Week Fifteen 动物世界一、阅读理解（共24小题；共48.0分）ARain and cold weather this summer saw honey yields from hives fall by almost three quarters, the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) said today. The average crop per hive was down 72% compared to 2011, with just 3.6kg(8lb) of honey produced compared to an annual average, the annual honey survey by the BBKA revealed.The survey of 2,712 beekeepers in England, Northern Ireland and Wales found that 88% said this summer's bad weather caused the fall in honey yields. The cold, wet conditions forced the BBKA to issue a midsummer warning to feed colonies if necessary to avoid starvation. But in London, which recorded the worst results with just 2.5kg(5.6lb) of honey harvested on average, beekeeping experts said that in addition to the bad weather there was a lack of food for bees in the city.Angela Woods, secretary of the London Beekeepers Association, said: "Rather than putting beehives on office roofs, we encourage companies in London who want to help to look at different ways of supporting bees and beekeepers. We need more forage(草料) for the bees and better-educated beekeepers."Elsewhere, the weather was the main problem. Peter Hutton, a beekeeper in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, said: "It has been the most difficult year I have known in my 53 years of beekeeping. Bad weather in spring prevented honey bees in many areas from collecting nectar(花蜜) from early-flowering crops such as oilseed rape, and the rain continued in many places throughout June and July, preventing honey bees from foraging(搜寻) on later crops."The BBKA warned that as well as reducing the honey harvest, the bad weather is likely to have a longer-term impact as it will have affected the normal process of breeding for the queens, which mate on the wing on fine still summer days. As a resultthey may have mated poorly and be unable to produce sufficient new babies to see colonies through the winter.1. According to the passage, the average crop per hive in 2011 mightbe .A. 3.6kgB. 7.2kgC. 10kgD. 13kg2. The underlined word "colonies" in Paragraph 4 means .A. the honeybeesB. the poor beekeepersC. the beekeeping expertsD. the beehives3. Which measure is Angela Woods against?A. Encouraging London companies to take part.B. Needing more forage for the bees.C. Putting beehives on office roofs.D. Needing better-educated beekeepers.4. What caused the lack of forage?A. Bad weather in both autumn and winter.B. Bad weather in both winter and spring.C. Bad weather in both spring and summer.D. Bad weather in both summer and autumn.5. What does the last paragraph mainly tell us?A. The bad weather only has short-term impact on bees.B. The bad weather just affects honey harvest.C. The bad weather has effects on bees' life in winter.D. The bad weather has effects on bees' breeding.BTigers in Nepal seem to be taking night shifts in order to avoid their human neighbors, a study has shown. The big cats generally move around at all times of the day and night, to monitor territory, mate and hunt. But the study of tigers inChitwan National Park—where humans and tigers walk the same paths—showed a night shift in activity. The results challenge the traditional wisdom.It's traditionally thought that tigers need lots of people-free space. This can lead to people removing to make way for tigers. Tigers need resources, people need the same resources. If we operate under the traditional wisdom that tigers only can survive with space devoted only for them, there would always be conflict. If your priority is people, tigers lose out. If your priority is tigers, people lose out.Chitwan is home to about 121 tigers. People live on the park's borders, but rely on the forests for wood and grasses, venturing in on roads and narrow footpaths. Mr. Carter spent two seasons setting motion-detecting camera traps for tigers, their prey(猎物) and people who walk the roads and trails of Chitwan, both in and around the park. His analysis of the thousands of images show that people and tigers are walking the same paths, yet at different times of the day. The cameras documented a clear shift towards night activity in the tigers.People generally avoid the forests at night, so dusk would seem to provide a signal for tigers to come out and play. Mr. Carter said that conditions for tigers in Chitwan were good, with high prey numbers, low levels of poaching(偷猎), and forests that are spreading outside the boundaries of the park. But, he explained: "People of different kinds, including tourists and local residents, frequent the forests of Chitwan. Tigers need to use the same space as people if they are to have an existent long-term future. What we're learning in Chitwan is that tigers seem to be adapting to make it work. We've found something very interesting is happening in Nepal that holds promise for both humans and nature to thrive."6. Why do tigers in Nepal move out at night?A. They like the darkness.B. They want to avoid their natural enemy.C. They want to avoid humans.D. They can share the same path with humans.7. What's the main idea of Paragraph 2?A. Traditional idea on the peaceful life between people and tigers.B. Traditional idea on the conflict between people and tigers.C. People should protect tigers at the cost of their own benefit.D. People should protect themselves without caring for tigers.8. The underlined word "venturing" means in Paragraph 3.A. advertisingB. adventuringC. addictingD. adapting9. How did Mr. Carter learn tigers' activities?A. By personally watching their activities on the spot.B. By spending two seasons living with the tigers.C. By analyzing the images of motion-detecting camera.D. By asking the information from the park staff.10. What will do harm to tigers' life according to Carter?A. Enough wild animals.B. Almost no poaching.C. The thick forests.D. Human's activities in the forest.CNormal human eyes contain three kinds of color-detecting cells called cones(视锥), and by comparing the way these cones are each stimulated by incoming light, our brains distinguish red wavelengths from green and blue wavelengths from yellow. Dogs' eyes, like those of most other mammals, contain just two kinds of cones. These enable their brains to distinguish blue from yellow, but not red from green.According to Jay Neitz, a color vision scientist at the University of Washington who conducted many of the modern experiments on color perception in dogs, our pets' eyes are structured in a similar way to those of red-green color-blind people, whose eyes also lack the third kind of cone normally present in humans. We can get an idea of what dogs see, Neitz said, if we assume their brains interpret signals from their cone cells much like the brains of color-blind people.To see blue and yellow, dogs and humans alike rely on neurons inside the eye's retina(视网膜). These neurons are excited in response to yellow light detected in the cone cells (which are also inside the retina), but the neurons' activity gets suppressed when blue light hits the cones. A dog's brain interprets the excitation or suppression of these neurons as the sensation(感觉) of yellow or blue, respectively.However, in dogs and color-blind individuals, red light and green light both have a neutral effect on the neurons. With no signal to interpret these colors, the dogs' brains don't perceive any color. Where you see red or green, they see shades of gray. "A human would be missing the sensations of red and green," Neitz told Life's Little Mysteries. "But whether or not the dog's sensations are missing red and green, or if their brains assign colors differently, is unclear."Furthermore, like color-blind people, dogs may use other cues to distinguish the color we call "red" from the color we call "green." "A lot of the time there are good cues to help them figure it out; for example, red objects tend to be darker than green objects," Neitz said. "So, if it's a dark apple, a red-green color-blind person would know that it's probably a red one, and if it's a lighter apple, it may be a Granny Smith."11. According to the passage, most mammals can recognize .A. red from blueB. red from greenC. blue from yellowD. yellow from green12. A few persons cannot tell red from green because .A. they lack the first kind of coneB. they lack the second kind of coneC. they lack the third kind of coneD. they lack all the three cones13. The underlined word "suppressed" in Paragraph three means .A. Brought upB. Kept downC. Broken outD. Taken away14. According to Neitz, it is still uncertain whether or not .A. red and green lights have a neutral effect on dogsB. red and green lights have a neutral effect on the color-blindC. the dog's sensations are short of red and greenD. dogs' brains assign colors in the same way as common people15. "A Granny Smith" at the end of the article refers to a .A. common womanB. color-blind womanC. red appleD. green appleDAt first glance, blowing a bubble net to trap sardines is not the smartest move a dolphin can make. Bubbles reflect sonar(声纳) signals better than sardines do, making the fish invisible and giving them a chance to escape. But mathematical tricks can get around this, and dolphins may naturally use them to locate the fishy signal amid the bubbles.Timothy Leighton at the University of Southampton, UK, and his colleagues produced dolphin-like sonar clicks in a tank containing a "fish"—a small steelball-hiding in a bubble cloud. Dolphins vary the amplitude(振幅) of their clicks, Leighton says, so he gave every second click a weaker amplitude than the first. Imitating what might go on in the dolphin brain, he then increased the echo from the weaker click to bring it up to the same level as the stronger click.This made the two echoes from the steel ball identical. But because even a weak sonar click bounces strongly off bubbles, increasing the weaker echo made the bubble signal stand out even more than it did in the stronger click. Leighton used that fact to distinguish the steel ball from the bubbles.Human sonar operators could apply the trick to detect weak signals from sea mines in shallow waters full of waves. Sonar systems are designed to find submarines(潜水艇) in deep, bubble-free water and are less effective in the shallows. "Developing sonar that can see sea mines in these conditions is important." says Leighton.16. The underlined word "them" refers to .A. sardinesB. sonar signalsC. mathematical tricksD. blown bubbles17. Where did Timothy Leighton imitate the work of the dolphin brain?A. In a tank containing a true fish.B. In a tank containing a steel ball.C. In the ocean containing bubbles.D. In the ocean containing fishes.18. Why did Leighton increase the weaker echo?A. Because he could make the two echoes from the steel ball the same.B. Because he could make the bubble signal disappear gradually.C. Because he could know if the dolphin recognized the difference.D. Because he could recognize the bubbles from the steel ball.19. According to Leighton, it is very important to improve .A. sonar of seeing sea minesB. sonar of seeing submarinesC. sonar of seeing dolphinsD. sonar of seeing bubblesEIn 1961, a group of scientists set up a permanent camp on Possession Island, a bit of land located in the Crozet Archipelago, about halfway between Madagascar and Antarctica in the Indian Ocean. Their goal was a long-term study of king penguins, and scientists have continued that study for more than 50 years, sometimes accompanied by a small number of tourists. The penguins appear to be habituated to the presence of humans, but a new study in BMC Ecology finds that even this limited human contact may be negatively affecting them.A team of researchers from France and Switzerland compared 15 king penguins from the areas regularly disturbed by scientists and tourists with 18 birds that bred in an undisturbed area, recording the penguins' heart rates in response to three potential human stressors—loud noise, approaches by humans and capture.With both loud noise and human approach, the penguins from the disturbed area were far less stressed than their companions from the undisturbed area. All the birds, however, found capture to be a stressful experience. It's possible that these penguins have grown used to the presence of humans in their breeding area. Over time, the population would evolve to handle this disturbance(干扰) better and better. That may seem like a good thing, the scientists say.This is hardly the first time that researchers have found that their methods have had unexpected consequences for the animals they study. A central question for experts is the extent to which human's disturbances (such as tourism) might impact wildlife and affect the systems under study. One of the major mistakes of suchresearch is in forgetting that, from the idea of the wildlife studied, tourism and scientific research are not two worlds apart.20. Why did scientists set up a permanent camp on Possession Island?A. Because they want to attract more tourists.B. Because they want to study king penguins.C. Because they want to raise more penguins.D. Because they want to link Madagascar with Antarctica.21. According to the passage, penguins seldom get pressure from .A. approaches by humansB. loud noiseC. scientists' captureD. other penguins' company22. The underlined word "evolve" in Paragraph 3 means .A. Develop graduallyB. Disobey graduallyC. Discount graduallyD. Display gradually23. It can be inferred that tourism .A. has little effect on penguins' lifeB. has no effect on penguins' lifeC. was ignored by scientists beforeD. has always been valued by scientists.24. What's the best title of the passage?A. King Penguins Inspire the Development of TourismB. King Penguins Develop Well with Humans' DisturbancesC. King Penguins Live a Happy Life in AntarcticaD. King Penguins Stressed out by Scientists and Tourists答案一、阅读理解1. D2. A3. C4. C5. D6. C7. A8. B9. C 10. D 11. C 12. C 13. B 14. C 15. D 16. C 17. B 18. D 19. A 20. B 21. D 22. A 23. C 24. D。