Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami (海嘯), adding weight to the idea that they possess a “sixth sense” for disasters, experts said on Thursday.Sri Lanka wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean Island’s coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.
“No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit.I think animals can sense disaster.They have a sixth sense.They know when things are happening,” H.D.Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department said on Wednesday.
The waves washed floodwaters up to 3 km (2 miles) inland at Yala National Park in the southeast, Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife reserve (自然保護區(qū))and home to hundreds of wild elephants.“There has been a lot of evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcano eruptions or earthquakes.But it has not been proved,” said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behaviour specialist at Johannesburg Zoo.“There have been no specific studies because you can’t really test it in a lab or field setting,” he said.?Other authorities agreed with this conclusion.“Wildlife seems to be able to pick up certain phenomenon, especially birds.There are many reports of birds detecting coming disasters,” said Clive Walker, who has written several books on Africank^s#5*u wildlife.?
Animals certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators(食肉動物).The idea of an animal’s “sixth sense” is a lasting one that the evidence on Sri Lanka’s damaged coast is likely to add to.
1.This passage is mainly about _____.
A.the damage that was caused in the Indian Ocean tsunami.
B.why animals can save themselves from natural disasters.
C.how to protect the wildlife when disaster happens.
D.the different opinions about animals’ natural power.
2.Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A.It has been proved that animals have a sixth sense.
B.Research has been made on the special movements of animals before disasters.
C.It’s generally considered that animals can sense the coming of disasters.
D.It can be tested that animals have the known sense to escape from the disasters.
3.What does the term “sixth sense” in the passage mean?
A.It is the natural ability of animals that can’t save them from danger.
B.It is the animal’s imagination in the brain.
C.It is some hidden power to say in advance that something will happen.
D.It is a kind of sense that is the same as smell or hearing.
4.Which section does the passage most probably appear in a newspaper?
A.Entertainment. B.Discovery. C.Future. D.Culture.
科目:高中英語 來源: 題型:閱讀理解
Harald Kaas was sixty. His back became rounded, and he bent a little. His forehead, always of the broadest-no one else’s hat would fit him - was now one of the highest, that is to say, he had lost all his teeth, which were strong though small, and blackened by smoking. Now, instead of “deuce take it” he said “deush take it”. He had always held his hands half closed as though grasping something; now they stiffened so that he could never open them fully. The little finger of his ldft hand had been bitten off. According to Harald’s version of the story, the fellow swallowed the piece on the spot.
He was fond of showing off the ldft part, and it often served as an introduction to the history of brave adventures, which became greater and greater and greater as he grew older and quieter. His small sharp eyes were deep set and looked at one with great intensity. There wsa power in his individuality. He has no lack of self-respect.
His house, raised on an old foundation, looked out to the south over many islands; farther out were more islands and the open sea. Its eastern wing was barely half furnished, and the western inhabited by Harald Kaas. These wings were connected by a gallery, behind which were the fields and woods to the north.
In the gallery itself were heads of bears, wolves, foxes and lynxes and stuffed birds from land and sea. Skins and guns hung on the walls of the front room. The inner rooms were also full of skins and filled with the smell of wild animals and tobacco-smoke. Harald himself called it “man-smell”; no one who had once put his nose inside could ever forget it. Valuable and beautiful skins hung on the walls and sat, and walked on skins, and each one of them was a subject of conversation. Harald Kaas, seated in his log chair by the fireside, his feet on the bearskin, opened his shirt to show the scars on his hairy chest (and what scars they were) which had been made by a bears teeth, when he had driven his knife, right up to the end, into the monster’s heart. All the tables, and cupboards, and carved chairs listened in their silence.
68.Who or what most probably bit harald Kaass’ little finger off?
A.On of his fellow hunters
B.An adversary in a boxing match
C.A wild animal
D.One of his hunting dogs
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