1. What are the animals? What do you know about them?
2. What do you know about the Changtang National Nature Reserve?
Give Ugly a Chance!
When it comes to wildlife protection, all species—the good, the bad, and the ugly—should be treated equally. Pandas, dolphins, and other cute wildlife are important, but we must pay attention to less cute animals, too. The world needs all kinds—without variety, our planet cannot survive. So if you want the future to be beautiful, you have to give ugly a chance.
Don’t Make Paper with My Home!
Billions of trees are being cut down every year to make paper for humans. Every tree that is cut down is a part of the habitat of animals such as these koalas. In this way a lot of animal homes are being destroyed! Is it right to make animals homeless so that humans can have more paper?
1. Read the posters and write a one-sentence summary for each.2. Complete the structure of the posters.
| image |
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| title | Give Ugly a Chance! | ||
| content | situation | “Ugly” animals are not treated equally as cute ones. | |
| reason | People don’t like them because of their appearance. | ||
| hope | Treat “ugly” animals equally. | ||
1. What are they doing?
2. What do you think is necessary for bird observation?
1. Who are the teenagers?
2. Where are they?
3. What are they doing?
4. Why are they doing it?
6 . A five-year-old dog named Kelsey has been praised as a hero for helping to save the life of her owner who slipped in the snow and broke his neck.
The man, Bob, was alone when he left his farmhouse on New Year’s Eve to collect firewood.Expecting a journey of only several meters, Bob was wearing just long johns (衬裤), a shirt and slippers when he went outside, although the temperature was around －4℃.
After the accident, he was unable to move in the snow. Fortunately, Kelsey came to his assistance.
“I was shouting for help, but my nearest neighbor is about 400 meters away, and it was 10:30 p. m.,” Bob explained. “By the next morning, my voice was gone and I couldn’t yell for help, but Kelsey didn’t stop barking.”
Kelsey’s companion kept him warm by lying on top of him. She licked his face and hands to keep him awake. “Kelsey kept barking but never left my side,” Bob recalled. “I knew I couldn’t give up and that it was my choice to stay alive.”
Bob spent 20 hours in the freezing cold. When he finally lost consciousness, his dog kept barking. Finally, hearing the barking, Bob’s neighbor discovered him at 6:30 p. m. on New Year’s Day and called the emergency services at once. When Bob arrived in hospital, his body temperature was below 21℃. However, doctors were surprised to find that he didn’t have any frostbite (冻疮). They believed it was because of Kelsey’s determination to keep him warm. Dr. Chaim Colen, the doctor who treated Bob, said, “His dog really saved him.He was very fortunate.”
Bob said he was very grateful to both Dr. Colen and his Kelsey. “They saved my life. They are truly heroes!”
1. What happened to Bob on New Year’s Eve?| A．He left his dog alone in his farmhouse. |
| B．He was praised for saving a dog owner. |
| C．He broke his neck and couldn’t move. |
| D．He heard his neighbor’s shouting for help. |
| A．To keep warm. |
| B．To stay alive. |
| C．To keep Bob awake. |
| D．To seek help from others. |
| A．Helpful. | B．Fortunate. |
| C．Grateful. | D．Friendly. |
| A．A Neckbreaking Accident |
| B．The Magic Night |
| C．Warmth on a Winter’s Night |
| D．Determination to Keep Alive |
7 . New Caledonian crows are well-known for using different types of tools for preying (捕食) from tree holes and other hiding places. While they firmly hold their tools in the bill, they need to put them down to eat. This is when crows are at risk of losing their tools by accidentally dropping them or having them stolen by other crows.
In an earlier study, researchers in the UK had discovered that crows keep their tools safe when not needed, using one of two “safekeeping” strategies—they either securely hold them trapped underfoot, or temporarily put them into a nearby hole or behind bark. But are crows more careful when handling particularly valuable tools?
“Many of us will fuss (大惊小怪) about a brand-new phone, making sure it does not get scratched, dropped or lost. But we may handle an old phone with a cracked screen quite carelessly,” said lead author Barbara Klump from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Germany.
Crows at one of the team’s long-term study sites use two different kinds of stick tools: complex hooked tools and basic non-hooked tools. The former are painstakingly crafted from a relatively scarce plant species, while the latter are simply twigs (细枝) sourced from the forest floor. “Hooked tools are not only more costly to obtain, but they are also much more efficient,” explained Barbara Klump. “Depending on the foraging (觅食) task, crows can get prey with these tools up to ten times faster than with non-hooked tools.”
In their new study, the researchers now discovered that New Caledonian crows are more likely to keep valuable hooked tools safe between uses than the more basic non-hooked tools. “It was exciting to see crows are just a bit more careful with tools that are more efficient and more costly to replace. This suggests that they have some conception of the relative value’ of different tool types,” noted study co-author James St Clair.
This is the first study to investigate how animals handle and store tools of different kinds, providing a new way to measure how much they value these objects.
1. Why are phones mentioned in paragraph 3?| A．To indicate the necessity of phones in our daily life. |
| B．To emphasize people’s attachment to their old devices. |
| C．To stress the similarity between humans and crows. |
| D．To show people’s improper attitude to old things. |
| A．It can be gotten easily. | B．It can be adjusted freely. |
| C．It can make crows’ foraging more productive. | D．It can prevent crows from danger. |
| A．Their secret hiding places. | B．Their unusual eating habits. |
| C．Their creation of complex tools. | D．Their treatment of valuable tools. |
| A．Crows Use Strategies to Gain Valuable Tools |
| B．Crows Learn to Use Special Tools for Preying |
| C．New Discovery of How Crows Make Tools |
| D．New Caledonian Crows Keep Favorite Tools Safer |
8 . A world in which extinct creatures could be brought back to life came a step closer yesterday. Australian scientists have managed to extract a gene from a preserved sample of a Tasmanian tiger and make it active. The breakthrough has left them dreaming that one day they will be able to recreate the animal, which died out more than 70 years ago. And if it can be done with the Tasmanian tiger, it may also be possible to resurrect(复活) creatures that have been extinct for far longer.
“There used to be a time when extinction meant forever, but no more,” said Professor Mike Archer. “We are now able to seriously challenge whether those animals that have gone have gone for ever. What has been achieved is a very important step in bringing back those animals that are extinct. And while I think that technically it is still pretty difficult at the moment, we can now see the possibilities. I’m personally convinced that the Tasmanian tiger will be brought back to life in my lifetime.”
The breakthrough came after nine years of experiments by scientists at the University of Melbourne, who extracted a gene from one of several tigers preserved in alcohol in a Melbourne museum. They removed the equivalent gene from a mouse embryo (胚胎), implanted the tiger gene and then watched as the mouse continued to grow normally, suggesting the tiger gene had been activated.
Team leader Dr. Andrew Pask said it was the first time DNA from an extinct species had been used to” induce (引起) a functional response in another living organism”.
However, the animal’s entire gene structure would have to be revived in the same way to even begin the possibility of bringing the Tasmanian tiger back from the dead. Mick Mooney, a wildlife officer of the Tasmanian Government, was worried that such developments could encourage people’s indifference to the protection of endangered species.
“If people think that we can bring animals back to life after they’ve gone, they will start saying that there is nothing to worry about because we can fix it up later.”
1. What does the underlined word “breakthrough” in the first paragraph refer to?| A．A tiger gene has been extracted successfully and activated. |
| B．Scientists have recreated new animals. |
| C．Scientists have resurrected endangered animal. |
| D．It has turned out that some creatures would not go extinct. |
| A．transplant the genes of tigers into other animals |
| B．find out what factors lead to the animals’ extinction |
| C．find a new way to extract animals’ DNA |
| D．bring extinct animals back to life |
| A．scientists now have no technological difficulty reconnecting extinct animals |
| B．it’ll be a century or so before a Tasmanian tiger walks on the earth again |
| C．reconnecting extinct animals is impossible |
| D．humans have come closer in reconnecting extinct animals |
| A．he thought it unnecessary to worry about endangered animals |
| B．he is concerned that bringing extinct animals back to life may have a negative effect |
| C．his opinion is in contrast with that of the Tasmanian Government |
| D．he thought people should be encouraged to protect endangered animals |
9 . With only about 1, 000 pandas left in the world, China is desperately trying to clone(克隆) the animal and save the endangered species(物种).That's similar to what Texas A&M University researchers have been undertaking(负责) for the past five years in a project called “Noah's Ark”.
Noah's Ark is aimed at collecting eggs, embryos(胚胎), semen and DNA of endangered animals and storing them in liquid nitrogen(氮).If certain species should become extinct, Dr. Duane Kraemer, a professor in Texas A&M'S College of Veterinary Medicine, says there would be enough of the basic building blocks to reintroduce the species in the future.
It is estimated that as many as 2, 000 species of mammals, birds and reptiles will become extinct in over 100 years. The panda, native only to China, is in danger of becoming extinct in the next 25 years.
Chinese scientists said they grew an embryo introducing cells from a dead female panda into the egg cells of a Japanese white rabbit. They are now trying to implant the embryo into a host animal.
The entire procedure(过程) could take from three to five years to complete.
“The nuclear transfer(核子移植) of one species to another is not easy, and the lack of available(capable of being used) panda eggs could be a major problem,” Kraemer believes. “They will probably have to do several hundred transfers to result in one pregnancy (having a baby).It takes a long time and it's difficult, but this could be groundbreaking science if it works. They are certainly not putting any live pandas at risk, so it is worth the effort,” adds Kraemer, who is one of the leaders of the Project at Texas A&M, the firstever attempt at cloning a dog.
“They are trying to do something that's never been done, and this is very similar to our work in Noah's Ark. We're both trying to save animals that face extinction. I certainly appreciate their effort and there's a lot we can learn from what they are attempting to do. It's a research that is very much needed. ”
1. According to Professor Kraemer, the major problem in cloning pandas would be the lack of ________.| A．available panda eggs |
| B．host animals |
| C．qualified researchers |
| D．enough money |
| A．China's Success in Pandas Cloning |
| B．The First Cloned Panda in the World |
| C．Exploring the Possibility to Clone Pandas |
| D．China — the Native Place of Pandas Forever |
| A．Kraemer and his team have succeeded in cloning a cat |
| B．scientists try to implant a panda's egg into a tiger |
| C．Kraemer will work with Chinese scientists in clone researches |
| D．about two thousand of species will probably die out in about a century |
| A．make effort to clone the endangered pandas |
| B．save endangered animals from dying out |
| C．collect DNA of endangered animals to study |
| D．transfer the nuclear of one animal to another |
Imagine a place where, as a nature lover, you have a chance to see 17 species of animals, 94 different kinds of birds and 230 types of plants in just four days.
It might seem like an impossible task, especially for someone who is not a
The event,
For the festival, more than 50 wildlife enthusiasts from across China, Australia, France, the United Kingdom and the United States formed 17 teams
Members of the local community
