This site , all-birds. com, is about bird watching. Enjoy your browsing. There is much to learn and see.
Bird Watching Equipment
Some items that might make bird watching more enjoyable are binoculars （ 双目望远镜） , a camera, some kind of system for keeping notes, and maybe a back pack． Birders often keep lists of the birds they see along with notes about the habits． There is some great bird log software that will let you keep records on your computer． For more details on choosing binoculars see our Binocular -Optics page．
Clothes
If you are walking through a wooded area just wear clothes you would wear on any hike or field trip． You are best off wearing clothes with dull colors that mix into the background． Greens, browns, and grays are good． Avoid fabrics that rustle（沙沙响）easily． Depending on the birds you are watching you may want to get rain gear, rubber boots and warm clothing． For birds such as owls that you might look for in the evening a strong flashlight is also handy．
Choosing a Bird Field Guide
Take a good field guide to identify birds． Look for clear color pictures that make it easy to recognize one bird from another． Next to each picture should be detailed descriptions of each bird's anatomy, habits, and what it eats． The guide should have information about what habitat each species uses． Many guides have maps showing the range of different birds along with their migration patterns．
Where and When to see Birds
Learning the habitats of birds in your area will increase the number of birds you see, and make your birding more enjoyable． If you know that Meadow larks are likely to be in open grassy areas, and dippers are forage along stream beds, you may be looking for them if you are in those types of habitats． Edge areas where different types of habitats meet will likely have more species in them． You are more likely to see specific birds at certain times of the day． For example songbirds are easier to see two to three hours after dawn, or just before sunset． This is when songbirds are most actively feeding． Many small birds will be silent or even hidden during the rest of the day． After sunup is the best time to see eagles and hawks． Visibility is best for hunting at this time, and they can soar on the thermal currents from the warmed air． Birds like owls are more likely to be seen in the evening． Many shorebirds and waders rest at high tide and feed when the water rises or falls．
Photographing Birds
Patience in Bird Photography
Most birds are afraid of people, and all species have their own comfort zone． With a little time you can learn the comfort zone of the birds you are photographing． Once they know that you are not a threat you may be able to get closer．
Type or Style
Your reason for photographing birds may determine your style and the kind of equipment you use． If you are just recording the kinds of birds you see you don't need to get as close, and you can use less expensive equipment, then you need for high quality prints.
Photographing Birds in Flight
Photographing birds in flight can be fun． Many digital cameras have a tracking function． With these you focus on the bird, and then as you track it the lens will keep focus．
Use Your Yard
Choose an open area where the birds will get direct sunlight, showing off their magnificent colors．
Try using props
Birds will often land on a stick or post near a seed feeder before going to the feeder． The background was just an out of focus fence but you can use anything you want for a background, and then wait for a bird to perch.The main purpose of the passage is to _____.
| A．attract more people to photograph birds |
| B．help birders learn how to identify and understand birds |
| C．call on people to set some comfort zones for birds |
| D．inform birders of the results of a scientific research on birds |
Clothes in ______ are highly recommended when you are going bird watching．
| A．red | B．yellow | C．brown | D．blue |
________ are likely to be seen at 7 in the morning．
| A．Owls | B．Shorebirds | C．Songbirds | D．Larks |
Which of the following statement is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．A stick in the yard may scares birds off when you are photographing them． |
| B．It will be wise for birders to hire a guide for themselves． |
| C．Birders have to bring some notebooks to keep records of birds' habits． |
| D．A flashlight will come in handy when you look for owls． |
Teenagers are often a difficult group. With all those hormones（荷尔蒙） flooding their bodies, they can be moody, unpredictable, and tend to make uncertain choices. But however confusing their teenage years are, kids can still be generally happy, depending on their lifestyle choices. According to a new research by British scientists, teens who don’t smoke, drink only moderately or not at all, and who don’t eat much junk food are likely to be happier than other teens.
The study looked at 40,000 British families and came up with some interesting findings. For example, kids who never drank alcohol were up to six times more likely to report higher levels of happiness than kids who drank. And teens who smoked were five times less likely to rate high on happiness charts compared to kids who don’t smoke. Same goes for diet and physical activity. The more fruits and vegetables kids eat, and the more hours they spend playing sports, the happier they are.
Now, of course this doesn’t mean that not smoking or drinking, and playing sports guarantees happiness. It could be that kids who have happy character tend to be more active and less addicted to drinking or smoking. And it could equally be the case that kids who are unhappy are more related to drinking and smoking and eating junk food.
Other studies have shown that exercise is a proven way to treat anxiety and depression. Future studies may support the idea that other healthful behaviors, including refraining(克制) from smoking, drinking, and eating too much junk, can avoid sadness and increase happiness, too.What can we learn from the text?
| A．Not smoking or drinking guarantees happiness. |
| B．Teens with flooding hormones can not be happy. |
| C．Playing sports can decrease teen’s unhappiness. |
| D．Unhappiness can certainly result in smoking and drinking. |
Which of the following might help teens quit anxiety?
| A．Smoking and drinking. |
| B．Taking exercise. |
| C．Eating junk food. |
| D．Going on a diet. |
What did your school smell like? Was it noisy or peaceful? It might not seem important, but a growing body of research suggests that smells and sounds can have an impact on learning, performance and creativity．
Bridget Shield has been conducting studies and advising people on the effects of all sorts of noises, such as traffic and sirens, as well as noise made by the children themselves． "Everything points to a harmful impact of the noise on children’s performance, in numeracy, in literacy, and in spelling,” says Shield．
Shield says the sound of “babble” －the chatter of other children, is particularly distracting in the classroom．。People are very distracted by speech-particularly if it is understandable, but you’re not involved in it．” This phenomenon is also known as the irrelevant speech effect, she says, adding that “it’s a very common finding in open-plan offices as well．’’
In a series of studies published last year, Ravi Mehta found that people were more creative when the background noises were played at a medium level than when volume was low． Loud background noise, however, damaged their creativity． Ravi Mehta suggests there maybe some benefit to playing music or other sounds in an art class or other situations where creativity is the key．
Many teachers all over the world already play music to students in class． Many are inspired by the belief that hearing music can boost IQ in their tasks, the so-called Mozart effect． While the evidence actually suggests it’s a guess to say classical music boosts brainpower, researchers do think pleasant sounds before a task can sometimes lift your mood and help you perform well, says Ravi Mehta," If you like the music or you like the sound-even listening to a Stephen King novel-then you did better． It didn’t matter about the music,“ he says．
However, it’s worth considering that music is not always helpful while you’re trying to work． Trying to perform a task which involves serial recall - for instance, doing mental mathematics-will be distracted by sounds with audio variation, says Ravi Mehta． Songs with lyrics, on the other hand, are more likely to interfere（干扰）with tasks that involve languages-such as reading comprehension．
This isn’t the only sense being related to affecting learning．The second paragraph implies that _________.
| A．general noise also has a harmful effect． |
| B．students are sensitive to noise． |
| C．some children need special sounds to do tasks． |
| D．children aren't affected by their own noise． |
The irrelevant speech effect refers to the fact that _________.
| A．you don’t understand what others are talking |
| B．you are interrupted by the chatting of others |
| C．you are unwilling to chat with other people |
| D．you find what others are talking irrelevant to you |
Everyone has done experiments in high school laboratories, but have you ever thought about designing a satellite to explore space?
On Nov. 19, a team of students from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the US awed peers and even scientists by successfully launching a satellite.
The first satellite designed and built by high school students was sent up into space along with a record-setting. 28 other small ones on a rocket were sent from a NASA center in Virginia, CNN reported. It took the students seven years to build.
The students call their tiny satellite TJ3Sat, which is named after their school. It is just 10x10x12 centimeters and weighs only 0.89 kilograms, according to Orbital Sciences, a company which developed the rocket and supported the students’ project. It can be controlled with a smartphone.
Like most satellites, TJ3Sat can send and receive data. The small spacecraft is equipped with a voice synthesizer (合成器), which can switch text to voice and transmit those sounds back to Earth over radio waves, said Orbital officials. In this case, anyone can give it a try via the project’s website (school website) by submitting (提交) a text. The texts that get approved will be sent to the satellite, changed to voice and then broadcast back to Earth via radio waves.
“I can say ‘Go Colonials’ on our ground station and when it is on the other side of the world, in India, someone can hear ‘Go Colonials’over the radio,” the team explains on the website.
The satellite will stay in space for at least three months.
School principal Evan Glazer told The Washington Post that the project started in 2006 as an activity in the spare time. Later it became a research project for a select group of seniors.
At a time when American students are busy with SATs, the launch of the satellite shows what diligent teenagers can achieve when allowed to pursue their own curiosities, Glazer said.
“It used to be that kids growing up wanted to be an astronaut,” Andrew Petro, program executive (主管) for small spacecraft technology at NASA, said in a statement. “I think we might be seeing kids saying what they want to do is build a spacecraft. The idea here is that they really can do that.”Which of the following statements about TJ3Sat is TRUE according to the article?
| A．It took a group of students about a decade to build the satellite. |
| B．Besides TJ3Sat, 28 other small satellites were built by the students. |
| C．TJ3Sat can receive text messages that the students send into space, which can be changed to voice messages and broadcast back to Earth. |
| D．TJ3Sat is expected to stay in orbit for the next year, sending out messages together with information about its position in space. |
According to the article, the launch of the satellite _______.
| A．is evidence of the advance of spacecraft technology |
| B．proves that hard-working teenagers can achieve a lot |
| C．shows the importance of extracurricular activities at school |
| D．has inspired many people to take an interest in space travel |
You may have seen a talking parrot on a TV show, in a movie, or even in someone’s home. The parrot has learned to copy sounds that people make. Birds are not the only animals that can copy the noises they hear. Dolphins, bats, and some apes also copy sounds. Now we can add elephants to this list of copycats.
Dr. Joyce Poole is a zoologist. She studies the sounds of elephants. While she was in Kenya, she would hear strange noises made by Mlaika after sunset. Mlaika was a 10-year-old African elephant.
Mlaika lived near a highway. Dr. Poole says, “I could not tell the difference between Mlaika’s call and the distant truck noise.” She and other scientists studied Mlaika’s sounds. It turned out that Mlaika was copying the sounds of the trucks driving by. Why would Mlaika copy trucks that she heard going by on the highway? Animals that are able to copy sounds may enjoy practicing new sounds. When they are kept outside of their natural environment, they may copy unusual sounds. That may be why an elephant would copy the sound of a truck.
“Mlaika was not the only copycat elephant,” Dr. Poole says. Calimero is a 23-year-old male African elephant. He spent 18 years with two female Asian elephants. Asian elephants make chirping sounds (sounds made by birds) to talk with one another. African elephants usually do not make chirping sounds. But Calimero now does. He is copying his Asian elephant friends. Dr. Poole says that elephants need to form bonds with their family and friends. She says, “They make sounds to communicate with each other. When they are separated, they use sounds to keep in contact.”
Parrots, dolphins, humans, and elephants show that being a copycat is one way that animals and people make new friends and keep old ones.According to the passage, what does Mlaika copy?
| A．The sound of people. | B．The sound of trucks. |
| C．The sound of Calimero. | D．The sound of birds. |
From paragraph 4, we can know________.
| A．how long it takes for an elephant to learn a new sound |
| B．why the African elephant can make chirping sounds |
| C．why the Asian elephants make noises after sunset |
| D．how Asian and African elephants are alike |
According to the passage, why do some animals like to be copycats?
| A．To keep in touch with nature. |
| B．To please people and other animals. |
| C．To make new friends and keep old ones. |
| D．To avoid the danger from the outside world. |
In 1880, fourteen-year-old Matthew Henson loved to hear sailors tell tales of their exciting lives at sea. The travel, the adventure, the danger, and the steady pay were all attracting young Henson. One day, he found a job as a cabin boy on a beautiful ship called the Katie Hinds. For the next five years, Henson sailed around the world. With the help of the ship’s captain and other members of the crew, Henson learned mathematics, navigation, history, geography, and many other subjects. By the time he left the Katie Hinds in 1885, Henson was well educated and had become an excellent seaman.
Unable to find work anywhere else, Henson took a job in a hat shop in Washington, D.C. One day in 1887, a man came in to buy a hat. The man, Robert Peary, asked the owner if he knew anyone with experience at sea. Peary would soon travel to South America for the U.S. government. He needed experienced men to accompany him. The shop owner knew about his young employee’s skills and experience on ocean journeys, so he introduced Peary to Henson.
Using his map-reading and sailing skills, Henson proved himself to be a worthy and smart seaman. Peary soon made Henson his assistant, and they became close friends. One day Peary told Henson about his real dream: to be the first man to stand on “the top of the world” at the North Pole. He asked Henson to help him make his dream come true. Over the next five years, the two explorers made two trips together to the Arctic. However, they were not able to reach the pole either time. The cold, wind, and ice were worse than either of them had ever imagined.
In 1908, Peary and Henson were ready to make their final attempt at reaching the North Pole. Both men were over forty years old. The years of hardship in the arctic cold had made them suffer a lot. This would be their last chance. With four Inuit guides, they made a mad rush straight across the ice toward the pole. Peary’s feet were injured and he had to be pulled on a dogsled. In April 1909, Henson’s instruments showed they were standing at the North Pole. Together Henson and Peary planted the American flag in the snow.
In later years, Robert Peary and Henson were greatly honored for their achievements. Today, the two friends and fellow explorers lie in heroes’ graves not far apart in the Arlington National Cemetery.In paragraph1, the author shows how Henson became ________.
| A．a skilled seaman |
| B．a highly educated captain |
| C．employed in a restaurant |
| D．interested in helping others |
Paragraph 2 mainly tells us ________.
| A．how Matthew Henson met Robert Peary |
| B．why Matthew Henson went to the hat shop |
| C．why Matthew Henson stopped working on the Katie Hinds |
| D．how Robert Peary knew that Matthew Henson had sea experience |
On their trip to the North Pole, Henson and Peary could best be compared to ________.
| A．treasure hunters seeking big fortunes |
| B．generals seeking power over another country |
| C．soldiers going to war to fight for their freedom |
| D．fighters performing a task in an unknown land |