In side their one-storey, metal-roofed house on Vancouver Island’s west coast,Janet Schwartz and her domesticated(驯养的) deer, Bimbo,are returning to their normal lives. The law—represented by men and women dressed in black uniforms and carrying guns — is no longer threatening to forcibly separate Schwartz and Bimbo,freeing the l0-year-old deer to the fates (命运) of the surrounding rainforest and its hungry wolves and black bears.
“We love each other,”said Schwartz who turned 70 on Saturday. “she’ll come up to me and she’ll kiss me right on the lips,1ike a man kisses a woman’’
For four days last week,Schwartz’ life turned as rocky as the rough logging road that connected her life to the outside world. Conservation officers had arrived with orders to 1oose Bimbo. Schwartz was to1d she wasn’t allowed to touch Bimbo any more It seemed somebody had complained,said Environment Minister Terry Lake earlier in the week, noting it’s illegal to keep wild animals as pets.
During those tense days,sleepless nights were made even more restless by nightmares,said Schwartz. There were news stories and Facebook pages which supported Schwartz and by Friday,the government had changed its mind. Schwartz could keep her pet with the help of a veterinarian and conservation officers.
“It makes me feel good,”said Schwartz of the announcement.“She is my life.and I’ve had her since the day she’s been born.”
The relationship began when a friend found the orphaned fawn (幼鹿) along a nearby logging road,more than a kilometer away from her current home,said Schwartz. The friend brought the fawn over because she knew Schwartz had raised a deer before.
Schwartz named the fawn Bimbo,based on a Gene Autry song that was playing inside her home at the time,and began feeding the animal goat’s milk.
Days turned into months and years, and now Bimbo’s a part of the family.According to Paragraph 1 , Janet Schwartz’s life is returning to normal because______.
A.no one disturbs her life again |
B.she can continue to keep the deer |
C.she has married again |
D.Bimbo has returned to the forest |
Why didn’t Schwartz want to loose the deer?
A.It was the only companion in her house |
B.She wanted to study the lifestyle of the deer. |
C.The deer had become part of her life. |
D.She had a veterinarian to help her. |
Conservation officers ordered Janet to loose Bimbo because .
A.the deer was not properly taken care of |
B.the deer brought harm to the neighborhood |
C.it was against the law to keep the deer as a pet |
D.the deer made too much noise |
What made the government change its mind?
A.Schwartz’s love for the deer. |
B.The threat to the deer in the wild. |
C.The change of the law. |
D.The influence from the press and the Web. |
What can we conclude from the text?
A.Bimbo will continue to stay with Schwartz. |
B.Bimbo will be loosed to the wild. |
C.A professional worker will take over Bimbo. |
D.Bimbo will stay m a nearby Zoo. |
I really love my job because I enjoy working with small children and like the challenges and awards from the job.I also think my work is important.There was a time when I thought I would never have that sort of career(职业).
I wasn’t an excellent student because I didn’t do much schoolwork.In my final term I started thinking what I might do and found I didn’t have much to offer.I just accepted that I wasn’t the type to have a career.
I then found myself a job.Looking after two little girls,It wasn’t too bad at first.But the problems began when I agreed to live in,so that I would be there if my boss had to go out for business in the evening.We agreed that if I had to work extra hours one week,she’d give me time off the next.But unfortunately,it didn’t often work out.I was getting extremely tired and fed up,because I had too many late nights and early mornings with the children.
One Sunday,I was in the park with the children,and met Megan who used to go to school with me,I told her about my situation.She suggested that I should do a course and get a qualification(资格证书)if I wanted to work with children.I didn’t think I would be accepted because I didn’t take many exams in school.She persuaded me to phone the local college and they were really helpful.My experience counted for a lot and I got on a part – time course.I had to leave my job with the family,and got work helping out at a kindergarten.
Now I’ve got a full – time job there.I shall always be thankful to Megan.I wish I had known earlier that you could have a career,even if you aren’t top of the class at school.What is the author’s present job?
A.Working part – time in a college. |
B.Taking care of children for a family. |
C.Helping children with their schoolwork. |
D.Looking after children at a kindergarten. |
When staying with the two girls’family,the author__________.
A.was paid for extra work |
B.often worked long hours |
C.got much help from her boss |
D.took a day off every other week |
Why did the author leave her first job?
A.She found a full – time job. |
B.She was fed up with children. |
C.She decided to attend a part – time course. |
D.She needed a rest after working extra hours. |
What has the author learned from her own experiences?
A.Less successful students can still have a career. |
B.Qualifications are necessary for a career. |
C.Hard work makes an excellent student. |
D.One must choose the job she likes. |
Welcome to Adventureland!
Everyone loves Adventureland !The Parks and Exhibitions were built for you to explore(探索),enjoy,and admire their wonders.Every visit will be an unforgettable experience.You will go away enriched,longing to come back.What are you going to do this time?
The Travel Pavilion
Explore places you have never been to before,and experience different ways of life.Visit the Amazon jungle(丛林)village,the Turkish market,the Tai floating market,the Berber mountain house and others.Talk to the people there who will tell you about their lives,and things they make.You can try making a carpet,making nets,fishing…
The Future Tower
This exhibition shows how progress will touch our lives.It allows us to look into the future and explore the cities of the next century and the way we’ll be living then.Spend some time in our space station and climb into our simulator(模拟装置)for the Journey to Mars!
The Nature Park
This is not really one park but several.In the Safari Park you can drive among African animals in one of our Range Cruisers:see lions,giraffes,elephants in the wild.Move on to the Ocean Park to watch the dolphins and whales.And then there is still the Aviary to see…
The Pyramid
This is the center of Adventureland.Run out of film,need some postcards and stamps?For all these things and many more,visit our underground shopping center.Come here for information and ideas too.The Travel Pavilion is built to help visitors _______.
A.realize the importance of travelling |
B.become familiar with mountain countries |
C.learn how to make things such as fishing nets |
D.learn something about different places in the world |
If you are interested in knowing about what people’s life will be,you may visit
_______.
A.the Travel Pavilion |
B.the Future Tower |
C.the Safari Park |
D.the Pyramid |
If you want to get a toy lion to take home,where will you most likely go?
A.The Pyramid. |
B.The Nature Park. |
C.The Future Tower. |
D.The Travel Pavilion. |
It is easy to lose patience with science today. The questions are pressing: How dangerous is air pollution? What about low-level radiation? When will that horrible earthquake strike California? And why can't we predict weather better? But the evidence is often described as "uncertain", forcing scientists to base their points of view almost as much on intuition(直觉)as on science.
When historians and philosophers of science listen to these questions, some conclude that science may not be able to solve all these problems any time soon. The unknowns can grow into riddles that are impossible to solve. Because of the unstable and changing state of the earth's atmosphere, for example, scientists have struggled for centuries to predict the weather with precision(精确) but failed.
The case is different for scientists of astronomy. For example, they think that the gravitational force of a nearby space vehicle, though tiny, is able to change the path of a much larger planet if the vehicle spends enough time close to it. With the aid of Newton's laws of gravitational attraction, ground controllers can predict the path of a planetary probe (探测仪)-or satellite-with incredible accuracy. They do this by calculating the gravitational force from each of the passing planets until the probe speeds beyond the edge of the solar system.A much more difficult task is to calculate what happens when two or three times of such force pull on the probe at the same time. Such procedures can, of course, be very difficult, but for experiments, they are effective.
This range of questions-from simple problems to those impossibly complex-has resulted in nicknames for various fields of study: "soft" sciences and " hard " sciences.“Soft” sciences admit a great degree of uncertainty. Academicians tend to judge fields such as sociology, psychology, and political science as “soft” because they are assumed to be understandable, of unnecessary mathematical accuracy, and concerned with everyday affairs such as interpersonal relationships. However, "hard" sciences, such as astronomy and chemistry, are said to offer precise answers. Precise definitions for "hard" sciences vary, but the characteristics of "hard" sciences include: producing testable predictions; performing controlled experiments; relying on quantifiable data and mathematical models; a high degree of accuracy and objectivity; and generally applying a pure form of the scientific methodWe can learn from the passage that .
A.a large planet is able to change the size of a tiny planet |
B.ground controllers can affect the gravitational force of planets |
C.calculating the probe speeds beyond the solar system is possible |
D.predicting the weather is more difficult than predicting the path of a satellite |
According to the author, "soft" sciences .
A.allow for certain inaccuracy |
B.focus on personal relationships |
C.are based on controlled experiments |
D.are rooted in data and mathematical models |
What might be the best title for the passage?
A.Science, a Long History? |
B.Science, Accurate or Not? |
C.Science and Its Functions |
D.Science and Its Application |
What is the author's attitude towards science in this passage?
A.Objective. | B.Sceptical. |
C.Disapproval. | D.Optimistic |
Etymology, the study of words and word roots, may sound like the kind of thing done by boring librarians in small, dusty rooms. Yet etymologists actually have a uniquely interesting job. They are in many ways just like archaeologists (考古学家) digging up the physical history of people and events. The special aspect of etymology is that it digs up history, so to speak, through the words and phrases that are left behind.
The English language, in particular, is a great field to explore history through words As a language, English has an extraordinary number of words. This is partly due to its ability to adapt foreign words so readily. For example, " English" words such as kindergarten (from German), croissant (from French), and cheetah (from Hindi) have become part of the language with little or no change from their original sounds and spellings. So English-language etymologists have a vast world of words to explore.
Another enjoyable thing about etymology for most word experts is solving word mysteries(谜). No, etymologists do not go around solving murders, like the great detective Sherlock Holmes. What these word experts solve are mysterious origins of some of our most common words
One of the biggest questions English language experts have pursued is how English came to have the phrase OK. Though it is one of the most commonly used expressions, its exact beginning is a puzzle even to this day. Even its spelling is not entirely consistent-unless you spell it Okay, it is hard even to call it a word.
Etymologists have been able to narrow OK’s origin down to a likely, although not certain, source(来源). It became widely used around the time of Martin Van Buren's run for president in 1840. His nickname was Old Kinderhook. What troubles word experts about this explanation is that the phrase appeared in some newspapers before Van Buren became well known. It is likely that Van Buren could be called its primary source Etymologists will doubtlessly keep searching for the initial source. However, it is clear that OK’s popularity and reputation have topped those of the American president to whom it has been most clearly linked.The author mentions the words like "croissant" in Paragraph 2 to indicate .
A.words have changed a lot in the two languages |
B.what English-language etymologists are exploring now |
C.English has absorbed many words from other foreign languages |
D.the English vocabulary is difficult to the non-English-speaking people |
The underlined word "pursued" in Paragraph 4 means .
A.looked upon | B.dug up |
C.put in | D.set down |
We can learn from the passage that etymologists .
A.discover the possible origin of words |
B.help detectives to solve mysterious murders |
C.write interesting stories for some newspapers |
D.explore the English language as well as the recent events |
What is the main purpose of the passage?
A.To present the history of English words |
B.To explain the procedure of an etymologist's job |
C.To introduce the pleasure of the study of words and word roots. |
D.To teach readers how to distinguish English and non-English words |
Shark on the bait (诱饵) !" shouted Andre Harman, pointing to a spot a few yards behind the outboard motors. His voice gave no indication of panic, but the crew suddenly became tense and fixed their eyes on the water. Slowly, smoothly, Andre drew in the bait.The shark followed. No one asked what kind of shark it was. Everything about it, from its color to its shape, tells that it was a great white shark.
Andre lifted the bait aboard. Placing himself between the two motors, he dropped his right hand into the water just as the great head reached the first motor. “My goodness Andre!” I said. His hand seized the big nose, moving it away from the tube of the motor, guiding the shark's head up as it rose out of the water. Andre's hand held the nose, touching it gently. No one spoke. No one breathed. The moment seemed endless. In fact, it lasted less than five seconds before Andre pulled his hand back.
Still nobody spoke. Then Andre smiled and said: "The first time was an accident. I was just trying to move the shark away from the motor. Sharks are attracted to motors by their electrical signals and have a habit of biting them to see if they are eatable. " Andre has worked with great white sharks for years. "My hand landed on its nose, and it sort of paused, so I kept it there, and when I did let go, the shark bit and bit as if it was searching for whatever it was that had attracted it."
Nearly every encounter (遭遇) we had had with the great whites had been totally illogical. The more we learned, the more we realized how little was really known about them in the past years. Back then, it was generally accepted that great whites ate people by choice. Now we know that almost every attack on a human is an accident in which the shark mistakes a human for its normal food. Back then, we thought that once a great white smelt blood, it would lead to death. Now we know that nearly three-quarters of bite victims survive, perhaps because the shark recognizes that is has made a mistake and doesn't return for a second bite.The author said, "My goodness! Andre ! " when .
A.Andre was about to fall into the water |
B.Andre was about to touch the shark |
C.Andre was followed by the shark |
D.Andre was bitten by the shark |
What does the author think of the encounters with great whites?
A.Exciting. | B.Educational. |
C.Frightening | D.Reasonable |
Most bite victims survive in shark attacks because .
A.they are taught how to fight off sharks |
B.sharks discover they are no threats |
C.they manage to swim to safety |
D.sharks stop attacking them |