Title the crow

Author(s) wikipedia

Date of access 2012 05 01

URL (or Resources) /wiki/Crow

Ⅰ. Information about your reading

Corvuswith strong bills and legs. The sexes are not very different in appearance.

Crows appear to have America, Africa, Europe, and Australia.The latest evidence regarding the crow's evolution indicates descent within the Australasian family Corvidae. However, the branch that would produce the modern groups such as jays, magpies and large predominantly black Corvus had left Australasia Asia by the time the Corvus evolved. Corvus has since re-entered Australia (relatively recently) and produced five species with one recognized sub-species. The genus was originally described by Linnaeus in his 18th century work Systema Naturae. The name the Latin Corvus meaning "raven" .The type species is the Common Raven (Corvus corax)(C. corone), the Hooded Crow (C. cornix), the Rook (C. frugilegus), and the Jackdaw (C. monedula). The genus was originally broader, as the Magpie was designated C. pica before later being moved into a genus of its own. There are now considered to be at least 42 extant species in this genus, and at least 14 extinct species have been described.

There is not a good systematic the genus at present. In general, it is that the species from a geographical area are more closely related to each other than to other lineages, but this is not necessarily correct. For example, while the Carrion/Collared/House Crow complex is certainly closely related to each other, the situation is not at all clear regarding the Australian/Melanesian species. Furthermore, as many species are similar in appearance, determining actual range and characteristics can be very difficult, such as in Australia where the five (possibly six)

score very highly on intelligence tests. Certain species top the avian IQ scale. Wild hooded crows in Israel have learned to use bread crumbs for bait-fishing. Crows will engage in a kind of mid-air jousting, or air-"chicken" to establish pecking order. Crows have been found to engage in feats such as sports, tool use, the ability to hide and store food across seasons, episodic-like memory, and the ability to use individual experience in predicting the behavior of environmental conspecifics. One species, the New Caledonian Crow, has also been intensively studied recently because of its ability to manufacture and use its own tools in the day-to-day search for food. These tools include 'knives' cut from stiff leaves and stiff stalks of grass.

Another skill involves dropping tough nuts into a trafficked street and waiting for a car to crush them open. On October 5, 2007, researchers from the University of

Oxford, England presented data acquired by mounting tiny video cameras on the tails of New Caledonian Crows. It turned out that they use a larger variety of tools than previously known, plucking, smoothing, and bending twigs and grass stems to procure a variety of foodstuffs.

Recent research suggests that crows have the ability to recognize one individual human from another by facial features

The amount you spent reading the article 40min

Ⅱ. Comments on the article

ⅰ. Note down five useful words you learned from your reading and translate them into Chinese.

1. plumage 羽毛 2. assume 认为 3. identical完全相同的 4. remarkable 非凡的

5. feat 技能

ⅱ. Note down five useful expressions you learned from your reading and make one sentence for each expression.

1. ( useful expression and translation) radiated out into 传播至 发展至

( sentence you made) the light radiate out into almost everywhere to swap away the darkness.

2. (useful expression and translation) be concentrated in 集中于

(sentence you made) he was totally concentrated in the adventure story so that he didn’t notice his mother had been into his room.

3. (useful expression and translation) be derived from 来自于

(sentence you made) All of his knowledge is derived from his experiences in his old age.

4. (useful expression and translation) in the same work 以同样方式

(sentence you made) Jesus was named by searching the dictionary of the page with the date of his birth，his younger brothers are named in the same work.

5. (useful expression and translation) approach to 对于

(sentence you made) It is advisable to take an open- minded approach to new idea

Ⅲ. Choose any one among the four topics to finish a short paragragh more than 60 words, including at least half of the words and expressions mentioned in the two parts above. a. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the article?

b. What is the part of the article that had the greatest impact on you? Why?

c. Is the writing effective, powerful, peaceful or beautiful?

d. What new facts did you learn that you hadn’t known before?

e. If you could talk to the author, what would you say?

f. What did you learn about yourself as a result of reading this article?

The topic talked about the characteristics of the crows including the description, evolutionary history and systematics, even the intelligent. It is obviously showed that crows has remarkable advantage over other birds with those feats namely tool use, memory and use individual experience in predicting the behavior of environmental conspecifics. And it’s assumed that crows can recognize one individual human from another by facial features, if it is proved to be true ,this ability would probably used in recognizing people exactly by the feature covered. It will be a big step of human-being.

第二篇：英语阅读与写作的关系 教学论文

英语阅读与写作的关系

阅读是培养学生的英语应用能力的一种重要形式，它和写作一样属于书面能力。阅读要求的是理解和领悟能力，写作要求的是运用和表达能力。读和写的关系相当密切，互为促进。只有通过对读的逐步领会，才能转化为写作的正确表达。

阅读教学是学生在教师的组织引导下，学习阅读材料中涵盖的语言知识，理解材料内容，从而培养并提高阅读效率的教与学的活动。英语阅读教学对培养和提高学生的写作能力有着非常重要的影响。

1.英语阅读教学可以为写作储备丰富的语言知识。

扎实的语言基本功是学生学习英语的必备条件，它包括词汇、语法、固定句式、固定搭配、习惯用语等方面的基本知识。这些基本知识又主要是在长期的阅读中建立、巩固和积累起来的。阅读教学是扩大学生词汇量有效途径：对于中国学生来讲，学习英语的第一大难关就是英语词汇。学生的作文水平难以提高，感到有话说不出来，一定程度上也是因为其词汇量的限制所造成的。而一个学生的词汇量的大小又直接取决于起阅读量的大小。一方面，通过阅读教学，学生可以加深对已学单词的理解和记忆，使这些词汇在多次的接触和运用中得到巩固。根据信息加工理论，对信息多一遍识记，也就多一遍加工，学生对已学的单词多接触一次，他们的理解就加深一次，对这些单词在具体语言环境中的含义及其用法也就会有更加全面而深入的了解，从而加深它们的记忆。书面语言是写作者在书面输出信息过程中使用的语言。英语格言、警句、固定表达、习惯用语均属书面语言的范围。书面语言与口头语言相比较，更有稳定性的特点。学生通过阅读教学，可以积累一些英语格言、警句，记住一些习惯用语，固定句型，从而丰富自己的书面语言，为英语写作是构建一个更大的英语语料库。

2.英语阅读教学可以培养学生的语感

语感是人们直接感觉和领悟语言的一种能力。英语语感的形成来源于大量的语言实践。在语言实践中，人们通过看或读广泛地接触语言材料，积累语言知识，于是语言知识作为信息呈现于认知机能，使之逐渐产生对英语语言的直觉认知，从而克服汉语的干扰，形成英语的思维定势。很显然，英语阅读教学对培养学生英语的语感有着非常重要的作用。在阅读教学中，教师通过分析材料在体裁、结构、内容、语言上的特点，结合各种课堂活动，指导学生有目的地进行阅读；学生通过和英语不断的接触，自然而然地形成对英语的知觉认知，从而养成一定的英语语感。在英语写作中，就有可能自觉的排除汉语的干扰，有效遏制中式英语现象。

3.英语阅读教学可以提供广泛的写作素材

素材是指作者从生活中收集到的、尚未加工提炼的各种客观事物和生活现象。积累素材，就是作者将通过各种感知活动所摄取的人、事、物、景在大脑中记忆中储存起来。离开了人的感知活动、实践活动、素材是无法进行的。素材是文章的血肉，写作必须言之有物，所以，写作离不开素材的积累，如果没有大量的素材积累，写作者便无法写出内容丰富，详实感人的文章。英语阅读教学是学生积累写作素材的最重要途径之一。这是因为通过英语阅读教学，可以开拓学生视野，增加学生阅历，丰富学生的内心世界。

4.英语阅读教学可以培养写作技能

写作技能的培养提高是离不开阅读教学。下面就两个方面来谈阅读教学对提高写作技能的影响。1）通过篇章理解培养构建篇章的能力。阅读和写作都是建立在语篇的基础上的，思想的交流，信息的传递并不是简单的“词汇+语法”。可以说，脱离了篇章结构分析的阅读教学，

学生对文章内容的理解往往是支离破碎的。这里所说的建构篇章的能力是指作者根据自己的写作意图，为文章谋篇布局的能力，也就是写作者安排文章整体框架和段落层次的能力。这种能力对作文的成功与否至关重要，因为即使词语再准确，内容再生动，没有一定的篇章知识和构建篇章的能力，就会有文无篇。而这些篇章知识，建构篇章的技能是可能在阅读教学中获得和发展的。阅读模式告知我们：高一级的信息都影响着低一级信息的加工。所以，在英语阅读教学中，学生可以采用自上而下，先见森林后见木的阅读方式，首先通过阅读，揣摩作者的意图，把握文章的整体框架结构，在此基础上，通过对文章的各个段落层次的分析，领悟文章句与句，段与段之间的逻辑联系及写作者所采用的各种衔接手段，领会文章的各种表现手法和谋篇布局上的特点，并借以掌握英语写作的内在规律，采取自上而下的思维方式，明白组句成章的各种原则，进而增强篇章意识，学会从宏观的角度构筑文章的框架结构，为将来的英语写作准备必要的技能。2）通过模仿培养写作技能。阅读的过程，也就是模拟写作的过程，在阅读课堂上学生要解译出写作者发送出来的各种信息，达到交际的目的，就得参与到写作者的角色里去，把阅读材料当作全面了解写作者的范文，领悟写作者在范文中采用的各种写作手法和表达技巧。然后在多种形式的语言实践活动中，采用写提纲、改写范文、模仿范文进行写作训练等活动中，反复借鉴、模仿写作者的写作手法和表达技巧。在反复的实际运用中，熟能生巧，形成学生自己的写作技能，为进一步的独立写作创造条件。

阅读教学是英语教学中最为关键的一环，英语阅读教学在发展学生的能力中起着无法替代的作用，通过阅读教学，它既可以促使学生储备丰富的语言基本知识，培养语感，为学生英语作文提供广泛的写作素材，同时又能陶冶学生情操，培养学生写作技能，从而对学生英语作文综合能力的提高产生重大影响。