A
(山西省太原市2018届高三第二次模拟考试)In the story of “The crow and the Pitcher” from Aesop's Fables, a thirsty crow (乌鸦)drops stones into a narrow jar to raise the low level of water inside so he can take a drink.
Now scientists have evidence to back up that story.Crows actually do understand how to make water displacement (移位) work to their advantage, experiments show.The results suggest that the birds are, at least in some aspects, as smart as firstgraders.
Researchers, led by Sarah Jelbert at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, presented six crows with tubes filled with water.Inside the tubes, a worm or piece of meat on a piece of wood was floating, just out of reach of the crow.In front of the tubes, the researchers arranged several rubber erasers that would sink, and some plastic objects that would float.The crows found out that they could drop the erasers into the tubes in order to raise the water level and get their snack.
However, the_birds_handled_awkwardly in experiments in which they could choose to drop objects in either a wide tube or a narrow one to get a snack, the researchers said.Dropping objects into narrow tube would lift the water level by a greater amount and put the treat within reach after just two drops; while it took around seven drops to raise the snack to the same level in the wide tube.The crows obviously didn't realize this, and most of them went for the wide tube first.
Previous studies showed that chimps and human children can solve similar tasks.In a 2011 study, chimps and kids found out that they could put water into a tube to reach a peanut that was floating in a small amount of water at the bottom.
1．How did the crows get the snack in Sarah's experiment?
A．By breaking the tube.
B．By dropping in erasers.
C．By standing on the wood.
D．By removing the wood.
2．What does the author mean by “the birds handled awkwardly” in Paragraph 4?
A．They were unable to tell different shapes.
B．They dropped objects only into narrow tubes.
C．They were not aware of the snack at first sight.
D．They mostly avoided the easier way to get the snack.
3．What does the text mainly focus on?
A．Stories of Aesop's Fables.
B．The development of crows.
C．Crows' intelligence.
D．Humananimal communication.
4．What can we learn from the passage?
A．Crows are almost as clever as firstgraders in some respects.
B．Crows understand water displacement completely.
C．Chimps and children are much smarter than crows.
D．The story of “The crow and the Pitcher” lacks evidence.
【答案与解析】
1．B 细节理解题。根据第三段最后一句可知，乌鸦能够把橡皮擦扔到管子里，使食物浮起，然后吃到食物。所以选项B正确。
2．D 语句猜测题。从第四段可知，实验中的乌鸦在面对粗细不同的管子时，虽然细管比粗管只需要更少的水和时间就可以把食物浮起来，但是乌鸦往往先去粗管那边，而没有选择更容易浮起食物的细管。由此可知，这一句话的意思应该是“鸟儿大多没有选择更容易的方式去获得零食”。所以答案选D。
3．C 主旨大意题。根据第二段最后一句以及后面的几个实验可知，整篇文章都是围绕乌鸦的智商问题来展开的。所以答案选C。
4．A 推理判断题。根据第二段最后一句可知，乌鸦在一些方面几乎跟一年级的小学生一样聪明，所以选项A正确。根据第四段的实验可知，乌鸦并不能很好的理解排水量问题，所以选项B错误。根据最后一段的实验可知，黑猩猩和儿童跟乌鸦一样可以解决类似的问题，这不能说明他们比乌鸦聪明，所以选项C错误。第二段第一句“Now scientists have evidence to back up that story.”可知，科学家们已经有关于这则寓言的证据了。所以选项D错误。
