Joshua Plotnik and his colleagues carried out the tests on six 12-45-year-old Asian elephants living in the grounds of a hotel in northern Thailand. The buckets containing the seeds were not clear enough to see through and had a lid with small holes to let the smell out. In experiments, the elephants chose the greater quantity of seeds in each pair, regardless of the quantity of seeds presented. The accuracy of the prediction was better when the difference between each pair increased.
This is thought to be the first time that an animal is able to use its sense of smell to make a simple calculation of whether one of two quantities is more or less than another-the most basic form of math.
Many animal species have shown an ability to tell apart between more and less when presented with different amounts of food. But they have used vision to discriminate. Dogs have been unable to show they can perform the same trick in tests of their abilities to smell.
For an elephant this ability could be very important. Elephants often travel long distances to find better-quality food and water, which can differ according to seasonal availability, changes to their environment, and a risk they could be attacked by humans. The best performers were able to get it right more than 80 per cent of the time.
The scientists suggest that male elephants are better at the task because they need to eat more food, making it more important that their sense of smell is keener. Males also have to sniff out females in heat over long distances in order to reproduce.
They say that while elephants do use vision, particularly in close contexts where they react to each other’s body language, they use it mainly to match their more powerful senses-hearing, smell and touch.
That elephants have a powerful sense of smell is perhaps unsurprising. They have more genes related to smell than any other animal: 2,000 compared to around 800 for a dog.
1.What special ability do elephants have?
A.Use their trunks to find different smells.
B.Distinguish between more and less food.
C.Smell the differences of food quality.
D.Per form the basic math calculation.
2.What does the underlined word “discriminate” mean?
A.Choose. B.Indicate.
C.Measure. D.Distinguish.
3.Why do elephants often travel long distances?
A.To find where the better food is.
B.To find where humans wait to attack them.
C.To find where the environment has changed.
D.To find where they can adapt to the climate.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.Elephants can do simple math puzzles
B.Elephants can “count” with their trunks
C.Elephants can smell the quality of food
D.Elephants can use vision to communicate
Global warming does more than just kill plant species-it also changes the way plants grow. Researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) joined forces with the Leibniz Institute for Plant Biochemistry (IPB) to discover the molecular processes of plant growth. In Current Biology, a scientific journal, they presented their findings on high-temperature plant growth. This could lead to developing plants that can survive global warming.
Plants react to even small temperature changes, but they are unable to move to new locations. “When temperatures rise, plants grow taller... to cool themselves off. Their stalks become taller, and their leaves become narrower and grow farther apart. Yet, this makes the plant more unstable overall,” explains Professor Marcel Quint, an agricultural scientist at MLU. Unstable plants bend faster in the rain and produce less food that’s also less nutritious.
There’s still lots to learn about plant reactions to temperatures. “We are just starting to understand how plants detect the changes in temperature...,” Quint says. Earlier studies have shown that the protein PIF4 directly controls plant growth and is also dependent on temperature. When it’s cold, PIF4 is less active, meaning the plant doesn’t grow. At higher temperatures, PIF4 activates growth-promoting genes, and the plant grows taller. This is new information, says Quint.
To understand it, they investigated the growth of thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana,) seedlings. Normally, its seedlings form short stems at 20℃. These stems become considerably longer at 28℃. They discovered a hormone that activates the PIF4 at high temperatures, thus producing the protein. The findings of the Halle group may help to breed plants that remain stable even at high temperatures and produce many crops.
1.Why did the researchers at MLU and IPB conduct their research?
A.To study the negative effects of global warming.
B.To find out how plants help reduce global warming.
C.To observe how global warming affects plant growth.
D.To understand the ways that plants cause global warming.
2.What can we learn from Paragraph 2?
A.Low temperatures have little impact on plants.
B.Plants prefer dry weather to rainy weather.
C.Plants are very sensitive to changes in soil.
D.High temperatures decrease crop production.
3.What do we know about PIF4?
A.It mainly exists in the cress seedlings.
B.It works differently at different temperatures.
C.It is a kind of gene that controls plant growth.
D.It is a plant hormone that works at high temperatures.
4.Who will probably benefit most from the findings?
A.Farmers. B.Botanists.
C.Researchers. D.Environmentalists.
Teen & Adult Activities
Yoga-Fundamentals
Teen, Adult & Senior
Min/Max: 4/20
June 4-June 25 Mon 11:00-12:00 pm $30
Instructor: Laurie McElroy
If you are curious about yoga and would like to learn the basics in a non-threatening, nurturing environment, this class is for you. Gain confidence in the basic poses and salutations. Wear comfortable clothing and bring a sticky yoga mat.
Laugh Yourself Happy!
Adult & Senior
Min/Max: 1/30
June 4-June 11 Mon 9:30-10:30 am $20
July 23-August 6 Mon 10:30-11:30 am $30
Instructor: Chele Howell
Come experience the healing benefits of laughing together! Join us for an hour of laughter & deep breathing, music & movement, affirmations, meditation and more! Interactive classes filled with fun, creativity and living in the moment offer a way to reconnect, center and upgrade your mindset. Take home a new tool to help you relax and unwind, deal with everyday stresses, negative thinking, aches and pains and experience greater clarity, well-being and joyfulness! Please bring a yoga mat, blanket, or towel to lie on for meditation.
Line Dancing-Intermediate
Ages 18 & Up
Min/Max: 8/30
June 3-June 24 Sun 4:30-5:30 pm $20
July1-July 29 Sun 4:30-5:30 pm $25
Aug5-Aug 26 Sun 4:30-5:30 pm $20
Instructor: Randy Lattimer
If you know the basic patterns and steps to line dancing, if you have mastered syncopation and are ready to move into phrasing and longer patterns with restarts and tags, then you are ready to join us in our intermediate level line dance class. So bring your talent and join in. We will see you in our next class. Students under 18 will be accepted with parental consent.
Teen Acrylic Painting
Ages 11-16
Min/Max: 4/8
July 30-July 31 Mon/Tue 12:30-3:00 pm $50
Instructor: Taylor Gosney
Anyone can learn to paint! This class encourages students to explore the medium of acrylic painting through a variety of techniques emphasizing concepts of shape, volume and color. This class is designed to encourage confidence and creative expression through paint.
1.Which activity will be held even if there is only one member?
A.Teen Acrylic Painting. B.Line Dancing-Intermediate.
C.Yoga-Fundamentals. D.Laugh Yourself Happy!
2.If a pair of twins learns line dancing in July, they should pay ________.
A.$40 B.$50
C.$60 D.$100
3.What do we know about Teen Acrylic Painting?
A.It is designed for senior people.
B.It encourages students to relax and unwind.
C.It lasts 2.5 hours for each lesson.
D.It has space for at least 8 members.
假如你是李华，暑假期间准备和父母一起去云南旅游，你想选择自助游，而你父母想随团出行。得知你的英国笔友Michael去年到过云南，请你根据以下内容给他写一封邮件：
1. 描述分歧和各自的理由；
2. 询问他的建议。
注意：1. 词数100左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3.开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇：自助游：independent travel 随团游 package tour
Dear Michael,
How is everything going?
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours,
Li Hua
短文改错
One evening after work, I found a beautiful little fox with a injured leg. He was like a Disney fox. Then I feed her some fish. A couple of weeks later, the fox was back, much better and had often come ever since. She was comfortable enough to come really close me. She allowed me to take photo of her, the best of them I posted on social media. Soon after, she took her cubs together to visit to me, which was really unexpected. It’s amazing to have this connection with something so wildly in this busy city, but happily the loving fox still keeps turning up.
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
After five decades since it created a new way people 1. (obtain) and used cash, the world’s first ATM (automated teller machine) was turned into gold for celebrations of its 2. (fifty) anniversary. The invention of Scottish inventor Shepherd-Barron, 3. first ATM was opened on June 27, 1967 at a branch of Barclays bank in Enfield, north London.
English actor Reg Varney, 4. starred in the British TV comedy show On The Buses, was the first person 5. (take) cash from the new machine. Now there are an estimated three million cash machines across the globe 6. some 70,000 cash machines in the UK alone which operated 175 billion pounds in 2016. The world’s most northerly machine is at Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway 7. the most southerly is located at the McMurdo station at the South Pole.
To celebrate the anniversary, Barclays transformed the ATM at its Enfield branch into gold, and placed a red carpet in front for its 8. (user). “Even though recent years 9. (see) a huge increase of digital banking and card payments, cash 10. (remain) an important part of most people’s day-to-day lives.” said Raheel Ahmed, Head of Customer Experience and Channels at Barclays.
