| A．Being a rare fish, the vaquita is at the edge of extinction. |
| B．Generally, a vaquita’s life expectation is over two decades. |
| C．Genetic modification could be the only way to save vaquitas. |
| D．Vaquitas were first discovered by Spanish in 1958. |
| A．It banned the fishermen from using fixed nets in the Gulf of California. |
| B．It banned the fishermen from fishing vaquitas. |
| C．Its police force worked with Sea Shepherd to feed vaquitas. |
| D．It inspected local fishermen to stop illegal fishing. |
| A．He founded the Natural Resources Defense Council. |
| B．It was great to tell vaquitas good stories. |
| C．All work would be meaningless without continuous efforts. |
| D．The parties should record their actions with cameras. |
When scientists accidentally killed
The ocean quahog, a type of deep-sea clam, was dredged (捕捞) alive from the bottom of the North Atlantic near Iceland in 2006 by researchers. They then put it in a fridge-freezer,
The discovery made it into the Guinness Book of World Records. However, by this time, it was too late for Ming the Mollusc(软体动物),
The researchers opened the ancient clam up to judge its age by counting growth rings inside. But the rings were so close together
Dr Paul Butler, from the University’s School of Ocean Sciences, said: “We got it wrong the first time and maybe we were a bit hasty publishing our findings back then. But we are absolutely certain that we’ve got the right age now.” The mollusc was born in 1499 – just seven years after Columbus discovered America and before Henry VIII had even married his first wife, Catherine of Aragon in 1509.
| A．With slimmer figures. | B．More active. |
| C．In poorer health. | D．Less open-minded. |
| A．Guard their houses. | B．Relieve the stress. |
| C．Make them thinner. | D．Lead the way. |
| A．Exercise more. | B．Stop keeping pets. |
| C．Eat less. | D．Build another yard. |
| A．The impact of animal studies. |
| B．The growing population. |
| C．The loss of natural habitats. |
| D．The birds’ changing behaviour. |
| A．It can contribute to the better conservation of birds. |
| B．It is aimed at solving mysteries about nature. |
| C．It is funded jointly by four nature organizations. |
| D．It has spotted at least 10 birds not seen for a long time. |
| A．The benefits of bird conservation. |
| B．The search for lost birds. |
| C．The reasons for bird extinction. |
| D．The organizations of bird protection. |
5 . Koko the gorilla knew over 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language, and used them to do everything from asking for food to joking around. Her trainer and long-term companion, Penny Patterson, thought Koko went further still, signing in novel ways and showing complex emotions. According to Ms Patterson, when a cat that Koko loved was killed in an accident, Koko signed: “Cat, cry, have-sorry, Koko-love.” When Koko died last month, some of her obituaries (讣告) mourned the gorilla who had “mastered American sign language.”
Then came the backlash, from linguists and experts in sign languages. Sign languages have complex grammars, equivalent to spoken tongues in expressiveness. Koko’s ability, it was pointed out, fell well short of a fluent human signer. Moreover, Ms Patterson was her interpreter, a role that invited the question of how much she was inferring what Koko “must have meant,” and explaining away random signs. It was hard to be sure: Ms Patterson preferred speaking to journalists over sharing her video and raw data about Koko with fellow researchers.
There is no doubt that animals communicate. Animals from one region can share sounds that differ from groups in another, leading researchers to talk of animal “dialects.” Then there are the remarkable achievements of Koko and her primate predecessors, including a chimp delightfully named Nim Chimpsky. Yet there is an important distinction between communication and language. Take the misleading term “body language.” It is sometimes claimed that words convey just 7% of meaning, and that body language and tone of voice do the rest. This wildly overstretches an old study which found that most emotional messaging — as opposed to the propositional kind — comes from tone and body language, especially when a neutral word such as “maybe” was used. But try conveying a fact like “It will rain on Tuesday” with your eyebrows, and the difference becomes clear. Language allows for clear statements, questions and commands.
Nim Chimpsky’s near-namesake, Noam Chomsky, has argued that people have a kind of “universal grammar”, and that all humankind’s languages are mere variations on a theme. Mr Chomsky has changed his mind repeatedly on what constitutes the core of human language, but one obvious candidate is syntax — rules, not just words, which allow the construction of a huge variety of meaningful utterances (所说的话). This capacity may even be infinite. Any statement in English, for example, can be made longer by adding “He said that …” at the beginning. This property is called recursion: a simple statement (“It’s cold”) is embedded in a more complicated one (“He said that it’s cold”). Human syntax also allows for hypotheticals (“If she hadn’t arrived …”), talking precisely about events distant from the present, and so much more.
That gorillas lack syntax should not blind humans to their magnificence. But the fact that Koko could communicate should not mislead observers into thinking she possessed language.
1. Which statement about KOKO the gorilla is true?| A．Koko’s ability was similar to a fluent human signer. |
| B．Koko could ask for food using sign language. |
| C．Koko was able to show complex feelings using sign language. |
| D．Koko was killed in an accident. |
| A．approval | B．bias | C．opposition | D．evidence |
| A．Koko was not as expressive as a human signer |
| B．Koko seldom needed an interpreter |
| C．Koko was able to communicate with journalists |
| D．Koko failed to speak several animal “dialects” |
| A．Humans can express past events using language while apes cannot. |
| B．Tone and body language play a dominant role in human communication. |
| C．Words enable humans to convey clear meanings. |
| D．Gorillas are still magnificent in terms of their ability to communicate. |
| A．Nim Chimpsky and Noam Chomsky — Who Has the Upper Hand? |
| B．Syntax — What Separates Humans and Apes. |
| C．Koko the Gorilla — A Magnificent Communicator. |
| D．Great Apes — Language and Communication Are Not the Same Thing. |
| A. typically B. released C. industrial D. apparent E. classified F. dumps G. potential H. originally I. containers J. transported K. special |
A hungry polar bear seen scavenging (在废弃物中觅食) for food in a major
Wildlife experts were called to assess the polar bear and determine whether it could be taken back to the Arctic.
But after sedating (给……服镇静剂) the animal, experts said it was severely ill, at least partly from feeding herself from garbage
Polar bear poaching has been banned in Russia for more than 60 years. Still, it has been estimated that as many as 200 of them are killed each year. In February, local reports estimated that about 50 polar bears had taken over Novaya Zemlya, popping up in buildings, on playgrounds. As a result, officials declared a state of emergency, many people were too scared to leave their homes or let their children play outside, and
Polar bears are
7 . A lone humpback whale travelled more than 9,800 kilometers from breeding areas in Brazil to those in Madagascar, setting a record for the longest mammal migration even documented.
Humpback whales are known to have some of the longest migration distances of all mammals, and this huge journey is about 400 kilometers father than the previous humpback record. The finding was made by Peter Stevick, a biologist at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.
The whale's journey was unusual not only for its length, but also because it travelled across about 90 degrees of longitude from west to east. Typically, humpbacks move in a north-south direction between cold feeding areas and warm breeding grounds.
The whale, a female, was first spotted off the coast of Brazil, where researches photographed its tail fluke and took skin samples to determine the animal's sex. Two years later, a tourist on a whale-watching boat snapped a photo of the humpback near Madagascar.
To match the two sightings, Stevick's team used an extensive international catalogue of photographs of the undersides of tail flukes, which have distinctive markings. Researchers routinely compare the markings in each new photograph to those in the archive.
The scientists then estimated the animal's shortest possible route: an are skirting the southern tip of South Africa and heading north-east towards Madagascar. The minimum distance is 9,800 kilometers, says Stevick, but this is likely to be an underestimate, because the whale probably took a roundabout way to feed on frill in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica before reaching its destination.
Most humpback-whale researches focus on their efforts on the Northern Hemisphere because the Southern Ocean near the Antarctica is a tough environment and it is hard to get to, explaining Rochelle Constantine, who studies the ecology of humpback whales at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. But, for whales, oceans in the Southern Hemisphere are wider and easier to travel across, says Constantine. Scientists will probably observe more long-distance migrations in the Southern Hemisphere as satellite tracking becomes increasingly common, she adds.
Daniel Palacios, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Monoa, says that record-breaking journey could indicate that migration patterns are shifting as populations begin to recover from near-extinction and the population increases. But the reasons why whale did not follow the usual migration routes remain a mystery. She could have been exploring new habitats, or simply have lost her way. “We generally think of humpback whales as very well studied, but then they surprise us with things like this,” Palacios says. “Undoubtedly there are a lot of things we still don't know about whale migration.”
1. In what way was the whale's journey considered unusual?| A．It covered a long distance from west to east. |
| B．A female whale rather than a male one completed it. |
| C．The whale moved from its breeding ground to its feeding area. |
| D．No one had ever spotted the whale other than at its destination. |
| A．There is a vast collection of such markings. | B．The markings there last by far the longest. |
| C．No two whales share the same markings. | D．The markings are easiest to photograph. |
| A．More evidence should have been provided that the whale had even arrived at Madagascar. |
| B．South Hemisphere can provide more information about humpback whales' migration. |
| C．The whale's actual route might well have been shorter than the scientists had estimated. |
| D．North Hemisphere's environment is becoming tougher for whales to survive. |
| A．A female whale was spotted twice in the Southern Ocean. |
| B．Research on whales is a breakthrough. |
| C．Whales' migration routes vary with the climate change. |
| D．A whale surprises researchers with her journey. |
8 . During those barren winter months, with windows overlooking long-dead gardens, leafless trees, and lawns that seem to have an ashy look about them, nothing calms the uneasy nerves more than the vibrant green of plants surrounding the living spaces of one’s home. People browse through garden stores just to get a smell of chlorophyll (叶绿素) and to choose a plant or two to bring spring back into their winter-gray lives.
Now there is even more of a need for “the green,” in light of recent articles warning us of the dangers of chemicals that we, ourselves, introduce into our homes. Each time we bring clothes home from the cleaners, we release those chemicals into the closed-in air of our homes. Every cleanser releases its own kind of fumes.
Some of the chemicals are formaldehyde (甲醛), chlorine, benzene, styrene, etc. Read the labels on many home products, the ingredients aren’t even listed! During the winter, when those same windows are shut tight, we breathe in these chemicals—causing symptoms much like allergies (过敏). In fact, most people probably dismiss the effects of these chemicals simply as some allergy or other. The truth is that we are experiencing a syndrome that is called Multiple Chemical Sensitivity. Now, what has this got to do with green plants? Everything healthy! Research has been conducted with two types of plants that have actually removed much of these harmful chemicals from the air.
The two plants that seem to be the best bet for ridding one’s home of such chemicals are ferns (蕨类植物) and palms. These plants release moisture as part of photosynthesis and, as they do, pull chemicals from the air into their leaves. Even NASA has conducted some greenhouse experiments for long-term space exploration. Within hours, their plants [palms] had removed almost all traces of formaldehyde in the room. Both species of plants are ancient, dating back more than a hundred million years. Another trait they share is that they both live long lives, 100 years or more. This we expect from trees, but ferns and palms are plants; plants that can grow to 65 feet in the proper setting! Even their individual leaves live for one to two years [ferns] and one to nine years [palms]. Perhaps it is their primary qualities that have contributed to their ability to purify their environment.
1. Why does the author think we are in greater need of “the green” in our homes?| A．To bring our long-dead gardens back to life. |
| B．To get rid of harmful chemicals trapped there. |
| C．To make us feel calmer and less worried. |
| D．To serve as decorations as well as refresh us. |
| A．The source of these chemicals released in our homes hasn’t been identified. |
| B．The chemicals can be removed immediately the two plants are put into use. |
| C．People tend to underestimate the effects of the chemical in the closed-in places. |
| D．People usually buy household products without referring to the ingredients on them. |
| A．the ability to absorb chemicals and live long |
| B．their adaptability to indoor environment |
| C．the fast growth and attractiveness of their leaves |
| D．the release of their moisture and fumes |
| A．Research in the New Millennium |
| B．Common Houseplants May Purify Your Home |
| C．Hidden Dangers in Your Home |
| D．NASA Experiment Finds the Cure |
Millions of Baby Olive Ridley Turtles Emerge in Orissa
Nature is full of wonders. In
Orissa is the home to three mass nesting sites of the Oliver turtles, a species
The female turtles drag
The baby turtles emerge from the eggs after 45— 0 days, then the babies grow without their mother, which is a rare phenomenon in nature. Interestingly, it is on the same beach where they were born
In the recent years, sea erosion has led to many turtles' nest
Gorgeous Rare White Grizzly Bear Sighted In Canada
With less than 55,000 grizzly bears left in the wild across North America, the sighting of even one is a cause for celebration. Hence you can only imagine
“We knew we were so lucky because white grizzly bears are unheard of,” Cara told St. Albert Today. The Director of Operations at the Rimrock Resort Hotel in Banff, who shared her images and video
Mike Gibeau, a carnivore (食肉动物) specialist for Parks Canada, says
Though this is the first time that the world
