题目内容
As they were preparing ________, help came.
- A.to give up
- B.giving up
- C.to pick up
- D.picking up
People diet to look more attractive. Fish diet to avoid being beaten up, thrown out of their social group, and getting eaten as a result. That is the fascinating conclusion of the latest research into fish behavior by a team of Australian scientists.
The research team has discovered that subordinate (隶属的)fish voluntarily diet to avoid challenging their larger competitors. “In studying gobies we noticed that only the largest two individuals, a male and female, had breeding(繁殖) rights within the group, ”explains Marian Wong. “All other group members are non-breeding females, each being 5–10% smaller than its next largest competitor. We wanted to find out how they keep this size separation.”
The reason for the size difference was easy to see. Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5–10% of the size of its larger competitor，it causes a fight which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group. More often than not, the evicted fish is then eaten up.
It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid challenging the boss fish. Whether they did so voluntarily，by limiting how much they ate, was not clear. The research team decided to do an experiment. They tried to fatten up some of the subordinate gobies to see what happened. To their surprise，the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered，clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights, over having a feast.
The discovery challenges the traditional scientific view of how boss individuals keep their position in a group. Previously it was thought that large individuals simply used their weight and size to threaten their subordinates and take more of the food for themselves, so keeping their competitors small.
While the habits of gobies may seem a little mysterious, Dr. Wong explains that understanding the relationships between boss and subordinate animals is important to understanding how hierarchical (等级的) societies remain stable.
The research has proved the fact that voluntary dieting is a habit far from exclusive(排他的) to humans. “As yet, we lack a complete understanding of how widespread the voluntary reduction of food intake is in nature,” the researchers comment. “Data on human dieting suggests that, while humans generally diet to improve health or increase attractiveness, rarely does it improve long term health and males regularly prefer females that are fatter than the females’ own ideal.”
【小题1】
When a goby grows to within 5–10% of the size of its larger competitor, it_______.
| A．faces danger | B．has breeding rights |
| C．eats its competitor | D．leaves the group itself |
The underlined words “the evicted fish” in Paragraph 3 refer to _______.
| A．the fish beaten up | B．the fish found out |
| C．the fish fattened up | D．the fish driven away |
The experiment showed that the smaller fish_______.
| A．fought over a feast | B．went on diet willingly |
| C．preferred some extra food | D．challenged the boss fish |
What is the text mainly about?
| A．Fish dieting and human dieting. | B．Dieting and health. |
| C．Human dieting. | D．Fish dieting. |
To face the music
Like every language, American English is full of special expressions, phrases that come from the day-to-day life of the people and develop in their own way. Our expression today is “to face the music”.
When someone says, “well, I guess I’ll have to face the music,” it does not mean he’s planning to go to the concert. It is something far less pleasant, like being called in by your boss to explain why you did this and did that, and why you didn’t do this or that. Sour music indeed, but it has to be faced. At sometime or another, every one of us has had to face the music, especially as children. We can all remember father’s angry voice, “I want to talk to you.” and only because we did not obey him. What an unpleasant business it was!
The phrase “to face the music” is familiar to every American, young and old. It is at least 100 years old. And where did this expression come from? The first explanation comes from the American novelist, James Fenimore Looper. He said, in 1851, that the expression was first used by actors while waiting in the wings to go on the stage. When they got their cue to go on, they often said, “Well, it’s time to face the music.” And that was exactly what they did — facing the orchestra which was just below them. And an actor might be frightened or nervous as he moved on to the stage in front of an audience that might be friendly or perhaps hostile, especially if he forgot his lines. But he had to go out. If he did not, there would be no play. So the expression “to face the music” come to mean “having to go through something, no matter how unpleasant the experience might be, because you knew you had no choice.”
Other explanations about the expression go back to the army. When the men faced an inspection by their leader, the soldiers would be worried about how well they looked. Was their equipment clean, shinny enough to pass the inspection? Still the men had to go out and face the music of the band as well as the inspection. What else could they do?
Another army explanation is more closely related to the idea of facing the results and accepting the responsibility for something that should not have been done. As, for example when a man
is forced out of the army because he did something terrible, he is dishonored. The band does not play. Only the drums tap a sad, slow beat. The soldier is forced to leave, facing such music as it is and facing the back of his horse.
【小题1】How many ways does the phrase “to face the music” comes from?
| A．1 | B．2 | C．3 | D．4 |
| A．To face something far less pleasant. | B．To face the stage. |
| C．To face the back of one’s horse. | D．To face one’s leader. |
| A．When we are playing basketball. | B．When we are making a speech. |
| C．When we are having a party. | D．When we are talking with somebody. |
| A．unfriendly | B．dislike | C．unkind | D．unnecessary |