The report came to the British on May 21,1941.The German battleship Bismarck, the most powerful warship in the world, was moving out into the Atlantic Ocean.Her task:to destroy the ships carrying supplies from the United States to war-torn English.
The British had feared such a task.No warship they had could match the Bismarck in speed or in firepower.The Bismarck had eight 15-inch guns and 81 smaller guns.She could move at 30 nautical(航海的)miles an hour.She was believed to be unsinkable.
However, the British had to sink her.They sent our a task force headed by their best battleship Hood to hunt down the Bismarck.On My 24, the Hood found the Bismarck.
It was a meeting that the German commander Luetjens did not want to see.His orders were to destroy the British ships that were carrying supplies, but to stay away from a fight with British warships.
The battle didn't last long.The Bismarck's first torpedo(鱼雷)hit the Hood, which went town taking all but three of her 1,419 men with her.
But in the fight, the Bismarck was slightly damaged.Her commander decided to run for repairs to France, which had at that time been taken by the Germans.The British force followed her.However, because of the Bismarck' s speed and the heavy fog, they lost sight of her.
For two days, every British ship in the Atlantic tried to find the Bismarck, but with no success.Finally, she was sighted by a plane from Ireland.Trying to slow the Bismarck down so that their ships could catch up with her, the British fired at her from the air.The Bismarck was hit.
On the morning of May 27, the last battle was fought.Four British ships fired on the Bismarck, and she was finally sunk.
(1)
The Bismarck sailed into the Atlantic Ocean ________.
[ ]
A.
to sink the Hood
B.
to gain control of France
C.
to cut off American supplies to British
D.
to stop British warships reaching Germany
(2)
We learn from the text on 24 May ________.
[ ]
A.
the British won the battle against the Bismarck
B.
the Bismarck won the battle against the British
C.
The British gunfire damaged the Bismarck seriously
D.
the Bismarck succeeded in keeping away from the British
(3)
Luetjens tried to sail to France in order to ________.
[ ]
A.
have the ship repaired
B.
join the other Germans
C.
get help from the French
D.
get away from the British
(4)
Which of the following is the immediate cause of the sinking of the Bismarck?
Number sense is not the ability to count.It is the ability to recognize a 1 in number.Human beings are born with this ability. 2 , experiments show that many animals are, too.For example, many birds have good number sense.If a nest has four eggs and you remove one, the bird will not 3 .However, if you remove two, the bird 4 leaves.This means that the bird knows the 5 between two and three.
Another interesting experiment showed a bird's 6 number sense.A man was trying to take a photo of a crow(乌鸦)that had a nest in a tower, but the crow always left when she saw him coming.The bird did not 7 until the man left the tower.The man had an 8 .He took another man with him to the tower.One man left and the other stayed, but they did not 9 the bird.The crow stayed away until the second man left, too.The experiment was 10 with three men and then with four men.But the crow did not return to the nest until all the men were 11 .It was not until five men went into the tower and only four left that they were 12 able to fool the crow.
How good is a human's number sense? It's not very good.For example, babies about fourteen months old almost always notice if something is taken away from a 13 group.But when the number goes beyond three or four, the children are 14 fooled.
It seems that number sense is something we have in common with many animals in this world, and that our human 15 is not much better than a crow's.