For some reason, it takes constant reminders that we
primates（靈長目）need nurturing.
In a recent study of 46 baby
chimpanzee（黑猩猩）orphans, Kim Bard of the University of Portsmouth in England and her colleagues demonstrated that primate babies that have tight relationships with mother figures do much better on
cognitive（認知）tests than babies who receive only food, shelter, and friendship with peers. But this is not breaking mews. In fact, it’s old news.
In the 1950s, Harry Harlow conducted a series of experiments with baby monkeys that showed, without doubt, that lack of love and comfort makes for a crazy monkey.
Harlow constructed a cage that included a wire monkey “mother” topped with a plastic face. In this wire he fixed Mom with a milk bottle. The cage also held another wire mother covered with terry cloth. The baby monkeys spent all their time with the cloth mother and only went to the wire mother to feed, demonstrating that a soft touch beat something to eat any day.
Harlow’s monkey work was important because, at the time, child care “experts” and everybody’s grandmother had a “no touch, no comfort” policy toward children. They advised parents not to respond to crying babies, felt babies should sleep alone to grow up independent, and for God’s sake put those kids down. But Harlow’s work changed all that. Mothers were soon permitted to have their newborns next to them in the hospital.
The current chimp research based on Harlow’s work shows that mother love not only makes for a psychologically well-adjusted child, but also makes for a smart kid. Bard and her colleagues evaluated the abilities of the chimps when they were 12 months old with standard human tests for children of that age, tests that ask little kids to imitate some action.
The highly raised chimps did better than the ones that were not loved, and what do you know, the well-raised chimps did even better than human kids on this small IQ test.
So we hear it once again. We are primates, social animals which need care and love. We need to be held and talked to and made to feel that at least one person wants to be with us all the time. And if we get that kind of connection, we are sure to be fine, even better than fine.
小題1:The study Kim Bard and his colleagues did ______.
| A．included 46 baby and mother monkeys |
| B．was nothing new to people about the findings |
| C．showed that many chimpanzees lacked love when they were young |
| D．showed that many chimpanzees had good relationships with their mothers |
小題2:Why was Harlow’s monkey work important?
| A．Because the “no touch, no comfort” policy toward children was quite right. |
| B．Because parents were advised not to respond to babies’ crying. |
| C．Because Harlow’s work changed people’s former belief in child care. |
| D．Because mothers were not allowed to have their newborns next to them in the hospital. |
小題3:Harlow built two “mothers” for baby monkeys to ______.
| A．make them live comfortably | B．let them have more choices |
| C．give them more love | D．make a comparison |
小題4:Which of the following is TURE according to the text?
| A．Well-raised chimps always do even better than human kids. |
| B．A 12-month chimps is far cleverer than a child of that age. |
| C．The newborns were not allowed to be with their mothers in the past in the hospital. |
| D．Constantly touching the baby can make it feel safer. |
