Researchers at San Diego Zoo have been studying what has been described as the “

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Researchers at San Diego Zoo have been studying what has been described as the “secret language” of elephants. They have been monitoring（监测） communications between animals that cannot be heard by human ears.
The elephant’s call will be familiar to most people, but the animals also give out growls (低吼). Their growls, however, are only partly audible (听得见的); two-thirds of the call is at frequencies that are too low to be picked up by our hearing. To learn more about the inaudible part of the growl, the team attached (附在……上面) a microphone sensitive to these low frequencies and a GPS tracking system to eight of the zoo’s female elephants. The researchers could then relate the noises the animals were making to what they were doing. Matt Anderson, who led the project, told BBC News, “We’re excited to learn how they interact and contact with one another.”
The team has already learned that pregnant females use this low frequency communication to announce to the rest of their long gestation (妊娠期) of over two years, in the last 12 days we see the low part of the growl, which we can’t hear. This we believe is to announce to the rest of the herd that the baby is upcoming,” said Dr Anderson.
The researchers believe that this also warns the elephants to look out for coming danger. “You may think that a baby calf of about 300 pounds would not be as open to predation (捕食) as other species,” he says. “But packs of hyenas (袋狼) are a big threat in the wild.”
Female elephants are only in season for around four days every four years and these calls can be heard by males more than two miles away.
小题1:Why some elephants’ call is called “secret language”?

A．Because it can’t be heard by human ears.

B．Because it can only be heard by female elephants.

C．Because people don’t know its meanings.

D．Because people haven’t studied it completely.

小题2:By using a sensitive microphone and a GPS tracking system, the researchers wanted to find out             .

A．where the elephants usually go

B．what the elephants’ growls really mean

C．how mother elephants raise baby calves

D．how elephants protect their babies.

小题3:A pregnant elephant uses inaudible growls to           .

A．show the location where she is staying

B．ask for help when she losses her way

C．scare away the enemy

D．let others know she will have a baby

小题4:What is the passage mainly about?

A．The elephants can speak like people.

B．The wild elephants’ ways to fight against enemies.

C．The “secret language” between elephants.

D．The special life of female elephants.

答案

小题1:A
小题2:B
小题3:D
小题4:C

解析

试题分析：本文主要讲述的是对定位（大象）之间的语言的研究。
小题1:A 细节题。根据文章5,6行Their growls, however, are only partly audible (听得见的); two-thirds of the call is at frequencies that are too low to be picked up by our hearing.说明很多声音我们人类都无法听见，故称之为秘密语言，故A正确。
小题2:B 推理题。感觉第二段4,5行To learn more about the inaudible part of the growl, the team attached (附在……上面) a microphone sensitive to these low frequencies and a GPS tracking system to eight of the zoo’s female elephants.说明这样做是为了了解更多的关于我们听不见的语言，故B正确。
小题3:D 细节题。根据文章第三段3,4行in the last 12 days we see the low part of the growl, which we can’t hear. This we believe is to announce to the rest of the herd that the baby is upcoming,”说明大象用这样的声音通知同伴她要产仔了。故D正确。
小题4:C 主旨大意题。本文主要讲述的是对定位（大象）之间的语言的研究，文章举了具体的例子来说明。故C项正确。
点评：本文与一般的科普类短文不一样，是关于动物的语言的话题，词汇的难度较小，要养成在上下文串联中猜测词义的能力，根据上下文中出现的同义词，近义词，反义词，以及词义的解释来理解生词。同时要抓住文章的中心，不要受其他信息的影响。要根据题目及选项以及文章的上下文串联合理的判断推理。