题目内容
Bird lovers have long claimed that their pets have rhythm, and there are many videos of dancing birds
online. Until now, scientists have suspected that humans are the only animals that can accurately keep
rhythm with music.
Thanks to Snowball, that scientific opinion is changing. Snowball is a cockatoo, a kind of parrot, and
his favorite song is "Everybody" by the Backstreet Boys. When he hears the song, he moves his feet and
rocks his body with the tempo, or pace of the music, as though he is the only bird member of the boy
band.
Aniruddh Patel is a neuroscientist, or a scientist who studies how the brain and the nervous system
contribute to learning, seeing and other mental abilities. He works at the Neurosciences Institute in San
Diego. After seeing Snowball' s dance online, Patel visited the cockatoo at the bird rescue facility he's
called home for two years. The scientist played "Everybody" for Snowball and also played versions of the song that were sped up or slowed down.Sometimes, Snowball danced too fast or too slowly. Often, when there was a change in tempo, Snowball adjusted his dancing to match the rhythm.In other experiments,
scientists have observed the same abilities in preschool children.
Patel isn't the only scientist who has studied Snowball's moves. Adena Schachner, who studies
psychology at Harvard University, also wanted to know more about the dancing bird.Schachner's team
played different musical pieces for Snowball and a parrot named Alex, as well as eight human volunteers.
The scientists observed that the birds and the humans kept time to the music with about the same accuracy.
Schachner and her team watched thousands of YouTube videos of different animals moving to music.
Not all the animals could dance, however.From watching the videos, the scientists observed that only
animals that imitate sounds, including 14 parrot species and Asian elephants, accurately moved in time to
music.
B. humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music
C. the brain and the nervous system contribute to some mental abilities
D. bird pets can have their special rhythm under human’s instruction
B. Snowball is able to adjust his dancing to match the rhythm.
C. Snowball cannot dance to the versions of the song Everybody.
D. it is the brain and the nervous system that control the mental abilities.
B. humans' musical sense
C. the same abilities in children
D. videos of dancing birds
_____.
B. it has the ability to imitate sounds
C. it is a kind of dancing parrot
D. it has the same abilities as preschool children
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