Have you ever had a chat with an animal? Many pet owners talk to their animals. But how much do the pets really understand? Dogs respond (回应) when we say, “Sit,” or “Stay.” Studies have shown that dogs really do understand human speech. This isn’t unique to our dog friends! Pigs, chimpanzees, and elephants all understand some human language.
Some animals are very good at communication. They understand humans better than other animals do. A bird named Alex knew 150 words and spoke in full sentences. Chaser, a sheepdog in South Carolina, knew all the names of her 1,022 toys. She would go and get whichever one she was asked to! The most famous example is Koko, a western lowland gorilla (大猩猩) who knew sign language.
Koko was born at the San Francisco Zoo on the 4th of July in 1971. The zoo named her Hanabiko and her caretakers called her “Koko” for short. Koko began learning American Sign Language after her first birthday from a psychologist (心理学家) named Francine “Penny” Patterson. With Patterson’s help, Koko learned 2,000 words!
Koko was very friendly. She enjoyed talking with most humans. Everyone who met her could tell she was smart. What really made Koko different, though, was her personality. Koko didn’t just communicate her needs—she also told jokes and played tricks on (捉弄) her trainers.
Koko could even use a camera. She loved to take selfies! National Geographic made one of Koko’s selfies its cover photo in 1978. The picture was one she took of herself in the mirror (镜子). Koko was on the cover of National Geographic again in 1985. In that picture, she held her cat, whom she named “All Ball”. Koko’s love for All Ball touched people around the world. She raised three cats during her life.
Koko was proud to be a gorilla. When asked to describe herself, she said she was a “fine animal gorilla”. Koko taught us a lot about animals’ brains. Because of her, scientists now think other animals might be able to understand us.
1. What does the underlined word “unique” in paragraph 1 most probably mean?| A．Easy. | B．Helpful. | C．Possible. | D．Special. |
| A．By giving examples. | B．By providing explanations. |
| C．By setting down general rules. | D．By presenting research findings. |
| A．She enjoyed looking in the mirror. | B．She kept four cats during her life. |
| C．She met Patterson at the age of one. | D．She began learning words in 1971. |
| A．Smart and brave. | B．Humorous and caring. |
| C．Honest and friendly. | D．Popular and patient. |
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【推荐1】I work with Volunteers for Wildlife, a rescue and education organization at Bailey Arboretum in Locust Valley. Trying to help injured, displaced or sick creatures can be heartbreaking; survival is never certain. However, when it works, it is simply beautiful.
I got a rescue call from a woman in Muttontown. She had found a young owl(猫头鹰) on the ground. When I arrived, I saw a 2-to 3-week-old owl. It had already been placed in a carrier for safety.
I examined the chick(雏鸟) and it seemed fine. If I could locate the nest, I might have been able to put it back, but no luck. My next work was to construct a nest and anchor it in a tree.
The homeowner was very helpful. A wire basket was found. I put some pine branches into the basket to make this nest safe and comfortable. I placed the chick in the nest, and it quickly calmed down.
Now all that was needed were the parents, but they were absent. I gave the homeowner a recording of the hunger screams of owl chicks. These advertise the presence of chicks to adults; they might also encourage our chick to start calling as well. I gave the owner as much information as possible and headed home to see what news the night might bring.
A nervous night to be sure, but sometimes the spirits of nature smile on us all! The homeowner called to say that the parents had responded to the recordings. I drove over and saw the chick in the nest looking healthy and active. And it was accompanied in the nest by the greatest sight of all-LUNCH! The parents had done their duty and would probably continue to do so.
1. What is unavoidable in the author's rescue work according to paragraph 1?| A．Efforts made in vain. |
| B．Getting injured in his work. |
| C．Feeling uncertain about his future. |
| D．Creatures forced out of their homes. |
| A．To rescue a woman. |
| B．To take care of a woman. |
| C．To look at a baby owl. |
| D．To cure a young owl. |
| A．A new nest. | B．Some food. |
| C．A recording. | D．Its parents. |
【推荐2】Stress often occurs when humans have too much work or are in immediate danger. We communicate our stress to others through our behavior and physiological changes. Thus, stress can communicate information and even be useful for survival in certain situations. On the other hand, the massive spread of stress frequently leads to dangerous situations in groups, such as mass panic.
However, not only humans, but also animals can experience and spread stress. This is the present research focus of Dr Hanja Brand l from the University of Konstanz.
“It has been repeatedly shown that stress can be spread from one human to another,” Brand l says. “Often, a similarly strong physiological response is triggered, even though you have never experienced the stress yourself.” But what is known about stress among animals? Brand l concludes other animals in the group can be just as stressed as the friend who experienced something bad. Stress is evolutionarily deeply rooted and the process is similar in all vertebrates (脊椎动物).
When are animals stressed? To be mentioned primarily are naturally occurring threats to which they are exposed, such as natural enemies. Human influences raise the level of stress. “Increasing changes in the habitat or noise and light pollution also have an impact as these massively influence the environment of the animals.” Brand l explains. “Animals are flexible and can adapt to situations. But at some point, the stress response—the adaptations that otherwise help animals better escape stressors like enemies—no longer gives them a survival advantage,” she adds.
This not only endangers the animals’ health, but also changes the social structure of groups. “If we know how the underlying mechanisms (机制) work, we can better protect animals,” says Brandl.
For humans, too, insights from the animal world are useful, she says. “With humans, we can’t measure the functionality of groups under stress well in natural scenes.” Therefore, Brandl is now continuing her studies. In the future, this will make it easier to respond to and help with the spread of stress in groups of people.
1. What can we learn about stress from paragraph 1?| A．Stress is both good and bad. |
| B．Group living. can easily cause stress. |
| C．Each individual reacts differently to stressful situations. |
| D．Poor communication is one of the biggest causes of stress. |
| A．Ignored. | B．Eased. | C．Caused. | D．Transformed. |
| A．Supply food to them. |
| B．Make them live in groups. |
| C．Protect their habitat from being destroyed. |
| D．Provide opportunities for them to practice their survival skills. |
| A．A pet magazine. | B．A news website. |
| C．A book review. | D．A technical forum. |
【推荐3】Winter begins in the north on December 22nd. People and animals have been doing what they always do to prepare for the colder months. Squirrels (松鼠), for example, have been busy gathering nuts from trees. Well, scientists have been busy gathering information about what the squirrels do with the food they collect.
They examined differences between red squirrels and gray squirrels in the American state of Indiana. The scientists wanted to know how these differences could affect the growth of black walnut (黑胡桃) trees. The black walnut is the nut of choice for both kinds of squirrels. The black walnut tree is also a central part of some hardwood forests.
Rob Swihart of Purdue University did the study with Jake Goheen, a former Purdue student now at the University of New Mexico. The two researchers estimate that several times as many walnuts grow when gathered by gray squirrels as compared to red squirrels. Gray squirrels and red squirrels do not store nuts and seeds in the same way. Gray squirrels bury nuts one at a time in a number of places. But they seldom remember where they buried every nut. So some nuts remain in the ground. Conditions are right for them to develop and grow the following spring. Red squirrels, however, store large groups of nuts above ground. Professor Swihart calls “death traps for seeds”.
Gray squirrels are native to Indiana. But Professor Swihart says their numbers began to decrease as more forests were cut for agriculture. Red squirrels began to spread through the state during the past century.
The researchers say red squirrels are native to forests that stay green all year, unlike walnut trees. They say the cleaning of forest land for agriculture has helped red squirrels invade Indiana. Jake Goheen calls them a sign of an environmental problem more than a cause.
1. The study done by Rob Swihart and Jake Goheen is to ________.| A．find out the living conditions for squirrels |
| B．learn squirrels’ influence on black walnut trees |
| C．do something to get rid of squirrels |
| D．save the forests in the American state of Indiana |
| A．the way they gather the walnut |
| B．the time they have winter sleep |
| C．the place they have winter sleep |
| D．the place they store the walnuts |
| A．red squirrels eat more nuts than gray squirrels |
| B．gray squirrels and red squirrels will have severe fights |
| C．nuts above the ground will not develop into plants |
| D．seeds can be traps for other animals in the forest |
| A．The black walnut is equally attractive to both gray and red squirrels. |
| B．Gray squirrels do more harm to the forest than red squirrels. |
| C．Red squirrels and gray squirrels have helped the spread of walnut trees. |
| D．The cleaning of forest land benefits red squirrels directly. |
【推荐1】There have been big changes in the attitudes of most parents over the last few years.Physical punishment is banned in schools in most countries, and in many countries there are moves to ban all physical punishment of children even at home. However, many parents still believe that they have the right to use some physical punishment to deal with certain misbehavior at certain ages.
It's easy to find reasons to allow some physical punishments. One is that many parents find it very difficult to abandon physical punishment completely. Parents argue that this was the way they were brought up and that it did not do any harm to them. They believe that for the child's sake they have the right to discipline the child in any way they consider fit, including using some physical punishments.The other one is that physical punishment can be quick and effective.There is not much point reasoning with a screaming child in the supermarket.
However, there are several reasons why we should stop using physical punishment. One point is that most parents are not trained to deal with misbehaving children. They don't have enough resources or choices to handle the situation.As a result, they immediately react by hitting the child even if there are other solutions to the problem. Another point is that unless people are challenged or forced to change their belief, they may keep following negative habits. An example is seat belt use.Now most people wear seat belts without thinking, while years ago the idea of using seat belts was strange to most people. In the same way, banning physical punishment will force people to change their habit.
In conclusion, parents have to change some of their belief and ideas about how children should be raised.It's possible to avoid the use of physical force, and doing so will help us move closer to the dream of removing violence from our society.
1. According to the first paragraph, many parents think that .| A．physical punishment is effective to educate their children |
| B．they have changed their attitudes over the past few years |
| C．they are allowed to use physical punishment on their children |
| D．most of the children behave badly in their daily life |
| A．they were raised just in the same way |
| B．they don't have enough resources or choices to handle the situation |
| C．they don't want to hurt their children badly |
| D．they are disappointed with their children |
| A．it's not difficult to change some negative habits |
| B．seat belts are really necessary and essential |
| C．most people are accustomed to wearing seat belts |
| D．people won't change their old habits unless forced |
| A．talk about a ban on using physical punishment |
| B．advise parents to give up using physical punishment |
| C．tell us we should educate our children in other ways |
| D．suggest physical punishment shouldn't be used at school |
【推荐2】China’s second national botanical (植物学的) garden, South China National Botanical Garden, was set up in Guangzhou on July 11th,2022.
With a total of 319 hectares of core functional area planned, the new national botanical garden was built based on South China Botanical Garden. It spans Guangzhou and Zhaoqing, two cities in Guangdong Province, with over 280 hectares in Guangzhou and about 667 hectares in Zhaoqing. It is the largest subtropical botanical garden, enjoying the longest history. Also, the climate in Guangdong makes the garden home to thousands of plants, allowing it to have the largest number of plant species.
The South China National Botanical Garden aims to strengthen the conservation, scientific research and knowledge broadcasting of tropical (热带的) and subtropical plants. The garden has three research centers,two national-level field stations and three key laboratories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. There are 17,168 protected plants, 643 rare and endangered plants, and 337 national key wild protected plants in the garden at present.
The garden will participate in plant diversity protection both in China and the world and achieve the conservation goal of 20,000 species. Meanwhile, it aims to play a world-leading role in collection and storage of living plants, among which 6,000 species are economic plants.
Besides, 95 percent of rare and endangered plants in South China will be effectively protected, thus providing plant resources for green development.
China is one of the countries in the world with the richest biodiversity, having more than 37,000 known species of higher plants, accounting for about one tenth of the world’s total.
The South China National Botanical Garden, together with the national botanical garden in Beijing, has formed a system of collection and complete the retention of wild plant groups, which is helpful to maintain the country’s plant diversity.
1. What can be inferred about South China National Botanical Garden?| A．It is well equipped. |
| B．It only offers service for research. |
| C．It has become a popular tourist attraction. |
| D．It is the largest national botanical garden. |
| A．They are dying out sharply. |
| B．Most of them will be protected well. |
| C．They will be used to improve economic development. |
| D．Most of them are moved to botanical gardens. |
| A．Development. | B．Comparison. | C．Protection. | D．Improvement. |
| A．A Garden for Collecting and Studying Plants |
| B．A New Way to Strengthen Plant Conservation |
| C．China’s Various Environmental Protection |
| D．China’s Second National Botanical Garden |
【推荐3】Scientists have long struggled with how to measure the effects of climate change on wildlife. In the past, researchers depended mainly on information gathered by satellite to follow the movement of birds and animals. But this method can be costly and result in huge amounts of information, which can be difficult to process. Now scientists are turning to another kind of technology to help them follow birds and other wildlife.
Songbirds are especially difficult to study in the wild. They can fly across thousands of kilometers and their bodies are too small for electronic tracking devices. A new report tells about a project in which researchers recorded songbirds and then put the sounds into a computer program to be studied. The researchers created machine learning algorithms (算法) with the ability to focus on bird calls while ignoring other noises.
Birds are known to make more singing and calling noises after arriving in areas where they plan to mate. Spring is short in extreme northern areas of the American state of Alaska. There, the birds must mate and have their young before winter. The algorithm is designed to use the recordings to estimate when the birds arrive in large groups to begin mating.
A lead researcher on the project, Ruth Oliver from Columbia University in New York, said that she and others traveled to northern Alaska to put recording equipment in four different places. The equipment was used to make four half-hour recordings each day.
“There’s a lot of other noise in these recordings, such as that of wind and rain.” Oliver adds that the machine learning method is a valuable tool to help identify and process the most useful parts of the recordings.
Oliver says the unsupervised machine learning method could be retooled to use sounds to measure the movements of other wildlife. “This could allow us to track large-scale changes in how animals are responding to climate change,” she said.
Emily Jo Williams is a bird expert. She said she agrees that machine learning can provide scientists with valuable information about how climate changes are affecting animal populations. “We know from some research that some birds’ ranges have actually changed, and they’ve moved in response to what we think is a warming climate.”
Researchers have also created a machine learning system that they say uses artificial intelligence or AI to identify, count, and describe the behaviors of 48 animal species. Scientists said results showed AI can be used as an effective way to gather “a wealth of information” on huge numbers of animals in the wild.
1. What’s the weakness of using satellite information to study birds?| A．Some birds are too small to be equipped with tracking devices. |
| B．The birds covered too long a distance for the satellite to follow. |
| C．The amount of information collected is too large to process. |
| D．The amount of information collected is far from accurate. |
| A．To measure the effect of global warming on humans. |
| B．To preserve different species of songbirds in Alaska. |
| C．To test the practical value of Artificial Intelligence (AI). |
| D．To figure out the impact of climate change on wildlife. |
| A．Ambiguous. | B．Objective. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Tolerant. |
