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Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study, echoing learning differences seen in human girls and boys While young male chimps pass their time playing, young female chimps carefully study their mothers. AS a result, they learn how to fish for tasty termite snacks over two years before the boys. Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in .Chicago, US, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, spent four years watching how young ’chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania learned “cultural behavior“. The sex differences in learning behavior were “consistent and strikingly apparent“, says the team. The researchers point out that similar differences are seen in human children with regard to skills such as writing. “A sex-based learning differences may therefore date back at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans,“ they write in the journal Nature. Chimps make flexible tools from vegetation and then insert them into termite mounds, extract them and then munch the termites clinging onto the tool The researchers used video cameras to record this feeding behavior and found that each chimp mother had her own technique, such as how she used tools of different lengths; Analysis of the six infants whose ages were known showed that girl chimps were an average of 31 months old when they succeeded in fishing out their termites, Where the boy chimps were aged 58 months on average. Females were also more skillful at getting out more termites with every dip and used techniques similar to their mothers while males did not. Instead of studying their mothers, the boy chimps spent a significantly greater amount of time frolicking around the termite mound. Behaviors such as playing or swinging might help the male infants later in life when typically male activities like hunting or fighting for dominance become important, suggest the researchers. Lonsdorf adds that there are just two main sources of animal portein for chimps -- the termites or colobus monkeys. “Mature males often hunt monkeys up trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant. This makes hunting difficult,“ she says. “Adult females spend more time fishing, for termites than males.“ So becoming proficient at termite fishing could mean adult females eat better. “They can watch their offspring at the same time. The young of both sexes seem to pursue activities related to their adult sex roles at a very young age.“Why do young female chimps learn faster than young male chirnps at fishing for termites? Because young female chimps don’t play with their brothers. Because young female chimps begin to study their mothers earlier. Because young male chimps never learn to fish for termites. Because young male chimps are not interested in termites.

Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass In January, 2003, the eastern two-thirds of the United States was at the mercy of a bitterly cold air mass that has endangered Florida’s citrus trees, choked northern harbors with ice and left bewildered residents of North Carolina’s .Outer Banks digging out of up to a foot of snow. The ice chill deepened as temperatures fell to the single digits in most of the South, with an unfamiliar dip below the freezing mark as far south as parts of interior South Florida. Temperatures in Florida plunged, with West Palm Beach dropping to a record low of 2 degrees. “We couldn’t believe how cold it was,“ smd Martin King, who arrived this week in Orlando from England. “We brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat.“ The temperature plunge posed a threat to Florida’s US $9.1 billion-a-year citrus crop, more of which is still on the trees. Growers were hurrying to harvest as much of the fruit as possible before it was damaged by cold. “Time is of the essence in getting fruit to the plant,“ said Tom Rogers, a citrus grower who. expected to see damage to oranges and grapefruit at that time. In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush signed an emergency order to eliminate the weight limit on trucks so citrus growers could get as much fruit to market as possible. Casey Pace, a spokeswoman for Florida Citrus Mutual, said growers had sprayed trees with sprinklers, which created a layer of ice and helped maintain a temperature near freezing. Citrus frees are considered in danger of damage if the temperature drops below minus 2 degrees Celsius for four hours or mote. Snow ranging from a dusting to up to 30 centimeters blanketed the Carolinas, Tennessee and pans of Virginia.Which of the following statements is not meant in the first two paragraphs? The cold air mass was a threat to Florida’s citrus crop. The temperature in the United States except the South dropped below’the freezing mark. The northern harbors were blocked with ice. The eastern two thirds of the United States was hit by. cold air mass.

One Good Reason to Let Smallpox Live It’s now a fair bet that we will never see the total extinction of the smallpox virus. The idea was to cap the glorious achievement of 1980, when smallpox was eradicated in the wild, by destroying the killer virus in the last two labs that are supposed to have it -- one in the US and one in Russia. If smallpox had truly gone from the planet, what point was there in keeping these reserves? (51)reality, of course, it was naive to(52)that everyone would let(53) of such a potent potential weapon. Undoubtedly several nations still have(54)vials.(55)the last “official“ stocks of live virus bred mistrust of the US and Russia,(56) no obvious gain. Now American researchers have(57)an animal model of the human disease, opening the(58)for tests on new treatments and vaccines. So once again there’s a good reason to(59)the virus -- just in(60)the disease puts in a reappearance. How do we(61)with the mistrust of the US and Russia?(62). Keep the virus(63)international auspices in a well-guarded UN laboratory that’s open to all countries. The US will object, of course, just as it rejects a multilateral approach to just about everything. But it doesn’t(64)the idea is wrong, ff the virus(65)useful, then let’s make it the servant of all humanity -- not just a part of it. In On At For

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The World’s Longest Bridge Rumor ’has it that a legendary six-headed monster lurks in the deep waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea between Italy and the island of Sicily.(46) When completed in 2010, the world’s longest bridge will weigh nearly 300,000 tons -- equivalent to the iceberg that sank the Titanic -- and stretch 5 kilometers long. “That’s nearly 50 percent longer than any other bridge ever built,“ says structural engineer Shane Rixon. (47)They’re suspension bridges, massive structures, built to span vast water channels or gorges. A suspension bridge needs just two towers to shoulder the structure’s mammoth weight, thanks to hefty supporting cables slung between the towers and anchored firmly in deep pools of cement at each end of the bridge. The Messina Strait Bridge will have two 54,100-ton towers, which will support most of the bridge’s load. The beefy cables of the bridge, each 1.2 meter in diameter, will hold up the longest and widest bridge deck ever built. When construction begins on the Messina Strait Bridge in 2005, the first job will be to erect two 370 meter-tall steel towers.(48)Getting these cables up will be something. It’s not just their length -- totally 5.3 kilometers -- but their weight.(49). After lowering vertical “suspender“ cables from the main cables, builders will erect a 60- meter-wide 54,630-ton steel roadway, or deck -- wide enough to accommodate 12 lanes of traffic. The deck’s weight will pull down on the cables with a force of 70,500 tons. In return, the cables yank up against their firmly rooted anchors with a force of 159,000 tons -- equivalent to the weight of about 100,000 cars. Those anchors are essential.(50). A Some environmentalists are against the project on biological grounds. B What do the world’s longest bridges have in common? C If true, one day you might spy the beast while zipping (呼啸而过) across the Messina Strait Bridge. D They’re what will keep the bridge from going anywhere. E The second job will be to pull two sets of steel cables across the strait, each set being a bundle of 44,352 individual steel wires. F They will tip up the scales at 166,500 tons -- more than half the bridge’s total mass.

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Microchip Research Center Created A research center has been set up in this Far Eastern country to develop advanced micro-chip production technology. The center, which will start out with about US ＄14 million, will help the country develop its chip industry without always depending on imported technology. The center will make use of its research skills and facilities to develop new technology for domestic chip plants. The advent of the center will possibly free the country from the situation that it is always buying almost-outdated technologies from other countries, said the country’s flagship chipmaker. Currently, chip plants in this country are in a passive situation because many foreign governments don’t allow them to import the most advanced technologies, fearing they will be used for military purposes. Moreover, the high licensing fees they have to pay to technology providers are also an important reason for their decision of self-reliance. As mainstream chip production technology shifts from one generation to the next every three to five years, plants with new technology can make more powerful chips at lower costs, while plants with outdated equipment, which often cost billions of dollars to build, will be marginalized by the maker. More than 10 chip plants are being built, each costing millions of US dollars. The majority of that money goes to overseas equipment vendors and technology owners -- mainly from Japan and Singapore. Should the new center play a major role in improving the situation in the industry, the country admits the US ＄14 million investment is still rather small. This country is developing comprehensive technologies. Most of the investment will be spent on setting alliances with technology and intellectual property owners.The country says that the investment of US ＄14 million is big enough for developing that country’s chip industry. Right Wrong Not mentioned