【雅思考试真题】栏目更新了2025年10月25日雅思考试中的一道阅读真题——Health in the Wild》，以下为雅思阅读真题的具体题目以及答案：

　　2025年10月25日雅思考试阅读真题：

Health in the Wild

　　 A

　　For the past decade Dr Engel, a lecturer in environmental sciences at Britain’s Open University, has been collating examples of self-medicating behavior in wild animals. She recently published a book on the subject. In a talk at the Edinburgh Science Festival earlier this month, she explained that the idea that animals can treat themselves has been regarded with some skepticism by her colleagues in the past. But a growing number of animal behaviorists now think that wild animals can and do deal with their own medical needs.

　　B

　　One example of self-medication was discovered in 1987. Michael Huffman and Mohamedi Seifu, working in the Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania, noticed that local chimpanzees suffering from intestinal worms would dose themselves with the pith of a plant called Veronia. This plant produces poisonous chemicals called terpenes. Its pith contains a strong enough concentration to kill gut parasites, but not so strong as to kill chimps (nor people, for that matter; locals use the pith for the same purpose). Given that the plant is known locally as “goat-killer”, however, it seems that not all animals are as smart as chimps and humans. Some consume it indiscriminately, and succumb.

　　 C

　　Since the Veronia-eating chimps were discovered, more evidence has emerged suggesting that animals often eat things for medical rather than nutritional reasons. Many species, for example, consume dirt -- a behaviour known as geophagy. Historically, the preferred explanation was that soil supplies minerals such as salt. But geophagy occurs in areas where the earth is not a useful source of minerals, and also in places where minerals can be more easily obtained from certain plants that are known to be rich in them. Clearly, the animals must be getting something else out of eating earth.

　　 D

　　The current belief is that soil -- and particularly the clay in it -- helps to detoxify the defensive poisons that some plants produce in an attempt to prevent themselves from being eaten. Evidence for the detoxifying nature of clay came in 1999, from an experiment carried out on macaws by James Gilardi and his colleagues at the University of California, Davis. Macaws eat seeds containing alkaloids, a group of chemicals that has some notoriously toxic members, such as strychnine. In the wild, the birds are frequently seen perched on eroding riverbanks eating clay. Dr Gilardi fed one group of macaws a mixture of a harmless alkaloid and clay, and a second group just the alkaloid. Several hours later, the macaws that had eaten the clay had 60% less alkaloid in their bloodstreams than those that had not, suggesting that the hypothesis is correct.

　　E

　　Other observations also support the idea that clay is detoxifying. Towards the tropics the amount of toxic compounds in plants increases -- and so does the amount of earth eaten by herbivores. Elephants lick clay from mud holes all year round, except in September when they are bringing on fruit which, because it has evolved to be eaten, is not toxic. And the addition of clay to the diets of domestic cattle increases the amount of nutrients that they can absorb from their food by 10-20%.

　　F

　　A third instance of animal self-medication is the use of mechanical scours to get rid of gut parasites. In 1972 Richard Wrangham, a researcher at the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania, noticed that chimpanzees were eating the leaves of a tree called Aspilia. The chimps chose the leaves carefully by testing them in their mouths. Having chosen a leaf, a chimp would fold it into a fan and swallow it. Some of the chimps were noticed wrinkling their noses as they swallowed these leaves, suggesting the experience was unpleasant. Later, undigested leaves were found on the forest floor.

　　G

　　Dr Wrangham rightly guessed that the leaves had a medicinal purpose; this was, indeed, one of the earliest interpretations of a behavior pattern as self-medication. However, he guessed wrong about what the mechanism was. His (and everybody else’s) assumption was that Aspilia contained a drug, and this sparked more than two decades of phytochemical research to try to find out what chemical the chimps were after. But by the 1990s, chimps across Africa had been seen swallowing the leaves of 19 different species that seemed to have few suitable chemicals in common. The drug hypothesis was looking more and more dubious.

　　H

　　It was Dr Huffman who got to the bottom of the problem. He did so by watching what came out of the chimps, rather than concentrating on what went in. He found that the digested leaves were full of intestinal worms. The factor common to all 19 species of leaves swallowed by the chimps was that they were covered with microscopic hooks. They caught the worms and dragged them from their lodgings.

　　I

　　Following that observation, Dr Engel is now particularly excited about how knowledge of the way that animals look after themselves could be used to improve the health of livestock. People might also be able to learn a thing or two -- and may, indeed, already have done so. Geophagy, for example, is a common behavior in many parts of the world. The medical stalls in African markets frequently sell tablets made of different sorts of clays, appropriate to different medical conditions.

　　J

　　Africans brought to the Americas as slaves continued this tradition, which gave their owners one more excuse to affect to despise them. Yet, as Dr Engel points out, Rwanda mountain gorillas eat a type of clay rather similar to kaolinite, the main ingredient of many patent medicines sold over the counter in the West for digestive complaints. Dirt can sometimes be good for you, and to be “as sick as a parrot” may, after all, be a state to be desired.

　　2025年10月25日雅思考试阅读题目：

　　Questions 1-4Do the following statements agree with the information in Reading Passage?

　　Write

　　TRUE - if the statement agrees with the information

　　FALSE - if the statement contradicts the information

　　NOT GIVEN - if there is no information about the statement

　　1. It is for 10 years that Dr Engel has been working on animal self-medication.

　　2. Birds such as macaw are seen eating clay because it is a part of their natural diet.

　　3. In order to find plants for medication, animals usually need to walk a long distance.

　　4. According to Dr Engel, it is exciting that research into animal self-medication can be helpful to human’s physical wellness.

　　Questions 5-8Questions 5-8

　　Complete the table below.

　　Choose ONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

　　Choose NONLY ONE WORD from the passage for each answer.

　　Animal self-medication has been supported by an increasing amount of evidence. One of them is called 9. ________, a soil-consuming behavior commonly found across animal species. In the past, this behavior was thought to provide animals with 10. ________, but it is now understood that clay in soil can detoxify poisonous plants.

　　In 1972, Richard Wrangham observed chimpanzees eating leaves of the Aspilia plant. He initially assumed that a 11. __________ was stored in the leaves, which led to extensive phytochemical research. However, the chimps’ behavior -- such as wrinkling their noses while swallowing -- indicated that the leaves have 12. ________ taste. Later, it was discovered that the leaves actually helped remove intestinal parasites mechanically, thanks to their tiny hooks.

　　Similarly, in some human societies, people use 13. ________ made from clay for medicinal purposes.

　　2025年10月25日雅思考试阅读答案：

　　1. TRUE

　　2. FALSE

　　3. NOT GIVEN

　　4. TRUE

　　5. pith

　　6. terpenes

　　7. alkaloid

　　8. drug

　　9. unpleasant

　　10. geophagy

　　11. salt

　　12. detoxify

　　13. tables

　　【雅思真题】2025年10月25日雅思考试中的一道阅读真题———《Health in the Wild》，到这里结束了，欢迎大家进入说客英语官网的雅思真题栏目，了解更多的雅思真题，或者进入雅思考试栏目，了解雅思考试报名官网、雅思考试报名时间、雅思考试报名费用等雅思考试指南。