy.

1. According to paragraph 1, what does it mean for an animal to have an EQ higher than 1.0?

A. Its brain has more mass than similarly sized brains of other animals.

B. Its brain is larger than expected for the animal’s overall body size.

C. Its brain is larger than that of most other animals.

D. Its brain is larger than that of any animal with an EQ of less than 1.0.

Bottlenose dolphins have a very high EQ, about 2.8 or higher. Thus, dolphin brains are not simply absolutely large: they are relatively very large as well. Humans, by the way, have extremely high EQ values, estimated to be in the neighborhood 7.5, making our species the brainiest in existence. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that EQ levels in several species of odontocetes (toothed whales, dolphins, and porpoises) are significantly higher than is the case for any primate except our own species. The EQ value for a species relates to a number of general measures of cognitive processing ability in different mammals, as well as to a number of life history patterns in mammals. EQ may be correlated with life span, home-range size, and social systems that characterize a particular species. Oddly enough, the relationships found between EQ and other factors in primates and some other mammals do not appear to apply as well to cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises), including the bottlenose dolphin.

2. Paragraph 2 supports which of the following statements about the EQ levels of various animals?

A. Bottlenose dolphins have higher EQ levels than other odoncetes do

B. The EQ levels of bottlenose dolphins are more closely associated with their life history patterns than the EQ levels of primates are.

C. Bottlenose dolphins belong to a group of animals whose EQ levels are higher than those of any primate except humans.

D. The brains of bottlenose dolphins are larger for these dolphins’ size than brains of humans are for humans’ size.

3. Which of the following is NOT identified in paragraph 2 as a factor that may be correlated with EQ?

A. The species’ social organization

B. The species’ ecological role in the environment

C. The extent of the range that species members need for daily activities

D. The number of years that species members live on average

4. Paragraph 2 answers which of the following questions about EQ?

A. Which life history patterns correlate best with EQ values in whales, dolphins, and porpoises?

B. Is the EQ of bottlenose dolphins significantly higher than that of other dolphins?

C. What are the differences in EQ levels among different species of odontocetes?

D. Do the same factors that correlate with EQ in primates correlate well with EQ in bottlenose dolphins?

。。。。。此处省略余下原文、题目及答案！

托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Brain Size of Bottlenose Dolphins，完整版下载，10元有偿！