雅思阅读表格填空题讲解：WhatDoWhalesFeel

雅思阅读表格填空题讲解：WhatDoWhalesFeel雅思阅读表格填空题讲解--What Do Whales Feel?What Do Whales Feel?Some of the senses that we and other terrestrial mammals take for grantedare either reduced or absent in cetaceans or fail to function well in water. Fore_ample, it appears from their brain structure that toothed species are unableto smell. Baleen species, on the other hand, appear to have some related brainstructures but it is not known whether these are functional. It has beenspeculated that, as the blowholes evolved and migrated to the top of the head,the neural pathways serving sense of smell may have been nearly all sacrificed.Similarly, although at least some cetaceans have taste buds, the nerves servingthese have degenerated or are rudimentary.The sense of touch has sometimes been described as weak too, but thisviewis probably mistaken. Trainers of captive dolphins and small whales often remarkon their animals’ responsiveness to being touched or rubbed, and both captiveand free-ranging cetacean individuals of all species (particularly adults andcalves, or members of the same subgroup) appear to make frequent contact. Thiscontact may help to maintain order within a group, and stroking or touching arepart of the courtship ritual in most species. The area around the blowhole isalso particularly sensitive and captive animals often object strongly to beingtouched there.The sense of vision is developed to different degrees in different species.Baleen species studied at close quarters underwater –specifically a greywhalecalf in captivity for a year, and free-ranging right whales and humpback whalesstudied and filmed off Argentina and Hawaii – have obviously tracked objectswith vision under-water, and they can apparently see moderately well both inwater and in air. However, the position of the eyes so restricts the field ofvision in baleen whales that they probably do not have stereoscopic vision. On the other hand, the position of the eyes in most dolphins and porpoisessuggests that they have stereoscopic vision forward and downward. Eye positionin freshwater dolphins, which often swim on their side or upside down whilefeeding, suggests that what vision they have is stereoscopic forward and upward.By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has e_tremely keen vision in water.Judging from the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it canapparently see fairly well through the air–water interface as well. And althoughpreliminary e_perimental evidence suggests that their in-air vision is poor, theaccuracy with which dolphins leap high to take small fish out of a trainer’shand provides anecdotal evidence to the contrary.Such variation can no doubt be e_plained with reference to the habitats inwhich individual species have developed. For e_ample, vision is obviously moreuseful to species inhabiting clear open waters than to those living in turbidrivers and flooded plains. The South American boutu and Chinese beiji, forinstance, appear to have very limited vision, and the Indian susus are blind,their eyes reduced to slits that probably allow them to sense only the directionand intensity of light.Although the senses of taste and smell appear to have deteriorated, andvision in water appears to be uncertain, such weaknesses are more thancompensated for by cetaceans’ well-developed acoustic sense. Most species arehighly vocal, although they vary in the range of sounds they produce, and manyforage for food using echolocation. Large baleen whales primarily use the lowerfrequencies and are often limited in their repertoire. Notable e_ceptions arethe nearly song-like choruses of bowhead whales in summer and the comple_,haunting utterances of the humpback whales. Toothed species in general employmore of the frequency spectrum, and produce a wider variety of sounds, thanbaleen species (though the sperm whale apparently produces a monotonous seriesof high-energy clicks and little else). Some of the more complicated soundsareclearly communicative, although what role they may play in the social life and‘culture’ of cetaceans has been more the subject of wild speculation than ofsolid science.真题讲解:长难句练习:1. Trainers of captive dolphins and small whales often remark on theiranimals responsiveness to being touched or rubbed, and both captive andfreeranging cetacean individuals of all species (particularly adults and calves,or members of the same subgroup)参考译文:训练者捕获海豚和小鲸鱼经常评论它们的动物反映当被抚摸或是摩擦的时候,并且无论是捕获还是放养的所有种类的鲸类个体(尤其是成年鲸和幼仔,或是用一个子群中的成员)表现出频繁的接触.2. By comparison, the bottlenose dolphin has e_tremely keen vision inwater. From the way it watches and tracks airborne flying fish, it canapparently see fairly well through the air-water interface as well.参考译文:相反的是,宽吻海豚在水中视力就很敏锐,而从它观察及追踪空中飞鱼的方式来看,它在水天交界面的视力也相当好.知识点:现在分词做原因状语1)主语要一致:分词短语的逻辑主语与句子主语要一致2)独立分词结构:有时候分词的动作与谓语动作不是同一主语发出的,这时分词可以带上自己的逻辑主语,就形成了〝名词/代词+分词短语〞的结构,即所谓的独立分词结构.例如Itbeing so nice a day, we go out for a walk.3. Although the senses of taste and smell appear to have deteriorated, andvision in water appears to be uncertain, such weaknesses are more thancompensated for by cetaceans’ well-developed acoustic sense.〞参考译文:尽管鲸鱼的味觉和嗅觉严重衰退,在水中的视觉又不那么确定,然而这些缺陷完全可以被他们那高度发达的听觉系统所弥补.知识点:more than的用法1.在口语当中,more than通常表示〝极其;非常〞.2.More than 还有〝超出;超过〞的意思.雅思阅读流程图填空题讲解--A Chronicle of TimekeepingA Chronicle of TimekeepingAAccording to archaeological evidence, at least 5, 000 years ago, and longbefore the advent of the Roman Empire, the Babylonians began to measure time,introducing calendars to co-ordinate communal activities, to plan the shipmentof goods and, in particular, to regulate planting and harvesting. They basedtheir calendars on three natural cycles: the solar day, marked by the successiveperiods of light and darkness as the earth rotates on its a_is; the lunar month,following the phases of the moon as it orbits the earth; and the solar year,defined by the changing seasons that accompany our planet s revolution aroundthe sun.BBefore the invention of artificial light, the moon had greater socialimpact. And, for those living near the equator in particular, its wa_ing andwaning was more conspicuous than the passing of the seasons. Hence, thecalendars that were developed at the lower latitudes were influenced more by thelunar cycle than by the solar year. In more northern climes, however, whereseasonal agriculture was practiced, the solar year became more crucial. As theRoman Empire e_panded northward, it organised its activity chart for the mostpart around the solar year.CCenturies before the Roman Empire, the Egyptians had formulated a municipalcalendar having _ months of 30 days, with five days added to appro_imate thesolar year. Each period of ten days was marked by the appearance of special groups of stars called decans. At the rise of the star Sirius just beforesunrise, which occurred around the all-important annual flooding of the Nile, _decans could be seen spanning the heavens. The cosmic significance the Egyptiansplaced in the _ decans led them to develop a system in which each intervalofdarkness (and later, each interval of daylight) was divided into a dozen equalparts. These periods became known as temporal hours because their durationvaried according to the changing length of days and nights with the passing ofthe seasons. Summer hours were long, winter ones short; only at the spring andautumn equino_es were the hours of daylight and darkness equal. Temporal hours,which were first adopted by the Greeks and then the Romans, who disseminatedthem through Europe, remained in use for more than 2, 500 years.DIn order to track temporal hours during the day, inventors createdsundials, which indicate time by the length or direction of the sun s shadow.The sundial s counterpart, the water clock, was designed to measure temporalhours at night. One of the first water clocks was a basin with a small hole nearthe bottom through which the water dripped out. The falling water level denotedthe passing hour as it dipped below hour lines inscribed on the inner surface.Although these devices performed satisfactorily around the Mediterranean, theycould not always be depended on in the cloudy and often freezing weather ofnorthern Europe.EThe advent of the mechanical clock meant that although it could be adjustedto maintain temporal hours, it was naturally suited to keeping equal ones. Withthese, however, arose the question of when to begin counting, and so, in theearly _th century, a number of systems evolved. The schemes that divided theday into 24 equal parts varied according to the start of the count: Italianhours began at sunset, Babylonian hours at sunrise, astronomical hours at middayand great clock hours, used for some large public clocks in Germany, atmidnight. Eventually these were superseded by small clock , or French, hours,which split the day into two _-hour periods commencing at midnight.FThe earliest recorded weight-driven mechanical clock was built in _83 inBedfordshire in England. The revolutionary aspect of this new timekeeper wasneither the descending weight that provided its motive force nor the gear wheels(which had been around for at least 1, 300 years) that transferred the power; itwas the part called the escapement. In the early _00s came the invention of thecoiled spring or fuses which maintained constant force to the gear wheels of thetimekeeper despite the changing tension of its mainspring. By the _th century,a pendulum clock had been devised, but the pendulum swung in a large arc andthus was not very efficient.GTo address this, a variation on the original escapement was invented in_70, in England. It was called the anchor escapement, which was alever-baseddevice shaped like a ship s anchor. The motion of a pendulum rocks this deviceso that it catches and then releases each tooth of the escape wheel, in turnallowing it to turn a precise amount. Unlike the original form used in earlypendulum clocks, the anchor escapement permitted the pendulum to travel in avery small arc. Moreover, this invention allowed the use of a long pendulumwhich could beat once a second and thus led to the development of a newfloor-standing case design, which became known as the grandfather clock.HToday, highly accurate timekeeping instruments set the beat for mostelectronic devices. Nearly all computers contain a quartz-crystal clock toregulate their operation. Moreover, not only do time signals beamed down fromGlobal Positioning System satellites calibrate the functions of precision navigation equipment, they do so as well for mobile phones, instantstock-trading systems and nationwide power-distribution grids. So integral havethese time-based technologies become to day-to-day e_istence that our dependencyon them is recognized only when they fail to work.真题解析:长难句练习:1. They based their calendars on three natural cycles: the solar day,marked by the successive periods of light and darkness; the lunar month,following the phases of the moon; and the solar year, defined by the changingseasons.参考译文:古巴比伦人的历法是根据三个自然循环建立的:太阳日(根据白天和黑夜接替的周期而来).太阴月(由月月相变化而来),以及太阳年(根据四季变化来界定).知识点:主从复合句含有两套或更多的主谓结构,其中有一个是主要的主谓结构,其他主谓结构从属于它并且担任起句子成分.①They believe that the computer will finally take the place of humanbeings.②He asked me where he could get such medicine.2. Temporal hours, which were first adopted by the Greeks and then the Romans, who disseminated them through Europe, remained in use for more than2,500 years.参考译文:日光时先是被希腊人采用,后来被将它们传播到整个欧洲的罗马人采用,在超过2,500年的时间里,它一直被人们使用着.知识点:此句包含两个定语从句:which引导的从句修饰temporal hours,who引导的从句修饰theromans.句子的主干是temporal hours remained in use for more than 2,500years.3. The revolutionary aspect of this new timekeeper was neither thedescending weight that provided its motive force nor the gear wheels (which hadbeen around for at least 1,300 years) that transferred the power; it was thepart called the escapement.参考译文:这种新型计时器所具有的革命意义既不在于依靠向下的重力提供起动力,也不在于依靠齿轮(至少有_00年的使用历史)传递动力,而在于它使用了一个叫做擒纵机构棘轮装置的部件.知识点:这句话的主干是主系表结构,不过有两个并列的表语.主语是The revolutionary aspect,系动词是was,表语是neitherthe descending weight nor the gearwheels.第一个that引导定语从句修饰weight,括号里的句子做插入语,是对gear wheels的补充说明,that引导定语从句修饰gearwheels,分号后面是一个简单的句子.雅思阅读表格填空题讲解。