If you are asked to chair a meeting, rem...

    Calling someone a “birdbrain” is considered rude. It implies that someone has a small brain and thus is not smart. A new study found that the expression doesn’t do birds justice either. Birds’ brains are much bigger than we thought-at least compared to their small bodies.

An international team of 37 scientists measured the brain volume of hundreds of dinosaurs and extinct birds by scanning fossils of their skulls. The readings were compared to a large database containing the brain sizes of modern birds. These measurements were then analyzed, taking into consideration each bird’s body size-resulting in something called “relative brain size”. The results showed that a dramatic change of birds’ body size happened right after the mass extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

According to the study, published on April 23 in the journal Current Biology, birds and non-avian (非鸟类的) dinosaurs had similar brain sizes before the extinction. After the extinction of the dinosaurs, however, birds had to find a way to survive, so they shrank their bodies-since smaller animals need less food-but they kept their big brains.

“The changed landscape may have caused the rapid evolution of new brain-body scaling patterns (缩放比例) by favoring both larger brains and smaller bodies,” US paleontologist (古生物学家) Daniel Ksepka, who is the lead author of the study, told CNN.

This “evolutionary brain leap”-as scientists call it-also happened very rapidly. Without dinosaurs, birds quickly repopulated. They came in all types and sizes, which contributed to the diverse species of birds we see today.

But among all the bird species, certain ones “show above average rates of brain and body size evolution”, study co-author Adam Smith at Clemson University, US, said in a statement-with crows and parrots being the most evident. In fact, previous studies have already discovered that these birds have an amazing cognitive ability. They are able to use tools, imitate human speech and even remember human faces.

So, in the words of Smith, “calling someone ‘bird-brained’ is actually quite a compliment!”

1.How did scientists learn the brain sizes of dinosaurs and extinct birds?

A.By referring to a database.

B.By analyzing their body size.

C.By studying their fossil skulls.

D.By examining the brain size of modem birds.

2.What were birds’ brains like after the extinction of the dinosaurs?

A.They were the same size as non-avian dinosaurs.

B.They shrank to adapt to the environment.

C.They kept growing to avoid extinction.

D.They remained as big as they were before.

3.According to Adam Smith, what do we know about birds?

A.Their brain evolution happened very rapidly.

B.Some species evolved to be smarter than others.

C.Crows and parrots have the largest bird brains.

D.Birds have amazing abilities to copy human speech.

4.What is the purpose of this text?

A.To explain the origin of the word “birdbrain”.

B.To describe how a bird evolved through history.

C.To present a new study on birds’ brain size.

D.To reveal reasons for the rapid growth of bird populations.

    During the outbreak of novel coronavirus, cities are locked down and borders are closed. Science, on the contrary, is becoming more open. And this “open science” is already making a difference.

Soon after the epidemic (流行病) started in China, a research team from Fudan University in Shanghai successfully sequenced (测定序列) the DNA of the virus. But they didn’t keep the information to themselves. Instead, they placed the sequences on GenBank, an open-access data platform, so researchers around the world could download them for free and start studying the virus.

Due to this openness, companies producing drugs across the globe are now able to work at the same time to develop a vaccine (疫苗). “There may be room for multiple different vaccines for different purposes and different age groups,” Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security in the US, told Al Jazeera. “The bigger menu we have of vaccines, the more flexible we’ll be when fighting against coronavirus outbreaks in the future.”

Major drug companies around the world are also sharing their study results. Remdesivir, a drug originally developed by US company Gilead Sciences to treat Ebola, is found to be promising in fighting against the novel coronavirus. Currently, two trials of the drug are already underway in China, and the results might be available as soon as April, according to The Verge.

This openness in science is going to be even more important in the future. “With climate change, increasing globalization, and population shifts, epidemics will not go away, and might even become more frequent,” Dan Barouch, a Harvard Medical School professor, told Harvard Magazine.

He said, “No one group can do everything. It has to be a cooperative approach. But I do think that the world has a greater sense of readiness this time to develop knowledge, drugs, and treatment very rapidly.”

Every epidemic is indeed a crisis, but it can also be a learning opportunity. One redeeming (补偿的) factor of the COVID-19 outbreak is that it is helping science adapt for the better.

1.What does the article mainly talk about?

A.Coordinated efforts to fight the epidemic in Africa.

B.Some scientific knowledge we’ve learned from the epidemic.

C.The significance of openness and sharing of scientific knowledge.

D.What needs to be done to prevent future epidemics.

2.The positive effect of what the research team from Fudan University did is that ________.

A.they alerted the world to the danger of the virus

B.they helped remove people’s fear of the virus

C.they showed the world how to produce a vaccine

D.they invited collective efforts worldwide to develop a vaccine

3.What is the author’s purpose of mentioning remdesivir in paragraph 4?

A.To introduce a possible cure for the epidemic.

B.To compare the treatment of Ebola and the novel coronavirus.

C.To prove that many drug companies readily share their discoveries.

D.To show that the novel coronavirus will soon be contained.

4.Which of the following would Dan Barouch probably disagree with?

A.Epidemics will be less frequent thanks to climate change.

B.The world is becoming better prepared to deal with epidemics.

C.No single group can fight against the epidemics independently.

D.The increase in globalization may bring about more epidemics.

    What is a family? Why does it matter? What does it teach us that we can’t learn on our own? These questions seem especially relevant in the holiday season when it is often our tradition to gather as families and celebrate together.

My mother was one of twelve children. As they grew up, married and had children of their own, most of them lived near enough to gather for holidays at my grandparents’ home in a small town in the mountains of North Carolina.

I don’t recall getting many gifts from them .I remember the sense of belonging, of being part of something that assured me I was loved and not alone.

I delighted in the laughing, playing and fighting with my crazy cousins. I watched my granddad and uncles sit on the porch, rain or shine, smoking and joking, arguing about politics and trying to solve the problems of the world. I listened to my grandmother, mother and aunts stir (搅拌) pots on the stove and talk about their lives, hopes, dreams and disappointments, and gossip about any sister who failed to show up.

The food was always plentiful and delicious-country ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, biscuits and my grandmother’s banana pudding. But for me, the food was never the highlight. The highlight was simply being together. A family.

However, they’re all gone now. My parents and grandparents, my aunts and uncles have left this world for the next. My cousins are scattered here and there. And yet the memories linger, along with the love that we shared.

I treasure those memories and the things they taught me. They told me that families aren’t perfect, but they prepare us to find our way in an imperfect world. They made me realize that all families are crazy in their own particular ways.

My husband and I are growing a new family, while keeping close to the surviving members of the families. It’s a beautiful blend (混合) of kindness, traditions, nurturing (养育) and friendships, which grows year after year.

I hope this holiday season will fill you with lovely memories of the family that raised you, and surround you with all the people who mean “family” to you now.

1.What do we know about the author’s family according to the article?

A.She didn’t get on well with her cousins.

B.Her grandpa and uncles were politicians.

C.Her family delighted in their gatherings.

D.The female members liked to show off.

2.The author appreciated the gatherings mainly because _______.

A.there was a lot of inviting food

B.special gifts were selected thoughtfully

C.they brought the family closer together

D.she got to see relatives who seldom visited

3.What does the underlined word “linger” in paragraph 6 probably mean?

A.Disappear. B.Remain.

C.Increase. D.Fade.

4.What did the author learn from her family?

A.Good families should live together.

B.Imperfect families may help us adjust to the world.

C.Memories of perfect families deserve treasuring.

D.It’s necessary to create crazy family traditions.

ACTIVITY SCHEDULE FOR THE COMING WEEK

1.We can infer that the school in the text is nearest to _______.

A.London B.Sussex

C.Lewes D.Brighton

2.Students will come to Clifftonville inn ______.

A.for a gathering to start a short tour

B.to prepare for the party

C.to give the new students a warm welcome

D.to celebrate the fancy dress Halloween party

3.If you go on the trip to Lewes for the bonfire, which route will you take?

a. Seven Sisters   b. Middle Farm   c. a country pub

d. Brighton    e. Beachy Head

A.daebc B.adecb

C.daceb D.adebc

阅读下面短文，根据所给情节进行续写，使之构成一个完整的故事。

A mother is a person who, seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.

—Tenneva Jordan

I knew I was not supposed to be quite so excited. I was too old for that. At age eleven, the oldest and my mom's "grown up" girl, I had to keep my cool. I was in middle school after all. But every chance I got, when I was alone, I checked each present under the tree. I read every tag and felt every package, guessing at the contents within. I had examined each gift so often that I could tell which present went to which person without even looking at the tags.

It had been a tough year for my family. Whenever my mom looked over at the tree and scattered（撒） presents, she would sigh and warn us, "There won't be as much for Christmas this year. Try not to be disappointed." Christmas had traditionally been a time for my parents to spoil us. In years past, the presents would pile up and spill out from under the tree, taking over the living room. I had heard the phrase "giving is better than receiving," but thought that whoever had said that must have been out of their mind. Getting presents was the whole point! It was the reason I couldn't get to sleep on Christmas Eve.

On Christmas morning, we eagerly waited in the hallway until Dad told us everything was ready. We rushed into the living room and let the wrapping paper fly. We made weak attempts to wait and watch while other family members opened their presents, but as the time passed we lost our self-control.

"Here's another one for you,” said Mom as she handed me a package. I looked at it, confused. Having spent so much time examining the presents before Christmas, I recognized this one. But it had not been mine. It was my mom's. A new label had been put on it, with my name written in my mother's handwriting.

"Mom, I can't...”

注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；

2.续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；

Paragraph 1:

I was stopped by my mother's eager, joyful look.

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Paragraph 2:

I have always remembered that Christmas fondly.

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