The poaching, or illegal killing, of rhinos (犀牛) in South Africa is growing worse each year. The government recently reported that a record number of rhinos were poached in 2014, a year which had more rhino killings in South Africa than ever before.
The World Wildlife Fund, or WWF, says about 20,000 rhinos live in South Africa. That is more than 80 percent of the rhinos in the world. Edna Molewa, South African’s environmental issues minister, says, “During 2014, we are sad to say this, 1,215 rhinos were killed. This is a rise in the number of poached rhinos from 1004 in 2013 and indeed very worrying.”
The animals are hunted for their horns(犀牛角). Many people in Asia believe the horn has curing power, which drives poachers, at all costs, mad for more horns to make huge profits. But there is no scientific evidence for this belief. The horn is made of keratin. That is the same thing as human hair, fingernails and toenails. Ms. Molewa said 386 suspected poachers were arrested last year, an increase from the year before. But rhino protection workers say poachers often go unpunished after arrest. South Africa’s legal system is ineffective.
Ms. Molewa said more needs to be done and South Africa is taking strong measures to protect rhinos. The efforts include moving some of the animals to secret places in neighbouring countries.
Jo Shaw, the rhino programme manager at the WWF, said, “We’re talking about a loss of a hundred rhinos a month, or more than three a day. We really need to see effective action not just at a national level but internationally.” She says officials should find the criminal groups responsible for the poaching and punish them. Government officials are to meet in Botswana in March at the Intergovernmental Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade.
1. What do we know about rhinos?| A．Half of the rhinos live in South Africa. |
| B．Less than 1,000 rhinos were killed in 2013. |
| C．There are only 20,000 rhinos left in the world. |
| D．The killing reached the highest point in 2014. |
| A．To get more keratin. | B．To make money from horns. |
| C．To protect the farmland. | D．To use them for decoration. |
| A．many criminal groups are well organized |
| B．new laws are needed to punish the killers |
| C．rhino protection needs international cooperation |
| D．conferences about protecting rhinos are to be held every year |
| A．Rhino protection has a long way to go. |
| B．No one would like to buy horns in the future. |
| C．The illegal killing of rhinos will soon disappear. |
| D．Rhinos living in South Africa will move to other countries. |
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【推荐1】A butterfly’s wings can have many jobs besides keeping the insect high up in the air. They may be used to attract mates, or to warn potential attackers to stay away. All of these roles, though, depend on their unchanging colouration. This plays into the idea that butterfly wings are dead tissue, like a bird’s feathers. In fact, that’s not true. For example, in some species males’ wings have special cells releasing some chemicals which attract females.
Nanfang Yu, a physicist at Columbia University, in New York, has been looking into the matter. Together with Naomi Pierce, a butterfly specialist at Harvard University, he has now shown, in a paper published in Nature Communications in February, 2020, that butterfly wings are, indeed, very much alive.
In their experiments, the two researchers used a laser light to heat up spots on the Wings of dozens of butterfly species. When the temperature of the area under the laser reached 40°C or so, the insects responded within seconds by doing things that stopped their wings heating up further. These actions included a butterfly turning around to minimize the area to the laser, moving its wings up and down or simply walking away.
Butterflies engaged in all of these heat-minimising activities even when the researchers blindfolded them. That suggested the relevant sensors were on the wings themselves. Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce therefore searched those wings for likely looking sensory cells. They found some, in the form of neurons (神经元) that were similar to heat detectors known from other insects. They also uncovered disc-shaped cells that appeared to be similar to pressure-sensitive neurons. They guess that these are there to detect deformation of the wing information an insect could use to control its flight pattern.
The third discovery they made to go against the “dead wing” idea was that some butterfly wings have a heartbeat. A butterfly’ s wings have veins (静脉). These carry a bloodlike liquid which, researchers have now found in males, shows a pulse (脉搏) of several dozen beats per minute. The source of this pulse appears to be the scent (气味) pad, a dark spot on the wings that produces the female-attracting chemicals. Apparently, this “wing heart” acts as a pump that helps bloodlike liquid through the scent pad.
In all their experiments simulating different environmental conditions, Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce consistently found that, different parts of the wing are covered by different sorts of scales. In particular, tubes pass through scales over the scent pads. This improves their ability to spread heat away and helps keep the living parts of a butterfly’s wings alive.
1. What can we learn from Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce’s experiments?| A．Butterfly wings have little reaction to external heat. |
| B．Butterfly wings are complicated living organs. |
| C．The scent pads on some male butterfly wings are their hearts. |
| D．Heat-minimising activities help detect deformation of the wings. |
| A．Attracting mates. | B．Increasing blood flow. |
| C．Covering powerful tubes. | D．Producing the cooling effect. |
| A．Seeing Is Believing | B．Nothing Seek, Nothing Find |
| C．More Than Meets The Eye | D．Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds |
【推荐2】On the weekend, you are in a crowded bar, trying to talk to a friend. The background noise forces up the volume of your own conversation, making you speak in louder, shorter bursts to be understood. “Do you want another beer?” “What?” “More beer?” “What?” “Beer?” “Yes.”
If it’s annoying to talk like that for a few hours on the weekend, imagine what it would be like to do it almost every day. That’s the situation that birds living near roads find themselves in.
In a study, biologist recorded bird songs in Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC. They found that birds especial the Eastern Wood-Pewee changed the way they sang when traffic rushed along on nearby roads.
When trying to sing as a track of traffic noise played in the background, the birds sang in shorter bursts, with less variation in frequencies, and a smaller bandwidth (带宽), attempting to make their voices heard over the noise. Unfortunately while they might be more easily heard over the traffic noise, other birds don’t seem to pay as much attention to the changed song whether it’s a mating call or a male defending its land.
But it’s not a permanent change. Just like you don’t yell at bar volumes over a Sunday dinner with your family, birds don’t keep to those volume and tone changes when the traffic noise disappears.
Rock Creek Park offers an interesting setting to the researchers studying this effect. The park closes down a main street, Beech Drive, on weekends from 7 am Saturday to 7 pm Sunday and only allows bikers and joggers to take over, giving the birds a break in the process.
During those times, the birds return to their song, which the authors said might provide a way forward for conservationists looking to preserve a bird population’s habitat.
While shutting down roads permanently would be impossible, the authors suggest that even short, temporary shutdowns should help songbirds find their voice again.
1. Why does the author describe the bar?| A．To recommend it to people. |
| B．To introduce the culture of beer. |
| C．To prove its popularity with drinkers. |
| D．To show the influence of noise on birds. |
| A．They sing for a longer time. |
| B．They give a higher or lower call. |
| C．They keep the frequency almost the same. |
| D．They enlarge their bandwidth of singing. |
| A．They are often ignored by other birds. |
| B．They are mistaken for seeking a mate. |
| C．They are frightening away the enemies. |
| D．They are showing anger at human noise. |
| A．To find the way of shutting down road permanently. |
| B．To study the birds’ volume and tone changes. |
| C．To keep birds away from the dangerous area. |
| D．To provide people with a safe place |
【推荐3】The first apes evolved 20 million years ago in the forests where they would go up a tree to get their food, and then come back down to move on to the next tree. Getting out of a tree presents all kinds of new challenges. Big apes can’t afford to fall because it could kill or badly injure them. Natural selection would have favoured those with body structures that allowed them to descend (下来) safely.
Dartmouth researchers report in the journal Royal Society Open Science that apes probably evolved free-moving shoulders and flexible elbows to slow their descent from trees as gravity pulled on their heavier bodies. These flexible body parts passed on from ancestral apes would have allowed early humans to climb trees at night for safety and comedown in the daylight unhurt. When early humans transitioned from forests to open savannas (热带稀树草原), flexible shoulders and elbows were crucial for gathering food and using tools for hunting and defense.
The researchers used sports analysis and statistical software to study how primates (灵长目动物) like chimpanzees and small monkeys called mangabeys climbed in the wild. They found that chimps and mangabeys scaled (攀爬) trees similarly, with shoulders and elbows mostly bent close to the body. When descending, however, chimpanzees extended their arms above their heads to hold on to branches, much like a person using a ladder, to counteract (抵消) their heavier weight pulling them downward.
Luke Fannin, the lead author of the study, emphasized that their findings highlight the importance of “down climbing” in the evolution of apes and early humans. He explained, “Our research introduces the idea that down climbing played a significant role in shaping the structural differences between monkeys and apes, which eventually showed in humans.”
“Our field has thought about apes climbing up trees for a long time but we’ve been ignoring the second half of this behaviour,” said Professor Jeremy DeSilva. The findings are among the first to identify the significance of “down climbing” in the evolution of apes and early humans.
1. Why should big apes protect themselves from falling off a tree according to the text?| A．To avoid being hurt or killed. |
| B．To avoid being hunted by humans. |
| C．To avoid being caught by other animals. |
| D．To avoid being laughed by other apes. |
| A．A ladder. |
| B．Sports software. |
| C．Statistical analysis. |
| D．Sports analysis and statistical software. |
| A．Apes became humans because of down climbing. |
| B．The second half of climbing up trees haven’t been ignored before. |
| C．Down climbing was essential in developing the differences between monkeys and apes. |
| D．Scientists has thought about apes climbing up trees for a short time. |
| A．Monkeys and Chimpanzees: Studies in Nature |
| B．Mangabeys and Mankind: A Common Study of Climbing |
| C．Apes’ Climbing Methods: How to Descend Safely |
| D．Shoulders and Elbows: Evolved as Brakes (刹车) for Down Climbing Apes |
Phrases like “tiger mom” and ‘‘helicopter parent” have made their way into everyday language．Many of us find ourselves drawn to the idea that with just a bit more parental hard work and effort, we might turn out children with bright futures．But is there anything wrong with a kind of “overparenting style”?
Parental involvement has a long history of being studied．Many of the studies, conducted by Diana Baumrind, a famous psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that a good parent is the one who is involved and reacts to her child in a positive way, who sets high expectations but gives her child independence．These “authoritative parents” appear to hit the sweet spot of parental involvement and generally raise children who do better academically, psychologically and socially than children whose parents are not strict and less involved, or controlling and more involved．Why is this parenting style so successful?
Authoritative parents actually help improve motivation in their children．Carol Dweck, a social psychologist at Stanford University, has done research that indicates why authoritative parents raise more motivated children．In a typical experiment, Dr．Dweck takes young children into a room and asks them to solve a simple puzzle．Most do so with little difficulty．But then Dr．Dweck tells some, but not all, of the kids how clever they are．As it turns out, the children who are not told they’re smart are more motivated to solve increasingly difficult puzzles．They also show higher levels of confidence and show greater progress in puzzle-solving．
As the experiment suggests, praising children’s talents and abilities seems to shake their confidence．Dealing with more difficult puzzles carries the risk of losing one’s status as “smart”．Dr．Dweck’s work strongly supports that of Dr．Baumrind, who also found that reasonably supporting a child’s independence and limiting interference (干涉) causes better academic and emotional results．
The central task of growing up is to develop a sense of self that is independent and confident．If you treat your young child who is just learning to walk as if she can’t walk, you reduce her confidence．Allowing children to make mistakes is one of the greatest challenges of parenting．It is easier when they are young．The potential mistakes carry greater risks, and part of being a parent is reducing risk for our children．
1. According to the passage, a “tiger mom” ______．
| A．helps her children realize their dreams |
| B．speaks her children’s everyday language |
| C．places reasonable expectations on her children |
| D．pays close attention to her children’s experiences |
| A．face more challenges of children |
| B．foster independence in children |
| C．cause more problems in children |
| D．lead to children’s academic success |
| A．a good game plays a big role in training young minds |
| B．overpraising makes children less motivated and confident |
| C．puzzle-solving can give children the motivation they need |
| D．bright children usually show less confidence in difficult games |
| A．children should not be given much freedom |
| B．parents should not increase the risk of challenging |
| C．parents should allow their children to learn from mistakes |
| D．children should correct mistakes with the help of their parents |
【推荐2】Nalini Nadkarni didn't play with Barbies as a girl. She was busy climbing the trees with unlimited energy in her yard in Maryland.
The forest ecologist might seem an unlikely person to help design and promote Barbies. But she's been inspiring girls worldwide to play with dolls having magnifying glasses (放大镜) and boots. It's through new explorer Barbie dolls designed with her input by Mattel and National Geographic. The dolls, including a conservationist, a biologist and a nature photojournalist, are long overdue, said Nadkarni, a biology professor. "As a child, I created my own fun by tree climbing. I could picture the treetop as a place of rescue, or as a hospital for wounded birds. It was my world, and I could be anything in it," she said.
In 2003, she thought of ways to further fire girls with love for science. “I asked myself, ‘What do girls care about when little?’ ” Nadkarni said. She looked to her young daughter. "I knew girls wanted to play with and look like Barbies. But what if Barbies had field clothes on and came with a little book about plants?"
She contacted Barbie-maker Mattel and was told that a "treetop Barbie" wouldn't sell, but she insisted. She finally created her own treetop dolls. Mattel agreed she could produce the dolls on a small scale (规模), and Nadkarni sold about 400. Last year, Nadkarni was thrilled to learn National Geographic worked with Mattel to come up with a line of adventure dolls, and that they wanted her to serve on their advisory committee.
Since sales began, Nadkarni has heard from girls coast to coast, thanking her and asking questions about how they can make a difference to help trees, "I love climbing trees and learning all I can about them. But getting children excited about protecting forests is one of the most important things I have done, " Nadkarni said.
1. Which words can describe Nadkarni as a child?| A．Clever and considerate. | B．Adventurous and lonely |
| C．Active and imaginative. | D．Enthusiastic and outgoing. |
| A．To show her love for forests. | B．To update the images of Barbies. |
| C．To inspire people to protect nature. | D．To get girls more interested in science. |
| A．Surprised. | B．Uninterested. |
| C．Dissatisfied. | D．Favorable. |
| A．A biology professor sells her own Barbies |
| B．Explorer Barbies have become a new fashion |
| C．Nadkarni has turned to making the treetop Barbies |
| D．A forest ecologist helps create explorer Barbies |
【推荐3】Crosstalk, a traditional form of comic storytelling, is making a comeback in China's tea houses and theaters.
Audiences can laugh the night away every Saturday at the Qianxiangyi Teahouse in Tianjin, entertained by the students of Hou Baolin, Ma Sanli or Yin Shoushan—all leading crosstalk artists of years past-for only 20 yuan. The success in Tianjin has also caused the comeback of crosstalk in Beijing and other places.
Although the art form began in Beijing in the Qing Dynasty (1644﹣1911), Tianjin became a place where rising stars formed their styles and new pieces were tried out. The city was well﹣known nationwide for the quality of its crosstalk performances.
Known in Chinese as xiangsheng (literally, “face and voice”), crosstalk was the chief form of comedy throughout most of the 20th century. In the old days in Tianjin and elsewhere, temple fairs and markets were the main places for crosstalkers to perform, although they occasionally also appeared in teahouses or theaters.
The Crosstalk piecesdraw onevery aspect of Chinese culture, from history and folk tales to social issues of the time. Although there're hundreds of traditional pieces, they're constantly rewritten to suit the times and the audience, while new works are written as well. It's one of the characters that have made crosstalk a public art form throughout its history.
“Crosstalk was in the doldrums (萎靡不振) with competition from other art forms, especially TV,” said Wang Xiaochun, headmaster of the Northern Storytelling Arts School of China (NSAS). “But it has regained its popularity with crosstalk fans, especially young people, realizing its rare qualities.”
“More and more students are coming to NSAS to study crosstalk, including some girl students,” said Wang. “They're sure that crosstalk will have a strong market.”
1. What does the underline phrase "draw on" mean in paragraph 6?| A．keep away from | B．make use of | C．think little of | D．turn their back to |
| A．Crosstalk first arose in Tianjin. |
| B．Crosstalk was mainly performed at teahouses in the past. |
| C．Crosstalk was the most popular art form in the 20th century. |
| D．Crosstalk didn't appear until the Qing Dynasty. |
| A．it is a popular traditional art after all |
| B．the pieces contain some famous folk tales |
| C．the crosstalkers make it return to teahouses |
| D．the pieces are made to suit the times and the audience |
| A．setting up more storytelling art schools | B．beating TV and other arts |
| C．young people's understanding of its value | D．a strong market |
