I prefer the stories about the swimmers at the Beijing Olympics，one of which is about Zakia Nassar. She's a 21-year-old Palestinian __21__ Bethlehem studying dentistry in Jenin. Having had neither a __22__ nor a chance to an Olympic-sized pool in the past year, she had no choice but to __23__ on her own at a 12m public pool.

There is a 50-meter __24__ in nearby Nazareth, but the Israeli government did not __25__ her to use it.

Nassar was __26__ to training only when she returned to her parents' home in Bethlehem, __27__ she did so only about every two months for two days or so. __28__ the pool is only 12 meters long.

“My parents and friends always __29__ me, reminding me that I had to keep training if I __30  wanted to go to the Olympics,” she said.

It was only when Nassar __31__ China a month ago that she finally got the opportunity to swim in a 50m pool and enjoyed the __32__ of having a coach.

When she at last took part in the Games, she swam the 50m in 31.97 seconds, a(n) __33__ of seven seconds on her personal __34__. Nassar said it was the most beautiful moment of her life.

She will not __35__ on the cover of Time magazine or __36__ millions of dollars in endorsements（捐款）, but she can always say she won a race at the Olympics. For her, it wasn’t about __37__ the other swimmers or winning a prize, but about __38__ her own goal, __39__ difficult. When I think things are too difficult or I get those “I-just-can’t-do-it,” I think of her. Then I realize how __40__ the task before me really is.

400-year-old plants from the Little Ice Age were brought back to life, which could help us understand how the Earth will deal with climate change.

Moss(藓类植物) found buried beneath the Teardrop glacier(冰川) on Ellesmere Island in Canada has been brought back to life. Findings suggest that these plants could help repopulate regions exposed by melting ice caps. Plants that were buried beneath thick ice in Canada more than 400 years ago and were thought to have frozen to death have been brought back to life by Canadian scientists.

Samples of the moss plant, covered by the glacier during the Little Ice Age of 1550 to 1850 AD, were replanted in a lab at the University of Alberta and grew new stems(茎). Researchers now think these findings can give indication as to how regions can recover as the ice covering them melts.

Biologist Dr. Catherine La Farge and her team at the University of Alberta were exploring the region around the Teardrop glacier on Ellesmere Island. Ice on Ellesmere Island region has been melting at around four meters each year for the past nine years. This means that many areas of land that were previously covered by ice have since been exposed. Many ecosystems that were thought to have been destroyed during the Little Ice Age between 1550 and 1850 AD can now be studied, including many species that have never been studied before.

While examining an exposed area of land, La Farge and her team discovered a small area of moss called Aulacomnium turgidum. It is a type of bryophyte(苔藓类植物) plant that mainly grows across Canada, the US and the Highlands of Scotland.

Dr La Farge noticed that the moss had small patches of green stems, suggesting it is either growing again or can be encouraged to repopulate. Dr La Farge told the BBC, “When we looked at the samples in detail and brought them to the lab, I could see some of the stems actually had new growth of green branches, suggesting that these plants are growing again, and that blew my mind. When we think of thick areas of ice covering the landscape, we’ve always thought that plants have to come from refugia(濒绝生物保护区), never considering that land plants come from underneath a glacier. It’s a whole world of what’s coming out from underneath the glacier that really needs to be studied. The ice is disappearing pretty fast. We really have not examined all the biological systems that exist in the world; we don’t know it all.”

Dr La Farge took samples of the moss and, using carbon-dating techniques, discovered that the plants date back to the Little Ice Age. Dr La Farge’s team took the samples, planted them in dishes full of nutrient-rich potting soil and fed them with water.

The samples were from four separate species including Aulacomnium turgidum, Distichium capillaceum, Encalypta procera and Syntrichia ruralis. The moss plants found by Dr La Farge are types of bryophytes. Bryophytes can survive long winters and regrow when the weather gets warmer.

However, Dr La Farge was surprised that the plants buried under ice have survived into the twenty-first century. Her findings appear in proceedings（论文集）of the National Academy of Sciences.

1.Dr La Farge’s research is of great importance to ________.

A. knowing what the plants during the Little Ice Age were like

B. understanding how ecosystems recover from glaciers.

C. regrowing many species that have been destroyed before.

D. figuring out the effects of melting ice caps on moss.

2.The underlined part “blew my mind” in Paragraph 6 can best be replaced by “________”.

A. surprised me                   B. greatly frightened me

C. put my doubt out of my mind    D. was exactly what I had in my mind

3.According to the passage, Aulacomnium turgidum ________.

A. lives better in small groups              

B. is very active in hot weather

C. is strong enough to survive coldness

D. is chosen from Canadian refugia

4.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A. Bryophyte ecology is greatly affected by climate change.

B. 400-year-old moss’s survival is a mystery to solve.

C. Moss in ancient times was discovered in Canada.

D. 400-year-old plants were brought back to life.

Scientists at Harvard University and Bates College find female chimpanzees (黑猩猩) appear to treat sticks as dolls, carrying them around until they have children of their own. Young males engage in such behavior much less frequently.
The new work by Sonya M. Kahlenberg and Richard W. Wrangham, described this week in the journal Current Biology, provides the first evidence of a wild non­human species playing with dolls, as well as the first known sex difference in a wild animal’s choice of playthings.
The two researchers say their work adds to a growing body of evidence that human children are probably born with their own ideas of how they want to behave, rather than simply mirroring other girls who play with dolls and boys who play with trucks. Doll play among humans could have its origins in object—carrying by earlier apes (猿类), they say, suggesting that toy selection is probably not due entirely to socialization.
“In humans, there are obvious sex differences in children’s toy play, and these are remarkably similar across cultures,” says Kahlenberg. “While socialization by elders and peers has been the primary explanation, our work suggests that biology may also have an important role to play in activity preferences.”
In 14 years of data on chimpanzee behavior at the Kibale National Park in Uganda, Kahlenberg and Wrangham counted more than 100 examples of stick­carrying. Some young chimpanzees carried sticks into the nest to sleep with them and on one occasion built a separate nest for the stick. “We have seen juveniles occasionally carrying sticks for many years, and because they sometimes treated them rather like dolls, we wanted to know if in general this behavior tended to represent something like playing with dolls,” says Wrangham, a Professor at Harvard. “If the doll hypothesis (假设) was right, we thought that females should carry sticks more than males do, and that the chimpanzees should stop carrying sticks when they had their first child. We have now watched enough young chimpanzees to prove both points.”
【小题1】What does a female chimpanzee do with sticks?

认真阅读下面短文，并根据所读内容从（A-F）选项中，选出可以概括每段主题的最佳选项。其中有一项为多余项。

A. Drug overuse and its consequence

B. The problem of drug overuse in America

C. Benefits of medicine and its wise use

D Female drug overuse with reference to that of males

E Misuse of medicine among the young generation

F. Improper use of medicine among senior citizens

1.

 Nowadays. millions of people misuse and even overuse pain medications and other drugs. Research by the American National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, 1999) shows that around 2% of the population over age 12 were using drugs non-medically.

2.

NIDA views medications as a powerful force for good in the contemporary world. They reduce and remove pain for millions of people suffering from illness and disease. They make it possible for doctors to perform complicated surgery to save lives. Many people afflicted by serious medical conditions are able to control their symptoms and become active, contributing citizens. NIDA points out that most individuals who take these drags use them in a responsible.

3.

Nevertheless, overuse of drugs such as opioids（类鸦片）, central nervous system (CNS) depressants and stimulants does lead to harmful reliance in some people and is therefore becoming a serious public health concern. Although this abuse affects many people worldwide, particular trends of concern to the medical profession in the US appear among older adults, teenagers arid women.

4.

Though it may be a surprise to many, the misuse of medications may be the most common form of drug abuse among the elderly. Dr Kenneth Schrader of Duke University, North Carolina states that although the elderly represent about 13% of the US population, those aged 65 and over account for the consumption of one third of all drugs. People in this age group use medications roughly three times more than the general population and have poorer compliance with instruction for use. In another study of elderly patients admitted to treatment programs, 70% were women who had overused medicines.

5.

Unfortunately, this trend among women does not only affect those aged over In general, among women and men who are using either an anti-anxiety drug or a sedative, women are twice as likely to become addicted. In addition, statistics compiled for 12-17 year olds show that teenage girls are more likely than teenage boys to begin overusing psycho therapeutic medication such as painkillers, tranquillizers, stimulants and sedatives.

Scientists at Harvard University and Bates College find female chimpanzees (黑猩猩) appear to treat sticks as dolls, carrying them around until they have children of their own. Young males engage in such behavior much less frequently.

The new work by Sonya M. Kahlenberg and Richard W. Wrangham, described this week in the journal Current Biology, provides the first evidence of a wild non­human species playing with dolls, as well as the first known sex difference in a wild animal’s choice of playthings.

The two researchers say their work adds to a growing body of evidence that human children are probably born with their own ideas of how they want to behave, rather than simply mirroring other girls who play with dolls and boys who play with trucks. Doll play among humans could have its origins in object—carrying by earlier apes (猿类), they say, suggesting that toy selection is probably not due entirely to socialization.

“In humans, there are obvious sex differences in children’s toy play, and these are remarkably similar across cultures,” says Kahlenberg. “While socialization by elders and peers has been the primary explanation, our work suggests that biology may also have an important role to play in activity preferences.”

In 14 years of data on chimpanzee behavior at the Kibale National Park in Uganda, Kahlenberg and Wrangham counted more than 100 examples of stick­carrying. Some young chimpanzees carried sticks into the nest to sleep with them and on one occasion built a separate nest for the stick. “We have seen juveniles occasionally carrying sticks for many years, and because they sometimes treated them rather like dolls, we wanted to know if in general this behavior tended to represent something like playing with dolls,” says Wrangham, a Professor at Harvard. “If the doll hypothesis (假设) was right, we thought that females should carry sticks more than males do, and that the chimpanzees should stop carrying sticks when they had their first child. We have now watched enough young chimpanzees to prove both points.”

1.What does a female chimpanzee do with sticks?

2. What causes the different toy selection of chimpanzees, according to the passage?

3.We can infer from the fourth paragraph that ________.

4.It can be concluded from the passage that ________.