If you can potty-train(坐便训练) a child, you can potty-train a cow. At least, that was the theory a group of researchers in Germany decided to test. Farmed cattle produce roughly 66—88 pounds of waste and 8 gallons of urine(尿) each day and are free to relieve themselves where they please. However, the spread of their waste into the soil can have negative effects on the environment.
A team of scientists from FBN and FLI in Germany and the University of Auckland in New Zealand began to potty-train the little cows, in the process they called “MooLoo training”. In the first phase of training, the cattle were put in a closed public toilet. And whenever they urinated, they were given a reward. “Once they were allowed outside, the little cows would go in the toilet to get their reward, but they soon learned that there’s only a reward if they urinate.” FBN’s Neele Dirksen, first author of the study, told CNN.
To encourage little cows to use the toilets, researchers also came up with a punishment. “We first used in-ear headphones and we played a very unpleasant sound whenever they urinated outside,” said Langbein. “We thought this would punish the animals, but they didn’t care. Ultimately, a splash(溅泼) of water on them worked well as a gentle punishment.” The little cows were trained for 45 minutes every other day. And after 10 training days, the team managed to successfully train 11 out of the 16 little cows involved in the experiment, which was more than they had expected.
The results showed that little cows performed at a similar level to children when learning to potty-train, and did better than very young children. “It is possible to potty-train little cows,” Langbein said, “I hope that in a few years all cows will go to a toilet.”
1. Why did researchers potty-train the cattle?| A．To test cattle’s level of intelligence. |
| B．To spread the cattle’s waste into the soil. |
| C．To prevent cattle from producing more waste. |
| D．To avoid the environment damage caused by cow’s waste. |
| A．By sending signals. | B．By rewarding them. |
| C．By starving them. | D．By controlling remotely. |
| A．Striking them on the ear. | B．Scaring them by loud noises. |
| C．Splashing water on them. | D．Locking them up. |
| A．It is unexpected. | B．It is abnormal. |
| C．It is disappointing. | D．It is reasonable. |
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【推荐1】If you travel to a new exhibit at the San Francisco greenhouse of Flowers, you will have a chance to see some meat---eating plants. Take bladderworts, a kind of such plant, for example. They appear so small and grow in a quiet pool. But these are the fastest---known killers of the plant kingdom , able to catch a small insect in 1／50 of a second using a trap(陷阱) door!
Once the trap door closes on the animal falling into it, the enzymes(酶)similar to those in the human stomach slowly digest the insect. When dinner is over, the plant opens the trap door and is ready to trap again.
Meat－eating plants grow mostly in wet areas with soil that doesn't offer much food value. In such conditions these amazing plants have developed insect traps to get their nutritional(营养的)needs over thousands of years. North America has more such plants than any other continent.
Generally speaking, the traps may have attractive appearance to fool the eye, like pitcher plants, which get their name because they look like beautiful pitchers ( a container like a bottle) full of honey.
The Asian pitcher plant, for example, has bright colors and an attractive half－closed cover. Curious insects are attracted to come close and take a drink, then fall down the slippery wall to their deaths.
Some of these pitchers are large enough to hold two gallons (7.5 liters). Meat－eating plants only eat people in science movies , but sometimes a bird or other small animals will discover that a pitcher plant isn't a good place to get a drink.
1. From Paragraph 1, we can know that meat-eating plants can ________.| A．catch 50 small insects in a second | B．catch an insect in a short time |
| C．be found floating on a quiet lake | D．notice an insect in 1/50 of a second |
| A．The plant is fooling insects into taking a drink. |
| B．The plant is producing honey. |
| C．The plant is attracting insects to come close. |
| D．The plant is enjoying a dinner. |
| A．can get nutrition from animals | B．don't need much food value |
| C．can make the most of such conditions | D．have developed digestive enzymes |
| A．are big and tall | B．like to grow in dry land |
| C．look bright and beautiful | D．are usually covered with hair |
【推荐2】White-crowned sparrows are tough birds, able to survive the hustle and bustle (喧闹) of many North American cities. But growing noise pollution has forced males to sing louder, less effective songs in order to be heard by opponents and fellows.
Elizabeth Derryberry, a behavioral ecologist, and her colleagues have studied white-crowned sparrows in and around San Francisco for more than 2 decades, comparing their songs with recordings made in the 1970s. As traffic levels increased, the lowest frequencies of the sparrows’ songs rose, so as not to be drowned out by the background noise of vehicles. But their top frequencies remained about the same, narrowing the total bandwidth (频宽) of their communication.
Birds sing louder in noisy environments, and research has shown the resulting stress can speed aging and throw their metabolisms (新陈代谢) into disorder. Noise can also keep them from hearing their own chicks or the warnings of fellow birds; it may even be driving down bird diversity in many cities.
When the pandemic lockdown began in mid-March, a photo of the empty Golden Gate Bridge made Derryberry wonder how the sparrows were responding to the quieter conditions. She couldn't travel to California, but her colleague, Jenny Phillips, a behavioral ecologist in California, recorded the birds in San Francisco and the surrounding areas. Her recordings revealed that the sparrows were singing 30% softer, on average, than before the lockdown. What’s more, they were singing songs with bandwidths typical of birds recorded in the 1970s.
The new finding is “good news from the point of view of the birds”, says Sue Anne Zollinger, a zoologist who studies birds at Manchester Metropolitan University. By showing the sparrows can adjust their songs to their environment, the study suggests species with more flexible behaviors can deal with aspects of changing environments.
1. What is the second paragraph mainly about?| A．A new study of sparrow species. |
| B．Influence on birds from city traffic. |
| C．Frequencies of sparrows’ songs. |
| D．The difficulty of birds, communication. |
| A．Losing completely. | B．Decreasing noticeably. |
| C．Promoting slowly. | D．Controlling successfully. |
| A．It provided a good comparing situation. |
| B．It was a suitable place to watch birds. |
| C．A famous zoologist happened to help out. |
| D．Sparrows there were the most active then. |
| A．Silenced Big Cities Calling Back Birds |
| B．Tough Birds Fighting against City Noises |
| C．Birdsong Accidentally Retaking Its Former Glory |
| D．Changing Environments Destroying Bird Species |
【推荐3】Bats are mammals which give birth to live young and produce milk to feed them. Over sixty different kinds occur in Australia. Most eat insects, but eight feed only on flowers and fruit, and are known as fruit-bats or flying-foxes. Four of these are among the world's largest bats. They may weigh up to one kilogram and their wings may span（跨越）more than a meter.
The favorite food of flying-foxes is the blossom of eucalypts（桉树）and some other native trees, and various bush fruits. The bats are beneficial to the trees because they act as pollinators（传粉者）and dispersers（扩散器）of their seeds. The great distances they can fly means they carry pollen and seeds far from the parent tree.
Camps are places where the large flying-foxes gather during the day, sometimes in many thousands. Along the coast they may be in mangroves（红树林），further inland they are often in deep rainforests, and west of the Dividing Range they are usually along water-courses. Their location may be known only to a few local people. The same campsites tend to be used year after year, although not necessarily every year, or all year round.
Damage to cultivated fruit varies greatly from one year to the next and between different areas. The factors controlling it are not well understood. Some areas rarely experience attacks, others do so most years, Widespread shortages of natural food, such as those occur during droughts, may cause large numbers of animals to move well beyond their usual range in search of food. This applies particularly to Little Red Flying-foxes, which occur further inland than the other species.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．The weight of bats. | B．The usual size of bats. |
| C．The main food of bats. | D．The species of bats. |
| A．They eat nothing but fruits. | B．They prefer fruit to flowers. |
| C．They are also known as fruit-bats. | D．They are known as the largest bats. |
| A．they eat harmful insects |
| B．they help trees to grow abundantly |
| C．they keep many native trees free of disease |
| D．they act as cleaners for trees and flowers |
| A．live in groups in the daytime | B．camp in places where there are no water |
| C．prefer mangroves to rainforests | D．camp in different places year after year |
I particularly enjoy the works of Greenwich Village poet Edward Field, whose interest in cinema led to a number of poems based on old monster movies (including many about Frankenstein and my favorite, Curse of the Cat Woman).
Litteacher 8 29 minutes ago
There are so many to choose from! I love Robert Frost, especially “Mending Wall”, mostly because he is my dad’s favorite poet. However, personally I love Lnagston Hughes’s poem “Dreams” because it always brings happiness to me. I am also a big fan of the older poems, such as Spenser’s “One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand” because it is so simple, and “The Tyger” and “The Lamb” by William Blake because I love the language.
Michael Ugulini 51 minutes ago
My favorite poet is Suji Kwock Kim. Ever since I read her book of poetry “Notes from the Divided Country”, I have been a big fan of her clear and thoughtful writing. My favorite poem of hers is “Borderlands”, which she wrote in memory of her grandmother. It is a poem about her grandmother’s experiences during the war.
Loraaa 1 hour ago
Hard to decide! But if I have to, I’d say Emily Dickinson. Her life was so wonderful and her opinions about life are also interesting. Her understanding of nature speaks to the heart of anyone who loves the outdoors! Dickinson also understood human nature very well. Her poems speak of love, loneliness, ect. Finally, my favorite poem by her is “I Never Saw a Moor”. I love her thoughts!
1. Why does Litteacher 8 like the poem “Dreams”?| A．It always cheers him up. |
| B．He is a big fan of its author. |
| C．It is his father’s favorite poem. |
| D．He loves the language of it. |
| A．Loraaa’s. | B．Litteacher8’s. |
| C．Bullgatortail’s. | D．Michael Ugulini’s. |
| A．A newspaper. | B．A notice board. |
| C．A webpage. | D．A book review. |
However, watchmakers optimistically say that watches regain popularity when consumers reach their 20s and 30s.By then，they are willing to spend money on a quality timepiece that doesn’t just keep good time. Fifty years ago，watchmakers boasted about their products’ accuracy. But in recent years, the watch industry has transformed itself into an accessory business. And for many today, the image a watch communicates has become more important than the time it tells.
“Complications”—features that go beyond simple timekeeping—are an important part of a watch’s image. Today’s watches offer a lot of features that suit almost any personality. These features include altitude trackers, compasses，lunar calendars, USB drives, and even devices that measure the effectiveness of golf swings!
Creativity is also a key element in today’s watches. For example，Japanese watchmaker Tokyoflash makes watches that don’t even look like watches. The company’s popular Shinshoku model uses different color lights to tell time. It looks more like a futuristic(未来主义的)bracelet than a watch. Another Japanese watchmaker, EleeNo, makes a “handless” watch. Using a ring of circles to keep time, this watch makes an excellent conversation piece.
Whether a watch communicates fashion sense, creative talent or a love of sports, consumers want their timepieces to stand out. Nowadays，everyone has the same kind of gadget (小玩意儿)in their bags，so people want to make a statement with what’s on their wrists. Will this interesting wrist fashion last？Only time will tell!
1. Why aren’t watches popular with young people as before?
| A．Because watches cannot keep good time as cellphones, mini laptops and MP3 players. |
| B．Because watches are featured by the disadvantages of simple function. |
| C．Because watches are too expensive to afford. |
| D．Because watches don’t have beautiful appearance as other modern timetelling tools. |
| A．Watchmaking is facing a survival crisis challenge. |
| B．Watchmaking is faced with the developing opportunity. |
| C．Watchmaking becomes the sunrise industry. |
| D．Watchmaking has a specific development target. |
| A．people will gradually lose interest in watches as they grow older |
| B．watchmakers scarcely change the development strategy for watches |
| C．today’s watches are better than those in the past in quality |
| D．customers used to be more concerned with the quality of a watch than with its image |
| A．Watches and Teenagers | B．The History of Watches |
| C．The Accuracy of Watches | D．Watches Tell More than Time |
【推荐3】Network-based technologies have become increasingly widespread, and they are now being used by countless individuals, professionals, and businesses worldwide. Despite their advantages, most network-based systems are highly at risk of malicious (恶意的) attacks.
The consequences of a malicious attack on network-based systems can be extremely harmful. For instance, an attack on a power plant network could leave millions of individuals and offices without electricity, while attacks on social media networks can lead to exposure of user information.
To overcome the weaknesses of network-based systems, computer scientists worldwide have been trying to develop advanced intrusion detection systems (IDSs) (入侵检测系统) that could help to identify malicious attacks, increasing a network’s safety. In recent years, machine learning (ML) algorithms (机器学习算法) have been found to be particularly promising for automatically detecting attacks and intrusions on a network’s functioning.
An important step in the development and training of ML-based IDSs is the selection of data features that a model can rely or focus on when making predictions. Ideally, by analyzing large datasets, researchers should be able to identify the most suitable features for solving a given task using ML tools, and this can also be applied to intrusion detection.
Researchers at Canadian University Dubai in the UAE have recently developed a new feature selection method that could enable the development of more effective ML-based IDSs. This method was found to perform remarkably well when compared with other commonly employed feature selection techniques. Using the features they identified as most important for intrusion detection, the researchers created a highly efficient ML-based detection system. This system was found to be capable of distinguishing between DDoS attacks and harmless network signals with 99% accuracy.
In the future, the feature selection method developed by the researchers and their findings could help the development of new, highly effective IDSs. In addition, the system they created using the features they identified could be applied in real-world settings to detect malicious attacks on real networks.
1. What does paragraph 1 focus on about network-based technologies?| A．Their targeted users. | B．Their popularity. |
| C．Their potential risk. | D．Their advantages. |
| A．By tracking malicious attacks. |
| B．By starting anti-virus programs. |
| C．By sorting out user information. |
| D．By recognizing malicious attacks. |
| A．Solving given tasks. | B．Selecting reliable data features. |
| C．Making accurate predictions. | D．Analyzing large enough datasets. |
| A．To introduce a new technique for IDSs. |
| B．To promote network-based technologies. |
| C．To raise people’s awareness of network safety. |
| D．To discuss ways to deal with malicious attacks. |
