We humans often say that a growling dog is “angry” or a purring cat is “happy”. But those terms are of little use to scientists like David Anderson who studies the brain circuits (脑回路) involved in emotional behaviors.
“We have to do more than just project our own emotions onto other animals,” he says. Yet Anderson describes research from his lab that suggests the brain circuits underlying human emotions have a lot in common with circuits found in animals’. “What lies beneath feelings,” he says, “is brain states that produce certain behaviors. And that’s the part of emotions we share in common with animals and that scientists can study.”
For example, Anderson’s lab has investigated fruit flies that become much more active when they see a moving shadow looking like their natural enemy. “We see that the more times we deliver the shadow the jumpier the flies become,” he says. And the flies keep jumping long after the shadow is gone. Anderson would behave much the same if he saw a snake. “I’d jump in the air,” he says. “Even for minutes after the snake had slipped away into the bushes, my heart would be pounding, and I’d probably jump every time I saw a snakelike object—even if it was a stick.”
That sort of behavior is typical of an ongoing brain state called defensive arousal(防御性唤醒). It’s present in both fruit flies and people which is why Anderson believes studying fear of an insect or a mouse is meaningful as it can reveal a lot about human emotions. “We can try to figure out how the brain is generating that state and what makes the animal finally calm down,” Anderson says. “We now understand specific parts of the circuit that increase fear and other parts of the circuit that decrease fear,” Anderson says. The next step, he says, is to figure out how to tweak that circuit to reduce the fear response of people with certain diseases like PTSD.
【小题1】What does Anderson think about people’s common description of animals emotions?| A．It is limited by people’s knowledge of brain functions. |
| B．It is too subjective to be regarded as scientific evidence. |
| C．It is actually some misunderstanding of animals behavior. |
| D．It is meaningless to the study of animals’ emotional behavior. |
| A．To prove the effect of natural enemies on flies’ behavior. |
| B．To show similarities between human and animal emotions. |
| C．To mention the great influence of Anderson’s bad experience. |
| D．To stress the effects of negative emotions on people and animals |
| A．Replace. | B．Predict. | C．Adjust. | D．Observe. |
| A．Looking beyond human feelings. | B．Figuring out more human brain states. |
| C．Finding a cure for certain mental diseases. | D．Changing traditional ways of treating animals. |
Technology usually distracts us from nature. But now technology is “offering us an opportunity to listen to nonhumans in powerful ways, reviving our connection to the natural world,” wrote professor Karen Bakker in her new book, The Sounds of Life: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the Worlds of Animals and Plants.
All around the animal kingdom, there are sounds that we struggle to pick up and decipher. Elephants, for example, communicate with each other using infrasound (次声波), a sound frequency far below our human hearing range. Moreover, they even have their own ways to distinguish between threatening humans and non-threatening humans. Coral in the ocean also communicates with each other through sound waves, with one purpose being to attract baby coral to areas where it can successfully grow. This is a shocking fact as coral doesn’t have any ears! Scientists have placed listening devices in these environments to pick up sounds humans are normally unable to detect. After the sounds are recorded, AI is then able to determine their meaning, according to the news website Vox. There are now whole databases of whale songs and honeybee dances.
This technology can not only understand the animals, but also communicate back to them. For example, bees use dances to communicate to their peers where to go in search of nectar (花蜜). A research team in Germany, therefore, put the bee language AI database system into a robot bee, allowing the robot to create a dance routine that can tell the bees which direction to move, Vox reported. Whereas in the past language creation had been limited to mainly apes (类人猿), with there being many examples of chimpanzees(黑猩猩) having been taught sign language to communicate with humans, this new technology now allows humans to socialize with different animals throughout the animal kingdom.
【小题1】How does the fact strike us that animals can communicate in their own way?| A．It’s amazing and unbelievable | B．It’s strange and ridiculous |
| C．It’s attractive and reasonable | D．It’s terrible and shocking |
| A．Humans find it rather easy to interpret the sounds of animals. |
| B．Listening devices are placed so as to serve as ears for animals |
| C．Elephants are able to tell which humans are friendly to them. |
| D．Corals direct their babies to find food through sound waves. |
| A．Bees use dances to search for their peers. |
| B．The robot bee is created to direct real bees. |
| C．Apes can communicate with humans naturally. |
| D．Language creation may be less limited in future. |
| A．AI changes our life in different ways | B．AI lends us a chance to talk to animals |
| C．AI enables us to change nature greatly | D．AI technology is a double-edged sword |
In a groundbreaking discovery, bumblebees (大黄蜂) have shown a previously unseen level of cognitive (认知的) ability. A new study, published in Nature, shows that they can learn difficult, multi-step tasks through social interaction, even if they cannot figure them out on their own.
Led by Dr Alice Bridges and Professor Lars Chittka, the research team designed a two-step puzzle (谜题) box requiring bumblebees to perform two separated actions to get a sweet reward at the end. Training bees to do this was no easy task, and bees had to be helped along by the addition of an extra reward at the end of the first step. This reward in the middle was finally taken away, and bees later had to open the whole box before getting their treat. Then some trained bees repeated the whole process for demonstration.
Surprisingly, while bees that worked on their own had great difficulty in solving the puzzle, those allowed to watch a demonstrator bee finished the two steps easily — even the first — while only getting a reward at the end.
This study shows that bumblebees have a level of social learning previously thought to be unique to humans. They can share and learn behaviors that are beyond their individual cognitive abilities. Professor Chittka further notes the implications, “This challenges the traditional view that only humans can socially learn difficult behavior beyond individual learning. It raises the amazing possibility that many of the greatest achievements of the social insects, like the nesting architectures of bees or the agricultural habits of ants, may have initially spread by copying clever innovators, before they finally became part of the species-specific behaviors.”
This groundbreaking research opens new possibilities for understanding animal intelligence and the development of social learning. It challenges longstanding assumptions and helps us learn more about the cognitive wonders of insects, even suggesting the exciting possibility of advanced culture amongst seemingly simple creatures.
【小题1】What is the purpose of the study?| A．To learn how to train bumblebees. |
| B．To compare bumblebees with ants. |
| C．To develop puzzles for bumblebees. |
| D．To test cognitive abilities of bumblebees. |
| A．By breaking it into two steps. |
| B．By providing an extra reward. |
| C．By demonstrating the process. |
| D．By making the puzzle interesting. |
| A．Both bees and ants are intelligent creatures. |
| B．Only humans are capable of social learning. |
| C．Individual learning may not be that important. |
| D．Bees’ nest-building may be a learned behavior. |
| A．Bumblebees — willing learners |
| B．Bumblebees — smarter than you think |
| C．Social learning — intelligence indicator |
| D．Social learning — universal across species |
Home away from home — pet boarding facilities in and around Rochester
BEAR CREEK KENNELS（犬舍）
507-287-0045/507-289-2470
Bear Creek Kennels offers boarding and day care for dogs of all ages.
It has both indoor and outdoor fenced areas. Dogs are encouraged to interact throughout the day, spending minimal time in kennels.
COST: $24 per night
DROP-OFF/PICK-UP TIMES:
Mon.-Fri.,（7 a. m.-6 p. m.）; Sat.,（8 a. m.-5 p. m.）; Sun.,（3-5 p. m.）
BOB’S ANIMAL FRIENDS
507-280-9572/507-280-9577
Bob’s Animal Friends wants your dogs to feel right at home, so much so that it offers a “Sleep Buddy” add-on for $10 per night. A caretaker will stay overnight with your dog, meaning extra care time and sleeping on the so fa instead of in his or her kennel.
COST: $25 per night（basic）
DROP-OFF/PICK-UP TIMES:
Mon.-Fri.,（6: 30 a. m.-7 p. m.）; Sat.,（7-8 a. m. and 5-6 p. m.）; Sun.,（5-6 p. m.）
K-9 KENNELS INC.
507-226-5384/507-226-5388
K-9 Kennels Inc. features 10 indoor/outdoor kennels for dogs and a boarding area for cats. Indoor areas feature windows for natural light and doggy doors for them to go outside at will. Besides, a 5,000-square-foot outdoor play area is fully fenced.
COST: Dogs 18pernight. Cats15 per night
DROP-OFF/PICK-UP TIMES:
Mon.-Sat.,（6: 30 a. m.-8 p. m.）; Sun.,（1-8 p. m.）
【小题1】When can an owner drop off his pet at Bear Creek Kennels on Sunday?| A．At 7 a. m. | B．At 8 a. m. | C．At 4 p. m. | D．At 6 p. m. |
| A．507-287-0045. | B．507-280-9572. | C．507-289-2470. | D．507-226-5384. |
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