填空题.The Red-Billed Quelea Native to Africa, the red-billed quelea is arguably the most prolific bird species in the world as ornithologists estimate there may be ten billion individual birds living on the planet. In addition to its great numbers, the quelea is noted for the ability of the male to change its plumage and beak coloring during its breeding season. Normally, both males and females have a dull, grayish-brown plumage, yet when it is time to mate, the male's plumage transforms into a pinkish color while its beak becomes bright red, which enables females to distinguish males in the massive flocks the birds form. The quelea has a fairly short breeding period of merely a few weeks each year. It occurs at the beginning of the rainy season in various parts of its African homelands. Its habitat is the grasslands of sub-Saharan Africa, where the males make nests from flexible green strips of grass in thorn bushes or trees. Once a male begins constructing a nest, females visit to examine it, and if one appreciates the male's efforts, she mates with him. ❶Once breeding is accomplished, both the male and female work together on the nest to complete it by the time the eggs are laid. ❷The female quelea lays anywhere from one to five eggs, which are green or blue in color and require ten to twelve days to hatch. ❸Upon hatching, both parents feed the chicks, but after merely two or three weeks, the chicks become independent so can forage and feed themselves.❹ Before the newborn chicks leave the nest, the main sustenance they receive is insects that their parents capture. ❺After departing the nest, however, the quelea's primary food source is seeds from crops such as wheat, millet, rice, and sorghum. ❻Obtaining any of these requires that the quelea visit inhabited areas where humans are practicing agriculture. ❼Millions of these small birds frequently unite to form gigantic flocks which move across the African savannah in dense, cloudlike formations and cause serious disruptions to agriculture when they swoop down on farmers' fields. ❽Despite intensive efforts to eradicate them by killing millions of birds annually, the quelea's numbers never appear to be significantly reduced. *sub-Saharan Africa: the part of Africa that is located south of the Sahara Desert *savannah: a plain that has scattered grass and few trees and that receives seasonal rainfall
填空题1. Look at the four squares [❶-❹] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. This is an incubation period much swifter than that of most other bird species, which typically require at least twice that amount of time. Where would the sentence best fit?
填空题2. Look at the four squares [❺-❽] that indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Because of the damage they subsequently cause, African farmers consider them a major pest. Where would the sentence best fit?
填空题3.Vocabulary ______=a scientist who studies birds
填空题4. ______=to search for food
填空题5. ______=the pointed end of a bird's mouth; a bird's bill