Introduction to English as a Second Language Teacher’s Book
One of the earliest-known inventions is the bow and arrow, which is still used throughout the world today, 15,000 years
In western Asia, another extremely important invention was born — the ability to produce pots. As long as 6500 years ago, people were producing pottery, mostly plain and without designs, but the technique has changed little since.
Some people say that the wheel is the single most important invention. Early examples from about 5000 years ago have been found in the forests of Europe. Around 1500 years later, the Phoenicians used sand, limestone and sodium carbonate to produce
How many things do you lock with a key every day? Doors, cupboards? The car? We really don't think much about them,
Another amazing invention, which we probably take for granted these days, is the skill of knitting
Eye glasses developed from just one lens in a frame, like a simple magnifying glass, way back in the 13th century. In about 1290, the idea to put two lenses in a frame to sit on the nose was developed in Florence. And, believe it or not, the modern contact lens is 120 years old!
Time flies and we spend a lot of time
2 . The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre has recently “rediscovered” an ancient shark skeleton that has been sitting in the museum’s collection for nearly 50 years. Could this shark be a part of a newly discovered ancient shark species?
This fossil’s original discovery was in 1975 on a farm just west of Morden, Manitoba. The skeleton was brought into the museum and was forgotten within the ever-growing fossil collection. The skeleton was hidden in the collections room for over 40 years and the center just recently found the fossil in its storage around eight years ago.
Adolfo Cuertara, the director of the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre, explained that “It’s a very special shark for many reasons. It’s highly possible that we are talking about a new species.” Although the shark has not been given a scientific name yet, the museum has unofficially named the skeleton, “Dave”, in honor of the farmer on whose land the skeleton was found.
After the fossil rediscovery, Dave was exhibited at the fossil center museum. Dave is around 15 feet long and is one of the largest well-preserved shark skeletons in the entire world. Within the paleontology (古生物学) world, complete shark fossils are extremely rare due to their soft cartilage (软骨结构) which disintegrates as they age. Dave’s shark species are filter feeders with no teeth, who receive their nutrition by absorbing it out of the water. Cuertara emphasizes Dave’s uniqueness by explaining, “The shape of the jaws and the skull and the kind of structures that it has, because the preservation is really amazing, is telling us that it is probably going to be a new species. The problem is now we need scientific papers and scientific research and this paper is underway.”
The Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre is hopeful that more scientific research will provide more information on Dave’s ancient shark species. For now, Dave is currently on display at the Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre and the museum has the exhibit up to date with their current information.
1. Where probably could you find this article?| A．Science textbook of college. |
| B．Advertising brochure of museum. |
| C．Discovery column of magazine. |
| D．Bulletin board of animal world. |
| A．Die away. | B．Break down. | C．Build up. | D．Lie down. |
| A．The structure of skull and jaw. |
| B．The preservation of jaw and the skull. |
| C．The uniqueness of no teeth structure. |
| D．The rare soft cartilage. |
| A．Canadian Fossil Discovery Centre displays Dave ancient shark species. |
| B．Dave’s shark species is a new species of ancient shark. |
| C．Canadian Museum rediscovers a new ancient shark species. |
| D．Dave’s shark skeleton is in honor of the farmer who rediscovered it. |
3 . More than 3,400 years after two ancient Egyptians were laid to rest, the jars of food left still smell sweet. A team of analytical chemists and archaeologists (考古学家) has analysed these smells to help identify the jars’ contents. The study shows how the exploration of smell can enrich our understanding of the past.
The 1906 discovery of the undisturbed tomb (墓穴) of Kha and Merit symbolized an important stage in Egyptology. The tomb remains the most complete non-royal ancient one ever found in Egypt, showing important information about how high-ranking individuals were treated after death.
Unusually for the time, the archaeologist who discovered the tomb resisted the temptation to open the sealed containers even after they were sent to the Egyptian Museum. The contents of many of these containers are still unknown, although there are some clues, says analytical chemist Ilaria Degano. “From taking with the museum keeper we knew there were some fruity smells in the display cases,” she says.
Degano and her colleagues placed various artefacts (人工制品) inside plastic bags for several days to collect some of the chemical substances they released. Then the team used a special machine to identify the components of the smells from each artefact. They found some chemicals associated with dried fish, and some chemicals common in fruits. The findings will feed into a larger project to reanalyse the tomb’s contents and produce a more comprehensive picture of burial customs for non-royals that existed when Kha and Merit died, about 70 years before Tutankhamun became the Egyptian ruler.
Aside from showing more about past civilizations, ancient smells could make museum visits more inviting. Usually, people admire exhibits with their eyes in museums. “Smell is a relatively unexplored gateway to the collective past for museum visitors,” says Cecilia Bembibre at University College London. “It has the potent alto allow us to experience the in a more emotional, personal way, through our nose.”
1. What can we describe the 1906 discovery of Kha and Merit’ tomb as?| A．A landmark in Egyptology. | B．A turning point in human history. |
| C．A breakthrough in archaeology. | D．A mirror of ancient non-royal life. |
| A．Pressure. | B．Ambition. | C．Desire. | D．Tendency. |
| A．protect them from harm | B．gather their smells |
| C．test the special machine | D．back up a larger project |
| A．They bring them back to the past. |
| B．They give them emotional support. |
| C．They change their view on civilizations. |
| D．They add to their experience. |
4 . While DNA from animal bones or teeth can cast light on an individual species, environmental DNA enabled scientists to build a picture of a whole ecosystem.
A core of ice age sediment (沉积物) from northern Greenland has yielded the world’s oldest sequences of DNA. The 2 million-year-old DNA samples revealed the now largely lifeless polar region was once home to rich plant and animal life — including elephant-like mammals known as mastodons (乳齿象), reindeer, hares, lemmings, geese, birch trees and poplars, according to new research published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.
The finding is the work of scientists in Denmark who were able to detect and restore environmental DNA — genetic material drop into the environment by all living organisms — in tiny amounts of sediment taken from the Copenhagen Formation, in the mouth of a strait in the Arctic Ocean in Greenland’s northernmost point, during a 2006 expedition.
They then compared the DNA pieces with libraries of DNA collected from both extinct and living animals, plants and microorganisms. The genetic material revealed dozens of other plants and creatures that had not been previously detected at the site based on what’s known from fossils and pollen records.
“The first thing that blew our mind when we’re looking at this data is obviously this mastodon and the presence of it that far north, which is quite far north of what we knew as its natural range,” said study co-author Mikkel Pedersen.
The mix of temperate (温带) and Arctic trees and animals suggested a previously unknown type of ecosystem that has no modern equivalent — one that could act as a genetic road map for how different species might adapt to a warmer climate, the researchers found.
Love Dalen, a professor at the Centre for Palaeogenetics at Stockholm University, said the finding “pushed the envelope” for the field of ancient DNA. “Also, the findings that several temperate species (such as relatives of spruce and mastodon) lived at such high latitudes are exceptionally interesting,” he added.
Further study of environmental DNA from this time period could help scientists understand how various organisms might adapt to climate change. “It’s a climate that we expect to face on Earth due to global warming and it gives us some idea of how nature will respond to increasing temperatures,” he explained.
1. What can we know about environmental DNA from the passage?| A．It makes it easier to understand individual species. |
| B．It is a collection of DNA from all kinds of living things. |
| C．It includes DNA of mammals living 2 million years ago. |
| D．It was first discovered in sediment from northern Greenland. |
| A．By looking at the data of mastodon. |
| B．By detecting DNA samples at the site. |
| C．By analyzing fossils and pollen records. |
| D．By comparing the newly-found DNA with existing ones. |
| A．broke the limit | B．laid a foundation |
| C．raised a new question | D．attracted wide attention |
| A．Northern Greenland faces species extinction |
| B．Oldest DNA reveals a solution to global warming |
| C．Northern Greenland faces increasing temperatures |
| D．Oldest DNA reveals a 2 million-year-old ecosystem |
5 . Humans evolved from apes. This is what we learned in biology class. But what came before apes? Chinese scientists have discovered fossils that could enrich the evolutionary story of how humans evolved from fish.
According to four articles published in the journal Nature in late September, Chinese researchers found fish fossils that provide the “missing link” about the origin of the jaw, a key feature that 99.8 percent of vertebrate (脊椎动物) species have.
Zhu Min, a lead researcher of the studies from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the findings drew a large amount of interest in the science world due to the importance of jaws in animal evolution.
However, the rise of the jaw had been a mystery due to a lack of sufficient fossil evidence to support that jawed vertebrates lived 450 million years ago.
The latest findings made by Zhu’s team presented a set of five surprisingly well-preserved fish fossils that included three whole-bodied fish, helping scientists paint a more accurate evolutionary picture of the origin of the jaw. The fish fossils were discovered at two sites in Chongqing and Guizhou, whose strata (岩层) date back to the Silurian Period that began around 440 million years ago.
These fossils show that jawed fish were already thriving (繁荣) in the world’s ancient oceans at that time. Later on, more diverse and larger jawed fish evolved and began to spread around the world, paving the way for some fish to eventually go on land and evolve into other animals — including humans.
“These fossils provide an unprecedented (前所未有的) opportunity to peek into the ‘dawn of fish’ and help scientists trace many human body structures back to these ancient fish thus filling some key gaps in the evolutionary history of how fish evolved into humans,” Zhu said.
1. In which column of a magazine will you most probably read the passage?| A．Your Voice. | B．Animals. |
| C．Science Study. | D．History. |
| A．Because jaws are a key trait of all vertebrate species. |
| B．Because jaws are significant in animal evolution. |
| C．Because the rise of the jaw had been a mystery. |
| D．Because there is a lack of sufficient evidence. |
| A．Around 440 million years ago. |
| B．Around 450 million years ago. |
| C．When jawed fish began to spread around the world. |
| D．When fish evolved into humans. |
| A．Who Are Our Ancestors? | B．What Came Before Apes? |
| C．The Origin of the Jaw | D．Key Gaps in Evolution |
| A. minerals B. agriculture C. profitable D. available E. shortages F. celebrations G. immigrants H. increased I. population J. fashionable K. opened |
Chinese traders were recorded as making voyages to the north coast of Australia from the 1750s, but were probably visiting Australia long before. Chinese men arrived in Australia in small numbers after the 1788 British settlement as free settlers and criminals. A small population grew rapidly after 1848 under a system of indentured (契约的) labor, after China had
Indentured Chinese
Due to labor
Gold rushes in Victoria in the 1850s and New South Wales in the 1860s significantly
When mining became less
Today there is a culturally diverse Chinese
7 . For over a century, throwing a pie into someone’s face has been a comedy element, thanks in part to Keystone. Established in 1912 by director Mack Sennett, the studio had a hand in making pie-throwing common.
This phenomenon can be traced back before the earliest days of pre-1920s silent film. The fun of seeing an elegant dessert hit an actor, and watching them react with either anger or confusion, soon made its way to the screen. In 1913, Sennett’s “Fatty” launched the first such missile in a Keystone film. Soon, the studio became known for pie-throwing trick, and the high-flying desserts flew so freely that the studio needed its own bakery to make them.
The answer turned out to be right across the street. Sarah Brener owned a variety store there, but she also supplied the studio with its pies. Sometimes, they were delicious. Charlie Chaplin said that Brener’s pies were the best in town. But often, they had to be specially made for films. As pie fights in film grew more complicated, Brener’s bakery was soon making nothing else.
Filmmakers preferred custard (蛋奶沙司) pies for throwing. They were appropriately messy and, likely less painful than a cherry pie would be to the face. But by the time the 1920s rolled around, people had grown tired of them.
Widespread pie-throwing faded, but it didn’t die completely: Comedic films and animation alike have been peppered with pieing ever since, from Bugs Bunny to the Three Stooges. In 2015, a part of film history had been re-discovered: “The Battle of the Century”, where 3,000 pies sailed through the air. It was supposed to be the pie fight to end all others, but in 1965 the film “The Great Race” promised viewers “the greatest pie fight in history.” Thousands of real pies were used.
Now, the Keystone building is a storage facility, and Brener’s bakery is long gone. But the studio’s influence lives on in film, in the occasional throwing of a pie, and on a plate on the corner of the mere remaining building that reads:“This was the birthplace of the motion picture comedy.”
1. Which of the following is true about pie-throwing?| A．By1912 it had become surprisingly common. |
| B．The audience was angry or confused while seeing it. |
| C．It stimulated citizens’ great demand for pies. |
| D．Keystone contributes to its being part of a comedy. |
| A．changed its sales policy | B．specialized in making pies |
| C．sold a variety of food besides pies | D．made its pies famous nationwide |
| A．pie-throwing was no longer appealing |
| B．more pies are used in modern films than in silent ones |
| C．viewers are dissatisfied with seeing just one scene of pie-throwing |
| D．pie-throwing can still be found in some kind of films |
| A．The future development of comedic films. | B．The history of pie-throwing in films. |
| C．The fascinating past of Keystone. | D．The birthplace of motion picture comedies. |
8 . About a quarter of the world drives on the left, and the countries that do so are mostly old British colonies like Australia, and Ireland. But Thailand, Indonesia and Japan have also developed this habit.
This strange quirk puzzles the rest of the world; however, there is a perfectly good reason. Up to the late 1700s, everybody travelled on the left side of the road because it is the sensible option for violent, feudal societies of mostly right-handed people. Soldiers with their swords under their right arms naturally passed on each other’s right, and if you passed a stranger on the road, you walked on the left to ensure that your protective sword arm was between you and him.
Revolutionary France, however, did away with this practice as part of its sweeping social rethink, and thanks to Napoleon, this change was carried out all over continental Europe. Because he was left-handed, his armies had to march on the right so he could keep his sword arm between him and any opponent. From then on, any country colonized by the French took to driving on the right.
After the American Revolutionary War (1775 — 1783), the US became independent and decided to make traffic drive on the right in order to cut all remaining links to its British colonial past. Once America became the center of the car industry, if you wanted a good reliable vehicle, you bought American right-hand-drive. From then on, many countries changed out of necessity.
Today, the EU would like Britain to fall into line with the rest of Europe, but this is no longer possible. It would cost billions of pounds to change everything round. The last European country to convert to driving on the right was Sweden in 1967. This ironically caused a reduction in car accidents because everyone drove carefully while getting used to the new system.
1. Why did people travel on the left before the late 18th century?| A．They were required to do so. | B．They were mostly left-landed. |
| C．It was easier to cross the street. | D．They could feel safer from attacks. |
| A．Support. | B．Disapproval. | C．Doubt. | D．Indifference. |
| A．the connection with France was broken | B．the US was no longer ruled by the UK |
| C．the American Revolution War had ended | D．America was the center of the car industry |
| A．It would cost too much to change. | B．Its increasing traffic accidents. |
| C．Its influence on colonies. | D．Its fast-developing car industry. |
| A．Britain |
| B．France |
| C．Spain |
| D．American |
| A．St. Augustine was destroyed by the hurricanes in 2017. |
| B．American became in charge of St. Augustine in 1821. |
| C．The United Kingdom is the real owner of St. Augustine now. |
| D．The visitors do not like to see the coastal views there. |
| A．The extraordinary history of St. Augustine. |
| B．The hardships St. Augustine once suffered. |
| C．The popular coastal tourism of St. Augustine. |
| D．The beautiful architecture and scenery in St. Augustine. |
10 . In 1888 an Egyptian farmer digging in the sand near the village of Istabl Antar uncovered a mass grave. The bodies weren't human. They were feline-ancient cats that had been mummified（木乃伊化的）and buried in holes in astonishing numbers. "Not one or two here and there", reported English Illustrated Magazine, "but dozens, hundreds, hundreds of thousands, a layer of them, a layer thicker than most coal joints, ten to twenty cats deep." Some of the linen-wrapped cats still looked presentable, and a few even had golden faces. Village children peddled the best ones to tourists for change; the rest were disposed of as fertilizer. One ship transported about 180,000, weighing some 38, 000 pounds, to Liverpool to be spread on the fields of England.
Those were the days of generously funded explorations-that dragged through acres of desert in their quest for royal tombs, and for splendid gold and painted masks to decorate the estates and museums of Europe and America. The many thousands of mummified animals that turned up at religious sites throughout Egypt were just things to be cleared away to get at the good stuff. Few people studied them, and their importance was generally unrecognized.
In the century since then, archaeology has become less of a treasure hunt and more of a science. Archaeologists now realize that much of their sites' wealth lies in the majority of details about ordinary folks-what they did, what they thought, how they prayed. And animal mummies are a big part of that.
"They're really displays of daily life," says Egyptologist Salima Ikram. After peering beneath bandages with x-rays and cataloguing her findings, she created a gallery for the collection-a bridge between people today and those of long ago. "You look at these mummified animals, and suddenly you say, "Oh, King So-and-So had a pet". I have a pet. And instead of being at a distance of 5,000-plus years, the ancient Egyptians become clearer and closer to us."
1. Which of the following words has the closest meaning to "peddled"（paragraph 1）？| A．Presented | B．sold |
| C．illustrated | D．introduced |
| A．People put great value on the majority of details about ancient people. |
| B．Animal mummies could be made into fertilizer which is very valuable. |
| C．It was hard to find animal mummies since they were buried under dirt. |
| D．People sought the remains of ancient Egypt merely for their material value. |
| A．She wishes to establish the continuity of pets over history. |
| B．She believes that studying the remains can help modern society relate to the past. |
| C．She wants to identify the King's personal belongings and catalogue them. |
| D．She doubts if current society will understand the significance of Egyptian remains |
| A．value the past by studying the remains left behind by our ancestors |
| B．make full use of the remains our ancestors have left behind |
| C．understand that animal mummies are more important than gold and masks |
| D．become more sensitive to the ancient lifestyle of our ancestors |
