2026年真题25

Listen to a talk on a marine biology podcast (man) There are many species out there that we wouldn’t expect to see flying, mammals, reptiles. One fascinating creature is the flying squid. Now, squid have fins, arms, tentacles, and gills for breathing. Their main body, the mantle, is basically a tube of muscle that water goes inside of while they swim. When this mantle clamps shut it, it pumps the water out, which propels the squid through water quite quickly. It’s like a little jet pack, and, uh, flying squid are able to propel themselves right up through the ocean surface and into the air above. Another unexpected flying creature is the flying squirrel, which can simply glide, sometimes quickly and for long distances between tree branches. However, unlike the flying squirrel, flying squid not only glides but can actually propel themselves upward and, well, a flying squid can accelerate as fast as a car, getting up to one-hundred kilometers per hour in about a second. Then, the squid extends its tentacles and arms, and it has membranes between them that spread out and help the squid glide for several seconds, a bit like temporary wings. A squid in flight is likely to be fleeing from an underwater predator or a ship. There are some alternative theories, though. One is that it’s a migration strategy, since moving through the air takes less energy and time than moving through water.

Listen to a talk on a history podcast (man) In the nineteenth century, cities in the United States became crowded. Many businesses and apartments were housed in tall buildings. Fires became a major concern. Most fire track ladders only reached the fourth floor, which wasn’t high enough. Although laws were passed to require escape routes, many early ideas were impractical. Like one idea was to attach a parachute to your head. A parachute idea? Well, this wouldn’t work too well, would it? Other such ideas were met with resistance, too. Enter Anna Connolly, who received patents for fire escapes in the nineteenth century. Anna Connolly’s initial fire escape design was a bridge so people could safely go up to the roof or upper floors of their own building, cross to the building next door, and go down the stairs there. This made good sense since most fires started on the lower floors of buildings. After this design, Connelly created another that was a series of platforms attached to the side of a building with ladders connecting to them. She specified they’d be made of iron, since iron is fireproof and resists pressure. Well, this design worked, was practical, and was adopted across the country. Connolly’s fire escapes saved lives. These days, buildings in the US are built with interior stairwells that are fireproof for escape and are not visible from the outside, but you can still see Connolly’s design on older buildings in cities.

Listen to a lecture in an astrobiology class (woman) In 1967, astronomer Carl Sagan and biology Harold Morowitz published a provocative paper in the journal Nature. At the time, most scientists assumed extraterrestrial life could only exist on planets with Earth-like surfaces, moderate temperatures, liquid water and a solid ground to stand on. Sagan and Morowitz challenged that assumption. They argued that while Venus’s surface is far too hot for life, hot enough to melt lead, the planet’s upper cloud layers were a different story. About fifty kilometers above the surface, temperatures and pressures resemble those on Earth’s surface. They speculated that microbial life could survive in those clouds, floating in droplets of sulfuric acid and water vapor, adapted to extreme acidity and using sunlight as a source of energy. To make their case, Sagan and Morowitz pointed to early analogs, microbes thriving in the acidic hot springs of Yellowstone National Park in the United States. These springs are pools heated by geothermal energy, rich in minerals and often highly acidic. Yet certain extremophiles, microbes adapted to harsh conditions, flourish there, using chemical reactions to survive. If life can adapt to boiling acidic water on Earth, they reasoned, why not to acidic clouds on Venus? Their argument was speculative, but it cracked open the idea that life is not confined to Earth-like surfaces, which is significant because a large percentage of the planets in the universe don’t even have a solid surface at all.

Listen to a talk on a science podcast (man) If you were to take a walk in the Arctic tundra, you’d be walking over permafrost, a soil layer that has remained frozen for thousands of years. As global temperatures rise, however, the stability of this permafrost is compromised. And this brings something into play that you might not expect, microbes. Now, you might wonder, why does such tiny organisms even matter? It’s because when permafrost thaws, dormant microbes activate and decompose organic material, releasing greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. OK, so this actually initiates a feedback loop. The emission of gases accelerates warming, and that warming leads to further thawing of permafrost. This kind of cycle is a relatively recent discovery, and it’s more influential than previously assumed. To put it in perspective, permafrost holds about double the carbon present in the entire atmosphere. This means we have to understand microbial activities if we want to forecast future climate trends. To address this issue, researchers use sophisticated models analyzing a number of elements, including the specific microbial species in these thawing soils. But what are the implications if these feedback loops persist? Well, it could lead to a significant rise in atmospheric greenhouse gases, intensifying global warming.