Destructive insects in larger numbers are finding Alaska forests to be a comfortable home and climate change could be the wel-come mat.

　　Warmer winters kill fewer insects. Lon-ger, warmer summers let insects complete a life cycle and reproduce in one year instead of two. Warm winters also can damage trees and make them less able to stop insect attacks by changing the nature of snow. Instead of light snow formed at extremely cold tempera-tures, warm winters produce wet, heavy snow more likely to break the tops of spruce trees because they are not well adapted to handling big, heavy, wet snow loads.

　　Since 1980, spruce bark (树皮) beetles have killed mature white spruce trees on 4. 4 million acres. For lack of two cold winters on end, the numbers of the beetles there blew up while the resistance (抵抗力) of the trees was down at the same time everywhere. Most of the mature trees have been killed in some whole region of the state.

　　Spruce bark beetles bore into (蛀穿)trunks and feed on the live cambium layer, a thin part of tissue between bark and wood. Trees re-sist beetles with pitch, made up of hydrocarbons including up to 17 forms of terpene (松稀). The rates of those terpenes are a signal of the health of the tree. When a tree is injured, terpene rates go off in one direction.

　　Using complex chemical receptors (感受 器), spruce bark beetles discover differences in terpenes. Injured trees offer less resistance.

　　They smell the tree. If the tree's healthy,they try to avoid it Why? If they start to bore into a healthy tree, it's got a lot of pitch, and the pitch is under high pressure. It's boring in and the pitch is pushing it back out.

(1) What would be the best title for the text?

[　　]

A．The Destruction of Forests in Alaska

B．Warm Winters and Its Bad Effects

C．The Way of Spruce Trees' Living in Alaska

D．Destructive Insects on Rise in Alaska

(2) According to the text, how do warm win-ters reduce the trees' ability to resist in-sect attacks?

[　　]

A．By changing the nature of snow.

B．By offering too much water to trees.

C．By making the weather drier.

D．By increasing the insects' growth speed.

(3) The third paragraph mainly tells________.

[　　]

A．winters are warmer and warmer

B．there are more and more beetles

C．the situation of trees is much worse

D．mature trees are easy to be attacked

Anne Whitney, a sophomore (大学二年级学生) at Colorado State University, first had a problem taking tests when she began college. "I was always well prepared for my tests. Sometimes I studied for weeks before a test. Yet I would go in to take the test, only to find I could not answer the questions correctly. I would blank out because of nervousness and fear. I couldn't think of the answer. My low grades on the tests did not show what I knew to the teacher. “Another student in biology had similar experiences. He said, "My first chemistry test was very difficult. Then, on the second test, I sat down to take it, and I was so nervous that I was shaking. My hands were moving up and down so quickly that it was hard to hold my pencil. I knew the material and I knew the answers. Yet I couldn't even write them down!"

　　These two young students were experiencing something called test anxiety. Because a student worries and is uneasy about a test, his or her mind does not work as well as it usually does. The student cannot write or think clearly because of the extreme tension and nervousness. Contrary to people’s common belief that poor grades are often a result of poor study habits, sometimes test anxiety plays a role in students’ achieving low grades. Recently, test anxiety has been recognized as a real problem, not just an excuse or a false explanation of lazy students.

　　Special university advising courses try to help students. In these courses, advisors try to help students by teaching them how to manage test anxiety. At some universities, students take tests to measure their anxiety. If the tests show their anxiety is high, the students can take short courses to help them deal with their tensions. These courses teach students how to relax their bodies. Students are trained to become calm in very tense situations. By controlling their nervousness, they can let their minds work at ease. Learned information then comes out without difficulty on a test.

　　An expert at the University of California explains, " With almost all students, relaxation and less stress are felt after taking our program. Most of them experience better control during their tests. Almost all have some improvement. With some, the improvement is very great. "

1.To "blank out" is probably______.

A．to be like a blanket                      B．to be sure of an answer

C．to be unable to think clearly               D．to show knowledge to the teacher

2.Poor grades are usually believed to be the result of______.

A．poor sleeping habit                      B．laziness

C．test anxiety                            D．inability to form good study habits

3.Test anxiety has been recognized as______.

A．an excuse for laziness                    B．the result of poor study habits

C．a real problem                          D．something that cannot be changed

4.A University of California advisor said______.

A．all students could overcome the anxiety after taking a special test anxiety program

B．almost all students felt less stress after taking a University of California advising course

C．students found it difficult to improve even though they had taken a special test anxiety course

D．students found it easy to relax as soon as they entered a University of California advising course

56­year­old becomes 1st woman to swim Atlantic
(AP)－Jennifer Figge pressed her toes into the Caribbean sand, excited and exhausted as she touched land this week for the first time in almost a month. Reaching a beach in Trinidad, she became the first woman on record to swim across the Atlantic Ocean—a dream she'd had since the early 1960s,when a stormy trans­Atlantic (飞越大西洋) flight got her thinking she could wear a life vest and swim the rest of the way if needed.
The 56­year­old left the Cape Verde Islands off Africa's western coast on Jan.12,2009, swimming 19 out of 25 days battling waves of up to 30 feet.The distance from Cape Verde to Trinidad is about 700 miles.Crewmembers are still computing exactly how many miles she swam.
The original plan was for her to swim to the Bahamas—a distance of about 2,100 miles—but inclement (恶劣的) weather forced her to change her plans and she arrived at Trinidad on Feb.5.She now plans to swim from Trinidad to the British Virgin Islands,ending her voyage at the Bitter End Yacht Club in late February.
Her journey came a decade after French swimmer Benoit Lecomte made the first known solo trans­Atlantic swim,covering nearly 4,000 miles from Massachusetts to France in 73 days.No woman on record had made the crossing.
Figge wore a red cap and wet suit,with her only good­luck charm (护身符) underneath:an old,red shirt to guard against chafing (磨痛),signed by friends,relatives and her father,who recently died.The other cherished (珍惜) possession she kept onboard was a picture of Gertrude Ederle,an American who became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.“We have a few things in common,”Figge said,“She wore a red hat and she was of German descent (血统).We both talked to the sea,and neither one of us wanted to get out.”
【小题1】When did Jennifer Figge want to swim across the Atlantic Ocean？