1 . Directions:   Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box.   Each word can be used only once.   Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. carved          B. unknowingly            C. ecosystem          D. artificial          E. elemental F. changing       G. practically        H. wrinkled        I. unmoving          J. species       K. inspection

Magical Creatures: AN APPRECIATION OF AUTUMN MOTH (蛾)

Moths seem to have a bit of a bad reputation: to some they are ill indications or something scary, to others they are dull in comparison to our well-loved butterflies. But moths are an essential part of a(n)     1    , and important food sources for species like birds and bats. And for me, moths are far from dull.

My first meeting with an Angle Shades moth was nearly a non-encounter. I almost passed by without noticing it, thinking it was a fallen leaf on a fence post. But there was something about it that stopped me in my tracks. Its angular shape perhaps? Or the way it sat,     2    , despite the breeze. Closer     3     revealed cream and buff shell-shaped wings, painted with triangles of light pink and brown. Suddenly, it transformed from a(n)     4     leaf into a living thing before my eyes. I’ve been fascinated ever since.

The Canary-shouldered Thorn, with its hairy buttercup-coloured body and yellow and orange wings, reminds me of a fallen silver birch (白桦树) leaf. A night-flyer, it favours gardens and woodlands, and is often drawn to     5     light, meaning that your torch beam may be attracting moths as well as lighting your way in the dark. It’s also worth double-checking any leaves in farm houses, as these sheltered spots are a favourite hiding place of another overwintering     6    : the Herald moth. This elegant creature’s beautiful wings look as though they’ve been     7     by hand and painted with bronze.

There’s more to these imitators than fallen leaves. The Green-spotted Crescent, which     8     disappears on rough branches, has metallic green spots integrating with the moss (苔藓). Maybe I’ve already     9     crossed paths with one, though. As we dig out our big coats and slip on boots for walks beneath branches, how many moths are we missing? These clever creatures aren’t bad indications, but     10     parts of nature, with a gift for fancy-dress.

3 . Directions: After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. eventually        B. certain        C. evolution        D. particular        E. passed        F. likely G. change             H. fitted        I. happened          J. controlled          K. occasionally

Today we understand much more about how evolution works because we know about genes and DNA. Darwin didn’t know about genes and DNA. Gregor Mendel was the first person to work out how     1     characteristics such as colour (of eyes, hair, skin, flowers, leaves or bark) were     2     from one generation to the next.

Characteristics such as eye colour are     3     by genes. They are like a recipe written into the DNA of each cell, telling the cell what it should be and do. These “recipes” are passed on from parents to offspring through the DNA in egg and sperm cells.

Every now and then something goes wrong in the recipe, and this     4     is called a mutation. It means that the offspring will be different in some way from the parents. Often mutations are fatal and the offspring don’t survive, but     5     a mutation gives the offspring an advantage. It helps them fit into their environment better than others who lack the mutation. It allows them to compete successfully for scarce water, food, light, space or mates.

Darwin realized that those individuals who suited their environment best would be more     6     to survive and have lots of offspring. Most of the offspring would have the same mutation, making them fit in well with their environment, too. They in turn would have lots of offspring, and     7     , over a very long time, the offspring with the mutation would outnumber or replace those without the mutation. If enough of these changes or mutations occur, a new kind (or species) of animal or plant could eventually be created. This process is called     8    .

When some living things survive whilst others do not, we call this process natural selection. It’s as if nature selects the things that best suit the world at that     9       time and place. For example, in a very cold climate, creatures with an extra thick layer of fat to keep them warm would have a better chance of surviving than thin creatures. Consequently, fat creatures would be “fitter” than thin creatures because they     10     into their environment better. This process is also called the “survival of the fittest”.

4 . Direction: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. arousal B. disruptive C. eliminate D. initially E. interfered F. measured G. predictability H. rarely   I. realistic   J. track K. variable

Effects of Noise

In general, it is reasonable to suppose that we should prefer peace and quiet to noise. And yet most of us have had the experience of having to adjust to sleeping in the mountains on the countryside because it was    1    too “quiet”, an experience that suggests that humans are capable of adapting to a wide range of noise levels. For example, researchers exposed people to short bursts of very loud noise and then    2    their ability to work out problems and their physiological reactions to the noise. The noise was quite    3    at first, but after about four minutes the subjects were doing just as well on their tasks as control subjects who were not exposed to noise. Their physiological     4    also declined quickly to the same levels as those of the control subjects.

But there are limits to adaptation and loud noise becomes more troublesome if the person is required to concentrate on more than one task. For example, high noise levels     5    with the performance of subjects who were required to monitor three dials at a time. Similarly, noise did not affect a subject’s ability to    6    a moving line with a steering wheel, but it did influence the subject’s ability to repeat numbers while tracking.

Probably the most significant finding from research on noise is that its    7    is more important than how loud it is. We are much more able to “tune out” chronic background noise, even if it is quite loud, than to work under circumstances with unexpected intrusions of noise. It is not the only    8    that reduces the negative effects of noise. Another is control. If the individual knows that he or she can control the noise, this seems to    9    both its negative effects at the time and its after-effects.

However, the major worry about noisy environments is that living day after day with chronic noise may produce serious, lasting effects. One study, suggesting that this worry is a    10    one, compared elementary school pupils who attended schools near Los Angeles’s busiest airport with students who attended schools in quiet neighbourhoods. It was found that children from the noisy schools had higher blood pressure and were more easily distracted than those who attended the quiet schools.

5 . After reading the passage below, fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word more than you need.

A. saw               B. professional               C. schedule               D. gradually          E. field          F. marked G. host                 H. incredibly                  I. determination             J. repeated            K. cancelled

The Olympics

The Olympics are the most important international competition in terms of scale, skills, and number of athletes.

The games are divided into two parts—the Summer Games and the Winter Games. The two parts are held in such a way that there are two years in between but four years before one is     1    .

The Olympics were first celebrated in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, and were held every four years until 393 AD. Then, they were brought to an end by the Roman emperor. It was not until the 1890s that the world     2    the modern summer games. In 1896 the first modern Summer Olympics were held in Greece because that was where the tradition started. After that the Olympics would move to a different city every four years. In 1924, the Winter Olympics were added to the     3    . The Games were to take place in a separate, colder place. The event was     4    during World War I and World War II for reasons known to all.

Examples of modern Summer Olympic events are track and     5    events, ball games, diving, gymnastics, swimming. Typical Winter Olympic events are skating and skiing.

The Olympic records are the world ones. An Olympic gold medal carries as much weight as, or even more than, any other gold medal won at other international competitions. The skills and     6    demonstrated at the Olympics have come to stand for the peak of human physical strength and will power.

It was not until the late twentieth century that Chinese athletes began to amaze the world with their     7    performance at the Olympics. Coming out number one many times in the Olympic events, Chinese athletes have brought home one gold medal after another in swimming, diving, gymnastics, weight lifting, and a number of ball games. At the turn of the twenty-first century, the world witnessed Beijing being selected by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the     8    city for the 2008 Olympics. This has added a brilliant touch to the picture of modern Chinese sport history.

Though once     9    as “the Weaklings of East Asia”, the Chinese have always been looking forward to achieving the dream of becoming a sports giant. After continuous efforts for years the dream is     10    coming true, and it is understandable why the Chinese let out cries of joy the night Beijing’s bid to host the 2008 Olympics was approved!

7 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word that you do not need.

A. facilities       B. signals       C. excel       D. social       E. apparently       F. objects G. natural       H. process       I. function       J. instead       K. definitely

Your dog’s brain doesn’t care about your face

It’s just not in dogs’ DNA to care about human faces, a new study has found. And there’s no area in their brain designed to distinguish between the back or front of someone’s head.

Researchers measured brain activity in dogs and humans as they showed them videos of faces and backs of heads, said a press release from Eötvös Loránd University, in Hungary. While faces are    1     important for visual communication in humans, the same can’t be said for our dog companions.

Experiments involving functional magnetic resonance imaging(FMRI，功能性磁共振成像)on 20 dogs were carried out at Eötvös Loránd University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. These two    2     are some of the only institutions in the world that are equipped with the ability to scan dogs’ brains when they are awake and unrestrained(不受约束的).

Results have revealed large specialized neural networks(神经网络)in human brains that are used to distinguish faces from non-faces. In dogs there are no brain regions that    3     to tell facial differences.

Dogs,    4    , use more information from smell or larger parts of the body, study co-author Attila Andies at Eötvös Loránd University said. “In dogs, for relationship recognition and mate selection(配偶选择), facial cues(提示)are not more important than non-facial bodily cues, sound or chemical    5    ,” Andics explained.

The full study, described by researchers as the first one of its kind, was published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Andics said that dogs do care about human faces, even if their brains aren’t specifically tuned in to them. “I think it is amazing that, despite    6     not having a specialized neural machinery to deal with faces, dogs nevertheless    7     at eye contact, following gaze, reading emotions from our face, and they can even recognize their owner by the face.”

“During domestication(驯养), dogs adapted to the human    8     environment. Living with humans they quickly learn that reading facial cues makes sense, just as humans learn to pay attention to little details of, let’s say, a phone, without having specialized phone areas in their brain,” Andics added.

Researchers will now compare how dog and human brains    9     other visual categories such as body parts, various species and everyday    10    , said Andics. The team will also investigate whether dog brains have developed different specializations as a result of living with humans.

8 . Fill in each blank with a proper word given in the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one word that you do not need.

A. predictions       B. tricky       C. determine       D. consumed       E. significant F. sampled       G. address       H. concentrations       I. comparison       J. conventional       K. index

Using dragonflies as contamination(污染) detectors

Mercury(汞)pollution from power plants and mining operations can end up in our air and water.

But it’s     1     to predict just how much of that environmental mercury will make its way into our food—and our bodies.

“We were working on developing a bioindicator, a biosentinel, that could inform us of the levels of mercury contamination across the US.”

Ecologist Collin Eagles-Smith of the United States Geological Survey and his colleagues came up with a practical way to     2     the scope of mercury contamination in an ecosystem by measuring mercury levels in a single species. Their bioindicator: juvenile dragonflies, or larvae(幼虫). Dragonfly larvae stay underwater, don’t move much, are easy to collect and live long enough to accumulate     3     amounts of mercury.

“If you have enough locations     4     with dragonflies, you can develop an index of the relative amount of mercury in the biological community. ”

The team measured mercury     5     in thousands of dragonfly larvae collected from waterways in 100 national parks during a 10-year period. And to amass the large sample number, they recruited volunteers through the Dragonfly Mercury Project.

The volunteers used dip nets to collect dragonfly larvae from their aquatic abodes(住所). National park staff then sent the larvae to laboratories for processing. For     6     the researchers also measured mercury concentrations(浓度)in other aquatic organisms.

“Using the relationships between dragonfly concentrations and fish concentrations, we were able to develop what we call an impairment     7     . ”

That index allowed the researchers to make health risk    8     at each sample site.

“About 12% of the locations posed what we consider to be high or severe risk of health impairments to fish, wildlife or humans if they    9     organisms from those locations. You can begin to build models that are predictive of how much mercury might be in a system and then apply that model to locations where you haven’t sampled dragonflies.”

“And that can inform future management actions to     10     the factors that are promoting the mercury production or simply inform agencies that may want to evaluate whether or not fish consumption advisories(警告)are necessary. ”

The study is in the journal of Environmental Science & Technology.

9 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can be used only once. Note that there is one more word than you need.

A. wraps       B. poorly       C. generating       D. incomplete       E. sufficient       F. further G. Compressing       H. heats       I. uncertainty       J. pressurize       K. drowned

Neptune Rains Diamonds, and Now We Might Finally Know How

Deep within the hearts of Neptune and Uranus, it could be raining diamonds. Now, scientists have produced new experimental evidence showing how this could be possible.

The hypothesis goes that the intense heat and pressure thousands of kilometres below the surface of these ice giants should split apart hydrocarbon compounds, with the carbon    1     into diamond and sinking even deeper towards the planetary cores.

The new experiment used the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory’s Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)X-ray laser for the most precise measurements yet of how this “diamond rain” process should occur-and found that carbon transitions directly into crystalline diamond.

Neptune and Uranus are the most    2     understood planets in the solar system. They are extremely far—only a single space probe, Voyager 2, has even been close to them, and only for a flyby, not a dedicated long-term mission.

The atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus are primarily made up of hydrogen and helium, with a small amount of methane. Below these atmospheric layers, a superhot, superdense fluid of “icy” materials such as water, methane, and ammonia    3     the planet’s core.

And calculations and experiments dating back decades have shown that, with    4     pressure and temperature, methane can be broken down into diamonds—suggesting that diamonds can form within this hot, dense material.

A previous experiment led by physicist Dominik Kraus used X-ray diffraction to demonstrate it. Now Kraus and his team have taken their research a step    5     . “We now have a very promising new approach based on X-ray scattering,” Kraus said about their latest efforts. “Our experiments are delivering important model parameters where, before, we only had massive    6    . The more exoplanets we discover, the more relevant this will become.”

It’s challenging to replicate the interiors of giant planets here on Earth. The first step is to heat and    7     the material to replicate the conditions inside Neptune at a depth of around 10, 000 kilometers: pulses of optical laser are     8     shockwaves in the polystyrene(聚苯乙烯), which    9     the material up to around 5, 000 kelvin. It also creates intense pressure.

In the previous experiment, X-ray diffraction(衍射)was used to then probe the material. This works well for materials with crystalline structures, but less so with non-crystalline molecules, so the picture was    10     In the new experiment, the team used a different method, measuring how X-rays scattered off electrons in the polystyrene.

This allowed them not just to observe the conversion of carbon into diamond, but also what happens to the rest of the sample-it splits off into hydrogen. And there’s pretty much no leftover carbon.

10 . 请阅读下面的篇章，并根据其内容提示，从方框中所给的8个词语中选出5个，并用其正确形式填空。

chance,     come up with,     athlete,     go up,     steady,     run through,     that,     send up

The Great Wall Marathon

The Great Wall of China is one of the new wonders of the world, with breathtaking views. In 1998 Soren Rasmussen     1     the idea of organizing a Great Wall marathon. Rasmussen and two running experts chose a route along part of the Great Wall. The marathon has taken place annually in May since 1999. In the initial event, just 292 runners participated but numbers have gone up     2    —in 2015 there were 2,500 runners from over 160 countries.

The Great Wall marathon is considered to be one of the toughest in the world. The part of the route that is actually on the Great Wall includes two exhausting up-and-down sections about 8 km long with 5,146 steps. It’s such a steep climb in parts     3     it’s hard to walk up—never mind run! The weather is hot and humid, with temperatures of around 30℃, but it can be hotter. Part of the route passes through a dry river bed with huge boulders (巨石). Runners who arrive there later in the day find it challenging because the boulders have become so hot that it’s like     4     a sauna.

So who does the marathon? Surprisingly, the marathon attracts both professional     5     and people who want to run for fun or simply do something different. Some runners stop every 10-15 minutes to take photos, chat to the locals and enjoy the scenery! If the thought of doing such a marathon horrifies you, then you can do a half marathon or an 8-km fun run instead.