廣泛的托福閱讀背景知識(shí)積累，有助于新托福閱讀速度和準(zhǔn)確率的提升。托福閱讀題材分為自然科學(xué)、人文科學(xué)、互聯(lián)網(wǎng)等幾大類，如果同學(xué)們平時(shí)能對(duì)這些種類的文章都有所涉獵，托福閱讀考試中遇到相關(guān)的話題就會(huì)有非常熟悉的感覺(jué)。下面推薦一關(guān)于記憶力驚人的鳥(niǎo)類介紹的相關(guān)背景資料，希望能幫大家積累更多的托福閱讀材料。
　　很多動(dòng)物都會(huì)儲(chǔ)存食物，而這需要一定的記憶力。在下面的新托福考試閱讀練習(xí)資料中將介紹一種記憶力驚人的鳥(niǎo)類。
　　Humans may be one of the smartest animals on the planet, but when it comes to remembering where things are, Clark's nutcrackers have us beat.
　　A relative of jays and crows, nutcrackers hide pine seeds in the ground each autumn so they have a source of food during the Colorado Rocky Mountain winter. They cache as many as 30,000 seeds in 5,000 different locations over a fifteen square mile area. Since they cannot smell the seeds buried in the soil very well, they must use their remarkable spatial memory to find them.
　　Nutcrackers are not the only animals that cache food. Caching behavior is seen in birds, mammals and even insects. Chickadees store collections of seeds, insects and spiders in the bark of trees or under leaves. Red squirrels cut conifer cones from trees and bury them in plant litter on the forest floor. Harvester ants bring seeds back to their nests and store them in chambers, while honey bees save nectar and pollen in their hive.
　　Because nutcrackers are one of the best at remembering cache locations, researchers are studying them to find out why they have such great memories. Scientists know that the nutcracker's abilities evolved because of environmental pressure. Nutcrackers with poor memories did not likely survive the harsh mountain winters. Now researchers want to find out how the brains of nutcrackers are different from other brains. They are particularly interested in the hippocampus, a small area of the brain that helps form memories. Finding out how the nutcracker's brain is different from other species may give us clues to why humans have memory problems. It may even lead to a cure for Alzheimer's disease.
　　人類也許是世界上最聰明的動(dòng)物之一，但說(shuō)到記憶，克拉克(新澤西州)的星鳥(niǎo)比我們?nèi)祟悘?qiáng)多了。
　　星鳥(niǎo)屬于松鳥(niǎo)和烏鴉的近親，它在秋天的時(shí)候把松子藏在地底下，這樣寒冷冬天的就有食物吃了。它們會(huì)儲(chǔ)存多達(dá)30000顆種子，而且是在十五平方公里內(nèi)的5000個(gè)不同位置。因?yàn)椴荒芡ㄟ^(guò)氣味辨別埋在土里種子的位置，它們就必須依靠驚人的空間記憶力來(lái)找到這些種子。