Nearly a
2 . You may think your dog likes you more than it does. Dog owners tend to overestimate the bond they have with their pets, which could have implications for preventing dogs from roaming (walking) far from home or attacking other animals.
“As caregivers, we need to develop better bonds with our dogs, not only for our own well-being and the dogs’ well-being, but also for nature,” says Lorena Saavedra-Aracena at the University of Magallanes, Chile.
Previous research has shown that unsterilized (未杀菌的) male dogs and undernourished dogs tend to roam longer distances, but it isn’t always the case. Saavedra-Aracena wondered if the dogs’ attachment to their caregivers also played a role, so she and her colleagues equipped 41 free-roaming pet dogs with GPS collars, tracking their journeys on Navarino Island in southern Chile for about 3 weeks.
Although most of the dogs stayed within a 200-meter radius (半径) of home, Some travelled up to 28 kilometres away. One even swam in a near-freezing canal for an hour while chasing native water birds, says Saavedra-Aracena. The dogs regularly brought home carcasses (动物的尸体) of native birds, and 80 per cent of them harassed other animals, mainly local cattle and sheep.
The researchers asked owners to complete a standard survey about the dog-human bond. Then, to get the “dog’s point of view”, they ran a behaviour test adapted from evaluations of children’s bonds with their parents.Each dog was reunited with its owner in a new place addressed by strangers, left alone in an unfamiliar room and given free access to a second, empty room. The team found that lower scores on the bonding test correlated with greater roaming distances.The owners of these dogs had assessed their pets’ attachment to them as much stronger than the bonding tests suggested, says Saavedra-Aracena. Is it possible that people place too much weight on their dog’s enthusiastic greetings as a sign of bonding, she says. Dogs that roamed the most often showed the most exuberant (energetic and excited) responses to seeing their owners again. They may have simply become accustomed to carrying out an “evolutionary” ritual (仪式) of bond re-establishment that is typical among pack members after long absences, says Saavedra-Aracena.
Relationships with other humans may have weakened the dog-owner bond in far-roaming dogs, she says. Neighbours sometimes give them food, and tourists hiking on the island offer walks and companionship, potentially reinforcing the roaming problem.
Outside opportunities for food, exercise and socialisation could all affect bonding, says Paul McGreevy at the University of New England in Australia. These aspects are critical to dog welfare and represent needs that must be met by its caregiver, both for building attachment and for controlling roaming behaviour. “If any one of those three key resources is lacking, then the dog can be justified in going elsewhere.” he says.
Although it has become less common to see roaming dogs in industrialised nations, they continue to roam freely in most societies, says Saavedra-Aracena. Even when owners restrain their pets, some dogs can escape their ropes.
“Unlike children who loosen bonds with their parents as they grow older, dogs can become more attached to their caregivers throughout their lives,” she says. “So, it’s never too late to work on building that bond, playing with your dog and just spending time with him, getting to know him better, just like you would with a human partner.”
1. From the research done by Saavedra-Aracena and her colleagues, we can learn that .| A．almost all the dogs were mistreated or didn’t have the ability to breed |
| B．the healthier the dog is, the farther it can escape |
| C．most of the dogs didn’t travel very far away |
| D．the researchers follow the wandering dogs in the flesh |
| A．threatened | B．generated | C．sheltered | D．avoided |
| A．food, sport and company are the three key factors when forming a bond with your dog |
| B．dog owners are more likely to consider their relationship with their dogs as close |
| C．the more energetically a dog responds to you, the closer the relationship you have with it is |
| D．dogs can become attracted by other people, which can result in them raveling farther than they otherwise would |
| A．inform us of the potential risks between dogs and their owners |
| B．remind dog owners to give more attention and time to their pet dogs |
| C．warn us to restrict the activities of dogs |
| D．present us with a piece of research that discuses how a relationship is formed between a dog and its owner |
One day, my two brothers and I were coming back from the islands
During the polar time of 1910-1911, both teams organized food bases in preparation
Amundsen was the first to leave on 8 September, 1911. He had teams of dogs
4 . A researcher with the Australian Antarctic Division left a camera near a large group of emperor penguins. Then two of the birds walked over to check the camera out. The camera was rolling when the penguins started to look into its lens (镜头), resulting in a very cute penguin "selfie (自拍)". That's according to Amy B. Wang of the Washington Post.
Explorer Eddie Gault placed the camera near the Auster Rookery during his visit to Australia's Mawson research station. The Australian Antarctic Division posted a short video from the camera—happy penguins on its social media pages. They wrote that it offered a "bird's eye view of life in Antarctica"!
At the start of the video, we can only see the feet of a penguin. It appears to kick the camera over so its lens faces the sky. As the penguin looks into the camera, another comes into view. The buddies come towards the lens and cock their heads. Then they straighten up and shake their heads. It is as though they have decided that this strange object is not worth their time.
Penguins are "naturally curious" animals, the Australian Antarctic Division writes on its Facebook page.
Other animals have also been known to get involved in the art of the selfie. An eagle in Western Australia once picked up a camera that was supposed to be recording fresh-water crocodiles. It filmed itself flying and touching at the lens.
Then there is a monkey that accidentally started a year-long lawsuit (诉讼) when it took a funny photo of itself with a camera owned by David Slater. He is a British wildlife photographer. Slater published the image of the monkey in a book, which caused People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals to take him to court for breaking the copyright of the so-called "selfie monkey".
Slater said himself that the monkey had pressed the shutter on his camera, which proved to be the heart of the case against him.
As for the Antarctic penguins, the camera was already rolling when they decided to "strike a pose", so the Australian Antarctic Division should be able to avoid a possible lawsuit. But if you happen to be in the Antarctic and see two penguins taking top-down Instagram shots of their latest meal, you know who is responsible.
1. The underlined word "rolling" in Paragraph 1 probably means _____.| A．flashing | B．moving | C．recording | D．turning |
A． | B． |
C． | D． |
| A．he used the monkey's selfie in a book |
| B．the monkey pressed the button on his camera |
| C．the monkey took a photo of him with his camera |
| D．he published a photo of the monkey on the Internet |
| A．In a law book. | B．In a research report. |
| C．In a photographer's diary. | D．In a wildlife magazine. |
5 . The cumulative rainfall in Henan province during the four days was the highest since the province has records, the provincial meteorological service said. The rain was heaviest in the provincial capital, Zhengzhou, for a short period on Monday and Tuesday. Northern, western and central parts of Henan also experienced downpours, the service said. Zhengzhou's biggest one-hour precipitation (降水量) —201. 9 mm between 4 and 5 pm on Tuesday—was also the highest on the Chinese mainland. The previous record was 198. 5 mm in the village of Linzhuang in Zhumadian in August 1975, the National Meteorological Center said. The city's precipitation during the four days exceeded that of its average annual precipitation, the center said.
Chen Tao, chief forecaster at the National Meteorological Center, said abundant water vapor (水蒸气) brought by Typhoon In-Fa and the province's special geographical features led to Henan's rain. “Partly affected by the typhoon, large amounts of water vapor have been transported to China's inland areas, including Henan,” he said.
From Thursday to Monday, rain was forecast to continue in Henan. However, rainfall will gradually subside in Zhengzhou and the province's northern and central regions, though the storms will increase the risk of mountain torrents and other geological disasters. By Monday, lighter rain is forecast for parts of Henan, the provincial weather service said. However, local authorities are still urged to be vigilant and prepare to prevent or cope with flooding and other possible disasters.
Predicting such weather events remains a challenge worldwide because it involves many meteorological phenomena, the center said. “The formation of this kind of extreme weather, including rainstorms and high temperatures, is complex,” Chen said. “We still lack effective solutions and methods for such forecasting”, he said. “We are now putting a lot of effort into tackling the difficulty. We believe that as the technology improves, we can better forecast the events.”
1. What message does the author mainly want to convey in the first paragraph?| A．heavy rain fell in Zhengzhou. |
| B．The rain in Henan lasted four days. |
| C．Zhumadian also suffered the similar heavy rain. |
| D．Henan experienced the biggest rainfall of all time. |
| A．It is not easy to forecast the extreme weather. |
| B．The rain of Henan is mainly caused by Typhoon In-Fa. |
| C．The center hasn't put a lot of effort into solving the problem. |
| D．Rainstorms and high temperatures can account for the heavy rain. |
| A．Relaxed. | B．Alert. | C．Reluctant. | D．Communicative. |
| A．history book. | B．A novel. | C．A news report. | D．A science magazine. |
6 . In January 1958, Rachel Carson received a letter from her fiend Olga Owens Huckins. Huckins lived in an area of Massachusetts where the state was trying to get rid of mosquitoes. They had used planes to spray a mixture of fuel oil and DDT (a pesticide, which can kill pests such as insects, weeds and rodents) all over the area around Huckins home. DDT was supposedly harmless but the morning after the spraying. Huckins found several of her favorite birds dead outside her house. And the spraying did not even kill all of the mosquitoes, in fact that summer there were more of them than ever before. Huckins asked Carson if she knew someone in Washington that could help prevent future spraying.
Carson had been hearing about DDT since a Swiss chemist discovered it could be used to kill insects in 1939. To many people, DDT seemed like a miracle substance. Farmers were excited about saving their crops from pests. Doctors and others were excited about saving people's lives by killing disease-carrying insects. But to Carson. DDT appeared to be dangerous to all living creatures.
The more Carson found out about DDT and other pesticides, the more she realized that she needed to help stop future spraying. Carson decided to write a book about pesticides. She said, “There would be no future peace for me if I kept silent.” She called her book Silent Spring.
Carson had spent her life studying, observing, and writing about nature. She was a trained biologist and a talented writer who knew how to present scientific information in compelling stories. Before Silent Spring, she had written other books from the perspective of fish birds, islands and oceans. Carson knew that all things in nature exist in a delicately balanced ecosystem. In Silent Spring, Carson wrote that. although the ecosystem can adjust to changes, it needs time. Carson believed that people u the 1950s were using pesticides carelessly Nature didn’t have time to adjust, wrote Carson, because so any pesticides had been used in such large quantities in such short tame.
1. Why did Huckins write a letter to Rachel Carson?| A．To tell her some bad news. | B．To turn to her for help. |
| C．To advise her to write a book. | D．To ask her some questions. |
| A．It killed pests such as insects, weeds and rodents around Huckins' home. |
| B．It killed all of the mosquitoes. |
| C．There were more birds than ever before |
| D．It had bad effects on ecosystem. |
| A．Gardeners. | B．Farmers. | C．Doctors. | D．Biologists. |
| A．Rachel Carson's research on nature | B．Rachel Carson's life |
| C．Rachel Carson's Silent Spring | D．DDT's bad effects on ecosystem |
