The smallest animal with a backbone（脊椎） known to science, a fish from the carp f

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The smallest animal with a backbone（脊椎） known to science, a fish from the carp family, has been discovered in the peat swamps （沼泽）of Indonesia. Mature（成熟的）females of the fish species （种类）Paedocypris reach just 7.9mm in length.
The species was discovered in the highly acidic (酸性的) peat swamps of the Indonesian island of Sumatra by a team led by Ralf Britz, a zoologist at the Natural History Museum in London.
“This is one of the strangest fish that I’ve seen in my whole career,” Dr Britz said. “It’s tiny, and it lives in acid. I hope that we’ll have time to find out more about them before their habitat disappears completely.”
The species lives in dark tea-colored swamp waters, which are 100 times more acidic than rainwater. Although these swamps were once thought to be inhabited by very few animals, recent research has shown that they are home to a highly different range of species that occur nowhere else.
The peat swamps were damaged by forest fires in 1997, and are also threatened by agriculture. The scientists behind the discovery said that several populations of Paedocypris had already been lost.
“Many of the peat swamps we surveyed（调查）throughout South-East Asia no longer exist,” Dr Britz said. “Populations of all the miniature（微型的）fish of peat swamps have decreased or disappeared.”
Details of the discovery are published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B.
小题1:64.Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?

A．The Strangest Fish

B．Acidic Peat Swamps

C．Strange Species

D．The Smallest Backbone Animal

小题2:65.Where does the smallest backbone animal live?

A．It lives in highly acidic rainwater.

B．The species lives in the acidic waters of dark tea-coloured swamps.

C．It was put in the Natural History Museum in London.

D．Its habitat disappears completely.

小题3:66.According to the passage, the forest fires in 1997 have led to the fact that______.

A．many places where these animals lived have been damaged

B．the population of the specieshas increased

C．there are many animals in the acidic peat swamps today

D．agriculture doesn’t affect the living space of these animals

小题4:67.Dr Britz’s words imply______.

A．the habitat will be more after a period of time

B．many peat swamps that they surveyed have already survived

C．he wants to find more miniature fishes before their habitat disappears

D．he wants to have further research

答案

小题1:D
小题2:B
小题3:A
小题4:D

解析

试题分析：
【文章大意】本文是一篇科普类文章。文章讲述了濒临灭绝的最小的脊椎动词的生存环境及目前的情况。
小题1:D考查文章的标题。根据文章的第一段中的The smallest animal with a backbone（脊椎） known to science, a fish from the carp family, has been discovered in the peat swamps （沼泽）of Indonesia.可知，这是文章的中心句。由中心句可知文章主要讲的是：最小的脊椎动物。故选D。
小题2:B考查细节理解。根据文章第四段中的The species lives in dark tea-colored swamp waters, which are 100 times more acidic than rainwater.可知，这种物种生活在深茶色的沼泽中，其中的水是雨水的酸度的100倍。故选B。
小题3:A考查细节理解。根据文章倒数第三段中的The peat swamps were damaged by forest fires in 1997, and are also threatened by agriculture.可知A正确。其他三项与文章内容不符。
小题4:D考查推理判断。根据文章第三段中的I hope that we’ll have time to find out more about them before their habitat disappears completely.可知，Dr Britz想进一步了解它们，在他们完全灭绝之前。故选D。

举一反三

Summer school is something a kid will never forget. For some, it"s a way to advance past their classmates. For most, summer school is a requirement in order to graduate with their classmates. I can remember being forced into taking a summer school course. It was not the school that forced me into this awkward situation, it was my mother.
I was a 16-year-old kid in a new school. My school did not offer summer courses so I had to take my course at an alternative school in the city. It was an experience I will never forget. I was not concerned with making friends. I was there to get credit（学分）for a course that I should have received for the previous semester. It was my doing that landed me in the situation and it was important that I understood this.
The fees were the lowest but the experience was amazing. I enjoyed I didn’t miss the day. The course was from Monday to Friday for an entire month. I passed the course with an A. I was thrown into an awkward situation but actually enjoyed it. My friends didn"t even know I took the course. Most of them were still sleeping by the time my course ended each day.
Awkward situations are so important for personal growth. This situation made me feel more independent. I made friends. I finally understood what sacrifice and hard work were all about. While attending college, I remembered how much I enjoyed summer school and I chose to take summer school in my first three years of college. Some kids get pushed too much but some don"t get pushed enough. I was never pushed enough.
Enable your children to struggle for success. If your child needs summer school you explain to them why it"s important. Some parents are surprised by the situation and may want to be more involved in their children’s education. Follow through and follow up.
小题1:Most students go to the summer school in order to ____.

A．find good jobs

B．become top students in their class

C．have a chance to make more friends

D．graduate successfully on time

小题2:What made the author go to summer school for the first time?

A．What he had done.	B．His mother"s wish.
C．His own requirement.	D．Study competition.

小题3:Which of the following was NOT the benefit got by the author through attending summer school?

A．It helped him get rid of bad habits.

B．It helped him make new friends.

C．It helped him understand what sacrifice and hard work were.

D．It increased his independence.

小题4:From the last paragraph we can learn that the author _______.

A．does not like summer school at all even though it is useful

B．thinks summer school is unnecessary for children

C．encourages parents to make their children attend summer school

D．is against forcing children to attend summer school

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Expensive and new gloves allow chatterboxes（话匣子）to take the term “handsfree” to a new level—by talking into them as they make a call. The gloves are known as “Talk to the Hand” and cost £1,000 a pair. They fixed a speaker unit into the thumb and a microphone into the little finger that can be connected to any mobile handset using Bluetooth.
Artist Sean Miles designed the new gloves that double as a phone in part of his project that shows the possibilities of gadget recycling. He uses outdated gloves and combines them with parts from mobile handsets recycled through O2, which commissioned（承担）the project. Mobile phone users will be able to keep their hands warm while they chat without taking their phones out of their pockets or handbags.
Mr Miles designed two pairs of the new gloves—one in pink and the other in brown and yellow. They will appear in an exhibition this July and visitors will be able to win the gloves. If demand is high, they will then be produced on a larger scale. O2 Recycle, which backed the project, estimates that there are already 70 million unused mobile handsets in the UK. The service pays up to £260 to those who recycle gadgets including phones, handheld consoles, MP3 players and digital cameras.
Designer Sean Miles hopes his work will get people thinking about recycling. The 41-year-old said, “I hope that my ‘Talk to the Hand’ project will get people to think again about the waste created by not recycling gadgets. If a few more people recycle their gadgets rather than send them to trash, I think this project will have fulfilled its aim.”
Bill Eyres, head of O2 Recycle, urges people to recycle their phone responsibly. He said, “There’s a pressing need for all of us to look at outdated handsets, and all the gadgets that we move on from or upgrade each year. Whether they are consoles or cameras, we should think of them as a resource that we need to recycle responsibly rather than throw them away.”
小题1:The underlined word “O2” in Paragraph 2 is probably the name of ______.

A．an artist

B．a company

C．a mobile

D．an exhibition

小题2:Consumers can buy the “Talk to the Hand” gloves ______.

A．in the exhibition

B．from Mr Miles

C．when they are mass produced

D．after they recycle the gadgets

小题3: The purpose of the project is to _______.

A．promote the technology of IT

B．enable people to talk to their hands

C．raise people’s awareness of recycling

D．attract visitors’ attention in the exhibition

小题4:What is the passage mainly about?

A．New mobiles that are fashionable.

B．Outdated handsets that are upgraded.

C．Outdated gadgets that can be used for recycling.

D．New gloves that can be used for making phone calls.

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In her new book, “The Smartest Kids in the World,” Amanda Ripley, an investigative journalist, tells the story of Tom, a high-school student from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, who decides to spend his senior year in Wroclaw, Poland. Poland is a surprising educational success story: in the past decade, the country raised students’ test scores from significantly below average to well above it. Polish kids have now outscored American kids in math and science, even though Poland spends, on average, less than half as much per student as the United States does. One of the most striking differences between the high school Tom attended in Gettysburg and the one he ends up at in Wroclaw is that the latter has no football team, or, for that matter, teams of any kind.
That American high schools lavish more time and money on sports than on math is an old complaint. This is not a matter of how any given student who plays sports does in school, but of the culture and its priorities. This December, when the latest Program for International Student Assessment(PISA) results are announced, it’s safe to predict that American high-school students will once again display their limited skills in math and reading, outscored not just by students in Poland but also by students in places like South Korea, Belgium, the Netherlands, Finland, Singapore, and Japan. Meanwhile, they will have played some very exciting football games, which will have been breathlessly written up in their hometown papers.
Why does this situation continue? Well, for one thing, kids like it. And for another, according to Ripley, parents seem to like the arrangement, too. She describes a tour she took of a school in Washington D.C., which costs thirty thousand dollars a year. The tour leader—a mother with three children in the school—was asked about the school’s flaws. When she said that the math program was weak, none of the parents taking the tour reacted. When she said that the football program was weak, the parents suddenly became concerned. “Really?” one of them asked worriedly, “What do you mean?”
One of the ironies of the situation is that sports reveal what is possible. American kids’ performance on the field shows just how well they can do when expectations are high. It’s too bad that their test scores show the same thing.
小题1:Tom decides to spend his senior year in Poland because _______.

A．he intends to improve his scores

B．Polish kids are better at learning

C．sports are not supported at schools in Gettysburg

D．there are striking differences between the 2 countries

小题2:According to Paragraph 2, we know that _______.

A．PISA plays a very important role in America

B．little time is spent on sports in Japanese schools

C．American high schools complain about sports time

D．too much importance is placed on sports in America

小题3:The underlined sentence in the last paragraph means _______.

A．low expectations result in American students’ poor PISA performance

B．high expectations push up American students’ academic performance

C．American students’ academic performance worries their parents a lot

D．lacking practice contributes to American students’ average performance

小题4:The purpose of this article is to _______.

A．compare Polish schools with those in America

B．call on American schools to learn from the Polish model

C．draw public attention to a weakness in American school tradition

D．explain what is wrong with American schools and provide solutions

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Over a period of time, many habitats (栖息地)change with respect to the types of plants and animals that live there. This change is known as succession.
Succession occurs because plants and animals cause a change in the environment in which they live. The first weeds and grasses that appear on a bare field, for example, change the environment by shielding the soil from direct sunlight. As these plants spread, the ground becomes cooler and more moist than it was originally. Thus, the environment at the ground surface has been changed. The new surface conditions favor the sprouting（产生）of shrubs. As shrubs grow, they kill the grasses by preventing light from reaching them and also enhance (增加)the soil. Pine seedlings (苗)soon take hold and as they grow, they in turn shade out the shrubs. They are not able to shade out oak and hickory (山核桃)seedlings, however, that have found the forest floor suitable. These seedlings grew into large trees that eventually shade out the pines.
小题1:The best title of this passage is _____.

A．The Importance of Weeds and Grasses

B．The Success of Oak and Hickory

C．How Environmental Habitats Change

D．Animal and Plant Habitats

小题2:It can be inferred (推理) from the passage that ______.

A．oak and hickory trees grow taller than pines

B．weeds and grasses prefer cold climate

C．pines and grasses can exist together

D．birds encourage the growth of shrubs

小题3: Which of the following is a stage of succession as described in the passage?

A．A forest cut down to build an airport.

B．A flood washing away a crop of wheat

C．Wild flowers growing in an unused parking lot

D．Animals being tamed (驯服)by children

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Below is a selection from a popular science book.
If blood is red, why are veins (静脉) blue?
Actually, veins are not blue at all. They are more of a clear, yellowish colour. Although blood looks red when it"s outside the body, when it"s sitting in a vein near the surface of the skin, it"s more of a dark reddish purple color. At the right depth, these blood-filled veins reflect less red light than the surrounding skin, making them look blue by comparison.
Which works harder, your heart or your brain?
Which works harder depends on whether you are busy thinking or busy exercising. Your heart works up to three times harder during exercise, and shifts enough blood over a lifetime to fill a supertanker. But, in the long run, your brain probably tips it, because even when you’re sitting still your brain is using twice as much energy as your heart, and it takes four to five times as much blood to feed it.
Why do teeth fall out, and why don"t they grow back in grown-ups?
Baby (or "milk") teeth do not last long; they fall out to make room for bigger, stronger adult teeth later on. Adult teeth fall out when they become damaged, decayed and infected by bacteria. Once this second set of teeth has grown in, you"re done. When they"re gone, they’re gone. This is because nature figures you"re set for life, and what controls regrowth of your teeth switches off.
Do old people shrink as they age?
Yes and no. Many people do get shorter as they age. But, when they do, it isn"t because they"re shrinking all over. They simply lose height as their spine(脊柱) becomes shorter and more curved due to disuse and the effects of gravity. Many (but not all) men and women do lose height as they get older. Men lose an average of 3-4 cm in height as they age, while women may lose 5 cm or more. If you live to be 200 years old, would you keep shrinking till you were, like 60 cm tall, like a little boy again? No, because old people don"t really shrink! It is not that they are growing backwards — their legs, arms and backbones getting shorter. When they do get shorter, it"s because the spine has shortened a little or, more often, become more bent and curved.
Why does spinning（旋转） make you dizzy (眩晕的)?
Because your brain gets confused between what you"re seeing and what you"re feeling. The brain senses that you’re spinning using special gravity-and-motion-sensing organs in your inner ear, which work together with your eyes to keep your vision and balance stable. But when you suddenly stop spinning the system goes out of control, and your brain thinks you"re moving while you"re not!
Where do feelings and emotions come from?
Mostly from an ancient part of the brain called the limbic system. All mammals have this brain area — from mice to dogs, cats, and humans. So all mammals feel basic emotions like fear, pain and pleasure. But since human feelings also involve other newer bits of the brain, we feel more complex emotions than any other animal on the planet.
If exercise wears you out, how can it be good for you?
Because our bodies adapt to everything we do to them. And as far as your body is concerned, it’s "use it, or lose it”! It"s not that exercise makes you healthy; it"s more that a lack of exercise leaves your body weak and easily affected by disease.
小题1:What is the color of blood in a vein near the surface of the skin?

A．Blue.

B．Light yellow.

C．Red.

D．Dark reddish purple.

小题2:Why do some old people look a little shrunken as they age?

A．Because their spine is in active use.

B．Because they are more easily affected by gravity.

C．Because they keep growing backwards.

D．Because their spine becomes more bent.

小题3:Which of the following statements about our brain is true?

A．In the long run, our brain probably works harder than our heart.

B．When our brain senses the spinning, we will fell dizzy.

C．The brains of the other mammals are as complex as those of humans.

D．Our feelings and emotions come from the most developed area in our brain.

小题4:What is the main purpose of the selection?

A．To give advice on how to stay healthy.

B．To provide information about our body.

C．To challenge new findings in medical research.

D．To report the latest discoveries in medical science.

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