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NARRATOR:Listen to part of lecture in an animal behavior class.
FEMALE PROFESSOR:All right—I hope you all had a chance to finish the assigned readings about animal play— because I want to spend some time discussing the different viewpoints presented in those articles.Let’s start with the “play-as-preparation” hypothesis. Jerry, can you explain it?
MALE STUDENT:Yeah, play as preparation:Young animals play in order to get really good at certain specific things they’ll need to do when they’re adults; things like chasing, pouncing, climbing.In other words, they play in order to practice survival skills … like movements used in hunting and fighting … .That hypothesis makes a lot of sense … like, maybe, the most sense of all of the theories we read about.
FEMALE PROFESSOR:And what leads you to that conclusion?
MALE STUDENT:Well, like wolves… the young pups. They fight a lot, and bite… you know, not to hurt each other, but … It just seems obvious why those wolf pups play like that— It gives ’em practice with skills that’ll make ’em better hunters or fighters as adults.
FEMALE STUDENT:Oh, I don’t know about that. I mean, some of the things a young animal does while playing are totally different from the things it’ll do as an adult.There was a really good example in the second article— I can’t remember what it was called exactly—uh, self-…
FEMALE PROFESSOR:Self-handicapping?
FEMALE STUDENT:Right…self-handicapping. Like during a fake fight, uh, a play fight— if one of the animals is winning, the winning animal might just stop and give up its advantage.
FEMALE PROFESSOR:Yes, and often it shifts to a submissive posture 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’s important to take this into account before just deciding to go with that first explanation.And in fact, there really isn’t much in the way of solid experimental evidence to support the play-as-preparation hypothesis.
FEMALE STUDENT:What about the other one … the flexibility hypothesis?
FEMALE PROFESSOR:Ah, yes, let’s talk about that.
As you say, play is much more than just pretend fighting or practicing other adult behaviors.Apparently, it also contributes to the development of a brain that’s flexible, a brain that’s quickly able to get a handle on unfamiliar situations— this notion, the flexibility hypothesis … well, many of my colleagues find it quite persuasive.
FEMALE STUDENT:So like, with kids, a little kid might play a game with a friend, and then they might race each other across a field…so they’re switching from one type of play to another… there’s a lot of variety? I mean, they’re-they’re learning to respond to whatever happens?
FEMALE PROFESSOR:Well, that’s the general idea. But let’s hold off on talking about human behaviors for now.OK. According to the flexibility hypothesis—yes—the diversity, the variety in play can lead to a broader behavioral vocabulary.
MALE STUDENT:A broader behavioral vocabulary? Can you explain what that means?
FEMALE PROFESSOR:Well, sometimes playing results in an animal doing something it would not normally do.That can lead to the animal learning to adapt… to come up with new behaviors that can help it cope with major problems later on, like staying safe or finding food.
FEMALE STUDENT:Yeah, and there was that brain study you had us read about too.
FEMALE PROFESSOR:Oh, the one on how play affects development within the brain?
FEMALE STUDENT:Right, that’s it… uh, about the animals raised in an environment where they did not get opportunities to play.
FEMALE PROFESSOR:Yes, wasn’t the conclusion interesting?That playing literally stimulates growth, creates connections within the brain? We need to do further studies, but …
MALE STUDENT:Uh, excuse me. Can we go back to play fighting for a minute? I’m wondering, can the flexibility hypothesis really explain that?
FEMALE PROFESSOR:Play fighting? Actually, that’s something the flexibility hypothesis explains very well.Since play fighting includes variations in speed and intensity, and quick role reversals involved with self-handicapping, an animal that’s play fighting is constantly responding to changes.So it’s learning to be flexible.
旁白：听一段动物行为课程。
教授：好了，我希望你们可能都看完了指定的关于动物玩耍行为的阅读材料，因为我想花些时间讨论这些文章里的不同观点。我们从“玩耍是一种准备工作”这种假设开始。杰瑞，你能解释一下吗？
学生：对，玩耍即准备。年幼的动物会通过玩耍来使自己变得擅长于某些特定的技能，这些都是它们成年后需要用到的。像追捕、猛扑、攀爬。换句话说，它们通过玩耍来锻炼生存技能，像是在捕猎和搏斗中会用到的动作。这种假设很合理，可能是在所有我们看到的理论中最合理的。
教授：什么让你得出这个结论？
学生：比如说狼，狼的幼崽，它们经常打架，互相撕咬，你知道的，它们不会伤害对方，但这些狼崽这样玩耍的原因很明显，就是为了锻炼技能，长大后能成为更好的捕猎者或斗士。
学生：噢，我不知道。我是指，一些年幼动物在玩耍时做的事和它们成年后所作的大有不同。在第二篇文章中有个很好的例子。我不记得具体叫什么了……
教授：自我妨碍？
学生：对！自我妨碍，就比如是在一场假搏斗中，嗯，玩耍性的搏斗，假如其中一只动物要赢了，它可能会就此停下，放弃自己的优势。
教授：对，而且还经常会转成顺从姿态。当然了，自我妨碍在真正的搏斗中很少发生，因为在真正的搏斗中，关键是要赢。所以在做出第一个解释之前考虑到这个自我妨碍是很重要的。事实上，真的没有太多坚实的实验证据支持玩耍即准备的假设。
学生：那另一个理论呢，灵活性理论？
教授：啊，对。我们来说说这个。
就像你说的，玩耍不仅仅是为了假装在搏斗，或是练习别的成年行为。很明显，这也有利于灵活大脑的发育，一种能在陌生环境中快速掌控情况的思维能力。这个概念，这种灵活性假说，我很多同事都觉得这很具有说服力。
学生：所以就像小孩子，也许一个小孩在和一个朋友玩耍，然后它们可能会在一个领域里互相竞争。所以他们会从一种游戏转变到另一种，其中有很多变数？我是指，它们是在学习不管遇到什么事情都要能够应对？
教授：是其总体概念。但从现在起我们不讨论人类行为了。根据灵活性假说，对，其玩耍过程中的多样性会导致产生一个更广的行为语库。
学生：更广的行为语库？你能解释一下它的意思吗？
教授：有时候玩耍行为会导致一种动物做出一些平时不会做的行为，这会导致动物学会适应，创造出新的行为动作来帮助自己应对一些以后会面对的重要问题，比如保持安全或寻找食物。
学生：对，然后还有一篇你让大家看的大脑研究。
教授：噢，那篇关于玩耍行为是怎样影响脑内发育的文章？
学生：对，就是这篇，讲到有些动物，它们的生长环境使得它们没有机会玩耍？
教授：对，这个结论很有趣，不是吗？玩耍行为真的可以刺激生长，创造脑内连接？我们需要进一步研究，但……
学生：不好意思，我们能回到玩耍性搏斗吗？我在想，灵活性假说真的能解释这个吗？
教授：玩耍性搏斗？实际上，灵活性假说能很好地解释这个。既然玩耍性搏斗中包括了很多速度和强度的变数，包括自我妨碍的快速角色逆转，玩耍性搏斗的动物时刻需要应变。所以，这是学习灵活性的过程。
题型分析：主旨题
原文定位：Professor: All right. I hope you all had a chance to finish the assigned readings about animal play, because I want to spend some time discussing the different viewpoints presented in those articles.
选项分析：
文章开头直接给出all right 作为提示，然后讲到animal play, 随后详细阐述了不同的Viewpoint。
B选项即为对话核心名词viewpoint 的同义替换，是对全文主旨最准确的概括
如果对题目有疑问，欢迎来提出你的问题，热心的小伙伴会帮你解答。