There is a popular belief that goldfish only have a three-second memory. But a 15-year-old schoolboy from Adelaide has just finished an experiment（实验）to tell us that it is not true. He shows everybody that the goldfish is smarter than we think.
“I don’t believe that they had a three-second memory because animals need their memory, so they build up over time a knowledge of where the food is,” said Roy Stokes, a student at the Australian Science and Mathematics School.
He did the experiment in small tank（鱼缸）of goldfish. “I decided to get a bit of red Logo and just feed them next to that. Every day I’d put it in and spread food around it.” He said.
“At first they were a bit scared of it, but by the end of the three weeks, they were actually almost coming before I put the food in.”
After leaving the fish alone for a week, Rory placed the red Logo block in the tank again.
“They remembered perfectly well,” he said.
“They actually had a time faster than the average of the three feeds before I left.”
The goldfish showed that not only could they store information, they also had the ability to get it back as a later date.
Culum Brown, a research fellow at Sydney’s Macquarie University, has studied fish behavior for more than ten years.
He says his studies of Australian native fish show fish were intelligent creatures that know how to avoid enemies and catch food like any other animal.
“The thing that I really liked about Rory’s experiment is he not only got that classical conditioning going but the fact that he could get them next just to that specific coloured market. I thought it was really good.” He said.
1.Rory began his research by ______.
A. discussing with his classmates B. making friends with goldfish
C. asking his teacher for advice D. questioning a popular belief
2.Rory put a red Logo in the tank to ______.
A. connect food with the color B. make the tank nicer to look at
C. feed the fish at the same place D. give the fish something to play with
3.What’s the right order of Rory’s experiment?
a. find a tank of goldfish | d. take out the Logo |
A. adbecf B aebdcf C. dabefc D. adebcf
4.What do the last three paragraphs tell us?
A. Rory’s research was highly praised by experienced experts.
B. Rory’s experiment failed to meet the scientific standard.
C. Many scientists had already done the experiment before.
D. Fish are the cleverest animal in Australia.
5.What can we learn from the story?
A. Fish can become smarter with the help of red color.
B. What everybody believes is not necessarily true.
C. Scientists should learn from middle school students.
D. Young people are generally smarter than aged ones.
阅读下面的短文，根据短文内容完成下面的表格。
Bamboo is a kind of wild grass. There are more than 1450 species of bamboo that grow across the world. It is hollow(空的), so it is very light.
For thousands of years, bamboo has been used in many different ways—from food to medicine to clothing. It is also used for furniture or man-made building products such as flooring and window covers. However, bamboo is not often used as a building material in the developed world.
Kent Harries, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, sees bamboo as a great building material because of the following.
First, it is strong. The strength of at least three species of bamboo is similar to steel. Besides its strength, Harries says that bamboo has other features that make it a great building material. He says it can keep its shape and strength even under pressure.
Second, it’s very tall. It can grow up to 20 meters and it supports its own weight, even in the strong wind.
Third，bamboo also grows quickly. Bamboo that is suitable for construction needs much less resources than wood. It lives on the rainwater, spring water and sunlight. The harvest cycle of bamboo is about 3 years. Softwoods such as pine (松树) and spruce(云杉) have a harvest cycle of about 10 years. And hardwoods that come from flowering plants such as maple(枫树) and walnut(胡桃树) need more than 30 years.
People usually think bamboo is only for poor people. But in many countries，bamboo is used for building floors and roofs and even beautiful houses.
Bamboo | |
Abstract | There are 1. 1450 species of bamboo across the world. It is not 2. because it is hollow. It can be used in many different ways so it is very 3.. |
Reasons for being a great 4. material | It is as strong as 5.. Its shape can be always the 6. even under great pressure. It can support its own weight in the7. wind. It needs 8. years than other woods to have a harvest cycle. It only needs rainwater, spring water and 9. to grow up. |
Conclusion | People don’t think 10. people live in houses made of bamboo, but beautiful bamboo houses have been built in many countries. |
