Scientists who try to predict earthquakes have gotten some new helpers recently—animals.

　　That’s right, animals. Scientists have begun to understand what farmers have known for thousands of years. Animals often seem to know in advance that an earthquake is coming, and they show their fear by acting in strange ways. Before a Chinese quake in 1975, snakes awoke from their winter sleep early only to freeze to death in the cold air. Cows broke their halters (缰绳) and tried to escape. Chickens refused to enter their cage. All of this unusual behavior, as well as physical changes in the earth, warned Chinese scientists of the coming quake. They moved people away from the danger zone and saved thousands of lives.

　　One task for scientists today is to learn exactly which types of animal behavior predict quakes. It’s not an easy job. First of all not every animal reacts to the danger of an earthquake. Just before a California quake in 1977, for example, an Arabian horse became very nervous and tried to break out of his enclosure. The Australian horse next to him, however, remained perfectly calm. It’s also difficult at times to tell the difference between normal animal restlessness and “earthquake nerves”. A zoo keeper once called earthquake researchers to say that his cougar had been acting strangely. It turned out that the cat had an upset stomach.

　　A second task for scientists is to find out exactly what kind of warnings the animals receive. They know that animals sense far more of the world than humans do. Many animals can see, hear, and smell things that people do not even notice. Some can sense tiny changes in air pressure, gravity, or the magnetism of Earth. This extra sense probably helps animals predict quakes.

　　A good example of this occurred with a group of dogs. They were shut in an area that was being shaken by a series of tiny earthquakes. (Several small quakes often come before or after a large one.) Before each quake a low booming sound was heard. Each boom caused the dogs to bark wildly. Then the dogs began to bark during a silent period. A scientist who was recording quakes looked at his machine. It was acting as though there were a loud noise too. The scientist realized that the dogs had reacted to a booming noise. They also sensed the tiny quake that followed it. The machine recorded both, though humans felt and heard nothing.

In this case there was a machine to monitor what the dogs were sensing. Many times, however, our machines record nothing extraordinary, even though animals know a quake is coming. The animals might be sensing something we measure but do not recognize as a warning. Discovering what animals sense, and learning how they know it is a danger signal, is a job for future scientists.

Through the passage the writer hopes to explore __________.

A. why animals send a danger signal before an earthquake

B. how animals know when an earthquake is coming

C. why animals not men have good sense of danger

D. how much animals know about an earthquake

During an earthquake in China in 1975, _________.

A. chickens refused to go out of their cage

B. snakes were frozen to death in their caves

C. snakes awoke from their winter sleep earlier

D. cows broke their halters and escaped from their sheds

Which of the following is one of earthquake nerves according to the passage?

A. An Arabian horse tried to escape from his enclosure.

B. A cougar had an upset stomach unexpectedly.

C. An Australian horse was perfectly calm.

D. A cat acted very strangely in a zoo.

The scientists did an experiment with a group of dogs to _________.

A. find out that the machine could record unusual happenings

B. compare the reactions of animals and those of humans

C. prove that animals could sense more than humans

D. find out what exact warnings animals sent

 There were many students and teachers at the party yesterday. I looked for two seats to sit down with my friend, Tim, but there were ____.

A. neither   B. nothing    C. none      D. no

Will there ever be another Einstein? This is the undercurrent（潜流） of conversation at Einstein memorial meetings throughout the year. A new Einstein will appear, scientists say. But it may take a long time. After all, more than 200 years separated Einstein from Isaac Newton.

Many physicists say the next Einstein hasn't been born yet, or is a baby now. That's because the search for a unified theory that would explain all the forces of nature has pushed current mathematics to its limits. New math must be created after the problem can be solved.

But researchers say there are many other factors working against another Einstein appearing anytime soon. For one thing, physics is a much different field today. In Einstein's day, there were a few thousand physicists worldwide, and the theorists who could argue with Einstein probably would fit into a streetcar with seats to spare. Education is different, too. One key aspect of Einstein's training that-is little noticed is the years of philosophy he read as a teenager --- Kant, Schopenhauer and Spinoza, among others. It taught him how to think independently about space and time and it wasn't long before he became a philosopher himself.

And Einstein was a clever musician. The interplay between music and math is well-known. Einstein would play his violin hard as a way to think through a knotty physics problem.

Today, universities have produced millions of physicists. There aren't many jobs in science for them, so they go to Wall Street and Silicon Valley to apply their analytical skills. Those who stay in science don’t work alone and they sometimes do experiment together which takes years.

It's hard to imagine a renegade(背叛者) like Einstein standing it. “Maybe there is an Einstein out there today,” said Columbia University physicist Brian Greene, “but it would be a lot harder for him to be heard.”

1.According to the second paragraph, the next Einstein will ___________.

2. The underlined words “knotty” in the fourth paragraph means ____________.

3. Which of the following will be useful for the next Einstein to be born?

4.The bold words “unified theory” in Paragraph 2 refers to ___________.

There were many students and teachers at the party yesterday. I looked for two seats to sit down with my friend, Tim, but there were ____.

A. neither   B. nothing    C. none      D. no

Barditch High School decided to hold an All-School Reunion. Over 450 people came to the event. There were tours of the old school building and a picnic at Confederate Park. Several former teachers were on hands to tell stories about the old days. Ms. Mabel Yates, the English teacher for fifty years, was wheeled to the Park.
Some eyes rolled and there were a few low groans(嘟囔声)when Ms.Yates was about to speak. Many started looking at their watches and coming up with excuses to be anywhere instead of preparing to listen to a lecture from an old woman who had few kind words for her students and made them work harder than all the other teachers combined.
Then Ms. Yates started to speak:
“I can’t tell you how pleased I am to be here. I haven’t seen many of you since your graduation, but I have followed your careers and enjoyed your victories as well as crying for your tragedies. I have a large collection of newspaper photographs of my students. Although I haven’t appeared in person, I have attended your college graduations, weddings and even the birth your children, in my imagination.”
Ms. Yates paused and started crying a bit. Then she continued:
“It was my belief that if I pushed you as hard as I could, some of you would succeed to please me and others would succeed to annoy me. Regardless of our motives, I can see that you have all been successful in you chosen path.”
“There is no greater comfort for an educator than to see the end result of his or her years of work. You have all been a great source of pleasure and pride for me and I want you to know I love you all from the bottom of my heart.”
There was a silence over the crowd for a few seconds and then someone started clapping. The clapping turned into cheering, then into a deafening roar(呼喊). Lawyers, truck drivers, bankers and models were rubbing their eyes or crying openly with no shame all because of the words from a long forgotten English teacher from their hometown.
【小题1】What activity was organized for the school reunion?