托福口语 Task 4

Today we're going to talk about a fascinating behavior in the animal kingdom called 'tool use' — when animals use objects from their environment to achieve a goal. Now, many people think this is unique to humans, but actually, several species do it, and it serves important survival functions. Let me give you two examples. First, consider the sea otter. Sea otters eat hard-shelled clams and crabs, which are tough to crack open. To solve this problem, a sea otter will float on its back, place a rock on its chest, and then smash the shellfish against the rock until it breaks open. This allows the otter to access food that would otherwise be too difficult to eat. Second, there's the woodpecker finch from the Galapagos Islands. This bird feeds on insects that live deep inside tree bark. Its beak isn't long enough to reach them, so it uses a cactus spine or a small twig. It holds the tool in its beak and pokes it into the bark to pry out the insects. In both cases, the animals are using objects as extensions of their own bodies to solve a physical problem, which helps them obtain food more efficiently.