题目内容

 

Humans are social animals．They live in groups all over the world．As these groups of people live apart from other groups，over the years and centuries they develop their own habits and ideas， which form different cultures．One important particular side of every culture is how its people deal with time．

Time is not very important in no industrial societies．The Nuer people of East Africa，for example，do not even have a word TIME that is in agreement with the abstract thing we call time．The daily lives of the people of such no industrial societies are likely to be patterned around their physical needs and natural events rather than around a time schedule based on the clock．They cook and eat when they are hungry and sleep when the sun goes down．They plant crops during the growing seasons and harvest them when the crops are ripe．They measure time not by the clock or calendar，but by saying that an event takes place before or after some other event．Frequently such a society measures day in terms of “sleeps” of longer periods in terms of “moons”．Some cultures，such as the Eakinos of Greenland measure seasons according to the migration of certain animals．

Some cultures which do not have a written language or keep written records have developed interesting ways of “telling time”．For example，when several Australian aborigines want to plan an event for a future time， one of them places a stone on a cliff or in a tree．Each day the angle of the sun changes slightly．In a few days，the rays of the sun strike the stone in a certain way．When this happens，the people see that the agreed-upon time has arrived and the event can take place．

In contrast，exactly correct measurement of time is very important in modern， industrialized societies．This is because industrialized societies require the helpful efforts of many people in order to work．For a factory to work efficiently（well， quickly and without waste），for example， all of the workers must work at the same time．Therefore， they must know what time to start work in the morning and what time they may go home in the afternoon．Passengers must know the exact time that an airplane will arrive or depart．Students and teachers need to know when a class starts and ends．Stores must open on time in order to serve their customers．Complicated societies need clocks and calendars．Thus，we can see that if each person worked according to his or her own schedule，a complicated society could hardly work at all．

1．By saying “Humans are social animals，” the author means________．

A．they live all over the world．

B．They are different from other animals．

C．They live in one place， district or country， considered as a whole．

D．They are divided into many groups．

2．Time is not very important in no industrial societies．This is because people in those societies______．

A．don’t have the word TIME in their languages．

B．don’t get used to using clocks and other timepieces．

C．don’t measure time in their daily lives．

D．don’t need to plan their daily lives around an exact time schedule．

3．The Australian aborigines’ way of “telling time” is based on ______．

A．the change of the sun rays

B．the movement of the earth in relation to the sun

C．the position of the stone

D．the position of the tree or the cliff

4．Which of the following might be the best title for this passage?

A．Time and Culture                      B．The Measurement of Time

C．Time Schedule and Daily Life             D．Clock，Calendar and Society

CDCB

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The idea for a science experiment can come from an unusual place. After watching a YouTube video of a dancing bird named Snowball, a scientist in Californina decided to study the ability of animals to keep the beat.

Bird lovers have long claimed that their pets have rhyhm, and there are many videos of dancing birds online. Until now, scientists have suspected that humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music.

Thanks to Snowball, that scientific opinion is changing. Snowball is a cockatoo, a kind of parrot, and his favorite song is “Everybody” by the Backstreet Boys. When he hears the song, he moves his feet and rocks his body with the tempo, or pace of the music, as though he is the only bird member of the boy band.

Aniruddh Patel is a neuroscientist, or a scientist who studies how the brain and the nervous system contribute to learning, seeing and other mental abilities. He works at the Neurosciences Instiute in San Diego. After seeing Snowbaill’s dance online, Patel visited the cockatoo at the bird rescue facility he’s called home for two years. The scientist played “Everybody” for Snowball and also played versions of the song that were sped up or slowed down. Sometimes, Snowball danced too fast or too slowly. Often, when there was a change in tempo, Snowball adjusted his dancing to match the rhythm. In other experiments, scientists have observed the same abilities in preschool children.

Patel isn’t the only scientist who has studied Snowball’s moves. Adena Schachner, who studies psychology at Harvard University, also wanted to know more about the dancing bird. Schachner’s team played different musical pieces for Snowball and a parrot named Alex, as well as eight human volunteers. The scientists observed that the birds and the humans kept time to the music with about the same accuracy.

Schachner and her team watched thousands of YouTube videos of different animals moving to music. Not all the animals could dance, however. From watching the videos, the scientists observed that only animals that imitate sounds, including 14 parrot species and Asian elephants, accurately moved in time to music.

The underlined words “that scientific opinion” in the third paragraph refers to the theory that            .

A.birds like Snowball have the ability to keep the beat

B.humans are the only animals that can accurately keep rhythm with music

C.the brain and the nervous system contribute to some mental abilities

D.bird pets can have their special rhythm under human’s instruction

From the fourth paragraph we may know that         .

A.Patel is the only scientist who has studied Snowball’s moves.

B.Snowball is able to adjust his dandcing to match the rhythm.

C.Snowball cannot dance to the versions of the song Everybody.

D.it is the brain and the nervous system that control the mental abilities.

The idea of studying animals’ ability to keep the beat comes from       .

A.bird lovers’ discovery               B.humans musical sense

C.the same abilities in children            D.videos of dancing birds

According to the scientists, Snowball’s ability to dance to music is probably related to the fact that          .

A.it is the only bird member of thd Backstreet Boys band

B.it has the ability to imitate sounds

C.it is a kind of dancing parrot

D.it has the same abilities as preschool children

Scientists have found it seems _______animals and humans are much alike than we thought.

A．as thoughB．even thoughC．only ifD．even if

“NOW I just don’t believe that.” Surely all of us, at some point, have watched a movie and thought: It’s simply badly researched, or, the makers must think we’re idiots (白痴). Recently, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph ran a humorous piece on unconvincing tech moments from some top movies. Let’s see what all the fuss is about.

Telegraph writer Tom Chiver’s first example is from the end-of-the-world movie Independence Day, in which a character comes up with a virus capable of destroying Windows, the computer system the alien spacecraft uses. “It’s a good thing they didn’t have Norton Antivirus (诺顿防火墙)”, jokes Chivers.

It’s just one case of a movie that takes a lot of license with its science. Another one Chivers mentions is from Star Wars, where glowing beams of light traveling through space look very impressive. The problem is that in space there are no air particles for the light to reflect off. In reality, they’d be invisible, which wouldn’t look so cool on the big screen.

Chiver’s second piece of Star Wars nonsense is the sound the fighters make in the movies: “the bellow (咆哮) of an elephant mixed with a car driving on a wet road”. But sound needs a medium to travel through, like air. In space, there wouldn’t actually be any sound at all.

Few people would deny that the mind-bending Matrix films make for great viewing, but for Chivers, the science in the movies is a little silly. He comments “…the film is based on the idea that humans are kept alive as electricity generator. This is not just unlikely – it’s fundamentally impossible. They would need more energy to stay alive than they would produce. It’s like saying you’ll power your car with batteries, and keep the batteries charged by running a dynamo (发电机) from the wheels.”

And finally, as Chivers points out, DNA is not replaceable. But this bit of elementary genetics passed the makers of the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day by. In the film the bad guy has “gene therapy” to change his appearance and his DNA, which is completely impossible.

1.What does the underlined sentence mean?  

A. The virus created by the character is capable of destroying spacecrafts.

B. Aliens’ using Windows system is totally unconvincing plot.

C. The spacecraft should have Norton Antivirus.

D. Norton Antivirus can stop a virus.

2. We can learn from the example of the Star Wars that       .

A. in space, you can not hear anything

B. light beams travel via air particle in space

C. Chiver thinks the sound of the fighters is vivid

D. the invisible light beams are impressive in the movies

3. Chiver uses the example of car batteries in Matrix to imply that       .

A. the basic idea of the film is rather ridiculous

B. the science in the movies is very convincing

C. the idea that humans can be kept alive as electricity generator is right

D. humans would stay alive as long as they would produce enough energy

4. We can learn from the movie Die Another Day that       .

A. the idea of gene therapy is creative

B. the element of DNA should not be used

C. the makers of the 2002 Bond use the genetic technology

D. DNA can be replaced but in the real world it is impossible

5.Why did Chiver write this passage?

A. To prove all these films are making mistakes.

B. To show his great concern for the movie industry.

C. To joke about some movies in the movie industry.

D. To call for the audience to find out mistakes from the movies.

 

 

         Every day we experiencc one of the wonders of the world around us without even realizing it It is not the amszing complexity of television. Nor the impressive tcchnology of transport The universal wonder we share and

Experience is our ability to make noises with our mouths, and so transmit ideas and thoughts to each other’s minds. This ability comes so naturally that tend to forget what a miracle（奇迹）it is.

         Obviously, the ability to talk is something that marks humans off from animals. Of course, some animals have powers just as amazing. Birds can fly thousands of miles by observing positions of the stars in the sky in relation to the time of day and year. In Nature’s went show, humans are a species of animal that have deve pod their own special act. If we reduce it to basie ferms, it’s a ability for communicating information to ther by varying sounds we make as we breathe out.

         Not the to don’t have other powers of communication. Our facia. expressions convey our emotions, such as anger, or jout or disappointment. The way we hold our beads can indicate to others whether we are happy or sad. This is so-called “body language”. Bristling(直立的)fur is an unmistakable warning of attack among many animals. Similarly, the bowed bead or drooping tail shows a readiness to take second place in any animal gathering.

         Such a means of communication is a basic mechanism that animals, including human beings, instinctively acquire and display. Is the ability to speak just another sort of instinct? If so, how did human beings acquire this amazing skill? Biologists can readily indicate that particular area of our brain where speech mechanisms function, but this doesn’t tell us how that part of our bodies originated in our biological history.

1.According to the passage, the wonder we take for granted is_________.

         A.our ability to use language

         B.the miracle of technology

         C.the amazing power of nature

         D.our ability to make noises with mouth

2.What feature of “body language”mentioned in the passage is common to both humans and animals?

         A.Lifting beads when sad.

         B.Keeping long faces when angry.

         C.Bristling hair when ready to attack.

         D.Bowing heads when willing to obey.

3.What can be inferred from Paragraph 3?

         A.Body language is unique to humans.

         B.Animals express emotions just as humans do.

         C.Humans have other powers of communication.

         D.Humans are no different from animals to some degree.

4.This pastge is mainly about________________.

         A.the development of body language

         B.the special role humans play in nature

         C.the power to convey information to others

         D.the difference between humans and animals in language use

 

 

Humans are naturally drawn to other life forms and the worlds outside of our own. We take delight in the existence of creatures and even whole societies beyond our everyday lives.

This sense of wonder is universal. Look at the efforts that scientists have made to find out whether life of some kind exists on Mars, and the popularity of fantasy(幻想) literature or movies like The Lord of the Rings. This sense of wonder draws us to each other, to the world around us, and to the world of make-believe. But have we gone so far in creating worlds of fantasy that we are missing the pleasure of other worlds that already exist all around us?

Human beings, as biologists have suggested, possess an inborn desire to connect with and understand other life forms. However, people, especially in big cities, often lead rather isolated lives. In a study of British schoolchildren, it was found that children by age eight were much more familiar with characters from television shows and video games than with common wildlife. Without modern technology, a small pond could be an amazing world filled with strange and beautiful plants, insects, birds, and animals. When we lack meaningful interaction(交互) with the world around us, and sometimes even with our families and friends, we seek to understand and communicate with things that exist only in our imaginations or on a computer screen.

The world of make-believe is not necessarily bad. But when the world of fantasy becomes the only outlet(出路) for our sense of wonder, then we are really missing something. We are missing a connection with the living world. Other wonderful worlds exist all around us. But even more interesting is that if we look closely enough, we can see that these worlds, in a broad sense, are really part of our own.

1.The popularity of The Lord of the Rings proves       

A. the close connection between man and the fantasy world

B. the wonderful achievements of fantasy literature

C. the fine taste of moviegoers around the world

D. the general existence of the sense of curiosity

2.What can we infer from the underlined sentence in Paragraph 3?

A. People are far less familiar with the world of fantasy.

B. The world around us could serve as a source of wonder.

C. The world of fantasy can be mirrored by a small and lively pond.

D. Modern technology prevents us from developing our sense of wonder.

3.If our sense of wonder relies totally on the world of make-believe, we will       

A. fail to appreciate the joy in our lives

B. be confused by the world of make-believe

C. miss the chance to recognize the fantasy world

D. be trapped by other worlds existing all around us

4.What is the main purpose of the passage?

A. To show us the hidden beauty in our world.

B. To warn us not to get lost in the fantasy world.

C. To argue against the misuse of the sense of wonder.

D. To discuss the influence of the world of make-believe.

 

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