Port Lympne Reserve, which runs a breeding (繁育) programme, has welcomed the arrival of a rare black rhino calf (犀牛幼崽). When the tiny creature arrived on January 31, she became the 40th black rhino to be born at the reserve. And officials at Port Lympne were delighted with the new arrival, especially as black rhinos are known for being difficult to breed in captivity (圈养).
Paul Beer, head of rhino section at Port Lympne, said: “Obviously we're all absolutely delighted to welcome another calf to our black rhino family. She's healthy, strong and already eager to play and explore. Her mother, Solio, is a first-time mum and she is doing a fantastic job. It's still a little too cold for them to go out into the open, but as soon as the weather warms up, I have no doubt that the little one will be out and about exploring and playing every day.”
The adorable female calf is the second black rhino born this year at the reserve, but it is too early to tell if the calves will make good candidates to be returned to protected areas of the wild. The first rhino to be born at Port Lympne arrived on January 5 to first-time mother Kisima and weighed about 32kg. His mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all born at the reserve and still live there.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the global black rhino population has dropped as low as 5500, giving the rhinos a “critically endangered” status.
What does Paul Beer say about the new-born rhino?
A.She loves staying with her mother. | B.She dislikes outdoor activities. |
C.She is in good condition | D.She is sensitive to heat. |
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【推荐1】In some cases, it’s not so much the treatment of the animals on set in the studio that has activists worried; it’s the off-set training and living conditions that are raising concerns. And there are questions about the films made outside the States, which sometimes are not monitored as closely as productions filmed in the Sates.
What can we infer from the last paragraph about animal actors?
A.They may be badly treated. | B.They should take further training. |
C.They could be traded illegally. | D.They would lose popularity. |
A. The shy animals are attracted and coming around the equipment so that they can be watched by researchers and carefully protected by human beings.
B. In the Northeast, China, wolverines (貂熊) are being studied by scientists in an effort to learn how to protect the population by videoing the animals’ daily activities.
C. We all know that it’s of great importance for mankind to protect nature and wildlife. It may seem that protecting wildlife is something far from the life of a high school student, but in fact, a lot have been done by young people around the world.
D. However, during the winter it is difficult to attract the animals to cameras hidden in snowy forests because these animals are too shy to be found.
E. A group of high school students heard about the problem and created a special device which has been tested deep in a snowy forest. Their invention is able to send out a certain smell near the cameras.
【推荐3】When the explorers first set foot upon the continent of North America, the skies and lands were alive with an astonishing variety of wildlife. Native Americans had taken care of these precious natural resources wisely. Unfortunately, it took the explorers and the settlers who followed only a few decades to decimate a large part of these resources. Millions of waterfowl were killed at the hands of market hunters and a handful of overly ambitious sportsmen. Millions of acres of wetlands were dried to feed and house the ever-increasing populations, greatly reducing waterfowl habitat.
What was a cause of the waterfowl population decline in North America?
A.Loss of wetlands. | B.Popularity of water sports. |
C.Pollution of rivers. | D.Arrival of other wild animals. |
【推荐1】After years of heated debate, gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. Fourteen wolves were caught in Canada and transported to the park. By last year, the Yellowstone wolf population had grown to more than 170 wolves.
Gray wolves once were seen here and there in the Yellowstone area and much of the continental United States, but they were gradually displaced by human development. By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They went farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there were fewer humans around.
The disappearance of the wolves had many unexpected results. Deer and elk populations — major food sources (来源) for the wolf — grew rapidly. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation (植被), which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park’s red foxes, and completely drove away the park’s beavers.
As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. They hoped that wolves would be able to control the elk and coyote problems. Many farmers opposed the plan because they feared that wolves would kill their farm animals or pets.
The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolvers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolf packs in Yellowstone. Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone. Elk, deer, and coyote populations are down, while beavers and red foxes have made a comeback. The Yellowstone wolf project has been a valuable experiment to help biologists decide whether to reintroduce wolves to other parts of the country as well.
What is the text mainly about?
A.Wildlife research in the United States. |
B.Plant diversity in the Yellowstone area. |
C.The conflict between farmers and gray wolves. |
D.The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone Park. |
【推荐2】Many people would answer the question of what makes us human by insisting that we are cultural beings. There is no doubt that we are. But one definition of culture is the totality of traditions acquired in a community by social learning from other individuals, and many animal species have traditions. Can we then say that some animals are cultural beings too?
One approach to study culture in animals is the so-called Method of Exclusion (排除), in which scientists investigate behavioral variations across populations of one species. In a famous study, scientists learned that chimpanzee (黑猩猩) behaviors were socially passed on as they were present at some sites but not at others, despite having same ecological settings. For example, chimpanzees in Tai National Park in Ivory Coast are well-known for their nut-cracking skills. Chimpanzees in Gombe national part in Tanzania, on the other hand, do not crack nuts, although nuts exist in their environment too.
However, when applying the Method of Exclusion, one has to be very careful. There are other factors that could also explain the pattern of behavioral evaluation. For example, some of the chimpanzee techniques scientists evaluated occur in only one of the three subspecies. So it’s quite possible that these behaviors also have an innate component. This would mean that one chimpanzee subspecies uses a new technique not out of cultural tradition, but because the behavior is fixed to specific genes. Another factor that has to be excluded is of course the environment Chimpanzees in Mahale do not fish algae (水藻), simply because algae does not exist there.
But when we exclude all the variations that can be explained by genes or environment, we still find that animals do show cultural variations. Does that mean there is no real difference between them and us after all? Not exactly: There is a fundamental difference between human and animal culture. Only humans can build culturally on what generations before us have learned. This is called “cumulative culture”. We don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel. This is called the “ratchet (棘轮) effect”. Like a ratchet that can be turned forward but not back, people’s cultural techniques evolve.
It is likely that behaviors we see today in chimpanzee cultures could be invented over and over again by individual animals themselves. In contrast, a child born today would not be able to invent a computer without the knowledge of many past generations.
Why does the author mention the example of the chimpanzees in two parks in Paragraph 2?
A.To prove that culture does exist in animals. |
B.To justify the uniqueness of the research method. |
C.To compare how chimpanzees behave in different parks. |
D.To stress the importance of environment in studying culture. |
A. At Art Central 2023, an annual international art fair in Hong Kong, the factory’s collection of Guangcai porcelain (瓷器) drew much attention. Joseph Tso, the third-generation successor of the factory, takes great pride in the skills of Guangcai.
B. Yuet Tung China Works, located in Hong Kong, has been making porcelain pieces for nearly a century.
C. The factory’s collection ranges from designs featuring the Grand View Garden in A Dream of Red Mansions to modern Hong Kong landmarks, each of which is a proof of these workers’ outstanding skill.
D. This traditional craft (工艺), born more than 300 years ago, involves painting and firing various colored paints on white porcelain vessels (器皿). After being fired at a temperature of 800 ℃, the pigment (颜料) can stay on the vessels forever, showing people an outstanding porcelain masterpiece.
E. As visitors step inside the factory, skilful workers can be seen painting or coloring on porcelain items, their hands steady and eyes focused.