题目
Irish Dolphins May Have a Unique Dialect
Irish scientists monitoring dolphins living in a river estuary in the southwest of the country believe they may have developed a unique dialect to communicate with each other.
The Channel Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation (SDWF) has been studying a group of up to 120 bottle-nose dolphins in the River Shannon using vocalisations collected on a computer in a cow shed near the River Shannon.
As part of a research project, student Ronan Hickey digitised and analysed a total of 1,882 whistles from the Irish dolphins and those from the Welsh dolphins on a computer and separated them into six fundamental whistle types and 32 different categories. Of the categories, he found most were used by both sets of dolphins—but eight were only heard from the Irish dolphins.
"We are building up a catalogue of the different whistle types they use and trying to associate them with behaviour like foraging, resting, socialising and the communications of groups with calves," project leader Simon Berrow said. "Essentially we are building up what is like a dictionary of words they use or sounds they make. "
Berrow, a marine biologist, said the dolphins' clicks are used to find their way around and locate prey. The whistles are communications. "They do a whole range of other sounds like barks, groans and a kind of gunshot. " He said. "The gunshot is an intense pulse of sound. Sperm whales use it to stun their prey. "
"When I first heard it I was surprised as I thought sperm whales were the only species who used it. We can speculate the dolphins are using it for the same reason as the sperm whales. " Berrow said.
References in local legend indicate there have been dolphins in the Shannon estuary for generations and they may even have been resident there as far back as the 6th century.
They are regularly seen by passengers on the Shannon ferry and an estimated 25,000 tourists every year take special sightseeing tours on local boats to visit them.
The difference in eating habits between the bottle-nose dolphins and the sperm whales interested the SDWF scientists.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
第1题
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
第2题
Irish dolphins attract tourists and over 25,000 people come to see them every year.
A.Right
B.Wrong
C.Not mentioned
第3题
Even in England there are many (5)_____ in regional character and speech. The chief (6)_____ is between southern England and northern England. South of a (7)_____ going from Bristol to London, people speak the type of English usually learnt by foreign students, (8)_____ there are local variations.
Further north regional speech is usually " (9)_____ " than that of southern Britain. Northerners are (10)_____ to claim that they work harder than Southerners, and are more (11)_____ They are open-hearted and hospitable; foreigners often find that they make friends with them (12)_____ Northerners generally have hearty (13)_____: the visitor to Lancashire or Yorkshire, for instance, may look forward to receiving generous (14)_____ at meal times.
In accent and character the people of the Midlands (15)_____ a gradual change from the southern to the northern type of Englishman.
In Scotland the sound (16)_____ by the letter "R" is generally a strong sound, and "R" is often pronounced in words in which it would be (17)_____ in southern English. The Scots are said to be a serious, cautious, thrifty people, (18)_____ inventive and somewhat mystical. All the Celtic peoples of Britain (the Welsh, the Irish, the Scots) are frequently (19)_____ as being more "fiery" than the English. They are (20)_____ a race that is quite distinct from the English. (289 words)
Notes: fiery 暴躁的,易怒的。
A.In consequence
B.In brief
C.In general
D.In fact
第4题
Dr. Sasaki knew the first-night effect probably has something to do with how humans evolved. The puzzle was what benefit would be gained from it when performance might be affected the following day. She also knew from previous work conducted on birds and dolphins that these animals put half of their brains to sleep at a time so that they can rest while remaining alert enough to avoid predators (捕食者). This led her to wonder if people might be doing the same thing. To take a closer look, her team studied 35 healthy people as they slept in the unfamiliar environment of the universitys Department of Psychological Sciences. The participants each slept in the department for two nights and were carefully monitored with techniques that looked at the activity of their brains. Dr. Sasaki found, as expected, the participants slept less well on their first night than they did on their second, taking more than twice as long to fall asleep and sleeping less overall. During deep sleep, the participants’ brains behaved in a similar manner seen in birds and dolphins. On the first night only, the left hemispheres (半球、of their brains did not sleep nearly as deeply as their right hemispheres did.
Curious if the left hemispheres were indeed remaining awake to process information detected in the surrounding environment, Dr. Sasaki re-ran the experiment while presenting the sleeping participants with a mix of regularly timed beeps (蜂鸣声、of the same tone and irregular beeps of a different tone during the night. She worked out that, if the left hemisphere was staying alert to keep guard in a strange environment, then it would react to the irregular beeps by stirring people from sleep and would ignore the regularly timed ones. This is precisely what she found.
46. What did researchers find puzzling about the first-night effect?
A、To what extent it can trouble people.
C、What circumstances may trigger it.
B、What role it has played in evolution.
D、In what way it can be beneficial.
47. What do we learn about Dr. Yuka Sasaki doing her research?
A、She found birds and dolphins remain alert while asleep.
B、She found birds and dolphins sleep in much the same way.
C、She got some idea from previous studies on birds and dolphins
D、She conducted studies on birds and dolphins sleeping patterns.
48. What did Dr. Sasaki do when she first did her experiment?
A、She monitored the brain activity of participants sleeping in a new environment.
B、She recruited 35 participants from her Department of Psychological Sciences.
C、She studied the differences between the two sides of participants brains.
D、She tested her findings about birds and dolphins on human subjects.
49. What did Dr. Sasaki do when re-running her experiment?
A、She analyzed the negative effect of irregular tones on brains.
B、She recorded participants adaptation to changed environment.
C、She exposed her participants to two different stimuli.
D、She compared the responses of different participants.
50. What did Dr. Sasaki find about the participants in her experiment?
A、They tended to enjoy certain tones more than others.
B、They tended to perceive irregular beeps as a threat.
C、They felt sleepy when exposed to regular beeps.
D、They differed in their tolerance of irregular tones.
第5题
think so. Britain is, in fact, a nation which can be divided into several (36) parts, each part being an individual country with its own language, character and cultural (37) . Thus Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales do not claim to (38) to "England" because their inhabitants are not (39) "English". They are Scottish, Irish or Welsh and many of them prefer to speak their own native tongue, which in turn is (40) to the others.
These cultural minorities (少数名族) have been Britain's original inhabitants. In varying degrees they have managed to (41) their national characteristics, and their particular customs and way of life. This is probably even more true of the (42) areas where traditional life has not been so affected by the(43) of industrialism as the border areas have been. The Celtic races are said to be more emotional by nature than the English. An Irish temper is legendary. The Scots would rather (44) about their reputation for excessive thrift and prefer to be remembered for their folk songs and dances, while the Welsh are famous for their singing. The Celtic (45) as a whole produces humorous writers and artists, such as the Irish Bernard Shaw, the Scottish Robert Bums, and the WelshDylan Thomas, to mention but a few.
A) incomprehensible
B) temper
C) remote
D) separate
E) understandable
F) forget
G) generally
H) temperament
I) preserve
J) strictly
K) traditions
L) reserve
M) growth
N) apply
O) belong
第6题
These cultural minorities have been Britain's original inhabitants.In varying degrees they have managed to preserve their national identity, their particular customs and way of life.This is probably even more true of the remoter areas where traditional life has not been so affected by the growth of industrialism(工业化) as the border areas have been.The Celtic (凯尔特人) races are said to be more emotional by nature than the English.
An Irish temper is legendary.The Scots would rather forget about their reputation for excessive thrift (节俭) and prefer to be remembered for their ballads and dances, while the Welsh are famous for their singing.The Celtic temperament as a whole produces numerous writers and artists, such as the Irish Bernard Shaw, the Scottish Robert Burns, and Welsh Dylan Thomas, to mention but a few.
36.Some British people regard Britain as().
A.a single, unified country
C.a wholly Celtic country
B.a country of foreign cultures
D.an individualistic unit
37.“Their own native tongue” means().
A.the language of a foreign country
B.the language of their own country
C.the British way of speaking
D.a secret language
38.“A cultural minority” could be described as().
A.educated people who are few in number
B.people of the same race who are small in stature (身材)
C.members of ethic groups under the age of 12
D.small ethnic groups
39.According to the passage some cultural minorities have().
A.lost their individual character centuries ago
B.retained their individual character
C.lost count of their numbers
D.managed to preserve their English character
40.What may be one of the probable reasons for preservation of traditional life? ()
A.Ethnic custom
B.A specialized life style
C.The growth of industrialism
D.Geographical isolation
第7题
根据下面内容,回答题:
Scientists in the UK have announced that the piranhafish"s reputation 21 a fearsome 22 may well not be deserved. The fish, which is found in the Amazon in Brazil, have been 23 as deadly carnivores(食肉动物 ) that work in shoals to overwhelm their prey and strip it of its flesh in seconds.
However, experts 24 St Andrews University say that piranhas are omnivores(杂食动物) that mainly eat fish, plants and insects. They form. big groups not to hunt but to defend 25 against other predators, according to the team.
"Previously it was thought piranhas shoaled as it 26 them to form. a cooperative hunting group," said Professor Anne Magurran. " 27, we have found that it is primarily a defensive behavior. "
Piranhas can be attacked by animals 28 dolphins, caimans and large fish, so forming a shoal is a good way of 29 being killed. Piranhas of 30 age stay in the middle of the group for 31 and the 32 of the shoal differs according to the level of 33 When the water level is 34, the fish form. small groups as there is space to escape, but when the water level drops, they form. large groups as protection 35 predators.
材料题请点击右侧查看材料问题 查看材料
A.as
B.as if
C.as though
D.since
第8题
The title below that best expresses the main idea of this paragraph is ______.
A.The Basis of True Poetry
B.The Necessity of Culture
C.Action Versus Contemplation
D.Yeats as a Poet and Patriot
第9题
Dolphins are interesting because they_________ human behavior. at times.
A. discuss
B. express
C.display
D. distribute
第10题
In addition to being playful, dolphins are helpful to men. For example, as 400 B. C. the Greek poet Arion was saved from drowning by a dolphin. From then until now, dolphins have been helping swimmers who are in trouble. Swimmers, however, are not the only humans they help. In some parts of the world, they can be counted on to help men catch fish.
Moreover, dolphins are very intelligent. A dolphin's brain resembles a human brain, but it is larger. Consequently, some people claim that dolphins are really smarter than men. Of course, there is no way of proving this point. Brain size is not an absolute measure of intelligence. Furthermore, measuring dolphins' intelligence in other ways is not possible since men cannot fully communicate with them. Apparently, however, dolphins communicate with each other. At any rate, they make whistling, clicking and buzzing sounds which seem to be at least a form. of language. So far, however, men have not been able to figure out the communication code the dolphins use.
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