Questão 5082307

• Banca: AMEOSC
• Órgão: Prefeitura de Iporã do Oeste - SC
• Ano: 2020
• Provas: AMEOSC - 2020 - Prefeitura de Iporã do Oeste - SC - Professor de Inglês
• Disciplina: Inglês
• Assuntos: Interpretação de texto | Reading comprehension

Read the text below to answer the question.

How octopuses ‘taste’ things by touching

   Octopus arms have minds of their own. Each of these eight supple yet powerful limbs can explore the seafloor in search of prey, snatching crabs from hiding spots without direction from the octopus’ brain. But how each arm can tell what it’s grasping has remained a mystery.

   Now, researchers have identified specialized cells not seen in other animals that allow octopuses to “taste” with their arms. Embedded in the suckers, these cells enable the arms to do double duty of touch and taste by detecting chemicals produced by many aquatic creatures. This may help an arm quickly distinguish food from rocks or poisonous prey, Harvard University molecular biologist Nicholas Bellono and his colleagues report online October 29 in Cell.

   The findings provide another clue about the unique evolutionary path octopuses have taken toward intelligence. Instead of being concentrated in the brain, two-thirds of the nerve cells in an octopus are distributed among the arms, allowing the flexible appendages to operate semiindependently.

(Adapted from: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/octopus-taste-touch-arm-suckers). 

According to the text:

• A. There are nerve cells in an octopus distributed among the arms.
• B. The nerve cells in an octopus are all concentrated in the brain.
• C. Researchers have identified specialized cells in octopus, as seen in other animals, that allow them to “taste” with their arms.
• D. The octopus cannot distinguish food from rocks or poisonous prey.

Gabarito: A