2024 is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese calendar and it is the first time that the Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
Emperors in ancient dynasties were dressed in a Dragon Robe, a traditional silk-woven costume with dragon designs,
Contrary
In ancient Chinese belief, dragons
With the rising China Chic trend and the country’s booming cultural creative industry, the Chinese dragon in folktale is now
Whether it is through the hands of a national-level intangible (非物质) cultural heritage inheritor
The power of Chinese emperors rose and fell with their control of the Grand Canal. Today, this waterway is shorter than it was once,
The original Canal system began around the year 605,
For more than a thousand years, goods
3 . When adult humans meet a baby, many can’t help speaking in a higher-pitched (更高音的), sing-song y voice. This shift, known as parentese, is not unique to humans — it has also been observed in animals like monkeys and gorillas. Now, scientists are adding one more species to that list: bottlenose dolphins.
Dolphins are intelligent animals that live and hunt in groups. They communicate in a unique way: every individual produces its own signature sound that acts much like an ID card, usually by its first birthday. But how does each come up with its distinctive whistle? For babies, it might have something to do with listening to Mum. To solve this mystery, researchers examined the sounds mother dolphins, make.
Scientists studied 34 years’ worth of recordings of sounds made by 19 female bottlenose dolphins. When the mother dolphins were near their young, they continued to make their signature sound, but at a higher frequency. They also used a wider range of frequencies than they did when their babies were not nearby.
This discovery suggests that using these modifications mother dolphins assist their young in learning how to produce these calls themselves. Since dolphin babies often spend some years with their mothers before living on their own, it makes sense that this adaptation would help them learn to communicate. At the very least, the higher-pitched whistle likely gets the babies’ attention. “It’s important for a baby to know,’ Oh, Mum’s talking to me now,’” says marine biologist June Mann.
This kind of research could help us understand how language developed in humans. “It is absolutely essential to have basic knowledge about other species and how they communicate,” says Mann. “I would be really interested to see whether dolphins also change their sounds when interacting with babies of others, which is what happens in humans.”
1. What do the underlined words “this mystery ”refer to in paragraph 2?| A．Why dolphins live and play in groups. |
| B．How dolphins develop their unique sounds. |
| C．What aspects of intelligence dolphins possess. |
| D．Whether dolphins can use parentese like humans. |
| A．By analyzing mother dolphins’ sound features. |
| B．By recording parent-child interaction frequency. |
| C．By measuring the distance between parent and child. |
| D．By examining the speech organs of mother dolphins. |
| A．To help them learn to talk. | B．To teach them hunting skills. |
| C．To express worry and care. | D．To distract their attention. |
| A．To compare the parentese of humans and dolphins. |
| B．To illustrate the development of dolphin intelligence. |
| C．To share new findings about dolphin communication. |
| D．To highlight the value of studying dolphins’ language. |
4 . African penguins live on the rocky coasts of South Africa, Namibia and nearby islands. Like other types of penguins, the birds have white feathers covering their chests and black feathers covering their backs. They form lifelong pair bonds with mates, but they nest in huge colonies — so, scientists wondered how the birds were able to identify their partners among the sea of black-and-white birds. They wondered if their chest spots had something to do with it. To test this theory, they studied 12 African penguins at a zoo and marine park near Rome called Zoomarine Italia.
In one test, they hung two life-size photographs of the African penguins. One showed a random member of the colony, while the other showed the test subject’s mate. The scientists recorded the birds’ interactions with the photos: How long did they spend looking at each one, as well as how much time did they spend standing near each photograph? The penguins spent more time gazing at the photo of their partners — about 23 seconds longer, on average — than looking at the other photo. They also stood next to the image of their beau s for twice as long. Then, the researchers covered up the heads of the birds in the photographs, leaving only their speckled bodies visible, and the penguins still lingered near their partners’ portraits.
In another experiment, the researchers hung up two photos of a bird’s mate — but, in one, they had digitally removed its spots. In this case, the penguin again spent more time looking at the photo with the dots.
Finally, the researchers posted two photographs of penguins with digitally removed spots — one of the test subject’s mate and the other of a random penguin from the colony. In this scenario, the penguins did not appear to recognize their partners. They spent roughly the same amount of time gazing at or standing near both photos.
Together, the results of these experiments suggest African penguins are zeroing in on their partners’ spots and using them like name tags, scientists say.
“Our results provide the first evidence of a specific visual cue responsible for spontaneous individual recognition by a bird and highlight the importance of considering all sensory modalities in the study of animal communication,” the researchers write in the paper.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 1?| A．African penguins live on the rocky coasts of North Africa. |
| B．Scientists are curious about the African penguins. |
| C．African penguins have white feathers covering their backs. |
| D．Scientists studied 12 African penguins only at a zoo near Rome. |
| A．Their partners’ voice. | B．Their partners’ heads. |
| C．Their partners’ back feathers. | D．Their partners’ speckled bodies. |
| A．Losing sight of. | B．Taking delight in. |
| C．Paying attention to. | D．Speaking highly of. |
| A．In a science report. | B．In a travel brochure. |
| C．In a biology textbook. | D．In a fashion magazine. |
5 . A good conversation should proceed like a tennis match: players each take turns responding, knowing instinctively (本能) when to speak and when to listen. This kind of complicated and back-and-forth talk is often considered to be possessed only by humans. However, according to a recent study, animals also seem to know when to speak and when to listen.
The study involved over 300 animals including birds, mammals (哺乳动物), insects, and frogs which practice turn-taking behavior. These animals alternate their call and response in a similar way humans communicate. Monkeys, for example, often exchange calls to locate each other in the wild and figure out whether they know one another.
While forms of communication are mostly sound-based, several species have more creative forms of viewable communication. Baby monkeys let their parents know they want to be carried with arm gestures, while birds, insects and frogs can get their messages across through colorful displays.
Kobin Kendrick, the main co-author on the study, says that making comparisons among animals that take turns when communicating can give us a better understanding of how this feature evolved in humans and our ancestors. “We know very little about the evolution and origin of the human language, so any possibility of gaining insight into it is worth going after,” he says.
Additionally, while the idea of turn-taking might bring to mind a picture of orderly, well-mannered animals, Kendrick stresses that this isn’t always the case. Owl (猫头鹰) chicks may try to outdo each other by making louder sounds in an effort to attract favor from their mothers during feeding. “This can be seen as an exception to the rule, highlighting the importance of turn-taking in general,” says Kendrick.
One problem with the study is that researchers themselves don’t know how to communicate with others outside their particular species of interest. Kendrick stresses another goal of the study is to create a wider framework that can bring together all the different researches on turn-taking, allowing scientists to conduct more cross-species comparisons. “We all believe strongly these fields can benefit from each other, and we hope the study will drive more crosstalk between humans and animals in the future,” says Kendrick.
1. What can we learn about the turn-taking behavior?| A．It is a unique human quality. |
| B．It is an acquired athletic skill. |
| C．It occurs between familiar relations. |
| D．It features complexity and interaction. |
| A．Frogs show skin colors. |
| B．Bees release smells. |
| C．Eagles scream in the sky. |
| D．Monkeys exchange calls. |
| A．To propose a definition. |
| B．To give a contrast. |
| C．To present an argument. |
| D．To make a prediction. |
| A．Research budget. |
| B．Research range. |
| C．Research frequency. |
| D．Research background. |
6 . Animals can adapt quickly to survive unfavorable environmental conditions. Evidence is mounting to show that plants can, too. A paper published in the journal Trends in Plant Science details how plants are rapidly adapting to the effects of climate change, and how they are passing down these adaptations to their offspring(后代).
Plants are facing more environmental stresses than ever. For example, climate change is making winters shorter in many locations, and plants are responding. “Many plants require a minimum period of cold in order to set up their environmental clock to define their flowering time,” says Martinelli, a plant geneticist at the University of Florence. “As cold seasons shorten, plants have adapted to require shorter periods of cold to delay flowering. These mechanisms allow plants to avoid flowering in periods when they have fewer opportunities to reproduce.”
Because plants don’t have neural(神经的) networks, their memory is based entirely on cellular(细胞的),molecular(分子的),and biochemical networks. These networks make up what the researchers call somatic memory(体细胞记忆). “It allows plants to recognize the occurrence of a previous environmental condition and to react accordingly,” says Martinelli.
These somatic memories can then be passed to the plants’ offspring via epigenetics(表现遗传). “Several examples demonstrate the existence of molecular mechanisms modulating plant memory to environmental stresses and affecting the adaptation of offspring to these stresses,” says Martinelli.
Going forward, Martinelli hopes to understand even more about the genes that are being passed down. “We are particularly interested in decoding the epigenetic alphabet without changes in DNA sequence(序列),”he says. “This is especially important when we consider the rapid climate change, we observe today that every living organism, including plants, needs to quickly adapt to survive.”
1. What adaptations have plants made to shortened cold seasons?| A．They have shortened their flowering time. |
| B．They have got more chances to reproduce. |
| C．They have avoided flowering in cold seasons. |
| D．They have adjusted their environmental clock. |
| A．It is entirely based on neural networks. |
| B．It can help the plants’ offspring to survive. |
| C．It can help relieve environmental stresses. |
| D．It disturbs the plants’ biochemical networks. |
| A．Adjusting. | B．Treasuring. |
| C．Recording. | D．Sharing. |
| A．Plants are smart about flowering time |
| B．Plants can also adapt to climate change |
| C．Environmental stresses challenge plants |
| D．Mysteries of plant genes are to be unfolded |
7 . Honeybees fly much longer distances in the summer than in the spring and autumn to find good sources of food, a new study has found.
Researchers at Sussex University spent two years decoding the “waggle (摇摆) dance” of honeybees, a form of communication by which the bees tell their nestmates where to go to get the best source of food to bring back to the hive (蜂箱).
By measuring the angle of the dance in relation to the sun and the length of time the bee waggled its body while moving in a figure of eight pattern, researchers have been able to map the distance and location where bees forage (觅食) from month to month.
With a one second waggle equal to a foraging distance of 750 metres, the bees dance language revealed that the area they covered in search of food is about 22 times greater in the summer (July and August) than in spring (March) and six times greater in summer than in the autumn (October). In the summer the area they cover is 15.2km sq, compared to 0.8km in spring and 5.1km in the autumn.
Honeybees will not waste valuable time and energy travelling to find food if they don’t need to, so the researchers say the results show that the summer is the most challenging season for bees to collect the nectar and pollen from flowers.
“There is a large quantity of flowers in the spring and autumn, but it is harder for them to locate good blocks of flowers in the summer because agricultural intensification means there are fewer wildflowers in the countryside for bees,” said Frances Ratnieks, author of the study.
The researchers say the results can be used to focus efforts to help bees better. “The bees are telling us where they are foraging so we can now understand how best to help them by planting more flowers for them in the summer,” said Ratnieks.
1. What is the recent research mainly about?| A．Sources of honeybee food. |
| B．The honeybee dance language. |
| C．Honeybees’ eating behaviour. |
| D．Relationship between honeybees. |
| A．The high wind. |
| B．The strong heat. |
| C．Lengthening days. |
| D．Shortage of flowers. |
| A．Its appeal to the public. |
| B．Its practical application. |
| C．Expectations for future studies. |
| D．Scientists with new perspectives. |
| A．Honeybees are really highly intelligent |
| B．Scientists decode honeybee “waggle dance” |
| C．Lack of food sources puts honeybees at risk |
| D．Why summers are bad news for honeybees |
8 . In his new book The Journeys of Trees, science writer Zach St. George explores an extremely slow migration(迁 徙), as forests move inch by inch to more hospitable places. As old trees die and new ones grow up, the forest is—ever so slightly—moving, he writes. “Through the fossils(化石) that ancient forests left behind, scientists can track their movement. They move back and forth across continents, like migrating birds or whales.”
This has happened over thousands of years, and climate change tends to be the driving force—pushing and pulling forests around the globe. Of course, today, climate change is speeding up, and trees can’t keep pace. Take Califomnia: It’s getting hotter and drier and scientists estimate that before too long, Joshua Tree National Park may not be able to sustain Joshua trees. Zach St. George describes a similar threat to Sequoia National Park, during California’s long and severe drought a few years back.
Scientists worried that maybe Sequoia National Park would no longer be the place for giant sequoias. St. George thinks at some point we will lose these ancient trees and we will have to think about what we do with the places, and do we plant new ones somewhere else? This is known as “assisted migration”—humans planting trees in other places where they’re more likely to grow well. But this process carries risks—people can accidentally introduce insects and diseases to new places, where they may wipe out entire native populations. So, St. George writes, there’s a debate among conservationists and foresters today: Should humans help the trees escape?
“I think there are going to be instances where people are probably going to step in and help species move to places where they’ll be more suitable in the future,” St. George says. “And I met a lot of people in the process who have felt sorry about what has been lost and what will be lost—and are still continuing to try and do good and work in the moment for small things.”
1. What does the underlined word “They” in Paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Animals. | B．Fossils. | C．Scientists. | D．Forests. |
| A．To confirm the problem of the loss of tree species is serious. |
| B．To argue humans should be responsible for the loss of trees. |
| C．To explain climate change results in the migration of forests. |
| D．To prove forests can slow down the process of climate change. |
| A．It can prevent the trees escaping. |
| B．It can promote biological diversity. |
| C．It may help to protect the forests. |
| D．It may affect species in new places. |
| A．Supportive. | B．Doubtful. | C．Ambiguous. | D．Intolerant. |
A Tsinghua professor is leading authority on tackling global warming and public attention has been drawn
Global warming, carbon footprints, the 2-degree limitation for temperature
In addition to his academic research and teaching work, the climate change economics professor from the Department of Earth System Science at Tsinghua University,has made a speech to
“I’m a strong believer in environmental protection
His speech last year on I Am A Scientist, a multiplatform series of online articles and videos organized by the China Association for Science and Technology,
“Since the industrial revolution, the burning of fossil fuels
In 2000, he chose
10 . It’s unlikely that we’ll see a dodo, a flightless bird, walking this earth anytime again, according to Beth Shapiro, a evolutionary molecular biologist.
“When most people think about de-extinction, they’re imagining cloning,” Shapiro said. Cloning, the approach that created Dolly, the sheep in 1996 and Elizabeth Ann, the black-footed ferret in 2020, creates an identical genetic copy of an individual by putting DNA from a living adult cell into an egg cell from which the nucleus (细胞核) has been removed. Adult cells contain all the DNA needed to develop into a living animal. Egg cells then use that DNA as a blueprint to turn themselves into many kinds of cells——skin, organs, blood and bones——the animal needs.
“But no living cells from dodos exist. Instead,” Shapiro said, “you’d have to start with a closely related animal’s genome (基因组) and then change it into one similar to dodos.” For example， mammoths (猛犸) are also extinct，but they were very closely related to modern Asian elephants, so researchers are attempting to bring mammoths back from extinction by creating a hybrid mammoth with some mammoth genes replacing part of the elephant genome in an elephant egg cell. However, there are likely millions of genetic differences between the genome of an Asian elephant and that of a mammoth according to Shapiro.
As for the dodo, its closest living relative is the Nicobar pigeon. Mammoths and Asian elephants are pretty closely related, whereas it had been more than 20 million years since the dodo and the Nicobar pigeon had any common ancestors. Genetic differences between the two bird species are therefore much greater, making it a formidable task to create a successful hybrid in the lab, Shapiro said.
Even if scientists manage to bring dodos back, the island where they once lived is a very different place nowadays, which make it impossible to reintroduce dodos without major intervention.
1. What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?| A．The special role of DNA. |
| B．The process of cloning. |
| C．The development of cloning. |
| D．The complexity of cloning. |
| A．Dodos are harder to bring back to life. |
| B．Their living cells are hard to preserve. |
| C．Cloning can be used to recreate extinct animals. |
| D．They share a similar genome with Asian elephants. |
| A．Urgent. |
| B．Possible. |
| C．Tough. |
| D．Different. |
| A．Favorable. |
| B．Intolerant. |
| C．Objective. |
| D．Negative. |
