首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Vibrations in the ground are a poorly understood but probably widespread means of communication between animals. It seems u
Vibrations in the ground are a poorly understood but probably widespread means of communication between animals. It seems u
admin
2012-03-23
125
问题
Vibrations in the ground are a poorly understood but probably widespread means of communication between animals.
It seems unlikely that these animals could have detected seismic "pre-shocks" that were missed by the sensitive vibration-detecting equipment that clutters the world’s earthquake laboratories. But it is possible. And the fact that many animal species behave strangely before other natural events such as storms, and that they have the ability to detect others of their species at distances which the familiar human senses could not manage, is well established. Such observations have led some to suggest that these animals have a kind of extra-sensory perception. What is more likely, though, is that they have an extra sense-a form of perception that people lack. The best guess is that they can feel and understand vibrations that are transmitted through the ground.
Almost all the research done into animal signaling has been on sight, hearing and smell, because these are senses that people possess. Humans have no sense organs designed specifically to detect terrestrial vibrations. But, according to researchers who have been meeting in Chicago at a symposium of the society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, this anthropocentric approach has meant that interactions via vibrations of the ground (a means of communication known as seismic signaling) have been almost entirely over-looked. These researchers believe that such signals are far more common than biologists had realized-and that they could explain a lot of otherwise inexplicable features of animal behavior.
Until recently, the only large mammal known to produce seismic signals was the elephant seal, a species whose notoriously aggressive bulls slug it out on beaches around the world for possession of harems of females. But Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell of Stanford Uruversity, who is one of the speakers at the symposium, suspects that a number of large terrestrial mammals, including rhinos, lions and elephants also use vibration as a means of communication. At any rate they produce loud noises that are transmitted through both the ground and the air-and that can travel farther in the first than in the second. Elephants, according to Dr O’Connell-Rodwell, can transmit signals through the ground this way for distances of as much as 50km when they trumpet, make mock charges or stomp their feet.
A seismic sense could help to explain certain types of elephant behavior. One is an apparent ability to detect thunderstorms well beyond the range that the sound of a storm can carry. Another is the foot-lifting that many elephants display prior to the arrival of another herd. Rather than scanning the horizon with their ears, elephants tend to freeze their posture and raise and lower a single foot. This probably helps them to work out from which direction the vibrations are traveling-rather as a person might stick a finger first in one ear and then in the other to work out the direction that a sound is coming from.
In the past decade many insects, spiders, scorpions, amphibians, reptiles and rodents, as well as large mammals, have been shown to use vibrations for purposes as diverse as territorial defense, mate location and prey detection. Lions, for example, have vibration detectors in their paws and probably use them in the same way as scorpions use their vibration detectors-to locate meals.
Dr. Hill herself spent years trying to work out how prairie mole crickets, a highly territorial species of burrowing insect, manage to space themselves out underground. After many failed attempts to provoke a reaction by playing recordings of cricket song to them, she realized that they were actually more interested in her own footfalls than in the airborne music of their fellow crickets. This suggests that it is the seismic component of the song that the insects are picking up and using to distribute themselves.
Whether any of this really has implications for such things as earthquake prediction is, of course, highly speculative. But it is a salutary reminder that the limitations of human senses can cause even competent scientists to overlook obvious lines of enquiry. Absence of evidence, it should always be remembered, is not evidence of absence.
The elephant seal’s bulls are notorious for
选项
A、slugging them out for territorial defense for their of springs.
B、fighting with each other to own harems of females.
C、their act of aggression against other animals.
D、competing fiercely with each other for locating meals.
答案
B
解析
第4段第1句中的a species指前面的elephant seal,修饰a species的定语从句的主语bulls与题干的主语一致,故notorious for的原因可从该从句中获得。选项B是对原文slug it out. . . for possession of. . . 的同义改写,故B正确。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/5miO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
A、Musicalnoisefromtheneighborhood.B、Noisefromfactories.C、Noiseoncampus.D、Air-craftnoise.D
GivenShakespeare’spopularityasanactorandaplaywrightandhisconspicuousfinancialsuccess,itwasnotsurprisingthatje
"Winners"Winnershavedifferentpotentials.Achievementisnotthemostimportantthing,authenticityis.Theauthenticper
Languageissaidtobearbitrarybecausethereisnologicalconnectionbetweenmeaningsand______.
IsmailKadare,whowasrewardedtheManBooker【M1】______internationalprizeforliteraturethisyear,isthefirst
Chomskydefines______astheidealuser’sknowledgeoftherulesofhislanguage.
WhichofthefollowingisNOTincludedintheagreementtobesignedbetweenRussiaandIran?
在民俗村除了可饱览各民族的建筑风格外,还可欣赏中国名山大川中的二十个著名景观。这些景观有四个达到“世界之最”的水平:世界最大的人造石林、最大的人造榕树、最大的人造瀑布、最大的人造溶洞。面积达两万五千平方米的人造石林,精心选择了云南石林的“梁祝相会”、“龙腾
Asagreatpoet,WilliamBlake’sfamehasbeenmainlyrestingupontwovolumesofpoems,SongsofInnocenceand______.
随机试题
直肠指诊时不能触到【】
关于甲状腺结节的鉴别诊断,下列描述正确的有
我国塔式高层住宅的平面形式中,T形、Y形、二蝶形多用于北方地区,正十字形、井字形、风车形多用于南方地区,其最主要的制约因素是()。
通常在重大事故应急预案的______中可同时进行事故调查。
某一码头工程的土方工程项目,在招标文件中标明的土质为:以细粉砂土为主,并夹有粉质黏土、泥炭、淤泥及杂填土,在施工区段主要为细粉沙土,推荐利用水力冲挖机具边冲挖、边吹填连续作业的施工方案,在投标前承包人曾经到工地现场进行踏勘,投标时承包人就此方案进行施工设计
飞行员在海上会产生一种“倒飞错觉”,这属于()
已知向量α=(0,k,1)T是矩阵A=的逆矩阵A-1的特征向量,则常数k=_______.
某企业的E-R图中,职工实体的属性有:职工号、姓名、性别、出生日期、电话和所在部门,其中职工号为实体标识符,电话为多值属性,离退休职工所在部门为离退办。在逻辑设计阶段,应将职工号和电话单独构造一个关系模式,该关系模式为(60);因为离退休职工不参与企业的绝
Whatcanwelearnaboutthewomanfromthedialogue?
Cottongrass,whichgrowsonlyinarcticregions,hasbeentheonlysummertimesourceofproteinavailabletothecaribou.Thec
最新回复
(
0
)