The livelihood of each species depends on the existences of other organisms. This interdependence is sometimes vague, sometimes obvious. Perhaps the most straightforward dependence of one species on another occurs with parasites, organisms that live on or in other living things and get nutrients directly from them. The parasitic way of life is widespread, A number of micro-organisms (including viruses and bacteria) and an army of invertebrates (无脊椎动物)make their livings directly at the expense of other creatures. In the face of this attack, living things have evolved a variety of defense mechanisms for protecting their bodies from invasion by other organisms.
Certain fungi (真菌)and even some kinds of bacteria release substances known as antibiotics into their external environment. These substances are capable of killing or preventing the growth of various kinds of bacteria that also occupy the area, thus eliminating or reducing the competition for nutrients. The same principle is used in defense against invaders in other groups of organisms. For example, when attacked by disease-causing fungi or bacteria, many kinds of plants produce chemicals that help to fight off the invaders.
Members of the animal kingdom have developed a variety of defense mechanisms for dealing with parasites. Although these mechanisms vary considerably, all major groups of animals are capable of detecting and reacting to the presence of “foreign” cells. In fact, throughout the animal kingdom, there is evidence that transplants of cells or parts of tissues into an animal are accepted only if they come from closely related individuals.
The ability to distinguish between “self” and “nonself” while present in all animals, is most efficient among vertebrates, which have developed an immune system as their defense mechanism. The immune system recognizes and takes action against foreign invaders and transplanted tissues that are treated as foreign cells.
1. What does the passage mainly discuss?| A．How organisms react to invaders. |
| B．How parasites reproduce themselves. |
| C．How antibiotics work to cure disease. |
| D．How the immune systems of vertebrates developed. |
| A．aid digestion |
| B．fight off other organisms |
| C．prevent disease in humans |
| D．create new types of nutrients |
| A．get rid of antibiotics |
| B．accept transplanted cells |
| C．detect and react to invasion |
| D．weaken their immune system |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】In 2008, Michael Goodfellow, a scientist at Newcastle University, was handed a soil sample taken from Chile’s Atacama Desert—the world’s driest desert, once considered a dead zone. “Quite frankly, we didn’t expect to isolate (使分离) anything,” Goodfellow admits. But to his surprise, he was able to grow a diversity of bacteria from the sample.
A 2018 review counted a total of 46 new molecules (分子) that have been isolated from the Atacama bacteria so far, many of which show antibiotic (抗菌的), antiviral or anticancer properties (特征). It was the type of bacteria living in the Atacama that proved particularly exciting: actinobacteria (放线菌).
Take streptomyces griseus for example, a species of actinobacteria you might find in soil. A sample of streptomyces, when placed among mycobacterium tuberculosis (结核杆菌), will release a chemical which stops its bacterial neighbors from growing the proteins they need to survive. When scientists at Rutgers University managed to isolate this chemical in 1944, they accidentally found the first antibiotic treatment for tuberculosis, saving countless lives.
Today, there is general agreement on the need for the development of new antibiotics because our most trusted drugs began to fail—bacteria have learnt how to survive our antibiotic attacks. Sometimes, a potentially useful chemical can be found right in environments around us. But many scientists argue that we should also be exploring the natural world for novel biochemistry, an approach known as “bioprospecting”.
“70% to 75% of all antibiotics come from nature,” notes Marcel Jaspars, a natural product chemist at the University of Aberdeen. “It strikes me that we should be looking more deeply into how nature makes these molecules and how we can actually find antibiotics.”
1. What did Goodfellow think of the sample at first?| A．It was lifeless. | B．It was man-made. | C．It was of great value. | D．It was of doubtful origin. |
| A．To compare two species of actinobacteria. | B．To explain the major cause of tuberculosis. |
| C．To explain the purpose of antibiotic treatments. | D．To show the potential of the Atacama actinobacteria. |
| A．Doubtful. | B．Supportive. | C．Tolerant. | D．Conservative. |
| A．Antibiotics are bound to fail. | B．Effective treatments come from nature. |
| C．Fun facts are listed about the Atacama Desert. | D．The desert soil could save lives. |
【推荐2】Unexpected connection between sleep and academic performance has been recently discovered.
Researchers have found that insufficient sleep and tiredness increase a person's risk of developing severe medical conditions, such as obesity （肥胖症），high blood sugar levels, and heart disease. Now, a new study has found that getting sufficient sleep is also the key to improving academic performance.
Jeffrey Gross, the university science professor who led the research, was not trying to find the relationship between sleep and grades when he handed out smartwatches to the 100 students in his chemistry class. Instead, the professor hoped the wrist-worn devices, which track a personas physical activity, would show a connection between exercise and academic achievements.
While Grosses data showed no relationship between these two factors, the study found something surprising. As the researchers were analyzing their data, they noticed that there was a linear （线性的）relationship between the average amount of sleep the students got and their results in the course's 11 quizzes, three midterm tests, and the final exam.
Even more interesting, it was not sufficient for students to just head to bed early the night before a test Instead, it's the sleep you get during the days when learning is happening that matters most.
When students went to bed each night was similarly important. Those who went to bed in the early hours of the morning performed poorly, even if the total sleep time was the same as a higher-performing student. "When you go to bed matters," Gross says. “If you go to bed at 10, or 12, or 1 at night, and sleep for seven hours, your performance is the same. But if you go to bed after 2, your performance starts to go down even if you get the same seven hours' sleep. So, quantity isn't everything."
Perhaps the most interesting was the huge impact that small differences in sleep patterns had on the students' grades. The overall course grades of students averaging six and a half hours of sleep each night were 25% lower than students who averaged just one hour more sleep. Similarly, students who varied their bedtime by even one hour each night had grades that dropped 45% below those with more regular bedtime.
Who knew getting straight AM just required some extra sleep?
1. Based on his original objective, which best describes Professor Gross's research findings?| A．Convincing. | B．Complete. |
| C．Accidental. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．Middle school chemistry students. |
| B．Volunteers from different universities. |
| C．University student athletes. |
| D．Professor Gross's own students. |
| A．Making the students wear special watches. |
| B．Using the students' normal test and quiz grades. |
| C．Giving the students regular quizzes after class. |
| D．Using students' university entrance test results. |
| A．A student who has a good night's sleep the night before an important test. |
| B．A student who sleeps from 11 pm to 6 a.m. each day. |
| C．A student whose normal bedtime varies between 9 p.m. and 12 p.m. |
| D．A student who sleeps for a total of 7 hours each night. |
【推荐3】In the first days of space exploration, one concern was the possibility that astronauts or spacecraft might be hit by meteoroids. Scientists calculated that this possibility was extremely small because meteoroids are rare. Astronauts and spacecraft, on the other hand, would almost certainly encounter space debris, which poses a greater threat.
However, in the 60 years since the beginning of space exploration, large quantities of human-made orbital debris have accumulated. Much of the debris consists of satellites that have stopped functioning or rocket booster sections that separated from the main spacecraft. Some of the debris consists of items lost by astronauts. Still more of the debris is the result of collisions. such as when one satellite collides with another or with a large piece of debris.
NASA estimates there are millions of debris particles that are too small to be tracked. These circle Earth at a speed of up to 17, 500 miles per hour, making even the smallest particles dangerous. One scientist calculated that a chip of paint hitting the window of a spacecraft at orbital speeds will hit with the same amount of force as a bowling ball traveling at 60 mph. Such an impact occurred on the space shuttle Challenger's second flight.
Larger objects are even more dangerous, but they can be monitored and avoided. Many satellites have the ability to adjust their course slightly and can be remotely directed to avoid collisions with larger objects that would damage or destroy the satellites. NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) have departments dedicated to cataloging, modeling, and predicting the movements of space debris.
To avoid adding to the amount of debris, obsolete satellites may need to be able to take themselves out of orbit as their usefulness comes to an end. Until a way to remove these remains is implemented. however. those 500, 000 pieces of large fragments, along with the millions of smaller pieces, will continue to orbit Earth.
1. According to the text, which of the following statements is TRUE?| A．Up to now, there is still no efficient way to clean the space debris. |
| B．Satellites should be monitored more to avoid being hit by space debris. |
| C．Most of the space debris consists of satellites that have stopped functioning. |
| D．To decrease space debris, the number of the satellites sent to space should be controlled. |
| A．Problems caused by old satellites and equipment. |
| B．Better tracking of the space debris that is orbiting Earth. |
| C．The types of space debris that is causing problems. |
| D．Why space exploration was carried out in the beginning. |
| A．private. | B．artificial |
| C．useful | D．outdated. |
【推荐1】Psychopaths, by definition, have problems understanding the emotions of other people, which partly explains why they are so selfish and why they commit violent crimes at up to three times the rate of other people.
But curiously, they seem to have no difficulty in understanding what other people think, want, or believe."Their behavior seems to suggest that they don't consider the thoughts of others," says ArielleBaskin-Sommers from Yale University, but their performance on experiments suggests otherwise. When they hear a story and are asked to say what a character is thinking, they can.
On the face of it, this makes sense: Here are people who can understand what their victims are thinking but just don't care. Hence their actions. But Baskin-Sommers found that there's more to their minds than it seems.
Bakin-Sommers managed to persuade a maximum-security prison in Connecticut to let her work with their prisoners. First, Baskin-Sommers administered a standard test to 106 male prisoners from the Connecticut prison to assess psychopathy. Of them, 22 proved to be psychopaths, 28 were not, and the rest fell in a gray zone.
After assessing the 106 volunteers, she then gave them a computer-based task. They saw a picture of a human avatar (化身) in prison uniforms, standing in a room and facing either right or left. There were either two red dots on the wall in front of the avatar, or one dot in front of it and one dot behind it, The prisoners’ job was to figure out how many dots either they or the avatar could see.
Normally, people can accurately say how many dots the avatar sees, but they're slower if there are dots behind the avatar. Thar's because what they see (two dots) affects their ability to see through the avatar's eyes(one dot), This is called egocentric interference. But they're also slower to say how many dots they can see if that number differs from the avatar's count. People are automatically affected by the avatar's perspective, even when it hurts their own performance. This is called altercentic interference.
Baskin-Sommers found that the psychopathic prisoners showed the usual level of egocentric interference-that is, their own perspective was muscling in on the avatar's, But they showed much less altercentric interference than the other prisoners- the avatar's perspective wasn't messing with their own, as it would for most other people.
Of course, not all psychopaths are the same, and they vary considerably in their behavior. But Baskin-Sommers also found fhat the higher their score on the psychopathy assessment test, the less they were affected by what the avatar saw. And the less affected they were, the more charges they had on their record.
To her, the results show that psychopaths do not automatically take the perspective of other people. That helps to explain why they behave so cruelly and even violently.
1. What does "otherwise" (in paragraph 2) refer to ?| A．Pychopaths' behavior is not worth studying |
| B．Psychopaths can understand others' thoughts |
| C．Psychopaths have trouble knowing about others. |
| D．Psychopaths' perfomance on experiments is unbelievable |
| A．asking them to say the number of the dots they or the avatar could see |
| B．reading their medical records to see whether they were psychopaths. |
| C．requiring them to figure out which avatar messed in with them |
| D．decreasing the effect of the avatar on their performance |
| A．It's more difficult for psychopaths to work out what they themselves are thinking about. |
| B．Egocentric interference are more related to criminal acts than altercentric imerference. |
| C．People showing more altercentric interference are less likely to be psychopaths. |
| D．Psychopaths tend to be affected by the avatar to the same degree. |
| A．Varieties of Psychopaths |
| B．How Psychopaths See the World |
| C．Psychopaths and Their Perspectives |
| D．Why Psychopaths Need More Understanding |
【推荐2】Despite earning more than $100,000 in household income, many people feel that they are living month to month and that a loss of employment or sudden medical emergency could easily move them from the upper middle class to low income earners. This feeling of being on the “edge” of poverty, despite these levels of income, seems a bit ridiculous but it really comes down to easy credit, misunderstanding of their incomes and peer (同辈) group pressures.
Even in today’s tough economy, for those with six-figure incomes credit is easy to come by. Credit companies may have cut back offerings to those in lower income brackets(等级) due to the recent credit reforms, but there seems to be little or no effect on high income earners. Their being able to get credit without difficulty gives them a false sense of security that makes them spend way more than their incomes can afford. That’s why they accumulate credit card debt faster than average.
Many higher income earners feel like they are making lots of money now, and believe that they will continue to make big money. This may reduce their feeling that they need to watch their money carefully now. Hand in hand with that, many of them probably believe that they are making more money than they really are—or said another way, the money they make will go farther than it really does.
Meanwhile, many young professionals who are earning good incomes don’t come from particularly privileged backgrounds, and their reference point may be that they are making twice (or more) than their parents were—so they spend like that us well. They don’t take account of the effect of inflation(通货膨胀), which means that the cost of living is much higher than that in their parents’ generation. Further, the more you earn, the more you pay in tax. Rather than focusing on after-tax incomes, many high income earners only look at the top figures. A $100,000 income before tax is only about $70,000 after tax.
1. Who is the text centered on?| A．The upper middle class. | B．Hie lower income group. |
| C．People living in poverty. | D．People getting into debt. |
| A．The effect of inflation. | B．Easy availability of credit. |
| C．The good economic climate. | D．Their privileged backgrounds. |
| A．They should focus on their top line figures. |
| B．They need to look ahead rather than look back. |
| C．They actually don’t earn as much as they think. |
| D．They should form good personal financial habits. |
| A．Effects of peer group pressures. | B．Ways to keep financial stability. |
| C．Harm of poor money management. | D．Tips on reducing the risk of poverty. |
【推荐3】The writer of the Epilogue (结语) to my copy of Goethe’s Faust, Hanns W Eppelsheimer, refers to “human arrogance (傲慢), rising up against the spirits, in order to seize a piece of power for itself, with the aid of wizard ryand magic,” as “a very old theme”. He adds: “At the beginning of modern times, when the Renaissance set science free, the simple desires for power, wealth and sensual pleasure (感官享乐) came to be joined by the new striving for unlimited knowledge. ” Enter the historical Faust, the semi-biographical stories about his life.
Let’s go much further back in time. At the beginning of the ancient Biblical Book of Job (圣经·约伯记), the “sons of God” and Satan come before God. “And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job?” (Note the word “servant”). God confirms Job’s goodness. Satan counters that Job is good only because he is in receipt of God’s favours. If he were to suffer, he would curse God. God empowers Satan to test Job, making him suffer. Job loses his family and his animals and his health and retains only the company of his wife. His wife urges Job to curse God, but he refuses firmly.
The story ties into the problem of why good people suffer, where Goethe borrows a theme into Prologue but has changed it out of all recognition:
The Lord: Do you know Faust?
Mephistopheles: The Doctor?
The Lord: My servant!
God acknowledges that Faust serves him, through his striving, despite the mistakes he is sure to make; and Faust remains aware of the correct path to take through life. While God, indeed, permits Mephistopheles to try to divert (转移) Faust from his “fountainhead”. Mephistopheles appreciates the favour and sets to work. And then we meet Faust himself, alone in his study at night, at the beginning of the drama proper, and he speaks for himself:
Ah, now I’ve studied philosophy, jurisprudence and medicine, and alas, theology as well, ardently and painstakingly, from beginning to end.
He has learnt a great deal; but he wants to learn more, beyond the bounds of handed down knowledge — metaphysics (形而上学), perhaps, or the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.
Early in Part 1 of the drama, Faust makes his own bargain with Mephistopheles: if he ever relaxes from his striving and wishes to stay still, in the beautiful moment, then Mephistopheles can take his soul. Compared to Job, Goethe’s hero, instead, is not made to suffer: rather, new enjoyments of life are opened up to him. Unfortunately, Faust’s own joy can be at the expense of other people. (The tragedy of Part 1 is that of Gretchen and her family)
In Part 2, regretful about his faults before, Faust engages in good works, especially, the reclamation of low-lying land from the sea (填海造陆). There arises, though, from the writings of the New Testament (圣经新约), the question as to whether good works are sufficient to ensure salvation (救赎) — a Christian theological (基督教神学的) debating point. St Paul explores this: “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law”. Luther is saying here that “a man is justified, without the deeds of the law, only by faith.” He adds the “only”. On this view, Faust’s good works cannot be sufficient for his salvation. We can add that Faust does not have faith, either.
Finally, at the end of the drama, Faust does have one moment of relaxation, and, accordingly, Mephistopheles tries to arrest his soul. But, in the event, Mephistopheles is cheated of his long-sought-after prize — by the intervention of angels, including a transformed Gretchen. Faust is enabled to ascend (上升) to Heaven. Faust’s salvation, on Goethe’s terms, relies upon his own striving, the appearance of the “eternal feminine (永恒女性)”, and the words of forgiveness uttered by his female victim (Gretchen).
Let’s talk briefly about the nature of the completed Faust. It is almost entirely in verse(诗歌). It is extremely long. Whereas many verse dramas of Shakespeare and his contemporaries average roughly 2000 lines, and Part 1 of Faust has 4,612 lines, and Part 2 has 7,499! Moreover, Part 2 has literally hundreds of parts. Therefore, either Part poses great challenges, whenever a staging is contemplated.
I conclude, indeed, that Faust is a poem, and not a play, a drama or a tragedy as ordinarily conceived.
1. What’s function of the first paragraph?| A．To introduce the topic. |
| B．To inform readers of the Epilogue to Faust of his version. |
| C．To advertise a classic book. |
| D．To introduce a translator called Hanns W Eppelsheimer. |
| A．God. | B．Satan. | C．Job. | D．Faust. |
| A．Part 1 of the drama: Unsatisfied, Faust has learnt a lot in his long life, but he pursues the knowledge from Mephistopheles, which. is a trap designed by God. He gains great joy at the cost of Gretchen’s tragedy. |
| B．Part 2 of the drama: Repentant (忏悔的), Faust devotes himself to a great cause, which still cannot make up for what he has done before according to a Christian theological debating point, as he doesn’t have faith. |
| C．At the end of the drama : Faust does have one moment of relaxation, but Mephistopheles doesn’t take his “prize” because of angles’intervention. Faust is ascended to Heaven, made a true hero. |
| D．At the end of the drama : Gretchen, the female victim in this play or so-called “eternal feminine”, forgives Faust, completing his salvation. |
| A．There are many different versions of Faust. |
| B．Goethe adapts Bible in a totally different way in Prologue of Faust. |
| C．It can’t be a easy job for Goethe to finish Faust alone. |
| D．Faust is actually a brilliant long poem with more than ten thousand lines. |
| A．Goethe: A Talented Prophet (先知) |
| B．Faust: A Tragic Verse |
| C．Gretchen: A Poor-Fated Lover |
| D．Devil: A Forever Deceiver |
