Bird populations in the UK continue to crash, new data shows, as campaigners predict the government will fail to meet its own nature targets unless radical (彻底的) changes are made. In 2021, on average the abundance of 130 breeding species was 12% below its 1970 value. Between 2015 and 2020, 24% of species increased, 28% showed little change and 48% declined. Wildlife experts agree that the decline in bird populations is largely driven by habitat loss.
The government passed the Environment Act into law in 2021, which requires a halt in species decline by 2030. Campaigners have said that radical changes to government policy are needed if it is to meet its targets. The problems were highlighted by the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch this year, in which house sparrows remained the most frequently observed species in gardens for the 20th year in a row.
“The numbers speak for themselves when it comes to the astonishing declines of some of our once common birds,” said Beccy Speight, the RSPB’s chief executive. “We are in a nature and climate emergency and we’ve lost 38 million birds from our skies in the past 50 years. “This year, more than 500,000 people took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, and more than 9 million birds were spotted. The results also identified problems faced by other common bird species, including chaffinches and greenfinches.
Richard Benwell, the chief executive of the environmental coalition Wildlife and Countryside Link, said: “Meeting the legal target to stop wildlife losses by the end of the next parliament (议会) can’t be achieved with a legal tweak (调整) here, some spare change there. Serious, sustained investment, proper punishment for pollution, and action in every department of government must be the features of any nature-positive manifesto (宣言).”
1. According to the text, what is the main cause of bird population decline in the UK?A.Climate change. | B.Habitat loss. | C.Pollution. | D.Hunting. |
A.Adjustment. | B.Instruction. | C.Stop. | D.Promotion. |
A.House sparrows. | B.Chaffinches. |
C.Greenfinches. | D.Uncommon birds. |
A.To point out the ways to meet the nature target. |
B.To stress the importance of setting specific goals. |
C.To remind the next parliament to make new laws. |
D.To prove the government’s failure in bird protection. |
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【推荐1】Animal keepers use the term enrichment to describe the introduction of environmental stimuli into the surroundings of caged animals. In recent years, “environmental enrichment” also known as behavioral enrichment, providing animals with challenges, opportunities, and stimulation that are species-appropriate, has grown more popular in zoos and aquariums. A latest study does, however, identify potential to “diversify the enrichment types being supplied and the species being examined.”
The study conducted by the University of Exeter and Sparsholt College, Hampshire, looked into whether zoo enrichment is based on evidence of what each species requires. It was discovered that this was true for specific animals as well as certain forms of enrichment, but the quantities of both could be larger, especially the samples of certain species of animals. “Based on our findings, we would encourage zoos to continue enrichment, but with a stronger emphasis on using available knowledge on what works for each species. Keepers should also consider what behaviors are being taught and whether there is evidence that this behavior is normal and good in the long run.” stated University of Exeter’s Dr. Paul Rose.
The research looked at a database of peer-reviewed works as well as two magazines for zoo workers. Almost 77 percent of the enrichment articles identified focused on mammals, with 11 percent on birds, 6 percent on considerable species, 4 percent on reptiles, and only a few on some other species. This emphasis on popular species may result in greater and higher-quality enrichment for some species than others. What’s more, in the case of mammals, the application of biological evidence to inform this enrichment was inconsistent.
There are many ways to enrich an animal’s surroundings such as adjusting animal care, forming social groups, and enhancing sensory stimulation. The purpose of any enrichment program should be to generate ideas for providing a species-appropriate stimulating environment that encourages positive behaviors while keeping in mind that both species and individuals will have varied demands.
1. What does the latest study mentioned in the passage want to figure out?A.The real situation of zoo enrichment. | B.The final evidence of zoo enrichment. |
C.The possible future of zoo enrichment. | D.The original purpose of zoo enrichment. |
A.By giving a database. | B.By doing persuasion. |
C.By discussing the data. | D.By presenting an example. |
A.The lasting challenges and opportunities. |
B.The space of the zoos and the keepers’ knowledge. |
C.The enrichment types, the animal species and numbers. |
D.The stimuli the keepers give and the articles the keepers write. |
A.More Zoo Keepers Should Be Developed | B.Enrichment of Zoos Could Be Expanded |
C.Articles on Enrichment Could Be Published | D.Environmental Enrichment Should Be Encouraged |
【推荐2】Researcher Ruijia Hu said wildlife habitat in crowded places like south went Ohio is becoming increasingly fragmented (分散) as forests give way to new construction. Eventually, this could make trouble to an animal with specific habitat needs like Ohio’s pileated (红冠) woodpecker.
Pileated woodpeckers have the nickname carpenter birds for their never-ending natural woodworking. They peck out holes in trees for their nests every year, creating lots of valuable homes for animals like fox squirrels and owls. “They make new nests every year. They won’t reuse old ones,” Hu said. “Other animals depend on them.”
Pileated woodpeckers are private birds that are more often heard than seen. Studying them can be especially difficult. So Hu turned to citizen science for help. To identify where woodpeckers have been seen, she used eight years of sightings collected by birders and logged into the website eBird, a free online tool and app that anyone can use to record their observations and locations. She overlaid these sightings with remote sensing data and found that corridors along rivers and creeks with abundant mature trees and deadwood helped the birds adjust to their increasingly fragmented urban landscape.
“With fragmented forests, many habitats that were once suitable for wildlife are broken up,” Hu sa id. “Wildlife is unable to find habitat big enough to meet their survival needs. And even if there are suitable habitats, the distance between them can be too great. Wildlife corridors link up these habitat patches. Since wildlife can travel and migrate from one patch to another, the probability of finding food and shelter is higher.”
“There are so many species in urban areas that we don’t pay attention to, especially when they’re not considered vulnerable,” Hu said. “With development chipping away at more forest in this crowded county, the tipping point (临界点) could come quickly and unexpectedly. You can’t fix it overnight. It’s not just about planting more trees. The birds need mature forest, so it could take 30 to 50 years to replace their habitat. At least we can protect these riverside forest corridors and see that existing trees reach maturity.”
1. What can we infer from the second paragraph?A.The magpie’s nest is occupied by the dove. |
B.Birds abandon the old for the new easily. |
C.Friendship really exists among animals. |
D.One’s trash is another treasure. |
A.The effect of Hu’s study on birds. |
B.The process of Hu’s research. |
C.The difficulty Hu had in his study. |
D.The application of technology. |
A.Helping them survive in the fragmented landscape. |
B.Making them adjust to deadwood quickly. |
C.Providing them with enough food for survival. |
D.Ensuring them a stable and safe habitat. |
A.One tree doesn’t make a forest. |
B.Be wise after the event. |
C.Prepare for a rainy day. |
D.Take things as they come. |
【推荐3】This week, a mammoth (猛犸象) possibly killed by humans 10,000 to 15,000 years ago was found in soy fields about 50 miles west of Detroit. It was found by farmer James Bristle and his neighbor Trent Satterthwaite, who were reportedly digging in the field. At first, they couldn’t figure out what they were seeing.
“It was probably a rib bone that came up,” Bristle tells Ann Arbor News. “We thought it was a bent fence post.” Upon closer inspection, however, it became clear even to untrained eyes this was no fence post. “We knew it was something special.” Then they sped up the dig.
After finding the bones Monday night, Bristle called the University of Michigan Tuesday morning to report his find. Scientist Daniel Fisher arrived to inspect it Wednesday, and by Thursday morning he had confirmed it’s a woolly mammoth. He concludes the animal was about 40 years old when it died. It was hunted by humans, he says, who killed it arid stored the remains in a pond as a way of preserving the meat for future use. It’s still too early to tell exactly how it died, Fisher tells Detroit’s WWJ-TV, “but the skeleton showed signs of human’s butchering.”
The bones are being temporarily stored nearby, according to the Free Press, and it remains unclear where they’ll eventually end up. Their research value will be determined once they’ve been cleaned and dried.
Woolly mammoths once lived in Eurasia and North America, and most disappeared by 10,000 years ago—a demise (终止) that has been linked not only to humans, but also to changing climate. It’s now believed that warming weather weakened their populations before humans dealt the final blows.
1. How did James Bristle and his neighbor find what they found at first?A.It’s delicate. | B.It’s old. |
C.It’s unique. | D.It’s worthless. |
A.It might die in its 40s. | B.It was native to Eurasia. |
C.It preferred walking in the fields. | D.It mainly died from climate change. |
A.The bones are well worth studying. |
B.The mammoth was killed by a butcher. |
C.The newfound site has evidence of human activity. |
D.It’s unclear whether the bones were a mammoth’s. |
A.Dried their bones. | B.Took their lives. |
C.Destroyed their home. | D.Preserved their meat. |
【推荐1】Retired jet engines could help clear the smog that smothered big cities.
To land at Indira Gandhi Airport is to descend from clear skies to brown ones. New Delhi's air is poisonous. According to the World Health Organization, India's capital has the most polluted atmosphere of all the world's big cities. The government is trying to introduce rules that will curb emissions-allowing private cars to be driven only on alternate days, for example, and enforcing better emissions standards for all vehicles.
But implementing these ideas, even if that can be done successfully, will change things only slowly. A quick fix would help. And Moshe Alamaro, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, thinks he has one. His idea is to take a jet engine, put it next to one of India's dirty coal-fired power plants, point its exhaust nozzle at the sky and then switch it on. His hope is that the jet's exhaust will disrupt a meteorological phenomenon known as "inversion", in which a layer of warm air settles over cooler air, trapping it, and that the rising stream of exhaust will carry off the tiny particles of matter that smog is composed of. Inversion exacerbates air pollution in Delhi and in many other cities, from Los Angeles to Tehran. A particularly intense example caused the Great Smog of London in 1952, when four days of air pollution contributed to 12,000 deaths.
Dr Alamaro thinks a jet engine could punch through the inversion layer to create a "virtual chimney" which would carry the trapped pollution above it, so that it could be dispersed in the wider atmosphere. He calculates that all the emissions from a gigawatt coal-fired power plant could be lifted away using a single engine with a nozzle speed of 460 metres a second.
However, he has not calculated whether a jet engine could disrupt the inversion layer and allow the pollution to escape the city-so he is now going to test that hypothesis. Within eight months, Dr Alamaro plans to put one of his updrafters next to a coal-fired power plant and monitor what happens using a fleet of drones. He is in discussions with Tata Group, a conglomerate with an electricity-generating arm, to run it next to one of the firm's power stations.
1. The second paragraph serves as _______.A.a hook to raise reader’s interest in the topic |
B.an introduction of the seriousness of pollution in India |
C.an example of slow progress of smog control in India |
D.a background to make the idea sound worthwhile |
A.New Delhi is suffering the most serious smog worldwide |
B.a retired jet engine has a nozzle speed of 460 metres a second |
C.the inversion layer prevent the pollutants from getting away |
D.conventional ways to deal with air pollution are too slow |
A.New Delhi, the capital of Smog |
B.Air Pollution, a Global Challenge |
C.Air Pollution in Delhi |
D.Air Pollution: Blown Away |
【推荐2】Amazon is reportedly working on a free, ad-supported music offering as another option to its paid Amazon Music Unlimited and Prime Music services to better compete with Apple Music, Google Music and Spotify. According to Billboard, the free plan could go live as soon as possible. At this time, the service is only available in the US for users who request music by a trial version (HIA), but a full-fledged version of the free ad- based music service is expected to be launched sometime in the future.
Billboard reports that Amazon is now in talks to make an ad-based free level available for its music service. The company is expected to advertise the plan with its Echo speakers. By now, Amazon Music Unlimited runs $ 10 per month standalone (单机), the same as Apple Music and Sportify. Meanwhile Prime Music offers Amazon Prime members a more limited selection of content for no extra charge. A new ad supported free level would make Amazon the third music offering.
Billboard notes that it's not clear how many paying users Amazon currently has, though it may have been around 20 million last year for all of its services. In contrast, Apple Music reportedly hit 28 million paying users in the US alone, beaten by Spotify.
Amazon hasn't disclosed how many paying music users it has, but some reports last year estimated it counts over 20 million users across its offerings and expect it to gain steadily thanks to integration with its market-leading smart speakers.
But Spotify is still the market leader for global users when it comes to music services with close to 100 million users. Amazon’s move could attract more and more users.
1. What does the underlined word "full-fledged" in paragraph 1mean?A.Modern. | B.Junior. | C.Powerful. | D.Perfect. |
A.It wants support from users. |
B.It has too many advertisements. |
C.It would be the third biggest Music offering. |
D.It will lose more free users. |
A.Spotify. | B.Amazon. | C.Google Music. | D.Apple Music. |
A.Amazon has the most piece of music. |
B.Amazon will release a free music service. |
C.Amazon will defeat Apple Music and Spotify. |
D.Amazon has defeated Apple Music and Spotify. |
【推荐3】Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who together identified a slight chemical change to messenger RNA,were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this year.
Dr. Karikó, the 13th woman to win the prize, had come to the United States from Hungary two decades earlier when her research program there ran out of money. She was preoccupied by mRNA, which provides instructions to cells to make proteins. Defying the decades old belief that mRNA was clinically unusable, she hold the view that it would stimulate medical innovations.
She and Dr. Weissman had their first chance meeting over a copy machine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1998. At the time, Dr. Weissman was desperate for new approaches to a vaccine (疫苗) against HLV, which bad long proved impossible to defend against. A physician who had tried and failed for years to develop a treatment for AIDS, he wondered if he and Dr. Karikó could team up to make an HIV. vaccine.
For years, they were at a loss. Mice vaccinated with mRNA became inactive. Countless experiments failed. They wandered down one dead end after another, But eventually, the scientists discovered that cells protect their own mRNA with a specific chemical modification (修饰). So they tried making the same change to mRNA manufactured in the lab before vaccinating it into cells It worked.
At first, other scientists were largely uninterested in taking up that new approach to vaccination. But two biotech companies soon took notice: Moderna, in the United States, and BioNTech, in Germany. Then the coronavirus emerged. Almost instantly, Drs. Karikó and Weissman’s work came together with several factors of different research to put vaccine makers ahead of the game in developing shot.
Brian Ferguson, an immunologist at the University of Cambridge, said. “The work of Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman in the years prior to 2020 prevented tens of millions of deaths and helped the world recover from the worst pandemic in a century. They richly deserve this recognition.”
1. The underlined word “defying” (paragraph 2) is closest in meaning to “ ”.A.challenging | B.confirming | C.re-emphasizing | D.stating |
A.They teamed up for the treatment for AIDS in Hungary. |
B.They protected their mRNA with a chemical modification. |
C.They persevered until they made a change to lab-made mRNA. |
D.They manufactured mRNA in mice despite their countless failures. |
A.they took no notice of others’ ignorance |
B.they caught attention of two biotech companies |
C.their work helped avoid the loss of countless lives |
D.their work prevented the outbreak of the pandemic |
A.Chemical Changes Identified in the Pandemic |
B.Approaches Adopted to Defend Against HLV |
C.Nobel Prize Awarded to Covid Vaccine Pioneers |
D.mRNA Manufactured in a University Lab in USA |