雅思阅读 018 · The Cellular Trick Behind Octopus Intelligence

改编自 Scientific American（Cody Cottier, 2026）。题型：段落信息匹配 + T/F/NG + 填空。难度：中等偏上（Passage 2，约 800 词）。

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🎧 课文朗读音频（约 1 分钟）

正文 Passage

A. Clever, but different

When it comes to animal intelligence, octopuses have few rivals. Some species lug coconut shells around for mobile shelter; others radically transform their bodies to mimic deadlier creatures. Almost two decades ago in Germany, a particularly wily octopus named Otto short-circuited his aquarium's electrical system by shooting jets of water at an overhead light that perhaps caused an objectionable glare.

Octopuses are as clever, in their own way, as such famously brainy animals as crows, dolphins or chimpanzees. But they are endowed with a fundamentally different intelligence, one shaped by a separate evolutionary path and defined by a nervous system that is distributed throughout their bodies rather than centralised like the brains of most animals.

B. A surprising mutation

Now researchers have discovered another surprise in octopuses' biology: a mutation, never documented in any other animal, that makes their cells remarkably accurate at creating proteins and that appeared just as they began evolving large nervous systems. "We cannot make a direct relation between a slight change in the accuracy of protein synthesis and so-called advanced intelligence," says Nicholas Bellono, a Harvard University molecular biologist. But he notes that the timing "maps perfectly" with the emergence of sophisticated behaviours in octopuses.

C. An accidental discovery

Bellono and his colleagues published their work in Current Biology. The discovery was accidental. Co-lead author Richard Han, then a graduate student, was examining octopus RNA — the molecules that carry the genetic instructions that cells use to build proteins — when he noticed an unusual break in the genetic sequences that formed ribosomes, the cell's protein-making machines. This stretch of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) is identical across every other animal that has been studied, so the deviation jumped out at Han.

D. How it works

To figure out how this break affected ribosome function, the researchers engineered it into Escherichia coli bacteria. The altered bacteria made fewer mistakes when building proteins, which lowered the risk of misfolded molecules clumping together into disease-causing toxic aggregates. Next, the researchers compared octopus and squid tissue and found that the former did in fact have fewer and smaller protein clumps.

E. Why octopuses alone

It seems the rRNA break is exclusive to shallow-water octopus species, which split off from their deep-water counterparts roughly 100 million years ago to colonise a highly complex environment. Faced with more predators, prey and competition, their nervous systems rapidly ballooned to meet the new demands. And neurons, being long-lived, are especially vulnerable to protein clumps. By preventing misfolded proteins, the rRNA break might help these neurons to work well.

F. Plausible, but not proven

Other researchers say that a connection between the break and octopus intelligence is plausible, though it lacks direct evidence. "These associations are intriguing," says Eli Eisenberg, a geneticist at Tel Aviv University, who was not involved with the study, "but more proof is needed to support the hypothesis that they contributed to the evolution of neural complexity or cognitive capacity." To truly establish that link, you would have to alter the rRNA break and test for changes in learning, sensory processing or problem-solving.

G. Human applications

The real value of this finding may lie in potential health-care applications. In humans, protein clumps play a role in many neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Researchers hope it will be possible to design drugs that target ribosomes to mimic the octopus's useful trick for super-accurate protein synthesis, reducing the burden of misfolded molecules. If we "use nature as a guide to understand how that happens naturally," they say, "then we can probably find ways to put it into human cells."

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题目 Questions

Questions 1-5: Which paragraph mentions the following?

1. an octopus that sabotaged an aquarium light

2. the possibility of treating Alzheimer's disease

3. a mutation found only in octopuses

4. the accidental discovery of the unusual rRNA sequence

5. a scientist who says more evidence is needed

Questions 6-9: T/F/NG

6. Octopuses have a centralised brain like humans.

7. The rRNA break has been found in every animal studied.

8. Altered bacteria made fewer mistakes when building proteins.

9. Shallow-water octopuses split from deep-water species about 100 million years ago.

Questions 10-13: Complete the notes. Choose NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS.

• Octopuses' nervous systems are (10) ____________ throughout their bodies.
• Ribosomes are the cell's (11) ____________ machines.
• Long-lived (12) ____________ are especially vulnerable to protein clumps.
• Protein clumps play a role in (13) ____________ and Parkinson's disease.

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答案 Answers

题号	答案
1	A
2	G
3	B
4	C
5	F
6	FALSE（distributed, not centralised）
7	FALSE（never documented in any other animal）
8	TRUE
9	TRUE
10	distributed
11	protein-making
12	neurons
13	Alzheimer's

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核心词汇

octopus / cephalopod / intelligence / mutation / ribosome / protein / RNA / neuron / evolutionary / distributed / predator / prey / clump / Alzheimer's / Parkinson's / neurological / hypothesis / sensory / cognitive