A hollow (空洞) halfway up a tree might seem like a strange place to look for a water-loving animal, but the results of a new survey have showed that common toads (蟾蜍) in the U. K. are skillful tree climbers. The surprising discovery was made by researchers from the University of Cambridge, working with Froglife, a charity devoted to amphibians(animals such as frogs and toads that divide their time between being on land and in water).
The team looked at reports from volunteers who were studying special nest boxes as part of the National Dormouse (睡鼠) Monitoring Program and the Bat Tree habitat Key project. “We couldn’t believe what we found,” said Nida Alfulaij, a scientist who supported the work. “We’re used to discovering woodland birds and other small mammals in nest boxes, but we hadn’t considered finding amphibians in them.” More than 50 common toads were found in very unexpected places: in parts of trees that are usually used by bats, in nest boxes designed for dormice, and even in old birds’ nests. That’s such a surprisingly high number that the researchers think tree-climbing must be a common toad habit—it’s just never been noticed before.
The researchers say this shows how sharing data between surveys with different aims can lead to new discoveries—even about species that experts believe they know well. Through the discoveries the researchers also have a clear understanding of how important tree hollows, cracks and holes are to all sorts of animals. It’s still unclear how easy the toads find it to climb—they were spotted up to 3 meters high in trees but this was as far up as the volunteers were looking, so they could be going even higher.
Why do the kind of toads climb the trees? The researchers have some guesses, such as looking for food, hiding from hunters or avoiding pests such as the toad fly. It is still a puzzle.
1. What do we know about the new study?| A．It relied on the early studies of the team. |
| B．It came as no surprise to the researchers. |
| C．It resulted from the data of other surveys. |
| D．It proves what experts have known before. |
| A．Trees are believed to be toads’ best place to live in. |
| B．They climb trees to keep bats and dormice company. |
| C．The proper number of toads living together is 50 or so. |
| D．The toads may have formed the habit of climbing before. |
| A．Other living habits. |
| B．The reasons for climbing. |
| C．The ways to avoid pests. |
| D．More examples of the finding. |
| A．A science journal about biology. |
| B．A paper about the habitats of birds. |
| C．A fiction about amphibians animals. |
| D．A course about the significance of trees. |
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【推荐1】It’s easy to think that the globe’s vast oceans would be effective barriers to the movement of land animals. An elephant can’t swim across the Pacific, after all. But it turns out that plenty of plants and animals have unintentionally floated across oceans from one continent to another. Now comes evidence that tiny, trapdoor spiders (蜘蛛) made such a journey millions of years ago.
Moggridgea rainbowi spiders can be found on Kangaroo Island, which sits off the south coast of Australia. These spiders build a silk-lined hole in the ground, notes Sophie Harrison, a biologist in Australia. The hole and trapdoor provide these spiders with shelter and protection. It also provides them an out-of-sight spot from which to wait for approaching creatures.
There is evidence, though, that the ancestors of them might have traveled millions of meters to get to Australia from Africa. That isn’t as unlikely as it might at first seem. Australia used to be connected to other continents, long ago, as part of a supercontinent called Gondwana. And humans have been known to transport species all over the planet. But there’s a third option. The spiders might have rafted (乘筏) long distances across the sea.
To figure out which story was most likely true, Harrison and her colleagues looked at the spider’s genes. They looked at the genes in seven Moggridgea rainbowi spiders from Kangaroo, and five species of Moggridgea spiders from South Africa. The Australian and African spiders split off from a common ancestor some 2 million to 16 million years ago, the genes showed.
If a large swatch of land washes into the sea, filled with arachnids (蛛形纲动物), the spiders may be able to hide themselves throughout the journey. Plus, they can “hold their breath” and survive on stored oxygen during periods of temporary flooding, the researchers note.
1. What is the common belief about land animals according to the text?| A．They are sensitive to natural disasters. |
| B．They are unlikely to move across oceans. |
| C．They can’t make a long ocean voyage. |
| D．They float across oceans accidentally. |
| A．Biologists. | B．Australians. |
| C．The spiders. | D．The creatures. |
| A．By comparing their genes. |
| B．By observing their living habits. |
| C．By making changes to their genes. |
| D．By studying their physical characteristics. |
| A．These Spiders Traveled Globally to Hide Themselves |
| B．These Spiders Became More Adaptive When Traveling |
| C．These Spiders Crossed an Ocean to Australia for Survival |
| D．These Spiders Crossed an Ocean to Become Australians naturally |
【推荐2】The climate crisis may lead the human race to decrease in size, as mammals (哺乳动物) with smaller bodies appear better able to deal with rising global temperatures, a leading fossil expert said.
Prof Steve Brusatte, a palaeontologist (古生物学家) at the University of Edinburgh, suggested that the way in which other mammals have previously responded to periods of climate change could offer an insight into humans’ future.
He compared the potential situation of people as similar to that of early horses, which became smaller in body size as temperatures rose around 55m years ago, a period called the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum.
Writing in The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, Brusatte notes that animals in warmer parts of the world today are often smaller than those in colder areas, an ecological principle known as Bergmann’s rule. “The reasons are not entirely understood, but it is probably, in part, because smaller animals have a higher surface area compared to their size than bigger animals and can thus better get rid of extra heat” he writes.
Brusatte said that becoming smaller was “a common way that mammals deal with climate change”. He added, “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 spike pretty quickly, which does raise the question: if temperatures do spike really quickly, might humans dwarf, might humans get smaller? And I think that’s certainly convincing.”
In a recent study, researchers studying human remains over the past million years have also suggested that temperature is a major predictor of body size variation, 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 decease. Prof Adrian Lister, of the Natural History Museum in London, said the relationship shown by the recent human remains study is weak, while the strong relationship between temperature and mammal body size may often result from the availability of food and resources.
Lister doubts whether humans will shrink as the climate heats. “We are not really controlled by natural selection,” he said. “If that was going to happen, you’d need to find large people dying before they could reproduce because of climate warming. That is not happening in today’s world. We wear clothes, we have got heating, we have got air conditioning if it is too hot.”
1. According to the passage, the early horses got smaller in body size .| A．to keep cool | B．to save food |
| C．to keep warm | D．to avoid being killed |
| A．Rise | B．Drop | C．Balance | D．Change |
| A．Every species of mammal would get smaller as the temperature goes up. |
| B．Animals in warmer areas are definitely smaller than those in colder areas. |
| C．Smaller animals have a higher surface area and so they can cool down quickly. |
| D．The change of Mammals’ body size is closely related to their food and other resources. |
| A．Climate Change Causes Natural Disasters. | B．Climate Change Leads to Heated Discussions. |
| C．Climate Change Causes Changes in Body Size. | D．Climate Change Leads to Changed Lifestyle. |
【推荐3】Dolphins are universally regarded as some of the cleverest creatures in the world. In captivity(圈养), they can be trained to complete complex tasks such as jumping through hoops and somersaulting through the air.
But their intelligence doesn’t stop there. In a recent study of cetaceans(鲸目动物)—a group of animals that includes dolphins and whales—researchers created a list of intelligent behaviors observed in 90 different cetacean species, reported the Guardian. For example, the smartest cetaceans hunt in groups, share knowledge through mimicry(模仿) and even care for each other’s children. Some even consider their behavior to be human-like.
“There is the saying that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ seems to be true for both whales and humans,” Michael Muthukrishna of the London School of Economics, co-author of the study, told the Guardian.
However, cetaceans don’t just use their brain power for survival. The study suggests that dolphins might even gossip. That’s because some species greet each other with specific whistles, just as humans greet each other by name, the Guardian reported. Sometimes, a group of dolphins whistles the “name” of a dolphin that isn’t there. Could they be speaking about their “friend” behind its back?
For the researchers, dolphin small talk is a big deal. As they found that the most social cetaceans also have the largest brains, they argue that cetacean intelligence developed to meet the demands of complex social groups.
Known as the “cultural brain hypothesis(假设),” it had only been used to explain the intelligence of humans and other primates(灵长目动物). The new study aimed to find a common pathway for the evolution of intelligence among biologically different species.
“It is interesting to think that whale and human brains are different in their structure but have brought us to the same patterns in behavior,” Luke Rendell, a biologist at the University of St Andrews, told the Guardian.
Indeed, we still have a lot to learn about our intelligent ocean-dwelling neighbors. “We don’t have to look at other planets to look for aliens,” Muthukrishna told the Guardian, “because we know that underwater there are these amazing species with so many parallels to us in their complex behaviors.”
1. The possible meaning of the underlined word “gossip” in Para. 4 is ________.| A．singing | B．chatting | C．greeting | D．arguing |
| A．learn more about intelligent creatures of the sea |
| B．explain the intelligence of humans and cetaceans |
| C．create a list of intelligent behaviors of different cetacean species |
| D．see whether the intelligence of different species evolved in the same way |
| A．some cetaceans have the same intelligence as human beings |
| B．it is unnecessary to look for aliens and do research into them |
| C．both dolphins and whales greet each other with specific whistles |
| D．both dolphins and whales have a lot in common with humans in behaviors |
| A．Aliens living underwater |
| B．A study of intelligent dolphins |
| C．Intelligent creatures of the sea |
| D．Reasons for the intelligence of sea creatures |
【推荐1】Children born in 2020 will experience extreme climate events at a rate that is two to seven ties higher than people born in 1960, according to a new study in the journal Science.
With the current rate of global warming and national policies that fail to make necessary cut in pollution, climate events such as heat waves will continue to rise, scientists say. That leaves children of younger generations facing “a severe threat” to their safety, according to the study’s authors.
The study researched extreme climate events such as heat waves, droughts, crop failures, floods and wildfires. Researchers used recent data from a 2021 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report that included information on global life expectancy (寿命), population trends and possible changes of global temperatures.
The forecasts for how these events could completely affect younger generations were rather surprising. The scientists compared a person born in 1960 with a child who was 6 years old in 2020. The 6-year-old will experience twice as many typhoons and wildfires, three times as many river floods, four times as many crop failures and five times as many droughts. Heat waves, though, will be the most extreme climate event, with 36 times as many occurring for the 6-year-old.
The study also shows that extreme weather events could affect younger generations in various places of the world differently. People who were younger than 25 years old by 2020 in the Middle East and North Africa will likely experience more exposure (暴露) to extreme climate events compared with other places. The researchers say overall, younger generations in lower-income countries will experience the worsening climate at a higher rate than those in wealthier countries.
The data from the study shows how limiting the increase in global warming and adapting the Paris climate accord (协议) are beneficial, the researchers argue. But even then, younger generations are still left “extreme event exposure that never happen before,” they write.
1. What does “a severe threat” in Para 2 probably mean?| A．An unexpected event. | B．A tough struggle. |
| C．An urgent action. | D．A serious danger. |
| A．Younger generations in lower-income nations will be most affected. |
| B．Young people under 25 are less likely to experience extreme climate events. |
| C．Climate in lower-income countries will be worse than that in wealthier countries. |
| D．Extreme climate will definitely destroy the life of people in lower-income countries. |
| A．Fighting global warming at any cost. |
| B．Making use of energy resources without limitation. |
| C．Adapting international policies concerning climate. |
| D．Letting go of the development of lower-income countries. |
【推荐2】According to Gallup’s annual Global Emotions report, people all over the world are more stressed than ever before. Nearly 40 percent of adults from 146 countries reported having experienced worry or stress. And it isn’t just adults experiencing these high stress levels; experts have also observed a rise in the number of children and youth. According to another study published in EurekAlert, one in five students are so stressed that they’ve considered self-harm or suicide. The immense stress they face has been proven to be harmful to their health.
It’s no news that stress can trigger anxiety, depression and self-harming behaviors, and cause sleep problems, social withdrawal, angry outbursts and obsessive-compulsive behaviors. We are moving towards a society where an increasing number of us face mental health problems that stem from high stress levels. If stress increases rapidly, how can we fight it?
It might sound easier said than done but studies have shown that the best way to deal with stress is to change your perception(认识) of it.
The University of Wisconsin conducted a study of 30,000 Americans. Researchers asked them how much stress they’d experienced in the past year and whether they believed stress was harming their health. The researchers concluded that people in the study who were exposed to large amounts of stress and viewed stress as harmful had 43 percent higher risk of dying than people who viewed stress as a helpful response.
More interestingly, those with more positive perceptions of stress had the lowest risk of death out of all involved in the study, even lower than those experiencing very little stress.
A separate study conducted by researchers from King’s College London and the University of Marburg showed students with more negative beliefs about stress experienced more physical symptoms, such as headaches, tension and tiredness during a stressful end-of-semester exam period, compared with students who had more positive beliefs about stress.
These two studies have proven that stress itself is not actually bad. It is the belief that stress is bad that is bad.
1. According to the passage, we can learn that ________.| A．more and more people suffer from higher stress levels |
| B．one in five adults in America has considered self-harm |
| C．30,000 children have experienced stress in the past year |
| D．youth are more likely to believe stress is helpful than adults |
| A．stress generally benefits us |
| B．stress leads to a higher risk of death |
| C．people under stress often perform better |
| D．optimism cuts the risk of stress-related death |
| A．put forward a new idea | B．support the above findings |
| C．compare different findings | D．argue against the above point |
| A．Stress Affects People of All Ages |
| B．We Are Winning the Battle against Stress |
| C．Stress Damages Your Health if You Think So |
| D．Negative Beliefs about Stress Cause Tension |
【推荐3】One of the ocean’s noisiest creatures is smaller than you’d expect-snapping shrimp (鼓虾). They create a widespread background noise in the underwater environment, which helps them communicate, defend territories and hunt for food. When enough shrimp snap (发出劈啪声) at once, the noise can dominate the soundscape of coastal waters.
Aran Mooney, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, suggested that with increased ocean temperatures, snapping shrimp will snap more often and louder than before. This could raise the background noise of the global ocean. “They make a sound by closing a claw so fast. This makes a bubble (泡泡) and when that bubble explodes, it makes that snapping sound,” said Mooney.
Mooney detected a strong relationship between warmer waters and deafening, more frequent snapping shrimp sounds after experimenting with the shrimp in tanks in the lab and by listening to the shrimp in the ocean at various water temperatures. “As the temperature rises, the snap rate increases,” he said. This makes sense because shrimp are essentially cold-blooded animals, meaning their body temperature and activity levels are largely controlled by their living environment. “We can actually show in the field that not only do snap rates increase, but the sound levels increase as well.”
How the louder snapping shrimp would bother or benefit the surroundings remained to be seen. “We know that fish use sound to communicate,” Mooney said. “If the environment gets noisy, it has the potential to influence that communication. That’s something we have to follow up on.” There is also the possibility that the change of snapping shrimp disturbs instruments humans use to detect mines, which could have implications for national defense.
1. What can we know about the snapping shrimp’s sound?| A．It has multiple uses. | B．It is vital to the ecosystem. |
| C．It is hard to be detected. | D．It aims to protect the shrimp. |
| A．By observing snapping shrimp in the field. |
| B．By recording the snap rates in the lab. |
| C．By analyzing the way shrimp make noise. |
| D．By comparing shrimp’s sound in different places. |
| A．Applications of shrimp’s sound. |
| B．Impacts of the noise on other creatures. |
| C．Means of communication among fish. |
| D．Methods of preventing shrimp’s snapping. |
| A．Underwater World Is No Longer Quiet |
| B．Small Animals Make a Big Difference |
| C．Warming Oceans Are Getting Louder |
| D．Snapping Shrimp’s Noise Speaks Much |
【推荐1】The royal family is filled with rules, and one in particular might explain why Princess Charlotte is a princess, but her kids likely won't be.
When it comes to the British royal family, one thing is almost always true: they have a pretty confusing set of official rules and protocols. For instance, the royal family doesn't have a last name. And don't forget the fact that Queen Elizabeth celebrates two birthdays every year.
If your head isn't swimming yet, consider the tradition of royal titles. As a British custom, only the daughter of a prince or a prince's wife may be considered a formal “princess”. The latter applies to Kate, who is both a princess and the Duchess of Cambridge thanks to her marriage to Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge. And their children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte, also bear official royal titles because their father is Prince William.
However, while Prince George's future children will also carry their father's royal status, any children that Princess Charlotte has will not automatically be considered princes or princesses. Why? Royal custom dictates that royal titles are passed down via sons, but not daughters.
However, while Prince George's future children will also carry their father's royal status, any children that Princess Charlotte has will not automatically be considered princes or princesses. Why? Royal custom dictates that royal titles are passed down via sons, but not daughters.
"Royal titles are inherited through sons, so if Princess Charlotte has children they would not automatically inherit the titles (his or her royal highness) HRH, Prince, or Princess,” Lucy Hume, associate director of etiquette experts Debrett's, told Town& Country.
Of course, exceptions can (and will!) be made. (Learn about every time the British royal family broke their own protocol.) The Queen has offered HRH status to other royal offspring in the past, including the children of Queen Elizabeth's daughter, Anne. Although Princess Anne and her husband, Captain Phillips, declined, perhaps Princess Charlotte will be extended the same offer when her own children are born.
1. What's the meaning of the underlined word "protocol" in the second paragraph?| A．Promise. | B．Behavior. | C．Manners. | D．Connection. |
| A．The son of a princess. | B．The daughter of a prince. |
| C．The daughter of a princess. | D．The wife of a king. |
| A．Prince George. | B．Elizabeth. | C．Prince William. | D．Captain Philips. |
| A．Any person can break traditional rules. |
| B．Not every person must obey traditional rules. |
| C．Any British royal family member has their own title. |
| D．Maybe the British royal family will break their own rules. |
【推荐2】If you’ve ever started a sentence with, “If I were you...” or found yourself scratching your head at a colleague’s headache over a decision when the answer is clear, there’s a scientific reason behind it. Our own decision-making abilities can become declined over the course of the day causing indecision or poor choices, but choosing on behalf of someone else is an enjoyable task that doesn’t suffer the same trouble.
The problem is “decision fatigue”, a psychological phenomenon that greatly damages the quality of your choices after a long day of decision making says Evan Polman, a leading psychologist.
Physicians who have been on the job for several hours, for example, are more likely to prescribe antibiotics (抗生素) to patients when it’s unwise to do so. “Presumably it’s because it’s simple and easy to write a prescription and consider a patient case closed rather than investigate further,” Polman says.
But decision fatigue goes away when you are making the decision for someone else. When people imagine themselves as advisers and imagine their own choices as belonging to someone else, they feel less tired and rely less on decision shortcuts to make those choices. “By taking upon the role of adviser rather than decision maker, one does not suffer the consequences of decision fatigue,” he says. “It’s as if there’s something fun and liberating about making someone else’s choice.”
Getting input from others not only offers a fresh perspective and thought process; it often also includes riskier choices. While this sounds undesirable, it can be quite good, says Polman. “When people experience decision fatigue — when they are tired of making choices — they have a tendency to choose to go with the status quo,” he says. “But it can be problematic, since a change in the course of action can sometimes be important and lead to a positive outcome.”
1. What does the author say about people making decisions?| A．They become less efficient in making decisions as the day progresses. |
| B．They show considerable variations in their decision-making competence. |
| C．They are more cautious in making decisions for others than for themselves. |
| D．They are more likely to make decisions in the way advantageous to themselves. |
| A．To explain a principle. | B．To indicate a fact. |
| C．To clarify a concept. | D．To illustrate a prediction. |
| A．The shortcuts to decision-making. |
| B．The consequences of decision fatigue. |
| C．The process of being a decision maker. |
| D．The psychology of making decisions for others. |
| A．The decision fatigue. | B．The existing situation. |
| C．The different choice. | D．The positive outcome. |
【推荐3】A special copyright (版权) case has recently drawn attention because is it related to artificial intelligence (人工智能，简称AI). A court in Shenzhen ruled that a news report written by Tencent’s AI enjoys copyright protection. A website broke the law because it used the article without permission.
This is the first case in China that has provided copyright protection to work done by AI. But what does it indicate? Will AI take the place of creative workers in the future?
Probably not. AI is not yet able to write creative stories. The news report mentioned above is mainly about data. Since AI is good at processing (处理) data, it is often used to write financial (金融的) reports. Some newspapers also use AI to report on stories about natural disasters, which mainly require basic facts such as “where” and “when”. As Forbes wrote, instead of losing their jobs, journalists can make their work more efficient by using AI so that they can focus more on storytelling and less on numbers.
AI is actually being helpful in many creative fields. For example, Wayne McGregor, a British choreographer (编舞者), whose job is to arrange how dancers should move during a performance, is famous for using AI to create new dances. For him, AI is a powerful tool that can help choreographers break out of common movements. McGregor is not worried that AI might replace human artists. “AI can’t judge the quality of the dance design,” he said.
“It’s time to stop worrying about whether AI can be creative,” according to Forbes. Instead, we should focus on how humans and AI can work together in ways that we have never dreamed of before.
1. According to the copyright case related to AI, we know that ________.| A．AI can also break the law |
| B．news stories cannot be written by AI |
| C．articles written by AI also have copyright protection |
| D．AI can copy others’ articles without permission |
| A．Romantic stories. | B．Earthquake reports. | C．Horror stories. | D．Public speeches. |
| A．AI helps him do creative work | B．AI can create new dances by itself |
| C．AI might replace human artists | D．AI can teach people how to dance |
| A．Many jobs will disappear due to AI. | B．We should make laws against AI. |
| C．AI is difficult to use. | D．We should work together with AI. |
