1 . Wild animals are equipped with a variety of techniques to avoid becoming lunch for a bigger animal, also known as a predator (捕食者) in nature. The most well-known methods include the classic fight and flight as well as freeze.
A team of researchers wondered whether closeness to people might impact those survival strategies. “We often see that animals are more tolerant around us in urban areas, but we don’t really know why.” says evolutionary biologist Dan Blumstein. “Is it individual plasticity, meaning individuals change their fear of us and that leads to tolerance? Or can there be an evolutionary factor involved?”
To find out, Blumstein and his colleagues combined information from 173 studies of over 100 species, including mammals, birds, fish and even mollusks. It turns out that regardless of evolutionary ancestry, the animals react in a similar way to life among humans: they lose their anti-predator characteristics. That pattern is especially pronounced for plant-eating animals and for social species. This behavioral change is perhaps unsurprising when it’s intentional, the result of domestication or controlled breeding. But it turns out that urbanization alone results in a similar change, though around three times more slowly.
The main point is: we’re essentially domesticating animals by urbanization. We’re selecting for the same sorts of characteristics that we would if we were actually trying to domesticate them. If the urbanization process helps animals better co-exist with people, it could be to their benefit. But if it makes them more defenseless to their nonhuman predators, it could be a real problem. Either way, these results mean that city living has enough of an influence on wild animals that evolutionary processes kick in. Those reductions in anti-predator characteristics become encoded in their genes. We’re changing the population genetics one way or another.
What the researchers now wonder is whether the mere presence of tourists in less urbanized areas can cause similar changes in wild animals. If so, serious questions exist for the idea of ethical, welfare-oriented eco-tourism. If we wish to help animals keep their anti-predator defenses, the researchers say, we might have to intentionally expose animals to predators. It’s just yet one other way that we’re changing the world around us.
1. The research led by Blumstein is aimed at ________.| A．determining how animals’ survival is impacted by individual plasticity |
| B．studying how living among humans affects animals’ survival strategies |
| C．comparing the effectiveness of different survival techniques |
| D．finding out which evolutionary factor impacts animals’ survival methods |
| A．Controlled breeding of animals. | B．Banning the operation of eco-tourism. |
| C．Planned selection of favorable genes. | D．Eliminating domestication. |
| A．Urbanization has made wild animals more alert. |
| B．Urbanization has brought concrete benefits to animals. |
| C．City living has led to animals’ genetic variations. |
| D．City living has helped to preserve animal species. |
| A．expose the fox to the urban environment repeatedly |
| B．train the fox to co-exist with the less aggressive predators |
| C．intentionally get the fox accustomed to the presence of humans |
| D．purposefully adapt the fox to predator related environment |
2 . I’ve been in an 18-year love-hate relationship with a black walnut tree.
It’s a unique tree. In late September or early October, falling fruits as hard as baseballs threaten the skulls (头骨) of you, your children, your neighbors and those that reside next door to them. Umbrellas in the yard are a must while dining in early August, and as for me, I wear my bike helmet while working in the garden.
The black walnut also releases a chemical substance through its roots as a competitive strategy. It’s poisonous to several common plants. There have been many new plant varieties that I brought home with hopes that maybe the black walnut would accept them, but they failed to flourish.
What does work are native plants that naturally grow in the area. Native plants are important to have around since they provide beneficial pollinators (传粉者) like birds, bees and butterflies with seeds and contribute to a healthy and biodiverse environment. Native plants for this area are generally easy to grow, so they experience less stress.
Have I thought of getting rid of this giant pain in my tiny backyard? Yes, however, getting rid of this tree standing at 50 feet with an 87-inch trunk is next to impossible. It’s also protected under the law. Rightfully so. Trees are important to the urban forest and for all of those that inhabit it.
Sometimes I think about my life without the black walnut. I can’t imagine a spring without the birds who arrive every year and loudly sing their songs before dawn. I’d miss falling asleep on lazy weekend afternoons as I look up into its leaves.
Every spring, I wonder what the season holds: What are the chances of being knocked unconscious while barbecuing? Like any good relationship, I’ll never be pleased. I’m stuck with this tree, so I’ll listen to its needs and give it the space it requires. In return, my walnut offers a habitat for wildlife and a reminder.
1. Why does the author wear a bike helmet while working in the garden?| A．To protect the injured skull. | B．To prevent herself from sunburn. |
| C．To avoid being hit by the nuts. | D．To reduce the chance of getting bitten by bees. |
| A．It attracts beneficial pollinators. |
| B．It lets out poison to drive away pests. |
| C．It produces a chemical fatal to some plants. |
| D．It competes for nutrition with similar species. |
| A．The volume of its fruits may bring inconvenience. |
| B．The tree outcompetes the native plants in the garden. |
| C．The tree is home to numerous birds and other creatures. |
| D．The presence of the tree takes up much space of the garden. |
| A．it’s better to give than to take |
| B．trees and plants have their own ways to flourish |
| C．even a good relationship is not always trouble-free |
| D．acceptance, instead of resistance, is the better way to be |
3 . AI-based Conservation Efforts
When an endangered seabird hits a power line, it makes a sound “very much like the laser sound from Star Wars,” says conservation (野生动物保护) biologist Marc Travers. He should
His team recorded 600 hours of audio and sent the recordings to Conservation Metrics, a company that assists conservation efforts with AI resources. Conservation Metrics used a program to “listen” to the recordings and
In large national parks and wildlife reserves, poachers (偷猎者) are a danger for animals both big and small. Some animals are worth a lot of money on the black market. Park guards are left with an impossible task because there is too much land to
We still face many challenges to
| A．assume | B．know | C．hope | D．lead |
| A．frequently | B．directly | C．violently | D．rarely |
| A．imitate | B．locate | C．count | D．present |
| A．puzzling | B．demanding | C．disturbing | D．uplifting |
| A．justice | B．proof | C．image | D．wisdom |
| A．In theory | B．By definition | C．On the contrary | D．By many measures |
| A．monitored | B．enclosed | C．requested | D．overlooked |
| A．decline | B．expansion | C．climb | D．quality |
| A．supply | B．renew | C．lack | D．invent |
| A．Obviously | B．Fortunately | C．Interestingly | D．Initially |
| A．give away | B．sort through | C．get over | D．make up |
| A．exclusive | B．delicate | C．effective | D．special |
| A．convey | B．mark | C．cover | D．hide |
| A．emergence | B．movement | C．evolution | D．existence |
| A．recover | B．reverse | C．remove | D．reveal |
4 . More than half the world’s population live in cities, and by 2050 the UN expects that proportion to reach 68%. This means more homes, roads and other infrastructure. Such a construction
As it happens, Chicago might become part of the
As the AAAs meeting heard this week, wood is one of the most
All this
If building with wood takes off, it does raise concern about there being enough trees to
| A．project | B．ambition | C．boom | D．security |
| A．expand | B．reform | C．contract | D．survive |
| A．rebel | B．outcome | C．answer | D．issue |
| A．greener | B．friendlier | C．lighter | D．taller |
| A．overbalanced | B．overshadowed | C．overlooked | D．overstated |
| A．domestic | B．promising | C．debatable | D．artificial |
| A．beauty | B．strength | C．friction | D．dimension |
| A．nevertheless | B．instead | C．moreover | D．meanwhile |
| A．deliveries | B．checkouts | C．purchases | D．payments |
| A．adds value | B．gives credit | C．gives a boost | D．makes a difference |
| A．cement | B．timber | C．concrete | D．synthetics |
| A．positive | B．negative | C．friendly | D．resistant |
| A．go round | B．go away | C．go over | D．go down |
| A．advocates | B．strategies | C．forests | D．farmers |
| A．imposing | B．visible | C．universal | D．structural |
5 . Homing pigeons combine precise internal compasses and memorized landmarks to re-trace a path back to their lofts — even four years after the previous time they made the trip, a new study shows.
Testing nonhuman memory retention (保持) is challenging; in research studies, “it’s rare that there is a gap of several years between when an animal stores the information and when it is next required to retrieve it,” says University of Oxford zoologist Dora Biro. For a recent study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Biro and her colleagues compared domestic homing pigeons’ paths three or four years after the birds established routes back to their loft from a farm 8.6 kilometers away. The study built on data from a 2016 experiment in which pigeons learned routes in different social contexts during several flights — on their own or with peers that did or did not know the way.
Using data from GPS devices temporarily attached to the birds’ backs, the researchers compared the flight paths a pack of pigeons took in 2019 or 2020, without the birds visiting the release site in between. Some birds missed a handful of landmarks along the way, but many others took “strikingly similar” routes to those they used in 2016, says Oxford zoologist and study co-author Julien Collet: “It was...as if the last time they flew there was just the day before, not four years ago.”
The team found that the pigeons remembered a route just as well if they first flew it alone or with others and fared much better than those that had not made the journey in 2016.
The result is not surprising, says Verner Bing-man, who studies animal navigation at Bowling Green State University and was not involved with the study. But it provides new confirmation of homing pigeons’ remarkable memory, he says: “It closes the distance a little bit between our self-centered sense of human intellectual abilities and what animals can do.”
1. The underlined word “retrieve” is closest in meaning to ________.| A．reserve | B．return | C．recover | D．record |
| A．Pigeons remember specific routes home after years away. |
| B．Pigeons remember routes better when flying with others. |
| C．Pigeons can find their way back though taking different routes. |
| D．Pigeons can retrace the path home through an attached GPS device. |
| A．Oxford zoologist Julien Collet designed the experiment procedure. |
| B．GPS devices were attached permanently to collect data about flight routes. |
| C．The experiment was designed to eliminate pigeons that missed key landmarks. |
| D．Pigeons were made to fly from the release site to their lofts several times. |
| A．Humans need to adopt a more rigid approach to pigeons’ memory. |
| B．Humans are blinded by superiority when it comes to animal intelligence. |
| C．Riddles about animals are too complex to be solved in the foreseeable future. |
| D．There have been mixed responses to the findings about pigeons’ memory. |
Should Hand Feeding Dolphins Be Encouraged?
Some tourist centers train Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins to approach beachside public sighting areas or boats by hand-feeding them small amounts of fish every day. Because hand-fed males aggressively attack each other over the food, putting themselves and nearby humans in danger, tourist centers focus their hand feeding only on female dolphins, says Valerie Senigaglia at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia
But recent studies have shown that only 38% of the calves (崽) of hand-fed wild dolphins survive to three years of age, which is much lower than the average 77% survival rate for wild calves in general. To better understand why, Senigaglia and her colleagues evaluated the social behavior of dolphins around the Bunbury coast in Western Australia. In particular, they observed the individual behavior and movement of 35 dolphins, including 13 that had been hand-fed using a small boat. They regularly followed each dolphin for periods lasting from 20 minutes to 3 hours for two years in a row for a total of 180 hours.
They found that hand-fed dolphins swam in relatively large groups, but more readily broke away from them to join different ones. In general, they created weak ties with other group members. “You can feel lonely in a room full of people and it’s the same thing for dolphins,” says Senigaglia. Free-swimming dolphins that are fed by hand become less socially involved with their peers. As a result, their calves may grow up lacking vital social skills-which could explain, at least in part, why they are twice as likely to die before reaching adulthood as wild calves generally.
No wonder animal right activists are calling on the practice of hand-feeding dolphins to be stopped.
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7 . Identifying the chemical makeup of pigment (色素) used in ancient documents, paintings, and watercolors is critical to restoring and conserving the precious artworks. However, despite numerous efforts, scientists had been unable to determine the source of folium, a popular blue dye used to color manuscripts (手稿) in Europe during the middle ages — from the 5th to the 15th century. Now, a team of researchers from Portugal has finally uncovered the mysterious ingredient responsible for the gorgeous blueish-purple color that helped bring ancient illustrations and texts to life.
The research team began by poring over instructions penned by European dye makers from the 12th, 14th, and 15th centuries. They found what they were seeking in a 15th-century text entitled The Book on How to Make All the Color Paints for Illuminating Books. However, translating the instructions was no easy task. It was written in the now extinct Judaeo-Portuguese language, and though the source of the dye was traced back to a plant, no name was mentioned.
However, by piecing together suggestions from the text, the scientists were able to determine that the dye was made from the bluish-green berries of the chrozophora tinctoria plant. After an extensive search, the team found a few varieties of the plant growing along the roadside near the town of Monsaraz in south Portugal.
The detailed instructions gave the researchers critical clues — including the best time to pick the berries. “You need to squeeze the fruits, being careful not to break the seeds, and then to put them on linen (亚麻).” The scientist says the detail was important since broken seeds polluted the pigment, producing an inferior quality ink. The dyed linen, which was left to dry, was an efficient way to store and transport the pigment during ancient times. When needed, the artist would simply cut off a piece of the cloth and dip it with water to squeeze out the blue color.
Once the key ingredient had been identified, the researchers began to determine the dye’s molecular structure. To their surprise, they found that folium was not like any other known permanent blue dyes — it was an entirely new class of color, one they named chrozophoridin. “Chrozophoridin was used in ancient times to make a beautiful blue dye for painting.” the team wrote in the study. “Thus, we believe that this will not be our final word on this amazing plant and its story and that further discoveries will follow soon.”
1. The primary purpose of the study is to ________.| A．restore and conserve ancient precious artworks |
| B．determine the substance making up the folium |
| C．prove the ancient dye-making technique was organic |
| D．identify which class of color folium belongs to |
| A．discussing publicly | B．testing repeatedly |
| C．passing directly | D．reading carefully |
| A．It was essentially an inferior type of ink. |
| B．It was the only kind made from wild berries. |
| C．It could be carried and used easily. |
| D．It was carefully squeezed from broken seeds. |
| A．how the mystery of a thousand-year-old blue dye was solved |
| B．why the researchers took the trouble to recreate the dye |
| C．what needs to be done to make an organic dye from a plant |
| D．when and where the discovery of the dye was made |
Life On Venus?
Cats Make for Ideal Human Companions
Cats have a reputation for being colder and less cuddly (令人想拥抱的) than their counterparts—dogs. In reality, they form close bonds with their owners and provide a sense of companionship, particularly for women. In fact, the findings of one Austrian study show that owning a cat is the emotional equivalent of being in a romantic relationship.
Some people feel silly talking to their pets, since, of course, they can’t respond. But interacting with your feline (猫科的) companions has proven health benefits. Not only does talking to your cat improve your bond, but it’s also said to be beneficial to your mental health by helping to improve your mood, lower your stress levels, and reduce our feelings of loneliness.
Cats are experts at sleeping, so it’s perhaps no surprise that they can help improve your sleep, too. A Mayo Clinic study found that people who slept with their pets in the same room were almost twice as likely to get a good night’s rest, with only 20 percent saying that they found their pets’ presence destructive.
Cats may not be able to help with the housekeeping, but they can assist in keeping your house free of mice. It turns out there’s some truth behind the cartoon cat-and-mouse chase. When mice smell certain proteins in cat saliva (唾液), they become tearful and therefore avoid the area.
It’s important for children to learn to care for and look after a living thing, just as their parents take care of them. Cats can help children develop social skills as they learn to approach the feline carefully and gently. Looking after a cat also encourages a sense of responsibility.
In addition to filling your heart with love, cats can contribute to keeping your heart healthy. Numerous studies have shown that owning a cat can help reduce your blood pressure and heart rate, as well as lowering your triglyceride (甘油三酸酯) and cholesterol levels, thereby reducing your risk of having a heart attack or stroke.
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9 . Marmoset monkeys exist on a branch of the evolutionary tree that is distinct from the one that led to humans. But they constantly
A new study further
One possibility is that an individual practices
The other explanation for charitable behavior
Scientists call this the “pay to stay” model. Importantly, for both of these models to work, acts of kindness must have a(n)
Anthropologists (人类学家) from the University of Zurich carefully documented how often, in groups and in conditions that found caregiver and baby separated from the crowd, an adult would share his or her cricket. When alone with a baby
| A．comfort | B．astonish | C．alarm | D．convince |
| A．evolving | B．communicating | C．organizing | D．parenting |
| A．extended | B．extensive | C．exclusive | D．enlarged |
| A．shines | B．damages | C．affects | D．protests |
| A．at play | B．in private | C．on schedule | D．by accident |
| A．selfish | B．reluctant | C．selfless | D．negative |
| A．generosity | B．wisdom | C．independence | D．governance |
| A．count on | B．go after | C．appeal to | D．benefit from |
| A．confirms | B．ensures | C．complains | D．assumes |
| A．Effort | B．Temptation | C．Failure | D．Promise |
| A．atmosphere | B．audience | C．feedback | D．judge |
| A．statistics | B．expectation | C．result | D．opposite |
| A．stretching | B．fighting | C．begging | D．striving |
| A．prize | B．fortune | C．award | D．reputation |
| A．motivation | B．consideration | C．invitation | D．creation |
10 . Flight Shaming: # stayontheground
For the environmentally conscious, boarding a flight can be a source of mild stress or guilt, considering the large amounts of carbon footprint that comes with it.
Flight shaming, or flygskam, is a movement that originated in Sweden in 2017. Back then, singer Staffan Lindberg declared his intention to give up flying to and from his concerts in favor of travel by train, bus, car, or boat.
Although “shame” has a relatively negative meaning associated with it, the overall outcome of the flight shaming movement has been undeniably positive. No longer restricted to Sweden alone, the trend has spread throughout Europe.
An interesting side effect of the flight shaming movement is that those who observe it often rediscover the novelty of slow, purposeful travel. When traveling by land, one can take in the variety of sights, sounds, and smells along the way.
| A．More and more Europeans are now choosing to travel by land or sea whenever possible. |
| B．However, airlines in Europe also have warned of the harmful effects of the flight shaming movement. |
| C．In addition, travelers are more likely to discover interesting new restaurants and hotels, and get a chance to interact with the locals. |
| D．A new anti-flying movement known as “flight shaming” is giving Earth-loving travelers a way of shaking off their guilt while still experiencing the joys of domestic and international travel. |
| E．It’s a way of revisiting holiday travel plan, including your accommodations while protecting the environment. |
| F．Other local celebrities, including environmental icon Greta Thunberg, followed suit. |
