Scientists in Colombia have trained a team of rats to help remove land mines from the countryside. Land mines are small bombs hidden in the ground and designed to explode(爆炸) when someone steps on them.
When trained, the rats can smell special metals in the mines and then signal(发信号) to their human team. Then why use rats for such an important job?
In the past, dogs have been used to find bombs. Rats have a good sense of smell and can respond to orders, just like dogs do. But rats are much lighter than dogs. They stand less of a chance of setting off the mines, which explode under a certain amount of weight. What’s more, the best rats are cheaper to keep than dogs. It costs about the same amount of money to take care of one dog as it does 70 rats.
The rats have already been used in Tanzania, an African country with many land mines. Luisa Fernanda Méndez and her team in Colombia are training the even lighter Wistar rats. These are the white rats with red eyes that scientists often use in laboratory experiments. “They even train their babies to perform their jobs, which saves us a lot of time, ” Méndez said.
Colombia has the second-highest rate(比率) of deaths from land mine accidents in the world. Last year, land mines killed 695 people — 56 of whom were children. A criminal group called the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, as well as other organizations, have placed the mines. FARC are strongly against Colombia’s government. The group has placed mines all around its own bases and in many places in the countryside.
In the past, the Colombian government hired peasants and poor farmers to find mines. Many of them died trying to find the well-hidden bombs.
Colombian police official Erick Guzmán hopes the team of rats can come to the rescue(援救). “These rats will be a great help,” he said.How do rats help to find land mines?
| A．By their special sight. | B．By their light weight. |
| C．By their sense of smell. | D．By their excellent hearing. |
The advantage of rats over dogs in finding bombs is that _____.
| A．they are cleverer. |
| B．they run faster |
| C．they have a better sense of smell |
| D．they don’t make mines explode as easily |
The underlined word “They” may refer to ______.
| A．scientists | B．Wistar rats |
| C．dogs | D．Méndez and her team |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Specially-trained rats help clear land mines. |
| B．People in Tanzania are suffering from land mines. |
| C．Dogs are no longer used to find land mines. |
| D．Land mines have become a great danger to Colombians. |
Aggie Bonfire (篝火) was a long-standing tradition at Texas A&M University as part of the college rivalry (竞争) with the University of Texas at Austin. For 90 years, Texas A&M students—known as Aggies—built and burned a bonfire on campus each autumn. Known to the Aggie community simply as "Bonfire", the annual autumn event symbolized Aggie students' "burning desires”. The bonfire was traditionally lit around Thanksgiving in connection with festivities surrounding the annual college football game.
Although early Bonfires were little more than piles of trash, as time passed, the annual event became more organized. Over the years the bonfire grew bigger, setting the world record in 1969. Bonfire remained a university tradition for decades until, in 1999, a collapse during construction killed twelve people—eleven students and one former student—and injured twenty-sevenothers.
The accident led Texas A&M to declare a pause on an official Bonfire. However, in 2002, a student-sponsored-and-off-campus "Student Bonfire" came up.
In 2003, the event became known as Student Bonfire. In a design approved by a professional engineer, Student Bonfire uses a wedding cake design, but, in a departure from tradition, every log in the stack (堆) touches the ground. For added support, four 24feet poles are spaced evenly around the stack and then bolted to the 45feet center pole with a steel pipe. Since the group does not receive funding, Student Bonfire charges a fee to each attendee to cover expenses. Attendance for Student Bonfire ranges from 8,000–15,000people and the event is held in Brazos County or one of the surrounding counties.When did Aggie Bonfire come into being?
| A．In 2003. | B．1999. |
| C．1909. | D．2002. |
Which of the following statements is true according to the above passage?
| A．Texas A&M University started Aggie Bonfire. |
| B．The University of Texas at Austin started Students Bonfire. |
| C．Texas A&M University and The University of Texas started Students Bonfire. |
| D．Texas A&M University and The University of Texas started Aggie Bonfire. |
Why did Aggie Bonfire once stop?
| A．Too many people wanted to join in it. |
| B．Some serious accidents occurred during the activity. |
| C．It ran out of fund and then stopped. |
| D．There were no official supports. |
Which of the following might serve as the best title of the whole passage?
| A．From Aggie Bonfire to Student Bonfire. |
| B．A brief history of American Bonfire. |
| C．Why not join Bonfire? |
| D．Bonfire in Texas of the United States. |
That summer I drank every day, everywhere I went. I had a bottle in my drawer next to me and a bottle next to my bed. I never did another drug, but I drank so much that my family finally asked a priest for help. My father gave me a bottle of medicine for alcoholism that produces unpleasant symptoms when users drink alcohol. I drank while taking it, which made me very sick. And I still drank.
When the priest came, he said, "Jimmy, doctors said that with your diseases and the amount of drinking you’re doing, you’d be lucky to live another six months. So your choice is either to stop drinking and live or to continue drinking and die within six months.”
I said, "I know I can't stop, so guess I'll have to die." The priest told my family what I said. My little brother–who is like my soul mate, looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "But we don't want you to die." All I could think of was how desperately I had to get out of that room at that moment and have a drink.
But I finally stopped drinking. I was on the care team of my dentist Russell. A lot of people in New York knew him. At the time he was the most famous dentist in the city. He drank heavily and was also with AIDS, so I was selected to be on his care team. Everybody on the team was sober (清醒) but me. He went through dementia (痴呆) and died so quickly before my eyes. I stopped drinking and I’ve been with the disease for 35 years now. Why did the author’s father give him the bottle of medicine?
| A．He wanted him to cure his illness. |
| B．He was trying to keep him dying. |
| C．He thought the medicine could make him sick. |
| D．He believed it could prevent him drinking. |
What did the priest mean by saying to the author “…you’d be lucky to live another six months” in the second paragraph?
| A．The author would die after six weeks. |
| B．The author was too lucky to live for six months. |
| C．The author could hardly live for six months. |
| D．The author’s luck was only six months. |
How did the author stop drinking?
| A．The dentist Russell helped him to stop it. |
| B．He was persuaded by the dentist Russell’s death. |
| C．His care team managed to inspire him. |
| D．His little brother’s soul saved him. |
What can we learn from the above story?
| A．Drinking heavily increases AIDS patients’ illness. |
| B．Priests can cure many AIDS patients’ illnesses. |
| C．Drug taking and heavily drinking can cure AIDS patients. |
| D．Team work and patience can cure AIDS patients. |
Young people and older people do not always agree. They sometimes have different ideas about living, working and playing. But in one special program in New York State, adults and teenagers live together in a friendly way.
Each summer 200 teenagers and 50 adults live together for eight weeks as members of a special work group. Everyone works several hours each day. They do so not just to keep busy but to find meaning and fun in work. Some teenagers work in the forests or on the farms near the village. Some learn to make things like tables and chairs and to build houses. The adults teach them these skills.
There are several free hours each day. Weekends are free, too. During the free hours some of the teenagers learn photo-taking or drawing. Others sit around and talk or sing. Each teenager chooses his own way to pass his free time.
When people live together, they should have rules. In this program the teenagers and the adults make the rules together. If someone breaks a rule, the problem goes before the whole group. They talk about it and ask, “Why did it happen? What should we do about it?”
One of the teenagers has said something about it, “You have to stop thinking only about yourself. You learn how to think about the group.”In one special program in New York State, young and older people_______.
| A．don’t work well together |
| B．are friendly to each other |
| C．teach each other new ways of building houses |
| D．spend eight weeks together, working as farmers |
All the members work some time every day mainly to________.
| A．lead a busy life |
| B．learn new skills of farming |
| C．get used to the life on the farms |
| D．find useful things and pleasure in work |
Living together,________.
| A．the teenagers don’t have to obey the rules |
| B．the members have to obey the rules the adults make |
| C．the members have no free time but on weekends |
| D．the members should not break the rules they make together |
The best title for the passage is________.
| A．The Rules of Living Together |
| B．Life in New York State |
| C．Teenagers and Adults Together |
| D．Free Hours in the Special Work Group |
Terrafugia Company has said that its flying car, named Transition, has successfully finished a 37- second test flight
On March 5, 2009, at Plattsburgh International Airport in New York. It was piloted by Phil Meteer, the company's chief pilot.
Transition is a two-seat airplane that can take off and land at airports as well as drive on roads.
The company said that the flying carcan travel at speeds up to 115 mph for 450 miles in the air, drive at highway speeds on the ground, and fold up(折叠) to fit in a garage (车库) 81 inches wide, and 80 inches high.
This could be used in hospitals to transport patients so as to avoid road traffic. It may start running on wheels, and when it gets to traffic lights it can fly overhead the lights and keeps its way forward. So it’s good news to avoid trafficproblem and the traffic accidents.
But some people say this is a going airplane rather than a flying car, at least on the appearance. Anyway, we are happy for scientific-technical progress, what a fantastical world in the near future! This kind of new machine is made by ______.
| A．Phil Meteer |
| B．Terrafugia Company |
| C．Plattsburgh International Airport |
| D．both A and B |
___ people can sit in Transition.
| A．3 | B．5 | C．4 | D．2 |
Transition can travel ____ miles every hour in the air .
| A．115 | B．120 | C．450 | D．480 |
Which of the following sentences about Transition is not true? __________.
| A．It can be folded up. |
| B．It can both run on the ground and fly in the sky. |
| C．It is used in hospital now. |
| D．It looks like a plane . |
One night, a little before nine o’clock, Dr Johnson was answering a telephone call. He was asked to go and give an operation to a very sick boy at once. The boy was in a small hospital in Glens Falls, sixty miles away from Dr Johnson’s city – Albany. The boy had hurt himself in a traffic accident. His wife was in danger, but his family was so poor that they could not pay the doctor anything. After he heard all this, Dr Johnson was driving carefully. He thought that he could get to the hospital before 12 o’clock. A few minutes later, the doctor’s car had to stop for a red light at a crossing. Suddenly a man in an old black coat opened the door of the car and got in.
“Drive on”, he said. “I’ve got a gun (枪).”
“I’m a doctor,” said Johnson, “I’m on my way to a hospital to operate on a very sick…”
“Don’t talk,” said the man in the old black coat, “Just drive.”
A mile out of the town he ordered the doctor to stop the car and get out. Then the man drove on down the road. The doctor stood for a moment in the snow. After half an hour, Dr Johnson found a telephone and called a taxi. At the railway station he learned that the next train to Glens Falls would not leave until 12 o’clock.
It was after two o’clock in the morning when the doctor arrived at the hospital in Glens Falls. Miss Clarke, a nurse, was waiting for him.
“I did my best,” said Dr Johnson. Miss Clarke said, “The boy died an hour ago.”
They walked into the waiting room. There sat the man in the old black coat, with his head in his hands.
“Mr. Shute,” said Miss Clarke to the man, “this is Dr Johnson. He had come all the way from Albany to try to save your boy.” From the story we know it took Dr Johnson _________ to get to the hospital.
| A．12 hours | B．7 hours | C．only 1 hour | D．about 5 hours |
Dr Johnson was late because __________.
| A．there was something wrong with his car |
| B．a strange man made it hard to drive |
| C．a strange man drove his car away |
| D．the train to Glens Falls was late |
The man in a black coat __________.
| A．hit the boy and ran away |
| B．took the boy to the hospital |
| C．was the boy’s father |
| D．was the real doctor |
The man in black would feel __________ in the end.
| A．happy and pleased | B．regretful(悔恨) and sad |
| C．worried and angry | D．tired and hungry |