Chimps will cooperate in certain ways, like gathering in war parties to protect their territory. But beyond the 【小题1】 requirements as social beings, they have little instinct to help one another. Chimps in the wild seek food for themselves. Even chimp mothers regularly 【小题2】 to share food with their children, who are able from a young age to gather their own food.

In the laboratory, chimps don’t naturally share food either. If a chimp is put in a cage where he can pull in one plate of food for himself or, with no great effort, a plate that also provides food for a neighbor to the next cage, he will pull at 【小题3】-he just doesn’t care whether his neighbor gets 【小题4】 or not. Chimps are truly selfish.

Human children, on the other hand, are extremely 【小题5】. From the earliest ages, they decide to help others, to share information and to participate in achieving common goals. The psychologist Michael Tomasello has studied this cooperativeness in a series of experiments with very young children. He finds that if babies aged 18 months see an unrelated adult with hands 【小题6】 trying to open a door, almost all will immediately try to help.

There are several reasons to believe that the urges to help, inform and share are not taught but naturally 【小题7】 in young children. One is that these instincts appear at a very young age before most parents have started to train children to behave 【小题8】. Another is that the helping behaviors are not improved if the children are rewarded. A third reason is that social intelligence develops in children before their general cognitive (认知的) skills, at least when compared with chimps. In tests conducted by Tomasello, the children did no better than the chimps on the physical world tests, but were 【小题9】 better at understanding the social world. The core of what children’s minds have and chimps’ don’t is what Tomasello calls shared intentionality. Part of this ability is that they can 【小题10】 what others know or are thinking. But beyond that, even very young children want to be part of a shared purpose. They actively seek to be part of a “we”, a group that intends to work toward a shared goal.

The Beneficial Effects of Forest Fires

Forest fires are undoubtedly a threat. In the mid-1900s, all forest burns were considered 【小题1】, and firefighters responded to all of these fires whether or not they were burning close to where humans lived. This 【小题2】 to forest fires was both expensive and risky. However, more 【小题3】 forest managers began to see that forest fires did have benefits. Foresters saw that forest fires were beneficial for trees and soil.

Previously, people believed that forest fires caused 【小题4】 damage to trees, however, now forest managers know that trees are the major 【小题5】 of fires. Many 【小题6】 occurring forest fires, often caused by lightning strikes, are surface fires that burn the understory — the shrubs and herbs from the forest — without damaging the trees in the overstory. In this way, the fire 【小题7】 competition from the smaller trees, allowing the larger trees to flourish. Once the understory has been burned away, the forest is less likely to burn from high-temperature fires that can do real damage to the tall trees.

In the past, it was not obvious how forest fires enriched the soil. Today, foresters understand that forest fires improve soil quality by changing the ‘litter’ — dead leaves and branches on the forest floor — to nutrient-rich soil. Normally, litter decomposes very slowly. However, fire releases the 【小题8】 in the litter immediately. This creates an increase in the amount of phosphorus and potassium which are key elements that promote tree growth.

As forest managers have leared more about the long-term effects of forest fires, they have realized that forest fires can have beneficial effects and have changed their forest management 【小题9】 to reflect this new opinion. It is now recognized that forest fires, are a natural part of forest ecosystems and are beneficial to the trees and soil. As long as fires are no 【小题10】 to homes and communities, foresters now often choose to do nothing to stop the fires.

Herds of elephants used to live on the 【小题1】 of Africa and in the forests of Asia. But today, they face a serious 【小题2】 from 【小题3】. These large animals are being killed 【小题4】 for their body parts that are considered valuable. In order to save them, some countries have created 【小题5】 where they can live in peace and safety. However, the 【小题6】 on them will continue as long as interest in buying elephant products 【小题7】. To achieve 【小题8】 between humans and animals, the world must protect these beautiful creatures.