写作：短文改错

Fish Ears Tell Fish Tales

　 Fish have ears. Really. They’re quite small and have no opening to the outside world carrying sound through the body. For the past seven years, Simon Thorrold, a university professor, has been examining fish ears, small round ear bones called otoliths (耳石).

　 As fish grow, so do their otoliths. Each day, their otoliths gain a ring of calcium carbonate (碳酸钙). By looking through a microscope and counting these rings, Thorrold can determine the exact age of a young fish. As a fish gets older, its otoliths no longer get daily rings. Instead, they get yearly rings, which can also be counted, giving information about the fish’s age, just like the growth rings of a tree.

　 Ring counting is nothing new to fish scientists. But Thorrold has turned to a new direction. They’re examining the chemical elements (元素) of each otolith ring.

　 The daily ring gives us the time, but chemistry tells us about the environment in which the fish swam on any given day. These elements tell us about the chemistry of the water that the fish was in. It also says something about water temperature, which determines how much of these elements will gather within each otolith ring.

　 Thorrold can tell, for example, if a fish spent time in the open ocean before entering the less salty water of coastal areas. He can basically tell where fish are spending their time at any given stage of history.

　 In the case of the Atlantic croaker, a popular saltwater food fish, Thorrold and his assistant have successfully followed the travelling of young fish from mid-ocean to the coast, a journey of many hundreds of miles.

　 This is important to managers in the fish industry, who know nearly nothing about the whereabouts of the young fish for most food fish in the ocean. Eager to learn about his technology, fish scientists are now lending Thorrold their ears.

1.What can we learn about fish ears from the text?

　A. They are small soft rings.

　B. They are not seen from the outside.

　C. They are openings only on food fish.

　D. They are not used to receive sound.

2.Why does the writer compare the fish to trees?

　A. Trees gain a growth ring each day.

　B. Trees also have otoliths.

　C. Their growth rings are very small.

　D. They both have growth rings.

3.Why is it important to study the chemistry of otolith rings?

　A. The elements of the otoliths can tell the history of the sea.

　B. Chemical contents of otoliths can tell how fast fish can swim.

　C. We can know more about fish and their living environment.

　D. Scientists can know exactly how old a fish is.

4.How would you understand “fish scientists are now lending their ears”?

　A. They are very interested in Thorrold’s research findings.

　B. They want to know where they can find fish.

　C. They lend their fish for chemical studies.

　D. They wonder if Thorrold can find growth rings from their ears.　

Beauty has always been regarded as something praiseworthy. Almost everyone thinks attractive people are happier and healthier, have better marriages and have more respectable jobs. Personal advisors give them better advice for finding jobs. Even judges are softer on attractive defendants. But in the executive（主管的） circle, beauty can become a liability.

　　While attractiveness is a positive factor for a man on his way up the executive ladder, it is harmful to a woman.

　　Handsome male executives were considered having more honesty than plainer men; effort and ability were thought to lead to their success.

　　Attractive female executives were considered to have less honesty than unattractive ones; their success was connected not with ability but with factors such as luck.

　　All unattractive women executives were thought to have more honesty and to be more capable than the attractive female executives. Interestingly, though, the rise of the unattractive overnight successes was connected more to personal relationships and less to ability than that of the attractive overnight successes.

　　Why are attractive women not thought to be able? An attractive woman is considered to be more feminine has an advantage in traditionally female jobs, but an attractive woman in a traditionally manly position appears to lack the "manly"qualifies required.

　　This is true even in politics, "When the only clue is how he or she looks, people treat men and women differently, " says Anne Bowman, who recently published a study on the effects of attractiveness on political candidates（候选人）. She asked 125 undergraduate students to rank two groups of photographs, one of men and one of women, in order of attractiveness. The students were told the photographs were of candidates for political offices. They were asked to rank them again, in the order they would vote for them.

　　The results showed that attractive males completely defeated unattractive men, but the women who had ranked most attractive unchangeably received the fewest votes.

　　The word "liability" most probably means ________.

　　A. disadvantage　B. advantage　　　C. misfortune　　 D. trouble

　Bowman's experiment shows that when it comes to politics, attractiveness________

　　A. turns out to　be a disadvantage to men

　　B. is more of a disadvantage than an advantage to women

　　C. has as little effect on men as on women

　　D. affects men and women alike

　　It can be inferred from the passage that people's views on beauty are often________.

　　A. practical　　　B. supportive　　 C. old - fashioned　D. one - sided

　　The author writes this passage to ________.

　　A. give advice to job - seekers who are attractive

　　B. discuss the disadvantages of being attractive

　　C. demand equal rights for women

　　D. state the importance of appearance

阅读理解：

　　In Europe, men do not usually wear skirts. But the Scottish national clothing for men is a kind of skirt. It is called a kilt. The Scottish like to be different. They are also proud of their country and its history, and they feel that the kilt is part of that history. That's why the men still wear kilts at traditional (传统的) dances and on national holidays. They believe they are wearing the same clothes that Scottish men always used to wear.

　　That's what they believe. However, kilts are not really so old. Before 1730, Scottish men wore a long shirt and blanket around their shoulders. These clothes got in the way when the men started to work in factories. So, in 1730 a factory owner changed the blanket into a skirt; the kilt. That's how the first kilt was made.

　　Then, in the late 1700s Scottish soldiers in the British Army began to wear kilts. One reason for this was national sentiment ( = feelings) . The Scottish soldiers wanted to be different from the English soldiers. The British Army probably had a different reason. A Scottish soldier in a kilt was always easy to find! The Scottish soldier fought very hard and became famous. The kilt was part of the fame, and in the early 1800s men all around Scotland began to wear kilts.

　　These kilts had colorful stripes (条纹) going up and down and across. In the 1700s and early 1800s, the color of the stripes had no special meaning. Men sometimes owned kilts in several different colors. But later the colors became important to the Scottish families. By about 1850, most families had special colors for their kilts. For example, men from the Campbell family had kilts with green, yellow and blue stripes. Scottish people often believe that the colors of the kilts are part of their family history. In fact, each family just chose the color they liked best.

　　This is not the story you will hear today if you are in Scotland. Most Scottish people still believe that kilts are as old as Scotland and that the colors are as old as the Scottish families. Sometimes feelings are stronger than facts!

1．This text is mainly about ________.

2．Which of the following is true according to the passage?

A．The English soldiers were the first to wear kilts.

B．It was hard then to tell the Scottish soldiers from the English ones apart from the clothes.

C．Colors were specially designed in the first kilts.

D．The factory owner made the first kilt from long shirts to make his workers different from others.

3．Scottish soldiers were dressed in kilts partly because of ________.

4．The colors of the kilts are ________.

[　　]

A．not part of the Scottish family history

B．older than the Scottish family history

C．for the Campbell family only

D．mainly green, yellow and blue

5．From the last paragraph we can infer that ________.

[　　]

A．the European people are full of strong feelings

B．there are no stories about kilts in Scotland today

C．the British like to do things on feelings, not on facts

D．the Scottish prefer to keep their tradition rather than believe the fact

　　The human nose has given to the language of the world many interesting expressions. Of course, this is not surprising. Without the nose we could not breathe or smell. It is the part of the face that gives a person special character. Cyrano De Bergerac said that a large nose showed a great man-brave, polite, manly, and bright. A famous woman poet wished that she had two noses to smell. Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher（哲学家）made an interesting comment about Cleopatra’s nose. If it had been shorter, he said, it would have changed the whole face of the world. Historically, man’s nose has had an important role in his imagination. Man has referred to the nose in many ways to express his feelings. Expressions about the nose refer to human weakness, anger, pride, jealousy（嫉妒）and revenge（报复）. In English there are a number of phrases about the nose. For example,“to hold up one’s nose”expresses a basic human feeling—pride. People can hold up their noses at people, things and places. On the other hand, a person who follows his nose, lets his instinct guide him.

　　For the human emotion of rejection, the phrase“to have one’s nose put out of joint”is very descriptive. The expression applies to persons who have been turned aside because of a competitor. Their pride is hurt and they feel rejected. This expression is not new. It was used by Erasmus in 1542.

　　This is only a sampling of expressions in English dealing with the nose. There are a number of others. However, it should be as plain as the nose on your face that the nose is more than an organ for breathing and smelling.

(1) This passage is about ________.

[　　]

A．the human nose, an organ for breathing and smelling

B．the nose giving various expressions

C．a woman poet’s wish to have two noses

D．interesting comments made on Cleopatra’s nose

(2) According to Blaise Pascal,“Cleopatra’s nose”________.

[　　]

A．did change the whole face of the world

B．should be shorter

C．represented her powerful character

D．had been cut shorter

(3)“To hold up one’s nose”is an expression of ________.

[　　]

(4) A man who is described as“to have one’s nose put out of joint”________.

[　　]

A．is happy

B．wants to sell a flower

C．is ill

D．feels hurt and rejected

(5) When you say it is“as plain as the nose on your face”, you mean ________.

[　　]

A．it is easy to solve

B．it is hard to crack

C．it is something quite easy to understand

D．there is plain-looking nose on your face