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
(1)Vibrations in the ground are a poorly understood but probably widespread means of communication between animals. (2)In 197
(1)Vibrations in the ground are a poorly understood but probably widespread means of communication between animals. (2)In 197
admin
2019-01-22
76
问题
(1)Vibrations in the ground are a poorly understood but probably widespread means of communication between animals.
(2)In 1975, tens of thousands of people were evacuated from a city, a few hours before a large earthquake struck it. Scientists regard earthquakes as unpredictable, and pre-emptive evacuations such as this as therefore impossible. What gave the game away, according to the local authorities, was the strange behaviour of animals such as rats, snakes, birds, cows and horses.
(3)It could have been a lucky coincidence. 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.
(4)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.
(5)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 University, 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.
(6)Seismic vibrations do not qualify as signals unless they are being received and understood. But it has already been shown that some smaller animals, such as frogs and crickets, pick up information from the seismic part of what everybody had assumed to be simple acoustic (ie, airborne)signals. One way this was found out was by vibrating whole frogs while recording the electrical impulses from particular cells in their inner ears that were suspected of responding to seismic stimulation. Frogs, of course, are easily manipulated. Doing something similar to an elephant requires a higher degree of co-operation from the subject. Dr O’Connell-Rodwell is, however, trying. She is attempting to train several tame elephants to respond to such signals by shutting them inside a gently vibrating truck.
(7)Even without this evidence, it seems likely that elephants do make use of seismic communication. They have specialised cells that are vibrationally sensitive in their trunks. And vibrations transmitted through their skeletons may also be picked up by their exceptionally large middle-ear bones.
(8)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.
(9)According to Peggy Hill, a biologist from the University of Tulsa who organised the symposium, work on seismic signalling is blossoming. Part of the reason is that the equipment needed to detect seismic vibrations (and thus short-circuit human sensory inadequacies)has become cheap. Geophones—which transform vibrations into electrical signals—were once military technology. They were developed by the American army to detect footsteps during the Vietnam war. Now, they can be picked up for as little as $40.
(10)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.
(11)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.
(12)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 offspring
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5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/dXEK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Congestedcitiesarefastbecomingtesttubesforscientistsstudyingtheimpactoftrafficfumesonthebrain.Asroadwayscho
ForadevelopingcountrylikeIndiawhoseecologicalandsocio-economicsystemsarealreadyunderpressurefromrapidurbaniza
TheabilitytomovetofindnewworkhaslongbeenacornerstoneoftheAmericanDream.Thereisgrowingconcernthatbeingst
Youngpeoplearefacinganuncertainfuture.Asthe21stcenturydawned,theywerepromisedawealthofprospectsunless【M1】____
InaBertelsmannFoundationstudyonsocialjusticereleasedthisfall,theUnitedStatescameindeadlylastamongtherich【M1】
Stoppingcigarettesmokinghasbecomeabigproblemforallgovernments.Indemocraticcountries,theeconomicstrengthofthe
Non-VerbalCommunicationsAcrossCulturesNon-verbalcommunicationscanaffirm,complementorevencontradictwhatisbeingverb
GlobalLanguageI.WHAT?Learnedandspokeninternationally【T1】______:【T1】______-thenumberofnativeandsecondlang
生命中不是只有快乐,也不是只有痛苦,快乐和痛苦是相生相成,互相衬托的。快乐是一抹微云,痛苦是压城的乌云,这不同的云彩,在你生命的天边重叠着,在“夕阳无限好”的时候,就给你造成一个美丽的黄昏。一个生命会到了“只是近黄昏”的时节,落霞也许会使人留恋、
PASSAGETHREEWheredidthesiteoftheoldcoachinginnslocate?
随机试题
能够优化劳动力资源配置,对于社会经济的发展具有积极作用的是()。
异常气象条件作业包括高温作业、高温强热辐射作业,高温高湿作业等,除此之外还包括其他异常气象条件作业。下列关于其他异常气象条件作业的描述中,正确的是()。
对违反《会计法》行为情节严重的会计人员,由县级以上的人民政府财政部门吊销其会计从业资格证书。()
标准法分别计算利率风险和股票风险、银行整体的汇率风险和商品风险以及单独计算期权风险后,将这些风险类别计算获得的资本要求按权重相加。()
“曲曲折折的荷塘上面,弥望的是田田的叶子。叶子出水很高,像亭亭的舞女的裙。层层的叶子中间,零星地点缀着些白花,有袅娜地开着的,有羞涩地打着朵儿的;正如一粒粒的明珠,又如碧天里的星星,又如刚出浴的美人。”这句话出自哪位作家笔下?()
一个爸爸很关注儿子的学习情况和班级里学习环境情况。于是,一次他问儿子:“你们班上自习课的时候有多少人?”儿子说:“老师在的时候有45人。”于是爸爸又问:“老师不在的时候有多少人?”儿子回答:“一个人也没有。”(1)评价一下这个班级的学习环境(学风)怎么样
以汇票、支票等依法可以质押的权利出质作为债权担保的质押方式是()。
Lookingback,itwasnaivetoexpectWikipedia’sjoyridetolastforever.Sinceitsinceptionin2001,theuser-writtenonline
当一个客户端想要对另一设备发送流量时,它必须使用以下哪个协议来解析MAC地址?A、ARPB、CDPC、NPRD、OFDM
ThemostimportantthinginthenewslastweekwastherisingdiscussioninNashvilleabouttheeducationalneedsofchildren.T
最新回复
(
0
)