托福聽力涉及話題多樣，尤其是偏向于學術課堂場景的講座類，經?？嫉揭恍┪覀儾⒉皇煜さ膶W科，適當的掌握一些背景知識和常考考點有助于我們更迅速精準地聽懂聽力內容。動物行為學是托福聽力?？紝W科話題領域之一，無論是機經真題還是托福TPO都能見到它的身影，下面我們就結合TPO25的Lecture4涉及的“玩耍準備假說”,了解一下托福聽力會如何考察相關內容吧。

Introduction：

Play as Preparation Hypothesis

動物的各種行為中,玩耍游戲是很重要的一種活動。有些科學家提出動物的玩?；顒邮菍Τ赡曛蟮母鞣N行為的準備,但是另一些科學家提出質疑,認為這一理論不符合真實的動物捕食爭斗行為。

Background information：

Evolutionary psychologists believe thatthere must be an important benefit of play, since there are so many reasons toavoid it. Animals are often injured during play, become distracted frompredators, and expend valuable energy. In rare cases, play has even beenobserved between different species that are natural enemies such as a polarbear and a dog. Yet play seems to be a normal activity with animals who occupythe higher strata of their own hierarchy of needs. Animals on the lower strata,e.g. stressed and starving animals, generally do not play.

Observing play behavior in various speciescan tell us a lot about the player's environment (including the welfare of theanimal), personal needs, social rank (if any), immediate relationships, andeligibility for mating. Play activity, often observed through action andsignals, often serves as a tool for communication and expression. Throughmimicry, chasing, biting, and touching, animals will often act out in ways soas to send messages to one another; whether it's an alert, initiation of play,or expressing intent. When play behavior was observed for a study in TonkeanMacaques, it was discovered that play signals weren't always used to initiateplay; rather, these signals were viewed primarily as methods of communication(sharing information and attention-getting).

One theory – "play aspreparation" – was inspired by the observation that play often mimicsadult themes of survival. Predators such as lions and bears play by chasing,pouncing, pawing, wrestling, and biting, as they learn to stalk and kill prey.Prey animals such as deer and zebras play by running and leaping as theyacquire speed and agility. Hoofed mammals also practice kicking their hind legsto learn to ward off attacks. While mimicking adult behavior, attacking actionssuch as kicking and biting are not completely fulfilled, so playmates do notgenerally injure each other. In social animals, playing might also help toestablish dominance rankings among the young to avoid conflicts as adults.

Knowledge points：

1. 進化心理學家認為,玩耍游戲有一定的益處。

2. 游戲玩耍是動物較高層次的需要,在較低層的動物,例如溫飽不能滿足的情況,動物一般不會玩耍。

3. 通過模仿,追趕,咬和接觸,動物通過這些方式像另一方傳遞信息。這些信息可能是警報,或者表達某些感情。有些科學家認為動物之間的玩耍是交流的一種方式。

4. 關于游戲玩耍的一個理論–玩耍作為準備–動物在玩耍的時候是模仿成人生存模式。捕食者比如獅子和熊在玩耍的時候追逐,襲擊,用爪子撓,摔跤和撕咬等,是它們在學習如何追蹤和殺死動物。被捕食的動物比如鹿和斑馬通過奔跑和跳躍,獲得速度和敏捷度。因此在玩耍的時候,它們不會互相傷害。

Vocabulary prediction：

Chase 追捕

Pounce 突襲

Handicap 妨礙

Flexibility 靈活性

Test Point – TPO25L4

Professor

All right. I hope you all had a chance tofinish the assigned readings about animal play, because I want to spend sometime discussing the different viewpoints presented in those articles. Let'sstart with the play – as – preparation hypothesis. Jerry, can you explain it?

Male Student

Yeah, Play-as-preparation. Young animalsplay in order to get really good at certain specific things they will need todo when they are adults, things like chasing, pouncing, climbing. In otherwords, they play in order to practice survival skills, like movements used inhunting and fighting. That hypothesis makes a lot of sense, like, maybe themost sense of all the theories we read about.

Professor

And what leads you to that conclusion?

Male Student

Well, like wolves, the young pups, theyfight a lot and bite, you know, not to hurt each other, but ... It just seemsobvious why those wolf pups play like that. It gives them practice with skillsthat will make them better hunters or fighters as adults.

Female Student

Oh, I don't know about that. I mean, someof the things a young animal does while playing are totally different from thethings they’ll do as an adult. There was a really good example in the secondarticle. I can't remember what it is called exactly, uh, self-...

Professor

Self-handicapping.

Female Student

Right. Self-handicapping. Like during afake fight, a play fight, if one of the animals is winning, the winning animalmight just stop and give up its advantage.

Professor

Yes. And often it shifts to a submissiveposture too. Of course self-handicapping hardly ever happens in a real fight.Because in a real fight, well, the point is to win. So, this self-handicapping, it is important to take this into account before just deciding togo with that first explanation. And in fact, there really isn't much in the wayof solid experimental evidence to support the play-as-preparation hypothesis.

Knowledge points

1.女學生認為動物在幼年時期做的事情和他們長成年之后完全不同。她提到了自我妨礙理論,比如在一次玩耍中,動物的一方獲勝,獲勝的那一方可能會停止,然后放棄自己的優勢。

2.沒有嚴密的實驗證據證明 play-as-preparation 理論的正確性。