Holly老師的英語新天地

Hey Class~

Birdsong

The different ways birds acquire their songs have proved to be rich subjects for scientific investigation. The songs that have proved most useful in these studies are those that exhibit intermediate complexity. For example, the European chaffinch produces a 2-to 2.5-second burst of sound consisting of several sequences of repeated notes of different types. Individual chaffinches sing several variants of the song－all clearly recognizable as belonging to that species but differing in detail. Neighboring male chaffinches often have several songs in common, but each bird usually has its own individual mix of songs.

The Impact of the Electric Telegraph

The advent of the electric telegraph－a device that sends electrical signals over wires－in the 1840s was as much a political as a technological milestone. The telegraph inaugurated a new phase in the history of communications, the rise of modern technological networks, and precipitated divergent national decisions about the role of the state that outlasted the telegraph itself. The new networks promised faster connections of people and places, of markets, armies, and governments－a change that was already in progress because of improvements in transportation. Steam power had only recently begun to accelerate movement on the oceans, rivers, and rails when the ”lightning” of the telegraph decoupled communication from transportation altogether. But many obstacles stood in the way of stretching the new iron cords across continents. Different jurisdictions and systems had conflicting policies and standards that needed to be reconciled, and the new networks required large capital investments as well as innovations in engineering and management. As in other formative periods, new technologies posed new choices. Would state security, commercial, or other interests guide the development of the new networks? What form of organization would they take? What sources would provide the capital and assume the risks?

Observing Natural Selection

Witnessing natural selection would not have seemed possible to Darwin because he assumed natural selection was too slow and gradual for our short-term minds to perceive. Yet later biologists have been able to witness flashes of evolutionary change. In the late 1980s, for example, biologist David Reznick began to use the guppies that swim in the streams of Trinidad forests in natural experiment. At lower elevations these guppies face the assault of predatory fishes, but the ones in higher waters live in peace because few of the predators can move upstream past the waterfalls and craggy rocks.

有時考生們會發現閱讀部分除了基本的三篇外，還會多兩篇，使整個閱讀時間從60 minutes延長為100 minutes。多的這一組便稱為「加試題」，其分數的比重遠不如基本的三篇(甚至坊間也有說法認為這不計分)，但由於考的多選自以下文章，同學正式考之前不妨上來花幾分鐘了解一下。

若加試題有計分，多多少少可以幫自己提升些閱讀分數囉！(不過事實上考生們考到閱讀加試題的機率是比較低的。)

Commonly appearing synonyms

Come check the answers and see how you've done!

Come do the right practice and nail the test!