1 . A team of scientists is studying the sound of the forest in Ecuador to learn how artificial intelligence (AI) could follow animal life in recovering environments.
When scientists want to measure new forest growth, they can study large areas of land with tools like satellites. But understanding how fast and in what number wildlife is returning to an area is more difficult. Sometimes it requires an expert to listen through sound recordings and pick out animal calls.
Jorg Muller, an expert on birds, wondered if there was a different way. So, he turned to bioacoustics (生物声学), which uses sound to learn more about animal life and their living environments. Muller and his team recorded wildlife sounds in Ecuador. They first had experts listen to the recordings and list the sounds of different animals. Then, they examined the sound quality to measure the environment. Finally, they ran two weeks of recordings through an AI computer program trained to understand 75 different bird calls.
The program was able to pick out the calls on which it was trained. However, scientists wondered if the program could correctly identify the number of different kinds of plants and animals in each environment. To see if the program could do that, the team used two different controls. One was from the experts who listened to the recordings, and the second was based on examples from each environment, which can be used to understand biodiversity (生物多样性).
Since the number of sounds that are found to be used to train is limited, the AI program could only identify one-fourth of the bird calls experts could. But it was still able to correctly measure biodiversity levels in each environment, the study said. It also said the results show the AI program is a powerful tool to measure the recovery of animal societies in some forests. The study showed that biodiversity found from recordings can be measured in a cost-effective and complete way and measure environments.
There are still areas for improvement, including the lack of animal sounds on which to train AI models. And the method can only catch animals that use sound to communicate.
1. What does the study focus on?| A．Studying plant growth. | B．Observing birds’ behavior. |
| C．Understanding AI’s effect on wildlife. | D．Measuring wildlife recovery. |
| A．Bioacoustics. | B．Satellite recording. |
| C．Sound recording by AI. | D．Direct observation by experts. |
| A．Identifying plant species. | B．Tracking weather change. |
| C．Measuring biodiversity levels. | D．Identifying all the bird calls. |
| A．Measuring more bird environments. |
| B．Catching animals that use sound to communicate. |
| C．Training the program on a wider variety of sounds. |
| D．Having experts study more and understand bird calls. |
2 . When temperatures rise, humans sweat, dogs pant (喘息), and cats… don’t move enough to overheat? Well, partially. Cats, which need to maintain an internal body temperature of 101°F to 102°F, have several methods for keeping cool in sweltering weather.
It’s a misconception that cats sweat through their paws to cool themselves off. As summer wears on you might see moist paw prints, but as veterinarian Kimberly May told The Washington Post, “Any secretions (分泌物) there or from their nose, mouth, or tongue are not for sweating; they’re for protection and moisture and are insufficient to cool the blood.”
Instead, cats recreate the sweating process—which is similar to human’s via evaporation (蒸发)—by grooming themselves regularly. The saliva (唾液) from their tongues acts like sweat that cools their body when it evaporates—which is why you can also help cool your cat down by using a damp washcloth to lightly wet their fur. In extreme weather, cats will also pant, but unlike dogs who pant regularly to keep themselves cool, a panting cat is a sign of more dangerous over-heating or other serious diseases.
And if you’re tempted to shave your fur friend to help keep him cool—don’t!
“Fur acts as a thermal regulator to slow down the process of heat absorption,” James H. Jones, an expert in comparative animal exercise physiology and thermoregulation at the University of California at Davis, told The Washington Post.
Fur coats are highly evolved—in the winter they keep animals warm, but in the summer, they work both to protect delicate skin from the sun and slow dehydration, Jones notes that, according to research, shaved camels performed worse in the deserts than those with their fur undamaged.
But even with these methods for keeping cool, cats also need to stay indoors to keep comfortable. So even though they evolved from wild ancestors and are able to tough it out, leave the air conditioner or a fan on for your cats when you go out, and make sure to leave them plenty of water.
1. What is the common misunderstanding of how cats cool themselves off?| A．Cats pant regularly to keep themselves cool. |
| B．Cats rarely know how to cool themselves down. |
| C．Cats sweat through their paws to cool themselves off. |
| D．Cats produce secretions from their tongue for protection. |
| A．By making comparison. | B．By analyzing data. |
| C．By explaining cause and effect. | D．By listing numbers. |
| A．To show the camels are resistant to heat. |
| B．To emphasize the importance of the fur coats. |
| C．To illustrate the fur coats are highly evolved. |
| D．To prove the fur coats unnecessary in summer. |
| A．Changing people’s wrong views on cats’ cooling. |
| B．Telling us to help cats cool themselves in summer. |
| C．Uncovering the secrets of cats cooling themselves off. |
| D．Comparing cats with other animals on keeping cool. |
3 . While you’re hiding away the Christmas presents, animals are storing food for the winter! Many animals “cache” (贮藏) or hide food for time to come, similar to how we stock our pantries with food. In the winter months, caching allows animals to survive when food is scarce.
Some animals, such as bobcats and mountain lions, leave dead animals’ bodies for short periods of time buried beneath surrounding vegetation. Other animals, such as rodents and birds, store seeds for long periods of time in places they’ll return to weeks or even months later.
Hiding food throughout an animal’s home range is known as scatter hoarding. This keeps the caches low and less enticing to any potential thieves. However, this technique requires a good memory, as the food is often in dozens, if not hundreds, of different locations.
Another caching technique involves animals collecting food in only a couple of places, referred to as larder hoarding. These caches are often found in cavities such as a hollow tree or a hole in the ground. They are easier to find but require lots of defensive measures.
Here are some of the animals that cache in the Peach State:
Birds such as chickadees, nuthatches, titmice and jays can store hundreds of seeds in a single day. Each seed is placed in a different location, and they usually remember where each is, even months later. Flying squirrels store a variety of seeds, nuts and acorns in their nests and in trees. These nocturnal squirrels will even bury seeds in the ground. It is believed that a single lying squirrel can store over 15,000 seeds in a year! Moles trap live earthworms underground. The mole bites the earthworm’s head off, and colder temperatures slow the earthworm down. If the weather warms up before the mole has a chance to consume its prey, however, earthworms can regrow their heads and tunnel their way to freedom.
1. In what respect are the first two paragraphs similar?| A．Using comparison as a method of exposition. |
| B．Stressing the importance of storing to animals. |
| C．Revealing differences in food storage among different animals. |
| D．Discussing the threat seasonal change brings to animals’ survival. |
| A．Familiar. | B．Harmful. | C．Appealing. | D．Suffient. |
| A．It is a test for animals’ memory. |
| B．It is time-saving and eco-friendly. |
| C．It can easily ensure caches’ safety. |
| D．It bring animals convenience as well as risk. |
| A．Moles take earthworms as their only food resource. |
| B．Chickadees adopt scatter hoarding to store their seeds. |
| C．A flying squirrel is better at storing seeds than any bird. |
| D．Earthworms have no chance of survival once bitten by moles. |
| A．The man’s uncle. | B．An animal. | C．Good luck. |
1. What is the talk mainly about?
| A．What to do to protect animals. |
| B．Whether to keep animals in zoos. |
| C．How to improve zoos’ environment. |
| A．Allowing wild animals to be killed. |
| B．Protecting animals in a well-founded area. |
| C．Teaching people more about wild animals. |
| A．They do harm to animals. |
| B．They are poorly founded. |
| C．They can give animals protection. |
| A．A scientist. | B．A teacher. | C．A zookeeper. |
6 . Not all birds sing, but those that do—some several thousand species—do it a lot.
Iris Adam, a scientist at the University of Southern Denmark says, birds have “a drive to sing”. This means hours every day for some species, and that takes a lot of energy. However, singing can be dangerous. “As soon as you sing, you show yourself, for example, where you are and that you even exist—all of that immediately is out in the open for predators (捕食性动物) , for everybody,” she says.
In a new study published in the journal Nature Communications, Adam and her colleagues offer a new explanation for why birds take that risk and whether the muscles (肌肉) that produce birdsong require daily exercise. Adam designed an experiment on zebra finches—little Australian songbirds. Her experiment included keeping male birds in the dark to sever the connection between their brains and-their singing muscles, which prevented them from singing.
After a week, the birds’ singing muscles lost half of their strength. Three weeks later, they were back to the same level when they were juveniles (幼鸟) and never had sung before. When Adam played one of the male’s songs for: a group of female birds, six out of nine preferred the song that came from a male who had been using his singing muscles daily.
Adam’s conclusion (结论) is that songbirds need to exercise their singing muscles to produce top-performance song. If they don’t sing, they lose performance, and their songs get less attractive to females, which is bad.
“What they stress is that you need a lot of practice to improve what you’re doing,” says Ana Amador, a scientist at the University of Buenos Aires. It’s a good rule to live by, whether you’re a bird or a human—practice makes perfect, at least when it comes to singing one’s heart out.
1. Why can singing be dangerous for birds?| A．They can drive predators to sing. | B．They never protect their areas. |
| C．Their singing can attract predators. | D．Singing does damage to their muscles. |
| A．Remember. | B．End. | C．Risk. | D．Keep. |
| A．It mainly focused on male birds and juveniles. |
| B．It aimed to protect zebra finches from possible risks. |
| C．It strengthened birds’ singing muscles in four weeks. |
| D．It proved exercising singing muscles matters to birds. |
| A．Iris Adam’s work is a big success | B．Singing can be dangerous for birds |
| C．Birds sing to keep muscles in shape | D．Birds and human beings need practice |
7 . A new study warns that more than a fifth of all reptile (爬行动物) species are threatened with extinction, which may have a bad impact on the planet.
The largest ever analysis of the state of the world’s reptiles, published in Nature, has showed that 21% of the reptile species are facing extinction. The study says from lizards to snakes, such a loss could have disastrous impacts on ecosystems around the world.
Although many reptiles live in dry environments such as deserts, most species occur in forests, where they suffer from threats such as logging of land for agriculture.30% of the forest-dwelling reptiles are at risk of extinction, compared with 14% in dry habitats. Hunting is also a major threat to reptiles, especially turtles and crocodiles, many of which are at risk of extinction. Another major contributing factor is the introduction of invasive species.
“If we removed reptiles, it could change ecosystems fundamentally, with unfortunate knock-on effects, such as increases in pest insects,” said Neil Cox, co-leader of the study. “Biodiversity, including reptiles, supports the ecosystem services that provide a healthy environment for people.”
Our hope is that this first-ever assessment of the world’s 10,000-plus reptiles helps put them in the spotlight and goes some way to highlighting this diversity, and just how much we have to lose. As well as controlling rats, mosquitoes and other pests, reptiles deliver many other benefits. “They help spread seeds, especially in island environments,” said researcher Hoffmann. “We’ve also achieved many medical advances from studies of reptiles.”
The results of the study are not all doom and gloom. Scientists have found, surprisingly, that if they set out to protect places where threatened birds, mammals and amphibians (两栖动物) live together, they’ll meanwhile protect many more threatened reptiles.
1. Which is the main concern raised by the new study?| A．The overpopulation of reptiles. | B．The loss of reptiles. |
| C．The sharp increase in reptile species. | D．The disastrous influence of reptiles on nature. |
| A．One. | B．Two. | C．Three. | D．Four. |
| A．Their benefits. | B．Their habitats. |
| C．Their living habits. | D．Their health problems. |
| A．Disappointing. | B．Odd. | C．Satisfactory. | D．Amazing. |
8 . Each year, my kindergarten students in Armour, South Dakota, learn to identify hundreds of birds by sight and more than 50 species by their song or call. It started out simply enough. Bird-watching is my hobby, so about six years ago, I started sharing my love for birds with my students. I’ve always felt like it’s important to get kids outside and away from so many screens, and I consider this doing my part. And guess what? They absolutely love it!
Kindergartners are pretty amazing at identifying birds, especially by their songs. I find that younger children are naturally tuned into nature and have great curiosity about it. This became quite obvious once I began teaching about birds. You wouldn’t believe how easily these 5-years-olds learn to identify different species.
With every year that I’ve done this, the kids immediately get hooked. Then we have this common passion to share and build on it throughout the year. I’ve found that my students’ love of birds is a great way to get them more interested in writing, reading and story problems in math.
So how do I do it? With identification(识别), I use a flash-card approach. We also use a Bird Bingo game that the kids love. Then I introduce one or two bird songs a day. Learning about bird songs is a lot like learning a foreign language. It teaches students to think in a different way by learning to recognize different sounds. The best part is that it makes them more aware of nature and which birds are in their area.
If you want to try teaching bird songs to your students, I’d suggest starting with the common backyard birds. Check out the All About Birds website, where you can look up the species, find photos and even play the bird songs right there!
1. What inspired the author to start teaching kindergartners about birds?| A．His love for bird-watching. |
| B．The science teaching standards. |
| C．The students’ curiosity about nature. |
| D．The students’ talent in identifying birds. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Amazed. | C．Disappointed. | D．Discouraged. |
| A．Interested. | B．Challenged. | C．Encouraged. | D．Praised. |
| A．By listening to bird songs. |
| B．By studying bird photos on a website. |
| C．Through writing and reading exercises. |
| D．Through flash cards and a Bird Bingo game. |
9 . Simply finishing a marathon is a big achievement, but one woman in Thailand didn’t just run all 26.2 miles — she also
Runner Klongsanun was
While other runners reportedly passed by the dog, Klongsanun, a dog lover, decided to pick it up and finish the
After the race, Klongsanun
“It was
| A．comforted | B．rescued | C．raised | D．delivered |
| A．preparing for | B．signing up for | C．participating in | D．looking forward to |
| A．adopted | B．trained | C．poisoned | D．abandoned |
| A．race | B．test | C．plan | D．battle |
| A．weight | B．pressure | C．equipment | D．honour |
| A．surprising | B．boring | C．challenging | D．convincing |
| A．donating | B．giving | C．returning | D．lending |
| A．encouraged | B．confident | C．independent | D．determined |
| A．prayed | B．decided | C．struggled | D．agreed |
| A．spotted | B．caught | C．identified | D．claimed |
| A．food | B．company | C．help | D．operation |
| A．unexpectedly | B．undoubtedly | C．unintentionally | D．unfortunately |
| A．Moreover | B．Therefore | C．Otherwise | D．However |
| A．odd | B．familiar | C．permanent | D．ordinary |
| A．memory | B．dream | C．record | D．promise |
People gathered at the US National Zoo to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
Ling Ling and Hsing Hsing arrived 50 years ago,
Pandas are the symbol
