Amazed zoo visitors watch as an orangutan(猩猩) named Bonnie swings along cables way above their heads. She’s not making a great ape escape; she’s taking a “highway” to higher learning.

Bonnie is traveling on the Orangutan Transit System, called the O-Line, at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. The O-Line stretches from the Great Ape House, where Bonnie lives, to an exhibit called Think Tank. There she and other orangutans participate in a study trying to answer the questions: Do animals think?  If so,  how?

    Think Tank scientists look for clues that an animal is thinking. A baby orangutan following its mother is probably not thinking. But an orangutan using a stick to reach honey in a beehive probably is thinking. It’s figuring out how to obtain a sweet treat.

    To learn more about what the orangutans are thinking, Think Tank scientists are teaching orangutans a language of symbols. The apes don’t actually speak. They point to the symbols to show their thoughts.

    Each symbol stands for a word. Different categories of the symbols have their own shapes. Food symbols, for example, are rectangles(矩形); object symbols are circles; and verbs are diamonds.

    Computers help the orangutans learn the symbolic language. After the apes are shown an apple, for example, their task is to touch the apple symbol on a computer screen. They can do so. All six orangutans have learned a few symbols, but only Azy and Indah have learned eight symbols and can use the computer.

    Azy and Indah choose to live at Think Tank. The others commute(往返) from the Great Ape House on the O-Line. All attend Think Tank sessions, though none are made to do so. “They’re eager to learn”, one of the scientists says. “They never turn me down!”

What is the main idea of the passage?

Scientists are doing research on whether animals can think and how they think.

Biologists have found that orangutans are more intelligent than other animals.

Orangutans at the National Zoo can be taught to communicate with humans easily.

Animals are being taught by scientists to speak to one another at the National Zoo.

     The Orangutan Transit System refers to _____.

a way that can teach animals to learn things and communicate quickly

a place for various animals in the National Zoo to participate in the study

a walkway for the orangutans to travel to different sections of the zoo

a line for the orangutans to travel between the Great Ape House and the Think Tank

     According to the passage, scientists use a system of symbols to help _____.

find out which orangutan can learn the symbolic language fast

attract all the orangutans to live together at Think Tank

communicate with the orangutans and understand them better

understand whether animals can learn a language and express themselves by using it

     It can be inferred from the passage that _____.

a baby orangutan has his own intention though following his mother

many animals in the wild can learn symbolic languages to express their thoughts

the cleverer the animals are, the more knowledge they would like to learn

orangutans can form mental images in their minds when they see objects

It amazed me—every time I saw Joe he was smiling.It didn’t matter whether he had to stop at a stop light，or if he was the seventh person in line at the bank，and the teller (出纳员) ended her job just before he got there.Joe always smiled.It made me wonder why he always seemed so happy.

Having observed Joe with other people，I noticed something else too.Joe asked people how they were doing，and really seemed to listen to their answers.He showed pity to someone who was hurting，and had kind words，and offered to help in any way he could.

It made me think.What if I tried to smile more？An experiment began when I went to the supermarket.I smiled as I went up and down the supermarket and people I didn’t even know smiled back at me.Some even spoke！The little kid in the cart who was giving his mother a hard time saw me smile；he stopped talking and then made a shy attempt at a smile.The man in the cart for the disabled needed help to reach for something，and I got it for him.The smile even transferred (转移) over to him，and he thanked me.

As I drove home，I was smiling.Now I know a smile is a small thing，but what if we all tried to smile a few more times each day？I couldn’t believe how great I felt.Nothing in my life had changed，but maybe it had.What I had learned was that such a small thing could lift not only my spirits，but also the spirits of those around me.So smile!

60．What did the writer wonder?

A．Why bad things never happened to Joe.

B．What kind of person Joe was.

C．Why Joe always seemed so happy.

D．How to be as happy as Joe.

61．What do we know about Joe from Paragraph 2?

A．He has nothing to worry about.

B．He lives a very hard life.

C．He is kind and ready to help others.

D．He often asks others to smile.

62．What experiment did the writer do?

A．He smiled at others in the supermarket.

B．He bought people things in the supermarket.

C．He helped anyone who needed help.

D．He said kind words to others.

63．According to the passage，how was the writer’s experiment?

A．It was a failure.                                   B．It proved nothing.

C．It was unacceptable.                           D．It was quite satisfying.

It amazed me—every time I saw Joe he was smiling.It didn’t matter whether he had to stop at a stop light，or if he was the seventh person in line at the bank，and the teller (出纳员) ended her job just before he got there.Joe always smiled.It made me wonder why he always seemed so happy.

Having observed Joe with other people，I noticed something else too.Joe asked people how they were doing，and really seemed to listen to their answers.He showed pity to someone who was hurting，and had kind words，and offered to help in any way he could.

It made me think.What if I tried to smile more？An experiment began when I went to the supermarket.I smiled as I went up and down the supermarket and people I didn’t even know smiled back at me.Some even spoke！The little kid in the cart who was giving his mother a hard time saw me smile；he stopped talking and then made a shy attempt at a smile.The man in the cart for the disabled needed help to reach for something，and I got it for him.The smile even transferred (转移) over to him，and he thanked me.

As I drove home，I was smiling.Now I know a smile is a small thing，but what if we all tried to smile a few more times each day？I couldn’t believe how great I felt.Nothing in my life had changed，but maybe it had.What I had learned was that such a small thing could lift not only my spirits，but also the spirits of those around me.So smile!

50．What did the writer wonder?

A．Why bad things never happened to Joe.

B．What kind of person Joe was.

C．Why Joe always seemed so happy.

D．How to be as happy as Joe.

51．What do we know about Joe from Paragraph 2?

A．He has nothing to worry about.

B．He lives a very hard life.

C．He is kind and ready to help others.

D．He often asks others to smile.

52．What experiment did the writer do?

A．He smiled at others in the supermarket.

B．He bought people things in the supermarket.

C．He helped anyone who needed help.

D．He said kind words to others.

53．According to the passage，how was the writer’s experiment?

A．It was a failure.                                   B．It proved nothing.

C．It was unacceptable.                           D．It was quite satisfying.

Parents are often amazed at how fast their child grows and develops. New research has determined that the ability to quantify may develop much sooner than most parents realize.

Kristy vanMarle, professor of the University of Missouri, has determined that contrary to what previous studies have shown, infants（婴儿）are able to quantify substances（物质）—like sand or water—as early as 10 months. As long as the difference between the two substances is large enough, infants will choose the larger amount, especially when it comes to food.

With the assistance of her team researchers, vanMarle tested the quantifying skills of babies by presenting them with two cups: one containing a small amount of food, and one containing a larger amount. Consistently, the babies chose the larger amount.

“Several studies throughout the last 15 years have shown that infants are very good at telling how many objects they see; however, infants don’t seem to count things like water or sand,” vanMarle said. “What we’re saying is that they can quantify substances; it’s just much harder. The infants can see how much food goes into each cup and compare that in their memories. They decide which amount is larger, and they almost always select the larger one.”

This information further refutes（驳斥）the long-held idea that babies “know nothing of the world,” vanMarle said.

“Since psychologists have begun studying infants with sensitive measures, we’ve discovered a lot of early abilities. I think for parents, it should be exciting to know that there’s somebody in there that has some fundamental and basic knowledge of the world, and that knowledge is guiding their development,” vanMarle said.

In the future, vanMarle says this kind of study could be linked to a child’s progress in math-related skills, although programs marketed to increase those abilities, such as “Baby Einstein,” still have mixed reviews when it comes to academic study.

The quantifying ability refers to the ability to     .

A. choose between different substances

B. get much knowledge of the world

C. describe the quantity of something

D. obtain math-related skills

What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 4?

A. The process of doing research.

B. The scientific findings.

C. The final choice of infants.

D. The observation of infants’ behavior.

Babies choose the larger amount of food     .

A. by saying numbers                  B. with the help of parents

C. on personal preference                    D. through their natural abilities

What’s the best title of the text?

A. Breakthrough in Baby Studies

B. Amazing Baby-training Ideas

C. Early Human Abilities

D. Unique Quantifying Methods