You’re on the school bus. But as soon as you turn the corner, you find yourself at the end of a very long queue. It’s another traffic jam! It is stop-start for the rest of your journey. Meanwhile, at the same time in Antarctica(南极洲), snow covers the land. A group of emperor penguins crowd together to keep warm, using stop-and-go movements to protect themselves from the winds. Can you see the connection?
Emperor penguins move like cars in traffic jams to keep warm, that’s according to new research by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marina Research in Germany. A penguin only needs to move 2cm in any direction for its neighbor to do the same thing. These movements then flow(流动) through the whole group of penguins like a “traveling wave”.
These waves also help smaller crowds join bigger groups, keeping more and more of their friends warm. A single Antarctic “traffic jam” has thousands of penguins. Interestingly, the technology used for studying road traffic jams was used to study the penguins. This included studying time-lapse(延时) videos. Scientists also discovered that unlike on the road, these waves can be made by any penguin and in any direction.
With temperatures usually dropping below –50℃, and winds reaching speeds of up to 200km/h, these traveling waves are very important for penguins to keep warm.
These penguins can also teach us a lesson. In big groups, they learn to be orderly and patient, and to never crash into each other. These are skills we should all learn from them when we are on the road!
| A．keep warm | B．play games | C．learn from each other | D．cross the road |
| A．drivers can drive fast | B．drivers can drive carelessly |
| C．cars are not moving fast | D．cars will stop working |
| A．is caused by a traffic jam on the road |
| B．is caused by the strong wind in Antarctica |
| C．is formed by the movement of the penguins |
| D．is made by just one or two penguins |
| A．needs to move orderly | B．can move as fast as it likes |
| C．will not leave others behind | D．should move as slowly as it can |
| A．penguins won’t move together if it is not very cold |
| B．traffic jams happen probably because people are impatient |
| C．penguins learn their skills from human beings |
| D．penguins are likely to crash into each other in a group |
In the 1920s and 30s the airlines were just beginning. It was unusual for people to travel by air because it was expensive and dangerous. In those days, there were no flight attendants to look after the passengers. Young men ,or “stewards” helped the passengers onto the airplane and carried the passengers’ luggage(行李)but they did not provide food and drinks. But then in 1930,a woman called Ellen Church invented the “stewardess”.
Ellen Church was born in 1904 on a farm in Iowa. She was a different child. She didn’t want to work on a farm or marry a farmer —she wanted a more adventurous(冒险的)life. Ellen studied to be a nurse at the University of Minnesota and then got a job in a hospital. For the next few years she stayed at the hospital but also took flying lessons and got her pilot’s license.
Ellen was twenty-five years old when she first got in touch with Boeing Air Transport. She loved flying but she understood that airlines were a man’s world. Although women like Emelia Earheart were becoming famous, she realized it was impossible for a woman to have a career as a pilot .But she had another idea. Most people were frightened of flying because. flying was still an unreliable(不可靠的) way to travel. There were often delays(延误),many crashes and the bad weathers made many passengers sick. Ellen thought nurses could take care of passengers during flights and B.A.T. agreed.
The young woman from Iowa and seven other nurses became the first air stewardesses.
At first pilots were unhappy because they did not want stewardesses on airplanes, but passengers loved the stewardesses. In 1940 there were around 1000 of them working for different airlines. The early “stewardesses” had to be under twenty-five-year-old, single and slim. When a woman joined an airline, she had to promise not to get married or have children. It was hard job and not well paid. They worked long hours and earned ＄1 an hour.
In the 1970s, stewardesses were unhappy in their job and airlines had to make some changes. Since the 1970s, “stewardesses” have been called flight attendants. They are well paid and work fewer hours than in the past.The last sentence of the first paragraph suggests that _________.
| A．the word “stewardess” was made up by Ellen Church |
| B．Ellen Church was the first woman who flew a plane |
| C．Ellen Church was the first woman who worked on a plane |
| D．Ellen Church was the first woman passenger on a plane |
From the second paragraph, we learn that ________.
| A．Ellen did not behave in the same way as most other girls |
| B．Ellen’s family was not rich enough to support her education |
| C．Ellen was fond of working as a nurse in the hospital |
| D．Ellen has an unhappy childhood that changed her completely |
The main reason for Boeing Air Transport offering Ellen the job was ________.
| A．her flying experience | B．her university education |
| C．her nursing experience | D．her life attitudes |
The passage mainly talks about _______.
| A．the background of early flying pilots |
| B．the experience of flying passengers |
| C．the history of early flight attendants |
| D．the development of airplanes |
For a long time, humans have used technology (科技) to study the world around us, and Mars is the latest place we’re using machines to explore. Besides the earth, the “red planet” is seen, as the one place in our solar system most likely to have life.
Early last month, the first American robot, Spirit, landed on Mars without any problem. Opportunity, the second robot, landed on the planet more than a week ago. Scientists are very excited about these machines’ safe landing on Mars. It means that now we have an excellent chance to look for water and other signs of life. So far, the robots have found some stones that could show Mars was once a wet and warm planet.
But the trips made by Spirit and Opportunity were dangerous. Mars is often called the “death planet”, because in the past its environment has been unfriendly to the robot explorers. Before Spirit and Opportunity, nearly forty spaceships had been sent to Mars since the 1960s. Two-thirds of them failed. The first spaceship, Korabl, sent in 1962 by Russia was among them. It broke apart (分裂) near the earth.For a long time humans think ________.
| A．they can surely find life on Mars |
| B．there may be life on Mars |
| C．it’s too late for them to explore Mars now |
| D．Mars is the only planet that has life on it |
The two robots ________.
| A．have found out that it is warm and wet on Mars |
| B．were sent to Mars to find some stones |
| C．were the first two American robots that landed on Mars |
| D．are the only machines that have landed on Mars so far |
The third paragraph mainly tell us ________.
| A．it’s a very hard and dangerous trip for spaceships to Mars |
| B．two-thirds of the spaceships sent to Mars have failed |
| C．Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars successfully |
| D．Mars is called the “death planet” |
Although I had left school against the advice of my teacher, I had, without telling anyone, tried to continue my studies in literature at evening classes. It was a tiresome walk from one end of the city to another and to sit among adults was uninteresting. I was the youngest in the class, so the friendship I knew at school was absent, I put up with it for a short period. It was too long a walk on cold winter’s nights and it was hard to put my heart into Shakespeare with wet shoes and trousers. So I continued reading books and started writing poetry at home.
By chance, I won some prizes and rewards for literature. A young woman from a TV company came to the college one day. She wanted to make a short film about me, to which I said, “No, I couldn’t do that.” Not that I had any real excuse, I was just frightened. In the end she advised me that I should do it the following day.
So I did. They made a short film of me reading one of my poems and I became more interested in literature than ever. I wondered what I should do after this, and decided some weeks later that I could not imagine myself spending the rest of my days dealing with machines. So one evening, I hesitatingly（支吾其词地） told my parents that I wanted to return to school. They wanted to know if I was sure, if I knew what it meant and whether I realized that if I gave up my job training, it would be very difficult to get a good job. But nothing could stop me, and they asked about the matter on future.Which of the following has most probably been discussed in the paragraphs above this text?
| A．The writer’s unhappy childhood. |
| B．The poor teaching quality of the writer’s school. |
| C．The writer’s leaving school against his teacher’s advice. |
| D．Whether it was worth leaving school for job training. |
The writer did NOT feel comfortable at the evening school because __________.
| A．he found it difficult to make friends with his classmates |
| B．he had to walk a long distance to the evening school |
| C．he could not put his heart into reading books after he was caught in the rain |
| D．all of the above |
After his success, he __________.
| A．decided to get a good job |
| B．decided to continue his studies in literature at the evening school |
| C．decided to return to the school he once left |
| D．began to feel very important and proud |
Uncle Li and Uncle Wang are good friends. They live next to each other and their farms are both at the foot of the mountain. So they can help each other. But neither of them likes to use his head. They're both poor though they work hard. Most villagers have built new houses, but they still live in the low and broken houses. They never find out why.
Once Uncle Li went to town to buy some medicine for his wife. In the town he heard the apples in a city were expensive. He told Uncle Wang about it as soon as he went back. They decided to carry some apples to the city. They borrowed some money from their friends and bought nearly 1,000 kilograms of apples in the villages and carried them to the city on a tractor. Bad luck! A lot of apples has already been carried there when they arrived. A few days later they had to sell them at a low price (价格)。They felt unhappy and returned to their village.
"I can't understand why we sustained (蒙受) losses in business while others always profit (盈利)" Uncle Li asked one day.
"The tractor was too small " Uncle Wang said without thinking. "We'll carry more apples on a truck next time!"
"I agree!" said Uncle Li. "How foolish (傻的) we were !"Uncle Li and Uncle Wang live in the low and broken houses because __________.
| A．they hope to save money |
| B．they're both poor |
| C．their farms are at the foot of the mountain |
| D．they're not far from their farms |
The two farmers had to sell their apples at a low price because ________.
| A．theirs weren't as good as the others’ |
| B．theirs were much less than the others' |
| C．a lot of apples had been already carried to the city |
| D．they forgot to carry them on a truck |
Which of the following is true?
| A．The two farmers found out why they were poor. |
| B．The two farmers will soon get rich. |
| C．Neither of the farmers is clever. |
| D．The two farmers decided to buy a truck. |
Have you ever been having a great day when suddenly a past mistake comes into your head? Here are some ideas on forgetting your past mistakes and moving forward in life.
You should let the mistakes in the past go away. You are not defined (界定) by your past mistakes. A mistake is just something that has happened in your life. And mistakes are only a small part of your life. You made mistakes because you thought something was the best for you. However, now you know clearly that it wasn’t the best.
Work out why you keep making the same mistake. It is important for you to learn why you keep making the same mistake. There are many ways to do this. For example, you can try to find out the cause(原因) of this mistake in order to learn more about it. To look into something deeply is very important.
See what you have learned from the experience. After you have learned why you made the mistake, you should think about what you have learned from it. Maybe you recognize that you should have listened to your heart. Or maybe you need to forgive(原谅) yourself for a mistake that you made a few days ago.
Information Card
| You should let the mistakes in the past |
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| It is important for you to learn |
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| You can try to find out the cause of this mistake in order to |
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| You should see what you have learned from |
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| For a mistake that you made a few days ago, you need to |