Chimps live in a male-dominated society, where most of their valuable partners are other males. However, as young male chimps become adults, they continue to maintain tight bonds with their mothers, a new study finds.
“The dramatic changes of adolescence are difficult for chimps, just like they are for humans,” says Elizabeth Lonsdorf, an expert on primates (灵长动物) at Franklin&Marshall College who was not involved in the study. “Sure enough,” she adds, “their moms remain a key social partner during this time.”
Previous research has shown chimp mothers provide their sons with support that goes far beyond nursing. Young male chimps that are close with their moms grow bigger and have a greater chance of survival. What’s more, losing their mothers after weaning (断奶), but before age 12，gets in the way of the ability of young chimps to win other males and reproduce.
To see whether this bond extends later into life, researchers followed 29 adolescent (9 to 15 years old) and young adult (16 to 20 years old) male chimps at a research site in Kibale National Park in Uganda and observed them from a distance for 3 years. The team found that the young adult males spent less time with their mothers than the adolescents did—26% vs. 76%. As the male chimps grew older and more independent, they began to travel over wider ranges and spent more time away from their moms.
However, when these young adult males happened to be in the company of their mothers, they acted just like the adolescents. They groomed (梳理) their moms just as often and kept track of them. “Many mothers remained the males’ ‘best friends’ or ‘social partners’ they associated with most frequently,” says study co-leader Rachna Reddy from Harvard University.
Such persistent ties are also common in humans after sons leave their mothers and live on their own—especially in tough times, Reddy says. “We really feel what it’s like to not be able to see our mothers when we want to in tough times. The importance of those bonds in our lives and the comfort we get from them have deep evolutionary roots.”
1. What do we know about Elizabeth Lonsdorf?| A．She is in favor of the new study’s finding. |
| B．She played a supporting role in the new study. |
| C．She did a different study on chimps’ adolescence before. |
| D．She thinks chimps actually live in a female-dominated society. |
| A．It may be easier for it to produce babies. |
| B．It may be easier for it to interact with other chimps. |
| C．It may be tough for it to defeat other males. |
| D．It may be much more aggressive than other males. |
| A．They took care of some motherless chimps. |
| B．They recorded the chimps’ social interaction. |
| C．They worked hard to win the chimps’ trust. |
| D．They limited the chimps’ range of movement. |
| A．To stress the purpose of the study. | B．To improve humans’ mother-son relationship. |
| C．To call on us to protect chimps. | D．To emphasize the significance of the study. |
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【推荐1】The “mark test” (or “mirror test”) is a way to test animal intelligence — whether an animal can recognize itself, especially animals with large brains. A mark is put on an animal, usually in a spot that can only be seen with a mirror. Then the animal is allowed to look in a mirror. If the animal seems to pay attention to the mark, scientists believe the animal has recognized itself.
But some scientists believe the mark test doesn’t work well for all animals. Roosters (公鸡) are a good example. Scientists at the University of Bonn recently ran the mark test on roosters. They put a pinkish triangle on the chest of the roosters. But when the roosters looked in a mirror, they didn’t seem to notice the mark.
The scientists needed a different way to test whether the roosters could recognize themselves. When there’s danger — like a hawk (鹰) flying above — roosters make loud calls to warn nearby chickens. But roosters only make the cries if other chickens can hear them. If they’re alone, they remain quiet so the hawk won’t see them. The scientists realized that they could use the shadow of a hawk to test if roosters could recognize themselves in a mirror.
First, the scientists let the roosters spend time getting used to being in a closed-in space and having a mirror around. Then, they ran several tests by making a hawk shadow appear above the bird and watching how the rooster reacted.
When there was no mirror, the roosters reacted as usual. They called out when they were near another rooster, but remained quiet when they were alone. But when a rooster was in a space where it could see itself in the mirror, it wasn’t fooled into thinking there was another rooster. It remained silent despite the hawk shadow.
It proves the roosters knew they were seeing themselves in the mirror, and not other roosters. That suggests that the mark test may not be a good test of whether an animal can recognize itself.
The scientists hope their results will encourage other scientists to look for better ways of testing self-recognition in animals.
1. What is the purpose of the “mark test”?| A．To test a bird’s ability to fly. |
| B．To measure an animal’s brain size. |
| C．To see if an animal can recognize itself. |
| D．To compare different animals’ intelligence. |
| A．By testing their eyesight with a mirror. |
| B．By putting a mark on the roosters’ chest. |
| C．By placing two roosters before the mirror. |
| D．By observing their reactions to a hawk shadow, |
| A．Roosters are not intelligent animals. |
| B．The mark test is a reliable measure of self-recognition. |
| C．The mark test may not accurately determine self-recognition. |
| D．Roosters can recognize themselves better than other animals. |
| A．Conducting more experiments on roosters. |
| B．Using the mark test on other bird species. |
| C．Studying self-recognition in dolphins and elephants. |
| D．Searching for better ways to test animal intelligence. |
【推荐2】No matter who you are or where you come from, one thing is certain: You are acquainted with the mosquito-although you probably wish you weren't. Mosquitoes are everywhere. They can be found all over the world, and they come in more than 2,500 species. Somewhere, at some time, you have surely met at least one.
No one loves the mosquito. But unfortunately the mosquito may decide that she loves you. She? Yes, she. Did you know that only the female mosquito bites? Well, it's true. And it's not because she's unfriendly; she needs blood to reproduce.
Do you know how the female mosquito decides whom to bite? She's quite selective, and she chooses her victims carefully. First, she uses sensors to find her victim. These sensors are located on her two antennae and her three pairs of legs. With these sensors, she tests your body moisture, body warmth, and chemical substances in your sweat. If she likes what she finds, she bites. But if you don't appeal to her, she'll reject you for someone more appetizing. The next time a mosquito bites you, just remember that you were chosen. You're special.
If the mosquito likes you, she settles onto your flesh very gently, and she breaks your skin with her proboscis tip. Proboscis tip? What's that? It's a kind of mouth and it sticks out just below the mosquito's eyes. It contains six sharp instruments called stylets. She stabs all six stylets into your skin at once, and if she hits a blood vessel, she'll get a full dinner in about a minute. All this usually takes place so quickly and quietly that you may not have suspected anything was happening.
All mosquitoes, male and female, pass through their early stages of development in or near water. In fact, mosquito eggs will not hatch without water-although the eggs can survive up to five years on dry land waiting for water. It is not surprising that heavy rains produce large numbers of mosquitoes.
But why? Why did nature bother to create mosquitoes? Just to annoy us? Probably that wasn't the main reason. Male mosquitoes live on the nectar of flowers, and some scientists believe that they pollinate the flowers as they fly from one to the other. Of course, mosquitoes have to reproduce, and unfortunately that's where you and I come in. Like it or not, mosquitoes are here to stay. Ouch! (Slap!) One just bit me!
1. The female mosquito bites human beings because_____.| A．she is hostile to humans |
| B．she needs blood to produce the young |
| C．she lacks certain chemical substances |
| D．she is forced to play such a role in nature |
| A．your blood type | B．your body moisture |
| C．your body temperature | D．your sweat |
| A．after heavy rains | B．when it gets dark |
| C．quickly and quietly | D．during the mating season |
| A．A mosquito escaped before the writer could hit her. |
| B．A mosquito flew away, and the writer hit himself. |
| C．A mosquito hit the writer and flew away. |
| D．A mosquito bit the writer, and the writer tried to hit her. |
【推荐3】A New Zealand council （市议会）has announced a month-long road closure in order to allow a sea lion and her pup to reach the ocean safely.
John Wilson Ocean Drive in Dunedin will be closed after the New Zealand sea lions made their home at a nearby golf course （球场）and started "regularly crossing the road to get to the beach," according to a Facebook post from Dunedin City Council.
“You can still visit the area on foot or by bicycle, but please give the sea lions lots of space," continued the post.
Locals applauded the decision, and one even called for the closure to be made permanent.
“No dogs should be on the beach, either," wrote Gaylene Smith. "We need to protect our beautiful sea life?"
Dogs are known to attack sea lions, and Chisholm Links Golf Course, where the sea lions have made their home, also posted advice to dog walkers in a Facebook update.
"We’re lucky to have sea lions on our coastline and we need to share the space with them, as this is what makes our coastline so unique!" wrote the course on Facebook.
The council went on to explain that New Zealand sea lions are endangered, and are one of the world’s rarest species of sea lion.
There are an estimated 12,000 New Zealand sea lions left, according to the Department of Conservation. Under local law, anyone who kills a sea lion could face up to two years in prison or a fine of up to NZ$250,000 (US$178,000).
1. What decision has the Dunedin City Council made?| A．Closing an ocean drive for a month. |
| B．Closing the nearby beach temporarily. |
| C．Forbidding entry into a golf course. |
| D．Forbidding walking dogs outside. |
| A．By informing on TV. |
| B．By posting on Facebook. |
| C．By advertising in a newspaper. |
| D．By sending out notices. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Supportive. | C．Uncaring. | D．Critical. |
| A．They are under legal protection. |
| B．They are a common species. |
| C．They are afraid of humans. |
| D．They are being killed by dogs. |
Scientists are increasingly warning that sitting for long periods even if you also exercise regularly could be bad for your health. And it doesn’t matter where the sitting takes place at the office, at school, in the car or before a computer or TV — just the overall number of hours it occurs. Several studies suggest people who spend most of their days sitting are more likely to be fat, have a heart attack or even die.
In an editorial published this week in the British Joumal of Sports Medicine, Elin Ekblom-Bak of the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences suggested that authorities rethink how they define physical activity to highlight the dangers of sitting.
While health officials have issued guidelines recommending minimum amounts of physical activity, they haven’t suggested people try to limit how much time they spend in a seated position. “After four hours of sitting, the body starts to send harmful signals,” said Ekblom-Bak. She explained that sitting too long slows the metabolism-which affects our ability to regulate blood sugar and blood pressure, and metabolise fat-and may cause weaker muscles and bones.
Even for people who exercise, spending long periods of time sitting at a desk is still harmful. Tim Armstrong, a physical activity expert at the World Health Organization, said people who exercise every day-but still spend much time sitting-might get more benefits if that exercise was spread across the day, rather than in a single bout (一回).
Experts said more research is needed to figure out just how much sitting is dangerous, and what might be possible to offset (抵消) those effects.
“People should keep exercising because that has a lot of benefits,” Ekblom-Bak said. “But when they are in the office, they should try to interrupt sitting as often as possible,” she said.
1. What are the possible bad effects of sitting for a long time?2. What is the next step for the current research on sitting long hours?
3. Please decide which part is false in the following statement, then underline it and explain why.
Sitting for long periods is bad for your health. However, doing exercise once a day is enough to get rid of the impact of sitting too much.
4. What habits do you think are good for your health? Why?
【推荐2】Bananas, apples and avocados are called climacteric fruits because they continue to become ripe after they are picked. Cherries, blackberries and grapes are called non-climacteric fruits because they do not. Knowing the difference between them is pivotal for fruit-growers and greengrocers because they can keep their goods in perfect condition when they arrive at the market places based on the knowledge. But how the difference originally came about remains unclear.
Fukano Yuya and Tachiki Yuuya of the University of Tokyo offered a view. Fruits, which they observe, exist to solve a problem faced by all plants-how to best spread their young around. Wrapping their seeds in the sugary fruits, to provide a tasty meal, serves as a way to get animals to do this for them. They do, however, need to make sure that their fruits favour the animals most likely to do the distribution work. Their climacterism, or its absence, is a way to achieve this.
To test their idea, the two researchers looked into 276 papers reporting on 80 sorts of fruits, and noted which animals each depended on for the distribution of their young 35 of these fruits they discovered, were eaten by both ground-dwelling animals and those living above the ground. But of others, 15 of the 19 eaten mainly by ground dwellers were climacteric, while 21 of the 26 fed on by animals living above the ground were non-climacteric.
That is a suggestively strong connection. Other evidence points out that non-climacteric fruits tend to have vivid colors. This may help them stand out amid the leaves of their parent plants, advertising their presence. On the contrary, climacteric fruits are generally better at hiding themselves. That makes them harder to spot until they have fallen to the ground.
The main limitation of their work, say Dr Fukano and Dr Tachiki, is that most of the papers they looked through concerned fruits eaten by people. This has probably affected, the sample, for thousands of years of selective breeding for characteristics that human beings find attractive may have weakened any signal improved by natural selection. The next step, therefore, should probably be to limit the analysis to wild fruits.
1. What does the underlined word “pivotal” in paragraph 1 probably mean?| A．Critical | B．Popular | C．Reasonable | D．Obvious. |
| A．By using their fruits to protect their seeds. |
| B．By showing their sugary seeds to attract animals. |
| C．By hiding their seeds on animals’favorite plants. |
| D．By making their fruits beneficial to the potential spreaders. |
| A．Protective and fully-grown. | B．Small-sized and unnoticeable. |
| C．Bright-colored and eye-catching. | D．Hard and eaten by ground dwellers. |
| A．Find out fruits of old varieties. | B．Turn to the study of wild fruits. |
| C．Look into the selective breeding fruits. | D．Protect different fruit plants for breeding. |
【推荐3】Our Amazing Hands
The hand is where the mind meets the world. We use our hands to build fires, to fly airplanes, and to write. The human brain, with its open-ended creativity, may be the thing that makes the human race unique. But without hands, all the ideas we think up would come to nothing.
Early hands seemed more unusual and interesting than any hand today. Some animals had seven fingers. Others had eight. But by the time vertebrates (脊椎动物) appeared 340 million years ago, the hand had developed to only five fingers.
Nevertheless, there are still many different types of hands in living animals. After years of research, scientists are beginning to understand the molecular (分子的) changes in hands.
The discovery has given scientists a deeper understanding of the development of hands. A bird’s wing and a lion’s paw (爪) may appear to have nothing in common.
| A．Hands can often be used for a number of different purposes. |
| B．They also see that all hands start out in much the same way. |
| C．It has kept that number for reasons scientists don’t yet know. |
| D．No one would doubt that the five fingers are different with each other. |
| E．But the difference between them may come down to a tiny change in form. |
| F．The reason we can use our hands for so many things is their special structure. |
| G．So you can see a skilled watchmaker use his hands to set springs in place under a microscope. |
【推荐1】Emperor Penguins
Emperor penguins are considered the most beautiful and the largest of all penguins. They are amazing birds. They are good survivors, excellent swimmers and great parents. Do you know where we can see them?
You are absolutely right! Antarctica. Only Antarctica!
Antarctica is the continent which is the most southern area of land on the Earth and is mostly covered with ice. It is colder, drier and windier than any other place on the Earth. The lowest temperature can reach -89.2℃. In order to survive the extremely tough environment, emperor penguins have to cooperate. They crowd together to protect themselves from the wind and keep warm. Meanwhile, they take turns to move to the relatively warm inside.
Emperor penguins live on a diet which consists of different types of fish and other kinds of sea life. To find food, these birds, which are unable to fly, can dive much deeper than any other kind of penguin. Their dives often reach about 244 metres, and they can even dive to more than 535 metres when necessary. They can remain under water for almost 18 minutes, longer than any other kind of penguin.
Emperor penguins have a very hard time bringing up their babies. They have to go to great lengths to care for their children. After laying an egg, the tired female emperor penguin will leave the family behind to feed at sea, while the male is left to take care of the egg. For two months, the father, whose duty is to keep the egg safe and warm, carries his egg around on his feet and will give up eating until the mother returns. He does not sit on the egg like many other birds, but stands and balances it on his feet. Thus he is at the mercy of the Antarctic weather. When the mother returns from the sea, sometimes up to 60-80 kilometres away, she throws up some of the food for the chick and takes the male's place to look after it. The father then takes his turn to feed at sea. Cooperative parenting at its finest.
By December, during the Antarctic summer, when the ice begins to break up and open water appears, the young emperor penguins are now ready to be excellent survivors, good swimmers and great parents on their own. What an amazing cycle it is!
1. The underlined word "cooperate" in the third paragraph means ___________.
| A．work together | B．fight against cold |
| C．protect themselves | D．move to warm places |
| A．feed on only certain types of fish |
| B．live in the most terrible weather conditions |
| C．are amazing birds that can both fly and swim |
| D．stay in water 18 minutes longer than other penguins |
| A．great parents who sit on eggs to keep them warm |
| B．the most beautiful and the largest birds in the world |
| C．good survivors and they move to warm places in winter |
| D．excellent swimmers and they can dive deeper than other penguins |
| A．the chicks break up the eggshells in summer |
| B．an Emperor Penguin lays several eggs at a time |
| C．the male Emperor Penguins hatch the eggs in winter |
| D．the chicks are ready to live on their own one year later |
The project, called Hywind, is the world’s first large-scale deepwater wind turbine(涡轮发电机).Although it uses a fairly standard 152-ton,2.3-megawatt turbine, Hywind represents totally new technology. The turbine will be fixed 213 feet above the water on a floating spar(see picture),a technology Hywind’s creator, the Norwegian company StatoilHydro, has developed recently. The steel spar, which is filled with stones and goes 328 feet below the sea surface, will be tied to the ocean floor by three cable(缆索)；these will keep the spar stable and prevent the turbine from moving up and down in the waves. Hywind’s stability(稳定性)in the cold and rough sea would prove that even the deepest corners of the ocean are suitable for wind power. If all goes according to plan, the turbine will start producing electricity six miles off the coast of southwestern Norway as early as September.
To produce electricity on a large scale, a commercial wind farm will have to use bigger turbines than Hywind does, but it’s difficult enough to balance such a large turbine so high on a floating spar in the middle of the ocean. To make that turbine heavier, the whole spar’s to design a new kind of wind turbine, one whose gearbox(变速箱) sits at sea level rather than behind the blades (see picture )
Hywind is a test run, but the benefits for perfecting floating wind-farm technology could be extremely large. Out at sea, the wind is often stronger and steadier than close to shore, where all existing offshore windmills are planted. Deep-sea farms are invisible from land, which helps overcome the windmill-as-eyesore objection. If the technology catches on, it will open up vast areas of the planet’s surface to one of the best low-carbon power sources available.
1. The Hywind project uses totally new technology to ensure the stability of _______.
| A．the cables which tie the spar to the ocean floor |
| B．the spar which is floating in deep-sea water |
| C．the blades driven by strong and steady sea wind |
| D．the stones filled in the spar below the sea surface |
| A．on the sea floor | B．on the spar top |
| C．at sea level | D．behind the blades |
| A．solve the technical problems of deepwater windmills |
| B．make financial profits by producing more turbines |
| C．settle the arguments about environmental problems |
| D．explore low-carbon power resources available at sea |
【推荐3】A worldwide shift from fossil fuel-powered cars to electric vehicles could significantly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that humans emit to the atmosphere. But current strategies for vehicle electrification (电气化) can also shift some pollution to communities already suffering under higher economic, health and environmental burdens, researchers warn.
California, which leads the United States by a mile when it comes to EV adoption, offers a window into this evolving problem. The state is aggressively seeking to reduce its carbon footprint and has made substantial increases in wind and solar power generation as well as in the promotion of electric vehicle purchases. One tool the state has used is the California Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, or CVRP, which kicked off in 2010 and offers consumers money back for the purchase of new EVs.
Now, an analysis of the CVRP’s impact on the state’s air quality from 2010 to 2021 reveals both good and bad news, researchers report May 3 in PLOS Climate.
The good news is that the CVRP is responsible for making a dent in the state’s overall CO2 emissions, reducing them by about 280,000 metric tons per year on average. The bad news is that the most disadvantaged communities in the state didn’t see the same overall improvement in air quality. Those communities in fact saw an increase in one type of air pollution, tiny particulates known as PM2.5. That increase may be indirectly related to putting more EVs on the road. Although electric vehicles themselves don’t produce PM2.5 from their tailpipes, increased electricity generation, if it’s not fossil fuel-free, can. Renewable resources, including rooftop solar cells, supplied about half of California’s electricity in 2022. But natural gas-fired power plants still provide a large part of the state’s power.
“Electric vehicles are often incorrectly referred to as ‘zero-emission vehicles’, but they’re only as clean as the underlying electric grid (电网) from which the energy is sourced,” Mejía-Duwan says. The most disadvantaged 25 percent of the state’s communities also contain 50 percent of the power plants, the team found.
1. What do we know from paragraph 2?| A．California takes the lead in environmental protection. |
| B．Wind and solar power generation has dominated California. |
| C．California’s carbon footprint has been reduced as planned. |
| D．The launch of CVRP is intended to promote electric vehicle purchases. |
| A．adjustment. | B．shift. | C．reduction. | D．increase |
| A．Putting more EVs on the road. | B．Increased electricity generation. |
| C．Warming climate. | D．Increased rooftop solar cells. |
| A．Zero emission for EVs can’t be ensured nowadays. |
| B．‘Zero emission’ isn’t good enough to describe EVs. |
| C．EVs, with no zero emission, shouldn’t be advocated. |
| D．EVs have a promising future as zero emission vehicles. |
