阅读下面短文，在空白处填入 1 个适当的单词或括号内单词的正确形式。
Looking out of the window of his Ford truck, Bob Fitzgerald sees large, undesirable plants growing in the fields.1.(visitor) to his neighborhood in Princess Anne, Maryland 2.(main) see dying forests and empty farmland.
Fitzgerald says the land3.(be) in his family for over 3 centuries. “I’d say in the next 20 years. You’re going to lose4.very high percentage of that land.”
The land around the Chesapeake Bay has been sinking for hundreds of years. But climate change is making things5.(bad). As sea level rises, salt water is entering rivers and other waterways. As a result, the ground is becoming too salty for crops6.(grow) on.
Maryland’s Eastern Shore is home to some of the oldest farms in North America. Fitzgerald says he has seen big changes during his life.
“You just can’t believe7.it’s been taking things over in the last 15 or 20 years. I can show you land around here that people raised tomatoes on when I was a little boy. And now it’s gone.”
Around the world, scientists warn that coastal farms are under8.(threaten) from rising seas and salt water. A World Bank report estimates rice production in coastal areas of Bangladesh may fall9.15 percent by the year 2050. Another study found hundreds of millions of people will10.(force) to move inland because of rising waters.
The residents of Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin are no strangers to wild turkeys. However, Smoke, a turkey that has been living in the town since spring this year, is_____. The bird runs after_________vehicles, and “controls”__________flow by parking himself in the middle of the road. He is also known to boldly____residents and shout at them, as though saying____to them.
Though the bird can be somewhat annoying at times, the____have grown to love their resident wild turkey. Those who commonly kept to themselves are forming____after Smoke’s arrival, using the new common pet as an ice breaker to start a____.
To show their_______, the residents recently named Smoke the town’s honorary mayor, and______a Facebook page “Smoke Turkey-Mayor of Ashwaubenon” to________the growing fans to keep up with the bird’s antics(滑稽动作).
Randy Tews is well aware of Smoke’s____. He says, “I think some residents will be ___to see him go. He’s brought so many smiles to people’s faces here. And this turkey is ___traffic for people on their way to work, and it gives them something to cheer about.”
However, people are_______that Smoke’s rising popularity will result in road accidents as distracted drivers try to take a_______or two. There is also the danger of a traffic jam caused by drivers______stepping on their brakes to avoid hitting the bird, which regularly______ around on busy roads.
Despite months of trying, all_______to catch and take Smoke to a nearby wildlife rescue station have proved______. The turkey seems to love the residents, unwilling to leave the town.
1.A.common B.smart C.wild D.unique
2.A.flying B.moving C.resting D.working
3.A.information B.water C.traffic D.air
4.A.approach B.escape C.attack D.scare
5.A.sorry B.hello C.yes D.no
6.A.fans B.birds C.locals D.cleaners
7.A.classes B.visions C.bonds D.shapes
8.A.conversation B.project C.business D.club
9.A.attitude B.view C.affection D.talent
10.A.gave up B.made up C.put up D.set up
11.A.force B.allow C.require D.beg
12.A.reality B.possibility C.ability D.popularity
13.A.sad B.delighted C.annoyed D.excited
14.A.monitoring B.directing C.changing D.recording
15.A.afraid B.proud C.sorry D.sure
16.A.rest B.photo C.step D.turn
17.A.gently B.heavily C.specially D.suddenly
18.A.jumps B.jogs C.wanders D.lies
19.A.attempts B.struggles C.challenges D.tricks
20.A.unfair B.unusual C.uneasy D.unsuccessful
Music makes you more creative.1., they come up with more creative solutions, according to researchers. It may be because music improves your brain’s flexibility. Another reason may be that it relaxes you enough for the creative juices to flow. But don’t play music too loudly.
Music can help during surgery. 2.. After surgery, it helps reduce pain. An analysis of 73 studies confirmed that listening to music before, during or after surgery reduces anxiety and pain levels, which in turn means less pain medication.
3. Studies have found that when you’re running, biking or walking, you’ll go farther with music on. Music relieves your discomfort and motivates you to stay on. The effect is so obviously great that the author of a review examining the psychological effects of music on exercise called music “a type of legal performance-improvement drug”.
Music aids sleep. Listening to music before bed can help you fall asleep faster and wake up less often during the night. 4.. In one study, seniors with sleep problems who listened to 45 minutes of soft slow music before bed reported a 35 percent improvement in their sleep.
Music gets you to ignore the passing of time. Scientists have shown repeatedly that people judge a period of waiting shorter when music is playing. Businessmen use that to their advantage, playing music so you stay longer and spend more. For instance, more drinks and food are sold in bars and restaurants when music is played. 5., grocery sales increase by 38 percent.
A.In this case, you’ll feel more relaxed in the morning
B.And if the background music is slow
C.Then you play a piece of brief music
D.When people listen to happy music than when they sit in silence
E.When music is played varying from a tune to another
F.Music makes you get rid of the idea of quitting a workout
G.Listening to music before surgery has been shown to ease anxiety
Humans really do have a sixth sense that lets us detect magnetic fields (磁场), but we’re not aware we have it. It has long been known as ESP, Spider Sense, or the ability to see things before they happen. But now scientists have proved that humans really do have a sixth sense-that lets them detect magnetic fields. Tests have shown that mankind may have the same inborn sense of Earth’s magnetic field that has long been proved to exist in animals.
By putting a protein from the human retina (视网膜) into fruit flies, researchers noticed that the insect adjusted its flight path just as if its eye had not been changed. This suggests that the “sixth sense” does exist in humans but we might not be aware of it. Animals use such sight to navigate long distances during migration or, in the case of birds, to “see” where they are going. The complex tests involved examining the process by which light goes through a bird’s eye, which has interested the scientific community for more than 30 years. In the late 1970s, the physicist Klaus Schulten concluded that birds fly by relying on geomagnetically (地磁) sensitive biochemical reactions in their eyes.
Tests have shown that the special cells in the eye carry out this function using the protein cryptochrome (蛋白隐色素). Professor Reppert’s team used wild fruit flies, replacing their version of cryptochrome with the human equivalent (等价物), and then put them in a maze (迷宫) with each wing wrapped in a metal coil (金属圈). They then sent electricity through it so that the coil was magnetised in a way which is just like Earth’s electromagnetic field (电磁场). The flies responded in exactly the same way as if they had their own cryptochrome, by either avoiding the magnetic fields or moving towards them if the researchers had placed sugar nearby.
The new study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
1.What do we know about humans’ sixth sense?
A.Humans have been aware of it since ancient times.
B.It is quite different from the animals’.
C.It is the ability to predict what will happen.
D.It is also a sense developed after birth.
2.Why did researchers put a protein from the human retina into fruit flies?
A.To change fruit flies’ flight path.
B.To test if humans have a sixth sense.
C.To examine the process of birds’ flying.
D.To allow researchers detect magnetic fields.
3.What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A.the maze B.each wing
C.cryptochrome D.the metal coil
4.After being replaced the cryptochrome, how are the wild fruit flies?
A.They responded normally as if there had been nothing changed.
B.They couldn’t avoid the magnetic fields like before.
C.They lost the sense of direction completely.
D.They couldn’t find the sugar the researchers had placed nearby.
Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech developed an artificially intelligent teaching assistant to help handle the enormous number of student questions in the online class, Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn’t enough to deal with the overwhelming number of daily questions from students.
Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support. When students feel ignored or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered, their motivation to continue begins to taper off. Professor Goel decided to do something to improve this situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson.
Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn’t too great. But Goel and his team sourced the online discussion forum to find all the 40,000 questions that had ever been asked since the class was launched. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustments and sufficient time, Jill was able to answer the students’ questions correctly 97% of the time. The virtual assistant became so advanced and realistic that the students didn’t know she was a computer. The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn’t tell it apart from a real human being. Goel didn’t inform them about Jill’s true identity until April 26. The students were actually very positive about the experience.
The goal of Professor Goel’s virtual assistant next year is to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. Professor Goel has a much rosier outlook on the future of artificial intelligence.
1.What problem did Professor Goel meet with?
A.Students’ questions were too many to deal with.
B.Teaching assistants were not professional at all.
C.Many students were lack of interest in his class.
D.He felt confused about how to teach online.
2.Which of the following best explains the underlined phrase in Paragraph 2?
A.grow dramatically B.increase sharply
C.decrease gradually D.decline unreasonably
3.What do we learn about Jill Watson?
A.She could answer all questions without mistakes.
B.She turned out to be a great success.
C.Her performance was remarkable all the way.
D.Her true identity was still a secret to students.
4.What’s the main idea of the text?
A.A robot gives an online course.
B.Virtual assistant is getting popular in school.
C.Robots will replace humans in online classes.
D.One Georgia Tech’s teaching assistant isn’t human.
Nicole Ihus’s son John Henry was born last month with a life-threatening disease. Nicole and her husband, who live in Kansas City, contacted doctors from Minnesota and Missouri in hopes of finding a doctor who could treat John Henry for the condition, but to no avail. Luckily, Nicole managed to get in contact with the “best doctor in the world for this condition” at Johns Hopkins All Children’s in St. Petersburg, Florida, so she traveled all the way to the Sunshine State to give her newborn son a fighting chance.
After John Henry was into the ICU, Nicole felt alone in the new state, although she knew that she had to leave her son’s side in order to buy him some new clothes. Upon ordering an Uber ride to the nearby Rhea Lana children’s clothing store, she was picked up by a woman named Belinda.
Shortly after Nicole got into Belinda’s car, the new mother couldn’t help talking about her heartbreaking circumstances.
“She told me her story,” Belinda said. “She was in tears a couple of times and I really felt for her.” Rather than simply dropping Nicole off at the store, however, Belinda parked the car and insisted on accompanying her passenger into the store so she could treat John Henry to new clothes. Needless to say, Nicole was filled with gratitude.
Nicole said, “For this stranger to go completely out of her way - stop what she was doing and stop making money- to come be with me for a couple of hours while we shopped together, that was just incredible.” As Nicole cares for her newborn son and raises money for his medical conditions, she hopes to introduce the Uber driver to her son as a thank you for her compassionate gesture.
1.Why did the new mother have to travel to Florida?
A.Her husband worked there.
B.She wanted to have a baby there.
C.Her sick son might get cured there.
D.She wanted to find a cheap hospital there.
2.What did Belinda do to comfort Nicole?
A.Drop her off at the hospital.
B.Accompany her while shopping.
C.Make friends with her son.
D.Buy new clothes for her.
3.How did Nicole feel about what Belinda had done for her?
A.Grateful and astonished.
B.Shocked and disappointed.
C.Worried and embarrassed.
D.Puzzled and regretful.
4.Which can be the best title for the text?
A.An unforgettable experience.
B.A heroic helper around you.
C.A special shopping experience.
D.An unexpected kindness.
