“If you talk to the plants, they will grow faster and the effect is even better if you’re a woman.” Researchers at Royal Horticultural Society carried out an experiment to find that the voice of a woman gardener makes plants grow faster.
The experiment lasted a month and by the end of the study scientists managed to discover that tomato plants grew up two inches taller when women gardeners talked to them instead of male.
Sarah Darwin was the one making the plants the best growth. Her voice was the most “inspiring” for plants than those of nine other gardeners when reading a passage from The Origin of Species. The great-great-granddaughter of the famous botanist （植物学家）Charles Darwin found that her plant grew about two inches taller than the plant of the best male gardener.
Colin Crosbie, Garden Superintendent at RHS, said that the finding cannot yet be explained.He says that women have a greater range of pitch and tone（音高和音色）which might have a certain effect on the sound waves that reach the plant. “Sound waves are an environmental effect just like rain or light ,”said Mr Grosbie.
The study began in April at RHS Garden Wisley in Survey. Scientists started with open auditions(听力) for the people who were asked to record passages from John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, Shakespeare’s A Midsummer's Night Dream and Darwin's The Origin of Species.
Afterwards researchers selected a number of different voices and played them to 10 tomato plants during a period of a month. Each plant had headphones connected to it. Through the headphones the sound waves could hit the plants. It was discovered that plants that “listened” to female voices grew taller by an inch in comparison to plants that heard male voices.
1.What does the passage talk about?
A. Plants enjoy men’s voices than women’s.
B. A science experiment in a museum.
C. Voice’s influence on plant growing.
D. Strange findings at Royal Horticultural Society.
2.What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 4 mean?
A. Plants need sound as well as rain and light.
B. Sound is basic for the plant to grow.
C. Sound has a good effect as rain or light does.
D. Plants can’t live without sound, rain or light.
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A. The experiment ended in May.
B. Scientist can explain the findings clearly.
C. Plants enjoy listening to the passages from famous works.
D. The findings are of great importance to human beings.
Thirty years ago, the sales staff at department stores tended to look up to people who had a university degree.__ _ in another 30 years, getting a university degree could just be one of many ____(形式) of education. According to a r_____ released by the Ministry of Education at the end of 2006, there will be 30 million s______ in China in 2010.That is 5 million more than in 2008. Job pressures will still exist, or become ____ worse as the number of students ______(增加)。University will not be the only way for people to develop. A degree will not always p____ students for the real world, but mastering certain _____(技能) can put food on their plate. So universities might a _____ students to postpone their studies for one or two years to enter __ (社会) and attain experience.
1.Radio and television are important m__ of communication.
2.Women are (禁止)from going out without a veil in that country.
3.Speech d human beings from the animals.
4.I can （承担）the responsibility for the changes.
5.The m of the population live in the countryside in our country.
6.我们应该沿袭我们的优良传统。
We should ________ ________ our good traditions.
7.我的一切都归功于他
I everything him.
8.随身带上帽子，以防烈日。
Take a hat with you the sun is very hot.
9.在公众心目中，他总是和恐怖电影紧密联系在一起。
He is closely in the public’s mind horror movies.
10.他们在草坪上划了个网球场。
They ________ ________ a tennis court on the grass.
It has been more than twenty years since pioneering British computer programmer, Sir Tim Berners Lee, created the World Wide Web. But could he have ever imagined how much the web would change our lives? And would he approve of how some British students are taking advantage of his invention?
Universities and exam boards around the UK are becoming increasingly concerned with the rising number of cases of plagiarism, many of which are facilitated (助长) by the Internet access.
In the UK most school and university students complete coursework throughout the academic year which contributes toward their final mark. In many cases coursework makes up the main part of the qualification. Since coursework is completed in the students’ own time it cannot be monitored by teachers in the same way as an exam.
Derec Stockley, director of examinations in the UK, explains, “Plagiarism affects coursework more than anything else, and in the cases that come to our attention, more and more are linked to the Internet.”
At a university level recent reports suggest that plagiarism has evolved from separate cases of individual cheating to systematic and even commercial operation. Students can now pay for bespoke essays to be written for them by experts.
It is estimated that the market in online plagiarism is now worth 200 million pounds a year. Every month more and more websites offering to write student’s essays for them appear on the Internet.
Barclay Littlewood, owner of Degree Essays UK employs 3,500 specialist writers and charges between 120 pounds and 4,000 pounds per essay. However, Mr. Littlewood refutes the accusation that he is helping students to cheat.
1.What dose the underlined word “plagiarism” in Paragraph 2 mean in the passage?
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A．problems of the Internet |
B．cheating |
|
C．learning pressure |
D．coursework |
2.Which of the following statements is mentioned by the author?
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A．There will be no problem if online plagiarism is a systematic and commercial operation. |
|
B．With the help of online plagiarism, students can write more creative coursework. |
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C．The Internet seems to have contributed much to the problem of online plagiarism. |
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D．Teachers should lay more emphasis on exams than coursework. |
3.It can be inferred from the text that the author seems to _____.
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A．blame Sir Tim Berners Lee for having created the World Wide Web |
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B．have studied the problem of online plagiarism for nearly 20 years |
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C．be in favour of Littlewood’s defence against the accusation of him |
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D．worry about the quality of students’ coursework influenced by the World Wide Web |
4.The paragraph following the passage will most probably be about_____.
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A．Mr. Littlewood’s defence against those who accused him of his website |
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B．different people’s opinions on plagiarism |
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C．how students use the website of Mr. Littlewood |
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D．the author’s opinions of Mr. Littlewood |
Scientist Says ‘No’ to Human Cloning
“I’ve never met a human worth cloning,” says cloning expert Mark Westhusin from his lab at Texas A&M University. “It’s a stupid endeavor.”
That’s an interesting choice of adjective, coming from a man who has spent millions of dollars trying to clone a 13-year-old dog named Missy. So far, he and his team have not succeeded, though they have cloned two cows and a cat.
They just might succeed in cloning Missy soon — or perhaps not for another five years.
Westhusin's experience with cloning animals leaves him upset by all this talk of human cloning. In three years of work on the Missy project, using hundreds upon hundreds of dog's eggs, the A&M team has produced only a dozen or so embryos carrying Missy's DNA. None have survived the transfer to a surrogate（代孕的）mother. The wastage of eggs and the many spontaneously aborted(流产，发育不全) fetuses（胎）may be acceptable when you're dealing with cats or bulls, he argues, but not with humans. “Cloning is incredibly inefficient, and also dangerous,” he says.
Even so, dog cloning is a commercial opportunity, with a nice research payoff. Ever since Dolly the sheep was cloned in 1997, Westhusin's phone has been ringing with people calling in hopes of duplicating their cats and dogs, cattle and horses. “A lot of people want to clone pets, especially if the price is right,” says Westhusin. Cost is no obstacle for Missy's mysterious billionaire owner; he's put up $3.7 million so far to fund A&M's research.
Contrary to some media reports, Missy is not dead. The owner wants a twin to carry on Missy's fine qualities after she does die. The prototype（原型；雏形）is, by all accounts, athletic, good-natured and supersmart. Missy's master does not expect an exact copy of her. He knows her clone may not have her temperament（气质、性情）. In a statement of purpose, Missy's owner and the A&M team say they are “both looking forward to studying the ways that her clones differ from Missy.”
Besides cloning a great dog, the project may contribute insight into the old question of nature vs. nurture. It could also lead to the cloning of special rescue dogs and many endangered animals.
However, Westhusin is cautious about his work. He knows that even if he gets a dog pregnant, the offspring, should they survive, will face the problems shown at birth by other cloned animals: abnormalities like immature lungs and heart and weight problems~ “Why would you ever want to clone humans,” Westhusin asks, “when we're not even close to getting it worked out in animals yet?”
1.By “stupid endeavor”, Westhusin means to say that ________.
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A．human cloning is a foolish undertaking |
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B．animal cloning is absolutely impractical |
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C．human cloning should be done selectively |
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D．animal cloning is not worth the effort at all |
2.What does the first paragraph tell us about Westhusin's dog cloning project?
|
A．Its success is already in sight. |
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B．It is progressing smoothly. |
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C．It is doomed to utter failure. |
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D．Its outcome remains uncertain. |
3.By cloning Missy, Mark Westhusin hopes to ________.
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A．study the possibility of cloning humans |
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B．search for ways to modify its temperament |
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C．find out the differences between Missy and its clones |
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D．examine the reproductive system of the dog species |
4.We learn from the passage that animal clones are likely to have ________.
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A．a bad temper |
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B．defective（有缺陷的、有毛病的）organs |
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C．immune deficiency |
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D．an abnormal shape |
LOS ANGELES, the US
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ruled Michael Jackson’s father can receive some medical records related to his superstar son’s death．The judge will review the records first before making them accessible to Joe Jackson’s lawyer，Brian Oxman．Beckloff said the man can only receive records on or after June 25一the day Michael Jackson died．
VANCOUVER，CANADA
World number one Zhou Yang overcame three South Korean players to win the women’s short track speed skating 1,500 meters final at the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games．The l8-year-old made perfect debut(首次亮相)as she set an Olympic record of a winning time of 2 minutes and l6,993 seconds among other seven skaters．
China has never won the women’s l,500 meters in the Olympics before，and this time Zhou’s performance gave China its third gold medal in Vancouver．
BElJING，CHINA
China’s first compulsory,(强制性的)safety regulation on primary school buses，which requires every seat to have a seat belt，will take effect on July l to help ensure safer transportation for the country’s 100 million students．
Each primary school bus must also be equipped with a “black box”，0r a recording monitor，to record speed，travel time and distance．Also，the bus must be staffed by teachers who will ensure student safety．In addition，the new rule states that the color of the school buses should be yellow，and each bus must have at least two emergency exits．
Texas，the US
A software engineer who crashed his plane into a Texas building housing a United States tax agency office，killing himself and at least one worker，apparently left behind an angry anti-government manifesto(宣言) detailing his financial difficulties and tax problems．The pilot took off from an airport in Georgetown．about 48 km from Austin．He flew low over the Austin skyline before plowing into the building．
1.We can learn from the first news that_________．
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A．all Michael Jackson’s medical records can be accessed |
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B．Mitchell Beckloff will not go over the record first |
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C．Joe Jackson’s lawyer will not get any records |
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D．medical records before June 25 won’t be received |
2.The new school bus safety rules include all the followings EXCEPT_____________.
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A．the color of the bus |
B．the equipment of the bus |
|
C．the driver’s experience |
D．emergency exits |
3.It seems the software engineer crashed into the US tax office mainly because of___________.
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A．unhappy marriage |
B．financial and tax problems |
|
C．heavy work pressure |
D．mental disease |
4.We can infer from the news that____________.
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A．Joe Jackson will be the first to receive the medical records |
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B．the tax agency office is somewhere inside the building in Texas |
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C．Zhou Yang once broke the Olympic records in the same event |
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D．the software engineer flew high over skyline before crashing into the building |
