Of all the mountain gorillas that veterinarian Mike has treated in the past 18 years, a gorilla named Ijabo stands out the most. When Ijabo was three days old, an examination showed that one of his legs was badly damaged. Mike removed Ijabo’s leg below the knee. Five years later, Mike says Ijabo is doing well. “I still see him every now and again,” Mike told TFK. “It’s heartwarming.”
Mike is a co-director of Gorilla Doctors. The organization provides medical care to ill and injured mountain and Grauer’s gorillas. Its 16 veterinarians work in national parks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. For years, the apes have fallen victim to habitat loss, poaching, and disease. According to their website, Gorilla Doctor’s task is to save the apes “one gorilla at a time”.
The doctors treat mostly gorillas that are accustomed to humans. Trackers, guides, and veterinarians check on habituated gorillas in the field several times each week. Sometimes, a gorilla has a medical problem that requires treatment.
That calls for an intervention. A helper shoots the animal with a dart(飞镖). If the gorilla appears to have a serious but treatable illness, the dart contains antibiotics to fight off infection. If it appears to need surgery, the dart contains a drug that leaves the gorilla unconscious and unable to feel pain.
Although the gorillas are critically endangered, there are signs of hope, thanks in part to Gorilla Doctors. The mountain gorilla is the only great-ape species whose population is growing.
“Habituated mountain gorillas are increasing by 4% each year, which is as fast as the human population is growing globally,” Mike says. He notes a recent study that credits the work of Gorilla Doctors for 50% of that growth. He is proud of the role his team has played in making it happen.
1. Why is Ijabo mentioned in the text?| A．To show Gorilla Doctors’ work. |
| B．To display gorilla’s living conditions. |
| C．To describe dangers that gorillas face. |
| D．To predict the difficulty gorillas may have. |
| A．Offer training. |
| B．Help them produce babies. |
| C．Form a good environment. |
| D．Provide medical care. |
| A．How to save a sick gorilla? | B．How to find a sick gorilla? |
| C．How to feed a sick gorilla? | D．How to find food for sick gorillas? |
| A．His team has been famous. |
| B．His team has played a great role in increasing gorillas population. |
| C．His team has earned a lot of money for studying mountain gorillas. |
| D．More and more doctors join in his team to help mountain gorillas. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】In the Amazon rainforest, which is home to various kinds of wildlife, an American biologist has discovered a strange new species of ant, The Times reported. It has no eyes and gets a pale body and its fanglike mouthparts are longer than the rest of its head.
If you came across the peculiar ant, you might think that it belongs on another planet. Even its name— Martialis Heureka— playfully suggests that it came from Mars. And this discovery is forcing researchers to rethink what they know about the history of ants on our planet.
Christian Rabeling, from the University of Texas at Austin, discovered the new species amid the fallen leaves of the rainforest. But he did more than just notice how bizarre the ant looks. He also analyzed its genetic material, or DNA.
Comparing DNA among species can give scientists insights into family trees: the more DNA two species share in common, the more closely related they are, and the more recently they split off from ancestor.
Rabeling’s DNA analysis of Martialis Heureka showed that the species is only distantly related to other ant species. It’s so distant that it actually belonging in a separate subfamily. The last minute scientists found a new subfamily of living ants was in 1923, say the discoverers.
The DNA analysis also suggested that Martialis Heureka appeared on earth earlier than any other ant living here today. And observations suggest that the ant lives underground and paleness and blindness are two major clues. Some of the other oldest known ant species also live underground. So now, scientists are trying to figure out whether ants first evolved underground, or if they evolved above ground and then went under. A few other ant species have at least one of Martialis Heureka’s odd features, but none share them all.
So far, Rabeling has collected only one ant from the new species. Finding more specimens(样本), he hopes, will help us better understand the science and history of ants on earth.
1. The underlined word “bizarre” in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to________.| A．funny | B．special |
| C．identical | D．distinct |
| A．It’s closely related to other ant species. |
| B．It is the first ant to appear on earth. |
| C．It lives underground where it first developed. |
| D．Only blindness indicates it lives underground. |
| A．Martialis Heureka was found by accident. |
| B．Much is to be done to collect more ants. |
| C．Little known about the ant history. |
| D．More ants from the new species are needed |
【推荐2】Monkeys seem to have a way with numbers
A team of researchers trained three Rhesus monkeys to associate 26 clearly different symbols consisting of numbers and selective letters with 0-25 drops of water or juice as a reward. The researchers then tested how the monkeys combined or added-the symbols to get the reward.
Here’s how Harvard Medical School scientist Margaret Livingstone, who led the team, described the experiment: In their cages the monkeys were provided with touch screens. On one part of the screen, a symbol would appear, and on the other side two symbols inside a circle were shown. For example, the number 7 would flash on one side of the screen and the other end would have 9 and 8. If the monkeys touched the left side of the screen, they would be rewarded with seven drops of water or juice; if they went for the circle, they would be rewarded with the sum of the numbers—17 in this example.
After running hundreds of tests, the researchers noted that the monkeys would go for the higher values more than half the time, indicating that they were performing a calculation, not just memorizing the value of each combination.
When the team examined the results of the experiment more closely, they noticed that the monkeys tended to underestimate a sum compared with a single symbol when the two were close in value—sometimes choosing, for example, a 13 over the sum of 8 and 6. The underestimation was systematic: When adding two numbers, the monkeys always paid attention to the larger of the two, and then added only a fraction of the smaller number to it.
“This indicates that there is a certain way quantity which is represented in their brains,” Dr. Livingstone says. “But in this experiment what they’re doing is paying more attention to the big number than the little one.”
1. How did the monkeys get their reward in the experiment?| A．By drawing a circle. | B．By touching a screen. |
| C．By watching videos. | D．By mixing two drinks. |
| A．They could understand simple words. | B．They could perform basic addition. |
| C．They could memorize numbers easily. | D．They could hold their attention for long. |
| A．Science. | B．Health. | C．Education. | D．Entertainment. |
| A．How people fed monkeys. |
| B．How some monkeys named themselves. |
| C．How people trained monkeys. |
| D．The study about monkeys’ abilities of calculation. |
【推荐3】There have been thousands of marine species that have become extinct. Currently there are thousands of fish that are endangered and in great need of protection. The following are some.
The Arcadian Redfish are found in warm waters, such as the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. These fish mature at a late age (5 to 6 years) and have low reproductive rates. However, they can live to be 50 years old, which is relatively remarkable. Young redfish are marked with patches of black and green color. They don’t develop their red color until after they move to the ocean bottom. Now the Arcadian Redfish is endangered due to overfishing. These fish started to decrease in population in the early 1900s because of their increased popularity in the food industry.
The Bluefin tuna is one animal that is high on the endangered species list. This fish has been named one of the wonders of the ocean, because they can grow to be 12 feet long and weigh over 1, 500 pounds! Why are these fish disappearing at alarming rates? Because they are being captured for food, with over 75% consumed in Japanese restaurants often by making a popular sushi.
The European Eel is found in the Baltic and the Mediterranean Sea. They have a unique metamorphosis process and they change their forms over a longtime period. According to IUCNRedList.org, the European Eel is one of the threatened species that are not only endangered, but critically endangered.
The whale shark is one of many endangered sharks out there. According to one source, sharks are revered as our last “living” dinosaurs. They are known as the largest fish with the potential to grow over 60 feet long and weigh over 70,000 pounds. The whale shark also has the potential to live to be over 100 years old.
1. Which of the following is the best title of the passage?| A．The Last “Living” Dinosaurs | B．The Endangered Ocean Fish |
| C．The Most Popular Sea Fish | D．The Extinct Marine Species |
| A．They are found in the Arctic Ocean. |
| B．They are born to be red. |
| C．Their survival rate is relatively low. |
| D．They are slow-growing, long-lived fish. |
| A．Huge size. | B．Strange color. |
| C．Sharp sight. | D．High intelligence. |
| A．Reduction in population. | B．Limitation in sight. |
| C．Change in form. | D．Increase in weight. |
