You may have seen a talking parrot on a TV show, in a movie, or even in someone’s home. The parrot has learned to copy sounds that people make. Birds are not the only animals that can copy the noises they hear. Dolphins, bats, and some apes also copy sounds. Now we can add elephants to this list of copycats.
Dr. Joyce Poole is a zoologist. She studies the sounds of elephants. While she was in Kenya, she would hear strange noises made by Mlaika after sunset. Mlaika was a 10-year-old African elephant.
Mlaika lived near a highway. Dr. Poole says, “I could not tell the difference between Mlaika’s call and the distant truck noise.” She and other scientists studied Mlaika’s sounds. It turned out that Mlaika was copying the sounds of the trucks driving by. Why would Mlaika copy trucks that she heard going by on the highway? Animals that are able to copy sounds may enjoy practicing new sounds. When they are kept outside of their natural environment, they may copy unusual sounds. That may be why an elephant would copy the sound of a truck.
“Mlaika was not the only copycat elephant,” Dr. Poole says. Calimero is a 23-year-old male African elephant. He spent 18 years with two female Asian elephants. Asian elephants make chirping sounds (sounds made by birds) to talk with one another. African elephants usually do not make chirping sounds. But Calimero now does. He is copying his Asian elephant friends. Dr. Poole says that elephants need to form bonds with their family and friends. She says, “They make sounds to communicate with each other. When they are separated, they use sounds to keep in contact.”
Parrots, dolphins, humans, and elephants show that being a copycat is one way that animals and people make new friends and keep old ones.According to the passage, what does Mlaika copy?
| A．The sound of people. | B．The sound of trucks. |
| C．The sound of Calimero. | D．The sound of birds. |
From paragraph 4, we can know________.
| A．how long it takes for an elephant to learn a new sound |
| B．why the African elephant can make chirping sounds |
| C．why the Asian elephants make noises after sunset |
| D．how Asian and African elephants are alike |
According to the passage, why do some animals like to be copycats?
| A．To keep in touch with nature. |
| B．To please people and other animals. |
| C．To make new friends and keep old ones. |
| D．To avoid the danger from the outside world. |
Tea production in Sri Lanka has thrived for decades. The tea gardens in Hatton, Sri Lanka are actually large tea estates. The best tea usually comes from plants grown on high grounds, the cool hilltops with rows and rows of tea plants. The plants are about one meter apart. The plant is often pruned so that it remains only 60 to 90 centimeters high. Pruning is important because it encourages the growth of tender shoots, or young leaves. It is from these shoots that the best tea is got.
Practically all the tea pickers are women. The estates prefer to employ women pickers because they are more careful. Their thin fingers can easily remove the twin leaves and new shoots from the plant, which are the parts used for processing tea. The pickers carry large baskets into which they throw their pickings. A skilled worker can harvest between 9 to 14 kilograms of tea leaves a day. Usually new shoots can be picked from the plants about every ten or fifteen days.
Processing tea shoots into our familiar dry tea leaves requires great care and skill. There are various methods of processing depending on the type of tea required. For black tea, the young green leaves are first spread out shelves to dry. This process removes much of its water and the leaves become soft. After this, the leaves are passed through heavy rollers. This operation will press the leaves for juices which give the tea both its color and taste. Then the leaves are spread out on floors and left to ferment（发酵）under wet conditions. Fermentation develops the rich taste of black tea. The fermented leaves are then dried with a hot-air blower until they become rolled-up black leaves. The final step is to sort and grade them before the black tea is ready for sale to countries all over the world.The underlined word pruning means .
| A．reasonable use of chemicals |
| B．regular cutting of the plants |
| C．frequent watering |
| D．loosening the soil |
How many processing steps are mentioned in the last paragraph?
| A．Six | B．Five | C． Four | D．Three |
What does the author imply in the passage?
| A．Fermentation is a must to enrich the flavour of black tea. |
| B．Women pickers are welcomed because they can easily find the twin leaves. |
| C．Tea production has long been prosperous in Sri Lanka. |
| D．Tea pickings can be done biweekly. |
Lily, a student of Cambridge University, has bought a bicycle and is worried about safety. Her friend, Cathryn, found this article and sent it to her.
How to make your bicycle safe?
A number of crimes are against bicycles. About 150,000 bicycles are stolen every year and most are never found. You can prevent this from happening by following a few careful steps.
Basic Security
Never leave your bicycle in out-of-the-way places. Always lock your bicycle when you leave. Secure it to lampposts or trees. Take off smaller parts and carry them with you, for example lights and saddles (车座).
Locks
There are various types of locks. Buy one that has been tested against attack. Ask for a recommendation from a bike shop owner.
Marking
Security marking your bike can act as an obstruction to thieves, which can also help the police find your bicycle. Your postcode and your house or flat number should be included and clearly recorded. This will provide a simple way to identify your bicycle.
Registration
There are many companies that will security mark your bicycle. They will then store your registration number and personal details in their computer database. If your bicycle is found, it will be easy to contact you.
Attention
Keep a record of the bicycle by yourself: its production, model and registration number. You can even take a photograph of it. This will prove the bicycle belongs to you.Which part of the article gives the information on how to lock your bicycle when you leave?
| A．Registration | B．Locks |
| C．Marking | D．Basic Security |
Which one is wrong about the security marking of a bicycle?
| A．It can help the police to find and identify the lost bike. |
| B．Some companies can assist you in doing this. |
| C．It can ensure that the thieves won't steal the bike. |
| D．A security marking database makes it easy to get in touch with the owner. |
The article advises you to keep a record of your bicycle _______.
| A．by yourself and in a security company as well |
| B．either in a security company or your university |
| C．both in the bike shop and your computer |
| D．in the police station as well as a marketing company |
Which of the following information may not be necessarily recorded?
| A．your personal information and recommendation in your computer database |
| B．the signing number of the bike as well as your address |
| C．both the type of the bike and its picture |
| D．your postcode and personal details |
Having experienced a shocking electrical accident, which caused him to become both blind and deaf, James Francos world became completely dark and quiet for almost ten years. The loss of sight and hearing threw him into such sorrow that he tried a few times to put an end to his life. His family, especially his wife, did their best to tend and comfort him and finally he regained the will to live.
One hot summer afternoon, he was taking a walk with a stick near his house when a thunderstorm started all at once. He stood under a large tree to avoid getting wet, but he was struck by the lightning. Witnesses thought he was dead but he woke up 20 minutes later, lying face down in muddy water. He was trembling badly, but when he opened his eyes, he could hardly believe what he saw: a tree and a muddy road. When Mrs. Franco came running up to him, shouting to their neighbors to call for help, he could see her and hear her voice for the first time in nearly ten years.
The news of James regaining his sight and hearing quickly spread and many doctors came to examine him. Most of them said that he regained his sight and hearing from the shock he got from the lightning. However, none of them could give a compellent answer as to why this should happen. The only reasonable explanation given by one doctor was that, since James lost his sight and hearing as a result of a sudden shock, perhaps, the only way for him to regain them was by another sudden shock.The reason why James attempted to kill himself was that _________.
| A．a terrible electrical accident happened to him |
| B．nobody in the world cared about him |
| C．he was struck by the lightning once more |
| D．he had to live in a dark and silent world |
What was James doing when he was struck by the lightning?
| A．Putting an end to his life |
| B．Sheltering from the rain under a tree |
| C．Taking a walk with a stick |
| D．Lying on the ground |
What does the underlined word compellent in paragraph 3 mean?
| A．convincing | B．wrong | C．unexplained | D．true |
Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
| A．A Terrible Electrical Accident |
| B．What a Sudden Shock |
| C．An Unforgettable Experience |
| D．James Franco and His Wife |
Fencing or Not
Wildlife fences are constructed for a variety of reasons including to prevent the spread of diseases, to protect wildlife from poachers(偷猎者), and to help manage small populations of threatened species. Human-wildlife conflict is another common reason for building fences. Wildlife can damage valuable farm animals and crops. Some species carry diseases of agricultural concern, and a few threaten human lives. At the same time, people kill wild animals for food, trade, or to defend lives or property, and human activities destroy wildlife habitat(栖息地). Separating people and wildlife by fencing can appear to be a mutually beneficial way to avoid such harmful effects. But in a paper in the journal Science, published recently, some scientists argue that fencing should only be used if worse comes to worst.
According to the scientists, although fencing can have conservation benefits, it also has costs. When areas of wildlife habitat are changed into islands, the resulting small and isolated populations tend towards extinction, and the resulting loss of larger-bodied species can affect interactions between species in ways that cause further local extinctions. Therefore, scientists are asking that conservationists carefully weigh up the biodiversity costs and benefits of new and existing fences.
In addition to fences’ ecosystem-wide impact, the scientists don’t think they always achieve their specific aims. Construction of fences to reduce human-wildlife conflict has been successful in some places but the challenges of appropriate fence design, location, construction, and protection mean that fences often fail to deliver the anticipated benefits. In some places, fences also provide poachers with a ready supply of wire for making traps.
A variety of alternative approaches, including better caring for farm animals, community-based crop-guarding, insurance and wildlife-sensitive land-use planning are suggested to reduce conflicts between people and wildlife without the need for fencing. Some projects working with local people and government agencies in Indonesia have shown that human-elephant conflict can be dramatically reduced without using fences.
The scientists conclude that as climate change increases the importance of facilitating wildlife mobility and conserving landscape connectivity, fence removal may become an important form of climate change preparation, and so fencing of wildlife should be avoided whenever possible.What does the underlined word “mutually” in Paragraph 1 probably mean________?
| A．Indeed. | B．Outdoors. | C．Straight. | D．Both. |
According to the scientists, what will fencing influence______?
| A．Land building. |
| B．Species diversity. |
| C．Human population. |
| D．Wildlife’s body size. |
What is mainly discussed in Paragraph 4_______?
| A．Replacements for fences. |
| B．Wildlife-protection methods. |
| C．Effective land-use approaches. |
| D．Conflicts between human and wildlife |
The main purpose of the passage is to ________.
| A．argue and prove |
| B．inform and explain |
| C．appeal and discuss |
| D．compare and assess |
“Oh, my God! Did I really just send that text?” Most people have said something that they wish they could take back. And if they had paused to think about it first, they probably would have acted differently. Pausing doesn’t pay off just when you speak. Scientific studies have shown that making a habit of pausing before you do something can actually have a big impact on how your life turns out.
In making decisions we rely on two areas of the brain. One area creates and processes emotions; the other governs logical thought. The type of decision, how we feel about it, and how prepared we are to handle it help determine which brain area has the most influence.
But our age also plays an important role. Thinking through the consequences of one’s actions is actually harder for teens because the area controlling logical thought is not fully developed until around age 25. This is why teens often feel an intense emotional drive to act impulsively--it’s how their brains are structured! Though this tendency to act without considering the outcomes can lead to problematic situations, impulsivity during the developmental years evolves because it makes teens more open to new experiences and ideas. This openness helps teens become independent adults.
The key to making impulsivity work for you--instead of against you--is to train your brain by practicing pausing. This doesn’t mean you stop taking risks or being open to new experiences. But you won’t know if the risk is worth it until you think it through. Deciding to take a risk based on logic shows self-control, not impulsivity.
What are different ways to pause? You might take a deep breath, count to 10, or ask, “Is this worth it?” Different strategies work for different people. Whatever works for you, keep doing it! By practicing pausing, you can actually change your brain. This means that over time, pausing, instead of immediately reacting, becomes your “natural” response. And with this change, people are on their way to enjoying the life rewards that come with high levels of self-control--even if they weren’t natural--born pausers!What challenges teenagers________?
| A．Giving natural response. |
| B．Making logical decision. |
| C．Acting before thorough thinking. |
| D．Choosing brain-training strategies. |
An impulsive person tends to __________.
| A．think through a risk in advance |
| B．show high level of self-control |
| C．consider or accept new ideas |
| D．change ideas frequently |
According to the passage, by training one’s brain, one can __________.
| A．stop taking risks |
| B．fully develop one’s brain |
| C．become more open to new experience |
| D．reduce the influence of emotional drive |
What is the best title for the passage________?
| A．Discover the Brain Function |
| B．Crying Over the Spilt Milk |
| C．Push the Pause Button |
| D．Impulsivity Works |