1 . Whales are known for their majestic (雄伟的) songs that travel through the ocean depths, but the reasons behind this behavior have long puzzled scientists. Recent research reveals this mystery, suggesting that whales possess a unique voice box that enables their powerful voice, a feature not found in other animals.
In a study published in the journal Nature, Coen Elemans and his team from the University of Southern Denmark examined the voice boxes. By conducting experiments, the researchers identified the tissues responsible for producing sound.
Whales, whose ancestors were land-dwellers around 50 million years ago, have developed their voice boxes over millions of years to adapt to underwater communication. Unlike humans and many other mammals (哺乳动物) , whales lack vocal cords and instead have a unique U-shaped tissue in their voice boxes. This specialized structure allows them to intake large volumes of air and generate sounds by pushing this tissue against a cushion of fat and muscle, a mechanism essential for their deep-sea sound.
The significance of this research is highlighted by Jeremy Goldbogen, an associate professor at Stanford University, who describes it as the most comprehensive study to date on how whales vocalize. He emphasizes the need for further exploration to these marine giants. For instance, humpback whales are known for their sound that can travel vast distances across oceans, serving as a form of communication within whales.
Joy Reidenberg, a whale expert, says, “More experiments are needed to confirm the study’s conclusions and understand how these creatures use their voice boxes to communicate in the ocean.”
1. What does the research find?| A．Whales may make sound underwater. |
| B．Whales communicate in a special way. |
| C．What brings about whales’ strange behavior. |
| D．What makes whales’ loud sound possible in the ocean. |
| A．Paragraph 3. | B．Paragraph 4. | C．Paragraph 5. | D．Paragraph 2. |
| A．Mysterious. | B．Ineffective. | C．Inadequate. | D．Creative. |
| A．Evolution Of Whale Communication Skills | B．Research On How Whales Make Sounds |
| C．How Whales Communicate Underwater | D．How Scientists Research Whales’ Sound |
2 . Any schoolchild knows that a whale breathes through its blowhole. Fewer know that a blowhole is a nostril (鼻孔) slightly changed by evolution into a form more useful for a mammal that spends its life at sea. And only a dedicated expert would know that while toothed whales, such as sperm whales, have one hole, baleen (鲸须) whales, such as humpback and Rice whales, have two.
Even among the baleen whales, the placing of those nostrils differs. In some species they are close together. In others, they are much further apart. In a paper published in Biology Letters Conor Ryan, a marine biologist at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, suggests why that might be. Having two nostrils, he argues, helps whales smell in stereo (立体空间).
Many types of baleen whales eat tiny animals known as zooplankton (浮游动物), which they catch by filtering (过滤) them from seawater using the sheets of fibrous baleen that have replaced teeth in their mouths. But to eat something you first have to find it. Toothed whales do not hunt by scent. In fact, the olfactory bulb—the part of the brain that processes smell—is absent in such creatures. But baleen whales still have olfactory bulbs, which suggests smell remains important. And scent can indeed give zooplankton away. Zooplankton like to eat other tiny creatures called phytoplankton (浮游植物). When these are under attack, they release a special gas called dimethyl sulphide, which in turn attracts baleen whales.
Most animals have stereoscopic senses. Having two eyes, for instance, allows an animal to compare the images from each in order to perceive depth. Having two ears lets them locate the direction from which a sound is coming. Dr Ryan theorized that paired blowholes might bring baleen whales the same sorts of benefits.
The farther apart the sensory organs are, the more information can be extracted by the animal that bears them. The researchers used drones to photograph the nostrils of 143 whales belonging to 14 different species. Sure enough, baleen whales that often eat zooplankton, such as the North Atlantic right whale, have nostrils that are farther apart than do those, such as humpback whales, that eat zooplankton occasionally. Besides allowing them to breathe, it seems that some whales use their blowholes to determine in which direction dinner lies.
1. What do we know about whales’ nostrils according to the first two paragraphs?| A．They are adapted ones. | B．They are developed merely for smell. |
| C．They are not easy to detect. | D．They are fixed universally in numbers. |
| A．The teeth that baleen whales have. |
| B．The smell that phytoplankton send. |
| C．The sound waves that zooplankton create. |
| D．The chemical signals that zooplankton give off. |
| A．By quoting a theory. | B．By using examples. |
| C．By making contrast. | D．By making inferences. |
| A．The sense of smell. | B．The possibility to attract food. |
| C．The ability to locate food. | D．The ability to communicate. |
3 . Biologists Slagsvold and Wiebe have spent years studying tits, flycatchers, and other birds that lay their eggs into holes in trees, walls and even human-made boxes. “Holes are rare, so there’s great competition,” Wiebe said. Birds will sometimes get into fights. Even after a bird gets a hole, it has to watch out: There’s always a chance that a passerby tries to possess it. Owners don’t have many options to wait for and stop thieves. Some police their nest’s entrance hole, but preparing for parenthood is hungry work, and eventually the birds have to leave to get food. So Slagsvold and Wiebe started to look for alternative home-defense systems the birds might be using.
They noticed feathers, usually helping animals keep warm, but that doesn’t seem to be how these particular birds are using them. Blue tits, for instance, get feathers on top of the nest, rather than putting them in. Some other birds dump feathers into holes before gathering other materials. “They’re white, and often noticeable,” Wiebe said, “as if the birds want to send a message.”
To find out, they built nest boxes — some feathery, some not — in Europe and America, and recorded how tits, flycatchers and swallows reacted. The birds entered feather-free boxes quickly. But they froze at the sight of white feathers, sometimes hesitating outside for an hour. Black feathers scared them less, perhaps because they were harder to see. The feathers didn’t stop the birds as most eventually went inside. But even a brief delay can make a huge difference, Wiebe said. “Even 20 minutes can give the owner enough time to circle back, and fight off their competitors.”
The birds’ behavior shows their high-risk lifestyle. They have to think twice as the holes may be hiding danger. The feathers represent possible violence, showing a predator might be inside.
The experiment reflects the lies animals tell where nest sites are rare. They build a scene so horrible to discourage nest stealers. Birds are terrified of death. And they can exploit that reality to safeguard what’s theirs.
1. What inspired Slagsvold and Wiebe to seek birds’ other possible ways to protect homes?| A．Birds have to fight to get the limited holes. | B．Birds get tired from watching out in nests. |
| C．Birds face many nest stealers on their own. | D．Birds leave their nests unattended sometimes. |
| A．To show a friendly welcome. | B．To help stealers avoid danger. |
| C．To buy time for the nest owners. | D．To confirm this place is occupied. |
| A．Understandable. | B．Confusing. | C．Possible. | D．Worrying. |
| A．Some birds refuse to build their nests | B．It’s important for birds to have feathers |
| C．High risks of life lead birds to turn to lies | D．Birds create a false scene to protect their nests |
4 . I was attacked by a tiger shark in late October 1997. It was near my home on the island of Kauai—a typical fall morning with friends. The waves were really good, so nothing was stopping us.
That is until a large shark came right up under me and sank his teeth into my lower leg. There had been no splashing. no noise, and I felt no pain, only great pressure on my lower body.
Then I followed my instinct: I punched the shark in the face, again and again which happens to be what the expert advice, until the shark released me. As I swam back into shore, I felt my lower right leg spasming(痉挛). When I looked down, I realized it was gone. The shark had bit my lower leg off. My friends rushed to my aid, and rushed me to hospital.
It was another day before the “fog” lifted, at which point I opened my eyes and realized I was in the hospital—a below-the-knee amputee(截肢). For the next few bedridden weeks, I spent time with my family, and considered the future.
As soon as I was given the OK by my doctors, I did what many of us might consider unthinkable: I started riding the waves again. In fact, my first time back was near the site of his attack. I was unshaken and curious—Was it because of the tides? The phase of the moon? I also recalled that the morning of the attack the water had a fishy smell. Was that what attracted the shark?
I was determined to research sharks, and I did learn something that would change my life: Humans are far more dangerous to sharks than the other way around, I tell Reader’s Digest. “I watched a documentary called Sharkwater, and I learned about the demand for shark fin soup and the fact that 70 million sharks a year are killed for their fins alone.”
My unique situation as a shark survivor empowered me to give sharks a voice. I began working with the Hawaii state legislature to help pass a ban on shark-derived products. I partnered with other like-minded shark attack survivors and marine biologists, and we headed to Washington to urge senators to create a nationwide bill protecting sharks.
1. What is mainly talked about in the first two paragraphs?| A．The missing leg. | B．The shark attack. |
| C．The timely rescue. | D．The expert’s advice. |
| A．To go on with his unshaken hobby. | B．To figure out why he became a target. |
| C．To keep track of the phase of the moon. | D．To explore why the water had a fishy smell. |
| A．Humans tend to ignore the dangers. | B．Humans can’t survive without sharks. |
| C．Sharks pose a greater threat to humans | D．Sharks are in urgent need of protection. |
| A．He is speaking in favor of sharks. | B．He argues against the bill about sharks. |
| C．There is widespread doubt about sharks. | D．People should give sharks a preference. |
5 . Parrots consistently top the charts of the world’s smartest animals. A new discovery published by the Royal Society Open Science reveals to us what sets the intelligent individual monk parakeet (和尚鹦鹉) apart in a group.
Previously, it was thought that these birds introduced themselves to others with a sort of “catchphrase” that distinguished their identity. However, after running the vocalizations (发声) collected in this study through a machine learning program, a team led by Simeon Smeele, a doctoral student at Aarhus University in Denmark, found that the birds actually had “voiceprints” like humans that identify themselves in the group.
The researchers studied thousands of monk parakeet vocalizations from hundreds of birds in Barcelona across two years and ran these recordings through the program that identifies small differences in their calls.
“The voiceprint is the underlying quality of a voice that you can recognize in humans, and this is the first time that has been shown in another vocal learner,” Smeele said. For example, the voiceprint of your father is how you know it’s his voice, even if he isn’t present. “This is what I think could explain how they recognize each other, because it can be stable over very long periods of time.” he added.
“This shows that these birds also have that sort of information that they might be using in their complicated social interactions,” said Emily Du Val, Ph.D., a behavioral ecologist at Florida State University. “Research into animal communication has the potential to motivate the public into action to conserve animals. Recognizing who each other is and understanding how they interact with one another are important for human life,” she said.
This model can potentially be applied to other animals with vocal recognition like bottlenose dolphins, bat s and elephants. Future research will look into whether these voiceprints are recognized by all parakeets in the community or only a circle of close relatives.
1. What helps the monk parakeets recognize each other?| A．The catchphrase. | B．The intelligence. |
| C．The voiceprint. | D．The communication. |
| A．By combining “catchphrase” with “voiceprints”. |
| B．By keeping track of the monk parakeets’ relatives. |
| C．By collecting vocalizations and identifying their differences. |
| D．By comparing humans’ voiceprints with monk parakeets’. |
| A．The information that voiceprints can express. |
| B．The potential influence that voiceprints can bring. |
| C．The animals among which voiceprints are identified. |
| D．The range where parakeets’ voiceprints are recognized. |
| A．Mon k Parakeets Are Great Vocal Learners |
| B．Mon k Parakeets Resemble Humans in Communication |
| C．“Voiceprints” Are Found in Animals’ Social Interactions |
| D．“Voiceprints” Help Monk Parakeets Identify Themselves |
6 . Some chimpanzees(黑猩猩)are much wilder when it comes to making beats, scientists have discovered. In a Ugandan rainforest, the chimps have developed their own drumming(击鼓)styles on tree roots. Researchers observed their drumming styles range from rock to jazz. One chimpanzee brought back the style of the late John Bonham, a drummer who played a piece of music, Whole Lotta Love, and is ranked as one of the best. “The chimpanzee makes very fast drums with many evenly separated beats. His drumming is so fast that you can hardly see his hands.” said Catherine, leading scientist of the study.
Drumming with feet and hands with their special calls is used to exchange messages through thick forests, even with miles between them. Ben the Alpha’s call was a close two quick beats and a distant third, sometimes fourth.
Catherine also said. “We could often recognize which chimpanzee was drumming, and it was a fantastic way to find the different ones we were looking for. So if we could recognize, we were sure they could.”
The team was surprised to note the chimpanzees only used their personalized drumming styles when on the move, showing that the chimpanzees could decide whether to be recognized or not. The research could also settle a problem about why these chimpanzees greet each other when they meet but are not observed to say goodbye when they part in the forest. “The chimpanzees don’t need to say goodbye because they’re effectively able to keep in touch.” Catherine said. These long-distance signals give the chimpanzees a way to recognize with each other.
The researchers’ next study will be to explore whether different drumming styles can lead to different drumming cultures among the different chimpanzee populations.
1. What do we know about the chimpanzees in the first paragraph?| A．Their drumming styles are too fast to discover. |
| B．Their own drumming styles have been formed. |
| C．Their wild drumming styles are ranked as the best. |
| D．Their drumming styles are in various music forms. |
| A．By performing different styles of calling. |
| B．By beating the drum quickly on tree roots. |
| C．By combining drumming and special calls. |
| D．By using their personalized drumming styles. |
| A．Because they don’t want to be recognized. |
| B．Because they don’t want to see each other. |
| C．Because they are on the move all the time. |
| D．Because they have their own way to contact. |
| A．The Chimps—singers in their special voices |
| B．The Chimps—drummers in personalized styles |
| C．The Chimps interested in making musical beats |
| D．The Chimps delighted in performing with hands |
7 . What makes people so special? Tool use, self-consciousness, language, and culture are high on the list, but in fact all of these characteristics can be found elsewhere in the animal kingdom. Humans and apes are close relatives, so it is perhaps not surprising that chimpanzees use tools or that gorillas (大猩猩) have a sense of fair play, even rejecting carrots (which they normally accept) when they see their neighbors getting grapes. But the qualities that we often think of as uniquely human exist not just on land, but in the ocean as well.
Among the invertebrates, octopuses (八爪鱼) are known for their intelligence, even exhibiting evidence of playfulness, tool use, and personality. But these skilled predators live alone and consequently lack culture. Dolphins, on the other hand, are large-brained, long-living, social- group-based predators, and it is here that we find the greatest similarity to human-like culture and awareness.
Culture depends on the ability of animals to pass on things they have learned to others. Many animals have culture in this sense, but what sets dolphins apart is what they pass on. Some bottlenose dolphins hold sponges in their mouths that they use as tools to sweep for fish hiding on the ocean floor. This ability is handed down through generations (especially in females), with some families — grandmother, mother, and daughter — all feeding in this highly specialized way.
Another characteristic that dolphins share with humans is their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror. When facing a mirror, most animals behave as though they are interacting with another individual. Even in humans, the ability to recognize that the image in a mirror is oneself does not occur before the age of 18 months. Dolphins not only recognize themselves, but if a black mark is put on the body of a dolphin, it will spend extra time at the mirror to look at the mark.
1. The example of gorillas rejecting carrots shows they ________.| A．are not easy to fool | B．prefer fruit to vegetables |
| C．have a special taste for food | D．have an awareness of equality |
| A．Cooperation. | B．Intelligence. |
| C．Tool using ability. | D．Fun-loving spirits. |
| A．They tend to hunt in groups. |
| B．Their hunting skills are passed down. |
| C．Their learning environment is favourable. |
| D．Their families are typically female-controlled. |
| A．Dolphins enjoy looking at their own reflection in the mirror. |
| B．Dolphins are as intelligent as a typical 18-month-old human baby. |
| C．Dolphins are generally regarded as the most advanced non-human species. |
| D．Dolphins’ ability to recognize their own reflection is a higher-order mental skill. |
8 . Dad’s car pulled into the driveway. I ran to the door. Dad smiled as if he had a secret. “It feels cold to us, but it’s warm and attractive to see a frog. Are you coming?” he asked. I agreed with excitement and then put on my raincoat.
“Hey, look at this one,” Dad shined his light on a green frog the size of his thumb. The frog jumped, its four legs sticking straight out. I found my first frog on a driveway. A bright-green one with shiny skin. I wondered what it would feel like. I could see the frog breathing.
I could imagine a car running over it. I said, “Dad, can you move this one?” “You do it,” Dad said. I looked at the frog. I didn’t want to touch it. But I didn’t want it to get squashed (压扁的). I reached down. It jumped through my fingers. I tried again. Cupping one hand around the frog, I picked it up with the other hand. Its skin felt cold and soft. The frog moved. I walked to the grass and held out my hand. The frog climbed up my wrist. I laughed. Then I gently placed the frog onto the grass.
We walked a couple of blocks. We found lots of frogs-brown ones, green ones and spotted ones. I got better at finding them. If they were on the road, we moved them when traffic was clear. I actually started to like picking them up.
I was ready to go home. Then I saw something moving near a stone wall. Something bigger than a frog. Dad and I shined our lights and crouched. “Is it a lizard (蜥蜴)?” I asked. “No, it’s a salamander,” Dad said. “Hey, I just realized something,” I said. “The animals out tonight—frogs and salamanders—are amphibians (两栖动物). We’d learned about amphibians in school.” “Great observation,” Dad said.
1. How did the author feel when his dad asked him to see frogs?| A．Excited. | B．Disappointed. | C．Ashamed. | D．Frightened. |
| A．To have fun. | B．To play with the frog. |
| C．To keep it safe. | D．To observe it carefully. |
| A．The salamanders aren’t amphibians. |
| B．The author’s experience was worthwhile. |
| C．The author felt tired to pick up frogs. |
| D．The experience had nothing to do with the author’s school lessons. |
| A．Learn more about amphibians. | B．Protect our natural environment. |
| C．Study hard at school. | D．Love every creature around us. |
9 . GET A BIRD’S-EYE VIEW OF THE WORLD’S MOST ATTRACTIVE FEATHERED ANIMALS WITH THESE BOOKS
Flamingo (火烈鸟)
Biologist and photographer Claudio Contreras Koob spent 20 years travelling deep into the wet lands and forests of his native Mexico—and beyond—to feed his flamingo attraction. This book offers a unique window into the behavior and life of red-feathered birds, with more than 120 show-stopping shots displaying their beauty. teNeues, £35.
Around the World in 80 Birds
Inspiring secrets, national pride or scientific discoveries, every bird has a story to tell, from the weaver bird building multi-nest “apartment blocks” in Namibia to the bar-headed goose taking on a twice-yearly trans-Himalayan journey at an extreme altitude. Mike Unwin’s tour is accompanied by beautiful illustrations from Ryuto Miyake. Laurence King Publishing, £22.
A World on the Wing
Pulitzer-shortlisted Weidensaul, who’s at the forefront of research into bird migration, here tracks some of nature’s most remarkable journeys. He sails through the stormy Bering Sea, encounters trappers in the Mediterranean and visits former headhunters in northeast India, where a bird migration crisis has become a conservation success story. Pan Macmillan, £9.99.
Galapagos Crusoes: A Year Alone with the Birds
Explore this updated version of the 1968 title, Galapagos: Islands of Birds, by late bird expert Bryan Nelson, with previously unpublished material from his wife, June. The couple spent a year living on two Galapagos islands, studying birds, including the Galapagos albatross (信天翁). This is their clever and amusing account. Bradt Guides, £11.99.
1. By whom is the second costliest book illustrated?| A．Claudio Contreras Koob. | B．Mike Unwin. |
| C．Ryuto Miyake. | D．Weidensaul. |
| A．Flamingo. | B．Around the World in 80 Birds. |
| C．A World on the Wing. | D．Galapagos: Island of Birds. |
| A．Its humorous description. | B．Its romantic style. |
| C．Its vivid imagination. | D．Its moving plot. |
10 . 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. |
