摘要：雅思中國網雅思頻道今天要跟大家分享的雅思閱讀素材叫做“Are cats selfish”，貓自私嗎？喵星人自不自私我還真不知道，很多人都會養一只貓，如果自私的話應該不會養吧？還是看看別人怎么說的吧！

分享一篇關于cats的雅思閱讀文章，“Are cats selfish？”.周圍養貓的朋友突然間似乎多了起來，因此也不斷聽說關于貓的可愛與可恨，當然可愛還是居多。本文討論貓是不是自私的?調查的結果是眾說紛紜，而從進化論的角度去考量，也依然無法準確回答到底貓是不是自私。也許，眼下我們只能下這么一個結論：貓是可愛的!

Are Cats Selfish?

It's six in the morning and your cat puts a paw on your eyelid. "It's time to wake up," she seems to be saying. She couldn't give a monkey's how tired you are(她可不在乎你有多困). She wants feeding.

There's a widespread perception that everything cats do is just a little self-serving, a touch self-centred. In a word, selfish. But not content with(不滿足于)idle stereotypes(刻板印象), we put this little question – are cats selfish? – to the BBC Earth audience.

Some of you didn't like the question at all. "Selfish is a human trait(特征)," argued Ann Halim. "'Selfish' is hard to apply to any animal other than humans," agreed Kevin Bonin.

It certainly is hard, but that has never stopped us trying.

In his 1871 book The Descent of Man, Charles Darwin argued that animal minds are similar to ours in many ways. "The difference in mind between man and the higher animals…is certainly one of degree and not kind," he wrote.(他寫道，“沒有疑問，人類和比較高級的動物在思維方面的差異只是一個度的問題，而不是類別問題”)。

If that's true, then surely a cat – or any other higher animal – might meet the Oxford Dictionary's definition of selfish: being "concerned chiefly with one's own personal profit or pleasure."

Many of you identified with(同意)the idea that cats are out for themselves.

"Are cats selfish??? That's like asking has the pope got a balcony?!" says Jane Ramsden. "Let's just say, there is an I in kitty," says Dan Okeneski. "Cats are entirely self-serving," says Frankathon Dirabis. "It's a good thing they are cute and furry."

Gina Darlin Strange's cat has clear views about where she sleeps. "If the Sun is shining across my bed in the morning and my daughter's in the afternoon, she demands total access to it and will get an attitude if you move her," she says.(她說：“如果太陽早上照在我的床上，下午照在我女兒的床上，她會要求全部占有，你要是趕她走，她就會變臉。”)

Annette Jeneane Behnke-Park's cat is constantly seeking attention. "She tries to get us to play tag, wants what we have for food, wants my spot on the chair, loves to lay across me at night," she says.

Some correspondents also report their cats showing signs of selfishness towards other cats.

"Hector will steal treats from Harvey without fail if given the chance," says Marlee Lütz. Vijaya Shadrak's tomcat began to urinate(小便)wherever two other cats in her home liked to rest. "Now he is scaring them," she says. Bad kitty.

However, most of the people who responded say that selfishness is not a trait they recognise in their cats.

Instead, a lot of cat-lovers describe what appear to be altruistic(利他的) acts on the part of their pets. Altruism is defined as "selfless concern for the well-being of others."

How else are we to interpret the domestic cat's habit of gift-giving? This is how Chris R. Ainsworth sees his cat's tendency to leave a "decapitated mouse/bunny/bird/chipmunk/squirrel" on his doorstep.

This generosity(慷慨)of spirit does not always involve dead animals. Sarah Pratt's cats fetch her live animals, as well as ice cubes and hair ties. "They're nice that way," she says. Similarly, Mary Jozwiak's cats drop their toys outside her bedroom.

A lot of cats also seem to be in tune with the emotional state of their owners.

Jacqueline Tong recounts how her cat kept her company throughout 19 long hours of labour, "licking my face between every contraction".

David Penn once knew a kitten that comforted him during a bad tooth infection by curling up on his cheek and purring him to sleep.

Jessica Natasha A's cat Gina would always be there to comfort someone if they were sad.

Stories like these suggest that cats are not always as cold and calculating(工于算計的)as they are commonly portrayed.

To make sense of the complex suite of behaviours displayed by domestic cats, we have to think about their origins, says Eva Leighton. "Domestic cats still have strong basic instincts and one of them is wariness(謹慎)and self-preservation(自我保護)."

We know that cats are descended from the wildcat (Felis silvestris). Wildcats are intensely solitary(孤獨的)creatures, so it makes sense that domestic cats are also happy in their own company.

We might expect that the process of domestication(馴養)would root out that spirited independence. But cats were not domesticated in the same way as other animals, with humans carefully choosing which ones to breed from and which traits to encourage. (我們也許認為，馴養的過程會讓貓失去那種強烈的獨立感。然而，貓的馴養卻不似其他動物。在馴養其他動物時，人類會仔細挑選喂養哪些動物，或鼓勵保留哪些特性。)

Instead, cats were probably responsible for their own domestication.

"It's better to think of cats the way you think of mice and rats and sparrows and pigeons," says Carlos Driscoll, a geneticist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in Rockville, Maryland, USA.

               
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