MODEL PR CTICE

Read the passage below and complete the exercises that follow

The Social Life of Mammals

. (1) When it comes to social behavior, mammals are far more
highly developed than other creatures. Some birds may form pairs or (1) Topic sentence: Mammal
Social Interaction: more
even co‐operate to hunt, but the complexity of their relationships
highly developed and complex
can hardly compare to those within a group of dolphins, elephants than other creatures
or humans. (2) What makes mammalian social groups different from, --> nswer: iv. The intricacy in
say, a flock of starlings or a shoal of fish is that in many cases the mammal's social interaction
individuals recognize each other. (2) lthough we may think that (2) Details:
elephants look pretty much the same, we can easily tell individuals 1. Individuals recognize each other
of our own species apart, and it has become clear through studies Ex: Human, Dolphins, Elephants
that the same is true of other species of mammals. (2) Dolphins have (3) Distractor:
their own signature whistles that act like names, and elephants can
vii. Most bird species don’t have
recognize and greet other individuals they have known but not seen the ability to recognize individuals of
for many years. (3) This is something that only a few species of birds their own groups. (Wrong answer)
appear to be able to do.

B. Mammals in complex social groups not only recognize each other as individuals, they also
remember a lot of information about that individual. Social groups often rely on this memory – such as
knowing who is dominant to whom, who is related to whom, and who has done what to whom in the
past. They have to learn who to trust, who their friends are and who to watch out for.

C. ll this remembering goes on in a particular part of the brain called the neo‐cortex. If you compare
the size of a mammal’s social group with the size of this part of the brain, you find they are remarkably
closely related. This area, though, seems to take a long time to develop fully, and animals in which it is
very large take a long time to grow up to adulthood. During this time, the youngster has to learn all the
rules of social behavior in their group and to piece together all the relationships between the group
members: knowledge that will be needed to avoid getting into trouble.

D. Like all the advanced and specialized features that mammals have, social behavior has developed
because of the one defining characteristic that mammals possess: the production of milk, allowing baby
mammals to have a period of childhood in which they can develop their own distinctive and successful
characteristics.

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Questions 1‐4

The reading passage has four paragraphs, ‐D.

Choose the correct heading for each section from the list of headings below.

List of Headings

i. Human beings’ sharing a social skill with other animals.

ii. What makes it possible for mammals to spend time growing up
iii. The need to know the exact individuals in a group
iv. The intricacy in mammal’s social interaction
v. Processing information of different individuals in an animal’s brain
vi. contrast between the social organization of humans and other animals
vii. Most bird species don’t have the ability to recognize individuals of their own groups

1. Paragraph …iv…..

2. Paragraph B ………..

3. Paragraph C ………..

4. Paragraph D ………..

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