Rare birds in the UK have been living far better than the more common birds over the last decade due to the efforts of conservation organisations, according to a new assessment.
The research shows almost 60% of the 63 rare birds that live in the UK have increased over the last 10 years.
By contrast, only about one third of common species have increased over the same period. Just 28% of rare birds have decreased over the same period, compared with four out of every 10 common birds. The rare birds described in the assessment with increasing populations include the osprey (鹗) and corncrake (秧鸡). All of these birds are subject to conservation action.
The declining common birds include the nightingale, swift (雨燕), house sparrow and red grouse (苏格兰雷鸟). These are suffering declines for a variety of reasons, including changes in farming practices.
Dr David Noble, from the British Trust for Ornithology, said: “That some of our rarer birds have responded to targeted conservation action is great news. It shows just what can be achieved. What we need to do now is to continue the good work and use some of the lessons we have learned to help our more common birds.”
Dr Mark Avery, the conservation director of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), said: “Over the last decade we've enjoyed some great conservation successes, including removing some threatened species from the World Conservation Union's Red List of Thratened Animals and increasing the populations of red kite, osprey, etc. However, these successes are countered (抵消) by continued declines of some widespread species.”
The overview of 210 native birds has been produced by a group of conservation organisations, to mark the publication of The State of the UK's Birds report, which is in its l0th year. The report was published by the RSPB for a group of conservation organisations. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
| A．The decline of widespread birds is not worrying for the UK. |
| B．The UK has got some practical experience of bird conservation. |
| C．Changes in farming practices contribute to the increase of rare birds. |
| D．Half of common birds have decreased in the past ten years in the UK. |
We can learn from the passage that Dr David Noble .
| A．hopes that conservation organisations will change the way they work |
| B．is quite disappointed with the result of the new assessment |
| C．is losing confidence in conservation organizations’ action |
| D．has high hopes for the increase in bird population in Britain |
Which of the following can best explain Dr Mark Avery's words?
| A．The UK should not be satisfied with what they have achieved. |
| B．The UK should share their experience with other countries. |
| C．What conservation organisations do is far from satisfactory. |
| D．The RSPB is responsible for the decrease of common birds. |
The passage is most likely to be found in a book about .
| A．popular science | B．historical events |
| C．nature | D．society |
The author's purpose of writing this article is to tell people .
| A．some good ways to protect rare birds |
| B．the differences between rare birds and common birds |
| C．the number of rare birds has increased over the last decade |
| D．some widespread birds in the UK are in great need of help |
Since its invention 100 years ago, plastic , the superstar of the technological age, has become ugly and ungreen . But that’s about to change. An exhibition at London’s Science Museum this week could put it back on the cutting edge of science.
Have you ever hesitated in donating blood? The invention of “plastic blood” might make you feel better.
British scientists are working on the artificial blood as a replacement for real blood in emergency situations. It is made of plastic molecules(分子 ) and can join oxygen and transport it around the body. As a red, honey-like glue , plastic blood can be carried around conveniently . You just add water to make as much blood as you need.
The cells of our body are strict about what molecules the let in and out . For example , if we inject protein or DNA directly into the body, our immune ( 免疫 ) SYSTEM WILL DESTROY IT BEFORE IT REACHES THE CELLS.
To get around this , a British scientist has created drug-carrying plastic balls that fool the body into thinking they are natural. Once inside the cell, their contents are spread out through a small controlled explosion.
Skin transplants are widely done these days. But removing a piece of skin from, say , the bottom to plant it on the face can hurt and be troublesome.
The British company, Celltran, is working on plastic skin. Using plastic, they plan to take a small piece of the patient’s skin and grow it into an extra lay of skin on top of the plastic. a
The plastic feels similar to skin, so skin cells like to grow on it. The plastic then gradually disappears, without any reaction or infection .
1. What would be the best title for the text?
A. The superstar of technological age
B. An exhibition at London’s Science Museum
C. No more “white pollution”
D. Plastic takes on a new life
2. Which of the following will be on display at the exhibition at London’s Science Museum?
A. Plastic cells B. Plastic skin
C. Plastic molecules D. Plastic transplants
3. The phrase “get around “ in Paragraph 5 means closest to ______.
A. overcome B. end C. ensure D. pass
4.Which of the following is true according to the text?
A. Plastic blood will be injected into the body in drug-carrying plastic balls
B.The plastic skin will remain a part of the new skin
C. Plastic blood will take the place of real blood
D. Plastic blood contains a lot of water
第二部分阅读理解第一节（共15小题，每小题2分，共30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A,B,C 和D 中，选出最佳答案。
In 1999, 11-year –old Kevin Stephan was a bat boy for his younger brother’s Little League team in Lancaster, New York. It was an early evening in late July. The sun slanting across the field, the game unfolding in baseball time, Kevin was standing on the grass away from the plate ,where another youngster was warming up. Swinging his bat back and forth, giving it all the power an elementary school kid could collect, the boy brought the bat back hard and hit Kevin square in the chest. His heart stopped.
When Kevin fell to the ground , the mother of one the players rushed out of the stands to his aid. Penny Brown hadn’t planned to be there that day, but at the last minute, her shift at the hospital had been changed , and she was given the night off.
Penny bent over the unconscious boy , his face already starting to turn blue, and applied CPR, breathing into his mouth and doing chest compressions(按压)
And he came back.
It was a good thing, for a good kid. Kevin wasn’t just a volunteer for his brother’s baseball team he was a Boy Scout(童子军) , learning various useful skills. Kevin later became a volunteer junior firefighter, learning some of the emergency first-aid techniques that had saved his life. He studied hard in school and was saving money for college by working as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. He liked the people, but the work could be hard and pretty routine until the afternoon of January 27 2006.
Kevin was working in the kitchen when he heard people screaming. He rushed into the main room and saw a woman there, her face turning blue ,her hands at her throat. She was choking.
Quickly Kevin stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her. Then using skills he’d learned in Scouts, he jerked inward and up ,once , twice, using the Heimlich maneuver. The food that was trapped in the woman’s throat was freed. The color began to return to her face.
“ The food was stuck. I couldn’t breathe,” she said. She thought she was dying. “I was very frightened.”
Guess who the woman was? Penny Brown.
1. How was Kevin seriously injured in 1999?
A. His hear disease overtook him.
B. He fought with a boy doing baseball warming up.
C. A bat hit him unexpectedly in the chest.
D. He swung his bat too fiercely and hurt himself.
2. What does the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 5 refer to ?
A. That Kevin was a bat boy. B. That Kevin got injured.
C. That Kevin was a Boy Scout.
D. That Kevin was successfully saved.
3. Which of the following is NOT true according to the text?
A. In Scouts children can learn many practical skills.
B. CPR can be used to treat one that has no heartbeat.
C. Kevin dreamed of becoming a firefighter in the future.
D. The Heimlich maneuver is an effective way to help those who choke.
Today about 70 countries use Daylight Saving Time(DST). Daylight Saving was first introduced during World War I in Australia. During the world wars, DST was used for the late summers beginning January 1917 and 1942, and the full summers beginning September 1942 and 1943.
In 1967, Tasmania experienced a drought. The State Government introduced one hour of daylight saving that summer as a way of saving power and water. Tasmanians liked the idea of daylight saving and the Tasmanian Government has declared daylight saving each summer since 1968. Persuaded by the Tasmanian Government, all states except two passed a law in 1971, for a test use of daylight saving. In 1972, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria joined Tasmania for regular daylight saving, but Queensland did not do so until 1989.
Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia have had irregular plans, often changing their dates due to politics or festivals. For example, in 1992, Tasmania extended daylight saving by an extra month while South Australia began extending daylight saving by two weeks for the Adelaide Festival. Special daylight saving plans were made during the sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
The differences in daylight saving in Australia continue to cause serious problems in transport and many other social activities. It also reduces the number of hours in the working day that are common to all centers in the country. In particular, time differences along the east coast cause major difficulties, especially for the broadcasters of national radio and television.
1.Daylight Saving Time was introduced in Tasmania ________.
A. to save water and electricity B. to support government officials
C. to pass a special law in the state D. to stop the drought in 1967
2.According to the text, which state was the last to use DST?
A. Victoria. B. Queensland.
C. South Australia. D. New South Wales.
3.What can we learn about DST in some Australian states?
A. It lasts for two weeks. B. It is not used in festivals.
C. Its plan was changed in 2000. D. It doesn't have fixed dates.
4.What do we know about the use of DST from the last paragraph?
A. There exist some undesirable effects.
B. It helps little to save energy.
C. It brings about longer working days.
D. Radio and TV programs become different.
It’s not a particular brain region that makes someone smart or not smart. Nor is it the strength and speed of the connections throughout the brain or such features as total brain volume. Instead, new research shows, it’s the connections between very specific areas of the brain that determine intelligence.
“General intelligence actually relies on a specific network inside the brain, and this is the connections between the gray matter, or cell bodies, and the white matter, or connecting fibers between neurons(神经元)，”said Jan Glascher, lead author of a paper appearing in this week’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The results weren’t entirely unexpected, said Keith Young, vice chairman at Texas A﹠M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Temple, but “it proves that good communication between various parts of brain are very important for this general intelligence.”
“People noticed a long time ago that, in general, people who are good test-takers did well in a lot of different subjects,”explained Young. “If you’re good in mathematics, you’re also usually good in English. Researchers came up with this idea that this represented a kind of overall intelligence.”
Hoping to learn more, some experts located 241 patients who had some sort of their lesions (损害). They then diagrammed the location of their lesions and had them take IQ testes. “We took patients who had parts of their brain damaged, tested them on intelligence to see where they were good and where they were bad, then we connected those scores across all the patients with the location of the brain lesions,”Glascher explained. “That way, you can know the areas that are associated with reduced performance on these tests, which means these areas are really important for general intelligence.”
“These studies suggest results based on the absence of brain tissue (组织),”added Paul Sanberg, famous professor and director of the University of South Florida Center. “It allows them to systemize and find areas important to intellingence.”
1. Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. General Intelligence Depend on Brain Volume
B. Scientists Explain Mysteries of Intelligence
C. Science Research Done on Human Brain
D. Brain Lesions Cause Patients Stupid
2.According to Keith Young, we can infer that_____________.
A. the parts of brain are working smooth on their own
B. a person good at maths has obstacles learning languages
C. overall intelligence will make a person successful
D. Jan Glascher’s article really shocks the world
3. Why did experts locate 241 patients with some sort of brain lesions?
A. To diagram the location of their lesions.
B. To take IQ tests to the patients.
C. To know more about the secrets of intelligence.
D. To take better care of the patients.
4.From the diagram, the experts concluded that_____________.
A. the absence of brain tissue will influence intelligence
B. the brain lesions can improve the performance
C. patients with brain lesions will get a high score
D. Some areas totally determine the ability of intelligence
Buses are celebrating their 100th anniversary. About 80 percent of all public-transport passengers worldwide are carried by buses.
The bus is a very efficient mode of transport, being cheap, flexible, comfortable and, in many cases, tailored to the needs of users both in terms of capacity and speed. Buses operate in mixed traffic, and are easy to put in service.
From an economic, environmental and social point of view, the bus remains the best solution to the problem of achieving balanced and environmentally-friendly urban development. Indeed, the bus is the only mode of public transport in many of the world’s cities, and plays a key supporting role in cities with rail transport.
Over the past decades, increased use of roads by private cars has contributed to terrible traffic problems, affecting the speed of buses as well, and hence their service quality, reliability, energy consumption, and economy. In such circumstances, the efficiency and performance of buses depends heavily on special lanes. Various forms are possible----from a mere painted mark on the road to more expensive variants such as elevated lanes, movable barriers, and “bus locks”.
A related trend is to look beyond vehicle technology alone and to consider the wider system, of which buses are a part, such as the infrastructure(基础设施)and other operational aspects of city. This is commonly known and promoted as the “bus-system approach”. Other key innovations(革新) include clean engines, alternative fuels, and guidance devices. In terms of the designs of buses, much of what has happened to light rail can be transferred to them, including the shapes of the vehicles themselves.
The energy consumption of a bus per passenger is one-sixth that of a car, and buses are only responsible for about 5% of the CO2 emissions generated by vehicles at present.
1. From this passage we learn that_____________.
A. buses are the most environmentally-friendly of all motorized vehicles
B. buses were first used more than a century ago
C. most passengers prefer trains to buses
D. a bus has a much larger capacity than any other vehicle
2. What has affected the service quality of buses?
A. Unsuitable infrastructure. B. Private cars.
C. The increasing population of cities.
D. Very rapid urban development.
3. Which of the following is an approach to improving bus service?
A. Improving the speed of buses.
B. Reducing the number of private cars.
C. Setting up special lanes for buses.
D. Increasing the number of buses.
4. From the passage we can infer that in the future_____________.
A. there will be more buses than today
B. bus engines will need no power
C. buses will be replaced by other means of transport
D. the appearance of buses will change