A global group of scientists have reduced the time it takes to find and introduce disease-resistance genes from wild plants into domestic crops such as rice, wheat and potato, a research revealed on Tuesday.
Scientists from the John Innes Center in Britain, along with colleagues from Australia and the United States, have created a database known as AgRenSeq, where researchers can easily search for resistance genes already discovered in wild relatives of modern crops.
The study was co-authored by a global expert Professor HarbansBariana from the University of Sydney, who said that this technology will support the discovery and characterization of new sources of disease resistance in plants. Once researchers have identified resistance genes using AgRenSeq, they can clone them and introduce them to domestic crops to protect against diseases and pests,
“We have found a way to scan the genome(基因组)of a wild relative of a crop plant and pick out the resistance genes we need and we can do it in record time,” Dr. Brande Wulff, a project leader from the John Innes Centre, said.
“This used to be a process that took l0 Or 15 years and was like searching for a needle in a haystack(干草堆),” Wulff said. “We have perfected the method so that we can clone these genes in a matter of months and for just thousands of dollars instead of millions.”
The team are highly optimistic about their work, predicting it to be utilized in protecting many crops with wild relatives including soybeans, pea, cotton, potato, wheat, rice, banana and cocoa. “Using speed cloning and speed breeding we could deliver resistance genes into the best varieties within a couple of years, like a phoenix(凤凰) rising from the ashes,” Wulff added.
1.How have the researchers developed the resistance genes?
A.By reducing the research time.
B.By introducing them to wild plants.
C.By cloning them from domestic crops.
D.By getting resistance genes from wild plants.
2.What will be the use of the study in the future?
A.It will protect crops from being damaged by pests.
B.It will create a database for researchers to search.
C.It will protect domestic crops for 10 to 15 years.
D.It will contribute to reducing the wild plants.
3.Which of the following best explains “utilized” underlined in Paragraph 6?
A.Produced. B.Made.
C.Used. D.Studied.
4.What can we infer from what Brande Wulff said?
A.The resistance genes cost millions of dollars.
B.The resistance genes were found in a haystack.
C.It took the researchers ten years to find the resistance genes.
D.Disease-resistance genes will be put into practice soon.
Arthur Phillip High School, located in Parramatta, New South Wales (NSW), Australia, will be NSW’s first public high-rise high school. When it opens, the school will be different from anything else we’ve got across the system.
Students will eat lunch in courtyards overlooking city rooftops, before continuing their lessons in sound-proofed music rooms, science labs or atriums ( 中 庭 ) with eight metre-high ceilings. The specialty rooms, such as science labs, will be on the top floors. There will be large lifts, but students will be encouraged to use the stairs. There will be a gym, a play ground and play space on each floor.
The building will be run more like an office block than a traditional school, with a plant room used for the operation of the sprinklers（洒水装置）, air conditioning and elevator systems. In addition, people will be seen cleaning the windows while students are studying.
“We’re going to have to get kids used to that,” said Sylvia Corish, an executive director of school performance for the NSW Department of Education. “That’s going to be a unique experience.”
“This is a very different concept,” said the chief executive of School Infrastructure NSW, Anthony Manning. “While it has been challenging at times, the end product is going to be really amazing and impressive.”
“I am very surprised and happy to see how creative this learning space will be for students in the Parramatta region for years to come,” Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said.
The Herald visited the new high school, as construction of the ambitious project enters its final phase and students at the original school across the road prepare to begin testing its state-of-the-art facilities. In the next few months, students and teachers will visit the school to help ensure a smooth transition （过渡）. “It will be a matter of testing how people can move around the building,” Mr Manning said.
1.How’s the school in appearance?
A.It looks like an office building. B.It is like a traditional school.
C.It’s surrounded by green plants. D.It consists of different buildings.
2.How did Sarah Mitchel feel about the new school?
A.Amazed and impressed. B.Surprised and doubtful.
C.Delighted and astonished. D.Happy and satisfied.
3.Which might be a challenge?
A.Moving the original school from across the road.
B.Getting the students accustomed to the new situation.
C.Providing the students with more space for studying.
D.Encouraging the students to use the stairs instead of the lift.
4.What’s the best title for the passage?
A.NSW’s First Public High-rise High School
B.A New School that Overlook City Roofs
C.The Construction and System of a New School
D.A Unique Experience for High School Students
While every dog owner knows their dogs can read their moods perfectly, scientists have always been a little doubtful. Now thanks to some researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, we finally have some convincing evidence.
For this study, biologist Corson Miller and his team exposed eleven selected dogs to digital images of women that were either angry or happy. Half the dogs were rewarded for touching the screen when shown a happy face, while the other half were given their treat for selecting those that appeared angry.
Interestingly, the dogs were not provided with the entire face. Some dogs were shown only upper halves while the others observed lower halves. That’s because the scientists believe humans show their eruptions on their entire face.
After some training on how to recognize small differences like the wrinkles between the eyes or the changes in their shape that accompany the happy or angry expressions, the dogs were mostly able to identify the correct expression not only on a familiar face but on a strange face, the researchers concluded the dogs were smart enough to read human emotions.
They also found those being trained to read angry expressions took a longer time to learn. They guess it may be because dogs find angry faces disgusting, causing them to back away quickly. However, once the smart dogs realized they were getting rewarded, the trepidation seemed to disappear. In fact, the dogs had such a good time playing the computer “game” that scientists had a hard time keeping them away from the touch screens after the study was completed.
The researchers also noticed only dogs with a male owner had a harder time understanding the expressions correctly. Since the touched screen models were all females, this confirmed what had been observed in previous studies—dogs are more efficient at reading facial expressions of people that are the same gender as their owner.
1.How did the scientists conduct the experiment?
A.By mixing the selected dogs together.
B.By rewarding only half of the dogs touching the screen.
C.By leaving dogs to women who are either happy or angry.
D.By showing digital pictures of women’s happy or angry faces.
2.What is the meaning of the underlined word “trepidation” in Paragraph 5?
A.fear and hesitation B.doubt and uncertainty
C.curiosity and eagerness D.excitement and happiness
3.According to the last paragraph, dogs with female owners ________.
A.are scared away at the male faces
B.can only read the expressions on partial faces
C.are uninterested in telling facial expressions
D.have difficulty telling the moods on the faces of males
4.What is the best title for this passage?
A.Dogs and Their Owners B.Dogs’ Mood Research
C.Dogs Identify the Moods D.Mood Changes Influence Dogs
I’m learning to drive in Switzerland. I think it will be a good idea to learn now, because I have plenty of free time and I have earned a little money to pay for lessons. I never learnt when I lived in the UK, so luckily driving on the “wrong” side isn’t a problem.
However, there are a lot of rules to remember. When you see a road to your right and there are no white lines on the ground, the cars to your right have the right to go before your car and you have to stop for them. In practice, lots of people forget this and either wait for each other while both drivers try to remember what to do, or beep (鸣喇叭) at each other if both try to go at the same time!
When you drive round a roundabout, you should check all your mirrors. To remember how to do this, I often count them aloud—one, two, three—then a second glance at my blind spot when I’m in the roundabout. One friend came driving with me and after about an hour asked why on earth I was counting. He had passed his test so long ago,but he couldn’t remember ever having to check three mirrors!
Driving still seems scary to me so I drive quite slowly. I also don’t know the countryside roads very well and don’t know what’s coming up round the corner or over the next hill. I drive slowly so I feel safe, but my driving instructor tells me to speed up or cars will bump into me from behind when trying to drive through a dangerous place. So driving slowly is just as dangerous as driving fast!
I’m not a very practical person, so learning to drive has been a challenge. I don’t have a lot of confidence and find it quite demotivating to do something that doesn’t come naturally to me. To make driving more fun and interesting, I learn in Swiss German, so my instructor gives me instructions in Swiss. This way I’ve tricked myself into enjoying driving and hopefully I will pass the test!
1.What can be inferred from the first paragraph?
A.It isn’t a proper time for the author to take driving lessons now.
B.Driving on the “wrong” side doesn’t influence the author.
C.The author is too poor to pay for driving lessons in Switzerland.
D.It is easy for the author to get confused about the driving rules in Switzerland.
2.Why does the author often counts “one, two, three” aloud when driving round a round about?
A.to remind himself to check the mirrors B.to speed up
C.to drive through a dangerous place D.to make driving more interesting
3.What does the underlined word “demotivating” in the last paragraph mean?
A.Encouraging. B.Amazing.
C.Exciting. D.Discouraging.
假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。 上周，你和同学们参加了朝阳区组织的“三大战疫 有我有你”海报设计活动。请根据以下四幅图的先后顺序，写一篇英文周记，记述整个过程。
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假设你是红星中学高三学生李华。你的英国朋友Jim在给你的邮件中提到他想看一个关于中国文化方面的展览，并请你推荐。请给他回信，内容包括：
1. 介绍展览的相关内容（例如：时间、地点、主题等）；
2. 说明你推荐该展览的原因；
3. 询问对方的意向。
注意：1. 词数不少于50；
2. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Jim,
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Yours,
Li Hua
