[originaltext] Living things take from their environment and give back to th

Living things take from their environment and give back to their environment. In other words, living things and their environment are interdependent. Living things take matter and energy from the environment, and return matter and energy to the environment. For instance, animals feed on plants, or on other animals. And they return materials to the environment. This interaction goes on continually.
    Man also is in active give-and-take relations with his environment. However, there is one way in which man is different. Other living things do not change their environment the way man does. Man is not only adapted to the environment. He alters his environment in other complex ways.
    How is it that man can alter his environment, as no other living thing can? It is because of his brain. With his brain, man learns.
    Man’s brain makes it possible for him to record what he learns. He puts his records in words, in pictures, in sounds. In this way man can pass on what he learns to other men.