Question

Mosquitoes(蚊子) ruin countless American picnics every year, but around the world, this bloodsucking beast isn’t just annoying--it causes a health problem. More than a million people die from the spread of mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and yellow fever each year. Attempts to control populations via insecticides like DDT have had ruinous side effects for nature and human health. Neurobiologist Leslie B. Vosshall has a different solution for stopping the insects and the spread of disease. “I believe the key to controlling mosquito behavior is to understand better how they sense us,” she says.

At their Rockefeller University lab, Vosshall and her colleagues are studying the chemical sensory processes by which mosquitoes choose hosts. How do they sense heat, humidity, carbon dioxide, and body odor(气味)? What makes some people more attractive to a mosquito than others? It takes blood and sweat to find out. To study how mosquitoes assess body odor, Vosshall and her teammates might wear stockings on their arms and keep from showering for 24 hours to create sample smells, Then comes the hard part. They insert their arms into the insects’ hidden home to study how mosquitoes land, bite, and feed and then they document how this changes. This can mean getting anywhere from one bite to 400, depending on the experiment. Studying male mosquitoes is more pleasant. Since they don’t feed on blood, the lab tests their sense of smell using honey.

Vosshall and her team have also begun to study how genetics contribute to mosquitoes’ choice of a host. She’s even created a breed that is unable to sense carbon dioxide, an important trigger for the insects. “By using genetics to make mutant(变异的) mosquitoes, we can document exactly how and why mosquitoes hunt humans,” Vosshall says.

Once Vosshall figures out what makes mosquitoes flock to us, she can get to work on making them leave us alone. Many of her lab’s proposed solutions sound simple enough, including bracelets(手镯) that carry long-lasting repellants(驱虫剂) or traps that can reduce populations, but the breakthroughs, when they come, may save millions of lives in the developing world—and a lot of itching everywhere else.

1.Vosshall and her colleagues are mainly studying mosquitoes’ ______.

A. appearance                  B. size

C. behavior                    D. change

2.By saying the underlined part “Then comes the hard part”, the author probably means that______.

A. the insects smell terrible

B. the experiment will last long

C. The researchers will probably suffer

D. the researchers have to study lots of documents.

3.Why is it less challenging to study male mosquitoes?

A. They are not bloodsuckers.

B. They are afraid of stockings.

C. They have a poor sense of smell.

D. They are protective of their hosts.

4.It can be inferred from the last paragraph that Vosshall’s research______.

A. looks very promising

B. has saved millions of lives

C. is facing great difficulties

D. is quite simple to carry out.

Answer

1.C

2.C

3.A

4.A

【解析】

试题分析：文章主要介绍了科学家对蚊子的叮咬和吸血等行为进行的研究。在全世界范围内，蚊子不仅吸食血液，它们还给人带来健康问题。每年有一百多万人死于疟疾、黄热病等由蚊子携带和传播的疾病。

1.I believe the key to controlling mosquito behavior”和第二段第六行“study how mosquitoes land, bite, and feed”可知，Vosshall研究的是蚊子的叮咬、吸血等行为，故选C。

2.They insert their arms into the insects’ hidden home to study how mosquitoes land, bite, and feed”可知，研究人员把手臂伸进蚊子聚集的地方，以研究蚊子是如何选择落脚点、怎样咬和吸血的。研究人员这样做有感染通过蚊子传播的疾病的危险，故选C。

3.Studying male mosquitoes is more pleasant. Since they don’t feed on blood”可知，公蚊子不吸血，所以研究公蚊子相对会比较安全一些，故选A。

4.but the breakthroughs, when they come, may save millions of lives in the developing world—and a lot of itching everywhere else”可知，一旦研究有了突破性进展，将会挽救发展中国家成千上万人的生命，也能消除蚊子叮咬引起的瘙痒，说明他们的研究很有前景，故选A。

考点：科学类短文阅读