E
When an ant dies, other ants take it out of the nest, often within an hour after its death. This behavior interests scientists and they wonder how ants know for sure—and so soon—that another ant is dead.
One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behaviour. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist, a scientist who studies animals and plants. He found that ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I'm dead—take me away” when it is dead.
But there's a question to answer: As we know, if an ant is dead, it stops moving. But when an ant is sleeping or knocked unconscious, it is also not moving. However, other ants don't move the living ant out of the nest. How do they know this ant is not dead? Choe found that ants have another chemical on their bodies, which tells nearby ants something like
, “Wait—I'm not dead yet”when it is not dead. Choe suspects that when an ant dies, the chemical that says, “Wait I'm not dead yet”quickly goes away. When other ants detect the“dead”chemical without the“not dead yet”chemical, they move away the body.
To test his theory , Choe and his team put different chemicals on ants. When the scientists used the “I'm dead” chemical, other ants quickly moved the treated ant away. When the scientists used the“Wait—I'm not dead yet”chemical, other ants left the treated ant alone. Choe believes this behavior shows that the“not dead yet”chemical overrides the“dead” chemical when picked up by other ants. And that when an ant dies, the “not dead yet” chemical fades away. Other nearby ants then detect the remaining“dead”chemical and remove the body from the nest.
Understanding this behavior can help scientists figure out how to stop ants 
from invading new places and causing problems.
57. What is the function of the first paragraph?
A. Leading the following paragraphs.
B. Showing the main idea of the passage.
C. Introducing the background of the passage.
D. Giving a summary of the passage.
58. Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “overrides” in the fourth paragraph?
A.is weaker than B. is stronger than C. is better than D. is worse than
59. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Living ants can also be taken away when they are not moving.
B. When an ant dies, it can tell others using a certain chemical.
C. A living ant can pretend to be dead using a special chemical.
D. Ants often use chemicals to communicate with each other.
60. Which of the following descriptions about Dong-Hwan Choe is right?
A. Choe did this study in order to stop ants from invading new places.
B.
Choe is a biologist who is only interested in animals, especially in ants.
C. Choe first came up with an idea to explain this ant behavior，and then did some tests to prove his theory.
D. Choe did the research on this ant behavior on his own
Some people are lucky enough to be born with a good sense of direction and even if they have only visited a place once, they will be able to find it again years later.
I am one of those unlucky people who have poor sense of direction and I may have visited a place time after time but I still get lost on my way there. When I was young I was so shy that I never dared ask complete strangers the way and so I used to wander round in circles and hope that by some chance I would get to the place I was heading for.
I am no longer too shy to ask people for direction, but I often receive replies that puzzle me. Often people do not like to admit（承认）that they didn’t know their hometown and will insist on telling you the way, even if they do not know it; others, who are anxious to prove that they know their hometown very well, will give you a long list of directions which you can not possibly hope to remember, and still others do not seem to be able to tell between their left and their right and you find in the end that you are going in the opposite（相反的）direction to that in which you should be going.
If anyone ever asks me the way to somewhere, I always tell them I am a stranger to the town in order to avoid giving them wrong direction but even this can have embarrassing results.
Once I was on my way to work when I was stopped by a man who asked me if I would direct him the way to the Sunlight Building. I gave my usual reply, but I had not walked on a few steps when I realized that he had asked for directions to my office building. However, at this point, I decide it was too late to turn back and search for him out of the crowd behind me as I was going to meet with someone at the office and I did not want to keep him waiting.
Imagine my embarrassment when my secretary showed in the very man who had asked for directions of my office and his astonishment when he recognized me as the person he had asked.What is the writer going to do when someone asks him for direction?
| A．He will direct the right way to the person willingly. |
B．He will reply to it by the means of being a stranger to the town. |
C．He will give the very person long list of direction. |
D．He is going to show the man an opposite direction. |
Why did the writer consider himself to be an unlucky dog?
| A．Because of his poor sense of direction. |
| B．Because he always forget the way to home. |
| C．Because he did not have any friend. |
| D． Because he used to be shy and dared not ask others the way. |
How did the visitor feel when he was showed into the very room?
| A．He felt strange. | B．He felt embarrassed. |
| C．He felt very sad. | D．He felt astonished. |
Who showed the right way to the interviewee according to the passage?
| A．Someone we don’t know. | B．The writer did it for himself. |
C．The secretary did so. | D．A warm-hearted old lady did itI. |
Personal computers and the Internet give people new choices about how to spend their time.
Some may use this freedom to share less time with certain friends or family members, but new technology will also let them stay in closer touch with those they care most about. I know this from personal experience.
E-mail makes it easy to work at home, which is where I now spend most weekends and evenings. My working hours aren’t necessarily much shorter than they once were but I spend fewer of them at the office. This lets me share more time with my young daughter than I might have if she’d been born before electronic mail became such a practical tool.
The Internet also makes it easy to share thoughts with a group of friends. Say you do something fun - see a great movie perhaps - and there are four or five friends who might want to hear about it. If you call each one, you may be tired of telling the story.
With E-mail, you just write one note about your experience, at your convenience, and address it to all the friends you think might be interested. They can read your message when they have time, and read only as much as they want to. They can reply at their convenience, and you can read what they have to say at your convenience.
E-mail is also an inexpensive way stay in close touch with people who live far away. More than a few parents use E-mail to keep in touch, even daily touch, with their children off at college.
We just have to keep in mind that computers and the Internet offer another way of staying in touch. They don’t take the place of any of the old ways. The purpose of this passage is to ________.
| A．explain how to use the Internet |
| B．describe the writer’s joy of keeping up with the latest technology |
| C．tell the merits(价值) and usefulness of the Internet |
| D．introduce the reader to basic knowledge about personal computers and the Internet |
The use of E-mail has made it possible for the writer to ________.
| A．have more free time with his child | B．spend less time working |
| C．work at home on weekends | D．work at a speed comfortable to him |
According to the writer, E-mail has an obvious advantage over the telephone because the
former helps one ________.
| A．reach a group of people at one time conveniently |
| B．keep one’s communication as personal as possible |
| C．pass on much more information than the later |
| D．get in touch with one’s friends faster than the later |
The best title for this passage is ________.
| A．Computer: New Technological Advances |
| B．Internet: New Tool to Maintain Good Friendship |
| C．Computers Have Made Life Easier |
| D．Internet: a Convenient Tool for Communication |
Everybody may have seen the film “Death on the Nile ( 尼罗河)”, but nobody can imagine that the writer of the story, Agatha Christie, saved a baby in a most unusual way.
In June 1977, a baby girl became seriously ill in Deleville. Doctors there were unable to find out the cause of her illness, so she was sent to a famous hospital in London, where there were many excellent doctors. The baby was so seriously ill that a team of doctors hurried to examine her without delay. The doctors, too, were puzzled by the baby’s illness and they also became discouraged. Just then a nurse asked to speak to them.
“I think the baby is suffering from thallium (铊) poisoning. ” said the nurse. “A few days ago, I read a story ‘A Pale Horse’ written by Agatha Christie. Someone uses thallium poison, and all the symptoms (症状) are written in the book. They are exactly the same as the baby’s.”
“You’re very good at observing things,” said a doctor, “and you may be right. We’ll carry out some tests and find out whether the cause is thallium poisoning or not.”
The tests proved that the baby had indeed been poisoned by thallium. Once they knew the cause, the doctors were able to give her correct treatment. The baby soon got well and was sent back to Deleville. A week later it was reported that the poison might have come from an insecticide (杀虫剂) used in Deleville. The baby was sent to a hospital in London because ______.
| A．her parents were living in London then |
| B．the hospitals in Deleville were full at that time |
| C．doctors in Deleville were not sure about the cause of her illness |
| D．she was the daughter of a famous doctor in London |
When the baby was first sent to the hospital in London, her illness was considered to be ______
A quite easy to treat
B. the result of thallium poisoning
C. a common one
D. extraordinarily serious From this passage it seems that the baby’s illness had something to do with ______.
A a dead writerB. a harmful substance ( 物质) used to kill pests
C. the water in DelevilleD. a dangerous murderer As far as we can tell from the story, Agatha Christie ______.
| A．had never met this baby |
| B．had spent a long time studying the baby’s illness |
| C．visited the baby both in Deleville and London |
| D．gave the nurse some advice on the telephone |
Joseph Goldberger was a doctor for the Unite States Public Health Service. In 1912, he began to study a disease that was killing thousands of people in the South. The disease was pellagra(烟酸缺乏病).
Doctor Goldberger traveled to the state of Mississippi where many people had pellagra. He studied the patients and their families. Most of the people were poor. The doctor came to believe that the disease was not passed from one person to another, but instead had something to do with food.
He received agreement from state officials to test this idea at a prison(监狱). Prisoners were offered pardons if they took part. One group of prisoners received their usual food, mostly corn. A second group ate meat, fresh vegetables and milk. Members of the first group developed pellagra. The second group did not.
But some experts refused to accept that poor food caused pellagra. They thought there were other causes.
So Doctor Goldberger put blood(血液) from a person with pellagra into his own body. He even took pills that had blood from pellagra patients. An assistant also took part in the experiments. So did Doctor Goldberger’s wife. None of them got sick. Later, the doctor discovered that a bit of dried brewer’s yeast(酿酒的酵母) each day could prevent pellagra.
Joseph Goldberger died of cancer in 1929. He was 55 years old. Several years later, researchers discovered the true cause of pellagra: having little of the vitamin B. How old was Doctor Goldberger when he began to study pellagra?
| A．22. | B．30. | C．38. | D．55. |
The underlined part “this idea” (in Paragraph 3) refers to .
| A．the guessing that pellagra had something to do with food |
| B．a kind of yeast that prevented pellagra |
C．pellagra that was easily pas sed from one person to another |
| D．a poor food that caused pellagra |
Which is the right order about what Doctor Goldberger did?
a. He did a test on prisoners at a prison.
b. He did the experiments on himself.
c. He came to Mississippi to study the patients and their families.
d. He found poor food was easy to cause pellagra.
e. He discovered a little dried brewer’s yeast every day could prevent pellagra.
| A．a, d, c, e, b | B．c, a, d, b, e | C．b, e, c, a, d | D．c, b, e, a, d |
This passage mainly tells us .
A．Doctor Goldberger’s lif e |
| B．something about pellagra |
| C．Doctor Goldberger’s work experience |
| D．Doctor Goldberger’s study on pellagra |
Copywriting is the art of sending a message in writing, especially in advertisements, for the purpose(目的) of persuading someone to do something. This is especially true when writing descriptive(描述性的) copy. Why? Because customers’（顾客） senses don’t work on paper. They only work in person. That’s why copywriters have to create a sensory experience for their customers through their words.
When copywriters create descriptions, they often leave a lot to be desired. There is no interaction(互动) or experience. Descriptions should be descriptive. Successful descriptions should fill the gap of what customers would see, hear, smell, taste or feel as if they were standing before the product. Successful descriptions should also draw customers’ attention and create an actual event as if they could be right there.
Do you make cinnamon rolls(肉桂卷)？You wouldn’t want to describe them simply as “delicious” or “smell great”. Instead, you’d want to bring your customers to the experience of enjoying them. Some
thing like this will work better: Completely NOT your grandma’s cinnamon rolls! Freshly bake them right in your own oven. As the strong pleasant smell of these excellent rolls begins to float in the air, your nose will start to feel excited and you’ll immediately know they are worth the wait.
When writing descriptive copy, choose the senses that are most proper and focus on them. If describing food, certainly you’ll think about not only what you’re tasting, but also what you smell and see. If you’re writing travel copy, you’ll focus on sights, s
ounds as well as feelings. Your goal i
s to have your readers close their eyes and imagine they are in the same experience as you are.The purpose of copywriting is to .
| A．create a pleasant experience |
| B．develop customers’ five senses |
| C．persuade people to do things |
| D．give people rich imagination |
The writer develops the third paragraph mainly .
| A．by cause and effect(因果) | B．by order in space |
| C．by order in time | D．by examples |
Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
| A．People’s five senses |
| B．Copywriting and advertisements |
| C．Descriptive copywriting |
| D．Copywriting and the five senses |