1 . Everybody hates rats. But in the earthquake capitals of the world-Japan, Los Angeles, Turkey-rats will soon be man's new best friends.
What happens after an earthquake? We send in rescue dogs. Why? Because they can smell people. Dogs save lives. They help rescuers to find living people. But dogs are big and they can't get into small spaces. So now a new research project is using a smaller animal to save lives: the rat.
How does it work? First，the rat is trained to smell people. When this happens, the rat's brain gives a signal. This is sent to a small radio on its back, and then the rescuers follow the radio signals. When the rat's brain activity jumps, the rescuers know that someone is alive. The rat has smelled that person.
Although there are already robots which can do this job, rats are better. Christian Linster at Cornell University-New York says, “Robots' noses don't work well when there are other smells around. Rats are good at that.” Rats can also see in the dark.They are cheaper and quicker to train than dogs, and unlike robots, they don't need electricity!
The “rat project” is not finished, but Julie Ryan of International Rescue Corps in Scotland says, “It would be fantastic. A rat could get into spaces we couldn't get to and a rat would get out if it wasn't safe.” Perhaps for the first time in history, people will be happy to see a rat in a building (but only after an earthquake, of course).
1. In the world earthquake capitals, rats will become man's best friends because they can ______.| A．take the place of man's rescue jobs |
| B．find the position of people alive who are trapped in buildings |
| C．serve as food for people alive who are trapped in buildings |
| D．get into small spaces |
| A．the noise made by the rat | B．the rat's unusual behavior |
| C．the signal sent by the radio on the rat's back | D．the smell given off by the person |
| A．rats smell better than dogs |
| B．dogs don't need to be trained to smell people |
| C．robots' sense of smell can be affected by other smells around |
| D．rats can not see in the dark |
| A．nowadays rats have replaced dogs in searching for people |
| B．the “rat project” has been completed |
| C．people are now happy to see a rat in a building |
| D．at present people still use dogs and robots in rescues |
2 . Claire Wyatt, a 24-year-old British volunteer, led eight Cambodians living with disabilities on a 155-mile bike ride from Phnom Penh, the nation’s capital, to Siem Reap to raise money and deliver supplies to those in need in the coronavirus pandemic(新冠病毒大流行).
“Leading this trip was an incredibly special experience for me,” said Claire. “Not only was I encouraged by the determination of each and every rider, but also the team taught me every day not to focus on their disability.”
When she was first asked to lead the trip, Claire admitted, she was feeling nervous about her team traveling such a distance in just a few days because cycling with a disability can come with added physical and emotional challenges.
One team member named Dy, who lost an arm in an accident, biked using just one arm to balance. Another named Vulta could only pedal on one side due to polio(小儿麻痹). Despite all the difficulties, Claire realized quickly that she didn’t have to worry about her team. She saw them deal with rough area that she had seen abled cyclists give up on before.
The volunteers covered the distance in just four days, not only helping so many people across the country, but also overcoming huge difficulties to get there.
“The best thing about this ride is that the riders have all volunteered their time to do this. They are so enthusiastic about Cambodia and raising money for others in need,” said Claire. “The money raised will feed 99 families in Siem Reap.”
Claire recalled her favorite moment of the experience, when one of the cyclists pushed an exhausted teammate up a hill for 2 miles. “One moment that stood out for me was when Naret, our only female rider, was feeling tired,” she said. “Her fellow rider gently put his hand on her back and pushed her for 2 miles! They were encouraging each other to push through the tiredness.”
1. Why did Claire and eight Cambodians cycle 155 miles?| A．To challenge themselves. | B．To help out needy people. |
| C．To take part in a competition. | D．To raise money for the disabled. |
| A．She might be injured on the road. | B．She would be unable to lead the team. |
| C．Her team might be looked down on. | D．Her team couldn’t finish the route. |
| A．Confident, calm and friendly. | B．Honest, patient and open-minded. |
| C．Strong-minded, brave and caring. | D．Curious, creative and experienced. |
| A．It could have taken less time. |
| B．It was amazing and inspiring. |
| C．It changed her idea about human nature. |
| D．It was more difficult than she had expected. |
3 . The high Andes mountains of Peru are a hummingbirds’ paradise（蜂鸟的天堂）, rich in wildflower nectar（花蜜）and low in natural enemies. But there’s one problem: the cold.
Nighttime temperatures often dip below freezing in these rainy tropical highlands. How does a six-gram bird that needs nectar from 500 flowers a day just to survive get enough extra energy to keep itself warm all night? It doesn’t. Instead, as temperatures drop, these hummingbirds enter a state known as torpor（冬眠）. One species, the black metaltail, cools to 3.26℃, the coldest body temperature ever recorded in a bird or non-hibernating mammal（非冬眠的哺乳动物）, researchers report in Biology Letters.
“They’ re cold as a rock,” says Blair Wolf, a physiological ecologist at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. “If you didn’t know better, you’ d think they were dead. Cooling to near-death temperatures lets the hummingbirds save precious energy, allowing them to survive the cold night and get ready to feed the next day.”
Standing upright, the birds pointed their bills upwards, loosened their feathers and stopped moving. All of the species entered some kind of torpor, but the black metaltail cooled the most, dropping from a daytime temperature of about 40℃ to just above freezing.
“During the day, these hummingbirds’ hearts can beat 1,200 times a minute to power their crazy lifestyle. But during torpor, their heart rates drop to as low as 40 beats a minute. It’ s an astonishing drop,” Wolf says, “and it could allow these high-altitude birds to cut their energy use by about 95 percent. By not wasting energy trying to stay warm, these birds can live as high as 5,000 meters above sea level.”
When the sun begins to rise, the hummingbirds start warming about a degree a minute by shaking their muscles. “You see the bird trembling there, then all of a sudden its eyes pop open and it’ s ready to go, ” Wolf says.
1. What makes Andes mountains a perfect living place for hummingbirds?| A．Its high altitude. | B．Its climate conditions. |
| C．Its animal species diversity. | D．Its abundance of wildflowers. |
| A．By freezing itself nearly solid. | B．By eating enough nectar before dusk. |
| C．By stopping breathing and heartbeats. | D．By hiding its bill in its loosened feathers. |
| A．They tremble for warmth at night. | B．They consume no energy at night. |
| C．They are quite adaptive. | D．They have a big heart. |
| A．ends before sunrise | B．takes 40 minutes or so |
| C．is rather difficult | D．happens with its eyes open |
4 . As I stuck in the mud (泥), with my bike on top of me, I wondered what had forced me to come here. Madagascar is not a good place for a cycling holiday: one of the world's poorest countries, only 11 percent of roadway is paved (铺). South of the town of Antalaha, where I started, the road was in worse condition.
I appeared from a week in the wilderness and reached the start of the Route National 5 at Maroantsetra, but my dream of a smooth road and speed was suddenly destroyed by mud. The "worst road in the country" changed my bicycle into a burden (负担) for days. Finally, I was claimed by the road. Tired. Alone.
As I wiped (擦) the mud from my face and looked upwards, I was greeted by a Malagasy man. He helped me stand up and smiled playfully while he pointed to my bike, which sat next to his. I started again. But I fell again in the mud. Angrily, I told him to go on, but if he understood he showed no sign of it. His smile forced me back onto the bike. We continued like this for hours. But I fell less. Studying my quick guide, slowly I learned. As we passed through a village, a group of children saw me and shouted loudly. His only words were: "Their parents tell them while people steal and eat them. Funny, no?"
I tried to ask why, but he had already set off. I tried to catch up; as I got closer, he took it as a challenge and sped up. We raced along the road. I rode a little faster and I was just behind, about to catch up with him. With a smile, he sped up and was away, leaving me breathless.
1. What was in the author's mind when he was in the mud?| A．He considered his experience a special pleasure. |
| B．He made up his mind to continue challenging himself. |
| C．He tried to think out a new road for cycling in Antalaha. |
| D．He regretted having the cycling holiday in Madagascar. |
| A．The author chose another road. |
| B．The author decided to ask for help. |
| C．The author lay on the road for a rest. |
| D．The author had no confidence to ride on. |
| A．By showing him the right way. |
| B．By wiping the mud from his bike. |
| C．By riding in front of him all the way. |
| D．By teaching him how to ride in the mud. |
| A．A lonely trip |
| B．A bicycle race |
| C．A lesson in cycling |
| D．A road in Madagascar |
5 . Tom was a clever boy, but his parents were poor, so he had to work in his spare time and during his holidays to pay for his education. In spite of this, he managed to get to the university, but it was so expensive to study there that during the holiday he found it necessary to get two jobs at the same time so as to make enough money to pay for his studies.
One summer he managed to get a job in a butcher’s shop(肉店)during the day-time, and another in a hospital at night. In the shop, he learnt to cut meat quite nicely, so the butcher often left him to do all the serving while he went to the back room to do the accounts(账目). In the hospital, on the other hand, he was, of course, allowed to do the simplest jobs, like helping to lift people and to carry them from one part of the hospital to another. Both at the butcher’s shop and at the hospital, Tom had to wear white clothes.
One evening at the hospital, Tom had to carry a woman from her bed to the place where she was to have an operation. The woman was already feeling frightened at the thought of the operation before he came to get her, but when she saw Tom, that finished her. “No! No!” she cried．“Not my butcher! I won’t be operated on by my butcher!” and fainted away(昏厥).
1. Tom made enough money by ________.| A．doing two jobs |
| B．working in a butcher’s shop |
| C．cutting meat well |
| D．studying in the university |
| A．a butcher and a doctor |
| B．a manager and a doctor |
| C．an assistant |
| D．a manager |
| A．he was wearing white clothes |
| B．he was going to operate on her |
| C．he was now working in the hospital |
| D．he had sold meat to her |
| A．plunged her into deep sorrow |
| B．took all her strength and courage away |
| C．broke her heart |
| D．made her decide to have an operation |
6 . I was watching my kids play on the sidewalk when I looked up and saw a crow sitting on the telephone wire. The crow sat with its head turned to one side， observing us with one friendly black eye.
I'm not a bird expert or a birdwatcher， but crows intrigue me. Since that day， I have become friends with the neighborhood crows， and I've learned a thing or two along the way.
The best way to introduce yourself to a crow is by feeding it. I'm sure there are other ways to go about it， but the easiest and fastest way to a crow's heart is food. Some may argue that a crow is a wild animal and by feeding it， you encourage the unnatural dependence. And to most wildlife， this is an excellent philosophy. But crows and humans have been living side by side for centuries， and researchers like Marzluff and Angell， who wrote In the Company of Crows and Ravens， point to many examples of cultural co﹣evolution （共同进化） between us. It's been a rather symbiotic （共生的） relationship for quite a while.
Certainly， humans' and crows' lives and histories have become closely related. I moved to this neighborhood in this small city 5 years ago. I'm relatively new here， but the crows in my neighborhood may have lived here for many years. They've watched people come and go for years ﹣ people who may have watched them right back.
So anyway， we're neighbors， and feeding is the neighborly thing to do.
1. Which of the following can replace the underlined word "intrigue" in Paragraph 2？| A．Dislike. |
| B．Interest. |
| C．Surprise. |
| D．Frighten. |
| A．To play with them. |
| B．To make friends with them. |
| C．To give food to them. |
| D．To watch them closely. |
| A．develop a philosophy |
| B．introduce a book |
| C．correct people's ideas |
| D．share personal experience |
| A．Positive. |
| B．Unclear. |
| C．Doubtful. |
| D．Indifferent. |
7 . Which boy hasn’t dreamed of being a cool secret agent (特工)? The wonderful fighting abilities and the world-saving adventures are much more colourful than most people’s everyday lives. Well, Cody Banks is just like any other boy，except that he is not just dreaming. He has a big secret his friends never know about. He was trained to be a spy (间谍）by a special CIA programme，which was made to look like a summer camp. He learned high-speed driving，hand-to-hand fighting and the use of high-tech tools.
After proving he could become a young hero by saving a baby from a runaway car，Banks gets his first real task. He must make friends with a popular girl at school，Natalie Connors. Then，he must spy on her father，a scientist who has developed a dangerous technology .Banks must stop a group of bad people from forcing Natalie’s father into using the technology to endanger the world.
The CIA may have taught him first-class self-defence moves，but they didn’t show him how to talk to girls. Banks has zero ability when it comes to dealing with girls. How can he get around his problem and get an invitation to the girl’s upcoming birthday party? Will he finally become Natalie’s boyfriend and find out whatever he can about her father’s work?
Agent Cody Banks has everything that young people are interested in: big explosions, breath-taking performances and funny girl-dating experiences. It was listed No.2 in the American box office last week.
“This story is interesting and fun for the whole family to enjoy，and especially cool for young boys，” said Paul Perkins, a film reviewer in the US.
1. What does the phrase “spy on” in paragraph 2 mean?| A．test | B．save |
| C．study | D．watch |
| A．meet her father | B．know more people |
| C．make friends with her | D．steal some information |
| A．The technology developed by Natalie’s father. |
| B．An explosion set off by some bad people. |
| C．The CIA’s training of boys for its tasks. |
| D．Secret agents’ spying on scientists. |
| A．Making known the work of the CIA. | B．Telling the story about a cool boy. |
| C．Showing the dark side of science. | D．Introducing a new film. |
8 . Human beings have used tools for a very long time. In some parts of the world you can still find tools that people used more than two million years ago. They made these tools by hitting one stone against another. In this way, they broke off pieces from one of the stones. These chips of stone were usually sharp on one side. People used them for cutting meat and skin from dead animals, and also for making other tools out of wood. Human beings needed to use tools because they did not have sharp teeth like other meat eating animals, such as lions and tigers. Tools helped people to get food more easily.
Working with tools also helped to develop human intelligence. The human brain grew bigger, and human beings began to invent more and more tools and machines. The stone chip was one of the first tools that people used, and perhaps it is the most important. Some scientists say that it was the key to success of mankind.
Since 1960, a new kind of tool has appeared. This is the silicon(硅) chip — a little chip of silicon crystal. It is smaller than a finger nail, but it can store more than a million “bits” of information. It is an electronic brain. Every year these chips get cleverer, but their size gets smaller, and their cost gets less. They are used in watches, calculators and intelligent machines that we can use in many ways. In the future we will not need to work with tools in the old way. Machines will do everything for us. They will even talk and play games with us. People will have plenty of spare time. But what will they do with it?
Human beings used stone chips for more than two million years, but human life changed very little in that time. We have used silicon chips for only a few years, but life is changing faster every day. What will life be like twenty years from now? What will the world be like two million years from now?
1. From paragraph 1, we can know ________.| A．what early human beings used the tools for |
| B．why early human beings cut skin from dead animals |
| C．how early human beings discovered the tools |
| D．what food early human beings stored |
| A．led to the invention of machines in the early time |
| B．developed cooking abilities of mankind |
| C．was one of the first tools of mankind |
| D．was very important to the development of mankind |
| A．compare the effects of two kinds of tools |
| B．show the changes of tools |
| C．introduce a new kind of tool |
| D．give an example of using tools |
| A．out of order | B．hard to predict |
| C．less colorful | D．full of meanings |
