Wild animals seem to have escaped the Indian Ocean tsunami(海啸), adding weight to ideas they possess a “sixth sense” for disasters, experts said on Thursday.

Sri Lanka wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast seemingly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.

“No elephants are dead, not even a dead hare or rabbit. I think animals can sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening,” H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lanka’s Wildlife Department, said on Wednesday.

The waves washed floodwaters up to 3 km (2 miles) inland at Yala National Park in the southeast, Sri Lanka’s biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants. “There has been a lot of evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven,” said Matthew van Lierop, an animal behaviour specialist at Johannesburg Zoo.

“There have been no specific studies because you can’t really test it in a lab or field setting,” he said.

Other authorities agreed with this conclusion.

“Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain phenomenon, especially birds. There are many reports of birds detecting coming disasters,” said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.

Animals certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators(食肉动物).

The idea of an animal “sixth sense” is a lasting one that the evidence on Sri Lanka’s damaged coast is likely to add to.

This passage is mainly about________.

A. the damage that was caused in the Indian Ocean tsunami

B. why animals can save them from natural disasters

C. how to protect the wildlife when disaster happens

D. the different opinions about animals’ natural power

Which of the following is true according to the text?

A. It has been proved that animals have a “sixth sense”.

B. Research has been made on the special movements of animals before disasters.

C. It’s generally considered that animals can sense the coming of disasters.

D. Animals have depended on the known senses to escape the Indian Ocean tsunami.

What does the term “sixth sense” in the text means?

A. It is the natural ability of animals that can save them from danger.

B. It is the animal’s imagination in the brain.

C. It is some hidden power to say in advance that something will happen.

D. It is a kind of sense that is the same as smell or hearing.

Which section does the text most probably appear in a newspaper?

A. News Report.        B. Discovery.       C. Science Fiction.      D. Culture.

-There is a very special wolf that lives in Africa. They are actually called, the African wild dog, or painted dogs.
These animals live in open woodlands. or in the plains of Africa. Today, however, most of the animals can be found in eastern or southern Africa. These animals are beautiful. They have rounded ears instead of pointed like most dogs, and they have four toes (脚趾) on each of their feet, also a unique characteristic because other dogs have five. Their fur is always different from each other. The fur is usually a combination of black, brown, red, and white, and sometimes even yellow. No wonder they’re called the painted wolf.
The African wild dog is a very social animal. They live in groups and have numbers from five to about twenty. The members of a group are always very close to one another. They communicate in their own language or body language. When someone is very old or sick, the others will help, and they are willing to share the food with elders and with those who are weak, which is what we should learn from.
The family does everything together, from raising young, to sleeping together, to hunting. When they hunt, they work together using team work to kill animals that are larger than them.
They sometimes hunt farm animals. This is unfortunate, because both poachers (偷猎者), and people who own farms shoot the painted dogs who are just trying to survive.
Before, there used to be many large groups throughout the land, but now the African wild dog is very rare. They are also losing their population because of their own loss of habitat thanks to human’s farming and forest cutting.
【小题1】Why do African wild dogs get the name “painted dogs” ?

Questions:
A. Do you think people should be decisive in the wild?
B. How to make hunting tools?
C. Do you think people should send an SOS while they are in danger?
D. How to make a fire in the wild?
E. How to set a trap to hunt animals?
F. How to build a shelter in the wild?
【小题1】______
Answer: If you are in a desert environment, try to build an underground shade shelter to avoid prolonged sun exposure, obviously only for hot climates. So you can be more comfortable in cooler temperatures to avoid sweating. If your environment is damp, use branches laid and criss-crossed on top of one another to create a solid and dry foundation for an open bed pad. Raise the foundation above ground level as much as possible.
【小题2】______
Answer: Yes, I think so. For example, if you think the best survival course of action is to look for help and civilization, don’t wait 4 or 5 days before you come to this conclusion. Take action on the 1^st or 2^nd day if possible while you still have strength and endurance working for you.
【小题3】______
Answer: Use dry wood and sticks to start your fire. Fire is started by using three kinds of wood: tinder, kindling, and fuel. Tinder is any kind of flammable wood shavings, usually light and wispy. You can take two pieces of dry wood, sharpen one of them and use it to drill into the other piece. Place any highly flammable objects you can find next to the drill bit. The moment the flammable object catches a spark, use a rock to swiftly tip the object onto a nest of leaves and little branches.
【小题4】______
Answer: Get an ordinary block of wood and hit it with a rock repeatedly until the wood sharpens. In this case, use the rock as your sharpener. You could also take a rock and break off some of the edges and then use another rock and some water like a wet stone and sharpen. In an ideal situation, obsidian stone would be used for its infamous sharpness.
【小题5】______
Answer: Use two more sticks to hold up a “teepee”, similar to your shelter. Place an item of your choice you think an animal will come after, if you’re lucky, the animal will be trapped. Dig a hole in the ground about 2m-3m deep and 1m-2m across. Take two thin branches and place them criss-crossed across the hole. Cover it with leaves and put something the animals like to eat. You can also put a few wooden spikes sharpened by your knife at the bottom. Don’t forget to build a ladder or you might not be able to climb out of the hole.

In 1883, an imaginative engineer named John Roebling decided to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with Long Island. However, bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was a pipe dream. It was not practical. It had never been done before.

But Roebling refused to listen to them. He thought about the bridge day and night and he knew deep in his heart that it could be done. After much discussion and persuasion he convinced his son Washington, who was a promising engineer himself, that the bridge in fact could be built.

Working together for the first time, the father and son developed concepts of how it could be accomplished. With great excitement, they hired their crew and began to build their dream bridge.

The project started well, but several months after it began, a tragic accident on the site took the life of John Roebling. Washington was so seriously injured that he was never able to walk, talk or even move again.

"We told them so", "Crazy men and their crazy dreams", "It's foolish to chase wild visions", the critics said and most thought the project should be scrapped since the Roeblings were the only ones who knew how the bridge could be built. In spite of his handicap Washington still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever.

Washington's wife tried to inspire and pass on her husband's enthusiasm to some of his friends, but they were too daunted by the task. As he lay in his hospital room, an idea suddenly hit him. All he could do was move one finger and he decided to make the best use of it. By moving this finger and tapping it on his wife's arm, he slowly developed a code to communicate with her. Then he used this method to tell his wife what the engineers should do. It seemed crazy but the project was under way again. For 13 years Washington tapped out his instructions with his finger on his wife's arm, until the bridge was finally completed.

Today the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of one man's spirit and his determination not to be defeated by circumstances.

_ What did most people think about Roebling's idea to build the bridge?

A. It would never become a reality.                    B. Washington was not experienced enough.

C. It would take a lot of time.                            D. Finding the money would be impossible. 

_The underlined word `daunted' (para. 6) is closest in meaning to '______'.

  A. unpleasant    B. scared    C. amazed    D. determined

_ Which of the following shows the correct order of the events that happened in the story?

   a. Roebling convinced his son.

   b. Washington found a new way to communicate.

   c. They hired the crew.

d. The bridge was completed.

   e. Roebling wanted to build a bridge.

   f. There was a tragic accident.

A. e, a, c, f, d, b     B. e, a, f, b, c, d    C. e, f, a, b, c, d    D. e, a, c, f, b, d　　

_ What can we learn about Washington's wife?

A. She knew sign language very well.

B. She was devoted to her husband.

C. She developed a code to communicate with her husband.

D. She helped her husband design the plan.

_ What does the story tell us?

  A. Success will come with the passing of time.

  B. Struggles are exactly what we need in our lives.

  C. Even the most distant dream can be realised with a never-say-die attitude.

  D. The people who make a difference in our life should be remembered forever.

The German shepherd runs off and noses around in the grass of Kenya’s Laikipia Plateau. “OK, Oakley,” the dog’s handler orders, “Find it!”

Oakley sniffs (嗅) until he comes to a bush, then stops, sits, and looks up at his handler. She bends to see what he has found: the waste of an endangered African wild dog. “Good dog!” she praises. The handler pulls a tennis ball from her pocket. Oakley jumps for his reward.

“He doesn’t actually want the waste,” says Aimee Hurt, a founding member of the U.S.-based group Working Dogs for Conservation. Hurt is in Kenya to train both Oakley and his handler. “He finds it so he can play with his ball. We’re the ones who want the waste.”

Detection dogs are sometimes taught to locate actual animals. Black-footed ferrets (雪貂) have been studied with their help. But more often the dogs learn to locate the waste of creatures such as bears, wolves and mountain lions.

What the dogs find provides scientists with data about a species. Scientists can use the DNA collected from animal waste to identify individuals, sex, and population sizes — all without ever seeing the animal itself. “It can take years to gather this kind of information if you have to trap animals,” Hurt explains.

Waste analysis might make a huge difference when wild species are accused of attacking domestic livestock (家畜). Hurt says, “A good detection dog will find the waste so we can see what the animal is actually eating.” This may help reduce problems between people and wildlife.

1. The underlined word “She” in Paragraph 2 refers to  “_____”.

2. Oakley is interested in finding the waste because _____.

3.Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

4.What is the main idea of the passage?