Antarctic blue whales have been perceived again in the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. An international-team of researchers discovered the animals five decades after whaling (捕鲸业) nearly caused them to disappear forever. “The ocean resources at South Georgia were heavily developed during the early 20th-century industrial whaling,” says lead author Susannah Calderan, an ecologist with the Scottish Association for Marine Science.
Antarctic blue whales were plentiful in the area until whaling began there in 1904, kicking off the beginning of industrial whaling in the Southern Ocean. While hunters originally focused on species that could be easily caught, like the humpback whale, the focus quickly moved to the blue whale. Between 1904 and 1973, 345,775 Antarctic blue whales were killed in the Southern hemisphere (半球）and in the northern Indian Ocean. Around South Georgia, blue whale catches were reported year-round without stopping. Between 1904 and 1971, industrial whaling caused 42, 698 blue whales’ death, Blue whales almost disappeared in these areas.
Researchers studied all Antarctic blue whale data from the last three decades. They examined sightings (目睹)from scientific surveys collected by observers on ships, as well as opportunistic sightings reported by seamen and ship passengers to the South Georgia. They also examined acoustic(声音的）recordings of blue whale.
They found that whale surveys from ships off South Georgia resulted in just one blue whale sighting between 1998 and 2018. But more recent surveys suggest better news. A survey in February of 2020 found nearly 60 blue whale sightings, and several acoustic detections (探测).A total of 41 blue whales have been recognized through photos from South Georgia between 2011 and 2020.
“Their return is very meaningful, as it was widely thought that blue whales at South Georgia might have been hunted beyond a point where they could recover, and might never be seen again in great numbers at South Georgia,” Calderan says. “Our research shows that, populations can recover even from very low levels if they’re given enough protection.”
1. What does the underlined word “perceived” in paragraph 1 mean?| A．Kept. | B．Found. | C．Hunted. | D．Destroyed. |
| A．The development of industrial whaling. |
| B．The cause of blue whales’ disappearance. |
| C．The wide spread of blue whales in the past. |
| D．The tricks of catching blue whales easily. |
| A．There is an increasing return of blue whales. |
| B．Blue whales are in a more dangerous situation. |
| C．More and more people like watching blue whales. |
| D．South Georgia is a good place to watch blue whales. |
| A．The risk of killing whales at higher rates. |
| B．The sign of Antarctic blue whales’ return. |
| C．The way of protecting Antarctic blue whales. |
| D．The effect of the great loss of ocean resources. |
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【推荐1】I went with my husband to Roatan for our vacation, a tropical island off the north coast of Honduras, where tourists can swim with dolphins at Anthony’s Key Resort.
The Roatan dolphins are kept in a roped-off pen(围栏). The cheapest “swim” with the dolphins costs $ 89. Kissing costs extra. The tourists line up and, one after another, get photographed while being “kissed” by a dolphin. The tourist bends down a bit, the trainer lifts an arm, the dolphin comes up and for a few seconds holds its bottlenose to the tourist’s face. The picture is ready for purchase when the tourists exit through the gift shop.
These tourists must love dolphins, but what kind of love is that? At sea these highly intelligent creatures are always on the move, traveling thousands of miles. They are complex social creatures that need a lot of space to live in.
Yet Teri Bolton, the head trainer at Anthony’s Key Resort, defends the pen as a suitable habitat. “We feel this is the closest to keeping things as natural as possible”, she said. “You’re getting a window into how these animals really are.”
The discussion about this tourist behavior can be found on the Internet. Some people try to justify their desire, saying the fence of the pen is low; the dolphins could jump over it if they wanted to, and therefore they’re staying in captivity(圈养)by free will. One contributor to the discussion said, “Dolphins are social creatures. Jumping over the fence would mean leaving the females and their babies. Besides, by now they are used to captivity with three meals a day. Jumping over the fence would be like asking you to jump out of a spaceship alone onto Mars.”
But visiting any institution that keeps dolphins in captivity means supporting the concept of captivity. It’s like wearing a fur coat and then justifying it by saying it’s OK because the animals are already dead.
Remember that you cannot buy love, and if you try to buy dolphin love, you hurt the ones you love. In fact, a dolphin’s kiss has nothing to do with love, just as a dolphin’s smile has nothing to do with happiness. While many claim that dolphin encounters provide healing(治疗）)qualities and help you to feel better, the opposite is true for the supposed healers.
1. How much does a tourist pay for a dolphin’s kiss?| A．More than $ 89. | B．Less than $ 89. |
| C．As much as $ 89. | D．It’s free of charge. |
| A．It’s like a prison. | B．It’s like a spaceship. |
| C．It’s no fun for the dolphins. | D．It’s suitable for the dolphins. |
| A．Dolphin lovers. | B．Unhealthy people. |
| C．Dolphins in the wild. | D．Dolphins in captivity. |
| A．Are Dolphins As Smart As Humans? |
| B．Swimming with Dolphins: Is It Love or Not? |
| C．Dolphins—Creatures with Feelings |
| D．Kissing—A New Way to Communicate with Dolphins |
【推荐2】For animals that spend most of their lives high in the trees, gaps (缺口) in the forest might as well be the Grand Canyon (大峡谷). These gaps are especially hard on gibbons, a kind of monkey-like animals with long arms; although larger males can jump across some gaps, females and young can be cut off from food, companions, and even potential mates. Now, a new study suggests a couple of strong ropes could really help bridge the gap.
Gibbons are at risk of dying out across Southeast Asia, largely because of habitat loss. With just 30 individuals (个体) left, the Hainan gibbon is considered the rarest primate (灵长目动物) on Earth. All of these animals live on the Bawangling National Nature Reserve in Hainan, an island province in southern China. In July 2014, a typhoon caused landslides across the reserve, creating gaps in the forest canopy (树冠) that were difficult for these primates to cross.
To help reconnect the habitats, professional tree climbers set up an artificial “bridge” across a 15-meter-wide narrow valley, made of two mountaineering-grade ropes. Nearly 6 months later, the gibbons started to use the bridge to cross the gaps, researchers report today in Scientific Reports. The team documented 52 crossings in a group of eight gibbons, with most walking along one rope while holding on to the second rope for support, which the scientists named “handrailing”. The gibbons also shimmied beneath the ropes using all arms and legs to the opposite side.
Conservationists previously built artificial bridges to help other treebound animal species such as the Bornean orangutan and the Javan slow loris. But this is the first example of the rare Hainan gibbon using them. The rope bridges could be a short-term solution (解决办法) to reconnect separated habitats, the researchers argue, combined with efforts to provide enough natural forest cover.
1. Why were rope bridges constructed according to the text?| A．To increase gibbons’ habitats. |
| B．To help all gibbons to cross gaps. |
| C．To save gibbons from being endangered. |
| D．To provide food and company for gibbons. |
| A．Gibbons are rarely seen because of dying out. |
| B．Habitat loss was to blame for gibbons’ dying out. |
| C．Gibbons couldn’t cross gaps caused by a typhoon. |
| D．The natural disaster may have put gibbons in danger. |
| A．showed up | B．fell down |
| C．moved forwards | D．hung up |
| A．Rope Bridges to Help Endangered Gibbons |
| B．What Led to the Disappearance of Gibbons? |
| C．Rarest Primate in the Hainan National Nature Reserve |
| D．The Most Effective Efforts to Provide Enough Habitat for Gibbons |
【推荐3】Encouraging life to bloom(兴旺) in the middle of a desert is no easy task. But one company in the United Arab Emirates has come up with a plan to provide drinking water for the state’s citizens. The company intends to drag icebergs from Antarctica to the gulf coast in order to harvest its freshwater.
The company plans to source the massive blocks of ice from Heard Island, around 600 miles off the coast of mainland Antarctica. It will then transport them around 5,500 miles to Fujarirah, one part of the UAE. One iceberg could provide enough water for one million people over five years, according to the company.
The company’s director says they have already travelled the transportation route and checked the possibility of the scheme, according to reports in Gulf News. Speaking to the site about what he is calling the UAE Iceberg Project, Abdullah Mohammad Sulaiman Al Shehi said, “We have made the technical and financial plan. We will start the project at the beginning of 2018. We want it mainly for the water. It could also be good for tourism and the weather.”
The UAE is one of the driest countries in the world, due to its extremely arid climate, which receives less than four inches of rainfall per year. Despite that, it consumes more water than double the global national average, putting the country at severe risk of droughts over the next 25 years.
An average iceberg contains more than 20 billion gallons of water, according to the company. The iceberg takes a long time to melt as 80 percent of it is underwater, while the white ice above reflects sunlight and deflects(使转向) its heat. Blocks of ice will be placed in giant tanks, before being processed. “This is the purest water in the world.” Mr. Al Shehi added.
1. What can we learn about the UAE project?| A．It will help the UAE harvest freshwater. |
| B．It will encourage life to boom in Antarctica. |
| C．It will put the UAE at severe risk of droughts. |
| D．It will completely change the climate in the UAE. |
| A．The Atlantic Ocean. | B．Fujariah. |
| C．The Gulf. | D．Heard Island. |
| A．The local people. | B．Antarctica. |
| C．The weather. | D．Tourism. |
| A．the process of the project | B．the possibility of the plan |
| C．the purpose of the company | D．the comments on the scheme |
【推荐1】Have you ever had such an experience? When chatting on WeChat, you sent someone a voice message where you thought your voice was clear and moving, but when you heard your own recorded voice, you couldn’t help wondering: Is this really my voice? Why is it so ugly?
It's not your fault. The sound from an audio (声音的) recording is transmitted differently to your brain than the sound created when you speak.
When listening to a recording of your voice, the sound travel through the air and into ears—what’s referred to as “air conduction (传导)”. The sound energy vibrates (使颤动) the ear drum and small ear bones. These bones then transmit the sound vibrations to the cochlea (耳蜗), which encourages nerve axons (神经轴突) that send the auditory signal to the brain.
However, when you speak, the sound from your voice reaches the inner ear in a different way. While some of the sound is transmitted through air conduction, much of the sound is internally (内部) conducted directly through your skull bones. When you hear your own voice when you speak, it’s due to a mixture of both external and internal conduction, and internal bone conduction appears to increase the lower frequencies.
For this reason, people generally notice their voice as deeper and richer when they speak. The recorded voice, in comparison, can sound thinner and higher-pitched (声调高的), which many find embarrassing. Dr. Silke Paulmann, a psychologist at the University of Essex, says, “The fact that we sound more high-pitched than what we think we should leads us to embarrassment as it doesn’t meet our internal expectations: our voice plays a vital role in forming our identity and I guess no one likes to realize that you’re not really who you think you are.”
1. How do people usually feel when hearing their own recorded voice?| A．Unclear | B．Touching |
| C．Wonderful | D．Unpleasant |
| A．The way it spreads | B．The air it travels through |
| C．The pitch it produces | D．The frequency it vibrates |
| A．Air conduction helps to transmit the sound. |
| B．The auditory signal is sent more directly to the brains. |
| C．Internal conduction lowers the frequencies of vibration. |
| D．Both external and internal conduction strengthen the effect. |
| A．Voice can be different in different situations. |
| B．Voice can make a difference in shaping a person’s identity. |
| C．It isn’t embarrassing when one’s voice is thin and high-pitched. |
| D．It isn’t important whether one’s voice meets his internal expectations. |
【推荐2】Words have great power. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. Many of us have been offended by words and know how badly words hurt.
●
If someone tells you “You are a fool.”, don’t believe it in your mind. People who hurt you can never really harm you unless you allow yourself to be defined by these words. You are a child of God. You are very valuable in the sight of God, so never allow yourself to feel inferior just by the words of other people.
● Turn those words into positive thoughts within you.
If there is something wrong with your actions, and others are trying to correct you, it can sometimes hurt your feelings if their words are hurtful.
● Respond softly.
If someone speaks in a hurtful way, take a deep breath first and try to speak softly and kindly in response.
● Be silent.
| A．A soft answer turns away anger |
| B．Don’t worry about what others say |
| C．It is wise to correct others’ mistake by soft words |
| D．Never let negative words of others define who you are |
| E．In that case change those words into positive thoughts |
| F．If someone is purposefully hurting you for no reason, simply be silent and ignore it |
| G．Today I will share a few tips on how to handle the effect of negative words spoken to you |
【推荐3】Nuclear bombs. That’s the go-to answer for incoming space objects like asteroids(小行星) and comets, as far as Hollywood is concerned. Movies like Deep Impact and Armageddon rely on nuclear weapons, delivered by stars like Bruce Willis, to save the world and deliver the drama.
But planetary defense experts say in reality, if astronomers spotted a dangerous incoming space rock, the safest and best answer might be something more subtle, like simply pushing it off course by crashing it with a small spacecraft.
That’s just what NASA did on Monday evening, when a spacecraft headed straight into an asteroid called Dimorphous, which is around 7 million miles away and poses no threat to Earth. It’s about 525 feet across and orbits another larger asteroid.
In images streamed as the impact neared, the egg-shaped asteroid grew in size from a little spot on screen to have its full rocky surface come quickly into focus before the signal went dead as the craft hit right on target.
Events happened exactly as engineers had planned, they said, with nothing going wrong. “As far as we can tell, our first planetary defense test was a success,” said Elena Adams, the mission systems engineer, who added that scientists looked on with “both terror and joy” as the spacecraft neared its final destination.
The impact was the peak of NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) ,a 7-year and more than $300 million effort which launched a space vehicle in November of 2021 to perform humanity’s first ever test of planetary defense technology. It will be about two months, scientists said, before they will be able to determine if the impact was enough to drive the asteroid slightly off course, probably shortening its original orbit.
NASA plans to launch an asteroid-hunting space telescope named NEO Surveyor in 2026. “We’ve tacked lots of space rocks, especially the larger ones that could cause extinction-level events. Thankfully, none currently threaten Earth. But many asteroids the size of Dimorphous haven’t yet been discovered, and those could potentially take out a city if they came crashing down. ” explains Lindley Johnson, NASA’s Planetary Defense Officer.
1. How did scientists know the craft hit the asteroid successfully?| A．The signal from the craft was lost as it hit the target. |
| B．They recorded the whole process with a telescope. |
| C．The little spot on the screen suddenly disappeared. |
| D．They monitored the craft with satellites in space. |
| A．To search for evidence of alien life. |
| B．To end the asteroid’s threat to Earth. |
| C．To save the world and deliver a drama. |
| D．To test technology for defending Earth. |
| A．It is a dangerous incoming space rock. |
| B．It is an egg-shaped asteroid around Earth. |
| C．It may orbit the same asteroid after the hit. |
| D．It is expected to blow up after the impact. |
| A．Asteroids are equally destructive whatever the size. |
| B．NEO Surveyor is aimed to track smaller asteroids. |
| C．Larger asteroids will no longer threaten Earth. |
| D．NASA is responsible for the safety of Earth. |
