Some of the planet’s most precious animals and plants are disappearing, according to the World Conservation Union (IUCN). The group, based in Switzerland, works with governments and experts to protect threatened species. On September 12, the IUCN released its Red List, a list of species at greatest risk of extinction.

    The list includes 41,415 animals and plants. The IUCN says that habitat destruction, hunting and other causes threaten one in four mammals, one in eight birds and one in three amphibians(两栖动物).

    Who is to blame?

    Scientists believe that 99 percent of threatened species are at risk because of human activity. “We are losing animals and plants at a high rate,” says Julia Marton-LefEevre, director general of the IUCN. “We need to change our behavior.” Warmer oceans and over-fishing are changing sea life. This year for the first time corals(珊瑚) made their appearance on the list. The gharial, a crocodile living in India and Nepal, has lost almost 60 percent of its population in the last 10 years. It is a victim（受害者）of habitat destruction.

    Still, the news is not all bad. Thanks to efforts made to protect it, the Mauritius echo parakeet, a bird once endangered, has seen an increase in its population. “This shows that protection methods can work,” says Marton-LefEevre. “That’s the message we want to send to young people.”

    In China the new reserve（保护区）itself is part of green efforts that have seen more than 2,400 nature reserves of various kinds being set up, covering more than 15 percent of the nation's land area, official figures showed.

"The country's natural resources(资源) have benefited from conservation," said Lei Guangchun, director of the nature reserve department of Beijing Forestry University. "It is a big increase nowadays compared with other countries." Lei said.

The total areas of China’s natural reserves have covered 1.38 million km2, which accounts for 15.4% of China’s area, higher than both the world average（平均水平） of 11% and the rate in most developed countries.

    Li Zhong, an official in charge of the nature reserves office with the State Forestry Administration, thought it was important to increase investment（投资） in such reserves at all levels.

1.What do we know about the IUCN?

   A. A union for listing animals and plants on the earth

   B. A group of volunteers who are interested in wildlife

   C. An organization concerning the protection of rare species' survival

   D. A government made up officials, scientists and experts

2.What can be concluded from the passage?         

A. All the protection methods can’t work.   　   

B. The IUCN does most of the protection.

C. The efforts China makes has paid off.　  

D. Enough is done in wildlife protection.

3. Which of the following is not the cause of the disappearance of the animals?

   A. Bad weather     B. Over-hunting    C. Warmer oceans    D. Habitat destruction

4.Which of the sentence is NOT true?

       A. China has been paying great attention to protecting the natural resources.

       B. China has set up a lot of natural reserves.

       C. The natural reserves in China cover more than 15 percent of the nation's land area.

       D. The rate of China's natural reserves is lower than the average of the world.

People diet to look more attractive. Fish diet to avoid being beaten up, thrown out of their social group, and getting eaten as a result. That is the fascinating conclusion of the latest research into fish behavior by a team of Australian scientists.

The research team have discovered that subordinate fish voluntarily diet to avoid challenging their larger competitors. “In studying gobies we noticed that only the largest two individuals, a male and female, had breeding （繁殖） rights within the group,” explains Marian Wong. “All other group members are nonbreeding females, each being 5-10% smaller than its next largest competitor. We wanted to find out how they maintain this precise size separation.”

The reason for the size difference was easy to see. Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor, it causes a fight which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group. More often than not, the evicted fish is then eaten up.

It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid challenging the boss fish. Whether they did so voluntarily, by restraining how much they ate, was not clear. The research team decided to do an experiment. They tried to fatten up some of the subordinate gobies to see what happened. To their surprise, the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered, clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights, over having a feast.

The discovery challenges the traditional scientific view of how boss individuals keep their position in a group. Previously it was thought that large individuals simply used their weight and size to threaten their subordinates and take more of the food for themselves, so keeping their competitors small.

While the habits of gobies may seem a little mysterious, Dr. Wong explains that understanding the relationships between boss and subordinate animals is important to understanding how hierarchical （等级的） societies remain stable.

The research has proved the fact that voluntary dieting is a habit far from exclusive to humans. “As yet, we lack a complete understanding of how widespread the voluntary reduction of food intake is in nature,” the researchers comment. “Data on human dieting suggests that, while humans generally diet to improve health or increase attractiveness, rarely does it improve long-term health and males regularly prefer females that are fatter than the females’ own ideal.”

When a goby grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor, it        .

A. faces danger     B. has breeding rights

C. eats its competitor      D. leaves the group itself

The underlined words “the evicted fish” in Paragraph 3 refer to        .

A. the fish beaten up  B. the fish found out

C. the fish fattened up     D. the fish driven away

The experiment showed that the smaller fish        .

A. fought over a feast B. went on diet willingly

C. preferred some extra food    D. challenged the boss fish

What is the text mainly about?

A. Fish dieting and human dieting.

B. Dieting and health.

C. Human dieting.

D. Fish dieting.

Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing when you are happy. Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.

　Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims (声称) as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species are welcome. Your house is your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away. If so, you have actually frightened the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting (筑巢) season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird’s song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.

1.Some scientists believe that most of the time bird’s singing is actually ________.

A.an expression of happiness      B. a way of warning

B.an expression of anger          D. a way of greeting

2.What is a bird’s “territory”?

A．A place where families of other species are not accepted.

B．A place where a bird may shout at the top of its voice.

C．An area for which birds fight against each other.

D．An area which a bird considers to be its own.

3.Why do birds keep on singing at nesting season?

A．Because they want to invite more friends.

B．Because their singing helps frighten outsiders away.

C．Because they want to find outsiders around.

D．Because their singing helps get rid of their fears.

4.How does the writer explain birds’ singing?

A．By comparing birds with human beings.       B．By reporting experiment results.

C．By describing birds’ daily life.             D．By telling a bird’s story.

5.What does the underline word “screaming” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．哭喊声           B．令人惊愕的        C．尖叫声           D．尖叫的

[1]Global difference in intelligence is a sensitive topic, long filled with a large number of different opinions. But recent data has indeed shown cognitive (认知的) ability to be higher in some countries than in others. What's more, IQ scores have risen as nations develop—a phenomenon known as the "Flynn effect". Many causes have been put forward for both the intelligence difference and the Flynn effect, including education, income, and even non-agricultural labor. Now, a new study from researchers at the University of New Mexico offers another interesting theory: intelligence may be linked to infectious-disease rates.

　　[2]The brain, say author Christopher Eppig and his colleagues, is the "most costly organ in the human body". Brainpower consumes almost up to 90 percent of a newborn's energy. It's clear that if something affects energy intake while the brain is growing, the impact could be long and serious. And for vast parts of the globe, the biggest threat to a child's body—and therefore brain—is parasitic (由寄生虫引起的) infection. These illnesses threaten brain development________________. They can directly attack live tissue, which the body must then try every means to replace. They can invade the digestive pipe and block nutritional intake. They can rob the body's cells for their own reproduction. And then there's the energy channeled (输送) to the immune system to fight the infection.

　　[3]Using data on national "disease burdens" (life years lost due to infectious diseases) and average intelligence scores, the authors found they are closely associated. The countries with the lowest average IQ scores have the highest disease burdens without exception. On the contrary, nations with low disease burdens top the IQ list.

　　[4]If the study holds water, it could be revolutionary for our understanding of the still-confusing variation in national intelligence scores.

1.What is the main idea of the text？(no more than 10 words)________________________

2.Complete the following statement with proper words.(no more than 4 words)

Those countries that have the ________________ are always at the bottom of the  IQ list.

3.Fill in the blank in Paragraph 2 with proper words. (no more than 5 words)

___________                                                               

4.What can cause intelligence difference？(no more than 8 words)

　　________________________________________________________________________

5.What does the word "they" (Line 2, Paragraph 3) probably refer to？(no more than 8 words)

________________________________________________________________________

语法填空（共10小题；每小题1分，满分10分）

阅读下列短文，按照句子结构的语法性和上下文连贯的要求，填入适当的词或使用括号中词语的正确形式填空。

Taking a taxi in a certain Eastern European country can be a shocking experience. _____1_____ is said that some taxi drivers have metal wires stuck into the passenger seats. And ___2____ a button is pushed, the seat will give you _____3____ electric shock. These taxi drivers don't do this ____4___ fun. They do it to tourists _____5_____ argue about the ridiculous(可笑的，荒谬的) fares they charge. Some drivers charge as much ____6___ ten times the legal fare.

They have a secret switch which makes the meters run faster. If the tourists refuse to pay, ____7____ are really in for a shock.

In one case, a German woman had no ____8____ (choose) but to pay $120 for a $ 20 ride from the airport. She said that she was "really taken for a ride," but what could she do? Besides the electric shock, she _____9_____ (threaten) with physical violence. She has only one piece of advice for tourists, “Take the bus ___10_____ stay at home.”