1 . Rainforests are home to a rich variety of medicinal plants, food, birds and animals. Can you believe that a single bush（灌木丛）in the Amazon may have more species of ants than the whole of Britain! About 480 varieties of trees may be found in just one hectare of rainforest.
Rainforests are the lungs of the planet-storing vast quantities of carbon dioxide and producing a significant amount of the world's oxygen. Rainforests have their own perfect system for ensuring their own survival; the tall trees make a canopy（树冠层）of branches and leaves which protect themselves, smaller plants, and the forest animals from heavy rain, intense dry heat from the sun and strong winds.
Amazingly, the trees grow in such a way that their leaves and branches, although close together, never actually touch those of another tree. Scientists think this is the plants' way to prevent the spread of any tree diseases and make life more difficult for leaf-eating insects like caterpillars. To survive in the forest, animals must climb, jump or fly across the gaps. The ground floor of the forest is not all tangled leaves and bushes, like in films, but is actually fairly clear. It is where dead leaves turn into food for the trees and other forest life.
They are not called rainforests for nothing! Rainforests can generate 75%of their own rain. At least 80 inches of rain a year is normal-and in some areas there may be as much as 430 inches of rain annually. This is real rain-your umbrella may protect you in a shower, but it won't keep you dry if there is a full rainstorm. In just two hours, streams can rise ten to twenty feet. The humidity（湿气）of large rainforests contributes to the formation of rainclouds that may travel to other countries in need of rain.
1. What can we learn about rainforests from the first paragraph?| A．They produce oxygen. | B．They cover a vast area. |
| C．They are well managed. | D．They are rich in wildlife. |
| A．Heavy rains | B．Big trees. |
| C．Small plants. | D．Forest animals. |
| A．For more sunlight. | B．For more growing space. |
| C．For self-protection. | D．For the detection of insects. |
| A．Life-Giving Rainforests | B．The Law of the Jungle |
| C．Animals in the Amazon | D．Weather in Rainforests |
2 . A new study reveals that pigeons (鸽子) can tackle some problems just like artificial intelligence, enabling them to solve difficult tasks that might challenge humans. Previous research has theorized that pigeons employ a problem-solving strategy, involving a trial-and- error approach, which is similar to the approach used in AI models but differs from humans’ reliance on selective attention and rule use. To examine it, Brandon Turner, a psychology professor at the Ohio State University, and his colleagues conducted the new study.
In the study, the pigeons were presented with various visual images, including lines of different widths and angles, and different types of rings. The pigeons had to peck (啄) a button on the right or left to indicate the category to which the image belonged. If they got it correct, they received food; if they were wrong, they received nothing. Results showed that, through trial and error, the pigeons improved their accuracy in categorization tasks, increasing their correct choices from about 55% to 95%.
Researchers believed pigeons used associative learning, which is linking two phenomena with each other. For example, it is easy to understand the link. between “water” and “wet”. “Associative learning is frequently assumed to be far too primitive to. explain complex visual categorization like what we saw the pigeons do,” Turner said. But that’s exactly what the researchers found.
The researchers’ AI model tackled the same tasks using just the two simple mechanisms that pigeons were assumed to use: associative learning and error correction. And, like the pigeons, the AI model learned to make the right predictions to significantly increase the number of correct answers. For humans, the challenge when given tasks like those given to pigeons is that they would try to come up with rules that could make the task easier. But in this case, there were no rules, which upsets humans.
What’s interesting, though, is that pigeons use this method of learning that is very similar to AI designed by humans, Turner said. “We celebrate how smart we are that we designed artificial intelligence: at the same time, we regard pigeons as not clever animals,” he said.
1. What is the purpose of the new study?| A．To test a theory. | B．To evaluate a model. |
| C．To employ a strategy. | D．To involve an approach. |
| A．Draw circles. | B．Correct errors. | C．Copy gestures. | D．Identify images. |
| A．They are of equal intelligence. |
| B．They are good at making rules. |
| C．They respond rapidly to orders from humans. |
| D．They employ simple ways to get things done. |
| A．Pigeons’ trial-and-error method is revealed |
| B．Pigeons outperform humans in tough tasks |
| C．“Not smart” pigeons may be as smart as AI |
| D．AI models after pigeons’ learning approach |
When Mary entered the south Pole Penguin Research Lab, she saw her friend Tom gently stroking (轻抚) a penguin in his arms. As children of the lab scientists, Mary and Tom often observed the emperor penguins that were studied to understand how they adapted to extreme temperatures —insights that could aid human survival.
“We’re thirteen, Tom. It’s time to grow up and stop playing with the lab penguins,” said Mary as she started cleaning. “They’re research animals, not pets.”
“But the birds listen to me1” insisted Tom, his breath forming a cloud in the freezing air. “You’re just trying to be a penguin whisperer again,” Mary replied, shaking her head with a gentle smile. The penguins seemed playful as they walked, dove, swam and chased their live fish for sport before eating.
Suddenly , an alarm rang out and red lights flashed , signaling a problem. The kids rushed over to look into it. “It’s colder than before —there’s ice forming on the water,” noted Tom. Though always cold, Mary had never seen ice here before. She checked the habitat monitor and found that the temperature had gone down a lot. “The heater must be broken!”
Mary quickly sent a message to their parents’ research team, who were conducting outdoor studies. With the adults away, the kids would have to deal with the freezing conditions until help arrived.
Time dragged as Mary and Tom anxiously waited. The increasing cold caused them to shake. “I wonder what emperor penguins do in extreme cold, since they stay in the Pole all winter instead of going somewhere warmer,” asked Mary. “They huddle (挤作一团), ” Tom answered. “They huddle together tightly so that the birds in the middle will be warm enough.” “What about the ones on the edge?” Mary asked. “They push their way towards the center, and then move back out to the edge, and struggle back again. Scientists in the early 21st century recorded it.” He replied as he stared at the large crowd of the penguins in the lab.
注意：1.续写词数应为150 左右；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
”I have an idea to stay warm1" Tom shouted excitedly.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Two and a half hours later , the parents returned with help.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________4 . Pets should not be left alone for too long during the day. But our busy lifestyles will sometimes tear us away.
Cats don’t simply curl up and sleep when you leave.
It’s not just cats that suffer from separation anxiety. Dogs also dislike being left alone and unfortunately they can’t tell whether it’s been ten minutes or ten hours: the displeasure felt is very similar.
You can also gradually lengthen the distance and time of your separation until your dogs can be left alone for 20 minutes without showing their usual symptoms of sadness and stress.
| A．A number of cat toys are also helpful. |
| B．Schedule daily play sessions with your cats. |
| C．But you can help ease the negative feeling at least. |
| D．That creates a lot of guilt and worry for their well-being. |
| E．In this way, they can disassociate your absence with negativity. |
| F．They need stimulation for the period when they will be left alone. |
| G．Over time, they will look forward to their separation to get a reward. |
5 . In a fascinating paper published last year in Science, a team led by Andreas Nieder of the University of Tubingen in Germany showed that crows —already known to be among the most intelligent of animals —are even more impressive than we knew. In fact, the evidence suggests that they are self-aware and, in an important sense, conscious (有意识的).
Crows had been observed previously to use tools to solve certain problems. Nieder’s experiment showed that the birds were actively evaluating how to solve a particular problem; in effect, they were thinking it over. This ability to consciously assess a problem was associated with the cerebral cortex (大脑皮层) in the brains of humans, which birds don’t have.
Other studies support the idea that the bird brain can, in principle, support the development of higher intelligence. It had been dismissed in the past due to the small size of birds’ brains. But recent research has shown that in birds, the neurons (神经元) are smaller and more lightly-packed, which makes sense to reduce weight and makes it easier lo fly. The total number of brain cell in crows (about 1.5 billion) is about the same as that in some monkey species. But because they are more tightly-packed, the communication between the neurons seems to be better, and the overall intelligence of crows may be closer to that of gorillas (猩猩).
This research has important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of higher intelligence. First, a cerebral cortex is not needed, and there are other means to achieve the same outcome. Second, either the evolution of consciousness is very ancient tracing back to the last common ancestor of mammals and birds about 320 million years ago, or, equally interesting, consciousness arose at least twice later on, independently in mammals and birds. Both options raise the possibility that higher intelligence on the planet may not necessarily be mammal or human-like, but could very well be birdlike.
1. What did Andreas Nieder’s team find out about crows?| A．They are more intelligent than other animals. |
| B．They have left people a very good impression. |
| C．They are much cleverer than previously thought. |
| D．They can use tools to solve certain problems. |
| A．The idea. | B．The bird brain. |
| C．The development. | D．Higher intelligence. |
| A．They have more tightly-packed brains. |
| B．They have a small number of brain cells. |
| C．Their brain neurons could communicate well. |
| D．Their brain cells are the same with the monkeys. |
| A．Cerebral cortexes are necessary for the evolution of higher intelligence. |
| B．Both mammals and birds got their intelligence from common ancestors. |
| C．Higher intelligence has already developed separately in different species. |
| D．Higher intelligence on the planet might be different from what we imagine. |
6 . Poison frogs across Central and South America display some of the brightest colors in the animal kingdom. The way such creatures evolved to be just colorful enough to signal their toxic (有毒的) defense-but not so colorful that they become vulnerable to predators (捕食者) — has long been a grey area for scientists. Initially, predators would not have known that bright colors signal toxicity, and therefore would have eaten, and then become ill-these easily-spotted few members of a species with the colorful mutation (突变). In theory, this should make it virtually impossible for the aposematic (防护色的) pioneers to pass on their genes to their offspring, allowing for the mutation to take hold in the population.
To get to the bottom of this dilemma, Karl Loeffler Henry, a researcher at Carleton University launched the new study. Loeffler Henry’s team pored over data from the family trees of 1,100 species of frogs, newts and salamanders, and categorized them into one of five groups. On one end of range are the creatures with bright blues, yellows and reds. On the other are species that blend in perfectly with their surroundings. Between these poles, the scientists place species with camouflaged (伪装的) tops and colorful bottoms in various degrees. These tend to display their dramatic halves only when trying to defend themselves from predators.
The team used nine different computer models to test the potential evolutionary routes the species in the bright aposematic group might have taken to evolve this way. In the end, the researchers realized that they all kind of followed a similar pattern, evolving from species in the middle of that range, those whose colors are hidden unless in danger.
There have also been other theories proposed, but this new theory presents a mechanism that is likely to play a role in the evolution of anti-predator defense in various prey groups and a wide range of different predators. Possibly, it might inspire the exploration of evolution of warning coloration in other animal groups as well.
1. What remained unclear to scientists in the past?| A．How the proper shades of the colors are evolved. |
| B．How these creatures signal their toxic defence. |
| C．Which colors are better at scaring predators away. |
| D．Which creatures are at higher risk of being eaten. |
| A．The predators clearly knew about the toxicity but still feed on them. |
| B．The first colorful members have bright colors but can avoid predators. |
| C．The first colorful members were eaten but the mutation was passed on. |
| D．The predators became seriously ill but their population continued to boom. |
| A．The colors of all those species were either bright or grey. |
| B．The aposematic group evolved by following nine routes. |
| C．The researchers observed these different species in the wild. |
| D．The origin of the evolution turned out to be the hidden colors. |
| A．Other theories of the evolution. | B．Other animals’ evolution routes. |
| C．The drawbacks of the study. | D．The significance of the study. |
7 . Crows (乌鸦) are undeniably intelligent. From making tools to holding hatred, crows have been surprising the scientific community with their skillset. In fact, a study once published in the journal Current Biology found “the crow brain is the same relative size as the chimpanzee (大猩猩) brain”.
Now, a study published in Science Advances finds crows understand what is known as recursion (递归). Prior to this study, recursion was believed to be unique to humans.
“We were interested in the ability to represent recursive structures—defined here as having elements be put within other similar elements,” Diana Liao said, who is the study’s first author. Liao says it was surprising to discover crows “were able to know the underlying recursive structure of the orders” upon first exposure. This makes the birds similar to humans, who are able to extract patterns with little experience. “Recursion is thought to be a key feature of human symbolic systems such as language or mathematics—and since these are thought to be unique to humans—there’s been interest in whether non-human animals can grasp and generate recursive structures,” says Liao.
What exactly is recursion? Liao explains: “A classic example sentence is ‘the mouse the cat caught ran’ where the clause the cat caught’ is within the clause’ the mouse who ran’. These complex structures are found in human languages but not in animal communication systems which suggest that recursion might be what separates them.”
The findings of this study are significant since they show recursive ability in animals that are not closely related to chimpanzees. “This suggests that this ability is either very evolutionarily (进化) ancient or that is a product of convergent evolution,” says Liao. “Also, it would propose that certain brain structures are not necessary to support this ability since birds have a dramatically different neural architecture.”
Liao says scientists know crows are smart but the extent of their intelligence is really unexpected. “Everyone has the impression that crows are super smart but I simply didn’t know just how intelligent they are.”
1. What is the finding of the new study?| A．Crows can make tools. |
| B．Crows understand recursion. |
| C．Crows can create special patterns. |
| D．Crows and chimpanzees are of a brain size. |
| A．I bought a book | B．My book was missing. |
| C．The book I bought was missing. | D．My book was missing and I bought one. |
| A．Crows’ intelligence level. | B．Crows’ body structure. |
| C．The reason for Crows’s martness. | D．people’s impression of crows. |
| A．Crows Are Humans’ close Relatives |
| B．Crows Are Found the cleverest Bird |
| C．Crows Have the Ability to Learn to speak |
| D．Crows Have a Human-like Grammar skill |
Recently, videos
One theory could link to how bees use the sun's position to guide their way back, so once the sun sets, they immediately stop moving.
Either way, such strange behavior of bees is
9 . Time to load up some popular games: new research indicates pigs possess the mental capability to play video games. The study, published in Frontiers in Psychology, tested the ability of four pigs (Hamlet, Omelette, Ebony and Ivory) to play a simple joystick (操纵杆) game with their noses, moving a cursor (光标) to four targets on the screen. Although the animals didn’t demonstrate the skills to win a round any time, they did show an understanding of some elementary games. Performing well not by chance, the pigs appeared to recognize the movement of the cursor was controlled by the joystick. The fact that they did so well despite a lack of flexible fingers is “extraordinary”, according to the researchers.
“It is no small achievement for an animal to grasp the concept that the behaviour they are performing is having an effect elsewhere. That pigs can do this to any degree should give us pause as to what else they are capable of learning and how such learning may impact them, “said Purdue University’s Dr Candace Croney, the study’s lead author.
Researchers also noted that while the pigs could be taught to play the game using food as positive motivation, they also responded well to social interaction. In fact, when the game was made more challenging and the pigs became unwilling to participate in it, “only oral encouragement by the experimenter” would see training continue.
These findings are the latest to highlight the intelligence of pigs. Not only have they been shown to use mirrors to find hidden food, but studies have also demonstrated how pigs can be taught to “come” and “sit” after oral commands.
As with any sentient (有感觉力的) beings, how we interact with pigs and what we do to them impacts and matters to them. We therefore have a moral duty to understand how pigs acquire information, and what they are capable of learning and remembering, because it ultimately offers the potential for how they understand their interactions with us and their environments.
1. What can be learned from Paragraph 1?| A．The pigs sometimes won the video games. |
| B．The pigs operated joysticks with their noses. |
| C．The pigs competed with each other in the games. |
| D．The pigs sometimes performed well accidentally. |
| A．Stop us from advancing. | B．Affect us in learning. |
| C．Make us think seriously. | D．Force us to train pigs better. |
| A．Their being inspired by human words. | B．Their being driven by food. |
| C．Their being willing to keep trying. | D．Their being motivated by challenges. |
| A．Smart Pigs: Best Animal Players | B．Flexible Noses: Fun Games |
| C．Oral Commands: Pig Learners | D．Pig Players: Learning Potential |
1. 活动的时间和地点；
2. 活动的内容；
3. 个人感想。
注意：短文词数应为80个左右。
参考词汇：冬令营 winter camp
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