Getting help from nature

江西 侯昌瑋

主題語境：人與動物 篇幅：330詞 建議用時：7分鐘

1A group of clams recently caught people's attention after an article was posted by China Science Communication online.Although these clams are usually regarded as nothing more than delicious food,they work to monitor the local water quality in Poland.

2Gruba Ka?ka pumping station,which stands in the River Wisla,helps provide millions of liters of water for Warsaw,the capital of Poland.However,one particular concern for the water quality has been heavy metals,and researchers sought help from nature to solve this problem.

3Clams are sensitive to pollutants in their environment as they filter water to feed on microorganisms.They shut their shells immediately after detecting “dangerous” water.

4Based on this,researchers selected eight clams at a time and recorded the natural opening of their shells.After the clam “employees” become accustomed to the local water,they are placed in a specially designed container.With sensors stuck onto their shells,the clams are connected to a system that records how wide the shells are open.If four or more clams close their shells at the same time,an alarm will be triggered and the water supply will be shut down.The result is reliable because the creatures are considering many different factors at the same time,according to ZME Science.

5Animals have long been helpers for human activities.Farmers in north Queensland,Australia,have been ordering different species of dung beetles to help clean up cattle dung,according to ABC News.As the number of cattle grows,their waste increases,leading to an enormous population of flies and a worsening environment.Dung beetles,however,take the waste and bury it.This way,they help improve soil quality.

6Similarly,cockroaches are used to deal with kitchen waste at several firms in China,according to a report ofTheBeijingNewsin 2018.About 300 million cockroaches are fed 15 tons of food waste on a daily basis,and they themselves are a good protein resource for livestock.

Reading

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Detail 1.Why did researchers turn to nature for help?

A.To solve the food shortage.

B.To detect heavy metals sooner.

C.To improve the water quality.

D.To attract people's attention.

Gist 2.What is paragraph 4 mainly about?

A.The reason for the study.

B.The result of the research.

C.The purpose of the study.

D.The process of the study.

Inference 3.How can dung beetles help farmers?

A.By dealing with cattle's waste properly.

B.By cleaning up food waste regularly.

C.By digesting and burying the waste of flies.

D.By using kitchen waste to improve soil quality.

Gist 4.Which statement can summarize the main idea of this text?

A.Three kinds of amazing animals.

B.Animals,good helpers of humans.

C.A special way to test water quality.

D.Animals,far more than tasty food.

Language

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Ⅰ.Text-centered chunks

nothing more than 只不過；僅僅

seek help 尋求幫助

be sensitive to 對……敏感

at a time 一次

become accustomed to 習(xí)慣于……；適應(yīng)……

clean up 清理；清除

lead to 導(dǎo)致

on a daily basis 每天

Ⅱ.Difficult sentence in the text

With sensors stuck onto their shells,the clams are connected to a system that records how wide the shells are open.蚌殼上粘貼的傳感器將河蚌與記錄蚌殼開啟程度的系統(tǒng)連接到一起。

【點石成金】本句中，With sensors...shells 是with 的復(fù)合結(jié)構(gòu)；that引導(dǎo)的是定語從句，先行詞為a system；how引導(dǎo)的是賓語從句。