D
Their cheery song brightens many a winter's day. But robins are in danger of wearing themselves out by singing too much. Robins are singing all night一as well as during the day, British-based researchers say.
David Dominoni, of Glasgow University, said that light from street lamps, takeaway signs and homes is affecting the birds' biological clocks, leading to them being wide awake when they should be asleep.
Dr Dominoni, who is putting cameras inside nesting boxes to track sleeping patterns, said lack of sleep could put the birds’ health at risk. His study shows that when robins are exposed to light at night in the lab, it leads to some genes being active at the wrong time of day. And the more birds are exposed to light, the more active they are at night.
He told people at a conference, "There have been a couple of studies suggesting they are increasing their song output at night and during the day they are still singing. Singing is a costly behaviour and it takes energy. So by increasing their song output, there might be some costs of energy."
And it is not just robins that are being kept awake by artificial light. Blackbirds and seagulls are also being morenocturnal. Dr Dominoni said, "In Glasgow where I live, gulls are a serious problem. I have people coming to me saying `You are the bird expert. Can you help us kill these gulls?'.During the breeding(繁殖)season, between April and June, they are very active at night and very noisy and people can't sleep."
Although Dr Dominoni has only studied light pollution, other research concluded that robins living in noisy cities have started to sing at night to make themselves heard over loud noise.
However, some birds thrive(兴旺)in noisy environments. A study from California Polytechnic University found more hummingbirds in areas with heavy industrial machinery. It is thought that they are capitalising on their predators(天敌)fleeing to quieter areas.
1.According to Dr Dominoni's study, what cause robins to sing so much?
A. The breeding season.
B. The light in modern life
C. The dangerous environment.
D. The noise from heavy machinery.
2.What is the researchers' concern over the increase of birds' song output?
A. The environment might be polluted.
B. The birds' health might be damaged.
C. The industry cost might be increased.
D. The people's hearing might be affected.
3.What does the underlined word "nocturnal" in Paragraph 5 mean?
A. Active at night. B. Inactive at night.
C. Active during the day. D. Inactive during the day.
4.Why do some birds thrive in noisy environments?
A. Because there are fewer dangers.
B. Because there is more food to eat.
C. Because there is less light pollution
D. Because there are more places to take shelter.
C
The production of coffee beans is a huge, profitable business, but, unfortunately, full-sun production is taking over the industry and bringing about a lot of damage. The change in how coffee is grown from shade-grown production to full-sun production endangers the very existence of, certain animals and birds, and even disturbs the world’s ecological balance.
On a local level, the damage of the forest required by full-sun fields affects the area’s birds and animals. The shade of the forest trees provides a home for birds and other special(物种) that depend on the trees’ flowers and fruits. Full-sun coffee growers destroy this forest home. As a result, many special are quickly dying out.
On a more global level, the destruction of the rainforest for full-sun coffee fields also threatens(威胁)human life. Medical research often makes use of the forests' plant and animal life, and the destruction of such species could prevent researchers from finding cures for certain diseases. In addition, new coffee-growing techniques are poisoning the water locally, and eventually the world's groundwater.
Both locally and globally, the continued spread of full-sun coffee plantations (种植园)could mean the destruction of the rainforest ecology. The loss of shade trees is already causing a slight change in the world's climate, and studies show that loss of oxygen-giving trees also leads to air pollution and global warming. Moreover, the new growing techniques are contributing to acidic(酸性的) soil conditions.
It is obvious that the way much coffee is grown affects many aspects many aspects of life, from the local environment to the global ecology. But consumers do have a choice. They can purchase shade-grown coffee whenever possible, although at a higher cost. The future health of the planet and mankind is surely worth more than an inexpensive cup of coffee.
1.What can we learn about full-sun coffee production from Paragraph 4?
A.It limits the spread of new growing techniques.
B.It leads to air pollution and global warming.
C.It slows down the loss of shade trees.
D.It improves local soil conditions.
2.The purpose of the text is to .
A.entertain B.advertise C.instruct D.persuade
3.Where does this text probably come from ?
A.An agricultural magazine.
B.A medical journal.
C.An engineering textbook.
D.A tourist guide.
4.Which of the following shows the structure of the whole text?
A.
B.
C.
D.
Daniel Anderson, a famous psychologist, believes it’s important to distinguish television’s influences on children from those of the family. We tend to blame TV, he says, for problems it doesn’t really cause, overlooking our own roles in shaping children’s minds.
One traditional belief about television is that it reduces a child’s ability to think and to understand the world. While watching TV, children do not merely absorb words and images (影像). Instead, they learn both explicit and hidden meanings from what they see. Actually, children learn early the psychology of characters in TV shows. Furthermore, as many teachers agree, children understand far more when parents watch TV with them, explaining new words and ideas. Yet, most parents use an educational program as a chance to park their kids in front of the set and do something in another room.
Another argument against television is that it replaces reading as a form of entertainment. But according to Anderson, the amount of time spent watching television is not related to reading ability. TV doesn’t take the place of reading for most children; it takes the place of similar sorts of recreation, such as listening to the radio and playing sports. Things like parents’ educational background have a stronger influence on a child’s reading. “A child’s reading ability is best predicted by how much a parent reads.” Anderson says.
Traditional wisdom also has it that heavy television-watching lowers IQ (智商) scores and affects school performance. But here, too, Anderson notes that no studies have proved it. In fact, research suggests that it’s the other way around. “If you’re smart young, you’ll watch less TV when you’re older,” Anderson says. Yet, people of lower IQ tend to be lifelong television viewers.
For years researchers have attempted to show that television is dangerous to children. However, by showing that television promotes none of the dangerous effects as conventionally believed, Anderson suggests that television cannot be condemned without considering other influences.
1.By watching TV, children learn _________.
A.images through words
B.more than explicit meanings
C.more about images than words
D.little about people’s psychology
2.An educational program is best watched by a child _________.
A.on his own
B.with other kids
C.with his parents
D.with his teachers
3.Which of the following is most related to children’s reading ability?
A.Radio-listening
B.Television-watching
C.Parents’ reading list
D.Parents’ educational background
4.Anderson believed that _________.
A.the more a child watches TV, the smarter he is
B.the younger a child is, the more he watches TV
C.the smarter a child is, the less likely he gets addicted to TV
D.the less a child watches TV, the better he performs at school
5.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A.To advise on the educational use of TV.
B.To describe TV’s harmful effects on children.
C.To explain traditional views on TV influences.
D.To present Anderson’s unconventional ideas.
Suppose you become a leader in an organization. It’s very likely that you’ll want to have volunteers to help with the organization’s activities. To do so, it should help to understand why people undertake volunteer work and what keeps their interest in the work.
Let’s begin with the question of why people volunteer. Researchers have identified several factors that motivate people to get involved. For example, people volunteer to express personal values related to unselfishness, to expand their range of experiences, and to strengthen social relationships. If volunteer positions do not meet these needs, people may not wish to participate. To select volunteers, you may need to understand the motivations of the people you wish to attract.
People also volunteer because they are required to do so. To increase levels of community service, some schools have launched compulsory volunteer programs. Unfortunately, these programs can shift people’s wish of participation from an internal factor (e.g. “I volunteer because it’s important to me”) to an external factor (e.g. “I volunteer because I’m required to do so”). When that happens, people become less likely to volunteer in the future. People must be sensitive to this possibility when they make volunteer activities a must.
Once people begin to volunteer, what leads them to remain in their positions over time? To answer this question, researchers have conducted follow-up studies in which they track volunteers over time. For instance, one study followed 238 volunteers in Florida over a year. One of the most important factors that influenced their satisfaction as volunteers was the amount of suffering they experienced in their volunteer positions. Although this result may not surprise you, it leads to important practical advice. The researchers note that attention should be given to “training methods that would prepare volunteers for troublesome situations or provide them with strategies for coping with the problem they do experience”.
Another study of 302 volunteers at hospitals in Chicago focused on individual differences in the degree to which people view “volunteer” as an important social role. It was assumed that those people for whom the role of volunteer was most part of their personal identity would also be most likely to continue volunteer work. Participants indicated the degree to which the social role mattered by responding to statements such as “Volunteering in Hospital is an important part of who I am.” Consistent with the researchers’ expectations, they found a positive correlation(正相关) between the strength of role identity and the length of time people continued to volunteer. These results, once again, lead to concrete advice: “Once an individual begins volunteering, continued efforts might focus on developing a volunteer role identity....Items like T-shirts that allow volunteers to be recognized publicly for their contributions can help strengthen role identity”.
1.People volunteer mainly out of __________.
A.academic requirements B.social expectations
C.financial rewards D.internal needs
2.What can we learn from the Florida study?
A.Follow-up studies should last for one year. B.Volunteers should get mentally prepared.
C.Strategy training is a must in research. D.Volunteers are provided with concrete advice.
3.What is most likely to motivate volunteers to continue their work?
A.Individual differences in role identity. B.Publicly identifiable volunteer T-shirts.
C.Role identity as a volunteer. D.Practical advice from researchers.
4.What is the best title of the passage?
A.How to Get People to Volunteer B.How to Study Volunteer Behaviors
C.How to Keep Volunteers’ Interest D.How to Organize Volunteer Activities
Life in the Clear
Transparent animals let light pass through their bodies the same way light passes through a window. These animals typically live between the surface of the ocean and a depth of about 3,300 feet---as far as most light can reach. Most of them are extremely delicate and can be damaged by a simple touch. Sonke Johnsen, a scientist in biology, says, “These animals live through their life alone. They never touch anything unless they’re eating it, or unless something is eating them.”
And they are as clear as glass. How does an animal become see-through? It s trickier than you might think.
The objects around you are visible because they interact with light. Light typically travels in a straight line. But some materials slow and scatter (散射) light, bouncing it away from its original path. Others absorb light, stopping it dead in its tracks. Both scattering and absorption make an object look different from other objects around it, so you can see it easily.
But a transparent object doesn’t absorb or scatter light, at least not very much. Light can pass through it without bending or stopping. That means a transparent object doesn’t look very different from the surrounding air or water. You don’t see it you see the things behind it.
To become transparent, an animal needs to keep its body from absorbing or scattering light. Living materials can stop light because they contain pigments (色素) that absorb specific colors of light. But a transparent animal doesn’t have pigments, so its tissues won’t absorb light. According to Johnsen, avoiding absorption is actually easy. The real challenge is preventing light from scattering.
Animals are built of many different materials---skin, fat, and more---and light moves through each at a different speed. Every time light moves into a material with a new speed, it bends and scatters. Transparent animals use different tricks to fight scattering. Some animals are simply very small or extremely flat. Without much tissue to scatter light, it is easier to be see-through. Others build a large, clear mass of non-living jelly-like (果冻状的) material and spread themselves over it.
Larger transparent animals have the biggest challenge, because they have to make all the different tissues in their bodies slow down light exactly as much as water does. They need to look uniform. But how they’re doing it is still unknown. One thing is clear: for these larger animals, staying transparent is an active process. When they die, they turn a non-transparent milky white.
1.According to Paragraph 1,transparent animals .
A. stay in groups B. can be easily damaged
C. appear only in deep ocean D. are beautiful creatures
2.The underlined word “dead” in Paragraph 3 means .
A. silently B. gradually
C. regularly D. completely
3.One way for an animal to become transparent is to .
A. change the direction of light travel B. gather materials to scatter light
C. avoid the absorption of light D. grow bigger to stop light
4.The last paragraph tells us that larger transparent animals .
A. move more slowly in deep water
B. stay see-through even after death
C. produce more tissues for their survival
D. take effective action to reduce light spreading
The oddness of life in space never quite goes away. Here are some examples.
First consider something as simple as sleep. Its position presents its own challenges. The main question is whether you want your arms inside or outside the sleeping bag. If you leave your arms out, they float free in zero gravity, often giving a sleeping astronaut the look of a funny ballet（芭蕾）dancer. “I’m an inside guy,” Mike Hopkins says, who returned from a six-month tour on the International Space Station. “I like to be wrapped up.”
On the station, the ordinary becomes strange. The exercise bike for the American astronauts has no handlebars. It also has no seat. With no gravity, it’s just as easy to pedal violently. You can watch a movie while you pedal by floating a microcomputer anywhere you want. But station residents have to be careful about staying in one place too long. Without gravity to help circulate air, the carbon dioxide you exhale（呼气）has a tendency to form an invisible（隐形的）cloud around your head. You can end up with what astronauts call a carbon-dioxide headache.
Leroy Chiao, 54, an American retired astronaut after four flights, describes what happens even before you float out of your seat. “Your inner ear thinks you’re falling. Meanwhile your eyes are telling you you’re standing straight. That can be annoying－that’s why some people feel sick. “Within a couple of days truly terrible days for some－astronauts’ brains learn to ignore the panicky signals from the inner ear, and space sickness disappears.
Space travel can be so delightful but at the same time invisibly dangerous. For instance, astronauts lose bone mass’ That’s why exercise is considered so vital that National Aeronautics and Space Administration（NASA）puts it right on the workday schedule. The focus on fitness is as much about science and the future as it is about keeping any individual astronaut healthy. NASA is worried about two things: recovery time once astronauts return home, and, more importantly, how to maintain strength and fitness for the two and a half years or more that it would take to make a round-trip to Mars’
1.What is the major challenge to astronauts when they sleep in space?
A. Deciding on a proper sleep position.
B. Choosing a comfortable sleeping bag.
C. Seeking a way to fall asleep quickly.
D. Finding a right time to go to sleep.
2.The astronauts will suffer from a carbon-dioxide headache when .
A. they circle around on their bikes
B. they use microcomputers without a stop
C. they exercise in one place for a long time
D. they watch a movie while pedaling
3.Some astronauts feel sick on the station during the first few days because .
A. their senses stop working
B. they have to stand up straight
C. they float out of their seats unexpectedly
D. their brains receive contradictory messages
4.One of NASA’s major concerns about astronauts is .
A. how much exercise they do on the station
B. how they can remain healthy for long in space
C. whether they can recover after returning home
D. whether they are able to go back to the station
