Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers
Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study, echoing learning differences seen in human girls and boys.
While young male chimps pass their time playing. Young female chimps carefully study their mothers. As a result, they learn how to fish for tasty termite snacks over two years before the boys.
Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, US, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul spent four years watching how young chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania learned “cultural behavior”.
The sex differences in learning behavior were “consistent and strikingly apparent”, says the team. The researchers point out that similar differences are seen in human children with regard to skills such as writing. “A sex-based learning differences may therefore date back at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.” they write in the journal Nature.
Chimps make flexible tools from vegetation and then insert them into termite mounds, extract them and then munch the termites clinging onto the tool. The researchers used video cameras to record this feeding behavior and found that each chimp mother had her own technique, such as how she used tools of different lengths.
Analysis of the six infants whose ages were known showed that girl chimps were an average of 31 months old when they succeeded in fishing out their termites, where the boy chimps were aged 58 months on average. Females were also more skillful at getting out more termites with every dip and used techniques similar to their mothers while males did not.
Instead of studying their mothers, the boy chimps spent a significantly greater amount of time frolicking around the termite mound. Behaviors such as playing or swinging might help the male infants later in life when typically male activities like hunting or fighting for dominance become important, suggest the researchers.
Lonsdorf adds that there just two main sources of animal protein for chimps — the termites or colobus monkeys. “Mature males often hunt monkeys up trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant. This makes hunting difficult,” she says .“Adult females spend more time fishing for termites than males.” So becoming proficient at termite fishing could mean adult females eat better, “They can watch their offspring at the same time. The young of both sexes seen to pursue activities related to their adult sex roles{10} at a very young age.”
1.Why do young female chimps learn faster than young male chimps at fishing for termites?
A. Because young female chimps don’t play with their brothers.
B. Because young female chimps begin to study their mothers earlier.
C. Because young male chimps never learn to fish for termites.
D. Because young male chimps are not interested in termites.
2.What are the tools with which chimps fish for termites.
A. Tree branches.
B. Vegetables.
C. Fruits.
D. Grass.
3.Which of the following is true about chimps fishing for termites according to paragraph 6?
A. Males often compete with females in fishing for termites.
B. Males could get out more termites with every dip.
C. Females could get out more termites with every dip.
D. Males are good at mastering technique for fishing for termites.
4.How did the researchers explain the fact that boy chimps spent more time on playing?
A. They like hunting.
B. They enjoy fighting.
C. It helps them to stay fit.
D. It will make them good fighters and hunters in the future.
5.According to the last paragraph, which of the following is NOT true?
A. Adult chimps hunt monkeys while young chimps fish for termites.
B. The main source of animal protein for male chimps is colobus monkeys.
C. The main source of animal protein for female chimps is termites.
D. Female chimps fish for termites while watching their children. Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles
The Ford motor company’s abandonment of electric cars effectively signals the end of the road for the technology, analysts say.
General Motors and Honda ceased production of battery-powered cars in 1999, to focus on fuel cell and hybrid electric gasoline engines, which are more attractive to the consumer. Ford has now announced it will do the same.
Three years ago, the company introduced the Think City two-seater car and a golf cart called the THINK, or Think neighbor. It hoped to sell 5,000 cars each year and 10,000 carts. But a lack of demand means only about 1,000 of the cars have been produced, and less than 1,700 carts have been sold so far in 2002.
“The bottom line is we don’t believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market,” Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday. “We feel we have given electric our best shot.”
The Think City has a range of only about 53 miles and up to a six-hour battery recharge time General Motor’s EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range, of about 100 miles.
The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrol-powered alternatives. An electric Toyota RAV4 EV vehicle costs over $42,000 in the US, compared with just $17,000 for the petrol version. Toyota and Nissan are now the only major auto manufacturers to produce electric vehicles.
“There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its chance. Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program, and that is what we will be judging them on,” Roger Higman, a senior transport campaigner at UK Friends of the Earth, told the Environment News Service.
Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well. Hybrid engines offer greater mileage than petrol-only engines, and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines on vehicle emissions in the US.
However, it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit. In June, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler won a court injunction, delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring car-makers to offer 100,000 zero-emission and other low-emission vehicles in the state by 2003. Car manufactures hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for more low-emission, rather than zero-emission, vehicles.
1.what have the Ford motor company, General Motor’s and Honda done concerning electric cars?
A. They have started to produce electric cars.
B. They have done extensive research on electric cars.
C. They have given up producing electric cars.
D. They have produced thousands of electric cars.
2.According to Tim Holmes of Ford Europe, battery-powered cars
A. Will be the main transportation vehicles in the future.
B. Will not be the main transportation vehicles in the future.
C. Will be good to the environment in the future.
D. Will replace petrol-powered vehicles in the future.
3.Which auto manufactures are still producing electric vehicles?
A. Toyota and Nissan.
B. General Motor’s and Honda.
C. Ford and Toyota.
D. Honda and Toyota.
4.According to the eighth paragraph, hybrid cars
A. offer fewer mileage than petrol driven cars.
B. run faster than petrol driven cars.
C. run more miles than petrol driven cars.
D. offer more batteries than petrol driven cars.
5.Which of the following is true about the hope of car manufacturers according to the last paragraph?
A. Low-emission cars should be banned.
B. Only zero-emission cars are allowed to run on motorways.
C. The legislation will encourage car makers to produce more electric cars.
D. The legislation will allow more low-emission to produced.
Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study, echoing learning differences seen in human girls and boys.
While young male chimps pass their time playing. Young female chimps carefully study their mothers. As a result, they learn how to fish for tasty termite snacks over two years before the boys.
Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, US, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul spent four years watching how young chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania learned “cultural behavior”.
The sex differences in learning behavior were “consistent and strikingly apparent”, says the team. The researchers point out that similar differences are seen in human children with regard to skills such as writing. “A sex-based learning differences may therefore date back at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.” they write in the journal Nature.
Chimps make flexible tools from vegetation and then insert them into termite mounds, extract them and then munch the termites clinging onto the tool. The researchers used video cameras to record this feeding behavior and found that each chimp mother had her own technique, such as how she used tools of different lengths.
Analysis of the six infants whose ages were known showed that girl chimps were an average of 31 months old when they succeeded in fishing out their termites, where the boy chimps were aged 58 months on average. Females were also more skillful at getting out more termites with every dip and used techniques similar to their mothers while males did not.
Instead of studying their mothers, the boy chimps spent a significantly greater amount of time frolicking around the termite mound. Behaviors such as playing or swinging might help the male infants later in life when typically male activities like hunting or fighting for dominance become important, suggest the researchers.
Lonsdorf adds that there just two main sources of animal protein for chimps — the termites or colobus monkeys. “Mature males often hunt monkeys up trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant. This makes hunting difficult,” she says .“Adult females spend more time fishing for termites than males.” So becoming proficient at termite fishing could mean adult females eat better, “They can watch their offspring at the same time. The young of both sexes seen to pursue activities related to their adult sex roles{10} at a very young age.”
1.Why do young female chimps learn faster than young male chimps at fishing for termites?
A. Because young female chimps don’t play with their brothers.
B. Because young female chimps begin to study their mothers earlier.
C. Because young male chimps never learn to fish for termites.
D. Because young male chimps are not interested in termites.
2.What are the tools with which chimps fish for termites.
A. Tree branches.
B. Vegetables.
C. Fruits.
D. Grass.
3.Which of the following is true about chimps fishing for termites according to paragraph 6?
A. Males often compete with females in fishing for termites.
B. Males could get out more termites with every dip.
C. Females could get out more termites with every dip.
D. Males are good at mastering technique for fishing for termites.
4.How did the researchers explain the fact that boy chimps spent more time on playing?
A. They like hunting.
B. They enjoy fighting.
C. It helps them to stay fit.
D. It will make them good fighters and hunters in the future.
5.According to the last paragraph, which of the following is NOT true?
A. Adult chimps hunt monkeys while young chimps fish for termites.
B. The main source of animal protein for male chimps is colobus monkeys.
C. The main source of animal protein for female chimps is termites.
D. Female chimps fish for termites while watching their children. Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles
The Ford motor company’s abandonment of electric cars effectively signals the end of the road for the technology, analysts say.
General Motors and Honda ceased production of battery-powered cars in 1999, to focus on fuel cell and hybrid electric gasoline engines, which are more attractive to the consumer. Ford has now announced it will do the same.
Three years ago, the company introduced the Think City two-seater car and a golf cart called the THINK, or Think neighbor. It hoped to sell 5,000 cars each year and 10,000 carts. But a lack of demand means only about 1,000 of the cars have been produced, and less than 1,700 carts have been sold so far in 2002.
“The bottom line is we don’t believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market,” Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday. “We feel we have given electric our best shot.”
The Think City has a range of only about 53 miles and up to a six-hour battery recharge time General Motor’s EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range, of about 100 miles.
The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrol-powered alternatives. An electric Toyota RAV4 EV vehicle costs over $42,000 in the US, compared with just $17,000 for the petrol version. Toyota and Nissan are now the only major auto manufacturers to produce electric vehicles.
“There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its chance. Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program, and that is what we will be judging them on,” Roger Higman, a senior transport campaigner at UK Friends of the Earth, told the Environment News Service.
Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well. Hybrid engines offer greater mileage than petrol-only engines, and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines on vehicle emissions in the US.
However, it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit. In June, General Motors and Daimler Chrysler won a court injunction, delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring car-makers to offer 100,000 zero-emission and other low-emission vehicles in the state by 2003. Car manufactures hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for more low-emission, rather than zero-emission, vehicles.
1.what have the Ford motor company, General Motor’s and Honda done concerning electric cars?
A. They have started to produce electric cars.
B. They have done extensive research on electric cars.
C. They have given up producing electric cars.
D. They have produced thousands of electric cars.
2.According to Tim Holmes of Ford Europe, battery-powered cars
A. Will be the main transportation vehicles in the future.
B. Will not be the main transportation vehicles in the future.
C. Will be good to the environment in the future.
D. Will replace petrol-powered vehicles in the future.
3.Which auto manufactures are still producing electric vehicles?
A. Toyota and Nissan.
B. General Motor’s and Honda.
C. Ford and Toyota.
D. Honda and Toyota.
4.According to the eighth paragraph, hybrid cars
A. offer fewer mileage than petrol driven cars.
B. run faster than petrol driven cars.
C. run more miles than petrol driven cars.
D. offer more batteries than petrol driven cars.
5.Which of the following is true about the hope of car manufacturers according to the last paragraph?
A. Low-emission cars should be banned.
B. Only zero-emission cars are allowed to run on motorways.
C. The legislation will encourage car makers to produce more electric cars.
D. The legislation will allow more low-emission to produced.