Question 23 is based on the passage you have just heard.

Passage Three

听力原文

        A piece of history has been found thanks to a boy tripping on a rare, 1.2 million-year-old animal fossil. In November 2016, Jude Sparks, now 10, was on an outing with his family near their New Mexico home (22) when he tripped over what he thought was a cow bone. (23) Now, researchers at New Mexico State University are preserving this discovery, which was identified as an ancient elephant-like animal. Kyle Sparks, father of Jude, said he let his son decide what to do with the fossil. So Jude reached out to Peter Houde, a professor at New Mexico State University, who had experience with the same type of fossil in the past. The next day, Houde came out to see the fossil for himself. Houde told ABC News that he was quite excited about the find. (24) “It was fortunate that the family didn’t try to dig up the fossil because that could destroy the specimen; they did the right thing by calling someone who would know what to do.” “It’s great for the community because now everybody can appreciate it,” he added. Houde and his fellow faculty members dug up the fossil in late May. (25) They hope to return to the site with geologists for an additional search as there could be more fossils near the site. Jude and his family had been invited by the researchers to see the fossil being preserved at the university.

23. What are the researchers at New Mexico State University doing with the boy’s discovery?

解析：B。录音前半部分指出，而现在，新墨西哥州州立大学的研究员们正在保护这项发现，因为这块化石被鉴定为来自于一种形似大象的上古动物，故B项正确。D项中的identify属于干扰信息，需排除。其余两项在录音中均未提及，故排除。