We've all heard the story of Three Little Pigs. The third pig foiled the hyperventilating wolf by building his house out of bricks, rather than with straw or sticks as his brothers had done. Less commonly known is that the pig later improved his home's safety profile by installing convex  security mirrors at key points along the driveway. Well, why not? In the current issue of Animal Behaviour, researchers present evidence that domestic pigs can quickly learn how mirrors work and will use their understanding of reflected images to scope out their surroundings and find their food. The researchers cannot yet say whether the animals realize that the eyes in the mirror are their own, or whether pigs might rank with apes, dolphins and other species that have passed the famed "mirror self-recognition test" thought to be a marker of self-awareness and advanced intelligence. The finding is just one in a series of recent discoveries from the nascent  study of pig cognition . Other researchers have found that pigs are brilliant at remembering where food stores are cached and how big each stash is   to the rest. They've shown that Pig A can almost instantly learn to follow Pig B when the second pig shows signs of knowing where good food is stored, and that Pig B will try to deceive the pursuing pig and throw it off the trail so that Pig B can hog its food in peace.  They've found that pigs are among the quickest of animals to learn a new routine, and pigs can do circus worth of tricks: jump hoops, bow and stand, spin and make word like sounds on command, roll out rugs, herd sheep, close and open cages, play videogames with joysticks, and more. For better or worse, pigs are also slow to forget. "They can learn something on the first try, but then it's difficult for them to unlearn it," said Suzanne Held of the University of Bristol. "They may get scared once and then have trouble getting over it." Which of the following is the main idea of the passage? A) The pig is cleverer than what we have expected. B) The third pig is the cleverest in the story. C) There are some different talents for the pig. D) We should pay attention to the pig's behaviors.
A

Scientist Says 'No' to Human Cloning "I've never met a human worth cloning," says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from his lab at Texas A&M University. "It's a stupid endeavor." That's an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two cows and a cat. They just might succeed in cloning Missy soon -- or perhaps not for another five years. Westhusin's experience with cloning animals leaves him upset by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missy project, using hundreds upon hundreds of dog's eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy's DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted(,) fetuses may be acceptable when you're dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with humans. "Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous," he says. Even so, dog cloning is a commercial opportunity, with a nice research payoff. Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1997, Westhusin's phone has been ringing with people calling in hopes of duplicating their cats and dogs, cattle and horses. "A lot of people want to clone pets, especially if the price is right," says Westhusin. Cost is no obstacle for Missy's mysterious billionaire owner; he's put up $3.7 million so far to fund A&M's research. Contrary to some media reports, Missy is not dead. The owner wants a twin to carry on Missy's fine qualities after she does die. The prototype(;)is, by all accounts, athletic, good-natured and supersmart. Missy's master does not expect an exact copy of her. He knows her clone may not have her temperament(, ). In a statement of purpose, Missy's owner and the A&M team say they are "both looking forward to studying the ways that her clones differ from Missy." Besides cloning a great dog, the project may contribute insight into the old question of nature vs.... By "stupid endeavor", Westhusin means to say that   _  . A) human cloning is a foolish undertaking B) animal cloning is absolutely impractical C) human cloning should be done selectively D) animal cloning is not worth the effort at all
A

My mother-in-law, Dorothy, is showing me the red notebook that's almost as precious to her as my husband's baby pictures. Inside the notebook is a list of the books she has read since 2007. For some people waking up in the middle of the night is a terrible thing. But for my mother-in-law, that time is a gift. At 87, she is getting the education she never had by working her way through great literature. She has now read close to 100 books, including every single novel by Anthony Trollope, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Henry James and Thomas Mann. My mother-in-law discusses her passion with the enthusiasm of a young girl, although she can also be a very tough critic, writing "VG' for " very good" in the margins next to her favorites. So far, only a handful of books have received the top prize. Born in Ridgefield, Conn, Dorothy was the youngest daughter of an Italian gardener. She taught herself English by reading The New York Times. Eager to come to Manhattan, she became a nurse, married a dentist and spent the next several decades keeping the house and raising a family. In her later years, she put her nursing skills to good use by taking care of my father-in-law, who had lung cancer. There were many trips to the emergency room in the middle of the night and then a long hospital stay. She stayed awake to watch over him for 15 hours a day. Always a light sleeper, she developed sleeplessness as a result of the stress. It worsened after he died. Deeply sad and lonely for the first time in her life, she began waking up around 2am. Julian and Sylvia, the elderly couple next door suggest she read literature. And so Julian, a great lover of literature, became her "professor", providing books from his large library. Suddenly turned onto a world of amazing characters. What helped Dorothy get over the sadness and loneliness of losing her husband? A) Living with her son. B) Reading literature. C) Seeing her son's baby pictures. D) Talking with neighbors.

B