Modern day robots may not be as entertaining as R2D2 or the robot from Lost in Space, but robots are very important to space exploration and are being used in a variety of different ways for several important reasons.
Robots make great explorers on planets, moons, and other landing areas.Aside from the earth, just about every surface in the solar system is unsafe for humans to explore. The air on most other planets is insufficient for humans to breathe, making it necessary to wear a space suit and oxygen equipment. The temperatures on these surfaces are much too hot or much too cold for any humans to withstand. Plus there would be complications with radiation, weather, and a lack of gravity. Robots have much less limitation in these areas and can survive much longer under these conditions.
Robots are designed for collecting scientific data. Robots are also able to perform many tasks at one time and can process information much quicker and more efficiently. Important scientific projects from detecting minerals, analyzing ground samples, to finding water are all performed much quicker and accurately by robots.
The use of robots has made the cost of space exploration much less expensive than it would cost for humans to do the work. In order to successfully send humans into space we would need to build a vehicle that can not only carry humans, but also enough food and water to keep them alive for the duration of the trip. Moreover, robots have no problems working for hours on end.Robots never complain, they don’t require food or water, and they never need a bathroom break.
Over the past 30 years or so there have been many different types of robots used successfully in the exploration of space. Perhaps the most famous and successful robots are Spirit and Opportunity who have both been exploring the surface of Mars. They have both been very successful with experiments on soil and rocks and have even found evidence of water in Mars’ history.
1. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?| A．The Development of Robots |
| B．The Discovery of Space Exploration |
| C．No Robots, No Space Exploration |
| D．Robots Are Used in Space Exploration |
| A．remain | B．bear |
| C．defeat | D．develop |
| A．The use of robots in space exploration costs more than the use of humans. |
| B．It is dangerous for humans to explore other surfaces in the solar system except the earth. |
| C．Both Spirit and Opportunity have found the evidence of water on Mars. |
| D．Many different types of robots have explored the space successfully. |
| A．Negative. | B．Persuasive. |
| C．Subjective. | D．Objective. |
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【推荐1】Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men's hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.
The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women's longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age.
"We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20--25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,”said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
"Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70，one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,”said Goldspink. "This is part of the ageing process."
What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman's heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one's.
"This gender difference might just explain why women live longer than men,”said Goldspink.
They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80，focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease.
The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart, said Goldspink.
The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.
1. The underlined word“longevity" in the second paragraph probably refers to ______.| A．health | B．long life | C．ageing | D．effect |
| A．men's heart cells | B．women's ageing process、 |
| C．the gender difference | D．hearts and long life |
| A．women have more cells than men when they are born |
| B．women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat |
| C．the female heart loses few of the cells with age |
| D．women never lose their pumping power with age |
| A．enable your heart to beat much faster |
| B．find out the reason for ageing |
| C．exercise regularly to keep your heart healthy |
| D．prevent your cells from being lost |
| A．the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out |
| B．scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells |
| C．the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss |
| D．women over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20 |
【推荐2】While rice and wheat are the two most commonly consumed cereal grains worldwide, a study covering more than 100,000 people in Northwest China has revealed that choosing rice as a main food may result in a lower risk of obesity.
Researchers from Xi’an Jiaotong University collected data from participants aged 35 to 74 who are residents of five northwestern provincial-level regions. They divided the participants into three groups. The first group eats rice as their main food, consuming it either daily or four to six times per week, while consuming wheat less than four to six times per week. The second group’s main food is wheat, and the third group consumes both rice and wheat as their main food, with similar frequency.
Then the researchers compared results and found out that rice preference might be associated with a lower risk of certain obesity types in the population of Northwest China. Higher wheat intake was associated with higher risks of excessive body fat and central obesity (stomach fat) in men and central obesity in women, according to the study findings published in the journal Nutrients.
According to the researchers, previous animal studies shows that wheat gluten (谷蛋白) promoted weight gain by reducing heat production and energy consumption, while rice protein shows the potential for anti-obesity and triglyceride-lowering (抗肥胖和降低甘油三酯) effects. Meanwhile, rice-based dietary patterns often have more fresh vegetables, meat and fish servings. People with wheat preference in Northwest China tend to eat large bowls of noodles with fewer vegetables or less meat, and sometimes even with a large amount of oil.
However, researchers noted that given the vast territory and diverse ethnic groups present in Northwest China, further studies might be necessary to fully understand the regional specificity and potential hidden reasons for the observed links.
1. What do you know about the study in Northwest China?| A．People can eat rice to lose weight. | B．Eating rice will help you live longer. |
| C．Rice is the perfect choice for people who are fat. | D．Eating rice may reduce people’s risk of being fat. |
| A．By offering examples. | B．By referring to some data. |
| C．By making a comparison. | D．By quoting an expert’s opinion. |
| A．Wheat gluten reduced weight gain by reducing heat and energy. |
| B．Rice protein has the potential to fight obesity and lower triglyceride. |
| C．People often eat noodles with more fresh vegetables, meat and fish servings. |
| D．People who prefer wheat in Northwest China tend to cat small bowls of noodles. |
| A．They will carry out further studies. |
| B．They will change their research methods. |
| C．They will promote rice as the main food. |
| D．They will figure out the number of ethnic groups in China. |
Scientific tests have shown that total silence can be a very frightening experience for a human being. However, some people enjoy listening to pop music which is very loud, and this can do harm to their eardrums(耳鼓). The noise level in some discos is far above the usual safety level for heavy industrial areas.
One recent report about noise and concentration(专心) suggested that although a lot of people say that any noise disturbs their concentration, what really influences their ability to concentrate is a change in the level of noise. It goes on to say that a background noise which doesn't change too much(music, for example) may even help people to concentrate.
1. According to this passage, the noise pollution .
| A．has become the worst in the countryside | B．has become better in big cities |
| C．has spread from cities to villages | D．has been controlled in modern cities |
| A．while listening to pop music | B．in complete silence |
| C．when speaking loudly | D．while watching TV |
| A．all kinds of noise | B．changes in the level of noise |
| C．background noise | D．popular music |
【推荐1】This story is part of Nature’s 10, an annual list produced by the world’s leading science journal Nature, exploring individuals who contributed to the key developments in science. On the 2023 list published, the journal included a non-human entity — ChatGPT, for the first time.
ChatGPT and related software can help to brainstorm ideas, enhance scientific search engines and identify research gaps in the literature, says Marinka Zitnik, who works on AI for medical research at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. Models trained in similar ways on scientific data could help to build AI systems that can guide research, perhaps by designing new molecules or simulating cell behaviour, Zitnik adds.
But why include a computer program in a list of people who have shaped science in 2023? ChatGPT is not a person. But actually, it and other generative artificial-intelligence (AI) programs are changing how scientists work. They have also rekindled debates about the limits of AI, the nature of human intelligence and how best to regulate the interaction between the two. That’s why this year’s Nature’s 10 has a non-human addition.
Interestingly, Nature’s list also includes one of its creators. Ilya Sutskever, the chief scientist and cofounder of OpenAI, the organization that created ChatGPT, is one of the minds at the forefront of generative artificial intelligence. He saw this company as an opportunity to develop general artificial intelligence that could outperform humans and develop its own consciousness.
Sutskever believes that artificial intelligence’s potential is too great for models to be available to anyone who wants to use them, and he was among the first to realize that the systems that scientists like his mentor, Geoffrey Hinton, had begun to develop would begin to show their actual capabilities as computing power increased. In recent months, he devoted his efforts toward creating a method to direct and control artificial intelligence systems that are more intelligent than humans.
1. Which of the following is true about Nature’s 10 according to the passage?| A．Nature’s 10 is celebrating the development of science technology. |
| B．Only human beings were elected as Nature’s 10 before. |
| C．Nature’s 10 was started in 2023 for the first time. |
| D．It was awarded by the local government yearly. |
| A．Experts’ opinions on ChatGPT. |
| B．How ChatGPT functions. |
| C．The application of ChatGPT in science research. |
| D．The promotion of ChatGPT. |
| A．Settled. | B．Restarted. | C．Participated. | D．Launched. |
| A．Confident and cautious. | B．Proud and concerned. |
| C．Objective and doubtful. | D．Enthusiastic and warning. |
【推荐2】Laughter comes in many forms, from a polite chuckle to an infectious howl of amusement. Scientists are now developing an AI system that can copy various forms of laughter accurately. The team behind the laughing robot, Erica, say that the system could improve natural conversations between people and AI systems.
Dr. Koji Inoue, lead author of the research from Kyoto University, highlights empathy (共情) as a crucial aspect of conversational AI, suggesting laughter sharing as a means for robots to connect with users. To achieve this, Inoue and his team gathered data from over 80 speed-dating dialogues between male students and Erica, initially operated by amateur actors.
Dialogue data labeled for individual, social, and joyful laughter was used to train an AI system to identify and produce fitting laughter responses. Based on the audio files, the algorithm (算法) learned their subtle differences, aiming to imitate social laughs subtly and hearty laughs empathetically.
“Our biggest challenge in this work was identifying the actual cases of shared laughter,” explained Inoue, emphasizing the need for careful categorization. Erica’s “sense of humor” was tested with four dialogues, integrating the new shared-laughter algorithm. These were compared to cases where Erica didn’t laugh or emitted social laughs upon detecting laughter.
The clips were played to 130 volunteers who rated the shared-laughter algorithm highly for empathy and naturalness. The team believed laughter could imbue robots with unique character traits, including conversational behaviors like laughter, eye gaze, gestures, and speaking style. However, Inoue acknowledged it could take over 20 years to have a “casual chat with a robot like we would with a friend.”
Professor Sandra Wachter, of the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford, said, “One of the things I’d keep in mind is that a robot or algorithm will never be able to understand you. It doesn’t understand the meaning of laughter. They fail to feel, but they might get very good at making you believe they understand what’s going on.”
1. Why do scientists develop the AI system that can copy various forms of laughter?| A．To make robots sound more human-like. |
| B．To help robots understand human emotions better. |
| C．To enable robots to have a sense of humor like humans. |
| D．To enhance the emotional interaction between people and AI systems. |
| A．Creating an algorithm that can genuinely feel amusement. |
| B．Identifying the situations where laughter is truly understood. |
| C．Distinguishing between different types of laughter accurately. |
| D．Collecting sufficient data for training the machine learning system. |
| A．Equip. | B．Inspire. | C．Engage. | D．Influence. |
| A．They are not capable of capturing human laughter. |
| B．They can imitate laughter but lack thorough comprehension. |
| C．It is possible for them to play tricks on humans occasionally. |
| D．It will take long before humans have comfortable conversations with them. |
【推荐3】Imagine Hying over the city in an electric powered aircraft that has no pilot but can take you from point A to point B in minutes. Sounds like science fiction, right? Well, not anymore. China-based Ehang has become the world’s first company to receive official approval to fly passengers in its pilotless air taxis.
Ehang’s EH216-S air taxis are electric vertical (垂直的) takeoff and landing aircraft, also called eVToL for short. The air taris can carry up to wo passengers or about 270kg of goods. They can fly at speeds of up to 130kmb and distances of up to 28km. The air taris are controlled by a central command centre that monitor the light, routes and weather conditions.
Passengers can simply select their destination on a touchscreen inside the cabin and enjoy the ride without worrying about piloting the aircraft. The taxis do not require airports or runways. They can take off and land vertically from any flat surface.
The air taxis use electric power to reduce environmental harm caused by emissions. They can be fully charged in two hours and have bow nose levels. They also have backup batteries and emergency landing systems and parachutes in case anything goes wrong.
They could transform how we travel around big cities —imagine using them to avoid traffic jams, save time on the daily commute (通勤) to work or school, or get to places that are hard to reach by car or public transport. And beyond just moving people, the aircraft can be used for delivering goods, such as packages, medical supplies or food. During natural disasters such as bushfires or foods, air taxis could transport much-needed medical staff, equipment or medicines to the scene quickly and safely.
One big challenge will be gaining the trust of the public and convincing commuters they are safe while flying. To do this, Ehang will educate passengers about the benefits and risks of using its taxis while also addressing potential issues and concerns about noise levels, privacy and the environmental impact.
1. What do we know about EH216-S air taxis?| A．They don’t make any noise. | B．They are environment-friendly. |
| C．They are controlled by eVTOL. | D．They can carry 270kg of goods and two persons. |
| A．A swimming pool. | B．An empty street. |
| C．A crowded car park. | D．A woody valley. |
| A．Where air taxis can work. | B．When air taxis function well. |
| C．Why air taxis are needed. | D．How air taxis can be used. |
| A．By providing a free tip for brave passengers. |
| B．By rewarding the most reliable passengers. |
| C．By explaining is taxis advantages and disadvantages. |
| D．By stressing the importance of environmental protection. |
【推荐1】London-based artist Sarah Ezekiel has won international recognition for her vivid inspiring pictures. But her work is all the more remarkable for the fact that she has a medical condition that has left her unable to move her arms.
Ezekiel’s pictures are painstakingly produced, using the movement of her eyes and specialized technology that relays those movements to a computer.
The eye-tracking technology gives Ezekiel a platform for artistic expression. Otherwise, she would be stopped by a rare disease—amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Ezekiel showed no signs of the condition until 2000 when she noticed some weakness in her left arm. Within months, she was diagnosed (诊断) with ALS. She describes her first five years living with ALS as a “dark wilderness” and “very lonely”. Today, she can neither speak nor move but says “technology has made my life worth living”.
Ezekiel uses a system made by Tobii Dynavox, a company specializing in: “Eye Gaze” devices to help people with medical conditions communicate. Its technology uses projectors, cameras and algorithms (算法) to track the tiny movements of the user’s eyes and control a cursor (光标) on a screen.
Ezekiel, who studied art when she was young, began painting using the Eye Gaze device in 2012. Although her work has been exhibited across the UK, Ezekiel says she’s still learning and that there are always new techniques to explore. Computer-based art has a history dating back to the 1950s. Over time, algorithm-based shapes made way for software that allowed greater skills, and the computer screen became a digital cloth for painting.
“The strange thing is that my style hasn’t changed,” Ezekiel says of her work. “My Eye Gaze work is similar to the work I did with my hands before.”
“Being an artist by means of technology has totally improved my outlook on life and opened up many other possibilities for me,” says Ezekiel. “I couldn’t create for years and it’s fantastic that technology has made it possible again.”
1. How did Ezekiel feel in the first five years living with ALS?| A．Firm. | B．Disappointed. |
| C．Hopeless. | D．Positive. |
| A．How the Eye Gaze device works. | B．What Tobii Dynavox specializes in. |
| C．What techniques are needed to paint. | D．When Ezekiel was diagnosed with ALS. |
| A．They are pushed forward. |
| B．They lack imagination and creativity. |
| C．Technology limits her imagination and creativity. |
| D．The style of the works remains basically unchanged. |
| A．Brave and kind. | B．Determined and talented. |
| C．Generous and strong. | D．Lonely and stubborn. |
【推荐2】Companion planting is the idea that when some crops are planted together, they help each other grow. The compatible plants generally have similar needs for nutrients, soil and moisture.
Advice for companion plantings is sometimes based more on tradition than proof. But Fabian Fernandez at the University of Illinois says there is evidence for some combinations. These can lead to better crops, reduce disease and help with pest control by attracting helpful insects. For example, some kinds of soil bacteria take nitrogen(氮) from the air and make a form that plants can use. The plants keep the nitrogen in their roots. Legumes(豆类) are especially good at this. Any crops sharing the same space can get the nitrogen as the roots decompose(腐烂).
Crops like beans and potatoes, carrots and cabbages, beans and rice can also share territory well because their roots reach different levels in the soil. Deep-rooted vegetables get nutrients and moisture from lower down, so they do not compete with shallower plants. But some plants placed together may harm each other's development. For example, tomatoes do not like wet soil but watercress does, as the name suggests. So you would probably not want to put them together.
Even after harvest, some kinds of produce should be kept apart. Apples, for example, release ethylene gas,a plant hormone. It can cause other foods to ripen(成熟)too quickly. Markets often separate high ethylene-producing foods from those that are sensitive to the gas. But sometimes you might want them together. For example, if you put an apple in a bag with a green banana, the banana will be ready to eat sooner.
Now what about peaches, plums and nectarines that are too firm to eat? Growers in California answer this question at eatcaliforniafruit.com. They say an apple,a banana or a riper piece of fruit is not needed. The peaches, plums and nectarines themselves release enough of the gas to ripen successfully.
Here's their advice: place the fruit in afruit bowl or in a paper bag with the top folded over. Keep the fruit at room temperature. When the fruit is soft enough to your liking, either use it or place it in a refrigerator to stop further ripening.
1. What are the basic needs for companion planting?| A．Good old companions. | B．Some kinds of soil bacteria. |
| C．Nutrients, soil and moisture. | D．Helpful insects. |
| A．To some extent, companion planting relies more on traditional experience. |
| B．In the field of companion planting, proof always speaks louder than tradition. |
| C．Traditional experience is much less reliable than scientific experiments. |
| D．Scientific researches have thrown light on the theory of companion planting. |
| A．Beans and potatoes. | B．Tomatoes and watercress. |
| C．Carrots and cabbages. | D．Beans and rice. |
| A．We should choose fruit from markets as often as possible. |
| B．The peaches, plums and nectarines should always be put together to get riper. |
| C．The fruit in afruit bowl or in a paper bag should be eaten as soon as possible. |
| D．We should not place any ripening fruit out in direct sunlight. |
【推荐3】When Barbra Streisand said that she’d had her dog cloned for $50,000, many people learned for the first time that copying pets and other animals was a real business.
The story that gave people cause for concern, though, came out a few days later. It was about Monni Must, a Michigan photographer who paid to have Billy Bean cloned, a Labrador that had belonged to her oldest daughter, Miya. Miya died 10 years earlier. To Must, cloning the elderly dog was a way to keep her daughter’s memory alive.
Alarm bells went off in my head. Must wasn’t just cloning a pet. She was trying to preserve a lost child. It seemed awfully close to a real human cloning scenario, one in which a heartbroken parent tries to replace a son or daughter who dies early.
I shot a question at Jose Cibelli, an animal cloning scientist at Michigan State University: Is it time to worry about human cloning again? Cibelli quickly emailed back: “Yes.”
I met Cibelli 15 years ago, when I was among a group of journalists covering cloning nonstop. Back then, it seemed possible that someone might try to copy a human being at any moment. There was an Italian doctor named Antinori who said he was trying.
But human cloning never happened. The reason is clear. In many animals, only one in 100 cloned embryos ever leads to a live birth. Of those that are born, a few suffer from abnormalities(畸形) and quickly die. Creating a human clone isn’t only a question of technology. You’d also need a reason to do it, experts willing to help, and someone to fund it all.
I finally asked Must if she would have Miya cloned if she’d had the chance. She said it’s not a question she has an answer to. “When you have a child who dies, you are not in a place to make a rational(理智的) decision,” she says.
1. How did the author feel after knowing Must’s story?| A．He felt relieved. |
| B．He was worried. |
| C．He took pity on her. |
| D．He secretly admired her. |
| A．It received the public’s attention. |
| B．It was supported by Jose Cibelli. |
| C．It was seldom covered by reporters. |
| D．It was first tried by an Italian doctor. |
| A．Why cloned embryos are difficult to preserve. |
| B．How the technology of cloning is developed. |
| C．Why human cloning is challenging. |
| D．How animals are cloned. |
| A．She has no idea. |
| B．She is uninterested. |
| C．She thinks it is irrational. |
| D．She is looking forward to it. |
【推荐1】It is hard to calculate the number of festivals and holidays around the world because there are simply too many of them! People have all kinds of local festivals, and some international festivals are celebrated in different ways in various countries. Have you ever wondered why people need festivals?
Some of the festivals come from religious beliefs, such as Christmas. It originated among Christians but has now become a public holiday for everyone around the world. However, there are other reasons why we hold festivals. They break up the flow of the year and bind us together as families and communities.
Festivals and holidays are fun escape from our regular schedules. Without holidays our weeks would run together into years of boredom. What is October without children ringing our doorbells asking for candy? What is November without turkey on the table and family around it? The answer is: boring months.
We also celebrate festivals because they are reasons to be reconnected with family and long-lost friends. Many people do not have the freedom to meet families and close friends at any time. Festivals and holidays give us the chance. Furthermore, festivals bring us together as a community. Many people make holidays the times they reach out to other people. The bright hearts decorating department stores in February, the blinking lights hanging on lamp posts in December—these help us feel connected to something larger than ourselves.
In a world where get-togethers and barbecues do not happen as much as they used to in decades past, in a world where no one borrow sugar from his or her neighbor any longer or bakes a cake when someone moves on to the block, festivals tie us together.
Therefore, everyone should make the most of their festival times. Get out and decorate your home at Christmas time. Surprise your spouse, boyfriend or girlfriend with a Valentine’s Day gift And definitely have fun at Halloween. Even if you do not enjoy Halloween, I am sure the children in your neighborhood will appreciate your dressing up, putting a graveyard in your front yard and passing out candy!
1. What does the underlined word “originated” (paragraph 2) mean in this article?| A．congratulated | B．celebrated |
| C．came into being | D．invited |
| A．Because people have the chance to meet each other. |
| B．Because department stores and lamp posts are decorated. |
| C．Because we can’t escape from work and fixed schedules. |
| D．Because we feel we are a community. |
| A．People do not go to barbecues nowadays |
| B．We don’t have as strong as a sense of community as we used to. |
| C．Few people give food to neighbors. |
| D．There are fewer social activities we enjoy during festivals. |
【推荐2】The fiddler crab (蟹) is a living clock. It indicates(=shows) the time of day by the color of its skin, which is dark by day and pale by night. The crab’s changing color follows a regular twenty—four hour plan that exactly matches the daily rhythm (节奏) of the sun.
Does the crab actually keep time, or does its skin simply answer to the sun’s rays, changing color according to the amount of light strikes it? To find out, biologists kept crabs in a dark room for two months. Even without daylight, the crab’s skin color continued to change exactly on time.
This characteristic (特性) probably developed gradually in answer to the daily rising and setting of the sun, to help protect the crab from sunlight and enemies. After millions of years it has become completely regulated (受控制) inside the living body of the crab.
The biologists noticed that once each day the color of the fiddler crab is especially dark, and that each day this happens fifty minutes later than on the day before. From this they discovered that each crab follows not only the rhythm of the sun but also that of the tides (潮水). The crab’s period of greatest darkening is exactly the time of low tide on the beach where it was caught!
1. The fiddler crab is like a clock because it changes color ______.| A．in a regular 24—hour rhythm | B．in answer to the sun’s rays |
| C．at low tide | D．every fifty minutes |
| A．tells the crab what time it is | B．protects the crab from the sunlight and enemies |
| C．keeps the crab warm | D．is of no real use |
| A．did not change color | B．changed color more quickly |
| C．changed color more slowly | D．changed color on the same timetable |
| A．in the process of evolution (进化) | B．over millions of years |
| C．by the work of biologists | D．both A and B |
| A．The Sun and the Tides | B．Discoveries in Biology |
| C．A Living Clock | D．A scientific Study |
【推荐3】You know that squeak(吱吱声)you hear from your pet mouse or the pest mouse? It turns out that it is 'not really a squeak, but a sweet song by male mice to attract females. This is the conclusion reached by biologist Dustin Penn and his team at the Veterinary University of Vienna.
The scientists who have been conducting a series of studies on house mice for a number of years, began by recording the high-pitched(声调高的)sounds male mice made the moment they sensed a female mouse around. What they discovered when they played them back to females was that the ladies could tell between those made by their brothers and the ones made by unrelated males. Just like human, they tended to ignore the ones made by their brothers.
The researchers then took the experiment one step further and analyzed the squeaks. To their surprise they discovered that while the squeaks sounded similar, they each had a different "tune". The biggest surprise of all was that the mice could even learn tunes from each other.
However, not all scientists agree with this finding. Some like Kurt Hammer, a scientist at the German Primate Center believe that the test sample was too small to make such a conclusion.
The researcher's next plan to test if the females care about the quality of the “song”. In some bird species, males that can sing the most complex tunes seem to get the most attention.
So why do we care whether mice can sing or not? Clearly, since they are being used as laboratory testers, it will help us make advances in human speech disorders like the ones found in people suffering from autism(自闭症).
1. What does Dustin Pen describe the squeak made by a male mouse as?| A．A hungry signal. | B．A sad cry. |
| C．A terrible noise. | D．A pleasant sound. |
| A．The male mice. | B．The female mice. |
| C．The squeaks made by the male mice. | D．The squeaks made by the female mice. |
| A．More studies should be made. | B．Mice are intelligent animals. |
| C．The conclusion is reasonable. | D．Mice shouldn't be studied. |
| A．It can find ways to kill mice. |
| B．It can inspire musicians with their work. |
| C．It can help treat human speech disorders. |
| D．It can find ways to select intelligent mice. |
