2021年1月30日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Most Common Bird on Earth

2021年1月30日托福阅读真题+题目+答案：The Most Common Bird on Earth

The red-billed quelea is small, mostly brown bird found in the annual grasslands of Africa. Other than ornithologists and the people who see the bird in its native habitat, almost no one has ever heard of the little quelea, although, with a population estimated at 10 billion, it may be the most common bird on Earth.

1.Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in the passage? Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

O The quelen is the world's most common bird, yet even ornithologists and people who have seen it know almost nothing about it.

O Ornithologists and the people who see queleas in large numbers in their native habitat believe the quelea is the world's most common bird.

O Although queleas can be seen in great numbers, even outside their native habitat, few people really know that the quelea population is huge.

O Few people know about the quelea even though its large population probably makes it the most common bird on Earth.

Given the seemingly stressful conditions in the environments where the birds are found, it is surprising that the red-billed quelea survives at all, much less that it is so remarkably successful. ⬛Queleas feed on native annual grasses.⬛Any animal that feeds primarily on the seeds of annual grasses has a potentially major problem-its food supply periodically appears and then disappears. ⬛A wide range of adaptations allows annual-seed eaters to survive. ⬛For example. rodents in annual grasslands often store their extra seeds to survive lean times, an adaptation that was taken up by human populations once they domesticated and became dependent on annual grasses, such as barley and wheat. If they are to survive, queleas must also cope with the challenging feast-or-famine situation attending annual-grass feeders. One might expect such species to be regularly wiped out (at least locally)when fluctuations in the growing season result in seed failures of their food. The red-billed quelea copes well enough to be the world's most common bird.

2.According to paragraph 2, what problem do queleas have to overcome in their native habitat in order to survive?

O Humans have turned the native grasslands into fields of barley and wheat

O Other annual-seed eaters are moving into the same habitat as the queleas

O For part of the year, there is little for queleas to eat in any given location.

O In recent years, periods of famine have occurred more often and have been more severe.

Part of the quclea's success arisces from its life-history adjustments to its environment. Over the African dry scason, the species has to subsist on the ever-diminishing supply of seeds produced by the annual grasses at the end of the last wet season. As food becomes scarcer, the species feeds actively and gains sufficient weight reserves to be able to migrate to more auspicious areas. With the onset of rains in the African wet season, the seeds that queleas eat germinate (develop) and so are no longer available for food. The resulting severe food shortage lasts six to eight weeks. The birds are forced to migrate to better situations (if they can find them). For red-billed qucleas, the savannas in which they live are an ever-shifting mosaic of patches of varying suitability depending on their recent rainfall history: some areas have dry seeds: others have immature grasses, mature grasses with abundant green seeds or old grasses with no seed. By moving over distances of 30 to 120 miles (50 to 200 km). the birds subsist in an inhospitable universe by moving from one patch of habitat with suitable food to another.

3.The phrase “ever-shifting” in the passage is closest in meaning to

O loosely arranged

O constantly changing

O extremely enviable

O isolated

4.It can be inferred that which of the following happens within a time span of “six to eight weeks”?

O The amount of land covered by grasses increases significantly.

O Queleas gain enough weight to be able to survive the dry season

O Grasses go from germinating seeds to seed-bearing, mature plants.

O Enough rain falls so that by the end of that period, grass seeds germinate

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