Inventor of LED 342
El Nino 343
Smoking 344
Engineering Ethics 344
Rescue Platform 345
Microchip Research Center Created 345
Moderate Earthquake Strikes England 346
WhatIs a Dream? 347
Dangers Await Babies with Altitude 348
The Biology of Music 349
一、More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing 350
二、Soot and Sow：a Hot Combination 351
三、Icy Microbes 352
五、LED Lighting 353
六、How We Form First Impression 354
七、Screen Test 355
九、More Rural Research Is Needed 355
十、Washoe Learned American Sign Language 356
★第1篇-Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles 福特放弃电动汽车 357
★第2篇-World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict世界原油产量可能提前十年达到峰值 359
★第3篇-Citizen Scientists 公民科学家 359
★第4篇-Motoring Technology 汽车技术 360
★第6篇-Making Light of Sleep不要太在意睡眠 362
★第7篇-Sugar Power for Cell Phones 用糖为手机发电 363
★第8篇-Eiffel Is an Eyeful引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔 364
★第9篇（增） An Essential Scientific Process一个重要的科学过程 365
★第10篇-Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers 365
第十一篇When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach我们的视觉服务于我们的胃口 366
★第12篇-Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass纳佛罗里达遭受冷气团袭击 367
★第13篇-Invisibility Ring隐形环 368
★第14篇-Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers日本用来监视醉酒司机的新型概念车 369
★第15篇-Winged Robot Learns to Fly 肋生双翅机器人学飞行 370
★第16篇-Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth日本人的地心旅行 371
★第17篇-A Sunshade for the Planet地球防晒霜 372
★第18篇-Thirst for Oil石油匮乏 372
★第19篇Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience 373
★第20篇-Explorer of the Extreme Deep深海探索器 374
★第21篇-Plant Gas植物，沼气的又一来源 375
★新增第22篇Real World Robots 376
★第23篇-Powering a City? It's a Breeze风力发电？轻而易举 377
★第24篇-Underground Coal Fires a Looming Catastrophe 378
★第25篇-Eat to Live为生存而食 379
★第26篇-Male and Female pilots cause accidents differently 380
★第27篇Driven to Distraction分散注意力驾驶 381
★第28篇-Sleep Lets Brain File Memories睡眠促使记忆归档存储 382
★第29篇- I’ll Be Bach 383
★第30篇-Digital Realm数码王国 384
★第31篇-Hurricane Katrina卡特里娜飓风 385
★第32篇-Mind-reading1 Machine读心机 386
二、The World's Longest Bridge 389
三、Reinventing the Table 389
四、The Bilingual Brain 390
五、A Record-Breaking Rover（新增C） 390
六、Dung to Death 391
七、Time in the Animal World 392
八、Watching Microcurrents Flow 393
九、 Lightening Strikes（新增B） 393
十、How Deafness Makes It Easier to Hear 394
【1】Captain Cook Arrow Legend(库克船长弓箭的传说) 395
【2】Avalanche and Its Safety(雪崩和安全问题) 396
【3】增C Giant Structures(巨型建筑) 397
【4】Animal’s “Sixth Sense”(动物的”第六感”) 397
【5】Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind(警报器救盲人) 398
【6】Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely(远程制止偷车贼) 398
【7】An Intelligent Car(智能汽车) 399
【8】增B Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures(印度为什么需要濒临灭亡的秃鹰) 400
【9】Wonder Webs(奇妙的网) 400
【10】Chicken Soup for the Soul: Comfort Food Fights Loneliness（心灵鸡汤：爽心食品排解孤独感） 401
【11】Climate Change Poses Major Risks for Unprepared Cities （气候变化给不备城市带来重大风险） 402
【12】Free Statins With Fast Food Could Neutralize Heart Risk (快餐加免费降胆固醇药物可以降低罹患心脏病的风险) 402
Inventor of LED
When Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor alloys, his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today, his discovery of light-emitting diodes or1 LEDs, are used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work, developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.
On April 23, 2004, Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th year that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors.
"Anytime you get an award, big or little2, it's always a surprise," Holonyak said.
Holonyak, 75, was a student of John Bardeen, an inventor of the transistor, in the early 1950s. After graduate school3, Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric4, where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches5.
Later, Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking at how to generate invisible light, be wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs, and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.
Holonyak, now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois, said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace as they are today. But didn't realize how many uses they would have.
"You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important, you think it's worth doing, but you really can't tell what the big payoff is going to be, and when, and how. You just don't know," he said.
The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen, 75, with the $100,000 Lemelson- MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for her work on a new generation of "molecular sieves" that can separate molecules by size.
1．Holonyak's colleagues thought he would fail in his research on LEDs at the time when he started it.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．Holonyak believed that his students that were working with him on the project would get the Lemelson-MIT Prize sooner or later.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
3．Holonyak was the inventor of the transistor in the early 1950s.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
4．Holonyak believed that LEDs would become very popular in the future.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
5．Holonyak said that you should not do anything you are not interested in.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
6．Edith Flanigen is the only co-inventor of LEDs.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
7．The Lemelson-MIT Prize has a history of over 100 years.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
LED的发明者
当Nick Holonyak着手用半导体合金创造一种新的可视照明设备的时候，同事们都认为他不现实。今天，他发现的发光二极管，或叫LED,使用范围覆盖从DVD到机场警钟的一切东西。他的许多学生继续着他的工作，发明了交通灯中使用的照明设备和其他日用技术。
2004年4月23日，Holonyak在华盛顿的一次典礼上被授予Lemelson-MIT项目的50万美元的奖金。这是麻省理工的Lemelson-MIT项目第十年颁奖给杰出的发明人。
“任何时候你得了奖，不论是大是小，总是一分惊喜。”Holonyak说。
Holonyak，75岁，是20世纪50年代初期晶体管的发明者John Bardeen的学生。从研究生院毕业之后，Holonyak在Bell实验室工作。之后去了通用电器公司，在那里他发明了一种开关，现在在家用减光开关中普遍使用。
后来，Holonyak开始研究何应用半导体发电。当他的同事们正在研究如何发出看不见的光时，他却想要看得见的光。1962年他发明的LED,现在的使用寿命可以比白炽灯泡长十倍，而且更环保、更经济。
Holonyak现在是伊利诺伊大学电子、计算机工程和物理专业的教授，他说他预料到LED的使用有可能像今天这样普遍，但没有意识到它会有多少用途。
“开始的时候你并不知道，你认为你在做一件很重要的事情，你认为它值得做，但是你不能说出要付出多大的代价，什么时候付出，怎样付出。你并不知道。”他说。
Lemelson-MIT项目同样授予75岁的Edith Flanigen 10万美元的终身成就奖，她的成就是创造新一代的“分子筛”，也就是可以通过大小来分离分子。
El Nino
While some forecasting methods had limited success predicting the 1997 El Nino a few months in advance1, the Columbia University researchers say their method can predict large El Nino events up to two years in advance. That would be good news for governments, farmers and others seeking to plan for the droughts and heavy rainfall that El Nino can produce in various parts of the world.
Using a computer, the researchers matched sea-surface temperatures to later El Nino occurrences between 1980 and 2000 and were then able to anticipate El Nino events dating back to 1857, using prior sea-surface temperatures. The results were reported in the latest issue of the journal Nature.
The researchers say their method is not perfect, but Bryan C Weare, a meteorologist at the University of California, Davis, who was not involved in the work, said it “suggests2 El Nino is indeed predictable.”
“This will probably convince others to search around more for even better methods,” said Weare. He added that the new method “makes it possible to predict El Nino at long lead times3.” Other models also use sea-surface temperatures, but they have not looked as far back because they need other data, which is only available for recent decades, Weare said.
The ability to predict the wanning and cooling of the Pacific is of immense importance4. The 1997 El Nino, for example, caused an estimated $20 billion in damage worldwide, offset by beneficial effects in other areas, said David Anderson, of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts in Reading, England. The 1877 El Nino, meanwhile, coincided with a failure of the Indian monsoon and a famine that killed perhaps 40 million in India and China, prompting the development of seasonal forecasting, Anderson said.
When El Nino hit in 1991 and 1997, 200 million people were affected by flooding in China alone, according to a 2002 United Nations report.
While predicting smaller El Nino events remains tricky, the ability to predict larger ones should be increased to at least a year if the new method is confirmed.
El Nino tends to develop between April and June and reaches its peak between December and February. The warming tends to last between 9 and 12 months and occurs every two to seven years.
The new forecasting method does not predict any major El Nino events in the next two years, although a weak warming toward the end of this year is possible.
1．The method used by the Columbia University researchers can predict El Nino a few months in advance.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．The Columbia University researchers studied the relationship between the past El Nino occurrences and sea-surface temperatures.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
3．The Columbia University researchers are the first to use sea-surface temperatures to match the past El Nino occurrences.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
4．Weare’s contribution in predicting El Nino was highly praised by other meteorologists.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
5．According to a Chinese report, the flooding in China caused by El Nino in 1991 and 1997 affected 200 million Chinese people.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
6．It takes about eight months for El Nino to reach its peak.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
7．A special institute has been set up in America to study El Nino.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
厄尔尼诺
当某些预报方法不能提前几个月成功预测1997年厄尔尼诺现象的时候，哥伦比亚大学的研究人员说他们的方法可以提前两年预测厄尔尼诺现象。这对全世界各地的政府、农民和其他寻求为厄尔尼诺带来的干旱和大雨做准备的人来说是一条好消息。
研究人员使用计算机把1980年和2000年之间的海面温度和后来的厄尔尼诺的发生联系起来，进而能够用之前的海面温度预测远至1857年的厄尔尼诺现象。研究结果刊登在最新的《自然》杂志上。
研究人员说他们的方法并不完美，但加利福尼亚大学戴维斯分校的气象学家Bryan C. Weare说这种方法显示出厄尔尼诺是可以预测的，尽管他自己并没有参加研究工作。
Weare说：“这会促使其他人去寻找更好的办法。”他还补充说，新的方法“使在提前很长的一段时间里预测厄尔尼诺现象成为可能”。其他方法也使用海面温度，但他们没能回顾得那么久远是因为缺少其他资料，而这些资料在近几十年才能够获得。
预测太平洋的升温和降温有极其重要的意义。英国Reading的欧洲中级天气预报中心的David Anderson说：以1997年的厄尔尼诺为例，它导致了全球范围内约200亿美元的损失，抵消了在其他一些地区的良性影响；1877年的厄尔尼诺与印度遭受的季风和饥荒同时发生，导致了印度和中国约4 000万人丧生，结果刺激了季节性预报的发展。
根据2002年的联合国报道，1991年和1997年厄尔尼诺爆发的时候，仅中国就有2亿人受到洪水的侵害。
然而小的厄尔尼诺预测还是难以捉摸的，如果新的方法被认可的话，对大型厄尔尼诺现象的预测至少应该被提前一年。
厄尔尼诺总是在4月和6月期间形成，在12月和翌年2月之间达到髙峰。气候总是在9月和12月之间变暧，并且每2 ~7年出现一次。
尽管气温在年底的时候有可能微弱上升，新的预测方法预计未来两年不会出现大的厄尔尼诺现象。
Smoking
Since 1939, numerous studies have been conducted to determine whether smoking is a health hazard. The trend of the evidence has been consistent and indicates that there is a serious health risk. Research teams have conducted studies that show beyond all reasonable doubt that tobacco smoking is associated with a shortened life expectancy1.
Cigarette smoking is believed by most research workers in this field to be an important factor in the development of cancer of the lungs and cancer of the throat and is believed to be related to cancer of some other organs of the body. Male cigarette smokers have a higher death rate from heart disease than non-smoking males. Female smokers are thought to be less affected because they do not breathe in the smoke so deeply.
Apart from statistics, it might be helpful to look at what smoking tobacco does to the human body. Smoke is a mixture of gases, vaporized chemicals, minute particles of ash and other solids. There is also nicotine, which is powerful poison, and black tar. As smoke is breathed in, all those components form deposits on the membranes of the lungs. One point of concentration is where the air tube and bronchus divides. Most lung cancer begins at this point.
Filters and low tar tobacco2 are claimed to make smoking to some extent safer, but they can only slightly reduce, not eliminate the hazards.
1．It is easy to determine whether smoking is hazardous.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．Smoking reduces one’s life expectancy.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
3．Smoking may induce lung cancer.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
4．There is evidence that smoking is responsible for breast cancer.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
5．Male smokers have a lower death rate from heart disease than female smokers.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
6．Nicotine is poisonous.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
7．Filters and low tar tobacco make smoking safe.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
抽学派烟
自1939年以来，人们进行了无数次研究，以确定抽烟是否危害健康。证据的趋向是一致的，显示出抽烟对健康有严重危害。研究组进行的研究确凿无疑地表明抽烟与人的预期寿命的缩短有关。
这个领域的大部分研究人员都认为抽烟是肺癌和喉癌产生的重要原因，并且和人体其他某些器官的癌症有关。抽烟的男性因心脏病而死亡的概率高于不抽烟的男性。女性吸烟者被认为受的_响较小，因为她们不深吸烟。
'除了统计之外，看一看吸烟对人体的影响也可能会有帮助。烟是各种气体、蒸发的化学物质、微小的灰和其他固体颗粒的混合物。里面还有很强的毒素尼古丁和黑焦油。当烟被吸人时，所有这些成分形成肺膜上的沉淀物，其集中的一点是气管和支气管分叉的地方。大部分肺癌开始于这一点。
过滤嘴和焦油含量低的烟草被宣称使抽烟在某种程度上安全一些，但是它们只能稍微降低而不是消除危害。
Engineering Ethics
Engineering ethics is attracting increasing interest in engineering universities throughout the nation. At Texas A&M University, evidence of this interest in professional ethics culminated in the creation of a new course in engineering ethics, as well as a project funded by1 the National Science Foundation to develop material for introducing ethical issues into required undergraduate engineering courses. A small group of faculty and administrators actively supported the growing effort at Texas ASM, yet this group must now expand to meet the needs of increasing numbers of students wishing to learn2 more about the value implications of their actions as professional engineers.
The increasing concern for the value dimension3 of engineering is, at least in part, a result of the attention that the media has given to cases such as the Challenger disaster, the Kansas City Hyatt-Regency Hotel walkways collapse, and the Exxon oil spill. As a response to this concern, a new discipline, engineering ethics, is emerging. This discipline will doubtless4 take its place5 alongside such well-established fields as medical ethics, business ethics, and legal ethics.
The problem presented by this development is that most engineering professors are not prepared to introduce literature in engineering ethics into their classrooms. They are most comfortable with quantitative concepts6 and often do not believe they are qualified to lead class discussions on ethics. Many engineering faculty members do not think that they have the time in an already overcrowded syllabus to introduce discussions on professional ethics, or the time in their own schedules to prepare the necessary material. Hopefully, the resources presented herein will be of assistance.
1．Engineering ethics is a compulsory subject in every institute of science and technology in the Uniled States.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．The number of students wishing to take the course of engineering ethics is declining at Texas A&SM University.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
3．The National Science Foundation involves itself directly in writing up material about ethical issues.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
4．It seems that medical ethics and business ethics are more mature than engineering ethics.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
5．Several engineering professors have quit from teaching to protest against the creation of a new course in engineering ethics.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
6．Many engineering professors may not have time to prepare material for class discussion on professional ethics.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
7．It is likely that following this introductory passage, the author will provide the necessary material related to the topic of engineering ethics.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
工程道德
工程道德在全美的工程类院校里越来越受到关注。在得克萨斯州的大学，随着工程道德这门新课的开设以及由全美科学基金会提供基金、旨在为大学工程类必修课程提供道德问题方面[的材料的项目的启动，人们对职业道德的关注达到了顶峰。一个由教师和管理人员组成的小组对得克萨斯州A—大学的不懈努力予以了积极的支持，但是由于越来越多的学生希望能够更加了解作为职业工程人员自己的行为的价值含义，为了满足这些需求，目前该小组必须发展壮大。
人们之所以对工程价值尺度愈发关注，至少部分原因是由于媒体对挑战者号灾难、堪萨斯城Hyatt-Regency旅馆通道的坍塌以及Exxon石油泄漏等事件的关注所引起的。为了响应人们的关注，一个新的学科——工程道德应运而生。同医学道德、商业道德和法律道德这些已经确立的学I科一样，该学科无疑也将确立起自己的地位。
开发这一新学科所面临的问题是，大部分工程教授不愿意将工程道德方面的资料引进课堂。他们满足于使用以数字表达的概念，不相信自己有资格就工程道德问题在课堂上展开讨论。许多工程类教授认为课程安排紧张，没有时间在课堂上就职业道德问题进行讨论，或者觉得自己没有时间去准备必要的材料。希望这里提供的资料会有所帮助。
Rescue Platform
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, security experts are trying to develop new ways of rescuing people from burning skyscrapers. One idea is a platform capable of flying vertically and hovering in the air like a helicopter.1 The platform would rise up and down alongside a skyscraper and pick up people trapped in high stories.
The idea for the vertical takeoff platform was hatched more than ten years ago by a Russian aerospace engineer, David Metreveli, who has since2 moved to Israel. Metreveli’s design, called the Eagle, calls for two jet engines that turn four large horizontal propellers. The spinning of the propellers generates the necessary lift, or upward force, to raise the platform. The more power is supplied to the propellers, the higher the platform rises. Moving the platform sideways involves applying differing amounts of power to each propeller.
Helicopters are now used in some cases to get people out of burning buildings. Escape baskets3 slung from them dangle beside the building for people to climb into. Unfortunately, the baskets cannot reach every floor of a building because the ropes from which they hang become unstable beyond a certain length.
So far, Metreveli has built a small-scale model of the Eagle to test his idea. In the wake of4 September 11, he has been able to secure enough funding to start building a larger, 4-meter by 4- meter5 prototype, which he calls the Eaglet.
1．A rescue platform called the Eagle is capable of moving vertically but not sideways.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．The four propellers are fitted horizontally to the Eagle.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
3．With the help of jet engines, the Eagle can fly at a speed of 100 miles an hour.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned4．In the third paragraph, the word helicopter refers to the Eagle.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned5．The more jet engines are fitted to the propellers, the more people the platform can carry.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
6．In the wake of September 11, Mr. Metreveli has secured enough funding to build up a small- scale model of the Eagle to test his idea.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned7．Mr. Metreveli is designing for Israel a more advanced form of rescue platform than the Eagle or the Eaglet.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
救生平台
在世界贸易中心遭到恐怖袭击后，安全专家们正在努力寻找新方法，来从燃烧的摩天大楼上营救人们。其中的想法之一就是构建一个能够垂直升降并像直升机一样在空中盘旋的平台。该平台可沿摩天大楼上下移动，运送高楼受困人员。
十多年前，一名俄罗斯航空航天工程师David Metreveli酝酿出垂直起落平台这一想法，随后移居以色列。Metreveli的设计方案命名为“老鹰”，需用两个喷气发动机来推动四个大型水平方向旋转的螺旋推进器。螺旋推进器快速旋转，生成必要的上升力，使平台升起。供给螺旋推进器的能量越多，平台升得就越高。要使平台侧向移动，则需要给螺旋推进器添加不等的能量。
现在，人们有时还用直升机营救起火大楼中的被困人员。从直升机中拋出的救生篮在大楼旁摇摆，人们可以爬到里面去。不幸的是，由于悬挂救生篮的绳索在超出一定长度后就会非常不稳定，所以救生篮无法达到每一层楼。
目前，Metreveli已经建立起一个小型“老鹰”模型来检测自己的构思。“9·11”事件后，Metreveli获得了足够的基金，开始构建一个较大规模的模型。该模型大小为4米×4米，他将之命名为“小鹰”。
Microchip Research Center Created
A research center has been set up in this Far Eastern country to develop advanced micro-chip production technology. The center, which will start out with about US $14 million, will help the country develop its chip industry without always depending on imported technology.
The center will make use of its research skills and facilities to develop new technology for domestic chip plants. The advent of the center will possibly free the country from the situation that it is always buying almost-outdated technologies from other countries, said the country’s flagship chipmaker.1 Currently, chip plants in this country are in a passive situation because many foreign governments don’t allow them to import the most advanced technologies, fearing they will be used for military purposes. Moreover, the high licensing fees they have to pay to technology providers are also an important reason for their decision of self-reliance2.
As mainstream chip production technology shifts from one generation to the next every three to five years3,plants with new technology can make more powerful chips at lower costs, while4 plants with outdated equipment, which often cost billions of dollars to build, will be marginalized by the maker.
More than 10 chip plants are being built, each costing millions of US dollars.5 The majority of that money goes to overseas equipment vendors and technology owners — mainly from Japan and Singapore. Should the new center play a major role in improving the situation in the industry,6 the country admits the US $14 million investment is still rather small. This country is developing comprehensive technologies. Most of the investment will be spent on setting alliances with technology and intellectual property7 owners.
1．The country says that the investment of US $14 million is big enough for developing that country’s chip industry.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．That country gives top priorities to developing chips for military purposes.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
3．Although the licensing fees are not very high, that Far Eastern country cannot afford to pay.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
4．Many western countries ban the exporting of the most advanced chip-making technologies to that country to prevent them from being used for military purposes.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
5．Currently, almost all the flagship chipmakers in that country are owned by American investors.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
6．Mainstream chip production technology develop rapidly.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
7．More than 10 chip plants being built in that country are an example of self-reliance.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
微芯片研究中心成立
为了开发先进的微芯片生产技术，这个远东国家建立了一个研究中心，该中心启动资金为1 400万美元，可以帮助该国开发自己的芯片工业，不必总是依赖于进口技术。
该中心将会应用自己的研究技术和设施，为本国芯片厂家开发新技术。这个国家名列首位的芯片制造公司说，芯片中心的成立可能使这个国家摆脱从他国购买即将淘汰的技术的困境。由于许多外国政府担心先进技术会被用于军事目的，不允许这个国家的芯片生产厂家进口前沿技术，所以这些生产厂家处于一种被动局面。另外，由于这些芯片生产厂家必须向技术提者支付髙额的许可费，这也构成了他们决定要自力更生的一个重要原因。
由于主流芯片生产技术每隔3～5年就要进行更新换代，所以掌握了新技术的厂家就可以以较低的成本制造出较好的芯片，而那些耗费数十亿美元建立起的厂家，如果设备落后，也将会被生产商所淘汰。
十几个芯片厂正在建立之中，每个厂的造价都在几百万美元，其中大部分资金都流向了海外设备商和技术所有者——主要是日本和新加坡。如果新建的芯片中心能在改变该国芯片行业的被动形势中起到重要作用，该国承认，1 400万美元的投资仍是微不足道的。该国正在开发综合技术，大部分投资将用于与技术和知识产权所有者建立联盟。
Moderate Earthquake Strikes England
A moderate earthquake struck parts of southeast England on 28 April 2007, toppling chimneys from houses and rousing residents from their beds. Several thousand people were left without power1 in Kent County2. One woman suffered minor head and neck injuries.
“It felt as if the whole house was being slid across like a fim-fair ride, 3” said the woman. The British Geological Survey said the 4.3-magnitude quake4 struck at 8:19 a.m. and was centered under the English Channel5, about 8.5 miles south of Dover6 and near the entrance to the Channel Tunnel7.
Witnesses said cracks appeared in walls and chimneys collapsed across the county. Residents said the tremor had lasted for about 10 to 15 seconds.
“I was lying in bed and it felt as if someone had just got up from bed next to me,” said Hendrick van Eck, 27, of Canterbury8 about 60 miles southeast of London. “I then heard the sound of cracking, and it was getting heavier and heavier9. It felt as if someone was at the end of my bed hopping up and down. ”
There are thousands of moderate quakes on this scale around the world each year, but they are rare in Britain. The April 28 quake was the strongest in Britain since 2002 when a 4.8-magnitude quake struck the central England city of Birmingham10.
The country’s strongest earthquake took place in the North Sea in 1931, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale11. British Geologicisd Survey scientist Roger Musson said the quake took place on 28 April in an area that had seen several of the biggest earthquakes ever to strike Britain, including one in 1580 that caused damage in London and was felt in France.12 Musson predicted that it was only a matter of time13 before another earthquake struck this part of England. However, people should not be scared too much by this prediction, Musson said, as the modern earthquake warning system of Britain should be able to detect a forthcoming quake and announce it several hours before it takes place. This would allow time for people to evacuate and reduce damage to the minimum.
1．During the April 28 earthquake, the whole England was left without power.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．The Channel Tunnel was closed for 10 hours after the earthquake occurred.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned3．It was reported that one lady had got her head and neck injured, but not seriously.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned4．France and several other European countries sent their medical teams to work side by side with the British doctors.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned5．The country’s strongest earthquake took place in London in 1580.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned6．Musson predicted that another earthquake would occur in southeast England sooner or later.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
7．It can be inferred from the passage that England is rarely hit by high magnitude earthquakes.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
中度地震袭击英国
2007年4月28日英格兰东南部地区发生中度地震，一些房屋烟囱倒塌，许多居民半夜从睡梦中惊醒。肯特郡几千人遭遇断电，一名女子头部和颈部受了轻伤。
“我感觉整个房子就像游乐场的滑行机一样在滑动。”该女子说。
英国地质调查局说，本次里氏4．3级的地震发生于上午8点19分，震中在英吉利海峡底部，位于多佛尔以南约8．5英里处的海峡隧道入口附近。
一些目击者看到郡中墙壁出现裂缝，并有烟囱倒塌。当地居民说震动大约持续了10 ~ 15秒。
“我当时躺在床上，觉得好像旁边有人从床上站起来。”住在伦敦东南部60英里处的27岁的Hendrick van Eck说，“然后我听到有东西裂开的声音，而且越来越响。就好像有人在我床尾不停地并着脚跳。”
这种规模的中度地震世界上每年都会发生几千次，但在英国仍非常少见。4月28日的地震是英国自2002年中部城市伯明翰里氏4．8级地震以来最强的一次。
英国的地震最高曾达到里氏6．1级，1931年发生在北海。英国地质勘测所的科学家罗杰·马森说，4月28日发生地震的地区曾经遭受过几起英国最大的地震，其中的一次发生在1580年，那次地震蹂躏了伦敦，并波及法国。马森预言英格兰的这个地区早晚还会发生地震，但他说人们不必对此产生太大恐惧，因为英国的现代地震预警系统应该能够侦测即将发生的地震，并在震前数小时内通知大家。这将使人们有时间撤离震区，并把损失降到最低。
WhatIs a Dream?
For centuries, people have wondered about thestrange things that they dream about. Some psychologists say that thisnighttime activity of the mind has no special meaning. Others，however， think that dreams are an importantpart of our lives. In fact, many experts believe that dreams can tell us abouta person’s mind and emotions.
Before modern times, many people thought thatdreams contained messages from God. It was only in the twentieth century thatpeople started to study dreams in a scientific way.
The Austrian psychologist, Sigmund Freud1，was probably the first person tostudy dreams scientifically. In his famous book,The interpretation of Dreams (1900), Freud wrote that dreams are anexpression of a person’s wishes. He believed that dreams allow people toexpress the feelings, thoughts, and fears that they are afraid to express inreal life.
The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung2 wasonce a student of Freud’s. Jung，however，had a different idea about dreams. Jung believed that the purpose ofa dream was to communicate a message to the dreamer. He thought people couldlearn more about themselves by thinking about their dreams. For example, peoplewho dream about falling may learn that they have too high an opinion ofthemselves. On the other hand, people who dream about being heroes may learnthat they think too little of themselves.
Modern-day psychologists continue to developtheories about dreams. For example, psychologist William Domhoff from theUniversity of California, Santa Cruz，believes that dreams are tightly linked to a person’s daily life,thoughts, and behavior. A criminal, for example, might dream about crime.
Domhoff believes that there is a connectionbetween dreams and age. His research shows that children do not dream as muchas adults. According to Domhoff, dreaming is a mental skill that needs time todevelop.
He has also found a link between dreams andgender. His studies show that the dreams of men and women are different. Forexample, the people in men’s dreams are often other men, and the dreams ofteninvolve fighting. This is not true of women’s dreams.3 Domhoff found thisgender difference in the dreams of people from 11 cultures around the world,including both modern and traditional ones.
Can dreams help us understand ourselves?Psychologists continue to try to answer this question in different ways.However, one thing they agree on this: If you dream that something terrible isgoing to occur, you shouldn’t panic. The dream may have meaning, but it doesnot mean that some terrible event will actually take place. It’s important toremember that the world of dreams is not the real world.
1．Not everyone agrees that dreams are meaningful.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．According to Freud, people dream about things that they cannot talkabout.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned3．Jung believed that dreams did not help one to understand oneself.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned4．In the past, people believed that dreams involved emotions.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned5．According to Domhoff, babies do not have the same ability to dreamas adults do.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned6．Men and women dream about different things.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
7．Scientists agree that dreams predict the future.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
梦是什么？
几百年来，人们对他们梦到的奇异的事情感到疑惑。一些心理学家认为，这种大脑的夜间活动并没有特殊含义，另一些则认为，梦是生命重要的一部分。实际上，许多专家认为，梦能揭示人的心理和情感活动。
近代以前，很多人认为梦传递的是上帝的信息。直到20世纪，人们才开始从科学的角度研究梦。
奥地利心理学家希格蒙德*弗洛伊德或许是第一个用科学的方法研究梦的人。在他的著作《梦的解析》（1900）中，弗洛伊德写到，梦是一个人愿望的表达。他认为梦打开了一扇窗，让人们得以表达在生活中不敢表达的情感、思想和恐惧。
瑞士精神病学家卡尔*荣格曾是佛洛伊德的学生，但他对梦的看法与佛洛伊德不同，他认为，梦的作用是给做梦的人传递一种信息，而人们通过自己的梦，可以对自己有一个更深刻的了解。比如，如果一个人梦到从高处坠落，那么他应该反思自己是不是自视过高。反过来，如果梦到自己成了英雄，应该想想平时可能太看低自己了。
现代心理学家还在继续发展关于梦的理论，来自与圣克鲁兹的加利福利亚大学的威廉*多姆霍夫就是其中一位。他认为，梦境和一个人的日常生活，思想和行为都紧密相关，比方说，一个罪犯就可能梦到犯罪。
多姆霍夫还认为，梦和年龄也有关系。他的研究表明，孩子不像成人那么多梦。他认为，做梦也是一项心理机能，也随着年龄的增长而发展。
多姆霍夫还发现梦和性别的之间的关系。通过研究，他发现男性和女性的梦境常常是不同的。例如，在男性梦境中出现的通常是其他男性，而且常与打斗有关，而女性的梦境则不是这样。多姆霍夫研究了全世界来自11种不同文化的古今案例，得出了上述结论。
梦能帮助我们更好的了解自己吗？心理学家还在尝试通过不同方式来解答这个问题，不过，有一件事他们是意见一致的：如果你梦到有不好的事情发生，不要慌张。梦确实有含义，但也不意味着你梦到的事情真会发生。要记住，梦中的世界并不是真实的世界。
Dangers Await Babies with Altitude
Women who live in the world’s highest communities tend to give birth to underweight babies, a new study suggests. These babies may grow into adults with a high risk of heart disease and strokes.1
Research has hinted that newborns in mountain communities are lighter than average. But it wasn’t clear whether this is due to reduced oxygen levels at high altitudes or because their mothers are under-nourished — many people who live at high altitudes are relatively poor compared with those living lower down.
To find out more, Dino Giussani and his team at Cambridge University studied the records of 400 births in Bolivia during 1997 and 1998. The babies were bom in both rich and poor areas of two cities: La Paz and Santa Cruz. La Paz is the highest city in the world, at 3.65 kilometers above sea level, while Santa Cruz is much lower, at 0.44 kilometers.
Sure enough, Giussani found that the average birthweight of babies in La Paz was significantly lower than in Santa Cruz. This was true in both high and low-income families. Even babies bom to poor families in Santa Cruz were heavier on average than babies born to wealthy families in lofty La Paz. “We were very surprised by this result,” says Giussani.
The results suggest that babies bom at high altitudes are deprived of2 oxygen before birth. “This may trigger the release or suppression of hormones that regulate growth of the unborn child,3 ”says Giussani.
His team also found that high-altitude babies tended to have relatively larger heads compared with their bodies4. This is probably because a fetus starved of oxygen will send oxygenated blood to the brain in preference to the rest of the body.5
Giussani wants to find out if such babies have a higher risk of disease in later life. People born in La Paz might be prone to heart trouble in adulthood, for example. Low birthweight is a risk factor for coronary heart disease. And newborns with a high ratio of head size to body weight are often predisposed to high blood pressure and strokes in later life.
1．According to the passage, one of the reasons why newborns in mountain communities are underweight is that their mothers are under-nourished.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．Giussani’s team members are all British researchers and professors from Cambridge University.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
3．Giussani did not expect to find that the weight of a baby had little to do with the financial conditions of the family he was bom into.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
4．The weight of a newborn has to do with the supply of oxygen even when he was still in his mother’s womb.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
5．High-altitude babies have heads that are larger than their bodies.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
6．High-altitude babies have longer but thinner limbs than average.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
7．Giussani has arrived at the conclusion that babies in high-altitude regions are more likely to have heart trouble when they grow up.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
高海拔地区的婴儿有危险
一个新的研究表明，住在世界高海拔地区的女人通常生下体重不足的婴儿。这些婴儿在长大成人后得心脏病和中风的风险很大。
研究暗示在山区出生的新生儿低于平均体重。但是还不清楚这是由于在高海拔的地方氧气不足，还是由于他们的母亲没有获得足够的营养——许多住在高海拔地方的人相对都比住在低处的人穷。
为了了解更多的情况，剑桥大学的迪诺·吉萨尼和他的团队研究了1997年到1998年玻利维亚的400个新生儿的记录。这些婴儿出生于两个城市的富有和贫困地区：拉巴斯和圣克鲁斯。拉巴斯是世界上最髙的城市，海拔3. 65千米，而圣克鲁斯低很多，海拔0.44千米。
当然，吉萨尼发现拉巴斯的新生儿的平均出生体重明显低于圣克鲁斯的新生儿。无论高收入家庭还是低收入家庭都是如此。甚至圣克鲁斯的贫穷家庭的婴儿比拉巴斯的富有家庭的婴儿平均体重还要重。吉萨尼说：“我们对这个结果感到吃惊。”
这个结果表明在高海拔出生的婴儿出生前就缺氧了。吉萨尼说：“这可能会触发调节未出生儿成长的荷尔蒙的释放或抑制。”
他的团队还发现高海拔的婴儿通常有相对身体来说较大的头部。这可能是因为一个缺氧的胚胎会首先把充氧的血液输送到脑部，然后才送到身体的其他部位。
吉萨尼想要查出这样的婴儿在今后的生活中是不是更容易得病。例如在拉巴斯出生的人在成年之后更可能得心脏病。出生体重低是得冠心病的一个危险因素。头部相对身体较大的新生儿在今后的生活中通常更容易得高血压和中风。
The Biology of Music
Humans use music as a powerful way to communicate.It may also play an important role in love. But what is music, and how does itwork its magic? Science does not yet have all the answers.
What are two things that make humans differentfrom animals? One is language, and the other is music. It is true that someanimals can sing (and many birds sing better than a lot of people). However,the songs of animals, such as birds and whales, are very limited. It is alsotrue that humans, not animals, have developed musical instruments. 1
Music is strange stuff. It is clearly differentfrom language. However, people can use music to communicate things — especiallytheir emotions. When music is combined with speech in a song, it is a verypowerful form of communication. But, biologically speaking, what is music?
If music is truly different from speech, then weshould process music and language in different parts of the brain. Thescientific evidence suggests that this is true.
Sometimes people who suffer brain damage losetheir ability to process language. However, they don’t automatically lose theirmusical abilities. For example, Vissarion Shebalin, a Russian composer，had a stroke in 1953. It injuredthe left side of his brain. He could no longer speak or understand speech. Hecould, however, still compose music until his death ten years later. On theother hand，sometimesstrokes cause people to lose their musical ability, but they can still speakand understand speech. This shows that the brain processes music and languageseparately.
By studying the physical effects of music on thebody，scientistshave also learned a lot about how music influences the emotions. But why doesmusic have such a strong effect on us? That is a harder question to answer.Geoffrey Miller, a researcher at University College, London, thinks that musicand love have a strong connection. Music requires special talent, practice, andphysical ability. That’s why it may be a way of showing your fitness to besomeone’s mate. For example, singing in tune or playing a musical instrument requiresfine muscular control. You also need a good memory to remember the notes. Andplaying or singing those notes correctly suggests that your hearing is inexcellent condition. Finally, when a man sings to the woman he loves (or viceversa)， it may be away of showing off.
However, Miller’s theory still doesn’t explain whycertain combinations of sounds influence our emotions so deeply. For scientists，this is clearly an area that needsfurther research.
1．Humans, but not animals, can sing.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
2．People can use music to communicate their emotions.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned3．We use the same part of the brain for music and language.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned4．Geoffery Miler has done research on music and emotions.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned5．It’s hard for humans to compose music.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned6．Memory is not an important part in singing in tune.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
7．Scientistsdoes not know all the answers about the effects of music on humans.
A Right B Wrong C Not mentioned
人们把音乐作为一种高效的交流方式，在爱情中它也可能会起到重要的作用。但是音乐是什么？它又是如何起到神奇的效果？科学界还没有给出答案。
哪两项事物使得人类不同于动物？一个是语言，另一个是音乐。当然一些动物会唱歌(并且许多鸟唱得比很多人都好听)，但是，动物的歌声是有限的，比如鸟类和鲸鱼。同样，是人类而不是动物开发出了乐器。
音乐是个奇怪的东西，它与语言有明显的不同。但是，人们能够用音乐去传达——尤其是情感。当音乐与歌曲中的语言结合在一起的时候，它就是一种强有力的表达方式。但是，从生物学来讲，音乐是什么？
如果音乐与语言真的不同，那么我们应该在大脑的不同区域内对音乐和语言进行加工处理，科学证据也证实了这一点。
有时，受过脑损伤的人会丧失他们处理语言的能力。但是，他们不会自动地丢失音乐才能。比如，维沙翁·舍巴林，一位苏联作曲家，在1953年得了中风。他的大脑的左半边受到损害，他再也不能说话或是理解别人的话，但是他仍然能够谱曲，直到十年后他离开人世。另一方面，中风有时会使人们丧失音乐能力，但是他们仍然能够说话也能听懂别人的话。这就说明大脑是分别加了处理音乐和语言的。
通过研究音乐在人身体上的物理效应，科学家也了解到许多关于音乐是如何影响情感的。但是，为什么音乐对我们有如此强烈的影响？这是一个更难回答的问题。伦敦大学学院的研究员杰弗里·米勒认为音乐和爱有紧密的关，音乐需要特殊才能、练习和体能。这也许是一种方式让你展示你适合做某人的伴侣。比如，按调唱歌或者弹奏乐器需要有很好的肌肉控制力。你也需要有好的记忆力来记住音符。能正确地演奏或者唱出这些音符也证明你的听力也非常好。所以，当一个男人唱给他心爱的女人时(反之亦然) 音乐就可能成为一种展示的方式。
然而，米勒的理论仍然不能解释为什么声音的特定结合可以深深地影响我们的情感。对于科学家来说，这显然是一个需要深入研究的领域。
一、More Than 8 Hours Sleep Too Much of a Good Thing
1 Although the dangers of too little sleep are widely known, new research suggests that people who sleep too much may also suffer the consequences.
2 Investigators at the University of California in San Diego found that people who clock up1 9 or 10 hours each weeknight appear to have more trouble falling and staying asleep, as well as a number of other sleep problems, than people who sleep 8 hours a night People who slept only 7 hours each night also said they had more trouble falling asleep and feeling refreshed after a night’s sleep than 8-hour sleepers.2
3 These findings, which Dr Daniel Kripke reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine3, demonstrate that people who want to get a good night’s rest may not need to set aside4 more than 8 hours a night He added that “it might be a good idea” for people who sleep more than 8 hours each night to consider reducing the amount of time they spend in bed, but cautioned that more research is needed to confirm this.
4 Previous studies have shown the potential dangers of chronic shortages of sleep — for instance, one report demonstrated that people who habitually sleep less than 7 hours each night have a higher risk of dying within a fixed period than people who sleep more.
5 For the current report, Kripke reviewed the responses of 1,004 adults to sleep questionnaires, in which participants indicated how much they slept during the week and whether they experienced any sleep problems Sleep problems included waking in the middle of the night, arising early in the morning and being unable to fall back to sleep, and having fatigue interfere with day-to- day functioning5.
6 Kripke found that people who slept between 9 and 10 hours each night were more likely to report experiencing each sleep problem than people who slept 8 hours In an interview, Kripke noted that long sleepers may struggle to get rest at night simply because they spend too much time in bed As evidence, he added that one way to help insomnia is to spend less time in bed “It stands to reason6 that if a person spends too long a time in bed, then they’ll spend a higher percentage of time awake,” he said.
练习：
1.Paragraph 2 __E___
2.Paragraph 4 __B___
3.Paragraph 5 __A____
4.Paragraph 6 __D____
A Kripke’s Research Tool
B Dangers of Habitual Shortages of Sleep
C Criticism on Kripke’s Report
D A Way of Overcoming Insomnia
E Sleep Problem of Long and Short Sleepers
F Classification of Sleep Problems
5.To get a good night’s rest, people may not need to _F___.
6.Long sleepers are reported to be more likely to __E__.
7.One of the sleep problems is waking in the middle of the night, unable to __A__.
8.One survey showed that people who habitually __C__ each night have a higher risk of dying.
A fall asleep again
B become more energetic the following day
C sleep less than 7 hours
D confirm those serious consequences
E suffer sleep problems
F sleep more than 8 hours
译文：每晚只需8小时，睡眠过多非益事
睡眠不足带来的危害已经广为人知，而一项新的研究表明睡眠过多同样会使人们产生不良后果。
圣地亚哥加利福尼亚大学的研究人员发现在入睡、保持睡眠等方面，每晚睡眠9或10小时的人比睡8小时的人存在更多问题。而每晚仅睡7小时的人则表示，他们在入睡及休息后精力恢复程度上不及8小时睡眠者。
Daniel Kripke博士在《心身医学》杂志上报告的这些新发现表明，人们如果想晚上休息好，每天留给睡眠的时间只需8小时。他补充说，对于那些每晚睡8小时以上的人们来说，考虑减少在床上度过的时间“也许是个好主意”。不过他又提醒说这还需要进一步的研究证实。
以往的研究证明了长期睡眠缺乏的潜在危机。有报告显示，睡眠经常少于7小时的人比睡眠充足者，在特定时期内死亡的机率更高。
而在目前这份报告中，Kripke考评了一份1004名成年人参与反馈的睡眠调查问卷。问卷内容涉及每周睡眠时间和各种可能的睡眠问题，包括半夜惊觉，清晨早醒，无法重新入睡，以及白天疲劳，影响日常工作等。
Kripke发现每晚9至10小时睡眠者比睡8小时的人更容易出现各类睡眠问题。在次访谈中，Kripke注意到睡眠时间长的人夜间可能难以入眠，正是因为他们睡得太多了。因此他补充说，治疗失眠最好的一种方法就是少睡点儿。“在床上花得时间过长，醒着的时间就会更多，这是理所当然的。”
二、Soot and Sow：a Hot Combination
1 New research from NASA scientists suggests emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. According to a computer simulation, black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century.
2 Soot in the higher latitudes of the Earth, where ice is more common, absorbs more of the sun’s energy and warmth than an icy, white background. Dark-colored black carbon, or soot, absorbs sunlight, while lighter colored ice reflects sunlight.
3 Soot in areas with snow and ice may play an important role in climate change. Also, if snow and ice covered areas begin melting, the warming effect increases, as the soot becomes more concentrated on the snow surface. “This provides a positive feedback, as glaciers and ice sheets melt, they tend to get even dirtier, said Dr. James Hansen, a researcher at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York.
4 Hansen found soot’s effect on snow albedo(solar energy reflected back to space)，which1 may be contributing to trends toward early springs in the Northern Hemisphere, such as thinning Arctic sea ice, melting glaciers and permafrost. Soot also is believed to play a role in changes in the atmosphere above the oceans and land.
5 “Black carbon reduces the amount of energy reflected by snow back into space, thus heating the snow surface more than if there were no black carbon2，” Hansen said. Soot’s increased absorption of solar energy is especially effective in warming the world’s climate. “This forcing is unusually effective, causing twice as much global wanning as a carbon-dioxide forcing of the same magnitude, Hansen noted.
6 Hansen cautioned, although the role of soot in altering global climate is substantial, it does not alter the fact that greenhouse gases are the primary cause of climate warming during the past century.3 Such gases are expected to be the largest climate forcing for the rest4 of this century.
7 The researchers found that observed warming in the Northern Hemisphere was large in the winter and spring at middle and high latitudes. These observations were consistent with the researchers’ climate model simulations, which showed some of the largest warming effects occurred when there were heavy snow cover5 and sufficient sunlight.
练习：
1.Paragraph 3 __C__
2.Paragraph 4 __A___
3.Paragraph 6 __F__
4.Paragraph 7 __B___
A Soot’s Role in Changes in the Climate and the Atmosphere
B Observations of Warming in the Northern Hemisphere
C Explanation of Increased Warming Effect Caused by Soot
D Effort to Reduce Snow Albedo
E Ways to Reduce Soot Emission
F Greenhouse Gases as the Main Factor of Global Warming
5.In the twentieth century, soot ___B__.
6.Hansen cautioned that greenhouse gases ___E_.
7.Black soot covered snow and ice __D__.
8.A soot forcing is unusually effective, which __A__.
A produces much more global wanning than a carbon-dioxide forcing of the same magnitude
B continued to 25 percent of observed global warming
C can produce greenhouse gases
D absorb more of sun’s energy and warmth than white background
E still surpass soot in warming the world’s climate during the last centry
F can be seen mostly in the Northern Hemisphere
译文：煤灰与白雪：“火热"的组合
美国国家航空航天局的科学家的一项新调查显示，黑色煤烟的排放改变了冰雪对阳光的反射。依据电脑模拟，上世纪观测到的的全球变暖有25%是黑煤灰引起的。
地球高纬地区冰雪覆盖，那里的煤灰比白色的冰面吸收了更多的太阳热能。因为深黑色的炭或煤灰吸收太阳光，而浅色的冰面则反射阳光。
冰雪地区的煤灰对气候变化可能起着至关重要的作用。而且一旦覆盖大地的冰雪开始融化，煤灰就会更加固着于冰面，从而加剧温室效应。“冰山、冰块一融化，就会变得更脏，”James Hansen博士，一位来自纽约美国国家航空和航天局的Goddard太空研究所的研究人员如此说。
Hansen发现，煤灰对冰雪反射率的影响，可能正是促使北半球春季提早的原因，引起北冰洋冰层变薄，冰山及冻土雪原融化。据信煤灰对海和陆地上空大气层的变化也有一定影响。
“黑炭减少了冰雪反射回太空的能量，比没有炭灰的条件下更强烈地加热冰面。”Hansen说。煤灰对太阳热能的大量吸收是全球气候变暖的重要因素。Hansen指出，“这种温室作用特别显著，是同量二氧化碳强度的两倍。”
Hansen又提醒说，尽管煤灰对全球气候变化的作用重大，但这并不能改变一个事实：温室气体是上世纪气候变暖的首要原因，而且它们还将是塑造本世纪气候的主力。
研究人员发现北半球观测到的变暖现象大多发生在中高纬地区的冬春两季。这样的观测结果与气象模拟实验相吻合，表明部分大规模的温室效应发生在有厚雪覆盖层和阳光强烈的时期。
三、Icy Microbes
1 In ice that has sealed a salty Antarctic lake for more than 2,800 years, scientists have found frozen bacteria and algae that returned to life after thawing. The research may help in the search for life on Mars, which is thought to have subsurface lakes of ice.
2 A research team led by Peter Doran of the University of Illinois at Chicago drilled through more than 39 feet of ice to collect samples of bacteria and algae. When Doran’s team brought them back and warmed them up a bit, they sprang back to life.
3 Doran said the microbes have been age-dated at 2,800 years old, but even older microbes may live deeper in the ice sheet sealing the lake, and in the briny water below the ice.1 That deeper ice and the water itself will be cautiously sampled in a later expedition that will test techniques that may one day be used on Mars.
4 Called Lake Vida, the 4.5-square-kilometer body is one of a series of lakes located in the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, some 2 ,200 kilometers due south2 of New Zealand. This lake has been known since the 1950s, but people ignored it because they thought it was just a big block of ice. While at the site for other research in the 1990s, Doran and his colleagues sent3 radar signals into the clear ice covering the lake and were surprised to find that 62 feet below there was a pool of liquid water that was about seven times more salty than seawater.
5 That prompted the researchers to return in 1996 with equipment to drill a hole down to within a few feet of the water layer. At the bottom of this hole, researchers harvested specimens of algae and bacteria.
6 The researchers will return in 2004 equipped with instruments that are sterilized. They will then drill through the full 62 feet of ice and sample some of the briny water from the lake for analysis. The water specimen will be cultured to see if it contains life. Specimens from the water are expected to be even older than the life forms extracted from the ice covering.
练习：
1.Paragraph 2 _E___
2.Paragraph 3 _A___
3.Paragraph 4_F____
4.Paragraph 6_D____
A Significance of Testing Techniques for Sampling Microbes in the Deep Ice Sheet
B Special Features of Lake Vida
C Later Expedition on Mars
D 2004 Revisit Planned for Collecting Lake Water Specimens
E Antarctic Frozen Life Sampled and Revived
F Accidental Disovery of Ice-sealed Lake Water in Antarctica
5.Scientists ignored Lake Vida because they thought that a lake of ice __B__.
6.Scientists expect that the life, if found in deeper water below the ice sheet, _C__.
7.What the scientists will do in 20Q4 __E__.
8.The salt concentration in the liquid water of Lake Vida __A__
A is found to be a great deal higher than that of seawater
B was of little scientific value
C may be older than that collected below 39 feet of ice
D might have come from Mars
E is to collect some briny lake water for analysisy
F may return to life sooner than microbes frozen in the surface ice
译文：冰冻微生物
在一个南极咸水湖封冻了 2800多年的冰块中，科学家发现，冰冻的微生物和水藻在解冻后又复活了。该研究成果可能会有助于寻找火星上的生命，人们认为火星的地表下面有冰湖。
由芝加哥的伊利诺伊大学的 Peter Doran率领的考察队在南极冰块上钻洞深达39英尺，采集了微生物和水藻的样本。 Doran的考察队将其带回并给其温暖环境，这些样本竟又复活了。
Doran说，这些微生物有 2800年的高龄，但是或许还有更老的微生物生存在封湖冰块的更深层和冰块下面的咸水中。在以后的深险中，还会谨慎地对更深的冰层和水提取样本，对将来或许会用于火星的技术进行检测。
这个湖名叫 Vida湖，面积为 4.5平方公里，是南极洲上位于 McMurd干谷的湖群中的一个，位于新西兰正南约2200千米处。该湖在 20世纪 50年代已为人知，但过去人们认为这只不过是一个巨大的冰块，所以不曾引起足够的重视。但是在 20世纪 90年代，在进行其他考察的地方， Doran和同事们往覆盖湖面的清澈的冰层中发出雷达信号，惊奇地发现在62英尺深处居然有一个水潭，这里的水其咸度大约是海水的 7倍。
于是，1996年，考察人员带着设备再次来到南极。钻出一个深及水层数英尺的洞。在洞底，考察人员采集到了水藻和微生物的样本。
2004年，考察人员将携带经过杀菌的仪器再次回到南极。他们将在 62英尺的冰层上钻洞，对从湖中提取咸水的样本进行分析。水的样本将会受到培育，看其是否含有生命。据预测，水中提取样本的历史甚至会比冰层中提取的生命形式的历史还要长。
五、LED Lighting
1 An accidental discovery announced recently has taken LED lighting to a new level, suggesting it could soon offer a cheaper, longer-lasting alternative to the traditional light bulb. The breakthrough adds to a growing trend that is likely to eventually make Thomas Edison's bright invention1 obsolete.LEDs are already used in traffic lights, flashlights, and architectural lighting. They are flexible and operate less expensively than traditional lighting.
2 Michael Bowers, a graduate student2 at Vanderbilt University, was just trying to make really small quantum dots, which are crystals generally only a few nanometers big. Quantum dots contain anywhere from 100 to 1,000 electrons3. They're easily excited bundles of energy, and the smaller they are, the more excited they get. Each dot in Bowers' particular batch was exceptionally small, containing only 33 or 34 pairs of atoms.
3 When you shine a light on quantum dots or apply electricity to them, they react by producing their own light, normally a bright, vibrant color. But when Bowers shined a laser on his batch of dots, something unexpected happened. He was surprised when a white glow covered the table. The quantum dots were supposed to emit blue light4, but instead they were giving off a beautiful white glow.
4 Then Bowers and another student got the idea to stir the dots into polyurethane and coat a blue LED light bulb with the mix. The lumpy bulb wasn't pretty, but it produced white light singular to a regular light bulb.
5 LEDs produce twice as much light as a regular 60 watt bulb and bum for over 50,000 hours. The Department of Energy estimates LED lighting could reduce U. S. energy consumption for lighting by 29 percent by 2025. LEDs don't emit heat, so they're also more energy efficient. And they're much harder to break.
6 Quantum dot mixtures could be painted on just about anything5 and electrically excited to produce a rainbow of colors, including white. The main light source of the future will almost surely not be a bulb. It might be a table, a wall, or even a fork.
练习
1.Paragraph l __B__
2.Paragraph 3 __E__
3.Paragraph 5 _D___
4.Paragraph 6 _C__
A LED Lighting Is Not Mature
B LED Lighting Will Replace Traditional Lighting
C Almost Everything Could Be the Main Light Source in the Future
D LED Lighting Has Many Advantages
E Bowers Made an Unexpected Discovery
F LED Light Bulbs Look Lumpy
5.Unlike traditional lighting, LEDs do not give out heat so _F___.
6.Edison's bright invention is likely to be outdated because __A__.
7.Something unexpected happened during Bower's experiment when _B___.
8.Over one quarter of energy consumption for lighting could be saved by 2025 if __C__.
A traditional lighting is less durable and dearer
B a laser excited the quantum dots
C America adopted LEDs
D graduate students work hard
E quantum dot mixtures are magic
F it is more efficient
译文：发光二极管
日前公布的一项意外发现将发光二极管的研究推向新的高潮。这项研究显示，发光二极管与传统的电灯泡比起来，可能会更廉价、使用更持久。这项重大突破使人们看到，未来的趋势很可能是，爱迪生的发明将逐渐失去它的价值。目前发光二极管已被用于交通信号灯、手电筒和建筑照明，他们跟传统的电灯比起来更灵活，操作成本更低廉。
Vanderbilt大学的一名研究生 Michael Bowers正试图制造出一种非常小的量子点。这些量子点基本上都是晶体，且只有几毫微米大小，里面包含 100～1000个不等的光子。这些光子就是很容易激活的能量束，并且他们体积越小，能量越可能达到最强烈的程度。这些能量束中的每一个光点都异常小，只包括 33或 34对的原子。
当我们把光照射到量子点上或者给它们通上电，它们会有所反应，即发出自己的光，通常是一种耀眼的、振动的色彩。但当 Bowers把激光照在量子点上的时候，意想不到的事情发生了。当一种白色的光束照在桌子上时他惊呆了——这些量子点本应该发出蓝光的，但是相反的，他们发出的是美丽的白色光。
Bowers和另一个学生就此有了另一个想法，他们把聚亚安酯掺在这些量子点中，将混合物涂在一个蓝色的发光二极管灯泡上，这个看上去不怎么好看的灯泡发出了一种白色的光，跟我们普通用的灯泡极为相似。
发光二极管发出的光是普通 60瓦灯泡的两倍、且可以持续使用达 5万小时。据能源部估计，至 2025年，使用发光二极管照明会为美国节约 29%的能源。另外，发光二极管不会散热，这也有助于能源节约。与此同时。与传统灯泡比起来发光二极管更不易碎。
量子点混合物可以涂在任何事物的表层，通电后会产生一道道色彩，其中包括白色。我们未来的光源很可能不再是灯泡，相反地，它可以是任何东西，比如一张餐桌，一道墙，甚至是一支餐叉。
六、How We Form First Impression
1 We all have first impression of someone we just met. But why? Why do we form an opinion about someone without really knowing anything about him or her — aside perhaps from a few remarks or readily observable traits.
2 The answer is related to how your brain, allows you to be aware of the world. Your brain is so sensitive in picking up facial traits, even very minor difference in how a person’s eyes, ears, nose, or mouth are placed in relation to each other makes you see him or her as different1. In fact, your brain continuously processes incoming sensory information — the sights and sounds of your world. These incoming “signals” are compared against2 a host of “memories” stored in the brain areas called the cortex system to determine what these new signals “mean.”
3 If you see someone you know and like at school3, your brain says “familiar and safe. ‘‘If you see someone new, it says, “new — potentially threatening.” Then your brain starts to match features of this stranger with other “known” memories;The height, weight, dress, ethnicity, gestures, and tone of voice are all matched up. The more unfamiliar the characteristics, the more your brain may say, “This is new. I don’t like this person.” Or else, “I’m intrigued. “Or your brain may perceive a new face but familiar clothes, ethnicity, gestures — like your other friends;so your brain says: “I like this person.” But these preliminary “impressions” can be dead wrong4.
4 When we stereotype people, we use a less mature form of thinking(not unlike the immature thinking of a very young child)that makes simplistic and categorical impressions of others. Rather than leam about the depth and breadth of people — their history, interest, values, strengths, and true character — we categorize them as jocks, geeks, or freaks.
5 However, if we resist initial stereotypical impressions, we have a chance to be aware of what a person is truly like. If we spend time with a person, hear about his or her life, hopes, dreams, and become aware of the person’s character, we use a different, more mature style of thinking — and the most complex areas of our cortex, which allow us to be humane.
练习：
1.Paragraph 2 _D__
2.Paragraph 3 __C____
3.Paragraph 4 __B___
4.Paragraph 5 __A__
A Ways of Departure from Immature and Simplistic Impressions
B Comment on First Impression
C Illustration of First Impression
D Comparing Incoming Sensory Information against Memories
E Threatening Aspect of First Impressions
F Differences among Jocks, Greeks and Freaks
5.Sensory information is one that is perceived through __E___.
6.You interpret by comparing it against the memories already stored in your brain __B__.
7.The way we stereotype people is a less mature form of thinking, which is similar to __C__.
8.We can use our more mature style of thinking thanks to _B__.
A a stranger’s less mature type of thinking
B the most complex areas of our cortex
C the immature form of thinking of a very young child
D the meaning of incoming sensory information
E the sights and sounds of the world
F an opportunity to analyze different forms of thinking
译文：对别人的第一印象是怎样形成的
对刚刚遇到的人我们都会留下第一印象，为什么?为什么我们会对一无所知的人形成自己的印象——除去一些描述或显而易见的特征?
这与你的大脑如何感知世界是息息相关的。大脑对面部特征十分敏感，即使是每个人在眼睛、耳朵或嘴部的细小差异也会使大脑察觉到其不同之处。实际上，大脑一直在不断地对接收到的感官信息进行处理——包括影像和声音。大脑将这些“信号”与储存在脑皮层系统的大量“记忆”相比较以便确定这些新收到的信号的“意思”。
如果你在学校看到某个你认识而且喜欢的人，你的大脑会做出“熟悉安全”的判断;如果你看见了一个陌生的人，你的大脑会告诉你“陌生，有潜在的威胁”，紧接着你的大脑会开始将这个陌生人的特征与“已知”的记忆进行比较，包指身高、体重、穿着、种族、手势以及音调等等。特征越不相符，大脑越会告诫你，“这是陌生人，我不喜欢这个人”，或“我很好奇”。大脑也可能观察到一张新面孔，但却有着熟悉的穿着、种族特征和手势——像你的朋友，这时大脑会告诉你“我喜欢这个人”。但这些第一印象却可能是完全错误的。
当区分人时，我们使用一种欠成熟的思维方式(与小孩子不成熟的想法一样)去对别人做出简单并且范畴化的判断。(这佯的后果是)我们将人区分为骗子、反常的人或怪人，而不是对人的深度和广度，即历史、兴趣、价值、力量或真正的性格有所了解。
但是，如果对模式化的第一印象加以抑制，我们就会有机会对一个人有真正的了解。如果我们花一些时间与一个人在一起，倾听他或她的生活、希望和梦想，了解了这个人的性格，我们才会用一种不同的、更成熟的方式去思考——即用脑皮层中最复杂的区域进行思考，而这会使我们更富有人情味。
七、Screen Test
1. Every year millions of women are screened with X-rays to pick up signs of breast cancer. If this happens early enough, the disease can often be treated successfully. According to a, survey published last year, 21 countries have screening programmes. Nine of them, including Australia, Canada, the US and Spain, screen women under 50.
2. But the medical benefits of screening these younger women are controversial, partly because the radiation brings a small risk of inducing cancer. Also, younger women must be given higher doses of X-rays because their breast tissue is denser.
3. Researchers at the Polytechnic University1 of Valencia analysed the effect of screening more than 160, 000 women at 11 local clinics. After estimating the women’s cumulative dose of radiation, they used two models to calculate the number of extra cancers this would cause.
4. The mathematical model recommended by Britain’s National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB)predicted that the screening programme would cause 36 cancers per 100,000 women, 18 of them fatal. The model preferred by the UN Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation led to a lower figure of 20 cancers.
5. The researchers argue that the level of radiation-induced cancers is “not very significant” compared to the far larger number of cancers that are discovered and treated. The Valencia programme, they say, detects between 300 and 450 cases of breast cancer in every 100,000 women screened.
6. But they point out that the risk of women contracting cancer from radiation could be reduced by between 40 and 80 percent if screening began at 50 instead of 45, because they would be exposed to less radiation. The results of their study, they suggest, could help “optimise the technique” for breast cancer screening.
7. “There is a trade-off between the diagnostic benefits of breast screening and its risks,” admits Michael Clark of the NRPB. But he warns that the study should be interpreted with caution. “On the basis of the current data, for every 10 cancers successfully detected and prevented there is a risk of causing one later in life. That’s why radiation exposure should be minimised in any screening programme.”
练习：
1.Paragraph 2 ___A______
2.Paragraph 3 ___B______
3.Paragraph 4 ___C______
4.Paragraph 5 ___D______
A Harm Screening May Do to a Younger Woman
B Investigating the Effect of Screening
C Effects Predicted by Two Different Models
D Small Risk of Inducing Cancers from Radiation
E Treatment of Cancers
F Factors That Trigger Cancers
5.Early discovery of breast cancer may____C____.
6.Advantages of screening women under 50 are___D_____.
7.Delaying the age at which screening starts may___E_____.
8.Radiation exposure should be ____F____.
A be costly
B harmful
C save a life
D still open to debate
E reduce the risk of radiation triggering a cancer
F reduced to the minimum
译文：透视检查
每年上百万的女性都做X射线透视，检查是否有乳腺癌迹象。如果检查得足够早，疾病就可 以被成功地治疗。根据去年公布的一项调查，21个国家有透视计划。其中9个国家，包括澳大利 亚、加拿大、美国和西班牙为50岁以下女性进行透视。
但是，用X射线检查年轻女性，就医学上的好处而论，是有争议的，部分原因是辐射有诱发 癌症的小小的危险。另外，年轻女人乳房组织紧密，给予的X射线的剂量要多一些。
Valencia理工大学的研究人员分析了 11个社区诊所用X射线检查16万以上女性的结果。估 测了女性的辐射累积剂量之后，他们用两种模型计算由此导致额外癌症数量。
英国国家辐射保护委员会推荐的数学模型预言，透视计划会导致每10万个女性中有36人患 上癌症，18人致死。联合国原子辐射影响科学委员会首选的模型得出了一个较低的数字^20人 患上癌症。
研究人员争辩说，与发现后接受治疗的癌症数字相比，由辐射诱发癌症的数字是很小的。他 们说，Valencia计划在每10万接受透视的妇女中发现300到450个乳腺癌病例。
但是他们指出如果X射线检查从50岁而不是45岁时开始，会使妇女由于辐射而患癌的危险 减少40%到80% ,因为她们可以接受更少的辐射。他们暗示说，他们研究的结果有助于使乳腺癌 透视的技术更加完善。
英国国家辐射保护委员会的Michael Clark承认“在胸透的诊断益处和危险之间有一个平衡”。 但是他警告说应该谨慎地解释此项研究。“基于目前的数据，每成功地发现10例癌症就有可能导 致今后出现一例癌症。这就是为什么在所有的透视计划中，辐射应该减少到最小的原因。”
九、More Rural Research Is Needed
1 Agricultural research funding is vital if the world is to feed itself better than it does now. Dr. Tony Fischer, crop scientist, said demand was growing at 2.5% per year, but with modern technologies and the development of new ones, the world should be able to stay ahead1。
2 “The global decline in investment in international agricultural research must be reversed if significant progress is to be made towards reducing malnutrition and poverty,” he said.
3 Research is needed to solve food production, land degradation2 and environmental problems. Secure local food supplies3 led to economic growth which, in turn, slowed population growth. Dr. Fischer painted a picture of the world’s ability to feed itself in the first 25 years, when the world’s population is expected to rise from 5.8 to 8 billion people. He said that things will probably hold or improve4 but there’ll still be a lot of hungry people. The biggest concentration of poor and hungry people would be in sub-Saharan Afiica and southern Asia in 2020, similar to the current pattern. If there is any change, a slight improvement will be seen in southern Asia, but not in sub-Saharan Afiica. The major inqjrovement will be in East Asia, South America and South-East Asia.
4 The developing world was investing about 0.5%, or $8 billion a year, of its agricultural gross domestic product（GDP）on5 research, and the developed world was spending 2.5% of its GDP. Dr. Fischer said more was needed from all countries.
5 He said crop research could produce technologies that spread across many countries, such as wheat production research having spin-offs for Mexico, China or India6.
6 “Technologies still need to be refined for the local conditions but a lot of the strategic research can have global application, so that money can be used very efficiently,” Dr. Fischer said.
7 Yields of rice, wheat and maize have grown impressively in the past 30 years, especially in developing countries. For example, maize production rose from 2-8 tonnes per hectare between 1950 and 1995. But technologies driving this growth, such as high-yield varieties, fertilisers, and irrigation, were becoming exhausted. “If you want to save the land for non-agricultural activities, for forests and wildlife, you’re going to have to increase yield,” Dr. Fischer said.
练习：
1．Paragraph 1 _E_
2．Paragraph 3 _A__
3．Paragraph 4 _C__
4．Paragraph 7 _B_
A The Same or Improved Food Supply Situation in 2020
B Research Focus on Increased Yield
C More Research Funding Needed
D Local Situations Analyzed
E Increase in Investment on Agricultural Research
F Sustained Development of Modem Technologies
5．Dr. Fischer claims that agriculture will continue to develop _D__.
6．Land can be saved for other purposes _A__.
7．The investment can be regarded as efficient __F_.
8．The global decrease in investment should be changed _C_.
A if we can drive yield up
B when Mexico, China and India join in the project
C if we want to fight against malnutrition and poverty
D when we use modern technologies and develop new ones
E when the developed world helps the developing world
F when strategic research can be utilized worldwide
第九篇需要进行更多的农业研究
如果世界人民想比现在吃得更好，农业研究资金的投入至关重要。农业科学家托尼·费舍说过需求每年增长 2.5% ，但由于有了现代技术和新技术的开发，世界应该能够不断前进。他说：“要想在减少营养不良和贫困方面取得巨大的进步，就必须扭转全球对国际农业研究投入下滑的趋势。” 解决粮食生产、土地贫瘠化和环境污染问题，必须进行研究。稳定的当地粮食供应可以促进经济地长，放慢人口地长速度。费舍博士描绘说，世界有能力在人口由 58亿增加到 80亿的头 25年实现粮食供应充足。情况很可能保持现状或有所改善，但仍会有大批人口处于饥饿当中。 2020年贫穷和饥饿人口昀大集中地为撒哈拉以南的非洲部分和南亚，这与目前情况类似。如果有什么变化的话，也只是在南亚有稍微的改善，而不是在撒哈拉以南的非洲。主要改善地区将是东亚、南美和东南亚。 发展中国家每年将农业国内生产总值的大约 0.5%（80亿美元）用于研究，发达国家则用 2.5%的国内生产总值进行研究。费舍博士说所有国家都需要更多的资金。他说粮食研究会开发出新技术，这些新技术又会传播到许多国家，例如小麦生产研究的成果已经在墨西哥、 中国或印度得到应用。他说：“技术仍需因地制宜进行改进，但许多战略性研究可以在全球应用，所以可以非常有效地利用财力。 ”在过去 30年中，大米、小麦和玉米的产能大幅度地增长，尤其是在发展中国家，例如， 1950年到 1995 年，玉米产量由每公顷 2吨均加到每公顷 8吨。但是，推动高产的技术，比如高产新品种、化肥以及灌溉，正在消耗殆尽。费舍博士说：“如果你想腾出土地做非农业用途，保护森林和野生动物，就必须提高单位面积产量。”
十、Washoe Learned American Sign Language
1 An animal that influenced scientific thought has died. A chimpanzee named Washoe and born in Africa died of natural causes late last month at the age of 42 at a research center in the American state of Washington. Wash0e had become known in the scientific community1 and around the world for her ability to use American Sign Language2. She was said to be the first non-human to learn a human language. Her skills also led to debate3 about primates and their ability to understand language.
2 Research scientists Allen and Beatrix Gardner began teaching Washoe sign language in 1966. In 1969, the Gardners7 described Washoe's progress in a scientific report. The people who experimented with Washoe said she grew to understand4 about 250 words. For example, Washoe made signs to communicate when it was time to eat. She could request foods like apples and bananas. She also asked questions like, "Who is coming to play?" Once5 the news about Washoe spread, many language scientists began studies of their own6 into this new and exciting area of research. The whole direction of primate research changed.
3 However, critics argued Washoe only learned to repeat sign language movements from watching her teachers. They said she had never developed true language skills. Even now, there are some researchers who suggest that primates learn sign language only by memory, and perform the signs only for prizes. Yet Washoe's keepers disagree. Roger Fouts is a former student of the Gardners7. He took Washoe to a research center in Ellensburg, Washington. There, Washoe taught sign language to three younger chimpanzees, which are still alive.
4 Scientists like private researcher Jane Goodall believes Washoe provided new information about the mental workings of chimpanzees8. Today, there are not as many scientists studying language skills with chimps. Part of the reason is that this kind of research takes a very long time.
5 Debate continues about chimps' understanding of human communication. Yet, one thing is sure -- Washoe changed popular ideas about the possibilities of animal intelligence.
练习：
1. Paragraph 1▁C▁
2. Paragraph 2▁B▁
3. Paragraph 3▁E▁
4. Paragraph 4▁A▁
A Reason Why Not Many Scientists Carry out This Research Nowadays
B Report about Washoe's Progress in Learning Sign Language
C General Information about Washoe
D The Gardeners' Contributions Recognized
E Debate on Chimps' Intelligence
F Washoe's Love for Three Young Chimps
5. Washoe could make signs to communicate C
6. Some scientists doubted A
7. Washoe taught three younger chimps sign language D
8. The experimenters thought Washoe was intelligent E
A if the Gardeners' argument was sound
B because she was cleverer than other chimps
C when she wanted to eat
D while she was at a research center in Ellensburg
E because she could use sign language to ask for fruits
F while Washoe was learning sign language
译文：Washoe学会了美国手语
一个影响科学思维的动物已经死亡了。一个出生在非洲名为Washoe的黑猩猩上个月月底在 美国华盛顿州的一个研究中心自然死亡,死时42岁。Washoe在科学界和世界各地众所周知，是 因为它能够使用美国手语。它是第一个了解人类语言的非人类。它的技能也导致有关灵长类动物和它们所能理解的语言的争议。
科学家Alien和Beatrix Gardner于1966年开始教Washoe手语。1969年，Gardners在科学的报 告中描述了 Washoe的进步。对Washoe做实验的人说Washoe逐渐掌握了约250个单词。例如， Washoe能用手语表达“该吃饭了”!它能要苹果和番蕉这样的食品。它也问诸如“谁要来玩”之 类的问题。Washoe能用手语的消息一散开，许多语言学家开始在他们自己这一令人振奋的新研究 领域展开研究。灵长类动物的整个研究方向改变了。
然而，批评者认为Washoe只学会了看它的教师的手语重复动作。他们说Washoe从来没有发 展真正的语言技能。即使是现在，也有一些研究表明灵长类动物学习手语只是机械重复、死记硬 背、物质刺激的结果。可是Washoe的饲养员不同意这种说法。Roger Fouts以前是Gainer夫妇的 学生。Roger Fouts把Washoe带到了华盛顿埃伦斯堡的一个研究中心。在这里，Washoe教三个年 轻的黑猩猩手语，这三个黑猩猩依然活着。
像Jane Goodall这样的独立的科学家认为，Washoe为黑猩猩心理活动的研究提供了新信息。 今天，没有那么多科学家研究黑猩猩的语言技能。部分原因在于这类研究需要花费很长的时间。
对黑猩猩懂得人类交流方式与否的辩论仍在继续。然而，有一件事却是肯定的~"Washoe改 变了有关动物智能可能性的普遍观点。
★第1篇-Ford Abandons Electric Vehicles 福特放弃电动汽车
The Ford motor company’s abandonment of electric cars effectively signals the end of the road for the technology，analysts say．
General Motors。and Honda’ceased production of battery．powered cars in 1 999, to focus on fuel cell and hybrid electric gasoline engines, which are more attractive to the consumer．Ford has now announced it will do the same．
Three years ago．the company introduced the Think City two—seater car and a golf cart called the THINK, or Think Neighbor．It hoped to sell 5，000 cars each year and 10，000 carts．But a lack of demand means only about l，000 of the cars have been produced，and less than 1。700 carts have been sold so far in 2002．
“The bottom line is we don’t believe that this is the future of environment transport for the mass market．”Tim Holmes of Ford Europe said on Friday．“We feel we have given electric our best shot”
The Think City has a range of only about 53 miles and up to a six-hour battery recharge time．General Motors’EVI electric vehicle also had a limited range。of about 100 miles．
The very expensive batteries also mean electric cars cost much more than petrol-powered alternatives．An electric Toyot~RAV4 EV vehicle costs over$42，000 in the US, compared with just $17，000 for the petrol version．Toyota and Nissan…are now the only major automanufacturers to produce electric vehicles．
“There is a feeling that battery electric has been given its chance．Ford now has to move on with its hybrid program“，and that is what we will be judging them on，”Roger Higman，a senior transport campaigner at UK Friends of the Earth，told the Environment News Service．
Hybrid cars introduced by Toyota and Honda in the past few years have sold well．Hybrid engines Offer Greater mileage than petrol—only engines , and the batteries recharge themselves. Ford says it thinks such vehicles will help it meet planned new guidelines “on vehicle emissions” in the U.S.
However, it is not yet clear exactly what those guidelines will permit．In June，General Motors and Daimler Chrysler won a court injunction，delaying by two years Californian legislation requiring car—makers to offer 100，000 zero-emission and other low—emission vehicles in the state by 2003．Car manufacturers hope the legislation will be rewritten to allow for more low--emission，rather than zero—emission，vehicles．
1．What have the Ford motor company．General Motor’s and Honda done concerning electric cars?
C) They have given up producing electric cars．
2．According to Tim Holmes of Ford Europe，battery-powered cars
B) will not be the main transportation vehicles in the future．
3. Which auto manufacturers are still producing electric vehicles?
A)Toyota and Nissan
4．According to the eighth paragraph，hybrid cars
C)run more miles than petrol driven cars
5．Which of the following is true about the hope of car manufacturers according to the last paragraph?
D)The legislation will allow more 10w．emission to be produced
第一篇福特放弃电动汽车
分析人士评论，福特汽车公司放弃电动汽年的举动有力地证明了这种技术是行不通的。
通用汽车公司和日本本田汽车公司早于 1999年就停止了电池动力汽车的生产，转而开发燃料电池和电池内燃混合机，这对消费者更有吸引力。福特宣布它现在也要做同样的尝试。
3年前，福特推出名为 Think City的双排座汽车和 Think或 Think Neighbor系列高尔夫车，希望能销售 5000辆汽车、 10000高尔夫车。但由于需求不足，截至 2002年仅生产了大约 1000辆汽车，售出的高尔夫车还不足 1700辆。
“关键是我们认为电动车不能代表大众市场环保交通的未来”，福特欧洲区的 Tim Holmes于周五说，“我们感觉自己对电力车已做了昀好的尝试。”
Think City系列的运行里程仅 53英里，电池充电需 6小时。通用公司的 EVI电力车也仅能运行 100英里。
昂贵的电池也意味着电动汽车的造价比汽油动力车高出许多。日本丰田产的 RAV4EV系列电动车在美国的售价达 42000美元，而同系列的汽油动力车仅售 17000美元。丰田和日产汽车公司是现在仅存的两大电动车制造商。
“应该说电池动力车已经获得了充分的机会。福特现已转向电池内燃混合机开发项目，我们应据此评价他们的发展。”Roger Higman，英国 Friends of the Earth组织的一位高级交通运动代表这样对《环保新闻》评论说。
日本本田和丰田公司推出的混合机汽车在过去几年取得了良好的销售业绩。混合动力车比汽油机车运行里程更长，电池又可自行充电。福特表示，他们认为这样的机车有助于达到美国新制订的车辆排放规定。
不过，这些规定究竟允许怎样的排放物现在还不十分清楚。六月份通用和戴姆勒克莱斯勒公司赢得一项法庭裁决，可推迟两年执行一项加州法令，该法令要求汽车生产商在2003年前向该州提供10万辆零排放和其他低排放汽车。制造商希望修改此法令，允许他们生产更多低排放而不是零排放的汽车。
1．What have the Ford motor company．General Motor’s and Honda done concerning electric cars?
C) They have given up producing electric cars．
2．According to Tim Holmes of Ford Europe，battery-powered cars
B) will not be the main transportation vehicles in the future．
3. Which auto manufacturers are still producing electric vehicles?
A)Toyota and Nissan
4．According to the eighth paragraph，hybrid cars
C)run more miles than petrol driven cars
5．Which of the following is true about the hope of car manufacturers according to the last paragraph?
D)The legislation will allow more 10w．emission to be produced
★第2篇-World Crude Oil Production May Peak a Decade Earlier Than Some Predict世界原油产量可能提前十年达到峰值
In a finding that may speed efforts to conserve oil, scientists in Kuwait predict that world conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014. This prediction is almost a decade earlier than some other predictions．Their study is in ACS’ Energy＆Fuels1．
Ibrahim Nashawi and colleagues point out that rapid growth in global oil consumption has sparked a growing interest in predicting "peak oil"．"
eak oil "is the point where oil production reaches a maximum and then declines. Scientists have developed several models to forecast this point, and some put the date at 2020 or later. One of the most famous forecast models is called the Hubbert model2. It assumes that global oil production will follow a bell shaped curve3. A related concept is that4 of "
eak Oil." The term "
eal Oil" indicates the moment in which world wide production Will peak, afterwards to start on irreversible decline．
The Hubbert model accurately predicted that oil production would peak in the United States in 1970. The model has since gained in popularity and has been used to forecast oil production worldwide．
However, recent studies show that the model is insufficient to account for5 more complex oil production cycles of some countries．Those cycles can be heavily influenced by technology changes, politics, and other factors, the scientists say.
The new study describes development of a new version of the Hubbert model that provides a more realistic and accurate oil production forecast．Using the new model, the scientists evaluated the oil production trends of 47 major oil-producing countries, which supply most of the world’s conventional crude oil6．They estimated that worldwide conventional crude oil production will peak in 2014, years earlier than anticipated. The scientists also showed that the world's oil reserves7 are
being reduced at a rate of 2.1 percent a year. The new model could help inform energy-related decisions and public policy debate, they suggest.
科威特科学家预测世界常规原油产量将在2014年达到峰值，这一发现可能会促进储存石油的努力。这一预测比其他预测提前了将近十年，已经发表在美国化学学会《能量与燃料》杂志上。
伊布赫姆·纳夏威和同事们指出，全球石油消耗的快速增长使人们对“石油峰值”预测的兴趣越来越浓。“石油峰值”指的是石油产量达到最大值后开始 下降的时间点。科学家已经构建了几个模型来预测这一时间，有些模型认为这一时间在2020年或更晚。其中最著名的预测模型之一是赫伯特模型。赫伯特模型认 为世界石油产量呈钟形曲线，与此相关的概念是“石油峰值”。这一术语指的是世界石油产量达到峰值的那一刻，之后将呈现无法逆转的下降趋势。
赫伯特模型精确地预测到美国石油产量于1970年达到峰值。这一模型从此受到欢迎，已经用于预测世界石油生产。
但是，最近研究表明，这一模型不足以解释某些国家更加复杂的石油生产周期。科学家称，这些生产周期受到技术变化、政策和其他因素的很大影响。
最近研究描述了赫伯特模型的新版本，提供了更加实际、更加准确的石油生产预测。科学家使用新模型评估了47个主要产油国家的石油生产趋势，这 47个国家是世界常规原油的主要提供者。科学家预计全球常规原油产量将于2014年达到峰值，比之前预计的要早很多年。科学家还指出，世界石油储量正在以 2.1%的速度逐年减少，他们认为新模型会帮助做出与能源相关的决定，帮助进行国家政策辩论。
1．Which of the following is closest in meaning to the word "sparked" appearing in paragraph 2?
B．stimulated
2．The term "a bell shaped curve" appearing in paragraph 2 indicates that global oil production will
D．start to decline after global oil production peaks．
3．Which of the following is NOT true of the Hubbert model?
D．It provides a very realistic and accurate oil production．
4．What is the major achievement of the new study mentioned in the last paragraph?
A．It predicts global oil production will peak in 2014．
5．Who develop the new version of the Hubbert model?
B．Kuwaiti scientists．
★第3篇-Citizen Scientists 公民科学家
Understanding how nature responds to climate change will require monitoring key life cycle1 events-flowering, the appearance of leaves, the first frog calls of the spring - all around the world. But ecologists can't be everywhere so they're turning to non-scientists, sometimes called citizen scientists, for help.
Climate scientists are not present everywhere. Because there are so many places in the world and not enough scientists to observe all of them, they're asking for your help in observing signs of climate change across the world. The citizen scientist movement encourages ordinary people to observe a very specific research interest - birds, trees, flowers budding, etc. - and send their observations to a giant database to be observed by professional scientists. This helps a small number of scientists track a large amount of data that they would never be able to gather on their own. Much like citizen journalists helping large publications cover a hyper-local beat2, citizen scientists are ready for the conditions where they live. All that's needed to become one is a few minutes each day or each week to gather data and send it3 in.
A group of scientists and educators launched an organization last year called the National Pheonology4 Network. "
henology" is what scientists call the study of the timing of events in nature.
One of the group's first efforts relies on scientists and non-scientists alike to collect data about plant flowering and leafing every year. The program, called Project BudBurst, collects life cycle data on a variety of common plants from across the United States. People participating in the project - which is open to everyone - record their observations on the Project BudBurst website.
"
eople don't have to be plant experts -they just have to look around and see what's in their neighborhood," says Jennifer Schwartz, an education consultant with the project. "As we collect this data, we'll be able to make an estimate of how plants and eommunities5 of plants and animals will respond as the climate changes."
理解大自然对气候变化有怎样的反应需要监视世界各个角落的关键生命周期事件——花开、叶子的出现、第一只青蛙叫出春天的到来。但是生态学家不可能去到世界的各个角落，所以他们向非科学家求助，这些非科学家有时也被称作公民科学家。
气象科学家不可能足迹遍及天下。因为在世界上有如此多的地方，没有足够的科学家来观察它们。所以他们请求你来帮助观察全世界气候变化的迹象。公民科学家运动鼓励普通人根据自己的兴趣来观察某一个特定的方面——鸟儿、树木、花卉等等一一并把他们的观察结果发送到一个巨大的数据库来供专业科学家研究。这有助于数量有限的科学家得到如果只靠他们自己根本收集不到的巨大数据。就像公民记者帮助报道传统新闻报道方式所忽略的小型社区的相关信息一样，公民科学家也对他们所居住的环境很熟悉。所需要的就是每天或每周留出儿分钟来搜集数据并发送过来。
一群科学家和教育家在去年发起了一个叫做纽约国家物候学的组织。“物候学”就是科学家们所说的在自然中研究每个事件的时间。
其中一个小组的首要尝试就是依靠科学家和非科学家来收集关于每年植物开花和长叶子的数据。这一项目叫做花季追踪计划，它收集遍布美国的各种各样的植物生长周期的数据。参与这一项目的人们一一这一计划对所有人开放——把他们的观察记录登录在花季追踪计划网站上。
“人们不需要是植物学家——他们仅仅需要环视四周看看周围有什么。”Jennifer Schwarts说，她是这项计划的教育顾问。“通过收集数据，我们就能够估算出气候变化对植物和生物群落会有怎样的影响。
1. Ecologists turn to non-scientist citizens for help because they need them
C) to collect data of the life cycle of living things.
2. What are citizen scientists asked to do?
B) To send their research observations to a professional database.
3. In "All that's needed to become one... (paragraph 2) ", what does the word "one" stands for?
B) a citizen scientist.
4. What is NOT true of Project BudBurst?
A) Only experts can participate in it.
5. What is the final purpose of Project BudBurst?
D) To investigate how plants and animals will respond as the climate changes.
★第4篇-Motoring Technology 汽车技术
1.2 million road deaths worldwide occur each year,plus a further 50 million injuries.To reduce car crash rate,much research now is focused on safety and new fuels-though some electric vehicle and biofuel research aims at going faster.
Travelling at speed has always been dangerous.One advanced area of research in motoring safety is the use of digital in-car assistants.They can ensure you don’t miss important road signs or fall asleep.Most crashes result from human and not mechanical faults.
Some safety developments aim to improve your vision.Radar can spot obstacles in fog,while other technology“sees through”big vehicles blocking your view.
And improvements to seat belts,pedal(脚踏)controls and tyres are making driving smoother and safer.The colour of a car has been found to be linked with safety,as have,less surprisingly,size and shape.
But whatever is in the fuel tank,you don’t want a thief in the driving seat and there have been many innovations(创新).Satellite tracking and remote communications can also come into play if you crash,automatically calling for help.
Accidents cause many traffic jams,but there are more subtle interplays between vehicles that can cause jams even on a clear but busy road.Such jams can be analyzed using statistical tools.Robotic drivers could be programmed to make traffic flow smoothly and will perhaps one day be everyons’s personal chauffeur(司机),but their latest efforts suggest that won’t be soon.
每年，全世界有120万起路面交通死亡事故，以及五千万起路面交通伤残事故。为降低车祸发生率，现在有很多研究将注意力放在行车安全和开发新型燃料上。而有些关于电动机车和生物燃料的研究旨在达到更快的速度。
高速驾驶一向是很危险的。一项在机动车安全前沿领域的研究是有关车内数字化辅助设施的。这些设施会确保司机们不会错过重要的路况指示牌或在开车时睡着。通过运用人工智能软件，这些辅助设施可监控行车过程并确保在关键时刻司机不会被手机或广播干扰注意力。许多车祸是由人为原因造成的而非机械故障。
一些行车安全方面的改进力图改善司机的视野。雷达可对雾中的障碍物定位，而其他的科技手段可透过阻碍你视线的高大车辆看到前方。
对安全带、刹车板控制和车胎的改进也使行车过程变得更／顷畅、安全。人们发现车的颜色与安全有关，令人不会感到惊讶的是，车的大小和形状也与安全有关。
从矿物燃料中提取的汽油的替代物，例如植物油，也是研究中的一个热门区域。取材于氢气的燃料电池燃烧时无污染，并已成为一项重要研究的攻克对象。
但不管燃料箱中盛为何物，你可不想在驾驶座上坐的是一个窃贼。对此，也有很多创新来打击汽车盗窃，其中一些运用了卫星跟踪和远程通讯。当发生车祸时，这些通讯系统也可起作用，自动地呼叫帮助。
交通事故可引发许多交通堵塞。但在一畅通却繁忙的路段上，汽车间也有很多的细微互动，从而导致可能的阻塞。此类阻塞可用数据统计工具来进行分析。被编程的机器人可使交通流动更顺畅，并有朝一日有望成为每个人的私家司机。但最新成果表明这种设想并 非短期内可以实现。
1、To reduce car crash rate，many scientists are working hard to
D) improve the safety of cars and develop new fuels.
2、According to the second paragraph，most road accidents happen due to
B) human mistakes.
3、Which of the following safety developments is NOT mentioned in the passage?
A) Windscreens that can help drivers to improve their vision.
4、Satellite tracking and remote communication systems can be used to
C) call for help when one’s car crashes.
5、Which of the following statements is true of robotic drivers?
A) It will take some time before robotic drivers are available.
★第5篇-Late-Night Drinking 在深夜饮咖啡
Coffee lovers beware. Having a quick “pick-me-up” cup of coffee1 late in the day will play havoc with2 your sleep. As well as being a stimulant, caffeine interrupts the flow of melatonin, the brain hormone that sends people into a sleep.
Melatonin levels normally start to rise about two hours before bedtime. Levels then peak between 2 am and 4 am, before falling again3. “It’s the neurohormone that controls our sleep and tells our body when to sleep and when to wake,” says Maurice Ohayon of the Stanford Sleep Epidemiology Research Center at Stanford University in California. But researchers in Israel have found that caffcinated coffee halves the body’s levels of this sleep hormone. Lotan Shilo and a team at the Sapir Medical Center in Tel Aviv University found that six volunteers slept less well after a cup of caffeinated coffee than after drinking the same amount of decal. On average, subjects slept 336 minutes per night after drinking caffeinated coffee, compared with 415 minutes after decal. They also took half an hour to drop off4 - twice as long as usual - and jigged around5 in bed twice as much.
In the second phase of the experiment, the researchers woke the volunteers every three hours and asked them to give a urine sample, Shilo measured concentrations of a breakdown product of melatonin. The results suggest that melatonin concentrations in caffeine drinkers were half those in decaf drinkers. In a paper accepted for publication in Sleep Medicine, the researchers suggest6 that caffeine blocks production of the enzyme that drives melatonin production.
Because it can take many hours to eliminate caffeine from the body, Ohayon recommends that coffee lovers switch to decaf after lunch.
喜欢喝咖啡的人要小心了。晚上喝一杯快速提神的咖啡对你的睡眠造成严重破坏。并且咖啡因作为一种刺激物会打断褪黑激素的流动。褪黑激素是使人们进入睡眠的神经激素。
褪黑激素的浓度在睡前两小时开始上升。凌晨2点和4点之间达到最高植，然后再次下降。加利福尼亚斯坦福大学的斯坦福睡眠流行病学研究中心的Maurice Ohayon说：“控制我们睡眠是神经激素，它告诉我们的身体什么时候睡觉什么时候醒。”但是以色列的研究者发现含咖啡因咖啡能使人体中这种睡眠激素减半。
特拉维夫大学的塞帕医学中心的Lotan Shilo和一个小组发现六个志愿者在喝了一杯含咖啡因的咖啡后平均每晚睡336分钟，而喝完脱咖啡后平均每晚睡415分钟，他们用半个小时才能睡着——比平常长一倍，而且翻来覆去的时间比平常多一倍。
在试验的第二阶段，研究者每三个小时叫醒志愿者一次，并要他们提供一个尿样。Shilo测量了褪黑激素分解物的浓度。结果表明饮用含咖啡因咖啡的人体内的褪黑激素的浓度是饮用脱咖啡因咖啡的人体内褪黑激素浓度的一半。在《睡眠知学》上发表的一篇论文中，研究者表示咖啡因阻碍促使褪黑激素产生的酶的形成。
Ohayon建议爱喝咖啡的人午饭后应该换喝脱咖咖啡，因为要排除体内的咖啡因要用好几个小时。
1. The author mentions “pick-me-up” to indicate that
C coffee is a stimulant.
2. Which of the following tells us how caffeine affects sleep?
C Caffeine halves the body’s levels of sleep hormone.
3. What does paragraph 3 mainly discuss?
A Different effects of caffeinated coffee and decaf on sleep.
4. What does the experiment mentioned in paragraph 4 prove?
D Caffeine drinkers produce less sleep hormone.
5. The author of this passage probably agrees that
B we should not drink coffee after supper.
★第6篇-Making Light of Sleep不要太在意睡眠
All we have a clock located inside our brains. Similar to your bedside alarm clock， your internal clock2 runs on a 24-hour cycle. This cycle，called a circadian rhythm，helps control when
you wake，when you eat and when you sleep.
Somewhere around puberty，something happens in the timing of the biological clock. The
clock pushes forward，so adolescents and teenagers are unable to fall asleep as early as they used to. When your mother tells you it's time for bed，your body may be pushing you to stay up3 for several hours more. And the light coming from your computer screen or TV could be pushing you to stay up even later.
This shift4 is natural for teenagers. But staying up very late and sleeping late can get your body's clock out of sync with the cycle of light and dark5. It can also make it hard to get out of bed in the morning and may bring other problems，too. Teenagers are put in a kind of a gray cloud6 when they don't get enough sleep，says Mary Carskadon，a sleep researcher at Brown University in Providence，RI7 .It affects their mood and their ability to think and learn.
But just like your alarm clock，your internal clock can be reset. In fact，it automatically resets
itself every day. How? By using the light it gets through your eyes.
Scientists have known for a long time that the light of day and the dark of night play important roles in setting our internal clocks. For years，researchers thought that the signals that synchronize the body's clock8 were handled through the same pathways that we use to see.
But recent discoveries show that the human eye has two separate light-sensing systems. One system allows us to see. The second system tells our body whether it's day or night.
我们每个人的大脑里都有一个像我们床边的闹钟一样的生物钟。人脑里的生物钟24小时走一圈，这一圈也就是一次完整的昼夜节律，正是这个节律决定了我们吃饭、睡觉和起床的时间。
青春期时，人的生物钟在定时方面会发生变化，生物钟会提前。这时，青少年会比以前睡得晚，所以当你妈妈告诉你该睡觉时，你的生物钟可能会让你多推迟几小时，并且电脑或电视光线可能会导致你熬夜到更晚。
生物钟的这种变化对青少年说是正常的，但熬夜到太晚会打乱你生物钟与昼夜时间循环之间的平衡，这样就会带来一些问题，例如：早晨很难按时起床。位于美国罗得州布郎大学睡眠方面的研究员Mary Carskadon说：“当青少年睡眠不足时会打不起精神，这将影响到他们心情、学习和思考问题的状态。”
其实生物钟与闹钟一样，也是可调的，事实上，生物钟每天都在进行着自我调节，其方式就是通过你眼睛接收到光线的变化。
很早之前，科学家就知道了昼夜光线强弱的变化对生物钟调节起到了重要的作用，长久以来，研究者们认为眼睛所接受到的平衡生物钟的光信号同样作用于人类的视觉系统。
但最近几年的研究发现，人类眼睛有两个感光系统，一个是视觉系统，而另一个是感知昼夜的系统。
1 .The clock located inside our brains is similar to our bedside alarm clock ecause
B it has a cycle of 24 hours.
2. What is implied in the second paragraph?
C Children before puberty tend to fall asleep earlier at night than adolescents.
3. In the third paragraph the author wants to tell the reader that
B staying up late has a bad effect on teenagers' ability to think and learn.
4. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the fourth and fifth paragraphs?
C Our internal clock as well as the alarm clock can be reset automatically.
5. According to the last two paragraphs， what did the previous researchers think about the human eye's light-sensing system?
B The human eye had one light-sensing system.
★第7篇-Sugar Power for Cell Phones 用糖为手机发电
Using enzymes commonly found in living cells，a new type of fuel cell produces small amounts of electricity from sugar.If the technology is able to succeed in mass production，you may some day share your sweet drinks with your cell phone.
In fuel cells，chemical reactions generate electrical currents.The process usually relies on precious metals，such as platinum.In living cells，enzymes perform a similar job，breaking down sugars to obtain electrons and produce energy.
When researchers previously used enzymes in fuel cells，they had trouble keeping them active，says Shelley D.Minteer of St Louis University1.Whereas biological cells continually produce fresh enzymes，there’s no mechanism in fuel cells to replace enzymes as they quickly degrade.
Minteer and Tamara Klotzbach，also of St Louis University，have now developed polymers that wrap around an enzyme and preserve it in a microscopic pocket.“We tailor these pockets to provide the ideal microenvironment” for the enzyme，Minteer says.The polymers keep the enzyme active for months instead of days.
In the new fuel Cell，tiny polymer bags of enzyme are embedded in a membrane that coats one of the electrodes.When glucose from a sugary liquid gets into a pocket，the enzyme oxidizes it，releasing electrons and protons.The electrons cross the membrane and enter a wire through which they travel to the other electrode，where they react with.oxygen in the atmosphere to produce water.The flow of electrons through the wire constitutes an electrical current that can generate power.
So far，the new fuel cells don’t produce much power，but the fact that they work at all is exciting，says Paul Kenis，a chemical engineer at the University of Illinois2 at Urhana-Champaign3.“Just getting it to work.” Kenis says，“is a major accomplishment.”
Sugar-eating fuel cells could be an efficient way to make electricity.Sugar is easy to find. And the new fuel cells that run on it are biodegradable，so the technology wouldn’t hurt the environment.The scientists are now trying to use different enzymes that will get more power from sugar.They predict that popular products may be using the new technology in as little as 3 years.
一种新型燃料细胞通过利用活体细胞中很常见的酶能从糖中生产少量的电。如果这项技术能够成功应用于大批量生产，人们可以与自己的手机分享甜饮料(因为糖可以发电供给手机)。
燃料细胞中的化学反应能产生电流。这个过程通常依赖于贵金属，比如铂。在活体细胞中，酶发挥类似的作用，通过分解糖得到电子进而产生能量。
圣路易斯大学的Shelley D．Minteer说，以前研究人员在燃料细胞中使用酶时，很难维持酶的活性。生物细胞能不停地产生新鲜的酶，但燃料细胞中没有能替换很快降解的酶的机制。
Minteer与同样来自圣路易斯大学的TamaraKlotzbach现在研制了一种聚合物，它能包裹酶并将其保存在用显微镜才能看见的袋子里。Minteer解释说：“我们改造袋子使其能为酶提供理想的微环境。”这种聚合物能使酶保持几个月而不是几天的活性。
在新型燃料细胞中，装有酶的微小的聚合物袋子镶嵌在一张裹在一个电极上的薄膜里。含糖液体中的葡萄糖进入袋子时，酶将其氧化，释放出电子和质子。电子穿过薄膜进入一根导线并通过这根导线到达其他电子。导线中的电子与大气中的氧发生反应产生水。电子在导线中流动形成电流，电流能产生电能。
伊利诺斯大学Urbana-Champaign校区的化学工程师Paul Kenis指出，目前这种新型燃料细胞产生不了多少电能，但它们确实产生了电，这一事实令人激动。Kenis说：“单是使它可以产生电能，就是一项大的成果。”
消耗糖的燃料细胞有可能成为高效的发电工具。糖容易得到，而且消耗糖的新型燃料细胞可生物降解，因此这项技术不会损害环境。 目前，科学家们正试图利用别的能从糖中产生更多电的酶。
他们预计，在不到三年的时间里这种新技术便可在大众化的产品中使用。
1. According to the first paragraph，when can we share our sweet drinks with our cell phones?
C When the technology of a new type of fuel cell is suitable for mass production.
2. What trouble did Minter and Klotzhach have in their research?
A They had trouble keeping enzymes in fuel cells active.
3. According to Paragraph 5，electrons are released
C when the enzyme oxidizes the glucose from a sugary liquid that goes through a pocket.
4. What is exciting about the new fuel cells?
B Their limited power generation capacity is a good beginning.
5. According to the last paragraph，what is NOT true of the new fuel cells?
D It will take some time before the new fuel cells can be used in popular products.
★第8篇-Eiffel Is an Eyeful引人注目的埃菲尔铁塔
Some2 300 meters up, near the Eiffel Tower's wind-whipped summit the world comes to scribble3. Japanese,Brazilians, Americans — they graffiti4 their names,loves and politics on the cold iron — transforming the most French of monuments into symbol of a world on the move5.
With Paris laid out in miniature6 below，it seems strange that visitors would rather waste time marking their presence than admiring the view7. But the graffiti also raises a question ： Why, nearly 114 years after it was completed,and decades after it ceased to be the world, s tallest structure,is la Tour Eiffel still so popular8?
The reasons are as complex as the iron work that graces9 a structure some 90 stories high. But part of the answer is, no doubt, its agelessness. Regularly maintained, it should never rust away. Graffiti is regularly painted over,but the tower lives on.
"Eiffel represents Paris and Paris is France. It is very symbolic”，says Hugues Richard10,a 31- year-old Frenchman who holds the record for cycling up to the tower's second floor 一 747 steps in 19 minutes and 4 seconds, without touching the floor with his feet. "It's iron lady，It inspires us11 ”， he says.
But to what12? After all,the tower doesn' t have a purpose. It ceased to be the world’ s tallest in 1930 when the Chrysler Building13 went up in New York. Yes，television and radio signals are beamed from the top,and Gustave Eiffel,a frenetic builder who died on December 27，aged 91 ,used its height for conducting research into weather, aerodynamics and radio communication.
But in essence the tower inspires simply by being there _ a blank canvas for visitors to make of it what they will14. To the technically minded15, it's an engineering triumph. For lovers, it's romantic.
"The tower will outlast all of us,and by a long way16”，says Isabelle Esnous, whose company manages Eiffel Tower
世箅各地的人们都来到大约300米高，接近埃菲尔铁塔顶端的地方涂鸦。日本人、巴西人、 美国人都在冰冷的铁上涂上自己的名字、喜好和政治观点，使这最具有法兰西色彩的纪念碑成为 动感世界的象征。
从塔上可以看到巴黎市的远景，但奇怪的是观光者们宁愿花时间留下到此一游的痕迹，而不 去观赏风景。但这些涂鸦者也引起了一个问题：为什么在建成114年后，埃菲尔铁塔仍然这么受 欢迎?尽管它在几十年前减已经不是世界上最高的建筑物了。
这个问题的答案就像那构成90层的铁塔的工程一样复杂。一部分的理由是，毫无疑问，铁塔 是永不过时的。周期性的维护使得它永远不会被腐蚀掉。埃菲尔铁塔定期油漆，覆盖那些涂鸦, 但是它仍将继续存在下去。
“ 埃菲尔是巴黎的象征，而巴黎又代表了法国。所以，埃菲尔十分具有象征性。” Hugues Richard说道。这位31岁的法国人保持着在19分零4秒的时间内骑自行车经过747级台阶登上铁 塔二层的纪录。“这是铁娘子，能让人产生灵感，”他说。
但是它能使人们产生怎样的灵感呢？毕竟，铁塔并没有任何&的。1930年纽约的克莱斯勒大 厦取代它成为世界上最高的建筑。但是电视和广播信号仍然从塔顶发送出来，而古斯塔夫•埃菲 尔，这个狂热的建造者利用它的高度进行气象学、空气动力学和无线电通讯的研究。他在12月27 日逝世，终年91岁。
本质上来说，铁塔伫立在那儿本身就是一个灵感——它就像一张空白的画布，任游客自由遐 想。对于那些善于从技术角度考虑伺题的人来说，它是一个工程上的胜利;而对于恋人们来说， 它则象征着浪漫。
“这座塔将在我们所有的人离去后长久存在。”埃菲尔铁塔管理公司的伊莎贝尔说。
1. Why does the author think the Eiffel Tower is transformed into symbol of a world on the move?
B ) Tourists of all nationalities come to scribble on the cold iron of the tower.
2. What seems strange to the author?
A) Visitors prefer wasting time scribbling to enjoying the view.
3. Which statement is NOT true of Hugues Richard?
C ) He climbed 747 steps up the tower in 19 minutes and 4 seconds.
4. What did the builder use the Eiffel Tower for?
B ) Conducting research in various fields.
5. Which of the following is nearest in meaning to “（The Eiffel Tower is like)a blank canvas for visitors to make of it what they will ______？
C ) Visitors can imagine freely what the tower represents.
★第9篇（增） An Essential Scientific Process一个重要的科学过程
All life on the earth depends upon green plants. Using sunlight, the plants produce their own food. Then animals feed upon the plants. They take in the nutrients the plants have made and stored. But that’s not all. Sunlight also helps a plant produce oxygen. Some of the oxygen is used by the plant, but a plant usually produces more oxygen than it uses. The excess oxygen is necessary for animals and other organisms to live.
The process of changing light into food and oxygen is called photosynthesis. Besides light energy from the sun, plants also use water and carbon dioxide. The water gets to the plant through its roots. The carbon dioxide enters the leaves through tiny openings called stomata. The carbon dioxide travels to chloroplasts, special cells in the bodies of green plants. This is where photosynthesis takes place. Chloroplasts contain the chlorophylls that give plants their green color. The chlorophylls are the molecules that trap light energy. The trapped light energy changes water and carbon dioxide to produce oxygen and a simple sugar called glucose.
Carbon dioxide and oxygen move into and out of the stomata. Water vapor also moves out of the stomata. More than 90 percent of water a plant takes in through its roots escapes through the stomata. During the daytime, the stomata of most plants are open. This allows carbon dioxide to enter the leaves for photosynthesis. As night falls, carbon dioxide is not needed. The stomata of most plants close. Water loss stops.
If photosynthesis ceased, there would be little food or other organic matter on the earth. Most organisms would disappear. The earth’s atmosphere would no longer contain oxygen. Photosynthesis is essential for life on our planet.
练习：
1．In the first paragraph，the word “excess” means
B extra..
2．Which of the following does not move through a plant’s stomata?
D Food.
3．In the title, the term Essential Scientific Process refers to
A photosynthesis.
4．This passage is primarily developed by
A explaining a process.
5．Another good title for this passage would be
C How Photosynthesis Works.
译文：第九篇 一个至关重要的科学过程
地球上所有的生命都依靠绿色植物生存。植物利用阳光制造自己的食物，而动物则以植物为食，他们吸收植物制造和储存的营养物质。但是植物能做的不仅仅这些，它们还利用阳光产生氧气，这些氧气的一部分被植物自身消耗了，但植物消耗的氧气量远小于它们产生的氧气，这些多余的氧气对于动物以及其他生物体的生存是至关重要的。
植物将光转化为营养物质和氧气的这个过程叫光合作用，在这一过程中，植物不仅吸收阳光中的能量，还吸收水和二氧化碳。水通过根系进入植物体内，而二氧化碳则通过叶片上的小孔进入植物体，这些小孔叫作气孔。二氧化碳进入植物体后，到达叶绿体，叶绿体是绿色植物体内的一种特殊细胞。叶绿体是光合作用发生的地方。叶绿体内含叶绿素，这种物质使得叶子呈现绿色，它是一种能吸收光能的分子，吸收进来的光能将水和二氧化碳转化，产生氧气和一种结构简单的糖——葡萄糖。
二氧化碳和氧气通过气孔进出。水蒸气也是从气孔逸出。植物体通过根系吸收水分中的90%。白天，大多数植物的气孔都是张开的，使得二氧化碳能进入植物体参与光合作用。到了夜晚，植物不再需要二氧化碳，于是大多数植物的气孔就关闭了，水分散失也停止了。
如果光合作用停止的话，地球上将不会再有实物和其他有机物质，大多数生物体都会消失，地球的大气中的氧气也将消耗。光合作用对于地球上的生命来说是至关重要的。
★第10篇-Young Female Chimps Outlearn Their Brothers
年轻雌猩猩学习优于她们的弟兄
Young female chimps are faster and better learners than young male chimps, suggests a new study, echoing learning differences seen in human girls and boys.
While young male chimps pass their time playing. Young female chimps carefully study their mothers. As a result, they learn how to fish for tasty termite snacks over two years before the boys.
Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, US, and colleagues at the University of Minnesota, Saint Paul spent four years watching how young chimpanzees in the Gombe National Park in Tanzania learned “cultural behavior”.
The sex differences in learning behavior were “consistent and strikingly apparent”, says the team. The researchers point out that similar differences are seen in human children with regard to skills such as writing. “A sex-based learning differences may therefore date back at least to the last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.” they write in the journal Nature.
Chimps make flexible tools from vegetation and then insert them into termite mounds, extract them and then munch the termites clinging onto the tool. The researchers used video cameras to record this feeding behavior and found that each chimp mother had her own technique, such as how she used tools of different lengths.
Analysis of the six infants whose ages were known showed that girl chimps were an average of 31 months old when they succeeded in fishing out their termites, where the boy chimps were aged 58 months on average. Females were also more skillful at getting out more termites with every dip and used techniques similar to their mothers while males did not.
Instead of studying their mothers, the boy chimps spent a significantly greater amount of time frolicking around the termite mound. Behaviors such as playing or swinging might help the male infants later in life when typically male activities like hunting or fighting for dominance become important, suggest the researchers.
Lonsdorf adds that there just two main sources of animal protein for chimps — the termites or colobus monkeys. “Mature males often hunt monkeys up trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant. This makes hunting difficult,” she says .“Adult females spend more time fishing for termites than males.” So becoming proficient at termite fishing could mean adult females eat better, “They can watch their offspring at the same time. The young of both sexes seen to pursue activities related to their adult sex roles{10} at a very young age.”
一项新的研究显示，与年轻雄性相比，年轻雌黑猩猩是更快更好的学习者，这与人类的两性学习差异相仿。
在小雄猩猩玩乐嬉闹时候，雌猩猩却在悉心向母亲学习。结果她们比“男孩们”提早两年学会捕获美味小吃——白蚁。
美国芝加哥林肯公司动物园的Elizabeth Lonsdorf 和她在圣保罗市明尼苏达大学的同事们用了4年时间观察坦桑尼亚Gombe 自然公园的年轻黑猩猩学习它们的“文化行为”。
学习行为的性别差异是“一贯和惊人显著的”，观察小组报告说。研究人员指出，类似的差别也存在于人类儿童写作等技巧的学习过程。他们在《自然》杂志中写道，“基于性别的学习差异因而可以上溯到人类和黑猩猩最近的共同始祖。”
黑猩猩用植物制造灵巧的工具，将它们插入蚁丘把白蚁驱赶出来，再津津有味地享用粘在工具上的白蚁。研究人员用摄像机记录下这种捕食行为，发现每位猩猩母亲在诸如怎样使用不同长度的工具等方面都有她们自己的诀窍。
分析研究六只已知年龄的幼猩猩显示，雌猩猩在平均31个月大时就能成功捕获白蚁，而雄猩猩则需要到58个月时才能学会。雌性每次都能熟练地收获更多的白蚁，并能采用与母亲相似的技巧，而雄性却做不到。
“男孩们”不向母亲学习，却花费大量时间在蚁丘周围嬉戏。研究人员认为玩耍、摇荡等活动或许对公幼兽后来的诸如捕猎、争夺领导权等典型的雄性活动大有裨益。
Lonsdorf 补充说，黑猩猩食物中动物蛋白的主要来源有两个——白蚁和疣猴。“成熟雄性常在树间抓捕疣猴，而雌性则总是因为怀孕或身上吊着小猩猩而难以捕猎，”她说，“成年雌性比雄性花更多的时间捕食白蚁。”因此娴熟地捕获白蚁意味着雌性比雄性吃得更好，“并且可以同时看护后代。雌雄两性似乎都是在十分年幼的时候就开始了与成年后性别角色有关的活动。”
1. Why do young female chimps learn faster than young male chimps at fishing for termites?
B Because young female chimps begin to study their mothers earlier.
2. What are the tools with which chimps fish for termites?
B Vegetation.
3. Which of the Following is true about chimps fishing for termites according to paragraph 6?
C Females could get out more termites with every dip.
4. How did the researchers explain the fact that boy chimps spent more time on playing?
D It will make them good fighters and hunters in the future.
5. According to the last paragrnph, which of the following is NOT true?
A Adult chimps hunt monkeys while young chimps fish for termites.
第十一篇When Our Eyes Serve Our Stomach我们的视觉服务于我们的胃口
Our senses aren’t just delivering strict view of what’s going on in the world； they’re affected by what’s going on in our heads. A new study finds that hungry people see food-related words more clearly than people who’ve just eaten.
Psychologists have known for decades that what’s going on,inside our head affects our senses. For example, poorer children think coins are larger than they are, and hungry people think pictures of food are brighter. Remi Radel of University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis，France，wanted to investigate how this happens. Does it happen right away as the brain receives signals from the eyes or a little later as the brain’s high-level thinking processes get involved.
Radel recruited 42 students with a normal body mass index. On the day of his or her test, each student was told to arrive at the lab at noon after three or four hours of not eating. Then they were told there was a delay. Some were told to come back in 10 minutes; others were given an hour to get lunch first. So half the students were hungry when they did the experiment and the other half had just eaten.
For the experiment, the participant looked at a computer screen. One by one, 80 words flashed on the screen for about l/300th of a second each. They flashed at so small a size that the students could only consciously perceive. A quarter of the words were food-related. After each word，each person was asked how bright the word was and asked to choose which of two words they’d seen — a food-related word like cake or a neutral word like boat. Each word appeared too briefly for the participant to really read it.
Hungry people saw the food-related words as brighter and were better at identifying food- related words. Because the word appeared too quickly for them to be reliably seen, this means that the difference is in perception ,not in thinking processes, Radel says.
“This is something great to me. Humans can really perceive what they need or what they strive for. From the experiment, I know that our brain can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs,” Radel says.
我们的五官不仅仅让我们感知世界；还受大脑活动的影响。一项新研究发现：比起那些刚刚用过餐的人，饥饿的人能更清晰地看到与食品有关的词。
数十年以来，心理学家已经知道我们的心理活动直接影响到我们的视觉。例如，贫穷的孩子看到的硬币比实际的要大；饥饿的人看到的食物图片更明亮。法国的尼斯?索菲亚?安提波利斯大学试图调查这一现象：发生这种情况的时间是在大脑从眼睛接收到视觉信号的即时还是稍后些，这时高级思维活动已经介入了。
雷戴尔招募了健康指数正常的42位学生作为被试者。在测试的当天，每个学生被告知在中午到达实验室，这时距上一次的用餐时间有3?4个小时。等他们到达实验室时，他们被告知实验时间有延迟。一半学生被告知十分钟后再回来;其余的给1个小时的时间先吃午饭。所以一半学生饿着肚子，另一半学生饱腹参加了此次实验。
实验的步骤如下：要求被试者看电脑屏幕。屏幕上的80个字以1/300秒的频率闪动。由于字体非常之小，被试者只能凭感觉捕捉到字形。1/4的字是与食物有关的。每闪动一个字，被试者回答字体的亮度并选择看到的是哪类词：一类是和食物有关的词，比如“蛋糕”；一类是中性词，比如“船”。由于每个词的闪动在瞬间完成，被试者根本看不清楚那个词是什么。
饥饿的人看到与食物有关的词更明亮，且能更好地辨认出与食物有关的词。由于每个词的闪动太快，其实那些被试者根本不会确切地看到什么，这就说明：他们只是感觉不同，根本没经过思考。雷戴尔给出了这样的解释。
雷戴尔说：“这就是重点所在。人类可以真正感知到自身的需要或者为之奋斗的目标。该实验使我了解这样的事实，即我们的大脑是受我们的动机和需要所支配的。”
1.What does the new study mentioned in Paragraph 1 find?
C Hungry people are more sensitive to food-related words than stomach-full people.
2.Why was there a delay on the day of the experiment?
B Because Radel wanted to create two groups of testees, hungry and non-hungry.
3.What does the writer want to tell us?
C Human brains can really be at the disposal of our motives and needs.
4.What did the results of the experiment indicate?
A 80 words flashed on the screen too fast for the participant to intentionally perceive.
5.What can we infer from the passage?
D Humans can perceive what they need without involving high-level thinking processes
★第12篇-Florida Hit by Cold Air Mass纳佛罗里达遭受冷气团袭击
In January, 2003, the eastern two-thirds of the United States was at the mercy of a bitterly cold air mass that has endangered Florida’s citrus trees, choked northern harbors with ice and left bewildered residents of North Carolina’s Outer Banks digging out of up to a foot of snow.
The ice chill deepened as temperatures fell to the single digits in most of the South, with an unfamiliar dip below the freezing mark as far south as parts of interior South Florida. Temperatures in Florida plunged, with West Palm Beach dropping to a record low of 2 degrees.
“We couldn’t believe how cold it was,” said Martin King, who arrived this week in Orlando from England. “we brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat. ”
The temperature plunge posed a threat to Florida’s US$9.1 billion-a-year citrus crop, more of which is still on the trees. Growers were hurrying to harvest as much of the fruit as possible before it was damaged by cold.
“Time is of the essence in getting fruit to the plant,” said Tom Rogers, a citrus grower who expected to see damage to oranges and grapefruit at that time.
In Florida, Governor Jeb Bush signed an emergency order to eliminate the weight limit on trucks so citrus growers could get as much fruit to market as possible.
Casey Pace, a spokeswoman for Florida Citrus Mutual, said growers had sprayed trees with sprinklers, which created a layer of ice and helped maintain a temperature near freezing. Citrus trees are considered in danger of damage if the temperature drops below minus 2 degrees Celsius for four hours or more. Snow ranging from a dusting to up to 30 centimeters blanketed the Carolinas, Tennessee and parts of Virginia.
2003年1月，美国东部2/3的地区处于强冷空气团的控制下，强冷空气团给佛罗里达的柑橘树造成了危胁，同时也使北部的港口被冰冻结。冷空气团让北卡罗来纳州沿岸地区的居民不知所措，不停地铲着尺把深的积雪。
当南方部分地区的气温降到个位数时，冰雪带来的寒意加深了，从南方的大部分地区直到南佛罗里达的腹地地区，气温前所未有地骤降至冰点以下。气温在佛罗里达骤降，西棕榈海岸的气温创纪录地降至2度。
“我们不能相信有那么冷”，这周刚从英国来到奥兰多的马丁•金说，“我们买了运动裤、T恤，但我还不得不出去买件大衣。”
气温的骤降对佛罗里达每年价值91亿美元的柑橘产量造成了危胁，大部分的柑橘还未采摘，果农们正赶着在柑橘被冻坏之前尽可能地多采些。
“时间对柑橘成熟是非常重要的，”果农汤姆•罗根斯说，他预计冷空气会对柑橘和葡萄造成损害。
佛罗里达州州长杰夫•布什签署了一份紧急命令，这个命令取消了对卡车上货物的重量限制，这样，果农们就能使尽可能多的柑橘上市。
佛罗里达州柑橘信托基金会的发言人Casey Pace女士说，果农们用洒水器向果树喷水，这使果树表面形成了一层冰，冰有助于气温维持在冰点附近。如果气温降到-2℃以下超过4个小时，柑橘就会被冻坏。厚度从薄薄一层到30厘米的雪覆盖了卡罗来纳、田纳西和弗吉尼亚的部分地区。
1. Which of the following statements is not meant in the first two paragraphs?
A. The cold air mass was a threat to Florida’s citrus crop.
2. According to the second paragraph, in which area (s) did the temperature fall below zero?
B. Parts of interior South Florida.
3. King’s statement that “We brought shorts, T-shirt, and I had to go out and buy another coat,” shows that
A. he was caught by the sudden cold.
4. Governor Jeb issue the emergency order because he
C. wanted to encourage trucks to transport as much fruit to market as possible.
5. Which statement is NOT true according to the last paragraph?
D. Florida Citrus Mutual sprayed trees with sprinklers for citrus growers.
★第13篇-Invisibility Ring隐形环
Scientists can’t yet make an invisibility cloak1 like the one that Harry Potter2 uses.But，for the first time，they’ve constructed a simple cloaking device that makes itself and somethingplaced inside it invisible to microwaves.
When a person “sees” an object，his or her eye senses many different waves of visiblelight as they bounce off the object.The eye and brain then work together to organize thesesensations and reconstruct the object’s original shape. So，to make an object invisible，scientists have to keep waves from bouncing off it.And they have to make sure the objectcasts no shadow.Otherwise，the absence of reflected light on one side would give the obiectaway.
Invisibility isn’t possible yet with waves of light that the human eye can see.But it is nowpossible with microwaves.Like visible light，microwaves are a form of radiant energy.Theyare part of the electromagnetic spectrum，which also includes radio waves，infrared light，ultraviolet rays，X rays，and gamma rays.The wavelengths of microwaves are shorter thanthose of radio waves but longer than those of visible light.
The scientists’ new “invisibility device” is the size of a drink coaster and shaped like aring.The ring is made of a special material with unusual ability.When microwaves strike thering，very few bounce off it.Instead，they pass through the ring，which bends the waves allthe way around until they reach the opposite side.The waves then return to their originalpaths.
To a detector set up to receive microwaves on the other side of the ring，it looks as if thewaves never changed their paths as if there were no object in the way! So，the ring is effectively invisible.
When the researchers put a small cdpper loop inside the ring，it，too，is nearly invisible. However，the cloaking device and anything inside it do cast a pale shadow.And the deviceworks only for microwaves，not for visible light or any kind of electromagnetic radiation.So，Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak doesn’t have any real competition yet.
到目前为止，科学家还不能造出哈利；波特使用过的隐身斗篷。但是他们率先研制出了一种与其类似的装置，这种装置能使自身和置于其中的物体不受微波的探测。
当一个人“看”某物体时，他的眼睛就会感知到从那个物体反射过来的光波。眼睛和大脑一同工作，编辑这些光感并重建其原貌。所以，如果要让一个物体隐形，科学家们就必须阻止光波反射。并且他们得确保此物体没有阴影。否则，反射光的缺失会使物体显现。
鉴于人眼对光波的感知性，要想隐形某物体很难做到，但对微波就可以做到。如同可见光，微波是一种辐射能。他们是电磁波谱的一部分，其中也包括无线电波、红外线光、紫外线、x射线和伽马射线。微波的波长比无线电波短，但比可见光长。
科学家研制出的这种新型隐身装置和杯垫一般大小，形状像个环。由于它是特殊材料制成，因此具有非同寻常的功能。当微波射向它时，仅有极少的光会反射回去，这些光会从一端穿过这个环，并在此过程中沿着弯曲的路线前进，直到抵达另一端。最后光波回到原来的路线。
对于在环的另一端放置的探测器来说，光波看上去就像从来没有改变过路径一样，即好像没有遇到障碍物。这样一来，这个环就如同没有存在过。
研究者又将一个铜线圈放进环里，依然得到同样的结果。不过，这个环和里面的东西还是会留下一点影子。环形隐身器只能作用于微波，而不能作用于可见光及电磁波。因此，哈里，波特的隐形斗篷目前还没有竞争对手。
1.Harry Potter is mentioned in the passage，because scientists
C try to invent a device Similar in idea to the invisible cloak he uses.
2.What is true of microwaves?
B Their wavelengths are longer than those of visible light.
3.What is NOT true of the invisibility device?
B Microwaves bounce off it when they strike it.
4.What does the word “coaster” mean in the passage?
A A disk or plate placed under a drinking glass to protect a table top.
5.Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak doesn’t have any real competition yet，because
C the cloaking device works only for microwaves.
★第14篇-Japanese Car Keeps Watch for Drunk Drivers日本用来监视醉酒司机的新型概念车
A concept car developed by Japanese company Nissan has a breathalyzer-like detection system and other instruments that could help keep drunk or over tired drivers off the road.
The car’s sensors check odors inside the car and monitor a driver’s sweat for traces of alcohol.An in-car computer system can issue an alert or even lock up the ignition system if the driver seems over-the-limit.The air odor sensors are fixed firmly and deeply in the driver
and passenger seats,while a detector in the gear-shift knob measures perspiration from the driver’s palm.
Other carmakers have developed similar detection systems. For example,Sweden’s Volvo has developed a breathalyzer attached to a car’s seat belt that drivers must blow into before the engine will start.
Nissan’s new concept vehicle also includes a dashboard-mounted camera that tracks a drivers alertness by monitoring their eyes.It will sound an alarm and issue a spoken warning in Japanese or English if it judges that the driver needs to pull over and rest.
The car technology is still in development,but general manager Kazuhiro Doi says the combination of different detection systems should improve the overall effectiveness of the technology. "For example,if the gear-shift sensor was bypassed by a passenger using it instead of the driver,the facial recognition system would still be used," Doi says.Nissan has no specific timetable for marketing the system,but aims to use technology to cut the number of fatalities involving its vehicles to half 1995 levels by 2015.
The car’s seat belt can also tighten if drowsiness is detected,while an external camera checks that the car is keeping to its lane properly. However,Doi admits that some of the technology,such as the alcohol odor sensor,should be improved."If you drink one beer,it’s going to register,so we need to study what’s the appropriate level for the system to activate," he says.
In the UK,some research groups are using similar advanced techniques to understand driver behavior and the effectiveness of different road designs.
日本日产公司日前开发了一种新型概念车，这种车含有呼气酒精检测器和其他一些装置，用来防止那些醉酒和过于疲劳的司机上路驾驶。
车上的传感器能检测出车中的酒气，并通过监测司机身上的汗味探知酒精度。车中的电脑系统能报警，甚至还能在司机超速行驶时锁住引擎。这个气味传感器被牢牢固定在驾驶员和乘客的座位上。另一个探测器装在车的换档把手上，用来测试司机的掌心的汗液。
其他的汽车制造商们也开发了类似的探测系统。比如，瑞典的沃尔沃在汽车的安全带上安装了很多呼气酒精检测器，司机在开车前必须向里吹气。
这种新型概念车还在仪表盘上装有照相机，通过监测驾驶员的双眼探知其清醒程度。如果发现司机需要停车休息，便用英语或日语发出警告。
汽车监测技术仍在发展，总裁Kazuhiro Doi指出：综合多种探测技术将对整体技术水平的提高更为有利。例如，若是换档装置探测器被乘客代用，面部识别技术仍能受用。日产公司并没有明确将此项技术推向市场的时间，只是试图借助此项技术在2015年把死亡率降到1995年的一半。
如若探知司机昏昏欲睡，安全带会自动收紧，外部照相机也会检查汽车是否偏离路线。尽管如此，Doi承认有一些技术，如气味传感器仍有待改进。因为对很多人来说，往往只喝—口都会被检测出来。为避免这类事件的发生，必须研究激活系统的最低限度。
在英国，一些组织正在运用类似的先进技术来研究司机的行为和路标设置的有效性。
1. Which of the following statements is NOT true of the Japanese concept care
C It has sensors locked up in the ignition system.
2. What has Volvo developed?
B A breathalyzer attached to a car’s seat belt.
3. What is the function of the camera mentioned in Paragraph 4?
A It monitors the driver’s eyes to see if he needs a rest.
4. According to Doi,
D Nissan aims to improve the detection technology to reduce the fatality rate.
5. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in Paragraph 6?
B The car will automatically keep to its lane.
★第15篇-Winged Robot Learns to Fly 肋生双翅机器人学飞行
Learning how to fly took nature millions of years of trial and error1 -but a winged robot has cracked2 it in only a few hours, using the same evolutionary principles. Krister Wolff and Peter Nordin of Chalmers University of Technology (CUT) in Gothenburg , Sweden, built a winged robot and set about3 testing whether it could learn to fly by itself, without any pre-programmed data on what flapping is or how to do it.
To begin with4, the robot just twitched and jerked erratically. But, gradually, it made movements that gained height. At first, it cheated-simply standing on its wing tips was one early short cut5. After three hours, however, the robot abandoned such methods in favor of6 a more effective flapping technique where it rotated its wings through 90 degrees and raised them before twisting them back to the horizontal and pushing down.
“This tells us that this kind of evolution is capable of7 coming up8 with flying motion,” says Peter Bentley, who works on evolutionary computing at University College London. But while9 the robot had worked out how best to produce lift10, it was not about to take off. “There’s only so much that evolution can do,” Bentley says. “This thing is never going to fly because the motors will never have the strength to do it,” he says.
The robot had metre-long wings made from balsa wood and covered with a light plastic film. Small motors on the robot let it move its wings forwards or backwards. up or down or twist them in either direction.
The team attached the robot to two vertical rods, so it could slide up and down. At the start of a test, the robot was suspended by an elastic band. A movement detector measured how much lift, if any11, the robot produced for any given movement. A computer program fed the robot random instructions12, at the rate of13 20 per second, to test its flapping abilities. Each instruction told the robot either to do nothing or to move the wings slightly in the various directions.
Feedback from the movement detector let the program work out which sets of instructions were best at producing lift. The most successful ones were paired up14 and “offspring” sets of instructions15 were generated by swapping instructions randomly between successful pairs. These next-generation instructions were then sent to the robot and evaluated before breeding a new generation, and the process was repeated.
自然界中的飞行学习经历了几百万年的反复实践和磨练，而安装机翼的机器人仅在数小时内就成功实现突破，用的是同进化原理。瑞典Gothenburg Chalmers科技大学的Krister Wolff 和PeterNordin 研制出带翼的机器人，着手测试它能否在不预设振翅数据程序的条件下自行学会飞行。首先，机器人只是飘忽不定地振动盘桓，不过它的运动逐渐获得了上升高度，起初，它想走走捷径，试图仅用翅尖保持直立。然而三小时后，它放弃了这种方法， 转用更有效的振翅技术，90度角旋转两翼，并在它们恢复到水平位置将其拉起。“事实告诉我们，飞行装置有可能实现这种进化。”Peter Bentley 说。他现正在伦敦大学研究进化计算技术。虽然机器人可以摸索出上升飞行的最佳方式，却不会起飞。“进化升级所做的只有这么多，”Bentley说，“这东西不可能自行起飞，因为发动机不能产生足够动力。”机器人的两翼由轻木制成，长约一米，覆有一层轻塑胶。它的小马达使机翼可以前后上下运动，并能在这两个方向上任意旋转。研究小组将机器人附着在两根竖直标杆上，它便能上下滑动。实验刚开始的时候，机器人悬挂在一根弹性带上。一旦它升高，运动探测器就能测量它任何运动的高度。每过20秒，计算机程序就给机器人输入任意设定的指令，以检测其振翅能力。每个指令或是让机器人停止运动或是在各种方向上转动机翼。通过来自运动探测器的反馈，程序测算出哪几组指令能最有效地产生高度。最成功的几组进行配对，而其“后代”指令则通过在成功组合间随意交换指令产生。在产生下一代组合之前，这些第二代指令被发往机器人并进行评估，然后这一过程反复进行
1. Which of the following is NOT true of what is mentioned about the winged robot in the second paragraph?
C The two professors of CUT programmed the data on how the robot flapped its wings.
2. How did the robot behave at the beginning of the test?
B It twitched but gradually gained height.
3. Which of the following is nearest to Peter Bentley’s view on the winged robot?
A The winged robot could never really fly.
4. What measured how much lift the robot produced?
B A movement detector.
5. What does “the process” appearing in the last paragraph refer to?
D All the above.
★第16篇-Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth日本人的地心旅行
In what resembles a journey to the center of the Earth, Japanese scientists have launched the world’s first attempt to bore a hole into the red-hot core of a volcano and unlock the secrets of deadly eruption.
A 50-meter-high oil-rig-like derrick perched on the scrubby slopes of Japan’s Mount Unzen will begin drilling through the volcano’s crust next week in a bid1 to sample the magma bubbling below2.
The aim is to study how the liquefied rock causes menacing gas buildup, said team leader Setsuya Nakata, of the University of Tokyo’s Earthquake Research Institute.
“Gassing is important because it controls the explosivity of eruptions,” Nakata said. “The results can be expanded to anti-disaster research.”
Mount Unzen , a wind-swept 1.486-meter dome on the southern island of Kyushu, is a perfect model. It erupted in 1991, showering avalanches of hot rocks over a nearby town, killing 43 people and leaving nearly 2,300 homeless. Another 11.000 people were evacuated from the area until 1995, when the volcano had stabilized.
The results are particularly important to a nation like Japan, where the meteorological agency monitors 20 dangerous peaks. Perhaps Japan’s most famous volcano is snowcapped Mount Fuji, which last erupted in 1707 and sprinkled Tokyo with ash.
The drilling on Mount Unzen will begin very soon from an altitude of 850 meters on its northwest slope. Scientists hope to tap a magma vent around sea level by August and extract a 200-meter-long core sample by summer 2004.3
Boring into the glowing magma at that level would normally be impossible, because of its fiery 700 degree Celsius heat. Thus, a slurry of water will be pumped into the drill shaft to cool the magma and allow the drill head to cut through.
Nakata said there is no danger of triggering another eruption.4
就像进行一次地心旅行，日本科学家进行了世界上的首次尝试，在炙热的火山核心钻孔，从而揭开了火山致命喷发的秘密。
日本Unzen山繁茂的山坡上，伫立着一个高达50米，犹如石油钻探平台的钻塔。下周，它将钻透火山壳，试图采集下面沸腾的火山岩浆的样本。
研究工作小组的负责人，来自东京大学地震研究中心的Setsuya Nakata表示，这次任务的目的是要研究液化岩石如何导致威胁性气体的积聚。
“气体积聚很重要，因为它控制着火山喷发的爆炸性。”他说，“研究的结果还可以用于防灾研究。”
Unzen山是一座高达1,485米的圆顶山，它位于南部的Kyushu岛，是一个极佳的模型，1991年，它喷发出的热岩浆覆盖了附近的小城，造成了43人死亡，将近2,300人无家可归，到1995年它恢复平静时，又有11,000人从这五地区疏散。
研究结果对于像日本这样拥有20座被气象局监控的危险山峰的国家来说，尤为重要，日本最著名的火山也许就是被冰雪覆盖的富士山。它上一次喷发是在1707年，火山灰喷洒到东京。
钻探工作将很快从Unzen山的西北坡上850米的高度开始。到八月底，科学家希望在约为海平面高度的地方引出一个岩浆口，到2004年夏末，提取长度为200米的样本。
由于岩浆有将近700度的高温，在那个高度进行钻探是不可能的。所以，泥浆将被抽进钻孔机，用来冷却岩浆，以保证钻头的顺利工作。
Nakata说，不存在引发火山新一轮爆发的危险性
1. According to the passage, Mount Unzen
B erupted in 1991.
2. According to the passage, the study of the Mount Unzen volcano may benefit Japan in all the following aspects EXCEPT
D predicting volcano eruptions.
3.Why is this research project so important to Japan?
A. Because Japan has many living volcanos.
4. The drilling site on Mount Unzen is
C about half way up the mountain.
5. The title of this passage Japanese Drilling into Core of Earth actually means that they
A drill a hole into the core of a volcano.
★第17篇-A Sunshade for the Planet地球防晒霜
Even with the best will1 in the world, reducing our carbon emissions is not going prevent global warming. It has become clear that even if we take the most strong measures to control emissions, the uncertainties in our climate models still leave open the possibility of extreme warming and rises in sea level. At the same time, resistance by governments and special interest groups makes it quite possible that the actions suggested by climate scientists might not be implemented soon enough.
Fortunately, if the worst comes to the worse2, scientists still have a few tricks up their sleeves3. For the most part they have strongly resisted discussing these options for fear of inviting a sense of complacency that might thwart efforts to tackle the root of the problem. Until now, that is. A growing number of researchers are taking a fresh look at large-scale “geoengineering” projects that might be used to counteract global warming. “I use the analogy of methadone4,” says Stephen Schneider, a climate researcher at Stanford University in California who was among the first to draw attention to global warming. “If you have a heroin addict, the correct treatment is hospitalization, and a long rehab. But if they absolutely refuse, methadone is better than heroin.
Basically the idea is to apply “sunscreen” to the whole planet. One astronomer has come up with a radical plan to cool Earth: launch trillions of feather-light discs into space, where they would form a vast cloud that would block the sun’s rays. It’s controversial, but recent studies suggest there are ways to deflect just enough of the sunlight reaching the Earth’s surface to counteract the warming produced by the greenhouse effect. Global climate models show that blocking just 1. 8 per cent of the incident energy in the sun’s rays would cancel out the warming effects produced by a doubling of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. That could be crucial, because even the most severe emissions-control measures being proposed would leave us with a doubling of carbon dioxide by the end of this century, and that would last for at least a century more.
就算怀着最美好的愿望，仅仅减少二氧化碳的排放量还是不能制止全球变暖。很明显，即便采取最强硬的措施来控制排放，气候的变化无常仍能导致极速变暖和海平面上升。另一方面，受到政府和特殊利益群体的阻挠，气候学家往往不能将措施很快实施彻底。 ’
幸好，如果被逼上绝路，科学家们还有最后几招。在大多数情况下，他们拒绝讨论这些施，害怕人们会因此沾沾门喜而使这个问题不能被彻底解决。至少目前是这样。越来越多的研究者相信一项大型的地质丁程建设可用来抵御全球变暖。斯坦福大学的一位气象学家Stephen Schneider最早提出气候变暖这项议题的学者之一。他说：“我把它比作美沙酮。如果你那里有一个海洛因瘾者，那么正确的治疗方法就是住院，接受长时间的康复治疗。拒绝正常住院治疗，那服用美沙酮是一种缓解海洛因毒瘾的有效方法。”
总体思路是给地球也涂上防晒霜。一个天文学家突发奇想，想借此冷却地球：发射亿万轻如羽毛的碟片进入太空形成巨大“云层”以阻碍太阳光。这个想法备受争议，但最近的研究表明，有—些方法可以控制到达地球表面的阳光以抵消温室效应产生的气候变暖。全球气候模型表明，阻断百之一点八的太阳能刚好可以抵消大气中双倍的温室气体所引起的气候变暖现象。这个想法影响深远，因为即使采取最严格的控制气体排放措施，到本世纪末，二氧化碳量仍会翻倍。并且这种情况将再持续至少一个世纪。
1. According to the first two paragraphs，the author thinks that
C despite the difficulty, scientists have some options to prevent global warming.
2. Scientists resist talking about their options because they don’t want people to
C think the problem has been solved.
3. What does Stephen Schneider say about a heroin addict and methadone?
A Methadone is an effective way to treat a hard heroin addict.
4. What is Stephen Schneider’s idea of preventing global warming?
C To apply sunscreen to the Earth.
5. What is NOT true of the effectiveness of “sunscreen”, according to the last paragraph?
D It decreases greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
★第18篇-Thirst for Oil石油匮乏
Worldwide every day, we devour the energy equivalent of about 200 million barrels of oil. Most of the energy on Earth comes from the Sun. In fact enough energy from the Sun hits the planet’s surface each minute to cover our needs for an entire year, we just need to find an efficient way to use it. So far the energy in oil has been cheaper and easier to get at. But as supplies dwindle, this will change, and we will need to cure our addiction to oil.
Burning wood satisfied most energy needs until the steam-driven industrial revolution, when energy-dense coal became the fuel of choice. Coal is still used, mostly in power stations, to cover one quarter of our energy needs, but its use has been declining since we started pumping up oil. Coal is the least efficient, unhealthiest and most environmentally damaging fossil fuel, but could make a comeback, as supplies are still plentiful: its reserves are five times larger than oil’s.
Today petroleum, a mineral oil obtained from below the surface of the Earth and used to produce petrol, diesel oil and various other chemical substances, provides around 40% of the world’s energy needs, mostly fuelling automobiles. The US consumes n quarter of all oil, and generates a similar proportion of greenhouse gas emissions.
The majority of oil comes from the Middle East, which has half of known reserves. But other significant sources include Russia, North America, Norway, Venezuela and the North Sea. Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge1 could be a major new US source, to reduce reliance on foreign imports.
Most experts predict we will exhaust easily accessible reserves within 50 years, though opinions and estimates vary. We could fast reach an energy crisis in the next few decades, when demand exceeds supply. As conventional reserves become more difficult to access, others such as oil shales and tar sands may be used instead. Petrol could also be obtained from coal.
Since we started using fossil fuels, we have released 400 billion tonnes2 of carbon, and burning the entire reserves could eventually raise world temperatures by 130 C. Among other horrors, this would result in the destruction of all rainforests and the melting of all Arctic ice.
全世界每天都要消耗相当于亿桶石油的能源。地球上的大部分能源来自于太阳。事实上，每分钟到达地球表层的来自于太阳的能源就足已满足我们一整年的需求，我们只是需要有效地加以利用而已。到目前为止，石油一直是一种较便宜、易获得的能源。但当供应缩减时，情况就会改变，我们就不能像现在这样不加节制地消耗石油了。
在蒸汽工业命时代，高能煤成为首选燃料之前，燃木能满足大部分能源需求。现在，煤仍然大量地运用于发电站，满足我们四分之一的能源需求。但自从我们开始大量开采石油后，煤的使用就已经在逐渐衰退。煤是使用效率最低、最不健康、最不环保的化石燃料，但因其供应充足——煤的储量是石油的6倍，煤的使用量又有所回升。
今天，石油作为一种从地表层挖掘出，用于生产汽油、柴油和其他各种化学物质的矿物油，供应着大约40%的世界能源需求，其中大部分用于供给机动车辆；美国消耗着世界四分之一的石油，同时排放出大约全球1/4的温室气体。
大部分的石油来自中东，牛东拥有50％的世界已勘探石油储存量。其他的石油产地包括俄罗斯、北美、挪威、委内瑞拉和北海。阿拉斯加北极国家野生动物保护区最新成为美国能源的又一主要供应地，减少了美国对国外进口石油的依赖。
尽管意见和评价各有不同，但大多数专家预测人类将在50年之内轻而易举地耗尽现行的所有储备石油。未来的几十年，当供不应求时我们会很快陷入能源危机。当常规能源不容易获得时，代之使用的可能是诸如油页岩和沥青砂等能源。石油也可从煤中提炼获得。
自从我们开始使用化石燃料，我们已经释放出4000亿吨碳。当化石燃料全部用完时，世界温度将上升13摄氏度。更恐怖的是，这将会导致所有热带雨林的破坏和北极冰的溶解。
1. “… we will need to cure our addiction to oil.”Why does the author say so?
D Oil supply is decreasing.
2. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the author, according to the second paragraph?
C Coal is the most environmentally unfriendly fuel next to oil.
3. Which country is the biggest consumer of petroleum?
A The United States.
4. What do experts say about the earth’s fuel reserves?
B There will soon be an energy crisis.
5. What is NOT the result of consuming fossil fuels according to the last paragraph?
D The sea level will go up.
★第19篇Musical Robot Companion Enhances Listener Experience
音乐机器人伴侣提升音乐欣赏体验
Shimi, a musical companion developed by Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology, recommends songs, dances to the beat and keeps the music pumping based on listener feedback. The smartphone-enabled, one-foot-tall robot is billed as an interactive “musical friend”.
“Shimi is designed to change the way that people enjoy and think about their music，” said Professor Gil Weinberg, the robot’s creator. He will unveil the robot at the June 27th Google I/O conference in San Francisco. A band of three Shimi robots will perform for guests, dancing in sync with music created in the lab and composed according to its movements.
Shimi is essentially a docking station with a “brain” powered by an Android phone. Once docked, the robot gains the sensing and musical generation capabilities of the user’s mobile device. In other words, if there’s an “app” for that, Shimi is ready. For instance, by using the phone’s camera and face-detecting software，Shimi can follow a listener around the room and position its “ears”，or speakers, for optimal sound. Another recognition feature is based on rhythm and tempo. If the user taps a beat, Shimi analyzes it, scans the phone’s musical library and immediately plays the song that best matches the suggestion. Once the music starts，Shimi dances to the rhythm.
“Many people think that robots are limited by their programming instructions, said Music Technology Ph. D. candidate Mason Bretan. “Shimi shows us that robots can be creative and interactive. ’’Future apps in the works will allow the user to shake their head in disagreement or wave a hand in the air to alert Shimi to skip to the next song or increase/decrease the volume. The robot will also have the capability to recommend new music based on the user’s song choices and provide feedback on the music play list.
Weinberg hopes other developers will be inspired to create more apps to expand Shimi’s creative and interactive capabilities. “I believe that our center is ahead of a revolution that will see more robots in homes.” Weinberg said.
Weinberg is in the process of commercializing Shimi through an exclusive licensing agreement with Georgia Tech. Weinberg hopes to make the robot available to consumers by the 2013 holiday season. “If robots are going to arrive in homes, we think that they will be this kind of machines一 small, entertaining and fun，，，Weinberg said. “They will enhance your life and pave the way for more intelligent service robots in our lives.”
Shimi是由佐治亚理工大学音乐技术中心研发的一款音乐伴侣。它可以根据听者的反馈推荐合乎节拍的歌曲、舞蹈；并且不断播放音乐。这款髙1英尺的机器人是由智能手机系统支持的，因此被标榜为“一个可以互动的音乐朋友”。
Gil Weinberg教授是该机器人的发明者，他解释说：“Shimi设计的宗旨是改变人们欣赏音乐、认识音乐的方式。”他将在今年6月27日在旧金山的谷歌I/O大会上展示这款机器人。一个由三个机器人组成的乐队将为来宾演奏，并伴随音乐起舞。而音乐是根据不同的运动形式编制的。
Shimi实际上是一个扩充基座，它的“大脑”由安卓手机控制。一旦连接上，机器人便从用户的移动装置获得传感和音乐生成能力。换言之，只要有应用程序，机器人便能使用。例如，通过手机的照相机和辨认脸型的软件，Shimi就能在房间周围跟踪到听众，然后安置好它的“耳朵”或扬声器，以确保输送最佳声音。另外一种识别特征是基于节奏和速度。如果用户打出某个（音乐）拍子，Shimi会对此进行分析，然后浏览手机的音乐库，并立即演奏最符合要求的音乐。一旦音乐响起来，Shimi就随韵律起舞。
“许多人认为机器人受到程序指令的限制，而Shiini给我们展示了机器人可以具有创造力和与人交互的能力。”音乐技术博士研究生Mason Bretan如是说。正在研发中的程序将使用户能沟通过摇头或摆手表示不同意，来提醒Shimi跳到下一首歌或增减音量。机器人还可根据用户对歌曲的选择推荐新音乐，并对音乐播放列表提供反馈。
Weinberg希望其他研发者会因此获得灵感，开发更多的应用程序，来扩展Shimi的创新和交互功能。他说：“我认为我们中心正在引领这场将更多机器人应用到家庭中去的变革。”
Weinberg正在通过获得佐治亚理工学院的独家授权来对Shimi进行商业推广。Weinberg希望到2013年的节日季消费者可购买到Shimi。Weinberg说：“如果机器人进入家庭，我们认为就应该是这种类型的机器人：小巧、令人愉快和有趣，它们能提高我们的生活质量，为更多智能服务型机器人进人我们的生活做好准备。
1. Which of the following is NOT true according to the first three paragraphs?
B Shimi is the creator of the musical companion.
2. What does Shimi do if the user taps a beat?
D It selects a perfectly-matched song and plays it in sync with that beat.
3. Which of the following about Shimi is true?
D Shimi can be creative and interactive.
4. What does the author want to tell us?
A The research center is developing a stronger and more versatile Shimi.
5. Which of the following is Weinberg’s assertion?
B human lives will be filled with more fun if Shimi is going to arrive in homes.
★第20篇-Explorer of the Extreme Deep深海探索器
Oceans cover more than two-thirds of our planet． Yet，just a small fraction of the undcrwaler world has been uxplored． Now，Scientists at the Woods Hole1 Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts are building an underwater vehicle hat will carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters (21,320 feet)．The new machine，known as a manned submersible or human-operated vehicle (HOV)，will replace another one named Alvin2 which bas an amazing record of discovery，playing a key role in various important and famous undersea expeditions．Alvin has been operating for 40 years but can go down only 4,500 meters (14,784 feet)．It’s about time for an upgrade，WHOI researchers say．
Alvin was launched in 1964．Since then，Alvin has worked between 200 and 250 days a year，says Daniel Fornari，a marine geologist and director of the Deep Ocean Exploration Institute at WHOI．During its lifetime，Alvin has carried some 12,000 people on a total of more than 3,000 dives． A newer，better versions of Alvin is bound to reveal even more surprises ahout a world that is still full of mysteries，Fornari says．It might also make the job of exploration a little easier．“We take so much for granted on land,” Fornari says．“We can walk around and see with our eyes how big things are． We can see colors，special arrangements．”
Size-wise，the new HOV will be similar to Alvin．It’ll be about 37 feet long．The setting area inside will be a small sphere，about 8 feet wide，like Alvin，it’ll carry a pilot and two passengers．It will be just as maneuverable．In most other ways，it will give passengers more opportunities to enjoy the view，for one thing．Alvin has only three windows，the new vehicle will have five，with more overlap so that the passengers and the pilot can see the same thing．
Alvin can go up and down at a rate of 30 meters every second，and its maximum speed is 2 knots (about 2．3 miles per hour)，while the new vehicle will be able to ascend and descend at 44 meters per second．It’ll reach speeds of 3 knots，or 3．5 miles per hour．
海洋覆盖了我们地球三分之二的面积，但被开发的地下水却只有很小一部分。目前，马萨诸塞木洞海洋研究所的科学家们正在开发一种能载探索家们深入水下6 500米(21 320英尺)的水下交通丁具。作为一种载人潜艇或人T操作丁具，这种新的机器将替代世界上第一个深海潜水器Alvin。Azui”潜水器已经保持了惊人的纪录，在各种重要的深海考察中发挥着重要作用。Alvin潜水器已经运行了40年，但它只能深人水下4 500米(14 784英尺)。术洞海洋协会的研究家们说，潜水下具陔升级了。
Alvin潜水器下水始于1964年。海洋地质学家兼木洞海洋学研究所深海探索协会主任Daniel其不意Fornari说，自1 964年后，Alvin潜水器每年运行200～250天。在整个航程巾，它载12 000人进行过3 000多次潜水。
Fornari说，新式的Aluin潜水器必将揭示这个依旧充满神秘的水下世界的许多奇妙之处。它也可能会使水下探索更容易些。Fornari说：“我们在陆上把许多东两想当然，我们会四处行走，用我们的双眼看周同的东两的大小。我们会看到各种颜色，各种特殊的布置。”
这种新的人工操作机器与Aluin潜水器很相似，大小适中。长约37英，里面环境将是个小球体，约8英尺宽。和Azum一样，它将载一名宇航员和两名乘客。可渊动。其他方面。它将使乘客有更多机会欣赏风景，闪为旧式Aluin潜水器只有三个窗，“，新式的将有五个窗户，其中有很多折叠，乘客和宇航员可以看见相同的事物。
旧式Aluin抽潜水器可以每秒上下30米．最快时速是2节(约2．3英里／小时)；衙新式潜水器将能每秒上下44米，它最快时速将达到3节(3．5英曜/小时)。
1． What is Alvin?
C A submersible．
2． Which of the following statements is NOT a fact about Alvin?
A h can carry explorers as deep as 6,500 meters．
3． “．．．a world that is still full of mysteries” refers to
C the ocean．
4． In what aspects are the new HOV and Alvin similar?
D Shape．
5． In what aspects are the new HOV and Alvin different?
D Both A and B．
★第21篇-Plant Gas植物，沼气的又一来源
Scientists have been studying natural sources of methane for decades but hadn't regarded plants as a producer, notes Frank Keppler, a geochemist at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heldelberg, Germany. Now Keppler and his colleagues find that plants, from grasses to trees, may also be sources of the greenhouse gas. This is really surprising, because most scientists assumed that methane production requires an oxygen-free environment.
Previously, researchers had thought that it was impossible for plants to make significant amounts of the gas. They had assumed that microbes2 need to be in environments without oxygen to produce methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas, like carbon dioxide. Gases such as methane and carbon dioxide trap heat in Earth's atmosphere and contribute to global warming.
In its experiments, Keppler's team used sealed chambers that contained the same concentration of oxygen that Earth's atmosphere has. They measured the amounts of methane that were released by both living plants and dried plant material, such as fallen leaves.
With the dried plants, the researchers took measurement at temperatures ranging from 30 degrees Celsius to 70 degrees C. At 30 degrees C, they found, a gram of dried plant material released up to 3 nanograms of methane per hour. （One nanogram is a billionth of a gram.） With every 10-degree rise in temperature, the amount of methane released each hour roughly doubled.
Living plants growing at their normal temperatures released as much as 370 nanograms of methane per gram of plant tissue per hour. Methane emissions tripled when living and dead plant was exposed to sunlight.
Because there was plenty of oxygen available, it's unlikely that the types of bacteria that normally make methane were involved. Experiments on plants that were grown in water rather than soil also resulted in methane emissions. That's another strong sign that the gas came from the plants and not soil microbes.
The new finding is an "interesting observation," says Jennifer Y. King, a biogeochemist at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul3. Because some types of soil microbes consume methane, they may prevent plant-produced methane from reaching the atmosphere. Field tests will be needed to assess the plant's influence, she notes. （367 words）
德国马克思·普朗克核物理研究所地球化学家Frank Keppler提到，科学家已经研究沼气几十年，但一直没认为植物能产生沼气。现在Keppler和同事们发现从草到树的植物也可能是温室气体的来源。这的确是令人惊讶的，阅为大多数科学家认为沼气是在缺氧环境中产生的。
以前，研究人员认为植物不可能产㈩大量的气体。他们认为微生物需要在无氧环境下生产沼气。沼气和二氧化碳一样都是温室气体，它们在地球大气中吸收热量导致全球变暖。
在实验中，Keppler一组使用内含与地球大气中同等密度氧的密闭室来测量从活植物和干植物如落叶中释放的沼气量。
研究人员测量干植物时温度在30摄氏度到70摄氏度。3()摄氏度时，他们发现一克干植物每小时释放3微克沼气(1微克是1克的十亿分之一)。温度每上升10度，每小时释放的沼气量约会增加一倍。
对于正常温度下生长的活植物，每一克植物组织每小时释放出370微克的沼气。当活的或者死的植物暴露在阳光下时，沼气释放量会增加两倍。
由于有大量的氧气，正常生产沼气的细菌不可能加入。在对生长在水中而不是土壤中的植物进行实验时也发现有沼气释放。这也表明气体产生于植物而不是土壤微生物。
圣保罗明尼苏达州大学：生物地球化学家Jennifer Y．King说，这些新发现是一项“有趣的观察记录”。因为一些土壤微生物消耗沼气，它们会阻止植物产生的沼气到达大气中。Jennifer Y．King指出，需要对土地进行测试以判定植物的影响。
1 that was scientists' understanding of methane?
C） It was produced in oxygen-free environments.
2 To test whether plants are a source of methane, the scientists created
B） an environment with the same concentration of oxygen as the Earth has.
3 hich statement is true of the methane emissions of plants in the experiment?
D） The higher the temperature, the greater the amount of methane emissions.
4 What of the following about methane is Not mentioned in the passage ?
D） Microbes in plants produce methane.
5 What is the beneficial point of some microbes consuming plant-produced methane?
C） Less methane reaches the atmosphere.
★新增第22篇Real World Robots
When you think of a robot, do you envision a shiny, metallic device having the same general shape as a human being, performing humanlike functions, and responding to your questions in a monotone voice accentuated by high-pitched tones and beeps? This is the way many of us imagine a robot, but in the real world, a robot is not humanoid at all. Instead a robot often is a voiceless, box-shaped machine that efficiently carries out repetitive or dangerous functions usually performed by humans. Today’s robot is more than an automatic machine that performs one task again and again. A modern robot is programmed with varying degrees of artificial intelligence—that is, a robot contains a computer program that tells it how to perform tasks associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, drawing conclusions, and learning from past experience.
A robot does not possess a human shape for the simple reason that a two-legged robot has great difficulty remaining balanced. A robot does, however, move from place to place on wheels and axles that roll and rotate. A robot even has limbs that swivel and move in combination with joints and motors. To find its way in its surroundings1, a robot utilizes various built-in sensors. Antennae attached to the robot’s base detect anything they bump into. If the robot starts to teeter as it moves on an incline, a gyroscope or a pendulum inside it senses the vertical differential. To determine its distance from an object and how quickly it will reach the object，the robot bounces beams of laser light and ultrasonic sound waves off obstructions in its path2. These and other sensors constantly feed information to the computer, which then analyzes the information and corrects or adjusts the robot’s actions. As science and technology advance, the robot too will progress in its functions and use of artificial-intelligence programs.
练习：
1．Another good title for this passage would be
C Today’s Robots and How They Function.
2．Artificial intelligence is
D a computer program that imitates human intellectual processes.
3．The last paragraph suggests that future robots will be
A more humanlike in behavior and actions.
4．The writer begins the passage by comparing
B a modem robot with a fictional robot.
5．The word humanoid means
D having a human form or characteristics.
答案与题解：
1．C 从文中得知，文章主要介绍了机器人和它们的运行方式，因此选择C选项。
2．D Artificial是“人工”的意思，intelligence是“智能”的意思。另外从文中得知，机器人使用artificial intelligence能够进行与人类类似的推理分析等活动，因此可知它是一种类似人类智能的计算机程序。
3．A 最后一段讲机器人的发展方向是更加智能，能够自己判断并修正行为，而不仅仅是完成重复性的工作。
4．B 文章开头的时候作者让读者描述他们脑海中的机器人概念，并随后介绍了实际的机器人是怎样的，因此选择B选项。
5．D 从humanoid的词根human可看出这个词是形容与人类有关的特征。另外根据文章对这个词的描述可以得出这个词是表示和人类类似的特征，不管是外形上，还是行为方式上。
★第23篇-Powering a City? It's a Breeze风力发电？轻而易举
The graceful wooden windmills that have broken up the flat Dutch landscape for centuries—a national symbol like wooden shoes and tulips—yielded long ago to ungainly metal-pole turbines.
Now, windmills are breaking into a new frontier. Though still in its teething stages, the “urban turbine” is a high-tech windmill designed to generate energy from the rooftops of busy citles. Lighter, quieter, and often more efficient than rural counterparts, they take advantage of the extreme turbulence and rapid shifts in direction that characterize urban wind patterns.
Prototypes have been successfully tested in several Dutch cities, and the city government in the Hague has recently agreed to begin a large-scale deployment in 2003. Current models cost US$8,000 to US$12,000 and can generate between 3,000 and 7,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. a typical Dutch household uses 3,500 kilowatt hours per year, while in the United States, this figure jumps to around 10,000 kilowatt hours.
But so far, they are being designed more for public or commercial buildings than for private homes. The smallest of the current models weigh roughly 200 kilograms and can be installed on a roof in a few hours without using a crane.
Germany, Finland and Denmark have also been experimenting with the technology, but the ever-practical Dutch are natural pioneers in urban wind power mainly because of the lack of space. The Netherlands, with 16 million people crowded into a country twice the size of Slovenia, is the most densely populated in Europe.
Problems remain, however, for example, public safety concerns, and so strict standards should be applied to any potential manufacturers. Vibrations are the main problem in skyscraper-high turbine. People don't know what it would be like to work there, in an office next to one of the big turbines. It might be too hectic.
Meanwhile, projects are under way to use minimills to generate power for lifeboats, streetlights, and portable generators. “I think the thing about wind power is that you can use it in a whole range of situations,” said Corin Millais, of the European Wind Energy Association. “It's a very local technology, and you can use it right in you backyard. I don't think anybody wants a nuclear power plant in their backyard.”
与木鞋、郁金香一起被视为荷兰象征的风车，在荷兰平原上优雅地矗立了几个世纪，可是，它的作用早已为笨拙的金属涡轮所代替。
现在，风车已经进入了一个新的疆域。虽然还处于萌芽阶段，城镇使用的涡轮机已经是一种高科技的风车，它们从大城市的平顶房上产生能量。它们利用了城市中的风所特有的乱流和快速转向，比起乡村风车来，更轻，更安静，更有效率。
这种风车的样品已经成功地在荷兰的几个城市得到测试。海牙市政府最近已经同意在2003年开始大规模发展这种风车。目前的风车模型大约花费8000到112000美元，每年能够产生3000到7000千瓦时的电。一个典型的荷兰家庭每年使用3500千瓦时的电，而在美国，这个数字则要上千到大约10000千瓦时。
但是到目前为止，这些风车的设计更适合于公共或商务设施，而不是家庭。目前最小的风车模型大约有200公斤重，而且不需要吊车就可以将它安装在屋顶。
德国、芬兰和丹麦都已经开始这项技术的实验，但是，荷兰的空间狭小使得它在城市风力发电上始终是最实际的先驱。荷兰拥有1600万的人口，是斯洛文尼亚的两倍，是欧洲人口密度的国家。
尽管如此，问题仍然存在。比如，公共安全问题，以及对潜在的制造商制定严格的标准。高耸入云的涡轮机最主要的问题是振动。人们无法想像在一个巨大的涡轮机旁边的办公室里如何工作。那一定是闹哄哄。
与此同时，使用小型风车为救生船、路灯和便携式发电同提供能量的计划也在进行之中。“我认为使用风力就是能让人在任何情况下都可以使用。”欧洲风能协会的CorinMillais说，“这是一种因地制宜的技术，人们能在自己家的后院使用。我想没有人希望自己家的后院里是一个核电站。”
1. What are the symbols of Netherlands according to the first paragraph?
B. Wooden shoes and wooden windmills.
2. Which statement is best describes the urban turbine mentioned in the second paragraph?
B. It is a high-tech machine designed to generate energy for urban people.
3. The smallest models of an urban turbine
C. can be carried up to the rooftop without a crane.
4. The Netherlands leads in the urban turbine technology because
A. the Dutch are natural pioneers.
5. According to the last paragraph, what are the advantages of wind power technology?
A. It can be used for different purposes.
★第24篇-Underground Coal Fires a Looming Catastrophe
地下煤着火——即将来临的灾难
Coal burning deep underground in China, India and Indonesia is threatening the environment and human life, scientists have warned, these large-scale underground blazes cause the ground temperature to heat up and kill surrounding vegetation, produce greenhouse gases and can even ignite forest first, a panel of scientists told the annual meeting of the American Association For the Advancement of Science in Denver. The resulting release of poisonous elements like arsenic and mercury can also pollute local water sources and soils, they warned.
“Coal fires are a global catastrophe,” said Associate Professor Glenn Stracher of East Georgia College in Swainsboro, USA, But surprisingly few people know about them.
Coal can heat up on its own, and eventually catch fire and burn, if there is a continuous oxygen supply. The heat produced is not cause to disappear and under the right combinations of sunlight and oxygen, can trigger spontaneous catching fire and burning. This can occur underground, in coal stockpiles, abandoned mines or even as coal is transported. Such fires in China consume up to 200 million tones of coal per year, delegates were told. In comparison, the U.S. economy consumes about one billion tones of coal annually, said Stracher, whose analysis of the likely impact of coal fires has been accepted for publication in the International Journal of Coal Ecology. Once underway, coal fires can burn for decades, even centuries. In the process, they release large volumes of greenhouse gases poisonous fumes and black particles into the atmosphere.
The members of the panel discussed the impact these fires may be having on global and regional climate change, cand agreed that the underground nature of the fires makes them difficult to protect. One of the members of the panel, Assistant Professor Paul Van Dijk of the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth observation in the Netherlands, has been working with the Chinese government to detect and monitor fires in the northern regions of the country.
Ultimately, the remote sensing and other techniques should allow scientists to estimate how much carbon dioxide these fires are emitting. One suggested method of containing the fires was presented by Gary Colaizzi, of the engineering firm Goodson, which has developed a heat-resistant grout (a thin mortar used to fill cracks and crevices), which is designed to be pumped into the coal fire to cut off the oxygen supply.
科学家们警告说，中国、印度和印尼的地下煤矿着火将严重威胁自然环境和人身安全。在丹佛举行的美国科学促进协会的会议上，一个专家小组的科学家们表示，林规模地地下大火将会提高地面温度，烧死周围的植物，由此产生的气体将会导致温室效应，甚至有可能引起森林大火。他们还警告说，大火释放出来的砷、汞等有毒物质还会污染当地的水源和土壤。
美国东佐治亚大学Swainboro分校的副教授Glenn Stracher说：“煤矿失火是一个全球性的灾难。”但令人惊奇的是很少有人知道这一点。
煤能够自己提高温度，存在充足的氧气时，它能够自然。它产生的热量并不会消失，在合适的阳光和氧气条件下，它就会自燃。这种情况可能发生在地下煤矿的煤堆，废弃的煤矿，甚至在煤的运输过程中。Stracher教授告诉与会代表们，每年在中国，这种情况会消耗掉2亿吨的煤。相比之下，美国每年的用煤量为十亿吨。Stracher教授关于由煤引起的大火的影响的分析已经在《国际煤生态学期刊》上发表。煤一旦燃烧起来，就可能燃烧几十年，甚至几百年。在这个过程中，会排出大量的温室气体、有毒气体和物质到大气中。
专家们讨论了这些大火对全球和地区气候变化的影响，一致认为火灾地点发生在地下，使得火灾不容易被发现。小组的一个成员，来自荷兰国际地质信息科学和地球观测研究院的Paul Van Dijk副教授已经同中国政府合作探测和控制中国北部地区的煤矿失火情况。
远程感应以及其他技术最终将能够允许科学家们估计出究竟这些大火释放出多少一氧化碳。Goodson工程公司的Gary Colaizzi提出了一种控制火势的方法。他们公司已开发出一种隔热水泥浆（一种稀灰浆用来填充裂缝），它可以被灌注到失火的煤矿中以切断氧气来源。
1. According to the first paragraph, one of the warnings given by the scientists is that
C. poisonous elements released by the underground fires can pollute water sources.
2. According to the third paragraph, what will happen when the underground heat does not disappear?
A. Coal heats up on its own and catches fire and burns.
3. What did Stracher analyze in his article published in the International Journal of Coal Ecology?
D. Coal fires can have an impact on the environment.
4. Which of the following statements about Paul Van Dijk is Not true?
B. He has detected and monitored underground fires in Netherlands.
5. According to the fifth paragraph, what is the suggested method to control under ground fires?
D. Cutting off the oxygen supply.
★第25篇-Eat to Live为生存而食
A meager diet may give you health and long life, but it's not much fun—and it might not even be necessary. We may be able to hang on to1 most of that youthful vigor even if we don't start to diet until old age.
Stephen Spindler and his colleagues from the University of California at Riverside have found that some of an elderly mouse's liver genes can be made to behave as they did when the mouse was young simply by limiting its food for four weeks. The genetic rejuvenation won't reverse other damage caused by time for the mouse, but could help its liver metabolize drugs or get rid of toxins2.
Spindler's team fed three mice a normal diet for their whole lives, and fed another three on half-rations. Three more mice were switched from the normal diet to half-feed3 for a month when they were 34 months old—equivalent to about 70 human years.
The researchers checked the activity of 11,000 genes from the mouse livers, and found that 46 changed with age in the normally fed mice. The changes were associated with things like inflammation and free radical production4—probably bad news for mouse health. In the mice that had dieted all their lives, 27 of those 46 genes continued to behave like young genes. But the most surprising finding was that the mice that only started dieting in old age also benefited from 70 per cent of these gene changes.
“This is the first indication that thee effects kick in5 pretty quickly,” says Huber Warner from the National Institute on Aging near Washington, D. C.
No one yet knows if calorie works in people as it does in mice, bus Spindler is hopeful. “There's attracting and tempting evidence out there that it will work,” he says.
If it does work in people, there might be good reasons for rejuvenating the liver. As we get older, out bodies are les efficient at metabolizing drugs, for example. A brief period of time of dieting, says Spindler, could be enough to make sure a drug is effective.
But Spindler isn't sure the trade-off is worth it6. “The mice get less disease, they live longer but they're hungry,” he says. “Even seeing what a diet does, it's still hard to go to a restaurant and say: 'I can only eat half of that'.”
Spindler hopes we soon won't need to diet at all. His company, Life Span Genetics in California, is looking for drugs that have the effects of calorie restriction.
节食可能使你健康长寿，但并不好玩——节食可能不是非做不可的事。即使上了年纪再节食，我们仍然有可能在很大程度上保持青春活力。
StephenSpindler和他在Riverside的加利福尼亚大学的同事们已经发现，一只高龄老鼠只要连续四周限制它进食，它的某些肝脏基因就会变得和衰老前一样充满活力，老鼠的肝基因恢复活力不会逆转老鼠在其他方面的老化，但却有助于肝脏代谢药物或除去毒素。
Spindler的团队正常饲养三只老鼠直到它们死，而另外三只老鼠只喂正常饲料定量的一半。另外三只老鼠在34个月大的时候——相当于人的70岁，从正常饲养转到半量饲养一个月。
研究者检查了这些老鼠肝脏的11000个基因的活动，发现正常饲养的老鼠随着年龄的增长有46条肝脏基因发生变化。这种变化与炎症和身体组织无限激增相关——这大概对老鼠的健康来说是个坏消息。在那些终生节食的老鼠中，这46条肝脏基因中的27条继续像年轻的基因一样活动，但最惊人的发现是那些上了年纪才开始节食的老鼠也能从70%的基因变化中受益。
华盛顿附近的国家老年协会的HuberWarner说：“这是这些影响迅速起作用的第一个迹象。”
还没有知道热量限制是否在人身上和在老鼠身上一样起作用，但是Spindler怀有希望。他说：“有吸引人的证据表明它能起作用。”
如果它确实能在人身上起作用，那就有足够的理由使肝脏焕发青春秋战国。当我们变老时，我们的身体对药物的新陈代谢就不那么高效。Spindler说短期的节食足以使药物充分发挥药效。
但是Spindler不能肯定节食是否值得。他说：“老鼠们病少了，活的更长，但是它们感到饥饿。即便明白节食的作用，仍旧很难在饭馆里说我只吃一半。”
Spindler希望在不久的将来，我们不必节食，他的公司，加利福尼亚寿命遗传学，正在寻找有热量控制作用的药物。
1. According to the passage, which of the following is NOT true?
D. We have to begin dieting from childhood.
2. Why does the author mention an elderly mouse in paragraph 2?
B. To illustrate the effect of meager food on mice.
3. What can be inferred about completely normally fed mice mentioned in the passage?
D. They are more likely to suffer from inflammation.
4. According to the author, which of the following most interested the researchers?
A. The mice that started dieting in old age.
5. According to the last two paragraphs, Spindler believes that
C. dieting is not a good method to give us health and a long life.
★第26篇-Male and Female pilots cause accidents differently
男女飞行员引起飞行事故的差异
Male pilots flying general aviation。(private)aircraft in the United States are more likely to crash due to inattention or flawed decision.making.while female pilots are more likely to crash from mishandling the aircraft.These are the results of a study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The study identifies the differences between male and female pilots in terms of circumstances of the crash and the type of pilots error involved.“Crashes of general aviation aircraft account for 85 percent of all aviation deaths’in the United States.The crash rate for male pilots.as for motor vehicle drivers，exceeds that of crashes of female pilots，”explains Susan P.Baker, MPH, professor of health policy and management at the Bloomberg School of Public Health.“Because pilot youth and inexperience are established。contributors to aviation crashes, we focused on only mature pilots，to determine the gender differences in the reasons for the crash.
The researchers extracted data for this study from a large research project on pilot aging and flight safety.The data were gathered from general aviation crashes of airplanes and helicopters between 1983 and 1997，involving 144 female pilots and 267 male pilots aged 40--63.Female pilots were matched with male pilots in a l：2 ratio，by age，classes of medical and pilot certificates, state or area of crash，and year of crash.Then the circumstances of the crashes and the pilot error involved were categorized and coded without knowledge of pilot gender.
The researchers found that loss of control on landing or takeoff was the most common
circumstance for both sexes，leading to 59 percent of female pilots’crashes and 36 percent of males’.Experiencing mechanical failure，running out of fuel，and landing the plane with the landing gear up were among the factors more likely with males，while stalling was more likely with females.
The majority of the crashes——95 percent for females and 88 percent for males——involved at least one type of pilot error.Mishandling aircraft kinetics was the most common error for both sexes, but was more common among females(accounting for 81 percent of the crashes)than males (accounting for 48 percent).Males，however，appeared more likely to be guilty of poor decision-making，risk-taking，and inattentiveness, examples of which include misjudging weather and visibility or flying an aircraft with a known defect.Females，though more likely to mishandle or lose control of the aircraft，were generally more careful than their male counterparts.
在美国，专用航空的男性飞行员更容易因为精神不集中或错误决定而坠机，而女性飞行员坠机的原因更多的是降落错误。这些是约翰·霍普金斯大学布鲁姆博格公共健康学院的研究人员所做的一切研究的结果。
这项研究根据坠毁情况和飞行员类型鉴别男女飞行员之间的差异。“在美国，专用航空飞行事故占所有坠机死亡人数的85%。同机动车驾驶员情况相似，男性飞行员的坠毁率超过了女性飞行员。”布鲁姆博格公共健康学院的健康政策及管理博士Susan P.Baker解释说，“因为飞行员的年轻和缺乏经验是已经确定的造成飞行事故的原因，我们主要集中在成熟的飞行员身上，研究由于性别差异导致的坠机。”
研究人员从一项关于飞行员的年龄增长与飞行安全的研究中获取数据用于这个项目。这些数据收集于1983年至1997年间的飞机和直升机专用飞行的坠毁情况。其中包括了年龄在40岁到63岁之间的144个女性飞行员和267个男性飞行员。女飞行员和男飞行员根据年龄，医疗和飞行证书的等级，事故地点和事故年份按1：2的比例分配。然后不考虑飞行员的性别对相关的事故环境和飞行员失误进行分类和加密。
研究人员发现，不论男女，起飞和降落时的失控是最常见的情况，在男女飞行员的事故比例中，分别占36%和59%。机械故障，燃油耗尽和降落时不放下起落装置是男飞行员更常犯的错误，而降落时陷于泥中则更容易发生在女飞行员身上。
绝大部分的坠毁事故——女飞行员中的95%，男飞行员中的88%——都至少由飞行员的一项失误引起。降落时错误的动力学是所有飞行员中最常见的错误，但是，在女飞行员中更为常见（占事故的81%，男飞行员为48%）。可是，男飞行员更容易做出错误或冒险的决定，注意力不集中，比如对天气和能见度判断失误或驾驶一架明知有故障的飞机。比起她们的男同行来说，女飞行员更加小心，虽然她们有时容易操作不当。
1. What is the research at Johns Hopkins University about?
B) Gender difference in relation to types of aircraft crashes.
2. Which of the statements is NOT true according to the second paragraph?
D) Only mature pilots are studied to determine the gender differences in the reasons for aircraft crash.
3. How did the researchers carry out their study?
A) They studied the findings of several previous research projects.
4. What is the most common circumstance of crash with female pilots?
B) Loss of control on landing or takeoff and stalling.
5. In the comparison of female and male pilots,
D) male pilots are found to make more errors in decision-making.
★第27篇Driven to Distraction分散注意力驾驶
Joe Coyne slides into the driver’s eat, starts up the car and heads to town. The empty stretch of interstate gives way to urban congestion, and Coyne hits the brakes as a pedestrian suddenly crosses the street in front of him.
But even if he hadn’t stopped in time, the woman would have been safe. She isn’t real. Neither is the town. And Coyne isn’t really driving. Coyne is demonstrating a computerized driving simulator that is helping researchers at Old Dominion University (ODU) examine how in-vehicle guidance systems affect the person behind the wheel.
The researchers want to know if such systems, which give audible or written directions, are too distracting—or whether any distractions are offset by the benefits drivers get from having help finding their way in unfamiliar locations.
“We’re looking at the performance and mental workload of drivers,” said Caryl Baldwin, the assistant psychology professor leading the research, which involves measuring drivers’ reaction time and brain activity as they respond to auditory and visual cues.
The researchers just completed a study of the mental workload involved in driving through different kinds of environments and heavy vs. light traffic. Preliminary results show that as people “get into more challenging driving situations, they don’t have any extra mental energy to respond to something else in the environment,” Baldwin said.
But the tradeoffs could be worth it, she said. This next step is to test different ways of giving drivers navigational information and how those methods change the drivers’ mental workload.
“Is it best if they see a picture…that shows their position, a map kind of display?” Baldwin said. “Is it best if they hear it?” navigational systems now on the market give point-by-point directions that follow a prescribed route. “They’re very unforgiving,” Baldwin said. “If you miss a turn, they can almost seem to get angry.”
That style of directions also can be frustrating for people who prefer more general instructions. But such broad directions can confuse drivers who prefer route directions, Baldwin said.
Perhaps manufacturers should allow drivers to choose the style of directions they want, or modify systems to present some information in a way that makes sense for people who prefer the survey style, she said.
Interestingly, other research has shown that about 60 percent of men prefer the survey style, while 60 percent women prefer the route style, Baldwin said. This explains the classic little thing of why men don’t like to stop and ask for directions and women do, Baldwin added.
JoeCoyne滑进驾驶室，发动汽车朝城里开去。空荡荡的那段州际公路结束了，进入到拥塞的城市。这时，一个行人突然从Coyne的车前穿过，他急忙紧急刹车。
但是，就算Coyne来不及刹车，那个妇女也不会有事儿。因为，她是一个假人。整座城市也是假的。Coyne并不是真的在开车。他只是在演示一个计算机操控的驾驶模拟器，帮助OldDominion大学的研究者们检测车内导向系统如何影响开车人。
研究者们希望了解驾驶员在陌生环境里从这一系统提供的那些语音或书面的说明中得到的导路指南等益处是否抵消了这些东西引起的注意力不集中的问题。
主持研究的心理学副教授CarylBaldwin说：“我们一直关注着驾驶员的表现和精神负荷”这包括驾驶员在对听觉和视觉提示做出反应时的反应时间和大脑活动。
研究人员刚刚完成了一项关于在不同环境中，如交通畅通或交通拥挤时驾驶员精神负荷的调查。Baldwin说，初步的调查结果显示人们“在更富有挑战性的环境中驾驶时，并不会对周围环境的变化做出更大的反应。”
她说，两种提示的交替使用还是有效的。下一步，他们将测试为驾驶员提供导向信息的不同方法以及这些方法如何改变驾驶员的精神负荷。
Baldwin说：“是给驾驶员看类似地图那样的显示图片好，还是让他们听到指示信息好呢？”
现在市场上的导向系统会给出点对点的方向信息，同时还会提供预定的路线。Baldwin说：“这些系统通常不会原谅人的错误。如果驾驶员错过了一个转变，它们就会变得非常生气。”
这种提供方向信息的方式通常会使更喜欢笼统信息的驾驶员产生一种受挫感。Baldwin说，笼统的信息却会使更喜欢线路批示的驾驶员感到困惑。
她说，也许，是系统制造商们应该允许驾驶员能够选择自己喜欢的指示方式，或者使系统能够为更喜欢调查信息方式的驾驶员提供有用的信息。
有意思的是，其他研究者表示60%的男性更喜欢这种提供调查信息的导向系统，而60%的女性则更喜欢线路指示系统。Baldwin说，这也就可以解释那个为什么女人喜欢下车问路，而男人却不的经典例子。
1. Which statement is true of the description in the first two paragraphs?
C. Coyne is not really driving so it is impossible for him to have hit the woman.
2. What do researchers want to find out, according to the third and fourth paragraphs?
A. Whether or not audible or written directions are distracting.
B. how long it will take the driver to respond to auditory and visual stimuli.
C. How the driver perform under certain metal workload.
D. All of the above.
3. What are the preliminary results given in the fifth paragraph?
C. In challenging driving situations, drivers do not have any additional mental energy to deal with something else.
4. The sixth paragraph mainly state that the researchers.
D. want to determine the best ways of giving navigational information system.
5. What kind of directions do men and women prefer?
B. Men prefer more general directions and women prefer route direction.
★第28篇-Sleep Lets Brain File Memories睡眠促使记忆归档存储
To sleep. Perchance to file? Findings published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences further support the theory that the brain organizes and stows memories formed during the day while the rest of the body is catching zzz's.
Gyorgy Buzsaki of Rutgers University5 and his colleagues analyzed the brain waves of sleeping rats and mice. Specifically, they examined the electrical activity emanating from6 the somatosensory neocortex (an area that processes sensory information) and the hippocampus, which is a center for learning and memory. The scientists found that oscillations in brain waves from the two regions appear to be intertwined. So-called sleep spindles (bursts of activity from the neocortex) were followed tens of milliseconds later by beats in the hippocampus known as ripples. The team posits that this interplay between the two brain regions is a key step in memory consolidation. A second study, also published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, links age-associated memory decline to high glucose levels.
Previous research had shown that individuals with diabetes suffer from increased memory problems. In the new work, Antonio Convit of New York University School of Medicine and his collaborators studied 30 people whose average age was 69 to investigate whether sugar levels, which tend to increase with age, affect memory in healthy people as well. The scientists administered11 recall tests, brain scans and glucose tolerance tests, which measure how quickly sugar is absorbed from the blood by the body's tissues. Subjects with the poorest memory recollection, the team discovered, also displayed the poorest glucose tolerance. In addition, their brain scans showed more hippocampus shrinkage than those of subjects better able to absorb blood sugar.
"Our study suggests that this impairment12 may contribute to the memory deficits13 that occur as people age." Convit says. "And it raises the intriguing possibility that improving glucose tolerance could reverse some age-associated problems in cognition.14" Exercise and weight control can help keep glucose levels in check15, so there may be one more reason to go to the gym.
睡觉。说不定就是在整理归类记忆?刊登在最近网上出版的国家科学院文献汇编上的新发现进一步证明了这个理论：当人体的其他部分在鼾声中安眠时，人体的大脑就在整理和储存着白天形成的记忆。
美国新泽西州立大学的乔治·Buzsaki和他的同事们分析了睡眠中的老鼠和田鼠的脑波。他们特别研究了源于学习记忆中心——大脑知觉新皮质(充满知觉信息的区域)和大脑侧面脑室壁上的隆起物——的电流活动。科学家们发现，这两个区域的脑波变化仿佛处于交织状态。而10毫秒后大脑侧面脑室壁上的隆起物发出的波动将紧跟着所谓的睡眠纺缍体(新皮质上的种种活动)。这队科学家们假设这两个大脑区域的互动是理解增强记忆的关键。
接下来的研究，同样也是刊登在这周网上出版的国家科学院文献汇编中，是关于与年龄相关的由于葡萄糖浓度过高引起的记忆衰退。
之前的一项研究表明，患糖尿病的人一直受到记忆衰退的困扰。纽约大学医学院的安东尼·康威特及其同事在一项新的工程中研究了30个平均年龄69岁的人，以调查是否血糖浓度，随着年龄增长而增长，同样会影响健康人的记忆。科学家们实施了回忆测试、脑部扫描和血糖浓度容许量测试，以便测量出人体组织从血液中吸收糖分的速度。这对科学家发现，与最次的记忆相对的，是最低的血糖浓度容许量。此外，他们的脑部扫描也显示出海马状突起的缩小要比那些更容易从血液中吸收糖分的人明显。
“我们的研究表明，这种海马状突起的缩小对人类年龄增大而出现的记忆衰退有着不可忽视的影响”，康威特指出，“这一发现大大激增了令人兴奋的可能性，即，不断改善葡萄糖容许量可以完全改变对某些与年龄相关的认知问题。”身体锻炼和体重控制能限制葡萄糖浓度，由此，我们有了更多去健身房的理由。
1.Which of the following statements is nearest in meaning to the sentence”To sleep. Perchance to file?”
A Does brain arrange memories in useful order during sleep?
2.What is the resule of the experiment with rats and mice carried out at Rutgers University?
C Somatosensory neocortex and hippocampus work together in memory consolidation.
3.What is the relation of memory to glucose tolerance, as os omdocated by a research mentioned in paragraph 4?
D The poorer the memory , the poorer glucose tolerance.
4.In what way is memory related to hippocampus shrinkage.
B The more hippocampus shrinks, the poorer one’s memory.
5.According to the last paragraph, what is the ultimate reason for going to the gym?
D To control glucose levels
★第29篇- I’ll Be Bach
Composer David Cope is the inventor of a computerprogram that writes original works of classical music. It took Cope 30 years todevelop the software. Now most people can’t tell the difference between musicby the famous German composer J. S. Bach (1685-1750) and the Bach-likecompositions from Cope’s computer.
It all started in 1980 in the United States, whenCope was trying to write an opera. He was having trouble thinking of newmelodies, so he wrote a computer program to create the melodies. At first thismusic was not easy to listen to. What did Cope do? He began to rethink howhuman beings compose music. He realized that composers，brains work like big databases.First, they take in all the music that they have ever heard. Then they take outthe music that they dislike. Finally, they make new music from what is left.According to Cope, only the great composers are able to create the databaseaccurately, remember it, and form new musical patterns from it.
Cope built a huge database of existing music. He beganwith hundreds of works by Bach. The software analyzed the data：it broke it down into smallerpieces and looked for patterns. It then combined the pieces into new patterns.Before long, the program could compose short Bach-like works. They weren’t good,but it was a start.
Cope knew he had more work to do-he had a wholeopera to write. He continued to improve the software. Soon it could analyzemore complex music. He also added many other composers, including his own work,to the database.
A few years later，Cope’s computer program, called “Emmy”，was ready to help him with his opera. The process required a lot ofcollaboration between the composer and Emmy. Cope listened to the computer’smusical ideas and used the ones that he liked. With Emmy, the opera took onlytwo weeks to finish. It was called Cradle Falling, and it was a great success!Cope received some of the best reviews of his career, but no one knew exactlyhow he had composed the work.
Since that first opera, Emmy has written thousandsof compositions. Cope still gives Emmy feedback on what he likes and doesn’tlike of her music, but she is doing most of the hard work of composing thesedays!
作曲家大卫•科普发明了一个电脑软件，它能编写出古典音乐的原创作品。科普花了 30年才 完成这个软件，现在，科普的电脑写出的作品与德国著名作曲家J.S.巴赫写的作品很相似，很少 有人能分辨出其中不同。
这一切始于1980年的美国，那时科普正在写一部戏剧，但是他无法创作出新的旋律.于楚他 编写了一个电脑软件来帮他编曲。最开始的时候，软件写出的乐曲并不动听。科普是怎么做的呢？ 他幵始重新考虑人们作曲的方式。他认识到作曲家的大脑就像一个大数据库，他们先是吸收他们 听过的所有音乐，然后去除他们不喜欢的，最后再根据留下的音乐来创作出新的旋律。科普认为， 只有伟大的作曲家才能建立好的数据库，并且能熟记于心，从而创造出新的音乐。
科普根据现有的音乐建立了庞大的数据庳，最开始的时候，数据库包含了几百部巴赫的作品。 科普的软件将这些数据进行分析：首先它将音乐拆解成小的片段，从中找出固定模式，然后将片 段组合成新的模式。不久，这个软件就能够写出和巴赫风格很像的小曲子。它们并不完美，但这 只是个开始。
科普知道，他要做的还有很多一他得写出一整部歌剧。他进一步完普他的软件，不久它就 能够写出更复杂的音乐了。他还在数据库中加人了一些其他作曲家的作品，其中也包括他自己的
作品。
几年后，科普的软件“艾米”已经能够帮助他创作歌剧了。创作过程餹要作曲家和艾米共同 配合。科赘聆听艾米写出的音乐片段，从中选取他认为好的。有了艾米的帮助，科蓊只用了两个 星期就完成了这部歌剧，叫做《摇篮坠落》。演出获得巨大成功，科普也得到了他有生以来最高 的评价，但是没有人知道他究竟是怎样创作出这部歌剧的。
从那以后，艾米已经写了上千部作品。科普现在依然会给艾米反馈，吿诉她自己哪些音乐是 他喜欢的，哪些是不喜欢的，但是现在大部分艰巨的工作是由艾米来完成的！
1. The music composed by David cope is about
A classical music.
2. By developing a computer software,David Cope aimed
C to write an opera.
3. What did Cope realize about a great composer's brain?
D It creates an accurate database.
4.WhoisEmmy? B a computer software
5. We can infer from the passage that
D Emmy did much more work than a composer.
★第30篇-Digital Realm数码王国
In the digital realm, the next big advance will be voice recognition. The rudiments are already here but in primitive form. Ask a computer to “recognize speech,” and it is likely to think you want it to “wreck a nice beach.” But in a decade or so we’ll be able to chat away and machines will soak it all in5. Microchips will be truly embedded in our lives when we can talk to them. Not only to our computers; we’ll also able to chat our automobile navigation systems, telephone consoles6, browsers, thermostats, VCRs, microwaves and any other devices we want to boss around7.
That will open the way to the next phase of the digital age: artificial intelligence. By our providing so many thoughts and preferences to our machines each day, they’ll accumulate enough information about how we think so that they’ll be able to mimic our minds and act as our agents. Scary, huh? But potentially quite useful. At least until they don’t need us anymore and start building even smarter machines they can boss around.
The law powering the digital age up until now has been Gordon Moore’s: that microchips will double in power and halve in price every 18 months or so. Bill Gates rules because early on he acted on the assumption that computing power—the capacity of microprocessors and memory chips—would become nearly free; his company kept churning out more and more lines of complex software to make use of the cheap bounty. The law that will power the next few decades is that the bandwidth (the capacity of fiber-optic and other pipelines to carry digital communications) will become nearly free.
Along with the recent advances in digital switching and storage technologies, this means a future in which all forms of content—movies, music, shows, books, data, magazines, newspapers, your aunt’s recipes and home videos—will be instantly available anywhere on demand. Anyone will be able to be a producer of any content; you’ll be able to create a movie or magazine, make it available to the world and charge for it, just like Time Warner!
The result will be a transition from a mass-market world to a personalized one. Instead of centralized factories and studios that distribute or broadcast the same product to millions, technology is already allowing products to be tailored to each user. You can subscribe to news sources that serve up only topics and opinions that fit your fancy. Everything from shoes to steel can be customized to meet individual wishes.
数码王国的下一个大发展将是语音识别系统。这个系统的雏形已经形成，但仅仅是个最原始的形态。冲着电脑讲：“识别语音”，很可能出现的后果是电脑会认为你要它去“毁坏一个美丽的海滩”。但时下多年后我们就能不停的冲着电脑聊下去，而它也能完全理解我们的意思。当我们能与电脑芯片对话时，它就会深深的影响着我们的生活。不仅仅是电脑，我们甚至能与自动交通系统、电话座机、浏览器和恒温器、大屏幕、微波设备，还有别的我们需要发布命令的机器聊天。
这将会为我们打开一下个数码纪元的大门：人工智能。随着我们每天不断地向机器人提供各种想法和喜好，机器将会积累足够的信息来了解我们的想法，可以模仿我们的大脑思维，扮演着代理人的角色。吓到了，哈？但这个设想的潜在作用很大，至少在这之前很有用——人工智能型机器人决定不再需要我们并开始独立制造更为聪明的机器以供驱策。
迄今为止的数码时代的法则是由戈登·穆尔制定的，即：每18个月电脑芯片的功能加倍而价格减至一半。而稍稍早些比尔·盖茨之所以能够操控着电脑界是因为他按照计算机将会统治世界的假定行动——微处理器和记忆芯片的价格会趋于零；他和他的公司一直大量的捆绑销售越来越多的系列软件。而接下来的几十年中，新的法则会是光纤宽带及其他输送数码通讯渠道的费用趋于零。
随着数码启动和储存的最新发展，上述法则意味着未来所有的相关内容——电影、音乐、演出、书籍、资料、杂志、报纸，甚至你婶婶的菜谱和家庭录影——随时随地都可以立即下载。任何人都可以成为上述内容的出品者；你甚至也能创出一本杂志或是制作一部电影，提供给全世界的人并收取费用，就像泰姆·华纳。
结果是大众化市场朝着个性化市场转变。不同于传统的集中的电影厂和工作室向数百万人提供播放的同种产品，现在的技术已经能使产品满足不同人的不同需要。你可以付费给提供你个人喜欢的新闻信息的系统。从鞋类到钢材都可以满足消费者的个性需求。
1. The techniques of voice recognition
B are in its initial stage of development.
2. According to the second paragraph, when we reach the stage of artificial intelligence,
A machines can be our agents as they understand our thoughts.
3. What’s the best description of Grodon Moore’s law as mentioned in the third paragraph?
A It motivates the development of the digital world.
4. What can people do in a future scene as described in the fourth paragraph?
D All of the above.
5. Which of the following statements is true of a personalized market?
C In a personalized market, products are tailored to each consumer.
★第31篇-Hurricane Katrina卡特里娜飓风
A hurricane is a fiercely powerful, rotating form of tropical storm that can be 124 to 1,240 miles in diameter. The term hurricane is derived from Hurican, the name of a native American storm god. Hurricanes are typical of a calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter, known as the eye. They occur in tropical regions. Over its lifetime, one of these storms can release as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs.
The seed for hurricane formation5 is a cluster of thunderstorms over warm tropical waters. Hurricanes can only form and be fed when the sea-surface temperature exceeds 27℃ and the surrounding atmosphere is calm. These requirements are met between June and November in the northern hemisphere.
Under these conditions, large quantities of water evaporate and condense into clouds and rain - releasing heat in the process. It is this heat energy, combined with the rotation of the Earth, that drives a hurricane.
When the warm column of air from the sea surface first begins to rise, it causes an area of low pressure. This in turn creates wind as air is drawn into the area. This spinning wind drags up more moisture-laden air from the sea surface in a process that swells the storm. Cold air falls back to the ocean surface through the eye and on the outside of the storm.
Initially, when wind speeds reach 23 miles per hour, these mild, wet and grey weather systems are known as depressions. Hurricane Katrina formed in this way over the south-eastern Bahamas on 23 August 2005. Katrina has had a devastating impact on the Gulf Coast of the US, leaving a disaster zone of 90,000 square miles in its wake - almost the size of the UK. Thousands have been killed or injured and more than half a million people have been displaced in a humanitarian crisis of a scale not seen in the US since the great depression. The cost of the
飓风是一种猛烈、强力、螺旋形式的热带风暴。直径可达124到1240英里。飓风hurricane一词是由Hurican一词衍生而来，指印第安人风暴之神的名字。飓风的特征是其中 心的无风区域，那里的气压低，直径在12到60英里之间，被称做风眼。它们在热带区域出 现。在飓风肆虐的整个过程中，有一种飓风可释放相当于1万颗核弹的能量。
飓风形成的原因是由于雷暴聚集在温暖的热带水面之上。只有当海平面的温度超过27摄氏度并且周围的空气稳定时，飓风才能形成，壮大。在六月到十一月之间的北半球这些条件可被达到。
在这种情况下，大量的水蒸气凝结成云和雨，并在此过程中释放热量。正是这些热能，加上地球的自转驱动着飓风。
当海平面的柱状暖气流首次开始上升时，它会引起一片低气压区。而这连带地形成了风，因为空气被吸引流动进这一低气压区域。这一旋转运动的风带起了海面上更多的充满 水汽的空气。这一过程增大了暴风的威力。冷空气通过暴风中心降回海面，落到暴风外 围。
一开始，当风速达到每小时23英里时，这些温和、潮湿灰色的气候系统被称做低气压 区。2005年的8月23日，卡特里娜飓风以这种方式在巴哈马群岛东南形成。卡特里娜飓风对美国的墨西哥湾沿岸造成了毁灭性打击。其后留下了面积为9万平方英里的受灾区域——几乎和英国的面积一样大。数以千计的人因此伤亡。五十多万人被迫离开家园，如
此大规模的人道主义危机是美国自大萧条以来还未经历过的。此次飓风造成的破坏可能超过l千亿美元。
1. What is the eye of a hurricane?
C) A calm central region of low pressure between 12 to 60 miles in diameter.
2. Which of the following is NOT the "requirements" mentioned in the second paragraph?
A) The tropical waters are warm and calm.
3. Which of the following is the best explanation of the word "drive" in the third paragraph?
C) To supply the motive force or power and cause to function.
4. What does the warm air mentioned in the fourth paragraph produce when it is rising from thesea surface?
B) Low pressure.
5. What is NOT true of Hurricane Katrina according to the last paragraph?
D) The humanitarian crisis is as serious as that of the great depression
★第32篇-Mind-reading1 Machine读心机
A team of researchers in California has developed a way to predict what kinds of objects people are looking at by scanning what's happening in their brains.
When you look at something, your eyes send a signal about that object to your brain. Different regions of the brain process the information your eyes send. Cells in your brain called neurons are responsible for this processing.
The fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging ) 2 brain scans could generally match electrical activity in the brain to the basic shape of a picture that someone was looking at.
Like cells anywhere else in your body, active neurons use oxygen. Blood brings oxygen to the neurons, and the more active a neuron is, the more oxygen it will consume. The more active a region of the brain, the more active its neurons, and in turn, the more blood will travel to that region. And by using fMRI, scientists can visualize3 which parts of the brain receive more oxygen-rich blood--and therefore, which parts are working to process information.
An fMRI machine is a device that scans the brain and measures changes in blood flow to the brain. The technology shows researchers how brain activity changes when a person thinks, looks at something, or carries out an activity like speaking or reading. By highlighting the areas of the brain at work when a person looks at different images, fMRI may help scientists determine specific patterns of brain activity associated with different kinds of images.
The California researchers tested brain activity by having two volunteers view hundreds of pictures of everyday objects, like people, animals, and fruits. The scientists used an fMRI machine to record the volunteers' brain activity with each photograph they looked at. Different objects caused different regions of the volunteers' brains to light up on the scan, indicating activity. The scientists used this information to build a model to predict how the brain might respond to any image the eyes see.
In a second test, the scientists asked the volunteers to look at 120 new pictures. Like before, their brains were scanned every time they looked at a new image. This time, the scientists used their model to match the fMRI scans to the image. For example, if a scan in the second test showed the same pattern of brain activity that was strongly related to pictures of apples in the first test, their model would have predicted the volunteers were looking at apples.
一个加州的研究团队开发了一种可以通过扫描人体大脑所发生的变化从而预测出这个人正在看一些什么样的物体的方法。
当你注视一些物体时，你的眼睛会发送一个关于该物体的信号到你的大脑中。大脑的不同区域处理眼睛发送的这些信号。大脑中负责这个过程的细胞叫做神经元。
FMBI(功能性磁振造影)脑扫描可以大体地比较大脑中人们对所观察物体基本形状的电运动。
像身体中其他地方的细胞一样，活跃的神经元细胞也需要氧气。血液为神经元提供氧气，神经元越活跃，对氧气量的需求越大。大脑中越是活跃的区域，它的神经元也就越活跃，为此，更多的血液会流经这一区域。那么通过使用FMBI，科学家可以使大脑中接收相对多的富氧血液的部分可视化。因此，可视化的部分就是处理信息的部分
FMRI机是一种可以扫描大脑和测量流向大脑的血液变化的设备。这项技术为研究者显示，当人们思考观察进行像说话阅读这样的活动时，大脑运动的变化。通过突出显示人们观看不同图像时头脑工作的区域，FMRI可以帮助科学家们确定与不同图像相关的大脑活动的具体形式。
加州的研究者让两个志愿者观察数百个诸如人、动物和水果这样的日常事物。他们用这样方式来测试大脑的活动。科学家使用FMRI机来记录志愿者看每一张图片时大脑的活动。显示这一活动时，不同物体会使志愿者大脑的不同区域在扫描时亮度增加。科学家利用此信息来建立一种模式去预测大脑对所看到事物可能如何反映。
在第二个测试中，科学家让志愿者看120个新图像。和以前一样，他们每看一张新图像时大脑都被扫描一次。这次，科学家用他们的模式来比较FMRI扫描的图像。例如，如果图像在第二次测试显示相同的形式的大脑活动，同时，该脑活动与在第一次测试中苹果图片有大关联，那么这个模式可能会预测出志愿者们正在看一些苹果。
1. What is responsible for processing the information sent by your eyes?
C）Neurons in the brain.
2. Which of the following statements is NOT meant by the writer?
D）fMRI helps scientists to discover how the brain develops intelligently.
3. "Highlighting the areas of the brain at work" means
A）"marking the parts of the brain that are processing information"
4. What did the researchers experiment on?
B）Two volunteers.
5. Which of the following can be the best replacement of the tide?
B）Your Thoughts Can Be Scanned.
★第33篇-Experts Call for Local and Regional Control of Sites for Radioactive Waste专家呼吁局部和区域控制放射性废物地点
The withdrawal of Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a potential nuclear waste repository1 has reopened the debate over how and where to dispose of spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste. In an article in the July 10 issue of Science, University of Michigan2 geologist Rodney Ewing and Princeton University3 nuclear physicist Frank von Hippel argue that, although federal agencies should set standards and issue licenses for the approval of nuclear facilities, local communities and states should have the final approval on the siting of these facilities. The authors propose the development of multiple sites that would service the regions where nuclear reactors are located.
"The main goal…, should be to provide the Unied States with multiple process that requires acceptance by host communities and states," the authors write.
Ewing and yon Hippel also analyze the reasons why Yucca Mountain, selected by Congress4 in 1987 as the only site to be investigated for long-term nuclear waste disposal, finally was shelved5 after more than three decades of often controversial debate. The reasons include the site's geological problems, management problems, important changes in the Environmental Protection Agency's standard, unreliable funding and the failure to involve local communities in the decision-making process.Going forward, efforts should be directed at locating storage facilities in the nation's northeastern, southeastern, midwestern and western regions, and states within a given region should be responsible for developing solutions that suit their particular circumstances. Transportation of nuclear waste over long distances, which was a concern with the Yucca Mountain site, would be less of a problem because temporary storage or geological disposal sites could be located closer to reactors.
"This regional approach would be similar to the current approach in Europe, where spent nuclear fuel6 and high-level nuclear waste7 from about 150 reactors and reprocessing plants is to be moved to a number of geological repositories in a variety of rock types8," said Rodney Ewing, who has written extensively about the impact of nuclear waste management on the environment and who has analyzed safety assessment criteria for the controversial Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
撤消内华达州尤卡山作为一个潜在的核废物处置库重新开启了关于怎么和往哪里处理乏核燃料和高放核废物的讨论。在七月十目的科学报的一篇文章中，美国密歇根大学地质学家Rodney
Ewing和美国普林斯顿大学的核物理学家Frank von Hippel指出，虽然联邦局玎以制定核设施标准和颁发许可证，但是当地社区和州应该在选址问题上有最后的决定权。作者提议发展多种多样的场地以便能够服务那些核反应所在的地方。
“主要的目的…就是给美国在公开的场地和设计程序上提供多重选择和更多的公众参与，也需要各地区和州的同意。”作者写道。
Ewing and von Hippel也分析了为什么尤卡山在1987年被美国国会选为长期存放核废物的地点，却在三十年之后的争议下被束之高阁。原因包括这个地方的地址问题、管理问题、环境保护局标准的变化、不可靠的资金和在做决定时没有使地方社区参与进来。
以后，我们应该把安放存储设备的地点转到这个国家的东北、东南、中西部和西部地区，并且处于该特定地区的州应该负责制定方案来适应当地特定的环境。尤卡山存在的远距离运输核废物问题应该不算什么问题，因为暂时存储和地质处理点都离反应装置很近。
“这个地区的方法应该和目前欧洲的方法很像，在那里，乏核燃料和高(强度)放(射性)核废物都要以大约150个核反直装置和再处理的I厂转移到各种不同岩层中的地贯处置本中。”Rodney Ewing说，他写了大量关于核废物对环境的影响的文章，而且分析了这个受争议的尤卡山核废料库的安全评价标准。
1. Which of the following words can best substitute the word "withdrawal" in the first paragraph?
B Canceling.
2. According to Rodney Ewing and Frand von Hippel, where to locate nuclear facilities
B should be approved by local people and states.
3. What is NOT true about the 1987 decision by Congress concerning siting of nuclear waste disposal?
D The decision by Congress was accepted by local communities.
4. What does the author of the essay in the fourth paragraph want to say?
C Efforts should be made to develop nuclear disposal sites to suit the circumstances of the region.
5. What is meant by "regional approach" as mentioned in the last paragraph?
C Spent nuclear fuel and high –level nuclear waste is moved to developing countries.
一、Mobile Phones
Mobile phones should carry a label if they proved1 to be a dangerous source of radiation, according to Robert Bell, a scientist. And no more mobile phone transmitter towers should be built until the long-term health effects of the electromagnetic radiation they emit are scientifically evaluated, he said. “Nobody’s going to drop dead overnight2 but we should be asking for more scientific information，” Robert Bell said at a conference on the health effects of low-level radiation. ____1_C___
A report widely circulated among the public says that up to now scientists do not really know enough to guarantee there are no ill-effects on humans from electromagnetic radiation. According to Robert Bell, there are 3. 3 million mobile phones in Australia alone and they are increasing by 2,000 a day3. ____2__B__
As well, there are 2,000 transmitter towers around Australia, many in high density residential areas5. ____3_E___The electromagnetic radiation emitted from these towers may have already produced some harmful effects on the health of the residents nearby.
Robert Bell suggests that until more research is completed the Government should ban construction of phone towers from within a 500 metre radius of school grounds, child care centres, hospitals, sports playing fields and residential areas with a high percentage of children. ___4_A_ He adds that there is also evidence that if cancer sufferers are subjected to electromagnetic waves the growth rate of the disease accelerates.
_5_D__ According to Robert Bell, it is reasonable for the major telephone companies to fund it. Besides, he also urges the Government to set up a wide-ranging inquiry into possible health effects.
练习：
A He says there is emerging evidence that children absorb low-level radiation at a rate more than three times that of adults6.
B By the year 20004 it is estimated that Australia will have 8 million mobile phones ：nearly one for every two people.
C “If mobile phones are found to be dangerous, they should carry a warning label until proper shields can be devised,” he said.
D Then who finances the research?
E For example, Telstra, Optus and Vodaphone build their towers where it is geographically suitable to them and disregard the need of the community.
F The conclusion is that mobile phones brings more harm than benefit.
移动电话
根据科学家罗伯特?贝尔的观点，如果移动电话被证实是一种辐射危害的来源的话，那在上 面应该贴一个标签。而且直到移动电话发射塔的电磁辐射对人体健康的长期影响有一个合乎科学 的评价之前，不能建造更多的发射塔。“没有人会在一个晚上就倒地死去，伹我们还是应该寻找更 多的科学论据去指出它的危害。”罗伯特?贝尔在一次关于少量辐射对人体健康影响的会议上说。 “如果移动电话被证明有危害，就应该在它上面贴一个警告标签，直到设计出合适的隔离屏为 止。”他说。
在公众中一个广泛的流行说法是，现在的科学家们还不能完全地保证，电磁辐射对人类没有 负面影响。正如罗伯特?贝尔所指出，仅在澳大利亚就有330万部移动电话，而且正以每天 2 000部的速度增加。估计到公元2000年之前澳大利亚将拥有800万部移动电话，接近每两人一部手机。
同时，在澳大利亚境内分布着2 000座发射塔，其中有许多还坐落在人口密集的居民区。例 如，Telstra, Optus和Vodaphone所建造的发射塔从地理位置上来说是合适的，但都忽视了公众的 需求。从这些发射塔发出的电磁辖射可能已经对附近的居民产生了一些有害影响。
罗伯特?贝尔建议，在更多的研究工作未完成之前，政府应该禁止在学校操场、儿童日托中 心、医院、运动场所以及儿童占比例较高的居住场所方圆500米范围内建造发射塔。他说显现的 证据表明，儿童以成年人三倍多的比例吸收微量辐射。同时他补充说还有一个证据证明如果癌症 患者受到电磁波的辐射，就会导致疾病的加速恶化。
那么谁资助这项研究呢?罗伯特?贝尔认为由较大的电话公司提供资金是合情合理的，他还极力主张政府进行一系列广泛的关于辐射可能对身体健康有所影响的调查与研究。
二、The World's Longest Bridge
Rumor has it that1 a legendary six-headed monster lurks in the deep waters of the Tyrrhenian
Sea between Italy and the island of Sicily.(1C) When completed in 2010, theworld's longest bridge will weigh nearly 300,000 tons 一 equivalent to the iceberg that sank the Titanic — and stretch 5 kilometers long. “ That's nearly 50 percent longer than any other bridge ever built. ’，says structural engineer Shane Rixon.
(2B) They're suspension bridges, massive structures built to span vast water channels or gorges. A suspension bridge needs just two towers to shoulder the structure's mammoth weight, thanks to hefty supporting cables slung between the towers and anchored firmly in deep pools of cement at each end of the bridge. The Messina Strait Bridge will have two 54，100-ton towers, which will support most of the bridge's load. The beefy cables of the bridge, each 1. 2 meter in diameter, will hold up the longest and widest bridge deck ever built.
When construction begins on the Messina Strait Bridge in 2005, the first job will be to erect two 370 meter-tall steel towers. (3E ) Getting these cables up will be something2. It's not just their length — totally 5. 3 kilometers — but their weight. '—— (4F)
After lowering vertical “suspender’，cables from the main cables, builders will erect a 60 meter-wide 54,630-ton steel roadway, or deck— wide enough to accommodate 12 lanes of traffic. The deck's weight will pull down on the cables with a force of 70,500 tons. In return, the cables yank up against their firmly rooted anchors with a force of 139，000 tons — equivalent to the weight of about 100,000 cars. Those anchors are essential. (5D)
练习：
A Some environmentalists are against the project on biological grounds.
B What do the world's longest bridges have in common?
C If true, one day you might spy the beast while zipping (呼晡而过)across the Messina Strait Bridge.
D They're what will keep the bridge from going anywhere.
E The second job will be to pull two sets of steel cables across the strait, each set being a bundle of 44,352 individual steel wires.
F They will tip up the scales at 166,500 tons — more than half the bridge's total mass.
译文：世界上最长的桥
据传说，在意大利和西西里岛间的第勒尼安海的深处，潜伏着一头神奇的六头怪兽。如果这是真的，你有可能在飞驶过墨西拿海峡桥时窥视到这怪物。到2010年该桥竣工的时候，它将是一座世界上最长且重达30万吨的大桥，这个重量近似于撞沉泰坦尼克号巨轮的冰山的重量。这座桥长约5千米，桥的结构工程师雪恩·里克森说：“|它比有史以来最长的桥还长出约50%。”
那么，世界上最长的这些桥之间有什么共同点呢?它们都是吊桥，有着巨大的桥的构架，横跨航道或峡谷间的巨大水域。一座吊桥只需要两个塔身来支撑绳索。墨西拿海峡桥的两座塔将分别重54100吨，它们将支撑住桥的大部分重量。桥的绳索很结实，每条直径1.2米，它们将支起建桥史上最长最宽的桥板。
墨西拿海峡桥的建造将于2005年开始，那时要做的第一项工作将是树立起两座370米高的铁塔。第二项工作将是在海峡两端支起两套钢索，每一套绳索由44352根单独的钢缆组成。把这些钢缆举起来是很不容易地。这不仅仅体现在钢缆很长(共有5.3千米)，而且也由于它们的重量，它们将重达166500吨，这个重量已超过类桥总重量的一半。
在从主绳索上降下垂直的悬索后，建造者将造起一条60米宽、54630吨重的公路，或者说是桥板，这个宽度的路将可容纳12条交通车道。桥板的重量将使两端的钢索负重70500吨。反过来，相应的钢索将以139000吨的力度拽着牢牢扎根了的固定物，这个力度近似于10万辆轿车的总重量。这些桥桩是很必要的，正是这些桥桩防止了桥的随便移动。
三、Reinventing the Table
An earth scientist has rejigged the periodic table1 to make chemistry simpler to teach to students.
____1_A_But Bruce Railsback from the University of Georgia says he is the first to create a table that breaks with tradition and shows the ions of each element rather than just the elements themselves.
“I got tired of breaking my arms trying to explain the periodic table to earth students,”he says, criss-crossing his hands in the air and pointing to different bits of a traditional table.____2_B_But he has added contour lines to charge density, helping to explain which ions react with which.
"Geohemists just want an intuitive sense of what's going on with the elements," says Albert Galy from the University of Cambridge4,____3_C_
____4_D_He explains that sulphur, for example , shows up in three different spots — one for sulphide, which is found in minerals, one for su1phite, and one for su1phate, which is found in sea sa1t, for instance.
He has also inc1uded symbols to show which ions are nutrients，and which are common in soi1 or water.____5_E_
练习：
A. There have been many attempts to redesign the periodic table since DmM Mendeleev2 drew it up in 1871.
B. Railsback has still ordered the elements according to the number of protons they have.
C. “I imagine this would be good for undergraduates.”
D. Railsback has listed some elements more than once.
E. And the size of element’s symbol reflects how much of it is found in the Earth’s crust.
F. The traditional periodic table was well drawn.
四、The Bilingual Brain
When Karl Kim immigrated to the United States from Korea s a teenager, he had a hard time learning English. Now he speaks it fluently, and he had a unique opportunity to see how our brains adapt to a second language. As a graduate student, Kim worked in the lab of Joy Hirsch, a neuroscientist in New York. 1F They found evidence that children and adults don't use the same parts of the brain when they learn a second language.
The researchers used an instrument called an MRI( magnetic resonance imaging) scanner to study the brains of two groups of bilingual people. 2 B. The other consisted of people who, like Kim, learned their second language later in life. People from both groups were placed inside the MRI scanner. This allowed Kim and Hirsch to see which parts of the brain were getting more blood and were more active. They asked people from both groups to think about what they had done the day before, first in one language and then the other. They couldn't speak out loud because any movement would disrupt the scanning.
Kim and Hirsch looked specifically at two language centers in the brain - Broca's area~ , which is believed to control speech production, and Wernicke's area, which is thought to process meaning. Kim and Hirsch found that both groups of people used the same part of Wernicke's area no matter what language they were speaking. 3A
People who learned a second language as children used the same region in Broca's area for both their first and second languages. People who learned a second language later in life used a different part of Broca's area for their second language. 4 CHirsch believes that when language is first being programmed in young children, their brains may mix the sounds and structures of all languages in the same area. Once that programming is complete, the processing of a new language must be taken over by a different part of the brain.
A second possibility is simply that we may acquire languages differently as children than we do as adults. Hirsch thinks that mothers teach a baby to speak by using different methods involving touch, sound, and sight. 5E
练习：
A But their use of Broca's area was different.
B One group consisted of those who had learned a second language as children.
C How does Hirsch explain this difference?
D We use special parts of the brain for language learning.
E And that is very different from learning a language in a high school or college class.
F Their work led to an important discovery.
译文：双语大脑
当卡尔·金十几岁从韩国移民到美国时，他经历了一段很艰难的英语学习期。现在他英语讲得很流利，并且有个独特的机会去理解我们的大脑是如何适应第二话言的。作为一名研究生，金在位于纽约的神经科学家乔伊·赫西的实验室工作。他们的工作有一重大发现。他们找到了证据来证明当儿童和成人在学习第二语言时，他们并不使用大脑的同一部位。
研究者利用一种叫做MRI ( 核磁共振成像)的扫描仪来研究两组会两种语言的人的大脑。 一组是由在儿童时期就学会了第二语言的人组成，另一组是由像余这样在晚些时候才学会了第二语言的人组成。两组人都被安置在MRI扫描仪中，这就使得金和赫西能清楚地看见大脑的哪个部位更活跃，流经更多的血液。他们要求两组的人都先用母语，再用第二语言来思考一下他们前一天做的事情。他们不用讲出声来，因为任何的动作都会干扰扫描。
金和赫西特别看了一下两个大脑的语言中心——被认为是控制语言输出的布鲁卡语言区，和进行意义加工的韦尼克语言区。金和赫西发现无论两组人讲哪种语言，他们都在使用韦尼克区的同一部位，布洛卡区的不同部位。
在儿童时期就学会第二语言的人，在使用他们的母语和第二语言时使用的是布鲁卡区的同一区域。而在晚些时候才学会第二语言的人在使用第二语言时，与使用母语时相比，使用的是布鲁卡区的不同区域。赫西如何解释这一差异?她认为，当小孩子第一次将语言程序化时，他们的大脑会在同一区域将所有语言的声音和结构结合在一起。一旦这种程序化完成以后. 对一种新语言的加工处理就必须被大脑的其他部分接管。
第二种可能就是我们在小的时候学习的语言不同于我们成年后学习的语言。赫西认为，母亲教小孩说话是通过使用不同的方法，涉及触觉、听觉和视觉，而这与在高中或是大学的课堂上学习语言的方法有明显的不同。
五、A Record-Breaking Rover（新增C）
NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity has boldly gone where no rover has gone before—at least in terms of distance. ____1_F_
On July 27, after years of moving about on Martian ground, the golf-cart-sized Opportunity had driven more than 24 miles, beating the previous record holder—a Soviet rover sent to the moon in 1973.
“This is so remarkable considering Opportunity was intended to drive about 1 kilometer and was never designed for distance,” says John Callas, the Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager.
____2_B_ “But what is really importantly is not how many miles the rover has racked up, but how much exploration and discovery we have accomplished over that distance.”
OPPORTUNITY
The solar-powered Opportunity and its twin rover, Spirit, landed on Mars 10 years ago on a mission expected to last 3 months. ____3_E_
Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in March 2010, a few months after it got stuck in a sand pit. But Opportunity has continued to collect and analyze Martian soil and rocks.
During its mission, Opportunity has captured, and sent back to Earth, some 187,000 panoramic and microscopic images of Mars with its cameras. ____4_A_
MARATHON ROVER
The rover doesn’t seem to be ready to stop just yet. If Opportunity can continue on, it will reach another major investigation site when its odometer hits 26.2 miles. ____5_C_
Researchers believe that clay minerals exposed near Marathon Valley could hold clues to Mars’s ancient environment1. Opportunity’s continuing travels will also help researchers as they plan for an eventual human mission to the Red Planet.
练习：
A It has also provided scientists with data on the planet’s atmosphere, soil, rocks, and terrain.
B He works at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
C Scientists call this site Marathon Valley, because when the rover reaches the area, it will have traveled the same distance as the length of a marathon since its arrival on Mars.
D Opportunity has been working on Mars since January 2004.
E The objective of the rovers was to help scientists learn more about the planet and to search for signs of life，such as the possible presence of water.
F Since arriving on the Red Planet in 2004, Opportunity has traveled 25.01 miles, more than any other wheeled vehicle has on another world.
译文
第五篇 破纪录的漫游车
美国宇航局的火星漫游车“机遇号”到达了其他任何漫游车都没能到达的地方——至少从距离上来说是如此。自2004年“机遇号”到达火星以来，他已经行驶了超过25.01英里，比任何外星漫游车走的距离都长。
在火星上行驶数年以后，到7月27日，如高尔夫球车那么大的“机遇号”已经行驶了超过24英里，打败了之前的记录保持者——一辆1973年被送上月球的苏联漫游车。
“这是一项不同寻常的成就，因为‘机遇号’并不是为长途行驶而设计的，它本来预定只能行驶大约一千米。”约翰*卡拉斯这样解释。他是火星探测漫游车项目的负责人，在加州帕萨迪纳市的美国宇航局喷射推进实验室工作。“但是重要的不是漫游车行进了多少距离，而是在这个距离上我们进行了多少探索和发现。”
“机遇号”——“机遇号”依靠太阳能提供能量。十年前，它和另一辆漫游车“勇气号”一起在火星着陆，完成一项预期三个月的任务，目的是帮助科学家进一步了解火星，并搜寻生命迹象，比如可能存在的水的迹象。
“勇气号”后来陷入沙坑中，三个月后，在2010年3月，它与地面失去联系，只有“机遇号”继续收集和分析火星土壤和岩石的信息。
在执行这次任务的过程中，“机遇号”利用自带的照相机拍摄了大约187000张火星的全景和微观影像并传回地球，还给科学家提供了火星的大气、土壤、岩石以及地形等信息。
马拉松漫游车——漫游车的战绩不会止步于此。如果“机遇号”能够继续行驶的话，在它行驶到26.2英里时，它就会到达另外一个重要的研究场地，科学家将这个场地命名为马拉松谷，因为当漫游车到达这个地点的时候，它在火星上行驶的距离正好和马拉松比赛的距离相等。
研究人员认为，马拉松谷附近的黏土物质含有与火星早期环境有关的线索。“机遇号”接下来的工作能帮助研究人员实施人类最终移居火星的计划。
六、Dung to Death
Fields across Europe are contaminated with dangerous levels of the antibiotics given to farm animals. The drugs, which are in manure sprayed onto fields as fertilizers, could be getting into our food and water, helping to create a new generation of antibiotic-resistant “superbugs”.2
The warning comes from a researcher in Switzerland who looked at levels of the drugs in farm slurry. ____1_E_
Some 20,000 tons of antibiotics are used in the European Union and the US each year. More than half are given to farm-animals to prevent disease and promote growth. ____2_D_
Most researchers assumed that humans become infected with the resistant strains by eating contaminated meat3. But far more of the drugs end up in manure than in meat products, says Stephen Mueller of the Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology m Dubendorf. ____3_B_
With millions of tons of animals manure spread onto fields of crops such as wheat and barley each year, this pathway seems an equally likely route for spreading resistance,4 he said. The drugs contaminate the crops, which are then eaten. ____4_F_
Mueller is particularly concerned about a group of antibiotics called sulphonamides. ____5_A_ His analysis found that Swiss farm manure contains a high percentage of sulphonamides; each hectare of field could be contaminated with up to 1 kilogram of the drugs. This concentration is high enough to trigger the development of resistance among bacteria.5 But vets are not treating the issue seriously.
There is growing concern at the extent to which drugs, including antibiotics, are polluting the environment. Many drugs given to humans are also excreted unchanged and are not broken down by conventional sewage treatment.
练习：
A They do not easily degrade or dissolve in water.
B And manure contains especially high levels of bugs that are resistar.t to antibiotics, he says.
C Animal antibiotics is still an area to which insufficient attention has been paid.
D But recent research has found a direct link between the increased use of these farmyard drugs and the appearance of antibiotic-resistant bugs that infect people.
E His findings are particularly shocking because Switzerland is one of the few countries to have banned antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feed.
F They could also be leaching into tap water pumped from rocks beneath fertilized fields.
译文：施肥致死
欧洲田野被浓度危险的牲畜抗生素所污染。这些肥料中的药物被喷洒到田野上当作肥料，它们可以进入我们的食物和水中，促进产生新一代对抗生素有抗药性的“超级病菌”。
这个警告来自瑞士的一个研究者，他关注农场泥浆中药物的浓度。他的发现非常令人震惊，因为瑞士是少数的几个禁止把抗生素作为动物饲料催长剂的国家之一。
每年大约有2万吨的抗生素被用于欧盟和美国。其中一半以上被用于牲畜防病和促进生长。但是最近的研究发现了这种农业药物的增加使用和感染人类的对抗抗生素药性的病毒之间的直接联系。
大部分研究者假设人类吃了受到污染的肉也会传染上这种有抗药性的菌株。但是杜本多弗的瑞士联邦环境科学技术学院的Stephen Mueller说，这种药物最后留在肥料中的比在肉制品中的多得多。他说肥料中含有特别高浓高度的抗抗生素药性的病菌。
他说，随着每年上百万吨的动物肥料被喷洒到小麦和大麦等谷物的田地里，这一途径似乎同样可能传播抗药性。这些药物污染谷物，然后这些谷物被食用。它们还有可能渗透到从施肥后的田地下的岩石中抽上来的自来水里。
Mueller对叫做磺胺的抗生素群感到尤其担心。它们不容易降解或溶解于水。他的分析发现瑞士的农业肥料含有高比例的磺胺，每公顷土地被1千克的这种药剂所污染。这一浓度高得足以促使细菌形成抗药性。但是兽医们并没有严肃地对待这一问题。
人们越来越关心包括抗生素的这些药物在多大程度上污染环境。许多人类服用的药物也未经改变地被排泄出来，而且没有被传统的污水处理系统分解。
七、Time in the Animal World
Rhythm controls everything in Nature. ____1_B_
The sun provides a basic time rhythm for all living creatures including humans. Nearly all animals are influenced by sun cycles and have developed a biological clock in their bodies following these cycles. The moon also exerts its force and influence on the sea. Its gravitational attxacSon causes the rising of the tide. ____2_D_When the moon is behind the Earth, centrifugal force causes the second tide of the day.
Animals living in tidal areas must have the instinct of predicting these changes, to avoid being stranded and dying of dehydration. Since the time of the dinosaurs, the king crab has been laying eggs1 at the seaside in a set way2. To avoid predator fish3，the eggs are always far from seawater and protected by sand. In the following two months, the eggs undergo dramatic changes related to the cycles of the moon4. When the second spring tide comes, the young king crabs have matured. ____3_F_
Most of the mammals, either the giant elephant or the small shrew, have the same average total number of heartbeats in their lifetime. Shrews live only for two and a half years, and spend their life at a high speed and high tempo. Animals like shrews with a pulse rate of 600 per minute have an average total of eight hundred million heartbeats5 throughout their life. The African elephant has a pulse rate of 25 beats per minute, and a life span6 of 60 years. The size of the body determines the speed of life. ____4_C_
As we get older, our sense of time is being influenced by the physiological changes of our body. The elderly spend more time resting, and do few sports. ____5_A_ For a child, a week is seen as a long time.
练习：
A For an adult, time goes fast year by year.
B It controls, for example, the flapping of birds, wings, the beating of the heart and the rising and setting of the sun.
C The larger the animal is, the longer its life span is and the slower its life tempo is.
D The tide goes out when the moon moves away and its attraction is weaker.
E We always tend to think all the animals have the same sense of time as human beings.
F The second spring tide takes them back to the sea.
译文：动物界中的时间
节奏控制着自然界中的一切事物。例如，它控制着鸟类拍击翅膀、心跳和日出与日落。
太阳为所有的生物，包括人类，提供了一个基本的时间节奏。几乎所有的动物都受到太阳周期的影响并随其在体内形成了一个生物钟。月亮也对大海施加力量和影响，其地心引力造成涨潮。当月亮移走、引力比较弱的时候，就会发生退潮。当月亮位于地球另一面的时候，离心力就会引起这一天中的第二次涨潮。
生长在潮汐地区的动物具有预测潮汐的本能，以免被搁浅而死于脱水。从恐龙时代开始，鲎就以一种故有的方式在海边产卵。为了防止食肉鱼吞食，它们常常原理海岸产卵，并用沙子把卵保护起来。在接下来的两个月，这些卵经受与月亮周期巨大变化。当第二次春潮来临时，小鲎已破壳而出，这次涨潮会把它们带回到大海。
大多数哺乳动物，无论是大象还是鼩鼱，其一生心跳的总数大致相同。鼩鼱只有两年半的生命，它们以高速度和快节奏度过短暂的生命。像鼩鼱这种脉搏每分钟跳动600次的动物，一生心跳总数平均为8亿次。非洲大象的脉搏每分钟跳动25此，它们的平均寿命为60年。体形的大小决定生命的速度，动物的体形越大，它们的寿命就越长，生命节奏也就越慢。
随着年龄的增长，身体的生理变化就会影响我们的时间感。老年人花费较多时间休息，他们较少做运动。对成年人来说，时间一年一年地过得很快，一周时间呗看作很长一段时间。
八、Watching Microcurrents Flow
We can now watch electricity as it flows through even the tiniest circuits. By scanning the magnetic field generated as electric currents flow through objects, physicists have managed ____1_D_. The technology will allow manufacturers to scan microchips for faults, as well as revealing microscopic defects in anything from aircraft to banknotes.
Gang Xiao and Ben Schrag at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, visualize the current by measuring subtle changes in the magnetic field of an object and ____2_E_.
Their sensor is adapted1 from an existing piece of technology that is used to measure large magnetic fields in computer hard drives.2”We redesigned the magnetic sensor to make it capable of measuring very weak changes in magnetic fields,” says Xiao.
The resulting device is capable of detecting a current as weak as 10 microamperes, even when the wire is buried deep within a chip, and it shows up features as small as 40 nanometers across.
At present, engineers looking for defects in a chip have to peel off the layers and examine the circuits visually; this is one of the obstacles ____3_B_. But the new magnetic microscope is sensitive enough to look inside chips and reveal faults such as short circuits , nicks in the wires or electro migration — where a dense area of current picks up surrounding atoms and moves them along. “It is like watching a river flow,” explains Xiao.
As well as scanning tiny circuits, the microscope can be used to reveal the internal structure of any object capable of conducting electricity.3 Fpr example, it could look directly at microscopic cracks in an aeroplane’s fuselage, ____4_F_. The technique cannot yet pick up electrical activity in the human brain because the current there is too small, but Xiao doesn’t rule it out4 in the future. “I can never say never,” he says.
Although the researchers have only just made the technical details of the microscope public, it is already on sale,5 from electronics company Micro Magnetics in Fall River, Massachusetts. It is currently the size of a refrigerator and takes several minutes to scan a circuit, but Xiao and Schrag are working ____5_A_.
练习：
A to shrink it to the size of a desktop computer and cut the scanning
B to making chips any smaller
C to take tiny chips we require
D to picture the progress of the currents
E converting the information into a color picture showing the density
F faults in the metal strip of a forged banknote or bacteria in a water
译文：观察微电流流程
现在电流流过哪怕是最窄的电路时我们都能看到。物理学家们通过扫面电流物体时产生的磁场而绘出电流运行图。这种技术可以使制造者扫面微芯片上的错误，同时可以找出从飞行器到钞票等物上的细微缺陷。
罗德岛州普罗维登斯的布朗大学Gang Xiao和Ben Schrag通过测量一个物体的磁场内的细微变化并把信息转化成显示每一点电流强度的彩色图片而使电流显现。
他们的传感器是由现有的用于测量电脑硬盘的大磁场的技术配件改造而成的。Xiao说：“我们重新设计了磁性传感器使它能够测量磁场中非常微弱的变化。”
重新设计完的装置能够探测微弱到10微安培的电流，甚至是当癫痫深藏在芯片中的时候，它也能够显示出直径只有40纳米长的图案。
目前，那些在芯片中寻找缺点的工程师们必须要剥掉表层目测电路。这是使芯片变得更小的阻碍之一。但是新的磁性显微镜非常敏感，能够看到芯片内部，找出短路、电线的裂痕或电迁移等缺点，电迁移是指电流强大的区域吸引周围的原子并使它们移动。Xiao解释说：“那就像看着一条河水在流淌。”
显微镜不仅能够扫描微笑的电路，还可以用于找出能够导电的物体的内部结构。例如，它能够直接看到飞机机身上的极细微的裂缝、伪钞的金属条上的却掉或者水样中的细菌。这种技术还不能提取人脑中的电活动，因为那里的电流太小了，但是Xiao并没有排除将来实现它的可能。他说：“网永远不会说永远不能。”
尽管研究者刚刚公开电显微镜的技术细节，位于马萨诸塞州Fall River的微磁电子设备公司已经在出售它了。目前它大约像冰箱那么大，而且要用几分钟扫描一个电路，但是Xiao和Schrag正在努力使它缩小到台式计算机那么大，把扫描时间缩短到30秒。
九、 Lightening Strikes（新增B）
Three years ago a bolt of lightning all but destroyed Lyn Miller’s house in Aberdeen—with her two children inside. “There was a huge rainstorm,” she says, recalling the terrifying experience. “My brother and I were outside desperately working to stop floodwater from coming in the house. Suddenly I was thrown to the ground by an enormous bang. ____1_D_ The door was blocked by rubble, but we forced our way in and found the children, thankfully unharmed. Later I was told to be struck by lightning is a chance in a million.” In fact, it’s calculated at one chance in 600,000. Even so, Dr Mark Keys of AER Technology, an organisation that monitors the effects of lightning, thinks you should be sensible. “I wouldn’t go out in a storm—but then I’m quite a careful person.” He advises anyone who is unlucky enough to be caught in a storm to get down on the ground and curl up into a ball, making yourself as small as possible.
Lightning is one of nature’s most awesome displays of sheer power. ____2_A_ 250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin, the American scientist and statesman，proved that lightning is a form of electricity, but scientists still lack a complete understanding of how it works.
____3_E_ Positive electrical charges streaming upwards from trees or church spires may glow and make a buzzing noise, and people’s hair can stand on end. And if you fear lightning, you’ll be glad to know that a company in America has manufactured a hand-held lightning detector which can detect it up to 70 kms away, sound a warning tone and monitor the storm’s approach.
Nancy Wilder was playing golf at a club in Surrey when she was hit by a bolt of lightning. Mrs Wilder’s heart stopped beating, but she was resuscitated and, after a few days in hospital, where she was treated for bums to her head, hands and feet, she was pronounced fit again. Since that time，she has been a strictly fair weather golfer1. ____4_B The best place to be is inside a car!
The largest number of people to be struck by lightning at one time was in September 1995 when 17 players on a football pitch were hit simultaneously. The most extraordinary aspect of the strike was the fact that 11 of the victims—seven adults and four children—had burn patterns of tiny holes at 3 centimetre intervals on each toe and around the soles of their feet.
Harold Deal, a retired electrician from South Carolina, USA, was struck by lightning 26 years ago. He was apparently unhurt, but it later emerged that the strike had damaged the part of the brain which controls the sensation of temperature. ____5_F_
Animals are victims of lightning too2．Hundreds of cows and sheep are killed every year, largely because they go under trees. In East Anglia in 1918, 504 sheep were killed instantaneously by the same bolt of lightning that hit the ground and travelled through the entire flock. Lightning is also responsible for starting more than 10,000 forest fires each year world-wide.
练习：
A No wonder the ancient Greeks thought it was Zeus, father of the gods, throwing thunderbolts around in anger.
B In fact, a golf course is one of the most dangerous places to be during a thunderstorm.
C Lightning has long been hailed as one of the most impressive displays of nature’s power.
D When I picked myself up, the roof and the entire upper storey of the house had been demolished.
E Occasionally there are warning signs.
F Since then the freezing South Carolina winters haven’t bothered Harold, since he is completely unable to feel the cold.
译文：第九篇 雷击
三年前，一道闪电几乎将林恩*米勒在亚伯丁的房子夷为平地，当时她的两个孩子还在屋里面。“那是一场暴风雨”，林恩回忆那场可怕的经历时说道，“我和我的兄弟当时正在外面，拼命阻止雨水流进屋里面。突然，我被巨大的爆炸击倒在地。当我爬起来的时候，房子的屋顶和顶楼都不见了。门被碎石堵住了，我们强行把门打开，找打了我的孩子，谢天谢地他们没有受伤，过后我得知，被闪电击中的概率是百万分之一。”事实上，有人计算过被闪电击中的概率是六百万分之一，虽然如此，AER技术中心的马克*凯斯博士还是认为，人们面对闪电的时候应该小心，AER技术中心是一个专门监控闪电影响的组织，马克说：“我不会在暴风雨的天气到户外去——我是一个特别小心的人。”他还建议，要是不幸在户外遇到暴风雨，一定要趴到地上，卷成球状，是自己的身体尽可能的缩小。
闪电是大自然绝对力量最可怕的展现方式之一，难怪古希腊人认为雷电产生是以为众神之父宙斯发怒了，并向周围投掷闪电。250年前，美国科学家和政治家本杰明*富兰克林证明了闪电是一种电，但是科学家仍然不完全清楚它的形成机制。
有时，闪电的到来有一些预兆。正电荷顺着树木或教堂尖顶向上游动的时候可能会有发光现象，并伴随着嗡嗡的噪声，人们的头发还可能直立起来。如果你害怕闪电，那么有一个好消息，美国的一个公司生产了一种手持的闪电探测器。最远能够探测到70千米以外的闪电，并通过发出声音警报来提醒人们风暴的到来。
南希*怀尔德被闪电击中的时候正在萨里的一个俱乐部打高尔夫球。被闪电击中后，她的心跳停止了，但随后她被救了回来。接下来的几天她都待在医院，治疗头上、手上和脚上的烧伤，直到康复出院。从那时起，她便只在晴朗的天气才打高尔夫。事实上，盖尔夫球场是暴风雨天气最危险的地方之一，而最好的地方是汽车里。
在1995年9月发生了一起多人被闪电击中的事件，17名足球运动员在赛场上上同时被击中。最惊人的是，死者中的11人——包括7名成人和4名儿童——在每个脚趾和脚底上都有烧伤的小洞图案，每个洞相距3厘米。
哈罗德*迪尔是美国南卡罗纳州的一名退休电气技师，26年前，他被闪电击中。当时他看上去没有受伤，但是后来人们发现这次雷击损坏了他大脑中控制温度感受的部分。从那以后，男卡罗纳州寒冷的冬天就再也没让哈罗德发愁过，因为他已经完全感受不到寒冷。
动物们也会成为雷击的牺牲品，每年都有数百头牛羊死于雷击，多数情况下是因为他们总是在下雨的时候躲在树下。1918年在东盎格利亚，一道闪电掠过整个羊群，一下杀死了504只羊。闪电每年还在世界范围内引起10000多场火灾。
十、How Deafness Makes It Easier to Hear
Most people think of Beethoven's hearing loss as an obstacle to composing music. However, he produced his most powerful works in the last decade of his life when he was completely deaf.
This is one of the most glorious cases of the triumph of will over adversity, but his biographer, Maynard Solomon, takes a different view. 1F . In his deaf world Beethoven could experiment, free from the sounds of the outside world, free to create new forms and harmonies. Hearing loss does not seem to affect the musical ability of musicians who become deaf. They continue to"hear" music with as much, or greater, accuracy than if they were actually hearing it being played. 2D . He described a fascinating phenomenon that happened within three months:" my former musical experiences began to play back to me. I couldn't differentiate between what I heard and real hearing. 2 After many years, it is still rewarding to listen to these playbacks, to ' hear' music which is new to me and to find many quiet accompaniments for all of my moods. "
How is it that the world we see, touch, hear, and smell is both"out there" and at the same time within us? There is no better example of this connection between external stimulus and internal perception than the cochlear implant. 3A . However, it might be possible to use the brain's remarkable power to make sense of the electrical signals the implant produces.
When Michael Edgar first" switched on" his cochlear implant,the sound's he heard were not at all clear. Gradually, with much hard work, he began to identify everyday sounds. For example," The insistent ringing of the telephone became clear almost at once. "
The primary purpose of the implant is to allow communication with others. When people spoke to Eagar, he heard their voices "coming through like a long-distance telephone call on a poor connection. " But when it came to his beloved music, the implant was of no help. 4B . He said," I play the piano as I used to and hear it in my head at the same time. The movement of my fingers and the feel of the keys give added ' clarity' to hearing in my head. ''
Cochlear implants allow the deaf to hear again in a way that is not perfect, but which can change their lives. 5C . Even the most amazing cochlear implants would have been useless to Beethoven as he composed his Ninth Symphony at the end of his life.
练习:
A No man-made device could replace the ability to hear.
B When he war, ted to appreciate music, Eagar played the piano.
C Still, as Michael Eagar discovered, when it comes to musical harmonies,heating is irrelevant.
D Michael Eagar, who died in 2003, became deaf at the age of 21.
E Beethoven produced his most wonderful works after he became deaf.
F Solomon argues that Beethoven's deafness "heightened" his achievement as a composer.
译文：如何让失聪的人更容易听见
大多数人把贝多芬的听力受损看作是他作曲的障碍。然而，他的最有力量的作品正是在他人生的最后十年里创作出来的，那时他完全失聪。
这是最值得称道的用意志战胜不幸的案例之一，但是他的传记作家梅纳德·所罗门却持不同的观点。梅纳德认为，贝多芬的失聪“促进了他作为作曲家的成就，在他完全失聪的世界里，他能摆脱外在世界声音的干扰，自由地创作新的表现形式与和声。”
听力受损似乎不会影响失聪的音乐家的音乐才能。他们能继续“听见”音乐，与他们能真正听见音乐相比，他们“听”得同样准确，甚至更准确。
2003年去世的迈克尔·伊加，在他21岁时失聪。他曾经描绘过一幅发生在三个月内的迷人的事情：“我之前的音乐经历开始在脑中回放，我无法区别真正听到的和曾经听过的东西。许多年以后，听到这些回放，“听见”对我来说是新鲜的音乐，为我所有的情绪找到伴唱仍然是有所收益的。”
内心的感受?把外在刺激和内在感知相结合的最好的例子就是耳蜗植入。没有任何人工的装置能代替听觉能力，但是，利用大脑非凡的能力来理解植入物产生的电信号还是有可能的。
当迈克尔·伊加最先“开启”题的人工耳蜗时，他听到的声音一点都不清楚。经过艰苦的努力，他渐渐地开始辨认出日常的声音，比如他说道“持续的电话响声几乎是立刻就变得清晰了。”
耳蜗植入最主要的目的就是能够与人交流。当人们与伊加交谈时，他能听到他们的声音“像是从接触不良的长途电话中传来的”。但是当听他钟爱的音乐时，耳蜗植入就毫无用处。每当伊加想要欣赏音乐时，他就开始弹钢琴。他说“我像往常那样弹奏钢琴，同一时间在头脑中就听见它。我手指的移动以及对琴键的感觉使得头脑中听到的声音更加“清晰”。
耳蜗植入让耳聪的人以一种不完美的方式再次听见声音，但是它改变了他们的生活。尽管如此，正如迈克尔·伊加发现的那样，当涉及到音乐和声时，听力就无关紧要了。甚至最完美的耳蜗植入对贝多芬在他生命的最后阶段创作第九交响曲也毫无用处。
【1】Captain Cook Arrow Legend(库克船长弓箭的传说)
It was a great legend while it lasted, but DNA testing has finally ended a two-century-old story of the Hawaiian arrow carved from the bone of British explorer Captain James Cook who died in the Sandwich Islands in 1779.
“There is no Cook in the Australian Museum,” museum collection manager Jude Philip said not long ago in announcing the DNA evidence that the arrow was not made of Cook’s bone. But that will not stop the museum from continuing to display the arrow in its exhibition, “Uncovered: Treasures of the Australian Museum,” which does include a feather cape presented to Cook by Hawaiian King Kalani’opu’u in 1778.
Cook was one of Britain’s great explorers and is credited with discovering the “Great South Land,” now Australia, in 1770. He was clubbed to death in the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii.
The legend of Cook’s arrow began in 1824 when Hawaiian King Kamehameha on his deathbed gave the arrow to William Adams, a London surgeon and relative of Cook’s wife, saying it was made of Cook’s bone after the fatal fight with islanders.
In the 1890s the arrow was given to the Australian Museum and the legend continued until it came face-to-face with science.
DNA testing by laboratories in Australia and New Zealand revealed the arrow was not made of Cook’s bone but was more likely made of animal bone, said Philp.
However, Cook’s fans refuse to give up hope that one Cook legend will prove true and that part of his remains will still be uncovered, as they say there is evidence not all of Cook’s body was buried at sea in 1779. “On this occasion technology has won,” said Cliff Thornton, president of the Captain Cook Society, in a statement from Britain. “But I am sure that one of these days …one of the Cook legends will prove to be true and it will happen one day.”
库克船长弓箭的传说
这本是个绝妙的传说，但DNA测试最终结束了这个长达两个世纪之久的古老故事。传说是关于一支据说是用1779年在桑伟奇群岛死去的英国探险家船长詹姆士库克的遗骨刻成的夏威夷弓箭。
在不久前DNA 证据宣布该弓箭并非来自于库克船长的遗骨时，奥大利亚博物馆收藏经理尤大书?菲利普说：“澳大利亚博物馆里并没有库克的遗骨。”但这并不能停止博物馆在展览会上展出弓箭。“考古发现：澳大利亚博物馆的宝藏”展览中的确还展示了一个在1778年夏威夷国王卡兰尼欧普送给库克的一个羽毛斗篷。
库克是英国最伟大探险家之一，他在1770年发现了“南大陆”，也就是现在的澳大利亚。此后在桑伟奇群岛被棒击致死。
库克弓箭传说始于1824年，当时夏威夷国王卡莫哈莫哈在弥留之际将弓箭赐给了库克妻子的亲戚，一名伦敦外科医生威廉正当斯，并告诉他弓箭是在那次致命殴打后用库克的遗骨做成的。
在19世纪90年代，弓箭被交给澳大理亚博物馆。这个传说直到与科学直接接触才停止。
据菲利普说，澳大利亚和新西兰的试验室的DNA测试证实弓箭并非取材于库克的遗骨，而更可能来自动物的骨头。
但是，库克迷们却不肯放弃希望。他们期待库克传说之一将会被证明是正确，并且他人部分遗骨还会被发现。正如他们所说，有证据表明库克的遗骨并不是在 1779年全都葬身大海了。库克船长协会的会长克利夫托马森在一个来自英国的声明中说：“在这个问题上，科技取得了胜利。我坚信某一天库克传说之一将会被证明是真的。”
【2】Avalanche and Its Safety(雪崩和安全问题)
An avalanche is a sudden and rapid flow of snow, often mixed with air and water, down a mountainside. Avalanches are among the biggest dangers in the mountains for both life and property.
All avalanches are caused by an over-burden of material, typically snowpack, that is too massive and unstable for the slope that supports it. Determining the critical load, the amount of over-burden which is likely to cause an avalanche, is a complex task involving the evaluation of a number of factors.
Terrain slopes flatter than 25 degrees or steeper than 60 degrees typically have a low risk of avalanche. Snow does not gather significantly on steep slopes; also, snow does not flow easily on flat slopes. Human-triggered avalanches have the greatest incidence when the snow’s angle of rest is between 35 and 45 degrees; the critical angle, the angle at which the human incidence of avalanches is greatest, is 38 degrees. The rule of thumb is :A slope that is flat enough to hold snow but steep enough to ski has the potential to generate an avalanche, regardless of the angle. Additionally, avalanche risk increases with use; that is , the more a slope is disturbed by skiers, thd more likely it is that an avalanche will occur.
Due to the complexity of the subject, winter travelling in the backcountry is never 100% safe. Good avalanche safety is a continuous process, including route selection and examination of the snowpack, weather conditions, and human factors. Several well-known good habits can also reduce the risk. If local authorities issue avalanche risk reports, they should be considered and all warnings should be paid attention to. Never follow in the tracks of others without your own evaluations; snow conditions are almost certain to have changed since they were made. Observe the terrain and note obvious avalanche paths where plants are missing or damaged. Avoid traveling below others who might trigger an avalanche.
雪崩是雪掺杂着空气和水沿着山体突然迅猛地滑动造成的。雪崩是造成山区人们生命和财产安全的最大危险之一。
所有雪崩都是由于物质的过渡负荷造成，通常是积雪堆积过厚，很不稳固，超出了山坡面的承载能力。要确定山坡的临界承载量，可能造成突然雪崩的负荷量是一项很复杂的任务，需要衡量多个因素。
通常倾斜度小于25度，大于60度的山坡发生雪崩的危险要小一些。积雪不会在陡峭的山坡上大量堆积，同样也不会在平缓的山坡上快速滑动。当雪在静止状态下的角度在35_45度之间，最可能发生人为触发的雪崩。人为引发雪崩的临界角度是38度，是最易人为引发雪崩的角度。常规经验是：一个平缓的足以堆积积雪，同时陡峭的适合人们滑雪的山坡，无论角度如何，都有可能产生雪崩。此外，雪崩的危险随着使用的增加而增加，换言之，滑雪者活动得越频繁，雪崩的可能性越大。
由于雪崩研究的复杂性，冬天在人烟稀少的地区旅行从来不是百分之百的安全。很好地躲避雪崩，保持安全是一个连续的过程，包括选择路线、检查积雪、了解天气状况及其他人为因素。以下几个广为人知的好习惯也可以降低风险：如果当地权威部门发布了雪崩警报，你应当予以考虑，加以注意。绝不要不加审度，就立刻接受他人意见。积雪自形成的那时就几乎注定要发生变化。认真观察地形，注意明显的雪崩路径：没有植物或植物被毁坏的地方。不要在那些可能引发雪崩的人或事物下面行走。
【3】增C Giant Structures(巨型建筑)
It is an impossible task to select the most amazing wonders of the modern world since every year more wonderful constructions appear. Here are three giant structures which are worthy of our admiration although they may have been surpassed by some more recent wonders.
The Petronas Twin Tower
The petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world when they were completed in 1999.With a height of 452 metres，the tall twin owers, like two thin pencils, dominate the city of Kuala Lumpur. At the 41 floor, the towers are linked by a bridge, symbolizing a gateway to the city. The American architect Cesar Pelli designed the skyscrapers.
Constructed of high-strength concrete, the building provides around 1800 square metres of office space on every floor. And it has a shopping centre and a concert hall at the base. Other features of this impressive building include double-decker lifts, and glass and steel sunshades.
The Millau Bridge
The Millau Bridge was opened in 2004 in the Tarn Valley, in southern France. At the time it was built, it was the world’s highest bridge, reaching over 340m at the highest point. The bridge is described as one of the most amazingly beautiful bridge in the world. It was built to relieve Millau’s congestion problems. The congestion was then caused by traffic passing from Paris to Barcelona in Spain. The bridge was built to withstand the most extreme seismic and climatic conditions. Besides, it is guaranteed for 120 years!
The Itaipu Dam
The Itaipu hydroelectric power plant is one of the largest constructions of its kind in the world. It consists of a series of dams across the River Parana, which forms a natural border between Brazil and Paraguay. Started in 1975 and taking 16 years to complete, the construction was carried out as a joint project between the two countries. The dam is well-known for both its electricity output and its size. In 1995 it produced 78% of Paraguay’s and 25% of Brazil’s energy needs. In its construction, the amount of iron and steel used was equivalent to over 300 Eiffel Towers. It is a truly amazing wonder of engineering.
挑选当今世界最神奇的奇观是一个不可能完成的任务。原因是每年都有新的更令人叹为观止的建筑出现。有这样三座巨大的建筑值得人们赞叹，尽管它们可能被某些最近建成的奇观所超越。
第一座：国油双峰塔。国油双峰塔在1999年建成时是世界上最高的建筑物，高452米，高高 的双塔就像两支细铅笔，高耸于吉隆坡市。在41层，两个塔由一座桥连接，象征着通向城市的大门。该建筑的设计者是美国建筑师Cesar Pelli。
该建筑由高强度混凝土建成，每一层都有夫约1800平方米的办公区域；在底部还有一个购物中心和一个音乐厅。该建筑的其他特色是双层电梯以及建材为玻璃和钢的遮阳篷。
第二座：米约高架桥。米约高架桥位于法国南部的Tam山谷，2004年建成通车。它是当时世 界上最高的大桥，最高点超过340米。该桥被人们描写为“世界上最神奇最美丽的大桥之一”。它是为舒缓米约的交通拥挤所建。当时的拥挤是由从巴黎到西班牙的巴塞罗那的过往车辆太多所致。该桥可以承受强震和极端气候。另外，它可以使用120年！
第三座：伊泰普水电站。伊泰普水电站是同类建筑中最大的一个。它由横跨巴拉那河的一组大坝组成，成为巴西和巴拉圭的自然边境。该建筑作为两个国家的共同开发项目，1975年动工修建，历时16年完工。该大坝因它的发电量和规模之大而闻名。1995年，它为巴拉圭和巴西分别提供了78%和25%的能源需求。该建筑使用的钢铁量是埃菲尔铁塔的300倍还多。该建筑令人叹为观止，名不虚传。
【4】Animal’s “Sixth Sense”(动物的”第六感”)
A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals, however, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that they possess a “sixth sense” for disasters, experts said.
Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast clearly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.
“No elephants are dead, not even a dead rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening,” H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, said about one month after the tsunami attack. The waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards.
“There has been a lot of apparent evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven,” said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behavior specialist at Johannesburg Zoo.
“There have been no specific studies because you can’t really test it in a lab or field setting,” he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this assessment.
“Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain phenomenon, especially birds… there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters,” said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.
Animals certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators.
The notion of an animal “sixth sense” – or some other mythical power – is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lanka’s ravaged coast is likely to add to.
The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes.
2004年12月由印度洋海域地震引发的海啸造成亚洲和东非数万人死亡。但野生动物们似乎躲过了可怕的海啸的袭击。有专家表示，这进一步证实了动物对自然灾难有“第六感”的观点。
斯里兰卡负责野生动物的官员表示，巨浪席卷印度洋海岛沿岸，淹死了两万四千多人，但野生动物似乎都幸免于难，目前尚未发现一具动物的尸体。
斯里兰卡野生动物部门的副部长H．D．拉特纳亚克在海啸袭击过后一个月说道：“没有一头大象死亡，甚至没有一只野兔死亡。我认为动物能够感知灾难。它们有‘第六感’，它们知道灾难何时发生。”海洪冲向离岸二英里远的亚拉国家公园，这里是斯里兰卡最大的野生动物保护区，生活着几百头野生大象和一些美洲豹，海啸引发的洪水使亚拉国家公园所在的东南部地区变得一片狼藉。
“每当火山爆发或地震发生前，动物们的行为就会发生许多异常，比如犬吠或鸟类迁徙，但这些现象尚未得到科学证明。”南非约翰内斯堡动物园的动物行为专家马修·范·利罗普说。
他对路透社记者说：“目前还没有这方面的专门研究，因为你无法在实验室或实际环境中进行真正的试验。”其他专家也同意这一看法。
“野生动物似乎能够感知某些特殊现象，尤其是鸟类。很多报告显示鸟类能察觉即将来临的灾难。”克莱夫·沃克这样说，他曾经写过数本关于非洲野生动物的书。
一些动物确实是依靠嗅觉或听觉等人类已知的官能来躲避危险的，比如食肉动物。
关于动物“第六感”(或者其他神秘力量)的说法已有很长时间，斯里兰卡被摧残的海滩可能会为这一说法再添一笔证据。
罗马人把猫头鹰视为迫近凶险的征兆，很多古代文明都将大象看做拥有特殊能力或特征的“圣兽”。
【5】Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind(警报器救盲人)
If you cannot see, you may not be able to find your way out of a burning building – and that could be fatal. A company in Leeds could change all that with directional sound alarms capalbe of guiding you to the exit.
Sound Alert, a company run by the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for blind people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria. The alarms produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the sound is coming from.
Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be heard by humans. “It is a burst of white noise that people say sounds like static on the radio,” she says. “Its life-saving potential is great.”
She conducted an experiment in which people were filmed by thermal-imaging cameras trying to find their way out of a large smoke-filled room. It took them nearly four minutes to find the door without a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one.
Withington studies how the brain processes sounds at the university. She says that the source of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms based on the same concept have already been installed on emergency vehicles.
The alarms will also include rising or falling frequencies to indicate whether people should go up or down stairs. They were developed with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels.
如果看不见，那你可能会因找不到路而逃不出一幢失火楼房，那将是致命的。英国利兹市的一家公司发明的一种可指方向的警报器可能会把你引向出口。
声音警报是一家由利兹大学设立的公司。该公司现在正在为位于萨莫塞特的一家盲人收容所和位于卡姆布雷亚的一家盲人资源中心安装此种装置。这种警报器发出的频率范围广，使人脑可以判断出声音的来源。
该公司的戴博拉·威星顿称此种警报器使用人类可以听到的大部分音频。她说：“它们是一种突出的频谱连续而均匀的噪音。人们感觉它们听上去就像是收音机发出的静电噪声，其在救人方面潜力巨大。”
她进行了一次试验。她让人们在一所充满浓烟的大屋子里设法找到出路，同时她用热效应成像摄像机进行拍摄。在没有警报器时，这些人用了近四分钟才找到门，而在警报器的指引下，只用了15秒。
她在大学里对人脑如何处理声音进行研究，并提出与波段窄的频率相比，人们更容易发现波段宽的音响源。基于此理论的警报器已被应用于急救车上。
这种警报器也容纳了音频的升降，以指示人们上、下楼。这种设备是得到英国核燃料组织的大笔资助才开发成功的。
【6】Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely(远程制止偷车贼)
Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in a nasty surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer, and a radio signal from a control center miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine off, he will not be able to start it again.
For now, such devices are only available for fleets of trucks and specialist vehicles used on construction sites. But remote immobilization technology could soon start to trickle down to ordinary cars, and should be available to ordinary cars in the UK in two months.
The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car incorporates a miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicle’s engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.
There are even plans for immobilizers that shut down vehicles on the move, though there are fears over the safety implications of such a system.
In the UK, an array of technical fixes is already making life harder for car thieves. “The pattern of vehicles crime has changed,” says Martyn Rand all of Thatcham, a security research organization based in Berkshire that is funded in part by the motor insurance industry.
He says it would only take him a few minutes to teach a novice how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old.
Modern cars are a far tougher proposition, as their engine management computer will not allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this have helped achieve a 31 per cent drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997.
But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars. Often by getting hold of the owner’s keys in a burglary. In 2000, 12 per cent of vehicles stolen in the UK were taken by using the owner’s keys, which doubles the previous year’s figure.
Remote-controlled immobilization system would put a major new obstacle in the criminal’s way by making such thefts pointless. A group that includes Thatcham, the police, insurance companies and security technology firms have developed standards for a system that could go on the market sooner than the customer expects.
超速驾驶在偷来的汽车里，偷车贼以为自己大获全胜。但是他马上就会又惊又恼。车上已经被装了远程制动装置，一个几英里以外的控制中心发来的无线信号将确保盗贼一旦启动引擎，他就不能再次发动汽车了。
目前，这种装置只用于卡车队或者用于建筑工地的特殊车辆上。但是远程制动技术很快就会逐步应用到普通汽车上。并且应该在两个月之内用在英国的普通汽车上。
计划是这样的。把一个集合有微型无绳电话，微量处理器，存储器以及全球定位系统的卫星接收器的控制合子安装在汽车上。如果汽车被盗，一个被编码的无绳电话信号就会告诉这个装置停止车辆引擎控制系统来阻止引擎再次被启动。
甚至还有一些人主张计划将制动装置装在运行着的车辆上，可是这一来人们就会担心这个系统的安全性。
在英国，一系列的技术装置已经让盗车贼步履维艰了。玛丁兰多来自位于贝克郡的一个由汽车保险工业投资成立的名为撒策姆的安全研究机构。他说：“车辆盗窃的手法已经有所改变。”他还声称只要是10年以上的汽车，他就能用几样的简单的工具有几分钟之内教会一个新手怎样的偷车。
现代车却远没有这么简单，因为它们的引擎管理计算机装置只有接收到一个独一无二的由点火钥匙发送过来的身份密份才可以启动汽车。自1997年以来，在英国，技术人员已经利用此项技术帮助减少了31%的涉及车辆犯罪案。
但是不死心的盗贼们却还在一直想方设法偷车。例如很多时候，他们在夜里盗走主人的汽车钥匙进而偷车。在2000年，英国21%的车辆被盗案是由于主人的钥匙被盗，这个数字比前一年增长了1倍。
远程控制的制动系统给盗贼设置了一个全新的障碍。包括撒策姆，公安部门，保险公司以及安全技术公司的这样一个群体已经为体系开发出了一个标准，将比顾客所预期的更早地被很快推广到市场上。
【7】An Intelligent Car(智能汽车)
Driving needs sharp eyes, keen ears, quick brain, and coordination between hands and the brain. Many human drivers have all these and can control a fast-moving car. But how does an intelligent car control itself?
There is a virtual driver in the smart car. This virtual driver has “eyes”, “brains”, “hands” and “feet”, too. The minicameras on each side of the car are his “eyes”, which observe the road conditions ahead of it. They watch the traffic to the car’s left and right. There is also a highly automatic driving system in the car. It is the built-in computer, which is the virtual driver’s “brain”. His “brain” calculates the speeds of other moving cars near it and analyzes their positions. Basing on this information, it chooses the right path for the intelligent car, and gives instructions to the “hands” and “feet” to act accordingly. In this way, the virtual driver controls his car.
What is the virtual driver’s best advantage? He reacts quickly. The minicameras are sending images continuously to the “brain.” It completes the processing of the images within 100 milliseconds. However, the world’s best driver at least needs one second to react. Besides, when he takes action, he needs one more second.
The virtual driver is really wonderful. He can reduce the accident rate considerably on expressways. In this case, can we let him have the wheel at any time and in any place? Experts warn that we cannot do that just yet. His ability to recognize things is still limited . He can now only drive an intelligent car on expressways.
开车需要目光锐利，耳朵灵敏，反应敏捷和手脑间的协作。许多人类司机这些条件都具备，并可控制一辆急速行驶的汽车。但一辆智能车如何进行自控?
智能车中有一位虚拟驾驶员。这位司机同样有“眼”有“脑”有“手”有“脚”。车两侧的微型摄像头就是他的眼，负责观察车前方的路况。他们注意着车两侧的交通情况。车中也有高度自动化的驾驶系统。这就是内置的电脑，也就是虚拟司机的大脑。这个大脑计算出车近旁正在运动车辆的速度，并分析它们的位置。基于这些信息，它为智能车选择最佳路径，并给出指示以让手脚做出相应运动。通过这样的方式，虚拟司机就对车辆实行了控制。
虚拟司机的最大优点是什么?他的反应速度很快。微型摄像头不断向大脑发送图像数据。他完成图像处理的时间为100毫秒。然而，世界上最优秀的人类司机也至少需要1 秒钟的反应时间。当他作出行动时，又多需一秒。
虚拟司机的确很棒。在高速公路上，他可大大减少事故发生率。鉴于此，我们是否可以让他在任何时间任何地点都驾驶汽车呢?专家们警告说我们现在还不能这样做。智能 车辨别事物的能力还很有限。目前，这种车只能在高速公路上行驶。
【8】增B Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures(印度为什么需要濒临灭亡的秃鹰)
The vultures in question may look ugly and threatening, but the sudden sharp decline in three species of India’s vultures is producing alarm rather than celebration. and it presents the world with a new kind of environmental problem. The dramatic decline in vulture numbers is causing widespread disruption to people living in the same areas as the birds. It is also causing serious public health problems across the Indian sub-continent．
While their reputation and appearance may be unpleasant to many Indians, vultures have long played a very important role in keeping towns and villages all over India clean. It is because they feed on dead cows. In India, cows are sacred animals and are traditionally left in the open when they die in their thousands upon thousands every year.
The disappearance of the vultures has led to an explosion in the numbers of wild dogs feeding on the remains of these dead animals. There are fears that rabies may increase as a result．And this terrifying disease may ultimately affect humans in the region, since wild dogs are its main carriers．Rabies could also spread to other animal species, causing an even greater problem in the future．
The need for action is urgent, so an emergency project has been launched to find a solution to this serious vulture problem. Scientists are trying to identify the disease causing the birds deaths and, if possible, develop a cure.
Large-scale vulture deaths were first noticed at the end of the 1980s in India. A population survey at that time showed that the three species of vultures had. Declined by over 90 percent. All three species are now listed as “critically endangered”. As most vulture lay only single eggs and take about five years to reach maturity, reversing their population decline will be a long and difficult exercise.
人们谈论的秃鹰可能看起来既丑又危险，但是印度三种秃鹰濒临灭亡对我们是一种警告，而不是一件值得庆贺的事。它向世人明示了一个新的环境问题。秃鹰数量的急剧减少不仅是这些鸟类的灾难对当地居民同样也是如此，它同时给整个印度次大陆带来了公共卫生问题。
虽然秃鹰的名声不好，许多印度人也讨厌其长相，但是长久以来，秃鹰在维护全印度的城镇和乡村的清洁方面扮演了非常重要的角色。因为秃鹰是以死牛为生。在印度，每年都有成千上万的牛死去，而牛是神圣的动物，死后露尸户外，任其腐烂。
秃鹰的消失使得以牛尸为生的野狗数量暴增，因此，人们担心罹患狂犬病的病人会增加。由于野狗是狂犬病的主要携带者，这种可怕的疾病最终会影响当地的居民。狂犬病也可能传播到其他生物，未来会导致更大的问题。
采取行动刻不容缓。所以，一个危机处理项目已经启动，目的是找到解决秃鹰问题的方法。科学家们正试图确认导致秃鹰死亡的疾病，如果可能的话，找到治愈该病的方法。
在印度，人们注意到秃鹰的大批死亡最早是在20世纪80年代。根据当时的物种调查显示，三种秃鹰的数量减少了90%以上。目前，这三种秃鹰都被列为“极度濒危动物' 由于大部分秃鹰每次只产一只蛋，幼鹰需要大约5年的时间才能成熟，因此，若想遏制住秃鹰数量的下降会是一项长期的、艰巨的任务
【9】Wonder Webs(奇妙的网)
Spider webs are more than homes, and they are ingenious traps. And the world’s best web spinner may be the Golden Orb Weaver spider. The female Orb Weaver spins a web of fibers thin enough to be invisible to insect prey, yet tough enough to snare a flying bird without breaking.
The secret of the web’s strength? A type of super-resilient silk called dragline. When the female spider is ready to weave the web’s spokes and frame, she uses her legs to draw the airy thread out through a hollow nozzle in her belly. Dragline is not sticky, so the spider can race back and forth along it to spin the web’s trademark spiral.
Unlike some spiders that weave a new web every day, a Golden Orb Weaver reuses her handiwork until it falls apart, sometimes not for two years. The silky thread is five times stronger than steel by weight and absorbs the force of an impact three times better than Kevlar, a high-strength human-made material used in bullet-proof vests. And thanks to its high tensile strength, or the ability to resist breaking under the pulling force called tension, a single strand can stretch up to 40 percent longer than its original length and snap back as well as new. No human-made fiber even comes close.
It is no wonder manufacturers are clamoring for spider silk. In the consumer pipeline: high-performance fabrics for athletes and stockings that never run. Think parachute cords and suspension bridge cables. A steady supply of spider silk would be worth billions of dollars – but how to produce it? Harvesting silk on spider farms does not work because the territorial arthropods have a tendency to devour their neighbors.
Now, scientists at the biotechnology company Nexia are spinning artificial silk modeled after Golden Orb dragline. The first step: extract silk-making genes from the spiders. Next, implant the genes into goat egg cells. The nanny goats that grow from the eggs secrete dragline silk proteins in their milk. “The young goats pass on the silk-making gene without any help from us,” says Nexia president Jeffrey Turner. Nexia is still perfecting the spinning process, but they hope artificial spider silk will soon be snagging customers as fast as the real thing snags bugs.
蜘蛛网对蜘蛛来说不仅仅是家，它们还是奇妙的引虫入网的陷阱。世界最棒的织网者可能是Goldern Orb Weaver的蜘蛛。雌性的Orb Weaver可以织出很细的丝，连被捕的昆虫都看不见。但却是坚韧得可以将一只飞入网中的鸟缠住而不弄断。
那么蜘蛛网为何有如此强的力度呢?有一种网丝有超强的弹力，叫做蜘蛛的避敌丝。当雌性的蜘蛛准备织蛛网的辐条和框架时，它就用腿从一个空的喷嘴里勾出轻飘飘的丝线，放到肚子里面。避敌丝不粘，因此蜘蛛可以沿着它来回活动编织，从而来编织网的标志性螺旋。
与某些种类的蜘蛛不同，它不用每天织新网，只要网不破，就能一直用下去，有时一用就两年。柔软如丝的蛛丝的强度比相同重量的钢丝大五倍，同时可以承受的力度比一种高强度的防弹衣的人工材料大三倍多。同时由于它有很强的张力，或者说一种能够抵住被弄断的往下的拉力。一根单线可以伸长至比原始长度长 40%以上，然后重新弹回至原来的长度，还像新的一样。没有一种人造纤维可以与它相媲美。
因此，生产者们强烈要求蛛丝也就不足为奇了。在消费者这一方面，人们强烈要求的是高质量的运动服和永不脱丝的长袜。试想一下另外如降落伞绳索和吊桥上的绳索。如果有稳定的蛛丝的供应，它将是一个价值上亿的产业，但问题是怎么样才能生产出稳定的蛛丝呢?试图以养蛛场收获蛛丝是行不通的，因为生长在那块地方的节肢动物有可能会吞掉它们的这些“邻居”。
现在，生物工艺公司“Nexia”的科学家们正在研制一种仿制Goldern Orb避敌丝的人工丝。第一步骤：从蜘蛛身上抽取制丝的基因，然后，将这些基因植入山羊的卵细胞中。由这些卵细胞发育生的雌山羊会在羊奶中分泌一种带丝的蛋白质。“Nexia”公司总裁吉弗利•特纳说：“这些幼山羊不需我们的任何帮助就可以将制丝基因遗传过去。”“Nexia”继续在完善它的制丝过程，但是他们希望这种人造蜘蛛丝能尽快地吸引住顾客，就像真正的蛛丝抓住昆虫一样。
【10】Chicken Soup for the Soul: Comfort Food Fights Loneliness（心灵鸡汤：爽心食品排解孤独感）
Mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, may be bad for your arteries， but according to a study in Psychological Science, they’re good for your heart and emotions ．The study focuses on “comfort food” and how it makes people feel．
"For me personally ,food has always played a big role in my family,” says Jordan Troisi, a graduate student at the University of Buffalo, and lead author on the study．The study came out of the research program of his co—author Shira Gabriel．It has looked at non-human things that may affect human emotions．Some people reduce loneliness by bonding with their favorite TV show, building virtual relationships with a pop song singer or looking at pictures of loved ones．Troisi and Gabriel wondered if comfort food could have the same effect by making people think of their nearest and dearest.
In one experiment, in order to make participants feel lonely, the researchers had them write for six minutes about a fight with someone close to them．Others were given an emotionally neutral writing assignment. Then, some people in each group wrote about the experience of eating a comfort food and others wrote about eating a new food．Finally ,the researchers had participants complete questions about their levels of loneliness．
Writing about a fight with a close person made people feel lonely．But people who were generally secure in their relationships would feel less lonely by writing about a comfort food．"We have found that comfort foods are consistently associated with those close to us．"says Troisi．"Thinking about or consuming these foods later then serves as a reminder of those close others．"In their essays on comfort food, many people wrote about the experience of eating food with family and friends.
In another experiment, eating chicken soup in the lab made people think more about relationships, but only if they considered chicken soup to be a comfort food．This was a question they had been asked long before the experiment, along with many other questions, so they wouldn’t remember it.
Throughout everyone’s daily lives they experience stress, often associated with our connections with others," Troisi says．"Comfort food Can be an easy remedy for loneliness．
爽心食品排解孤独感 土豆泥，通心粉和奶酪可能对动脉血管有害，但是，据《心理科学》一项研究表明，它们对心脏有利并且能抑制不利情绪。其研究对象是爽心食品，目的是探究人们对爽心食品的感觉。 “就我而言，食品在我的家庭一直是比较关注的问题”，Jordan Troisi如是说。他是布法罗大学的研究生并且是本次研究的首席作者。该研究出自于他与Shira Gabriel合作的一个研究项目。它关注的是可能影响人类情感的物质的东西。有些人用诸如绑定喜爱的电视节目，和流行音乐歌手建立虚拟的关系或浏览亲人的照片来排遣孤独。Troisi和Gabriel想知道爽心食品是否能通过使人们想到他们最亲近和最爱的人，同样达到排遣孤独的效果。 在一个实验中，为使参与者感觉孤独，研究者让他们用六分钟的时间描写一次与最亲近的人吵架的经历。而要求另外一些人写一个情感中性的作业。然后，每一组的一些人描写食用爽心食品的经历；而其他的人描写食用新食品的经历。最后，研究者让参与者书面回答关于孤独程度的问题。 描写与亲人吵架的经历使人感到孤独。但是，一般来说，人们的关系若处于稳定状态，通过描写他们吃爽心食品的经历会排遣一些孤独感。Troisi说道：“我们已经得出这样的结论：爽心食品与我们的亲人密切相连，想一想或之后真正食用这种食品会提醒人们注意到他们的亲人。”在所有关于爽心食品的文章中，许多人都描述了与家人和朋友共同进餐的经历。 在另外一个实验中，在实验喝鸡汤令人想到和其他人的关系，但是，这只有在他们把鸡汤认为是爽心食品的时候才会发生。参与者被要求回答这个问题和许多其他问题是在这个实验很久以前，因此他们不会记得。 “在每一个人的日常生活中，都会经历紧张，而这往往与人际关系有关，爽心食品可能是排遣孤独的便利食品”。Troisi如是说。
【11】Climate Change Poses Major Risks for Unprepared Cities （气候变化给不备城市带来重大风险）
A new examination of urban policies has been carried out recently by Patricia Romero Lankao．She is a sociologist specializing in climate change and urban development．She warns that many of the world’s fast-growing urban areas，especially in developing countries．will likely suffer from the impacts of changing climate．Her work also concludes that most cities are failing to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases．These gases are known to affect the atmosphere．”Climate change is a deeply local issue and poses profound threats to the growing cities of the world,” says Romero Lankao. ”But too few cities are developing effective strategies to protect their residents."
Cities are major sources of greenhouse gases．And urban populations are likely to be among those most severely affected by future climate change. Lankao’s findings highlight ways in which city-residents are particularly vulnerable, and suggest policy interventions that could offer immediate and longer-term benefits．
The locations and dense construction patterns of cities often place their populations at greater risk for natural disasters. Potential threats associated with climate include storm surges and prolonged hot weather. Storm surges can flood coastal areas and prolonged hot weather can heat heavily paved cities more than surrounding areas．The impacts of such natural events can be more serious in an urban environment．For example，a prolonged heat wave can increase existing levels of air pollution，causing widespread health problems．Poorer neighborhoods that may lack basic facilities such as drinking water or a dependable network of roads，are especially vulnerable to natural disasters．Many residents in poorer countries live in substandard housing without access to reliable drinking water，roads and basic services.
Local governments, therefore, should take measures to protect their residents.” Unfortunately，they tend to move towards rhetoric rather than meaningful responses, Romero Lankao writes, ” They don’t impose construction standards that could reduce heating and air conditioning needs. They don't emphasize mass transit and reduce automobile use. In fact, many local governments are taking a hands-off approach.” Thus, she urges them to change their idle policies and to take strong steps to prevent the harmful effects of climate change on cities..
最近，Patricia Romero Lankao对市政方针进行了全新的审查。她是一个社会学家，专门研究气候变化和城市发展。她警告说，世界上许多快速发展的城市地区，尤其在发展中国家，很可能会由于气候变化的影响而遭殃。她的著作也断定，大多数城市没有做到减排二氧化碳和其他温室气体，而众所周知，这些气体妨碍大气层。“气候变化是一个严重的区域问题，对世界上发展中的城市带来了严重的危害，但是，几乎没有城市研发有效的策略来保护当地居民”。
城市是温室气体的主要来源，城市人口很有可能受到未来环境变化的影响最大。Lankao的发现强调了城市居民受到伤害最大的一些方面，所以她建议出台干预政策，此举可以给居民带来短期的和长期的益处。
城市的位置以及城市建设的密集常常会使居民在应对自然灾害时面临更大的危险。与气候有关的潜在威胁有风暴潮和炎热天气的延长等。风暴潮可以淹没港口地区，而炎热天气的延长使得大量铺设沥青路面的城市比周边地区的温度大大提高。这自然现象给城市带来的影响尤为严重。比如，热浪的延长会加剧空气污染，从而导致大面积的居民健康问题。贫穷社区可能由于缺乏如饮用水和可靠的公路系统这样基本的设施，而在自然灾害来临时遭受更大的影响。许多贫穷国家的居民住在不符合标准的房子里，没有安全的饮用水、交通设施和其他基础服务设施。
因此，当地政府应该采取措施来保护他们的居民。“不幸的是，政府对此事的反应仅仅局限于作秀而不是有意义的作为，他们不严格执行能够减少供热和空调需要的建筑标准，事实上，许多当地政府对此袖手旁观。”Romero Lankao说。因此，她敦促政府改变不作为的政策，采取强制措施预防气候变化对城市带来的不利影响。
【12】Free Statins With Fast Food Could Neutralize Heart Risk (快餐加免费降胆固醇药物可以降低罹患心脏病的风险)
Fast food outlets could provide statin drugs free of charge so that customers can reduce the heart disease dangers of fatty food, researchers at Imperial College London suggest in a new study．
Statins reduce the amount of unhealthy “LDL” cholesterol in the blood. A wealth of trial data has proven them to be highly effective at lowering a person’s heart attack risk .
In a paper published in the American Journal of Cardiology，Dr Darrel Francis and colleagues calculate that the reduction in heart attack risk offered by a statin is enough to offset the increase in heart attack risk from eating a cheeseburger and drinking a milkshake．
Dr Francis，from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London，who is the senior author of the study, said:“Statins don’t cut out a11 of the unhealthy effects of cheeseburgers and French fries．It’s better to avoid fatty food altogether．But we’ve worked out that in terms of your possibility of having a heart attack. Taking a statin can reduce your risk to more or less the same degree as a fast food meal increases it.”
“It’s ironic that people are free to take as many unhealthv condiments in fast food outlets as they like, but statins, which are beneficial to heart health, have to be prescribed. It makes sense to make risk-reducing statins available just as easily as the unhealthy condiments that are provided free of charge．It would cost less than 5 pence per customer 一not much different to a sachet of sugar.” Dr Francis said．
When people engage in risky behaviours like driving or smoking, they’re encouraged to take measures that lower their risk, 1ike wearing a seatbelt or choosing cigarettes with filters. Taking a statin is a rational way of lowering some of the risks of eating a fatty meal．
伦敦帝国理工学院的研究者们在一项新研究中建议，快餐店可以免费供应降胆固醇药物以此降低顾客食用油腻食品罹患心脏病的风险。
降胆固醇药物能减少不健康的低密度脂蛋白胆固醇在血液中的含量。大量的试验数据已经证明，降胆固醇药能有效降低罹患心脏病的风险。
在《美国心脏病学杂志》发表的一篇论文里，Darrel Francis博士和他的同事们估订，一粒降胆固醇药降低的罹患心脏病的风险，足以抵消食用汉堡和饮用奶昔所提高的罹患心脏病的风险。
Francis博士来自帝国理工学院的国家心肺学院，是本次研究的资深发起人。他认为：“降胆固醇药物不能消除所有汉堡和炸土豆条带来的不健康的影响，最好远离所有油腻食物。但是，就罹患心脏病的几率而言，我们得出这样的结论：服用降胆固醇药物降低心脏病发作的风险与快餐增加的患心脏病的风险在程度上大致相当。”
“具有讽刺意味的是，人们在快餐店里可以随意拿取对健康有害的调味包，但是对健康有利的降胆固醇药物却是处方药。既然对健康有害的调味包可以随意免费拿取，那么降低心脏病发作的降胆固醇药物免费随意拿取也是合理的。在每个顾客身上都花不了5便士，也就是一小袋糖的价格”，Francis博士说道。
当人们从事诸如驾驶和吸烟等危险行为时，别人会鼓励他们系安全带或选择有过滤嘴的香烟以降低风险。服用降胆固醇药物是降低油腻食物引发的心脏病发作风险的理性做法。
发表于 2025-5-15 15:42:51
