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Reading Passage 1: Ants Could Teach Ants
The ants are tiny and usually nest between rocks in the south coast of England. Transformed into research subjects at the University of Bristol, they raced along a tabletop foraging for food—and then, remarkably, returned to guide others. Time and again, followers trailed behind leaders, darting this way and that along the route, presumably to memorize landmarks. Once a follower got its bearings, it tapped the leader with its antennae, prompting the lesson to literally proceed to the next step. The ants were only looking for food but the researchers said the careful way the leaders led followers—thereby turning them into leaders in their own right—marked the Temnothorax albipennis ant as the very first example of a non-human animal exhibiting teaching behavior.
"Tandem running is an example of teaching, to our knowledge the first in a non-human animal, that involves bidirectional feedback between teacher and pupil," remarks Nigel Franks, professor of animal behavior and ecology, whose paper on the ant educators was published last week in the journal Nature. No sooner was the paper published, of course, than another educator questioned it. Marc Hauser, a psychologist and biologist and one of the scientists who came up with the definition of teaching, said it was unclear whether the ants had learned a new skill or merely acquired new information. Later, Franks took a further study and found that there were even races between leaders. With the guidance of leaders, ants could find food faster. But the help comes at a cost for the leader, who normally would have reached the food about four times faster if not hampered by a follower. This means the hypothesis that the leaders deliberately slowed down in order to pass the skills on to the followers seems potentially valid. His ideas were advocated by the students who carried out the video project with him.
Opposing views still arose, however. Hauser noted that mere communication of information is commonplace in the animal world. Consider a species, for example, that uses alarm calls to warn fellow members about the presence of a predator. Sounding the alarm can be costly, because the animal may draw the attention of the predator to itself. But it allows others to flee to safety. “Would you call this teaching?” wrote Hauser. “The caller incurs a cost. The naive animals gain a benefit and new knowledge that better enables them to learn about the predator’s location than if the caller had not called. This happens throughout the animal kingdom, but we don’t call it teaching, even though it is clearly transfer of information.”
Tim Caro, a zoologist, presented two cases of animal communication. He found that cheetah mothers that take their cubs along on hunts gradually allow their cubs to do more of the hunting—going, for example, from killing a gazelle and allowing young cubs to eat to merely tripping the gazelle and letting the cubs finish it off. At one level, such behavior might be called teaching—except the mother was not really teaching the cubs to hunt but merely facilitating various stages of learning. In another instance, birds watching other birds using a stick to locate food such as insects and so on, are observed to do the same thing themselves while finding food later.
Psychologists study animal behavior in part to understand the evolutionary roots of human behavior, Hauser said. The challenge in understanding whether other animals truly teach one another, he added, is that human teaching involves a “theory of mind”—teachers are aware that students don’t know something. He questioned whether Franks’s leader ants really knew that the follower ants were ignorant. Could they simply have been following an instinctive rule to proceed when the followers tapped them on the legs or abdomen? And did leaders that led the way to food—only to find that it had been removed by the experimenter—incur the wrath of followers? That, Hauser said, would suggest that the follower ant actually knew the leader was more knowledgeable and not merely following an instinctive routine itself.
The controversy went on, and for a good reason. The occurrence of teaching in ants, if proven to be true, indicates that teaching can evolve in animals with tiny brains. It is probably the value of information in social animals that determines when teaching will evolve rather than the constraints of brain size.
Bennett Galef Jr., a psychologist who studies animal behavior and social learning at McMaster University in Canada, maintained that ants were unlikely to have a “theory of mind”—meaning that leader and followers may well have been following instinctive routines that were not based on an understanding of what was happening in another ant’s brain. He warned that scientists may be barking up the wrong tree when they look not only for examples of humanlike behavior among other animals but humanlike thinking that underlies such behavior. Animals may behave in ways similar to humans without a similar cognitive system, he said, so the behavior is not necessarily a good guide into how humans came to think the way they do.
- 1
Animals could use objects to locate food.
- A. Nigel Franks
- B. Marc Hauser
- C. Tim Caro
- D. Bennett Galef Jr.
- 2
Ants show two-way, interactive teaching behaviors.
- A. Nigel Franks
- B. Marc Hauser
- C. Tim Caro
- D. Bennett Galef Jr.
- 3
It is risky to say ants can teach other ants like human beings do.
- A. Nigel Franks
- B. Marc Hauser
- C. Tim Caro
- D. Bennett Galef Jr.
- 4
Ant leadership makes finding food faster.
- A. Nigel Franks
- B. Marc Hauser
- C. Tim Caro
- D. Bennett Galef Jr.
- 5
Communication between ants is not entirely teaching.
- A. Nigel Franks
- B. Marc Hauser
- C. Tim Caro
- D. Bennett Galef Jr.
- 6
Which FOUR of the following behaviors of animals are mentioned in the passage?
- A. touch each other with antenna
- B. alert others when there is danger
- C. escape from predators
- D. protect the young
- E. hunt food for the young
- F. fight with each other
- G. use tools like twigs
- H. feed on a variety of foods
- 7
Ants' tandem running involves only one-way communication.
- 8
Franks's theory got many supporters immediately after publicity.
- 9
Ants' teaching behavior is the same as that of human.
- 10
Cheetah share hunting gains to younger ones.
Reading Passage 2: Learning from the Romans
A
In a quest to make concrete more durable and sustainable, an international team of geologists and engineers has found inspiration in the concrete used by the ancient Romans. The chemical secrets of Roman concrete have been uncovered in samples taken from a concrete Roman breakwater. A breakwater is a barrier that is built out into the sea to protect coasts and harbors from the force of waves. This particular breakwater has spent the last 2,000 years submerged in seawater. The international team of researchers that collected the samples was led by Paulo Monteiro, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Analysis of samples from the ancient underwater site in Pozzuoli Bay near Naples in Italy, and pinpointed why the best Roman concrete was superior to most modern concrete.
B
Concrete was the Roman Empire’s construction material of choice. It was used in land monuments such as the Pantheon in Rome, as well as in underwater and partially underwater coastal and harbor structures. Monteiro and his team were particularly interested in how the coastal and harbor structures endured the unforgiving saltwater environment. Chemical analysis of Roman concrete showed that it differs from the modern kind in several ways. One is the content of the cement that binds the material in the concrete. The most commonly used cement in recent decades has been Portland cement. Portland cement is a compound of calcium, silicates, and hydrates (C-S-H). However, analysis of Roman concrete shows that it contains a significantly different cement. Roman cement contains aluminum, which is not found in Portland cement, and less silicon than is found in Portland cement. The resulting calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate (C-A-S-H) is an exceptionally stable cement.
C
The recipe for the contents of Roman concrete was first described around 30 BC by Vitruvius, an engineer for the Roman Emperor Augustus. Volcanic ash was one of the ingredients, and it is now understood that this is crucial, as it is volcanic ash that contains the aluminum that ultimately gives Roman concrete its great durability. The Romans devised an efficient method of making concrete for coastal structures. They combined volcanic ash with lime, which added the calcium to the mix. This was then packed, together with stones and chunks of rock, into wooden molds, which were then immersed in seawater. The seawater instantly triggered a hot chemical reaction. The lime was hydrated by the seawater, which means that it incorporated water molecules into its structure, and reacted with the volcanic ash to cement the whole mixture together. This reaction formed the concrete that was used to build some of the most enduring structures in Western civilization.
D
According to Marie Jackson, a member of the research team, Roman concrete is one of the most durable construction materials on the planet, and that was no accident. Shipping was the lifeline of political, economic, and military stability for the Roman Empire, so constructing harbors that would last was critical. ‘Over time, the Romans used less and less concrete.’ ‘As the Roman Empire declined, and shipping declined, the need for the seawater concrete declined,’ said Jackson. ‘You could also argue that the original structures were built so well that, once they were in place, they didn’t need to be replaced,’ she added.
E
Producing Roman concrete also left a smaller carbon footprint than its modern counterpart. ‘It’s not that modern concrete isn’t good—it’s so good we use 19 billion tons of it a year,’ says Monteiro. ‘The problem is that manufacturing Portland cement accounts for seven percent of the carbon dioxide that industry puts into the air.’ Portland cement holds most modern concrete together. However, making Portland cement releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from burning fuel in order to heat a mix of limestone and clays to 1,450 degrees Celsius. The production of Roman concrete, however, was much cleaner, as less heat was needed. A temperature that was a third lower than that required for making Portland cement was sufficient for making Roman concrete.
F
Some modern concrete no longer contains Portland cement; instead, fly ash is used, which causes fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Fly ash is a waste product from burning coal, and the researchers are investigating whether volcanic ash would be a good, large-volume replacement in countries that cannot access fly ash easily. ‘There is not enough fly ash in this world to replace half of the Portland cement being used,’ said Monteiro. ‘Many countries don’t have fly ash, so the idea is to find alternative local materials that will work, including the kind of volcanic ash that Romans used. Using these alternatives could replace 40 percent of the world’s demand for Portland cement.’
G
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions is one powerful incentive for finding a better way to provide the concrete the world needs; another is the need for stronger, longer-lasting buildings, bridges, and other structures. ‘In the middle 20th century, concrete structures were designed to last 50 years, and a lot of them are on borrowed time,’ Monteiro says. ‘Now we design buildings to last 100 to 120 years.’ Yet Roman harbor installations have survived 2,000 years of chemical attack from seawater and wave action. Stronger, longer-lasting modern concrete may be the legacy of a deeper understanding of how the Romans made their incomparable concrete.
- 11
an opinion on why the Romans reduced the amount of concrete they made for use in seawater
- 12
a list of the contents of both Portland and Roman cement
- 13
an argument for finding substitutes for a limited resource that is used in making cement
- 14
information about the structure from which the scientists took their Roman concrete samples
- 15
a comparison of the environmental impacts of making modern and Roman concrete
- 16
a comparison of the durability of Roman concrete with concrete produced today
- 17
details of how the Romans used seawater to make concrete
- 18
According to the passage, which TWO of the following statements about fly ash are true?
- A. Fly ash results in less damage to the environment than Portland cement.
- B. Fly ash was used by the Romans as an alternative to volcanic ash.
- C. Fly ash is already used in the production of some concrete.
- D. All countries have access to fly ash resources.
- E. Fly ash will soon replace volcanic ash.
- 19
The environmental effects of concrete production: Roman concrete is better for the environment than modern concrete, which is made by using Portland cement. This is because a temperature of 1,450 degrees Celsius is needed to combine clays and ________ to make Portland cement. This level of heat was reduced by a ________ when making Roman concrete. Needing less heat meant less ________ had to be burned and less carbon dioxide was produced. According to Monteiro, when considering the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by ________, seven percent of it comes from the manufacture of Portland cement.
Reading Passage 3: Gesture
A Gesture is any action that sends a visual signal to an onlooker. To become a gesture, an act has to be seen by someone else and has to communicate some pieces of information to them. It can do this either because the gesturer deliberately sets out to send a signal or it can do it only incidentally. The hand-wave is a Primary Gesture, because it has no other existence or function. Therefore, to make it a gesture, first, it should be clear and unambiguous. Others would be able to understand it instantly when it is shown to them. Nor may any component of a gesture, its force, its direction and amplitude of movement, be altered: otherwise, confusion or misunderstanding may occur.
Most people tend to limit their use of the term “gesture” to the primary form the hand-wave type - but this misses an important point. What matters with gesturing is not what signals we think we are sending out, but what signals are being received. The observers of our acts will make no distinction between our intentional primary gestures and our unintentional, incidental ones. This is why it is preferable to use the term “gesture” in its wider meaning as an “observed action”. This can be compared to the ring of a telephone. The speed, tone and intensity of a telephone remain the same for any phone call. Even the length of time before being told that the number you are dialing is not answering, unless the caller hangs up, is the same.
Some gestures people use are universal. The shoulder shrug is a case in point. The shrug is done by bringing the shoulders up, drawing the head in, and turning the palms upwards so as to reveal that nothing is hidden. The shoulder shrug can also demonstrate submission or that what is being said isn’t understood. Another example is that an angry person usually expresses his rage by waving his clenched fist rapidly and forcefully. Surprisingly, you may find that people of different cultures will do the same when they are offended. That is to say, a commonly accepted gesture is shared by them. But if the way the hand is clenched changes, or the amplitude of force and the direction the fist is waved alters, the gesture no longer means the same.
So, is gesture born with us or is it developed as we grow up? Recent research found that gesture is more like a spontaneous reaction when we face certain situations. And we just do that automatically. When people talk, they almost always gesture with their hands. This expressive movement can be coaxed into a choreographic form if observed carefully. People can practice spontaneous gesture by forming pairs, then observing and questioning each other. They then show the group what they have collected from their partners. It is fun to surprise a group using this technique. Because spontaneous gestures are often unconscious, people will sometimes be surprised to have their gestures mirrored back to them, saying “Did I really do that?”
The attention of research was also drawn to cultural themes. Researchers discovered that if a person has a good set of teeth, he or she would be prone to have a bigger smile than he or she should when good things happen. And if a person possesses a bad set of teeth, he or she would tend to have his or her mouth shut when being teased. And people’s reaction to the same joke also varies: some laugh out loud while others titter. However, this does not cause confusion and it helps to develop our “behavioural”, which is an important aspect of our identity. It was referred to as a Gesture Variant, which indicates that individuals’ gesture production is a complex process, in which speakers’ internal and external factors and interactions could play a role in multi-modal communication.
During the research, an interesting phenomenon soon caught researchers’ attention. A hand purse gesture, which is formed by straightening the fingers and thumb of one hand and bringing them together so the tips touch, pointing upwards and shaping like a cone, carries different meanings in different countries. In Malta, it means heavy sarcasm: “you may seem good, but you are really bad.”; in Tunisia, it is against recklessness, saying “slow down”; in Italy, it means “What’s the matter?” or “What are you trying to say?”; in France, it means “I am afraid”. However, this gesture has no clear meaning in American culture. And of course, the way the gesture is conducted is similar in different countries.
But what will happen if the gestures of different countries confront each other? The situation is further complicated by the fact that some gestures mean totally different things in different countries. To take one example, in Saudi Arabia, stupidity can be signalled by touching the lower eyelid with the tip of the forefinger. But this same gesture, in various other countries, can mean disbelief, approval, agreement, mistrust, scepticism, alertness, secrecy, craftiness, danger, or criminality. So people are faced with two basic problems where certain gestures are concerned: either one meaning may be signalled by different actions, or several meanings may be signalled by the same action, as we move from culture to culture. The only solution is to approach each culture with an open mind and learn their gestures as one would learn their vocabulary. These all require considerable skill and training and belong in a totally different world from the familiar gestures we employ in everyday life.
- 20
Paragraph A
- i. The subconscious nature of gestures
- ii. The example of regional differences
- iii. The key factors of gestures
- iv. Sending out important signals
- v. How a well-known gesture loses its meaning
- vi. Performance in a specific setting
- vii. Recent research of Gesture Variant
- viii. Comparison to an everyday-use object
- ix. How will conflict be handled
- x. Individual deviation of cultural norms
- 21
Paragraph B
- i. The subconscious nature of gestures
- ii. The example of regional differences
- iii. The key factors of gestures
- iv. Sending out important signals
- v. How a well-known gesture loses its meaning
- vi. Performance in a specific setting
- vii. Recent research of Gesture Variant
- viii. Comparison to an everyday-use object
- ix. How will conflict be handled
- x. Individual deviation of cultural norms
- 22
Paragraph C
- i. The subconscious nature of gestures
- ii. The example of regional differences
- iii. The key factors of gestures
- iv. Sending out important signals
- v. How a well-known gesture loses its meaning
- vi. Performance in a specific setting
- vii. Recent research of Gesture Variant
- viii. Comparison to an everyday-use object
- ix. How will conflict be handled
- x. Individual deviation of cultural norms
- 23
Paragraph E
- i. The subconscious nature of gestures
- ii. The example of regional differences
- iii. The key factors of gestures
- iv. Sending out important signals
- v. How a well-known gesture loses its meaning
- vi. Performance in a specific setting
- vii. Recent research of Gesture Variant
- viii. Comparison to an everyday-use object
- ix. How will conflict be handled
- x. Individual deviation of cultural norms
- 24
Paragraph F
- i. The subconscious nature of gestures
- ii. The example of regional differences
- iii. The key factors of gestures
- iv. Sending out important signals
- v. How a well-known gesture loses its meaning
- vi. Performance in a specific setting
- vii. Recent research of Gesture Variant
- viii. Comparison to an everyday-use object
- ix. How will conflict be handled
- x. Individual deviation of cultural norms
- 25
Paragraph G
- i. The subconscious nature of gestures
- ii. The example of regional differences
- iii. The key factors of gestures
- iv. Sending out important signals
- v. How a well-known gesture loses its meaning
- vi. Performance in a specific setting
- vii. Recent research of Gesture Variant
- viii. Comparison to an everyday-use object
- ix. How will conflict be handled
- x. Individual deviation of cultural norms
- 26
According to the passage, which aspect of the ringing of a telephone is compared with gestures?
- A. The length of the ringing.
- B. The unchanging sound of the ringing.
- C. The telephone ringing intrudes upon our life.
- D. The speed of ringing signals the urgency.
- 27
In which country should the gesture “Hand Purse” be used with caution?
- A. Malta
- B. Tunisia
- C. Italy
- D. France
- 28
Angry people are often in the same age range or group.
- 29
Personal physical characteristics may affect the gesture used.
- 30
A Gesture Variant can still be understood by the members of the same culture.
- 31
According to the passage, what is the writer’s purpose in writing this passage?
- A. to clarify the origin of gesture-based communication
- B. to promote the worldwide use of gestures
- C. to investigate whether gesture use affects information content
- D. to explain the concept of gesture