Orangutan treats his wound with a medicinal plant

In a new paper, researchers describe how a male orangutan (红毛猩猩) chewed the leaves of a plant used in traditional medicine and applied them to a wound on his cheek. 【小题1】

In June 2022, the researchers observed a male Sumatran orangutan, known as Rakus, with a fresh wound on his cheek. 【小题2】 He chewed the leaves of a plant and then applied the resulting juices directly onto his facial wound. He repeated this behavior for seven minutes and then, as a last step, fully covered the wound with the chewed leaves. He then continued feeding on the plant for 30 minutes. Over the following days, there were no signs of infection. The wound closed within five days.

“What is interesting is that this behavior seems to be intentional and goal-oriented.” says study lead author Isabelle Laumer, a cognitive biologist in Germany. “He precisely applied the plant matter to his wound several times over a prolonged period. 【小题3】 ”

Self-medication has been documented in multiple wild primate (灵长类) species, but not applying them to recent wounds. There is only one other study of active wound treatment by great apes. Several years ago, researchers reported one population of chimpanzees in Gabon, applied flying insects to their own wounds. However, the researchers could not identify the insects or make any conclusions about the effectiveness of the treatment.

【小题4】 Perhaps he accidentally touched a wound while feeding on a plant and experienced its analgesic (镇痛的) effects, causing him to repeat the behavior. It is also possible that Rakus previously learned the behavior from other orangutans, since young orangutans rely on social learning to acquire the skills necessary for adult life.

A．Three days later, they saw an interesting chain of events.

B．And he selectively treated his wound and not any other body parts.

C．Rakus may have observed his mother demonstrating how to treat wounds.

D．Laumer and colleagues do not know how or where this behavior originated.

E．The findings may provide insights into the evolution of this behavior among humans.

F．It’s the first report of suspected wound treatment by a wild animal using a plant with known medicinal properties.

Can a Pill Fight Loneliness?

“Have you ever taken a walk in the woods and jumped back because you saw a stick on the ground and thought it was a snake,” asks researcher Stephanie Cacioppo. “The lonely people see snakes all the time.”

Cacioppo is talking about a long-term loneliness contradiction: A person’s brain feels that something is wrong and that they should connect with others. 【小题1】 Consequently, they focus on the negative signals they think they’re getting, which keeps them from connecting.

【小题2】 That’s the focus of a clinical experiment that Cacioppo is overseeing. For a year and a half, 96 lonely but healthy subjects have been taking a certain amount of pregnenolone, a chemical substance associated with memory enhancement and stress reduction.

The goal of the research is to see how balancing pregnenolone levels affects the subjects. The pill could help reduce the fear that makes lonely people withdraw and act more calmly in social situations. 【小题3】 The idea is that a pill could clear your view, helping you see things clearly instead of feeling afraid of everyone. Then you become more willing to listen to others.

While developing a pill to address the brain signals that lead to loneliness holds promise, it should not be seen as the only solution. 【小题4】 Building meaningful relationships is just as important as eating right and exercising.

A．Could a pill make social situations feel less threatening?

B．Social connections are also essential for a healthy lifestyle.

C．It’s like driving in the winter when you can’t see clearly.

D．Is there a strong connection between memory enhancement and stress reduction?

E．At the same time, it can also make them defensive when judging others.

F．Unfortunately, the fear will appear repeatedly and influence your perception of things.

Little Miss Mozart

An 11-year-old British composer earned comparisons with Mozart after her opera opened in Vienna to enthusiastic applause. Alma Deutscher, who lived in Surrey with her parents, was already world-famous as a violinist and pianist before her first full-length opera made its first performance on the Austrian stage.

【小题1】 Cinderella was a composer whom Deutscher described as “a bit like me”. Deutscher said much of the musical inspiration behind Cinderella and other compositions came when her mind was elsewhere. During an interview with NBC’s Today show, she explained that trying to create beautiful melodies on demand often resulted in a blank mind. 【小题2】

The opera is two and a half hours long with the musical score running to 237 pages. 【小题3】 Deutscher said the prince having to ask whose foot would fit the slipper didn’t make much sense. Lots of people might have the same sized foot, but only one person could have written that melody.

Conductor Simon Rattle declared he was “absolutely bowled over” when he first saw her perform, but it was Stephen Fry who first predicted that Deutscher could be this generation’s Mozart, after watching a video of her performing online. 【小题4】 She said, “I love Mozart very much. He’s probably my favourite composer, but I don’t really like it when people call me ‘Little Miss Mozart’ because I don’t like being called ‘little’. I’m very big, and secondly, if I just wrote everything Mozart wrote again it would be boring. ”

A．However, it is not a comparison that the 11-year-old is particularly keen on.

B．Interestingly, it was often during unexpected moments that a beautiful melody suddenly came to her.

C．Deutscher’s most ambitious work has enabled the audience to see her talent.

D．Instead of the glass slipper of the fairytale, the prince looks for a lost melody he cannot quite remember.

E．The work reinvented the Cinderella fairytale to be set in an opera house ruled by a mean stepmother.

F．She never got nervous on stage, as she was just happy that people wanted to listen to her music.

Poetry Is NOT Dead

Well-known contemporary poets like Rupi Kaur, Atticus, Lang Leav and Christopher Poindexter began their careers by posting on social websites. 【小题1】 Based on the hundreds of thousands of poetry accounts and millions of poems shared across multiple digital platforms, it is obvious that poetry is not dead.

Technology—specifically, social media—is not only shaping how we share and read poetry; it is also shaping contemporary poetic forms. Just as ancient epics and Shakespearen sonnets created influential movements, digital poetry is changing what we write and how we write it. Social media platforms support shortness. 【小题2】 This need for shortness has led to the rise in popularity of micropoetry, which is simply a short poem of no more than one hundred words and two verses. If you are looking to grow your followers in the world of digital poetry, length is everything. The most popular poetry accounts on digital platforms are the ones that specialize in micropoems.

【小题3】 Contemporary poets use background images and illustrations to enhance their poems, and show what a poem is describing. The ability to modify images using free phone apps means that poets can do this quickly, easily and without having to pay for expensive software.

There is no doubt that poetry is not only surviving in the age of social media, it is gaining popularity. Contemporary poets can find a place for their voice and experience in the digital poetry communities available online. 【小题4】 And just as it has throughout history, it will continue to be an influential part of the creative landscape.

A．They are among those who worry about the impact of modern technology on poetry.

B．In order to make a connection in this fast-paced, easily-distracted world, a poem often needs to be readable within minutes, or even seconds.

C．The visual nature of these sharing platforms has also given rise to the combination of words and art.

D．Art has long been a good friend of poetry.

E．Poetry continues to be an important form of modern expression.

F．They, along with countless others like them, are leading a comeback of this time-honored literary form.

The Benefits of Talking to Your Dog

It’s common for people to chat with their dogs throughout the day— about what each other is doing or how cute or playful the pup is. It’s a gentle reminder of what’s meaningful. “When you talk to your dog, you get a sense that this is why you’ re here— no matter what happens at work or with your finances, your dog still loves you and needs you, and that gives you a sense of purpose,” says Larry Young, an expert on social bonding at Emory University.

【小题1】 In a 2018 study, researchers found that people are more willing to reveal to their dogs about difficult emotions, such as depression, jealousy, anxiety, and fear, than they are with their romantic partners or friends.

The precise reasons for this aren’t known but one possibility is that “pets are good, nonjudgmental listeners because they don’t interrupt or reply,” says study coauthor Daniel Mills, a specialist in human- animal relationships at the University of Lincoln. 【小题2】 There’s value in simply expressing emotions, especially troublesome ones. Research has found that when people put their emotions into words, their negative feelings become less intense.

Another hidden advantage: Your dog isn’t going to engage in a conversation about what’s bothering you, which could keep you thinking about it. 【小题3】 “Dogs use emotionally controlling strategies,” Mills says. “Their desire to play draws you away from being sad or angry.”

Further support for this phenomenon comes from a 2022 study. It was found that by engaging in micro- breaks to pet their pup, the people are able to relax and recover— in ways that interacting with unfurry family members doesn’t.

【小题4】 “They can sense when we’re upset— and they are arguably better at reading us than some people are,” says Kogan. And “because we know that our dogs read us so well, we regulate ourselves so as not to upset our dogs, which is helpful for us as well.” It’s a positive feedback loop(反馈回路).

A．A dog won’t try to fix the problem the way some people do.

B．Dogs are not just pets but beloved members of a family.

C．Dogs are fantastic at reading us.

D．Reading and understanding the needs of pets helps improve our overall emotional well-being.

E．Talking to your dog about emotionally frustrating issues can be particularly beneficial.

F．They’re more likely to distract you.

Machine identifies songs from people’s brainwaves

Artificial intelligence has learned to identify the songs someone is listening to from their brain readings.

Derek Lomas at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and his colleagues asked 20 people to listen to 12 songs through headphones. 【小题1】 Each person’s brainwaves were recorded using an EEG (脑电图) cap that detects electrical activity.

The EEG readings from each person were cut into short pieces and used along with the matching music clip to train an AI to spot patterns between the two. 【小题2】 But the software struggles if it is trained on EEG data from one person and then attempts to identify a song when someone else listens to it. Accuracy in such tests fell to less than one in every ten attempts.

【小题3】 And people tend to focus on different elements of the music during training. Ultimately, however, they aim to identify aspects of EEG responses to music that are common to all humans.

【小题4】 “I think it’s really stimulating to think about how the combination of machine learning and high-density (高密度的) data from EEG can be combined to bring insights into moving emotional experiences, but also to figure out what’s going on inside your head,” he says.

Music is ultimately “just electrical signals,” he says. “And it’s the same with the EEG.”

A．Lomas hopes that this will further our understanding of the brain, as well as boost knowledge of how and why humans consume music.

B．The AI was then tested on unseen portions of the data, identifying songs with a precision of 85 per cent.

C．The experiment was conducted to determine if AI could replace human musicians.

D．This suggests that the AI’s ability to identify songs highly depends on the individual’s brain activity.

E．The volunteers did this blindfolded and in a faintly lit room to minimise the effect of their other senses on the results.

F．The researchers believe that this is due to each person’s preference towards a song being unique.