▶ Your Answer :
The reading and the lecture both talk about
surprising elephant behaviors. The reading maintains that the surprising
elephant behaviors have its valid evidences, while the lecturer said that the
evidences mentioned in the reading passage are not convincing.
First, the reading suggests that elephants
can be aware of their approaching death, considering that they usually take
apart from their group and die alone near from water when they get too old to
die. However, the lecturer contradicts this point. She asserts that, as they
get old, elephants come to have difficulty in chewing something due to their
molded teeth. They look for vegetables easy to chew and naturally get close to
water because the soft vegetables grow near from water. That’s why bones of
elderly elephants are discovered near from the water.
Second, the reading insists that elephants
can represent objects through art because they can be taught to hold a
paintbrush and to draw paintings that include recognizable things. However, the
lecturer explains that they cannot be taught to draw paintings but be trained
to draw some patterns with trainers’ guides, adding that an elephant’s drawing
is a kind of a trick.
Third, the reading goes on to say that
elephants are afraid of mice, so they run away from the mice and left where the
mice are to avoid them. In contrast, the lecturer said elephants are not
threatened by mice themselves but by something unfamiliar. She refers to an
example of elephants in a zoo. They are not afraid of mice because they get
familiar with the mice in the zoo.
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