天津市蓟县2016届高考英语一轮阅读理解专题选练（2）_高考复习指南

天津市蓟县2016届高考英语一轮阅读理解专题选练（2）

　　During the first two weeks of its life warmth is perhaps the most important psychological (心理的) thing that a monkey mother has to give to its baby. The Harlows, a couple who are both psychologists, discovered this fact by offering baby monkeys a choice of two types of mother－substitutes—one covered with cloth and one made of bare wire. If the two artificial mothers were both the same temperature, the little monkeys always preferred the cloth mother. However, if the wire model was heated, while the cloth model was cool, for the first two weeks after birth the baby monkeys picked the warm wire mother－substitutes as their favorites. Thereafter they switched and spent most of their time on the more comfortable cloth mother.

　　Why is cloth preferable to bare wire? Something that the Harlows called contact(接触) comfort seems to be the answer, and a most powerful influence it is. Baby monkeys spend much of their time rubbing against their mothers' skins, putting themselves in as close contact with the parent as they can. Whenever the young animal is frightened, disturbed, or annoyed, it typically rushes to its mother and rubs itself against her body. Wire doesn't “rub” as well as does soft cloth. Prolonged (长时间的) “contact comfort” with a cloth mother appears to give the babies confidence and is much more rewarding to them than is either warmth or milk.

　　According to the Harlows, the basic quality of a baby's love for its mother is trust. If the baby is put into an unfamiliar playroom without its mother, the baby ignores the toys no matter how interesting they might be. It screams in terror and curls up into a furry little ball. If its cloth mother is now introduced into the playroom, the baby rushes to it and holds onto it for dear life. After a few minutes of contact comfort, it obviously begins to feel more secure. It then climbs down from the mother－substitute and begins to explore the toys, but often rushes back for a deep embrace (拥抱) as if to make sure that its mother is still there and that all is well. Bit by bit its fears of the new environment are gone and it spends more and more time playing with the toys and less and less time holding onto its “mother”.