1 . Some people think that all wild animals are dangerous. Actually, very few of them will attack a man if he leaves them alone. If you met a lion or an elephant, I suppose you would run away; but even a lion will keep away from a man unless it is very hungry. Lions and tigers only kill and eat men when they have grown too old and too weak to catch their usual food, such as deer and other small animals. If you saw a wild elephant, perhaps you would be frightened. Elephants usually run away at once unless you attack them. Some animals get very frightened if they only smell a man; some take no notice at all but quietly walk in another direction. Wild animals only attack hunters when they are afraid that the hunters mean to harm their young ones, or then the hunters shoot at them and make them angry.
1. Lions and tigers will not kill or eat men ____________A.unless men try to run away | B.if they are too old and too weak |
C.if they are able to get enough food | D.however men act towards them |
A.when they grow old | B.if they are left alone |
C.while they are looking for food | D.when their young ones are in danger |
A.how to protect wild animals | B.how animals look for their food |
C.how to make friends with wild animals | D.how animals act towards men |
2 . 听下面一段较长对话,回答以下小题。
1. Why did Tracy bring dogs to the children?A.To teach them to love animals. |
B.To help them gain confidence. |
C.To protect them from dangers. |
A.They may misbehave. |
B.They may get hurt. |
C.They may carry diseases. |
A.Give a talk. | B.Meet the children. | C.Take some photos. |
3 . How does an ecosystem (生态系统) work? What makes the populations of different species the way they are? Why are there so many flies and so few wolves? To find an answer, scientists have built mathematical models of food webs, noting who eats whom and how much each one eats.
With such models, scientists have found out some key principles operating in food webs. Most food webs, for instance, consist of many weak links rather than a few strong ones. When a predator (掠食动物) always eats huge numbers of a single prey (猎物), the two species are strongly linked; when a predator lives on various species, they are weakly linked. Food webs may be dominated by many weak links because that arrangement is more stable over the long term. If a predator can eat several species, it can survive the extinction (灭绝) of one of them. And if a predator can move on to another species that is easier to find when a prey species becomes rare, the switch allows the original prey to recover. The weak links may thus keep species from driving one another to extinction.
Mathematical models have also revealed that food webs may be unstable, where small changes of top predators can lead to big effects throughout entire ecosystems. In the 1960s, scientists proposed that predators at the top of a food web had a surprising amount of control over the size of populations of other species—including species they did not directly attack.
And unplanned human activities have proved the idea of top-down control by top predators to be true. In the ocean, we fished for top predators such as cod on an industrial scale, while on land, we killed off large predators such as wolves. These actions have greatly affected the ecological balance.
Scientists have built an early-warning system based on mathematical models. Ideally, the system would tell us when to adapt human activities that are pushing an ecosystem toward a breakdown or would even allow us to pull an ecosystem back from the borderline. Prevention is key, scientists say, because once ecosystems pass their tipping point (临界点), it is remarkably difficult for them to return.
1. What have scientists discovered with the help of mathematical models of food webs?A.The living habits of species in food webs. |
B.The rules governing food webs of the ecosystems. |
C.The approaches to studying the species in the ecosystems. |
D.The differences between weak and strong links in food webs. |
A.has a wide food choice |
B.can easily find new prey |
C.sticks to one prey species |
D.can quickly move to another place |
4 . My family always had some sort of animal around, but none of them were truly mine. My parents didn’t permit me to
Every Friday I would clean out his bowl. I found myself
One day, I came home from school and headed to my room to
My mom walked into my room. I turned around as tears started to well in my eyes. “Mommy, George d…d…died.” With that
Suddenly, I realized that George hadn’t just
A.draw | B.imagine | C.have | D.share |
A.doubtful | B.excited | C.surprised | D.afraid |
A.toy | B.mind | C.time | D.pet |
A.take care of | B.make use of | C.get hold of | D.look forward to |
A.reading out | B.putting away | C.turning down | D.showing off |
A.replaced | B.recognized | C.affected | D.needed |
A.feed | B.save | C.impress | D.find |
A.basic | B.terrible | C.funny | D.familiar |
A.dropped | B.emptied | C.hid | D.checked |
A.common | B.last | C.extra | D.new |
A.left | B.reminded | C.defeated | D.chosen |
A.preference | B.independence | C.difficulty | D.responsibility |
A.safe | B.good | C.sorry | D.tired |
A.agreement | B.treatment | C.disappointment | D.achievement |
A.Otherwise | B.Besides | C.However | D.Therefore |
5 . The fruit-tree pinhole borer (针孔蛀虫), as its name implies, makes holes in fruit trees. It lays its eggs and raises its young in the galleries thus created . Yet the beetles (甲虫) do not feed directly on the wood they bore into. Instead, they devour fungi (真菌) that grow on the wood thus exposed.
Researchers have long suspected that this is a form of farming, because they have evidence that the beetles carry spores (孢子) of their preferred crop, R. sulphurea, into their smallholdings—in effect, sowing it there.
Observations of natural fruit-tree pinhole-bore r dwellings suggest that R. sulphurea grows in them more abundantly (大量地) than might be expected, given all the fungal competition around—but not why. To check whether the beetles are, indeed, weeding their crop, Janina Diehl and Peter Biedermann of the University of Freiburg did an experiment.
In the laboratory, they had mother beetles of the little wood bore restablish nests, in which the typical fungal gardens formed. But before the beetles had started laying their eggs, they collected all of the beetles and then returned half to their dwellings while leaving the other nests empty. Genetic analysis of the fungal gardens after 40 days showed that the presence of the beetles had greatly changed the fungal community. Twenty days after that, they sampled the gallery walls for fungi.
As they had hoped and expected, R. sulphurea was much more abundant in beetle-tended galleries than in those without residents. In the former, it made up half of the fungal mass extracted. In the latter, less than a third. These beetles are indeed weeding their crop.
“Further research into how exactly the beetles suppress the growth of weed fungi could alsoprovide worthwhile insights for human agriculture, which is struggling with weed resistance, for example,” says Biedermann. “It’s highly exciting for us to see how nature has been doing this for 60 million years. We humans can still learn something from these mechanisms.”
1. What does the underlined word “devour” in paragraph 1 mean?A.Sow. | B.Tend. | C.Eat. | D.Move. |
A.The number of the mother beetles. | B.The presence of the beetles. |
C.The quality of food fungi. | D.The types of weed fungi. |
A.They weed crops. | B.They feed on fruit. |
C.They live in groups. | D.They lay eggs in trees. |
A.The research findings are of little value. |
B.Measures should be taken to protect the beetles. |
C.Fungi cause much damage to human agriculture. |
D.Further research to the beetles might benefit farmers. |
6 . Baleen whales (须鲸), such as the blue whale, are huge sea animals. “Baleen” describes a filter-feeding (滤食的) system in their mouths through which they can eat huge numbers of very small ocean animals. But it appears now that whales are not the first sea animals to filter-feed.
Scientists recently reported their findings about the ancient remains of a sea animal called Hupehsuchus nanchangensis that lived 248 million years ago, during the Triassic Period. They say its fossil (化石), which was unearthed in China’s Hubei Province, presents evidence of a filter-feeding system similar to that of baleen whales.
Unlike blue whales, Hupehsuchus was not large. The animal measured about one meter long. Its mouth was narrow and toothless. Its lower jaw was loosely connected to the rest of the head bone. This permitted the animal to open its mouth wide to take in a large amount of water and the animals it carried. The structure traps little sea animals but lets the seawater flow out.
From two new fossils with well-kept head bones the scientists found evidence along the jaws suggesting the presence of soft tissue s that could have served as baleen. “We were amazed to discover the adaptation in such an early sea animal,” said Fang Zichen of the Wuhan Center of China Geological Survey.
Paleontologist Mike Benton said, “Altogether, this points to a soft pocket of skin around the mouth and throat, as in modern baleen whales, and some kind of filtering device hanging from the jaws, like baleen.” But, he added, the baleen and skin were not fossilized.
According to scientists, Hupehsuchus’ feeding style would match that used by baleen whales. This feeding structure is an example of a phenomenon in which distinct organisms independently evolve similar features—like the wings of birds and bats—to adapt to similar environments.
1. Why are baleen whales mentioned in the first paragraph?A.To present another sea animal. | B.To awaken curiosity about huge whales. |
C.To draw attention to their current state. | D.To introduce their unique feeding pattern. |
A.How it filter-fed. | B.Its lower jaw's function. |
C.Why it grew toothless. | D.Its physical characteristics. |
A.Baleen surrounded the jaws. | B.It could feed and live in the sea. |
C.It developed a filter-feeding system. | D.Two undamaged head bones were found. |
A.Hupehsuchus Proving to Be a Filter-feeder |
B.Hupehsuchus Appearing Earlier than Whales |
C.Scientists Unlocking the Secrets of Hupehsuchus |
D.New Evidence Telling Hupehsuchus'Evolution |
A.Their neighbor. | B.A pet. | C.Their friend. |
8 . 听下面一段较长对话,回答以下小题。
1. What was the weather like in the town in the past week?A.Hot and dry. | B.Cool and dry. | C.Hot and wet. |
A.They run into people. | B.They bite people. | C.They attack animals. |
A.The food waste. | B.The street lights. | C.The warm sunlight. |
A.Successful. | B.Worrying. | C.Unpleasant. |
9 . 阅读下面材料,根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段,使之构成一篇完整的短文。
“Izzy,” Letty cries. “I need a favor.” Letty’s my best friend. “A favor” for her always turns into more. Like last time I agreed to babysit “a few kids”, and we got surrounded by twenty babies. So I ask, “What’s it?” “Crestview Shelter’s got too many animals,” she explains. “I was hoping you could keep some at your empty stable (马厩) for a while.” “No. You know I’m teaching riding lessons. I don’t have time to care for them,” I reply immediately. “I just need the space. Please,” she begs. I can’t refuse anymore. “Okay. But cats only. No dogs.” “Why?” she asks.
“Tiger.” As her name, our mouser (捕鼠猫) Tiger is the queen here, and considers the stable hers. She’ll tolerate cats, but dogs? “A neighbor’s dog wandered on the driveway once, which is close to the stable, and Tiger nearly tore his ears off,” I explain. “No dogs,” agrees Letty. “I’ll bring them tomorrow morning.”
That afternoon, Mom tells me a horse arrives to board. Horse boarding is part of our stable’s business. I hurry over only to see a huge black horse. I couldn’t see over his back. Dad waves me over. “Ms. Heidt and her horse, Titan.” I pat Titan. He doesn’t respond. “He must be tired,” I say, noting his lifeless eyes.
“Actually, he’s been like this for weeks since his partner Kerrick suddenly died. They were inseparable, and now...” Ms. Heidt says. “The animal doctor says it’s not good for him to be alone. ” “Titan’s sure to make friends here,” I tell Ms. Heidt. She hands me his lead and says, “Titan’s big, but he’s a gentleman.” She’s right. Titan follows quietly when I take him away. Horses in the stable notice Titan at once, but they hang back. There’s no interaction.
At about 9 am the next day, Letty and the animals come. As we unload the cats, a spotted dog jumps out. “What?” I shout. “I’m sorry, Izzy,” Letty says. “The staff members there insist we should give Buddy the dog a chance, so... ” ROWR! A sound interrupts her. Tiger rushes to Buddy. We hurry to get something to stop her. But suddenly we find there’s no sign of Buddy. Letty hangs her head. “I’m sorry ——” I accept her apology and we keep seeking Buddy.
注意:
1. 续写词数应为150左右;
2. 请按如下格式作答。
“Izzy, look!” she points toward Titan worriedly.
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Ms. Heidt tears up when she knows the friendship between Titan and Buddy.
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10 . 听下面一段较长对话,回答以下小题。
1. What is the man’s advice?A.Getting a cat from a neighbor. |
B.Buying a cat from a pet store. |
C.Getting a cat from the rescue centre. |
A.By meeting a cat owner. | B.By calling the rescue centre. | C.Through the Internet. |
A.Orange. | B.White. | C.Brown. |