Just like humans, birds too rely on sound to communicate. However, they do not have a “language” in the true sense of the word and instead produce a variety of sounds to convey different emotions.
Often, birds recognize their mates(or young) by sound rather than sight. Hungry young birds use begging calls to let their mothers know it is feeding time. Alarm calls, flight calls and warning calls are other sounds made frequently by adults.
A new study shows that songbirds rehearse(排演) their songs even in their sleep. The activity in the brain of the birds when asleep is similar to the brain activity when the birds were awake and singing. The team used tiny recording devices to measure the activity of individual brain cells in four songbirds both when they were singing and when they were asleep.
Apparently the bird stores a song after hearing it, and then rehearses it later in its sleep. Scientists now believe the birds “dream of songs and tunes” to help them master the fine art of singing and that sleep plays a key role in the learning process!
Many songbirds learn to sing listening to adult birds of the same species. However, if separated from the adults, the young birds develop sounds which are hard to understand instead of normal song patterns. Researchers carried out an experiment in which a male bullfinch (灰雀) was raised by a female canary(金丝雀). The bullfinch soon learned the canary’s song and when it was later mated to a female bullfinch, Mr.Bullfinch taught his children the canary’s songs.
Last year, a British survey of London’s songbirds showed that the city’s birds are losing their tunes. Birds could hardly hear one another, over the traffic noise; as a result, instead of copying the sweet notes of the adults, young birds were copying the sounds they heard most often, namely car horns and beeping cellphones!
1. According to the passage, birds recognize their mates by ________.| A．using their own words | B．listening to their sounds |
| C．looking at their appearances | D．singing the same songs |
| A．Flight calls. | B．Alarm calls. |
| C．Begging calls. | D．Warning calls. |
| A．young birds learn to sing from whom they live together with |
| B．birds only learn how to sing from the same adult species |
| C．it's not easy for adult birds to teach young birds songs |
| D．a canary's song is more beautiful than a bullfinch's |
| A．traffic noise makes young birds become deaf |
| B．birds in the city can sing as sweetly as those in the wild |
| C．birds in the city recognize their mates mainly by sight |
| D．noise pollution causes much trouble for birds in the city |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Monarch butterflies(黑脉金斑蝶) are a common summer sight in the northern United States and Canada. These large orange and black insects brighten parks and gardens as they fly lightly among the flowers. What makes monarchs particularly interesting is that they migrate—all the way to California or Mexico and back. They are thought to be the only insect that does this.
Every year in the late summer monarchs begin their journey to the south. Those heading for Mexico go first for the Louisiana-Mississippi area, then fly across the Gulf of Mexico into Texas. Once in Mexico, they settle themselves in one of about fifteen places in a mountain forests filled with fir tress. Each place provides a winter home for millions of monarchs. The butterflies are so many that they often cover entire trees. When spring comes, they begin their long journey north.
The question is often asked whether every butterfly makes the round-trip journey every year. And the answer is no. The average monarch lives about nine months. So one flying north might lay eggs in Louisiana and then die. The eggs of that generation may be found in Kentucky; the eggs of the next generation may end up in Wisconsin or Michigan. The last generation of the season, about the fourth, will make their way back to Mexico and restart the journey.
Scientist learn about monarchs’ migration by catching and making marks on the insects. By recatching a monarch with such a mark and noticing where it came from, the next scientist can get to know things like the butterfly’s age and its routing.
1. One of the places where monarchs spend the winter is ________.| A．the Gulf of Mexico | B．an area in Mississippi |
| C．a forest in Mexico | D．a plain in Texas |
| A．by examining the marks made on them | B．by collecting their eggs in the mountains |
| C．by comparing their eggs in their different ages | D．by counting the dead ones in the forest |
| A．Migration of monarch. | B．Scientists’ interest in monarchs. |
| C．Winter home of monarchs. | D．Life and death of monarchs. |
【推荐2】Beavers (海狸) and their dams can positively impact essentially any environment they’re placed in, even the extreme heat of the Moab Desert in Utah. And that is what a university researcher has founded. Looking for solutions to drought and wildfires, a Utah State University student Emma Doden began relocating (搬迁) beavers caught in other parts of the state into small, struggling waterways around the Price and San Rafael rivers.
Studies have shown that beaver dams can vastly improve the quality of wetlands and streams leading to better animal life and improved river health. It was for this service that the “ecosystem engineer” was targeted by Doden as a potential rescuer, even if the idea relocating beavers to the desert caused a few raised eyebrows. “We believed the system could support a lot more beavers”, Doden said, “and we wanted to supplement it with beavers.”
“Beaver dams are gaining popularity as a low-tech, low-cost strategy to build climate resiliency (还原能力) at the landscape scale,” says one study. “They slow and store water that can be accessed by plants during dry periods, effectively protecting riverside ecosystems from droughts.” Another study found that the ponds which are created on the dammed side of the beaver homes can store huge amounts of sediment (沉淀物) then distribute it more safely around the river ecosystem.
This is the case, the study found, both in entirely wild areas with no human activities and those near to intense agricultural regions, meaning that no matter the conditions of sedimentation, beaver dams can help keep waterways clearer. Doden’s university has a program for catching beavers and relocating them to the desert, where they will build dams to provide these benefits. “The eventual goal is to get them to build dams,” she said. “The dams are what are going to increase habitat complexity and restore water.”
1. Why did Emma Doden begin relocating beavers into other places?| A．Because beavers can positively impact the environment there. |
| B．Because the number of beavers has increased sharply. |
| C．Because beavers have the ability to survive in extreme conditions. |
| D．Because beavers are doing harm to the environment in original places. |
| A．It surprised some people. | B．It could cause damage to the desert. |
| C．It would pose a threat to the lives of beavers. | D．It was resisted by many researchers. |
| A．Expensive. | B．Profitable. | C．Eco-friendly. | D．Technology-demanding. |
| A．Entertainment. | B．Health. | C．Education. | D．Science. |
【推荐3】If you shoo (发噓声把……赶走) a pigeon, that bird is likely to remember you and know to stay out of your way the next time you cross paths, according to a new study. Researchers found that wild, untrained pigeons can recognize individual people’s faces and are not fooled by a change of clothes.
In a park in Paris, two researchers of similar build and skin colour, but wearing different-coloured lab coats, fed a group of pigeons. One researcher ignored the pigeons after feeding them, allowing them to eat the food, while the other was hostile and chased them away. This was followed by the second session when neither researcher chased away the pigeons. The experiment was repeated several times, with the pigeons continuously recognizing the individuals and avoiding the researcher who had first chased them away even when the participant no longer did so. Exchanging lab coats during the experiments did not confuse the pigeons, and they continued to stay away from the researcher who had been initially hostile.
“It is very likely that the pigeons recognized the researchers by their faces, since the individuals were both female and of a similar age, build and skin colour,” study researcher Dalila Bovet said in a statement. “Interestingly, the pigeons, without training, spontaneously (自发地) used the most relevant characteristics of the individuals (probably facial traits) instead of the lab coats that covered 90 percent of the body,” Bovet added.
The researchers noted that the birds appeared to be able to distinguish between humans and be aware that clothing colour was not a good way to tell humans apart. They theorized that this recognition ability might have come about over the long period of association with humans, from early domestication (驯养) to many years of living in cities.
1. What does the underlined word in the second paragraph mean?| A．Aggressive. | B．Unfamiliar. | C．Demanding. | D．Friendly. |
| A．The researcher’s build and skin colour. | B．The researcher’s smell. |
| C．The researcher’s sex. | D．The researcher’s face. |
| A．The training of the researchers. | B．Early domestication in the countryside. |
| C．The long time of dealing with humans. | D．Many years of living in the wild. |
| A．In a travel handbook. | B．In a history book. |
| C．In a science report. | D．In an economic journal. |
【推荐1】Let’s get one thing straight: Studying sometimes is boring, right? But it is extremely necessary. After all, working through difficult material is a necessary part of the learning process—which leads to the obvious question: If I have to do it, is there at least a way to make it fun?
During Carol Dweck’s research for her book Mindset (思维模式): The New Psychology of Success, she found that students deal with learning in one of the two ways: they either look at difficult courses with a fixed mindset or with a growth mindset. Those with fixed mindsets believe that intelligence and talent are set in stone. For example, if they find a certain math problem difficult, they’d think, “I guess I’m just not a math person.” In contrast, students with growth mindsets are certain that they could change and grow in every area of their lives. If they come across a difficult problem, they will think, “I can get better at this...But I have to tough it out.”
Dweck found that most students start out pretty interested in a subject. Yet over the semester, something happens. Students with the fixed mindset may stay interested only when they do well right away. Those who find it difficult are likely to show a big drop in their interest and enjoyment. If it isn’t a testimony (证明) to their intelligence, they can’t enjoy it. In contrast, students with the growth mindset are able to continue to show the same high level of enjoyment even when they find the work very difficult. Difficulty and interest go hand in hand.
If you want to succeed and enjoy your studying, don’t think of your classes as a series of tests that show just how intelligent or unintelligent you are. Instead, think of them more as ongoing opportunities to learn and grow.
1. Which of the following might students with fixed mindsets believe?| A．They are not interested in math. |
| B．Their abilities are not valued. |
| C．Their mindset determines their ability. |
| D．Failure is caused by their intelligence. |
| A．Stick to it. | B．Get away from it. | C．Give in to it. | D．Refer to it. |
| A．Students who are able to deal with difficult problems do better in their studies. |
| B．Students who find it hard to fix problems lose their interest in their studies. |
| C．Students mindsets play a huge role in how interested they are in their studies. |
| D．Students’ interests have a big effect on how well they perform in their studies. |
| A．Choosing an active and positive mindset. |
| B．Regarding learning as a test of intelligence. |
| C．Paying little attention to the task difficulty. |
| D．Looking for a strong inspiration to succeed. |
【推荐2】What Can We See in a Logo?
We see hundreds of logos on signs, vehicles, websites, and even on the clothes we wear. All of these logos are designed to attract our attention.
Researchers gave 85 students a simple assignment to draw the logo of a well-known company from memory. Surprisingly, only one student in the study could accurately draw the logo from memory.
Logos are typically designed to be simple and easy to recognize with a quick glance. Yet the frequent exposure to these logos can actually make our brains overlook them. This process is known as “attention saturation(注意力饱和)”.
Even though the brain is accustomed to ignoring unnecessary details, it is programmed for recognition. When we see images such as logos over and over again, we become familiar with them. This constant exposure leads to something scientists refer to as “gist memory”, which means that our brains remember the basic idea without all of the details.
Logos are everywhere we look today. A fancy design or a thoughtful color combination may be a good start for a logo concept, but there are other factors to consider.
| A．This may be inspiring to logo designers. |
| B．People will know the product behind the logo. |
| C．This general sense of memory has its own benefits. |
| D．So why is it so difficult for people to recall the details of images? |
| E．They also help us remember a product or service connected to the images. |
| F．Our brains actually signal us to ignore information we don’t think we will need to remember. |
| G．Logo designers need to know that people will only remember what they believe is worthwhile. |
【推荐3】It was time for Macy to move. She booked a few house viewings and after looking at three places, she fell in love with one house. But that night a feeling of doubt and uncertainty entered her head.
We’ve all found ourselves in such situations, whether we’re considering job offers or buying a new car. It’s a problem that involves mathematics and psychology. And it’s got a name: the optimal (最优的) stopping problem.
Mathematicians have given us an answer: 37%. The basic idea is that, if we need to make a decision from 100 different options, we should sample and give up the first 37.
Mathematics offers us the best answer to the “optimal stopping problem”. But there’s just one big issue: Humans are not rational probability-calculating machines. In fact, the opposite is usually true.
| A．What if the next house is better? |
| B．How much does it cost a month ? |
| C．The 37% rule is not some mindless, automatic thing. |
| D．And it ties in with how curious or risk-seeking we are. |
| E．It’s then necessary for us to improve our computing power. |
| F．So it falls on psychology to tell us about how we actually behave. |
| G．The mathematical question for Macy concerns maximizing probabilities. |
【推荐1】From old times, crows(乌鸦)have been famous for their cleverness. They use tools, work out problems, and even enjoy playing. Scientists have studied carefully how crows go about these activities.
To make tools, crows cut off leaves with their ''mouths'', shape them, and use them to look for bugs(虫子)in wood or plants. Just as a carpenter carries his tools with him, a crow will carry its tool around. When the leaf isn’t needed for the moment, the bird stores the tool at its feet or somewhere else.
To test wild crows' abilities to work out problems, scientists placed food outdoors in covered bowls. They watched with interest as the birds smartly opened the bowls to get the food. Scientists also found out that crows can make use of the traffic. For example, crows would drop a nut on the road and wait for a car to run over the nut to break it.
Besides, crows seem to enjoy playing. Young crows will carry a stick or nut into the air, drop it, and fly to catch the object as it falls.
So just how smart are crows? Perhaps a crow will never do tricks as a dog will. But scientists agree that there’s a lot going on in the brain of a clever crow.
1. We learn from paragraph 2 that a crow may store the _______ at its feet or somewhere else.| A．leaf | B．mouth |
| C．wood | D．bowl |
| A．whether crows make tools | B．whether crows enjoy playing |
| C．how much crows like the food | D．how crows work out problems |
| A．survey | B．guess |
| C．example | D．experiment |
| A．tricks | B．foods |
| C．happiness | D．cleverness |
【推荐2】Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It activated physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses (公共汽车), horse railways, trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century they extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far from the old city center and still go there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in distant areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan (都市) arca. Anxious to take advantage of these areas, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years — lots that could have housed five to six million people.
Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little attention to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a typical example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth.
1. With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned?| A．Types of mass transportation. |
| B．Instability of urban life. |
| C．How supply and demand determine land use. |
| D．The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion. |
| A．To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth. |
| B．To use cities with and without mass transportation as examples. |
| C．To show mass transportation changed many cities. |
| D．To contrast their rate of growth. |
| A．It was expensive. |
| B．It happened too slowly. |
| C．It was unplanned. |
| D．It created a demand for public transportation. |
| A．that is large. |
| B．that is used as a model for land development. |
| C．where the development of land exceeded population growth. |
| D．with an excellent mass transportation system. |
【推荐3】You might have ever noticed how some people can effortlessly talk to anyone they meet, no matter how different their backgrounds are. Or you may have seen that one person always offends someone, no matter what the topic of conversation is. These two situations describe how we can differ in our abilities to interact, get along with, and relate to others around us. In the same way that we vary in traditional academic competencies, we can vary in how socially competent we are. After years of academic research and development, this social ability is now commonly referred to as “social intelligence.”
Social intelligence is the ability to understand other people, how they work, what motivates them, and how to work cooperatively with them. It is a relationshipbased construct that centers on the way we understand others, interact with others, and present ourselves to others. As an example, you would not speak in the same way toward your 70-year-old mother as you would to your 16-yearold daughter. In our working lives, we come across different social groups including those from different countries, varying age groups and cultural identities. Being able to acknowledge and understand people’s different backgrounds is a key way to connect with them.
Our ability to navigate successfully through our lives relies heavily on our levels of social intelligence. It can affect the relationships we form with our partners and children, the friendship circles that we build, and our ability to progress in our careers and ambitions. Given the importance of social intelligence in multiple aspects of life, it is therefore in our best interest to better understand the concept of social intelligence and take the following ways to improve it.
1. What is the first paragraph intended to show?| A．Academic research varies from person to person. |
| B．Social competencies are crucial to academic research. |
| C．Social competencies are of difference person to person. |
| D．Academic research shows people’s social competencies. |
| A．To present a fact. | B．To justify an idea. |
| C．To introduce a topic. | D．To draw a conclusion. |
| A．It is difficult to develop social intelligence. |
| B．Our relationship circles should be enlarged. |
| C．Better understanding a concept is important. |
| D．Social intelligence has great effects on our lives. |
| A．How to define social intelligence. | B．How to classify social intelligence. |
| C．How to improve social intelligence. | D．How to deal with social intelligence. |
【推荐1】Shanghai Tour Bus Center
Besides Shanghai’s own attractions, tourist attractions around the city are well worth a visit. Shanghai Tour Bus Center has several branches(分部) in different parts of the city. It offers over 170 Itineraries(行程) to more than 270 attractions in the city and neighboring provinces.
Here below are some places Shanghai tour buses visit:
*Zhouzhuang Town
Fee: CNY 150 for a return air-conditioned bus fare and admission to the attraction.
*Xitang Town
Fee: CNY 150 for a return bus fare and admission to the attraction； CNY 75 for a roundtrip bus fare only.
* West Lake
Inclusions: a one-way bullet train trip from Shanghai to Hangzhou, a bus trip from Hangzhou Railway Station to the attraction site, a bus trip from the attraction site to Hangzhou Railway Station, the local guide service, and admission to the attraction.
Fee: CNY 330.
*Two Days of Yellow Mountain
A round-trip bus trip to the foot of Yellow Mountain, a hotel room for one night on Yellow Mountain, and the tour guide service.
Fee:
Standard Hotel Room Stay | VIP Hotel Room Stay | |
Fridays | CNY 358 | CNY 668 |
Saturdays | CNY 418 | CNY 768 |
Sundays to the following Thursdays | CNY 318 | CNY 568 |
Note:
General Station of Shanghai Tour Bus Center
Address: BI, No. 240. 9. South Zhongshan 2nd Road
Tel: 021-240 95555
South Railway Station Branch
Address: South Long Distance Bus Station, No. 666, Shilong Road, Xuhui District
Tel: 021-54363617
Hongkou Branch
Address: No. 5 Gate, Hongkou Football Stadium, No.444, East Jiangwan Road, Hongkou District
Tel: 021-56963248
Yangpu Branch
Address: Yangpu Sports Center, No. 640, Longchang Road, Yangpu District
Tel: 021-65803210
1. What is covered in a CNY 150 ticket for Xitang Town?| A．The local guide service. |
| B．A one-way bullet train fare. |
| C．The entrance ticket for the town. |
| D．A bus fare from Xitang to Hangzhou Railway Station. |
| A．CNY 318. | B．CNY 358. |
| C．CNY 418. | D．CNY 568. |
| A．General Station of Shanghai Tour Bus Center. |
| B．South Railway Station Branch. |
| C．Hongkou Branch. |
| D．Yangpu Branch. |
【推荐2】My teenage son Karl became withdrawn after his father died. As a single parent, I tried to do my best to talk to him. But the more I tried, the more he pulled away. When his report card arrived during his junior year, it said that he had been absent（缺席的） 95 times from classes and had six falling grades for the year. In this way he would never graduate. I sent him to the school adviser, and I even begged him. Nothing worked.
One night I felt so powerless that I asked God for help. “Please God, I can’t do anything more for my son. I’m at the end of my rope. I’m giving the whole thing up to you.”
I was at work when I got a phone call. A man introduced himself as the headmaster. “I want to talk to you about Karl’s absences.” Before he could say another word, I choked up（哽咽）and all my disappointment and sadness over Karl came pouring out into the ears of this stranger. “I love my son, but I just don’t know what to do. I’ve tried everything to get Karl to go back to school and nothing has worked. It’s out of my hands.” For a moment there was silence on the other end of the line. The headmaster seriously said, “Thank you for your time”, and hung up.
Karl's next report card showed a marked（显著的） improvement in his grades. Finally, he was even on the list of the best students at school. In his fourth year, I attended a parent –– teacher meeting with Karl. I noticed that his teachers were surprised because he had changed himself completely. On our way home, he said, “Mum, remember that call from the headmaster last year?” I nodded. “That was me. I thought I'd play a joke，but when I heard what you said, it really hit me how much I was hurting you. That’s when I knew I had to make you proud.”
1. Which of the following has the similar meaning as the underlined word “withdrawn” in the first paragraph?| A．Quiet and lonely | B．Relaxed and excited |
| C．Talkative and lively | D．Happy and easy-going |
| A．often went to school late | B．failed in all the exams |
| C．did a good job at school | D．didn’t do well at school |
| A．didn’t know what to do about her son |
| B．would drive her son away from the house |
| C．had no money to support the family |
| D．she would have to hang up |
| A．The headmaster. | B．The school adviser. |
| C．Karl himself. | D．The passage doesn’t tell us. |
| A．children in single – parent families always have mental problems |
| B．mother’s love plays an important role in teenagers’ life |
| C．parents should give their children as much help as possible |
| D．school education still works well without support from parents |
【推荐3】Bored? lonely? Out of condition? Need to relax? Why not try the SPORTS CENTER?
TENNIS
Indoor and outdoor courts. Coaching from beginners to advanced learners. Children only. Mornings.
SKIING
Gentle slopes (坡). 3 levels instructors at weekends and Fridays. Daytime practice.8 years old upwards.
SWIMMING
2 pools, heated, Olympic length.
Women: Tuesday and Thursday.
Men: Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Children: Saturday.
GOLF
9 hole practice course. Professional coaching. Lessons must be booked in advance in daytime. Evening practice. Minimum age-9 years.
GYMNASTICS
Maximum age-18 years.
Children aged 5-10: Mondays and Wednesdays. 4:00-6:00p.m.
10-18 year olds: Friday evenings.
AND MANY MORE
Table Tennis, Snooker (斯诺克台球), Darts (掷镖), Café (all day), Bar (lunch time and evenings), Nursery (weekdays and weekends, not evenings).
Center open: 10:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. Daily.
Interested? More details, call 800-1234-5678.
1. What is the purpose of the advertisement?| A．To show some ways to spend weekends. |
| B．To introduce a place to relax ourselves. |
| C．To introduce some events in a sports meet. |
| D．To give people some ideas to spend their holidays. |
| A．People can play tennis day and night. |
| B．People under 20 can also take gymnastics. |
| C．Children at any age can play golf in the center. |
| D．Men and women swim in the center separately. |
| A．5. | B．6. |
| C．8. | D．11. |
