【推荐1】

I used to think ants knew what they were doing. The ones marching across my kitchen counter looked so confident; I just figured they had a plan, knew where they were going and what needed to be done. How else could ants organize highways, build elaborate nests, launch impressive attacks, and do all the other things ants do?

Turns out I was wrong. Ants aren’t clever little engineers, architects, or soldiers after all --- at least not as individuals. When it comes to deciding what to do next, most ants don’t have a clue. “If you watch an ant try to accomplish something, you’ll be impressed by how awkward it is,” says Deborah M. Gordon, a biologist at Stanford University.

“Ants aren’t smart,” Gordon says. “Ant colonies are.” A colony can solve problems unthinkable for individual ants, such as finding the shortest path to the best food source, assigning workers to different tasks, or defending a territory from neighbors. As individuals, ants might be tiny dummies, but as colonies they respond quickly and effectively to their environment. They do it with something called collective intelligence.

Where this intelligence comes from raises an essential question in nature: How do the simple actions of individual ants add up to the complex behavior of a group? How do hundreds of honey-bees make a critical decision about their hive (蜂巢)if many of them disagree? The collective abilities of such animals --- one of which grasps the big picture, but each of which contributes to the group’s success --- seem miraculous even to the biologists who know them best. Yet during the past few decades, researchers have come up with fascinating insights.

1. The author’s former false impression about ants is that he thought them to be _______.

A．smart

B．awkward

C．elaborate

D．creative

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

A．Ants will function as a single body once a decision is made by the commander.

B．Ants are the only species which developed collective intelligence.

C．The ant queen plays a role in managing ant workers besides laying eggs.

D．An individual ant can’t comprehend the whole process of a big movement.

3. The paragraph following the passage will most probably deal with _______.

A．where we can observe such fantastic behavior of ants

B．which is the leading ant in charge of the action

C．how the collective intelligence works

D．what inspiration can be drawn from the collective abilities

【推荐2】You’re sitting on the sofa, and there’s your dog, right at your feet. You stand up? He stands up. But then you head to the bathroom, and guess who comes with? Why, your dog, of course. But why? Why does your dog follow you like a shadow, no matter where you go?

Ever get the feeling you're being followed? As for why your companion follows you everywhere you go, read on !

“When dogs follow their owners, there can be several scientific explanations, depending on the dog and the individual situation,”according to Mary Burch, Ph.D., an animal behaviorist(行为学家).

These explanations include:

Positive reinforcement(正面强化): When your dog follows you, good things happen. Think dog food, a hot bath and taking a walk around the neighborhood. Your dog’s no dummy. And one of his many talents is learning from experience, that is “reinforcement.”

Natural instinct(本能) to be part of a pack: In fact, a study out of Princeton University that was published in the journal, Science Advances, shows that your dog’s drive (驱动力)to follow you around (as well as watch you attentively and seek physical contact (身体接触) from you) lies in his genes(基因).

Feel good chemicals(化学物质): Your presence causes your dog’s brain to release “feel good” chemicals, Dr. Primm explains, citing this study. Considering how much we as humans enjoy those feel-good chemicals, it’s no surprise your dog likes them too—and will follow you around to get some!

Sense of responsibility : As you move about your home, your dog might feel that you are patrolling your territory (巡视领地) and take on the duty to assist you.

1. What is the passage mainly about?

A．Explanations for some dog behaviors.

B．Some natural instincts of the dogs.

C．The reasons why dogs follow you.

D．Dogs are good friends of human.

2. How does the author introduce the topic?

A．By listing numbers.

B．By giving examples.

C．By telling a story.

D．By making a survey.

3. What does the underlined word “dummy” mean in Para 5?

A．cute.	B．considerate.
C．stupid.	D．lovely.

4. Why does the dog like to be part of a pack?

A．This kind of behaviour is reinforced.

B．Dog’s brain releases chemicals.

C．Dogs have sense of responsibility.

D．It is passed from elder generations.

【推荐1】This year’s flu season is pretty scary. To try to minimize the effects, public officials are still urging anyone who hasn’t yet gotten their flu shot to get one as soon as possible. However, even if every single person got a shot in the arm, the vaccine(疫 苗)—with its excellent 36 percent effectiveness—would not prevent everyone from getting infected with the annoying virus. Knowledge is power, so here's what goes on in your body when you come down with the flu.

The influenza virus primarily attacks your nose, throat, and the tubes that lead to your lungs. But the flu is so much more than that. Your muscles ache, your head hurts, and your appetite goes down, among other things. To our surprise, almost all of these symptoms   have   less   to   do   with   the   virus   itself   than   with   your   immune( 免 疫 的)response to them. Unfortunately, the very defense you have in place to get rid of the flu is the reason you feel so painful when you recover.

The virus usually enters through your mouth, typically by way of your hands . But it takes a few days for symptoms to set in. While this process might cause some harm to your nose and throat, it's nothing major, and nothing like the symptoms that typically accompany a bad or even mild case of the flu.

The real fun starts when your immune system begins to fight. Your immune system comes in two parts: the innate system and the adaptive. The innate immune system is essentially an all-purpose tool. As soon as your body senses the presence of any injury or invader , the innate immune system launches into action by producing tiny proteins called cytokines and chemokines. The cytokines reproduce almost immediately and start to attack the virus. This increase in immune cells creates a serious inflammation( 炎 症 ) throughout the body. But the worst is still to come.

Meanwhile, the chemokines work with the adaptive immune system to help create T cells. These cells are a special type of white blood cell that works in a much more specific way: They find the influenza virus, identify what's special about it, and create something unique on their surface that finds and destroys similar invaders.

1. What can we infer from Paragraph 1?

A．All the vaccine is not effective.

B．No one can avoid catching this year's flu.

C．This year's flu is the most serious one in recent years.

D．Public health officials have to use a gun when necessary.

2. Why many parts of your body suffer while you're recovering from a flu?

A．Because recovery from illness is painful.

B．Because your immune system is working against your defense system.

C．Because your body is fighting hard against the flu.

D．Because the influenza virus attacks your nose, throat and other parts.

3. The underlined word “fun” in Paragraph 4 can be replaced by .

A．joy	B．battle
C．action	D．program

4. What's the main idea of Paragraph 4?

A．The fight between innate immune system and the adaptive.

B．The categories of immune system.

C．The way immune system works.

D．The process of the development of immune system.

【推荐2】When we think of animals and plants, we have a pretty good way of dividing them into two distinct groups: one converts sunlight into energy and the other has to eat food to make its energy. Well, those dividing lines come crashing down with the discovery of a sea slug(海蛞蝓) that's truly half animal and half plant. It's pretty incredible how it has managed to hijack the genes of the algae(藻类)on which it feeds.

And so far, this green sea slug is the only known animal that can be truly considered solar-powered, although some animals do exhibit some plant-like behaviors. Many scientists have studied the green sea slugs to confirm that they are actually able to create energy from sunlight.

In fact, the slugs use the genetic material so well that they pass it on to their future generations. Their babies retain the ability to manufacture their own chlorophyll, though they can't generate energy from sunlight until they've eaten enough algae to steal the necessary genes, which they can't yet produce on their own.

“There's no way on earth that genes from an alga should work inside an animal cell,” says Sidney Pierce from the University of South Florida.

The sea slugs are so good at gathering energy from the sun that they can live up to nine months without having to eat any food. They get all their nutritional needs met by the genes that they've hijacked from the algae.

1. What is the distinctive feature of a sea slug?

A．It gets energy from both food and sunlight.

B．It lives half on animals and half on plants.

C．It converts some sea animals into plants

D．It looks like both a plant and an animal.

2. What does the underlined word"manufacture" in paragraph 3 probably mean?

A．invent	B．capture
C．manipulate	D．produce

3. What does Sidney Pierce say about genes from an alga?

A．They are stolen from animals like the sea slug.

B．They don't usually function inside animal cells.

C．They can readily be converted to sea slug genes.

D．They can't function unless exposed to sunlight.

4. What do we learn about sea slugs from the passage?

A．They will starve to death without sunlight.

B．They behave the way most plant species do.

C．They can survive for months without eating.

D．They will turn into plants when they mature.

【推荐3】When you look in the mirror, you see yourself. That puts you in the company of animals like dolphins, elephants and chimpanzees. The mirror test is often used as a way of measuring whether animals have self-awareness. And an animal that is aware of itself has a high level of intelligence. Now, a species of fish - the cleaner wrasse - has also spotted its reflection.

Alex Jordan, a biologist at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, is one of the researchers of the study on cleaner wrasse consciousness. He and his team conducted many tests that show the fish does seem to recognize its reflection - when the researchers added a colored mark to its body, the fish would even try to remove the mark upon catching sight of it in the mirror. It seems to indicate the clever fish species has some sense of self or individuality.

But Jordan said, “I’m the last to say that the cleaner wrasse is as smart as chimpanzees.” Instead, he believes that the measure scientists have used for nearly 50 years is imperfect.

One problem with the test, for example, is that it uses vision to measure self-awareness. Yet not all animals rely on sight to recognize themselves. It may well be that a bat, for example, which depends on sonar (声波定位) to get around, is self-conscious. Elephants, while able to pass the mirror test, rely more heavily on smell than on sight.

Consciousness in humans or animals is not easy to measure or understand. Philosophers and scientists have long wrestled with the questions of how a sense of self is assessed, and how it relates to physical processes. Jordan believes the cleaner wrasse is self-cognizant (自我知晓的), but not the same extent (程度) as a human. This means scientists need to reconsider whether some concepts centered on humans can be used in understanding animals.

1. The study on the cleaner wrasse made Alex Jordan .

A．doubt whether the mirror test is reliable

B．discover the secret about the fish’s sight

C．develop a better method to replace the mirror test

D．believe the cleaner wrasse is as smart as chimpanzees

2. Which of the following can replace the underlined part “wrestled with” ?

A．Presented with.	B．Ended with.
C．Agreed with.	D．Struggled with.

3. What can we learn from the text?

A．It is relatively easy to test animals' consciousness.

B．Some concepts for humans can’t be applied to animals.

C．Animals rely on at least two senses to get to know themselves.

D．More mirror tests are needed to prove the cleaner wrasse is self-aware.

【推荐2】Fear may be felt in the heart as well as in the head, according to a study that has found a link between the cycles of a beating heart and the chance of someone feeling fear.
Tests on healthy volunteers found that they were more likely to feel a sense of fear at the moment when their hearts are contracting（收缩）and pumping blood around their bodies, compared with the point when the heartbeat is relaxed. Scientists say the results suggest that the heart is able to influence how the brain responds to a fearful event, depending on which point it is at in its regular cycle of contraction and relaxation.
Sarah Garfinkel at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School said: “Our study shows for the first time that the way in which we deal with fear is different depending on when we see fearful pictures in relation to our heart.”
The study tested 20 healthy volunteers on their reactions to fear as they were shown pictures of fearful faces. Dr Garfinkel said, “The study showed that fearful faces are better noticed when the heart is pumping than when it is relaxed. Thus our hearts can also affect what we see and what we don’t see and guide whether we see fear.”
To further understand this relationship, the scientists also used a brain scanner（扫描仪）to show how the brain influences the way the heart changes a person’s feeling of fear.
“We have found an important mechanism by which the heart and brain ‘speak’ to each other to change our feelings and reduce fear,” Dr Garfinkel said.
“We hope that by increasing our understanding about how fear is dealt with and ways that it could be reduced, we may be able to develop more successful treatments for anxiety disorders, and also for those who may be suffering from serious stress disorder.”
1. What is the finding of the study?

A．Fear is a result of one’s relaxed heartbeat.

B．One’s heart affects how he feels fear.

C．Fear has something to do with one’s heart health.

D．One’s fast heartbeats are likely to cause fear.

2. The conclusion was drawn by analyzing           .

A．volunteers’ heartbeats when they saw terrible pictures

B．the time volunteers saw fearful pictures and their health conditions

C．volunteers’ reactions to horrible pictures and data from their brain scans

D．different pictures shown to volunteers and their heart-brain communication

3. Which of the following is closest in meaning to “mechanism” in Paragraph 6?

A．Order	B．Treatment
C．Machine	D．System

【推荐3】Experts say that if food were a country, it would rank second behind the US as one of the biggest greenhouse gas polluters. The reason is the rising demand for meat. Animal farming is responsible for 14.5 percent of global methane emissions. While cows are the worst contributors, pigs, sheep, donkeys and other animals play a part as well.

Animal agriculture also causes land to become damaged, water to be polluted and forests to get destroyed. With the world population forecast to rise to 9.8 billion by 2050, things are only looking worse for our already decreasing natural resources. While going vegetarian would help, meat consumption is too deep-rooted in most Western diets to allow for such a sharp, permanent change. That is why experts are advocating substituting some of the beef, chicken, or pork with ordinary insects!

Insects, which grow into adults within a matter of months, if not weeks, are ready for consumption much faster than domestic animals. They also require much less room, use less water and food, and produce far less greenhouse gas than animals.

Of the 1.1 million insect species worldwide, scientists have identified 1,700 as eatable. Among them are ants, grasshoppers, grubs, and earthworms. Just like animals, each insect has a different taste. Tree worms taste just like pork, and grubs are similar to smoked meat.

While eating insects might be a new concept for Western people, over 2 billion people worldwide consume insects as a regular part of their diet. Besides being delicious, insects are high in protein, have very few calories, and are free of the saturated fat found in animal meat. Insects can be prepared in many ways. Creative cooks can use them to cook protein-rich soup, make baked treats, and even fry a few with vegetables. So eat insects--- both your body and Mother Earth will thank you for it!

1. Which of the following animals contribute the most to global methane emissions?

A．Sheep.

B．Donkeys.

C．Cows.

D．Pigs.

2. How is the third paragraph developed?

A．By making comparisons.	B．By providing examples.
C．By listing data.	D．By asking questions.

3. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A．Few people eat insects regularly.

B．Ordinary insects are high in fat.

C．Insects contain various vitamins.

D．Saturated fat is harmful to health.

【推荐2】If you think that running marathons will help you live a long and healthy life, new research may come as a shock. According to a recent scientific study, people who do a very strenuous workout are as likely to die as people who do no exercise at all.

Scientists in Denmark have been studying over 1,000 joggers (慢跑者)and non - joggers for 12 years. The death rates from the sample group indicate that people who jog at a proper pace two or three times a week for less than two and a half hours in total are least likely to die. The best speed to jog at was found to be about 5 miles per hour. The research suggests that people who jog more than three times a week or at higher speeds of over 7 mph die at the same rate as non - joggers. The scientists think that this is because strenuous exercise causes structural changes to the heart and arteries(动脉). Over time, this can cause serious injuries.

Peter Schnohr, a researcher in Copenhagen, said, “If your goal is to decrease risk of death and improve life expectancy(寿命)，jogging a few times a week at a proper pace is a good strategy. Anything more is not just unnecessary, and it may be harmful. “

The implications (暗示 ) of this are that moderate forms of exercise such as tai chi, yoga and walking may be better for us than “iron man events, triathlons and long - distance running and cycling. According to Jacob Louis Marott, another researcher involved in the study, “You don't actually have to do that much to have a good impact on your health. And perhaps you shouldn’t actually do too much”.

1. The underlined word “strenuous” in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to “____“.

A．regular

B．hard

C．practical

D．flexible

2. The author presents some figures in Paragraph 2 to_______ .

A．suggest giving up jogging	B．show risks of doing sports
C．provide supportive evidence	D．introduce the research process

3. According to the scientists, why is too much exercise harmful?

A．It may injure the heart and arteries.	B．It can make the body tired out.
C．It will bring much pressure.	D．It consumes too much energy.

4. What can be inferred from the text?

A．No exercise at all is the best choice.	B．More exercise means a healthier life.
C．Marathons runners are least likely to die.	D．Proper exercise contributes to good health.

【推荐3】Our fascination with Mars has never stopped. However, in the early days of space exploration, visits were restricted to “fly-bys”, such as those by Mariner Space Probes, by means of which craft would simply pass the planet, taking pictures and collecting data as they went. The Viking “orbiters” were next, and later craft in the Viking series, known as “Landers”, began to study the surface, equipped with instruments which continued to collect data about the environment until they stopped working.

The more recent “Rovers” move around the planet’s surface as they gather information. Current proposals include missions to study geographic features, climate, and soil components, in order to determine, among other things, whether the planet can ever have supported carbon-based life forms. Scientists now believe that at some stage the planet cooled dramatically, resulting in the near-loss of its atmosphere and, thanks to the wearing away of some surface features mineral deposits and other factors, it is also believed that liquid water once flowed here.

One of the most famous craft is “Phoenix”, which landed in November 2008. Its mission was to obtain samples from beneath the surface by digging into the arctic ice while its camera provided geological data and other equipment scanned the atmosphere, measuring temperature and pressure in an attempt to discover whether the chemicals necessary for life might exist beneath the surface. The craft was expected to send back data for three months, but managed to hold out for further two. An especially important part of the project was the need to keep absolute cleanliness of the equipment in order to ensure that any organic material collected was not contaminated by microbes(微生物).

In the future manned landings may probably come true-and though it may seem an extremely difficult undertaking, plans have already been discussed for the “terraforming(行星地球化)”of the planet, giving it an atmosphere, oceans and other elements similar to earth, with, the possibility of human settlement.

1. According to the text, what is “fly-by”?

A．A type of UFO.	B．A photograph of a planet.
C．A planet of the solar system.	D．A way of collecting information.

2. Which of the following is evidence of liquid water on Mars?

A．There is ice on it.

B．It once had some mineral deposits.

C．It once had carbon-based life forms.

D．There are some damaged areas on its surface.

3. What does the underlined word “contaminated” in Paragraph 3 mean?

A．Polluted.

B．Protected.

C．Controlled.

D．Reduced.

4. How does the author feel about human beings going Mars?

A．It will happen very soon.

B．It may be hard, but it’s possible.

C．It will be full of uncertainties, but it’s worth the efforts.

D．It relies on different countries working together.