Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing or whistle when you are happy.
Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.
Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims（声称）as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species (物种) are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away.
If so, you have actually scared the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting（筑巢）season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird’s song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.
Birds sing loudest in the spring when they are trying to attract a mate and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.
You can see that birds have a language all their own. Most of it has to do with attracting mates and setting up territories.Some scientists believe that most of the time birds’ singing is actually __________.
| A．an expression of happiness | B．a way of warning |
| C．an expression of anger | D．a way of greeting |
What is a bird’s “territory”?
| A．A place where families of other species are not accepted. |
| B．A place where a bird may shout at the top of its voice. |
| C．An area for which birds fight against each other. |
| D．An area which a bird considers to be its own. |
Why do birds keep on singing at nesting season?
| A．Because they want to invite more friends. |
| B．Because their singing helps frighten outsiders away. |
| C．Because they want to find outsiders around. |
| D．Because their singing helps get rid of their fears. |
How does the writer explain birds’ singing?
| A．By comparing birds with human beings. |
| B．By reporting experiment results. |
| C．By describing birds’ daily life. |
| D．By telling a bird’s story. |
Me More Than You
“It hurts me more than you.” and “This is for your own good.” These are the statements my mother used to make years ago when I had to learn Latin, clean my room, stay home and do homework.
That was before we entered the permissive period in education in which we decided it was all right not to push our children to achieve their best in school.
The schools and the educators made it easy on us. They taught that it was all right to be parents who took a let-alone policy. We stopped making our children do homework. We gave them calculators(计算器), turned on the television, left the teaching to the teachers and went on vacation.
Now teachers, faced with children who have been developing at their pace for the past 15 years, are realizing we’ve made a terrible mistake. One such teacher is Sharon Klompus who says of her students—“so passive”—and wonders what happened. Nothing was demanded of them, she believes. “Television”, says Klompus, “contributes to children’s passivity;” “We’re not training kids to work any more.” says Klompus. “We’re talking about a generation of kids who’ve never been hurt or hungry. They have learned somebody will always do it for them. Instead of saying ‘go look it up’, you tell them the answer. It takes greater energy to say ‘no’ to a kid.”
Yes, it does. It takes energy and it takes work. It’s time for parents to end their vacation and come back to work. It’s time to take the car away, to turn the TV off, and to tell them it hurts you more than them but it’s for their own good. It’s time to start telling them ‘no’ again.We learn from the passage that the author’s mother used to place importance on _____.
| A．discipline | B．creativity | C．school education | D．homework |
To today’s kids as described in this passage, _____.
| A．it is easier to give a negative reply than to give a positive reply |
| B．it is easier to give a positive reply than to give a negative reply |
| C．neither is easy — to say yes or to say no |
| D．neither is hard — to say yes or to say no |
The main idea of this passage is that _____.
| A．parents should set a good example for their kids |
| B．kids should have more activities outside campus |
| C．educators should not be so kind to our children |
| D．it is time to be strict with our children |
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Lost
A black bag with a pencil-box and some books left in the reading room. Will the finder please come to Class 3, Grade 1?
Found
A green jacket was left on the sports ground yesterday afternoon (April 15th). Will the owner please ring 656-6688?If you wanted to place an ad. , what number would you call?
| A．800-0739. | B．800-1932. | C．800-5224. | D．800-0667. |
If Mary wanted a room for herself, which Room should she choose?
| A．Campus. | B．Single. | C．Double. | D．Family Home. |
From the passage, we know __________.
| A．someone lost his green jacket in the reading room |
| B．you can rent a transistor radio at $15 |
| C．you can take a house at the rent of $275 for you family |
| D．you can call 800-5224 at any time to buy a sheepskin coat |
If you want to find a part-time job, you will look at________.
| A．For Rent | B．For Sale | C．Help Wanted | D．Lost |
The English language is changing fast,thanks to the rapid progress of technology. We all have a rapid choice: we can either bury our heads in the sand and spend the rest of our lives wishing Shakespeare were alive and well. Or we can embrace (拥抱) the new English,enter into the spirit of the Internet age called Weblish.
“You can’t avoid it,for the simple reason that whenever a new variety of language comes along,it inevitably (不可避免的) impacts（冲击）on the language as a whole.” says Dr. David Crystal, honorary professor of linguistics（语言学）at the University of Wales in Bangor, whose book Language and the Internet has just been published.
The trouble with keeping up with the new English is not so much that there are so many new words but that the old words no longer mean what we thought they did. In the past, if someone said they did not have Windows, you would have to suppose they lived in a cave.These days,it is probably because they use a Mac(which is a computer, not a rain coat). Spam is as disliked as it ever was ,but it once meant an unappetizing（引不起食欲的）canned meat.It now stands for unwanted “junk” email. Spellings are changing, too. Not only is text-messaging playing “hvc wth vrbs” (havoc（混乱）with verbs), but the conventions of email communication place little emphasis on “perfect speaking”.
Weblish loves to see nouns happily become verbs(“please bookmark this site”),and verbs become nouns (“Send me the download”). Verbs and prepositions are regularly thrown together to become new nouns or adjectives(e.g. dial-up, logon, print-on-demand, pull-down, upload), while others are created from simply pairing nouns: cyberspace, Etl, hyperlink, netspeak.The best title of this passage would be______.
| A．Keep Up with the Latest Weblish | B．Keep Up with the Latest Development |
| C．Newly Invented English Words | D．Technology and English |
We can infer（推断）from the first paragraph that ______.
| A．Some people wish Shakespeare were still alive |
| B．people may have different attitudes towards Weblish |
| C．all people welcome Weblish |
| D．Weblish is not popular among people |
The author thinks the main difficulty for people in keeping up with Weblish is that ______.
| A．old words have new meanings |
| B．there are so many new words |
| C．the technology is changing too fast |
| D．Weblish words are full of spelling mistakes |
Dr. David Crystal would probably agree that ______.
| A．people should not accept Weblish |
| B．Weblish can cause misunderstandings among people |
| C．Weblish will destroy the English language |
| D．people should know something about Weblish |
One bitterly cold day, a snowstorm blew into our area. Needing firewood, I quickly set out with my best friend, Bruce, to look for a tree to cut down. I was glad to have Bruce along. Cutting down a tree in a snowstorm can be dangerous. So it was important to have a friend who could warn me of dangers.
When I chose a big 23-meter-tall tree and prepared to cut it down, my best friend suddenly warned me, “Don’t cut down that tree! It’s too close to the power line!” I wasn’t sure about it. So I decided to disregard his warning. I wanted to finish the job quickly and go home. So I began cutting down the tree. When the tree fell, there was no longer any doubt that my friend was right.
The tree caught the power line, bringing it to the ground. I considered cutting the tree off the line. After all, electricity can’t travel through wood, so I could safely remove the tree. As I reached out my finger to touch the tree, pain ran up my arm and through my head. I had been shocked!
After I returned home and told my mother what had happened, she quickly called the power company. Workers from the power company soon arrived on the scene. One of them asked if I had touched the tree, and when I told him I had, his face turned pale.
“You should have been killed,” he said.
So why am I still alive? It was my boots that saved my life.
Within two hours, the workers removed the tree. Soon the snowstorm calmed down—but not my mother.
Even though she was glad I wasn’t hurt, my mother was well serious with me. After all, I shouldn’t have brushed off my friend’s warning.
Through this experience, I learned that it’s important to listen to people who offer a different perspective(观点). Taking the time to listen might actually save a lot of time and trouble. It certainly would have kept me from getting the “shock of my life”.The underlined word “disregard ” in the second paragraph means “________”.
| A．pay no attention to | B．take notice of | C．consider | D．follow |
In spite of Bruce’s warning, the author still cut the tree because ________.
| A．he was sure there would be nothing to happen |
| B．he wasn’t sure whether Bruce was right and was anxious to go home |
| C．he didn’t hear his friend’s warning at all because of the blowing wind |
| D．he was angry with his friend and didn’t want to listen to him |
The author wrote the passage mainly to _______.
| A．give an account of one of his terrible experiences |
| B．make us know it’s important to listen to people who offer a different perspective (观点) through his experience |
| C．tell us not to cut trees down any more |
| D．remind us to be careful while working |
Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
| A．But for his boots, the writer would have died. |
| B．The writer regretted having brushed off his friend’s warning. |
| C．The writer knew nothing about electricity. |
| D．When the tree was cut down, the writer realized his friend was right |
The African elephant, the largest land animal remaining on earth, is of great importance to African eco-system. Unlike other animals, the African elephant is to a great degree the builder of its environment. As a big plant-eater, it largely shapes the forest-and-savanna（大草原）surroundings in which it lives, therefore setting the terms of existence for millions of other animals and live in its habitat.
It is the elephant’s great desire for food that makes it a disturber of the environment and an important builder of its habitat. In its continuous search for the 300 pounds of plants it must have every day, it kills small trees and under-bushes, and pulls branches off big trees. This results in numerous open spaces in both deep tropical forests and in the woodlands that cover part of the African savannas. In these open spaces are numerous plants in various stages of growth that attract a variety of other plant-eaters.
Take the rain forests for example. In their natural state, the spreading branches overhead shut out sunlight and prevent the growth of plants on the forest floor. By pulling down trees and eating plants, elephants make open spaces, allowing new plants to grow on the forest floor. In such situations, the forests become suitable for large hoofed（有蹄的）plant-eaters to move around and for small plant-eaters to get their food as well.
What worries scientists now is that the African elephant has become an endangered species. If the elephant disappears, scientists say, many other animals will also disappear from vast areas of forest and savanna, greatly changing and worsening the whole eco-system.
66. What’s the passage mainly about?
A. Disappearance of African elephants.
B. Forests and savannas as habitats for African elephants.
C. The effect of African elephants’ search for food.
D. The eating habit of African elephants.
67. What does the underlined phrase “setting the terms” in the first paragraph most probably mean?
A. fixing the time.B. worsening the situation.
C. Improving the quality. D. Deciding the conditions.
68. What do we know about the open spaces in the passage?
A. They result from the destruction of rain forests.
B. They provide food mainly for African elephants.
C. They are home to many endangered animals.
D. They are attractive to plant-eating animals of different kinds.
69. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
A. The African elephant has become extinct.
B. African elephants have 300 pounds of plants every day, including small trees and under-bushes.
C. The African elephant is in a way the builder of the environment like other land animals.
D. If the African elephant disappears, the whole eco-system won’t be affected.
70. The passage is developed mainly by _________.
A. presenting figures
B. pointing out similarities and differences
C. describing the changes in the order of space
D. giving examples