The world's oldest known wild bird, an albatross (信天翁) named Wisdom, has returned to her nesting place in the Midway Atoll. The 68yearold bird has just laid another egg.
The Midway Atoll is made of two small islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is an important place for albatrosses, and an important place for scientists who want to study them. One of the ways scientists can study birds is by banding (给……戴环志) them. Putting a small numbered band on the leg of a bird, helps scientists tell which bird is which. This makes it easier to keep track of what happens among the birds. Over 250,000 albatrosses have been banded on Midway since 1936.
Wisdom was first banded by scientist Chandler Robbins in 1956, along with thousands of other albatrosses. At the time, she was at least 5 years old. Wisdom carried Robbins' band around the world for many years. Then, surprisingly, the scientist and the bird were reunited in 2002, when Robbins returned to Midway to research albatrosses again. He rebanded Wisdom and, checking the band records, discovered he had been the first one to put a band on her —46 years before.
Wisdom was using the same nesting place. Adult albatrosses spend a lot of their lives flying over the sea, resting from time to time on the water to eat. But they return to the same nesting place every year. When albatrosses choose a partner (配偶), they remain partners for life. But Wisdom has been alive so long that she has had a few partners.
Wisdom is not just old, she is also active. Because it takes so much time and energy for parent albatrosses to raise a chick—it takes about seven months until it can fly—many albatrosses lay eggs every other year. But Wisdom has laid an egg every single year since 2006. Because Wisdom has been laying eggs for so long, she could have her chicks and the chicks of her chicks all around her. There may soon be one more to add to the list.
"When studying foreign languages, don't forget about body language," Anne Merritt said.
Something as simple as a gesture can show friendliness in one culture, embarrassment in another, impatience in the third. Even silence means different things in different places. If you want to avoid making some mistakes when traveling abroad, you should pay attention to the following.
Touch
Britain, along with many countries in northern Europe and the Far East, has a "noncontact (非接触性)" culture. In those countries, there is very little physical contact in people's daily talks. Even touching someone's arm by accident is the reason for an apology. However, in the highcontact cultures of the Middle East, Latin America, and southern Europe, physical touch is a big part of daily life.
What's more, there are different standards for the touch. In much of the Arab world, men hold hands and kiss each other in greeting, but would never do the same with a woman. In Thailand and Laos, it is a taboo (禁忌) to touch anyone's head, even children's, In South Korea, elders can touch younger people with force when trying to get through a crowd, but younger people can't do the same.
Eye contact
In most Western countries, frequent eye contact is a sign of confidence and attentiveness (专注). We may think that a conversation partner who looks away is either not listening to us or lying. Of course, this is not the standard around the world.
In many Asian, African, and Latin American countries, the unbroken (不间断的) eye contact would be considered impolite and rude. These cultures consider avoiding eye contact a sign of respect for bosses and elders. In these parts of the world, children won't look at an adult who is speaking to them, and nor will employees look at their bosses.
