1 . Jonathan the tortoise, the world’s oldest land animal, turned 190 over the weekend on the island of St. Helena, where he enjoyed a “cake” of leafy greens, seasonal fruits and vegetables, including carrots carved into the number “190”.
Jonathan was brought to St. Helena from the Seychelles in 1882 as a gift. According to Guinness World Records, Jonathan surpassed the previous record holder, Tu’i Malila, who lived in the 1770s until 1965 and could be even older. He arrived in St. Helena as a fully mature tortoise, meaning he was at least 50 in 1882.
“The vet is still feeding him by hand once a week to boost his calories, vitamins, minerals and trace elements, as he is blind and has no sense of smell. His hearing, however, is excellent and he enjoys the company of humans, and responds well to his vet Joe Hollins’ voice as he associates him with a feast.” Guinness World Records said.
“The tortoise enjoys the sun but on very hot days takes to the shade. On mild days, he will sunbathe his long neck and legs stretched fully out of his shell to absorb heat and transfer it to his core,” says Hollins. When it’s cold, Jonathan has been known to “dig himself into leaf mold or grass cuttings and remain there all day.”
In most cases, the lifespan of a tortoise or turtle depends on the species and level of care they receive. Generally, they live much longer in captivity (圈养) than in the wild, because in the wild, they must find their own food in addition to avoiding meeting predators while not getting medical treatment. Larger turtle and tortoise species also tend to live longer than smaller ones. Click here for more information about animal record holders.
1. In which year might Jonathan be born?| A．In 1882. | B．In1832. |
| C．In 1965. | D．In 1770. |
| A．Jonathan had a birthday cake made of fruits, vegetables, and meat. |
| B．Jonathan was born and raised on the island of St. Helena. |
| C．Jonathan is a very old but healthy tortoise with full senses. |
| D．Jonathan is the Guinness World holder of the oldest land animal. |
| A．Species differences. | B．Food shortage. |
| C．Lack of medical treatment. | D．Animal enemies. |
| A．In a biology textbook. | B．On a news website. |
| C．In a science fiction. | D．In a travel brochure. |
2 . Set in the snow-covered Himalayan mountains, Nainital’s waterways and forests are popular places for tourists. The road to Nainital is covered with woodlands that elephants, snakes, and squirrels always use as well. Nainital’s wildlife and human visitors exist together in the same place, but increasing tourist traffic causes a danger to some of these animals while they cross the roads. Then on the way to Nainital, an eco-bridge appears on a busy highway.
A forest manager said, “This is a rich forest, and elephant, leopards, deer and bulls move in this area. Drivers can see these large animals from some distance and slow down or stop, but they seldom do so for animals like snakes, lizards and squirrels.” To make things safer for these smaller animals, an eco-bridge was built.
No iron was found in the building of the 90-foot-long bridge. It was only made from materials like bamboo and grass and high up in the air above the road. Workers are now growing grass and plants to cover the bridge in order to attract animals. It is hoped that a green bridge will draw animals to use it. Meanwhile, it is always attracting tourists, who stop to take photos of the amazing bridge. It will make drivers realize how dangerous their high driving speed will be to animals and then reduce their speed.
Although the eco-bridge is the first Indian wildlife bridge for small animals, Indian people have recently worked on a number of projects to help cars and larger animals share the road. For example, six bridges were built over a highway in the Annamalai Hills. These bridges were built to support monkeys in reaching both sides of the highway. On India’s busy National Highway 44, several bridges have successfully enabled large wild animals to cross the crowded highway. Plans for more animal crossings are already carried out in India, including one for elephants on the Chen-nai-Bangalore National Highway.
India has some of the most unique wildlife in the world. Hopefully, nature-based city planning will benefit both India’s native wildlife and its human neighbors.
1. Why was an eco-bridge designed on the way to Nainital?| A．To attract more tourists to go there. | B．To keep small animals safe. |
| C．To protect some rare animals. | D．to prevent wild animals hurting people. |
| A．It is cost-effective to build. | B．It is the first bridge in India. |
| C．It can improve visitor’s safety. | D．It draws on the natural materials. |
| A．Avoiding taking photos of animals when they are passing by. |
| B．Using the new bridge only if it is necessary. |
| C．Visiting Nainital’s forests as little as possible. |
| D．Improving their awareness of slowing down for wild animals. |
| A．Indians’ effort in building wildlife-friendly highway systems. |
| B．The difficulties of building animal crossing in big cities. |
| C．Why most highways in India are safe for wild animals. |
| D．How animal crossing influence wildlife and humans. |
HEFEI- Three Dalmatian pelicans (卷羽鹈鹕), or Pelecanus crispus, were spotted at Chaohu Lake for the first time, the fifth
The rare birds
“This wading bird, which feeds on fish, has a high level of alertness and requires a good
More than 80 birds, such as little swans and cormorants, were also spotted on Wednesday at the lake. Hefei City,
4 . War can be deadly for wildlife, too. A new study reports that war is the biggest threat to Africa’s elephants, rhinoceroses and other animals. Researchers examined how years of conflict in Africa have affected populations of large animals. More than 70 percent of Africa’s protected wildlife areas have been within a war zone at some point in the last 70 years. “The more frequent the fighting, the greater the drop in animal populations,” said Josh Daskin, an ecologist at Yale University. He was the lead author of the study, which was published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
“It takes very little conflict, as much as one conflict in about 20 years, for the average wildlife population to be declining,” Daskin said. “Areas with frequent fighting-but not necessarily the bloodiest fighting-lose 35 percent of their large animal populations during each year of war,” he said.
“Some animals get killed by weapons of war. Yet, many also die because of changes in social and economic conditions in an area as a result of war,” said Rob Pringle. He is an ecologist at Princeton University and the study’s co-author. “People in and around war zones are poor and hungry. So they may begin to illegally hunt animals for valuable tusks or hunt protected animals to eat,” Pringle said. “And during wartime, animal conservation programs do not have as much money or power to protect wildlife.”
The new study examined the entire African continent over 65 years. The researchers looked at 10 different factors that could change population numbers. They included war, animal size, protected areas and human population density. The number of wars had the biggest effect on wildlife population. The intensity of the wars-measured in the number of human deaths-had the least effect on animals.
1. Which is the most dangerous to Africa’s animals?| A．War. | B．Society. | C．Economy. | D．Hunting. |
| A．Little conflict has no effect to animals’ population. |
| B．More than 70 percent of animals live in a war zone. |
| C．The more frequent the fighting is, the fewer the animals are. |
| D．35 percent of animals in the world died each year because of war. |
| A．The extreme weather. |
| B．Being killed by the weapons. |
| C．Being killed by poor and hungry people. |
| D．Lack of money or power to protect them. |
| A．Protected areas. | B．The intensity of the wars. |
| C．The number of wars. | D．Animal size. |
5 . A group of volunteers joined forces to form a human chain to free four dolphins which had been stranded (搁浅) in a canal for four days. The four dolphins were seen in the water near the Fossil Park, Florida, US, on Sunday. Experts from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) had monitored the dolphins’ activities in the past few days and hoped that they would swim out with the tide (潮水).
But when the dolphins struggled to leave the canal, brave volunteers joined members of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium to form a rescue team to free them. Dozens of people gathered to take videos and pictures of the kind act. A team of 14 volunteers held hands to act as a block to guide the dolphins out of the narrow channel. They shouted and patted the water with their hands to direct the dolphins to the vast waters of Riviera Bay. Dolphins find their way in the water through echolocation (回声定位). That means, by making high-frequency sounds, they can recognize the echoes of sound waves to find their way around.
Andy Garrett, a biologist of the FWC said, “We were able to keep that chain together. The dolphins were interested. They actually came over right away.” He added that when the team reached a bridge, the dolphins appeared a bit nervous and started doing some spins. “They made one real hard pass at our team and then went under the bridge and took off,” Garrett said. The operation lasted about 45 minutes and the rescue team did not use nets or any items that could stress the dolphins.
1. What can we know about the dolphins from paragraph 1?| A．They swam in groups to protect themselves. |
| B．They lived in the water near Fossil Park. |
| C．They were observed in secret by volunteers. |
| D．They were forced to stay in a canal for four days. |
| A．To make sounds to attract some people. |
| B．To guide the dolphins to larger waters. |
| C．To celebrate the success of saving dolphins. |
| D．To test the different reactions of four dolphins. |
| A．Brave and caring. | B．Absorbed and humorous. |
| C．Smart and generous. | D．Independent and energetic. |
| A．Dolphins swam to the canal to hunt for food. |
| B．Rescuers formed a human chain to save dolphins. |
| C．Volunteers trained four dolphins to find their way home. |
| D．Experts studied the ways of dolphins finding directions. |
6 . When you praise a dog, it’s listening to not just the words you say but also how you say them. That might not be huge news to dog owners. But now researchers have explored this phenomenon by using an imaging machine to look inside the brains of 13 dogs as they listened to their owners’ voice.
The reward pathway in the dogs’ brains lit up when they heard both praising words and an approving intonation (语调)—but not when they heard random (随机的) words spoken in a praising tone or praising words spoken in a flat tone, according to the researchers.
“Dogs deal with both what we say and how we say it in a way which is amazingly similar to how humans do it,” says Attila Andics, a neuroscientist in Hungary. When dogs hear speech, he explains, they seem to separate the meaning of words from the intonation. Then the left hemisphere (半球) of the brain deals with meaning, while intonation is dealt with in the right hemisphere.
All the dogs in the study were willing volunteers and were trained not to move in the scanner (扫描器). The dogs could get up and leave the machine whenever they wanted. But it was clear to the dogs that their human companions loved it when they did this very easy task. “They were really happy to take part,” says Andics. “The difficulty of the training was that they can’t move more than 3 millimeters in any direction, otherwise we will have to throw out all of the data.”
He says most dog owners have experimented with trying to “trick” their dogs by saying nonsense words in a cheerful, happy tone of voice. “I think the big difference here is that they only heard us, and they didn’t see us,” says Andics, because the dogs were inside the machine. “Here, the only information they had was the speech signal. What we saw is that for praise to be dealt with as a reward, when there is no other supporting information, both word meaning and intonation have to fit.”
1. What is regarded as a reward by dogs according to the study?| A．Praising words in a flat tone. | B．Random words in a flat tone. |
| C．Praising words in a praising tone. | D．Random words in a praising tone. |
| A．Focus more on the meaning. | B．Focus more on the intonation. |
| C．Use information from their peers. | D．Use the two parts of the brain. |
| A．Looking into the dogs’ brain activity. |
| B．Training dogs to stay still in the machine. |
| C．Keeping dogs separated from their owners. |
| D．Asking dogs to get up and leave the scanner. |
| A．Dogs Understand Tone and Meaning of Words |
| B．Dogs Indeed Know How to Praise |
| C．Dogs Can Recognize Owners’ Voices |
| D．Dogs Can Read Man’s Moods |
Horses are picky eaters
Horses have an even better sense of smell than humans do. When horses raise their noses and open their nostrils (鼻孔), their nervous system allows them to sense smells we can’t sense. This might explain why they refuse dirty water and carefully move around meadows, eating only the tastiest grasses, experts say.
Whale says thanks
In 2018, a whale expert spotted a humpback whale trapped in a fishing net and spent an hour freeing it. Afterward, in an hour-long display of thanks, the whale swam near their boat and leaped into the air about 40 times.
Pandas like to be naughty
Is there anything more lovely than a baby panda, except maybe a human baby? In fact, baby pandas sometimes behave like human babies. They sleep in the same positions and value their thumbs. Pandas are shy by nature for its shy behaviors such as covering its face with a paw or ducking its head when confronted by a stranger.
A cat honors its owner
Paper towels, and a plastic cup are just a few of the gifts that Toldo, a devoted three-year-old gray-and-white cat, has placed on his former owner Iozzelli Renzo’s grave every day since the man died in September 2018. Renzo adopted Toldo from a shelter when the cat was three months old, and the two formed an inseparable bond. After Renzo passed away, Toldo followed the coffin to the cemetery, and now “stands guard” the grave for hours at a time.
1. What can horses do to pick delicious grasses?| A．Feel them. |
| B．Taste them. |
| C．Smell them. |
| D．Observe them. |
| A．They are clever. |
| B．They have a grateful heart. |
| C．They are active and lovely. |
| D．They have a good sense of smell. |
| A．The whale |
| B．The cat. |
| C．The horse. |
| D．The panda. |
8 . The Amazon rainforest is as undisturbed a place as most people can imagine, but even there, the effects of a changing climate are playing out. Now, research suggests that many of the region’s most sensitive bird species are starting to evolve in response to warming.
Birds are often considered sentinel (哨兵) species — meaning that they indicate the overall health of an ecosystem — so scientists are particularly interested in how they’re responding to climate change. In general, the news has not been good. For instance, a 2019 report by the National Audubon Society found that more than two-thirds of North America’s bird species will be in danger of extinction by 2100 if warming trends continue on their current course.
For the new study, researchers collected the biggest database so far on the Amazon’s resident birds, representing 77 non-migratory species and lasting the 40 years from 1979 to 2019. During the study period, the average temperature in the region rose, while the amount of rainfall declined, making for a hotter, dryer climate overall. According to the report on November 12 in the journal Science Advances, 36 species have lost substantial weight, as much as 2 percent of their body weight per decade since 1980. Meanwhile, all the species showed some decrease in average body mass, while a third grew longer wings.
Because of the study’s long time series and large sample sizes, the authors were able to show the morphological (形态学的) effects of climate change on resident birds. However, the researchers themselves are unsure and wonder what advantage the wing length changes give the birds, but suppose smaller birds may have an easier time keeping cool. In general, smaller animals have a larger rate of surface area to body size, so they dissipate more heat faster than a bigger animal. Less available food, such as fruit or insects, in dryer weather might lead to smaller body size.
1. Why are scientists fond of doing research on birds?| A．They have small body sizes. | B．They are sensitive to hot weather. |
| C．They are ecological balance indicators. | D．They live in an undisturbed rainforest. |
| A．Two-thirds of species showed a considerable decrease in weight. |
| B．About 26 species responded to climate change with longer wings. |
| C．36 species lost 2% of their body weight every year from 1979 to 2019. |
| D．A third of species have been extinct for a decade due to the hotter climate. |
| A．Put off. | B．Give off. | C．Put away. | D．Give away. |
| A．Why it is easier for smaller animals to keep cool. |
| B．Why the Amazonian birds have lost substantial weight. |
| C．Whether bird species in Amazon will be extinct in 2100. |
| D．What effects the wing length changes have on birds. |
1. Where do the pandas mainly live?
| A．In bamboo forests of western China. |
| B．In the mountains of eastern China. |
| C．In the high mountains of southern China. |
| A．12-38 kg | B．6 kg. | C．330 pounds. |
| A．After growing up. | B．About 6 months old. | C．When it is just born. |
| A．At most 14 years. | B．At least 20 years. | C．Up to 30 years. |
| A．Disappointed. | B．Satisfied. | C．Happy. |
