2012年6月大学英语六级真题答案完整版（沪江版）_第6页

Conversation 1考试网

W: One of the most interesting experiments with dolphins must be one done by Doctor Jarvis Bastian. What he tried to do was to teach a male dolphin called Bass and a female called Doris to communicate with each other across a solid barrier.

M: So how did he do it exactly?

W: Well, first of all, he kept the two dolphins together in the same tank and taught them to press levers whenever they saw a light. The levers were fitted to the side of the tank next to each other. If the light flashed on and off several times, the dolphins were supposed to press the left-hand lever followed by the right-hand one. If the light was kept steady, the dolphins were supposed to press the levers in reverse order. Whenever they responded correctly, they were rewarded with fish.

M: Sounds terribly complicated.

W: Well, that was the first stage. In the second stage, Doctor Bastian separated the dolphins into two tanks. They could still hear one another, but they couldn’t actually see each other. The levers and light were set up in exactly the same way except that this time it was only Doris who could see the light indicating which lever to press first. But in order to get their fish, both dolphins had to press the levers in the correct order. This meant of course that Doris had to tell Bass whether it was a flashing light or whether it was a steady light.
M: So did it work?

W: Well, amazingly enough, the dolphins achieved a 100 % success rate. 

Questions 19-21 are based on the conversation you have just heard.

Q19. What is the purpose of Doctor Jarvis Bastian’s experiment?

Q20. What were the dolphins supposed to do when they saw a steady light?

Q21. How did the second stage of the experiment differ from the first stage? 

答案：www.examｗ.com

19. D) to see if dolphins can communicate with each other.

20. A) Press the right-hand lever first.

21. C) Only one dolphin was able to see the light. 

【解析】

这篇长对话主要围绕巴斯蒂安博士关于海豚的实验而展开，实验的目的是要教会海豚学会互相沟通和交流讯息。随着男士对实验的发问，女士便对实验的两个阶段进行了详细介绍。这篇长对话整体难度适中，考生只要在平时注意练习和打好词汇基础，想要得满分并不难。需要提醒考生的是，做听力题也要讲究技巧，一定要带着问题去有目的地听，相关的信息着重记忆，不相干的信息迅速忽略。懂得抓题眼和懂得取舍，这样听力才能做得好。

重点词汇和表达：

lever  n.杠(杆)；途径，工具

in reverse order 以相反的顺序

be rewarded with 得到奖励

flashing light 闪光灯