Some dogs are exceptional. Take Chaser for example, an American border collie (边境牧羊犬) regarded as the “smartest dog in the world”, who could recognize and remember 1, 022 nouns — one for each of her toys. In Germany, another border collie, a male named Rico, practiced “fast-mapping”, or figuring out the names of new things with the speed and cleverness of a three-year-old child.
Yet such examples of dog genius are often “about only one dog”, says Claudia Fugazza, an ethologist who studies dog cognition (认知) at Budapest’s Eotvos Lorand University. She and her colleagues asked owners of 34 pet dogs of various breeds (品种) to teach their dogs names for two separate toys. Out of those 34 animals, only one dog passed the test — a border collie named Oliva. “These results mean talent must be something special,” says Fugazza, lead author of a new study on the experiment.
The scientists looked for dog owners worldwide via social media, then asked them to play fetch with their dogs daily in their homes while repeating the name of the toy, a process that lasted three months. Once a month, with a scientist present, the owners tested the dogs—the study participants included both adults and little dogs — by asking the dogs to fetch one of two toys by name. Dogs that succeeded were then given a new toy and new name to learn. Despite the intensive training, only Oliva learned to match a single word to a toy — in fact, she learned 21 names in two months.
“None of the breeds learned a thing. It was such a surprise,” Fugazza says. To check if the study design worked, the scientists also tested six border collies that could already fetch some toys by name; as predicted, all six of those control dogs, including a dog named Nina, learned additional names.
It’s interesting that 18 of the 33 dogs that failed the test were also border collies, Fugazza points out, showing that the breed isn’t always high performing.
Because of such individual difference, the scientists next plan to track the genetics(基因) and history of a variety of dog breeds to try to identify the factors that produce such smart creatures.
1. Which of the following is recognized as the smartest dog in the world?A.Chaser. | B.Rico. | C.Oliva. | D.Nina. |
A.15 dogs successfully passed the test. |
B.The participants included only adult dogs. |
C.The participants were dogs of different breeds. |
D.There were altogether 18 border collies in 33 dogs. |
A.Train different dogs to become smart. |
B.Research what can influence dogs gift. |
C.Find which breed of dog is the smartest. |
D.How to teach dogs to learn new words. |
A.A diary. | B.A guide book. |
C.A novel. | D.A science magazine. |
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【推荐1】What do extreme marathoners, mountain hikers and professional bicycle racers all have in common? They push their bodies to unsustainable (不可持续的) extremes of physical stress.
We tend to think there’s no limit to human physical achievements. But a new study, published in Science Advances, says there is a definite limit to human endurance (耐力). Beyond that, our bodies begin to break down.
To find the limit, a US research team tracked marathon runners over a five-month period, measuring competitors’ initial basal metabolic rates (BMR, 基础新陈代谢率) – the amount of energy they expend when they rest. Then they looked at how many calories(卡路里) each runner burned per day.
The team found that the maximum amount of energy a human can expend is 2.5 times of BMR. It equals 4,000 calories of energy per day. These calories can help a trained athlete to run about 42 kilometers in a day.
But people can’t keep using this amount of calories all the time. “You can do really intense stuff for a couple of days, but if you want to last longer then you have to dial it back,” US evolutionary anthropologist Herman Pontzer told the BBC.
Pontzer explained that the problem is our guts (消化道). “There’s … a limit to how many calories our guts can effectively absorb per day,” he said in the Daily Mail. At that point, the body is burning calories more quickly than it can absorb food and convert (转化) it into energy.
These new findings could help athletes to best work underneath this ceiling. For example, they could manage their daily exercise time based on their BMR, to get enough calories and keep going.
However, Pontzer’s team can’t rule out the possibility of someone breaking this limit. “So I guess it’s a challenge to elite endurance athletes,” said Pontzer. “Science works when you’re proven wrong. Maybe someone will break through that ceiling some day and show us what we’re missing.”
1. What did the US research team find in the new study?A.One’s endurance can be improved through exercise. |
B.A trained athlete can do intense activities for more than a week. |
C.The average BMR for athletes is 4,000 calories of energy per day. |
D.The energy one can expend is no more than 2.5 times of their BMR per day. |
A.To tell us the problem with our guts. |
B.To show how our bodies produce energy. |
C.To explain why there is a limit to human endurance. |
D.To prove the importance of our guts to physical activities. |
A.keep a more balanced diet |
B.save time and reduce stress |
C.arrange their training properly |
D.improve their performance quickly |
A.It’s possible that someone could break the endurance limit. |
B.It’s no good trying to work above the 2.5x endurance ceiling. |
C.Further data is needed to make the study’s results more accurate. |
D.The 2.5x endurance ceiling is not a problem for many elite athletes. |
【推荐2】Essentially, everyone has two ages: a chronological(按时间计算的) age, how old the calendar says you are, and a biological age, basically the age at which your body functions as it compares to average fitness or health levels.
“Chronological age isn’t how old we really are. It’s merely a number,” said Professor David Sinclair at Harvard University. “It is biological age that determines our health and ultimately our lifespan(寿命). We all age biologically at different rates according to our genes, what we eat, how much we exercise, and what environment we live in. Biological age is the number of candles we really should be blowing out. In the future, with advances in our ability to control biological age, we may have even fewer candles on our birthday cake than the previous one.”
To calculate biological age, Professor Levine at Yale University identified nine bio-markers that seemed to be the most influential on lifespan by a simple blood test. The numbers of those markers, such as blood sugar and immune measures, can be put into the computer, and the algorithm(算法) does the rest.
Perhaps what’s most important here is that these measures can be changed. Doctors can take this information and help patients make changes to lifestyle, and hopefully take steps to improve their biological conditions. “I think the most exciting thing about this research is that these things aren’t set in stone,” Levine said. “People can be given the information earlier and take steps to improve their health before it’s too late.”
Levine even entered her own numbers into the algorithm. She was surprised by the results. “I always considered myself a very healthy person. I’m physically active; I eat what I consider a fairly healthy diet. But I did not find my results to be as good as I had hoped they would be. It was a wake-up call,” she said.
Levine is working with a group to provide access to the algorithm online so that anyone can calculate their biological age, identify potential risks and take steps to improve their own health in the long run. “No one wants to live an extremely long life with a lot of chronic diseases,” Levine said. “By delaying the development of mental and physical functioning problems, people can still be engaged in society in their senior years. That is the ideal we should be pursuing.”
1. Biological age depends on __________.A.what the calendar says about our age |
B.when we start to take outdoor exercise |
C.whether we can adapt ourselves to the environment |
D.how well our body works compared with our peers’ |
A.It is necessary to change our diet regularly. |
B.The test results may give us wrong information. |
C.Waking up early in the morning is good for our fitness. |
D.The algorithm can reveal our potential health problems. |
A.Bio-markers Can Make Us Younger |
B.Chronological Age and Biological Age |
C.Old People can Still be Engaged in Society |
D.Biological Age can Lag behind or Exceed Chronological Age |
【推荐3】Frying French fries in space may be possible, according to a recent study by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece.
On Earth, we have gravity and buoyancy (浮力). Gravity makes sure that the oil stays in the cooker, and buoyancy allows the bubbles that come out of the fries to travel up ward so that the fries are cooked. In space, which is under microgravity, there is no buoyancy. So scientists for long believed that frying wasn’t possible.
The research team first designed a sealed container that could fry the potato safely in zero gravity and then took the researchers on a ride. The plane climbed up, and then, at a certain point, headed down just like a roller coaster. There were about 20 seconds of microgravity when the plane reached the highest point, during which the team did tests.
To their surprise, the fries were cooked, and the bubbles were able to escape. When being fried, the water inside the potato turned into vapor (水蒸气). The vapor created pressure when released from the potato. The pressure inside the potato allowed the bubbles to go out and let the oil come in, according to the research paper. It showed that “frying can occur in space”.
This isn’t the first attempt for scientists to deep-fry French fries in “space”. Early in 2014, a group of researchers conducted studies under various gravities. The agency’s large centrifuge (离心机)can create artificial gravity from 1 to 20g, with “g” referring to the gravitational acceleration at the surface of the Earth. It has four arms and can spin fast. During the spin, things held by the arm are under centrifugal force, which is the source of artificial gravity. The fries were cooked under different gravities from 1 to 9 g.
They discovered that the French fries had the most crispy (脆的) chips under 3g. It’s interesting to mention that Jupiter’s gravity is 2.4 times that of Earth’s gravity. So, French fries may have the perfect taste if cooked on Jupiter, compared with other planets in the solar system.
1. What may make frying French Fries possible in space?A.The release of bubbles. | B.The transformation of gravity. |
C.The reduction of vapor. | D.The accumulation of buoyance. |
A.To make a weightless sense. | B.To get appropriate pressure. |
C.To test the seal of the container. | D.To create experiment conditions. |
A.To show the function of the centrifuge. |
B.To find common ground of various experiments. |
C.To prove the perfect taste of French fries on Jupiter. |
D.To offer more evidence about cooking French fries in space. |
A.A science magazine. | B.A cook book. |
C.A food advertisement. | D.A travel brochure. |
【推荐1】If you plan to learn a foreign language, you might think it’s going to be really challenging. You’ve probably heard a lot of talks about how it’s easier to learn languages as a young child, and that learning as an adult can be difficult. You might even know friends or family members who have tried to learn a foreign tongue and failed. That’s because they are surrounded by the failure. We’re here to cheer you up with some good news and inspire you to get started.
The amazing adult brain: whether you can learn languages at any age? Scientists are always learning about the human brain. Decades ago, experts believed that the brain developed during childhood and then retained that way for life. However, modern studies have shown us that the brain has the ability to continually form new neural (神经的) connections throughout adulthood. A 2010 Swedish study tested two groups of people, one in the range of age 21 through 30 and another between 65 and 80. Remarkably, they found no significant differences in Neuroplasticity (神经可塑性). In other words, this suggests that it’s possible for you to learn new things at any age.
Besides being possible to learn languages, research also suggests that it improves the adult brain in general. In a 2012 Chinese study, experts looked at a group of adults who were learning Mandarin (普通话) over a nine-month period. They found that these adults showed improved integrity in their white matter, the part of the brain that allows neural cells to communicate. The better your neural cells communicate, the easier it will be for you to learn new things.
Why may adults have an easier time learning? Children might be blessed with a naturally high degree of neuroplasticity, but that doesn’t mean learning is necessarily easier for them. In fact, adult brains have a number of great qualities that might actually make learning easier, especially if you take advantage of free language learning apps like Mondly.
1. Why do some adults fail in the language learning?A.Because they are too old to learn a new language. |
B.Because languages are too difficult for adults to learn |
C.Because they are influenced by the adults who failed. |
D.Because they have no plans for new language learning. |
A.improved | B.remained | C.changed | D.strengthened |
A.To tell the difference between children and adults in language learning. |
B.To state the difference between children and adults in brain development. |
C.To show that there is no difference between children and adults in learning. |
D.To prove the former theory about brain development by some experts wrong. |
A.Brain development and new language learning. |
B.Analysis about children learning a new language. |
C.Information about adults learning a new language. |
D.Some good news for adults to learn a new language |
【推荐2】3,900 feet below the surface, scientists in New Zealand found a “mysterious creature”. They discovered the newly-hatched ghost shark(魔鬼鲨) on the Chatham Rise, a part of the ocean floor located off the eastern coast of the South Island.
Ghost sharks are deep-water animals closely related to sharks and rays. These fish are also some-times called ratfish or rabbitfish.
They lay eggs on the seafloor where the embryos (胚胎) feed off the egg yolk (蛋黄) until they hatch. A scientist on the team who discovered the baby ghost shark said they were able to identify the shark as a baby because its stomach was still full of egg yolk.
“We don’t actually know much about ghost sharks,” said Brit Finucci, a fisheries scientist on the study. “What we do know mostly comes from adults of their species. So it’s very rare and very uncommon to find juveniles of a lot of these species, so that’s why I got quite excited.”
Because ghost sharks make their home in very deep water, they are difficult to study. While the exact species of ghost shark isn’t known yet, scientists hope this discovery will help inform them of the knowledge of this mysterious creature.
Scientists hope the “very rare” finding will fill in research gaps about the species. “We’re hoping this will give us some more indication about the biology and ecology,” said Finucci. Researchers are using this shark to account for biological differences between juvenile and adult members of the subclass. Finucci added, “We’re not sure what we’re going to find, which is also quite exciting.”
1. How did the scientists identify the shark as a baby?A.By its habitat. | B.By its appearance. |
C.By the food it consumed. | D.By the eggs it laid. |
A.Grown-up fish. | B.Young sharks. | C.Strange eggs. | D.Uncommon creatures. |
A.It will lead to research work into deep water. |
B.It warns people to protect uncommon sea lives. |
C.It may reveal unknown facts about ghost sharks. |
D.It excites scientists’ curiosity about ghost sharks. |
A.Mysterious Creature Found to Lay Eggs in Deep Water |
B.Newly-hatched Baby Shark Excites Scientific Imagination |
C.Scientists Announce New Findings on Rare Shark Species |
D.Rare Baby Ghost Shark Discovered off New Zealand Coast |
【推荐3】It turns out that overworking your brain with either physical or mental exercise may lower your ability to delay self-satisfaction. And that may set you up for poor choices in your self-care and finances.
A new study published in the journal Current Biology asked excellent endurance athletes to overtrain for three out of 9 weeks, and compared them to a group who did a normal 9-week training program.
Not only did those overworked athletes perform worse on a cycling test at the end of the overtraining, MRIs of their brains during behavioral tasks showed more exhaustion in the cognitive control part of the brain system. "Cognitive control in this situation is the capacity to maintain exercise despite things like muscle pain," said study author Bastien Blain, a research associate at University College London. “And what we found is that there is an intelligence factor involved in exercising and it has a limited capacity. You cannot use it forever.''
In other words, your brain will burn out and affect your body's ability to exercise. But that's not all. Overworking that part of the brain also reduced the athletes' abilities to resist temptation of an immediate reward."For example, they were asked whether they preferred $10 now or $50 in six months," Blain said. “And those who overtrained were more likely to choose the immediate reward, which is interesting. It could provide a mechanism to explain why some athletes are using drugs to improve their performance."
One caution about the exercise study is that it only looked at endurance athletes, said. Dr. Mare-Andre Cornier, who is associate director of Colorado University's Anschutz Health and Wellness Center. "This is potentially very important for the higher end athlete who is overdoing it," he said.“But does this have anything to do with the average Joe going to the gym? You can't conclude that from this study."
1. According to Paragraph 3 we know that__________.A.Overworked athletes did well in their training. | B.A limited capacity can't be used forever. |
C.The intelligence factor can't be used forever. | D.Cognitive control is the ability to start exercise. |
A.Because overtraining led to their bad decisions. |
B.Because all parts of their brain were tired. |
C.Because they were too eager to succeed. |
D.Because they took drugs to improve their performance. |
A.A study about self-satisfaction. | B.Negative effects of too much exercise. |
C.The relation between brain and exercise. | D.Poor choices in people's self care and finances. |
A.There is a limit to the brain. |
B.Higher end athletes have great potential |
C.Top athletes possibly suffer from overtraining. |
D.Delaying self-satisfaction results in better performance. |