Science experiments don’t always go as planned.
The researchers were eager to try a new tracker on the magpies. They hoped to learn more about how far the birds flew and what they did during a normal day. But it’s hard to find trackers that work well with small-and medium-sized birds.
To keep the trackers on the birds without causing flying problems, the researchers developed a special harness (系带). It was tough, so it wouldn’t come off by accident.
The scientists were disappointed about the trackers. However, they realized that the magpies had taught them something else—
| A．Magpies are able and willing to help each other out |
| B．However, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from them |
| C．Either the trackers are too heavy, or don’t last long enough |
| D．Magpies may have a hard time adapting to global warming |
| E．The birds the scientists hoped to study were Australian magpies |
| F．The scientists need to find a good way to track these clever birds |
| G．But there was just one problem-the birds didn’t like the trackers |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】One year, a newspaper of the United States published an announcement -the Horticultural Institute offered a reward at a high price for the pure white marigold(金盏花). The high reward attracted so many people, but in nature besides golden, the marigold is brown； it is not easy to create the white one. So after they were excited for a time, many people forgot that announcement.
One normal day after 20 years, the Horticultural Institute accidentally received a letter and 100 seeds of pure white marigold. On that day the news spread like wildfire. It proved to be an old woman of over 70 years old. The institute had always been hesitating over the fact that the letter stated with certainty that the seeds could bloom pure white marigold.
Those seeds finally took root in the earth. The wonder appeared after one year: large fields of pure white marigold swung in the light wind. As a result, the old woman became a new focus.
Originally, the old woman was just a flower-lover. When she happened to read the announcement 20 years ago, her heart kept beating wildly. But her eight children all opposed her decision. After all, a woman who never knew the seed genetics(遗传学) couldn't complete what the experts could never accomplish! Still, the old woman didn't change her mind and went on working. Year after year, through many cycles of spring sowing and autumn harvest, the old woman's husband died; her children flew far and high; a lot of things happened in her life but only the desire to grow the pure white marigold took root in her heart. Finally, after 20 years on the day we all know, in the garden, she saw a marigold, which was not nearly white but as white as silver or snow.
Such a difficult problem as even experts couldn't deal with was readily solved by an old woman who didn't understand genetics. Was it a wonder? Take root in the heart and even the most common seed can grow into a wonder!
1. Why was a great reward offered by the Horticultural Institute?| A．White flowers could be sold at a higher price. |
| B．Pure white marigold was more beautiful in nature. |
| C．It was very difficult to develop pure white marigold. |
| D．Scientists wanted to know how marigold grew in nature. |
| A．She got professional support from scientists. |
| B．She kept trying for years before she succeeded. |
| C．She was 70 when she first read the announcement. |
| D．She sent pure white marigold flowers to the institute. |
| A．easily | B．quickly |
| C．willingly | D．luckily |
| A．Seeds Take Root in the Heart | B．White Marigold is Hard to Grow |
| C．Marigolds Grow from Bravery | D．White Flowers Bring Success |
【推荐2】When Mexican scientist of the evolution of animal behavior, Laura Cuaya, moved to Hungary for her postdoctoral studies in Budapest, she brought her pet dog, Kun-kun, along for the ride. Cuaya couldn’t help noticing how locals warmed to dogs. This prompted her naturally curious scientific mind to start asking questions. “Here people are talking all the time to Kun-kun, but I always wonder if Kun-kun can recognize that people in Budapest speak Hungarian, not Spanish?” So she set out to find an answer through a scientific study.
Cuaya and her colleagues decided to use brain images from MRI scanning to shed light on her hunch. They worked with dogs of various ages that had, until the experiment, only heard their owners speak just one of the two languages, Spanish or Hungarian. Not surprisingly, getting the dogs to happily take part in the experiment took some creative coaxing (劝诱) and animal training! The researchers first needed to teach Kun-kun and her 17 fellow participating dogs including a labradoodle, a golden retriever and Australian shepherds, to lie still in a brain scanner. Their pet parents were always present, and they could leave the scanner at any point.
The research team played children’s classic book The Little Prince in both Spanish and Hungarian while scanning the dogs’ brains with an MRI machine. They were looking for evidence that their brains reacted differently to a familiar and unfamiliar language. The researchers also played scrambled versions of the story to find out if dogs could distinguish between speech and non-speech.
The images reveal that dogs’ brains show different patterns of activity for an unfamiliar language than for a familiar one — the first time anyone has proved, researchers say, that a non-human brain can distinguish between two languages. This means that the sounds and rhythms of a familiar language are accessible to non-humans.
The team also found that the brains of older dogs were more skilled at detecting speech “suggesting a role for the amount of language exposure”. They suggest that dogs have refined their ability to distinguish between human languages over the long process of domestication.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The concern of the researcher. | B．The significance of the study. |
| C．The background of the study. | D．The introduction to the researcher. |
| A．Age limits. | B．Language exposure. |
| C．Brain patterns. | D．Owners’ commands. |
| A．Unreasonable. | B．Contradictory. |
| C．Compromising. | D．Groundbreaking. |
| A．Dogs Can Tell Foreign Languages |
| B．Dog Brains Have Different Patterns |
| C．Old Dogs Know More About Human Speech |
| D．Dogs Can Differ Speech From Non-Speech |
【推荐3】Plans to bring wild tigers back to their original home , their historical range(历史分布范围） in the IliBalkhash region, have been announced by Kazakhstan( 哈萨克斯坦 ) and an agreement with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to conduct a tiger reintroduction program has been signed . “It will not only bring wild tigers back to their original home, but also protect the unique ecosystem of the IliBalkhash region，” said Askar Myrzakhmetov, the Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
If successful, Kazakhstan will be the first country in the world to bring wild tigers back to an entire region where they have died out for nearly half a century. Tiger reintroduction projects have only been achieved within national borders and in areas that are considered current tiger habitats . Kazakhstan's tiger reintroduction program is unique and it badly requires the restoration of a vast forest that is part of the wild tiger's historical range.
Since the beginning of the 20th century, wild tigers have lost over 90 per cent of their historical range. Wild tigers have completely disappeared from the region since the late 1940s, due to the loss of habitat. To prepare for the return of wild tigers, on 1st January 2018 Kazakhstan will set up a new nature reserve in the southwestern IliBalkhash, in order to restore the unique forest habitat. This will include the protection of existing wildlife, and reintroducing important prey ( 猎物 ), such as the endangered wild Bactrian deer（中亚红鹿).
Restoring tigers will also help protect Lake Balkhash and prevent it from repeating the fate of the Aral Sea, formerly the world's fourth largest lake and now 10 percent of its original size. “The hard work remains ahead of us. We have to spare no effort to make this region ready for tigers and involve all the relevant people to make this happen. That means dealing with illegal activities, having these people who govern parks be welltrained and equipped, increasing prey populations and involving local communities，” said Ekaterina Vorobyeva, Director of the WWF program.
1. What is Askar Myrzakhmetov's attitude toward the tiger reintroduction program?| A．Doubtful. | B．Favorable. |
| C．Concerned. | D．Disapproving. |
| A．The increasing loss of prey. | B．The evolution of the species. |
| C．The lack of natural living places. | D．The serious environmental pollution. |
| A．Regulating human activities. | B．Limiting the number of prey. |
| C．Building a reserve for tigers only. | D．Training tigers to be more adaptable. |
| A．Efforts to restore forests in Kazakhstan |
| B．Bringing tigers back home to Kazakhstan |
| C．Attempts to handle illegal activities effectively |
| D．Preventing tigers disappearing in Kazakhstan |
【推荐1】Public speaking and critical thinking
What is critical thinking? To a certain degree, it’s a matter of logic (逻辑) — of being able to spot weaknesses in other people’s argument and to avoid them in your own, it also includes related skills such as distinguishing fact from opinion and assessing the soundness of evidence. In the broad sense, critical thinking is focused, organized thinking — the ability to see clearly their lationships among ideas.
What is true of organization is true of many aspects of public speaking.
If you take full advantage of your speech class, you will be able to develop your skills as critical thinker in many circumstances. This is one reason public speaking has been regarded as a vital part of education since the days of ancient Greece.
| A．Rather, it is an important part of shaping the ideas themselves. |
| B．This may seem like a lot of time, but the rewards are well worth it. |
| C．It may also help you to know that there is no such thing as a perfect speech. |
| D．It has often been said that there are few new ideas in the world, only reorganized ideas. |
| E．If you are wondering what this has to do with your public speaking class, the answer is quite a lot. |
| F．The skills you learn in your speech class can help you become a more effective thinker in a number of ways. |
| G．As you study the role of evidence and reasoning in speech making, you will see how they can be used in other forms of communication as well. |
【推荐2】Researchers say they have developed technology that could predict heart attacks years before they happen. They report using mathematical systems to examine CT images of a patient’s heart. A CT scan uses X-rays and a computer to make detailed pictures of bones, organs and other tissue inside the body.
The new method was developed by researchers at the University of Oxford in England. A report on their study was published in the medical journal The Lancet. Also taking part in the study were teams from Germany and the US.
Most heart attacks result from a build-up of fatty tissue inside arteries（动脉）that carry blood from the heart to other areas of the body, thus blocking this flow of blood and causing a heart attack.
Currently, doctors use CT scans to learn when a sticky substance called plaque has already built up inside an artery. The new technology is designed to predict which arteries are at risk for future buildup.
The researchers reported using computers to examine CT scans to measure how much fat is present around heart arteries. That fat changes when an artery becomes affected, serving as an early warning system for heart attacks.
Charalambos, a professor at Oxford University, said he believes the research shows this method could be very effective in getting patients to take early steps to prevent future problems, adding that researchers had yet to estimate exactly how many heart attacks could be prevented. But he said he believes the technique could help identify between 20 to 30 percent of people at risk of having one.
He added that the new technology will make such predictions easier because it works together with existing CT technology. The research was based on two large, independent studies of 4,000 patients in Germany, and the US. A company with ties to Oxford University is developing a service to examine CT scans of patients around the world, Reuters reported.
1. What’s the aim of the new technology?| A．To predict ways to block fatty issues in heart arteries. |
| B．To provide detailed pictures of how arteries work. |
| C．To build computer models of the image of a heart. |
| D．To decide which arteries are likely to have fat built up. |
| A．When the CT scan affects the flow of blood in the heart. |
| B．When fat around heart arteries blocks the flow of blood. |
| C．When a sticky material flows into an artery near the heart. |
| D．When bones and organs of the body begin to be weak. |
| A．A change of fat happening around heart arteries. |
| B．The finding of a sticky material in the blood. |
| C．The presence of fat around the bones and organs. |
| D．The aging and failure of arteries near the heart. |
| A．The harm of fat build-up to heart arteries. |
| B．The use of CT scans to prevent of heart attacks. |
| C．Research into the early warning of heart attacks. |
| D．The warning the body gives about heart attacks. |
【推荐3】Have you ever had a stressful day? And on these high-pressure days, many people might find themselves reaching for a sugary snack. Perhaps this is part of their daily routine. Or perhaps on this particular day, heir self-control is a bit low and they want to take a sugar hit.
Stress is natural. That feeling of pressure is a biological response, and under the right circumstances can be a great source of motivation. However, too much stress, has been linked to sleep disruption, heart-attack, ulcer or depression, among other things. But why should stress make a person comfort eat?
When we become stressed, our bodies enter “fight or flight” mode. Because our body believes it’s under attack, it releases glucose (葡萄糖) into the blood to provide energy for muscles. However, if we don’t use that energy, our body then releases insulin (胰岛素) to make the blood sugar levels drop. This drop causes a hunger response: you want to eat. And what you particularly want is sugary food, which rapidly refills the energy you have lost. If this happens repeatedly, over a long enough period, these high-calorie foods can lead to obesity.
So what can we do to fight the stress? Dr Michael Mosley recommends exercise, gardening, mindfulness or other activities you enjoy. But his strongest recommendation is trying to get a goodnight’s sleep. So, try sleeping to decrease stress.
1. What can we know about stress from the passage?| A．It is always negative. | B．It can make people angry. |
| C．It is a natural response. | D．It can make people sleep. |
| A．Our self-control is too low to refuse sugary food. |
| B．Sugary food rapidly refills the energy we have lost. |
| C．Insulin in our body makes the blood sugar levels rise. |
| D．Sugary food releases insulin to provide energy for muscles. |
| A．By getting a good night’s sleep. | B．By taking up gardening. |
| C．By eating much sugary foods. | D．By doing something your enjoy. |
| A．What causes stress? | B．How to reduce stress? |
| C．When to take sugary snacks? | D．Why stress makes you fat? |
