【推荐1】Scientists have solved the mystery of why the overwhelming majority of mammoth fossils(化石) are male.

Much like wild elephants today, young male Ice Age mammoths probably travelled around alone and more often got themselves into risky situations where they were swept into rivers, or fell through ice or into mud, lakes or sinkholes that preserved their bones for thousands of years, scientists say.

Females, on the other hand, travelled in groups led by an older matriarch who knew the landscape and directed her group away from danger.

“Without the benefit of living in a herd led by an experienced female, male mammoths had a much higher risk of dying in natural traps such as mud holes, rock cracks and lakes,” said co-author Love Dalen of the Swedish Museum of Natural History in a report published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

The study used genetic data to determine the sex of 98 woolly mammoth fossils in Siberia. Researchers found that 69% of the samples were male, a heavily unbalanced sex ratio, assuming that the sexes were fairly even at birth.

“We were very surprised because there was no reason to expect a sex bias in the fossil record,” said first author Patricia Pecnerova, also of the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

Therefore, researchers believe that something about the way they lived influenced the way they died.

Most bones, tusks, and teeth from mammoths and other Ice Age animals haven’t survived,” explained Dalen.

“It is highly likely that the remains that are found in Siberia these days have been preserved because they have been buried, and thus protected from weathering.”

These giant, tusked plant eaters disappeared about 4,000 years ago. While there is no scientific agreement about the causes of their disappearance from the planet, most believe that climate change, excessive hunting by humans and the spread of other animals into mammoth feeding grounds were influential factors.

1. The underlined word “matriarch” in paragraph 3 means ________.

A．figure head	B．female leader
C．experienced animal	D．mature mammoth

2. Which of the following is suggested as a reason for mammoths dying out?

A．The increasing competition for food.

B．The cooling of the earth’s temperature.

C．The disappearance of male mammoths.

D．The risky behaviour of younger mammoths.

3. What is the text type of the passage?

A．A newspaper article.	B．An academic essay.
C．A historical description.	D．A science fiction story.

【推荐1】One of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Chemistry was Danish scientist Morten Meldal. When describing his career, Meldal said he started out as an engineer but changed to chemistry because he “wanted to understand the world.”

Meldal’s experience may come as a surprise to students. They might believe they have to center their work and school lives in one field to be successful. But a study from professors at Michigan State University shows that is not always the case.

Michele Root-Bernstein and Robert Root-Bernstein (her husband) published their study in the Creativity Research Journal. They said that a large number of Nobel Prize winners can be described as “polymaths”.

The writers looked at past Nobel Prize winners and their students. They decided that when students of winners go on to win Nobel Prizes, some of what they learned from their teachers is how to live a life with many interests. They are, in a way, learning how to be creative.

Having many interests, the Root-Bernsteins wrote, permits scientists to look for creative ways to solve problems. In fact, one important part of science is not discovering answers, but recognizing problems that need to be solved.

The prize winners, the Root-Bernsteins said, transfer “skills, techniques and materials from one field to another.” They said Alexis Carrel won his Nobel Prize in medicine in 1912 by using techniques he learned from the clothing business. He realized that people who used thread to make and fix clothing had a skill that could be used in operations to put new organs into people’s bodies.

The Michigan State University professors study creativity. They found Nobel winners are nine times more likely to have experience in working with wood, metal or in the arts than most scientists. The researchers say that unlike many people who spend long hours at work and give up some of their outside interests, Nobel winners believe their hobbies are important to creativity.

1. What comes as a surprise to students according to the passage?

A．Meldal’s winning Nobel Prize.	B．Meldal’s original working field.
C．Meldal’s desire to understand the world.	D．Meldal’s study with Michigan State University.

2. What kind of people can be sorted as “polymaths”?

A．People who are equipped with various interests.

B．People who only concentrated on just one field.

C．People who are committed lifelong to their career.

D．People who are admired for established achievements.

3. What’s the author’s attitude towards the Root-Bernsteins’ discovery?

A．Subjective.

B．Doubtful.

C．Objective.

D．Opposed.

4. Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?

A．A Creative Scientist	B．An Amazing Rise to Fame
C．A Born Nobel Prize Winner	D．A Secret to Winning Top Prize

【推荐2】Mime (哑剧) opens up a new world to the beholder, but it does so tnsidiously (隐匿地), not by purposely injecting points of interest in the manner of a tour guide. Audiences are not unlike visitors to a foreign land who discover that the modes, manners, and thoughts of its inhabitants are not meaningless oddities, but are sensible in context.

I remember once when an audience seemed puzzled at what I was doing. At first, I tried to gain a more immediate response by using slight exaggerations. I soon realized that these actions had nothing to do with the audience's understanding of the character. What I had believed to be a failure of the audience to respond in the manner I expected was, in fact, only their concentration on what I was doing; they were enjoying a gradual awakening — a slow transition of their understanding from their own time and place to one that appeared so unexpectedly before their eyes. This was evidenced by their growing response to succeeding numbers.

Mime is an elusive art, as its expression is entirely dependent on the ability of the performer to imagine a character and to re-create that character for each performance. As a mime, I am a physical medium, the instrument upon which the figures of my imagination play their dance of life. The individuals in my audience also have responsibilities—they must be alert collaborators. They cannot sit back, mindlessly self-content, and wait to have their emotions aroused by fantastic musical sounds or visual rhythms or acrobatic feats, or by words that tell them what to think. Mime is àn art that, paradoxically, appeals both to those who respond instinctively to entertainment and to those whose appreciation is more analytical and complex.

Between these extremes lie those audiences conditioned to resist any collaboration with what is played before them, and these the mime must charm despite themselves. There is only one way to attack those reluctant minds — take them unaware! They will be delighted at an unexpected pleasure.

1. The author most likely includes the incident described in paragranh 2 in order to ______.

A．show how challenging the career of a mime can be

B．eliminate some misconceptions about what a mime is like

C．portray the intensity required to see the audience's point of view

D．indicate the adjustments an audience must make in watching mime

2. The underlined word "elusive" in paragraph 3 most probably means ______.

A．easy to summarize	B．difficult to define
C．hard to comment	D．natural to imitate

3. According to the passage, which of the following is important to the artistic success of mime?

A．Various dramatic elements.	B．Realistic details.
C． Audience involvement.	D． Large audiences.