Most people agree that honesty is a good thing. But does Mother Nature agree? Animals can’t talk, but can they lie in other ways? Can they lie with their bodies and behavior?
Animal experts may not call it lying, but they do agree that many animals, from birds to chimpanzees, behave dishonestly to fool other animals. Why? Dishonesty often helps them survive.
Many kinds of birds are very successful at fooling other animals. For example, a bird called the plover sometimes pretends to be hurt in order to protect its young. When a predator (猎食动物) gets close to its nest, the plover leads the predator away from the nest. How? It pretends to have a broken wing. The predator follows the “hurt” adult, leaving the baby birds safe in the nest.
Another kind of bird, the scrub jay, buries its food so it always has something to eat. Scrub jays are also thieves. They watch where others bury their food and steal it. But clever scrub jays seem to know when a thief is watching them. So they go back later, unbury the food, and bury it again somewhere else.
Birds called cuckoos have found a way to have babies without doing much work. How? They don’t make nests. Instead, they get into other birds’ nests secretly. Then they lay their eggs and fly away. When the baby birds come out, their adoptive parents feed them.
Chimpanzees, or chimps, can also be sneaky. After a fight, the losing chimp will give its hand to the other. When the winning chimp puts out its hand, too, the chimps are friendly again. But an animal expert once saw a losing chimp take the winner’s hand and start fighting again.
Chimps are sneaky in other ways, too. When chimps find food that they love, such as
bananas, it is natural for them to cry out. Then other chimps come running. But some clever chimps learn to cry very softly when they find food. That way, other chimps don’t hear them, and they don’t need to share their food.
As children, many of us learn the saying "You can't fool Mother Nature." But maybe you can't trust her, either.A plover protects its young from a predator by _________
| A．getting closer to its young |
| B．driving away the adult predator |
| C．leaving its young in another nest |
| D．pretending to be injured |
By "Chimpanzees, or chimps, can also be sneaky" , the author means _______.
| A．chimps are ready to attack others |
| B．chimps are sometimes dishonest |
| C．chimps are jealous of the winners |
| D．chimps can be selfish too |
Which of the following is true according to the passage?
| A．Some chimps lower their cry to keep food away from others. |
| B．The losing chimp won the fight by taking the winner's hand. |
| C．Cuckoos fool their adoptive parents by making no nests. |
| D．Some clever scrub jays often steal their food back. |
Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
| A．Do animals lie? |
| B．Does Mother Nature fool animals? |
| C．How do animals learn to lie? |
| D．How does honesty help animals survive? |
Forgiving someone who has hurt you or let you down is never an easy thing. Several new studies, however, say that it could have a lot of health benefits. When you think of forgiveness, you probably don’t think of it as being a health or medical problem. Studies from Stanford University, on the other hand, show that something like anger can change your well-being.
When cartoon book characters like the Incredible Hulk get angry, they change colours and often
gain special power. In the real world, anger is less obvious and may be more dangerous. That’s why Professor Fred Luskin, founder of the Stanford Forgiveness Project and author of Forgive for Good, says holding on to anger and hatred can harm your physical and mental health. Two new studies seem to show the same idea.
The studies find that people who are able to forgive feel less stress, less back pain, and less depression. They also have fewer headaches, lower blood pressure, and fewer problems on sleeping.
So it doesn’t matter if your anger is caused by the traffic or other things. Learning to let it go is important. Techniques such as deep breath or thought can help. Or just ask yourself if it’s worth hurting yourself by staying angry with someone else.
Forgiveness does not mean that you simply accept what happened and say it’s OK. Instead, it’s a way of making peace with yourself about what happened in the past. The author of the passage tries to make his viewpoint clear _______.
| A．by raising his own examples | |
| B．based on his own experience | |
| C．by mentioning some studies | D．by mentioning some typical patients |
The example of the cartoon book characters is taken in the passage to_______.
| A．support the viewpoint that anger and hatred harm physical and mental health. |
| B．introduce a famous expert. |
| C．let the reader know the different colours of cartoon faces. |
| D．show how to control one’s temper. |
The underlined phrase “holding on to” in this passage possibly means“_______”.
| A．removing | B．keeping up | C．getting rid of | D．learning about |
The best title for this passage is probably _______.
| A．Forgiveness | B．Forgiveness Is Good for Health |
| C．A Secret to Keeping Health | D．Anger Is Bad for Health |
I shall never forget the night, a few years ago, when Marion J. Douglas was a student in one of my adult-education classes. He told us how tragedy had struck at his home, not once, but twice. The first time he had lost his five-year-old daughter. He and his wife thought they couldn’t bear that first loss; but, as he said, “Ten months later, God gave us another little girl and she died in five days.”
This double bereavement was almost too much to bear. “I couldn’t take it,” this father told us. “I couldn’t sleep, eat, rest or relax. My nerves were entirely shaken and my confidence gone.” At last he went to the doctors: one recommended sleeping pills and another recommended a trip, but neither helped. He said, “My body felt as if it was surrounded in a vice(大钳子), and the jaws of the vice were being drawn tighter and tighter.” The tension of grief(悲伤) --- if you have ever been paralyzed(使瘫痪) by sorrow, you know what the meant.
“But thank God, I had one child left --- a four-year-old son. He gave me the solution to the problem. One afternoon as I sat around feeling sorry for myself, he asked, ‘Daddy, will you build a boat for me?’ I was in no mood to build a boat; in fact, I was in no mood to do anything. But my son is a persistent fellow! I had to give in. Building that toy boat took me about three hours. By the time it was finished, I realized that those three hours spent building that boat were first hours of mental relaxation and peace that I had had in months! I realized that it is difficult to worry while you are busy doing something that requires planning and thinking. In my case, building the boat had knocked worry out of the ring. So I determined to keep busy.”
“The following night, I made a list of jobs that ought to be done. Scores of items needed to be repaired. Amazingly, I had made a list of 242 items that needed attention. During the last two years I have completed most of them. I am so busy now that I have no time for worry.”
No time for worry! That is exactly what Winston Churchill said when he was working eighteen hours a day at the height of the war. When he was asked if he worried about his huge responsibilities, he said, “I am too busy. I have no time for worry.” The underlined word “bereavement” in the second paragraph refers to _________.
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Marion felt his body as if it was caught in a vice because _________.
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Marion made a list of over 200 items that needed to be repaired because _________.
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At the end of the passage, the author wrote about Winston Churchill in order to ________.
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The holiday is upon us. Finally, after months of study, you have some time to yourself. So, why not read a book? Well, some people will say, "Why bother with books? We have the Internet and other media that offer a lot of more colorful entertainment. Books are history!" But don't be fooled. I'm sure there's still a lot to be said for reading.
One clear reason is that a well-chosen book is a wonderful source of vocabulary, so long as you have a good dictionary, of course. Believe me, it's far easier to get new English words and phrases from a book or an article than it is from the TV or the Internet.
But another more important point is that books give you something that modern media simply can not. The average webpage is picture-heavy and the text is often designed to make it as easy to read as possible. While "easy" may be attractive, unfortunately it's of little use for any long-term development of reading skills and the general language level. Because of that, there's still no substitute (替代品) of a book.
But perhaps the best single reason is that simply choosing what you read and doing it independently means that it's something you do by and for yourself. You can choose what you want to read. It's hard work, but somewhere down the line, you'll find that what once seemed like a duty is now a pleasure. How many reasons for reading a book does the author mention in the passage?
| A．Three | B．Two | C．One | D．Four |
According to the passage, we basically need a ________ in reading.
| A．television | B．pencil | C．notebook | D．dictionary |
In the author's opinion, reading on the Internet may_________.
| A．develop long-term reading skills | B．improve the general language ability |
| C．not take the place of reading books | D．be an effective way of reading |
The passage is written mainly to _________.
| A．share the pleasure of reading books | B．advise readers to read books |
| C．stress the importance of reading online | D．help readers to choose good books |
It is Saturday afternoon. You and your friends are planning to go to the movies and then spend the night together. Just as you start to get ready, your dad reminds you that it is your aunt's birthday and the whole family is going out to dinner to celebrate. How can this possibly end without a huge argument?
One of the greatest sources of tension (紧张情绪) between teenagers and their families is the struggle to balance personal desires with family expectations. As you are getting older, you arebecoming more independent and more interested in being with your friends.
However，at the same time，your family is trying to figure out how to deal with these changes. While you once spent most of your free time with your family, you are now often absent from home. Parents may get their feelings hurt. Or they might feel that they are losing control of their family during this period. You might feel angry that so many family demands are placed on you.
There are a few things you can try to make it a little easier to ease (缓解) the tension.
* Make your plans in advance. Ask your parents if there is anything else planned at that time.
* When something with your friends interferes (冲突) with a family event，try to figure out if there is any way you can do both.
* Suggest something you would really like to do with your family. Sometimes parents feel better just knowing their teenager wants to spend time with them.
Some of the time you won’t be happy with the outcome (结果). You might either have to disappoint your parents or have to miss out being with your friends. However, if you show consideration for the feelings of both your family and your friends，you can solve the problem in a tender way.The purpose of the first paragraph is to _________.
| A．show a disagreement of views | B．serve as a description of teenager trouble |
| C．serve as an introduction to the discussion | |
| D．show the popularity of teenager problem |
The tension between teenagers and their families is caused by the fact that____________.
| A．teenagers don’t like to take family demands |
| B．parents want to keep their family under control |
| C．parents feel unhappy that their children make so many friends |
| D．both parents and teenagers don’t pay attention to each other’s feeling much |
What’s the purpose of the passage?
| A．To inform us of parent and teenager tension. |
| B．To advise teenagers how to deal with their tension with their families. |
| C．To persuade parents to show consideration for teenagers. |
| D．To tell us about a common teenager problem. |
When I was going home to India last year, I called up my mother to ask if she wanted anything from China．
When India had not opened up its markets to the world, I carried suitcase loads of dark glasses and jeans. Thankfully, we can get all these anywhere in India now．
Still, her answer surprised me: “Green tea.”
As long as I can remember she didn’t even drink Indian tea.．
I dutifully bought a big packet of Longjing and headed home to hear the story．My mother and her brother, both regular newspaper readers, believed that Chinese green tea was the wonder drug for all illnesses．
At the turn of the century, China was not really familiar to the average Indian．It was a strange country．
How things change! And how soon! Now every town of any size seems to have a “China Market”．And everyone is talking about China．The govemment of Indin has planned to send a team to China to see how things are done. A minister once said that India must open the doors for more foreign investment (投资)and such a step would “work wonders as it did for China”．
But it’s a two-way street．I just heard about a thousand Shenzhen office workers who have gone to Bangalore to train in software．Meanwhile, all the Indian IT majors are setting up a strong presence in China．
No wonder that trade, which was only in the millions just ten years ago, is expected to hit about US $15 billion for last year and US $20 billion by 2008, a goal set by both governments．
No wonder, my colleague wrote some weeks ago about this being the Sino-Indian(中印)century as the two countries started on January 1 the Sino-Indian Friendship Year．
But what is still a wonder to me is my mother drinking Chinese tea． The reason why the writer’s mother asked for Chinese green tea is that________.
| A．she had a son working in China | B．she believed it had a curing effect |
| C．she enjoyed Chinese products | D．she was tired of Indian tea |
The underlined part “it’s a two-way street” in Paragraph 8 probably means _______.
| A．The exchanges between Indian and China benefit both． |
| B．China and India have different traffic rules． |
| C．Tea trade works wonders in both India and China． |
| D．Chinese produces are popular in both China and India． |
It can be inferred from the passage that _______．
| A．the author was concerned for his mother’s health |
| B．the author was in favor of drinking Chinese green tea |
| C．the author was surprised at China’s recent development |
| D．the author was curious about the growth of India’s IT industry |