It's very early in the morning and I'm sitting outside. It's also very cold and dark. With me is Jim Nightingale, and he is the reason I'm up so early. He passes me a hot cup of coffee. "Not long to wait now," he says. I hope he's right.

    After a few minutes there is a very weak light in the east, and then I hear a bird singing. It sings very loud and very clear. "That's the robin(知更鸟)," says Jim. A few more birds start singing with the robin and Jim knows the names of them too. Half an hour later, there are more and more birds singing, and it's very loud! Suddenly, all around us the air is full of the sound of birdsong. This is the dawn chorus(晨鸣), and it's beautiful.

    "Wow, this is amazing!" I tell Jim, who is smiling. "Is there a dawn chorus every morning?"

    "Birds can sing any time of the year but the best time is the end of winter and during the spring. This is when the birds sing most."

    "Really? So, why do they sing?" I ask.

    "Well, there are two reasons," explains Jim. "Most of the songbirds who sing are males. They want to find a female(雌性)so they sing to show how strong they are. The females listen and choose the best singer! The birds also sing to tell other males to go away. They need their own area; they don't like sharing with another male."

    I listen to the birds; the songs seem too much to me. "Do the birds sing a special song in the morning?"

"That's a good question," replied Jim. "The successful birds have many kinds of calls and songs. Sometimes they copy the songs of other birds. This makes it sound like there are many birds in that place already and other males stay away. Also the female likes songs with different notes. Some birds, for example the European wren, have songs that contain over 700 different notes per minute!"

So, how does Jim know so much about birds? Well, he works as a volunteer for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. He is trying to help the birds live in the modern world. "More and more of the birds' habitat disappears every year. The sparrow, for example, was a very common bird in the UK, now it's in danger."

    By now the sun is up and the birds are quiet. It's light so they can start looking for food, they need a big breakfast after all that singing.

1.Why does the writer get up early in the morning?

A. To visit her friend.               B. To drink hot coffee.  

C. To see different birds.                  D. To hear birds sing.

2.A bird sings early in the morning mainly_______.

A. to call a female's attention          B. to fight with other males

C. to find a place to live in      D. to start looking for food

3. According to the text, which of the following statements is true?

A. At first the writer is happy to be up so early in the morning.

B. Male birds have their own ways of fooling other birds.

C. It's easier for the birds to find food early in the morning.

D. Jim has a job with the Royal Society for the Proteciton of Birds.

4.The text is mainly about_______.

A. the robin's songs                          B. the birds' habitat    

C. why birds sing                                D. how to protect birds

 

As we all know, the ocean moves. But waves breaking on the beach make the ocean fun. When you stand on the shore and look at the waves, it seems like the water is moving towards you. But the water is not really moving forward. The moving you see is wave energy. And wave energy comes from the wind.

Let’s think about how this works. As wave energy passes through the water, the energy makes particles (粒子) of water move up and down. Just give you an example of a wave passing under a basketball. We put a basketball on the sea. When the wind blows, a wave comes from behind the basketball. The basketball moves up to the top with the wave. Then the wave continues and leaves the basketball behind. The basketball looks lower, but it doesn’t move forward. That’s because the wave energy just moves the water which is under the basketball.

   So why can you see a wave knock you down on the shore?When a wave moves toward the shore, the bottom of the wave slows down because it meets the ocean floor. But the top, which is called crest(浪峰), keeps moving. The different action causes the wave to fall over or break onto the shore. If a wave is very large, it carries a lot of energy when it hits the land. As time goes by, waves can break up and carry away the rocks and other things on the shore. Shorelines are changing all the time because of wave action.

1.______ is really moving forward when you look at the wave.

A.Water            B.The basketball      C.Water and wave energy   D.Wave energy

2.Match the sentences with the pictures and the right answer.

(1) The basketball moves up to the top with the wave.

(2) The basketball continues and leaves the basketball behind.

(3) When the wind blows, a wave comes from behind the basketball.

A.a—(2) b—(1) c—(3)                     B.a—(3) b—(1) c—(2)

C.a—(1) b—(3) c—(2)                     D.a—(3) b—(2) c—(1)

3.Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?

A.Wave energy comes from the water.

B.Large waves carry plenty of energy.

C.Wave action makes shorelines change all the time.

D.The bottom of the wave is easy to slow down.

4.The underlined word “it” ( Paragraph 3) refers to “________”.

A.particles of water   B.the shore          C.the wind          D.the bottom of the wave

5.The main idea of this passage is ______.

A.what makes particles of water move         B.how a basketball moves on the ocean

C.how wave energy causes wave action        D.why a wave can knock you down

 

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