【推荐3】The health of millions could be at risk because supplies of medicinal plants are being used up. These plants are used to make traditional medicine, including drugs to fight cancer. “The loss of medicinal plants is a quiet disaster,” says Sara Oldfield, secretary general of the NGO Botanic Gardens Conservation International.

Most people worldwide rely on herbal (药草制的) medicines which are got mostly from wild plants. But some 15,000 of the 50,000 medicinal species are under threat of dying out, according to report from the international conservation group Plantlife. Shortages have been reported in China, India, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda.

Over-harvesting does the most harm, though pollution and competition from invasive species (入侵物种) and habitat destruction all contribute. Businessmen generally harvest medicinal plants, not caring about sustainability (可持续性),” the Plantlife report says, “damage is serious partly because they have no idea about it, but it is mainly because such collection is unorganized”. Medicinal trees at risk include the Himalayan yew (紫衫) and the African cherry, which are used to treat some cancers.

The solution, says the report’s author, Alan Hamilton, is to encourage local people to protect these plants. Ten projects studied by Plantlife in India, Pakistan, China, Nepal, Uganda and Kenya showed this method can succeed. In Uganda, the project has kept a sustainable supply of low-cost cancer treatments, and in China a public-run medicinal plant project has been created for the first time.”

“Improving health, earning an income and keeping cultural traditions are important in encouraging people to protect medicinal plants,” says Hamilton, “You have to pay attention to what people are interested in.”

Ghillean Prance, the former director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London, agrees that medicinal plants are in need of protection. “Not nearly enough is being done,” he told New Scientist. “We are destroying the very plants that are of most use to us.”

1. From the first two paragraphs, we can learn that ________.

A．millions of people are threatened with cancer

B．most countries see a shortage of herbal medicines

C．about two thirds of medicinal species will disappear

D．a number of medicinal species are in danger of extinction

2. The major factor that causes the decreasing of supplies of medicinal plants is ________.

A．over-harvesting	B．habitat destruction
C．pollution	D．invasive species

3. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 refers to ________.

A．pollution	B．other species’ invasion
C．sustainability	D．over-harvesting

4. What can be inferred from the passage?

A．Protecting medicinal plants has a long way to go.

B．Local people don’t know how to protect medicinal plants.

C．Ghillean Prance is optimistic about medicinal plants’ future.

D．China has made great progress in protecting medicinal plants.

【推荐1】If cars had wings, they could fly and that just might happen, beginning in 2012.The company Terrafugia, based in Woburn, Massachusetts, says it plans to deliver its car­plane, the Transition, to customers by the end of 2012.

“It’s the next ‘wow’ vehicle, ”said Terrafugia vice president Richard Gersh. “Anybody can buy a Ferrari, but as we say, Ferraris don’t fly.”

The car plane has wings that unfold for flying—a process the company says takes one minute—and fold back up for driving. A runway is still required to take off and land.

The Transition is being marketed more as a plane that drives than a car that flies, although it is both. The company has been working with FAA to meet aircraft regulations, and with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to meet vehicle safety regulations.

The company is aiming to sell the Transition to private pilots as a more convenient and cheaper way to fly. They say it saves you the trouble of trying to find another mode of transportation to get to and from airports: You drive the car to the airport and then you’re good to go. When you land, you fold up the wings and hit the road. There are no expensive parking fees because you don’t have to store it at an airport—you park it in the garage at home.

The car­plane is designed to fly primarily under 10,000 feet. It has a maximum takeoff weight of 1,430 pounds, including fuel and passengers. Terrafugia says the Transition reduces the potential for an accident by allowing pilots to drive under bad weather instead of flying into marginal(临界)conditions.

The Transition’s price tag: $194,000. But there may be additional charges for options like a radio, transponder or GPS. Another option is a full­plane parachute.

“If you get into a very awful situation, it is the necessary safety option，” Gersh said. So far, the company has more than 70 orders with deposits. “We’re working very closely with them, but there are still some remaining steps，” Brown said.

1. We can learn from the first two paragraphs that________.

A．people might drive a car­plane in 2012

B．car­planes will be popular in 2012

C．both Transition and Ferrari can take off and land

D．Richard Gersh is the vice president of Massachusetts

2. It takes the car­plane one minute to________.

A．fold and unfold its wings	B．meet flying safety regulations
C．land in the airport	D．unfold wings for flying

3. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?

A．The car­plane needs a runway to take off and land.

B．The car­plane may fly as high as normal planes.

C．To meet aircraft regulations, the company has been working with FAA.

D．People can park the car­plane in the garage at their home.

4. What’s the best title for the passage?

A．Cars with Wings Can Fly As Fast As Plane

B．Which To Choose: A Ferrari Or A Car­Plane?

C．A More Convenient and Cheaper Way To Fly

D．Cars with Wings May Be Just Around the Corner

【推荐2】Researchers from Texas A&M University have developed a new bioremediation technology (生物整治技术) using plant-based material and fungi (真菌) that could clean up per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also called “forever chemicals” or PFAS, are found in soil, water, and even human and animal blood and may be harmful to humans and other species. They are found just about everywhere, from food wrappers to clothing. These chemicals may affect the immune system and may cause liver damage. Extremely high exposures to PFAS may also be linked to cancer.

“PFAS do not degrade (降解) easily in the environment and are poisonous even in a very low concentration,” said Susie Dai, associate professor from Texas A&M. “They must be removed and destroyed to prevent human exposure and negative impacts on the ecosystem. PFAS are so stable and they can occur in water in a very low concentration and you have to concentrate them and then destroy them.”

The only way to actually get rid of these “forever chemicals” is by burning them, which is a long and expensive process. But Texas A&M researchers have found a new way to use a plant-based material that adsorbs the pollutants. As explained by ScienceDirect, adsorption is “The use of solids for removing substances from either gas or liquid.” The adsorbent material is then consumed by microbial fungi. The team recently published their findings for the process framework, which they call RAPIMER, in Nature.

“The plant’s cell wall material serves as a framework to adsorb the PFAS,” Dai explained. “Then this material and the adsorbed chemical serve as food for a microbial fungus. Then it’s gone, and you don’t have the disposal problem.”

This sustainable PFAS clean-up system could be mass-produced for commercial use, leading to a better way to remove these chemical pollutants from the environment. It could also come in handy as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers creating PFAS thresholds (阈值) to its water quality standards.

1. What is mainly explained in paragraph 2?

A．PFAS’s existing forms.	B．PFAS’s doubtful origins.
C．PFAS’s potential dangers.	D．PFAS’s wide applications.

2. What did Susie Dai say about PFAS?

A．They are unstable.

B．They degrade easily in the environment.

C．They survive longer in water than in the air.

D．They are poisonous even in a low concentration.

3. What happens after the plant-based material adsorbs the pollutants?

A．The material gets eaten.	B．The material becomes solid.
C．The material falls into small pieces.	D．The material goes on to adsorb fungi.

4. What is the author’s attitude towards the plant-based material?

A．Carefree.

B．Worried.

C．Positive.

D．Reserved.

【推荐3】Americans are worried about new technology. They are concerned that machines, including robots, will take over work now done by humans. These findings come from a new report by the Pew Research Center of Washington DC.

About 75 percent of Americans questioned by Pew said automation will increase income inequality between the rich and the middle class and the poor. And 64 percent of people expect automation to be so common in America that people will face difficulty finding things to do with their lives.

Some of the concerns about technology come from a distrust about whether machines will always make the right decision. Many Americans believe humans have better judgment in dealing with complex matters. One example is selecting a person for a job. Three quarters of Americans said they would not want to apply for a job that uses a computer program to choose the most qualified person.

Most Americans want the government to limit automation. For example, 87 percent support a requirement that all driverless vehicles have a human in the driver seat who can take control when needed. And 85 percent want to limit machines to mostly doing jobs that are dangerous or unhealthy for humans. And only 25 percent expect more jobs to come from automation, Pew said.

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder of Facebook, spoke last May to graduating seniors from Harvard University in Massachusetts. His talk centered on the uncertain future facing young people. “Our generation will have to deal with tens of millions of jobs replaced by automation like self-driving cars and trucks,” Zuckerberg told the graduates.

Zuckerberg said young people will have to find projects that will bring both jobs and direct benefits to the people of the world. He said in his speech that 300,000 people worked to put a man on the moon, and millions of people built, the Hoover Dam as well as other great projects over the last 100 years.

1. What do Americans think of technology?

A．Useful.

B．Effective

C．Dangerous.

D．Undependable.

2. Which of the following do the majority of Americans want the government to do?

A．Use machines to do dangerous and harmful jobs.

B．Increase job chances by introducing machines

C．Select a person for a job by computer.

D．Get rid of all driverless vehicles.

3. What did Zuckerberg encourage the students to do?

A．Refuse self-driving vehicles.

B．Create new job chances.

C．Consider large projects.

D．Fight against robots.

4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?

A．New Technology Creates More Jobs

B．New Technology Makes New Unfairness

C．Americans Worry Robots Will Take Jobs

D．Robots Make Work Easy to Do for Workers.

【推荐1】Antibiotics, vaccines, organ transplant and HIV/AIDS treatments are all medical milestones that have indisputably made life better and saved millions of lives. But all these advances and countless others were developed using animals. The latest eye shadow and other cosmetics and industrial chemicals are also developed with animal testing.

The lab animal issue has received attention in China in recent years as more people are concerned about animals’ rights. China has no animal welfare laws prohibiting cruelty to animals, but there are standards (1986 and 2006) for humane treatment of lab animals, though these are difficult to enforce.

World Day for Laboratory Animals was established in 1979 by the British National Anti-Vivisection Society, memorializing millions of animals that contributed to pure science, medicine, industry, fashion and the cosmetics industry. It’s also a day of action to protest the use of live animals for experiments from lab rats and dogs to cattle and primates (灵长类动物).

Thousands of activists worldwide are campaigning to raise awareness and demand an end to experimentation with animals, though there are few effective alternatives. The British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection estimates that 100 million vertebrates (脊椎动物) are used in experiments every year, 10 to 11 million in the European Union. This doesn’t include mice, rats, frogs and animals not yet weaned. There are no reliable figures for China where specially bred animals are used extensively for research. Some date indicate around 16 million vertebrates were used in 2006.

Three Rs principle

The three Rs are principles for lab animal welfare proposed by microbiologist RL Burch and zoologist W.M.S. Russel in 1959. They are “reduction, refinement and replacement” and scientists are encouraged to follow them.

*Reduce the number of animals by improving experimental techniques and increasing information sharing among researchers.

*Refine experiments and treatment to reduce suffering; use less invasive techniques, improve care and living conditions.

*Replace experiments on live animals with alternative testing where possible.

“But the three Rs suggests general acquiescence (默许) in animal experimentation,” says astatement by Animal Rights in Chine (ARC), set up in 2006 by over 3000 campaigners who have been urging the use of alternatives.

The alternatives activists advocate include using cell cultures instead of whole animals, using phototoxicity tests on chemicals to predict their effects on humans, using computer models, studying human volunteers and working on isolated tissues. These approaches can be useful but they can’t provide the answers that animal research can.

“Animal experimentation is a basic, very important method in life science study and biomedical research and in some specific fields, so it is irreplaceable,” says Yang Fei, deputy director of the Animal Experimentation Department of Fudan University. Yang has worked on regulating and standardizing animal testing for over 15 years.

He says testing on primates is still necessary because their immune system is very similar to that of humans. They are needed to develop drugs for malaria, HIV/AIDS and infections such as SARS, he says, though admitting the approach is not perfect.

1. According to the passage, ______ may not be related to animal testing.

A．Cough mixtures	B．Genetically modified rice
C．Dior Lipsticks	D．Artificial livers

2. World Day for Laboratory animals was set up for the following reasons except ______.

A．to call for better experimental techniques to reduce sufferings

B．to memorialize the animals sacrificed in the labs

C．to raise awareness of animal right

D．to offer the activists a chance to raise their objections to the use of animals’ forexperiments

3. Why W.M.S Russel advocated researchers to share more information?

A．Because researchers can better cooperate with each other to eliminate animal testing.

B．Because researchers can turn to alternatives to replace animal testing.

C．Because researchers can avoid repeating similar testing on animals.

D．Because researchers can make the animal testing more effective.

4. ______ is the biggest obstacle to cancelling animal testing.

A．Lack of enough fund	B．Lack of human awareness
C．Lack of supportive statistics	D．Lack of effective alternatives

【推荐2】Like infectious diseases, ideas in the academic world are epidemic (传染的). But why some travel far and wide while equally good ones has been a mystery? Now a team of computer scientists has used an epidemiological model to simulate (模仿) how ideas move from one academic institution to another. The model showed that ideas originating at famous institutions caused bigger “epidemics” than equally good ideas from less famous places, explains Allison Morgan, a computer scientist at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“This implies that where an idea is born shapes how far it spreads,” says senior author Aaron Clauset.

Not only is this unfair— “it reveals a big weakness in how we’re doing science,” says Simon DeDeo, a professor of social and decision sciences at Carnegie Mellon university, who was not involved in the study. “There are many highly trained people with good ideas who do not end up at top institutions. They are producing good ideas, and we know those ideas are getting lost,” DeDeo says. “Our science, our scholarships, is not as good because of this.”

The Colorado researchers first looked at how five big ideas in computer science spread to new institutions. They found that hiring a new faculty member accounted for this movement a little more than a third of the time--and in 81 percent of those cases, transmissions took place from higher – to lower-prestige (声望) universities. Then the team simulated the spread of ideas using an infectious disease model and found that the size of an idea “epidemic” depended on the prestige of the originating institution.

The researchers’ model suggests that there “may be a number of quite good ideas that originate in the middle of the pack, in terms of universities.” Clauset says. There is a lot of good work coming out of less famous places. he says: “You can learn a huge amount from it, and you can learn things that other people don’t know because they’re not even paying attention.”

1. How did the scientists carry out their research?

A．By making use of a model.	B．By analyzing previous data.
C．By comparing different results.	D．By interviewing different people.

2. According to Simon DeDeo, What can we infer in Paragraph 3?

A．All the people with higher education have good ideas.

B．Some scholarships aren’t given to the right people.

C．Most good ideas come from not-so-great institutions.

D．People with higher education should work in top institutions.

3. What is the fourth paragraph mainly about?

A．The causes of the results.	B．The importance of the research.
C．The findings of the research.	D．The characteristics of big ideas.

4. What may be the best title for the passage?

A．Spread good ideas as far as possible.

B．Best ideas come from top institutions.

C．Save good ideas from less famous places.

D．Ideas from top institutions travel farther.