Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing when you are happy. Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.
　Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims (声称) as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species are welcome. Your house is your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away. If so, you have actually frightened the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting (筑巢) season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird’s song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.
【小题1】Some scientists believe that most of the time bird’s singing is actually ________.
A.an expression of happiness      B. a way of warning
B.an expression of anger          D. a way of greeting
【小题2】What is a bird’s “territory”?

A．A place where families of other species are not accepted.

B．A place where a bird may shout at the top of its voice.

C．An area for which birds fight against each other.

D．An area which a bird considers to be its own.

【小题3】Why do birds keep on singing at nesting season?

A．Because they want to invite more friends.

B．Because their singing helps frighten outsiders away.

C．Because they want to find outsiders around.

D．Because their singing helps get rid of their fears.

【小题4】How does the writer explain birds’ singing?

A．By comparing birds with human beings.	B．By reporting experiment results.
C．By describing birds’ daily life.	D．By telling a bird’s story.

【小题5】What does the underline word “screaming” in paragraph 4 mean?

A．哭喊声

B．令人惊愕的

C．尖叫声

D．尖叫的

In a great many cities, hundreds of people ride bicycles to work every day. In New York City, some bike riders have even formed a group called Bike for a Better City. They declare that if more people rode bicycles to work, there would be fewer automobiles in the downtown part of the city and so less dirty air from car engines.
For several years this group has been trying to get the city government to help bicycle riders. For example. They want the city to draw special lanes for bicycles only on some of the main streets, because when bicycle riders must use the same lanes as cars, there are accidents. Bike for a Better City feels that if there were special lanes, more people would use bikes.
But no bicycle lanes have been drawn. Not everyone thinks it is a good idea-they say it will slow the traffic. Some store owners on the main streets don’t like the idea-they say that if there is less traffic, they will have less business.
The city government has not yet decided what to do. It wants to keep everyone happy. On weekends, Central Park-the largest place of open ground in New York-is closed to cars, and the roads may be used by bicycles only. But Bike for a Better City says that this is not enough and keeps fighting to get bicycle lanes downtown.
【小题1】In New York, a group of bike riders ________.

A．are keeping practicing for health

B．have no cars of their own

C．are complaining there are not enough buses

D．are trying to settle the problem of air pollution

【小题2】The advantage of the special lanes is that ________.

A．they will make cars and buses run slowly

B．they will make it easier for bike riders to go to parks

C．they will make the city more beautiful

D．the lanes will prevent accidents

【小题3】The government has not decided whether special lanes should be drawn _______.

A．so that everyone is disappointed

B．because there are different opinions

C．because most people travel by train

D．because Bike for a Better City is not strong enough

【小题4】Cars are not permitted to enter Central Park on weekends _________.

A．so that Bike for a Better City is pleased

B．so that everyone is happy

C．and bicycle lanes are drawn

D．but Bike for a Better City is still not satisfied

Almost everyone wants to get smarter. We struggle to improve our 16_ , intelligence and attention. We drink cup after cup of coffee to help us  17_  the day.
 18 __, a new study published in Current Directions in Psychological Science warns that there are 19___ to how smart humans can get.
Each of our body parts develops in a certain way for a reason.  20  _, we are not 3 meters tall  21 _ most people’s hearts are not strong enough to send  22 _  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 __23  , such as the size of the mother’s pelvis (骨盆). If our brains developed to be bigger, there could be more  24  during childbirth.
The study of Jews, who have an average IQ much _ 25_  than other Europeans, showed they were more  _26_  to develop diseases of the  _27_  system. This might be because of their increased brainpower.
If intelligence cannot be improved, can we at least get better at _ 28 _ ? Not really, say scientists. They studied  _29_  like caffeine (咖啡因)that improve attention. They found the drugs only helped people with serious  30 _ problems. For those who did not have trouble paying attention, the drugs could have the  31 _ effect. Scientists say that this suggests there is a(n)  32 limit to how much people can or should concentrate.
Our memory is also a “double-edged sword”. People with extremely good memories could  33__ having a difficult life because they cannot  _34 bad things that happen to them.
Thomas Hills, one of the authors of the paper, said that   35  all the problems in trying to get smarter, it’s unlikely that there will ever be a “super mind”.

【小题1】

A．memory B．character C．.ability D．emotion

【小题2】

A．go through B．get through C．put through D．carry through

【小题3】

A．Though B．Therefore C．Meanwhile D．However

【小题4】

A．standards B．measures C．ranges D．limits

【小题5】

A．For example B．In addition C．At first D．Above all

【小题6】

A．until B．before C．because D．so that

【小题7】A. blood      B information        C. breath            D. strength

【小题8】

A．reasons B．factors C．aspects D．effects

【小题9】

A．chances B．lives C．choices D．deaths

【小题10】

A．smarter B．better C．higher D．lower

【小题11】

A．likely B．possible C．probable D．sure

【小题12】

A．nervous B．bodily C．personal D．physical

【小题13】

A．exercising B．concentrating C．memorizing D．thinking

【小题14】

A．poisons B．drinks C．plants D．drugs

【小题15】

A．health B．family C．attention D．living

【小题16】

A．same B．different C．opposite D．similar

【小题17】

A．lower B．smaller C．higher D．upper

【小题18】

A．end up B．make up C．start up D．come up

【小题19】

A．remember B．forget C．perform D．share

【小题20】

A．supposing B．considering C．concerning D．regarding

TOKYO, Japan (AP) – Japan is very serious about robotics (机器人技术). If the droids are going to fit in, they probably need to learn the Japanese custom of serving tea. Fortunately, researchers at the University of Tokyo are exploring just that. In a show this week, a humanoid（有人特点的）with camera eyes made by Kawada Industries Inc. poured tea from a bottle into a cup. Then another robot on wheels delivered the cup of tea in an experimental room that has sensors embedded in the floor and sofa as well as cameras on the ceiling, to simulate（模仿）life with robot technology.
“A human being may be faster, but you’d have to say ‘Thank you,’” said University of Tokyo professor Tomomasa Sato. “That’s the best part about a robot. You don’t have to feel bad about asking it to do things.”
Sato believes Japan, a rapidly aging society where more than a fifth of the population is 65 or older, will lead the world in designing robots to care for the elderly, sick and bedridden（卧床不起的）.
Already, monitoring technologies, such as sensors that automatically turn on lights when people enter a room, are becoming widespread in Japan.
The walking, child–size Asimo from Honda Motor Co. greets people at showrooms. NEC Corp. has developed a smaller companion robot–on –wheels called Papero. A seal robot available since 2004 can entertain the elderly and others in need of fuzzy companionship.
Sato says his experimental room is raising awareness about privacy questions that may arise when electronic devices（设备）monitor a person’s movements down to the smallest detail.
On the bright side, the tea – pouring humanoid has been programmed to do the dishes.
【小题1】The underlined word “embedded” in the first paragraph probably means       .

A．rooted

B．settled

C．fixed

D．established

【小题2】According to Professor Sato,       .

A．the robot serves tea much faster than a human being

B．the robot does anything like human beings

C．tea – serving robot helps to form laziness of the aging society

D．tea – serving robot doesn’t need any reward for the service

【小题3】We can infer from the passage that        .

A．people are afraid of being monitored by robots.

B．robots can completely take the place of human beings.

C．the technology of robots has been highlighted in Japan.

D．people’s privacy should be strictly protected

【小题4】What is the best title of this passage?

A．“Thank You” Will Never Be Needed in Japan

B．Monitoring Technologies Are Widespread in Japan

C．Robot Is Designed to Care for the Elderly.

D．Robot technologies are widespread in Japanese daily life.

What will man be like in the future — in 5,000 or even 50,000 years from now? We can only make guesses, of course, but we can be sure that he will be different from what he is today, for man is slowly changing all the time.
Let us take an obvious example. Man, even five hundred years ago, was shorter than he is today. Now, on average, men are about three inches taller. Five hundred years is relatively a short period of time, so we may suppose that man will continue to grow taller. Again, in the modern world we use our brains a great deal. Even so, we still make use of only about 20% of the brain’s capacity(容量). As time goes on, however, we shall have to use our brains more and more, and finally we shall need our brains more and more, and finally we shall need larger ones! This is likely to bring a physical change too: the head, in particular the forehead, will grow larger.
Nowadays our eyes are in constant use. In fact, we use them so much that very often they become weaker and we have to wear glasses. But over long period of time it is likely that man’s eyes will grow stronger.
On the other hand, we tend to make less use of our arms and legs. These, as a result, are likely to grow weaker. At the same time, however, our fingers will grow more sensitive because they are used a great deal in modern life.
But what about hair? This will probably disappear from the body altogether in course of time because it does not serve a useful purpose any longer. In the future, then, both sexes are likely to be bald.
Perhaps all this gives the impression that future man will not be a very attractive creature to look at! This may well be true. All the same, in spite of all these changes, future man will still have a lot in common with us. He will still be a human being, with thoughts and motions similar to our own.
【小题1】The passage mainly tells us that __________.

A．Man’s life will be different in the future

B．Future man will look quite different from us

C．Man is growing taller and uglier as time passes

D．Man’s organs’ functions will change

【小题2】What serves as the evidence that man is changing?

A．Man has got stronger eyes now than he ever had.

B．Man’s hair is getting thinner and thinner.

C．Man’s arms and legs have become lighter and weaker.

D．Man has been growing taller over the past 500 years.

【小题3】The change in man’s size of the forehead is probably because __________.

A．he makes use of only 20% of the brain’s capacity

B．his brain has grown larger over the past centuries

C．he will use his brain more and more as time goes on

D．the other 80% of his brain will grow in due time

【小题4】Which of the following is TRUE about a human being in the future?

A．He is hairless because hair is no longer useful.

B．He has smaller eyes and wears better glasses.

C．His fingers grow weaker because he doesn’t have to make use of them.

D．He thinks and feels in a different way.

【小题5】It is implied that __________.

A．human beings will become less attractive in the future

B．body organs will become poorer if they are not used often

C．human beings hope for a change in the future life

D．future life is always predictable

Plants are very important living things. Life could not go on if there were no plants. This is because plants can make food from air， water and sunlight. Animals and man cannot make food from air， water and sunlight. Animals get their food by eating plants and other animals. Therefore animals and man need plants in order to live. This is why we find that there are so many plants around us. If you look carefully at the plants around you， you will find that there are two kinds of plants： flowering plants and non-flowering plants. Flowering plants can make seeds. The seeds are protected by the fruits. Some fruits have one seed， some have two， three or four， and some have many seeds. But a few fruits have no seeds at all. An example of a fruit without seeds is the banana fruit. Most non-flowering plants do not grow from seeds. They grow from spores（胚芽）。 Spores are very small. Some spores are so small and light that they can float in the air. We may say that spores are quite the same as seeds. When these spores are all on wet and shady places， they usually grow into new plants.
【小题1】The main idea of the first paragraph is that ______.

A．plants are important for life	B．plants cannot grow without air
C．there are many plants in the world	D．we can not live without water

【小题2】Plants can make food from ______.

A．flower， water and air	B．water， sunlight and air
C．air， water and soil	D．air， sun and light

【小题3】What can we infer（推断） from the passage ？

A．Of all living things animals are most important

B．Spores are seeds

C．All fruits of flowering plants have seeds

D．Without plants， man will die out

【小题4】This passage may be taken from ________.

A．a medicine book	B．a novel
C．a science magazine	D．an experiment report

【小题5】The underlined word “protected” in the third paragraph can be replaced by ______.

A．damaged

B．polluted

C．prevented

D．guarded

In most parts of the world, many students help their school make less pollution. They join in “environment(环境) clubs”. In an environment club, people work together to make our environment clean.
Here are the things students often do.
Turn off the water! Do you know that some toilets can waste twenty to forty tons of water an hour? In a year, that would fill a small river! In environment clubs, students mend those broken toilets.
No-car day. On a no-car day, nobody comes to school in a car—not the students and not the teachers! Cars give pollution to our air, so remember:
Walk, jump, bike or run.
Use your legs! It’s lots of fun!
No-garbage(垃圾) lunches. How much do you throw away after lunch? Environment clubs ask students to bring their lunches in bags that can be used again. Every week they will choose the classes that make the least garbage and report them to the whole school!
We love our environment. Let’s work together to make it clean!
【小题1】After mending the broken toilets, they save ________.

A．a small river

B．a lot of water

C．a toilet

D．a year

【小题2】On a no-car day, ________ will take a car to school.

A．only students	B．only teachers
C．both students and teachers	D．neither students nor teachers

【小题3】Environment clubs ask students ________.

A．to run to school every day	B．to play sports every day
C．not to throw away lunch bags	D．not to forget to take cars

【小题4】From this passage we know the students usually have lunch ________.

A．at school

B．in clubs

C．at home

D．in shops

【小题5】The writer wrote the passage to tell students to ________.

A．join in clubs	B．help teachers
C．make less pollution	D．clean schools

Just when scientists think they have discovered and recorded every species of insect that crawls the earth they find something new. Earlier this month, Peter Jager, the head of Frankfurt’s Senckenberg Research Institute reported the discovery of a unique eyeless spider.
The creature that has a leg span (跨度) of six centimeters and a body size of just twelve millimeters was found in a cave inside the tiny nation of Laos, in Southeast Asia. It was identified as a member of the Huntsman spider, a large family that consists of 1100 species. However, the other members of the family all have eyes. The spider is the first one that has no eyes. They believe that the kind of spider has adapted to the fact that they do not really need the eyes to such a degree that they have dispensed with them altogether.
But they are not the only creature to have done that. Over the years, scientists have discovered completely blind cave fish, and even a freshwater crab, which happens to live in the same cave as this eyeless spider!
Surrounded by Burma and China on the northwest, Vietnam on the east, Cambodia on the south and Thailand on the west, the landlocked nation of Laos is filled with a large number of new and exotic (新奇的) species. In the last few years researchers have discovered the Saola—never-before-seen antelope-like creature, a small deer species called muntjacs, a tiny stripped rabbit and a rock rat that was thought to have been extinct 11 millions years ago. In addition to that it is also home to over one hundred species of large mammals ranging from tigers to macaques and over 165 species of amphibians (两栖动物) and reptiles like the terrible King cobra and the noisy Tokay gecko, a permanent resident inside most Laos households.
64. 【小题1】Which of the following is the best title of passage?

A．Laos full of a large number of exotic species

B．Laos popular with plenty of strange species

C．Every species of insect discovered and recorded by scientists

D．World’s first eyeless spider discovery in Southeast Asia.

65. 【小题2】What does the second paragraph mainly tell us about the unique eyeless spider?

A．The eyesight, identification and family members.

B．The size, identification and the reason for being eyeless

C．The body, species and living environment

D．The size, identification and the species

66. 【小题3】The underlined part “dispensed with” (in 2^nd Para) means _________.

A．got rid of

B．put up with

C．carried away

D．taken no notice of

Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.
The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts hardly lose their pumping power with age.
“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age.” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. “Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70. one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink. “This is part of the ageing process.”
What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.
“This gender(性别)difference might just explain why women live longer than men,” said Goldspink.
They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on heahhy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease.
The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart, said Goldspink.
The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.
【小题1】The underlined word “longevity” in the second paragraph probably refers to _____.

A．health

B．long life

C．ageing

D．effect

【小题2】The text mainly talks about ______.

A．men’s heart cells	B．women’s ageing process
C．the gender difference	D．hearts and long life

【小题3】According to the text, the UK scientists have known that _____.

A．women have more cells than men when they are born

B．women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat

C．the female heart loses few of the cells with age

D．women never lose their pumping power with age

【小题4】 We can know from the passage that ______.

A．scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells

B．the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out

C．the team has done something to prevent the male from suffering the greater loss

D．wome over 70 could lose more heart cells than those at the age of 20

The search for life in the universe took a step forward last month with the opening of the Allen Telescope Array(艾伦望远镜阵列) in Hat Creek, California. The telescopes were partly made possible by a gift of twenty-five million dollars from Paul Allen. The total cost of the project is already fifty million dollars.
At present, there are 42 radio telescopes working at the Hat Creek observatory. The signals they receive are combined to create what is equal to a single, very large telescope. The telescope will be used to observe objects like exploding stars, black holes and other objects that are predicted but have not yet been observed. Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute says this is the first telescope whose main purpose is to search for signals from intelligent life in space. The SETI Institute is based in Mountain View, California. The organization supports the search for other life forms in the universe.
What makes the Allen Telescope Array unusual is that it can collect and study information from a wide area of the sky. In addition, the 42 telescopes can study information about several projects at the same time. That means studies of large areas of the sky can be made faster than ever before.
Some officials think the Allen Telescope Array will be completed in three more years. 350 individual radio telescopes are planned. The new abilities of the Allen Telescope Array will make searching for stars similar to the sun much faster.
An earlier search by SETI, Project Phoenix, studied about 800 stars to a distance of 240 light years. The project ended in 2004. With the Allen Telescope Array, astronomers hope to gather thousands of times more information in the search for life beyond our planet.
【小题1】The main purpose of the Allen Telescope Array is          .

A．to serve for the research of weather predication

B．to prepare for the wars against life from the universe

C．to search for signals from intelligent life in space

D．to observe exploding stars, black holes and other objects

【小题2】From this passage we know that         .

A．the 42 radio telescopes at Hat Creek observatory can work together

B．the total cost of the project came from Paul Allen

C．Hat Creek observatory can receive signals from all parts of the worm

D．Hat Creek observatory is operated by an American named Paul Allen

【小题3】Which of the following is TRUE according to this passage?

A．The Allen Telescope Array takes much more room than former telescopes.

B．The Allen Telescope Array is still being built at present in the United States.

C．Another 42 radio telescopes will be fixed in the Allen Telescope Array.

D．The SETI Institute is against the search for other life forms in the universes.

【小题4】With the help of the Allen Telescope Array,         .

A．astronomers can gather more information than before from other planets

B．humans will have more chances to live on other planets than before

C．humans will be able to find more natural resources on other planets

D．scientists will be able to find more natural resources from other planets