It has been more than 40 years since anyone has spotted a Japanese river otter. And the once common Yangtze River dolphins have either disappeared or are very rarely seen. These are just a few of the species that have been listed as extinct or locally extinct in recent years. But the advancement of technology could mean that the expunction of other species is not a given.
A huge challenge scientists and conservationists encounter is tracking species facing extinction in order to help them. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) has brought about a revolution in the way data on these species is collected and analyzed. One example is the Maui dolphin, one of the rarest and most threatened dolphins in the ocean. Familiar with their summer. Behavior, researchers knew that there were just 54 of these elusive mammals living off the coast of New Zealand. However, because of weather conditions, researchers knew next to nothing about their winter behavior. After four years of developing, testing and fundraising, these scientists received permission to use a drone (无人机) with AI that tracked the dolphins no matter the season. The result was the extension of a marine sanctuary to protect their habitat.
In parts of Australia, the koala was declared endangered in 2022 due to bushfires, habitat destruction and road accidents. Saving them was challenging because their whereabouts and numbers were relatively unknown. So Grant Hamilton, an associate professor of eco logy at Queensland University of Technology, began using drones with infrared imaging to locate them. An AI algorithm analyzes images to determine if a sighting is a koala. That information is then used to monitor and protect the species by restoring their habitats and providing health protection.
In Zambia’s Kafue National Park, home to 15 more than 6,000 elephants, AI is being used to enhance traditional methods of preventing poaching. Cameras record any boats that try to enter the park on Lake Itezhi-Tezhi, an illegal entry point. Al immediately detects this activity and alerts park rangers, who deal with the illegal hunters.
The use of Al has helped to expedite action and increase conservationists’ ability to protect the natural world for generations to come.
1. What does the underlined worlds “a given” in paragraph 1 mean?A.A serious problem. | B.A rare phenomenon. | C.A certain event. | D.A false inference. |
A.To observe Maui dolphins’ winter behavior. |
B.To get the exact number of Maui dolphins in the wild. |
C.To demonstrate the current situation of Maui dolphins. |
D.To show AI’s application in tracking the wild animals. |
A.Identifying koalas. | B.Tracking koalas. | C.Collecting data. | D.Preventing hunting. |
A.Saving Nature with Technology’s Help | B.Restoring the Habitats of Endangered Species |
C.Providing Healthy Protection for Animals | D.Protecting Wild Species from Extinction |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】It is presently harvest season for Christian Nacht Wey, who operates an apple farm, or orchard, in the western German town of Gelsdorf. Besides apples, Nacht Wey’s farm also produces a second harvest: electricity. Many of the farm’s trees grow under solar panels(太阳能电池板)that have been producing power during this year’s unusually sunny summer. Putting solar equipment on the same land as crops is becoming increasingly popular in Europe and North America. Farmers are finding that this method can make the most of their land, while creating a second way to earn money.
But getting the right mix of crop and solar is difficult. Most fruit requires specific growing conditions. Even small changes in the environment can harm crops and cause money losses. Even if the fruit survives, it might turn the wrong color or be less sweet and may be difficult to sell.
For these reasons, Nacht Wey is working with researchers to test which kinds of apples do well under a solar cover. For testing purposes, Nacht Wey covered some of his trees with a traditional netting material. It is normally used to protect sensitive crops from serious weather events.
Juergen Zimmer is an expert with the area’s agricultural services department. He told the AP that apples grown under the solar covers were a little less sweet this year than those under the nets. But almost no solar-shaded apples got damaged in the strong sunlight that hit the area on July 24. In the non-shaded group, about 18 percent of apples suffered sun damage that day, Zimmer said. Researchers hope the tests will show that fruit crops perform well under solar panels. This could help prevent renewable energy production from competing for valuable agricultural land. That competition has become an increasing question as the need for renewable energy increases to fight climate change and rising food prices.
1. What does the author try to tell us in Paragraph 2?A.The method of the test. | B.The disadvantage of solar panels. |
C.The importance of solar panels. | D.The difficulty of growing crops under solar panels. |
A.Speed up the growth of apples. |
B.Test what apples are suitable for a solar cover. |
C.Examine why some crops are sensitive to heat. |
D.Keep some crops from being damaged by terrible weather. |
A.Doubtful. | B.Supportive. |
C.Unclear. | D.Uncaring. |
A.German Farmer Grows Fruit Under Solar Power Equipment |
B.Researchers Find Out New Way to Produce Renewable Energy |
C.Solar Energy Could Play Big Part in Valuable Agricultural Land |
D.Increasingly Popular Way of Operating Orchard Among German Farmers |
【推荐2】At a Dalkomm Coffee shop in Seoul, a robot takes orders from you through a mobile app or a touch screen and then makes fresh coffee. Coffee is just one of the many industries that use automated(自动化的) services in this technologically forward-thinking nation. Others include restaurants, food stores, banks and factories. The development comes as many Koreans, especially the young, are struggling to find work.
Just this week, workers who operate about 2,500 large cranes(吊车) at building sites went on strike(罢工).They were against the growing use of robotic small cranes for building. Other labor unions have also been against the use of automated devices instead of human workers at Emart, South Korea's biggest food store group.
South Korean officials also changed plans to completely automate the nation's road fee collection system. They acted after receiving blame for cutting 6,700 jobs. Instead, the system will be partly automated and keep all its existing human fee collectors.
South Korea had the highest percentage or robots to human workers in the world in 2017. The International Federation of Robotics says South Korea has 710 robots for every 10,000 workers. The international average is 85 robots per 10,000 employees.
South Korea's lowest permitted worker wage has increased by 27.3% over the last two years. This has led more businesses so cut labor costs by using automation, says Suh Yong Gu of the Business School at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul.
Even with the job losses, South Korea's businesses are replacing employees with automation and young people are welcoming the change. Suh said, "Nowadays, Millennials those who were born after 1980 are prime consumers. This generation tends not to like meeting other people. So they like technology that enables people to minimize face-to-face interactions."
1. Why did construction workers go on strike this week?A.6,700 workers had been out of work. |
B.They feared being replaced by robots. |
C.Their wages were cut down by 27.3%. |
D.Their demand for a pay rise was refused, |
A.They're less competitive in modern world. |
B.They're victims of modern high technology. |
C.They're unwilling to communicate face to face. |
D.They're strongly against the use of automation. |
A.Human fee collectors have disappeared. |
B.South Korea produced the most robots in 2017. |
C.Robots have taken the place of humans in building. |
D.It remains a problem whether to make full use of robots. |
A.Robots Made Their First Appearance in Cafes |
B.Koreans Are Ready for Challenges from Robots |
C.Automation: A Double-edged Sword in Job Market |
D.South Korea: A Leading Country in Technology |
【推荐3】When it’s time for a wardrobe makeover (形象改造), who’s the best person to give you some advice? You’ll probably turn to your friend for some feedback and fashion tips — they know you best and can offer an honest opinion about which colours don’t match and which outfit makes you look pretty.
However for someone like me, who’s not a follower of fashion and has a more practical dress sense, I don’t need help-it’s just jeans or... jeans! But for people who care about their appearance, they can now get some trustworthy advice with the aid of technology.
Of course, using social media is a good way when you are at a loss about fashion, but this—sometimes brings in too much conflicting advice and opinions that are sometimes straightforward! That’s why one woman has developed an app to help women crowdsource advice from stylists in a safe, non-violent communication environment.
Sophia Matveeva’s Style Counsel app allows users to post a photo and receive “yes” or “no” answers from other users, or more detailed advice from fashion stylists and bloggers very quickly. According to Mathew Wall, BBC Technology of Business editor, this is a growing business; with several new apps such as AskAnna, Mallzee and StyleDotMe all offering young women tips on suitable and fashionable clothes to wear.
There’s also a website called EyeFitU which finds clothes to fit your figure. Its chief executive, Isabelle Ohnemus, says there are no international standards in clothes sizes but she explains, “We can set up your size profile in a few seconds with 80% accuracy just knowing your gender, height, weight and age”. This information is used to find clothes that suit your actual shape. And the internet giant, Amazon, has also developed a camera that links to a “style check” function that compares photos and gives its opinion of which outfit is better, based on fit, colour, style and current fashion trends.
But does technology make fashion advice a bit impersonal? Sophia Matveeva admits that women in particular are social creatures and that “AI will never stop us talking to each other. . . girls will always want the approval of the cool girl at school.” But as for me: an app with someone I don’t know could be the place to start with some careful-in-speech fashion tips!
1. What is the problem of asking for fashion advice on social media?A.No feedback. | B.Dishonest opinions. |
C.Too many choices. | D.Contradictory advice. |
A.Cool boys at school. | B.Young women fashion-goers. |
C.Fashion stylists and bloggers. | D.People with a practical dress sense. |
A.By developing a super camera. | B.By assessing current fashion trends. |
C.By analyzing users’ basic information. | D.By setting agreed standards for clothes sizes. |
A.Fashion Anxiety | B.New Fashion Trends |
C.Wardrobe Decoration. | D.Tech-driven Fashion Advice |
【推荐1】It's hard to overstate the importance of rainforests in keeping the world a place we want to go on living in. Yet they are being cleared at a terrifying rate, in part because methods to check on their protection are failing. The Nature Conservancy think they have a solution by listening to the rainforests' voices, and researchers they have partnered with have published a paper in Science confirming its viability(可行性).
Forest monitors struggle to keep up with what is happening in areas that are large and remote from population centers. Satellite images can flag complete destruction, but they do a poor job of measuring when a forest's diversity is degraded. Researchers have started tying small, solar-powered sound recorders to trees, setting them to listen at regular intervals, particularly dawn and dusk when the rainforest is most alive. The recorders provide an indication(显示) of the animal sounds for hundreds of meters in all directions. This marks a major advance over camera traps, which of course only point in one direction and are blocked from seeing far.
Reviewing several studies on the workings of these, Dr. Zuzana Burivalova of Princeton University and co-authors report that these sound recorders supply an amount of information about the forests' true condition, far more than can be showed by other remote sensors. Moreover, it is far cheaper to visit an area once to put in a recorder than to stick around for larger measurements.
Burivalova and colleagues also note some less obvious advantages. Once the data is uploaded, it can be analyzed by anyone. Deep learning programs can be used to tie sounds to their makers. Calls can be assessed in many ways, revealing both the number of noisy animals in the recorders' vicinity(附近) and the diversity of species that make them. The authors call for "a global organization to host a global acoustic(声学) platform" to provide a massive database of rainforest sounds, allowing comparisons between healthy and degraded rainforests half a world apart.
1. What is the possible reason for the rainforests disappearing rapidly according to paragraph 1?A.The climate changes have a bad effect on it. |
B.People attach no importance to its protection. |
C.Goods related to rainforests are popular among consumers. |
D.There is a lack of good means to monitor its real condition. |
A.It cannot keep track of the wildlife in the forest. |
B.It cannot predict the wildlife diversity with cameras. |
C.It cannot figure out the wildlife diversity in the forest. |
D.It cannot mark the disappearance of the rainforests clearly. |
A.The forests' true condition is worse than expected. |
B.The sound recorders are more efficient and reliable. |
C.The remote sensors are far more effective than the sound recorders. |
D.They need larger measurements to record the rainforest sounds. |
A.Animal calls. | B.Obvious advantages. |
C.Previous studies. | D.Nearby recorders. |
【推荐2】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3】Garbage often has negative associations with germs (细菌),dirt and useless junk. However, a recent art exhibition proved that “useless” things can have practical significance.
Dear Pretty Rubbish, an art event organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWFN) and digital media art company Blackbow, was held in Beijing. It looked at wasteful consumption (消耗) and asked questions about the relationship between our lifestyles and our garbage.
“We hope that everyone who visited the show can think about how ‘useless things’ are produced, why they are tossed out (扔走), and whether ‘useless things’ are really useless,” said Cao Yujia, the design director of Blackbow.
The organizers said that all the raw materials for the exhibition were collected from community garbage cans.
Artists Zhou Yuxuan and Liu Yifan collected nylon cable ties (尼龙扎带), LED lights and beverage bottles from designers’ workshops to create a work where plastics, in the shape of cells, “grow” in a corner. There, the lights blink (闪烁) regularly to imitate (模仿) “breathing”. When people walk near it, the work responds by forming light patterns, as if communicating with the visitors.
Speaking about the work, Zhou said: “It’s like some kind of communication between humans and plastics.”
Plastic has a life longer than almost any creature, taking centuries to decompose. Though people blame plastics for damage to the environment, they are a big part of our daily lives.
“So we want to ask the question: Although the damage continues, whether there is a way for humans to reconcile (调和) with plastics,” said Zhou.
Liu said that plastic waste can be used to make clothes and ornaments (装饰品). “Re-use of plastics will be a future trend,” he said.
Cable ties are a useful and common material for fastening. Many people will buy a large bundle of them but only use a few pieces. The rest of cable ties could be re-used as a decoration in handicrafts.
“This exhibition calls for everyone to re-think their wasteful lifestyle full of single-use plastics and make changes,” said Cao.
1. What was the purpose of Dear Pretty Rubbish?A.To call on people to reduce waste. |
B.To remind people to live healthily. |
C.To encourage people to use more plastic. |
D.To teach people how to recycle different kinds of garbage. |
A.dry up | B.break down |
C.be discovered | D.be broken |
A.Communication is important for everyone. |
B.A community’s garbage is full of hidden treasures. |
C.Creativity can change your life. |
D.Plastics could be reused to reduce pollution. |
A.An art exhibition held in Beijing. |
B.The rise of a new lifestyle. |
C.The many uses of plastics. |
D.An introduction of two artists and their works. |
【推荐1】In the digital age, we rely on technology such as social media in trying to build interesting and varied lives. Social networking sites like Facebook are designed and promoted to make us believe enthusiastically that they are able to open up new experiences for us. There are constant notifications (通知) and updates, attracting us to check-in to find out what is new.
But if we do not use the technology wisely, we can end up becoming overly attached and trapped in a cycle of social media FOMO, a sign of deeper unhappiness. FOMO, or fear of missing out, is a fear that exciting or interesting events are happening somewhere else and that we are not able to join.
People who experience high levels of FOMO have been found to be more likely to give in to desires to write and check text messages while driving, as well as to use Facebook more often directly after waking, while going to sleep and during meals.
When it comes to lasting happiness, it is best not to give in to FOMO, but rather to deal with the cycle of desires that fuel it. Hard as it is, we are better off working toward facing the fearful reality that we cannot experience everything we might like than to get caught in a cycle of checking behaviors that only cause anxiety.
If we have become used to using social media as part of our attempts at living interesting lives, we must admit that it is not easy to change our approach. But change is almost always worthwhile in the long run.
The fact that FOMO is so common in our digital age is a sign that there is something wrong with the way we are pursuing happiness and that we are not as happy as we might think we are. It should warn us that, in our eagerness to use digital technology to try to make ourselves happier, we may unintentionally (无意之中) be bringing on exactly the opposite result.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?A.The digital age has arrived. |
B.Sites give netizens useful experiences. |
C.People find it helpful to apply modern technology. |
D.Social media are designed to attract public attention. |
A.Failing to use Facebook. |
B.Answering a call during shopping. |
C.Checking Facebook while driving. |
D.Reading text messages on reaching offices. |
A.Everybody has experienced FOMO. |
B.Digital technology may make us unhappier. |
C.Pursuing happiness is a sign of the digital age. |
D.People may unintentionally get addicted to technology. |
【推荐2】THE GLOBAL WASTE TRADE IS ESSENTIALLY BROKEN
Cut into hillside in northern Malaysia stands a large, open-air warehouse. This is a recycling factory, which opened last November. On a very hot afternoon in January, Shahid Ali was working his very first week on the job. He stood knee-deep in soggy, white bits of plastic. Around him, more bits floated of the conveyor belt and fell to the ground like snowflakes.
Hour after hour, Ali sorts through the plastic jumble moving down the belt, picking out pieces that look off-color or soiled-rejects (废品) in the recycling process. Though it looks like backbreaking work, Ali says it is a great improvement over his previous job, folding bed-sheets in a nearby textile factory, for much lower pay. Now, if he eats simply, he can save money from his wages of just over $l an hour and send $250 a month to his parents and six brothers and sisters in Peshawar, Pakistan, 2,700 miles away, “As soon as I heard about this work, I asked for a job,” says Ali, 24, a bearded man with glasses and an easy smile. Still, he’s working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. “If I take a day off, I lose a day’s wages,” he says.
In the warehouse, hundreds of bags are stacked more than 60 feet high-each stuffed with plastic wrappers and bags thrown away weeks earlier by their original users in California. The fact that the waste has traveled to this distant corner of the planet in the first place shows how badly the global recycling economy has failed to keep pace with humanity’s plastics addiction. This is an ecosystem that is deeply dysfunctional, if not on the point of collapse: About 90% of the millions of tons of plastic the world produces every year will eventually end up not recycled, but burned, buried, or dumped.
Plastic recycling enjoys ever-wider support among consumers: Putting yogurt containers and juice bottles in a blue bin is an eco-friendly act of faith in millions of households. But faith goes only so far. The tidal wave of plastic items that enters the recycling stream each year is increasingly likely to fall right back out again, casualties of a broken market. Many products that consumers believe (and industries claim) are “recyclable" are in reality not, because of hard economics. With oil and gas prices near 20-year lows, so-called virgin plastic, a product of petroleum feed-stocks, is now far cheaper and easier to obtain than recycled material. That unforeseen shift has yanked the financial rug out from under what was until recently a practical recycling industry. “The global waste trade is essentially broken,” says the head of the global plastics campaign at Greenpeace. “We are sitting on vast amounts of plastic with nowhere to send it and nothing to do with it.”
1. What is the author’s attitude towards Shahid Ali?A.Critical. | B.Merciless. | C.Indifferent. | D.Sympathetic. |
A.The prices of oil and gas have been increasing. |
B.Tons of wastes travel so far before being recycled. |
C.Recyclable products are not really recycled. |
D.Governments don’t support the recycling industry. |
A.Out of stock. | B.Far from pleased. | C.Full of energy. | D.Out of order. |
A.To illustrate how plastic waste has been recycled in the world. |
B.To warn people that the global waste trade is essentially broken. |
C.To analyze the relationship between consumers and factories. |
D.To solve the conflict between the recycling industry and governments. |
Is it possible that the sinking of the Titanic was caused by a ghost? A plot of the story below is true ... but did it really happen quite like this?
Our story begins not in the icy cold waters of the North Atlantic, but rather thousands of miles away in Egypt. It is here, perhaps, that we can find the start of the mystery (谜) of the Titanic, in the year 1910, in the great city of Cairo.
One day, a famous professor of Egyptian history called Douglas Murray was staying in Cairo, when he was contacted by an American adventurer.
The American had something unusual to offer Murray, something that was certain to thrill him: a beautiful ancient Egyptian mummy case, containing the mummy of an Egyptian queen. It was over 3,000 years old, but in beautiful condition — gold, with bright paintings on it. Murray was delighted with both the object and the askingprice. He gave the man a cheque immediately.
The cheque was never cashed. That evening the American adventurer died. For his part, Murray arranged to have the treasure sent back to Britain. However, it was not long before he learnt more about the beautiful mummy case: On the walls of the tomb in which it had been discovered, there were messages which warned of terrible consequences to anyone who broke into the tomb. Murray was disbelieving of these warnings until a few days later, when a gun he was holding exploded in his hand, shattering his arm. The arm had to be cut off.
After the accident, Murray decided to return to his homeland. On the return journey, two of his companions died mysteriously, and two servants who had handled the mummy also passed away. The nowterrified Murray decided he would get rid of the cursed case as soon as he arrived in London. A lady he knew named Janet Jones said she would like it, so he gave it to her. Shortly afterwards, Jones' mother died, and she herself caught a strange disease. She tried returning the mummy, but naturally Murray refused it. In the end, it was presented to the British Museum.
Even in the museum, the mummy apparently continued to cause strange events. A museum photographer died shortly after taking pictures of the new exhibit, and a manager also died for no apparent reason. In the end, the British Museum decided to get rid of the mummy too. They sold it to a collector in New York.
At the start of April 1912, arrangements for the transfer were complete, and the mummy began the journey to its new home. But the New Yorker never received the mummy or its case. For when the Titanic sank, one of the objects in its strongroom was the mummy case. Or so they say.
1. In Paragraph 5, the underlined word “cursed” is closest in meaning to ________.
A.forgotten | B.uncommon |
C.expensive | D.unlucky |
a.The case was given to the British Museum.
b.Janet Jones caught a mysterious illness.
c.Murray's arm was cut off.
d.The mummy case was sold to an American.
e.A man who took a picture of the case died.
f.Warnings were written on the tomb's walls.
A.f,c,b,a,e,d | B.c,f,b,a,e,d |
C.d,f,b,c,a,e | D.f,a,c,b,e,d |
A.At the British Museum. | B.In New York. |
C.In Egypt. | D.Under the sea. |
A.To entertain readers with a story of mystery. |
B.To introduce an important historical event to readers. |
C.To warn readers about the dangers of mummies' curses. |
D.To inform readers about the true cause of the Titanic's sinking. |