1 . When Snowball, a male cockatoo (凤头鹦鹉), was shown last year in a YouTube video apparently moving in time to pop music, he immediately became an Internet star. But only now scientists have begun to study his dancing.
“Real dancing should require that Snowball adjust his movements to match different music speeds,” said Aniruddh Patel, one of the researchers from Tufts University,
To examine this, Patel and his colleagues created some new music and played it for Snowball to dance in his favorite spots. They changed the speed of the music in small steps and videoed his dancing.
“To our surprise, when the music speed was slow, his dancing slowed down. When the music was faster, his dancing sped up, too.” says Patel. “Above all, we were really shocked to see that Snowball even taught himself different dance moves.”
Based on their research, the researchers further identified some amazing abilities in the animal: the abilities to understand complex sounds and learn movements, communicative gestures and the tendency to build long-term social bonds, which parrots can form with humans and other parrots.
“The ability to dance was believed to be uniquely human until this research,” said Tecumseh Fitch, a biologist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland who is interested in the origin of music. “Their study has opened ways for all kinds of new experiments. For example, what genes are turned on while a bird is dancing? And what would happen if a bird never heard any music for the first few years of its life? Could it still dance later on? That would be an interesting study and one that could never be done on children.”
1. What is the key ability in real dancing according to Patel?| A．Learning new movements. |
| B．Using communicative gestures. |
| C．Moving the body to different music speeds. |
| D．Understanding different and confusing sounds. |
| A．It even could dance with some creativity. |
| B．It usually danced in one of his favorite spots. |
| C．It just danced to the music with the same beat. |
| D．It preferred its own music and dancing styles. |
| A．It is the first time to study animal dancing. |
| B．It has identified the dancing genes in the brain. |
| C．It shows the educational value of music for kids. |
| D．It will lead to various kinds of important experiments. |
| A．To report an important finding of a new study. |
| B．To prove that the ability to dance is not uniquely human. |
| C．To persuade parents to send their kids to dancing classes. |
| D．To show that male cockatoos are smarter than the females. |
2 . Canada has reintroduced some bisons (北美野牛) to the country’s oldest national park in Banff, Alberta, officials said on Monday, more than 130 years after the North American animal last appeared on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies.
The protection team moved a group of 16 bisons into enclosed grassland in Banff National Park in the west of the province last week. The group will stay under observation in the Panther Valley until next summer, when the animals will be released into the full 1,189 sq km reintroduction zone in the park’s eastern valleys.
Parks Canada said bisons were once main grazers (plant-eaters) and that bringing them back would recover their missing role in Banffs ecosystem. “This would be one of only four bison groups in North America that would be fully interacting with their predators (meat-eaters) and shaping the ecosystem as they did over a hundred years ago,” said Karsten Heuer, the bison reintroduction project manager. Those predators will include wolves and bears native to the park.
Ten pregnant female bisons and six young bulls were disease-tested before being driven 400 km across Alberta by truck. Since the Panther Valley is not easy to reach by road, officials attached the containers by a long line to a plane and flew them in one at a time for the last 25 km.
Vast bison groups of up to 30 million animals once lived freely across North America. The animal was nearly hunted to extinction, and park keepers estimate bisons have not grazed in Banff National Park since before it was set up in 1885.
1. Why did the protection team move bisons into enclosed grassland?| A．To observe them. | B．To protect them. |
| C．To cure diseases. | D．To change their habits. |
| A．To reshape Banff’s ecosystem. |
| B．To help the bison population expand. |
| C．To make the oldest national park worth visiting |
| D．To recover their predators’ role in the ecosystem. |
| A．Deadly diseases. | B．Cruel hunting. |
| C．Natural predators. | D．Worsened ecology. |
| A．To show how to protect bisons. |
| B．To describe the living condition of bisons. |
| C．To explain how to transport bisons to Banff. |
| D．To inform readers of bisons returning to Banff. |
3 . Some turtles(乌龟) are famous for their medicinal(药用的) effects, which are discovered through scientific researches, while others are highly regarded as food. Nowadays, they are becoming more and more popular in pet stores. If you are thinking of getting a pet turtle, you must make sure that your turtle gets the best care.
Turtles do best when they are kept outside. Most turtles like to hibernate during the winter months. If they kept inside, they won't hibernate because they won't be able to tell what time of year it is, then they might develop liver(肝脏) problems.
If you decide to keep your pet turtles indoors, make sure you have at least a forty-gallon tank(水池) for them. At least one third of the tank needs to be placed to land.You may place some large and flat rocks in the tank, to give the turtles an area on which to sun themselves. Make sure they get at least twelve hours of sunlight every day.
Unfortunately, turtles are not pets which can be played with. They are cold-blooded pets and it takes them a long time to get used to changes in temperature. Taking the turtle out of its nice warm tank causes quite a shock to the turtles, and could damage its immune(免疫的) system. You should keep your turtle's environment as unchanging as possible, and also as clean as possible.
1. According to the passage, nowadays more and more people keep turtles ________.| A．for food | B．for medical use |
| C．as pet | D．for scientific researches |
| A．All turtles hibernate in winter. |
| B．Turtles are warm-blooded animal. |
| C．Turtles need a lot of sunlight. |
| D．Turtles easily get used to changes in environment. |
| A．keep it outside. | B．often take the turtles out of its tank. |
| C．put large rocks in its tank. | D．keep it in an unchanging environment. |
| A．To describe the pleasure of keeping a turtle. |
| B．To persuade people to protect turtles. |
| C．To encourage people to breed（养殖）turtles. |
| D．To give people advice on how to keep turtles. |
4 . Baby giraffes inherit aspects of their mothers’ patterning—which could give them a survival advantage if good camouflage runs in the family. Just like humans have unique sets of fingerprints, every giraffe has a unique set of spots.
Derek Lee is a wildlife biologist and population ecologist at Penn State, and with the Wild Nature Institute, a research consulting group. He and his colleagues have been tracking giraffes for seven years, throughout 1,500 square miles in Tanzania.
Now, they’ve used image analysis software to study the spots of mothers and their babies. And they found that baby giraffes inherit at least some particular elements of their patterning from their mothers, like how circular the spots are. They also found that baby giraffes with larger spots have better chance to survive their first months, because the spots are more like the dappled sunlight in the bushes where baby giraffes like to hide from hungry lions and hyenas(wild animals like dogs).
The results—and a lot of giraffe patterns—are recorded and explained in the journal Peer J.[Lee et al., Seeing spots: quantifying motheroffspring similarity and assessing fitness consequences of coat pattern traits in a wild population of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis)]
It’s perhaps not surprising that a physical characteristic that protects an individual from being eaten passes the test of Darwinian natural selection—and get passed along to later generations. “The fact that these things are inheritable and they do affect survival of baby animals makes us feel like evolution is embodied exactly by these spot features.” So if a mom’s camouflage is good, her babies, too, might have the spots that keep them safer.
1. Why are baby giraffes with larger spots more likely to survive?| A．Because their mothers tend to protect them more. |
| B．Because they keep away from lions and hyenas. |
| C．Because their spots match surroundings better. |
| D．Because they barely move around in the bushes. |
| A．Summarize the previous paragraphs. | B．Add some background information. |
| C．Introduce a new topic for discussion. | D．Provide evidence for the findings. |
| A．Promoted. | B．Prevented. | C．Questioned. | D．Represented. |
| A．Animals Have Their Unique Sets of Patterning |
| B．Derek Lee Has Been Studying Animal Patterning |
| C．Mom’s Genes Make Some Giraffes Hard to Spot |
| D．Animal Physical Characteristics Are Similar to Family’s |
5 . In the past, before alarm clocks were invented, what did people depend on to wake them up in the morning? Roosters.
“ A rooster’s crow symbolizes the break of dawn in many countries,” Takashi Yoshimura, professor at Nagoya University in Japan, told National Geographic. They are known to regularly crow two to three times at dawn.
However, scientists have long been unsure about why the animals do this. “It wasn’t clear whether crowing is under the control of a biological clock or is simply response to external stimuli.”
Roosters do react to the environment-such as car headlights-at any time of day. So it was previously thought that the increasing light in the morning might be the trigger for roosters’ crowing.
But Yoshimura and his colleagues now claim to have finally figured out the reason-roosters don’t need morning light to know when to start crowing; they will crow at the same time every day regardless of whether they can see dawn breaking.
In the study, which was published in the journal Current Biology, researchers placed 40 roosters in a soundproof, windowless room under dim lighting for 24 hours. But this didn’t deter the roosters. No matter what, they kept crowing in the morning just before dawn.
“It is proof that the behavior is caused by circadian rhythm”, said Yoshimura. In short, the roosters are genetically programmed to crow at a certain time every 24 hours.
Most animals, as well as plants, have such an internal time-keeping system. That’s why we tend to eat, sleep and exercise at around the same time every day. By consciously being aware of the schedule, our body has a chance to adapt to it, so keeping a regular biological clock is often tied to good health.
This experiment is the first of its kind to investigate the timing of roosters’ crowing. Kristen Navara, a scientist at the University of Georgia in the US who was not involved in the study, said that she wasn’t sure why no one had taken a closer look at this well-known phenomenon before.
“I think this is a very interesting study and something that should have been done a long time ago.” said Navara.
1. What has been recently discovered to make roosters crow in the morning？| A．External stimuli like noises. | B．Their biological clocks. |
| C．Exposure to morning light. | D．Increased temperature. |
| A．Prevent. | B．Attract. | C．Encourage. | D．Upset. |
| A．Roosters have the same circadian rhythms as humans. |
| B．Following our biological clocks is good for our health. |
| C．Dark conditions can have some effect on roosters’ crowing. |
| D．Roosters’ biological clocks will change to help them adapt to the environment. |
| A．Worthless. | B．Meaningful | C．Boring. | D．Unscientific. |
6 . This little South American Magellanic penguin swims 5,000 miles, to a beach in Brazil, every year in order to be reunited with the man who saved its life. It sounds like something out of a fairy tale, but it’s true!
71-year-old retired brick worker Joao, who lives in an island village just outside Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, found the small Magellanic penguin lying on rocks at his local beach in 2011. The penguin was covered in oil and running out of time fast. Joao rescued the penguin, naming it Din, cleaned the oil off its feathers and fed him a daily diet of fish to rebuild its strength. After a week of recovery, Joao attempted to release the penguin back into the wild. However, Din had already formed a family bond with his rescuer and wouldn’t leave.
“He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared,” Joao recalls. “I love the penguin like it’s my own child and I believe the penguin loves me,” Joao told Globo TV. “No one else is allowed to touch him. He pecks (啄) them if they do. He lies on my lap, lets me give him showers, and allows me to feed him.”
Professor Krajewski, a biologist who interviewed the fisherman for Globo TV, told The Independent: “I have never seen anything like this before. I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well.”
However, environmentalists warn that, while hundreds of the Magellanic species are known to naturally migrate (迁徙) thousands of miles north in search of food, there has been a worrying rise in the phenomenon of oceanic creatures washing up on Brazil’s beaches. Professor David Zee from Rio de Janeiro’s State University, said the increase is due in part to global climatic changes. Professor Zee added that sea animals face increased danger from leaked tanker oil.
Luckily the ending for Joao and Din has been a happy one, even though it is illegal in Brazil to keep wild animals as pets.
Professor Krajewski said: “Professionals who work with animals try to avoid relationships like this occurring so they are able to reintroduce the animal into the wild. But in this single case the authorities allowed Din to stay with Joao because of his kindness.”
1. Every year Din swims a long distance to a beach in Brazil to ______.| A．avoid being killed | B．meet his rescuer |
| C．escape from ocean currents | D．find much more fish |
| A．he was dying | B．he was running on the beach |
| C．he was resting on a rock | D．he was cleaning oil off his feathers |
| A．He is not allowed to keep the penguin as a pet by the authorities. |
| B．He overprotects the penguin by keeping him away from others. |
| C．His contact with the penguin is encouraged by professionals. |
| D．His kindness wins the penguin’s trust. |
| A．the environmental impact on wildlife |
| B．the love between humans and wildlife |
| C．the tendency of wildlife to bond with humans |
| D．the protection of threatened wildlife by mankind |
7 . Do dogs understand us?
Be careful what you say around your dog. It might understand more than you think.
A border collie named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany. The dog also appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child. Its word-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimp.
In one experiment, the researchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects. Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items and bring it back. In four tests, Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right. As the dog couldn't see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words.
In another experiment, the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew. The owner then told Rico to fetch the object, using a word the dog had never heard before.
The correct object was chosen in seven out of l0 tests, suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of elimination (排除法). A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which is even more impressive.
Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog. For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed (品种) known for its mental abilities. In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys by their names since the age of nine months.
It's hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say. Even if they do, they can't talk back. Still, it wouldn't hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then. You might just get a big, wet kiss in return!
1. From paragraph 2 we know that __ .| A．animals are as clever as human beings |
| B．dogs are smarter than parrots and chimps |
| C．chimps have very good word-learning skills |
| D．dogs have similar 'learning abilities as 3-year-old children |
| A．Rico is smart enough to get all commands right |
| B．Rico can recognize different things including toys |
| C．Rico has developed the ability of learning mathematics |
| D．Rico won't forget the names of objects once recognizing them |
| A．The purpose of the experiments is to show the border collie's mental abilities. |
| B．Rico has a better memory partly because of its proper early training. |
| C．The border collie is world-famous for recognizing objects. |
| D．Rico is born to understand its owner's commands. |
| A．convey sth. to . | B．take sth. away . |
| C．deliver sth. from . | D．bring sth. back. |
8 . Birds enjoy a relatively slow rate of extinction but a new study suggests that rate might be severely underestimated(低估). Even worse, if human actions continue, bird extinction rates could skyrocket and 12 percent of the known bird species(物种) could be dying out by the end of the century.
Presently there are 10,000 known bird species — most identified after 1850 — and an estimated 130 of those have become extinct since 1500, setting the extinction rate at about one species every four years.
But according to Stuart Pimm of Duke University, this rate fails to take into account three key points: The continual identification of extinct bird species from fossil remains; numerous "missing" species not yet declared extinct; and the fact that present extinction rates were not calculated using the proper baseline date for when the species was first described.
Taking these points into consideration, the extinction rate is closer to one bird species per year, says Pimm, the leading author of the study. And the rate could be three times as high as that if not for recent bird preservation efforts.
In previous centuries, bird extinctions took place mainly on islands as Polynesian peoples expanded into the Pacific or Europeans took over the Americas, wiping out birds along the way.
In recent years, scientists are seeing an increased number of extinctions on continents, again because of human activities. Habitat destruction, introduction of invasive species, and climate change combine to harm many bird species. Before human influence, the estimated rate of bird extinctions would have been only one species per hundred years, researchers estimate.
Bird extinction rates are slower than for most animals, mainly because humans do more harm to other species and people take special efforts to protect birds. Still, if the present trends continue, the researchers estimate that the bird extinction rate will continue to climb to as many as 10 species per year,
1. The underlined word "skyrocket" in the first paragraph means| A．fly high |
| B．appear soon |
| C．increase quickly |
| D．change regularly |
| A．one species per hundred years |
| B．one species every year |
| C．three species per year |
| D．ten species every year |
| A．Humans have started destroying bird habitat in recent years. |
| B．Humans are doing more harm to animals than to birds. |
| C．Humans have made no effort to protect birds. |
| D．Humans are responsible for the bird extinctions. |
| A．Humans' Fighting against Bird Extinction |
| B．Humans' Responsibilities for Bird Protection |
| C．Bird Extinction Rates Far Worse Than Realized |
| D．Bird Extinction Occurring on Islands and Continents |
Auckland, New Zealand
After two months of learning, Monty, and Porter were able to drive an automobile around a racetrack. “We wanted to prove how smart rescue dogs are,”animal behaviorist Mark Vette says. Vette first used voice commands and treats to teach the dogs how to turn a steering wheel and how to change gear (换挡).
The dogs’ ride only accelerated up to 7.5 miles an hour, and trainers could stop the auto using a remote control.
GOLDEN ZEBRA
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
Zoe the zebra’s markings are special. The animal has white and golden stripes. Zoe’s appearance resulted from a rare condition called amelanosis (黑素缺失症). Her body doesn’t make enough melanin, the substance in an animal’s skin and hair cells that produces color. “Only 25 other golden zebras are known to exist in the world,” says Ann Goody, who runs the wildlife refuge where Zoe lives. In the wild, life may be difficult for animals with amelanosis because predators (捕猎者) can easily spot them. But Zoe is protected at her refuge.
COCKATOO MAKES TOOLS
Vienna, Austria
When Figaro the cockatoo spots food lying just out of reach from his cage, he builds a tiny wooden tool to sweep the tasty prize in his way.
The bird first revealed his talent when a stone he was playing with rolled out of his cage. The cockatoo couldn’t reach the stone. So he flew away and returned with a small branch, slipping it through the fence to slide the stone toward him.
Wondering if he would do it again, scientists placed a nut exactly where the stone had been. This time, Figaro pulled out a small piece of wood in his cage and dragged the nut toward him.
1. If Zoe the zebra is set free in the wild, she will ________.
| A．meet no natural predators |
| B．not get along with other zebras |
| C．manage to make enough melanin |
| D．be easily found for her appearance |
| A．He is particular about his food. |
| B．He is extremely fond of stones. |
| C．He is good at drawing support from outside forces. |
| D．He can tell the difference between stones and nuts. |
| A．Amazing animals. |
| B．Ways to help animals. |
| C．Animals’ unique talents. |
| D．Tips on training animals. |
