How do you feel about bees? Do you get annoyed when they buzz around you and do you fear their mission is just to sting you? Love them or loathe them, these little insects are extremely important creatures, and without them we might starve.
Bees deserve some respect — they give us honey, and they play their part either pollinating the many vegetables and fruits we eat directly or pollinating the food for the animals that we then consume. In fact, they are the world’s most important pollinators. That’s not all — a study by the University of Reading in the UK, found bees and other pollinating insects have a global economic value of around £120bn ($150bn) and contribute around £690m ($850m) to the UK economy every year.
So, bees are worth protecting, and although a small number of bee species are vital for crops such as oilseed rape, apples and strawberries, experts say we should be taking care of all our bees. Researchers say conservation efforts should be aimed at a wide number of species — even those that currently contribute little to crop pollination —– in order to maintain biodiversity and ensure future food security.
Unfortunately, in recent times, bee populations have been declining due to pesticides, parasites, disease and habitat loss. It’s something we should be worried about because, as Gill Perkins, chief executive of the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, told BBC Future website: “They provide a whole ecosystem service.” The recent lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic seem to have given bee populations a little boost because they faced less human disturbance, traffic and polluting fumes.
Conservationists hope, going forward, people will appreciate bees more and encourage them to thrive as they reconnect with nature. Gill Perkins says, “They are beginning to realise how their mental health and wellbeing is supported by nature — particularly by bumblebees, which are so iconic and beautiful and buzzy.” So, it really seems time to give bees a second chance.
1. Please state the function of paragraph 1.2. What reasons have contributed to the decrease in bee populations?
3. Is the following statement true or false? Please provide evidence from the passage.
Gill Perkins says reconnecting with nature helps improve the mental health of bumblebees.
4. What is the main idea of this passage?
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【推荐1】Animals are living creatures and most of us often forget about this. Although they can’t speak our language, they can understand us. But some people treat them badly. Being stronger than them doesn’t mean that humans have the right to treat them badly.
Volunteer at the local animal shelters
If you can’t give money to animal shelters, you can visit a local animal shelter and offer your help.
Report any form of animal abuse
If you know someone hits their pets to death or doesn’t feed them for weeks, report abuse. No one has the right to abuse animals or leave them hungry or sick. Don’t keep silent.
It is one of the easiest ways to reduce the demand for animal products. While meat tastes delicious, think of how one animal is killed so that you can eat that steak.
Stop buying items that contain animal products
Break a habit of buying things that contain animal products. Many beauty items, especially face creams, lotions and lipsticks, contain animal products. So be sure you don’t buy them.
Animals deserve to live their lives free from abuse, pain and suffering. They are sensitive, emotional, and intelligent. They are living creatures that need our help. Don’t neglect them.
| A．Have a plant-based diet. |
| B．Feed wild animals and birds. |
| C．Let others know how that person treats animals. |
| D．You don’t have to have any special skills to help animals. |
| E．Sometimes these little creatures can’t help themselves. |
| F．Everyone should avoid anything that includes leather, silk or fur. |
| G．It’s also important that you teach your children to be kind to animals. |
【推荐2】Monarch butterflies migrate (迁徙) by the millions each year, making the trip from northern areas of the Continent to California and Mexico and back. Because most butterflies only live for a few weeks to a few months, it takes several generations of butterflies to complete the migration
As monarch butterflies are a threatened species with their population numbers in decline, Patrick Guerra, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, and his colleagues wanted to see what types of environmental stress might be linked to their decline.
“We use monarch butterflies as a model system to understand long-distance animal migration. Our goal was to understand how environmental stress, such as different types of stress caused by urbanization, impacts animal migratory phenomena,” Guerra says.
For their study, researchers conducted lab studies where they reproduced the effects of artificial light pollution with butterflies using a flight simulator (模拟器).
“The flight simulator is like a butterfly treadmill (跑步机), in which we can study the flight behavior of insects in controlled, experimental conditions. We first tested if monarchs treated a single, artificial light source as if it were the actual sun during the day,” Guerra says.
“Once we established that they did, we then tested how the monarchs would behave when exposed to this same artificial light source during their night.”
Butterflies stayed quiet and unmoving when they were first placed in the flight simulator in the dark. But as soon as scientists turned on the light, they started flying. The light made them believe that night was day and this can cause them to fly longer at night or start flying too early.
The study has found that the internal circadian (昼夜) clock of butterflies functions normally when they are exposed to natural day night lighting cycles, but artificial light, such as a streetlight, at night can throw off a monarch butterfly’s internal compass. It can affect their circadian rhythms, which can make the monarch butterflies get lost when they try to fly the next day. This shows without darkness, the circadian clock of butterflies cannot function properly.
“When exposed to artificial light, the light can perturb the normal functioning of the animal’s circadian clock,” Guerra says. “Light pollution, particularly nighttime light pollution, causes animals to experience light at a time when they are not supposed to, e.g., at night when they are normally in the dark, and are at rest. Exposure to such light can prevent the behavior and biological process of animals which they rely on or that are regulated by the circadian clock.”
1. Why did the researchers carry out the study?| A．To look for the reason for butterflies’ migration |
| B．To test what action should be taken to protect butterflies. |
| C．To know about the circadian rhythms of migratory animals. |
| D．To find out how the environmental stress affects animal migration. |
| A．The monarchs mistook a single, artificial light as the actual sun during the day. |
| B．The Butterflies moved quietly when first placed in the flight simulator in the dark |
| C．The monarchs got lost in direction when the light in the flight simulator was on. |
| D．The Butterflies were never at rest when they are exposed to the light. |
| A．Natural light contributes much to pollution |
| B．Migratory animals often lose their way, |
| C．Light pollution is increasingly serious |
| D．Darkness is vital to migratory animals. |
| A．Stop | B．Disturb. | C．Reflect | D．Enhance. |
| A．Light pollution can interfere with butterfly migration |
| B．Efforts are made to save the endangered monarch butterflies. |
| C．Butterflies’ circadian cycle is revealed in research. |
| D．Human activity impacts the rest of nature negatively. |
【推荐3】At the beginning of the 20th century there were more than a million lions worldwide.Today there are less than 30,000 in the wild.The remaining lions are increasingly threatened by habitat loss，hunting activities to protect farms and cattle.
For generations，Masai tribesmen on the large African plains in southeastern Kenya have hunted lions—to protect their farms and cattle.Today they celebrate the lions’ life.
Noah is an elder in the Masai community.“We have decided as a community of the Masai to lay down our spears，and there will be no more killing of lions in our community.” He is part of a group of Masai visiting the United States promoting (推广) the Predator (捕食性动物) Compensation Program.
Conservation International’s Frank Hawkins explains，“The Masai have been living with wildlife for many generations and it has been a conflicting relationship in many ways.They compete with the animals for food as lions eat their cattle.We’re trying to find ways in which the wildlife will become something useful to them.” They had the Predator Compensation Fund founded in 2003.After much discussion，a group of Masai farmers agreed to protect lions.In turn，if lions or other predators kill their cattle，the Masai owner will be paid market value for the dead animals from the fund.
One man said that in the past，when a lion killed cattle，they killed it on the spot.And now，after the start of the program，the Masai see the lion population growing.Since 2003，only four lions have been killed here.
1. What is this passage mainly about?| A．The wildlife in the world. |
| B．Lions and the Masai. |
| C．The reason why lions are killed. |
| D．The living ways of the Masai. |
| A．To protect people in the wild. |
| B．To help the Masai protect their farms and cattle. |
| C．To protect lions only. |
| D．To protect the wildlife. |
| A．because lions were dangerous for people there |
| B．because dead lions were worth a lot of money |
| C．because they wanted lions’ meat |
| D．because they wanted to protect their farms and cattle |
| A．Because lions don’t eat their cattle any more. |
| B．Because they will be fined if they kill lions there. |
| C．Because if a lion kills their cattle，they will be paid for the dead animals from the fund. |
| D．Because there are less than 30,000 lions in the wild now. |
| A．Reasonable. | B．Cruel. |
| C．Poor. | D．Stupid. |
【推荐1】One of the things that make humans mammals (哺乳动物) is that we’re warm-blooded — our bodies have high metabolism (新陈代谢) that maintains our internal temperature independent of the surroundings, unlike cold-blooded animals that have to lie in the sun for heat. Among modern animals, only mammals and birds are warm-blooded and our ability to keep ourselves warm has enabled us to survive in icy weather and make long migrations. But it’s been a mystery exactly when mammals evolved their high metabolism. In a new study, scientists point to an unlikely source for determining when ancient mammal ancestors became warm-blooded.
The ears of all living creatures that have backbones contain tiny canals (管道) filled with fluid that helps us balance. The runniness (流动性) of that fluid changes based on temperature, and our inner ears have evolved different sizes so that the fluid can flow correctly. Cold-blooded animals’ ear fluid is cooler and thicker, so it needs wider spaces to travel through, while warm-blooded animals have runnier ear fluid, so our canals are different.
“Canals were generally used to predict the movement of fossil organisms. However, by carefully looking at their biomechanics (生物力学) , we figured that we could also use them to infer body temperature,” says Romain David, one of the study’s lead authors. “This is because, like honey, the fluid inside canals gets runnier when temperature increases, impacting function. Therefore, during the transition to endothermy (温血性) , physical adaptation was required to keep best performances, and we could track ear canals in mammal ancestors. ”
To track these evolutionary changes, the researchers compared the sizes of the inner ear canals of over 300 animals, including 243 living species and 64 extinct ones. They found that mammal ancestors didn’t develop the kinds of inner ear structures ideal for warm-blooded animals until 233 million years ago.
The origin of mammalian endothermy is one of the great mysteries to be solved. Many different approaches have been used to try to predict when it first evolved, but they have often given unclear or conflicting results. This method shows real promise because it has been confirmed using a very large number of modern species.
1. Which of the following might be the key to mammals’ long migrations?| A．The large body size. | B．The rich food resources. |
| C．The warm-bloodedness. | D．The adaptability to surroundings. |
| A．They have much bigger backbones. |
| B．Their inner ear canals are relatively narrow. |
| C．They are much more sensitive to outside sounds. |
| D．Their ear fluid seldom changes with temperature. |
| A．Theories on the evolution of mammal ancestors. |
| B．The reason for studying the inner ears of mammals. |
| C．The importance of physical adaptation to mammals. |
| D．Possible ways to predict the movement of fossil organisms. |
| A．Appreciative. | B．Doubtful. | C．Negative. | D．Unconcerned. |
【推荐2】Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for two weeks. When he came to analyze their embarrassing lapses(差错)in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings. Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random(随机的).
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People program themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman's custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got reversed(颠倒的)in the program,” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these “program assembly failures”.
Altogether the volunteers logged 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing—an average of twelve each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours sometime between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programs’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work.” Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men—maybe because they were more reliable reporters.
An astonishing finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a risk of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse—even dangerous.
1. Professor Smith discovered that .| A．certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents |
| B．many people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness |
| C．men tend to be more absent-minded than women |
| D．absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness |
| A．often fail to program their daily practices beforehand |
| B．tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry |
| C．change the order of doing things unconsciously |
| D．are likely to mess things up if they are too tired |
| A．Absent-mindedness can be cured by skill training |
| B．risks can be avoided when people do things they are good at |
| C．people should be careful when programming their actions |
| D．more concentration on work to avoid lapses may not work |
The studies, most conducted within the past decade, included about three million adults from around the world. The result of these studies by researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics in Maryland, part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shows that slightly overweight or obese people were six percent less likely to die from all causes compared to people of normal weight. But the researchers found that seriously obese individuals were still at a 30 percent greater risk of death compared to healthy-weight individuals.
Study lead author Katherine Flegal says she was not surprised that overweight people would not have a higher death risk. “Because we'd actually already read a lot of this literature and realized that death rates for overweight would be at least not higher than normal[weight," she said. “I guess l was a little bit surprised that it was definitely lower. And l was also surprised that the lower rates of obesity didn't seem to differ from normal weight."
But Flegal stresses the difference in death rates appear to be small between normal-weight people and overweight and mildly obese individuals.
The finding by Flegal and colleagues have raised new questions about the reliability(可靠性)of the so-called "body mass index" or BMI, a measurement of body fat as a ratio(比例，比率)of height to weight, that has become popular in recent years among public health experts to measure potential health risks.
But Heymsfield warns that individuals should not conclude that it's okay to put on extra kilograms, since being at a healthy weight lowers the risk for heart disease and diabetes.
1. Katherine Flegal feels surprised at the fact that____.
| A．obese people have higher death rates |
| B．slightly obese people have lower death rates |
| C．obese people tend to die early |
| D．death rates have nothing to do with body weight |
| A．BMI may not be so reliable. |
| B．The study provides further evidence for BMI. |
| C．BMI tells nothing about potential health risks. |
| D．BMI has been much questioned recently. |
| A．It's OK to put on extra weight. |
| B．It doesn't matter if you are slightly obese. |
| C．Obese people are much healthier. |
| D．Body weight has nothing to do with death rates. |
| A．Technology. | B．Dieting. | C．Health. | D．Death. |
