【推荐1】Science can’t explain the power of pets, but many studies have shown that the company of pets can help lower blood pressure (血压) and raise chances of recovering from a heart attack, reduce loneliness and spread all-round good cheer.

Any owner will tell you how much joy a pet brings. For some, an animal provides more comfort than a husband/wife. A 2002study by Karen Allen of the State University of New York measured stress (紧张) levels and blood pressure in people — half of them pet owners — while they performed 5minutes of mental arithmetic (算术) or held a hand in ice water. Subjects completed the tasks alone, with a husband/wife, a close friend or with a pet. People with pets did it best. Those tested with their animal friends had smaller change in blood pressure and returned most quickly to baseline heart rates. With pets in the room, people also made fewer math mistakes than when doing in front of other companions. It seems people feel more relaxed (放松) around pets, says Allen, who thinks it may be because pets don’t judge.

A study reported last fall suggests that having a pet dog not only raises your spirits but may also have an effect on your eating habits. Researchers at Northwestern Memorial Hospital spent a year studying 36 fat people and their equally fat dogs on diet-and-exercise programs; a separate group of 56 people without pets were put on a diet program. On average, people lost about 11 pounds, or 5% of their body weight. Their dogs did even better, losing an average of 12 pounds, more than 15% of their body weight. Dog owners didn’t lose any more weight than those without dogs but, say researchers, got more exercise overall — mostly with their dogs — and found it worth doing.

1. What does the text mainly discuss?

A．What pets bring to their owners?

B．How pets help people calm down?

C．People’s opinions of keeping pets.

D．Pet’s value in medical research.

2. We learn from the text that a person with heart disease has a better chance of getting well if________.

A．he has a pet companion

B．he has less stress of work

C．he often does mental arithmetic

D．he is taken care of by his family

3. According to Allen, why did the people do better with pets around when facing stressful tasks?

A．They have lower blood pressure.

B．They become more patient.

C．They are less nervous.

D．They are in higher spirits.

4. The research mentioned in the last paragraph reports that______.

A．people with dogs did more exercise

B．dogs lost the same weight as people did

C．dogs liked exercise much more than people did

D．people without dogs found the program unhelpful

【推荐3】Hannah Huxford met the fry-stealing gull (海鸥) in Bridlington, a coastal town on the Yorkshire coast. Huxford took the well-timed photo on her iPhone in 2012 and it went viral soon after. A decade later, the fry-stealing gull is appearing on billboards, as part of an advertising campaign for Google.

Researchers recently discovered that food may actually become more attractive to gulls when the birds watch humans handling it first, according to a 2020 study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Because the birds seem to be attracted to food that they’ve watched humans touch, another of the study’s authors, says that it’s even more important to properly throw food waste and snack wrappers (包装纸) in the trash. “Gulls are more likely to approach food that they have seen people drop or put down, so they may associate (联想)areas where people are eating with an easy meal,” Dr. Laura Kelley said.

The scientists approached 74 gulls in coastal towns in Cornwall, tempting(诱惑) them with bags of fried potatoes. Only 19 gulls were curious or hungry enough to linger (逗留), allowing the scientists to place the bag on the ground and go back a short distance away, waiting to see if a gull would approach.

Their experiments showed that gulls were more cautious about approaching a tempting treat if there was a person nearby who was watching them closely. However, the scientists also found that far fewer of the birds than expected showed interest in investigating the food at all when being stared at.

In fact, people may be able to protect their lunches from gulls by avoiding areas where the birds tend to gather and keeping a closer eye on their meals, she added. “Gulls have a bad reputation but, like all animals, they are just trying to survive,” Goumas said. “We can try to ease the conflict we have with them by making changes in our own behavior.”

1. What did gulls prefer according to the study?

A．Photos taken by people.

B．Areas full of food waste.

C．Snack wrappers in the trash.

D．Food that visitors are eating.

2. What can we know about gulls from the scientists’ experiments?

A．They don’t like the food left over by humans.

B．They approach the treat when they are hungry.

C．They are interested in eating food with humans.

D．They probably won’t eat the treat when being watched.

3. What’s Goumas’s attitude to the action of the fry-stealing gull?

A．Critical.

B．Sympathetic.

C．Skeptical.

D．Indifferent.

【推荐1】If you were bringing friends home to visit, you could show them the way. You know the landmarks—a big red house or a bus-stop sign. But what if you were swimming in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? Could you still find your way home? A loggerhead turtle（海 龟）could.

According to Dr. Ken Lohmann, loggerheads have a magnetic（磁力的）sense based on Earth’s magnetic field. It helps them locate the best spots for finding food and their home beaches.

Scientists already know that several other animals, such as whales and honeybees, can detect（探测到）magnetic fields. The difference between them and loggerheads, however, is the way they learn to use their magnetic sense. Young whales and honeybees can learn from adults. Loggerheads are abandoned as eggs.

As newborn loggerheads have no adults to learn from, what helps them figure out how to use their magnetic sense? Lohmann thinks one of the cues was light on the sea.

Baby loggerheads hatch only at night. However, a small amount of light reflects off the ocean. The light makes that region brighter. Heading toward the light helps them get quickly out to sea, where they can find food. Lohmann tested whether newborn loggerheads use this light source to set their magnetic “compasses”（罗盘）. He and his team put some newborns in a water tank and recorded which way they swam. Around the tank, the scientists created a magnetic field that matched the Earth’s. They set a weak light to the east of the magnetic field. Then they let the newborns go.

At first, the newborns swam toward the light. After the scientists turned off the light, the turtles that had seen the light in the east always swam toward east. When the researchers reversed（颠倒）the magnetic field, these turtles turned around and swam toward the new “east”.

This and the follow-up experiments all showed that loggerheads use light from the outside world to set their magnetic “compasses” and then remember the “correct” direction. If a turtle hatches on a brightly-lit beach, that would damage its magnetic sense forever and make survival hard for the turtle.

Lohmann’s work has led others to protect the habitat of this endangered species. Yet many questions about these creatures remain unanswered, and researchers have a lot to study.

1. Loggerheads and whales differ in the way they______.

A．bring up their young

B．recognize landmarks

C．detect magnetic fields

D．learn to find directions

2. What is needed for newborn loggerheads to set their magnetic sense?

A．Weak light reflected off the ocean.	B．Help from adult loggerheads.
C．Bright sunlight from the sky.	D．Food in warmer waters.

3. In the experiment, after the newborns’ magnetic sense was set, their moving direction was determined by ____.

A．the light

B．the magnetic field

C．other unknown factors

D．the light and the magnetic field

4. What is the significance of Lohmann’s research work?

A．It enables researchers to keep track of turtles.

B．It contributes to the studies of the magnetic field.

C．It offers a new solution to environmental pollution.

D．It helps protect the loggerheads’ living environment.

5. What could be the best title of the passage?

A．Experiments on Loggerheads

B．The Survival of the Sea Turtle

C．The Loggerhead’s Built-in “Compass”

D．Comparison of Loggerheads and Other Animals