In habitats across the planet, animals periodically drop everything to walk, fly or swim to a new place. Wildlife such as whales and geese learn migration paths by following their parents. Others, including small songbirds, gain the distance and direction of their migration within their genetic code. And some animals use a combination of genetics and culture to guide their migration.
Another group of migrators does not quite fit either model, and researchers have only recently started to figure out how they find their way. Take the Cory’s shearwater, an oceangoing sea bird that migrates over the Atlantic every year. The young do not migrate with their parents, so culture cannot explain their journeys. And the exact paths vary wildly from individual to individual, making genetics equally unlikely.
Cory’s shearwaters are long-lived, rarely producing young successfully before age nine. This leaves an opening for learning and practice to develop their migration patterns. Researchers call this the “exploration-refinement”, and until now it has been hypothetical (假设的) because of difficulties in tracking migratory animals’ movements.
But a team of researchers has done that by attaching small geolocators to more than 150 of the birds aged four to nine. They found that younger birds traveled longer distances, for longer periods, and had more diverse paths than older birds. “We finally have evidence of the ‘exploration-refinement’ for migratory birds,” says Letizia Campioni, who led the study. Younger Cory’s shearwaters are able to fly just as fast as the adults— but they do not, suggesting that the young do more exploring, which gradually fades as they mature and settle into a preferred course.
Although it may seem less efficient than other strategies, “exploration refinement could be beneficial to birds and other organisms (生物) in a rapidly changing world due to unpredictable man-made changes,” says Barbara Frei. “It might be safer to repeat a behavior that was recently successful than to rely on patterns that were perfected long ago but might no longer be safe.”
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?| A．It describes animals’ habitats. | B．It talks about migration models. |
| C．It compares different species. | D．It introduces a tracking technology. |
| A．The opening for learning and practice. |
| B．The unique living habit of Cory’s shearwaters. |
| C．The way Cory’s shearwaters form their migration patterns. |
| D．The process scientists track Cory’s shearwaters’ movements. |
| A．They travel as much as adult birds. | B．They move in a predictable manner. |
| C．They lower the speed for exploration. | D．They look for a course with their parents. |
| A．Man-made changes make migration easier. |
| B．Animals make a safer journey via a fixed track. |
| C．Course exploration contributes to birds’ adaptability. |
| D．A combination of strategies assures migration success. |
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【推荐1】From birds to bees and wolves to frogs, animals use numbers to hunt, find a mate, return to their home, and more—and researchers believe that this ability to process and represent numbers, known as numerical (数字的) competence, influences an animal’s chance of survival.
In a review published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, Andreas Nieder, a neurobiologist at the University of Tuebingen, Germany, suggests the capability to differentiate numbers has to have a strong survival benefit and reproduction (繁殖) benefit.
Honeybees, for instance, can remember the number of landmarks they pass when searching for food in order to find their way back to the hive (蜂房). Also, for example, male frogs sing “advertisement” calls to attract females. The females, listening for the complexity of their calls, choose the male that sings the most calls.
This can also be seen in animals choosing a larger amount of food over a small amount or in animals forming hunting groups. Wolves are more likely to hunt successfully if they have the right number of wolves in their pack for the size of their prey (猎物): with prey like deer, only around six to eight wolves are needed, while hunting wild ox requires a pack of nine to thirteen. Their prey also use this concept to protect themselves from wolves—deer tend to live in smaller herds, which rarely have encounters with wolves, or gather in large herds to reduce the chance of any individual becoming prey.
Despite these many examples of numerical competence in animals, this subject has not gotten many first-hand studies. “Many of these behavioral findings in the wild have usually been collected as by-products or accidental findings of other research questions,” says Nieder. He argues that more research needs to be done to fully understand the numerical competence.
1. How does the author mainly develop this text?| A．By listing figures. | B．By asking questions. |
| C．By making comparisons. | D．By giving examples. |
| A．It gives them more options to hunt. | B．It helps them form hunting groups. |
| C．It makes them discover more prey. | D．It offers them new skills to hunt. |
| A．Positive. | B．Ambiguous. |
| C．Doubtful. | D．Negative. |
| A．Animals Taught to Distinguish Numbers |
| B．Animals Learned Numbers to Survive |
| C．The Smartest Animals in Hunting and Reproduction |
| D．Animals’ Numerical Intelligence Affects their Survival |
【推荐2】A flock of wild mandarin ducks(鸳鸯) are the biggest draw in the West Lake scenic area in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, with tourists flocking from around the country to see them. However, some of the tourists have been feeding the ducks, even pulling them by the neck to force-feed them. On Monday, a video claiming that some of the ducks had died from over-feeding went viral on social networking sites.
Although there are prominent signboards warning people against feeding them, tourists just cannot hold back. Some even believe the ducks are underfed and they are doing them a favor, little realizing that their action can be detrimental to the birds' health.
Human food does not always go down well with ducks, particularly potato chips, as the oily snack can damage the health of mandarin ducks. However, tourists can frequently be seen feeding the ducks food that the birds cannot digest. Besides, feeding the ducks could stop them from competing in the wild to find their food. If they become dependent on food provided by humans, they will lose their survival skills. Also, by giving food to them, the tourists are polluting the environment. Especially, food thrown into the water could harm the ecosystem there.
However, the tourists know little about the harm they cause to the environment and there is a need to create awareness about it. Meanwhile, the number of mandarin ducks at West Lake has dropped from 336 last year to 260 this year. Maybe the declining numbers will wake the tourists up to this reality.
1. What is the main reason for the ducks' death in the West Lake according to the passage?| A．The ducks are fed with oily snacks. | B．The tourists fail to see the warning signs. |
| C．The tourists feed the ducks too much food. | D．The tourists kill the ducks by pulling their necks. |
| A．harmful. | B．sensitive. | C．vital. | D．beneficial. |
| A．Human food is not suitable for ducks to digest. |
| B．Food thrown into the water does harm to the ecosystem. |
| C．Tourists' feeding ducks may have a bad effect on ducks and the environment. |
| D．Ducks may lose their survival skills if receiving food from people all the time. |
| A．More mandarin ducks are seen in the West Lake this year than before. |
| B．People have already known the damage they did to the mandarin ducks. |
| C．More mandarin ducks are likely to be introduced to the West Lake in the future. |
| D．It's high time that people should be aware of the harm to ducks caused by overfeeding. |
【推荐3】Since we’ve known about some cute animals, what about animals which aren’t so cute?
My favourite is a little creature called the Tasmanian devil. If you are out camping in Tasmania and come across one, the experience might scare you! Tasmanian devils hunt at night, so you won’t usually see them, but you may hear their loud cries when they are fighting or eating. The noise they make could wake the dead. Frightening! They are about the size of small dogs and look like rather large black rats. They also have a terrible smell! Their diet is mostly dead animals. Fortunately, despite their name, they are generally not violent towards people.
Australia also has some animals that many people have never heard of, for example, the duck-billed platypus. Is that some kind of bird? Not at all. While it may lay eggs in a nest like a bird, it’s really a primitive mammal, with a unique biology. Its eggs hatch after about ten days, and then the baby platypus nurses from its mother like all other mammals. Its nose looks like a duck’s bill, and it has feet like a duck’s so it can dive under the water, but it’s covered in hair. Do you know what’s really strange about a platypus? The platypus doesn’t use its senses of sight or smell to find food. It has a capacity to find food in the water by using electrical sensors in its bill. There are only a small handful of animals in the world that can do that!
1. What two things about Tasmanian devils can bother people most?| A．Their diet and violent behaviors. |
| B．Their loud noise and terrible smell. |
| C．They like fighting and are hard to hunt. |
| D．Their ugly appearance and terrible smell. |
| A．Small dogs | B．Large rats. | C．Dead animals. | D．Violent animals. |
| A．It lay eggs like a bird. | B．It nurses from its mother. |
| C．It can dive under the water. | D．Its eggs hatch after 10 days. |
| A．By using electrical sensors. | B．By using its senses of sight. |
| C．By using its senses of smell. | D．By hanging out in the water. |
【推荐1】Our brain doesn't know how to be happy, or even content. It simply lacks the genetic instructions to carry out that task. It knows how to do a million other less important things, from writing a letter to maintaining our balance； from appreciating the music of Bach to smelling a rose, but if you ask the brain to be happy, it simply doesn't know how to respond.
This is because the genetic code is only concerned with survival and reproduction, which happiness does not necessarily have anything to do with, and therefore belongs in a different realm. Nature doesn't want us to always feel content and satisfied, let alone happy, as this would lower our guard against possible threats to our survival.
Happiness, as the Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes put it, is "like a feather flying in the air. It flies light, but not for very long." It is so elusive that it has also been compared to a butterfly， which "when pursued， is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you," according to 19th﹣century American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. In any case, what is clear is that happiness is, at best, fleeting (飞逝的) and inconstant.
In this blog, we will look at the myth of happiness from many perspectives and, in the process, we will touch on topics such as happy personalities, the unhappy workings of the brain, evolution, dreams, and even fairy tales. I explore all these issues in detail in my book, which shares its title with this blog. Happiness is a crucial concept. We spend all of our lives pursuing it, so it deserves a very careful analysis.
We are determined by our biological design to experience mixed and messy emotions. But the silver lining is the knowledge that having difficult emotions doesn't represent a personal failure. The inevitable unhappiness that we all suffer from time to time is not a shortcoming that demands urgent repair. Far from it. This unhappiness is, in fact, what makes us human.
1. Why does our brain lack the genetic instructions to be happy？| A．Because being happy is less important than appreciating and creating art. |
| B．Because happiness has little to do with the continuation of a species. |
| C．Because we tend to be more aware of the threats when we are unhappy. |
| D．Because feeling good isn't one of our concerns in living a life. |
| A．Difficult to achieve. |
| B．Easy to expose. |
| C．Unable to explain. |
| D．Likely to remain. |
| A．We should make happiness our top concern no matter what. |
| B．Negative emotions always require immediate attention. |
| C．Social failures are more likely to be troubled by negative feelings. |
| D．We should accept difficult emotions as a natural part of life. |
【推荐2】According to archaeologists, language first appeared among Homo sapiens about thousands of years ago. However, how language evolved is still in dispute and mainstream theories fall into two distinctly different camps.
That language came about as an evolutionary adaptation is one widely held theory. That was where the idea of natural selection came into play, which was the belief that the specific physical features of a population made that population more likely to survive its environment, like the turtle and its shell. On one hand, humans needed to communicate with each other in order to survive the harsh environment. Being able to communicate by using language gave the human species a distinct survival advantage. On the other hand, language was needed for social interaction, according to those who subscribed to the adaptation theory.
In their paper "Natural Language and Natural Selection", researchers Steven Pinker and Paul Bloom theorized that a series of calls or gestures evolved over time into combinations, giving us complex communication, or language. As things became more complicated around them, humans needed a more complex system to convey information to one another. Early man saw a group of deer he wanted to hunt. He made a sound to his hunting partner that means "deer are nearby." One day, a storm came in and the hunter noticed that thunder scared the deer away. As a result, the hunter went hungry until the storm passed. Over time, the same hunter also learned to recognize the warning signs for bad weather-dark skies and increased wind. Early man realized that when the sky darkened and the wind picked up, he needed to tell his hunting partner to speed up the pursuit of the deer. Therefore, he came up with a series of sounds that refer to both the deer and the bad weather. That series of sounds was the beginning of an evolutionary adaptation that eventually became language.
As humans learned more about how to best survive, they developed a need to convey these survival methods to their population. To be brief, that's the adaptation theory.
1. According to the passage, the text is mainly about ________.| A．varieties of language theories. | B．the gradual development of language |
| C．the research on natural selection | D．the reproduction of human |
| A．Be concerned about | B．Object to | C．Approve of | D．Show no interest in |
| A．By giving an example. | B．By listing data. |
| C．By carrying out a survey. | D．By comparing. |
| A．The exact place where humans came from. |
| B．The methods of humans' shaping non- verbal thinking. |
| C．The reasons why animals cannot form language. |
| D．The other theory of how language evolved. |
【推荐3】Children are excited to find brightly wrapped(包装的) presents under the tree on Christmas morning. They can’t wait to open the wrapping and get the toys that were on their wish lists, such as toy cars. But after the excitement wears off, those toys are usually left to the corner of the toy box and the kids are searching for something else to do. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
A study from the University of Toronto found that giving your child experiences as a gift, instead of toys, improves your child’s intelligence and makes stronger parent-child bonds. “Often the focus is only on whether someone likes a gift rather than focusing on a fundamental purpose of gift giving. Knowing that will foster(培养) relationships between the giver and the receiver,”said lead researcher Cindy Chan.
Chan suggested that when you are buying a holiday gift or birthday gift, you should buy something that kids can experience with you. This can be movie or concert tickets, a CD from a performance you already saw to keep the memory alive. For example, for kids, a trip to a museum, going ice-skating or a book that the family can read together over and over again are valuable gifts.
It is found that giving your kids too many toys can be counterproductive(适得其反) and make kids at a loss.The best way to make kids happy is to spend time together.
So, if you want happy and intelligent kids, spending time with them and making memories are the best gifts you can give them. That’s not to say that there shouldn’t be any toys but change the focus from getting things to making lasting memories.
1. How do children usually deal with toys after the excitement disappears?| A．They put them aside. |
| B．They give them to their friends |
| C．They add them to the wish lists. |
| D．They throw them into the rubbish bin. |
| A．The advantage of giving toys. |
| B．The purpose of giving gifts. |
| C．The excitement caused by toys. |
| D．The gift receiver’s hobby. |
| A．Do something together with kids. |
| B．Give kids well-wrapped presents. |
| C．Buy kids as many toys as possible |
| D．Encourage kids to do sport in school. |
| A．A lesson from kids at Christmas |
| B．The pleasure of giving and receiving |
| C．Valuable gifts:popular among kids |
| D．Move over, toys and make room for memories |
【推荐1】Failure is an unavoidable part of life. Though science has named some life skills that promise success, we’re told over and over again that no great success was ever achieved without failure—or many failed attempts. One of life’s most important lessons, therefore, has to be how to handle failure best. But what is the message?
For starters, ignore advice from anyone that tells you, “Don’t beat yourself up about it, ” no matter how well-meaning they are. According to the new research from the University of Kansas, we absolutely should be beating ourselves up when we fail. Marketing professor Noelle Nelson and her team found that the more emotional a person’s response is to failure, the more likely they are to achieve better results the next time they deal with a related task.
The researchers carried out two experiments in which undergraduate students were required to perform specific tasks. In one experiment, they were asked to search online for a squeezer and report the lowest price they could find with the possibility of winning a $50 cash prize. However, the task was controlled, and all participants were told (by a computer) that the lowest price was $3.27 less than their reported price. Consequently, no participant won the cash prize. When the results were announced, some participants were asked to focus on their emotional response, and others on their cognitive (认知的) response. During the next similar task, participants who focused on their emotional response to failure made more effort than those who focused on a cognitive response.
Everybody has their own unique challenges, responsibilities, duties, and projects, but these findings are related to all of us. Your personal failure may be a cake that fails to rise, a presentation that goes wrong, or a deadline that gets missed—it doesn’t matter. What matters is how you react to it. Instead of thinking about the failure, let yourself feel bad about it. Then follow this advice on how to bounce back after your failure.
1. What’s the relationship between failure and success?| A．Failure promises success. | B．Failure is the key to success. |
| C．Failure does damage to success. | D．Well-handled failure is good for success. |
| A．It’s a well-meaning suggestion for failure. |
| B．It’s been proved by the study of a university. |
| C．Being emotional is good for one’s future success. |
| D．It can make people less emotional about failure. |
| A．To test the participants’ abilities to search online. |
| B．To improve the participants’ cognitive response. |
| C．To teach the participants to avoid failures. |
| D．To test the benefit of emotional response to failure. |
| A．Personal Failure Is a Cake That Fails to Appear |
| B．The Most Productive Way to Handle Any Failure |
| C．Different Methods to Change Failure into Success |
| D．The Reason Why Failure Is the Mother of Success |
【推荐2】In England recently three foreign gentlemen came to a bus stop and waited. About five minutes later, the bus they wanted came along. They were just going to get on when suddenly there was a loud noise behind them. People rushed onto the bus and tried to push them out of the way. Someone shouted at them. The bus conductor came rushing down the stairs to see what all the trouble was about. The three foreigners seem all at sea and looked embarrassed. No one had told them about the British custom of lining up for a bus that the first person who arrives at the bus stop is the first person to get on the bus.
Learning the language of a country isn't enough. If you want to have a pleasant visit, find out as much as possible about the manners and customs of your host country. You will probably be surprised just how different they can be from your own. A visitor to India would do well to remember that people there consider it impolite to use the left hand for passing food at table. The left hand is supposed to be used for washing yourself. Also in India, you might see a man shaking his head at another to show that he doesn't agree. But in many parts of India a shake of the head means agreement. Nodding your head when you are given a drink in Bulgaria will most probably leave you thirsty .
In that country, you shake your head to mean 'yes'— a nod means 'no'. At a meal in countries on the Arabic Peninsula, you will find that your glass is repeated refilled as soon as you drink up. If you think that you have had enough, you should take the cup or glasses in your hand and give it a little shake from side to side or place your hand over the top.
In Europe it is quite usual to cross your legs when you are sitting talking to someone even at an important meeting. Doing this in Thailand, however, could bring about trouble. Also, you should try to avoid touching the head of an adult — it's just not done in Thailand.
1. The British people tried to push the three gentlemen out of the way, because the gentlemen _______.| A．were foreigners | B．didn't have tickets |
| C．made a loud noise | D．didn't line up for the bus |
| A．learn the language of the country |
| B．understand the manners and customs of the country |
| C．have enough time and money |
| D．make friends with the people there |
| A．to use the right hand for passing food at table |
| B．to pass food with the left hand |
| C．to eat food with your hands |
| D．to help yourself at table |
| A．a common habit | B．an important manner |
| C．a serious trouble | D．a bad manner |
【推荐3】Do you ever get the feeling that you are being watched? Well, you might be right.
According to a study published in Nature on June 23, astronomers have found that 1,715 stars have had a direct view of Earth since humans have been here.
In order to do this, scientists used a previous method that looked for life on other planets. But instead, they changed the method so it could try to determine what places could see us.
The team looked at 331,312 stars within 326 light-years of Earth, with each light-year equaling 9.4 trillion kilometers. Out of all those stars, only 1,715 of them could see Earth within the last 5,000 years, with an extra 319 stars that will be able to see us in the next 5,000 years.
“When I look up at the sky, it looks a little bit friendlier because it’s like, maybe somebody is waving,” said Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University, US, and the study’s lead writer.
If a planet circling around one of those 1,715 stars is home to advanced life, they could easily see that there is life here because of the oxygen on Earth. If that didn’t give it away, then the radio waves we have sent out into space would also be an indicator. In fact, human-made radio waves have already traveled through 75 of the closest stars on Kaltenegger’s list.
Why haven’t we heard from anyone yet, then?
It takes a long time for messages to travel between star systems. By the time a message could be received, that advanced civilization would probably not exist anymore.
Alan Boss, a scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in the US who wasn’t part of the study, wrote in an email that this long time would limit the chances for different life to exchange “emails and TIKTOK videos”.
“So we should not expect aliens to show up anytime soon,” Boss said.
1. Why did scientists change the research method?| A．To seek alien life. |
| B．To count the stars in outer space. |
| C．To decide what places could view Earth. |
| D．To measure the stars within light-years of Earth. |
| A．319. | B．1,715. | C．1,396. | D．2,034 |
| A．A planet circling around one of those 1,715stars. |
| B．Advanced life. |
| C．The oxygen on Earth. |
| D．Human-made radio waves. |
| A．Aliens don’t exist. |
| B．It takes a long time for messages to travel. |
| C．They cannot understand each other. |
| D．Human-made radio waves cannot travel far. |
| A．To present new findings published in a study. |
| B．To discuss if there is advanced life on other stars. |
| C．To raise readers’ interest in aliens. |
| D．To explain how messages travel between different star systems. |
