2015年6月14日托福听力预测

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.【点击查看下个月托福考试预测】

　　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.【点击查看下个月托福考试预测】

　　======

　　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.【点击查看下个月托福考试预测】

　　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.【点击查看下个月托福考试预测】

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　　正确答案，B。内容主旨题。开头教授直接提到关于动物游戏的阅读作业，她希望大家有机会完成，因为这节课她将讨论阅读文章中关于动物游戏的不同观点。

　　正确答案，B。细节题。回答老师问题时，男生直接提出并解释了“play-as-preparation”的假说，而后在与教授的问答中又提到了题干中出现的“wolf pups”作为支持“play-as-preparation”的例子。

　　正确答案，C。态度题。女生引出了“self-handicapping”这个现象。教授回应女生时直接在“so”后面提到在支持第一种假说，即“play-as-preparation”，之前需要考虑这种假说是否可以解释“self-handicapping”。随后又说到没有确凿的试验证据支持“play-as-preparation”，非常明显表明了教授对于“play-as-preparation”假说的负面态度。A，D选项均为正面态度，直接排除。B选项中的“certain species of animals” 完全没有提到，正确选项C对应的是“So, this self-handicapping, it is important to take this into account before just deciding to go with that first explanation”。

　　正确答案，A，D。推理推断题。此题的答案的出处与上题一样。正确选项A对应的是“Of course self-handicapping hardly ever happens in a real fight.” D选项对应的是“So, this self-handicapping, it is important to take this into account before just deciding to go with that first explanation”。此题对考生要求较高，需要听懂原文后自己理解做出正确选择。

　　正确答案，C。细节题。女生和教授的问答对话中直接引出“brain study”的结论：“That playing literally stimulates growth, creates connections within the brain?”对应正确选项C。此题A，B选项容易排除，要特别留心D选项 “Animals without well-developed brains are seldom observed playing”。如果过度推断的话，会容易选D。注意文中说的是游戏影响大脑的发育，在成长中没有机会游戏的动物会如何如何。第一，此题不是推断题;第二，从这句话也无法推断出D选项。