【推荐2】In a groundbreaking discovery, bumblebees (大黄蜂) have shown a previously unseen level of cognitive (认知的) ability. A new study, published in Nature, shows that they can learn difficult, multi-step tasks through social interaction, even if they cannot figure them out on their own.

Led by Dr Alice Bridges and Professor Lars Chittka, the research team designed a two-step puzzle (谜题) box requiring bumblebees to perform two separated actions to get a sweet reward at the end. Training bees to do this was no easy task, and bees had to be helped along by the addition of an extra reward at the end of the first step. This reward in the middle was finally taken away, and bees later had to open the whole box before getting their treat. Then some trained bees repeated the whole process for demonstration.

Surprisingly, while bees that worked on their own had great difficulty in solving the puzzle, those allowed to watch a demonstrator bee finished the two steps easily — even the first — while only getting a reward at the end.

This study shows that bumblebees have a level of social learning previously thought to be unique to humans. They can share and learn behaviors that are beyond their individual cognitive abilities. Professor Chittka further notes the implications, “This challenges the traditional view that only humans can socially learn difficult behavior beyond individual learning. It raises the amazing possibility that many of the greatest achievements of the social insects, like the nesting architectures of bees or the agricultural habits of ants, may have initially spread by copying clever innovators, before they finally became part of the species-specific behaviors.”

This groundbreaking research opens new possibilities for understanding animal intelligence and the development of social learning. It challenges longstanding assumptions and helps us learn more about the cognitive wonders of insects, even suggesting the exciting possibility of advanced culture amongst seemingly simple creatures.

1. What is the purpose of the study?

A．To learn how to train bumblebees.

B．To compare bumblebees with ants.

C．To develop puzzles for bumblebees.

D．To test cognitive abilities of bumblebees.

2. How did the researchers train the bumblebees to solve the puzzle?

A．By breaking it into two steps.

B．By providing an extra reward.

C．By demonstrating the process.

D．By making the puzzle interesting.

3. What do Professor Chittka’s words imply?

A．Both bees and ants are intelligent creatures.

B．Only humans are capable of social learning.

C．Individual learning may not be that important.

D．Bees’ nest-building may be a learned behavior.

4. What could be the best title for the text?

A．Bumblebees — willing learners

B．Bumblebees — smarter than you think

C．Social learning — intelligence indicator

D．Social learning — universal across species

【推荐3】The panda bear may be one of the world's cutest animals, but it also has one of the world's grossest habits：They like to spread horse dung（粪便） on their necks and faces and roll around in it to cover their entire bodies. Now, researchers say they have an explanation for these dung baths. The horse dung contains something that might help the animals deal with colder temperatures .

To get to the bottom of things, researchers analyzed 38 instances of dung rolling recorded by cameras at the reserve. The bears tended to roll in horse dung less than 10 days old. The dung contained natural compounds（化合物），called BCP and BCPO，that are scarce in older dung, say the scientists .

The team then added these compounds to the hay（草料） of pandas and found the animals favored the hay treated with these compounds. What's more, the pandas tended to roll in horse dung in colder weather, at temperatures between−5℃and 15°C. Could BCP and BCPO help keep the giant pandas warm?

As giant pandas are a national treasure for China, there are strict limitations on conducting research on these protected animals, so the team turned to mice. Covering mice in a BCP-BCPO solution boosted the animals' cold tolerance, the authors report. Treated mice more readily walked on colder surfaces. The researchers discovered BCP-BCPO blocks receptors that sense cold.

“Although it's not concrete proof, the authors provided solid evidence to explain the unique behavior,”Fan Yang, a biophysicist at the Zhejiang University School of Medicine, wrote in an email.“The same receptors are present in many animals. So it is possible that using natural compounds to manage body temperature may actually be a general strategy widely adopted by other animals.”

Staying warm in the winter can be challenging for pandas,   notes Zejun Zhang, an ecologist at China West Normal University ,because their low-calorie diet of bamboo makes it hard to store extra fat. It's possible, the authors say, that pandas have used horse dung in this way for thousands of years.

1. What does the underlined word“grossest”Paragraph 1 mean?

A．Funniest.	B．Healthiest .
C．Most tiring.	D．Most disgusting .

2. How did the researchers find out the functio BCP and BCPO?

A．By applying them to pandas.

B．By experimenting them on mice.

C．By analyzing pandas'dung rolling cases.

D．By experimenting on different kinds of dung.

3. Why can BCP and BCPO help pandas against cold?

A．They adjust their sense of cold.

B．They make them physically active.

C．They provide a heat-trapping cover.

D．They help raise their body temperature .

4. Which of the following makes pandas suffer in winter?

A．Their body shape.

B．Their body color.

C．Their habitat.

D．Their diet.

【推荐1】I always have difficulty in buying birthday presents. My idea never seems to go farther than ties, pens or cards. But, strangely enough, it did not take me long to decide on Tom’s birthday present. For the first time in life, I had a good idea ... I would buy him a bottle of champagne (香槟酒). Before the party began, Tom suggested that I should open the bottle. I put it between my knees and began to pull, but it remained unmoved. Soon a lot of people gathered round to watch the fight between me and the bottle. I could hear all kinds of “helpful” suggestions from them like “Break the top off”, “Use your teeth”, etc. But I was losing the fight. We were fighting on the-floor together, when all of a sudden there was aloud: “Pop” and the cork (塞子) shot up into the air, while the angry bottle showered (淋) everybody with champagne.

1. When buying birthday presents, I find my idea is ______.

A．poor

B．colorful

C．rich

D．good

2. I was______ my present for Tom’s birthday.

A．very sorry for

B．very proud of

C．afraid of

D．tired of,

3. Which of the following is TRUE?

A．Though the people around gave all kinds of suggestions, I was not able to open the bottle at first.

B．I tried all the ways that the people suggested.

C．All the suggestions were helpful.

D．Some of the suggestions were very bad.

4. At last ______.

A．I opened the bottle easily	B．nobody opened the bottle
C．the bottle was broken	D．I managed to open the bottle

【推荐2】As we grew up, my mother would sit my sister and me down on the last Sunday of every month and force us to write letters to family in India. Despite being an orphan, my mom came from a large, tight-kmit Anglo-Indian family back in Hyderabad and loved the cousins she was raised with like siblings. At the time, we were the only ones who had left India to go abroad. She missed all our relatives deeply.

It was the 1970s, and my mother was recently divorced, raising two little girls on her own and finding her way in a new country. We lived in a basement apartment and couldn’t afford long-distance calls. Letter-writing was the cheapest and only way for us to maintain contact. The last thing I wanted to do was sit down for an hour after dinner and write letters to people I barely knew. But over time, my sister and I came to enjoy it. My mother would tell us stories about each family member, and it was interesting to get to know a whole clan of people who looked and sounded just like us.

When my mother died, my sister and I took her ashes back to India. We hadn’t been back for over 25 years, having visited only once when I was 10. After the funeral, we spent a month visiting relatives. Each household would take out photo albums full of photographs of us as well as the letters they’d received over the years. They’d saved them all and wanted to show us that they’d never forgotten us.

As we struggled as new immigrants, my mother ensured that we always knew who we were, where we came from and where we were going. She kept us connected to a family that was thousands of miles away but near to our hearts through a lifetime of letter-writing. And she taught me the power of storytelling.

It's a legacy to be proud of and a gift I’m grateful for every day.

1. What can we learn about the author’s mother from the text?

A．She was born into a poor family.	B．She raised her children alone.
C．She left India to study abroad.	D．She once lost touch with her cousins.

2. In the beginning, how did the author feel about writing letters to her relatives in India?

A．Curious.

B．Excited.

C．Confused.

D．Unwilling.

3. During their visit to India, what did the author and her sister discover about their relatives?

A．They lived all over the country.	B．They had forgotten about them.
C．They had saved all the letters from them.	D．They had similarities with the author’s mother.

4. What valuable lesson did the author learn from her mother’s practice of letter-writing?

A．The power of trust.	B．The joy of giving.
C．The impact of storytelling.	D．The importance of caring for one’s relatives.

5. The passage mainly tells us about __________.

A．where the writer’s family came from

B．what the writer’s relatives did with their letters

C．why the writer’s family moved to a new country

D．how the writer’s family kept in touch with their relatives