Questions 40 through 45.
Listen to part of a Iccture in a philosophy class.
M: More than two thousand years separated two of the world’s great educational philosophers, Confucius and Dewey. Yet, despite their, uh, separation in time and space, both of these thinkers held some interesting and amazingly parallel ideas about teaching and learning. Confucius lived during the sixth century B.C., during China s Classical Age. and is generally held to be China’s greatest and most influential philosopher. Confucius was, and still is, considered both reactionary and revolutionary. He’s reactionary because his perspective looked to the past, to the wisdom of the ancients. Confucius felt that his role as a teacher was to carry on the ancient tradition, rather than to create something new. He said, “I transmit, but do not create: I have faith in and love for ancient studies ” During his lifetime, Confucius studied and commented on several texts of the ancient tradition, including the books known as the Six Classics. Yes, Tracy?
W: If Confucius just studied the ancient books, why was he considered a philosopher? I mean, he didn’t create anything new. He ;ust talked about other people’s work.
M: The way he looked to the past, his focus on the classical texts that’s the reactionary side of Confucianism.
W: OK, but if he didn’t create anything new, how docs this make him a revolutionary?
M: Confucius was a revolutionary because he believed that there should be no distinction of social class in education. He believed that education should be, um, not just for the privileged class, but for any boy or girl who was able and willing to learn, Confucius stressed education for practical use because he believed the goal of education is to improve all of humanity. This aspect of Confucianism shares a core belief with the Western philosophy of pragmatism. According to pragmatism, the value of knowledge is a function of its practical outcome, that is, its usefulness to both the individual and the society. In the early twentieth century, pragmatism was highly influential in several fields like government, business, but especially education. One of its leading thinkers was the American philosopher John Dewey. Like Confucius, Dewey was a scholar and educator whose ideas have had a tremendous impact, both in his time and beyond. Like Confucius, Dewey has a place among our greatest thinkers. As was the case with Confucius, some of Dewey’s ideas were considered revolutionary. Dewey’s ideas about individuality and social progress were radical in the early twentieth century. Dewey believed that the cultivation of the individual would benefit society as a whole, and therefore, the education of individual students is good for social progress This is similar to the Confucian idea that if a man is true to his inner self, he will achieve true greatness, and that the greatness of individuals is necessary for social order. Despite the centuries that separated them, Confucius and Dewey held some similar ideas about knowledge, teaching, and learning. Confucius believed that the processes of teaching and learning stimulate each other. Teaching is half of learning, and the ideal teacher is one who goes over what he’s already learned and gains some new understanding from the experience. Compare this to Dewey’s idea that education is a continuously constructive process, with experience and knowledge building on cach other.
Questions 46 through 51.
Listen to part of a lecture in a zoology class. The professor is talking about animal defenses.
One of the most important relationships between different animal species is predation the predator-prey interaction, in which a predator eats a prey. Predator species have several adaptations that help them catch prey species. Prey species have adaptations, too physical and behavioral adaptations that enable them to elude predators and avoid being eaten. These defensive adaptations evolved in prey species through repeated encounters with predators over evolutionary time.
Some animal defenses are passive, such as hiding. Some defenses are active, such as escaping. Fleeing running away is the most direct anti–predator response, but it requires the animal to expend a lot of energy. A rabbit uses up a lot of energy running away from a lynx. Many animals avoid expending too much energy by escaping into a shelter.
Several prey species have some sort of vocalization an alarm call to announce the presence of a predator. The alarm call often triggers a behavioral defense called mobbing. During mobbing, the prey turns the tables and attacks the predator.
For example, when a chickadee spots a threat say, an owl it calls out the alarm. The chickadee starts scolding the owl, sometimes actually striking it from behind. Birds of other species may fly in to investigate, and often participate in the mobbing. The other birds chase, dive–bomb, or surround the owl, usually vocalizing loudly. Their intent is to encourage the “enemy” to move on to another area.
Some animals rely on defensive coloration. A well-known example of defensive coloration is camouflage, which makes prey difficult to spot against a background of similar color. All a camouflaged animal has to do is remain still to avoid being seen. Thus, camouflage is probably the most effective passive defense. Incidentally, some predators also use camouflage, especially predators who lie in wait for prey and have to blend into their environment.
Moths that camouflage themselves to match a leaf stand a good chance of not being seen by moth-eating birds, unless, of course, the moths become so populous that a bird is likely to come across one by accident. Once the bird learns the moth’s identity, it has a search image for it, and the moth’s disguise is useless. Looking like a leaf is then no advantage because the bird will start pecking at leaves in the hope that they are moths, and it will keep doing it as long as a sufficient number do turn out to be moths.
Another animal defense is the use of chemical weapons. We’re all familiar with the chemical weapon of the skunk.
Some animals like poisonous toads and frogs-can synthesize toxins that attack the nervous system of predators. Other animals acquire chemical defenses passively. For example, some caterpillars acquire poison from the plants they eat. Then, when a bird eats the caterpillar, the bird quickly vomits. After that, the bird will avoid eating that kind of caterpillar. Some birds can remember bad-tasting meals a year later.
Another defensive adaptation is warning coloration. Animals with effective chemical defenses are often brightly colored, and there is evidence that predators are more cautious in dealing with bright color patterns in potential prey. This is probably because a lot of poisonous or bad-tasting animals are colored brightly, with black and yellow, or black and red stripes.
Warning coloration quickly trains predators to avoid eating these brightly colored animals. Some birds have an instinctive tendency to avoid eating insects with warning coloration. For example, young warblers leave wasps alone because the birds recognize the danger in the black and yellow stripes of the wasp. However, warning coloration is not an absolute defense, as there is also evidence showing that many birds occasionally feed on bees and wasps, perhaps after learning to cope with their chemical defenses.