Rats and other animals need to be highly at tuned to social signals from others so that can identify friends to cooperate with and enemies to avoid.To find out if this extends to non-living beings,Loleh Quinn at the University of California,San Diego,and her colleagues tested whether rats can detect social signals form robotic rats.They housed eight adult rats with two types of robotic rat-one social and one asocial一for 5 our days.The robots rats were quite minimalist,resembling a chunkier version of a computer mouse with wheels-to move around and colorful markings.During the experiment,the social robot rat followed the living rats around,played with the same toys,and opened caged doors to let trapped rats escape.Meanwhile,the asocial robot simply moved forwards and backwards and side to side Next,the researchers trapped the robots in cages and gave the rats the opportunity to release them by pressing a lever.Across 18 trials each,the living rats were 52 percent more likely on average to set the social robot free than the asocial one.This suggests that the rats perceived the social robot as a genuine social being.They may have bonded more with the social robot because it displayed behaviours like communal exploring and playing.This could lead to the rats better remembering having freed it earlier,and wanting the robot to return the favour when they get trapped,says Quinn.The readiness of the rats to befriend the social robot was surprising given its minimal design.The robot was the same size as a regular rat but resembled a simple plastic box on wheels.“We'd assumed we'd have to give it a moving head and tail,facial features,and put a scene on it to make it smell like a real rat,but that wasn’t necessary,”says Janet Wiles at the University of Queensland in Australia,who helped with the research.The finding shows how sensitive rats are to social cues,even when they come from basic robots.Similarly,children tend to treat robots as if they are fellow beings,even when they display only simple social signals.“We humans seem to be fascinated by robots,and it turns out other animals are too,”says Wiles.
It can be learned from the text that rats________
本题目为推断题，考察基于全文主旨进行推断。题干并没有具体关键词，因此需要通过选项回到文中逐一对应。正确答案D are more sensitive to social cues than expected对社交线索比预期更敏感，与原文尾段首句The finding shows how sensitive rats are to social cues,even when they come from basic robots.（这一发现显示了老鼠对社交暗示的敏感程度，即使是来自基本机器老鼠的社交暗示）属于类似表达。选项A的appear to be adaptable to new surroundings似乎能适应新环境，在文中并未提及，属于无中生有。选项B的are more socially active than other animals比其他动物更活跃，文中只提到其他动物也一样会对机器人着迷，属于偷换概念。干扰项C的behave differently from children in socializing在社交活动中表现得与孩子不同，与原文内容相反，原文内容指的是孩子们倾向于把机器人当作人来对待，即使他们只显示简单的社会信号。这一点与老鼠是一样的，属于正反混淆。
