As PhD research goes, Brian Wisenden was enviable, watching baby fish swimming swiftly through the clear waters in the Costa Rican tropical dry forest. By recording their growth and numbers, he hoped to look at their risks of being eaten. Instead, he witnessed something odd. Many groups were increasing in numbers. In these groups, some were smaller than others, suggesting they weren’t siblings (兄弟姐妹). Wisenden had accidentally discovered that the fish, called convict cichlids, adopt each other’s babies. Why would they do that, he wondered?
In the human world, we think of adoption as a selfless act. But in nature, its presence is puzzling. Taking on the burden of bringing up babies with no genetic link would seem to reduce an animal’s chances of survival or at least provide no gain. Yet, adoption is surprisingly common in the world.
Take the eastern grey kangaroo. Between 2008 and 2013, Wisenden followed the fates of 326 baby kangaroos in the National Park in Victoria and recorded 11 cases of pouch swapping. The circumstances behind some of these adoptions aren’t known, but four were straight swaps and another four occurred after a mother had lost her own baby.
How come? Before independence, baby kangaroos go through a period inside and outside their mother’s pouch. Following out-of-pouch forays, mothers normally sniff their young before allowing them back in, but Wisenden’s team suspect that during an emergency they may skip the sniff test, allowing a vulnerable baby to quickly climb in before fleeing from danger. Once inside the wrong pouch, the young may fake the mother’s odor, making them smell confusingly like her own progeny. So, poor baby recognition is the prime cause of “accidental” adoption.
Some of nature’s adoptions are, actually, driven by young looking for better prospects. In burrower bugs, for example, females lay a nest of eggs close to those of unrelated bugs. Mother bugs tend their developing eggs before they hatch, then feed their babies nuts from weedy mint plants. Finding nuts is a competitive business, so not every mother bug gets her fair share. And if the delivery rate isn’t up to scratch, clever young may abandon their mothers to join a better-fed group. That’s similar to behavior in several species of gull whose babies, if poorly fed, may leave home in search of better parents.
The consequences of adoption following mistaken identity can be dire. The true babies of adopting mothers were abandoned. But it can have remarkable benefits, not just for adoptees but also for adoptive parents.
1.It can be inferred from the passage that Wisenden’s findings are .
A.too weird to be witnessed B.out of his own expectations
C.envied by his peer co-researchers D.a sound proof of his research object
2.Which is NOT the reason for adoption in the animal kingdom?
A.Baby animals’ looking for better parenting.
B.Parents’ failure to recognize their own babies.
C.Selfless adoption commonly seen in animal world.
D.Parents, inability to provide enough food.
3.The underlined word “vulnerable” in the fourth paragraph means .
A.weak and easily attacked B.naughty and easily hurt
C.independent and well-fed D.fragile and poorly raised
4.What will the author most probably talk about next?
A.The benefits for baby animals. B.The benefits for adopters.
C.The consequences of adoption. D.The consequences of wrong identity.
Two recently released books offer significant criticisms of the current landscape of higher education. As to what we should do about those problems, the two books propose completely opposed solutions.
Bryan Caplan, a professor of economics at George Mason University, gives away his big idea in his title, “The Case Against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money.” Caplan argues that the primary value of a college degree is in what it “signals” rather than what people may have learned or experienced.
In Caplan’s view, most education is wasted on the young, who are incapable of appreciating or benefiting freedom education. Caplan’s solution is to “stop using tax dollars to fund education of any kind.” He sees a greater role for vocational or trade education, starting early as children fail to show interest or aptitude (资质) in school subjects, which should primarily focus on the “practical”-not art, music or anything else. Caplan even puts in a good word for child labor as an alternative to the schooling they neither enjoy nor appreciate.
Cathy Davidson, director of the Futures Initiative at the City University of New York, offers a different attitude in “The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux (变化).”
Davidson also believes higher education needs to change, but rather than starving it, she advocates for a broad-based “revolution” that attacks the barriers between students and learning, including educational costs, approaches to curriculum, and how we measure and credential (提供证明) students. Davidson has a chapter on “college for everyone”, examining the potential to innovate community colleges to serve as ladders to social mobility.
Education does need to continue to evolve. But it’s Davidson who has a vision for what education could and should be that’s consistent with the traditional values of freedom, opportunity and progress we associate with education. As to which of these two visions we’d like to follow, we have a choice. I hope we choose wisely.
1.Why does Bryan Caplan criticize the present higher education?
A.It fails to teach students overall knowledge.
B.It spends too much time on ungifted students.
C.It costs students much money for education in college.
D.It wastes students’ time in learning unpractical knowledge.
2.What can we learn from Cathy Davidson’s book?
A.Higher education should be accessible to all students.
B.Government shouldn’t fund college students with tax dollars.
C.The barriers between students and learning won’t be broken down.
D.Community colleges have helped more students achieve social mobility.
3.The two books are introduced in the passage to stress ________.
A.the problems with higher education
B.the necessity of higher education reform
C.the situation of the present higher education
D.the popularity of the two newly released books
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Study level Professional development, Short, Accredited
Ref FACE-GUARD
Price £30, was £299, use code: GUARD90
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1.The course is intended mainly for those ________.
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At age 19, Yohannes Gehregeoris borrowed a soft-cover romance novel entitled Love Kitten that changed his life forever. Born in rural Ethiopia to an uneducated cattle merchant who _______ his son’s education, Gebregeorgis had seen a few books in school. But it was the experience of having a book of his own that sparked a lifelong _______.
Today, at 56, Gebregeorgis is _______ libraries and literacy programs to connect Ethiopian children with books. “Most Ethiopian children have only _______ to textbooks in the classroom,” says Gebregeorgis. “Books children read _______ of school, those are the spices of education.”
Forced to _______ Ethiopia to the United States as a political refugee in 1981, Gebregeorgis finally _______ himself through university, receiving a graduate degree _______ library science. He took a _______ at the San Francisco Childhren’s Library in 1985. There, he realized the ________ children’s books could have on a child’s sense of wonder and vision.
“Children could imagine everything from books — ________ to other cultures, to other people, to other children, and to the universe ________,” recalls Gebregeorgis. “It gives them hope and pleasure. It gives them everything that they cannot ________ get in regular textbooks.” ________ Gebregeorgis found that there were none in Amharic, the primary language of Ethiopia. When the library __________ $1, 200 for the purchase of Ethiopian books, Gebregeorgis was ________ to find any.
So he wrote one and founded Ethiopia Reads in 1988. The nonprofit ________ his efforts to bring children’s libraries to Ethiopia. In 2002, Gebregeorgis ________ his job and his home and returned to Ethiopia. Then he opened the Shola Children’s Library on the first floor of his home.
Reading storybooks to children who have no access to television or computers, Gebregeorgis believes that literacy and education will ________ his poor homeland affected by AIDS. “With literate children there is no ________ as to how much we can do.”
1.A.decided on B.insisted on C.counted on D.acted on
2.A.appointment B.judgement C.encouragement D.commitment
3.A.establishing B.constructing C.assessing D.distributing
4.A.avenue B.admission C.access D.approach
5.A.inside B.beside C.offside D.outside
6.A.flee B.abandon C.escape D.withdraw
7.A.get B.pull C.put D.push
8.A.at B.in C.on D.from
9.A.session B.assembly C.post D.course
10.A.effort B.impact C.impression D.assumption
11.A.contradictions B.combinations C.compositions D.connections
12.A.at ease B.at large C.at random D.at length
13.A.somewhat B.furthermore C.otherwise D.therefore
14.A.But B.For C.And D.Or
15.A.anticipated B.allocated C.assigned D.accommodated
16.A.unconscious B.unlike C.unwilling D.unable
17.A.financed B.owed C.invested D.purchased
18.A.sacrificed B.resigned C.left D.deserted
19.A.contribute B.liberate C.promote D.reform
20.A.prevention B.barrier C.ban D.limit
— I’m afraid I can only make a small contribution this time.
—______. We really appreciate your assistance.
A.Every little helps
B.It’s better to give than to receive
C.The more, the better
D.The best things come in small packages
The Chinese government has made it clear________ it tries to achieve in space science in the next 5 years.
A.how B.that C.what D.which
