Question

    Birds use vocalizations to attract mates, defend territories, and recognize fellow members of their species. But while we know a lot about how variations in vocalizations play out between populations of songbirds, it's far less clear how this variation affects birds such as penguins in which calls are inherited (遗传). A new study from The Auk: Ornithological Advances examines differences in the calls of Little Penguins from four colonies in Australia-night-time birds for whom vocalizations are more important than visual signals-and finds that differences in habitat, rather than geographic isolation (隔离) or other factors, seem to be the key driver of variation in the sounds these birds use to communicate.

Diane Colombelli-Negrel and Rachel Smale of Australia's Flinders University recorded calls from four Little Penguin populations across a small area of South Australia, one of which had previously been shown to have slight genetic differences from the other three, and used playback experiments to test penguins ability to distinguish between calls from different colonies.They found that agonistic calls, which are used in pair displays and aggressive situations, varied among the four populations, and that the calls' characteristics appeared to depend on small-scale differences in the habitat where the penguins lived. However, birds did not discriminate between calls originating from different colonies, which suggests that agonistic calls don't seem to play a role in isolating the two different genetic groups.

Penguins living in open habitats produced lower-frequency calls than those living in habitats with thicker vegetation-the opposite of the trend typically observed in songbirds. The authors think that agonistic calls may be subject to different selective pressures because they're used in close encounters with other birds rather than to communicate across distances, and could also be influenced by variation in the noise level of wind and surf.

“I was excited to find that in seabirds, as most of our knowledge in this area comes from studies on songbirds," says Colombelli-Negrel. "This new research suggests that many factors influence call variation in birds, which also depends on the function of the calls. This study highlights that many questions remain and that studies need to investigate more than one factor in conjunction with the function of the calls to fully understand call variation in seabirds.”

“This work tells an interesting story of vocal diversification in Little Penguins, and gives insight into how individual and micro-scale variation effects behavior," according to Stony Brook University's Heather Lynch, an expert on penguin calls who was not involved in the study. "Non-vocal-learning birds are relatively understudied in terms of vocalizations, and it is great to see penguin vocalizations being studied in such a way."

1.What does the new study find?

A.Penguins are born with their calls.

B.Penguins communicate by various calls.

C.Penguins' calls are influenced by their habitat.

D.Penguins' calls can help isolate genetic groups.

2.What are the findings based on?

A.The test of penguins' responses to recorded calls.

B.The data collected from penguins across Australia.

C.Controlled experiments on penguins and songbirds.

D.Similarities between the calls of penguins and songbirds.

3.From the passage we can learn that       .

A.open-space songbirds tend to lower their calls

B.environmental noises may affect penguins' calls

C.birds use agonistic calls in distant communication

D.songbirds' agonistic calls vary little between species

4.We can infer from Colombelli-Negrel's words that researchers       .

A.will keep track of penguins to preserve them

B.have investigated a lot in penguins' calls before

C.will have a broader look at differences in penguins' calls

D.have determined the function of various calls in penguins

Answer

1.C

2.A

3.B

4.C

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。讲述了一项关于企鹅的新的研究：企鹅叫声的差异源自其栖息地的不同，而不是地理隔离或其他因素，同时说明了这个研究中仍然还有问题存在。

1.细节理解题。根据第一段A new study from The Auk: Ornithological Advances examines differences in the calls of Little Penguins from four colonies in Australia-night-time birds for whom vocalizations are more important than visual signals-and finds that differences in habitat, rather than geographic isolation (隔离) or other factors, seem to be the key driver of variation in the sounds these birds use to communicate.一项新的研究：澳大利亚鸟类学发展中心研究了来自澳大利亚四个殖民地的小企鹅叫声的差异——对于这些夜间鸟类来说，发声比视觉信号更重要——发现差异在于栖息地，而不是地理隔离或其他因素，似乎是这些鸟类用来交流的声音变化的关键驱动力。可以得出企鹅的叫声受到它们栖息地的影响，选项C符合题意。故选C项。

2.细节理解题。根据第二段Diane Colombelli-Negrel and Rachel Smale of Australia's Flinders University recorded calls from four Little Penguin populations across a small area of South Australia, one of which had previously been shown to have slight genetic differences from the other three, and used playback experiments to test penguins ability to distinguish between calls from different colonies.来自澳大利亚福林德斯大学的Diane Colombelli-Negrel 和Rachel Smale 记录了来自南澳大利亚一个小区域的四个小企鹅种群的叫声，其中一个种群与其他三个种群有轻微的基因差异，并通过回放实验测试企鹅区分来自不同群体的叫声的能力。 可以得出，为了证明研究结论，研究人员是通过检测企鹅对录制的声音进行测试的。所以选项A符合题意。故选A项。

3.推理判断题。根据第三段Penguins living in open habitats produced lower-frequency calls than those living in habitats with thicker vegetation-the opposite of the trend typically observed in songbirds. The authors think that agonistic calls may be subject to different selective pressures because they're used in close encounters with other birds rather than to communicate across distances, and could also be influenced by variation in the noise level of wind and surf.生活在开放栖息地的企鹅比生活在植被较厚的栖息地的企鹅发出的叫声频率更低，这与通常在鸣鸟身上观察到的趋势相反。作者认为，竞争性叫声可能受到不同的选择压力，因为它们用于与其他鸟类的近距离接触，而不是跨越距离进行交流，还可能受到风浪噪音水平变化的影响。可以看出，不同栖息地企鹅的叫声频率不一样，可能受到风浪噪音水平变化的影响。因而，环境因素对企鹅的声音会有一定的影响。选项B符合题意。故选B项。

4.推理判断题。由文章第四段 “I was excited to find that in seabirds, as most of our knowledge in this area comes from studies on songbirds," says Colombelli-Negrel. "This new research suggests that many factors influence call variation in birds, which also depends on the function of the calls. This study highlights that many questions remain and that studies need to investigate more than one factor in conjunction with the function of the calls to fully understand call variation in seabirds. Colombelli-Negrel说：“我很兴奋地发现，在海鸟身上，我们在这一领域的大部分知识来自于对鸣禽的研究。 这项新的研究表明，许多因素影响鸟类的叫声变化，这也取决于叫声的功能。 这项研究强调了许多问题仍然存在，研究需要调查一个以上的因素，结合呼叫的功能，以充分了解海鸟的呼叫变化。”由此可以看出，研究人员将对企鹅叫声的差异进行更广泛的研究，选项C符合题意。故选C项。