Fish Ears Tell Fish Tales

　 Fish have ears. Really. They’re quite small and have no opening to the outside world carrying sound through the body. For the past seven years, Simon Thorrold, a university professor, has been examining fish ears, small round ear bones called otoliths (耳石).

　 As fish grow, so do their otoliths. Each day, their otoliths gain a ring of calcium carbonate (碳酸钙). By looking through a microscope and counting these rings, Thorrold can determine the exact age of a young fish. As a fish gets older, its otoliths no longer get daily rings. Instead, they get yearly rings, which can also be counted, giving information about the fish’s age, just like the growth rings of a tree.

　 Ring counting is nothing new to fish scientists. But Thorrold has turned to a new direction. They’re examining the chemical elements (元素) of each otolith ring.

　 The daily ring gives us the time, but chemistry tells us about the environment in which the fish swam on any given day. These elements tell us about the chemistry of the water that the fish was in. It also says something about water temperature, which determines how much of these elements will gather within each otolith ring.

　 Thorrold can tell, for example, if a fish spent time in the open ocean before entering the less salty water of coastal areas. He can basically tell where fish are spending their time at any given stage of history.

　 In the case of the Atlantic croaker, a popular saltwater food fish, Thorrold and his assistant have successfully followed the travelling of young fish from mid-ocean to the coast, a journey of many hundreds of miles.

　 This is important to managers in the fish industry, who know nearly nothing about the whereabouts of the young fish for most food fish in the ocean. Eager to learn about his technology, fish scientists are now lending Thorrold their ears.

1.What can we learn about fish ears from the text?

　A. They are small soft rings.

　B. They are not seen from the outside.

　C. They are openings only on food fish.

　D. They are not used to receive sound.

2.Why does the writer compare the fish to trees?

　A. Trees gain a growth ring each day.

　B. Trees also have otoliths.

　C. Their growth rings are very small.

　D. They both have growth rings.

3.Why is it important to study the chemistry of otolith rings?

　A. The elements of the otoliths can tell the history of the sea.

　B. Chemical contents of otoliths can tell how fast fish can swim.

　C. We can know more about fish and their living environment.

　D. Scientists can know exactly how old a fish is.

4.How would you understand “fish scientists are now lending their ears”?

　A. They are very interested in Thorrold’s research findings.

　B. They want to know where they can find fish.

　C. They lend their fish for chemical studies.

　D. They wonder if Thorrold can find growth rings from their ears.　

Can feeling of nostalgia(怀旧) be good for you? Or is it unhealthy to have a strong love for the past?
For years, medical experts have studied nostalgia and the reasons for it. Many experts warn that too much nostalgia is harmful. They say living in the past shows that a person is unhappy with his present life. These feelings keep the person from living his life to its fullest.
　　However, experts say it is normal to love the past sometimes. In fact, a little nostalgia can enrich a person’s life.
　　Dr. Louise Kaplan has written several books about nostalgia. She says these feelings often begin when a young person is between 13 and 19 years old.
　　“This is the time when you must face the loss of your childhood, “Kaplan says. “You see your new life is easily destroyed. But you think romantically about a golden past. You remember your childhood as a time when life is perfect.”
　　These feelings continue as the person gets older, Kaplan adds. She says many grown persons have a hard time keeping up with changes in the modem world, so they think back to their younger years. At that time the world seemed simple and more harmless.
　　Kaplan says these feelings do not always actually exist. The good old days did not always exist. The good old days weren’t always good. However, she says nostalgia can be helpful, if used properly.
　　“Feelings of nostalgia can cause you to remember a time when you had high hopes and dreams, “Kaplan says. “It might give you the strong wish to catch those dreams today in your past life.” She adds that nostalgia can prevent you from “cutting yourself off from your aim”.
【小题1】Feeling of nostalgia ______.

完型填空

　　Have you ever imagined that you could be cloned like Dolly the sheep in the not too distant future?

　　The news that a human embryo (胚胎) has been 1 cloned for the first time has caused mixed reactions (反映).

　　The 2 was carried out by scientists from the Advanced Cell Technology Inc (ACT), in Massachusetts, US. The group 3 the news on November 25.

　　“This is 4 human being. A clone is alive, it walks, it breathes,” said Jamie Grifo, 5 on the study of cloning at New York University School of Medicine.

　　“This is a set of cells in a lab that will be used to 6 someone's life. ”

　　Such research could lead to treatment for 7 such as heart diseases, AIDS and even cancer, 8 scientists.

　　Despite high hopes from other scientists, the news raised concerns immediately from religious and political leaders. Several 9 in the US do not allow human cloning. President George W. Bush also made it clear that he is 10  any type of human cloning. However, the scientists at ACT said they have no interest at present in 11 an early embryo into __12__.

　　Animals have been cloned repeatedly since Dolly the sheep 13 in 1997. And there were no real technical 14 to stand in the way of scientists making a cloned human embryo.

　　This time the research group used traditional cloning technology with a human 15

　　 16 it was given DNA from an adult cell, the egg began to __17__.__18__ it was stopped from becoming a baby--at a stage in which it was 19 a ball of cells. The 20 technology has been used to clone sheep, cattle and monkeys.

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A. according to

B. including

C. besides

D. argued

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A. developing

B. building

C. inventing

D. discovering

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D

　　Build the highway and watch the town grow.At first a few shops appear and maybe a restaurant.Then a hotel opens. Eventually new house are built. A village is born.

　　This is also how the virtual world has developed. Think of the Internet as the road carrying information between two computers.Think of the World Wide Web as the village. At first it is just a place on the virtual road where travelers meet. More travelers come bringing new kinds of information. New travelers come bringing new kinds of information.New villages are started.

　　Every willage has a founder.Tim Berners-Lee is the man who wrote the software programme that led to the foundation of the Word Wide Web.How did he get the idea? He tells us on his own web site. "One of the things computers were not able to do was store in formation from different sources. The dream behind the Web is of a common space in which we communicate by sharing information."

　　In 1991 his programmmes were placed on to the Internet.Everyone was welcome to use them.

　　Tim Berners-Lee could have followed the Microsoft route by forming a company to sell the programmes he invented. Or he could have joined another company. But in his view the Web is a language,not a pproduct. Charging a gee for using his programmes would have slowed the growth of the Web.And other companies would make similar products to compete. Instead of one World Wide Web there would be several smaller Webs. Each would use incompatible (不相容的) software. They Web is valuable because it uses a common computer language to reach people and share information. Competing webs would lose this value.Imagine if somebody sent you a bill every time you spoke a world of English.

　　In 1994 Tim Berners-Lee formed the World Wide Web Consortium,or W3C.More than 200 leading companies and laboratories are represented by W3C. Together they make sure that everyone, no matter what their equipment or solftware,can work equally on the Web.

　　"The Web can help people to understand the way that others live and love. It helps us understand the humanity of people," he says.

　　68.The writer's purpose in writing the first two paragraphs is to ______.

　　　A.give us some idea of the Internet

　　　B.give us some idea of the Web

　　　C.tell us how the idea of Web started

　　　D.tell us the idea of the Web is wonderful

　　69.Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in order to _____

　　　A.place his programmers on the Internet

　　　B.stop smaller webs appearing

　　　C.help people to form a web site

　　　D.let people share all kinds of information

　　70.According to the text,the disadvantage of competing webs is that they would ______.

　　　A.slow the development of the Web

　　　B.destroy the whole web system

　　　C.lose the value of information

　　　D.waste a lot of money

　　A train sped up through the countryside at 60 mph as a“traveller”relaxes with his newspaper. But this is no businessman taking it easy—the driver of the passenger express（快车）is doing the reading.

　　A Sunday Express reader caught this Virgin employee on film as the train sped through Derbyshire on its way to Plymouth from Newcastle.

　　Virgin，which has come under repeated criticism over their rail service, yesterday fired the driver after being shown the photograph. A spokesman said an inquiry（调查）was under way to make sure exactly what he was doing and why he appeared to have taken his eyes off the track ahead.

　　The picture comes in the week that the public inquiry into the Southall rail disaster, which claimed seven lives, heard that the driver at the centre of that case had earlier been spotted with his feet on the control button of his cab.

　　Larry Harrison，who worked for Great Western Trains，drove through two warning signals before crashing at 60 mph into a waiting train.

　　The reader who took this picture was standing on a bridge outside Chesterfield early one summer’s evening. He said，“I only realized what I’d got when I had the pictures developed. I couldn’t believe it.”

　　“As far as I could see，there was no one else in the cab with the drive，unless they were hiding, The person with the paper open was certainly sitting in the driver’s normal seat.”

　　The photographer works on the railways and does not want to be named，but he added，“I’ve seen many drivers with their feet on the control panel but I’ve never seen them reading papers like this. There is an automatic warning system and driver’s safety device which reminds him when he passes yellow and red signals. But you should never take your eyes off the track and rely only on sounds because you could have unexpected objects on the line or suddenly have speed limits given.”

63．Who is the“traveller”mentioned in the first paragraph？

A．A train driver. 　　　　　　B．A businessman.

C．A passenger. 　　　　　　　 D．A newspaper reader.

64．The train ______________when the picture was taken.

A．was driving to Plymouth

B．was ready for a picture

C．had seven people on it

D．crashed into another train

65．Who took the picture of the driver of the passenger express？

A．A professional photographer.

B．A newspaper reporter.

C．Another train driver.

D．A member of the railway staff.

66．According to what we have read，we may find this passage most probably______________.

A．at a train station

B．from a news report

C．from a driver’s safety guide

D．from the police inquiry