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题目
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400-year-old plants from the Little Ice Age were brought back to life, which could help us understand how the Earth will deal with climate change.
Moss(藓类植物) found buried beneath the Teardrop glacier(冰川) on Ellesmere Island in Canada has been brought back to life. Findings suggest that these plants could help repopulate regions exposed by melting ice caps. Plants that were buried beneath thick ice in Canada more than 400 years ago and were thought to have frozen to death have been brought back to life by Canadian scientists.
Samples of the moss plant, covered by the glacier during the Little Ice Age of 1550 to 1850 AD, were replanted in a lab at the University of Alberta and grew new stems(茎). Researchers now think these findings can give indication as to how regions can recover as the ice covering them melts.
Biologist Dr. Catherine La Farge and her team at the University of Alberta were exploring the region around the Teardrop glacier on Ellesmere Island. Ice on Ellesmere Island region has been melting at around four meters each year for the past nine years. This means that many areas of land that were previously covered by ice have since been exposed. Many ecosystems that were thought to have been destroyed during the Little Ice Age between 1550 and 1850 AD can now be studied, including many species that have never been studied before.
While examining an exposed area of land, La Farge and her team discovered a small area of moss called Aulacomnium turgidum. It is a type of bryophyte(苔藓类植物) plant that mainly grows across Canada, the US and the Highlands of Scotland.
Dr La Farge noticed that the moss had small patches of green stems, suggesting it is either growing again or can be encouraged to repopulate. Dr La Farge told the BBC, “When we looked at the samples in detail and brought them to the lab, I could see some of the stems actually had new growth of green branches, suggesting that these plants are growing again, and that blew my mind. When we think of thick areas of ice covering the landscape, we’ve always thought that plants have to come from refugia(濒绝生物保护区), never considering that land plants come from underneath a glacier. It’s a whole world of what’s coming out from underneath the glacier that really needs to be studied. The ice is disappearing pretty fast. We really have not examined all the biological systems that exist in the world; we don’t know it all.”
Dr La Farge took samples of the moss and, using carbon-dating techniques, discovered that the plants date back to the Little Ice Age. Dr La Farge’s team took the samples, planted them in dishes full of nutrient-rich potting soil and fed them with water.
The samples were from four separate species including Aulacomnium turgidum, Distichium capillaceum, Encalypta procera and Syntrichia ruralis. The moss plants found by Dr La Farge are types of bryophytes. Bryophytes can survive long winters and regrow when the weather gets warmer.
However, Dr La Farge was surprised that the plants buried under ice have survived into the twenty-first century. Her findings appear in proceedings(论文集)of the National Academy of Sciences.
小题1:Dr La Farge’s research is of great importance to ________.
A.knowing what the plants during the Little Ice Age were like
B.understanding how ecosystems recover from glaciers.
C.regrowing many species that have been destroyed before.
D.figuring out the effects of melting ice caps on moss.
小题2:The underlined part “blew my mind” in Paragraph 6 can best be replaced by “________”.
A.surprised meB.greatly frightened me
C.put my doubt out of my mindD.was exactly what I had in my mind
小题3:According to the passage, Aulacomnium turgidum ________.
A.lives better in small groups
B.is very active in hot weather
C.is strong enough to survive coldness
D.is chosen from Canadian refugia
小题4:Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A.Bryophyte ecology is greatly affected by climate change.
B.400-year-old moss’s survival is a mystery to solve.
C.Moss in ancient times was discovered in Canada.
D.400-year-old plants were brought back to life.

答案

小题1:B
小题2:A
小题3:C
小题4:D
解析

试题分析:文章介绍了生物学家凯瑟琳La Farge博士和她的团队发现400年前冰封在冰川里的苔藓类植物,在带回实验室后放置在营养丰富的土壤中,浇水之后又再次生长。研究表明即使冰封四百年的植物在适宜条件下还会复活。
小题1:推理题:根据第二段中“Findings suggest that these plants could help repopulate regions exposed by melting ice caps. ”研究表明这些植物可以重新覆盖冰帽融化地区。由此可知当地的生态系统可从冰川中恢复过来。故选B。
小题2:推理题:根据第六段中“I could see some of the stems actually had new growth of green branches, suggesting that these plants are growing again, and that blew my mind.”我可以看到一些绿色的茎有新的增长,表明这些植物可以再次增长,这出乎我的意料。划线部分意思是“出乎意料”,只有A选项符合语意。故选A。
小题3:细节题:根据第八段中“Bryophytes can survive long winters and regrow when the weather gets warmer.”苔藓植物可以在漫长的冬季存活和当天气变暖时再生。 Aulacomnium turgidum是苔藓类植物中一种,因此也可在寒冷中存活。故选C。
小题4:推理题:根据文章内容可知冰封400年的植物也可以在适合温度中再次复活。故选D。
核心考点
试题【400-year-old plants from the Little Ice Age were brought back to life, which cou】;主要考察你对题材分类等知识点的理解。[详细]
举一反三
Even though Danish students have equal access to education, their choice of studies is still influenced by social class. Young people from working class backgrounds are       by studies with a clear job profile侧面,半面,外形,轮廓and high income,       prestige and studies with a strong identity interest young people of parents with university degrees when choosing which studies to      . This is what researchers from the University of Copenhagen       in a new study. Students who have chosen to study medicine, architecture, economy and sociology often come from homes where the parents have         higher education, whereas business studies and pharmacy often       young people with a working class background. This is       by a research team from the University of Copenhagen and Aalborg University in a new study.
“There is a       between the studies chosen by young Danes and their       background. Even for the young people who have very good grades in their A-level exams, and who could successfully       admission to a large variety of studies, the parents’       of education and social class play an important role in their choice,” says Education Sociologist Jens Peter Thomsen, who is one of the researchers behind the study.
The study “The Educational Strategies of Danish University Students from Professional and Working-Class Backgrounds” is       60 interviews with Danish students from six different university level study programmes: Medicine, architecture, sociology, economy, pharmacy and business studies.
The young people bring with them the       they get from their families. If you grow up in a home with parents who are doctors or architects with a strong professional      , it is an obvious choice to follow the       path as your parents when you grow up.
“For young people whose parents are university educated,       such as fame and mastery of expert knowledge are important. They are       by an educational culture in which you are a diligent student, and where leisure activities are       to the identity that lies within your studies. These young people have also grown up with       discussions around the dinner table which also prepare them for their lives as students,” says Jens Peter Thomsen.
He also added, “Young people who come from a working class background, and have good grades have to       the full range of opportunities they have. But the effort to reach this goal must start early”.
小题1:
A.monitoredB.motivatedC.motionedD.multiplied
小题2:
A.whileB.althoughC.whenD.if
小题3:
A.pursueB.engageC.involveD.conduct
小题4:
A.calculateB.suspectC.concludeD.achieve
小题5:
A.requiredB.confirmedC.refusedD.completed
小题6:
A.subscribes toB.caters toC.sticks toD.appeals to
小题7:
A.inquiredB.provedC.extendedD.acquired
小题8:
A.connectionB.comparisonC.differenceD.contradiction
小题9:
A.educationalB.politicalC.socialD.professional
小题10:
A.balanceB.developC.identifyD.seek
小题11:
A.situationB.judgmentC.levelD.preference
小题12:
A.connected withB.based on C.committed toD.combined with
小题13:
A.resourcesB.experiencesC.financeD.memory
小题14:
A.degreeB.identityC.successD.responsibility
小题15:
A.perfectB.usualC.commonD.same
小题16:
A.changesB.problemsC.factorsD.characters
小题17:
A.disturbedB.movedC.puzzledD.attracted
小题18:
A.tiedB.accustomedC.transferredD.copied
小题19:
A.practicalB.topicalC.physicalD.medical
小题20:
A.take charge ofB.take control ofC.take advantage ofD.take care of

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At the moment, there are two reliable ways to make electricity from sunlight. You can use a panel of solar cells to create the current directly, by liberating electrons from a semiconducting material such as silicon. Or you can concentrate the sun’s rays using mirrors, boil water with them, and employ the steam to drive a generator.
Both work. But both are expensive. Gang Chen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Zhifeng Ren of Boston College therefore propose an alternative. They suggest that a phenomenon called the thermoelectric(热电)effect might be used instead—and they have built a prototype(原型)to show that the idea is practical.
Thermoelectric devices are not new. They are used, for example, to capture waste heat from car engines. They work because certain materials generate an electrical potential difference within themselves if one part is hotter than another. That can be used to drive a current through an external circuit.
The reason thermoelectric materials have not, in the past, been applied successfully to the question of solar power is that to get a worthwhile current you have to have a significant temperature difference. (200℃ is considered a good starting point.) In a car engine, that is easy. For sunlight, however, it means concentrating the heat in some way. And if you are going to the trouble of building mirrors to do that, you might as well go down the steam-generation route, which is a much more efficient way of producing electricity. If the heat concentration could be done without all the equipment of mirrors, though, thermoelectricity’s inefficiency would be balanced by the cheapness of the equipment.
In their view, three things are needed to create a workable solar-thermoelectric device. The first is to make sure that most of the sunlight which falls on it is absorbed, rather than being reflected. The second is to choose a thermoelectric material which conducts heat badly but electricity well. The third is to be certain that the temperature gradient(梯度)which that badly conducting material creates is not wasted by poor design.
小题1:The following methods can be adopted to make electricity from sunlight EXCEPT         .
A.putting a panel of solar cells into use
B.concentrating sun’s rays with mirrors
C.creating a solar-thermoelectric device
D.building a practical solar prototype
小题2:Why was the application of thermoelectric materials a failure in the past?
A.Because it’s hard for them to build enough mirrors to make it work.
B.Because 200℃ was hard to reach at that time even in a car engine.
C.Because of the failure of having a significant temperature difference.
D.Because it was hard to focus the sun’s rays with equipment of mirrors.
小题3:Which of the following is the best title for this passage?
A.Thermoelectric Device --- the Best Method of All
B.A New Method of Making Electricity from Sunlight
C.How to Create a Workable Thermoelectric Device
D.Solar Power --- a New Energy Trend in the Future

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It doesn’t kill germs better than cooler water, but turning tap temperatures high, the US burns carbon equal to the emissions of Barbados.
People typically wash their hands seven times a day in the United States, but they do it at a far higher temperature than is necessary to kill germs, a new study says. The energy waste is equivalent to the fuel use of a small country.
It’s cold and flu season, when many people are concerned about avoiding germs. But forget what you think you know about hand washing, say researchers at Vanderbilt University. Chances are good that how you clean up is not helping you stay healthy; it is helping to make the planet sick.
Amanda R. Carrico, a research assistant professor at the Vanderbilt Institute for Energy and Environment in Tennessee, told National Geographic that hand washing is often “a case where people act in ways that they think are in their best interest, but they in fact have inaccurate beliefs or outdated perceptions.”
Carrico said, “It’s certainly true that heat kills bacteria, but if you were going to use hot water to kill them it would have to be way too hot for you to tolerate.”
She explained that boiling water, 212°F (99.98°C), is sometimes used to kill germs - for example, to clean drinking water that might be polluted with germs. But “hot” water for hand washing is generally within 104°F to 131°F (40°C to 55°C.) At the high end of that range, heat could kill some germs, but the sustained contact that would be required would scald the skin.
Carrico said that after a review of the scientific literature, her team found “no evidence that using hot water that a person could stand would have any benefit in killing bacteria.” Even water as cold as 40°F (4.4°C) appeared to reduce bacteria as well as hotter water, if hands were scrubbed, rinsed(冲洗)and dried properly.
In fact, she noted that hot water can often have an unfavorable effect on hygiene. “Warmer water can harm the skin and affect the protective layer on the outside, which can cause it to be less resistant to bacteria,” said Carrico.
Using hot water to wash hands is therefore unnecessary, as well as wasteful, Carrico said, particularly when it comes to the environment. According to her research, people use warm or hot water 64 percent of the time when they wash their hands. Using that number, Carrico’s team calculated a significant impact on the planet. 
“Although the choice of water temperature during a single hand wash may appear minor, when multiplied by the nearly 800 billion hand washes performed by Americans each year, this practice results in more than 6 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually,” she said.
That’s roughly equal to the emissions of two coal-fired power plants, or 1,250,000 passenger vehicles, over the course of a year. It’s higher than the greenhouse gas emissions of small countries like El Salvador or Armenia, and is about equivalent to the emissions of Barbados. If all US citizens washed their hands in cooler water, it would be like eliminating the energy-related carbon emissions of 299,700 US homes, or the total annual emissions from the US zinc or lead industries. 
The researchers found that close to 70 percent of respondents said they believe that using hot water is more effective than warm, room temperature, or cold water, despite a lack of evidence backing that up, said Carrico. Her study noted research that showed a “strong cognitive(认知的) connection” between water temperature and hygiene in both the United States and Western Europe, compared to other countries, like Japan, where hot water is associated more with comfort than with health.
The researchers published their results in the July 2013 issue of International Journal of Consumer Studies. They recommended washing with water that is at a “comfortable” temperature, which they noted may be warmer in cold months and cooler in hot ones.
小题1:What does the writer mainly focus on when writing this passage?
A.Whether hot water helps kill germs effectively in hand washing.
B.How hot water contributes to the serious worsening of our planet.
C.Why the consumption of hot water is unnecessary and wasteful.
D.What the advantages and disadvantages of using hot water are.
小题2:The underlined word scald in paragraph six probably means         .
A.burnB.improveC.softenD.wrinkle
小题3:According to the passage, all the following share roughly the same CO2 emissions yearly EXCEPT         .
A.two coal-fired power plantsB.US zinc or lead industries
C.1,250,000 passenger vehiclesD.El Salvador or Armenia
小题4:Which of the following is WRONG according to the passage?
A. Boiling water at 212°F (99.98°C) works effectively in killing germs.
B. Warmer water can damage the protective layer of the outside skin.
C. There is much difference between cold water and hot water in reducing bacteria.
D. Americans have inaccurate beliefs or outdated perceptions in hand washing.
小题5:Which of the following is the standard of a comfortable water temperature for washing hands?
A. Warmer in winter and cooler in summer.    
B. Between 104°F to 131°F (40°C to 55°C).
C. Below 104°F (40°C) or above 131°F (55°C).  
D. Warm enough to kill germs and clean up.
小题6: If you want to read stories of this kind afterwards, which of the following magazines will you probably subscribe to?
A.Universal Science Fiction B.Science & Discoveries
C.Environment & Protection D.Exploration of America

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In films, dads change from cruel men to loving souls. Here is a list of good and bad movies dads .Atticus Finch in To kill a Mockingbird(***死一只知更鸟)
GOOD DAD:A man whose wife has died with a young family and a busy job as a lawyer, Gregory Peck"s character in the  1962 film is one of the great heroes of American cinema  Firm but fair he teaches his children respect and human decency(正派).Harper Lee"s novel gets a respectable transposition(转变)to film, thanks to Gregory Peck"s perfect performance.
Jack Torrance in The Shining
BAD DAD: When Jack Torrance ,his wife ,Wendy ,and son, Danny ,escaped from the cold winter to  the Overlook Hotel  we know that Jack has hardly been a model father But when Jack becomes extremely angry and tries to murder his family with an axe, Danny used his intelligence to defeat him and left him to  freeze to death.
George Bailey in It"s a Wonderful life
GOOD DAD: James Stewart"s character is a father-of-four who is saved from the edge of suicide (自***)and realizes his positive effect on others lives.Much of the film is unpleasant, with George shouting at his children as he faces financial problems.  But finally the lovable father realizes the worth of his own life, the value of friendship and the importance of being a loving dad
Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back(帝国大厦)
BAD DAD: When the unfriendly cyborg(半机器人)told Luke Skywalker that he was his father ,the son"s reaction says it all: "No! No!" It"s hardly a joyful welcome to the family.  For most of his son"s life, Darth Vader has been an absent dad—and he has just cut off Luke"s hand You can understand why Father"s Day cards might not be available.
小题1:Who is Harper Lee?
A. An actor.B. A novelistC. A movie director.D. A translator.
小题2:According  to the text, ______died of freezing cold
A. Jack TorranceB. WendyC. DannyD. Darth Vader
小题3:Which movie should you watch if you want to see a helpless father change?
A.To kill a MockingbirdB.The Shining
C.It"s a Wonderful LiftD.The Empire Strikes Book
小题4:What happened to Luke?
A.He lost his hand in an accident
B.His father changed him into a cyborg.
C.He discovered that he had a cruel father:
D.His father lived with him for most of his life.

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Everyone has got two personalities-the one that is shown to the world and the other that is secret and real. You don’t show your secret personality when you’re awake because you can control your behavior, but when you’re asleep, your sleeping position shows the real you. In a normal night, of course, people frequently change their positions. The important position is the one that you go to sleep in.
If you go to sleep on your back, you’re a very open person. You normally trust people and you are easily influenced by fashion or new ideas. You don’t like to displease people. So you never express your real feelings. You’re quite shy and you aren’t quite sure of yourself.
If you sleep on your stomach, you are a rather secretive person. You worry a lot and you’re always easily upset. You always stick to your own opinions or judgment, but you don’t raise your hopes too much. You usually live for today not tomorrow. This means that you enjoy having a good time.
If you sleep curled up, you are probably a very nervous person. You have a low opinion of yourself and so you’re often defensive. You’re shy and you don’t normally like meeting people. You prefer to be on your own. You’re easily hurt.
If you sleep on your side, you have usually got a well—balanced personality. You know your strengths and weakness. You’re usually careful. You believe in yourself. You sometimes feel anxious, but you don’t often get sad. You always insist on what you think even if it makes people rather angry.
小题1:According to the passage, a person, who is not willing to change his mind and hard to deal with, probably sleeps           .
A.on his sideB.on his backC.curled upD.on his stomach
小题2:If a person prefers to sleep curled up rather than on his back, he may be well content to    .
A.do things personally.B.stay alone
C.keep things secretD.trust others easily
小题3:Which of the following people, in the author’s opinion, most likely have personalities opposite to each other ?
A.The people sleeping on their stomachs and those sleeping on his backs.
B.The people sleeping on their sides and those sleeping curled up.
C.The people sleeping on their backs and those sleeping on their sides.
D.The people sleeping curled up and those sleeping on their stomach.
小题4:What the author mainly intends to tell us is that            .
A.one’s sleeping position has something to do with one’s character.
B.everyone has got both real and secret personalities.
C.the position in which one goes to sleep is the most important one.
D.when awake, one does not show one’s secret personality.

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