题型：阅读理解 题类： 难易度：困难
陕西省商洛市2024届高三下学期第五次模拟检测英语试题
If you've ever seen a sparrow steal your dog food or a crow open a garbage bag, you get a sense of that some birds have learned to take advantage of new feeding opportunities—a clear sign of their intelligence. Scientists have long wondered why certain species of birds are more innovative than others, and whether these capacities stem from larger brains or from a greater number of neurons（神经元） in specific areas of the brain.
It turns out that it's a bit of both, according to a recent study by an international team that included members from McGill University published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
The researchers used a new technique to estimate the number of neurons in a specific part of the brain called the pallium in 111 bird species. The pallium in birds is equal to the human cerebral cortex（大脑皮层）, which is involved in memory, learning, reasoning, and problem-solving, among other things. When these estimates about neuron numbers in the pallium were combined with information about over 4,000 feeding innovations, the team found that the species with the higher numbers of neurons in the pallium were also likely to be the most innovative.
"The amount of time chicks spend in the nest as their brains develop might also play acrucial role in the evolution of intelligence," says McGill University Emeritus Professor Louis Lefebvre who spent more than 20 years gathering examples of feeding innovations. "Larger species of crows and parrots, which are known for their intelligence, spend longer in the nest, which allows more time for the brain to grow and accumulate pallial neurons."
The results of the study help to deal with previously opposed views of the evolution and significance of brain size and show how a life-history perspective helps to understand the evolution of cognition.
Before going outside in the morning, many of us check a window thermometer (温度计) for the temperature. This helps us decide what to wear.
{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. We want our food to be a certain coldness in the refrigerator. We want it a certain hotness in the oven. If we don't feel well, we use a thermometer to see if we have a fever. We keep our rooms a certain warmth in the winter and a certain coolness in the summer.
Not all the thermometers use the same system to measure temperature. We use a system called the Fahrenheit scale. But most other countries use the Centigrade scale. Both systems use the freezing and boiling points of water as their guide. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.
The most common kind of thermometer is made with mercury inside a clear glass tube. As mercury (or any other liquid) becomes hot, it expands. As it gets colder, it contracts. That is why on hot days the mercury line is high in the glass tube. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.
First, take a clear glass juice bottle that has a cap; fill the bottle with colored water. Tap a hole in the center of the cap using a hammer and thick nail. Put the cap on the jar. Then stick a plastic straw through the nail hole.
{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.
Finally, place a white card on the outside of the bottle and behind the straw. Now you can see the water lever easily.
{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. As the temperature goes down, the water will contract, and the lever in the straw will come down. Perhaps you will want to keep a record of the water lever in the straw each morning for a week.
A. Now that you know this rule you can make a thermometer of your own that will work. B. People use thermometers which are made by themselves when travelling around the world. C. We use and depend on thermometers to measure the temperature of many other things in our daily lives. D. The water will rise in the straw. As the temperature of the air goes up, the water will expand and rise even higher. E. Thermometers measure temperature, by using materials that change in the same way when they are heated or cooled. F. Take wax (you may use an old candle if you have one) and melt some of it right where the straw is struck into the cap to seal them together. G. They label these in different ways. On the Fahrenheit scale water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. On the Celsius scale water freezes at 0 degree and boils at 100 degrees. |
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