When it comes to intelligence, human beings are the top dogs of the animal kingdom. But in recent years, scientists have been documenting surprising intelligence and emotional depth in animals ranging from honeybees to elephants. Here are some amazing examples.
Artistic Monkey Business
Jannet Schmid, director of the Little River Zoo in Norman, Oklahoma, learned a lot about the intelligence of capuchin monkeys. She and her busband adopted a young male, named Bailey. The capuchin particularly liked taking car rides, insisting that he insert the key and ride in the front passenger’s seat.
Now Bailey has become a devoted painter. He uses brushes to create colorful, abstract paintings, and prefers not to be disturbed.
Prairie Dog Sound
Through a variety of birdlike sounds, prairie dogs warn each other of approaching creatures. They demonstrated a surprisingly complex communication system. In his 25 years of study, Slobodchikoff, a professor of biology, has recorded them pronouncing ten nouns including hawk, deer and coyote, a number of adjectives to identify color, size and shape, and even some verbs to indicate speed.
In an ongoing study, Slobodchikoff learns that their brain contains a very extensive vocabulary. He once used his best prairie dog sound to say coyote, and they just looked at him in anger as if he had said a bad word.
Ivy League Parrot
One African grey parrot Alex is said to have the cognitive abilities of a five-year-old child. Alex can identify 50 different objects, seven colors, five shapes, quantities up to six, and the concepts of bigger, smaller, same and different.
Also Alex is considered to make reasoned decisions. During an experiment, researchers gave Alex different-colored blocks in sets of two, three and six. When asked which color group had five blocks, Alex replied, “None.” And he answered the same in repeated tests. Obviously, he interpreted the concept of “none” as an absence of quantity all on his own. That’s a lot like a high school student answering questions on a quiz show.
56.Which of the following is true?
A. Bailey is as clever as a child of five.
B. The prairie dog loves taking car rides.
C. The capuchin monkey is fond of painting.
D. Alex develops a communication system.
57.The underlined word “coyote” in Paragraph 4 refers to ________.
A. a verb B. an animal C. a warning D. an adjective
58.The African grey parrot Alex can ________.
A. answer questions on a quiz show
B. understand the figure “7”
C. identify five colors and seven shapes
D. apply the concept of “none” correctly
59.What is the passage mainly about?
A. Animal communication B. Animal research
C. Animal intelligence D. Animal information
Fly Alone for the First Time
I began flying lessons at the age of 14; but the Federal Aviation Administration requires you to be 16 before you make flight by yourself. So I had to wait for two long years until I could fly a plane by myself. I used that time to master the basic maneuvers (要领) of flying. I learned emergency procedures and practiced hundreds of takeoffs and landings until I could land the airplane smoothly without bouncing it down the runway. It wasn’t always easy, and many times I would come home feeling discouraged and thinking maybe everyone was right – I would never learn to fly, but by the next day, I was always eager to try again.
On the day of my 16th birthday, I made my first solo flight, which meant I could finally fly alone. The night before, my dad, who was my flight instructor, explained that the winds were forecast to be high. He said if we were in the air by dawn, the winds would probably be calm enough for me to solo. The next morning it was cold, but the sky was completely clear, and the winds were calm. I expected my dad to stay in the plane for at least three takeoffs and landings. But after the first one, he told me to pull off the runway, and he got out of the plane.
I was alone. As I climbed higher and higher, the world began to change. Everything on the ground became miniature. Houses, cars, and all looked like tiny toys that could fit in the surface of my hand. I made three takeoffs and landings that day. Each landing was perfect. It was one of the happiest days of my life.
Today, as a flight instructor, I stand alongside runways watching as my own students take to the sky on their first solo flights. I understand the joy faces, which always bring me back to that day when my dream came true. I learned that no matter how people tell you that you can’t do something, if you believe in yourself, you can succeed.When practicing flying, the author ______.
| A．met several times of emergencies |
| B．was worried about his own safety |
| C．couldn’t wait to fly alone in the sky |
| D．sometimes doubted his ability to fly |
The underlined word “miniature” probably means “______”.
| A．distant | B．unclear | C．small | D．high |
What was the father concerned about before his son flied alone?
| A．Whether his son was brave enough. |
| B．Whether it would be too windy. |
| C．Whether he was able to protect his son. |
| D．Whether there were negative comments. |
What lesson does the author learn from his experience?
| A．Be confident and you will succeed. |
| B．Be responsible and you can grow up. |
| C．Give up something and you may win more. |
| D．Think hard and you can achieve your dream. |
Do you suffer from cybersickness？
The rise of mobile phones has been blamed for a number of social ills, but your smart phone may also be making you physically sick as well. Scientists have identified a condition called “cybersickness”, which they say is the digital version of motion sickness. The phenomenon, which affects up to 80 percent of the population who own smart phones or tablets, leads to feelings of sickness and unsteadiness. It is caused by seeing fast motion on a screen, which covers anything from a car chase in a film to scrolling through web pages on your phone.
The more realistic the visual content appears to you, the higher your chances of getting cybersickness are . The condition was identified in a piece in the New York Times in which British and US experts said that it needed solving. Motion sickness leaves sufferers feeling ill because they feel movement in your muscles and your inner ear but do not see it. The mismatch in digital sickness is the opposite—you see movement on the screen but do not feel it. The effect is the same and the symptoms include a headache, wanting to throw up, confusion and the need to sit down. Often cybersickness shows itself in a subtle way and sufferers put it down to stress or eyestrain.
Steven Rauch, a professor of otolaryngology（耳鼻喉科学） at Harvard Medical School, said: “Your sense of balance is different from other senses in that it has lots of inputs. When those inputs don’t agree, that’s when you feel dizziness and sickness. ”
Some studies that have been carried out into cybersickness found that women are more susceptible than men, the New York Times reported. Those who have Type A’ personalities—meaning they are confident and determined—are more likely to suffer from cybersickness as well. Among those who have reported experiencing the condition have been video gamers who spend hours playing fast paced games. Engineers at Oculus VR, the virtual headset manufacturer, have admitted that digital motion sickness is one of their biggest problems.From the text, we know that cybersickness ______.
| A．is completely equal to motion sickness |
| B．affects up to 80% of the population. |
| C．leads to people’s feelings of sickness and unsteadiness |
| D．is caused by seeing fast moving objects around |
What’s the difference between motion sickness and digital sickness?
| A．Digital sickness means sufferers see movement but do not feel it. |
| B．Digital sickness means sufferers feel movement but do not see it. |
| C．Motion sickness means sufferers see movement but do not feel it. |
| D．Motion sickness means sufferers don’t see or feel movement |
What does the underlined word “susceptible” in the last paragraph mean?
| A．likely to accept | B．likely to be affected |
| C．likely to suspect | D．likely to be cured |
This passage is most probably ____________.
| A．a science fiction | B．a newspaper ad |
| C．a book review | D．a science news report |
In 1959, when Jean Harper was in the third grade, her teacher gave the class an assignment to write a report on what they wanted to be when they grew up. She poured her heart into her report and expressed her dream of becoming an airline pilot. Her paper came back with an "F" on it. The teacher told her it was a "fairy tale". Jean was heartbroken and ashamed. As the years went by, Jean was beaten down by the discouragement and negativity she encountered whenever she talked about her dream. "Girls can't become airline pilots; never have, never will. You're crazy. That's impossible. "Finally Jean gave up.
In her senior year of high school, her English teacher was a Mrs. Dorothy Slaton, a demanding teacher with high standards. One day Mrs. Slaton asked this question: "If you had unlimited finances, unlimited access to the finest schools, unlimited talents and abilities, what would you do?" Jean felt a rush of the old enthusiasm, and with excitement she wrote down the very old dream.
The next thing that Mrs. Slaton said changed the course of Jean's life. The teacher leaned forward over her desk and said, "I have a little secret for you. You do have unlimited abilities and talents. When you leave school, if you don't go for your dreams, no one will do it for you. You can have what you want if you want it enough."
The hurt and fear of years of discouragement disappeared all of a sudden. Jean felt thrilled and told her about her dream of becoming a pilot. Mrs. Slaton slapped the desk top. "Then do it!" she said.
So Jean did. It didn't happen overnight. In her l0 years of hard work, even facing varieties of laugh, frustration and opposition, she never gave up her dream. Instead, she went on doing everything her third-grade teacher said was fairy-tale.
Eventually, Jean Harper became a Boeing 737 captain for the United Airline Company.Jean’s third-grade teacher thought her dream to be ____________.
| A．great | B．impossible |
| C．challenging | D．reasonable |
Mrs. Slaton may hold the view that _____________.
| A．only some of her students have great potential |
| B．her students are good enough to be admitted to the best schools |
| C．belief contributes to realizing a dream |
| D．Jean was to have her dream realized |
According to the passage, we can infer that___________.
| A．Jean’s dream was always in her deep heart |
| B．Jean owed her success to all her teachers |
| C．most people around Jean approved of her dream |
| D．Jean achieved her dream with ease |
Which is the best title of the passage?
| A．A Respectable Teacher | B．How to Realize a Dream |
| C．Hard Work Pays off | D．Reach for the Sky |
Writing one or two articles a day is a fair goal for a human writer. By contrast, the Wordsmith platform can produce up to 2,000 articles a second! Wordsmith is one example of natural language-generation software, often referred to as a robot journalist. To be fair, the software doesn’t start from the beginning, like a human writer might. Instead, the software takes a set of structured data and transforms it into readable text.
Natural language-generation software, such as Wordsmith and Quill, does its work by identifying trends and highlights in sets of data. The software then searches its own dictionary for the words to express its findings.
Why keep human writers around
Although this type of software writes faster than any human, it requires sets of structured data to work. That’s why it’s especially useful for writing earnings reports and other types of “dry” writing. Humans, on the other hand, are good at turning their unstructured thoughts directly into prose. The reports produced by Wordsmith and Quill read naturally, and they can match the tone of human writers. But for now, the robot journalists probably won’t steal many jobs or win any Pulitzer Prizes!（普利策奖）
Current applications of natural language-generation software
Financial reports: The software is commonly used by banks or traders to analyze large amounts of financial data and then produce reports in plain English.
Health and fitness: The software can turn data gathered from wearable devices or fitness trackers into personalized reports. The writing tone can even be adjusted to sound more encouraging!
Sports reporting: The software is often used to turn real baseball, basketball and football statistics into exciting stories.
What does natural Language-generation software refer to?
| A．The Wordsmith platform. |
| B．A robot journalist. |
| C．A special dictionary. |
| D．Articles written by computer. |
Natural language-generation software can_________.
| A．discover the world’s focuses through the Internet |
| B．write well enough to win Pulitzer Prizes |
| C．produce articles in a tone similar to human’s |
| D．write such beautiful prose as human writers |
We can learn from the passage that natural Language-generation software ________.
| A．has taken the place of human writers currently |
| B．is only able to turn structured data into dry reports |
| C．is widely used in all the fields |
| D．works properly only with the help of sets of structured data |
Nowadays Natural language-generation software is seldom used by_________.
| A．schools | B．banks |
| C．hospitals | D．newspapers |
In New York City public schools, 176 different languages are spoken among the more than 1 million students. For 160,000 children, English is not their first language. New York's Department of Education makes learning better for these students by providing dual-language programs, in which students are taught in two languages, English and another one, like Russian or Chinese. Math, social studies, science and all other regular courses are taught in both languages. And they learn about the culture of the other country.
Milady Baez, Deputy Chancellor of English Language Learners and Student Support, says these dual-language programs will help children succeed in the future. "The jobs of the future require that our students know more than one language. They are going to be traveling abroad; they are going to be communicating with people from all over the world. This will open doors for them."
Middle-schoolers might not have jobs on their minds yet. For Kequing Jaing, she likes keeping up her first language, Mandarin."It makes me feel that I am home because I can speak in Chinese, learn in Chinese, while learning in English. So it makes me feel better and makes me understand more about the task I'm learning."
Anastasia Hudikova came to the United States when she was 2 years old. She says the Russian-English program keeps her connected to her heritage and her parents happy."They're really happy about the program. They are really happy that I can preserve my culture and my language, and that I can speak it fluently in school."
The New York schools also offer dual-language programs in seven other languages: Arabic, French, Haitian Creole, Hebrew, Korean, Polish and Spanish. There are plans to add even more languages in the future.
While these dual-language programs are popular, some organizations in the U.S. say teaching English comes first. U.S. Studies show that children who learn English early will be more successful later.Dual-language programs in New York aim to __________.
| A．help the students learn better |
| B．rid the students of homesickness |
| C．attract more international students |
| D．prevent the students forgetting their culture |
Who may not quite agree with dual-language programs?
| A．Milady Baez |
| B．Kequing Jaing |
| C．Anastasia Hudikova’s parents |
| D．some organizations in the U.S |
The author writes the passage in order to_________.
| A．encourage us to learn more languages |
| B．introduce dual-language programs in New York schools |
| C．advertise the dual-language programs |
| D．inspire more students to study in New York |
粤公网安备 44130202000953号