1 . Southern Africa is home to most of the world’s black and white rhinos. Because of global warming, the weather in this area is changing quickly. People have worked hard to protect rhinos from being hunted, but until now, no one has really looked at how the changing weather might hurt these animals.
A research team from the University of Massachusetts Amherst has recently reported that the area will be affected by both higher temperatures and changing precipitation (降水) and the rhinos are more sensitive to rising temperatures, which will quickly increase above the animals’ acceptable maximum threshold.
Over the last 100 years, Africa’s average monthly temperatures have gone up by 0.5℃ to 2℃. Scientists think that in the next 100 years, it might get even warmer, up to 2 more degrees. This change in weather might also change how much rain we get. But here’s the thing：For animals like white and black rhinos, which people have been trying to protect for a long time, will the heat or the rain changes hurt them more? This is a big question because rhinos don’t have sweat to cool down. They stay cool by taking baths and staying in cool shady spots.
To understand how changing climate will affect rhino populations, lead author Hlelowenkhosi S. Mamba and his colleague, focused their efforts on five large national parks representing diverse landscapes in southern Africa that are home to most of the rhinos. They have found that temperature conditions in all study parks will become increasingly unsuitable for both species, but it is predicted that white rhinos will be affected earlier than black rhinos.
“This research highlights the importance of using climate predictions tor both park and rhino management,” says Randhir. “We propose that park managers now think about increasing water supplies, tree cover, watching for stress and planning to allow rhino migration as the world warms.”
1. How are rhinos traditionally protected?| A．By building their living habitats. |
| B．By saving them from illegal hunt. |
| C．By monitoring their physical health. |
| D．By removing their breeding surroundings. |
| A．range | B．register | C．average | D．content |
| A．Cooling heat off by sweating. | B．Drinking much water. |
| C．Migrating to other places. | D．Bathing in the water. |
| A．Predicting the weather. | B．Buying new species. |
| C．Boosting habitats. | D．Restricting visitors. |
2 . Kay Day, an 87-year-old UK woman, adores elephants. But Day, suffering from dementia (痴呆),rarely left her nursing home room and hadn’t seen a real elephant for a really long time.
Day is so crazy about elephants that her room is decorated with elephant photos. Day dreamed of seeing an elephant up close again and never thought it would happen. However, Day’s dream became a reality after her nursing home, the Blakelands Lodge care home inMarston Moretaine, took her on a special journey to the Whipsnade Zoo.
“Kay doesn’t join in many activities and tends to spend quite a lot of time alone,” said Carla Blakelands, the Lodge activity manager. “We sat and discussed wishes and found out she would love to see an elephant. We discussed different options and we found the Elephant Experience at Whipsnade Zoo, so we contacted them about our resident.”
Day was so excited about going to the zoo that she marked off the days on her elephant-themed calendar. Day’s carers and family came along on the trip to assist and watch her experience the exciting day. Day was able to pet the Asian elephants and she said that the elephants’ trunk is her favorite part of the animal. “It’s such a wonderful feeling to have an elephant take some food out of your hand, put it in his trunk, curl it up and put it in his mouth,” she told BBC.
Day expressed her gratitude to the people who organized the trip and said it was one of the best days of her life. “I could sit here forever with an elephant sitting by my side,” she said.
Elephant keeper My Eriksson said that the zoo was honored to have played a role in making Day’s dream come true and that it was amazing to meet someone who is as crazy about elephants as the zookeepers at Whipsnade Zoo.
1. What can we say about the Blakelands Lodge care home?| A．It funds the Whipsnade Zoo. | B．It has a special love for elephants. |
| C．It seldom organizes outings. | D．It cares about its residents’ wishes. |
| A．She has no relatives. | B．She is fairly easy-going. |
| C．She enjoys being alone. | D．She likes group activities. |
| A．She fed the elephants. | B．She argued with her family. |
| C．She arranged an interview. | D．She worked as a zookeeper. |
| A．Annoyed. | B．Grateful. | C．Puzzled. | D．Nervous. |
3 . 4 Reasons Why Wild Animals Are So Important
As we know, the earth gives us food, medicines and materials, often through wild animals. These wild animals are important to our existence. Sadly, they are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. We need to change this loss of nature and create a future where wildlife and people thrive (蓬勃发展) again.
Wild animals keep balance in ecosystems.
Diversity (多样性) means healthier ecosystems and healthier wild animals.
When there is a wildlife issue, you’ll often hear the term biodiversity, which refers to the number of species in an ecosystem.
All of the food that we eat comes from an animal or plant. Living without various food sources causes our nutrition (营养) to suffer. Protecting wildlife and its natural habitats strengthens food safety for humans around the world.
Wildlife helps medical research.
Wild animals have helped us find important medicines that help with many diseases.
| A．All living things are interconnected. |
| B．Healthy ecosystems mean a lot of diversity. |
| C．Or we will lose these animals to future generations. |
| D．People worldwide depend on wildlife for their snack. |
| E．Wildlife provides important nutrients for the human race. |
| F．The human race has always turned to nature for medicine. |
| G．We should notice the influence caused by wildlife on culture. |
4 . Wild African elephants may break sleep records for mammals (哺乳动物). New data show that they seem to survive on about two hours of shut-eye a night. Much of that sleeping took place while they were standing up. The animals lie down to sleep only once every three to four nights.
Trying to figure out how much wild elephants sleep just by watching them 24 hours a day is tricky, especially in the dark. Much of what scientists had known about sleeping elephants came from animals living in zoos, notes Paul Manger, who is a brain researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. In zoos, elephants have been recorded sleeping from about three hours to nearly seven during a 24-hour period. Using electronic monitors on African elephants in the wild, however, has turned up more extreme behavior.
Manger’s team implanted (植入) activity monitors in the trunks (象鼻) of two elephants. Both were female leaders of their herds in the Chobe National Park. Trunks, like human hands, are important for exploring the world. Elephants hardly keep them still — unless sleeping. The researchers thought that a trunk monitor that didn’t move for at least five minutes likely meant its host was asleep.
The monitors tracked the animals over about a month. During that time, the elephants averaged just two hours of sleep a day. What’s more, the elephants were able to skip a night’s sleep without needing extra rest the next day. Those trunk implants showed there were times when the elephants went up to 46 hours without any sleep.
There has been some thought that animals need sleep to store memories properly. But that can’t explain animals, like the elephants, which skip sleep for a night without needing catch-up rest later. “Elephants are usually not considered to be forgetful animals,” Manger observes. In fact, he notes, studies have found that they can have long memories.
1. How did the African elephants typically sleep according to the new study?| A．They stood up. | B．They walked around. |
| C．They grouped. | D．They kept eyes open. |
| A．To test a new tracker. | B．To help elephants fall asleep. |
| C．To train wild animals. | D．To study elephants’ sleep. |
| A．People always think elephants are forgetful animals. |
| B．A good night’s sleep benefits all the wildlife’s brains. |
| C．Little sleep doesn’t affect the memory of elephants. |
| D．Scientists can’t understand why sleep makes sense. |
| A．Tips on watching wildlife. | B．Wild elephants’ sleep habit. |
| C．Efforts to protect wild elephants. | D．National nature reserves in Africa. |
5 . A Michigan farmer Bristle was digging with a backhoe (反铲挖土机) in one of his wheat fields when — bang — it struck a large bone.
Bristle contacted Fisher, a paleontology (古生物学家) professor at the University of Michigan. Fisher rushed to the farm and identified the bone as a fossil of an Ice Age mammoth (猛犸象). Since it was harvest season, Bristle gave Fisher and his students only one day to remove the rest of the fossils from the ground. The team found 20 percent of the animal’s bones, including its skull, tusks, pelvis, and shoulder blades as well as some teeth, ribs, and other bones.
The age of a mammoth can be determined by counting the rings in one of its tusks. Like the rings in a tree trunk, each ring stands for one year of a mammoth’s life. Fisher thinks that the bones are supposed to belong to male mammoth around forty years old. It was probably a rare hybrid of a woolly mammoth and a Colombian mammoth that lived between 11,700 and 15,000 years ago during the Pleistocene lee Age, when ice sheets covered much of Earth’s land.
The bones appeared to have been cut up and some of them were missing, leading Fisher to conclude that early humans must have killed the animal and stored its meat so they could return to it at a later time. Some other indications of human activity include a stone flake (薄片) that might have been from a cutting tool and the arrangement of the neck bones in order. If the mammoth had died naturally, its bones would have scattered randomly.
In the US, fossils found on private property belong to the owner of the land. However, Bristle donated the fossils to the University of Michigan for further study. Fisher hopes to display the bones at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, possibly combined with fiberglass models of bones from other Michigan mammoths to form a complete Mammoth skeleton (骨架).
1. Why was Fisher’s time limited to one day?| A．Because the mammoth was a small one. | B．Because it was easy to remove the bones. |
| C．Because it was the time of gathering crops. | D．Because Bristle was busy planting in the field. |
| A．By counting the bones. | B．By judging the living age. |
| C．By measuring the ice sheets. | D．By numbering the tusk rings. |
| A．How the mammoth died. | B．Where the missing meat was. |
| C．How the stone flake was made. | D．Whether the neck bones scattered. |
| A．To own the fossils. | B．To study the mammoth. |
| C．To complete the skeleton. | D．To promote the university. |
6 . 
Panda Ya Ya returns home
Ya Ya the giant panda has just arrived in Shanghai, east China on Thursday after 20 years of stay at the Memphis Zoo in the U.S. The flight was around 15.5 hours. Both Chinese and American vets are with Ya Ya.
Ya Ya was born at Beijing Zoo on August 3, 2000. She arrived at Memphis Zoo in April, 2003. Ya Ya has become a bridge of friendship between Chinese and foreign people. She will spend a month in Shanghai before returning to her birthplace, Beijing Zoo.
We do hope all pandas that are in foreign countries can be healthy and happy.
Did you know…?
Baby pandas are born pink and measure about 15cm-that’s about the size of a pencil
Giant pandas spend up to 12 hours a day eating bamboo.
Pandas live for about 20 years in the wild, but in the zoos they can live for up to 35 years.
1. Ya Ya was born in _______.| A．Beijing | B．Chengdu | C．Shanghai ` | D．Guangzhou |
| A．Black and white. | B．Pink. | C．Yellow. | D．Gray. |
| A．Ya Ya spend up to 10 hours a day eating bamboo. | B．Shanghai Zoo is Ya Ya’s final home. |
| C．Ya Ya had a short flight coming back home. | D．Ya Ya helps foreigners know more about China. |
| A．a piece of news | B．an ad | C．a diary | D．a letter |
7 . It is generally assumed that humans are the only species that deal with the persistence (持续存在) of memory and the ability to remember friends and loved ones even if one has not seen then fora long period of time. But humans may not be alone. New research has shown that apes (类人猿) also recognize their friends even when they have not seen them in years.
Lead researcher Dr. Christopher Krupenye created this research due to his sense over the many years when he worked with apes that individual chimpanzees or bonobos recognized him even if they hadn’t seen him for some time.
“You have the impression that they’re responding like they recognize you and that to them you’re really different from the average zoo guest,” Krupenye said. “They’re excited to see you again. So our goal with this study was to ask: Do they really have a lasting memory for familiar social partners?”
In order to test whether apes remember their friends, the researchers printed photos of chimpanzees and bonobos who had died or left zoos in Edinburgh, Scotland, Belgium and Japan. Then they showed those photos of the participating animals’ former group mates alongside photos of strange apes to the participating animals at the zoos. Using eye-tracking technology, the researchers were able to confirm that the apes spent more time looking at their friends than they did at the apes they were not familiar with.
The research team believes that apes’ long-term social memory can stretch back at least 26 years. Additionally, they believe that this may indicate that like humans, chimpanzees and bonobos can miss their friends and families.
Whatever the case, it is clear that this study shows that apes are more similar to humans than previously thought. So the next time you visit the zoo, take some time to befriend your local chimpanzees and bonobos. They may just remember you for many years to come.
1. What led Krupenye to do the research?| A．His years of work with apes. |
| B．His experience of visiting zoos. |
| C．His impression of a dying ape. |
| D．His relationship with zoo guests. |
| A．They had them look at photos of other apes. |
| B．They used technology to improve their eyesight. |
| C．They allowed them to play with their former mates. |
| D．They asked them to live with strange apes for some time. |
| A．Some similarities between humans and apes. |
| B．The research team’s expectations of the study. |
| C．Some tips on interacting with apes in the zoo. |
| D．The researchers’ conclusions from the research. |
| A．Apes Tend to Prefer Their Old Friends |
| B．Humans Can Make Friends With Apes |
| C．Apes Remember Their Friends As Well |
| D．Humans Are Quite Different From Apes |
8 . Wind power is one of the most powerful tools for reducing carbon emissions(排放) that cause climate change. Turbines(涡轮机), however, can be a threat to birds, which is why experts are looking for ways to prevent the danger.
A Boulder, Colorado company has produced a camera- and AI-based technology that can recognize eagles as they approach in enough time to shut off turbines in their flight path. Their tool, called IdentiFlight, can detect 5.62 times more bird flights than human observers alone with an accuracy rate of 94 percent. Using high-precision sensors, the system calculates a bird’s speed and flight path, and if it is on a crash path with a turbine, a signal is sent to shut that turbine down.
Winning an award for its performance in Australia, the tracking system was set up in 2018 at a Tasmanian facility and was found to cut eagle deaths at the Cattle Hill Wind Farm by more than four fifths. Each day, signals have shut down their movement an average of 400 times—across the field of 48 turbines—for 2 to 3 minutes each time.
Across the globe, Duke Energy in Wyoming is employing the same technology with impressive results at its Top of the World Windpower Project. Top of the World was the first wind site to use the technology. In 2014, IdentiFlight’s maker, Boulder Imaging, used Top of the World for testing after eagles were killed by the turbine, which left Duke Energy in violation(违反) of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. 47 units made of eight wide-angle cameras now constantly scan(扫掠) the sky to monitor all 110 turbines. The camera unit is mounted to the top of a 30-foot pole and powered by software that learns and improves with each photo taken.
Bird lover Garry George admits, “IdentiFlight makes it possible to protect the birds we love in the process of reducing the worst effects of climate change.”
1. What can IdentiFlight do?| A．Ensure turbines make full use of wind power. |
| B．Suspend wind turbines when detecting eagles. |
| C．Prevent birds from choosing a crash path. |
| D．Identify potential threats to wind turbines. |
| A．It has been widely used. | B．It got a warm welcome. |
| C．It has been very effective. | D．It has a really long service life. |
| A．It broke the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. |
| B．It responded to Boulder Imaging’s call. |
| C．It intended to improve its wide-angle cameras. |
| D．It followed in the Cattle Hill Wind Farm’s footsteps. |
| A．Conservative. | B．Favorable. | C．Uncertain. | D．Uninterested. |
9 . For most of December, Adele Adkins had the top-selling album in Australia, followed by Ed Sheeran, and then there was a collection of songs that took everyone by surprise.
Songs Of Disappearance is a collection of calls from endangered Australian birds. Last month, it briefly reached No.3 on the country’s top 50 albums chart (排行榜) — ahead of Taylor Swift.
Anthony Albrecht, a PhD student at Charles Darwin University, produced the album with Professor Stephen Garnett. “I knew it was a crazy thing to suggest. But Stephen’s a little bit crazy like me and he let me do it,” Albrecht said.
Songs Of Disappearance was published with a university report which found that 1 in 6 Australian bird species are now threatened. The album records 53 of those species.
“Some sing what you might think of as bird songs, but not all of them,” said SeanDooley, who represents the conservation organization Bird life Australia. “Songs from the golden bowerbird sound like a death cry from some sci-fi series. And the love songs from Christmas Island frigate bird, which has a piece of skin hanging under its mouth that caninflate (膨胀) like a huge red balloon, sound as bizarre as its unusual looks.”
There’s also the Christmas Island pigeon. When people hear that pigeon, they might think that it’s a human making silly noises, Dooley added.
The Charles Darwin University and Bird life Australia report does document successes in protecting endangered birds, the hope being that the album will protect more species.
“The increased awareness can make a difference,” Dooley said. “When we have a community on board, that brings pressure to the government to do the right thing. We know that these conservation actions do work.”
1. Whose album reached No.1 on the chart in December?| A．Taylor Swift’s. |
| B．Adele Adkins’. |
| C．Ed Sheeran’s. |
| D．Anthony Albrecht’s. |
| A．About 53 bird species are threatened in Australia. |
| B．It has not found success in protecting endangered birds. |
| C．One sixth of Australian bird species are now endangered. |
| D．Music is very powerful in encouraging people to protect birds. |
| A．Strange. |
| B．Beautiful. |
| C．Loud. |
| D．Sharp. |
| A．Crazy. |
| B．Amusing. |
| C．Uncreative. |
| D．Helpful. |
10 . SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) - An Arizona aquarium (水族馆) is joyfully celebrating the successful hatching of three endangered African penguin chicks, emphasizing the tiny additions are genetically valuable as zoos and aquariums worldwide work to ensure the species’ survival through breeding (培育) programs and conservation efforts.
The announcement was made by officials at OdySea Aquarium on Friday, accompanied by a delightful video showcasing the cute birds. Hatched a few weeks ago, the chicks will remain behind the scenes with their parents until they’re ready for a public appearance.
African penguins have faced a significant population decline over the decades, earning them endangered status from the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Jessica Peranteau, director of animal training and education at the aquarium, expressed that any successful hatching is a cause for celebration. “As the population of the African penguin continues to rapidly decline-down 23% in the past two years alone-OdySea Aquarium remains committed to the survival of the species in partnership with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums,” stated Peranteau. The breeding program established by the association aims to build up a genetic pool for the species.
Officials say two of the three new chicks in Scottsdale were born to parents Mojo and Lemieux-a power couple of sorts that was selected for pairing as part of the breeding program. The third chick was born to first-time parents Bubbles and Weasley. Aquarium workers will regularly conduct “chick checks,” brief exams to monitor their growth and development and ensure they are hitting all necessary milestones.
The three chicks have yet to be named, and their sex has not yet been determined. For now they’re known by their numbers,42,43 and 44. In all, OdySea Aquarium now houses 40 African penguins and has recorded 13 successful hatchings. The aquarium bills itself as the largest in the Southwest.
1. Why is the hatching of African penguin chicks a cause for celebration?| A．To hold significant genetic value. | B．To promote tourism in Scottsdale. |
| C．To meet the demands of the public. | D．To boost the population of sea animals. |
| A．Establishing a gene bank for the species. | B．Conducting research on penguin behavior. |
| C．Improving new aquarium facilities. | D．Promoting African penguin tourism. |
| A．They share the same parents. | B．Their gender remains unidentified. |
| C．They are hit regularly with stones. | D．Their growth is not closely monitored. |
| A．Technology Review. | B．Entertainment Feature. |
| C．Species Protection Report. | D．Zoological Exhibition Notice. |
