Is there anybody out there? For centuries human beings have been wondering. As we've gained greater understanding of the universe, however, our searches have taken on a more concrete form. Questions about aliens have become a subject for science rather than science fiction and philosophy.
Now a new cooperation(合作)between the Very Large Array observatory in New Mexico and the privately funded Seti Institute in California could mean that our curiosity about aliens is closer than ever before to being satisfied. Data from the VLA's 28 giant radio telescopes will be fed through a special supercomputer that will search for distant signals. Scientists who work at the Seti Institute said the announcement means their research is now “almost mainstream".
How likely it is that a signal will be found, and what this might mean, are hard questions to answer. Seti's existing projects haven't detected any life signals from other planets so far. But recent discoveries in space and Earth sciences have provided some encouragement to those who are enthusiastic about the likelihood, however remote, of detecting other civilizations.
While once it was thought that our solar system could be unique, since the discovery of the first exoplanet (a planet in another solar system) in the 1990s, thousands more have been located(确定位置). Around one in five stars are now thought to have a planet in their orbit in a so-called “habitable zone"—that is at a distance from the star where the temperature(neither too hot nor too cold) means that life is theoretically feasible.
If there is another life form somewhere, could it be as intelligent as us? Or cause a risk to us, as the physicist Stephen Hawking once warned? As investigations of Mars continue, our interest in the possibility of alien life appears clear—especially when conditions in our own earth appear even more unstable.
1.What can we learn from the first two paragraphs?
A.Global cooperation helps to study aliens.
B.Searching for aliens is becoming a trend.
C.Aliens have caught wide attention globally.
D.There are many uncertainties about aliens study.
2.What is the encouraging news to searchers for distant civilizations?
A.VLA has developed new radio telescopes.
B.Seti has detected signals from other planets.
C.More and more exoplanets have been found.
D.Other civilizations have been located in a habitable zone.
3.What does the underlined word “feasible" in paragraph 4 most probably mean?
A.Possible. B.Tough.
C.Easy. D.Certain.
4.In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?
A.Literature. B.Health.
C.Education. D.Science.
When there’s a heat wave, ocean temperatures rise. That heat causes coral reefs (珊瑚礁) to lose their color, which shows the corals are dying. Fish then leave, and without the fish activity, reefs fall silent. A new study finds playing the sounds of a healthy reef can attract fish back to dead or dying areas. Indeed, those sounds could help bring a reef back to life.
Tim Gordon, a biologist at the University of Exeter in England, studies the effect of sound on sea animals. He and his research group “felt surprised at so many different sounds you can hear on a healthy reef”. They were shocked by how quiet the reefs became as they died. That got them wondering: Could sound help renew dying reefs by attracting fish?
So Gordon used pieces of dead coral to create small patches (小块) of reefs along the Great Barrier Reef. He placed them at least 25 meters from each other and from other reefs. Gordon left eleven patches alone. These served as his controls. He set up a loudspeaker around another eleven patches. The speakers played healthy reef sounds. The last eleven patches served as a different type of control. They got a set-up that looked like the loudspeaker but played no sound.
Fish arrived at all three types of patches. But they showed up more quickly at the ones that had sound. Besides, those small reefs ended up with twice as many fish by the end of the experiment. Reefs with sound also had more species overall. Gordon found no difference between the two types of controls. It was sound, not the speaker set-up , that had attracted the extra fish. Playing healthy reef sounds adds another powerful tool to restore our reefs, Gordon says.
1.What has led to the death of coral reefs?
A.Too many fish. B.Noise pollution.
C.Loss of their color. D.High ocean temperatures.
2.What is the purpose of the second paragraph?
A.To introduce sounds of a healthy reef. B.To raise doubts about dying coral reefs.
C.To explain the reason for the new study. D.To show the positive effect of fish on corals.
3.What did Gordon and his team do in their study?
A.They played healthy reef sounds for two groups of patches.
B.They created 33 patches with the collected pieces of dead coral.
C.They set up a loudspeaker around all the patches of dead coral.
D.They played sounds to attract fish to approach all the patches.
4.What is the main idea of the text?
A.Healthy coral reef sounds attract fish back to dead reefs.
B.Dead coral reefs are especially dependent on healthy sounds.
C.The speaker set-ups of coral reefs are attractive to most fish.
D.Underwater speakers may remind coral reefs of possible threats.
My mom was a beauty who seldom spent time and money on her physical appearance—especially in terms of fancy clothes or hairstyles. She just kept beautiful in her way： rest, water, exercise, vegetables and laughter.
My mom would tell me her father had her run his little corner store from the age of ten. She saw poor people come in, looking for food and making hard choices, like meat or cheese. She took their coins with an eye on the bottom line. It was up to her to ensure the register balanced at the end of the day. So from a young age, my mom had her mind conditioned about money.
However, my mom had one weakness： diamonds. In 1958, my teenage dad gave her a diamond chip as an engagement（订婚）ring, which she proudly wore until she saved enough for an “upgrade". By then, she was in her thirties. Over the years, my mom also acquired other diamond pieces like earrings. Mom wore them proudly and she simply loved the way her diamonds sparkled（闪耀）.
On my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, I treated them to dinner at a restaurant. It made her happy, but Mom had her eye on a big diamond to mark the occasion. My dad found her a six-carat（克拉）one. Mom said each carat represented a decade that she loved my dad, plus one to grow on. For the next six years, she never took it off her finger.
Knowing how my mom loved that diamond made it more special when she left it to me. After wearing it on my hand for a year, I decided to set it into a necklace where it'd be closer to my heart. It reminds me of my mom every day, no matter what I'm doing, and it speaks to me in unique ways.
1.What can we know about Mom?
A.She spent much on her makeup. B.She was a vain beautiful woman.
C.She kept beautiful in a natural way. D.She was proud of her appearance.
2.What made Mom careful about spending money?
A.The words of neighbors.
B.Her life in a poor family.
C.The choice of the poor people.
D.Her experience in her father's store.
3.Mom most probably thinks of the diamonds as a sign of_____ .
A.luck B.love C.status D.wealth
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.Mother's Love for Diamonds B.Love Between Mother and Daughter
C.Memories of Beautiful Diamonds D.Strong Love for a Determined Mother
Online Event：What Happened at the Big Bang（爆炸）？
Over the past few decades, we've made unbelievable discoveries about how our universe developed over the past 13. 8 billion years. But we still know very little about what happened in the first seconds after the big bang.
In the latest New Scientist online event, the speaker Dan Hooper will examine how physicists are using experiments to re-create the conditions of the big bang, and to deal with mysteries like how our universe came to contain so much matter and so little antimatter.
•Early bird ticket offer £ 12, and your ticket includes:
—Live lecture lasting 40 minutes
—Question & Answer with Dan Hooper
—On-demand access to a recording of the lecture and Q & A, available（可得到的）to watch for 12 months —An additional 40-minute physics lecture
● About the speaker:
Dan Hooper is a senior scientist and the head of the theoretical astrophysics group at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab, as well as a professor of the University of Chicago. He is especially interested in questions about dark matter and the early universe.
●Event information:
This online event will start at 6 pm on Thursday, July 9 and will last for about one hour. Access to a recording of the event will be available from July 10 to ticket buyers for the 12 months following the live event.
●Booking information:
Tickets are only refundable（可退还的）if New Scientist stops this event. New Scientist Ltd has the right to change the event and its arrangement, or stop the event. Tickets are only available in advance through New Scientist website.
1.What benefit can the ticket buyers enjoy?
A.Interviewing the speaker face to face.
B.Taking someone else to attend the lecture.
C.Getting a video tape of a 40-minute physics lecture.
D.Watching a recording of the event within one year.
2.What can we know about Dan Hooper?
A.He works at a university.
B.He is a world-famous writer.
C.He is the head of New Scientist Ltd.
D.His study focuses on questions about online events.
3.What do you have to do if you want to attend the event?
A.Get in touch with Hooper. B.Buy a ticket ahead of time.
C.Arrive before 6 pm on the day. D.Get permission from the organizer.
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。
续写的词数应为150左右。
I woke at 5:30 A.M. after a restless night’s sleep. I slowly unzipped the tent door to inspect the new day. Just like yesterday, the wind had dropped. It was another beautiful Arctic day. I crawled out of my sleeping bag unwillingly. I am normally a morning person but the intense cold outside made that morning most unappealing. Anyhow, it was time to greet Charlie and start the day.
My dog Charlie was up and it was bouncing up and down at the end of his chain looking well rested. I poured what looked like a pound of dog food into his bowl.
Stepping out of the tent, I looked around for bears or tracks and saw none. It would never be a good thing to meet a polar bear. An Inuit (因纽特人) once told me that I should watch out for polar bears. He said that if I met a polar bear, I should keep the following rules in mind. First, keep eye contact, move sideways or slightly forward, never backward, stay calm. Do not show fear and stand beside a large object to make myself appear as large as possible. Weapons like flare gun(信号枪) are necessary, but do not shoot unless forced to. Don’t wound a bear, or you'll make it even more dangerous, and never run.
It was only six o’clock, so I decided to have a leisurely breakfast of a bowl of milk powder, coconut flakes, and butter mixed with warm water. I sat on my sled（雪橇） to enjoy my first breakfast of the expedition only to find that after the third spoonful it was frozen. So much for leisurely breakfasts! I added more warm water and ate the rest as fast as possible.
Suddenly I heard a deep, long growl coming from Charlie’s throat. In a flash I looked at him and then in the direction in which he was staring. It was a female polar bear followed by two cubs（幼崽） slowly, purposefully, toward me. They were two hundred yards away.
Paragraph 1:
With my heart quickening, I grabbed my loaded flare gun and carefully walked sideways a few steps to Charlie.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Paragraph 2:
The whole event lasted fifteen minutes but seemed years long.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
假定你是李华，你的英国朋友James对中国敦煌艺术展很感兴趣，来信向你咨询。请你给他提供一些建议，内容包括：
1.参观前的准备；
2.邀请他来体验。
注意：1.词数80左右；
2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3.信的开头和结尾已为你写好。
Dear James,
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
