题目

题型：不详难度：来源：

阅读下列短文并根据所读内容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰当的单词，每空格1词（共10个小题；每小题1分，满分10分）
Zebras have their own bug repellent(驱虫剂)?
Eww bugs! They are so annoying! We humans are lucky that we can apply repellents to avoid nasty bites. But what’s an animal to do? They have no choice but to spend their days shooing them off with their tails, unless, of course, they are zebras, who apparently have their own automatic repellent--- their striped skin!
Scientists had originally thought that the reason why the animal had developed the black and white lines was to help protect itself from predators in the African savannah, because the stripes make it difficult to single out one zebra that is traveling with a herd.While that may be true, the theory has never been tested or proven. Now the experts have another---that the stripes have evolved to repel the annoying horse flies that not only feed off their blood, but also, transmit dangerous germs into the bodies of these innocent animals.
The study was performed by a team of Swedish scientists. One of the clues that got them thinking along these lines was the fact that darker horses got bitten more often than light-colored or white ones.
The fact that zebras are born black and only develop strips as they grow older made the scientists theorize that the stripes may be something the animals have developed to make themselves less attractive to flies.
To test if this may be the case, they painted some boards at a horse-infested horse farm in Budapest with patterns of black and white stripes of varying widths and applied a layer of glue on them. What they noticed was that the places where the black and white stripes were at their narrowest (similar to what zebras have) attracted the fewest flies. They achieved similar results when they painted horses with black and white zebra-like stripes.
While the research are not sure why this may be the case, they believe it may be something to do with the way insects operate---horseflies are attracted to horizontally polarized light（偏振光）; since white does not reflect it, white horses are luckier than black ones. But zebras seem to be the luckiest of all. When the researchers measured the polarized light reflected from real zebra skins, they found that it matched light patterns that were the least attractive to horseflies.
While this theory does make logical sense, nobody is 100 percent sure that it is really true, given that it has never been tested on a real zebra. If it is true, it does raise the question of why a horse, a close relative of the zebra has failed to develop stripes. The researchers believe that this could be because there are more horseflies in Africa, where zebras reside, then anywhere else in the world.

Title	Zebras have their own bug repellent?
Reasons for zebras developing their strips	Original belief	With the black and white lines, one zebra is difficult to single out while traveling with a herd, thus ___小题1:___ it from its enemies.
	New theory	Zebras, residing in Africa where there are most horseflies in the world ,have developed strips to avoid being___小题2:____ .
A study	Researchers	A team of scientists from ___小题3:____
	____小题4:____	To test if strips are developed to make zebras less attractive to flies.
	Clues	*White or light-colored horses are less __小题5:___ to get bitten than dark ones. *Zebras develop strips as they grow older though born black .
	Method	*Some boards at a horse farm are painted with patterns of black and white stripes variously ___小题6:___ , a layer of glue applied on them *Measured the polarized light reflected from real zebra skins
	_____小题7:___	*The places where the black and white stripes were similar to the ___小题8:___zebras have attracted the fewest flies *Strips of zebras matched light patterns that were the least attractive to horseflies
Principle of zebras’ black and white strips repelling the flies		Horizontally polarized light, which white does not reflect, ____小题9:___ to horseflies.
Conclusion		____小题10:___tested on real zebras, the theory isn’t definitely true.

答案

小题1:protecting
小题2:bitten / attacked
小题3:Sweden
小题4:Purpose
小题5:likely
小题6:wide
小题7:Findings
小题8:ones
小题9:appeals
小题10:Unless

解析

试题分析： 人类可以利用各种方法抵御蚊虫的叮咬，那么动物怎么做呢？科学家发现斑马的黑白条纹可能是它们用来抵御蚊虫叮咬的方法。
小题1:词形转化题：根据第二段的句子：Scientists had originally thought that the reason why the animal had developed the black and white lines was to help protect itself from predators in the African savannah, because the stripes make it difficult to single out one zebra that is traveling with a herd.可知科学家原来认为斑马长着黑白的条纹是为了保护自己免受敌人的进攻，protect改成protecting做伴随状语。
小题2:句意理解题：根据第二段的句子：Now the experts have another---that the stripes have evolved to repel the annoying horse flies that not only feed off their blood, but also, transmit dangerous germs into the bodies of these innocent animals. 可知科学家现在又发现斑马长着黑白的条纹是为了保护自己免受叮咬或进攻， bitten / attacked。
小题3:词形转化题：根据第三段的句子：The study was performed by a team of Swedish scientists.可知研究人员是来自瑞典的：Sweden。
小题4:归纳词：根据右边的内容：To test if strips are developed to make zebras less attractive to flies.可知这是这项调查的目的：Purpose。
小题5:句意理解题：根据第三段的句子：One of the clues that got them thinking along these lines was the fact that darker horses got bitten more often than light-colored or white ones.可知白色或浅色的马比黑色的马被咬的可能性要小，所以填likely。
小题6:词形转化题：根据第五段的句子：To test if this may be the case, they painted some boards at a horse-infested horse farm in Budapest with patterns of black and white stripes of varying widths and applied a layer of glue on them. 可知科学家在板上画了不同宽度的黑白条纹。用形容词做定语wide。
小题7:归纳词：右边的内容是这次调查的结果，填Findings。
小题8:指代题：根据第五段的句子：What they noticed was that the places where the black and white stripes were at their narrowest (similar to what zebras have) attracted the fewest flies 可知这里用ones代替stripes。
小题9:考查词组：根据第六段的句子：horseflies are attracted to horizontally polarized light（偏振光）; since white does not reflect it,可知attracts改成词组：appeals to。
小题10:句意理解题：根据最后一段的句子：While this theory does make logical sense, nobody is 100 percent sure that it is really true, given that it has never been tested on a real zebra.可知如果不在真的斑马身上做实验，这个结果都不一定是真实的，填Unless。