For breeding (繁殖) birds, timing is everything. Most species have just a narrow window to get the food they need to feed chicks. Now, after analyzing data that span from 1975 to 2017, a science team suggests that as the climate warms, birds are not only breeding earlier, but their breeding windows are also narrowed—some by as many as 4 to 5 days.
On average, the beginnings and ends of the breeding periods are occurring earlier in the year. However, the ends are shifting back faster than the beginnings, resulting in an average breeding window that is 1.7 days shorter in 2017 than it was in 1975. During that same period, Finland’s average temperature rose by 0.8℃, suggesting many bird species are actively responding to changing temperatures, Hällfors, who led the team, says.
“It’s good for the species if it’s able to follow the optimum conditions as the climate changes,” she says. However, the shorter breeding windows mean more birds are breeding earlier in the season—a risky time for chicks’ survival, especially if the weather turns suddenly cold. In addition, because many late-season species are shifting their breeding windows up, that could mean more competition for food and nesting sites early on, leaving some chicks to go hungry.
Lucyna Halupka, an ecologist at the University of Wroclaw, calls the study “a very important paper” because it’s one of the few ways to measure the breeding period duration. For 2 decades, she says, many scientists studying birds and climate change have looked only at the earliest, median (中间的), or mean laying dates for specific groups of birds. However, she reminds that because the study is limited to Finland, the findings may not apply universally; future studies should examine how breeding seasons move in other regions where the effect of climate change is different. They should also try to determine how shifting breeding windows affect population sizes, she says.
1. What did the scientists find?| A．The weather in Finland becomes warmer. |
| B．It is becoming more difficult for birds to breed. |
| C．The birds in Finland spend fewer days breeding. |
| D．There isn’t enough food for some chicks in Finland. |
| A．Exact. | B．Proper. | C．Changeable. | D．Dangerous. |
| A．It is carried out in a different way. |
| B．It is helpful for people to protect the birds. |
| C．It opens a window for people to learn about these birds. |
| D．It demonstrates the living situation of the birds on earth. |
| A．Scientists Revealed the Secrets of Birds’ Breeding |
| B．Scientists Take Steps to Protect the Birds in the Wild |
| C．Birds Play a Role in Fighting Against Global Warming |
| D．Birds’ Breeding Windows Are Affected by Global Warming |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Some women say the voice in their head gets kinder as they enter midlife, while other women become more critical of themselves. The difference in views appears to be related to the ability to accept age-related changes to their body, researchers have found.
In 2013, Professor Paxton, of the Universityof La Trobe’s Department of Psychology, was interviewed on ABC Melbourne about body image and well-being in women entering midlife. The ABC posted on their Facebook page the topic of the program and the question: Does the voice in your head get kinder as you get older?
The study found 56 percent of comments suggested the voice in women’s heads did get somewhat kinder with age. This view was associated with women accepting the age-related changes in their body as normal. “If they gained weight or they got wrinkles, it was a normal part of aging and they felt fine about it and it didn’t disturb their sense of self,” Professor Paxton said, “They were more likely to value health and well-being as opposed to appearance.”
On the other hand, 40 percent of comments suggested the voice did not get any kinder with age. This view was associated with women finding it difficult to accept being so different from the youthful ideal of women that is upheld in advertising and in the media. Women who expressed this view were concerned about how “invisible” they had become as a consequence. “They reacted negatively to the changes in their bodies as they aged and were very much aware that in our culture, youthful bodies are idealized,” Professor Paxton said.
Understanding why some women are preoccupied with body image in midlife more than others is important given that having a bad body image can lead to physical and mental health problems, Professor Paxton said. This can include self-consciousness and anxiety, eating disorders, and an unwillingness to show oneself in public, which can reduce the amount women exercise or socialize. “They become unsociable and don’t fulfill their full potential. Those sorts of things can make a person very unhappy.”
She said the insights from studies like this support the use of cognitive (认知的) behavioral therapy (治疗) designed to help women in midlife who have a preoccupation with body image to change negative thought patterns. This would involve discouraging them from comparing themselves to younger women, and encouraging acceptance of bodily changes related to age, and “self care” behaviors that improve health and well-being.
1. What causes the difference in women’s opinions on body image?| A．Women’s self-acceptance. | B．Professors’ advice. |
| C．The impact of Facebook. | D．Personal health. |
| A．Introduced. | B．Tested. | C．Advocated. | D．Praised. |
| A．By trying to show themselves in public. | B．By adopting a new thinking model. |
| C．By doing as much exercise as possible. | D．By comparing themselves to younger women. |
| A．To show public responses to the changes in their bodies. |
| B．To explain that health is more important than appearance. |
| C．To criticize views on body image expressed in the media. |
| D．To give advice to middle-aged women on bodily changes. |
【推荐2】Scientists at University College London have discovered sets of regulatory genes, which are responsible for maintaining healthy hearing. The finding, made in fruit flies, could lead to treatments for age-related hearing loss (ARHL) in humans.
Globally, one-third of people aged over 65 experience hearing loss, and while there are thought to be more than 150 genes that may affect hearing loss, there is no unified (统一的) view on how to use these to develop hearing loss treatments.
In the study, published in Scientific Reports, researchers at the UCL Ear Institute assessed the hearing ability of the common fruit fly across its life span (around 70 days) to see if their hearing declines with age.
A fruit fly’s ears share many molecular (分子的) similarities with the ears of humans, making it an ideal tool for the study of human hearing loss.
Researchers found that the antennal ears of fruit flies also display ARHL with nearly all sensitive hearing measures starting to decline after 50 days of age. This made the researchers want to know if there were any “age-variable” genes in the flies’ inner ears which have kept the ears healthy for 50 days of their lives.
After closer examination, researchers identified a new set of regulatory genes—homeostasis genes. These genes are often responsible for picking up sound and the overall sensitivity of the ear. Using this information, scientists were then able to genetically modify (修改) the genes and prevent the flies from getting ARHL.
Professor Joerg Albert, lead author of the study, said: “While many studies have been conducted into the hearing function of fruit flies, ours is the first to look at the mechanistic and molecular detail of their auditory (听觉的) life course. The fact that these genes are conserved in humans will also help to focus future clinical research in humans and thereby accelerate the discovery of new gene-therapeutic strategies. ”
1. What did scientists at UCL discover?| A．Homeostasis genes maintain one’s ability to hear. |
| B．There are regulatory genes that are related to aging. |
| C．Humans have over 150 genes that can affect hearing loss. |
| D．One-third of people aged over 65 have hearing problems. |
| A．They share many genes with humans. |
| B．They display ARHL during their lifespan. |
| C．Their hearing ability also declines with age. |
| D．Their hearing system is similar to that of humans’. |
| A．The reason of the study. |
| B．The significance of the study. |
| C．The discovery of new treatments. |
| D．The future commercial prospects. |
| A．Fruit fly: the cause of hearing loss |
| B．Hearing loss: a common problem for older adults |
| C．Gene discovery could lead to hearing loss treatments |
| D．The body’s ability can be unlocked to treat lost hearing |
【推荐3】From linguists’ point of view, grammar is a set of patterns for how words are put together to form phrases or clauses, whether in spoken or written. Different languages have different patterns. Some scholars have tried to identify patterns common to all languages. But apart from some basic features, few of these so-called linguistic universals have been found.
The study of these patterns open up “an ongoing debate” between two positions, known as prescriptivism and descriptivism. Prescriptivism thinks a given language should follow consistent rules, while descriptivism sees variation and adaptation as a natural and necessary part of language. From much of history, the vast majority of language was spoken. But as people became more interconnected, writing gained importance. Written language was standardized to allow broader communication and ensure that people in different parts around could understand each other.
Language purists worked to establish and promote this standard by detailing a set of rules that reflected the established grammar of their times. And rules for written grammar were applied to spoken language as well. Speech patterns that deviated from the written rules were considered signs of low social status. And many people who are grown-ups speaking in these ways were forced to adopt the standardized form.
More recently, however, linguists have understood that speech is a separate phenomenon from writing with its own regularities and patterns. Most of us learn to speak at such an early age that we don’t even remember it. We form our spoken skills through unconscious habits, not memorized rules. And because speech also uses mood and intonation for meaning, its structure is often more flexible, adapting to the needs of speakers and listeners. This could mean avoiding complex clauses that are hard to understand in real time, making changes to avoid awkward pronunciation or removing sounds to make speech faster. This linguistic approach that tries to understand and map such differences without dictating correct ones is known as descriptivism. Rather than deciding how language should be used, it describes how people actually use it and tracks the innovation they come up with in the process.
But while the debate between prescriptivism and descriptivism continues, the two are not mutually exclusive. At its best, prescriptivism is useful for informing people about the most common established patterns at a given point in time. Ultimately, grammar is best considered as a set of linguistic habits that are constantly being negotiated and reinvented by the entire group of language users. Like language itself, it’s a wonderful and complex fabric woven through the contributions of speakers and listeners, writers and readers, prescriptivists and descriptivists from both near and far.
1. The underlined word “deviated” in Paragraph 3 probably means ______.| A．copied | B．updated |
| C．differed | D．originated |
| A．focuses on established language patterns |
| B．accepts the differences between languages |
| C．follows the innovations in language patterns |
| D．attaches more importance to written language |
| A．A new understanding of language. | B．The beliefs held by prescriptivists. |
| C．The impact of grammar on language. | D．The ongoing debate between linguists. |
| A．The importance of Grammar | B．The History of Grammar |
| C．Grammar: Rules or Habits | D．Grammar: Writing Rules |
【推荐1】With the electronics industry developing, electronic products have become ubiquitous （无处不在的）in today’s life. Meanwhile, there are more and more abandoned electronic products, commonly called e-waste. It’s estimated that the number will grow to more than 60 million tons by 2021.
What contributes to the sharp rise in e-waste? Technology is developing rapidly, covering almost every aspect of our lives. Meanwhile, the lifespan of devices is getting shorter—many products will be thrown away once their batteries die. Companies intentionally plan the obsolescence （淘汰）of their goods by updating the design or software and discontinuing support for older models, so that it is usually cheaper and easier to buy a new product than to repair an old one.
What can we do about the growing e-waste problem? Recycling is very important and essential. As more people buy electronic equipment, producers are facing shortages of the raw materials, needed to make their products, so recycling and reusing e-waste makes economic and environmental sense.
Recycling e-waste is practiced both formally and informally. Formal e-waste recycling usually involves taking apart the electronics, sorting the materials and cleaning them. Companies must obey health and safety rules to reduce the health and environmental harm of handling e-waste by using: pollution-control technologies. All this makes formal recycling expensive. Informal recycling is typically, unlicensed and uncontrolled. At informal recycling workshops, people recover valuable materials burning devices to melt away non-valuable materials. Usually they do not wear protective equipment and lack any awareness that they are handling dangerous materials.
With the flood of e-waste growing around the world, recycling alone will not be enough to solve the problem. In order to reduce e-waste, producers need to design electronics that are safer, and more long-lasting, repairable and recyclable. The best thing we can do is to resist buying a new device until we really need it. Try to get our old product repaired if possible and, if it can't be fixed, resell or recycle it responsibly and correctly.
1. What is the main idea of paragraph 2?| A．The causes of devices' price dropping. |
| B．The results of updating devices. |
| C．The methods of recycling e-waste. |
| D．The reasons for more and more e-waste. |
| A．To improve the poor quality of e-devices. |
| B．To lower the costs of technology innovation. |
| C．To relieve producers’ lack of materials. |
| D．To increase the variety of electronic products. |
| A．There are many rules and steps to follow. |
| B．They aim to get valuable materials by burning devices. |
| C．It is convenient for them to recycle e-waste. |
| D．They are unaware of the danger while handling e-waste. |
| A．E-waste is easy to deal with by ourselves. |
| B．Producers should be mainly responsible for reducing e-waste. |
| C．Everyone should shoulder responsibility to help reduce e-waste. |
| D．Fixing a device could cause more pollution than buying a new one. |
【推荐2】Skeptics are a strange lot. Some of them refuse to admit the serious threat of human activities to the environment, and they are tired of people who disagree with them. Those people, say skeptics, spread nothing but bad news about the environment. The “eco-guilt” brought on by the discouraging news about our planet gives rise to the popularity of skeptics as people search for more comforting worldviews.
Perhaps that explains why a new book by Bjorn Lomborg was so popular. That book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, declares that it measures the “real state of the world” as fine. Of course, another explanation is the deep pockets of some big businesses with special interests. Indeed, Mr Lomborg’s views are similar to those of some industry-funded organizations, which start huge activities through the media to confuse the public about issues like global warming.
So it was strange to see Mr. Lomborg’s book go largely unchallenged in the media though his beliefs were contrary to most scientific opinions. One national newspaper in Canada ran a number of articles and reviews full of words of praise, even with the conclusion that “After Lomborg, the environmental movement will begin to die down.”
Such one-sided views should have immediately been challenged. But only a different review appeared in Nature, a respected science magazine with specific readership. The review remarked that Mr. Lomborg’s “preference for unexamined materials is incredible”.
A critical eye is valuable, and the media should present information in such a way that could allow people to make informed decisions. Unfortunately, that is often inaccessible as blocked by the desire to be shocking or to defend some special interests. People might become half-blind before a world partially exhibited by the media. That’s a shame, because matters concerning the health of the planet are far too important to be treated lightly.
1. According to the passage, which of the following may be regarded as “skeptics” ?| A．People who agree on the popularity of “eco-guilt”. |
| B．People who disbelieve the serious situation of our planet. |
| C．People who dislike the harmful effect of human activities. |
| D．People who spread comforting news to protect our environment. |
| A．The book challenges views about the fine state of the world. |
| B．Some big businesses intend to protect their own interests. |
| C．The author convinces people to seek comforting worldviews. |
| D．Industry-funded media present confusing information. |
| A．find fault with Lomborg’s book | B．voice a different opinion |
| C．challenge the authority of the media | D．point out the value of scientific views |
| A．To show the importance of presenting overall information by the media. |
| B．To warn the public of the danger of half-blindness with reviews. |
| C．To show special interests of some big business. |
| D．To encourage the skeptics to have a critical eye. |
【推荐3】Researcher Ruijia Hu said wildlife habitat in crowded places like south went Ohio is becoming increasingly fragmented (分散) as forests give way to new construction. Eventually, this could make trouble to an animal with specific habitat needs like Ohio’s pileated (红冠) woodpecker.
Pileated woodpeckers have the nickname carpenter birds for their never-ending natural woodworking. They peck out holes in trees for their nests every year, creating lots of valuable homes for animals like fox squirrels and owls. “They make new nests every year. They won’t reuse old ones,” Hu said. “Other animals depend on them.”
Pileated woodpeckers are private birds that are more often heard than seen. Studying them can be especially difficult. So Hu turned to citizen science for help. To identify where woodpeckers have been seen, she used eight years of sightings collected by birders and logged into the website eBird, a free online tool and app that anyone can use to record their observations and locations. She overlaid these sightings with remote sensing data and found that corridors along rivers and creeks with abundant mature trees and deadwood helped the birds adjust to their increasingly fragmented urban landscape.
“With fragmented forests, many habitats that were once suitable for wildlife are broken up,” Hu sa id. “Wildlife is unable to find habitat big enough to meet their survival needs. And even if there are suitable habitats, the distance between them can be too great. Wildlife corridors link up these habitat patches. Since wildlife can travel and migrate from one patch to another, the probability of finding food and shelter is higher.”
“There are so many species in urban areas that we don’t pay attention to, especially when they’re not considered vulnerable,” Hu said. “With development chipping away at more forest in this crowded county, the tipping point (临界点) could come quickly and unexpectedly. You can’t fix it overnight. It’s not just about planting more trees. The birds need mature forest, so it could take 30 to 50 years to replace their habitat. At least we can protect these riverside forest corridors and see that existing trees reach maturity.”
1. What can we infer from the second paragraph?| A．The magpie’s nest is occupied by the dove. |
| B．Birds abandon the old for the new easily. |
| C．Friendship really exists among animals. |
| D．One’s trash is another treasure. |
| A．The effect of Hu’s study on birds. |
| B．The process of Hu’s research. |
| C．The difficulty Hu had in his study. |
| D．The application of technology. |
| A．Helping them survive in the fragmented landscape. |
| B．Making them adjust to deadwood quickly. |
| C．Providing them with enough food for survival. |
| D．Ensuring them a stable and safe habitat. |
| A．One tree doesn’t make a forest. |
| B．Be wise after the event. |
| C．Prepare for a rainy day. |
| D．Take things as they come. |
【推荐1】Our senses aren’t just delivering a strict view of what’s going on in the world; they’re affected by what’s going on in our heads. A new study finds that hungry people see food-related words more clearly than people who’ve just eaten.
Psychologists have known for decades that what’s going on inside, our heads affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Remi Radel of University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France, wanted to investigate how this happens. Does it happen right away as the brain receives signals from the eyes or a little later as the brain’s high-level thinking processes get involved?
Radel recruited 42 students with a normal body mass index. On the day of his or her test, each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating. Then they were told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch first. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.
For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen for about 1/300th of a second each. They flashed at so small a size that the students could only consciously perceive (意识到) A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word, each person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they’d seen - a food-related word like cake or a neutral (中性的) word like boat. Each word appeared too briefly for the participant to really read it.
Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food-related words. Because the word appeared too quickly.for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception, not in thinking processes, Radel says.
“This is something great to me. Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for. From the experiment, I know that our brain can really be at the.disposal (处理) of our motives and needs,” Radel says.
1. “Poorer children” and ‘‘hungry people” are mentioned in Paragraph 2 to show ______.| A．they have sharper senses than others |
| B．they lose their senses because of poverty and hunger |
| C．humans’ senses are affected by what they see with their eyes |
| D．humans’ senses are influenced by what’s going on in their heads |
| A．he needed more students to join |
| B．he didn’t prepare enough food for the 42 students |
| C．he wanted two groups of participants, hungry and non-hungry |
| D．he didn’t want to have the experiment at noon |
| A．To make sure the participant had no time to think consciously |
| B．To ensure the participant was unable to perceive anything |
| C．To guarantee each word came out at the same speed and size |
| D．To shorten the time of the experiment |
| A．humans’ thinking processes are independent of their senses. |
| B．humans can perceive what they need without deep thinking processes. |
| C．an experiment with hungry and non-hungry participants is not reliable. |
| D．42 participants are too small a number for a serious.investigation. |
【推荐2】Though diet and exercise are recommended as ways to improve health, new UCR research is the first to examine the long-lasting, combined effects of both factors when they are experienced early in life. “Any time you go to a doctor with concerns about your weight, almost without fail, the doctor recommends that you exercise and eat less,” said researcher Marcell Cadney. “That’s why it’s surprising most studies only look at diet or exercise separately. In this study, we wanted to include both,” he said.
The researchers found that early-life exercise led to reduced anxious behaviors and an increase in adult muscle and brain mass. When fed Western-style diets high in fat and sugar, the mice not only became fatter, but also grew into adults that preferred unhealthy food.
To obtain the findings, the researchers divided the young mice into four groups-those with access to exercise, those without access, those fed a standard, healthy diet and those who ate a Western diet. Mice started on their diets immediately after weaning (断奶), and continued with them for three weeks until they reached adulthood. After an additional eight weeks of “washout”, during which all mice were housed without wheels and on a healthy diet, the researchers did a behavioral analysis and measured levels of several different hormones.
One of those they measured, leptin, is produced by fat cells. It helps control bodyweight by increasing energy consumption and signaling that less food is required. Early-life exercise increased adult leptin levels in adult mice, regardless of the diet they ate.
Previously, the research team found that eating too much fat and sugar as a child can change the microbiome (微生物群) for life, even if they later eat healthier. Going forward, the team plans to study whether fat or sugar is more responsible for the negative effects they measured in Western-diet-fed mice.
This study offers great opportunities for health interventions in childhood habits. “Our findings may be related to understanding the potential effects of activity reductions and dietary changes associated with overweight,” said Marcell.
1. What is special about the new UCR research?| A．It finds the relation between health and diet. |
| B．It is the first to study the effect of exercise. |
| C．It takes both exercise and diet into account. |
| D．It gives equal importance to physical and mental health. |
| A．Stronger bones. | B．A peaceful mind. |
| C．A desire for healthy food. | D．The various microbiome for life. |
| A．Its process. | B．Its results. | C．Its objective. | D．Its importance. |
| A．diet | B．mouse | C．behavior | D．hormone |
| A．Early-life health habits matter. |
| B．It’s never too late to make a change. |
| C．A healthy body leads to a healthy mind. |
| D．Dietary habits make a difference to children’s behavior. |
【推荐3】Beekeeper Pablo Alvarez sits near his hives (蜂箱) and points up into a cloudless, blue Chilean sky. This season, Alvarez says, there is much less bee traffic than usual. Spring rains once led to fields of flowers in Casablanca, a town on the Chilean Pacific coast. Now, there is just dry earth. He says he lost half of his hives by early spring. “At the end of winter, bees need flowers to grow and make honey,” he told Reuters reporters. No flowers means no food, he added.
His story is common among beekeepers across much of central Chile. A severe, years-long lack of rain is making life difficult for honey bees. Concern over how the changing environment has affected bees has reached the highest levels of government in Chile. The country has already provided large amounts of money for farmers suffering from the drought. In August, it said it would include the “costs” of climate change in future agency budgets.
"We all know the importance that bees have in agricultural production," Agriculture Minister Antonio Walker recently told reporters. Honey bees pollinate (授粉) many of Chile’s major export crops, including blueberries, apples and cherries.
Already, agriculture officials have ordered a state of emergency in more than 100 farm communities throughout central Chile. Though dry periods are normal from time to time, officials say climate change has made the current dry period longer and more severe. Rainfall in September in Santiago was down nearly 80 percent compared to the historical average.
Alvarez has begun taking care of an organic bee yard filled with native, drought-resistant plants. Yet even as he describes those efforts, the horn of a water truck sounds. His well has run dry. Now he must pay for water, too.
1. It can be inferred from the passage that .| A．100 farm communities are now in an urgent situation in Chile |
| B．the government has provided beekeepers with agency budgets |
| C．beekeepers can use the water for free if their wells have run dry |
| D．the decreasing number of bees will affect the agricultural production |
| A．Disapproving. | B．Enthusiastic. |
| C．Concerned. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．Years-long Drought Threatens Honey Bees in Chile |
| B．Climate Change Makes the Dry Period More Severe |
| C．The Decrease in Number of Beekeepers Has Drawn Attention |
| D．The Drought Calls for the Government to Take Immediate Action |
