【推荐3】Macquarie Island is a tiny island that’s part of Australia. It’s about halfway between New Zealand and Antarctica. The island’s been made a world heritage area because it’s so untouched, but this unique environment is under threat from some unwanted visitors.

It all started when seal hunters came to the island in the early 1800s. They brought rabbits with them as a source of food for the journey, and also on board the ships were rats and mice, which made their way onto the island too. They’re being blamed for destroying the homes of marine birds, causing soil loss and ripping up plant cover, as these before-and-after photos show.

So what’s being done about the problem? It starts with a team of helicopters that fly across the island carrying these giant containers. Inside them are poisoned pellets (有毒饲料) which are dropped and spread across the island. For any rabbits that survived the baiting (诱饵) , there’s a plan B. This special team of dogs is being put through a final training. It’ll be their job to track down any remaining rabbits. They have to also learn to behave around the island’s native wildlife. The dogs could be here for years or until the task is complete. The dogs don’t actually kill the rabbits. They find them, then the hunters decide to either catch the rabbits or shoot them.

But the program has received a bit of criticism. Some people argue 25 million dollars is a lot of money to be spending on wiping out rabbits and rodents (啮齿目动物), and in the process, some native birds will be killed because of the baiting.

The reality is the problem isn’t going to be solved overnight. The people running the program say that even if one pair of rabbits is left alive, the whole task will be seen as a failure, which means these guys could be here for a long time, trying to ensure that this precious island remains protected from pests.

1. Who are these unwanted visitors?

A．Seal hunters.

B．Marine wildlife.

C．Native birds.

D．Foreign species.

2. What do the underlined words “ripping up” mean in paragraph 2?

A．Advancing.

B．Destroying.

C．Dividing

D．Balancing

3. What is being done to solve the problem of unwanted visitors on Macquarie Island?

A．Poisoned pellets are being dropped on the island from helicopters.

B．A team of hunters is being trained to catch or shoot rabbits.

C．Native birds are being protected from the unwanted visitors.

D．A special team of dogs is being sent to kill the rabbits.

4. What is the goal of the program?

A．To spend as little money as possible.

B．To protect native birds from the unwanted visitors.

C．To ensure that no pair of rabbits survive on the island.

D．To train dogs to track down the rabbits on the island.

【推荐1】Soldiers and other military people wear uniforms with various other symbols to indicate their status. But in the business world everyone wears more or less similar suits, and you cannot tell at a glance who ranks higher or lower than another. So how do people in the business world show their superiority?

An attempt to study this was made by two researchers using a series of silent films. They had two actors play the parts of an executive and a visitor, and switch roles each time. The scene had one man at his desk playing the part of an executive, while the other, playing the part of a visitor, knocks at the door, opens it and approaches the desk to discuss some business matter.

The audience watching the films was asked to rate the executive and the visitor in terms of status. A certain set of rules about status began to emerge from the ratings. The visitor showed the least amount of status when he stopped just inside the door to talk across the room to the seated man. He was considered to have more status when he walked halfway up to the desk, and he had the most status when he walked directly up to the desk and stood right in front of the seated executive.

Another thing that affected the status of the visitor in the eyes of the observers was the time between knocking and entering. For the seated executive, his status was also affected by the time between hearing the knock and answering. The quicker the visitor entered the room, the more status he had. The longer the executive took to answer, the more status he had.

1. The experiment designed by the two researchers aimed at finding out ________.

A．how business is conducted by all executive and a visitor

B．how businessmen indicate status

C．how to tell businessmen at a glance

D．how to tell the differences between an executive and a visitor

2. Which of the statements can best sum up the passage?

A．The executive has a higher status than the visitor.

B．Military people wear uniforms but the businessmen do not

C．A study revealing a set of rules about the status of businessmen.

D．It is a good method to use a series of silent film in research.

3. Having entered the room, the closer the visitor approaches the executive, ________.

A．the less it affected his status	B．the lower his status
C．the more it affected his status	D．the higher his status

4. The longer the seated man was in answering the knock, ________.

A．the higher his status was	B．the less it affected his status
C．the lower his status was	D．the more it affected his status

【推荐2】Every winter, huge crowds come to the parking lots of big box stores. Not crazy shoppers... but crows (乌鸦)

“Sometimes there’re 4,010,00 even 20,000 birds,” says Andrea Townsend, a behavioral ecologist at Hamilton College.” They’re really conspicuous. What they like are urban areas, so you’ll see them in trees, on rooftops, certainly, in well-lit parking lots. They’re their favorite places.”

Crows are known as “partial migrants (候鸟)”. Every year, some members of the population migrate between breeding (繁殖) grounds and overwintering grounds. But others just stay put. So Townsend and her colleagues wanted to know if that urge to migrate was something individual crows can turn on and off. With no previous studies to refer to, they caught 18 crows from overwintering spots to find out. They fitted the birds with little backpack satellite devices after collecting blood and feather samples, keeping recording where they went during winter for years.

Overall, three quarters of the birds migrated, an average of 300 miles. And more importantly, if they migrated once, they did it every year—suggesting traveling is not a habit they switch on and off. The researchers also found migrating crows returned faithfully to the same breeding grounds every year—but were more flexible on where to overwinter, which could be a good thing.

“Birds with flexible strategies can change their behavior when the environment changes, while other birds are more locked into their overwintering sites. They may not be able to adjust so quickly or easily to changing environmental conditions.” Townsend also wanted to know how migration is connected with their mental ability and whether it’s a mental trade-off for the birds—since migrants have to remember all location data.

“Maybe they’re not as good at solving problems as a resident bird that doesn’t have to invest so much in that long-term memory.” Then again, with all that time on the wing, migrants simply may not have as much free time to think hard about problems.

1. What does the underlined word “conspicuous” in paragraph 2 mean?

A．Dangerous.

B．Smart.

C．Annoying.

D．Noticeable.

2. How did the researchers get their finding?

A．By analyzing previous research.	B．By tracking some crows’ movements.
C．By studying crows in urban areas.	D．By comparing different migrating crows.

3. What does paragraph 4 focus on?

A．Crows’ migratory habits.	B．Reasons for crows migrating.
C．Crows’ behavioral changes.	D．Ways of crows overwintering.

4. What might Townsend study next?

A．Problem-solving skill and memory of crows.	B．Impact of the changing environment on crows.
C．Relation between crows’ migration and mind.	D．Differences between migrants and resident birds.

【推荐3】Music can be a great mental rest, allowing you to relax and get lost in your favorite songs.     1     Here are some ways music can make you a better person and positively impact your everyday life.

Boost (增强) your creativity. Music is a creativity booster. When you turn up the songs that make you joyful, your brain gets more creative.     2     Find the music that makes you feel positive and cheered up, so your creative juices can flow.

Build cooperation and connection with people. Playing a musical instrument helps you connect with people with similar interests.     3    

    4     Music has a magic al power to promote emotions. Listening to joyful music lifts your happiness levels, which can make you more generous. It’s like a happy circle where feeling good makes you want to give back, and giving back makes you feel even better.

Improve physical health and performance.     5     Music improves our energy and endurance, and makes exercise more fun. And if you have your headphones on during works, you’re more likely to stick with your fitness routines.

A．Relieve stress and pains.

B．Make you happier and more generous.

C．Music can turn someone into a seriously big-hearted person.

D．It enables you to make new friends who share your music passion.

E．There’s a reason you play music in the background when you hit the gym.

F．It helps ease the pressure off your mind and puts it in a creation-ready mode.

G．While most people are addicted to music, few have considered the real impact of music.