Almost anyone who has read a travel brochure about Africa has heard of elephants getting drunk from the fruit of the marula tree. It is said that elephants can get drunk by eating the fermented (发酵) fruit rotting on the ground. Books have even been written to prove the truth of the phenomenon.
But a study published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology tells a very different story.
Steve Morris, a biologist at the University of Bristol in England and an author of the study, says there is nothing in the biology of either the African elephant or the marula fruit to support the stories. Morris says, “ people just want to believe in drunken elephants.”
The marula tree, a member of the same family as the mango, grows widely in Africa. Its sweet, yellow fruit is used for making jam, wine and beer. “The first mistake of the drunken-elephant theory is that it’s unlikely that an elephant would eat the fruit if it were rotten, ” Morris says. “Elephants eat the fruit right off the tree, not when it’s rotten on the ground, ” he explains.
Other experts add that if an elephant were to eat the fruit on the ground, it wouldn’t wait for the fruit to ferment. Michelle Gadd, an African wildlife specialist, says that elephants and many other animals, including birds and monkeys, are too fond of marula fruit to let it rot.
If fermented fruit on the ground is out of the question, so is the notion that the fruit could ferment in the stomach of elephants, according to the study authors. Food takes between 12 and 46 hours to pass through an elephant’s digestive system, the authors point out, which is not enough for the fruit to ferment.
Supposing that this happened, it’s still highly improbable that the food would produce enough alcohol to make an elephant drunk. Through calculations of body weight, elephant digestion rates, and other factors, the authors conclude 
that it would take about 1.9 litres of ethanol(乙醇) to make an elephant drunk.
56. We can learn from the passage that ________.
A. it is not easy to find marula fruit in the wild in Africa
B. African elephants don’t like to eat marula fruit at all
C. marula fruit can be made into food or drink consumed by people
D. birds and monkeys in Africa like to eat rotten marula fruit
57. According to Paragraph 6, marula fruit is likely to ferment ________.
A. in about 12 hours B. in about 34 hours
C. between 12 and 46 hours D. in more than 46 hours
58. According to Mr. Morris, which of the following is TRUE?
A. Elephants just eat the fruit right off the tree.
B. Elephants will not eat the fruit which is rotten.
C. The marula tree and the mango belong to different families.
D. There are several connections b
etween Elephants and the marula fruit.
59 . What does the underlined word “this” in the last paragraph probably refer to ?
A. Elephants getting drunk.
B. Marula fruit fermenting in elephants’ stomachs.
C. Elephants eating rotten marula fruit.
D. Elephants eating marula trees directly.
挑战100单元检测试卷系列答案科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
The Man of Many Secrets — Harry Houdini — was one of the greatest American entertainers in the theater this century. He was a man famous for his escapes — from prison cells, from wooden boxes floating in rivers, from locked tanks full of water. He appeared in theaters all over Europe and America. Crowds came to see the great Houdini and his “magic” tricks.
Of course, his secret was not magic, or supernatural powers. It was simply strength. He had the ability to move his toes as well as he moved his fingers. He could move his body into almost any position he wanted.
Houdini started working in the entertainment world when he was 17, in 1891. He and his brother Theo performed card tricks in club in New York. They called themselves the Houdini Brothers. When Harry married in 1894, he and his wife Bess worked together as magician and assistant. But for a long time they were not very successful. Then Harry performed his first prison escape, in Chicago in 1898. Harry persuaded a detective to let him try to escape from the prison, and he invited the local newspapermen to watch.
It was the publicity(宣传) that came from this that started Harry Houdini’s success. Harry had fingers trained to escape from handcuffs and toes trained to escape ankle chins. But his biggest secret was how he unlocked the prison doors. Every time he went into the prison cell, Bess gave him a kiss for good luck — and a small skeleton key, which is a key that fits many locks, pass quickly from her mouth to his.
Harry used these prison escapes to build his fame. He arranged to escape from the local prison of every town he visited. In the afternoon, the people of the town would read about it in their local newspapers, and in the evening every seat in the local theater would be full. What was the result? World-wild fame, and a name remembered today.
According to the passage, Houdini’s success in prison escapes depends on _______.
A. his special tricks and supernatural power B. his unusual ability and a skeleton key
C. his magic tricks and supernatural powers D. his wisdom and magic tricks
In the fourth paragraph, the underlined word “this” refers to _______.
A. his first prison escape B. the year 1898
C. the publicity D. Harry Houdini’s success
It can be inferred from the passage that Houdini became famous _______.
A. in 1894 B. before he married
C. at the age of 17 D. when he was about 24
Which of the following is the best title for the passage?
A. A Skeleton Key B. A Man of Many Secrets
C. World-wild Fame D. Great Escape
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Imagine being able to recall just about anything, your mind functioning as a nearly endless encyclopedic（百科全书的）book of names, pictures, dates and events.
Brad Williams’ excellent memory recall makes him a personified version（个人版）of Google. His wide memory allows him to recall almost any news event and anything he has experienced, including specific dates and even the weather. “I was sort of a human Google for my family. I’ve always been able to recall things,” the 51-yearold said on Good Morning America in his first television interview.
Williams’ type of detailed, complete memory is called hyperthymesia and few known cases exist. Brad’s brain scan are now being studied by scientists at the Center for Neurobiology（神经生物学）of Learning and Memory, at the University of California.
At first, the drive-time radio broadcaster didn’t think his ability to recall so much was anything special. Gradually, over the years, other people noticed how much he was able to remember in detail about events. Then in 2006, he read an article about a wman whom scietists called AJ, which prompted Williams to come forward. AJ is a writwer of a medical journal, and the only scientifically-documented case of superior memory.
“When I read about AJ, my immediate thought was : Oh my God. That’s Brad!” said williams’ brother, Eric Williams.
Eric Williams is eager to learn about the inner working of his brother’s mind. He is in the process of making documentary（纪录片）about Brad, appropriately titled: “Unforgettable.” In the film, which hasn’t been finished yet, Williams takes on a person who is Googling answers to 20 questions. He answers 18 of them correctly and is 11 minutes faster than the Google user.
“All of us have the ability to store this information, but the difference with Brad is that he can recall it,” Eric Williams said.
According to the passage, which of the following is true about Brad Williams?
A．He has worked for Google, so he recall any news events.
B．He may be one of the rare cases of people with a superior memory.
C．He is now the host of Good Morning America.
D．He is working as a teacher in California.
Why does Brad Williams have such a good memory?
A．Because he was born with a rare ability.
B．Because his work requires a good memory.
C．Because he has to answer others’ questions.
D．Because he was specially trained in his chilhood.
The underlined word “prompted” most probably means _______.
A．helped B．wanted C．warned D．encouraged
The best title for this passage might be ___________.
A．The Ability to Store All Information
B．A Documentary called Unforgettable
C．“Google Man” Recalls Nearly Every Thing
D．Brad Williams and Google User
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科目：高中英语 来源：2013届安徽省黄山市高三第一次联考英语试卷（带解析） 题型：阅读理解
You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to endure almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean on June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the box's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the box was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can stand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
【小题1】What does the author say about the black box?
| A．It is an indispensable device on an airplane. |
| B．The idea for its design comes from a comic book. |
| C．Its ability to avoid disasters is incredible. |
| D．It ensures the normal functioning of an airplane. |
| A．witness | B．experience | C．resist | D．ensure |
| A．New materials became available by that time. |
| B．Too much space was needed for its installation. |
| C．The early models didn't provide the needed data. |
| D．The early models often got damaged in the crash. |
| A．There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed. |
| B．There is still a good chance of their being recovered. |
| C．They have stopped sending homing signals. |
| D．They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil. |
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科目：高中英语 来源：2013届安徽省屯溪一中高三第一次质量检测英语试卷（带解析） 题型：阅读理解
You never see him, but they're with you every time you fly. They record where you are going, how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally. Their ability to endure almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a comic book. They're known as the black box.
When planes fall from the sky, as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean on June 30, 2009, the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong. So when a French submarine (潜水艇) detected the box's homing signal five days later, the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.
In 1958, Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction. That was the first mode for a black box, which became a requirement on all U.S. commercial flights by 1960. Early models often failed to withstand crashes, however, so in 1965 the box was completely redesigned and moved to the rear of the plane – the area least subject to impact – from its original position in the landing wells (起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes, which were never actually black, be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.
Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder, which tracks pilots' conversations, and a flight-data recorder, which monitors fuel levels, engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments. Placed in an insulated (隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel, the boxes can stand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉. When submerged, they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft. Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447, which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009, are in water nearly that deep, but statistics say they're still likely to turn up. In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years, only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.
【小题1】What does the author say about the black box?
| A．It is an indispensable device on an airplane. |
| B．The idea for its design comes from a comic book. |
| C．Its ability to avoid disasters is incredible. |
| D．It ensures the normal functioning of an airplane. |
| A．witness | B．experience | C．resist | D．ensure |
| A．New materials became available by that time |
| B．Too much space was needed for its installation. |
| C．The early models didn't provide the needed data. |
| D．The early models often got damaged in the crash. |
| A．There is an urgent need for them to be reconstructed. |
| B．There is still a good chance of their being recovered. |
| C．They have stopped sending homing signals. |
| D．They were destroyed somewhere near Brazil. |
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科目：高中英语 来源：四川省2010届高三模拟考试英语试题 题型：单项填空
. With mobile phones, it’s easier to communicate with people because you can __________them almost any time .
A. touch B. get C. reach D. hear
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