Hallmark arrived in my hometown of Calcutta, India when I was 16. On Valentine’s Day(情人节), I waited in line with many other teenagers just for a chance to get into the store. I remember wishing two things. One of them is that the good-looking boy whom I could see through the store window was picking out a gift for me. Unfortunately, Valentine’s Day passed and I received nothing but a lecture from my father on how Western capitalism(资本主义) was ruining your culture.

The next Valentine’s Day, I still didn’t have a boyfriend, but I did receive a greeting card from a secret admirer. I can’t remember what it exactly said inside the card, but it hardly mattered. I know I’m not the only one who’s had the blues because of being single on Valentine’s Day.

 It’s not just on Valentine’s Day that I’m reminded of these feelings. One night, my friend and I were at the subway station in New York City waiting for the local to arrive. The station was mostly full of college students, and later an older couple walked in. Just at that moment, a street musician started playing She’s Only a Woman to Me. The couple began dancing around the station and lost in their own world. On the train, I found myself recalling the time when I was with a date at the subway station, and there he picked me up in his arms like I was a ballerina(芭蕾舞女演员).

My view of romance has changed from when I was 16 in Calcutta to now, 23, and living in Manhattan. This year, I won’t focus all my romantic expectations on one particular day. I’ll spend Valentine’s Day with friends in New York City. But I won’t try to hide somewhere or turn off my cellphone. Instead, I’ll help my coupled-up friends pack for their weekend trips to Rome.

The underlined word “Hallmark” in Paragraph 1 probably refers to a              .

       A. city                  B. street                       C. store                        D. man

We can infer that in the opinion of the writer’s father                           .

       A. his daughter should have received a gift

       B. people in India shouldn’t celebrate Valentine’s Day

       C. people in India should welcome Western culture

       D. his daughter should know more about capitalism

According to Paragraph 2, if someone has the blues, he or she is probably           .

       A. lucky                B. angry                       C. excited                     D. sad

What is implied in the passage?

       A. The writer now has a boyfriend.

       B. The writer now is afraid of Valentine’s Day.

       C. The writer will go to Rome with her coupled-up friends.

       D. The writer’s attitude towards Valentine’s Day has changed.

Fish Ears Tell Fish Tales

  Fish have ears. Really. They’re quite small and have no opening to the outside world carrying sound through the body. For the past seven years, Simon Thorrold, a university professor, has been examining fish ears, small round ear bones called otoliths (耳石).

  As fish grow, so do their otoliths. Each day, their otoliths gain a ring of calcium carbonate (碳酸钙). By looking through a microscope and counting these rings, Thorrold can determine the exact age of a young fish. As a fish gets older, its otoliths no longer get daily rings. Instead, they get yearly rings, which can also be counted, giving information about the fish’s age, just like the growth rings of a tree.

  Ring counting is nothing new to fish scientists. But Thorrold has turned to a new direction. They’re examining the chemical elements (元素) of each otolith ring.

  The daily ring gives us the time, but chemistry tells us about the environment in which the fish swam on any given day. These elements tell us about the chemistry of the water that the fish was in. It also says something about water temperature, which determines how much of these elements will gather within each otolith ring.

  Thorrold can tell, for example, if a fish spent time in the open ocean before entering the less salty water of coastal areas. He can basically tell where fish are spending their time at any given stage of history.

  In the case of the Atlantic croaker, a popular saltwater food fish, Thorrold and his assistant have successfully followed the travelling of young fish from mid-ocean to the coast, a journey of many hundreds of miles.

  This is important to managers in the fish industry, who know nearly nothing about the whereabouts of the young fish for most food fish in the ocean. Eager to learn about his technology, fish scientists are now lending Thorrold their ears.

What can we learn about fish ears from the text?

 A. They are small soft rings.

 B. They are not seen from the outside.

 C. They are openings only on food fish.

 D. They are not used to receive sound.

Why does the writer compare the fish to trees?

 A. Trees gain a growth ring each day.

 B. Trees also have otoliths.

 C. Their growth rings are very small.

 D. They both have growth rings.

Why is it important to study the chemistry of otolith rings?

 A. The elements of the otoliths can tell the history of the sea.

 B. Chemical contents of otoliths can tell how fast fish can swim.

 C. We can know more about fish and their living environment.

 D. Scientists can know exactly how old a fish is.

How would you understand “fish scientists are now lending their ears”?

 A. They are very interested in Thorrold’s research findings.

 B. They want to know where they can find fish.

 C. They lend their fish for chemical studies.

 D. They wonder if Thorrold can find growth rings from their ears. 

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