题目内容

Most people agree that honesty is a good thing. But does Mother Nature agree? Animals can't talk, but can they lie in other ways? Can they lie with their bodies and behavior? Animal experts may not call it lying, but they do agree that many animals, from birds to chimpanzees, behave dishonestly to fool other animals. Why? Dishonesty often helps them survive.

Many kinds of birds are very successful at fooling other animals. For example, a bird called the plover sometimes pretends to be hurt in order to protect its young. When a predator(猎食动物)gets close to its nest, the plover leads the predator away from the nest. How? It pretends to have a broken wing. The predator follows the "hurt" adult, leaving the baby birds safe in the nest.

Another kind of bird, the scrub jay, buries its food so it always has something to eat. Scrub jays are also thieves. They watch where others bury their food and steal it. But clever scrub jays seem to know when a thief is watching them. So they go back later, unbury the food, and bury it again somewhere else.

Birds called cuckoos have found a way to have babies without doing much work. How? They don't make nests(鸟巢). Instead, they get into other birds' nests secretly. Then they lay their eggs and fly away. When the baby birds come out, their adoptive parents feed them.

Chimpanzees, or chimps, can also be sneaky. After a fight, the losing chimp will give its hand to the other. When the winning chimp puts out its hand, too, the chimps are friendly again. But an animal expert once saw a losing chimp take the winner's hand and start fighting again.

Chimps are sneaky in other ways, too. When chimps find food that they love, such as bananas, it is natural for them to cry out. Then other chimps come running. But some clever chimps learn to cry very softly when they find food. That way, other chimps don't hear them, and they don't need to share their food.

As children, many of us learn the saying "You can't fool Mother Nature." But maybe you can't trust her, either.

1.A plover protects its young from a predator by______.

A. getting closer to its young

B. driving away the adult predator

C. leaving its young in another nest

D. pretending to be injured

2.By "Chimpanzees, or chimps, can also be sneaky" (paragraph 5), the author means______.

A. chimps are ready to attack others

B. chimps are sometimes dishonest

C. chimps are jealous of the winners

D. chimps can be selfish too

3.Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A. Some chimps lower their cry to keep food away from others.

B. The losing chimp won the fight by taking the winner's hand.

C. Cuckoos fool their adoptive parents by making no nests.

D. Some clever scrub jays often steal their food back.

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

A. Do animals lie?

B. Does Mother Nature fool animals?

C. How do animals learn to lie?

D. How does honesty help animals survive?

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Even if trees cannot walk, they are still on the move.

In parts of the Arctic, entire forests are moving northward. Across the Arctic, temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else in the world. As that happens, the tree line that marks where forests stop and the treeless tundra (冻土地带)starts has been shifting northward. Trees growing along the tree line must protect themselves from the cold wind. To do this, plants tend to grow horizontal (水平的)branches low to the ground. The energy it takes for trees to grow this way means they don't have enough energy to make seeds.

But as Earth's climate has been warming, trees no longer have to just grow horizontally. Many can instead grow up toward the sky. This takes less energy. And with all the leftover energy. these trees have started producing more seeds. This happens especially in places where the white spruce (白云杉)grows.

White spruce, which is a North American tree, is quite able to produce a lot of seeds, which can move long distances in the wind. When wind-blown seeds end up on the tundra beyond the tree line, they eventually can sprout (发芽) new trees. This explains how a forest can move. Of course, the process would work only if the tundra were warm enough. But in recent years, the whole planet has been warming.

New trees will provide shelters for some snow, keeping the sun’s rays from making the white surface disappear. Instead, the trees absorb the sun's heat. This warms the surrounding air. The extra warmth encourages even more trees to produce seeds. That further boosts a forest's ability to expand. In addition, more trees will trap more snow, preventing much of it from being blown away. Snow can trap heat in the soil below,which encourages trees to grow. The recent rise of temperature has helped more trees grow. The recent rise of temperatures has helped more trees grow past the tree line. People worry about impacts on the animals that depend on frozen conditions for food and shelter.

1.What is the main cause of the trees in the Arctic moving northward?

A. The rising temperature.

B. The shrinking of northern tundra.

C. The fierce and cold wind.

D. The abundant resources in the north.

2.What does the underlined word, “this”, in Paragraph 2 mean?

A. To produce more seeds.

B. To move northward

C. To respond to the climate change.

D. To protect themselves from the cold wind.

3.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A. New trees can trap the snow, which may make the soil colder.

B. The trapped snow prevents new trees from producing more seeds.

C. New trees can make the surrounding air warmer.

D. New trees can bring more food and shelter for local animals.

4.The passage is most probably taken from _______.

A. a health report B. a science report

C. a fashion magazine D. a children's magazine

A new pollen (花粉) study showed that drought was responsible for the extinction of civilizations more than 3,000 years ago during the Bronze Age.

The reason behind why the civilizations in and around modern-day Israel suddenly broke down more than 3,000 years ago has remained a mystery up until now. A new pollen study by Tel Aviv University researchers finally solved this Bronze Age mystery.

Prof. Israel Finkelstein showed that owing to serious climate changes, the entire world of the Bronze Age crumbled in a short period of time. The discovery was made on the basis of a high-resolution analysis of pollen grains taken from sediments (沉淀物) beneath the Sea of Galilee and the western shore of the Dead Sea.

Prof. Finkelstein received support from the European Research Council to conduct research aimed at reconstructing ancient Israel. Researchers of the part of the project that dealt with climate change extracted (提取) about 60 feet of samples of gray muddy sediment from the center of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. They had to drill through 1,000 feet of water and into 65 feet of the lake bed and were able to recover evidence dating over the past 9,000 years.

“Pollen is the most enduring organic material in nature,” explained Dr. Dafna Langgut, a pollen researcher who carried out the actual work of sampling. “These grains tell us about the plants that grew near the lake in the past and therefore prove the climatic conditions in the region.”

Researchers noted a sharp decrease in Mediterranean trees like oaks and pines in the Late Bronze Age. According to study experts, this could be because of repeated periods of drought. The droughts may have resulted in long famines, forcing people to migrate from north to south.

1.The underlined word “crumbled” in Paragraph 3 means _____.

A. settled B. changed

C. established D. disappeared

2.Prof. Finkelstein conducted the new pollen study to _____.

A. earn some money

B. recreate ancient Israel

C. learn more about local plants

D. discover the ancient civilizations

3.By conducting the study, scientists found _____.

A. Mediterranean trees were rare in the Early Bronze Age

B. climate change was to blame for the lost civilization

C. people in the Late Bronze Age starved to death

D. droughts were rare during the Bronze Age

4.The text is most probably taken from _____.

A. a travel magazine B. a history textbook

C. a newspaper report D. an agricultural book

A deal has been signed to turn by-products from a Scottish distillery(酿酒厂)into fuel for cars.

In what is declared to be a world first, the Tullibardine distillery in Perthshire has linked up with a spin-out company from Napier University in Edinburgh. They plan to use bacteria to feed on the "leftovers" from the whisky(威士忌酒)making process. This will produce butanol which can be used to fuel vehicles.

More than 90% of the stuff that comes out of a whisky distillery is not whisky. It is leftovers like draff and pot ales(酒糟)— both produced in the early stages of the process. They are high in sugar and are currently used for things like fertiliser and cattle feed. Napier University's Biofuel Research Centre (BfRC) has already shown that the right bacteria can feed on those by-products to produce butanol—a direct replacement for vehicle fuel. Now the spin-out company, Celtic Renewables, and independent whisky producer Tullibardine have signed an agreement. Together they will apply the process to thousands of tons of the distillery's leftovers.

Professor Martin Tangney, founder of Celtic Renewables, said "Our partnership with Tullibardine is an important step in the development of a business which combines two important Scottish industries — whisky and renewables. This project shows that creative use of existing technologies can utilize resources on our doorstep to benefit both the environment and the economy."

Douglas Ross, managing director of Tullibardine, which spends £250,000 disposing of its by-products every year, said "We are delighted to be partnering Celtic Renewables in this creative business, the obvious benefits of which are environmental. It takes a cost to us and turns it into something that has social as well as commercial value."

The project is being supported by a grant(拨款) from the Scottish government's Zero Waste Scotland initiative. Celtic Renewables said it eventually aimed to build a processing plant in Scotland, with the hope of building an industry that could be worth £60m a year.

1.According to the passage, ______will be used to take the place of petrol.

A. whisky B. whisky leftovers

C. butanol D. draff and pot ales

2. How do people deal with whisky leftovers at present?

A. They throw them away.

B. They use them to feed people.

C. They use them to feed bacteria.

D. They use them for crops or cattle.

3.What does the underlined word “utilize” in the fourth paragraph probably mean?

A. make use of. B. get rid of.

C. use up. D. find out.

4.Which of the following categories does this passage belong to?

a. Health b. Science c. Food

d. Nature e. Environment f. Business

A. b,c,e B. b,e,f C. a,b,f D. a,b,c

阅读下列短文,从每题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中,选出最佳选项。

In my first week as a graduate student at Cambridge University in 1964 I met with a fellow student, two years ahead of me in his studies; he was unsteady on his feet and spoke with great difficulty.This was Stephen Hawking.I learned that he had a bad disease and might not live long enough even to finish his Phd degree.

But, amazingly, he has reached the age of 73.Even mere survival would have been a medical miracle, but of course, he didn’t merely survive.He has become arguably the most famous scientist in the world for his brilliant research, for his bestselling books, and, above all, for his astonishing victory over hardship.

Stephen received his “death sentence” in 1964, when I thought it was hard for him to go on with his study.Stephen went from Albans School to Oxford University.He was said to be a “lazy” undergraduate, but his brilliance earned him a first-class degree, an “entry ticket” to a research career in Cambridge and a uniquely inspiring achievement.Within a few years of the burst of his disease he was wheelchair-bound, and his speech was so unclear that it could only be understood by those who knew him well.But his scientific career went from strength to strength: he quickly came up with a series of insights into the nature of black holes (then a very new idea) and how the universe began.In 1974 he was elected to the Royal Society at the exceptionally early age of 32.

The great advances in science generally involve discovering a link between phenomena that were previously conceptually unconnected — for instance, Isaac Newton realized that the force making an apple fall to earth was the same as the force that holds the moon and planets in their orbits.Stephen’s revolutionary idea about a link between gravity and quantum(量子) theory has still not been tested. However, it has been hugely influential; indeed, one of the main achievements of string theory(弦理论) has been to confirm and build on his idea. He has undoubtedly done more than anyone else since Einstein to improve our knowledge of gravity and he is one of the top-ten living theoretical physicists.

1.What impressed the author most about Stephen Hawking?

A. His brilliant research.

B. His bestselling books.

C. His serious disease.

D. His defeating hardship.

2.What made Stephen Hawking start his research career at Cambridge?

A. His death sentence.

B. His “lazy” attitude.

C. His above-average talent and ability.

D. His rich experience.

3.It can be inferred that Stephen Hawking was born ________.

A. in the early 1940s

B. in the late 1940s

C. in the early 1930s

D. in the late 1930s

4.What can we learn from the text?

A. Hawking’s theory was proved years ago.

B. Hawking was not as successful as Newton.

C. String theory built on Hawking’s idea.

D. Hawking’s theory has had little influence on others.

5.Which of the following is Not True according the passage?

A. He achieved one success after another in his career despite his disease.

B. He couldn’t walk when the author first met him at Cambridge.

C. He not only survived his disease but contributed greatly to science.

D. He is among the greatest scientists to improve the knowledge of gravity.

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