1 . An elephant and a crocodile were once standing beside river. They were disputing which was the better animal.
“Look at my strength,” said the elephant. “I can pull up a tree, roots and all with my trunk”
“Ah! But your skin is not nearly so thick as mine,” replied the crocodile. “No knife or tooth can cut through it.”
Just as they were coming to blows, a lion happened to pass.
“My dear friends!” said the King of all animals, going up to them. “Let me know the cause of your disagreement.”
“Will you kindly tell us which is the better animal?” cried both at once.
“Certainly”, said the lion, pointing across the river. “Do you see the soldiers’ metal hat on that wall?”
“Yes!” replied the beasts.
“Well, then,” continued the lion, “go and get it, and bring it to me, and I shall be able then to decide between you.”
Upon hearing this, off they started. The crocodile, being used to the water, reached the opposite side of the river first, and was soon standing beside the wall.
Here he waited till the elephant came up. The elephant, seeing that the crocodile had no way of reaching their goal, raised his long trunk, and took down the hat quite easily.
They then made their way together back again across the river. The elephant was trying to keep up with the fast-moving crocodile in the water and became careless. When he was forced to turn sharply to avoid a floating tree branch, the elephant dropped the hat and it fell to the river bottom. The crocodile noticed the accident, so down he dived, and brought it up in his huge mouth. They then returned, and the crocodile laid the metal hat at the lion's feet. The King took it up, and turning to the elephant, said: “You, because of your size and trunk, were able to reach the hat on the wall but, having lost it, you were unable to get it back. And you,” said the lion to the crocodile, “although unable to reach the hat, were able to dive for it and save it. You are both wise and able in your own ways. One is no better than the other.”
1. The underlined word "disputing" in Paragraph 1 means____.| A．playing | B．quarrelling | C．complaining | D．deciding |
| A．His big mouth | B．His strong skin | C．His swimming skill | D．His dangerous teeth |
| A．He ordered them to fight. | B．He made a quick decision. |
| C．He suggested a competition | D．He asked them to describe themselves |
| A．The hat got wet in the river. | B．He hit a floating tree |
| C．He was trying to swim too fast | D．He wanted to fight the crocodile |
| A．By working together | B．planning carefully |
| C．By sharing their ideas | D．By listening to the lion |
2 . It is a question that has long puzzled scientists—exactly why are tigers orange? One might think it makes them more obvious-particularly against a leafy green forest background. William Blake summed it up in his famous poem known by generations of schoolchildren: “Tyger, tyger, burning bright / In the forest of the night.” But now the answer is at hand.
While obvious to us, computer simulations (模拟) of what the big cats look to the main animals they hunt for, deer, show a different picture. Humans with normal colour vision, can see red, blue and green colours. But deer can only pick up blue and green light, they are effectively colourblind to the colour red, like some humans. It means the tigers’ orange colouration looks green to them, allowing them to mix perfectly into the background, new research claims.
Dr John Fennell at the University of Bristol and colleagues said that they used computers to estimate how noticeable a given animal was. They did this by using images of the environment in which the animal lives, and then creating images to see whether the camouflage helps the animal to mix in.
Dr Fennell writes that by simulating what the world looks like to animals who are “two-colour vision”—someone who cannot discover the difference between red and green—“we also identify the most suitable colours for hiding and visibility”.
Dr Fennell writes in the Royal Society Journal Inter face: “Considering the coat of a tiger, it has fur that appears orange to a three-colour vision observer rather than some shade of green, though the latter should be more appropriate color for an attack hunter in forests. However, when viewed as a two-colour vision observer, the tiger’s colour is very effective.”
The question then arises as to why tigers don’t grow green coats. Dr Fennell and colleagues write that mammals (哺乳动物) are not able to produce green fur. To do so would “require a significant change to mammalian biochemistry”. There is only one mammal known to have green fur but this is achieved through what might be considered as, well, cheating, not exactly real.
1. Why does the author mention the poem in paragraph 1?| A．To arouse reader s interest in poems. |
| B．To show the authors respect to the poet. |
| C．To answer the question of the color of the tiger |
| D．To stress the noticeable color of the tiger to us. |
| A．Black. | B．Red. |
| C．Blue. | D．Green. |
| A．The cover of something. |
| B．The images of something. |
| C．The way of hiding something. |
| D．The way of hunting for something. |
| A．The colour of tigers sometimes cheats people. |
| B．Getting green may prevent tigers from being extinct. |
| C．There are no mammals with real green fur in the world. |
| D．The tigers’ fur will probably evolve into green in the future. |
