Certain animals know without analysis the difference between a number of objects and a smaller number. In his book The Natural History of Selbourne (1786), the naturalist Gilbert White tells how he surreptitiously removed one egg a day from a kind of bird Plover’s nest, and how the mother laid another egg each day to make up for the missing one. He notes that other kinds of birds ignore the loss of a single egg, but if more than one egg has been removed, they will give up their nests. It has also been noted that a certain type of bees always provides five—never four, never six—caterpillars (毛虫) for each of their eggs so that their young have something to eat when the eggs have hatched out. Research has also shown that both mice and pigeons can be taught to distinguish between odd (奇数) and even (偶数) numbers of food pieces.
These have led some people to think that creatures can actually count. They also point to dogs that have been taught to respond to questions about numbers with the correct number of barks.
Animals respond to quantities only when they are connected to survive as in the case of the eggs, or survive as in the case of food. They can “count” only when the objects are present and only when the numbers involved are small—no more than seven or eight. In lab experiments, animals which are trained to count one kind of objects were unable to count any other type. What interests them are the objects, not the numbers. Animals’ achievements simply are not equal to evidence of counting. They only show the results of clever, careful training.
小题1:The author refers to Gilbert’s book in paragraph 1 in order to_______.
A．support the idea that animals can count
B．show attitudes have changed since 1786
C．prove that some animals are aware of quantities
D．indicate that more research is needed in this field小题2:The author mentions all of the following are aware of quantities in some way EXCEPT _______.
A．caterpillars
B．bees
C．mice
D．plovers小题3:The underlined word “surreptitiously” probably means _______.
A．quickly
B．carefully
C．occasionally
D．secretly小题4:Where does this text probably come from?
A．A news report.
B．A science fiction.
C．A park guide.
D．A biology magazine.
小题1:C
小题2:A
小题3:D
小题4:D
题目分析：这篇文章介绍动物有数字的意识，并通过一些实验来证明这点。
小题1:细节题：从第一段的句子：Certain animals know without analysis the difference between a number of objects and a smaller number. 可知作者提到Gilbert的书是为了证明动物有数字意识。选C
小题2:排除题：文章第一段的句子：removed one egg a day from a kind of bird Plover’s nest, ，It has also been noted that a certain type of bees always provides ，和Research has also shown that both mice and pigeons can be taught to distinguish between odd (奇数) and even (偶数) numbers of food pieces.可知作者提到BCD都能意识到数字，但没有说毛毛虫可以意识到数字。选A
小题3:猜词题：从句意看是作者偷偷每天从珩科鸟的鸟巢中拿掉一个蛋，选D
小题4:文章出处题：这篇文章介绍动物有数字的意识，应该是出自生物杂志。选D
点评：本文考查细节题为主，细节题可以在文章中直接找到与答案有关的信息或是其变体。搜查信息在阅读中非常重要它包括理解作者在叙述某事时使用的具体事实、数据、图表等细节信息。做这类题一般采用寻读法即先读题，然后带着问题快速阅读短文，找出与问题有关的词语或句子，再对相关部分进行分析对比，找出答案。