阅读理解
In 1952, on the island of Koshima(越谷,日本某地), scientists were providing monkeys with sweet
potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkey liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the
dirt unpleasant. An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the
potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way
and they taught their mothers too. This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys
before the eyes of the scientists.
Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make
them more palatable(美味的). Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement.
Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.
Let us suppose that when the sun rose one morning there were 99 monkeys on Koshima Island who
had learned to wash their sweet potatoes. Let's further suppose that later that morning, the hundredth
monkey learned to wash potatoes. Then it happened. By that evening almost everyone in the tribe was
washing sweet potatoes before eating them. The added energy of this hundredth monkey somehow
created an ideological breakthrough!
But notice: A most surprising thing observed by these scientists was that the habit of washing sweet
potatoes then jumped over the sea colonies of monkeys on other islands and the mainland troop of
monkeys at Takasakiyama(高岐山)began washing their sweet potatoes. Thus, when a certain critical(关键的)number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind.
Although the exact number may vary, this Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon(现象)means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property(个人意识性属性)of those people.
But there is a point at which if only one more person comes to a new awareness, a field(能量场)is
strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!
Your awareness is needed. You may be the "hundredth monkey"
1. The passage may be adapted from __________.
A. a text book
B. a newspaper
C. an advertisement
D. a scientific report
2. It was __________ that found the way to make potatoes clean by washing them.
A. a young clever female monkey
B. an old experienced monkey
C. an 18-year-old mother monkey
D. a monkey finding a potato in the river
3. The last sentence of Paragraph 1 "This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists." implies that __________.
A. monkeys have learnt the new way unconsciously(下意识地)
B. monkeys like picking up things on the ground
C. it is very difficult for monkey to learn a new way
D. monkeys learnt the new way from scientists
4. According to the writer, the hundredth monkey __________.
A. is the last one to learn to wash potatoes
B. is the most stupid in learning
C. makes a great difference in spreading a new way
D. plays a small part in the breakthrough
5. The write wrote the last paragraph __________.
A. to draw a conclusion that one day monkeys will become human beings
B. to predict that one day every reader can turn into the hundredth monkey
C. to encourage people to learn more knowledge
D. to emphasize the importance of each person's contribution to spreading a new method
