Three years ago, five parrots were set free in a wild place of Arizona, thousands of miles from the Channel Islands in Jersey where they had been looked after by zookeepers. No evolutionary strategies informed them how to behave in this new landscape of mountainous pine forest unoccupied by their kind for 50 years. To the researchers’ surprise, they failed to make contact with a group of wild parrots imported from Mexico and set free at the same time. Within 24 hours the reintroducing ended in failure, and the poor birds were back in cages, on their way to the safety of the Arizona reintroduction programme.

 Ever since then, the programme has enjoyed great success, mainly because the birds now being set free are Mexican birds illegally caught in the wild, confiscated （没收） on arrival north of the border, and raised by their parents in the safety of the programme. The experience shows how little we know about the behaviour and psychology （心理） of parrots, as Peter Bennett, a bird researcher, points out: “Reintroducing species of high intelligence like parrots is a lot more difficult. People like parrots, always treating them as nothing more than pets or valuable ‘collectables’.”

 Now that many species of parrot are in immediate danger of dying out, biologists are working together to study the natural history and the behaviour of this family of birds. Last year was an important turning point: conservationists founded the World Parrot Trust, based at Hayle in Cornwall, to support research into both wild and caged birds.

 Research on parrots is vital for two reasons. First, as the Arizona programme showed, when reintroducing parrots to the wild, we need to be aware of what the birds must know if they are to survive in their natural home. We also need to learn more about the needs of parrots kept as pets, particularly as the Trust’s campaign does not attempt to discourage the practice, but rather urges people who buy parrots as pets to choose birds raised by humans.

What do we know about the area where the five parrots were reintroduced?

A. Its landscape is new to parrots of their kind.

B. It used to be home to parrots of their kind.

C. It is close to where they had been kept.

D. Pine trees were planted to attract birds.

The reintroducing experience three years ago shows that man-raised parrots

A. can find their way back home in Jersey

B. are unable to recognize their parents

C. are unable to adapt to the wild

D. can produce a new species

Why are researches on parrots important according to the passage?

A. The Trust shows great concern for the programme.

B. We need to know more about how to preserve parrots.

 C. Many people are interested in collecting parrots.

 D. Parrots’ intelligence may some day benefit people.

According to the passage, people are advised ______.

 A. to treat wild and caged parrots equally

 B. to set up comfortable homes for parrots

 C. not to keep wild parrots as pets

 D. not to let more parrots go to the wild

　　In 1961, scientist set up gigantic, sensitive instruments to collect radio waves from the far reaches of space, hoping to discover in them some mathematical pattern indicating that the waves were sent out by other intelligent beings. The first attempt failed, but someday the experiment may succeed.

　　What reason is there to think that we may actually detect intelligent life in outer space？To begin with, modern theories of the development of stars suggest that almost every star has some sort of family of planets. So any star like our own sun （and there are billions of such stars in the universe） is likely to have a planet situated at such a distance that it would receive about the same amount of radiation as the earth.

　　Furthermore, such a planet would probably have the same general composition as our planet; so, allowing a billion years or two or three, there would be a very good chance for life to develop, if current theories of the origin of life are correct.

　　But intelligent life？Life that has reached the stage of being able to send radio waves out into space in a deliberate pattern？Our own planet may have been in existence for five billion years and may have had life on it for two billion, but it is only in the last fifty years that intelligent life capable of sending radio waves into space has lived on earth. From this it might seem that even if there were no technical problems involved, the chance of receiving signals from any particular earth-type planet would be extremely small.

　　This does not mean that intelligent life at our level does not exist somewhere. There are such an unimaginable number of stars that, even at such miserable possibility, it seems certain that there are millions of intelligent life forms scattered through space. The only trouble is, none may be within easy distance of us. Perhaps none ever will be; perhaps the distances that separate us from our fellow “creatures” of this universe will forever remain too great to be conquered. And yet it is conceivable that someday we may come across one of them or, frighteningly, one of them may come across us. What would they be like, these outside-the-earth creatures？

1.What point is the author making by stating that almost every star has some sort of family of planets？

　　A. Sooner or later intelligent beings will be found on one of the stars.

　　B. There must be one or two of the planets on which there are no intelligent beings.

　　C. There are sufficient planets for there to be one that enjoys the same conditions as the earth does.

　　D. One or two billion years later intelligent beings will generate on those planets.

2.What is the main topic of the passage？

　　A. Some probable intelligent life forms on other planets.

　　B. Various stages undergone by the intelligent life on other planets.

　　C. Grounds for probable existence of intelligent life on other planets.

　　D. The possibility of intelligent life existing on our planet.

3.Which of the following can be inferred from the passage？

A. An encounter is probable between people from the earth and intelligent beings from another planet.

B. Though the first attempt failed, scientists did discover the radio waves sent out by other intelligent beings.

C. Other intelligent beings were able to send our radio waves into space well before the last fifty years.

D. It is certain that there are millions of intelligent beings scattered in space but only too far away.

4.According to the author, what is the difference between “we may come across one of them” and “one of them may come across us”？

A. The earth would be dangerously disadvantaged if it is sought after by possibly much more developed creatures.

B. It would prove that there are too many outside-the-earth creatures if “one of them comes across us”.

C. The history of the development of the earth would be proved to be shorter than that of “them” if “they” come across us.

D. it would prove that the distance in between is not so great as we think if “we come across one of them” someday.

 

单词拼写(就所给汉语及单词首字母写出空缺处单词的正确形式,每空一词,共10分）

1.He was _________(使残疾) in an accident and had to be looked after by others.

2.The government was urged to take______(措施) to combat the spread of AIDS.

3.Can you tell me about your _________ (态度) towards?

4.His new girlfriend has been a bad  _______ (影响) on him.

5.My uncle is a  _________ (内科医生) rather than a physicist or surgeon .

6.The British Isles are a group of islands that lie off the west coast of ____(欧洲).

7.I’m surprised she didn’t phone me back—she is usually very r_________.

8.As is known, Libai is one of the best-known Chinese p________.

9.When I first went to Jack’s house, he i___________ me to his parents.

10.A kind and friendly___________(气氛) can be felt throughout the conversation.

 

 Mr. Peter Johnson, aged twenty-three, battled for half an hour to escape from his trapped car yesterday when it landed upside down in three feet of water. Mr. Johnson took the only escape route--through the boot(后备箱).

    Mr. Johnson’s car had finished up in a ditch（沟） at Romney Marsin, Kent after skidding on ice and hitting a bank. “Fortunately, the water began to come in only slowly,” Mr. Johnson said. “I couldn’t force the doors because they were jammed against the walls of the ditch and dared not open the windows because I knew water would come flooding in.”

    Mr. Johnson, a sweet salesman of Sitting Home, Kent, first tried to attract the attention of other motorists by sounding the horn and hammering on the roof and boot. Then he began his struggle to escape.

    Later he said, “It was really a halfpenny that saved my life. It was the only coin I had in my pocket and I used it to unscrew the back seat to get into the boot. I hammered desperately with a hammer trying to make someone hear, but no help came.”                                                 

    It took ten minutes to unscrew the seat, and a further five minutes to clear the sweet samples from the boot. Then Mr. Johnson found a wrench (扳手) and began to work on the boot lock. Fifteen minutes passed by. “It was the only chance I had. Finally it gave, but as soon as I moved the boot lid, the water and mud poured in. I forced the lid down into the mud and scrambled clear as the car filled up.”

His hands and arms cut and bruised(擦伤), Mr. Johnson got to Beckett Farm nearby, where he was looked after by the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Lucy Bates. Huddled in a blanket, he said,“That thirty minutes seemed like hours.” “Only the tips of the car wheels were visible”, police said last night. The vehicle had sunk into two feet of mud at the bottom of the ditch.

1.What is the best title for this newspaper article?

   A. The Story of Mr. Johnson, A Sweet Salesman

   B. Car Boot Can Serve As The Best Escape Route

C. Driver Escapes Through Car Boot

D. The Driver Survived A Terrible Car Accident

2.Which of the following objects is the most important to Mr. Johnson?

   A. The hammer.       B. The coin.      C. The screw.      D. The horn.

3. Which statement is true according to the passage?

   A. Mr. Johnson’s car stood on its boot as it fell down.

   B. Mr. Johnson could not escape from the door because it was full of sweet jam.

   C. Mr. Johnson’s car accident was partly due to the slippery road.

   D. Mr. Johnson struggled in the pouring mud as he unscrewed the back seat.

4.“Finally it gave” (Paragraph 5) means that __________.

   A. Luckily the door was torn away in the end    B. At last the wrench went broken

   C. The lock came open after all his efforts          D. The chance was lost at the last minute

 

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