Neil Jordan, a conservation biologist, has come up with a novel method for protecting cattle from African lions: paint eyes on their behinds. The lions will think their intended prey has seen them and will give up, since they’ve lost the element of surprise.
This psychological trickery has been called “iCow”, which is actually not as strange as it sounds. The eye-like patterns on butterfly wings are known to prevent preying birds and woodcutters in Indian forests wear masks on the backs of their heads when working to discourage hungry tigers.
The inspiration for the iCow strategy came while Jordan was based in a village in Botswana, when two lionesses were killed by local farmers to revenge their cattle’s death. The African lion is a vulnerable species, with numbers dropping from over 100,000 in the 1990s to about 30,000 today. Much of that decline is due to these kinds of revengeful killings because farmers have no effective strategies for protecting their herds.
“Lions are hunters that like to attack by surprise. They move slowly, quietly and carefully to their prey, get close and jump on them unseen,” he said. When Jordan was watching a lion follow an antelope one day, he noticed the lion gave up the hunt once the antelope spotted it.
So he joined one of the local farmers on a 10-week trial study, painting eyes on one-third of a herd of 62 cattle. When the cattle returned each night, they took a head count to see how many had survived. Only three cows were killed by lions during this period-all without the painted eyes on their behinds. And all the painted cows survived. However, Jordan warned that so far this is just a promising idea. He is now back in Botswana for a more ambitious study, armed with GPS devices to better monitor the movement of predators and prey.
1.The iCow strategy is designed to .
A. kill the lions B. warn the preys of danger
C. identify the cattle D. scare off animals that kill
2.When hunting, lions like to .
A. give up halfway B. hesitate to take action
C. chase their prey steadily D. launch surprising attacks
3.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. The iCow strategy is likely to bring great benefit.
B. In the 10-week trial study more cattle were killed.
C. The farmers will take their revenge on more lions.
D. Neil got inspiration from patterns on butterfly wings.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题
Neil Jordan, a conservation biologist, has come up with a novel method for protecting cattle from African lions: paint eyes on their behinds. The lions will think their intended prey has seen them and will give up, since they’ve lost the element of surprise.
This psychological trickery has been called “iCow”, which is actually not as strange as it sounds. The eye-like patterns on butterfly wings are known to prevent preying birds and woodcutters in Indian forests wear masks on the backs of their heads when working to discourage hungry tigers.
The inspiration for the iCow strategy came while Jordan was based in a village in Botswana, when two lionesses were killed by local farmers to revenge their cattle’s death. The African lion is a vulnerable species, with numbers dropping from over 100,000 in the 1990s to about 30,000 today. Much of that decline is due to these kinds of revengeful killings because farmers have no effective strategies for protecting their herds.
“Lions are hunters that like to attack by surprise. They move slowly, quietly and carefully to their prey, get close and jump on them unseen,” he said. When Jordan was watching a lion follow an antelope one day, he noticed the lion gave up the hunt once the antelope spotted it.
So he joined one of the local farmers on a 10-week trial study, painting eyes on one-third of a herd of 62 cattle. When the cattle returned each night, they took a head count to see how many had survived. Only three cows were killed by lions during this period-all without the painted eyes on their behinds. And all the painted cows survived. However, Jordan warned that so far this is just a promising idea. He is now back in Botswana for a more ambitious study, armed with GPS devices to better monitor the movement of predators and prey.
1.The iCow strategy is designed to .
A. kill the lions B. warn the preys of danger
C. identify the cattle D. scare off animals that kill
2.When hunting, lions like to .
A. give up halfway B. hesitate to take action
C. chase their prey steadily D. launch surprising attacks
3.What can be inferred from the passage?
A. The iCow strategy is likely to bring great benefit.
B. In the 10-week trial study more cattle were killed.
C. The farmers will take their revenge on more lions.
D. Neil got inspiration from patterns on butterfly wings.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
So far, only one man has ____a theory that seems to fit all the facts.
A. come up with B. put up with
C. lined up with D. caught up with
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
--Alvin, are you coming with us?
--I'd love to, but something unexpected ________.
A. has come up B. was coming up
C. had come up D. would come up
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
— Alvin，are you coming with us?
—I'd love to，but something unexpected ________.
A．has come up B．was coming up
C．had come up D．would come up
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has come up with the unexpected conclusion that the African elephant is divided into two distinct (不同的) species
The discovery was made by researchers at York and Harvard universities when they were examining the genetic relationship between the ancient woolly mammoth and mastodon to modern elephants—the Asian elephant, African forest elephant and African savanna elephant
Once they obtained DNA sequences (序列) from two fossils (化石)，mammoths and mastodons， the team compared them with DNA from modern elephants. They found to their amazement that modern forest and savanna elephants are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants and mammoths.
The scientists used detailed genetic analysis to prove that the African savanna elephants and the African forest elephants have been distinct species for several million years. The divergence of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of Asian elephants and woolly mammoths. This result amazed all the scientists.
There has long been debate in the scientific community that the two might be separate species but this is the most convincing scientific evidence so far that they are indeed different species.
Previously, many naturalists believed that African savanna elephants and African forest elephants were two populations of the same species despite the elephants’ significant size differences. The savanna elephant has an average shoulder height of 3.5metres while the forest elephant has an average shoulder height of 2.5metres. The savanna elephant weighs between six and seven tons, roughly double the weight of the forest elephant. But the fact that they look so different does not necessarily mean they are different species. However, the proof lay in the analysis of the DNA.
Alfred Roca, assistant professor in the department of Animal Sciences at the University of Minois, said, “We now have to treat the forest and savanna elephants as two different units for conservation purpose. Since 1950 all African elephants have been conserved as one species. Now that we know the forest and savanna elephants are two very distinct animals, the forest elephant should become a bigger priority (优先)for conservation purpose .”
1.One of the fossils studied by the researchers is that of ________.
A. the Asian elephant B. the forest elephant
C. the savanna elephant D. the mastodon elephant
2.The underlined word “divergence” in paragraph 4means “________”
A. evolution B. exhibition C. separation D. examination
3.The researcher’s conclusion was based on a study of the African elephant’s _____
A. DNA B. height C. weight D. population
4.What were Alfred Roca’s words mainly about?
A. The conservation of African elephants.
B. The purpose of studying African elephants
C. The way to divide African elephants into two units
D. The reason for the distinction of African elephants
5.Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A. Naturalist’s Belief about Elephants.
B. Amazing Experiment about Elephants
C. An Unexpected Finding about Elephants
D. A Long scientific Debate about Elephants
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has come up with the unexpected conclusion that the African elephant is divided into two distinct (不同的) species
The discovery was made by researchers at York and Harvard universities when they were examining the genetic relationship between the ancient woolly mammoth and mastodon to modern elephants—the Asian elephant, African forest elephant and African savanna elephant
Once they obtained DNA sequences (序列) from two fossils (化石)，mammoths and mastodons the team compared them with DNA from modern elephants. They found to their amazement that modern forest and savanna elephants are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants and mammoths.
The scientists used detailed genetic analysis to prove that the African savanna elephants and the African forest elephants have been distinct species for several million years. The divergence of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of Asian elephants and woolly mammoths. This result amazed all the scientists.
There has long been debate in the scientific community that the two might be separate species but this is the most convincing scientific evidence so far that they are indeed different species.
Previously, many naturalists believed that African savanna elephants and African forest elephants were two populations of the same species despite the elephants’ significant size differences. The savanna elephant has an average shoulder height of 3.5metres while the forest elephant has an average shoulder height of 2.5metres. The savanna elephant weighs between six and seven tons, roughly double the weight of the forest elephant. But the fact that they look so different does not necessarily mean they are different species. However, the proof lay in the analysis of the DNA.
Alfred Roca, assistant professor in the department of Animal Sciences at the University of Minois, said, “We now have to treat the forest and savanna elephants as two different units for conservation purpose. Since 1950 all African elephants have been conserved as one species. Now that we know the forest and savanna elephants are two very distinct animals, the forest elephant should become a bigger priority (优先)for conservation purpose .”
1.
One of the fossils studied by the researchers is that of ________.
A. the Asian elephant B. the forest elephant
C. the savanna elephant D. the mastodon elephant
2.
The underlined word “divergence” in paragraph 4means “________”
A. evolution B. exhibition C. separation D. examination
3.
The researcher’s conclusion was based on a study of the African elephant’s ____________
A. DNA B. height C. weight D. population
4.
What were Alfred Roca’s words mainly about?
A. The conversation of African elephants.
B. The purpose of studying African elephants
C. The way to divide African elephants into two units
D. The reason for the distinction of African elephants
5.
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
A. Naturalist’s Belief about Elephants. B. Amazing Experiment about Elephants
C. An Unexpected Finding about Elephants D. A Long scientific Debate about Elephants
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
So far，only one man has ________ a theory that seems to fit all the facts．
A．come up with B．put up with
C．lined up with D．caught up with
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
With fears of a possible nuclear meltdown(核反应堆堆芯的熔毁) in Japan building up, evidence has come to light that the nation received warnings over the stability of its power plants from an international watchdog more than two years ago.
As the Telegraph is reporting, an official from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in December 2008 that safety rules were out of date, and strong earthquakes would cause a “serious problem” for the power stations.
A U.S. embassy document, by quoting（引用）an unnamed expert, states: “He (the IAEA official) explained that safety guides for earthquakes have only been updated three times in the last 35 years and that the IAEA is now re-examining them. Also, the presenter noted recent earthquakes in some cases have gone beyond the design basis for some nuclear plants, and that this is a serious problem that is now driving earthquake safety work.”
The Telegraph also reports that the government responded to the warnings by building an emergency response center at the Fukushima Daiichi plant designed to resist magnitude-7.0 earthquakes. Friday's earthquake, originally named a magnitude-8.9 shock, has since been upgraded to magnitude-9.0.
Other nuclear experts state IAEA officials had willingly ignored lessons from the Chernobyl disaster to protect the nuclear industry's expansion, reports Bloomberg. “After Chernobyl, all the force of the nuclear industry was directed to hide this event, for not creating damage to their reputation,”Russian nuclear accident specialist Iouli Andreyev tells Reuters, before noting that radiation from spent fuel rods（棒）stored close to reactors at Fukushima looked like an example of putting profit before safety. “The Japanese were very greedy, and they used every square inch of the space. But when you have a dense(密集的) placing of spent fuel in the basin, you have a high possibility of fire if the water is removed from the basin.”
1. From the passage, we know that ____________.
A. people fear that the nuclear meltdown will possibly become more and more serious in Japan
B. people are becoming more and more afraid of a possible nuclear meltdown in Japan
C. Japan made no response to the warnings over the safety of its power plants
D. Iouli Andreyev warned Japan not to store spent fuel rods close to reactors
2. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. Japan was warned of the stability of its power plants when they were built over 2 years ago.
B. Safety guides for earthquakes should be updated three times in 35 years.
C. The emergency response centre at the Fukushima Daiichi plant can not resist Friday’s
earthquake.
D. IAEA officials advised Japan to ignore lessons from the Chernobyl disaster.
3. IAEA officials were willing to ignore lessons from the Chernobyl disaster because they want ________.
A. to put profit before safety. B. the nuclear industry to develop
C. to protect the reputation of Japan D. every inch of land to be made good use of
4.The writer develops this passage mainly by__________.
A. making comments B. providing facts
C. quoting what experts say D. analysing what happened
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
A recent study has come up with _____ unexpected conclusion that ____ Africa elephants should be divided into two different species.
A．a, the B．an, the C．an, an D．the, the
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
A recent study has come up with _____ unexpected conclusion that ____ Africa elephants should be divided into two different species.
A.a, the B. an, the C. an, an D. the, the
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析