When an animal helps another animal, it usually gets something valuable in return. For a long time, many scientists thought that only people could act generously just because it feels good.
However, a new study in Germany suggests that chimpanzees (黑猩猩)also do good things for no real reason. And so do children who are as young as 18 months of age. Maybe it is because humans and chimpanzees share an ancestor(祖先) about 6 million years ago.
People and chimpanzees appear to develop such features(特征) without any other training, says Warneken, a scientist in Germany. Warneken and his partners worked on adult chimpanzees that live on an island in the African country of Uganda. They also worked with 18-month-old children in Germany. The researchers performed three experiments on the adult chimpanzees and two experiments on the kids. In the first animal experiment,a person tried to reach his arm into a cage to get a stick,but he couldn’t reach it. A chimpanzee was in the cage,and it could reach the stick if it wanted to.
Thirty-six chimpanzees took part in this experiment one by one, and no chimpanzee saw what the other chimpanzees had done. Even though the animals hadn’t met the person before, they usually took the stick and gave it to the person. What’s more, they did this whether or not the person offered them bananas as a reward. In a similar experiment, 36 children acted in a similar way. They helped the person reach the stick, whether or not they were offered toys for their help.
Researchers did other experiments on chimpanzees and babies. No rewards were offered in either experiment. And still, both the chimpanzees and children went out of their way to help. Still, the new study is different from earlier findings. Researchers have found that chimpanzees don’t give rewards of food to other chimpanzees, even if it costs them nothing to be generous.Warneken and his partners worked with ________.
A.young chimpanzee that live on an island |
B.18-month-old children who live in Germany |
C.kids who are living with adult chimpanzees |
D.adult chimpanzees that live on the African mountain |
A new study in Germany suggests that ________.
A.people also share information for good reason |
B.children know something at the age of 18 months |
C.chimpanzees do good things for no real reason, too |
D.humans should develop their abilities 6 million years ago |
Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A.Thirty-six chimpanzees joined in this experiment one by one |
B.No chimpanzee saw what the other chimpanzees had done |
C.The animals hadn’t met the person before the experiments |
D.Chimpanzee gave the person the stick in order to get a reward |
From the passage we know that ________.
A.both chimpanzees and children can find their way to help others |
B.chimpanzees will reward good food to other chimpanzees |
C.children is more generous than chimpanzees in some ways |
D.both chimpanzees and children can do the difficult experiments |
Usually, students are not encouraged to run or jump around in the corridor (走廊). However,students in a British grammar school really enjoy running on the corridor tiles (瓷砖) and their teachers even encourage them to do that.
Why? It is because the corridor was built with special kinetic (动能的) tiles. When students jump on the tiles, electricity will be generated ( 产生). After one year, the electricity generated from the tiles can fully charge 853 mobile phones or power(供电) an electric car to drive seven miles. It’s amazing, isn’t it?
The corridor tiles are really a brilliant invention. Students can not only play on the corridor,but also help power the lights in their school corridors and other devices ( 设备) in their classrooms. Besides, this is a good way to teach students to be creative. They will be inspired to be scientists, inventors and engineers in the future to find clean energy for all humans.
The inventor of the magic corridor tiles is Laurence Kemball-Cook. He was once a student in this school. Now, he is CEO of his own company. The corridor tiles are not Laurence’s only invention. He has also invented a special dance floor, which can be used at music festivals. It allows dancers to charge their mobile phones while they are dancing on the dance floor.Why do the students in the passage enjoy running on the corridor tiles?
A. Because the corridor tiles are expensive.
B. Because the teachers ask them to do that.
C. Because the corridor was built with special tiles.After one year, the electricity generated from the tiles can provide enough energy for _______.
A. over 800 mobile phones
B. all the lights of the school
C. an electric car to drive70 milesThe underlined word “inspired” most probably means “ _________”.
A. encouraged
B. forced
C. trainedWhat else has Laurence invented besides the corridor tiles from the passage?
A. A mobile phone.
B. A music player.
C. A special dance floor.According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. Students are not allowed to walk in the corridor.
B. Laurence once studied in the British grammar school.
C. Laurence has more than one company of his own.
Monty Robert’s father was a horse trainer. As a child, Monty often went from one farm to another with his father. Sometimes they didn’t have enough money to pay for food, but Monty still kept hoping to own a horse farm.
When he was in school, his teacher asked him to write a paper about his dream. He wrote a seven-page paper. He wanted to have a horse farm one day. He even drew a picture of a horse farm in the paper.
The next day he handed it in to his teacher. Two days later, he got his paper back. On the front page was a large red “F” with the words “See me after class”. So the boy did and asked his teacher:” Why did I get an F?” The teacher said: “This dream will not come true for a young boy like you. You need a lot of money to own a horse farm. You have to buy the land. You have to pay for a lot of things. There is no way you could ever do it.” Then the teacher added: “If you write this paper
again with a simpler dream, I will give you a good grade.”
After school he thought hard about it. At last, he decided to hand in the same paper, making no changes at all. He wrote: “You can keep the F and I’ll keep my dream.”
Many years later, Monty had his own large horse farm. His dream came true.
So don’t let anyone take away your dreams. Follow your dreams, no matter what they are.From Paragraph1, we learn that _______.
A. Monty’s family was poor
B. Monty’s father didn’t support him
C. Monty hoped to be a horse trainerWhat did his teacher ask him to do when he was in school?
A. To write a seven-page paper.
B. To draw a picture about his dream.
C. To write a paper about his dream.What was Monty’s attitude 态度 towards his paper?
A. Careless. B. Serious. C. Funny.Monty’s teacher gave him a red “F” because he thought ______.
A. Monty’s handwriting was too bad
B. Monty copied from another student
C. Monty’s dream was too hard for him to achieveWhat does the story want to tell us?
A. Follow a simple dream.
B. Never give up your dream.
C. Don’t take away others’ dreams.
By the time Rihanna was seventeen ,she had released (发行) her first album and had an international hit with her first single (单曲) Pon de Replay.
Rihanna was born in Saint Michael , Barbados in 1988 . She grew up there with her two younger brothers . As a child , she loved singing . She formed her first group with friends from secondary school when she was just fifteen . In 2004 friends introduced the group to American record producer Evan Rogers ,who was on holiday in Barbados . Rogers thought Rihanna could be a star in America,so she moved there aged sixteen to take up music after she finished school. Rihhanna lived with Rogers and his wife . Then she worked for Def Jam Recordings and started working on her first album , Music of the Sun .It came out at in 2005 and got into the top ten . Over 69,000 copies of the album were sold in the first week alone . It went on to sell over two million copies worldwide and Rihanna quickly became a big star . Her second album , A Girl Like Me ,came out a year later and included the song SOS , which was her first number one hit in America. In 2007 Rihanna brought out her third album , Good Girl Gone Bad ,which had more dance music than the first two albums.
Rihanna sold more than fifteen million album and forty - five million singles worldwide between 2005 and 2010 ,the most of any artist at the same time . However ,she manages to find time for her charity work ,too . She has performed in several concerts to raise money for charity and in 2006 she created her Believe Foundation to help sick children . She also took part in Gucci’s activities to raise money for children in Africa.What had Rihanna released before she was seventeen ?
A.An album but no singles. |
B.A single but not an album. |
C.An album and at least one single. |
D.Two album and a single Pon de Replay. |
Why did Rihanna move to America ?
A.To try to become a famous singer. |
B.To form her first music group. |
C.To meet the record producer Evan Rogers. |
D.To record her album ,A Girl Like Me ,with the help of Rogers. |
Which is true about Rihanna’s first album ?
A.It included her first number one hit in the US. |
B.It sold69,000 copies in total. |
C.It made Rihanna a star. |
D.It came out before she finished school. |
It can be learnt from the text that Rihanna ______.
A.Wants to start a charity to help sick children |
B.Has helped to raise money for African children |
C.Has organized some concerts to raise money for charity |
D.Is producing another album for her Believe Foundation |
While we are still children ,most of us live at home with our parents, more or less peacefully . But as we become teenagers , things change ,and we begin to grow apart from our parents . This means we are almost ready to leave the house where we grew up and make a new home of our own .
All humans must do this ,but they don’t all do it in the same way . If ,for instance ,you belong to a primitive tribe (原始部落) ,then as you grew up ,you’d learn the skills you needed as an adult---how to catch fish ,how to keep the house and look after children . You would be ready to marry in your early teens and you would build a house and live near your family in the village.
This seems a very old way of life , but it is what humans have been used to through hundreds of years. And it is what we are still used to in the 21st century ,for man hasn’t changed in the short time since he became civilized(文明的). But could you leave home and look after yourself during the teen years ? Most people would not do very well . Why ? Because although man hasn’t changed very much , the society he lives in has changed greatly ,which means that we have to learn more and more before we are ready to leave our parents’ shelter( 居所 ) and live alone .
However ,sometimes it is very frustrating to live at parents’ home . Parents can be very upset about late nights ,criticizing friends and always saying that we are noisy and dirty . But we still need our emotional (情感的) shelter till we finish our studies , and that is why we usually stay in our parents’ home until we feel grown up enough to deal with living alone .When does the relationship with parents start changing ?
A.When we are children. | B.When we become teenagers. |
C.When we are alone. | D.When we get married. |
For most teenagers of the 21st century ,making a new home of their own may be ________.
A.difficult | B.unimportant |
C.impossible | D.quite easy |
Why must we know more to be able to live alone ?
A.Because we are becoming less talented. |
B.Because our society has changed a lot. |
C.Because not enough is taught in our schools. |
D.Because man has never really been civilized. |
From the passage ,we know living at parents’ home when we become teenagers _______.
A.is always pleasant | B.must be very exciting |
C.makes us feel lonely | D.may be annoying |
Droughts (干旱)are common in Kenya . Before ,they came every 10 years ,but now they seem to be hitting us more often and for a longer time .
We gave the droughts names :“longoza”was the drought when many animals died ; there was the drought of the “planes” because food was dropped from the air by planes; and one particularly bad drought was called “ man who dies with his money in his fist (拳头)”,because ,even if there was money , there was simply no food to buy .
I was born in 1951 in Machakos. From what my mother tells me , when I was 7, there was a serious drought . I clearly remember the terrible weather and the hunger. I can’t tell you how many times I went to bed without eating . “ I slept like that ,” is how we described it . I can’t count the number of days when “ I slept like that,” or describe the feeling of going to sleep hungry ,knowing I’d wake up and there would still be no food for breakfast.
My father would leave early in the morning carrying a little basket to ask for food on credit (赊欠). Each night he would return home around 10:00p.m. My mother would try to encourage me by telling me to keep the water in our pot boiling so that when my father arrived we could quickly cook any food he brought in the already prepared water . I would keep the fire burning and the water boiling , along with the hopes that we would eat that night. But my father would arrive frustrated and empty -handed. And I would sleep like that.The best title for the text is ________.
A.A Hungry Childhood Caused by Droughts |
B.Food and Hunger |
C.Protecting the Environment |
D.Droughts and Their Names |
What does the drought of the “ longoza”refer to (指代)?
A.Many animals needed food dropped by planes. |
B.People had to eat animals because of hunger. |
C.Many animals died because of the droughts. |
D.People died of hunger even if they had money. |
Why would the author keep the fire burning and the water boiling?
A.To wait for her father to come back to have supper. |
B.To cook the food that her father would bring back. |
C.To keep her house warm all night. |
D.To make her hungry mother happy. |
The sentence “I slept like that ” means “ ________.”
A.I was disappointed when my father came back empty-handed |
B.I felt sorry because my family got hungry again |
C.I went to sleep with no food for breakfast. |
D.I went to bed with nothing to eat |