A particularly smart elephant from the Berlin Zoo has grabbed the attention of scientists after demonstrating a rare, human-like behaviour: she can peel bananas. The elephant is Pang Pha, a middle-aged Asian elephant. She is the focus of a new study that analyzed her banana-peeling behaviour.

Pha was brought to the Berlin Zoo as a baby in 1987. At the time, she was still being partially bottle-fed by her handlers (驯兽员). Her main caretaker consistently fed her peeled bananas, and the handler would peel them directly in front of her. The researchers report that Pha was “never formally conditioned to peel bananas” but likely picked up the skill by observing her human caretakers.

The Berlin Zoo reached out to Brecht, a professor of neurobiology(神经生物学) at Humboldt University and the senior author of the paper and his team, and told them about their clever elephant, but when researchers arrived to observe her behaviour, they found it was hard to get Pha to consistently peel bananas. 

Researchers learned that they could consistently get Pha to peel bananas when they offered her ripe, brown-speckled (褐色斑点的) bananas. Pha doesn’t open bananas like humans do, by peeling from the stem (茎). Instead, she cracks the banana in half down the centre with her trunk then slams it on the ground to release the soft fruit inside. After shaking the peel off, she eats the banana. 

Researchers observed Pha being fed bananas in the same place as other elephants and noticed she would eat “like a machine”, not wasting time to peel so she could snag more fruit. But when it came down to the last banana, 60 per cent of the time, Pha would save it and peel it.

As for why Pha peels bananas, researchers have no way of finding out. It’s possible she prefers the taste of peeled bananas. As for why she only peels yellow-brown bananas, it may have something to do with the ease of peeling the fruit at various stages of ripeness.

1.How might Pha have learned to peel bananas?

A By watching movies.

B By observing other elephants.

C By copying her caretakers.

D By training from her handlers.

解析：选C。C细节理解题。根据第二段最后一句的“The researchers report that Pha was ‘never formally conditioned to peel bananas’ but likely picked up the skill by observing her human caretakers.”可知，她可能是通过观察她的饲养员学会了剥香蕉这项技能。故选C。

2.Which statement is TRUE about Pha according to the text?

A Pha opens bananas from the stem.

B Getting Pha to consistently peel bananas is easy.

C Pha came to the Berlin Zoo 27 years ago.

D Pha only peels brown-speckled bananas.

解析：选D。D细节理解题。根据第四段第一句“Researchers learned that they could consistently get Pha to peel bananas when they offered her ripe, brown-speckled bananas.”可知，研究人员了解到，当他们给Pha提供成熟的、有棕色斑点的香蕉时，她就会剥香蕉。故选D。

3.Which of the following can take the place of the underlined word “snag”?

A Envy.

B Eat.

C Input.

D Peel.

解析：选B。B词义猜测题。根据划线部分前面的“not wasting time to peel”可知，当Pha和其他大象在同一个畜栏里被喂食香蕉时，她不会浪费时间剥皮，这样她就可以吃到更多香蕉。故选B。

4.What is the text mainly about?

A A mathematical method.

B A scientific study.

C A research on animal

D A teaching program.

解析：选B。B主旨大意题。根据文章的“the focus of a new study”“Researchers learned”“Researchers observed”和“researchers have no way of finding out”等可知，本文主要是关于一只叫Pang Pha的大象剥香蕉的科学研究。故选B。