[雅思阅读题型]雅思阅读练习题：Arecatsselfish？

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　　Are Cats Selfish?

　　It's six in the morning and your cat puts a paw on your eyelid. "It's time to wake up," she seems to be saying. She couldn't give a monkey's how tired you are(她可不在乎你有多困). She wants feeding.

　　There's a widespread perception that everything cats do is just a little self-serving, a touch self-centred. In a word, selfish. But not content with(不满足于)idle stereotypes(刻板印象), we put this little question – are cats selfish? – to the BBC Earth audience.

　　Some of you didn't like the question at all. "Selfish is a human trait(特征)," argued Ann Halim. "'Selfish' is hard to apply to any animal other than humans," agreed Kevin Bonin.

　　It certainly is hard, but that has never stopped us trying.

　　In his 1871 book The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin argued that animal minds are similar to ours in many ways. "The difference in mind between man and the higher animals…is certainly one of degree and not kind," he wrote.(他写道，“没有疑问，人类和比较高级的动物在思维方面的差异只是一个度的问题，而不是类别问题”)。

　　If that's true, then surely a cat – or any other higher animal – might meet the Oxford Dictionary's definition of selfish: being "concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure."

　　Many of you identified with(同意)the idea that cats are out for themselves.

　　"Are cats selfish??? That's like asking has the pope got a balcony?!" says Jane Ramsden. "Let's just say, there is an I in kitty," says Dan Okeneski. "Cats are entirely self-serving," says Frankathon Dirabis. "It's a good thing they are cute and furry."

　　Gina Darlin Strange's cat has clear views about where she sleeps. "If the Sun is shining across my bed in the morning and my daughter's in the afternoon, she demands total access to it and will get an attitude if you move her," she says.(她说：“如果太阳早上照在我的床上，下午照在我女儿的床上，她会要求全部占有，你要是赶她走，她就会变脸。”)

　　Annette Jeneane Behnke-Park's cat is constantly seeking attention. "She tries to get us to play tag, wants what we have for food, wants my spot on the chair, loves to lay across me at night," she says.

　　Some correspondents also report their cats showing signs of selfishness towards other cats.

　　"Hector will steal treats from Harvey without fail if given the chance," says Marlee Lütz. Vijaya Shadrak's tomcat began to urinate(小便)wherever two other cats in her home liked to rest. "Now he is scaring them," she says. Bad kitty.

　　However, most of the people who responded say that selfishness is not a trait they recognise in their cats.

　　Instead, a lot of cat-lovers describe what appear to be altruistic(利他的) acts on the part of their pets. Altruism is defined as "selfless concern for the well-being of others."

　　How else are we to interpret the domestic cat's habit of gift-giving? This is how Chris R. Ainsworth sees his cat's tendency to leave a "decapitated mouse/bunny/bird/chipmunk/squirrel" on his doorstep.

　　This generosity(慷慨)of spirit does not always involve dead animals. Sarah Pratt's cats fetch her live animals, as well as ice cubes and hair ties. "They're nice that way," she says. Similarly, Mary Jozwiak's cats drop their toys outside her bedroom.

　　A lot of cats also seem to be in tune with the emotional state of their owners.

　　Jacqueline Tong recounts how her cat kept her company throughout 19 long hours of labour, "licking my face between every contraction".

　　David Penn once knew a kitten that comforted him during a bad tooth infection by curling up on his cheek and purring him to sleep.

　　Jessica Natasha A's cat Gina would always be there to comfort someone if they were sad.

　　Stories like these suggest that cats are not always as cold and calculating(工于算计的)as they are commonly portrayed.

　　To make sense of the complex suite of behaviours displayed by domestic cats, we have to think about their origins, says Eva Leighton. "Domestic cats still have strong basic instincts and one of them is wariness(谨慎)and self-preservation(自我保护)."

　　We know that cats are descended from the wildcat (Felis silvestris). Wildcats are intensely solitary(孤独的)creatures, so it makes sense that domestic cats are also happy in their own company.

　　We might expect that the process of domestication(驯养)would root out that spirited independence. But cats were not domesticated in the same way as other animals, with humans carefully choosing which ones to breed from and which traits to encourage. (我们也许认为，驯养的过程会让猫失去那种强烈的独立感。然而，猫的驯养却不似其他动物。在驯养其他动物时，人类会仔细挑选喂养哪些动物，或鼓励保留哪些特性。)

　　Instead, cats were probably responsible for their own domestication.

　　"It's better to think of cats the way you think of mice and rats and sparrows and pigeons," says Carlos Driscoll, a geneticist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Rockville, Maryland, USA.

　　A 2007 genetic analysis by Driscoll and his colleagues reveals that all domesticated cats are descended from wildcats that lived in and around the Fertile Crescent, precisely the spot where humans began to settle more than 10,000 years ago.

　　"These settlements were completely new ecological environments and animals that were plucky(勇敢的)enough to investigate…did very well," says Driscoll. Wildcats were likely one of these species, drawn into an urban niche(位置) by an abundance of easy prey and an absence of big predators.(野猫可能就是这类物种之一，吸引它们进入城市空间的原因是这里有大量的容易捕获的猎物，同时还没有大捕食动物存在。)

　　"All these animals had to do was become behaviourally adept at living with people," says Driscoll. But importantly, "there was no selection against them hunting, or against them finding their own mates, or against them finding places to build their own nests in a rubbish heap." (然而，重要的是，“它们不需要因为猎食，求偶，或者在垃圾堆里找地方筑巢而受自然选择法则支配”)

　　This may account for the range of behaviours displayed by the BBC Earth cats. "Some will be more like their wildcat ancestors(祖先)and show [a] much more solitary, independent existence," says Driscoll. "Others, on the other side of the spectrum(谱系), are doting on(宠爱)their human companions."

　　Given all this variation(变化), it really is hard to give a clear answer to the question of whether cats are selfish. Instead, we'll conclude with the wise words of Gata Bela: "Cats are simply adorable!"

　　Vocabulary

　　be not content with… 不满足于……

　　stereotype 固定印象;刻板印象

　　trait 特征

　　identify with 认可，同意

　　urinate 小便

　　altruistic 利他的

　　generosity 慷慨

　　calculating 工于算计的

　　wary 小心翼翼的

　　self-preservation 自我保护

　　solitary 孤独的

　　domestication 驯养

　　ancestor 祖先

　　spectrum 谱系

　　dote on 宠爱

　　variation 变化

　　词汇大爆炸(8): vary引起的词汇

　　vary 与......不同

　　various 各种各样的

　　variety 多样性

　　a great variety of...许多种......

　　variation 变化

　　variance　变化;分歧

　　variable 可变化的;变量

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