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Listen to an Academic Talk Test #086
Listen to an Academic Talk
1. What is the main topic of the talk?
A) An unusual parenting behavior in birds
B) Competition for resources among chicks
C) How cuckoos build their nests
D) The physical development of young birds
2. According to the professor, what does a cuckoo chick do after it hatches?
A) It helps the host parents feed the other chicks.
B) It imitates the sounds of the host bird's chicks.
C) It removes other eggs and chicks from the nest.
D) It waits for the host chicks to grow larger.
3. What can be inferred about the host parents?
A) They are aware of the cuckoo chick's identity.
B) They abandon the nest if they find a strange egg.
C) They cannot distinguish the cuckoo chick from their own offspring.
D) They lay their eggs after the cuckoo has visited.
4. Why does the professor mention the high energy cost of raising young?
A) To explain the evolutionary benefit of brood parasitism for the cuckoo
B) To suggest that host birds are often in poor health
C) To argue that most bird species should adopt this behavior
D) To describe the main challenge faced by all bird species
Professor: Today we'll discuss a fascinating, if a bit ruthless, survival strategy called brood parasitism. This is when an animal tricks another animal, the host, into raising its young. The classic example is the cuckoo bird. The female cuckoo doesn't build her own nest. Instead, she finds the nest of another bird species and, when the host isn't looking, lays her own egg in it.
The cuckoo egg is often timed to hatch before the host's eggs. Shortly after hatching, the cuckoo chick, while still small and blind, will instinctively push the host's other eggs or even newly hatched chicks out of the nest.
This eliminates all competition for food. The unsuspecting host parents then dedicate all their energy to feeding the single, rapidly growing cuckoo chick, which soon dwarfs them in size. This strategy allows the cuckoo to reproduce without the high energy cost of raising its own young.
The cuckoo egg is often timed to hatch before the host's eggs. Shortly after hatching, the cuckoo chick, while still small and blind, will instinctively push the host's other eggs or even newly hatched chicks out of the nest.
This eliminates all competition for food. The unsuspecting host parents then dedicate all their energy to feeding the single, rapidly growing cuckoo chick, which soon dwarfs them in size. This strategy allows the cuckoo to reproduce without the high energy cost of raising its own young.
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