To describe the sorrow of bookstores is to join the dirge-singing chorus. Everyone knows the tune: sales at bookstores have fallen because buyers are ordering books online or downloading them to e-readers. Bookstores may be great places to browse and linger, but online is where the deals are. In the latest chapter in the Borders legend, the bookstore chain has agreed to sell its assets（资产）for $215m to Direct Brands, a media-distribution company owned by Najafi, a private-equity firm, which would also assume an additional $220m in liabilities（债务）. This will serve as the opening bid for the company’s bankruptcy-court auction（拍卖），scheduled for July 19th.
Whatever happens at the auction will decide the fate of the bookseller, which has already closed more than a third of its stores. Because Direct Brands is an online and catalogue-based distributor of music. DVDs and books, some think that a deal with Najafi will do little to keep the remaining bookstores open. Rather, the company will probably see value in the Borders distribution network and liquidate（清算）almost everything else. Regardless, the story doesn’t look good for store employees and their shrinking customers.（The company, which employs more than 11,000 people, has racked up more than $191m in losses since seeking bankruptcy protection in February, according to the Wall Street Journal.）
Nashville, Tennessee, is still facing several bookstore closings, including a Borders and the more beloved Davis-Kidd. The result, as reported in the Nashville Scene, is an“object lesson in how truly awful it is to live in a town where used bookstores and the pitiful offerings of Books-a-Million are all we have.”The problem, however, is that no one seems willing to buy full-price books anymore. Campaigns to get people to buy books from their local bookstores—such as“Save Bookstores Day”on June 25th—miss the point. While there is a demand for real bcicks-and-mortar places to gather, drink coffee and read new books, such places can’t exist if the market can’t accommodate them.
Besides coffee, access to Wi-Fi and yoga mat, what will people pay for to enable a bricks-and-mortar bookstore? Could independent stores charge membership fees, which grant access to books at slightly lower prices? Would a corporate-sponsorship model work? Perhaps bookstores could become tax-subsidized（补贴税收的）places where people can browse and linger, but only borrow the books for limited periods of time—what the hell, let’s call them libraries.
At any rate, the market is squeezing out a meaningful public space. It will be interesting to see what fills the void（真空）these bookstores leave behind.
1. According to Paragraph 1, Borders went bankruptcy because ______.| A．its bookstores are not cozy enough to stay |
| B．a media-distribution company has purchased it |
| C．customers tend to buy books online or read e-books |
| D．online bookstores have totally replaced it |
| A．people in Nashville have protested against bookstore closings |
| B．the campaign to save bookstores did have some effect |
| C．people’s reluctance to buy full-price books is a reason for bookstore closings |
| D．people in Nashville feel indifferent to the bookstore closings |
| A．Local business and government should help out. |
| B．There is no proper and feasible method by now. |
| C．Bookstores should learn management from libraries. |
| D．Bookstores should enlarge entertainment places. |
| A．Goodbye to Bookstores |
| B．Online Reading or Buying Books from Bookstores? |
| C．The Bankruptcy of Borders |
| D．How to Save Bookstores from Closing? |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】Do you like shopping? For shopaholics in the UK, the place to head to used to be the “high street”. It was the place where you could find familiar fashion brands and essential everyday items in the centre of a town. But change in our shopping habits has taken its toll on the British high street.
News about shops losing money and shutting is now common. Some city-centre department stores have closed and even long-established retailers (零售商) have reported profit slumps. According to a recent survey, a record 2,481 shops disappeared from UK high streets last year — up by 40 percent.
As the BBC’s Emma Simpson writes, things have become a lot harder for traditional retailers in recent years. They have faced rising costs from wages, business rates and the requirement to introduce Europe’s new data law. But the biggest threat has come from online shopping. She says “Consumers now spend one in every five pounds online — and if businesses are seeing 20 percent fewer sales on the shop floor, as well as their fixed costs rising, then profit margins will be squeezed.”
While some of us like to window shop — browsing for things to buy, only to purchase them online at a discount — the fact is that, overall, shoppers are making fewer visits to high streets. Eventually, town centres could become like ghost towns. If people aren’t out and about shopping, they won't use other services, like cafes, restaurants and cinemas, which leads to job losses. The high street has also suffered from the arrival of big shopping malls, which offer a retail experience under one roof, with free parking, away from the bad weather!
Meanwhile, back on the high street, some shops still exist. Analysts have said it's those that have moved away from traditional retailing that are surviving. These include beauty salons, nail bars and independent coffee shops — but are these kinds of shops enough to keep the British high street open for business?
1. What do we know about “high street” according to the passage?| A．It sold only fashionable daily items. |
| B．It has changed people’s shopping habits. |
| C．It was a big shopping mall in downtown Britain. |
| D．It was the destination for people who love shopping in the UK. |
| A．Sharp fall. | B．Steady rise. |
| C．Slow increase. | D．Slight loss. |
| A．The rising costs from wages. |
| B．The boom of window shopping. |
| C．The popularity of shopping online, |
| D．The introduction of Europe’s new data law. |
| A．Discounts are offered to attract more consumers. |
| B．Parking is free of charge in time of bad weather. |
| C．Better service is provided to satisfy the customers. |
| D．Some conventional retailer turn to other businesses. |
【推荐2】Shoppers in the UK are spending less money on toilet paper to save money, research has shown.
Penny saving UK consumers choose cheaper products from discounters such as Aldi and Lidi rather than expensive alternatives.
This has wiped 6% off the value of the soft tissue paper market in the UK. It has reduced from £1.19 billion in 2011 to £1.12 billion in 2015, according to a new report from market research company Mintel. Furthermore, the future of the market looks far from positive, with sales expected to fall further to £1.11 billion in 2016.
In the last year alone, despite an increase in the UK population and a rise in the number of households, sales of toilet paper fell by 2%, with the average household reducing their toilet roll spending from £43 in 2014 to £41 in 2015.
Overall, almost three in five people say they try to limit their usage of paper – including facial tissue and kitchen roll to save money. “Strength, softness and thickness remain the leading signs of toilet paper quality, with just a small part of consumers preferring more expensive alternatives, such as those with flower patterns or perfume,” said analyst Jack Duckett. “These extra features are considered unnecessary by the majority of shoppers, which probably reflects how these types of products are typically more expensive than regular toilet paper, even when on special offer.”
While consumers are spending less on toilet paper, they remain particular about it when it comes to paper quality. One in 10 buyers rank toilet rolls made from recycled paper among their top considerations, clearly showing how overall the environment is much less of a consideration for shoppers than product quality. In a challenge for makers, 81% of paper product users said they would consider buying recycled toilet tissue if it were comparable in quality to standard paper.
1. The market sales of toilet paper have decreased because ________.| A．its quality has seen marked improvement |
| B．Britons have developed the habit of saving |
| C．its prices have gone up over the year |
| D．Britons have cut their spending on it |
| A．It will expand in time. |
| B．It will experience ups and downs. |
| C．It will remain disappointing. |
| D．It will recover as population grows. |
| A．Consumers are loyal to certain brands. |
| B．Extra features add much to the price. |
| C．Special offers would promote its sales. |
| D．Consumers have a variety to choose from. |
| A．Environmental protection is not much of a concern when Britons buy toilet paper. |
| B．More and more Britons buy recycled toilet paper to protect the environment. |
| C．Toilet paper manufacturers are facing a great challenge in promoting its sales. |
| D．Toilet paper manufacturers compete with one another to improve. |
【推荐3】Online shopping has become very popular in recent years. It’s a brand new way for shopping, and at the same time, it saves money because items sold online are much cheaper. Therefore, customers from different countries are changing their ways of shopping. As for some wise men, they find another way to save much more money-using online coupons（优惠券）to shop. Online coupons enable them to get the items they want to buy much cheaper.
As we all know, sometimes manufacturers, shops, restaurants and entertainment clubs will provide special offers. For example, a shirt asks for $100, but if a coupon is used, the customers may get the shirt at $90. Sometimes, by using a coupon, one can luckily get a free product. Online coupons work in the same way; online shoppers get discounts by using online coupons.
In this case, you are advised to do some research to make sure whether there is a coupon or vouchers（代币券）concerned with the items you want to buy online. Then comes the point where to find online coupons. Usually there are three ways:
1. Find the official websites of the brands. To promote sales, some brands will offer online coupons on their own websites.
2. Visit the special coupon websites. There are special websites where coupons from many shops, restaurants and so on are gathered. Buyers input（输入）keys of coupons they are fond of, and thousands of related coupons in different cities in America will be listed. To narrow down your list, just click the district you are located in.
3. Pay attention to some social websites. To let more people know coupon information, some shops will show their information on social websites where a lot of online buyers visit.
Because information on the Internet often cannot be cleaned in time, much invalid information will be searched out. So when you find a proper coupon, please don’t get carried away. Read the information carefully, ensuring that they have not expired（失效）yet. If interested, you can visit Couponeed. com to find coupons and save money.
1. Why does the author give the example of a shirt in Paragraph 2?| A．To show how to get free products. |
| B．To show how to find useful websites. |
| C．To show the benefits of shopping online. |
| D．To help explain how online coupons work. |
| A．helping sell more products |
| B．offering some new products |
| C．selling their products at higher prices |
| D．making their websites more attractive |
| A．Culture. | B．Economy. |
| C．Education. | D．Entertainment. |
| A．Another way to save money. |
| B．Some useful coupon websites. |
| C．The benefits of shopping online. |
| D．Some coupons on Couponeed. com. |
【推荐1】Too much work, too little money and not enough opportunity for promotion, .or growth are stressing us out on the job, according to a new survey from the American Psychological Association.
We all know that stress reduces all of the things that help productivity— mental clarity (清晰), short-term memory, decision-making and moods. One-third of employees experience lasting stress related to work, the survey found. Fifty-four percent of the 1,501 employed adults surveyed say they feel they are paid too little for their contributions, and 61% said their jobs don’t offer adequate opportunities to advance. Only half of the adults surveyed said they feel valued at work.
Besides, women’s stress is rising as families rely more on women’s earnings. An employed wife’s contribution to family earnings has reached, on average, 47% since 2009, so women feel especially stuck and tense. Thirty-two percent of women said their employers don’t provide sufficient opportunities for internal advancement, compared with 30% of men. Women are more likely to feel tense during a typical workday, reporting more often that their employer doesn’t appreciate what they do.
Physically, the body responds to stress by secreting hormones into the bloodstream that stimulate accelerated (加速的) heart rate and breathing and tensing of muscles. People who experience stress as a positive often have increased blood flow to the brain, muscles and limbs, similar to the effects of aerobic exercise. Those who feel frightened or threatened, however, often have an unstable heart rate and constricting wood vessels (血管). Their blood pressure rises and hands and feet may grow cold. They may become agitated, speak more loudly or experience errors in judgment.
Emotional responses to stress often divide along gender lines, with men more likely to have a “fight or flight” reaction while women are more likely to have a tend and befriend” response, seeking comfort in relationships and care of loved ones, according to the research.
Women tend to “internalize”, which contributes to their stress. Many women hesitate to speak up for themselves or challenge behavior they see as unfair. Kay Keaney, interior designer, 40, rose fast at a California medical group, taking on responsibility for interior and facility planning. With her 60-hour workweeks, plus early-morning and late-night meetings and a 1.5-hour commute each way, she seldom had time with her two small children. Whether stuck in traffic on her way to a 6 p.m. pickup at day care, or tom between her children and urgent work emails, “I just wanted to crawl out of my skin,” she says. “I was overwhelmed.” Yet she hesitated to complain. “There was too much work to be done, and playing the Mommy card was bad form.” But the experts suggest that women should give themselves a voice.
1. The underlined word “agitated” in Paragraph 4 is closest in meaning to ________.| A．fearful | B．optimistic | C．anxious | D．ambitious |
| A．Everyone has a painful sense of being under-appreciated or under-paid. |
| B．An increasing number of people feel satisfied with work-life balance. |
| C．An improving job market is making some people’s work lives easier. |
| D．Most women have higher levels of work stress than the opposite sex. |
| A．relieving oneself from stress involves being frank as well as brave |
| B．experiencing symptoms of lasting stress causes communication barriers |
| C．seeking comfort from friends or relatives has little to do with office stress |
| D．being challenged or devalued by others leads to numerous health problems |
| A．Other aspects in life affected by stress in work. |
| B．Tips to help women handle their hard times properly. |
| C．Examples to show the different gender responses to stress. |
| D．Reasons why people are likely to feel tense when working. |
【推荐2】Users of Google Gemini, the tech giant’s artificial intelligence model, recently noticed that asking it to create images of Vikings, or German soldiers from 1943 produced surprising results: hardly any of the people were white. Other image-generation tools have been criticized because they tend to show white men when asked for images of entrepreneurs or doctors. Google wanted Gemini to avoid this trap; instead, it fell into another one, depicting George Washington as black. Now attention has moved on to the chatbot’s text responses, which turned out to be just as surprising.
Gemini declined to write a job ad for a fossil fuel lobby group (游说团体), because fossil fuels are bad and lobby groups prioritize “the interests of corporations over public well-being”. Asked if Hamas is a terrorist organization, it replied that the conflict in Gaza is “complex”; asked if Elon Musk’s tweeting of memes had done more harm than Hitler, it said it was “difficult to say”. You do not have to be a critic to perceive its progressive bias.
Inadequate testing may be partly to blame Google lags behind OpenAI, maker of the better-known ChatGPT. As it races to catch up, Google may have taken short cuts. Other chatbots have also had controversial launches Releasing chatbots and letting users uncover their faults, which can be swiftly addressed, lets firms move faster, if they are prepared to endure the potential risks and bad publicity, observes Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton Business School.
But Gemini has clearly been deliberately adjusted to produce these responses. This raises questions about Google’s culture. Is the firm so financially secure, with vast profits from Internet advertising, that it feels free to try its hand at social engineering? Do some employees think it has not just an opportunity, but a responsibility, to use its reach and power to promote a particular agenda? All eyes are now on Google’s boss. Sundar Pichai. He says Gemini is being fixed. But does Google need fixing too?
1. What was the problem of Google Gemini in the first paragraph?| A．Having a racial prejudice. | B．Responding to wrong texts. |
| C．Criticizing political figures. | D．Going against historical facts. |
| A．Gemini’s bias in text responses. |
| B．Gemini’s refusal to make progress. |
| C．Gemini’s failure to give definite answers. |
| D．Gemini’s avoidance of political conflicts. |
| A．Creative. | B．Promising. |
| C．Illegal. | D．Controversial. |
| A．Its security is doubted. | B．It lacks financial support. |
| C．It needs further improvement. | D．Its employees are irresponsible. |
【推荐3】From the health point of view we are living in an amazing age. We are free from many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once deadly illnesses can now be cured by modern medicine. It is almost certain that one day medicines will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased greatly. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the unbelievable killing of men, women and children on the roads. Man vs the motor-car. It is a never-ending battle which man is losing. Thousands of people over the world are killed or horribly killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen.
It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel (方向盘), his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man’s very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They say, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-year-old and completely selfish. All their hidden angers and disappointments seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving.
The surprising thing is that society smiles so gently on the motorist and seems to forgive his behavior. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable because of heavy traffic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is ruined by road networks; and the deaths become nothing more than a number every year, to be easily forgotten.
It is high time a world rule was created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are unbelievably lax (不严格) and even the strictest are not strict enough. A rule which was universally accepted could only have an obviously beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some of the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all the drivers should be made to take a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through strict tests for safety each year. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can damage a person’s driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be made much stricter. Speed limits should be required on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications for car factories, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stressing power and performance should be banned. These measures may not sound good enough. But surely nothing should be considered as too severe if it results in reducing the number of deaths. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor-cars.
1. What is the main idea of this passage?| A．Traffic accidents are mainly caused by motorists. |
| B．Thousands of people over the world are killed each year. |
| C．Only stricter traffic laws can prevent accidents |
| D．The laws of some countries about driving are too lax. |
| A．Society laughs at the motorists. |
| B．Society forgives their rude driving. |
| C．Victims of accidents are nothing. |
| D．Huge car parks are built in the cities and towns. |
| A．Driving can represent his manners. |
| B．Driving can show the other part of his personality. |
| C．Driving can bring out his character. |
| D．Driving can show his hidden qualities. |
| A．Test drivers every three years. |
| B．Stricter driving tests. |
| C．Build more highways. |
| D．Raise age limit and lay down safety specifications. |
| A．unsatisfied | B．positive |
| C．appealing | D．unclear |
【推荐1】What is life? Like most great questions, this one is easy to ask but difficult to answer. The reason is simple: we know of just one type of life and it’s challenging to do science with a sample size of one. The field of artificial life-called ALife for short — is the systematic attempt to spell out life’s fundamental principles. Many of these practitioners, so-called ALifers, think that somehow making life is the surest way to really understand what life is.
So far no one has convincingly made artificial life. This track record makes ALife a ripe target for criticism, such as declarations of the field’s doubtful scientific value. Alan Smith, a complexity scientist, is tired of such complaints. Asking about “the point” of ALife might be, well, missing the point entirely, he says. “The existence of a living system is not about the use of anything.” Alan says. “Some people ask me, ‘So what’s the worth of artificial life?’ Do you ever think, ‘What is the worth of your grandmother?’”
As much as many ALifers hate emphasizing their research’s applications, the attempts to create artificial life could have practical payoffs. Artificial intelligence may be considered ALife’s cousin in that researchers in both fields are enamored by a concept called open-ended evolution (演化). This is the capacity for a system to create essentially endless complexity, to be a sort of “novelty generator”. The only system known to exhibit this is Earth’s biosphere. If the field of ALife manages to reproduce life’s endless “creativity” in some virtual model, those same principles could give rise to truly inventive machines.
Compared with the developments of Al, advances in ALife are harder to recognize. One reason is that ALife is a field in which the central concept — life itself — is undefined. The lack of agreement among ALifers doesn’t help either. The result is a diverse line of projects that each advance along their unique paths. For better or worse, ALife mirrors the very subject it studies. Its muddled (混乱的) progression is a striking parallel (平行线) to the evolutionary struggles that have shaped Earth biosphere.
Undefined and uncontrolled, ALife drives its followers to repurpose old ideas and generated novelty. It may be, of course, that these characteristics aren’t in any way surprising or singular. They may apply universally to all acts of evolution. Ultimately ALife may be nothing special. But even this dismissal suggests something：perhaps, just like life itself throughout the universe, the rise of ALife will prove unavoidable.
1. Regarding Alan Smith’s defence of ALife, the author is .| A．supportive | B．puzzled | C．unconcerned | D．doubtful |
| A．Shocked. | B．Protected. | C．Attracted. | D．Challenged. |
| A．ALife holds the key to human future. | B．ALife and AI share a common feature. |
| C．AI mirrors the developments of ALife. | D．AI speeds up the process of human evolution. |
| A．Life Is Undefined. Can AI Be a Way Out? |
| B．Life Evolves. Can AI Help ALife Evolve, Too? |
| C．Life Is Undefined. Can ALife Be Defined One Day? |
| D．Life Evolves. Can Attempts to Create ALife Evolve, Too? |
【推荐2】First, car makers wanted to take the human out of driving. Now, motorcycle manufacturers (制造商)want to do the same. But just as the driverless car movement has faced skepticism, it's not entirely clear that the world needs autonomous motorcycles.
What would a self-driving motorcycle do? It would be designed to let the rider sit back and relax while the machine drives by itself. Manufacturers have actually been creating and improving prototypes (原型)of self-driving motorcycles for years, and they're only just now beginning to share them with the public. For instance, AB Dynamics and AutoRD released the Autonomous BMW Cl. It comes with autonomous software, GPS, and re-balancing technology.
Yamaha's Motoroid is a model that uses artificial intelligence and self-balancing technology. The Motoroid sounds very futuristic, but it can't drive on its own. It needs a rider to make turns. Another example of an autonomous-light motorcycle is Honda's Riding Assist-e, which can change the center of gravity autonomously. However, like the Motoroid, it's not completely self-riding and isn't ready for a highway on its own.
Safety concerns for autonomous motorcycles are similar to those that trouble self-driving cars Firstly, the autonomous system may make a mistake and endanger the rider. Self-driving cars have an unfortunate record of running red lights and causing accidents. Professor Adam says, "So one can be forgiven for worrying about the safety of a two-wheeled speed machine with no one behind the handlebars. '' Secondly, there's the question of responsibility: Who is at fault if a self-driving bike crashes into another car? More importantly, it's not easy to satisfy the official regulations before autonomous motorcycles ride on the road. And to develop the industry will cost billions of dollars.
But there's the biggest problem with all of these motorcycles. One of the joys of driving motorcycles is the driving. It seems unlikely that a rider, like a high-speed motorcycle collector who loves the thrill of turning around corners, will give up the experience of the ride.
The prototypes for self-riding motorcycles are here, and manufacturers are busy putting them to the test, but it might be a while before we see them on the open road.
1. What can we learn from Paragraph 2?| A．Manufacturers' competition with each other is quite fierce. |
| B．Manufacturers are quite creative when making driverless cars. |
| C．Manufacturers are very optimistic about self-driving motorcycles. |
| D．Manufacturers have made some progress in promoting self-driving motorcycles. |
| A．autonomous motorcycles still have a long way to go |
| B．Yamaha and Honda compete with each other fiercely |
| C．autonomous motorcycles have a big improvement in safety |
| D．Yamaha and Honda have defeated other autonomous motorcycle makers |
| A．autonomous motorcycle should obey traffic regulations |
| B．it's convenient and safe to ride an autonomous motorcycle |
| C．mistakes made by autonomous motorcycles can be forgiven |
| D．it's normal that autonomous motorcycles' safety is doubted |
| A．They are unable to appeal to many riders. |
| B．They can't guarantee the riders, safety. |
| C．They can't suit the official regulations. |
| D．They are too costly to produce. |
| A．Self-riding motorcycles will be very popular one day. |
| B．Self-riding motorcycles are necessary to social development. |
| C．Users are likely to lose fun when riding self-riding motorcycles. |
| D．People will be fond of self-riding motorcycles for its convenience. |
【推荐3】People who think of themselves as tough-minded and realistic tend to take it for granted that human nature is selfish and that life is a struggle in which only the fittest may survive. According to this philosophy, the basic law by which people must live, is the law of the jungle. The “fittest” are those who can bring to the struggle superior force, superior cunning and superior ruthlessness.
But we are entitled to ask whether the ruthlessness of the tiger, the cunning of the fox and the obedience to the law of the jungle are, in their human applications, actually evidence of human fitness to survive. If human beings are to pick up pointers on behavior from the lower animals, are there not animals other than beasts of prey from which we might learn lessons in survival?
We might, for example, look to the rabbit or the deer and define fitness to survive as superior speed in running away from our enemies. We might point to the earthworm or the mole and attribute their fitness to survive to the ability to keep out of sight and out of the way. If we simply look to animals in order to define what we mean by “fitness to survive”, there is no limit to the subhuman systems of behavior that we can think up. We may emulate any animal because they have all obviously survived in one way or another. We are still entitled to ask, however, if human survival does not revolve around a different kind of fitness from that of the lower animals.
Biologists distinguish between two kinds of struggle for survival. First, there is the interspecific struggle, warfare between different species of animals. Second, there is the intraspecific struggle, warfare among members of a single species. A great deal of evidence in modern biology indicates that those species that have developed elaborate means of intraspecific competition often make themselves unfit for interspecific competition, and that strength and fierceness in fighting and killing other animals, whether in interspecific or intraspecific competition, have never been enough in themselves to guarantee the survival of a species.
If we are going to talk about human survival, one of the first things to do, even if we grant that people must fight to live, is to distinguish between those qualities that are useful in fighting the environment and other species and those qualities that are useful in fighting other people. There are also characteristics important to human survival that do not involve fighting.
Cooperation is essential to the survival of most living creatures. And human beings are the talking animals. Any theory of human survival that leaves this fact out of account is no more scientific than would be a theory of beaver survival that failed to consider the interesting uses a beaver makes of its teeth and flat tail. Let us see what talking means.
beaver
1. According to the passage, the “Survival of the Fittest” theory .| A．shows that the tough-minded and realistic survive |
| B．is often used as an excuse for one’s being selfish |
| C．applies better in human society than in the wild |
| D．is universally acknowledged among scientists |
| A．Copy | B．Protect. | C．Trap. | D．Admire. |
| A．humans have no superior force over other species |
| B．humans have survived because they are the fittest |
| C．humans don’t have to learn from animals to survive |
| D．humans need to fight each other for their own survival |
| A．Ways to make humans more competitive. |
| B．Human’s cooperation via communication |
| C．Differences between beavers and humans. |
| D．The development of human survival skills. |
【推荐1】In recent years, experiments examining exercise and weight loss have found that people lose far much less weight than expected, considering how many additional calories(卡路里) they are burning with their workouts.
Scientists have guessed that exercisers are likely to become hungrier and eat more after working out. They also may sit longer when not doing exercise. Together or separately, these changes could make up for the extra energy used during exercise.
To prove that possibility, scientists came up with the idea of using infrared light(红外线) to track mice’s movements in their cages. Then software can use that information to analyse their daily physical activity.
So the researchers prepared special cages, putting inside some locked running wheels, and let mice roam(闲逛) and explore for four days in the cages. This provided the researchers with information about how many calories each mouse burned every day.
Then the wheels were unlocked and for nine days, the mice could run at will, and they could decide how much to eat and when to get off the wheels, walking around. The mice,which enjoyed running, jumped readily on the wheels and started to run. On and off the wheels, they could run for hours. They showed a following height in their daily energy expenditure(支出) since they had added exercise to their lives.
But they did not change their eating habits. Although they were burning more calories, they did not eat more. They did, however, change how they moved. They now usually jogged on their wheels for a few minutes, jumped off, rested or roamed in a while, and then climbed back on the wheels, ran, rested, briefly roamed, and it repeated. These changes in how they spent their time almost counteracted(抵消) the extra calorie costs from running, says Daniel Lark, who led the new study.
What caused the running mice to run less is still uncertain. ''But it does not seem to have been tiredness or lack of time; wheel running is not arduous for mice, and does not fill their waking hours.'' Dr. Lark says.
Instead, he says, it is likely that the animals’ bodies and brains sensed the increasing energy expenditure when the mice began to run and sent out biological signals that somehow advised the animals to slow down, save energy and lose weight.
Mice will never be people, of course, so we cannot say whether the results of this would directly apply to us, Dr. Lark says. But the results do indicate that if we hope to lose more weight through, we should watch what we eat and try not to move less while we work out more.
1. What did NOT change for the mice in the experiment?| A．How they moved. | B．How long they ran. |
| C．How much they chose to eat. | D．How they spent their time. |
| A．They didn't like to run the wheels. | B．They ate more after running the wheels. |
| C．They spent less time roaming in the cage. | D．They didn't need rest after running the wheels. |
| A．tiring | B．energetic | C．difficult | D．different |
| A．Wheel running costs the same amount of energy as roaming does. |
| B．The mice ran more because they really wanted to lose weight. |
| C．The experiment is a failure because the results don't apply to humans. |
| D．It might not be tiredness that caused the mice to run less. |
| A．to prove that scientists' guess about exercising is wrong |
| B．to introduce a recent research on exercise and weight loss |
| C．to analyze how wheel running changes mice's movements |
| D．to explain why eating and running are bad for exercisers |
Dear Maya Shao-ming,
To me, June 6, 1990 is a special day. My long-awaited dream came true the minute your father cried, “A girl!” You are more than just a second child, more than just a girl to match our boy. You, little daughter, are the link to our female line, the legacy of another woman’s pain and sacrifice 31 years ago.
Let me tell you about your Chinese grandmother. Somewhere in Hong Kong, in the late fifties, a young waitress found herself pregnant (怀孕) by a cook, probably a co-worker at her restaurant. She carried the baby to term, suffered to give it birth, and kept the little girl for the first three months of her life. I like to think that my mother—your grandmother—loved me and fought to raise me on her own, but that the daily struggle was too hard. Worn down by the demands of the new baby and perhaps the constant threat of starvation, she made the painful decision to give away her girl so that both of us might have a chance for a better life.
More likely, I was dropped at the orphanage (孤儿院) steps or somewhere else. I will probably never know the truth. Having a baby in her unmarried state would have brought shame on the family in China, so she probably kept my existence a secret. Once I was out of her life, it was as if I had never been born. And so you and your brother and I are the missing leaves on a family tree.
Do they ever wonder if we exist?
Before I was two, I was adopted by an Anglo couple. Fed three square meals a day, I grew like a wild weed and grasped all the opportunities they had to offer—books, music, education, church life and community activities. In a family of blue-eyed blonds, though, I stood out like a sore thumb. Whether from jealousy or fear of someone who looked so different, my older brothers sometimes teased me about my unpleasing skin, or made fun of my clumsy walk. Moody and impatient, burdened by fears that none of us realized resulted from my early years of need, I was not an easy child to love. My mother and I conflicted countless times over the years, but gradually came to see one another as real human beings with faults and talents, and as women of strength in our own right. Lacking a mirror image in the mother who raised me, I had to seek my identity as a woman on my own. The Asian American community has helped me regain my double identity.
But part of me will always be missing: my beginnings, my personal history, all the delicate details that give a person her origin. Nevertheless, someone gave me a lucky name “Siu Wai”. “Siu” means “little”, and “Wai” means “clever”. Therefore, my baby name was “Clever little one.” Who chose those words? Who cared enough to note my arrival in the world?
I lost my Chinese name for 18 years. It was Americanized for convenience to “Sue”. But like an ill-fitting coat, it made me uncomfortable. I hated the name. But even more, I hated being Chinese. It took many years to become proud of my Asian origin and work up the courage to take back my birth-name. That, plus a little knowledge of classroom Cantonese is all the Chinese culture I have to offer you. Not white, certainly, but not really Asian, I try to pave the way between the two worlds and bridge the gap for you. Your name, “Shao-ming”, is very much like mine—“Shao” means “little”. And “ming” is “bright”, as in a shining sun or moon. Whose lives will you brighten, little Maya? Your past is more complete than mine, and each day I cradle you in your babyhood, generously giving you the loving care I lacked for my first two years. When I pat you, I comfort the lost baby inside me who still cries for her mother.
Sweet Maya, it doesn’t matter what you “become” later on. You have already fulfilled my wildest dreams.
I love you.
Mammy
1. Why is June 6, 1990 a special day for Mommy?| A．Her dream of being a mother came true. | B．She found her origin from her Chinese mother. |
| C．She wrote the letter to her daughter. | D．Her female line was well linked. |
| A．It is bitter and disappointing. | B．It is painful but understandable. |
| C．She feels sorry but sympathetic. | D．She feels hurt and angry. |
| A．I walked clumsily out of pains. | B．I was not easy to love due to jealousy. |
| C．I was impatient out of fear. | D．I looked different from others. |
| A．She used to experience an identity crisis. | B．She fought against her American identity. |
| C．She forgot the pains of her early years. | D．She kept her love for Asia from childhood. |
| A．To match her own birth-name. | B．To brighten the lives of the family. |
| C．To identify her with Chinese origin. | D．To justify her pride in Chinese culture. |
| A．her past was completed earlier than Shao-ming’s |
| B．Shao-ming has got motherly care and a sense of roots |
| C．her mother didn’t comfort her the way she did Shao-ming |
| D．her past was spent brokenly, first in Asia, then in the US |
【推荐3】Plastic production has soared over the past 25 years, and the mess it causes has risen sharply. Recycling is one option. Another is biology, and with that in mind researchers have been hunting for creatures that can digest plastics. Several species of fungi and bacteria can do the job, but only slowly. Now Anja Brandon, a student at Stanford University has found that bacteria in the guts（肠）of mealworms can break down polymers（多聚体）much more quickly.
Other researchers had already found that mealworms can digest a particular plastic called polystyrene（聚苯乙烯）. Ms Brand on and Dr Criddle wondered whether polystyrene was uniquely delicious, or whether the bacteria in the worms' guts might be able to eat other sorts of plastic, too. To cheek, they turned to polyethylene（聚乙烯）, which is both more common than polystyrene and very different in chemical terms. If the worms found it nutritious as well, that would suggest their tastes might be usefully wide-ranging.
The researchers divided their worms into groups. Some were given 1.8 grams of either polyethylene or polystyrene. Some were given both. Others had their plastic meals supplemented with wheat b ran（麦麸）, which had been found to increase the rate at which mealworms could digest polystyrene. A control group of worms was fed only bran.
More than 90% of the worms survived the 32-day experiment. Those fed only polyethylene found it very agreeable, polishing off 0.87 of their 1.8-gram belting. That was significantly more than the worms eating polystyrene, who managed just 0.57 grams of the stuff. Best of all were the worms that were given bran with their plastic. They chewed through 1.1 grams of polyethylene and 0.98 grams of polystyrene.
The researchers argue that not only are mealworms probably able to digest a wide range of plates, but that the nature of their gut bacteria should allow them to specialize in a particular sort relatively quickly. A small population of a thousand worms, they find, might manage to consume 0.32 grams of polyethylene or 0.28 grams of polystyrene in a day. That is still not lightning fast. But it is quicker than waiting for it to break down in a landfill.
1. What does the underlined "that" in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Plastic production. | B．The mess. |
| C．Recycling of plastic . | D．Biology. |
| A．Because it is more common. | B．Because it is similar to polystyrene. |
| C．Because it is more nutritious. | D．Because it is hard to be recycled. |
| A．Those eating polystyrene. |
| B．Those eating polyethylene. |
| C．Those eating plastic with wheat bran. |
| D．Those eating both polystyrene and polyethylene. |
| A．Impractical. | B．Poising. |
| C．Ridiculous. | D．Controversial. |
