Mimicry in Predator-Prey Relationships托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案

Mimicry in Predator-Prey Relationships托福聽力原文翻譯及問題答案，今天中國教育在線就來為大家分析這個問題。

一、Mimicry in Predator-Prey Relationships托福聽力原文：

Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a biology class.

Professor:We’ve been discussing predator-prey relationships.Will someone summarize what we went over last class?

Male:We focused on camouflaging where a species tries to blend it with its surroundings in order to hide from predators.You gave us examples like the octopus.Octopuses can change the color and even the texture of their skin to blend in really well with their environment.

Professor:Okay,and today I will type of adaption:mimicry.Nothing fancy about the term here,mimicry—no mimic.Just means to imitate.In biology,a group of organisms,called mimics,can develop a trait of behavior that imitates the appearance,the behavior,sound or scent of another species.Unlike with camouflage,the goal of mimicry is not to blend into its surrounding,the goal is to be mistaken as some other species.Again,we’re talking about this in the context of predator-prey relationships.Mimicry is usually used as a way for animals to avoid predation by disguising themselves as another species that looks unappealing or even dangerous.When something harmless imitates something dangerous,that’s Batesian mimicry.A basic example of Batesian mimicry:some flies have evolved to mimic the black and yellow stripes of bees to make themselves look more dangerous.Predators associate attacking bees with getting stung so they avoid bees.Flies mimicking bees want predators to think they can sting,but there are more complex cases.

We recently discovered a type of octopus off the coast of Indonesia that mimics not just one animal,but several.It’s the first and the only known species that can do this.Researchers found it impersonating two specific types of poisonous fish and one type of poisonous sea snake.It shifts its body shape and its movements to resemble these toxic animals and when mimicking the sea snake which has yellow and black bands,the octopus also changes color to have these colored bands.This evidence that it may decide which animal to mimic based on which predator is nearby.

Female:It’s actually a reason to turn itself into…I mean,choosing to look like a particular foreign in response to a particular threat?

Professor:Exactly,for instance,when there’s the threat of being attacked by a nearby damselfish,this octopus specifically chooses to mimic the sea snake,because the sea snake eats damselfish.Anyway,it’s a dramatic finding.The fact that it can take on multiple disguises suggests other species might have this capability too.

Okay,so much for Batesian mimicry.Now,some animals use mimicry for a different purpose.Researchers have been studying the margay,a small cat that lives in the Amazon jungle.One time,they noticed the margay mimicking the cry of baby tamarins,a type of monkey.Vocal mimicry itself isn’t unusual.But,it’s usually used to scare a predator’s species away.What’s odd is that in this case,the relationship is reversed.Margays prey on tamarins,so they don’t need to hide themselves or make themselves seem more dangerous.This margay instead tried to sound scared or threatened,to draw tamarins in close by sounding like a baby tamarin that’s being attacked.So it seems that rather than using mimicry to avoid the predator,margays are actually using it to attract their prey,to find their next meal.The researchers noted that the margays’high-pitched squeals weren’t a very good imitation of a baby tamarin,but that the squealing sound attracted the attention of adult tamarins away.Still,none of the tamarins really sealed the trick.When tamarins got closer to the crying sound,they realized it was coming from the margay and escaped before they could be attacked.

Even so,that margays even use this technique suggests that they’ve had some success with it in the past.Maybe we were just observing them on an off day.And margays probably aren’t the only cat species in the Amazon adopting sneaky strategies.People who live in the Amazon have said that they’ve heard other cat species like tigers or cougars tricking their prey this way.But those are just anecdotal reports and they still have to be confirmed by researchers.This type of mimicry may not be an innate,inborn trait.Margay moms may teach it to their young,so it’s possible that not all margays have this capability.It might just be a learned behavior kept within families.

二、Mimicry in Predator-Prey Relationships托福聽力中文翻譯：

旁白：聽生物課上的一節(jié)課。

教授：我們一直在討論捕食者與獵物的關系。有人總結一下我們上節(jié)課的內(nèi)容嗎？

男：我們專注于偽裝，一個物種試圖將其與周圍環(huán)境融合，以躲避捕食者。你給了我們一些例子，比如章魚。章魚可以改變皮膚的顏色甚至紋理，使其與環(huán)境完美融合。

教授：好的，今天我將介紹一種改編：模仿。這里的術語沒有什么特別之處，模仿沒有模仿。只是模仿的意思。在生物學中，一組被稱為擬態(tài)的有機體可以發(fā)展出一種模仿另一物種的外觀、行為、聲音或氣味的行為特征。與偽裝不同，模仿的目的不是融入周圍環(huán)境，而是被誤認為是其他物種。同樣，我們是在捕食者-獵物關系的背景下討論這個問題的。模仿通常被用作動物逃避捕食的一種方式，將自己偽裝成另一個看起來不吸引人甚至危險的物種。當無害的東西模仿危險的東西時，這就是貝茨模仿。Batesian模仿的一個基本例子：一些蒼蠅已經(jīng)進化到模仿蜜蜂的黑色和黃色條紋，使自己看起來更危險。捕食者將攻擊蜜蜂與被蟄聯(lián)系在一起，因此他們避開蜜蜂。模仿蜜蜂的蒼蠅希望捕食者認為它們能蜇人，但還有更復雜的情況。

我們最近在印度尼西亞海岸發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種章魚，它不僅模仿一種動物，而且模仿幾種動物。它是第一個也是唯一一個能做到這一點的已知物種。研究人員發(fā)現(xiàn)它模擬了兩種特定類型的毒魚和一種有毒的海蛇。它改變身體形狀和動作以模仿這些有毒動物，當模仿有黃帶和黑帶的海蛇時，章魚也會改變顏色以擁有這些彩色帶。這一證據(jù)表明，它可以根據(jù)附近的捕食者來決定模仿哪種動物。

女：這實際上是一個讓自己變成…我的意思是，為了應對特定的威脅而選擇看起來像一個特定的外國人的理由？

教授：沒錯，舉個例子，當有可能被附近的魟魚攻擊時，這只章魚特別選擇模仿海蛇，因為海蛇吃魡魚。無論如何，這是一個戲劇性的發(fā)現(xiàn)。事實上，它可以進行多種偽裝，這表明其他物種也可能具有這種能力。

好了，貝茨模仿就到此為止?，F(xiàn)在，有些動物為了不同的目的而模仿。研究人員一直在研究生活在亞馬遜叢林中的一只名叫瑪吉的小貓。有一次，他們注意到瑪吉模仿小羅望子的叫聲，這是一種猴子。聲音模仿本身并不少見。但是，它通常被用來嚇跑食肉動物。奇怪的是，在這種情況下，這種關系是顛倒的。馬蓋斯捕食羅望子，所以它們不需要隱藏自己或讓自己看起來更危險。這名瑪吉反而試圖發(fā)出恐懼或威脅的聲音，通過聽起來像被攻擊的小羅望子來拉近羅望子。因此，馬蓋斯似乎不是用模仿來躲避捕食者，而是用模仿來吸引獵物，尋找下一頓飯。研究人員注意到，margays的高音尖叫聲并不是很好地模仿小羅望子，但這種尖叫聲吸引了成年羅望子的注意力。然而，沒有一個羅望子真的成功了。當塔瑪林人靠近哭聲時，他們意識到它來自馬蓋河，并在受到攻擊之前逃跑了。

即便如此，margays甚至使用了這種技術，這表明他們過去在這方面取得了一些成功。也許我們只是在休息日觀察他們。馬蓋斯可能不是亞馬遜地區(qū)唯一采用狡猾策略的貓科動物。生活在亞馬遜的人們說，他們聽說過其他貓科動物，如老虎或美洲獅，用這種方式欺騙獵物。但這些只是軼事報道，還需要研究人員證實。這種模仿可能不是天生的?，敿У膵寢寕兛赡軙探o他們的孩子，所以可能不是所有的瑪姬都有這種能力。這可能只是家庭內(nèi)部的一種習得行為。

三、Mimicry in Predator-Prey Relationships托福聽力問題：

Q1:What is the main topic of the lecture?

A.A reconsideration of a way predators can evolve

B.New evidence about predators tricking their prey

C.Differences between mimicry and camouflage

D.Uses of mimicry in predator-prey relationships

Q2:Why does the professor mention flies?

A.To explain an unusual case of Batesian mimicry

B.To give an example of a harmless species mimicking a dangerous one

C.To share the findings of a research study on camouflaging

D.To explain why many types of insects prefer to live near bees

Q3:What makes the type of octopus discovered off the coast of Indonesia particularly interesting to scientists?

A.It is extremely poisonous to other animals.

B.It can change both color and texture to blend in with its environment.

C.It can imitate different animals in different situations.

D.It tricks prey into thinking it is a harmless type of snake.

Q4:What does the professor say about vocal mimicry?Click on 2 answers.

A.It is a behavior that is not uncommon in nature.

B.Marine organisms have never been observed using it.

C.It is a behavior that is genetically determined rather than learned.

D.Using it to attract prey instead of to scare predators is unusual.

Q5:The professor discusses researchers'observations of a margay mimicking a tamarin.What does she indicate about those observations?

A.The researchers scared away the tamarins before the margay could attack.

B.The observations were not carried out in a scientific manner.

C.The observations did not provide conclusive evidence that margays'mimicry is effective.

D.The researchers established that baby tamarins respond to margay calls.

四、Mimicry in Predator-Prey Relationships托福聽力答案：

A1:正確答案：D

A2:正確答案：B

A3:正確答案：C

A4:正確答案：AD

A5:正確答案：C

>> 雅思 托福 免費測試、量身規(guī)劃、讓英語學習不再困難<<