The discovery of a dwarfed (矮个的) “human being” who lived in Flores, Indonesia, up to 18,000 years ago is changing the way we think about the human family. This “Flores Human” was three foot tall and her brain was smaller than that of the average chimp (黑猩猩), yet she and her relatives apparently lived fully human lives. They seem to have made tools, worked together to find food and cook it, and perhaps even buried their dead with ceremony.
It was a major surprise to find tools associated with the new human family member. The tools are like those formerly seen only with European fossils (化石 ) from our own species, Homo sapiens (智人 ), and the oldest of them were made 94,000 years ago. Homo sapiens is thought to have arrived in the island about 40,000 years ago, much too late to be responsible for the tools. If this tiny human made the tools, the inside structure (结构 ) of its brain must have been more like our own than a chimp’s, despite being just a third the size of ours.
This “new human” was suspected to be a dwarfed branch of Homo erectus (直立人 ). When creatures are separated in regions with rare resources but few enemies, being big is a disadvantage, and evolution tends to shrink them, a process known as island dwarfing. Could natural selection make a human smaller while keeping － even improving － mental ability? Quite possibly, believes Christopher Wills of the University of California.
Has the “Flores Human” even shown the ability of language? “I find it difficult to imagine that people could make tools, use fire, and kill large animals without fairly advanced communication,” Wills says. Did “Flores Human” possess the basic components of human culture － such as the burying of the dead with ceremony? Emiliano Bruner of the Italian Institute points out that Indonesia’s hot, wet environment is bad for fossilization. It is reasonable to assume, he says, that the 18,000-year-old bones of the most complete Flores woman were well-preserved because she was buried with special care.
1.According to the passage, “Flores Human” __________.
A. lived a partly human life
B. was a branch of Homo sapiens
C. used tools before Homo sapiens arrived
D. had a brain as large as a common chimp’s
2.The underlined part “this tiny human” in Paragraph 2 refers to __________.
A. a chip B. Flores Human C. Homo sapiens D. Homo erectus
3.This passage mainly talks about __________.
A. the tools made by “Flores Human”
B. the language used by “Flores Human”
C. the evolution of “Flores Human”
D. the major surprising findings about “Flores Human”
4.According to the passage, it is believed that “Flores Human” __________.
A. was dwarfed by its enemies
B. could use language
C. left a lot of fossils in the hot and wet environment
D. reached Flores 40,000 years ago
The coyote (丛林狼)，that clever animal of wide-open spaces, has come to the nation’s capital. In fact, coyotes have spread to every corner of the United States, changing their behaviors to fit new environments and causing researchers to deal with a troublesome new kind of creature: the city coyote.
The coyote originally lived in the middle of the continent. One of its most obvious characters is its smartness, which has made the animal a notorious (臭名昭著的) pest. Hunters trapped, shot and poisoned more than a million coyotes in the 1900s. It’s still one of America’s most hunted animals. Yet the coyote has survived. How has the coyote shown this extraordinary ability? “I guess if you wanted to use one word, it’d be ‘plasticity’,” says Eric Gese, an expert at Utah State University. Coyotes can live alone, in pairs, or in large packs like wolves; hunt at night or during the day; occupy a small region or an area up to 40 square miles, and live on all sorts of food, from lizards (蜥蜴) and shoes, to ants and melons.
Unbelievable people helped coyotes increase when they killed most of the wolves in the United States. The spreading of coyotes into city areas, though, is recent. They travel at night, crossing sidewalks and bridges, running along roads and ducking into culverts (钻入涵洞) and underpasses. No one knows why coyotes are moving into cities, but experts explain that cleverer, more human-tolerant (不怕人的) coyotes are teaching urban survival skills to new generations.
Occasionally, coyotes might attack human beings. There have been about 160 attacks on people in recent years. Therefore, people have been consistently told not to feed coyotes or leave pet food unsecured. That, plus a large trapping program in the neighborhood, has cut down on the coyote population.
1.The underlined word “plasticity” in Paragraph 2 refers to __________.
A. the ability to fit the environment
B. notorious smartness
C. hunting ability
D. being human-tolerant
2.The aim of the passage is to __________.
A. tell people how to fight against coyotes
B. tell us why the coyote is the most hunted animal
C. supply the reason why the coyote is a kind of notorious pest
D. explain how the coyote has spread to and survived in cities
3.According to the passage, coyotes __________.
A. originally lived in the west of the continent
B. sleep during the day but look for food at night
C. are teaching survival skills to their younger generations
D. suffered a population decrease because people killed wolves.
4.According to the passage, to cut down on the coyote population, people are advised to __________.
A. leave pet food secured
B. keep coyotes in small regions
C. force coyotes to live alone
D. avoid using trapping programs
根据以下图画，写一篇英语短文，描述今昔通讯方式的变化，以及这些变化给人们生
活带来的影响。
注意：*1．词数：100左右
*2．生词：通讯：communicate(with sb．)vi.
communication n．
互联网：the Internet n.
When a young man starts to earn his own living, he
can no longer expect others to pay his food, his clothes, 1.
or his room, but he has to work till he wants to live 2.
comfortable. If he spends most of his time playing 3.
about in the way that he used to as a child, they will go 4.
hungry. And if he breaks the laws of society that he used 5.
to break the laws of his parents, he may go to the prison. 6.
If, therefore, he works hard, keeps out of trouble and has 7.
better health, he can have the great happiness of seeing 8.
himself to make steady progress in his job and of 9.
building up for himself his own position in society. 10.
1.Who is (are) the editor (s) of William Faulkner: Novels 1926-1929?
A. Noel Polk & Joseph Blotner. B. Phillip Lopate.
C. Tony Kushner. D. Leo Bersani.
2.How much do you pay for American Movie Critics?
A. US $45. B. US $40. C. US $35. D. US $25.
3.Which book do you buy if you want to read the play "Death of a Salesman" ?
A. Arthur Miller: Collected Plays 1944 -1961.
B. William Faulkner: Novels 1926-1929.
C. Henry James: Novels 1901 -1902.
D. American Movie Critics.
4.Henry James' only book written in the first person is
A. The Wings of the Dove. B. The Sacred Fount.
C. Soldiers'Pay. D. Mosquitoes.
How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time7 Far too many.
This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal (排演) and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments.
We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for Real Life to come along were in fact real life.
In America they have a saying much laughed at by the English：“Have a nice day” they speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, reminding us, in effect, to enjoy the moment: to value this very day.
How often do we say to ourselves, "I'll take up horse-riding (or golf, or sailing) as soon as I get a higher position," only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position.
When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be his completely abnormal (反常的) mental state. How could anyone turn his back on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area？I wanted to know.
Now I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure. He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains.
1.The first paragraph of the passage tells us that .
A. we always try to find some time to write a book
B. we always make plans but seldom fulfill them
C. we always enjoy many of life's best moments
D. we always do what we really want to do
2.The underlined phrase "turn his back on" (paragraph 6) most probably means .
A. leave for B. return to C. give up D. rely on
3.The man ( paragraph 6) left his first job partly because he was .
A. in an abnormal mental state B. under too much pressure
C. not well paid D. not respected
4.What is probably the best title for the passage?
A. Provide Homes For Our Family B. Take Up Horse-riding
C. Value This Very Day D. Stay Alive
