题目内容
Living in South Africa, I had always taken the wildlife pretty much for granted. Not to say that we were surrounded by it, but the accessibility of game parks and wildlife sanctuaries(避难所,庇护所) always made it seem like a natural part of the environment. For this reason, I suppose that the way my European friends used to talk to me, wasn’t so strange after all. They would ask me what I thought at the time were really silly questions which got on my nerves. They’d say things like ‘Do you have a pet baboon?’ or ‘Do you travel to school by elephant?’.
When Amanda, a friend of mine who was visiting from England, invited me to join her and a group of friends on a wildlife expedition, I was not filled with enthusiasm. However, from the moment we entered the gates of the Zaluzi game reserve, I knew that this was not going to be anything like I had expected. We had been traveling along the National Road when, suddenly, we turned onto a dirt track which seemed to be hidden in the middle of nowhere. Amazingly, the scenery changed dramatically. The civilized environment took on a wild, chaotic(混沌的;一片混乱的) aspect and continued to do so as we walked deeper into the bush.
After having a good night’s sleep at one of the reserve’s bungalows, we were woken at the crack of dawn. After a quick breakfast we piled into a jeep and set off. Our guide assured us that the early start was necessary in order to have the best chance of seeing what was really worthwhile. Armed with just a thermos of coffee, we set out towards the shore of a small lake where it was expected that we could see that animals that used it as their morning watering hole.
On the way to our destination, we topped a hill and there, against the emerging morning light, were a group of animals. It was a stunning sight. As we moved closer, the animals did not appear to be alarmed by our presence. Pet baboons aside, I had never before come within such close range of a pride of lions. It did cross my mind, however, that we might be in a certain amount of danger. When I asked Timothy, our game ranger, if we were actually in any danger, he replied straightforwardly that one is never entirely safe in the bush, but his knowledge and experience allowed him to anticipate any danger with reasonable accuracy.
However, the following day there was some cause for alarm. Not having started out so early, we missed the sightings of the day before. We decided to drive around for a while, hoping to come across something of interest. Suddenly our tracker perched up on the back of our vehicle, signaled to the driver to halt and at the same moment I realized that this time we had stumbled right into a pride of lions. The driver promptly turned off the engine and in a low voice warned us to remain seated and not to make any abrupt movements. The lions were picking at what looked like the remains of a zebra. Timothy, later told us how much to our advantage this was. Had their bellies not been full, their reaction to us would surely have been otherwise. As the nearest lion was less than three meters away from the jeep, I considered that we had been very lucky indeed.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Our near miss with the lions was without a doubt the highlight, but what it taught me yet again was how easy it is to be indifferent to our surroundings and not to have a full appreciation of the beauty around us.
70. How did the writer feel about the questions her European friends asked?
A. ridiculous B. annoyed C. strange D. embarrassed
71. When did the writer’s attitude change about the expedition?
A. When she was traveling along the dirt track.
B. When she received her invitation. C. When she arrived at the game reserve.
D. When her friend arrived from England.
72. What does the underlined word ‘It’ (in the fourth paragraph) refer to?
A. the pride of lions B. the destination
C. the top of the hill D. the morning light
73. Timothy’s experience as a game ranger was valuable because he ______________
A. could supply a straightforward answer to any question.
B. knew how to frighten the animals.
C. knew the game reserve well. D. could identify trouble in advance.
74. What does the writer mean by the underlined sentence ‘we had been very lucky indeed’ in the fifth paragraph?
A. They had seen the lions up close. B. They hadn’t been attacked.
C. They had a good guide with them. D. They had gone on a trip.
75. What conclusion does the writer of the text come to?
A. We often do not realize how attractive our environment really is.
B. It is not clever to unnecessarily put ourselves in dangerous situations.
C. We don’t respect wild animals enough.
D. We should protect our surroundings.
BCADBA
Robert Frost was one of America’s best known and most honored serious writers. But his fame came late in his life.
He was born in San Francisco, California in 1874. He lived in California during his early childhood. He was named after the chief Southern general in America’s Civil War. The general’s name was Robert Edward Lee. The poet was named Robert Lee Frost, because his father wanted to honor the general.
Someone once asked another American writer, Ernest Hemingway, how to become a writer. The best thing, he said, was to have an unhappy childhood. If this is true, Robert Frost’s childhood was unhappy enough to make him a very good writer. Robert Frost’s father was a reporter who wanted to be a politician. He often drank too much wine and became angry. Robert was the victim (受害者) of his anger.
Robert Frost finished high school in 1891. After high school, Robert’s grandfather offered to pay his costs at Dartmouth College. But Robert left the school after a few months. He did not like it. He spent the next few years working at different jobs. At one time, he worked in a factory. Later, he repaired shoes. He was a teacher. He was a reporter. Always, he wrote poetry.
Robert Frost attended Harvard University for two years. After that, he returned to the many jobs he held before. For a while, Frost tried to take care of a farm in the state of New Hampshire. He was not a successful farmer. And he continued to write poetry. He said that until 1930, he earned only about ten dollars a year from writing.
In 1912, he decided to try to make a new start. He took his family to Britain. The cost of living was low. In Britain, Frost found a publisher for his first book of poems. The book was called A Boy’s Will. When it appeared in 1913. Frost received high praise from British readers. Praise was something he had not received in his own country.
Ezra Pound, another American poet living in Britain, read the poems and liked them very much. He wrote a magazine article about Frost. He also helped get Frost’s second book of poems published in America. That book was called North of Boston.
【小题1】The followings are writers EXCEPT ________.
A.Robert Edward Lee | B.Robert Lee Frost |
C.Ernest Hemingway | D.Ezra Pound |
A.he had great influence on Frost’s poetry and life |
B.Frost’ s poetry style was the same as Hemingway’s |
C.Frost was unhappy because he was the victim of his father |
D.Frost spent his childhood unhappily |
A.Once Frost’s first book was published he gained great praise in his country. |
B.After leaving Harvard University, he began to learn to write poetry. |
C.Frost was found lo have a gift in poetry while he studied in high school. |
D.Robert Frost’s father was angry and drank a lot because he didn’t realize his dream. |
A.Robert Frost’s unhappy childhood. | B.Robert Frost’s first and second book. |
C.Robert Frost’s family and jobs. | D.Robert Frost’s life and poetry. |
Health experts have long worried about the increasing rate of obesity in kids. It’s an important concern: Being very overweight or obese during childhood can lead to serious problems normally seen in adults, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Poor diets and a lack of exercise are usually the causes. But would you ever have imagined there might be a connection between the bacteria that lived in your guts (内脏)when you were a baby and the chance that you would become overweight?
Scientists in Finland recently found just such a link. In a recent study, they showed that overweight kids had different species of bacteria living in their guts.
You probably think of bacteria only as germs that can make you sick. While it’s true that some bacteria can make people ill, your body actually depends on some types of bacteria to help you digest food and extract nutrients from it. These “good” bacteria live in your guts, where they process the food you eat.
Human babies get these bacterial helpers from their moms. When a baby is born, some of the bacteria in the mother move into the baby’s body. Growing babies get additional “good” bacteria from the milk their mothers produce. And it turns out the bacteria might play an important role in regulating weight just six years later.
So how could these bacteria affect weight? The researchers still haven’t tested that question, but future tests might lead to an answer.
【小题1】The “link” in Paragraph 2 refers to the relationship between _______.
A.bacteria and the chance of being overweight | B.obesity and diabetes |
C.diets and the chance of being overweight | D.bacteria and exercise |
A.Helping to digest food. | B.Helping to take nutrients from food. |
C.Helping to regulate weight. | D.Making a person ill. |
A.introduce the role of bacteria in children’s weight |
B.analyze the influence of obesity on kids |
C.give advice on how to lose weight quickly |
D.explain the function of bacteria in foods |
A team of US psychologists have found that talking to another person for ten minutes a day helps with memory.
"Socializing is just as effective as more traditional kinds of mental exercise in boosting memory and intellectual performance," Oscar Ybarra, a psychologist at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, said in a statement.
In one investigation, they analyzed data on 3610 people, aged 24 to 96.
They found that the higher their level of social interaction (交流), the better their cognitive (认知的) functioning. Social interaction includes getting together or having phone chats with relatives, freinds and neighbors.
In another experiment, the researchers conducted lab tests on 76 college students, aged 18 to 21, to evaluate how social interactions and intellectual exercises affected the results of memory and mental performance tests.
The students were divided into three groups: the social interaction group had a discussion of a social issue for 10 minutes before taking the tests; the intellectual activities group completed three tasks (including a reading comprehension exercise and a crossword puzzle) before the tests; and a control group (对照组) watched a 10-minute clip (电源片段) of the Seinfeld television show.
"We found that short-term social interaction lasting for just 10 minutes improved participants’ intellectual performance as much as engaging in so-called ’intellectual’ activities for the same amount of time," Ybarra said.
The study was expected to be published in the February issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
【小题1】The underlined word "boosting" in the second paragraph can be replaced by ______.
A.improving | B.decreasing | C.preventing | D.training |
A.Having a talk with a neighbor. | B.Attending a birthday party. |
C.Watching TV at home alone. | D.Calling your classmates |
A.To judge the effect of social interaction on memory and intelligence. |
B.To find out what is real social interaction. |
C.To learn how much time is needed for social interaction. |
D.To show the function of people’s cognition. |
A.What does the author want to show us? |
B.Do you like living in a big city or a small one? |
C.Which word can be used to fill in the blank? |
D.What is the main idea of the second paragraph? |
A.Intellectual exercises improve memory. |
B.Different people have different ways of communication |
C.Communicating with others keeps you healthy. |
D.Social interaction makes you smart |