GMAT閱讀20180811
來自專欄 GMAT 學習
How Prey Animals Prior Experiences Make Them Gullible to Masquerading Predators
Source: Science American
The house cricket (Acheta domesticus) walked around the arena comfortably, certain of its surroundings. It looked about, perhaps hoping for food or mates, ignoring the scattered, browning, dead leaves. On previous visits to the arena, the cricket had been wary of the dead leaves, not knowing what to make of them. Then, after a prudent interval, it had ventured to feel them with its segmented antennae—tentatively at first, and later with growing confidence. Once the cricket determined the leaves were neither edible nor harmful, it quickly lost interest in them. Now it rarely bothered to explore the leaves, but took no great pains to avoid them either. The cricket』s conviction about the safety of the leaves was its fatal mistake: on this visit, one seemingly dead leaf lying on the arena was no such, but a masquerading ghost mantis (Phyllocrania paradoxa) waiting in ambush. Unaware of the concealed peril, the cricket drew ever closer to the predator. That』s when the mantis struck forth, grasping the cricket by one of its long jumping legs. As the cricket struggled against the mantis』 clutch, the predator started to feed.
語法
Adverbial modifier：Comma+ V ing 作狀語，修飾主句動詞，邏輯主語應與主句里的主語一致。表伴隨，結果，讓步，方式，原因，時間等。表伴隨: It looked about, perhaps hoping for food or mates, ignoring the scattered, browning, dead leaves. Hoping 和Ignoring 修飾 look， 同時發生的行為。表原因：On previous visits to the arena, the cricket had been wary of the dead leaves, not knowing what to make of them. 『not knowing』 修飾『be wary of』, 表示蟋蟀小心的原因。當然，也可以理解為伴隨。
表結果：That』s when the mantis struck forth, grasping the cricket by one of its long jumping legs. 『Grasping』 修飾 『struck forth』, 表示攻擊的結果。
Dr John Skelhorn, Lecturer in Animal Cognition, has witnessed dozens of similar life-and-death encounters in his lab at Newcastle University』s Institute of Neuroscience. Skelhorn and his colleagues previously found that some animals masquerade as inanimate, inedible objects, to look less appealing to potential predators. Some examples include the orb web spider (Cyclosa ginnaga) and the larva of the giant swallowtail butterfly (Papilio cresphontes), both of which masquerade as bird droppings, and the larva of the feathered thorn moth (Selenia dentaria), which masquerades as a twig.
單詞
Masquerade /,m?sk?red/化裝；偽裝 masquerade as sth句型 並列結構 X and YX: The orb web spider and the larva of the giant swallowtail butterfly, both of which masquerade as bird droppings
Marker: And Y: The larva of the feathered thorn moth, which masquerades as a twig.X 和Y均為名字+ 定語從句的結構。兩者的結構也相同。
Skelhorn』s latest research, published on Current Biology on July 23rd, now shows that it is not only prey creatures that use masquerade to enhance their survival. Some predators, too, masquerade as common objects in their surroundings to appear innocuous to unsuspecting prey.
單詞
Innocuous /?n?kj??s/ adj. 無害的；無傷大雅的
Predators /?pr?d?t?rz/ [動] 捕食者Prey /pre?/ vi. 捕食；掠奪；折磨; n. 捕食；犧牲者；被捕食的動物
Skelhorn hypothesized that a predator』s aggressive masquerade『s success could be related to the prey prior』s experience with the objects the predator resembles. In other words, that prey will be more likely fooled by a predator』s disguise if they are familiar with its innocent-looking appearance and misguidedly conclude that the predator poses no threat.
Signal word: hypothesized 假設
hypothesized 通常會指向為了驗證這個假設的研究及其研究成果。假設通常包含預期的實驗結果。當然實際結果可能證實預期，也可能與預期相反。所以要關注說明研究結果的句子。
To find out, Skelhorn manipulated the experience of house crickets with dead leaves, before putting the animals in tanks with dead-leaf-resembling Ghost mantises. He divided the crickets —all leaf-na?ve at that point—into three groups of 12 animals each. The first group of crickets was placed in a tank with dead leaves—from plants found in the same geographic area as the mantises—and allowed to interact with them. The second group of crickets was placed in a tank with dead leaves that had been covered in circular white stickers (so that mantises no longer resembled the leaves). The last group of crickets was put in an empty arena and so the animals remained na?ve to the dead leaves. The crickets in the first two groups were reluctant to approach the leaves at first, but their latency to touch them gradually decreased over time. This indicated that the crickets had learned the leaves were not dangerous.
Next, Skelhorn presented each cricket to one of 36 ghost mantises, measuring how long it took for the mantis to seize the cricket, and how many attempts preceded a successful catch. Even though all the all crickets were eventually caught, mantises were quicker, and used fewer failed attacks, to grasp crickets that were formerly exposed to regular dead leaves—as opposed to crickets exposed to either manipulated, sticker-covered leaves, or to no leaves at all.
這兩段描述了實驗設計、測量標準及結果， 在GMAT 閱讀中，屬於locate 信息的部分，不需要100%理解。
These findings indicated that crickets with previous dead-leaf experience mistook the mantises for the dead leaves they had learned were harmless, making them more vulnerable to the predators than those crickets that lacked such prior experience. Skelhorn』s data also suggest that prey cognition can be an important selection pressure driving the evolution of prey capture by predators. Unlike predator cognition, which has received significant attention by researchers, the cognitive processes of prey animals—and their influences on survival—remain largely unexplored.
Signal word: these findings indicate 指向研究成果、結論。
Unlike predator cognition, which has received significant attention by researchers, the cognitive processes of prey animals—and their influences on survival—remain largely unexplored.
語法
Like & UnlikeLike & Unlike + 名詞，不能跟clause. 當然名詞可以加noun modifier, 如例句中的 comma+which 對predator cognition 進行了修飾。主句中的主要與unlike 後的名詞具有可比性。在例句中， 對predator cognition 與cognitive processes of prey animals 進行了對比。整個句子的主語是cognitive processes of prey animals—被捕食的動物的認識過程。
Passage Map:
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