Researchers at San Diego Zoo have been studying what has been described as the “secret language” of elephants. They have been monitoring（监测） communications between animals that cannot be heard by human ears.
The elephant’s call will be familiar to most people, but the animals also give out growls (低吼). Their growls, however, are only partly audible (听得见的); two-thirds of the call is at frequencies that are too low to be picked up by our hearing. To learn more about the inaudible part of the growl, the team attached (附在……上面) a microphone sensitive to these low frequencies and a GPS tracking system to eight of the zoo’s female elephants. The researchers could then relate the noises the animals were making to what they were doing. Matt Anderson, who led the project, told BBC News, “We’re excited to learn how they interact and contact with one another.”
The team has already learned that pregnant females use this low frequency communication to announce to the rest of their long gestation (妊娠期) of over two years, in the last 12 days we see the low part of the growl, which we can’t hear. This we believe is to announce to the rest of the herd that the baby is upcoming,” said Dr Anderson.
The researchers believe that this also warns the elephants to look out for coming danger. “You may think that a baby calf of about 300 pounds would not be as open to predation (捕食) as other species,” he says. “But packs of hyenas (袋狼) are a big threat in the wild.”
Female elephants are only in season for around four days every four years and these calls can be heard by males more than two miles away.Why some elephants’ call is called “secret language”?
| A．Because it can’t be heard by human ears. |
| B．Because it can only be heard by female elephants. |
| C．Because people don’t know its meanings. |
| D．Because people haven’t studied it completely. |
By using a sensitive microphone and a GPS tracking system, the researchers wanted to find out .
| A．where the elephants usually go |
| B．what the elephants’ growls really mean |
| C．how mother elephants raise baby calves |
| D．how elephants protect their babies. |
A pregnant elephant uses inaudible growls to .
| A．show the location where she is staying |
| B．ask for help when she losses her way |
| C．scare away the enemy |
| D．let others know she will have a baby |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．The elephants can speak like people. |
| B．The wild elephants’ ways to fight against enemies. |
| C．The “secret language” between elephants. |
| D．The special life of female elephants. |
Aava Whistler Hotel
Star Ratings：★★★ Location: Whistler
Rooms:192
Stay at the Aava Whistler Hotel (formerly Coast Whistler Hotel) and experience a great vacation. The Aava Whistler Hotel is within minutes from over a hundred shopping malls and restaurants. It also has a great number of recreational facilities, including swimming, diving and even skiing. Hotel services include 24-hour reception, laundry and room service. Guests can stay in cozy rooms equipped with air-conditioning, bathroom and television. From CN￥496 per night.
Best Western Cairn Croft Hotel
Star Ratings：★★★Location: East Lundy’s Lane
Room:l66
Relax and unwind at the Best Western Cairn Hotel. This resort-style hotel is located just minutes from the airport. At the Best Western Cairn Croft, guests can enjoy a large number of recreational facilities, including children’s activities, sightseeing and a swimming pool. Business travelers can also take advantage of spacious meeting and banqueting facilities for hosting corporate events. All rooms come with basic amenities(便利设施). From CN￥439 per night.
Clarion Hotel＆Suites Downtown Montreal
Star Ratings：★★★ Location：Montreal
Rooms：266
Conveniently located just 20 minutes from the airport, the Clarion Hotel＆Suite Downtown Montreal is a moderately-priced three-star hotel that provides services to both business and leisure travelers. The Clarion has spacious meeting facilities and modern business centers for business travelers. It also has a sauna and whirlpool where guest can relax. All rooms come with basic amenities, including cable TV and a kitchenette. From CN￥553 per night.
Delta Bow Valley Hotel
Star Ratings：★★★ Location：Calgary
Rooms：398
The Delta Bow Valley Hotel is located a couple of blocks north of Olympic Plaza, east of James Short Park, and north-east of the Petro-Canada Centre. Apart from business and recreational services such as a business centre, fitness centre and restaurant, all rooms in the Delta come with a mini-bar and in-house movies. From CN￥l, 227 per night.What do all four of the hotels have in common?
| A．They all provide a room with a mini bar. |
| B．They all have the same number of rooms |
| C．They are all close to the airport |
| D．They all have a three star ratings. |
Which hotel offers facilities for children’s activities?
| A．Clarion Hotel＆Suites Downtown Montreal |
| B．Best Western Cairn Croft Hotel |
| C．Aava Whistler Hotel |
| D．Delta Bow Valley Hotel |
If you want to check in to a hotel at three o’clock in the morning you can stay at ______.
| A．Aava Whistler Hotel |
| B．Best Western Cairn Croft Hotel |
| C．Clarion Hotel＆Suites Downtown Montreal |
| D．Delta Bow Valley Hotel |
Treasure hunts (寻宝) have excited people’s imagination for hundreds of years both in real life and in books such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Kit Williams, a modern writer, had the idea of combining the real excitement of a treasure hunt with clues (线索) found in a book when he wrote a children’s story, Masquerade, in 1979. The book was about a hare, and a month before it came out, Williams buried a gold hare in a park in Bedfordshire. The book contained a large number of clues to help readers find the hare, but Williams put in a lot of “red herrings”, or false clues, to mislead them.
Ken Roberts, the man who found the hare, had been looking for it for nearly two years. Although he had been searching in the wrong area most of the time, he found it by logic, not by luck. His success came from the fact that he had gained an important clue at the start. He had realized that the words: “One of Six to Eight” under the first picture in the book connected the hare in some way to Katherine of Aragon, the first of Henry VIII’s six wives. Even here, however, Williams had succeeded in misleading him. Ken knew that Katherine of Aragon had died at Kimbolton in Cambridgeshire in 1536 and thought that Williams had buried the hare there. He had been digging there for over a year before a new idea occurred to him. He found out that Kit Williams had spent his childhood near Ampthill, in Bedfordshire, and thought that he must have buried the hare in a place he knew well, but he still could not see the connection with Katherine of Aragon, until one day he came across two stone crosses in Ampthill Park and learnt that they had been built in her honor in 1773.
Even then his search had not come to an end. It was only after he had spent several nights digging around the cross that he decided to write to Kit Williams to find out if he was wasting his time there. Williams encouraged him to continue, and on February 24th 1982, he found the treasure. It was worth ₤3000 in the beginning, but the excitement it had caused since its burial made it much more valuable.The underlined word “them” (paragraph 1) refers to __________.
| A．readers of Masquerade |
| B．treasure hunts |
| C．Henry VIII’s six wives |
| D．red herrings |
What is the subject discussed in the text?
| A．An exciting historical event. |
| B．The importance of logical thinking. |
| C．The attraction of Masquerade. |
| D．A modern treasure hunt. |
Which of the following describes Roberts’ logic in searching for the hare?
a. Henry VIII’s six wives
b. Katherine’s burial place at Kimbolton
c. Williams’ childhood in Ampthill
d. Katherine of Aragon
e. stone crosses in Ampthill Park
| A．a -b- c- e- d | B．d- b- c- e- a |
| C．b- a- e- c- d | D．a- d- b- c- e |
What is the most important clue in the story to help Ken Roberts find the hare?
| A．Katherine of Aragon. |
| B．Stevenson’s Treasure Island. |
| C．Two stone crosses in Ampthill. |
| D．Williams’ hometown. |
The Hunan Satellite TV(HNTV) show “Where are we going, Dad?” is a big hit. Many famous stars brought their children to a strange village alone, and they had to spend 72 hours with their children there. The program fully showed us a modern version of the “how to be a good father”. As the young parents today are too busy to take care of their children, this new form of“Lost on the way”played by nanny daddy and cute kids triggered（触发）a lot of people’s emotional resonance（共鸣）. Both the kids and their parents will find that their hearts are being drawn closer. But this kind of feeling has just proved that there is a big spiritual barrier between the modern parents and children.
The TV shows like “Children are hard to support!”, “Where are we going, Dad?”, “hot mom” and “cute kids” are becoming more and more popular. All of these show the new parents’ confusion in children’s education and the appeal for the balance between career and family.
In real life, on the one hand the young parents feel helpless because they are too busy to accompany their children under the pressures of work and life; on the other hand they continue to do so. The data collected by HNTV show that nearly two-thirds of their audience are female, among whom 36% are aged from 25 to 34. We can imagine such a scene that one evening a young mother is watching the show with her young children, while her husband is still at work or trapped in socializing, or maybe is just playing computer games in the bedroom. The story of a child without the company of father is still going on. In fact, it is sometimes the same to mothers. In a modern family, it is often the old who take the responsibility of raising a child. The participation of mother in the children’s education is also very low.
It is just this kind of confusion where the parents have gone in the modern family education, and where the parents will guide their children to go that“Where are we going, Dad?”shows us. If a child wants to grow up healthily and safely into a modern citizen with independent personality and free spirit, it is very important for him or her to follow the parents who serve as their first teacher. Maybe this is the real reason why such kind of TV programs could get hot. The truth is that children will go where their parents go; and society will go where the children go. Which of the following can be inferred in the passage?
| A．Parents shouldn’t entirely leave the education of children to the old. |
| B．36% of the audience of the program are female aged from 25-34. |
| C．The program shows us the confusion where the parents and children will go to play. |
| D．In a modern family it is often mothers who are responsible for raising a child. |
Which one is the best title of the passage?
| A．Confusion behind “Where are we going, dad?” |
| B．Modern Education is Important |
| C．Nanny Daddy and Cute Kids |
| D．New Problems in Modern Children’s Education |
In raising a child in modern society, parents should __________.
| A．play computer games with their children |
| B．break down the barrier between children and teachers |
| C．balance well between family and career |
| D．keep their children at home to avoid socializing |
What attitude towards modern family education does the author express in the second paragraph?
| A．Optimistic. | B．Proud. | C．Worried. | D．Indifferent. |
Mosquitoes have an extraordinary ability to target humans far away and fly straight to their unprotected skin. Regrettably，mosquitoes can do more than cause an itchy(发痒的）wound. Some mosquitoes spread several serious diseases，including Dengue， yellow fever and malaria.
Over one million people worldwide die from these diseases each year. New research now shows how mosquitoes choose who to bite.
Mosquitoes need blood to survive. They are attracted to human skin and breath. They smell the carbon dioxide gas，which all mammals breathe out. This gas is the main way for mosquitoes to know that a warm-blooded creature is nearby.
But mosquitoes also use their eyes and sense of touch. Michael Dickinson is a professor at the California Institute of Technology. His research shows how these small insects，with even smaller brains，use three senses to find a blood meal.
Michael Dickinson’s team used plumes—a material that rises into the air of carbon dioxide gas into a wind tunnel. They then used cameras to record the mosquitoes. The insects followed the plume.
Then，the scientists placed dark objects on the lighter colored floor and walls of the tunnel. Mr Dickinson said，at first，the mosquitoes showed no interest in the objects at all.
“What was quite striking and quite surprising is that the mosquitoes fly back and forth for hours. These are hungry females and they completely ignore the objects on the floor and wall of the tunnel. But the moment they get a hit of CO2，they change their behavior quite obvi ously and now would become attracted to these little visual blobs (斑点）.”
This suggested to the researchers that a mosquito’s sense of smell is more important in the search for food. Once mosquitoes catch a smell of a human or animal，they also follow visual signals.What do mosquitoes mainly use to find their targets?
| A．Sense of smell. | B．Sense of touch. |
| C．Sense of sight. | D．Smart brains. |
The first response of the mosquitoes to the objects in the experiment is .
| A．to fly to the dark ones |
| B．to catch and stick to them |
| C．to take no notice of them |
| D．to attach themselves to them |
How can we avoid being attacked by mosqu itoes according to the text ?
| A．Don’t let them see us. |
| B．Use dark objects to stop them. |
| C．Make them fly back and forth for hours. |
| D．Attract them to objects full of carbon dioxide gas. |
What can be the best title for the text?
| A．How Do Mosquitoes Survive? |
| B．Why Do Mosquitoes Need Blood? |
| C．How Do Mosquitoes Choose to Bite You? |
| D．Why Do Mosquitoes Attack the Human Being? |
parents usually go to malls to find new school supplies for their children. One of the most important things to get during this time is the backpack. Most students choose to bring a backpack because it allows them to have both hands free. This makes the bag less likely to hinder (妨碍)other activities that the person carrying it may be doing at the same time. Here are the ways parents can choose the perfect backpack for school.
How many books will children be carrying to school? How many notebooks should be inside the bag? Parents should know these details before buying a bag for their children. Each situation requires a different bag so it pays to ask children about the expected load.
Do children need special storage for the bag? If they will be carrying a laptop computer inside the new backpack，make sure that parents get a model that’s designed specifically for laptop use. This will protect the computer from bumps and falls that might damage the device if it had less protection.
Are children going to use the bag for a long time? If they want to use a bag for a long time，parents will be better off investing in a good brand that is known for quality. Parents may have to pay extra cash to get the top of the line and the best backpack in the market. Count the pockets. Backpacks usually come with a lot of pockets，and generally，the more pockets，the better. This allows children to organize their things，like pens and pencils inside small pockets.
Picking the perfect school backpack is all about getting the sweet compromise (折中）between form，function and price. Remember to choose the best fit for children’s needs.Why do most students like bringing a backpack?
| A．Because it looks beautiful. |
| B．Because it’s a duty for them to bring it. |
| C．Because they can put all the books into it. |
| D．Because it helps them do other activities freely. |
What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
| A．Parents should find out how many books their children have. |
| B．Parents must ask teachers for help before buying a backpack. |
| C．Parents should know the weight of things that will go inside the backpack. |
| D．Parents must ask their children’s requirements when buying a backpack. |
The underlined word “bumps” in the third paragraph is closest in meaning to“ ”.
| A．knocks | B．jumps | C．stands | D．beats |
Which of the following can we know from the text?
| A．Picking a backpack is very easy to do. |
| B．It’s better for children to have a backpack that has more pockets. |
| C．The backpacks that have a good brand are more popular with children. |
| D．Parents always feel worried when buying a backpack for their children. |