Questões de Inglês

Animals' popularity 'a disadvantage'

By Mary HaltonScience reporter, BBC News

13 April 2018

A survey of the public's perceptions suggests many people are unaware that the animals they consider
"charismatic" are under threat in the wild. These include lions, elephants, tigers and other animals which frequently
appear in branding and advertising.

Researchers suspect the animals' media ubiquity may lead people to think they are prospering in the wild. The
[5] findings were published by an international team of scientists in PLOS Biology.

The notion of "charismatic" species has cropped up recently in conservation biology, explains Dr Franck
Courchamp, the study's lead author. "There is a regular claim that the most charismatic species are diverting most
of the time and resources [in conservation]. I started wondering whether this was true and followed by better
results in conservation," he told BBC News.

[10] Dr Courchamp and his team set out to determine exactly which species these might be. Using an online survey
available in four languages, supplemented by classroom questionnaires in English, Spanish and French primary
schools, researchers asked the public to name the wild species they considered most charismatic. They also looked
at how frequently animals were represented on zoo websites, and on the covers of Disney and Pixar animated
films.

15 Additionally, the team had volunteers in France catalogue their encounters with "virtual" populations of the 10
animals over the period of a week. They encountered an average of 4.4 lions in logos, cartoons, magazines and
other sources each day, implying that people are likely to see two to three times as many "virtual" lions in a year
as there are lions in West Africa.

Dr Courchamp thinks this may have a subconscious impact, though there is no direct evidence as of yet. "Mostly I
[20] think because people see giraffes and lions every day of their life, they unconsciously think they are in abundance,"
he said.

Despite their abundant media representation, nine of the animals on the list are classed as vulnerable, endangered
or critically endangered on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

When researchers asked survey participants whether they thought these animals were endangered, explaining that
[25 they were not using IUCN terminology, they were surprised by the results. Almost half of respondents thought that
critically endangered gorillas were not under threat.

But conservation biologist Dr Sarah Durant cautions that this doesn't yet establish "a causal relationship between
seeing the species frequently in society and whether that relates to our bias perception of their endangerment."
Other factors may influence people's understanding of a species' status, and their participation in conservation
[30] efforts.

"We don't know that much about the psychology behind conservation. It's a very new field. I think a lot of people
often feel overwhelmed as well, because the problems are so huge," added the Zoological Society of London
researcher, who was not involved in the study. "It would be an interesting area for further research," she said.

Dr Courchamp proposes an innovative solution; funding conservation by "copyrighting" the image of vulnerable or
[35] endangered species. Companies would donate money to NGOs in return for using the animals in their branding or
advertising. "I think it's not so unrealistic," says Dr Courchamp.

"There are already some companies that do that. Jaguar are in partnership with Panthera. Lacoste... also made a
campaign recently where they replaced their logo with silhouettes of endangered species."

Dr Durant observes that it would likely be difficult to execute, but is an interesting suggestion. "This is just the first
[40] step," she commented, "putting this idea out there. Hopefully it will open a discussion about the use of these
species and how it relates to their conservation."

Time is certainly short for some of the animals on the list. Ecologists predict that, without sustained conservation
efforts, elephants will become extinct in the wild within a century. Cheetah are facing an imminent population
decline of up to 70%, and are already confined to just 9% of their historical territory in Africa.

[45] Dr Courchamp feels that more needs to be done. "At the moment we are doing first aid on species that are on the
verge of dying. We are just pushing the day they go extinct in the wild, we are not saving them."

Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-437426

Read the following text to answer question.

Human beings have adapted to the physical world not by changing their physical nature but by adjusting their society. Animals and plants have made adjustments, over long periods, by the development of radical changes in their very organisms. Hereditary differences meet needs of various environments. But among humans, differences in head form and in other physical features are not, in most cases, clearly adaptive. Nor is it clear that mental capacities of races are different. As far as we know, the races are equally intelligent and equally capable of solving their problems of living together. The varying ways of life, it seems, are social and learned differences, not physical or inherited differences. It stands to reason, therefore, that man's adjustment to his surroundings should be studied in custom and institution, notin anatomy and neural structure.

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HOW TO LIVE WELL WITH YOUR PHONE

Step it down gradually: The urge to check your phone can become reflexive and habitual. For some, going a few minutes without checking their phone is difficult. If this sounds like you, try to go 15 minutes without doing it. Once you realise this is possible, increase the length of time you avoid checking to 30 minutes, an hour, and then a few hours a day.[…]

Buy an alarm clock: Don’t use your phone as an alarm, or you might be tempted to check texts and emails last thing at night and as soon as you wake up. In fact, ban phones from the bedroom. Designate bedtimes and mealtimes as smartphone-free zones. Consider buying a watch, so you’re no longer tempted by emails and texts when you check the time.

Spring clean your contacts: How many online friends do you actually speak to? Reduce alerts and distractions by removing contacts on social networking sites, deleting unused apps, and unsubscribing from groups that offer little benefit. Consider deleting any games that are taking up a lot of your time.

Learn to wait: Be mindful of the benefits of not regularly checking your phone. People who react to messages as they arrive tend to write longer responses than those who wait and deal with them all as a block. Waiting will gain you time to spend on other activities.

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    Could adopting a new name improve your fortune? Some Chinese communities think so

    One afternoon in April, Mandy Pang’s worst fears came true. She was summoned onto a Zoom with her boss on short notice. Due to the economic downturn from the pandemic, she was being made redundant at her marketing job.

    Angry and hurt, the 29-year-old Hong Konger went back home and began brooding over memories from her previous jobs, and the “bad luck” that seemed to be holding her hostage. A month later, still looking for work, Pang decided she knew what she had to do: change her legal name in a bid to shake off her bad luck and improve her future prospects.

    She says, “My mother’s friend told me that the new name can help me fend off ‘petty people’” – those who have a negative influence over her life.

    In traditional Chinese culture, the meaning behind names has always carried huge importance. Chinese communities across East Asia believe a name can affect one’s luck in every aspect of their lives, from health and romance to finances and academic performance. As the pandemic continues to hit the economy hard, people like Pang who find themselves out of work are not only polishing their CVs, but also heading to fortune tellers for advice on whether a new name might change their futures.

    “Chinese people believe that there are 10 things that decide their destiny,” says Lee Shingchak, one of Hong Kong’s most well-known feng shui practitioners. “Other than one’s timing of birth or doing good deeds, one’s name is believed to be one of the factors in the equation.”