400-820-0859Mimicry in Predator-Prey Relationships托福听力原文翻译及问题答案，今天常春藤就来为大家分析这个问题。
一、Mimicry in Predator-Prey Relationships托福听力原文：
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托福听力中文翻译：
旁白：听生物课上的一节课。
教授：我们一直在讨论捕食者与猎物的关系。有人总结一下我们上节课的内容吗？
男：我们专注于伪装，一个物种试图将其与周围环境融合，以躲避捕食者。你给了我们一些例子，比如章鱼。章鱼可以改变皮肤的颜色甚至纹理，使其与环境完美融合。
教授：好的，今天我将介绍一种改编：模仿。这里的术语没有什么特别之处，模仿没有模仿。只是模仿的意思。在生物学中，一组被称为拟态的有机体可以发展出一种模仿另一物种的外观、行为、声音或气味的行为特征。与伪装不同，模仿的目的不是融入周围环境，而是被误认为是其他物种。同样，我们是在捕食者-猎物关系的背景下讨论这个问题的。模仿通常被用作动物逃避捕食的一种方式，将自己伪装成另一个看起来不吸引人甚至危险的物种。当无害的东西模仿危险的东西时，这就是贝茨模仿。Batesian模仿的一个基本例子：一些苍蝇已经进化到模仿蜜蜂的黑色和黄色条纹，使自己看起来更危险。捕食者将攻击蜜蜂与被蛰联系在一起，因此他们避开蜜蜂。模仿蜜蜂的苍蝇希望捕食者认为它们能蜇人，但还有更复杂的情况。
我们最近在印度尼西亚海岸发现了一种章鱼，它不仅模仿一种动物，而且模仿几种动物。它是第一个也是唯一一个能做到这一点的已知物种。研究人员发现它模拟了两种特定类型的毒鱼和一种有毒的海蛇。它改变身体形状和动作以模仿这些有毒动物，当模仿有黄带和黑带的海蛇时，章鱼也会改变颜色以拥有这些彩色带。这一证据表明，它可以根据附近的捕食者来决定模仿哪种动物。
女：这实际上是一个让自己变成…我的意思是，为了应对特定的威胁而选择看起来像一个特定的外国人的理由？
教授：没错，举个例子，当有可能被附近的魟鱼攻击时，这只章鱼特别选择模仿海蛇，因为海蛇吃魡鱼。无论如何，这是一个戏剧性的发现。事实上，它可以进行多种伪装，这表明其他物种也可能具有这种能力。
好了，贝茨模仿就到此为止。现在，有些动物为了不同的目的而模仿。研究人员一直在研究生活在亚马逊丛林中的一只名叫玛吉的小猫。有一次，他们注意到玛吉模仿小罗望子的叫声，这是一种猴子。声音模仿本身并不少见。但是，它通常被用来吓跑食肉动物。奇怪的是，在这种情况下，这种关系是颠倒的。马盖斯捕食罗望子，所以它们不需要隐藏自己或让自己看起来更危险。这名玛吉反而试图发出恐惧或威胁的声音，通过听起来像被攻击的小罗望子来拉近罗望子。因此，马盖斯似乎不是用模仿来躲避捕食者，而是用模仿来吸引猎物，寻找下一顿饭。研究人员注意到，margays的高音尖叫声并不是很好地模仿小罗望子，但这种尖叫声吸引了成年罗望子的注意力。然而，没有一个罗望子真的成功了。当塔玛林人靠近哭声时，他们意识到它来自马盖河，并在受到攻击之前逃跑了。
即便如此，margays甚至使用了这种技术，这表明他们过去在这方面取得了一些成功。也许我们只是在休息日观察他们。马盖斯可能不是亚马逊地区唯一采用狡猾策略的猫科动物。生活在亚马逊的人们说，他们听说过其他猫科动物，如老虎或美洲狮，用这种方式欺骗猎物。但这些只是轶事报道，还需要研究人员证实。这种模仿可能不是天生的。玛姬的妈妈们可能会教给他们的孩子，所以可能不是所有的玛姬都有这种能力。这可能只是家庭内部的一种习得行为。
三、Mimicry in Predator-Prey Relationships托福听力问题：
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托福听力答案：
A1:正确答案：D
A2:正确答案：B
A3:正确答案：C
A4:正确答案：AD
A5:正确答案：C
