We know that our pet dogs and cats can recognize our faces, but our pet fish? A team of scientists from the UK and Australia have discovered that archer-fish(喷水鱼) can distinguish human faces!
This marks the first time that a species of fish has shown such an ability. Such abilities have been previously shown in birds, but unlike fish, they have been proven to possess structures similar to the neocortex(大脑新皮层), the researchers added.
“Being able to distinguish between a large number of human faces is a surprisingly difficult task, ” Dr Newport said, “mainly due to the fact that all human faces share the same basic features.”
During their experiments, Dr Newport and her colleagues presented archerfish with two images of human faces, and trained them to choose one by spitting jets(喷射流)of water at that picture. Next, the fish were presented with the familiar face and several that were unfamiliar, and were able to correctly pick the one that they had been trained to recognize, even when features such as head shape and color were removed from the selected pictures.
In the first experiment, the archerfish were tasked with picking the previously learned face from a group of 44 new ones, which they did with 81 percent accuracy. In the second, the researchers decided to make things a little harder. They took the pictures and made them black and white and evened out (使平均) the head shapes. You would think that would throw the fish for a loop. But no, they were able to pick the familiar face even then—and with more accuracy: 86%!
“Fish have a simpler brain than humans and entirely lack the section of the brain that humans use for recognizing faces. Despite this, fish may still be capable of finding the face they are trained to recognize,” Dr Newport said. “The fact that archerfish can learn this task suggests that complicated brains are not necessarily needed to recognize human faces.”
1. What does the underlined word “they” in paragraph 2 refer to?| A．Species | B．Birds. |
| C．Fish. | D．Abilities. |
| A．archerfish are cleverer than other fishes. |
| B．all fishes can be trained to recognize human faces. |
| C．complex brains are not necessary for facial recognition. |
| D．it is very difficult for animals to recognize human faces. |
| A．archerfish have a good memory. |
| B．archerfish can only recognize human faces. |
| C．people’s similar physical appearance limits archerfish’s facial recognition. |
| D．archerfish can recognize the familiar face even if its head shape and color are changed. |
| A．a biology textbook | B．a medical report |
| C．a science fiction | D．a science magazine |
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【推荐1】In the office of remote sensing scientist Liu Shaochuang, there is a huge photograph of a camel he snapped a decade ago in Xinjiang. He crouched for hours by a pool of water in the Gobi Desert to capture the image.
Since 2012, he has led a team in tracking and studying wild camels using satellite remote sensing technology.
Unlike zoologists who focus on species, Liu has studied the interrelationship between endangered animals and their environment, which he believes will help develop better protection strategies in the face of climate change.
His interest in wild camels began when his team tested a prototype(雏形)design of the lunar rover Yutu in the desert. Living in the harsh deserts in northwestern China and southwestern Mongolia, camels are listed as critically endangered animals. Experts estimate that the population of this species is currently less than 1, 000, of which around 650 are in China.
“Ten years ago, the research relied solely on human observation, which was very primitive, ”Liu says. Because camels are fully migratory and can travel over long distances, scientists used to learn their habits by studying hoof prints and droppings. It was hard to find one camel in the desert, let alone track it. But Liu thought his expertise in satellite navigation(导航)and remote sensing might come in useful in the study of wild camels.
It was not easy at first. Liu learned zoology from scratch. His team had to spend several weeks each year braving dust and sandstorms in the vastness of the Gobi Desert seeking out camels. A scar on his right eyebrow is the result of a rollover accident on a rugged mountain road in Xinjiang.
“The most exciting moment was attaching a satellite positioning collar to a wild camel. ”The tracking collar, equipped with special receivers, weighs only a few hundred grams. It can detach automatically and will not have a negative impact on the daily lives of the animals. The locations of the tracked animals are transmitted via satellite every day. Based on the data, scientists can get to know their migratory paths, living environments and possible threats they may meet with.
For Liu, it is worth the significant sci-tech effort to study such a rare species. He adds wildlife protection and research will become more precise and efficient with the help of technology.
1. What was it that made tracking wild camels difficult?| A．The number of camels experienced a sharp decline. |
| B．Massive migration made camels cover huge distances. |
| C．Primitive tools were used in human observation. |
| D．Hoof prints and droppings were never to be seen. |
| A．His carelessness in carrying out his research. |
| B．His inexperience at the very beginning of his work. |
| C．The rough conditions under which he worked. |
| D．The stress he met with in his work. |
| A．The formation of the tracking collar. |
| B．The definition of the tracking collar. |
| C．The importance of the tracking collar. |
| D．The function of the tracking collar. |
| A．Generous and ambitious. | B．Confident and grateful. |
| C．Creative and determined. | D．Optimistic and modest. |
【推荐2】One bird may not make a summer but seeing or hearing birds does improve mental wellbeing, a ground-breaking study in the journal Scientific Reports has found.
Researchers tracked 1, 292 participants’ everyday encounters with birds last year via a smartphone app called Urban Mind. Over the course of two weeks, the participants, from the UK, Europe, the US, China and Australia, were asked every two hours to document how they were feeling, including whether they were happy or stressed.
The researchers found that participants’ average mental wellbeing scores increased when they saw or heard birds, including among those who said they had been diagnosed (诊断) with depression.
Andrea Mechelli, professor of early intervention (干涉) in mental health at King’s College London, said that the positive effect of bird encounters on people with depression was significant because many “interventions that help so-called ‘healthy people’ don’t work for individuals with mental health issues”. Mechelli said, “We know exercise makes everyone feel better. But it’s so challenging to motivate someone with depression to exercise, while contact with bird life is something that, perhaps, is feasible.”
Adrian Thomas, the author of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ Guide to Birdsong, said the report’s findings came as no surprise as most people described their reaction to birdsong as joy. He added, “Birdsong would have once been the natural soundtrack to all human lives, and I do think that it is rooted somewhere deep within us. It is related with spring and good times coming, which is just one of the reasons why we need to appreciate the role of birds in our life and ensure that nature.”
1. What were the participants asked to do?| A．To keep track of birds. | B．To keep record of moods. |
| C．To report health issues. | D．To analyze feeling changes. |
| A．Practicable. | B．Inspiring. | C．Measurable. | D．Effective. |
| A．Potential application of the research results. | B．A reasonable doubt to the research question. |
| C．Detailed descriptions of the research process. | D．A further explanation of the research findings. |
| A．Bird watching activity. | B．Stress relief methods. |
| C．Bird protection campaign. | D．Mental health treatment. |
【推荐3】To many people, honey bees symbolize development, sustainability (可持续性) and environmentalism. But as a honey bee researcher, I have to tell you that only the first item on that list is reasonable. Although they are important for agriculture, honey bees also damage natural ecosystems by competing with native bees — some of which are species at risk.
The rise in honey beekeeping, now a popular activity for hundreds of thousands of Americans, followed strong awareness campaigns to “save the bees.” But as a species, honey bees are least in need of saving. Media attention unfairly covers them over native bees, and vague messaging has led many citizens — myself once included — to believe they are doing a good thing for the environment by putting on a beekeeper’s veil. Unfortunately, they are probably doing more harm than good.
“Beekeeping is for people; it’s not a conservation practice,” says Sheila Colla, an assistant professor and conservation biologist at Toronto’s York University, Canada. “People mistakenly think keeping honey bees, or helping honey bees, is somehow helping the native bees, which are at risk of extinction.” She is frustrated the ones in more neon on saving honey bees when, from a conservationist’s point of view, native bees are the ones in more need of support.
For some reason, maybe because they are small, honey bees are not generally viewed as the massively distributed livestock animal that they are. There are millions of honey bee colonies in North America, 2.8 million of which are in the U.S. Approximating around 30,000 bees per colony (the size of a pollination unit), that’s roughly a billion honey bees in Canada and the U.S. alone — almost triple the number of people. High densities of honey bee colonies increase competition between native bees, putting even more pressure on the wild species that are already in decline.
I used to believe that honey bees were a gateway species, and that concern over their health and development would spill over onto native bees, benefitting them, too. While this may have happened in some cases, evidence is increasing that misguided enthusiasm for honey bees has likely been to the native bees’ damage. Beekeeping doesn’t make me feel good, anymore. In fact, quite the opposite.
1. What makes bee keeping gain great popularity among Americans?| A．Several campaigns have been launched to advocate bee saving. |
| B．Citizens believe native bees are no longer in need of protection. |
| C．Little importance are attached to protecting the environment. |
| D．Citizens hope to make a fortune from the bee keeping business. |
| A．Objective. | B．Unfavorable. | C．Supportive. | D．Neutral. |
| A．The author’s attitude towards the beekeeping has changed. |
| B．People’s enthusiasm for keeping honey bees is increasing. |
| C．In some cases evidence has proved honey bees are in danger. |
| D．Keeping native bees is of great benefit to people’s health. |
【推荐1】Back before Shakespeare was born in 1564, theaters weren’t big business in England. Writers needed a royal or rich sponsor to support them if they wanted to make a living as a playwright, Permanent playhouses hadn’t existed since the Romans occupied Britain (43-410 CE), so actors wandered around from town to town hoping to find a paying audience. But all that changed in the decades following Shakespeare birth. London’s population started booming. All those people needed to be entertained in their spare me. Seeing the potential for permanent playhouses, investors started building new theaters.
These theaters were all competing for audiences, so they needed a constant Now of fresh material. People didn’t want to see the same play over and over. Writers were in demand to create stories that would fill seats, and some, like Shakespeare.
Competing theater companies had rival writers. Like rivals in most fields, these authors kept an eye on what their competitors were up to, so they could try to outdo them, sometimes by imitating or satirizing each other’s plays.
Shakespeare’s contemporaries weren’t nobodies. Ben Jonson actually dominated the scene back then with his political satires, which also got him in trouble with authorities who didn’t like his critical essays. And Christopher Marlowe, who historians say ended up influencing Shakespeare, was a big deal before Shakespeare got going.
Shakespeare could be pretty crafty when it came to his competitors, though. For instance, when Jonson’s satiric comedies were outshining Shakespeare’ romantic ones, Shakespeare borrowed from Jonson’s style and even got him to write for his company. Shakespeare chose collaboration over competition with other successful writers, too — such as John Fletcher, who took over as head playwright after Shakespeare left the business.
So why does Shakespeare get all the buzz and not these other writers? One simple distinction: Most of his plays were published.
Back in Shakespeare’s day, the theaters usually owned the plays. Most writers’ plays weren’t preserved with much care, much less published for the masses. Publishing scripts would just make it easier for a competing playhouse to rip off their material, and for the highly competitive players in the entertainment game, that just wasn’t good business. Most original manuscripts were eventually lost, destroyed, or discarded— including some of those written by Shakespeare.
Shakespeare wasn’t even the most prolific playwright in his day, but his name is now synonymous with Renaissance drama largely because his plays survived the centuries through publication while most others’ works didn’t. Some of his plays were published during his lifetime, and after his death in 1616, Shakespeare’s friends assembled The First Folio, a collection of 36 Shakespeare plays, 18 of which hadn’t been published previously — including All’s Well That Ends Well, Macbeth, As You Lite It, and Twelfth Night.
The First Folio is now considered one of the most influential books ever published in the English language. By preserving his legacy through its publication, Shakespeare’s pals made him a lasting literary star.
1. Which question is NOT answered by the article?| A．Why were plays not widely published during Shakespeare’s lime? |
| B．What was assembled by a group of Shakespeare’s friend after his death? |
| C．Why did Shakespeare leave his company and the playwright business? |
| D．What did theaters do to stay competitive with their rival from other companies? |
| A．Productive. | B．Famed. | C．Influential. | D．Witty. |
| A．To reason why Renaissance actors wandered to look for a paying audience |
| B．To explain how Shakespeare's legacy as the premier Renaissance playwright endured |
| C．To present how Shakespeare would sometimes play the role to help fill theater |
| D．To introduce why Ben Jonson chose to do political satires |
| A．in a biography of Shakespeare | B．in the book The First Folio |
| C．in a book titled Renaissance Playwrights | D．in the dictionary under “playwright” |
【推荐2】Ants know when an earthquake is about to strike, researchers have discovered. Their behavior changes greatly before the quake and they resume normal functioning only a day after it. Gabriele Berberich of the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany presented these findings according to Live Science.
Berberich and her team discovered that red wood ants preferred to build their homes right along active faults (断层)in Germany. They counted 15,000 mounds (土堆)lining the faults. These faults are the places where the earth breaks in earthquakes.
Using a special camera that tracked changes in activity, Berberich and her team tracked the ants round the clock for three years. They found that the ants’ behavior changed only when the quake was over magnitude 2.0. There were 10 earthquakes between magnitude 2.0 and 3.2 during this period, and many smaller ones. Humans can also sense quakes over magnitude 2.0 only.
According to Berberich, normal ant activity is made up of going about collecting food during the day and resting in the night. But before an earthquake, the ants didn’t go back to their mound in the night and moved around outside it. This strange behavior continued till a day after the earthquake, Berberich told a news conference, according to Live Science.
How do ants know an earthquake is coming? Berberich suggested that they could either be picking up changing gas or noting small changes in the earth’s magnetic fields (磁场). “ Red wood ants have special cells which can sense changes in carbon dioxide levels. They also have special cells for discovering electromagnetic fields,” she said. Berberich and her team are planning to continue the research in areas where there are more and bigger earthquakes.
1. The underlined word “resume” in Paragraph 1 probably means “________”| A．present | B．recover | C．quit | D．improve |
| A．To bring in the main topic. |
| B．To make the text interesting. |
| C．To introduce a famous researcher. |
| D．To tell how to predict an earthquake. |
| A．They are too excited to rest. |
| B．They don’t collect their food. |
| C．They get lost on their way home. |
| D．They refuse to go inside their mound. |
| A．They can only sense smaller earthquakes. |
| B．They have two ways to predict earthquakes. |
| C．They can be depended on to warn people of earthquakes. |
| D．They like to build their homes where earthquakes happen. |
【推荐3】It happens every spring. Flowers suddenly come out everywhere on the same day, as if they made an appointment with one another. But how exactly do plants “know” when to flower?
It is a question that has puzzled biologists for years. But according to Science Daily, a US research group may have finally answered it —the secret lies in a protein (蛋白质) called FKF1. This allows plants to sense the differences in day lengths so that they can tell the seasons are changing.
Researchers discovered the FKFI protein when they were studying a plant called Arabidopsis. They found that the FKFI protein is a photoreceptor (感光器). This means it is sensitive to, and can be activated by sunlight.
“Plants produce this protein every day in the late afternoon throughout the year. If there is no light at this time, for example, in winter when the sun goes down early, the protein won’t be activated,” explained Takato Imaizumi, the leader of the study. “But when spring comes and the days get longer, the FKF1 protein can be activated by daylight and the plants ‘know’ it is time to flower.”
Although researchers have only studied how the FKF1 protein works in the Arabidopsis, they believe that the process is similar in other plants, including crops like rice and wheat. This could be useful to the agricultural industry in the world.
1. The underlined word “activated” in paragraph 3 probably means__________.| A．woken | B．prevented | C．produced | D．weakened |
| A．produce more rice and wheat in winter |
| B．develop the global agricultural industry |
| C．grow plants that flower the whole year |
| D．produce more protein to activate plants |
| A．a travel brochure | B．a science magazine |
| C．a medical magazine | D．a personal journal |
