Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C, or D on your answer sheet to indicate the correct answer to each of the questions.
Animals have an intuitive awareness of quantities. They know without analysis the difference between a number of objects and a smaller number. In his book “The Natural History of Selboure” (1786), the naturalist Gilbert White tells how he surreptitiously removed one egg a day from a plover’s nest, and how the mother laid another egg each day to make up for the missing one. He noted that other species of birds ignore the absence of a single egg but abandon their nests if more than one egg has been removed. It has also been noted by naturalists that a certain type of wasp always provides five - never four, never six -caterpillars for each of their eggs so that their young have something to eat when the eggs hatch. Research has also shown that both mice and pigeons can be taught to distinguish between odd and even numbers of food pieces.
These and similar accounts have led some people to infer that creatures other than humans can actually count. They also point to dogs that have been taught to respond to numerical questions with the correct number of barks, or to horses that seem to solve arithmetic problems by stomping their hooves the proper number of times.
Animals respond to quantities only when they are connected to survival as a species - as in the case of the eggs - or survival as individuals - as in the case of food. There is no transfer to other situations or from concrete reality to the abstract notion of numbers. Animals can “count” only when the objects are present and only when the numbers involved are small - not more than seven or eight. In lab experiments, animals trained to “count” one kind of object were unable to count any other type. The objects, not the numbers, are what interest them. Animals’ admittedly remarkable achievements simply do not amount to evidence of counting, nor do they reveal more than innate instincts, refined by the genes of successive generations, or the results of clever, careful conditioning by trainers.
The author mentions that all of the following are aware of quantities in some ways EXCEPT _______.
A. caterpillars
B. mice
C. plovers
D. wasps
Đáp án A.
Lưu ý đề bài yêu cầu tìm đáp án sai và có cụm từ aware of quantities in some ways: nhận thức được số lượng theo cách nào đó (không nhất thiết phải là do trực giác).
Đáp án B. mice đúng vì ở dòng 7 có “both mice and pigeons can be taught to distinguish between odd and even numbers of foodpieces”: cả chuột và bồ câu đều có thể được dạy phân biệt giữa các số lượng chẵn và lẻ của các miếng thức ăn.
Đáp án C. plovers đúng vì ở dòng 3 có “he surreptitously removed one egg a day from a plover’s nest, and how the mother laid another egg each day of make up for the missing one”: ông đã lén lấy đi một quả trứng trong tổ chim choi choi và mỗi ngày chim mẹ đều đặt một quả trứng khác vào để bù cho quả trứng đã mất như thế nào.
Đáp án D. wasps đúng vì ở dòng 6 có “a certain type of wasp always provides five never four, never six – caterpillars for each of their eggs”: một loài ong bắp cày nào đó luôn cho 5 – không bao giờ là 4 hoặc 6 – con sâu bướm cho mỗi quả trứng của chúng.
Vậy đáp án chính xác là A. caterpillars loài này không nhận biết được về số lượng.