What would you think if someone suggested knocking down St Paul’s Cathedral to widen the road? Or pulling down Big Ben to make way for a car park? It would be ridiculous, right? But when it comes to devastation (毁灭) of the natural world, we aren’t so easily shocked. But we should be…or we’ll be in a lot of trouble.
Nature is shrinking by the day. Ancient forests are destroyed. Wetlands are becoming dry. Woodland is disappearing, and all in the name of progress. This is bad in itself, but it’s devastating for biodiversity.
Biodiversity refers to the variety of plants, animals and other living things that are all interconnected. The ecological services provided by biodiversity are vital to everyday life. The air we breathe is a product of photosynthesis (光合作用) by green plants. Insects, worms and bacteria break down waste and make soils rich. And tiny organisms clean the water in rivers and sea. In fact, all life on the earth exists thanks to the benefits of biodiversity. More than 90 percent of the calories consumed by people worldwide are produced from 80 plant species. And 30 percent of medicines are developed from plants and animals. Maintaining a wide diversity of species in each ecosystem is necessary to preserve all living things.
The loss of biodiversity could be devastating. “It is wrong to think that biodiversity can be reduced indefinitely without threatening humans,” said Harvard University biologist Edward O. Wilson, known as the “father of biodiversity”. He warned, “We are about to reach a critical point beyond which biodiversity loss will become irreversible (不可挽回的).”
But what can we do? The present problem is that the concept of biodiversity is so vague (含糊的). People might care about giant pandas, but it is much harder to excite them about the fate of tiny sea creatures which are being boiled to death in the cooling systems of power stations along coastlines. The Guardian newspaper is trying to help. It has launched the Biodiversity 100 campaign to try to convince governments around the world to take action to deal with the widespread concerns about biodiversity. This includes persuading the UK government to create a series of marine reserves to reserve the decrease in the sea-life caused by industrial fishing, stopping fishing sharks by the Japanese fishermen and banning the killing of dingoes (wild dogs) in Australia, among many other things.
There is a lot to do. And we’d better act quickly if we don’t want to end up with a planet that can’t sustain life!
【小题1】The writer thinks it ________ to pull down Big Ben to make way for a car park.

请认真阅读下列短文,并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格填入最恰当的单词。
注意：每空格一个单词。
Eat more, Play more—Weight Less
In the United States, 20 to 40 percent of the adult population have a “weight problem”. To many people, the cause seems obvious: we eat too much. But scientific evidence does little to support this idea.
Several modern studies have shown that fatter people do not eat more on average than thinner people and that slim people are more active than fat people.
I believe that this shows overweight people can become relatively slim gradually via a progressive program of regular exercise. The key is regular, enjoyable activity.
Use of energy(calories) by the body falls into two categories. The first is energy used for essential bodily functions—digestion, heart beat, breathing—and BMR(新陈代谢). In an average-sized adult, BMR requires about 1400 calories per day.
The second category is energy used for physical activity—standing, walking and all other movements. Together with the BMR, it makes up total calorie use, which should be balanced by food intake for weight to remain stable.
For years now, we have known that dieting—especially severe dieting(400 calories per day, for instance)—decreases BMR. This is the body's defense system to keep energy when food supply is reduced. Unfortunately, it tends to weaken the diet's effects by enabling the body to “get by” on fewer calories. For this reason, I believe that severe dieting is not a good way to lose weight, and all dieting should be seen as a temporary measure.
In addition to helping weight loss and continued weight control, regular exercise has many other features to recommend it. While weight loss by dieting alone results in some loss of muscle as well as fat, weight loss by exercise and moderate dieting leads to an increased proportion（均衡）of muscle mass. The regular exerciser has good heart function too.
Regular exercise helps to raise blood levels of high－density lipoprotein(HDL) and increased exercise leads to increased food intake and thus to increased intake of critical nutrients (营养).
The benefits of eating more because of an increase in physical activity are not widely appreciated. Many people in this country, by actual measurement, have remarkably low calorie intake. Often the amount is so low (1 200 to 1 800 calories a day) that nutritionists worry about the adequacy(足够的)of their vitamin and mineral intake. And too little food, with inadequate fiber content, leads in the old population to chronic constipation(长期便秘)．
To sum up, most Americans still get too little regular exercise, and it is within this group that almost all obesity is found. Severe dieting should not be used as it is unpleasant and tends to be self-defeating. Moderate dieting combined with regular exercise is much more effective and enjoyable. The choice is yours: life on the sofa, nibbling celery or the active, healthy-eating, healthful way.

With high pace of modern society, more and more people get stressed and feel lonely sometimes, but it usually only lasts between a few minutes and a few hours. This kind of loneliness is not serious. In fact it is quite normal. For some people, though, loneliness can last for years. Now researchers say there are different types of loneliness.
The first kind of loneliness is temporary. This is the most common type. It usually disappears quickly and doesn’t require any specially attention. The second kind, situational loneliness, is a natural result of a particular situation ―for example, when a family problem appears, the time a loved one dies, or when they move to a new place. Although this kind of loneliness can cause physical problems, such as headaches and sleeplessness, it usually does not last for more than a year. The third kind of loneliness is the most severe. Unlike the second type, it usually lasts for more than two years and has no specific cause. People in this case have problems socializing and can not become close to others. Unfortunately, many such people think there is little or nothing they can do to improve their condition.
Psychologists are trying to find ways to help habitually lonely people for two reasons: They are unhappy and unable to socialize and there is a connection between habitual loneliness and serious illness such as heart disease. While temporary and situational loneliness can be normal, healthy part of life, habitual loneliness can be a very sad, and sometimes dangerous condition.
Title: 【小题1】_____________________

People with bigger brains ftend to score higher on standardized tests of intelligence， according to new study findings.
However， the study author Dr Michael A.McDaniel of the Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond emphasized that these findings represent a general trend， and people with small heads should not automatically believe they are less intelligent. For instance， Albert Einstein’s brain was “not particularly large”， McDaniel noted. “There’s some relationship between brain size and intelligence on the average， but there’s plenty of room for exceptions，” he said.
Interest in the relationship between brain size and intelligence grew in the1830s，  when German anatomist(解剖学家) Frederich Tiedmann wrote that he believed there was “an unquestionable connection between the size of the brain and the mental energy displayed by the individual man”. Since that statement， scientists have conducted numerous studies to determine if Tiedmann’s  assertion was， in fact， correct. Most studies have looked into the link between head size and intelligence. More recently， however， researchers have published additional studies on brain size and intelligence， measured using MRI scan(核磁共振成像扫描).
For his study， McDaniel analyzed more than 20 studies that looked into the relationship between brain size and intelligence in a total of 1,530 people. The studies showed that on the average， people with larger brain volume tended to be more intelligent. The relationship between brain volume and intelligence was stronger in women than men， and in adults than in children. McDaniel notes in the journal Intelligence.
McDaniel is not sure why the relationship was stronger for adults and women. “Other research has shown that women， on the average， tend to have smaller brains than men， but score just as well—if not higher—in tests of intelligence，” he said.
McDaniel insisted that the relationship between brain size and intelligence is not a “perfect” one. “One can certainly find lots of examples of smaller-sized people who are highly intelligent，” he said， “But， on the average， the relationship holds.”
【小题1】. What does the text mainly talk about？

Almost everyone wants to get smarter. We struggle to improve our  36_ , intelligence and attention. We drink cup after cup of coffee to help us  37_  the day.
 38 __, a new study published in Current Directions in Psychological Science warns that there are 39___ to how smart humans can get.
Each of our body parts develops in a certain way for a reason.  40  _, we are not 3 meters tall  41 _ most people’s hearts are not strong enough to send  42 _  up that high. Scientists say that our thinking ability works in the same way. A baby’s brain size is limited by a series of __43  , such as the size of the mother’s pelvis (骨盆). If our brains developed to be bigger, there could be more  44  during childbirth.
The study of Jews, who have an average IQ much _ 45_  than other Europeans, showed they were more  _46_  to develop diseases of the  _47_  system. This might be because of their increased brainpower.
If intelligence cannot be improved, can we at least get better at _ 48 _ ? Not really, say scientists. They studied  _49_  like caffeine (咖啡因)that improve attention. They found the drugs only helped people with serious  50 _ problems. For those who did not have trouble paying attention, the drugs could have the  51 _ effect. Scientists say that this suggests there is a(n)  52 limit to how much people can or should concentrate.
Our memory is also a “double-edged sword”. People with extremely good memories could  53__ having a difficult life because they cannot  _54 bad things that happen to them.
Thomas Hills, one of the authors of the paper, said that   55  all the problems in trying to get smarter, it’s unlikely that there will ever be a “super mind”.

Water and its importance to human life were the centre of the world’s attention last week. March 22 was World Water Day and     36    the theme “Water for Life”.
There are more than one billion people in the world who live without     37    drinking water. The United Nations      38    to cut this number in half by 2015.
Solving such a big problem seems like a(n)     39    challenge. But everyone,     40    teenagers, can do something to help. A teenage girl in the US has set an example to the     41  of her age around the world.
Rene Haggerty, 13, was awarded the 2004 Gloria Barron Prize for her work—     42    discarded(废弃的) batteries（电池）which pollute water.
In 2003, Haggerty went on a field trip to the Great Lakes Science Centre in Ohio. There she saw an exhibit about how     43    in old batteries harm the water of Lake Erie.
Haggerty learnt that     44     the batteries was an easy solution. “I think everybody can do it, because everyone     45    batteries, and it can make a big difference.” With these words, she began to     46    awareness in her area.
She     47     her county government and school board. She got permission to start a recycling programme in schools     48    the public library, hospital, and churches. With help from her family, friends and local waste-management    49   , she gathered containers, arranged transportation, and made a(n)     50    video.
Over the past two years, she collected four tons of batteries and drew the attention of officials, who were in charge of a battery recycling programme but had made     51   progress.
When asked     52    she feels like a hero, Haggerty is quite ____53   . “Not really. Well, maybe for the fish I saved!”
Every year the Gloria Barron Prize     54  young Americans aged 8 to 18 who have shown leadership and courage in     55    the public and the planet. Each year ten winners receive US $ 2,000 each, to help with their education costs or their public service work.

People do not analyse every problem they meet. Sometimes they try to remember a solution from the last time they had a  36  problem. They often accept the opinion or ideas of other people. Other times they begin to act without   37 ; they try to find a solution by trial and error. However, when all of these methods  38  , the person with a problem has to start analysing. There are six  39  in analysing a problem.
  40 , the person must recognize that there is a problem. For example, Sam’s bicycle is broken, and he cannot ride it to class as he usually does. Sam must   41  that there is a problem with his bicycle.
Next the person must  42  the problem. Before Sam can repair his bicycle, he must know why it does not work. For example, he must  43  the parts that are wrong.
Now the person must look for  44  that will make the problem clearer and lead to   45  solutions. For example, suppose Sam  46  that his bike does not work because there is something wrong with the brakes.  47 , he can look in his bicycle repair book and read about brakes, talk to his friends at the bike shop, or look at his brakes carefully.
After  48  the problem, the person should have several suggestions for a possible solution. Take Sam as an example  49, his suggestions might be: tighten or loosen the brakes; buy new brakes and change the old ones.
In the end, one  50  seems to be the solution to the problem. Sometimes the  51  idea comes quite  52  because the thinker suddenly sees something in a  53  way. Sam, for example, suddenly sees there is a piece of chewing gum stuck to a brake. He immediately hits on the solution to his problem: he must  54  the brake.
Finally the solution is  55 . Sam does it and finds his bicycle works perfectly. In short he has solved the problem.

In the past, man did not have to think about the protection of his environment. There were few people on the earth, and natural resources seemed to be____36____ .
Today things are___37_____, the world has become too___38____ . We are using up our natural resources too quickly, and at the same time we are___39____ our environment with dangerous chemicals. If we continue to do this, human life on the earth ___40____survive.
Everyone___41_____ today that if too many fish are taken from the sea, there will soon be none left. Yet, with modern fishing__42_____ , more and more fish are caught. We know that if too many trees are cut down, ___43____will disappear and nothing will grow on the land. Yet, we ___44_____to use bigger and more powerful machines to __45____more and more trees.
We realize that if rivers are polluted with waste products from factories, we will die.___46_____, in most countries wastes are ___47______put into rivers or into the sea, and there are _48_____laws to stop this.
We know, too, that if the___49____ of the world continues to rise at the present rate, in a few years, there will not be enough___50_____. What can we do to solve these problems ?
It we eat more vegetables and less___51____, there will be more food available for everyone. Land that is used to grow crops __52_____five times more people than land where animals are kept.
Our natural resources will _53_____longer if we learn to recycle them. The world population will not rise so quickly if people use modern methods of birth__54_______ .
Finally, if we educate people to think about the problems, we shall have a better and clearer ___55____in the future.

Adults are often surprised by how well they remember something they learned as children but have never practised in the meantime. A man who has not had an opportunity to go swimming for years can  1    swim as well as ever when he gets back in the water. He can get on a bicycle after several decades and still   2    away. A mother who has not   3   the words for years can teach her daughter the poem that begins "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" or recite the story of Cinderella or Snow White.
　　One explanation is the law of over learning, which can be stated as following:   4 we have learned something, additional learning increases the   5    of time we will remember it.
　　In childhood, we usually continue to practise such skills as swimming, bicycle riding long after we have learned them. We continue to listen to and   6    ourselves of poems such as "Twinkle, twinkle, little star" and childhood tales such as Cinderella or Snow White. We not only learn but __7   .
　　The law of over learning explains why cramming (突击学习) for an examination,   8    it may result in a passing grade, is not a   9    way to learn a school course. By cramming, a student may learn the subject well enough to get by on the examination, but he is likely soon to forget almost everything he learned. A little over learning,   10   , is usually a good investment toward the future.