Irish dolphins attract tourists and over 25,000 people come to see them every year.A．Right

ry.

A．Right

B．Wrong

C．Not mentioned

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

What does the phrase "cost a pretty penny" in the second paragraph mean？

A．To be very attractive.

B．To cost a lot.

C．To have big box office returns.

D．To require a lot of effort to accomplish.

Dolphins are interesting because they_________ human behavior. at times.

A． discuss

B． express

C．display

D． distribute

f their heads. Dolphins are social animals and love company. Many of them, in fact, even enjoy being around humans. It is not uncommon to hear of dolphins giving rides through the water to humans.

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.

Whistles could also be used to communicate between adult dolphins and baby dolphins.

A．Right

B．Wrong

C．Not mentioned

A.whose

B.whom

C.who

D.which

A．fish-eating mammals

B．sea animals

C．grass-eating fish

D．landanimal

A、save

B、be saving

C、be saved

D、have saved