Bees are important to agriculture. But useful as they are, bees do not receive the same care and concern over their emotional well-being as other agricultural animals.
Ecologist Buchmann’s recent book, which collects the work of bee scholars as they work to explain what goes on in their brains, suggests bees can learn, think and even likely feel, much like animals. Buchmann’s work also suggests bees should hold a special place in our ethical scheme (道德体系). For Buchmann and some other scientists, what they have learned about bees changes their research strategies to be more ethical, on par with (相当于) the standards set for animals such as mice and monkeys.
Experiments, the outcomes of which are addressed in the book, illustrate the secret life of bees. Lars Chittka, a University College of London professor, did an experiment 16 years ago where he hid a robotic spider in flowers. The spider would grab a careless bee that came too close and then release it after giving it a scare. Chittka observed how the released bees learned to look for the spider and to avoid it. Some would be too scared to approach even unoccupied flowers.
Other studies proved that bee brains saw rushes in chemicals that could bring happiness when they were presented with sucrose (sugar). These happy bees then found more food than their unrewarded bees. By contrast, stress from poor handling lowered the levels of these happy chemicals.
“Many of my colleagues do experiments where bees have some devices placed into various body parts without considering their feelings,” Chittka says. “The current care free situation that researchers live in with no legal framework needs to be re-evaluated.” There are few laws regarding bee welfare. Buchmann thinks the “unhappiness” of bees might be a contributing factor to the decreasing numbers of bees.
Bees are critical to feeding the world and to plant survival. But the bees need care too. The first step in safeguarding the precious bees is to learn more about them and their lives. “These unique minds, regardless of how much they may differ from ours, have as much justification to exist as we do,” says Chittka.
1. What can we learn about Buchmann’s new book?| A．It focuses on the ethical scheme. | B．It records some research on bees. |
| C．It teaches people how to protect bees. | D．It introduces some famous scientists. |
| A．Once bitten, twice shy. | B．Practice makes perfect. |
| C．Never offer to teach fish to swim. | D．Kill two birds with one stone. |
| A．Bees are well-received. | B．Bees are precious. |
| C．Bees can have emotions. | D．Bees can handle stress well. |
| A．New devices should be placed in bees. |
| B．People shouldn’t experiment with bees in the lab. |
| C．New rules should be made for the benefit of bees. |
| D．The function of bees should be re-evaluated. |
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【推荐1】A researcher with the Australian Antarctic Division left a camera near a large group of emperor penguins. Then two of the birds walked over to check the camera out. The camera was rolling when the penguins started to look into its lens (镜头), resulting in a very cute penguin "selfie (自拍)". That's according to Amy B. Wang of the Washington Post.
Explorer Eddie Gault placed the camera near the Auster Rookery during his visit to Australia's Mawson research station. The Australian Antarctic Division posted a short video from the camera—happy penguins on its social media pages. They wrote that it offered a "bird's eye view of life in Antarctica"!
At the start of the video, we can only see the feet of a penguin. It appears to kick the camera over so its lens faces the sky. As the penguin looks into the camera, another comes into view. The buddies come towards the lens and cock their heads. Then they straighten up and shake their heads. It is as though they have decided that this strange object is not worth their time.
Penguins are "naturally curious" animals, the Australian Antarctic Division writes on its Facebook page.
Other animals have also been known to get involved in the art of the selfie. An eagle in Western Australia once picked up a camera that was supposed to be recording fresh-water crocodiles. It filmed itself flying and touching at the lens.
Then there is a monkey that accidentally started a year-long lawsuit (诉讼) when it took a funny photo of itself with a camera owned by David Slater. He is a British wildlife photographer. Slater published the image of the monkey in a book, which caused People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to take him to court for breaking the copyright of the so-called "selfie monkey".
Slater said himself that the monkey had pressed the shutter on his camera, which proved to be the heart of the case against him.
As for the Antarctic penguins, the camera was already rolling when they decided to "strike a pose", so the Australian Antarctic Division should be able to avoid a possible lawsuit. But if you happen to be in the Antarctic and see two penguins taking top-down Instagram shots of their latest meal, you know who is responsible.
1. The underlined word "rolling" in Paragraph 1 probably means _____.| A．flashing | B．moving | C．recording | D．turning |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．he used the monkey's selfie in a book |
| B．the monkey pressed the button on his camera |
| C．the monkey took a photo of him with his camera |
| D．he published a photo of the monkey on the Internet |
| A．In a law book. | B．In a research report. |
| C．In a photographer's diary. | D．In a wildlife magazine. |
【推荐2】The amount of plastic pollution in the oceans is rapidly increasing. This is problematic, as at least 700 kinds of ocean animals — including sharks, whales, seabirds and turtles — can become caught in the stuff or mistake it for a tasty snack.
While we know that some ocean animals seem to cat plastic because it looks like jellyfish or some other food sources, less research has been carried out into what plastic smells like to ocean animals. But now, a study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found the coating that naturally builds up on ocean plastics causes the rubbish to give off the smell of food.
The researchers took 15 turtles, each around five months old, and placed them in a lab aquarium. They then piped in smells of clean water, clean plastic, turtle food, and plastic that had been soaking in the ocean environment for five weeks. The turtles showed no reaction to the smells of clean water or clean plastic. But when facing ocean soaked plastic or turtle food, they stuck their noses out of the water and showed increased activity.
“This finding is important because it’s the first proof that the smell of ocean plastics causes animals to eat them,” said Dr. Kenneth J Lohmann, who took part in the study.“It’s common to find a turtle with its stomach full of plastic materials. There are also increasing reports of sea turtles that have become ill and stuck on the beach due to their taking in plastic.”
According to the researchers, areas of the ocean with much plastic may trick turtles and other animals into thinking that there are plenty of food sources, when the opposite is true. “Once these plastics are in the ocean, we don’t have a good way to remove them or prevent them from smelling like food,” said Lohmann. “The best thing we can do is to keep plastic from getting into the ocean at all.”
1. What is the function of the first paragraph?| A．To show the findings of the research to the readers. |
| B．To inform the readers of the main idea of the passage. |
| C．To explain the reason for the increase of ocean pollution. |
| D．To provide some background information of the research. |
| A．Sea water. | B．Clean water. | C．Clean plastic. | D．Ocean-soaked plastic. |
| A．Turtles seem to eat plastic because it looks like food. |
| B．Turtles have become ill due to their taking in plastic. |
| C．Turtles eat plastic because it gives off the smell of food. |
| D．Turtles with their stomachs full of plastic were studied. |
| A．Keep away from the polluted ocean. | B．Stop people feeding turtles plastic. |
| C．Remove plastic from the ocean. | D．Maintain a plastic-free ocean. |
【推荐3】Being able to tell human faces apart is a skill that almost every person has, although some are far better at it than others. But a new study from the journal Scientific Reports says that this is not just a skill that humans possess. Even fish can do it.
Following up on research studying different species’ abilities to recognize human faces (sheep, dogs, cows, horses, and birds have all been tried), the researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Queensland decided to pick an animal that does not have an evolved neocortex (大脑新皮层), the part of the brain that processes sight and sounds, and does not have a close relationship with humans. That way, there would be no reason why these test subjects would have a past history of identifying human faces. So they picked the archerfish, a reef fish variety that shoots water into the air to knock its prey(猎物) out of the sky. They used this adaptation to have the fish spray water at a face on a monitor hanging over their tanks for a reward. Most of the fish were able to pick out their learned face, even when colours were taken away or methods were used to make the face shapes unclear.
This study gives more backing to the hypothesis (假设) that differentiating between faces is not just a skill that big-brained organisms are born with. It is possible that a good portion of recognizing faces is learned over time. The development of the neocortex may contribute only to quickly process a large number of faces in varying situations. But more work needs to be conducted to find a deeper link to this possible learned behaviour. The subject(实验对象) of this study was very small—only eight fish were used altogether. Also, the faces displayed on the monitor were only white, female faces from a German database, shown in a frontal view, with no expressions. Other animal trials have shown that some species, like pigeons, respond more to differing angles and varied expressions.
1. What is the purpose of this passage?| A．To introduce a scientific discovery. |
| B．To present the differences between species. |
| C．To show how animals tell human faces apart. |
| D．To introduce the animals that can recognize human faces. |
| A．They are cleverer than other species. |
| B．They have sharp vision and hearing. |
| C．They aren’t closely related to humans. |
| D．They spray water to hit the prey. |
| A．Cautious. | B．Negative. | C．Positive | D．Sympathetic. |
| A．Including more experimental subjects. | B．Enlarging the human faces. |
| C．Employing more male researchers. | D．Using black-and-white pictures. |
【推荐1】The amount of adult speech children is exposed to in their early years may help to shape the structure of their brains, researchers say.
Studies have previously suggested there are benefits to talking to young children, with research suggesting it can help improve their language processing and boost their vocabularies.
Now researchers say they have found a relationship between the amount of adult speech children are exposed to and the concentration of a substance in the brain — known as myelin (健磷脂) — that surrounds nerves and makes signals more efficient.
“I think the take-home message is, absolutely talk to your kids. And it matters.” said the lead author, Prof John Spencer of the University of East Anglia. “What’s pretty striking here is that it’s literally shaping the structure of the brain.”
Writing in The Journal of Neuroscience, Spencer and colleagues describe how they used a device fitted inside a vest to record the amount of speech 87 children aged about six months and76 aged about 30 months were exposed to at home. The team recorded 6.203 hours of language data, finding that children with more highly educated mothers were exposed to greater amounts of adult speech, and themselves produced more vocalizations (发声).
The team then invited 84 of the children into hospital, where they fell asleep in a special quiet room. Once the kids were asleep, they were transported into the MRI scanning room. The team then used the MRI scans to measure the amount of myelin in the children’s brains. As the brain develops, myelin increases. However, the team found, for the 30-month-olds.larger amounts of adult speech were associated with higher quantiles of myelin in lang----related pathways in the brain. By contrast, for six-month-olds, greater amounts of adult speech were associated with lower concentrations of myelin. While the Lurter was unexpected. Spencer said one possible explanation is that the impact of speech depends upon the brains stage of development.
Spencer said more research was now needed adding it was not yet clear how strongly the team’s results were linked to outcomes in children.
1. What did previous studies suggest about talking to young children?| A．It can help develop their social skills. | B．It can help increase their vocabularies. |
| C．It can help enhance their academic performances. | D．It can help improve their physical abilities. |
| A．It is of vital importance to talk to your kids. |
| B．MRI scans are painless and safe to children. |
| C．The volume of speech that kids hear has minimal impact. |
| D．Highly educated mothers are more likely to talk to their children. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Confident. | C．Cautious | D．Doubtfully |
| A．The Impact of Speech on Children Depends upon Their Age |
| B．Hearing Adult Speech May Help Shape Babies’ Brain Structure |
| C．The Earlier Children Learn Language, the Smarter They Barbs |
| D．The More Adult Speech Children Receive, the Faster Brains Depends? |
【推荐2】After years of sales growth, major publishers reported a fall in their e-book sales for the first time this year, introducing new doubts about the potential of e-books in the publishing industry. Yet despite the increasing realization that digital and print can easily coexist in the market, the question of whether the e-book will “kill” the print book continues to surface. It doesn’t matter if the intention is to predict or dismiss this possibility; the potential disappearance of the book does not stop to inspire our imagination.
After television was invented, many claimed radio would die. But radio ended up surviving by finding new uses; people started listening in cars, during tram rides and on factory floors. The myth of the disappearing book isn’t new, either. As early as 1894, there was guess that they’d be replaced by what we today call audiobooks. This happened again and again. Movies, radio, television, and smartphones—all conspired to destroy print books as a source of culture and entertainment. It is not by chance that the idea of the death of the book surfaces in moments of technological change.
We create emotional bonds with media as they become an integral part of our life. The emergence of a new technology —like e-readers — doesn’t just in indicate economic and social change. It also causes us to adjust our relationship with something that has become an integral part of our day-to-day life.
The ones who still worry for the disappearance of print books may rest assured: Books have endured many technical revolutions and are in the best position to survive this one. Yet the myth of the disappearing medium will continue to provide an appealing narrative about both the power of technology and our dislike to change. Easy to remember and to spread, the story of the death of media reflects our excitement for the future, as well as our fear of losing parts of our intimate world一and finally, of ourselves.
1. What do people tend to believe according to the text?| A．Print books will disappear in the end. |
| B．It is unwise to invest in e-books. |
| C．Digital and print will exist all the time. |
| D．The death of books is just an imagination. |
| A．The forms of books change with new technology. |
| B．Books have a bright digital future actually. |
| C．Culture will disappear with the end of books. |
| D．The idea of book death follows technological changes. |
| A．Our doubt about the power of technology. |
| B．Our fear of losing ourselves in society. |
| C．Our preference for new technology. |
| D．Our pleasure of experiencing technical revolutions. |
【推荐3】Psychologists tell us that there are four basic stages that human beings pass through when they enter and live in a new culture.
Culture begins with the “honeymoon stage”. This is the period of time when we first arrive in a country where everything about the new culture is strange and exciting. We may be suffering from “jet lag” but we are thrilled to be in the new environment, seeing new sights, hearing new sounds and language, eating new kinds of food.
Unfortunately, after we have settled down into our new life, we can become very tired and begin to miss our homeland and our family, friends, pets. All the little problems in life seem to be much bigger and more disturbing when you face them in a foreign culture.
The third stage comes when you begin to realize that things are not so bad in the host culture. Your sense of humor usually becomes stronger and you realize that you are becoming stronger by learning to take care of yourself in the new place. Things are still difficult, but you are now a survivor.
The fourth stage can be called “at ease at last”. Now you feel quite comfortable in your new surroundings. You can cope with most problems that occur. You may still have problems with the language, but you know you are strong enough to deal with them.
There is a fifth stage of culture shock which many people don’t know about. This is called “reverse culture shock”. Surprisingly, this occurs when you go back to your native culture and find that you have changed and that things there have changed while you have been away. Now you feel a little uncomfortable back home. Life is a struggle!
1. How do you feel during the first stage of culture shock?| A．Happy and excited. | B．Bored and homesick. |
| C．Lonely and depressed. | D．Angry and frustrated. |
| A．Adjustment. | B．Rejection. | C．Enthusiasm. | D．Embarrassment. |
| A．It hardly ever happens. | B．It is extremely stressful. |
| C．It is out of expectation. | D．It only happens to young people. |
【推荐1】Florida wildlife officials say manatees (海牛) facing starvation are benefitting from a program that feeds them on tons of donated lettuce (生菜). The program aims to save as many of the large animals as possible as water pollution has led to shortages of their favorite food, seagrass.
The effort has provided the manatees with more than 25 tons of lettuce. The feedings usually draw about 300 to 350 manatees per day. Sometimes, there are as many as 800 manatees. Normally, wildlife experts advise against people feeding wild animals. This is because it can lead the animals to make an unhealthy connection between humans and food. It is a crime in Florida for a person to feed manatees on their own, even though officials say many people want to do so. Experts believe the best way people can help is to donate money through an official institution (机构).
In 2021, 1101 manatee deaths were reported, largely from starvation. The normal five-year average is about 625 deaths. State wildlife officials say that so far this year, 164 manatee deaths have been recorded. Tom Reinert, the local director of state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said the feeding program has helped to reduce the rising death rates. Officials estimate there are about 8,800 manatees in Florida waters. That is a big improvement from about 2,000 that existed in the 1990s. The increased numbers were responsible for manatees being removed from the endangered species list.
The most important element for supporting the remaining population will be restoring seagrass beds. So far, Florida has set aside $8 million to deal with that problem. “You can’t just go out and plant a bunch of seagrass,” Reinert said. But he added, “Projects are getting started and are in the planning stages.”
1. What is the program intended to do?| A．To reduce food waste. | B．To study manatees’ eating habits. |
| C．To rescue large animals from starvation. | D．To solve the problem of water pollution. |
| A．Feed healthy food to them. | B．Set up special rescue groups. |
| C．Pay more visits to wildlife reserves. | D．Offer financial aid to official organizations. |
| A．Impractical. | B．Significant. |
| C．Complicated. | D．Time-consuming. |
| A．Manatee Saving Program | B．Ocean Protecting Program |
| C．Manatee Feeding Program | D．Seagrass Beds Restoring Program |
【推荐2】Three years after “eating” a star, a black hole has been seen “vomiting (呕吐)”.
According to a paper published in October in the Astrophysical Journal, scientists from Harvard University claimed that in 2018, a small star was torn to dust and swallowed by a black hole named AT2018hyz in a galaxy (星系) 665 million light-years away from Earth.
Then, the same black hole becomes active again. However, it hasn’t swallowed anything new; it has been seen ejecting (喷射) material at half the speed of light.
“This caught us completely by surprise — no one has ever seen anything like this before,” said Yvette Cendes, astronomer and the leading author of the new study, in a press release in the US.
Black holes use their gravitational pull (引力) to draw matter into a small space with a force so strong that not even light can escape. They are usually formed by the collapsing pieces of large dying stars and can consume anything that comes too close.
When a black hole swallows a star, some pieces may be thrown back into space – astronomers tend to call black holes messy eaters, according to the US Center for Astrophysics. The whole event is called a tidal disruption event (TDE).
However, a TDE usually happens immediately after the swallow, not three years later as was the case with black hole AT2018hyz. Cendes posted on social media that the event was like “burping” after a meal.
The team made assumptions about the possible reasons behind the event. According to their paper, scientists first turned to the density theory. If the density is very high around the black hole, the matter might be drawn out, causing an ejection. Another thought was that the other TDEs were in directions that could not be observed from Earth. However, scientists have yet to determine the true reason.
“The next step is to explore whether this actually happens more regularly and we have simply not been looking at TDEs late enough in their evolution,” Edo Berger, co-author of the study, told the Harvard Gazette.
1. What does the underlined word “this” in paragraph 4 refer to?| A．A black hole ejected something new. | B．A black hole swallowed a faraway star. |
| C．A black hole vomited years after eating. | D．A dead black hole became active again. |
| A．They are unable to consume light. | B．They take up a large amount of space. |
| C．They are a mix of countless dying stars. | D．They result from the collapse of large stars. |
| A．Supporting evidence for the research result. | B．Potential applications of the scientific finding. |
| C．Reasonable doubts about the research process. | D．Possible explanations of the scientific discovery. |
| A．Their origins. | B．Their effects. |
| C．Their frequency. | D．Their development. |
【推荐3】As the COVID-19 continues to spread, officials in China are urging citizens to wear masks in public to stop the spread of the coronavirus (冠状病毒)——and cities in China as well as other parts of Asia are reportedly running out of face masks.
But can a mask really keep you from catching the virus? To answer that, it helps to clarify which kinds of masks we’re talking about. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is suggesting that health care workers treat it like an airborne germ that can travel in particles(微粒) or droplets in the air. That means health care workers interacting with a coronavirus patient should wear a heavy-duty mask called an N95 respirator(口罩). These respirators are designed to fit tightly around the nose and mouth, and, when worn correctly, they block out at least 95% of small airborne particles, according to the CDC.
But wearing an N95 respirator is a serious business, says Dr.William Schaffner of the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Health care workers who use these respirators are required by law to experience an annual fit test—a check to make sure the mask forms a tight seal on the wearer’s face so that contaminated air can’t leak in. Although the N95 respirator is disposable, workers must also show that they know how to put on and wear the model that they are using.
While N95 respirators are available for the public to buy, there’s no official suggestion from health agencies for the general public to wear them.
By contrast, surgical masks—those cheap, disposable, gauzy masks that often come in blue or green—are less uncomfortable. But Schaffner says the scientific evidence that “there might be a great benefit for people in the community wearing surgical face masks’’ is very, very meager. The general sense is perhaps, but they’re certainly not an absolute protection. In other words, they do provide some benefit but they’re far from foolproof.
1. What’s the author’s attitude toward the general public wearing N95 respirators?| A．Cautious. | B．Favourable. | C．Casual. | D．Admiring． |
| A．Totally strong. | B．Very necessary. |
| C．Not enough. | D．Be of importance. |
| A．Why are some stores running out of face masks? |
| B．Can a mask really keep you from catching the coronavirus? |
| C．How to prevent the coronavirus from spreading? |
| D．Could surgical masks replace N95 respirators? |
