Fruit fly fix
It is breakfast time. You have been looking forward to eating a nice ripe banana ever since you woke up.
Fruit flies are tiny insects that are attracted to ripe or bad fruits and vegetables. The flies not only cat the fruit, they also lay their eggs there.
Because fruit flies are so annoying, most people want to get rid of them as quickly as possible. Some people use pesticide sprays (杀虫剂).
The first step is for you to remove all fruits or vegetables from your counter.
Next, make a trap to catch all of the remaining fruit flies in your house. First, fill a small bowl with some vinegar (醋).
| A．Although this will kill the flies |
| B．You can get existing flies out of your house |
| C．Then, put a piece of very ripe fruit into the vinegar |
| D．Store these items in the refrigerator or closed containers |
| E．Just when you reach for the delicious fruit on your counter |
| F．Although fruit flies might carry harmful things onto your food |
| G．A single fruit fly can lay up to 500 eggs on the surface of a piece of fruit |
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【推荐1】Fifty-two species of birds in the USA were studied. Most were different kinds of songbirds. These birds reproduce in cold areas of North America, so they migrate (迁徙) to spend their winters in areas south of Chicago.
The study found that over the 40-year period, the average body size in all 52 species fell by 2.6 percent. Leg bone length dropped by 2.4 percent. The one area of growth was the wingspan, which increased by 1.3 percent. The researchers said the wing growth likely happened to permit the birds to continue flying from one part of the world to another according to the season.
Brian Weeks is a biologist at the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. He helped lead the research. He told the Reuters news agency that climate change seems to be changing both the size and shape of these species.
Dave Willard works with Chicago’s Field Museum, which was in charge of measuring all the birds. He said nearly “everyone agrees that the climate is warming, but examples of just how that is affecting the natural world are now just coming to light. ”
The study provides new evidence of worrisome developments for North American birds. A study published in September documented a 29-percent drop in the bird population in the United States and Canada since 1970. The study said this represented a net loss of about 2. 9 billion birds.
“We had good reason to expect that increasing temperatures would lead to reductions in their body, based on previous studies, ” Weeks added. “The thing that was shocking was how consistent it was. I was incredibly surprised that all of these species are responding in such similar ways.”
The researchers plan to continue studying the Field Museum data in an effort to find additional evidence. They will also further examine the idea that an individual’s physical development can change to fit changing environmental conditions.
1. What have researchers found about 52 species of American birds recently?| A．The greater chance of survival. | B．The increase of the population. |
| C．The strength of the leg bones. | D．The decrease of the body size. |
| A．For beauty. | B．For migrations. |
| C．For freedom. | D．For safety. |
| A．Add some background. | B．Introduce a new topic. |
| C．Support the findings. | D．Provide some advice. |
| A．A report. | B．A textbook. |
| C．A diary. | D．A guidebook. |
【推荐2】The climate change may lead humans to shrink in size. Steve Brusatte, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh, believed that the way that other mammals have previously responded to periods of climate change could offer an insight into humans’ future. He compared the possible difficult situation of people to that of early horses. Those horses became smaller in body size as temperatures rose around 55 million years ago.
In his book, Brusatte mentions that animals in warmer parts of the world today are often smaller than those in colder areas. “Becoming smaller was a common way that mammals deal with climate change.” Brusatte told The Guardian, “That’s not to say every species of mammal would get smaller, but it seems to be a common survival trick of mammals when temperatures rise very quickly.”
In a recent study, researchers studying human remains over the past million years have also suggested that temperature is a main predictor of body size change, while scientists studying red deer have said that warmer winters in northern Europe and Scandinavia may lead to the body size of these animals becoming smaller.
However, not all experts agree that rising temperature causes mammals to shrink. Adrian Lister, an expert from the Natural History Museum in London, said, “The relationship shown by the recent human remains study is weak. I prefer to believe that the strong connections between temperature and mammal body size may often depend on the availability of food and resources.”
Lister has also expressed doubts about the idea that humans will shrink as the climate heats. “We are not really controlled by natural selection,” he said. “We wear clothes. We have got heating. We have got air conditioning if it is too hot.”
1. What is Steve Brusatte’s belief expressed in his book?| A．Humans are responsible for climate change. |
| B．Humans and horses share similar qualities. |
| C．Animals are wiser than humans when responding to climate change. |
| D．Mammals may become smaller when experiencing warmer climate. |
| A．Smaller-sized animals in warmer winters in northern Europe. |
| B．Smaller-sized animals in periods when it is hard to get food. |
| C．Bigger-sized animals in colder winters in areas of Scandinavia. |
| D．Bigger-sized animals in periods when it is hard to find shelter. |
| A．Natural selection doesn’t have an effect on human beings. |
| B．Use of air conditioning contributes to humans becoming smaller. |
| C．Humans take measures to reduce the control of hot temperature. |
| D．Study about recent human remains differs from that in the distant past. |
| A．History. | B．Science. | C．Education. | D．Lifestyles. |
【推荐3】Guam is a beautiful, small island in the Pacific Ocean. You’ll find happy songbirds, clear blue water, and leafy forest there. But the small island has a big problem: snakes. There are about 2 million brown tree snakes living in Guam.
The snakes likely arrived in the 1940s. They probably slipped(滑行) unseen onto ships and planes heading to Guam. Once there, the snakes laid eggs. Snake families grew. The snakes have no natural enemies to eat them on Guam. Soon, the island was covered with these snakes.
The brown tree snake has had a devastating effect. The snakes eat birds. There used to be 12 kinds of birds on the island. But these snakes have killed off nine kinds of the birds. The snakes can grow to be 10 feet long. They often bite humans. They climb onto power lines and make the electricity go out. This causes millions of dollars in damage.
Scientists have tried many different ways to control the number of snakes. They have used snake traps and snake-sniffing dogs. Nothing seemed to work. Nothing, that is, until they found a surprising secret weapon: killer mice.
Scientists found out that there is one easy way to kill brown tree snakes. They could give them a medicine called Tylenol. People take Tylenol for headaches and other pains. Even a little bit of Tylenol can kill a brown tree snake.
But how would scientists get the tree snakes to eat Tylenol? They came up with a plan. First, the experts put the medicine into dead mice. Then they attached each mouse to a mini paper parachute(降落伞). Planes dropped the mice over Guam. The parachutes got caught in the trees. The mice became dinner for the snakes that live there.
Has it worked? So far, research shows that there are fewer snakes because of the mice. The worry is that it may be too late to clear the snakes, but Mr. Vice from Guam’s Department of Agriculture says this should not stop the islanders from trying. “Our long-term goal is to kill the snake off completely,” he says.
1. What can we learn about the brown tree snakes?| A．They were shipped to Guam on purpose. |
| B．They were not native to Guam. |
| C．They were at risk in the 1940s. |
| D．They grew very slowly. |
| A．Magical. |
| B．Interesting. |
| C．Short-term. |
| D．Damaging. |
| A．Using snake traps. |
| B．Putting Tylenol in the trees. |
| C．Bringing in their enemies. |
| D．Letting them eat Tylenol carried by mice. |
| A．He is proud of it. |
| B．He is hopeful of it. |
| C．He is doubtful about it. |
| D．He is unconcerned about it. |
【推荐1】If you’ve ever taken a class in drawing, painting or pottery and in spite of your best effort, couldn’t make the final result look anything like the model shown, you may have thought, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body.”
According to some scientists, who for the past 20 years have put the elusive (难以解释的) subject of creativity through the rigors (严谨) of research, you are underestimating yourself. Da Vinci you may never be, but when it comes to creativity, we are all somewhat blessed (享有). It’s learning to encourage this unique tool of extraordinary productivity, and then applying it in everything you do, that counts to tell you from figures like Da Vinci.
“Even if we don’t have the good fortune to discover a new chemical element or write a great story, the love of the creative process for its own sake is available to all,” says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in Creativity: Flow and Psychology of Discovery and Invention.
Most people believe the area of creativity has been awarded to those thought to have special talent. We look upon these “creative geniuses,” as we often call them, with great respect and a bit of envy. Their abilities, most people believe, ore bestowed (给予) by good genes, or, as if in Greek mythology (神话), from some kind of divine (天赐的) inspiration.
There is no doubt that the world is never short of highly talented and creative people. They are masters of their trades and stand heads-and-shoulders above commoners, making new pathways for others to follow, and providing greater context and understanding of our world. It could be said that without creativity humanity would not evolve so rapidly.
But like a publicly recognized creative baseball player who improves his skill through years of continuous training, foregoing other pursuits for the only passion, people who show the slightest unwillingness for tough labor may finally find their boasted (自夸的) ability disappear.
After closely studying 91 creative and influential people, including novelists, playwrights, composers, musicians and scientists, Csikszentmihalyi concludes that no one would ignore the sweat they shed (流淌) and their almost crazy willingness to follow their creative efforts to the very end, wherever that may be. These are the very things we all can master, so long as we’d like to.
1. It’s widely believed that creativity comes from ______.| A．good training people receive from artistic classes | B．the inborn genes or relevant gifts. |
| C．the tool we learn from masters like Da Vinci | D．certain Greek historical textbooks |
| A．Common people rather than creative ones lead in various professions. |
| B．People’s admiration of geniuses makes humanity develop quickly. |
| C．The field of baseball requires more gifts than hard work. |
| D．The building of creativity lies in devotion and effort. |
| A．giving up | B．counting on | C．referring to | D．turning to |
| A．How ordinary people and scientists view things differently. |
| B．The reasons for the development of various trades and humanity. |
| C．People’s misunderstanding of creativity and its true nature. |
| D．Ordinary people’s unwillingness to follow the examples of creative ones. |
【推荐2】Every winter, huge crowds come to the parking lots of big box stores. Not crazy shoppers... but crows (乌鸦)
“Sometimes there’re 4,010,00 even 20,000 birds,” says Andrea Townsend, a behavioral ecologist at Hamilton College.” They’re really conspicuous. What they like are urban areas, so you’ll see them in trees, on rooftops, certainly, in well-lit parking lots. They’re their favorite places.”
Crows are known as “partial migrants (候鸟)”. Every year, some members of the population migrate between breeding (繁殖) grounds and overwintering grounds. But others just stay put. So Townsend and her colleagues wanted to know if that urge to migrate was something individual crows can turn on and off. With no previous studies to refer to, they caught 18 crows from overwintering spots to find out. They fitted the birds with little backpack satellite devices after collecting blood and feather samples, keeping recording where they went during winter for years.
Overall, three quarters of the birds migrated, an average of 300 miles. And more importantly, if they migrated once, they did it every year—suggesting traveling is not a habit they switch on and off. The researchers also found migrating crows returned faithfully to the same breeding grounds every year—but were more flexible on where to overwinter, which could be a good thing.
“Birds with flexible strategies can change their behavior when the environment changes, while other birds are more locked into their overwintering sites. They may not be able to adjust so quickly or easily to changing environmental conditions.” Townsend also wanted to know how migration is connected with their mental ability and whether it’s a mental trade-off for the birds—since migrants have to remember all location data.
“Maybe they’re not as good at solving problems as a resident bird that doesn’t have to invest so much in that long-term memory.” Then again, with all that time on the wing, migrants simply may not have as much free time to think hard about problems.
1. What does the underlined word “conspicuous” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．Dangerous. | B．Smart. | C．Annoying. | D．Noticeable. |
| A．By analyzing previous research. | B．By tracking some crows’ movements. |
| C．By studying crows in urban areas. | D．By comparing different migrating crows. |
| A．Crows’ migratory habits. | B．Reasons for crows migrating. |
| C．Crows’ behavioral changes. | D．Ways of crows overwintering. |
| A．Problem-solving skill and memory of crows. | B．Impact of the changing environment on crows. |
| C．Relation between crows’ migration and mind. | D．Differences between migrants and resident birds. |
【推荐3】The following card includes a brief summary and a short assessment of a research paper. It can provide a guide for further reading on the topic.
Trevor, C. O., Lansford, B. and Black, J. W., 2004, “Employee turnover (人事变更) and job performance: monitoring the influences of salary growth and promotion”, Journal of Armchair Psychology, vol. 113, no.1, pp. 56-64.
In this article Trevor et al. review the influences of pay and job opportunities in respect of job performance, turnover rates and employees’ job attitude. The authors use data gained through organizational surveys of blue-chip companies in Vancouver, Canada to try to identify the main cause of employee turnover and whether it is linked to salary growth. Their research focuses on assessing a range of pay structures such as pay for performance and organizational reward plans. The article is useful as Trevor et al. suggest that there are numerous reasons for employee turnover and a variety of differences in employees’ job attitude and performance. The main limitation of the article is that the survey sample was restricted to mid-level management, thus the authors indicate that further, more extensive research needs to be undertaken to develop a more in-depth understanding of employee turnover and job performance. As this article was published in a professional journal, the findings can be considered reliable. It will be useful additional information for the research on pay structures.
1. The research paper published is primarily concerned with .| A．the way of preventing employee turnover |
| B．methods of improving employee performance |
| C．factors affecting employee turnover and performance |
| D．pay structures based on employee performance |
| A．the data analysis is hardly reliable | B．the research sample is not wide enough |
| C．the findings are of no practical value | D．the research method is out-of-date |
| A．Job hunters. | B．Employees in blue-chip companies. |
| C．Mid-level managers. | D．Researchers on employee turnover. |
