A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has  come up with the unexpected conclusion that the African elephant is divided into two distinct (不同的) species

The discovery was made by researchers at York and Harvard universities when they were examining the genetic relationship between the ancient woolly mammoth and mastodon to modern elephants—the Asian elephant, African forest elephant and African savanna elephant

Once they obtained DNA sequences (序列) from two fossils (化石)，mammoths and mastodons the team compared them with DNA from modern elephants. They found to their amazement that modern forest and savanna elephants are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants and mammoths.

The scientists used detailed genetic analysis to prove that the African savanna elephants and the African forest elephants have been distinct species for several million years. The divergence of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of Asian elephants and woolly mammoths. This result amazed all the scientists.

There has long been debate in the scientific community that the two might be separate species but this is the most convincing scientific evidence so far that they are indeed different species.

Previously, many naturalists believed that African savanna elephants and African forest elephants were two populations of the same species despite the elephants’ significant size differences. The savanna elephant has an average shoulder height of 3.5metres while the forest elephant has an average shoulder height of 2.5metres. The savanna elephant weighs between six and seven tons, roughly double the weight of the forest elephant. But the fact that they look so different does not necessarily mean they are different species. However, the proof lay in the analysis of the DNA.

Alfred Roca, assistant professor in the department of Animal Sciences at the University of Minois, said, “We now have to treat the forest and savanna elephants as two different units for conservation purpose. Since 1950 all African elephants have been conserved as one species. Now that we know the forest and savanna elephants are two very distinct animals, the forest elephant should become a bigger priority (优先)for conservation purpose .”

1.

 One of the fossils studied by the researchers is that of ________.

A. the Asian elephant                  B. the forest elephant

C. the savanna elephant                D. the mastodon elephant

2.

The underlined word “divergence” in paragraph 4means “________”

A. evolution        B. exhibition       C. separation         D. examination

3.

 The researcher’s conclusion was based on a study of the African elephant’s ____________

A. DNA           B. height          C. weight            D. population

4.

 What were Alfred Roca’s words mainly about?

   A. The conversation of African elephants.      

B. The purpose of studying African elephants

   C. The way to divide African elephants into two units

   D. The reason for the distinction of African elephants

5.

 Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

   A. Naturalist’s Belief about Elephants.        B. Amazing Experiment about Elephants

   C. An Unexpected Finding about Elephants    D. A Long scientific Debate about Elephants

（2011·湖南卷）C

A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has  come up with the unexpected conclusion that the African elephant is divided into two distinct (不同的) species

The discovery was made by researchers at York and Harvard universities when they were examining the genetic relationship between the ancient woolly mammoth and mastodon to modern elephants—the Asian elephant, African forest elephant and African savanna elephant

Once they obtained DNA sequences (序列) from two fossils (化石)，mammoths and mastodons the team compared them with DNA from modern elephants. They found to their amazement that modern forest and savanna elephants are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants and mammoths.

The scientists used detailed genetic analysis to prove that the African savanna elephants and the African forest elephants have been distinct species for several million years. The divergence of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of Asian elephants and woolly mammoths. This result amazed all the scientists.

There has long been debate in the scientific community that the two might be separate species but this is the most convincing scientific evidence so far that they are indeed different species.

Previously, many naturalists believed that African savanna elephants and African forest elephants were two populations of the same species despite the elephants’ significant size differences. The savanna elephant has an average shoulder height of 3.5metres while the forest elephant has an average shoulder height of 2.5metres. The savanna elephant weighs between six and seven tons, roughly double the weight of the forest elephant. But the fact that they look so different does not necessarily mean they are different species. However, the proof lay in the analysis of the DNA.

Alfred Roca, assistant professor in the department of Animal Sciences at the University of Minois, said, “We now have to treat the forest and savanna elephants as two different units for conservation purpose. Since 1950 all African elephants have been conserved as one species. Now that we know the forest and savanna elephants are two very distinct animals, the forest elephant should become a bigger priority (优先)for conservation purpose .”

66. One of the fossils studied by the researchers is that of ________.

A. the Asian elephant                  B. the forest elephant

C. the savanna elephant                D. the mastodon elephant

67. The underlined word “divergence” in paragraph 4means “________”

A. evolution        B. exhibition       C. separation         D. examination

68. The researcher’s conclusion was based on a study of the African elephant’s ____________

A. DNA           B. height          C. weight            D. population

69. What were Alfred Roca’s words mainly about?

   A. The conversation of African elephants.      

B. The purpose of studying African elephants

   C. The way to divide African elephants into two units

   D. The reason for the distinction of African elephants

70. Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

   A. Naturalist’s Belief about Elephants.        B. Amazing Experiment about Elephants

   C. An Unexpected Finding about Elephants    D. A Long scientific Debate about Elephants

Autumn means different things to different people. It all depends on your personality, said British naturalist Richard Mabey. “Personality shapes your view of the reason,” he said. “ You may see it as a fading away, a packing up, or as a time of packing in another sense- the excited gathering of resources before a long journey.”

    If this is true, perhaps it tells us a little about, for instance, Thomas Hood, the 19^th Century English poet. About November, he wrote:

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease

No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees

November!

On the other hand, another English poet John Keats, already sensing he was seriously ill, was inspired by a late September day to open one of the greatest poems in the English language, To Autumn. He wrote to a friend afterwards, saying there was something comforting about autumn.

According to Richard Mabey, Keats has the biological evidence on his side. Autumn is not a time of slowing down, but a time of new beginnings and great movements of creatures. For example, just at the moment that Keats’ “gathering swallows(燕子)” (in To Autumn) are leaving for America, millions of creatures from the frozen north are fleeing into Britain. Wild geese arrive from Iceland, Greenland and Russia to winter along the east and south coasts. People might argue that it is the coloring of the leaves and their eventual falls that make people feel sad about autumn. But no one is sure why trees drop their leaves in the first place. It may be to rid the poisonous material trees collect over the summer. More likely, it is a way of reducing the loss of water, which tree roots find hard to take in from cold soil.

A century after Keats, the American poet Loren Eiseley wrote:

Suppose we saw ourselves burning like maples in a golden autumn And suppose we could disintegrate(消逝) like autumn leaves

Would not our attitude towards death be different?

1．The best title of the passage would be________.

     A．Autumn’s many faces

     B．Poems about autumn

     C．Autumn-the only theme of poems

     D．Not a time of slowing down

2．Which of the following is more likely to make people sad?

     A．Swallows leaving for Africa            B．Wild geese arriving Britain

     C．The fall of tree leaves                 D．Their lack of knowledge of trees

3．Because of his personality, Keats felt­­­­­­­­­________ when autumn came.

     A．excited           B．comfortable       C．disappointed      D．sad

4．We can infer from the last paragraph that___________

     A．Loren Eiseley was also a botanist

     B．nobody can avoid death

     C．Loren Eiseley would like to be a maple leaf in autumn

       D．we should take a positive attitude towards death

Everyone knows that flamingos are tropical birds. A resident of Ottawa, however, spotted a flamingo one cold November day. The bird, called Elisha, was more than 300 miles from home when she landed in Ottawa. Elisha was living in a bird compound in a small town near Connecticut when she got lost. Why was the bird flying around? “She was probably trying to migrate,” says a naturalist. “A flamingo’s natural instinct is to migrate to warmer weather in winter.”

For the past few years, Elisha has lived in a bird compound with other birds, ducks, and swans. In summer, the birds spend their time in a shallow pond. In winter they live in a large, heated greenhouse. One day, Elisha took off and flew about 50 miles to the Connecticut River. Her caregivers tried to get her back and planned to clip（夹住）her wings so she wouldn’t fly away again. But every time they approached, Elisha managed to get away. “That’s a smart bird,” said a news reporter. “She probably knew she was about to get her wings clipped.”

Back in Ottawa, wildlife experts were trying to rescue Elisha before she froze to death. But it wasn’t easy. First they put up a giant mirror to attract her and placed plates of food next to her. Next, they gathered together plastic flamingos . They set the plastic birds up in a park nearby,  “We were hoping that Elisha would like being in a group, even if it is plastic. Maybe she would fall in love or something,” a rescue worker said. That didn’t work either. “She’s not easy to catch, ” said a compound worker in Connecticut. “We couldn’t catch her either. She seems to like her freedom.”

Finally, after a dozen rescue attempts by almost 100 volunteers, Elisha was captured. “I guess she got hungry,” said a rescue worker. “We were about to give up when we saw her looking for food at the edge of the river. She couldn’t find anything to eat because the water was frozen. ” Elisha put her head in the water to feed. When she came up they caught her in a net. Then she flew back to Connecticut, this time by plane.

1．Why was Elisha found in Ottawa in November?

      A．She was meant to find something to eat.

       B．She got lost in an attempt to migrate.

       C．She intended to stay away from a bird group.

       D．She had to land in Ottawa for a break.

2．Which of the following was NOT used when people tried to catch Elisha?

       A．A large mirror.                                     B．Plates of food.

       C．Plastic flamingos.                                D．Ducks and swans.

3．What can we learn from the text?

       A．It is more than 300 miles away from Ottawa to Connecticut.

       B．Two attempts had been made before Elisha was captured.

       C．Elisha was almost frozen to death when caught in a net.

       D．Rescue workers gave up their effort to catch Elisha.

4．What can we infer from the text?

      A．Elisha didn’t like her caregivers and managed to get away.

       B．Connecticut is a tropical area.

       C．The rescue of Elisha cost a lot of money.

       D．Elisha would never try to leave her group again.

5．Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

       A．The Lost Flamingo                               B．Lost & Found

       C．Bird Rescuers                         D．Flamingos

As a boy, Charles Robert Darwin collected anything that caught his interest: insects, coins and interesting stones. He was not very clever, but Darwin was good at doing the things that interested him.

     His father was a doctor, so Darwin was sent to Edinburgh to study medicine, and was planned to follow a medical career. But Charles found the lectures boring. Then his father sent him to Cambridge University to study to be a priest. While at Cambridge, Darwin’s interest in zoology and geography grew. Later he got a letter from Robert FitzRoy who was planning to make a voyage around the world on a ship, the Beagle. He wanted a naturalist to join the ship, and Darwin was recommended(推荐). That voyage was the start of Darwin’s great life.

     As the Beagle sailed around the world, Darwin began to wonder how life had developed on earth. He began to observe everything. After he was home, he set to work, getting his collection in order. His first great work The Zoology of the Beagle was well received, but he was slow to make public his ideas on the origin of life.

     Later Darwin and Wallace, another naturalist who had the same opinions as Darwin, produced a paper together. Darwin’s great book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection (《物种起源》) appeared. It attracted a storm. People thought that Darwin was saying they were descended from monkeys. What a shameful idea! Although most scientists agreed that Darwin was right, the Church was still so strong that Darwin never received any honors for his work.

    Afterwards, he published another great work, The Descent of Man. His health grew worse, but he still worked. “When I have to give up observation, I shall die,” he said. He was still working on 17, April, 1882. He was dead two days later.

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

A. Charles Darwin’s ideas

B. Charles Darwin’s works

C. Father of modern biology: Charles Darwin

D. The greatest scientist: Charles Darwin

2.Darwin’s father sent him to Edinburgh to _____.

A. make him like natural history

B. make him become a doctor

C. let him change his hobbies

D. have him give up his collection

3.According to the passage, Charles Darwin’s whole life was changed by _____.

A. his study at Cambridge University

B. his collection of coins

C. the naturalists at Cambridge

D. the voyage of the Beagle

4.We can learn from the passage that _____.

A. Darwin announced his ideas on the origin of life as soon as he finished his voyage

B. Wallace agreed with Darwin’s opinions and wrote The Descent of Man with him

C. Darwin wrote two great books and a paper during his lifetime

D. churchmen were strongly against Darwin’s ideas at that time