Effects of urban environments on animals - IELTS Listening with Practice test, Audio, Transcript, And Explanation

Luyện tập đề IELTS Listening Practice với bài Effects of urban environments on animals được lấy từ cuốn sách IELTS CAM Inspired 13 - Test 1 - Section 4 với trải nghiệm thi IELTS trên máy và giải thích đáp án chi tiết bằng Linearthinking.

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Effects of urban environments on animals

Introduction
Recent urban development represents a major environmental shift.
Only a few species were once considered suited to city life:
the 1.
            
﻿
, because it can adjust to many conditions
the pigeon, because city walls resemble natural 2.
            
﻿
Many urban animals are actually adapting at unusual 3.
            
﻿
.
Recent research
Emilie Snell-Rood studied museum specimens of small urban mammals in Minnesota.
The size of their 4.
            
﻿
 had increased.
This may reflect the need to find new sources of 5.
            
﻿
 and respond to unfamiliar dangers.
Catarina Miranda studied the 6.
            
﻿
 of urban and rural blackbirds.
City birds were often brave, but remained cautious when situations were 7.
            
﻿
.
Jonathan Atwell examined how animals react to city surroundings.
Some animals respond to 8.
            
﻿
 by producing lower hormone levels.
Sarah Partan’s team studied squirrel communication.
Urban squirrels use their 9.
            
﻿
 as a visual signal.
Long-term possibilities
Animals unique to cities may eventually develop, although some changes may not be 10.
            
﻿
.

❓ Transcript

Effects Of Urban Environments On Animals

You will hear a lecturer discussing the effects of urban environments on animals.

First, you have some time to look at questions 31 to 40.

Now listen carefully and answer questions 31 to 40.

Today I want to consider what happens to animals when towns and cities expand around them.

In evolutionary terms, urban development is an enormous environmental change compressed into a very short period.

It was once assumed that only a handful of species could manage city life.

A familiar example is the crow, whose broad diet and flexible habits make it exceptionally adaptable.

Another is the pigeon.

The vertical faces of buildings provide ledges resembling the cliffs where its ancestors nested.

Research now shows that these well-known species were only the first arrivals.

Many animals are changing their habits and even their bodies, and the striking feature is the speed at which this is happening.

At the University of Minnesota, Emily Snell Rood and her colleagues examined museum specimens of small mammals such as mice and gophers.

The collections covered roughly a century, allowing urban and rural animals to be compared across time.

In the city specimens, the brain had become larger while most other body measurements remained stable.

That does not prove the animals are generally more intelligent.

Snell Rood suggests that a more demanding environment may favor better problem solving, for example, locating unfamiliar sources of food and coping with hazards that do not occur in the countryside.

In Germany, Katerina Miranda compared the behavior of urban and rural blackbirds.

City birds were usually bolder around familiar threats.

However, a situation that was new, something they had never encountered, still made them cautious.

In a place where conditions change rapidly, that selective caution is useful.

Jonathan Atwell has investigated how a range of animals respond physiologically to urban surroundings.

Some populations exposed repeatedly to stress-release lower levels of certain hormones.

That may be an adaptation.

Reacting strongly to every passing train or siren would waste energy.

A team led by Sarah Parton studied communication among squirrels.

They found that city squirrels wave their tails as part of a message.

Rural squirrels do this too, but the signal is more common in noisy urban places, where a visual cue can work better than sound alone.

Over many generations, we might even see species that are distinctive to cities.

Yet not every urban change will be permanent.

If a feature is no longer useful after an animal becomes accustomed to its surroundings, natural selection may not continue to favor it.

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Effects of urban environments on animals - IELTS Listening with Practice test, Audio, Transcript, And Explanation

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