谢振礼 托福范文: 动物行为
TOEFL Independent Writing
Topic:
Observing and studying animal’s behavior is useful to know about human nature. (Observing or studying animals teaches us a lot about human nature.). Do you agree or disagree with the statement?
Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.
Essay:
How much do animals know about humans, and do animals think at all? Finding human nature in animals is a useful research that focuses on similarities in the behavior of animals as compared with humans. By studying animal’s behavior, “Homo sapiens” can learn a number of important life lessons from animals.
Observing animal’s behavior is useful because humans can thereby gain an insight into their own behavior. The study is a cornerstone of experimental psychology, shedding light on how animals interact with each other and with their environments, and why they behave as they do. Such research on the behavior of animals is particularly relevant to the study of human behavior when making the comparison between the two. For example, the behavior of animals in stressful or aggressive situations can be studied to help find solutions for humans under similar circumstances. People usually only consider this comparison from one side, but they would be amazed that some species of animals can be as intelligent or emotional as humans can be; and, for that matter, humans are distinguished from animals only in degree, not in kind.
Much of human behavior can be explained by watching animals ranging from the tiniest ants on the sidewalk to the mighty lions roaming the African continent. Animals can constantly teach humans about life lessons that humans cannot always learn from fellow humans. For the example of ants, they are admired for their commitment to teamwork, and together they build homes deep into earth where bad weather cannot disturb them, and together they move objects too heavy for one of them to carry. Then, for the example of lions, more than any other species, they represent courage, strength and resilience, and they do not back down from a challenge, neither do they just lurk in the shadows. The lesson is that humans tend to let fear stand in their way, so it is important for them to have “the heart of a lion”, so to speak. These examples, among others, may imply that humans have more to learn from animals than animals have to learn from humans.
In conclusion, observing or studying animal’s behavior teaches people a lot about human nature. In many respects related to behavior, many differences between humans and animals are obvious, but the hidden similarities are worthy of studying. Perhaps, animals know more than humans think, and think more than humans know.
