Be careful what you say around your dog. It might understand more than you think.
A border collie named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects, say researchers in Germany. The dog also appears to be able to learn new words as easily as a 3-year-old child. Its word-learning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee(黑猩猩).
In one experiment, the researchers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects. Then the owner told the dog to go and fetch one of the items and bring it back. In four tests, Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right. As the dog couldn’t see anyone to get clues, the scientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words.
In another experiment, the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew. The owner then told Rico to fetch the object, using a word the dog had never heard before.
The correct object was chosen in seven out of l0 tests, suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of elimination(排除法). A month later, Rico remembered half of the new names, which is even more impressive.
Rico is thought to be smarter than the average dog. For one thing, Rico is a border collie, a breed (品种)known for its mental abilities. In addition, the 9-year-old dog has been trained to fetch toys by their names since the age of nine months.
It’s hard to know if all dogs understand at least some of the words we say. Even if they do, they can’t talk back. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then. You might just get a big, wet kiss in return!From paragraph 2 we know that __ .
| A．animals are as clever as human beings |
| B．all dogs are smarter than parrots and chimpanzees |
| C．chimpanzees have very good word-learning skills |
| D．all dogs have similar learning abilities as 3-year-old children |
Both experiments show that .
| A．Rico is smart enough to get all commands right |
| B．Rico can recognize different things including toys |
| C．Rico has developed the ability of learning mathematics |
| D．Rico won’t forget the names of objects once recognizing them |
Which of the following statements is true?
| A．The purpose of the experiments is to show the border collie’s mental abilities. |
| B．Rico has a better memory partly because of its proper early training. |
| C．The border collie is world-famous for recognizing objects. |
| D．Rico is born to understand its owner’s commands. |
What does the writer want to tell us?
| A．To train your dog. |
| B．To talk to your dog. |
| C．To be friendly to your dog. |
| D．To be careful with your dog. |
Not so long ago, most people didn't know who Shelly Ann Francis Pryce was going to become. She was just an average high school athlete. There was every indication that she was just another American teenager without much of a future. However, one person wants to change this. Stephen Francis observed then eighteen-year-old Shelly Ann as a track meet and was convinced that he had seen the beginning of true greatness. Her time were not exactly impressive, but even so, he seemed there was something trying to get out, something the other coaches had overlooked when they had assessed her and found her lacking. He decided to offer Shelly Ann a place in his very strict training seasons. Their cooperation quickly produced results, and a few year later at Jamaica's Olympic games in early 2008, Shelly Ann, who at that time only ranked number 70 in the world, beat Jamaica's unchallenged queen of the sprint(短跑).
"Where did she come from?" asked an astonished sprinting world, before concluding that she must be one of those one-hit wonders that spring up from time to time, only to disappear again without signs. But Shelly Ann was to prove that she was anything but a one-hit wonder. At the Beijing Olympic she swept away any doubts about her ability to perform consistently by becoming the first Jamaican woman ever to win the 100 meters Olympic gold. She did it again one year on at the World Championship in Briton, becoming world champion with a time of 10.73--- the fourth record ever.
Shelly-Ann is a little woman with a big smile. She has a mental toughness that did not come about by chance. Her journey to becoming the fastest woman on earth has been anything but smooth and effortless. She grew up in one of Jamaica's toughest inner-city communities known as Waterhouse, where she lived in a one-room apartment, sleeping four in a bed with her mother and two brothers. Waterhouse, one of the poorest communities in Jamaica, is a really violent and overpopulated place. Several of Shelly-Ann's friends and family were caught up in the killings; one of her cousins was shot dead only a few streets away from where she lived. Sometimes her family didn't have enough to eat. She ran at the school championships barefooted because she couldn't afford shoes. Her mother Maxime, one of a family of fourteen, had been an athlete herself as a young girl but, like so many other girls in Waterhouse, had to stop after she had her first baby. Maxime's early entry into the adult world with its responsibilities gave her the determination to ensure that her kids would not end up in Waterhouse's roundabout of poverty. One of the first things Maxime used to do with Shelly-Ann was taking her to the track, and she was ready to sacrifice everything.
It didn't take long for Shelly-Ann to realize that sports could be her way out of Waterhouse. On a summer evening in Beijing in 2008, all those long, hard hours of work and commitment finally bore fruit. The barefoot kid who just a few years previously had been living in poverty, surrounded by criminals and violence, had written a new chapter in the history of sports.
But Shelly-Ann's victory was far greater than that. The night she won Olympic gold in Beijing, the routine murders in Waterhouse and the drug wars in the neighbouring streets stopped. The dark cloud above one of the world's toughest criminal neighbourhoods simply disappeared for a few days. " I have so much fire burning for my country，"Shelly said. She plans to start a foundation for homeless children and wants to build a community centre in Waterhouse. She hopes to inspire the Jamaicans to lay down their weapons. She intends to fight to make it a woman's as well as a man's world.
As Muhammad Ali puts it, " Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them. A desire, a dream, a vision." One of the things Shelly-Ann can be proud of is her understanding of this truth.
65.Why did Stephen Francis decide to coach Shelly-Ann?
| A． |
He had a strong desire to free her family from trouble. |
| B． |
He sensed a great potential in her despite her weaknesses. |
| C． |
She had big problems maintaining her performance. |
| D． |
She suffered a lot of defeats at the previous track meets. |
66.What did the sprinting world think of Shelly-Ann before the 2008 Olympic Games?
| A． |
She would become a promising star. |
| B． |
She badly needed to set higher goals. |
| C． |
Her sprinting career would not last long. |
| D． |
Her talent for sprinting was known to all. |
67.What made Maxime decide to train her daughter on the track?
| A． |
Her success and lessons in her career. |
| B． |
Her interest in Shelly-Ann's quick profit. |
| C． |
Her wish to get Shelly-Ann out of poverty. |
| D． |
Her early entrance into the sprinting world. |
68.What can we infer from Shelly-Ann's statement underlined in Paragraph 5?
| A． |
She was highly rewarded for her efforts. |
| B． |
She was eager to do more for her country. |
| C． |
She became an athletic star in her country. |
| D． |
She was the envy of the whole community. |
69.By mentioning Muhammad Ali's words, the author intends to tell us that ____.
| A． |
players should be highly inspired by coaches |
| B． |
great athletes need to concentrate on patience |
| C． |
hard work is necessary in one's achievements |
| D． |
motivation allows great athletes to be on the top |
70.What is the best title for the passage?
| A． |
The Making of a Great Athlete |
| B． |
The Dream for Championship |
| C． |
The Key to High Performance |
| D． |
The Power of Full Responsibility |
El Nifio, a Spanish term for "the Christ child", was named by South American fisherman who noticed that the global weather pattern, which happens every two to seven years, reduced the amount of fishes caught around Christmas. El Nifio sees warm water, collected over several years in the western Pacific, flow back eastwards when winds that normally blow westwards weaken, or sometimes the other way round.
The weather effects both good and bad, are felt in many places. Rich countries gain more from powerful Nifio, on balance, than they lose. A study found that a strong Nifio in 1997 helped American's economy grow by 15 billion, partly because of better agricultural harvest, farmers in the Midwest gained from extra rain. The total rise in agricultural in rich countries in growth than the fall in poor ones.
But in Indonesia extremely dry forests are in flames. A multi-year drought (干旱）in south-east Brazil is becoming worse. Though heavy rains brought about by El Nino may relieve the drought in California, they are likely to cause surface flooding and other disasters.
The most recent powerful Nino, in 1997-98, killed around 21,000 people and caused damage worth ＄36 billion around the globe. But such Ninos come with months of warning, and so much is known about how they happen that governments can prepare. According to the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), however, just 12% of disaster-relief funding in the past two decades has gone on reducing risks in advance, rather than recovery and rebuilding afterwards. This is despite evidence that a dollar spent on risk-reduction saves at least two on reconstruction.
Simple improvements to infrastructure (基础设施）can reduce the spread of disease. Better sewers (下水道）make it less likely that heavy rain is followed by an outbreak of the disease of bad stomach. Stronger bridges mean villages are less likely to be left without food and medicine after floods. According to a paper in 2011 by Mr Hsiang and co-authors, civil conflict is related to El Nino's harmful effects-and the poorer the country, the stronger the link. Though the relationship may not be causal, helping divided communities to prepare for disasters would at least reduce the risk that those disasters are followed by killing and wounding people. Since the poorest are least likely to make up for their losses from disasters linked to El Nino, reducing their losses needs to be the priority.
61.What can we learn about El Nino in Paragraph 1?
| A． |
It is named after a South American fisherman. |
| B． |
It takes place almost every year all over the world. |
| C． |
It forces fishermen to stop catching fish around Christmas. |
| D． |
It sees the changes of water flow direction in the ocean. |
62.What may El Ninos bring about to the countries affected?
| A． |
Agricultural harvests in rich countries fall. |
| B． |
Droughts become more harmful than floods. |
| C． |
Rich countries'gains are greater than their losses. |
| D． |
Poor countries suffer less from droughts economically. |
63.The data provided by ODI in Paragraph 4 suggest that_________.
| A． |
more investment should go to risk reduction |
| B． |
governments of poor countries need more aid |
| C． |
victims of El Nino deserve more compensation |
| D． |
recovery and reconstruction should come first |
64.What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?
| A． |
To introduce El Nino and its origin. |
| B． |
To explain the consequences of El Nino. |
| C． |
To show ways of fighting against El Nino. |
| D． |
To urge people to prepare for El Nino. |
Chimps(黑猩猩) will cooperate in certain ways, like gathering in war parties to protect their territory. But beyond the minimum requirements as social beings, they have little instinct (本能) to help one another. Chimps in the wild seek food for themselves. Even chimp mothers regularly decline to share food with their children. Who are able from a young age to gather their own food.
In the laboratory, chimps don't naturally share food either. If a chimp is put in a cage where he can pull in one plate of food for himself or, with no great effort, a plate that also provides food for a neighbor to the next cage, he will pull at random ---he just doesn't care whether his neighbor gets fed or not. Chimps are truly selfish.
Human children, on the other hand are extremely corporative. From the earliest ages, they decide to help others, to share information and to participate a achieving common goals. The psychologist Michael Tomasello has studied this cooperativeness in a series of expensive with very young children. He finds that if babies aged 18 months see an worried adult with hands full trying to open a door, almost all will immediately try to help.
There are several reasons to believe that the urges to help, inform and share are not taught .but naturally possessed in young children. One is that these instincts appear at a very young age before most parents have started to train children to behave socially. Another is that the helping behaviors are not improved if the children are rewarded. A third reason is that social intelligence. Develops in children before their general cognitive（认知的）skills,at least when compared with chimps..In tests conducted by Tomtasell, the children did no better than the chimps on the physical world tests, but were considerably better at understanding the social world
The cure of what children's minds have and chimps' don't in what Tomasello calls what. Part of this ability is that they can infer what others know or are thinking. But that, even very young children want to be part of a shared purpose. They actively seek to be part of a "we", a group that intends to work toward a shared goal.
58. What can we learn from the experiment with chimps?
| A． |
Chimps seldom care about others' interests. |
| B． |
Chimps tend to provide food for their children. |
| C． |
Chimps like to take in their neighbors' food. |
| D． |
Chimps naturally share food with each other. |
59. Michael Tomasello's tests on young children indicate that they____.
| A． |
have the instinct to help others |
| B． |
know how to offer help to adults |
| C． |
know the world better than chimps |
| D． |
trust adults with their hands full |
60. The passage is mainly about ____.
| A． |
the helping behaviors of young children |
| B． |
ways to train children's shared intentionality |
| C． |
cooperation as a distinctive human nature |
| D． |
the development of intelligence in children |
|
|
|
Day school Program Secondary students across Toronto District School Board(TDSB) are invited to take one or two e-Learning courses on their day school timetable. Students will remain on the roll at their day school. The on-line classroom provides an innovative relevant and interactive Learning environment. The courses and on-line classroom are provided by the Ministry of Education These on-line courses Benefits of e-Learning Include: Is e-Learning for You? Students who are successful in on-line course are usually; Students need to spend at least as much time with their on-line course work as they would in a face-to-face classroom course. |
56. E-Learning courses are different from other TDSB courses in that .
A. they are given by best TDSB teachers.
B. they are not on the day school timetable.
C. they are not included on students' reports.
D. they are an addition to TDSB courses.
57. What do students need to do before completing e-learning courses?
| A． |
To learn information technology on-line. |
| B． |
To do their assignments independently. |
| C． |
To update their mobile devices regularly. |
| D． |
To talk face to face with their teachers. |
Why College Is Not Home
The college years are supposed to be a time for important growth in autonomy(自主性) and the development of adult identity. However, now they are becoming an extended period of adolescence, during which many of today's students and are not shouldered with adult responsibilities.
For previous generations, college was decisive break from parental control; guidance and support needed help from people of the same age and from within. In the past two decades, however, continued connection with and dependence on family, thanks to cellphones, email and social media, have increased significantly. Some parents go so far as to help with coursework. Instead of promoting the idea of college as a passagefrom the shelter of the family to autonomy and adult responsibility, universities have given in to the idea that they should provide the same environment as that of the home.
To prepare for increased autonomy and responsibility, college needs to be a time of exploration and experimentation. This process involves "trying on " new ways of thinking about oneself both intellectually(在思维方面) and personally. While we should provide "safe spaces" within colleges, we must also make it safe to express opinions and challenge majority views. Intellectual growth and flexibility are fostered on debate and questioning.
Learning to deal with the social world is equally important. Because a college community(群体) differs from the family, many students will struggle to find a sense of belonging. If students rely on administrators to regulate their social behavior and thinking pattern, they are not facing the challenge of finding an identity within a larger and complex community.
Moreover, the tendency for universities to monitor and shape student behavior runs up against another characteristic of young adults: the response to being controlled by their elders. If acceptable social behavior is too strictly defined(规定) and controlled, the insensitive or aggressive behavior that administrators are seeking to minimize may actually be encouraged.
It is not surprising that young people are likely to burst out, particularly when there are reasons to do so. Our generation once joined hands and stood firm at times of national emergency. What is lacking today is the conflict between adolescent's desire for autonomy and their understanding of an unsafe world. Therefore, there is the desire for their dorms to be replacement homes and not places to experience intellectual growth.
Every college discussion about community values, social climate and behavior should include recognition of the developmental importance of student autonomy and self-regulation, of the necessary tension between safety and self-discovery.
67.What's the author's attitude toward continued parental guidance to college students?
| A． |
Sympathetic |
B． |
Disapproving |
| C． |
Supportive |
D． |
Neutral |
68.The underlined word "passage" in Paragraph 2 means______.
| A． |
change |
B． |
choice |
| C． |
text |
D． |
extension |
69.According to the author，what role should college play?
| A． |
to develop a shared identity among students |
| B． |
to define and regulate students' social behavior |
| C． |
To provide a safe world without tension for students |
| D． |
To foster students' intellectual and personal development |
70.Which of the following shows the development of ideas in the passage?
| A． |
|
| B． |
|
| C． |
|
| D． |
|
are taught by TDSB secondary school teachers
