3103期高中基础音频 Fat Wolf and Foolish Feeders A wolf in Qinghai Province is getting fat from the milk (or should I say meat) of human kindness. One day, as she was driving through the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve (可可西里自然保护区), a woman saw a thin-looking wolf and tossed some beef jerky (牛肉干) out of her window. The wolf ate it gladly, and this made the woman feel happy that she had helped the needy creature. The next day, when she drove by again, the wolf was still there, so she stopped and gave it more food. As other people heard of her story, they, too, stopped to give the wolf food, and eventually, the animal’s behavior began to change. It became a professional beggar, wagging its tail and rolling on its back to ask for more food from passers-by. Now, the wolf is fat and people wonder if it can ever regain its natural instincts (天性) and survive in the wild. Wolves are known as “apex predators.” That means that they are at the top of the “food chain.” They hunt animals, but there are no other animals that are strong enough to hunt them. In the wild, they play an important role in the “balance of nature,” preventing certain species from becoming too numerous. In other words, they have a cruel, but necessary function. Until recently, humans haven’t get involved too much in the wild parts of nature, but the growth of cities and the increase in infrastructure (基础设施) — roads and railway lines — have brought us into the habitats of many species, some of which are now endangered (濒危的). Many animals are threatened as a result, such as the golden snub-nosed monkey (金丝猴), the Asian elephant and the South Asian tiger. Another part of the problem, ironically, is our love of nature. More people are taking hiking or camping trips into wild areas to get away from the crowded city. We are, however, often bad-mannered guests. We discard scraps of food and plastic bottles; sometimes we even start forest fires. As we try to enjoy the peace and harmony of nature, we may actually be disturbing the peace and harmony of the animals we love. We must always remember that each species is an important part of nature. This is why we should respect its delicate balance and avoid trying to “help” animals by feeding them. They are not pets and they can also be dangerous. Wolves, like the one in Qinghai, for example, are indeed apex predators that kill and eat other animals. By feeding them, we could be in danger of becoming their food. Donald Trump Won by Winning Americans Donald Trump won the 2024 U.S. presidential election over Democrat Kamala Harris on November 6, making him the first American president in over a century to lose his job and win it back. Trump’s return was surprising after facing so many challenges. How did he manage it? His new campaign leaders, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, should get most of the credit. The 2024 campaign was much more organized than Trump’s previous two. They also helped to manage Trump’s character. Trump’s team decided to use a different strategy during the primaries. They tried to win over the low-propensity voters — those who rarely or never vote — from the swing states. Trump promised Libertarians a seat in the Cabinet. He guaranteed that his administration would support digital currencies. He tried many times to make friends with Michigan autoworkers. He also held a large public meeting in the Bronx addressing African American and Hispanic American voters. Along the way, Trump offered tax incentives to key groups like blue-collar workers and seniors. He mainly tried to convince each group that migrants crossing the southern U.S. border threatened their jobs, homes and even their lives. He also sat down for long interviews with many male influencers (网红) and podcast (播客) hosts, whom his campaign team believed could touch men of all classes and regions. To reach younger voters, Trump even started a TikTok account, even though he had threatened to shut down the Chinese social media company in 2020. In the weeks before the election, he went viral online for working at McDonald’s and driving a garbage truck at an airport. The latter move was made in response to President Biden’s comment that seemed to call the Republican’s supporters “garbage.” The campaign team also relied, in part, on outside groups to win over voters. Among those groups was America PAC, a super political action committee started by Elon Musk. The tech billionaire used his wealth and influence in the final months to help Trump win the election. In the end, all the efforts paid off. Troubled by the economy and other external forces, Americans were only too ready to turn away from the party in power. But only time can tell whether Trump will really “make America great again.” Why Aren’t We Saving Urban Trees? The black walnut sapling (树苗) in our front yard was a gift from a local squirrel. Deep into its third spring, it looks like the kind of tree a child would draw: a narrow trunk topped by a ball of leaves. This black walnut is still a baby and it won’t reach full maturity for another 150 years or so, and that’s if no one cuts it down — a bet I would not take. Most Americans prefer a lawn (草坪) not dotted by nuts or visited by birds, a square of nature that belongs to nothing natural. When it comes to trees, human beings tend to like them big and tall and incredibly ancient — preferably growing at some pretty distance. The irony (奇异可笑之处) is that human beings cut down old trees all the time, for no reason but the inconvenience of their falling leaves, or because they are in the way of a road, or due to safety concerns. Many trees come down because we are afraid of a falling branch. In the 21st century, we have become so separate from the natural world that we don’t feel safe in the presence of perfectly healthy trees. We know forests can capture carbon before it adds to the heating climate, and that we need to protect the forests we still have. However, too few of us understand the crucial contribution that trees make in our cities: cooling hot buildings, preventing storm-water runoff (溢流), improving air quality, and the like. Not even to mention the habitat — food, shelter, nesting sites — that trees provide for our wild neighbors. Newly planted saplings can help, but with nowhere near the same effectiveness as mature trees. And yet we have somehow gotten the idea that planting a tree in urban areas has the same practical effect — there, I said it — as preserving (保留) one. A tree is a tree, right? If one happens to be growing in a place where you don’t want it to grow, just cut it down and plant another in a more convenient spot. I get it. There’s something very heartwarming about digging a hole, setting a baby tree down inside it and watching it grow up.We just need to remember how good it feels to sit beneath the cooling shelter of mature trees, too. And we need to fight just as hard to save them as we work to replace the trees we’ve already lost.
