【题目】You may use banknotes every day. But did you know that there is a lot of science behind the money? 1

Australia was the first country to use polymer(聚合物)banknotes in 1988. 2

They can stop water from making them wet. They are also cleaner because bacteria don’t grow easily on them.

Now, the Australians have improved their banknotes again by creating a new 5-dollar note. The new one has a clear window in the middle in which there are pictures of an Australian bird and a building. 3

Tilt (倾斜)the note a little and you will see the bird flapping its wings as if trying to fly away. Turn the note from side to side and you will notice the building come to life and spin. While these features are impressive and entertaining, that was not the reason why the Australian Government spent ten years perfecting them. Their primary purpose was to make it impossible to fake a banknote.

4 The new $ 5 bill now has a raised bump alongside the two long edges, enabling the blind or those with limited vision, to quickly determine its value.

The Australian government will give the new 10-dollar note the same features in a year’s time. 5

A. Note makers still have a long way to go.

B. Other notes will have them in the future.

C. The magic of the new features lies in them.

D. They have many advantages over paper notes.

E. The new Australian 5-dollar note is a good example.

F. The new note is also the first touchable Australian banknote.

G. Their material and pattern set them apart from ordinary banknotes.

【题目】“Birds” and “airports” are two words that, paired together, don’t normally paint the most harmonious picture. So it really raises some eyebrows when China announces plans to build an airport that’s for birds.

Described as the world’s first-ever bird airport, the proposed Lingang Bird Sanctuary(保护区) in the northern coastal city of Tianjin is,of course,not an actual airport. Rather, it’s a wetland preserve specifically designed to accommodate hundreds — even thousands — of daily takeoffs and landings by birds traveling along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Over 50 species of migratory (迁徙的)water birds, some endangered, will stop and feed at the protected sanctuary before continuing their long journey along the flyway.

Located on a former landfill site, the 61-hectare (150-acre) airport is also open to human travelers. (Half a million visitors are expected annually.) However, instead of duty-free shopping, the main attraction for non-egg-laying creatures at Tianjin’s newest airport will be a green-roofed education and research center, a series of raised “observation platforms” and a network of scenic walking and cycling paths and trails totaling over 4 miles.

The proposed Bird Airport will be a globally significant sanctuary for endangered migratory bird species, while providing new green lungs for the city of Tianjin,” Adrian McGregor of Australian landscape architecture firm McGregor Coxall explained of .the design. Frequently blanketed in smog so thick that it has shut down real airports, Tianjin is a city — China’s fourth most populous — that would certainly benefit from a new pair of healthy green lungs.

1The underlined phrase 4 “non-egg-laying creatures” in Paragraph 3 refers to ________?

A. endangered water birds B. planes

C. visitors D. designers

2What do we know about the airport according to the passage?

A. It is located on a landfill site.

B. People cannot watch birds up close here.

C. It provides migratory birds with food and shelter.

D. It functions as an actual airport and a wetland preserve at the same time.

3What can we infer from the last paragraph?

A. Tianjin will win worldwide fame in the future.

B. Tianjin will be able to accommodate more people.

C. The airport will become a permanent home for birds.

D. Tianjin’ air quality will improve thanks to the airport.

4What is this passage mainly about?

A. China is to open the first Bird Airport.

B. Airports turn into green lungs.

C. Birds are no longer enemies to airports.

D. Airports shut down and open up.

【题目】Like many thickly populated urban neighborhoods, Lincoln Park also has rats. A lot of rats. “Every night when I walk down the sidewalk, I see rats, ” says 36-year-oId Kelly McGee, who has come to accept this aspect of city living. “It’s an urban area; I don't know what else we can expect.”

McGee lives just down the block from the old Children's Memorial Hospital, which is about to be torn down as part of a massive redevelopment project. “Construction all over the city often disturbs rats that are living underground,” says Lincoln Park’s City Council representative, Alderman Michele Smith. “Every developer has to do active rat reduction on site, ”Smith says. Already, there are poisonous and inviting food boxes all around the old hospital complex. But the developer of the hospital site still warned residents in a recent community meeting that when digging begins later this month, the rat problem could be awful.

Victoria Thomas, who lives a few miles north of Lincoln Park in Chicago’s Lake View neighborhood, says she tried everything from underground fencing to poison traps to wipe out rats, but nothing worked until she got some cats. From the first day she got the cats, Thomas says the rats started to disappear.

“The cats will kill off a great deal of the initial population of the rats, ”says Paul Nickerson, who manages the Cats at Work program for Tree House Humane Society. “And through spreading their pheromones, a chemical produced by an animal, the cats will keep other rats from filling their absence.” Nickerson says that is what makes the cat program so successful in keeping rats away for the long term. ” The rats are far from stupid. They smell the cats’ pheromones so they’ll stay out of the cats’ territory(领域).”

After Smith highlighted the program in a recent newsletter, Nickerson and Tree House Humane Society have been getting lots of calls from people seeking their own cat colonies. That means a lot more wild cats that might otherwise be killed out of pity will be cared for while doing something that they love: hunting rats.

1What is McGee’s attitude towards the rat problem?

A. Indifferent. B. Tolerant.

C. Annoyed. D. Frightened.

2What does the underlined word in the last but one paragraph refer to?

A. Rats’ stupidity.

B. Tree House Humane Society.

C. Cat’s nature of killing rats.

D. The smell of cat’s pheromones.

3What does the last paragraph suggest?

A. The program is a win-win thing.

B. Cats should be taken good care of.

C. Wild cats are more skilled at hunting.

D. It’s important to keep the ecological balance.

【题目】根据短文内容,从短文后的七个选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。

Every animal sleeps, but the reason for this has remained foggy. When lab rats are not allowed to sleep, they die within a month. 1

One idea is that sleep helps us strengthen new memories. 2 We know that, while awake, fresh memories are recorded by reinforcing (加强) connections between brain cells, but the memory processes that take place while we sleep have been unclear.

Support is growing for a theory that sleep evolved so that connections between neurons(神经元) in the brain can be weakened overnight, making room for fresh memories to form the next day. 3

Now we have the most direct evidence yet that he is right. 4 The synapses in the mice taken at the end of a period of sleep were 18 per cent smaller than those taken before sleep, showing that the connections between neurons weaken while sleeping.

If Tononi’s theory is right, it would explain why, when we miss a night`s, we find it harder the next day to concentrate and learn new information — our brains may have smaller room for new experiences.

Their research also suggests how we may build lasting memories over time even though the synapses become thinner. The team discovered that some synapses seem to be protected and stayed the same size. 5 “You keep what matters,” Tononi says.

A. We should also try to sleep well the night before.

B. It’s as if the brain is preserving its most important memories.

C. Similarly, when people go for a few days without sleeping, they get sick.

D. The processes take place to stop our brains becoming loaded with memories.

E. That’s why students do better in tests if they get a chance to sleep after learning.

F. “Sleep is the price we pay for learning,” says Giulio Tononi, who developed the idea.

G. Tononi’s team measured the size of these connections, or synapses, in the brains of 12 mice.

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