Question

In 1869, the Smiley family purchased an area of land about 100 miles north of New York City. Over time, some of their property and much of the surrounding landscape became the Mohonk Preserve, which has since grown to 8,000 acres and attracts visitors and rock climbers.

But the Mohonk Preserve also has a long scientific legacy. In the 1930s, Dan Smiley, a descendent of the original owners, began keeping track of the plants and animals that lived in the area.

Megan Napoli is a research ecologist with the Mohonk Preserve in New York. She thinks Smiley’s efforts produced a rare long-term data set of observations, which is useful for studying the impacts of climate change. For instance, other research has shown that songbirds are migrating north earlier and earlier in the spring.

It's important for the birds to arrive at the proper time in the spring, because they need to time their arrival with the insect emergence. So they need to be here to establish their nesting sites, lay their eggs. Once the eggs hatch, they have their baby birds, so they need to time it when the insects are most abundant.

Napoli has begun analyzing about 76,000 observations of songbird migration dates collected by Smiley and his team to see if they, too, show that climate change has altered the timing of migrations. Her results suggest that they do.

Napoli found that short-distance migrants that spend their winters in the southern U. S. now arrive an average of eleven days earlier than they did in the 1930s. Long-distance migrants that overwinter in the tropics arrive roughly a week earlier. Napoli presented her results at a recent Ecological Society of America meeting in Portland, Oregon.

Meanwhile, who knows how many other long-term, personal data collections like Smiley’s are out there, waiting to be discovered and to help improve official attempts to track the planet’s changes.

1.What do we know about Dan Smiley?

A. He lived in New York City.

B. He was a scientific researcher.

C. He owned the Mohonk Preserve.

D. He kept a record of wildlife.

2.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A. The birds’ birth.    B. The birds’ arrival.

C. The nest building.    D. The insect appearance.

3.What does Megan Napoli think of Smiley’s long-term record?

A. It has affected the birds’ migration.

B. It challenges the previous research.

C. It has changed official attitudes.

D. It is of great value to her research.

4.What can we learn from Napoli’s research?

A. It is totally based on Smiley’s long-term notes.

B. Scientists have to rely on more personal data.

C. Climate change affects birds’ migration time.

D. It contributes greatly to other personal research.

Answer

1.D

2.B

3.D

4.C

【解析】本文是一篇说明文。本文主要讲了Dan Smiley长期追踪记录生活在纽约市北部一块区域的野生动植物，他的努力提供了稀有的观察结果的长期数据集，这个数据集是研究气候变化影响的理想资料。生态学家Megan Napoli已经开始对由Dan Smiley和他的团队就鸣禽迁徙时间所收集的近76000份观察结果展开分析，目的是看看这些材料是否也证明了气候变化改变了鸟类的迁徙时间。她初步的研究结果显示，这些材料的确证明了这一点。

1.细节理解题。由第二段In the 1930s, Dan Smiley, a descendent of the original owners, began keeping track of the plants and animals that lived in the area.可知，Dan Smiley保持记录生活在该区域的野生动植物，选D。

2.推理判断题。根据前文It's important for the birds to arrive at the proper time in the spring, because they need to time their arrival with the insect emergence.（春天鸟儿在适当的时间到达非常重要，因为它们要让到达时间与昆虫出现时间一致），所以so they need to time it when the insects are most abundant.（所以它们需要在昆虫最充裕的时候到达），故选B。

3.推理判断题。根据第五段Napoli has begun analyzing about 76,000 observations of songbird migration dates collected by Smiley and his team to see if they, too, show that climate change has altered the timing of migrations. Her results suggest that they do.（Napoli已经开始对由Smiley和他的团队就鸣禽迁徙时间所收集的近76000份观察资料展开分析，目的是看看这些材料是否也证明了气候变化改变了鸟类迁徙时间。她初步的研究结果显示，这些材料的确证明了这一点。）可推知，Napoli认为Smiley长期的记录对她的研究很有价值，选D。

4.细节理解题。根据第五段Napoli has begun analyzing about 76,000 observations of songbird migration dates collected by Smiley and his team to see if they, too, show that climate change has altered the timing of migrations.可知，Napoli的研究表明气候变化的确影响了鸟类的迁徙时间，选C。