South Africa’s viniculture industry employs around 270,000 people, producing some of the world’s most sought-after wines. But not all jobs are best left to humans. In some cases, it’s better to get your ducks in a row, and then put them to work.
Outside Cape Town on the banks of the Eerste river, Vergenoegd Löw, the Wine Estate, has repurposed a centuries-old practice by gathering a group of ducks to keep its vineyards free of pests. “I call our ducks the soldiers of our vineyards,” says managing director Corius Visser. “They will eat aphids, they will eat snails, they will eat small worms—they keep (it) completely pest-free.”
The species, the Indian runner duck, is flightless, with a peculiarly upright stance and highly developed sense of smell. The duck troops are employed on a 14-day circuit through the vineyards, eating and fertilizing the ground as they go.
The ducks’ “annual leave” takes place during the harvest (they’d eat the grapes). During this time they search for food on open farm pasture, swim in a nearby lake and undergo selective breeding, says Visser.
Duck eggs are consumed in the vineyard restaurant, but never the ducks themselves—“that would be like eating a colleague,” Gavin Moyes, the estate’s tasting room manager, said in a 2020 interview.
Inspired by ducks used to remove pests from rice paddies in Asia, the winery calls on the services of some 1,600 ducks as part of its effort to make wine production more sustainable. “The world is moving away from more conventional farming to (being) a bit more organic,” Visser explains. “For Vergenoegd, it’s a big goal … to have less influence on the Earth, the soil and the environment.”
As a pioneering winemaker with industry influence—vines have been grown on the estate since the late 17th century—Vergenoegd Löw is hoping to convince others to adopt its approach. Visser says the vineyard plans to sell 750 ducks to other vineyards and replenish numbers by breeding the birds.
“I think the industry itself has the potential to engage more in experimental ways,” he adds. That requires money, and increasing the price point of South African wines could help fund Vergenoegd Löw and other vineyards’ green initiatives.
“If we can achieve that, we can then put back some of that (income) into our people, into our land, and become more sustainable,” Visser says.
1. What’s the function of the ducks in the vineyards?| A．To keep the vineyards free of pests. | B．To guard the vineyards from thieves. |
| C．To make the vineyards more attractive. | D．To provide eggs and meat for the vineyard restaurant. |
| A．help harvest the grapes | B．have a sharp sense of taste |
| C．fly around the vineyard freely | D．leave the vineyard at a certain time |
| A．More vineyards will have duck “soldiers”. |
| B．The price point of South African wines will fall. |
| C．The vineyards will depend more on conventional farming. |
| D．The winery will come up with more ways to experiment on ducks. |
| A．Efficient. | B．Advanced. | C．Challenging. | D．Green. |
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【推荐1】People have been wondering why elephants do not develop cancer even though they have lifespans(寿命)that are similar to humans, living for around 50 to 70 years.
Now scientists believe they know why. A team at the University of Chicago, US has found that elephants carry a large number of genes that stop tumors(肿瘤)developing. To be precise, they found 20 copies of an anti-tumor gene called TP53 in elephants. Most other species, including humans, only carry one copy.
According to the research, the extra copies of the gene improved the animal’s sensitivity to DNA damage, which lets the cells quickly kill themselves when damaged before they can go on to form deadly tumors.
“An increased risk of developing cancer has stood in the way of the evolution of large body sizes in many animals,” the study author Dr Vincent Lynch told The Guardian. If every living cell has the same chance of becoming cancerous(癌变的),large creatures with a long lifespan like whales and elephants should have a greater risk of developing cancer than humans and mice. But across species, the risk of cancer does not show a connection with body mass.
This phenomenon was found by Oxford University scientist Richard Peto in the 1970s and later named “Peto’s paradox(悖论)”. Biologists believe it results from larger animals using protection that many smaller animals do not. In the elephant’s case, the making of TP53 is nature’s way of keeping this species alive.
The study also found that when the same genes were brought to life in mice, they had the same cancer resistance as elephants. This means researchers could use the discovery to develop new treatments that can help stop cancers spreading or even developing in the first place.
“Nature has already figured out how to prevent cancer,” said Joshua Schiffman, a biologist at the School of Medicine, University of Utah, US. “It’s up to us to learn how different animals deal with the problem so that we can use those strategies to prevent cancer in people.”
1. Why are elephants unlikely to develop cancer?| A．Certain genes in their body kill existing tumors. |
| B．They have a rather large body size. |
| C．They carry many genes to prevent tumors developing. |
| D．Their genes suffer no DNA damage. |
| A．The huge body mass. |
| B．Deadly tumors. |
| C．Cells killing themselves. |
| D．Sensitivity to DNA damage. |
| A．The risk of cancer is not related to body size. |
| B．Larger animals have protection from TP53. |
| C．Larger animals suffer the same risk of cancer as smaller ones. |
| D．The larger animals are, the bigger risk of cancer they will have. |
| A．Depending on nature is surely enough to fight against cancer. |
| B．The TP53 genes have proved useful in stopping cancer in people. |
| C．The extra copies of elephants’ genes are used to cure cancer patients. |
| D．Humans are expected to prevent cancer with the making of TP53. |
【推荐2】There is a very special wolf that lives in Africa.They are actually called the African wild dogs,or painted dogs.
These animals live in open woodlands, or in the plains of Africa. Today, however, most of the animals can be found in eastern or southern Africa. These animals are beautiful. They have rounded ears instead of pointed like most dogs, and they have four toes on each of their four feet, also a unique characteristic because other dogs have five. Their fur is always different from each other. The fur is usually a combination of black, brown, red and white, and sometimes even yellow. No wonder they’re called the painted dogs.
The African wild dog is a very social animal. They live in groups and have numbers from five to about twenty. The members of a group are always very close to one another. They communicate in their own language or body language. When someone is very old or sick, the others will help, and they are willing to share the food with the elders and with those who are weak, which is what we should learn from.
The family does everything together, from raising young, to sleeping together, to hunting. When they hunt, they will work together using team work to kill animals that are larger than them.
They sometimes hunt farm animals. This is unfortunate, because both poachers, and people who own farms shoot the painted dogs who are just trying to survive.
Before, there used to be many large groups throughout the land, but now the African wild dog is very rare. They are also losing their population because of their own loss of habitat thanks to human’ s farming and forest cutting.
1. From the passage we learn that the African wild dog .| A．lives in the north of Africa | B．has sixteen toes altogether |
| C．has pointed ears like most dogs | D．lives in forests in groups |
| A．They all have colorful fur. |
| B．The dogs in the same group are of different colors. |
| C．Artists love to paint them in different colors. |
| D．None of them has the same color. |
| A．They always do everything together. |
| B．They help the sick, the elderly and the weak. |
| C．They are always very close to one another. |
| D．They communicate in their own language. |
| A．Poachers kill some of them. | B．They are short of food sometimes. |
| C．They are losing their habitat. | D．Farmers shoot some of them. |
| A．The Travelers. | B．Fashion Weekly. |
| C．Animal World. | D．Star Magazine. |
【推荐3】Climate change has been blamed for killer hurricanes, sea level rise, and drought, but a new report suggests the effects of climate change might hit the world's coffee supply. Up to 70 percent of the world's coffee supply could be threatened over the next 66 years, according to a new study by researchers at England's Royal Botanic Gardens.
Nearly 100 percent of the world's arabica coffee growing regions could become unsuitable for the plant by 2080, according to the study. Beans from arabica coffee plants account for about70 percent of the world's coffee, but the plant has to be grown under strict weather conditions：they thrive at temperatures between 64 and 70 degrees Celsius, and are highly influenced by frost or temperatures higher than 73 degrees Celsius.
With temperatures estimated to increase by between 1.8 and 4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the fragile plant might become increasingly expensive and difficult to grow, especially in places such as Ethiopia and Kenya. In that worst case, nearly all of the world's native arabica coffee would die out. Under more conservative estimates, about 65 percent of the regions that used to grow the coffee would become unsuitable for it. The evidence from coffee farmers, from numerous coffee growing regions around the world, is that they are already suffering the influences of increased warming.
Some commercial farmers would likely be able to move their operations to other areas or would be able to overcome climate change with artificial cooling techniques, but wild arabica is generally considered to be much more suitable for making high-quality coffee.
If arabica becomes impossible to raise in its native areas, it could wreak havoc（造成破坏）on the economies of the mainly third-world countries in which it grows. Coffee is the world's most popular drink and is the second most-traded commodity in the world, behind oil.
1. What does the passage mainly talk about?| A．Climate change affects people in many ways. |
| B．More and more attention has been paid to climate change. |
| C．The world's coffee supply could be threatened by climate change. |
| D．The growing conditions of arabica coffee have been improved recently. |
| A．According to the study，by 2080 nowhere can be suitable for arabica coffee growing. |
| B．65 percent of the world's coffee gets raw materials from arabica coffee plants. |
| C．Arabica coffee plants will grow well at temperatures lower than 60 degrees Celsius. |
| D．Coffee farmers are the biggest victims of climate change. |
| A．Coffee will replace oil to be the first most-traded commodity. |
| B．Coffee is likely to become less popular than before. |
| C．Some countries will suffer great economic losses. |
| D．Farmers will plant other crops instead of coffee. |
【推荐1】According to a recent study in Science, pigs are providing convincing new evidence that animals may respond emotionally to music. The finding may lead to ways to improve their welfare on farms. “It’s a really neat study that shows animals are more emotionally attuned (音感好的) to music than people think”, says Charles Snowdon, an animal behaviour expert at the University of Wisconsin.
Music is sometimes used as enrichment for animals and other captive animals. And Snowball the dancing cockatoo (凤头鹦鹉) likes to dance to the Backstreet Boys. But whether these creatures have a true emotional response to the tunes is unclear. That’s what the new study aimed to do — but with pigs. Coauthor Maria Camila Ceballos, an animal welfare scientist, says she chose these animals because they are intelligent and social, and face serious welfare challenges on factory farms.
The researchers composed music that were either consonant or dissonant. To humans, consonant music generally sounds pleasant whereas dissonance tends to sound uncomfortable. The team then filmed six litters of young pigs listening to the music, which was played in a random order with a break in between.
The researchers scored the pigs’ body language using an approach called QBA. Pieces of consonant music were linked to the pigs experiencing positive emotions, whereas the dissonant music was linked to negative emotions, the team reports this month in Scientific Reports. “So we found that, yes, music generates different emotions,” Ceballos says.
Animal welfare scientist Jun Bao from a university in China is skeptical about whether Ceballos’s team detected emotions, however. He recently found that exposure to music increases play and tail wagging in pigs, which he sees as signs of a “positive mood”. However, he says it’s not clear that pigs labeled as “happy” or “uneasy” through QBA actually experience those emotions.
Ceballos hopes the study will help researchers create welfare-improving music, tailor-made to a specific species. Bao also agrees, adding “It’s really interesting, because if it works, it would be the handiest and cheapest way to enrich their environment.”
1. What is the recent study mainly about?| A．Pigs’ welfare on farms. |
| B．Pigs’ reaction to tunes. |
| C．Pigs’ daily behaviours. |
| D．Pigs’ potential diseases. |
| A．They are easy to regulate. |
| B．They prefer to live alone. |
| C．They enjoy terrific welfare. |
| D．They own good intelligence. |
| A．The duration of their on-site observation. |
| B．The accuracy of judgement on pigs’ emotion. |
| C．The selection of music pigs are exposed to. |
| D．The appropriateness of the testing approach. |
| A．Pigs’ Emotion Can Be Tuned by Music |
| B．High Pork Production Is on the Way |
| C．Pigs’ Intelligence Can’t Be Overlooked |
| D．The Way to Ease Pigs’ Stress Is Found |
【推荐2】The Land Under the Sea
Ten thousand years ago, as the last ice age ended, sea levels around the world were far lower than they are today. Much of the land under both the North Sea to the east of Britain and the English Channel which now separates France and Britain was part of a huge region of forests and grassy plains. Then the climate gradually became warmer and the water trapped in large masses of ice was released.
Now the development of advanced sonar (声纳) technology, known as bathymetry, is making it possible to study this flooded landscape in extraordinary detail. A special echo sounder is fixed to the bottom of a survey ship and it makes wide sweeps across the seabed. While previous technology has only been able to produce two-dimensional images, bathymetry can now use computers, satellite-positioning equipment and special software to create accurate and remarkably detailed maps. For the first time, an ancient riverbed jumps out of the three-dimensional image. The site of pre-historic settlements can now be pinpointed.
According to expert Linda Andrews, this technological development is of huge significance. “We now have the ability to map the seabed as accurately as we can map dry land,” she says.
Once bathymetric techniques have identified sites where people might have built their homes and villages, divers can be sent down to investigate further. Robot submarines can also be used, and researchers hope they will find stone tools and wood from houses as proof of human activity. The idea shared by many people in Britain of their country as a natural island kingdom will be challenged by the findings: Britain has been inhabited for about 500,000 years and much of this time it has been linked on and off to continental Europe. It remains to be seen how far this new awareness is taken on board, however.
In fact, the use of bathymetry will not be limited to the study of lost landscapes and ancient settlements. It will also be vital in finding ships that have been destroyed in accidents. In addition, commercial applications are a real possibility. Aggregates (骨材) for the construction industry are becoming increasingly expensive, and bathymetry can be used to identify suitable sites for digging for this material. Mapping the seabed will also identify places where rare plants and shellfish are living. Digging at such sites should be prevented, either to work for a profit or to make deeper waterways for massive container ships.
1. What does the underlined word “pinpointed” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?| A．Occupied. | B．Adjusted. | C．Rebuilt. | D．Discovered. |
| A．It has an echo sounder placed on the seabed. |
| B．It makes use of a number of different devices. |
| C．It produces two-dimensional images of the sea floor. |
| D．It bases its calculations on the location of construction sites. |
| A．attract investment in the research under the sea |
| B．inspire people to take an interest in modern technology |
| C．adapt the attitudes of the British to their country’s history |
| D．receive confirmation of rebuilding ancient man-made objects |
| A．identify new species of plants and animals |
| B．provide the precise location of sunken ships |
| C．evaluate the cost of seeking certain resources |
| D．promote the development of deeper waterways |
【推荐3】Forget smartphones and smart glasses. One day, we might have smart tattoos (纹身). The company NewDealDesign came up with an idea for a product called UnderSkin. The device would look like a pair of tattoos on your palm and the side of your thumb, but it would actually be a very thin computer implanted just below your skin. It would draw power from your body’s energy, and you could use it to unlock doors, monitor your health, exchange and store information, or even express your personality. UnderSkin is just an idea—you can’t go out and get one—but the technology exists to make it work.
Writer and technology entrepreneur Amal Graffstra already has a chip called a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag implanted in his hand. “I use it to log into my computer. I also use it to share contact details with people,” he says. The chip is about the size of a grain of rice and responds to radio signals with a unique identification number.
If a computerized tattoo or embedded (植入的) tag isn’t crazy enough for you, what about a brain chip? The company Intel is working on technology that would let you control your devices with your mind. The researchers explain, “We’re trying to prove you can do interesting things with brain waves… Imagine being able to surf the Web with the power of your thoughts.”
Do you think embedded chips sound frightening or cool? Some doctors are concerned about people hurting themselves while getting devices implanted. They argue that medical procedures are meant to treat sick people, and not to give healthy people special powers. Others worry about hacking and privacy. Could someone hack in and steal your identity, or even control your mind? On a more philosophical level, if you have a computer inside your body, are you still human? Or are you a cyborg?
1. What can be inferred about UnderSkin?| A．It is thumb-sized. | B．It is only a fantasy. |
| C．It is body-powered. | D．It is good for health. |
| A．To show how crazy new technology might be. |
| B．To introduce a new smart device — the embedded tags. |
| C．To prove there’s technology to make UnderSkin a reality. |
| D．To tell the difference between UnderSkin and RFID tags. |
| A．The concerns they raise. | B．The applications of them. |
| C．The special powers they have. | D．The pros and cons of them. |
| A．A descriptive essay. | B．A comparative essay. |
| C．A two-sided argumentative essay. | D．An expository essay. |
