文章大意:这是一篇说明文。文章主要说明了作者指出人类破坏了黑猩猩的文化,并列举了相关的研究。研究发现不同的黑猩猩群体交流的方式不同,同时随着人类活动的增加,黑猩猩的行为变化越来越少。
Imagine that an alien species landed on Earth and, through their mere presence, those aliens caused our art to fade, our music to standardize, and our technological know-how to disappear. Actually, that is what humans have been doing to our closest relatives — chimps (大猩猩).
Back in 1999, a team of scientists led by Andrew Whiten showed that chimps from different parts of Africa be have very differently from one another. Some groups would get each other’s attention by tapping branches with their knuckles (指关节), while others did it by loudly tearing leaves with their teeth. The team identified 39 of these traditions that are practiced by some communities but not others — a pattern that, at the time, hadn’t been seen in any animal except humans. It was evident, the team said, that chimps have their own cultures.
It took a long time to convince unbelievers that such cultures exist, but now we have plenty of examples of animals learning local traditions from one another. However, when many scientists have come to accept the existence of animal cultures, many of those cultures might disappear. Ammie Kalan and her colleagues have shown, through years of intensive field work, that the very presence of humans has gradually reduced the diversity of chimp behavior. Where we grow, their cultures weaken. It is a bitterly ironic thing to learn on the 20th anniversary of Whiten’s classic study.
“It’s amazing to think that just 60 years ago, we knew next to nothing of the behavior of our sister species in the wild,” Whiten says. “But now, just as we are truly getting to know our primate (灵长类) cousins, the actions of humans are closing the window on all we have discovered.”
No one knows whether the destruction of chimp culture is getting worse. Obviously, conservationists need to think about saving species in a completely new way — by preserving animal traditions as well as bodies and genes. “Instead of focusing only on the conservation of genetically based beings like species, we now need to also consider culturally based ones,” says Andrew Whiten.
8. What does the author say we humans have been doing to chimps?
A.Ruining their culture. | B.Accelerating their extinction. |
C.Treating them as alien species. | D.Standardizing their living habits. |
9. What is the finding of Andrew Whiten’s team?
A.Chimps demonstrate highly developed skills of communication. |
B.Chimps rely heavily upon their body language to communicate. |
C.Chimps behave in ways quite similar to those of human beings. |
D.Different chimp groups differ in their way of communication. |
10. What did Ammie Kalan and her colleagues find through their intensive fieldwork?
A.Whiten’s classic study has little impact on the diversity of chimp behavior. |
B.Chimp behavior becomes less varied with the increase of human activity. |
C.Chimps transform their culture to quickly adapt to the changed environment. |
D.It might already be too late to prevent animal cultures from extinction. |
11. What does the author suggest conservationists do?
A.Focus entirely on culturally-based beings rather than genetically-based ones. |
B.Place more stress on animal traditions than on their physical conservation. |
C.Conserve animal species in a novel and all-round way. |
D.Explore the cultures of species before they disappear. |