2015年6月14日托福聽力預測

1. What’s the lecture mainly about?

　　The professor’s recent research on play and brain development.

　　Differing explanations of the reasons for play.

　　Examples of two distinct types of play fighting.

　　Differences in the play behaviors of various animal specials.

　　2. One of the students brings up the example of play fighting among wolf pups. What does this example lead him to believe?

　　That wolves are especially violent animals.

　　That the play-as-preparation hypothesis is probably correct.

　　That wolves seldom engage in self-handicapping.

　　That the results of a recent study are probably not reliable.

　　3. Which statement best expresses the professor’s opinion of the play-as-preparation hypothesis?

　　It is well supported by available evidence.

　　It may apply only to certain species of animals.

　　It does not explain some important aspects of play.

　　It is particularly useful explaining human behavior.【點擊查看下個月托福考試預測】

　　4. What does the professor imply about self-handicapping? Click on 2 answers.

　　It commonly occurs in play but not in other activities.

　　It applies only to animal species that do not hunt for food.

　　It has been observed only in laboratory settings.

　　It contradicts the play-as-preparation hypothesis.

5. The professor discusses a study on the relationship between brain growth and play. What does that study conclude?

　　Patterns of brain growth are similar in animals that play and animals that do not play.

　　Excessive brain growth can sometimes limit an animal’s behavioral vocabulary.

　　Animals that do not play have less-developed brains than animals that play.

　　Animals without well-developed brains are seldom observed playing.【點擊查看下個月托�？荚囶A測】

　　======

　　Professor=

　　All right. I hope you all had a chance to finish the assigned readings about animal play, because I want to spend some time discussing the different viewpoints presented in those articles. Let's start with the play-as-preparation hypothesis. Jerry, can you explain it?

　　Male Student=

　　Yeah, Play-as-preparation. Young animals play in order to get really good at certain specific things they will need to do when they are adults, things like chasing, pouncing, climbing. In other words, they play in order to practice survival skills, like movements used in hunting and fighting. That hypothesis makes a lot of sense, like, maybe the most sense of all the theories we read about.

　　Professor=

　　And what leads you to that conclusion?

　　Male Student=

　　Well, like wolves, the young pups, they fight a lot and bite, you know, not to hurt each other, but ... It just seems obvious why those wolf pups play like that. It gives them practice with skills that will make them better hunters or fighters as adults.【點擊查看下個月托�？荚囶A測】

　　Female Student=

　　Oh, I don't know about that. I mean, some of the things a young animal does while playing are totally different from the things they’ll do as an adult. There was a really good example in the second article. I can't remember what it is called exactly, uh, self-…

　　Professor=

　　Self-handicapping.

　　Female Student=

　　Right. Self-handicapping. Like during a fake fight, a play fight, if one of the animals is winning, the winning animal might just stop and give up its advantage.

　　Professor=

　　Yes. And often it shifts to a submissive posture too. Of course self-handicapping hardly ever happens in a real fight. Because in a real fight, well, the point is to win. So, this self-handicapping, it is important to take this into account before just deciding to go with that first explanation. And in fact, there really isn't much in the way of solid experimental evidence to support the play-as-preparation hypothesis.

　　Female Student=

　　What about the other one? The flexibility hypothesis?

　　Professor=

　　Ah, yes. Let's talk about that. As you say, play is much more than just pretend fighting or practicing other adult behaviors. Apparently, it also contributes to the development of a brain that's flexible, a brain that's quickly able to get a handle on unfamiliar situations. This notion, the flexibility hypothesis, well, many of my colleagues find it quite persuasive.【點擊查看下個月托�？荚囶A測】

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　　正確答案，B。內容主旨題。開頭教授直接提到關于動物游戲的閱讀作業(yè)，她希望大家有機會完成，因為這節(jié)課她將討論閱讀文章中關于動物游戲的不同觀點。

　　正確答案，B。細節(jié)題。回答老師問題時，男生直接提出并解釋了“play-as-preparation”的假說，而后在與教授的問答中又提到了題干中出現(xiàn)的“wolf pups”作為支持“play-as-preparation”的例子。

　　正確答案，C。態(tài)度題。女生引出了“self-handicapping”這個現(xiàn)象。教授回應女生時直接在“so”后面提到在支持第一種假說，即“play-as-preparation”，之前需要考慮這種假說是否可以解釋“self-handicapping”。隨后又說到沒有確鑿的試驗證據(jù)支持“play-as-preparation”，非常明顯表明了教授對于“play-as-preparation”假說的負面態(tài)度。A，D選項均為正面態(tài)度，直接排除。B選項中的“certain species of animals” 完全沒有提到，正確選項C對應的是“So, this self-handicapping, it is important to take this into account before just deciding to go with that first explanation”。

　　正確答案，A，D。推理推斷題。此題的答案的出處與上題一樣。正確選項A對應的是“Of course self-handicapping hardly ever happens in a real fight.” D選項對應的是“So, this self-handicapping, it is important to take this into account before just deciding to go with that first explanation”。此題對考生要求較高，需要聽懂原文后自己理解做出正確選擇。

　　正確答案，C。細節(jié)題。女生和教授的問答對話中直接引出“brain study”的結論：“That playing literally stimulates growth, creates connections within the brain?”對應正確選項C。此題A，B選項容易排除，要特別留心D選項 “Animals without well-developed brains are seldom observed playing”。如果過度推斷的話，會容易選D。注意文中說的是游戲影響大腦的發(fā)育，在成長中沒有機會游戲的動物會如何如何。第一，此題不是推斷題;第二，從這句話也無法推斷出D選項。