The turtle dove is the UK’s fastest-declining bird species, according to a recent study. The data,
2 . I had always wanted a dog. My parents told me when I was old enough and
One day I hopped off the bus, not knowing what awaited me inside. I walked through the door, and to my
She was a smart dog. We
Eleven years we were together, best of friends. Unfortunately, arthritis (关节炎) and old age set in on her. My parents knew what had to be done, but they let me find and make the decision myself.
She was
I carried her into the vet’s (兽医诊所) and placed her on the table. She leaned her head forward and gave a lick to my hand as if to say, “I understand. Stay
The vet asked before giving the final shot, “Are you sure?” With a heavy heart and tear-filled eyes, I nodded yes. The final shot was given. My eyes fixed upon her wagging tail. In a matter of seconds, it
I took her home and buried her in the pasture, where she loved playing and chasing rabbits. It was the
Recently I went back to her grave. Growing on her grave was a single wildflower. It was swaying in a circle, just like her. I know now that, that special friend will be
| A．confident | B．brave | C．creative | D．responsible |
| A．relief | B．surprise | C．annoyance | D．confusion |
| A．would | B．should | C．might | D．must |
| A．suffering | B．expecting | C．paying | D．gaining |
| A．even | B．almost | C．still | D．hardly |
| A．insisted | B．realized | C．agreed | D．predicted |
| A．honest | B．popular | C．strong | D．active |
| A．stopped | B．expanded | C．hurt | D．rose |
| A．greatest | B．hardest | C．wisest | D．warmest |
| A．above | B．on | C．with | D．for |
3 . “Flying insects don’t fly directly to lights from far away because they’re attracted to them, but appear to change course toward a light if they happen to be passing by due to a strange inborn biological response,” writes Samuel Fabian, a bioengineer, in a research paper.
Until now, the leading scientific hypothesis has been that insects use the moon’s light to direct the way at night and mistake artificial lights for the moon. But this idea doesn’t explain why insects that only fly during the day also gather around lights.
To find out what really happens, Samuel’s team track the precise movements of insects in the wild around lights using a high-speed camera. This revealed two notable behaviours. First, when insects fly above lights, they often invert (转向) themselves and try to fly upside down, causing them to fall very fast. Just after insects pass under a light, they start doing a ring road. As their climb angle becomes too steep, they suddenly stop and start to fall. Second, when insects approach a light from the side, they may circle or “orbit” the light.
The videos show that the inversions sometimes result in insects falling on lights. It can appear to the naked eye as though they are flying at the lights. “Instead, insects turn their dorsum toward the light, generating flight perpendicular(垂直) to the source,” the team write. It is common to the two behaviours that the insects are keeping their backs to the light, known as the dorsal light response (DLR). This DLR is a shortcut for insects to work out which way is up and keep their bodies upright, as the moon or sun is usually more or less directly above them, and this direction allows them to maintain proper flight attitude and control. They also find that the insects fly at right angles to a light source, leading to orbiting and unstable flights as the light’s location relative to them changes as they move.
Samuel’s team suggest that a possible outcome of the research could help the construction industry to avoid the types of light that most attract insects.
1. What does the research focus on?| A．Why insects gather around lights. |
| B．Where artificial lights lead insects to. |
| C．What biological response insects are born with. |
| D．How to design environment friendly artificial lights. |
| A．They fly directly to lights. | B．They circle close to lights. |
| C．Their flying speed is steady. | D．Their inversions can be controlled. |
| A．balance their flying | B．keep their route straight |
| C．decide their body positon | D．shorten their flight distance |
Parrots usually live in large groups and they like to eat fruit. They
The skin of a small fish from Thailand is almost completely clear. As it swims, its muscles move,
6 . Many people would answer the question of what makes us human by insisting that we are cultural beings. There is no doubt that we are. But one definition of culture is the totality of traditions acquired in a community by social learning from other individuals, and many animal species have traditions. Can we then say that some animals are cultural beings too?
One approach to study culture in animals is the so-called Method of Exclusion (排除), in which scientists investigate behavioral variations across populations of one species. In a famous study, scientists learned that chimpanzee (黑猩猩) behaviors were socially passed on as they were present at some sites but not at others, despite having same ecological settings. For example, chimpanzees in Tai National Park in Ivory Coast are well-known for their nut-cracking skills. Chimpanzees in Gombe national part in Tanzania, on the other hand, do not crack nuts, although nuts exist in their environment too.
However, when applying the Method of Exclusion, one has to be very careful. There are other factors that could also explain the pattern of behavioral evaluation. For example, some of the chimpanzee techniques scientists evaluated occur in only one of the three subspecies. So it’s quite possible that these behaviors also have an innate component. This would mean that one chimpanzee subspecies uses a new technique not out of cultural tradition, but because the behavior is fixed to specific genes. Another factor that has to be excluded is of course the environment Chimpanzees in Mahale do not fish algae (水藻), simply because algae does not exist there.
But when we exclude all the variations that can be explained by genes or environment, we still find that animals do show cultural variations. Does that mean there is no real difference between them and us after all? Not exactly: There is a fundamental difference between human and animal culture. Only humans can build culturally on what generations before us have learned. This is called “cumulative culture”. We don’t have to keep reinventing the wheel. This is called the “ratchet (棘轮) effect”. Like a ratchet that can be turned forward but not back, people’s cultural techniques evolve.
It is likely that behaviors we see today in chimpanzee cultures could be invented over and over again by individual animals themselves. In contrast, a child born today would not be able to invent a computer without the knowledge of many past generations.
1. Why does the author mention the example of the chimpanzees in two parks in Paragraph 2?| A．To prove that culture does exist in animals. |
| B．To justify the uniqueness of the research method. |
| C．To compare how chimpanzees behave in different parks. |
| D．To stress the importance of environment in studying culture. |
| A．Advanced. | B．Inborn. | C．Adaptive. | D．Intelligent. |
| A．Cumulative culture is what sets humans apart from animals. |
| B．Culure in animals is as worthy to be valued as human culture. |
| C．Animals don’t have the ability to invent behaviors in a community. |
| D．The “ratchet effect” decides if humans can build on past experiences. |
A study showed how much dogs love their owners. In the experiment, the-researchers first /measured how many tears
Several mass extinction events have occurred in the course of our planet’s history. Scientists say that previously the
Schloss and her partner set out to find out
10 . The bald eagle was once a dying species in the United States. This is because the bird wasn’t always held with respect. At the National Book Festival, author Jack E. Davis detailed the bald eagle’s “great conservation success story”.
The bald eagle has faced extinction twice. The first occurred in the late 19th century. “It was then that a bald eagle seen was one to be shot,” he said. He explained that the bird had been regarded as a dangerous animal, and considered a threat. But such threat tended to be overstated. Throughout the early 20th century, thousands of bald eagles were shot down. Things began to change for the bird in 1940, when the government passed its legal protection — the Bald Eagle Protection Act.
However, only five years later, the bird faced its second near extinction when DDT, an environmentally harmful insecticide (杀虫剂), was introduced at the end of World War Ⅱ. In 1963, the bald eagle hit its lowest number — totaling less than 500 nesting pairs across the U.S. “At that time, only about one-third of the nation’s water was safe for swimming and fishing,” Davis said. “That was eagle habitat, but also our habitat.” “We stepped up.” He mentioned that this situation led a nonprofit organization, Fish and Wildlife, to launch “hugely successful” eagle protection projects.
By 2007, the bald eagle was removed from the list as the species regained its health, reaching nearly 11,000 nesting pairs nationwide, and today’s number is somewhere around 500,000.
For those looking to assist in the ongoing comeback of the bald eagle and other endangered animals, Davis said, almost every state has a center that accepts donations and welcomes visitors and volunteers.
1. What made the bald eagle almost extinct for the first time?
| A．The illegal hunting. | B．The loose control of guns. |
| C．The attack from other animals. | D．The misunderstanding of their threat. |
| A．The outbreak of World War II. | B．The overuse of DDT nationwide. |
| C．The disappearance of eagle habitat. | D．The worsening of eagles’ living condition. |
| A．To tell a story of a dying species. |
| B．To advertise the book of Jack E. Davis. |
| C．To raise the awareness of protecting wildlife. |
| D．To introduce the ways of protecting bald eagles. |
