Have you ever noticed that your fingertips are winked when you’ve just finished swimming or washing dishes? It seems as if your hands have aged 30 years i a second. But is this an accident? Or is it something that nature has built into our bodies?

If your finger’s wrinkling up had no use at all, “ it wouldn’t need to.” Professor Tom Smulders from Newcastle University, UK, told BBC News. By studying wet fingers closely, Smulders and his partners found that the wrinkles looked a bit like the patterns on the car tire or o the bottom of the running shoes. So they made a guess that wrinkles on fingers might be able to help the hand hold things more tightly.

To test this, researchers asked 20 people to pick up marbles from water with their hands. But before they started, some of the people had to keep their hands in water for half an hour.

The researchers found that the people with wrinkled fingers completed the task the task faster than those with dry hands. But when they were asked to move dry marbles, all the people performed equally well, no matter they had the wrinkled fingers or not.

Our ancestors might not have played with marbles, but wrinkled fingers could have made it easier for them to climb around in the wet forests and catch fish from rivers, researchers say.

Similarly, our toes also get wrinkled in water. This may have developed from our ancestor’s need to run on wet ground.

But the question is, if wrinkled fingers are so helpful, why don’t our hands just stay that way all the time? Researchers explained that wrinkling has its disadvantage: wet fingertips are far less sensitive than smooth ones, reducing our sense of touch.

26, What does the underlined world “this ” in the third paragraph refer to?

A. Wether fingers have wrinkles after they are put in water.

B. Wether wrinkled fingers can hold things more tightly.

C. Why keeping things in water makes them wrinkled.

D. Why wrinkles help hands hold things more tightly.

27, The test shows that ________.

A. winkled hands hold dry things more tightly than dry hands do.

B. dry hands hold dry things more tightly than wrinkled hands do.

C. winkled hands hold wet things more tightly than dry hands do.

D. dry hands hold wet things more tightly than wrinkled hands do.

28. What might be the disadvantage of wrinkled fingers?

A. They are too sensitive to be touched.

B. They might be more likely to get hurt.

C. They cannot hold things tightly enough.

D. They are not so sensitive as dry fingers.

Parents are a child’s first teachers. But some parents never learned from good examples. In New York City, Covenant House tries to help homeless young mothers become good parents.
The twelve or so teenagers who live at the shelter attend parenting classes four days a week. The class is called Mommy and Me.
Teacher Delores Clemens is a mother of five and a grandmother. She teaches basic skills, like how to give a baby a bath and how to dress a baby in different seasons.
She remembers one student who learned from her mother not to pick up a crying baby. The mother said that would only make the child needy.
“I said ‘That’s not true. You have to hold your baby! He is crying for a reason. If you never pick him up, he’s going to keep crying. Pick your baby up. Hug(拥抱)him! And she started to do that. They just want a little hugging and a little love. And it works!” Delores Clemens said.
Delores Clemens says her students also learn how to be good mothers by letting themselves be mothered. “I’m doing something for them that never has been done for them before.”
In class, with her baby son, is Natasha. She lived on the streets. She is glad not only for the warmth and shelter of Covenant House. As she told reporter Adam Phillips, she is also glad for the help they offer in looking for a safer life.
“Did you go to high school?”
“Yes.”
“Did you graduate?”
“No, I didn’t. I was in my last year and then, I got pregnant(怀孕)and I got lazy.”
“You look like you are willing to accept responsibility(责任)for that.”
“Yes, I am, and I would like to finish.”
Some teenage mothers wish they themselves could be children again. 18-year-old Placida knows that feeling. “Because you have to get up every two hours in the middle of the night, and you can’t go out and say ‘I am going to buy this for myself.’ No. I have to buy pampers, clothes and food. So now it’s two. So it’s very hard.” Placida said.
【小题1】What did Natasha want to finish high school for?

Last week I went to a supermarket. After I  36  the bill and was passing through the door, the alarm suddenly started to ring. Suddenly, a young guard ran toward me and ordered me to  37 him. I felt so upset and   38  . He took me to a small room, but I was   39  frightened that I stopped at the door. Finding me  40to enter the room, he shouted that I had to go into the room.

He closed the door. I thought he was going to hurt me. Suddenly, a   41   voice said in my ear: “Take out the things you’ve stolen!” “I stole nothing.” I said. “Do as I tell you. If we find them, you’ll be in trouble.” “There is nothing.” I answered. “I didn’t take anything.” I said, taking everything out of my pockets and bag.

  42   this point, a guard came in and asked a salesgirl to   43  me.   44  , they found nothing.

But they didn’t believe that I hadn’t stolen anything. So the young guard ordered me to pass through the door alarm again.

I was   45  when it rang again. I felt   46  and burst into tears. I didn’t know how to prove   47  I was innocent(清白的).

They made me go into the small room again.

 “Take out the stolen things quickly,  48  we will dial 110.” They said.

 “OK, call the police. I’ m not afraid.” I said  49.

Suddenly,  they  50 their tone. After a while, a salesgirl asked me to raise my feet. I did   51   she had told me. There was a label (标签) on the bottom of my shoe. That was it! That was the  52 thing that had brought me such great trouble. But it  53my innocence.（清白）

After that, they 54  to me in the small room, But they should have apologized 55  , shouldn’t they? A lot of people were there when I was taken away. What did they think of me?

1.A．buy                B．paid            C．passed          D．paid for

2.A．obey               B．beg             C．follow          D．listen to

3.A．angry              B．excited         C．happy           D．puzzled

4.A．very               B．much            C．such            D．so

5.A．disagree           B．unwilling       C．voluntarily     D．willingly 

6.A．high               B．low             C．sound           D．sharp

7.A．On                 B．In              C．At              D．From

8.A．look at            B．watch           C．examine         D．keep

9.A．Needless to say B．So far             C．On one hand     D．As a result of

10.A．afraid            B．frightened      C．shocked         D．sad

11.A．wronged           B．upset           C．scared          D．unpleasant

12.A．what              B．whether         C．that            D．how

13.A．and               B．but             C．or              D．so

14.A．unhappily         B．forcefully      C．terribly        D．widely

15.A．changed           B．raised          C．increased       D．closed

16.A．like              B．as              C．according to    D．as if

17.A．only              B．last            C．very            D．just

18.A．tested            B．showed          C．proved          D．gave

19.A．said              B．apologized      C．agreed          D．promised

20.A．loudly            B．together        C．politely        D．in public