If it weren’t for passionate people, this would be a dull world indeed.

Peter Cavanagh, of Lopez Island, certainly qualifies in the passionate category, having taken 600, 000 pictures of birds all over the world in the past 13 years. Cavanagh, 73, is a retired professor in the University of Washington. He minored in math and is an instrument-rated pilot. His pictures mostly capture birds in flight, not on a perch (栖息).

“I have a sense of wonder at flight because it is the most highly complex form of movement in the entire animal kingdom,” says Cavanagh. “Humans have spent more than six centuries trying to imitate bird flight but still have not produced flying machines with all of the complexity, flexibility and performance that is commonplace for birds.” For birds, the math of it all just happens. A small bird such as the American kestrel, the smallest falcon (猎鹰) in our region at about 4 ounces, sits and waits for prey.

Meanwhile, to achieve fight, a 90-ton commercial jet is filled with electronics and computer systems. “Birds have flying abilities we have not come close to matching in airplanes,” says Cavanagh. The Royal Aeronautical Society in London, in a January 2021 posting, told how researchers at the University of Denmark did computer design of a Boeing 777 wing based on a bird’s wings. It was 5% lighter, which matters in fuel costs. In 2019, Airbus produced a “Bird of Prey” design that mimicked the eagle’s wing and tail structure for flight control.

Cavanagh enjoys every minute of waiting, and waiting, and waiting, starting at sunrise to capture those images. “I am happiest in truly wild places where the human is a tolerated guest and they are the world of wild animals.”

【小题1】What is Peter Cavanagh’s passion?

A．Math education.

B．Bird photography.

C．Airplane engineering.

D．Wilderness exploration.

【小题2】Why did the author mention the American kestrel?

A．To compare the sizes and weights of the birds.

B．To show the importance of math in biomechanics.

C．To prove the unmatched flying abilities of birds.

D．To stress the diversity of native American species.

【小题3】What does the underlined word “mimicked” mean in paragraph 4?

A．Imitated.

B．Abandoned.

C．Outperformed.

D．Discovered.

【小题4】Which word best describes Peter Cavanagh’s attitude to nature according to the last paragraph?

A．Skeptical.

B．Respectful.

C．Objective.

D．Indifferent.