68. What is the text mainly about?

A. Fish dieting and human dieting.

B. Dieting and health.

C. Human dieting.

D. Fish dieting.

答案　 65.A　 66.D　 67.B　 68.D

Passage 13

(09·湖南D篇)

Andrew Ritchie, inventor of the Brompton folding bicycle, once said that the perfect portable bike would be “like a magic carpet…You could fold it up and put it into your pocket or handbag”. Then he paused: “But you’ll always be limited by the size of the wheels. And so far no one has invented a folding wheel.”

It was a rare - indeed unique - occasion when I was able to put Ritchie right. A 19th-century inventor, William Henry James Grout, did in fact design a folding wheel. His bike, predictably named the Grout Portable, had a frame that split into two and a larger wheel that could be separated into four pieces. All the bits fitted into Grout’s Wonderful Bag, a leather case.

Grout’s aim: to solve the problems of carrying a bike on a train. Now doesn’t that sound familiar? Grout intended to find a way of making a bike small enough for train travel: his bike was a huge beast. And importantly, the design of early bicycles gave him an advantage: in Grout’s day, tyres were solid, which made the business of splitting a wheel into four separate parts relatively simple. You couldn’t do the same with a wheel fitted with a one-piece inflated (充气的) tyre.

So, in a 21st-century context, is the idea of the folding wheel dead? It is not. A British design engineer, Duncan Fitzsimons, has developed a wheel that can be squashed into something like a slender ellipse (椭圆). Throughout, the tyre remains inflated.

Will the young Fitzsimons’s folding wheel make it into production? I haven’t the foggiest idea. But his inventiveness shows two things. First, people have been saying for more than a century that bike design has reached its limit, except for gradual advances. It’s as silly a concept now as it was 100 years ago: there’s plenty still to go for. Second, it is in the field of folding bikes that we are seeing the most interesting inventions. You can buy a folding bike for less than £1,000 that can be knocked down so small that it can be carried on a plane - minus wheels, of course - as hand baggage.

Folding wheels would make all manner of things possible. Have we yet got the magic carpet of Andrew Ritchie’s imagination? No. But it’s progress.

67. The experiment showed that the smaller fish 　　　　.

A. fought over a feast 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. went on diet willingly

C. preferred some extra food　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. challenged the boss fish

66. The underlined words “the evicted fish” in Paragraph 3 refer to 　　　　.

A. the fish beaten up　 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. the fish found out

C. the fish fattened up 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. the fish driven away

65. When a goby grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor, it 　　　　.

A. faces danger　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 B. has breeding rights

C. eats its competitor　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 D. leaves the group itself

71. The author presents this passage by　　　 . 　

A. telling an interesting story　　　　 　　　　B. describing an activity in a lively way

C. testing an idea by reasoning　　　 　　　　D. introducing a practical method

答案　 68.C　 69.B　 70.A　 71.D

Passage 12

(09·湖南C篇)

People diet to look more attractive. Fish diet to avoid being beaten up, thrown out of their social group, and getting eaten as a result. That is the fascinating conclusion of the latest research into fish behavior by a team of Australian scientists.

The research team have discovered that subordinate fish voluntarily diet to avoid challenging their larger competitors. “In studying gobies we noticed that only the largest two individuals, a male and female, had breeding (繁殖) rights within the group,” explains Marian Wong. “All other group members are nonbreeding females, each being 5-10% smaller than its next largest competitor. We wanted to find out how they maintain this precise size separation.”

The reason for the size difference was easy to see. Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor, it causes a fight which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group. More often than not, the evicted fish is then eaten up.

It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid challenging the boss fish. Whether they did so voluntarily, by restraining how much they ate, was not clear. The research team decided to do an experiment. They tried to fatten up some of the subordinate gobies to see what happened. To their surprise, the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered, clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights, over having a feast.

The discovery challenges the traditional scientific view of how boss individuals keep their position in a group. Previously it was thought that large individuals simply used their weight and size to threaten their subordinates and take more of the food for themselves, so keeping their competitors small.

While the habits of gobies may seem a little mysterious, Dr. Wong explains that understanding the relationships between boss and subordinate animals is important to understanding how hierarchical (等级的) societies remain stable.

The research has proved the fact that voluntary dieting is a habit far from exclusive to humans. “As yet, we lack a complete understanding of how widespread the voluntary reduction of food intake is in nature,” the researchers comment. “Data on human dieting suggests that, while humans generally diet to improve health or increase attractiveness, rarely does it improve long-term health and males regularly prefer females that are fatter than the females’ own ideal.”

70. Which of the following pictures best shows the way of finding the direction of south?

69. The passage would probably be most helpful to　　　 . 　

A. those who draw maps　　　　　 B. those who get lost

C. those who make compasses　　　 D. those who do experiments

68. To find the direction, we ought to be patient probably because

A. it is not easy to find a proper stick　　　 B. it is not easy to position the stick

C. it takes hours to make the marks　　　 　D. it takes about half an hour to make the marks

75. What is the main idea of the passage?

　A. Science and its applications bring us many dangers.

　B. The development of science mostly lies in people's attitudes.

　C. Mankind can largely take control of science with their efforts.

D. The future of science will be influenced by the dangerous ideas.

答案　 72.B　 73.C　 74.D　 75.B

Passage 11

(09·福建D篇)

Find Which Direction Is South

Do you have a good sense of direction? If not, please take with you a compass. But if you forget to take a compass, you can still find your way. 　

It’s never a good idea to imagine that the family member who was entrusted(委托)with the job of map-reading actually knows where the family is. You can tell by the slightly confused load on their faces that nothing on the ground seems to match the map. Never mind. The shu is shining and it’s still morning. If you don’t know the exact time, you can still find out where south is, but you’ll need to be patient. 　

①Find a straight sick and put it in the ground in a place where you can mark its shadow. 　

②Try to position the stick as vertically(垂直)as you can. You can check this by making a simple plumb line (铅锤线)with a piece of string and weight. You haven’t got any string? OK, use a thread from your clothes with a button tied at the end to act as a weight. 　

③Mark the end of the shadow cast by the stick. 　

④Wait approximately half an hour and mark the end of the shadow again. 　

⑤Keep doing this until you have made several marks. 　

⑥The mark nearest the stick will represent the shortest shadow, which is cast at midday, when the sun is highest in the sky and pointing to the exact south. 　

⑦Pick a point in the distance along the line between the shortest shadow and the stick. 　

⑧That point is south of where you are. 　

⑨Now you can turn the map, like you did before, and find which way you should be travelling. 　

74. The discussion should reach beyond scientific societies because_______

　A. scientists have failed to predict the outcomes

　B. the ties between different areas need strengthening

　C. united efforts are necessary for the development of science

　D. people need to work together to prevent the bad use of science