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
"How the zebra got his stripes" sounds like the title of one of Rudyard Kipling’s "Just So" stories. Sadly, it isn’t, so the que
"How the zebra got his stripes" sounds like the title of one of Rudyard Kipling’s "Just So" stories. Sadly, it isn’t, so the que
admin
2012-12-01
24
问题
"How the zebra got his stripes" sounds like the title of one of Rudyard Kipling’s "Just So" stories. Sadly, it isn’t, so the question has, instead, been left to zoologists. But they, too, have let their imaginations rip. Some have suggested camouflage. Others suggest they are a way to display an individual’s fitness. Irregular stripes would let potential mates know that someone was not up to snuff. One researcher proposed that stripes are to zebra what faces are to people, allowing them to recognise each other, since every animal has a unique stripe-print. Another even speculated that predators might get dizzy watching a herd of stripes gallop by. There is, however, one other idea: that stripes are a sophisticated form of fly repellent. It was originally dreamed up in the 1980s, but never proved. Now, a team of investigators led by Gabor Horvath of Eotvos University in Budapest report in the Journal of Experimental Biology that they think they have done so.
The original suggestion was that stripes repel tsetse flies. These insects carry sleeping sickness, which is as much a bane of ungulates as it is of people. But tsetses are not the only dipteran foes of zebra and, since they are rarely found in the meadows of Hungary, Dr Horvath plumped for studying an almost equally obnoxious alternative: the horsefly. Horseflies, too, transmit disease. They also bite incessantly, thus keeping grazing beasts from their dinner. Indeed, previous research has shown that fly attacks on horses and cattle reduce their body fat and milk production. Such research has also shown something odd: horseflies attack black horses in preference to white ones. That fact got Dr Horvath wondering how they would react to a striped horse—in other words, a zebra.
Actual zebra are hard to experiment on. They insist on moving around and swishing their tails. The team therefore conducted their study using inanimate objects. Some were painted uniformly dark or uniformly light, and some had stripes of various widths. Some were plastic trays filled with salad oil. Some were glue-covered boards. And some were actual models of zebra. They put these objects in a field infested with horseflies and counted the number of insects they trapped.
Their first discovery was that stripes attracted fewer flies than solid, uniform colours. As intriguingly, though, they also found that the least attractive pattern of stripes was precisely those of the sort of width found on zebra hides. Zebra stripes do, therefore, seem to repel horseflies. Exactly why is unclear. But Dr Horvath thinks it might be related to a horsefly’s ability to see polarised light, which imposes a sense of horizontal and vertical on an image. Horseflies are known to prefer horizontal polarised light. Possibly, the mostly vertical stripes on a zebra confuse the fly’s tiny brain and thus stop it seeing the animal.
Another obvious question, though, is why other species have not evolved this elegant form of fly repellent, and what the consequences would have been if they had. If humans, for example, were black-and-white striped then the history of intercommunal violence the species has suffered when different races have met might not have been quite as bad. One for Kipling to have pondered, perhaps?
According to the passage, which one of the following matches the researches LEAST?
选项
A、Dr Horvath first did the research on striped horse.
B、Fly attacks on horses and cattle reduce their body fat and milk production.
C、Horseflies attack black horses in preference to white ones.
D、Horseflies bite incessantly, thus keeping grazing beasts from their dinner.
答案
A
解析
推断题。A项为正确选项。因为文中Dr Horvath是在做horsefly实验,而不是做striped horse的实验。其他三项都是研究horsefly是否根据皮肤斑纹袭击畜类。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/KhaO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
ThetasteoftheEnglishinthecultivationofland,andinwhatiscalledlandscapegardening,isunrivalled.Theyhavestudied
IftherewasonethingAmericanshadarighttoexpectfromCongress,itwasafederalplantohelptheelderlypayforprescrip
AboutWetlandsintheU.S.A.Peopleenjoyafamoussoup(SHE-CRABSOUP)inNorthCarolinabecausethedaysoftheregionalsoup
______isthestudyoflanguageinrelationtothemind.
"Ido."ToAmericansthosetwowordscarrygreatmeaning.Theycanevenchangeyourlife.Especiallyifyousaythematyourown
ThefirstsettlementinAustraliawasmadebythe______.
WhichofthefollowingcitiesisinAustralia?
The______writersintroducedanewthemeintoliterature,thatis,thestruggleoftheproletariatforitsrights,whichexpres
HernamesoundsfamiliarwithmebutIcan’ttellwhosheisatthemoment.
WhichofthefollowingisNOTpartofthequeen’smessage?
随机试题
下列防水材料中,属于柔性防水的是()。
某饮料生产企业为增值税一般纳税人,年末将本企业生产的一批饮料发放给职工作为福利。该饮料市场售价为12万元(不含增值税),增值税适用税率为17%,实际成本为10万元。假定不考虑其他因素,该企业应确认的应付职工薪酬为()万元。
女婴,1岁半。方颅,多汗,枕秃,常发生惊厥,不伴发热。查血糖3.2mmol/L,血钙6.5mg/dl,血镁lmg/dl,血磷12mg/dl,首先考虑的诊断是()
据我国现行规定,土地增值税实行()。
“分析可能导致质量目标偏离的各种因素,并对这些因素制定有效的预防措施,防患于未然”属于()基本环节的控制重点。
中国公民李某就职于境内某上市公司,2019年取得的收入如下:1月取得基本工资8000元,按照所在省人民政府规定的比例提取并缴付“三险一金”1200元。2月为乙公司提供兼职设计服务取得一笔设计费50000元。3月参加商场抽奖活动并抽取一等奖,奖金200
试分析阎立本的《步辇图》。
“这一新发明的起源,就潜藏在三项更古老的发明中:纸张、拓片和雕刻印章。”“这一新发明”指的是()。
从众行为:个人因受到群体的压力而在知觉判断、动作等方面做出的与众人趋于一致的行为。下列哪一例不属于从众行为?()
Londonisbecomingaserious______toNewYorkastheworld’sbankingandfinancialservicescenter.
最新回复
(
0
)