阅读理解。 Planting trees around poultry (家禽) farms can improve air and water qua
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ing trees around poultry (家禽) farms can improve air and water quality - and relations with neighbors. Research has shown that just three rows of trees near poultry houses can reduce the release
of dust and ammonia (氨). They can also reduce the strong smell of ammonia gas.
The trees capture dust, ammonia and smells in their leaves. They can also reduce energy use. They
also provide shade from the sun, so they reduce cooling costs in summer. And they act as a windbreak,
so they reduce heating costs
in winter. Trees can also improve water quality around farms by removing pollutions from soil and groundwater.
Several years ago, people were objecting to the smell of poultry farms on the Delmarva Peninsula in
the eastern United States. Delmarva is where the states of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia come
together. Two thousand farms there can each house an average of seventy-five thousand chickens.
Traditionally the farms used windows to provide fresh air in the chicken houses. Farmers rarely
planted trees or tall crops around the buildings, so there would be no barrier to the airflow.
But then in the 60s, farms began to use mechanical ventilation (通风) systems. Instead of windows,
the mechanical systems used tunnel fans to circulate (使…循环) air. The fans directed airflow from the
poultry houses toward the homes of neighbors.
Researchers began dealing with the problem in 2000. They found that over a period of six years,
planting three rows of trees reduced total dust and ammonia by more than half. And they found that
smells were reduced by 18%.
Farmers may think trees will take too long to grow and be effective. But some trees can grow quickly. At least one-third of the Delmarva farms have planted trees, technically known as vegetative
environmental buffers. The idea offers a way to cut pollution, save money and energy, and make the
neighbors happy.
How did the mechanical ventilation system work?_____________________________________________________
2. The number of chickens raised on t
he poultry farms in Delmarva is up to ____________________.3. The benefits of planting trees around poultry farms are _________________.
4. What is the main topic of the passage?
_____________________________________________________
答案
2. 150 million
3. cutting pollution, saving money and energy, and make the neighbors happy
4. The benefits of planting trees around poultry farms
举一反三
stories made up of paragraphs, words and letters on different levels. There are one billion words in the
book, as long as 800 Bibles; if I read the genome out to you at the rate of one word per second for
eight hours a day, it would take me centuries; if I wrote out the human genome, one letter per millimeter,
my text would be as long as the River Danube. This is a huge volume, a book of great length, but it all fits
inside an extremely small cell nuclear(细胞核) that fits easily upon the head of a pin.
The idea of the genome as a book is not, strictly speaking, even a metaphor. It is true to a great extent. A book is a piece of digital information, written in one-directional form and defined by a code that
translates a small alphabet of signs into a large dictionary of meanings through the order of their groupings. So is a genome. The only difference is that all English books read from left to right, while some parts of
the genome read from left to right while some from right to left, but never both at the same time.
While English books are written in words of different lengthens using twenty-six letters, genomes are
written entirely in words of three-letter length, using only four letters, and instead of being written on flat
pages, they are written on long chains of DNA molecules (分子).
The genome is a very clever book, because in the right condition it can both photocopy itself and read
itself.
B. Only from right to left.
C. From both directions at the same time.
D. From one direction at a time.
B. can be easily placed on the head of a pin
C. is coded with an alphabet of four letters
D. is smart enough to read and take photos of itself
B. general readers
C. natural scientists
D. readers with professional knowledge
B. to lay emphasis on the similarities between the two
C. to simplify the concept of the human genome
D. to give an exact description of the human genome
This is so 1 that there seems to be no need to ask the reason for it. Yet no one 2 understands why
flowers open and close like this at particular times. The process is not as 3 as we might think, as recent
experiments have shown. In one study, flowers were kept in constant 4 . We might expect that the
flowers, without any information about the time of day, did not open as they 5 do. As a matter of fact,
they 6 to open at their usual time. This suggests that they have some mysterious(神秘的) way of
knowing the 7 . Their sense of time does not 8 information from the outside world; it is, so to speak,
inside them, a kind of "inner clock".
This 9 may not seem to be very important. However, it was later found that not just plants but also
10 , including man, have this "inner clock" which 11 the working of their bodies and influences their
activities. Men, then, are also influenced by this mysterious 12 . Whether we wish it or not, it affects such
things in our life as our need for sleep, our need for food.
In the past, this did not really 13 because people lived in natural condition. In
the 14 world, things are different; now there are spacemen, airplane pilots and, in ordinary life, a lot of people who have to
work at night. It would be very 15 , then, to know more about the "inner clock". Such things as flowers
might help us understand more about ourselves.
| ( )1. A. familiar ( )2. A. partly ( )3. A. complex ( )4. A. quietness ( )5. A. finally ( )6. A. refused ( )7. A. time ( )8. A. deal with ( )9. A. discovery ( )10. A. beasts ( )11. A. controls ( )12. A. world ( )13. A. happen ( )14. A. ancient ( )15. A. hard | B. strange B. personally B. simple B. darkness B. completely B. decided B. secret B. add to B. activity B. animals B. studies B. flower B. exist B. modern B. expensive | C. similar C. really C. mature C. loneliness C. physically C. continued C. process C. give away C. invention C. strangers C. measures C. powe C. matter C. wonderful C. convenient | D. special D. willingly D. meaningful D. sadness D. normally D. failed D. study D. depend on D. method D. humans D. destroys D. experiment D. work D. peaceful D. important | |||
| 阅读理解。 | ||||||
| Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface (界面) (BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines. Recently, two researchers, Jose Milan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic school in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated(展示)a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person"s thoughts. In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right hand. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts. "Our brain has billions of nerve cells. These send signals through the spinal cord (脊髓) to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles," Tavella says. "Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices." The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(头皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain. Prof. Milan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. "The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair." He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit from. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time. | ||||||
| 1. BCI is a technology that can ______. | ||||||
| A. help to update computer systems B. link the human brain with computers C. help the disabled to recover D. control a person"s thoughts | ||||||
| 2. How did Tavella operate the wheelchair in the laboratory? | ||||||
| A. By controlling his muscles. B. By talking to the machine. C. By moving his hand. D. By using his mind. | ||||||
| 3. Which of the following shows the path of the signals described in Paragraph 5? | ||||||
| A. scalp→computer→cap→wheelchair B. computer→cap→scalp→wheelchair C. scalp→cap→computer→wheelchair D. cap→computer→scalp→wheelchair | ||||||
| 4. The team will test with real patients to _____. | ||||||
| A. make profits from them B. prove the technology useful to them C. make them live longer D. learn about their physical condition | ||||||
| 5. Which of the following would be the best title for the text? | ||||||
| A. Switzerland, the BCI Research Center B. New Findings About How the Human Brain Works C. BCI Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled D. Robotic Vehicles Could Help to Cure Brain Injuries | ||||||
| 完形填空。 | ||||||
| It has been argued by some that gifted children should be grouped in special classes. The 1 is based on the belief that in regular classes these children are held back in their intellectual (智力的) growth by 2 situations that are designed for the 3 children. There can be little doubt that 4 classes can help the gifted children to graduate earlier and take their place in life sooner. However, to take these 5 out of the regular classes may create serious problems. I observed a number of 6 children who were taken out of a special class and placed in a 7 class. In the special class, they showed little ability to use their own judgment, relying 8 on their teachers" directions. In the regular class, having no worry about keeping up, they began to reflect 9 on many problems, some of which were not on the school program. Many are concerned that gifted children become 10 and lose interest in learning. However, this 11 is more often from parents and teachers than from students, and some of these 12 simply conclude that special classes should be set up for those who are 13 .Some top students do feel bored in class, but why they 14 so goes far beyond the work they have in school. Studies have shown that to be bored is to be anxious. The gifted child who is bored is an 15 child. | ||||||
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