longer periods of time when temperatures are below freezing, a study has suggested.The
prediction was based on research that found out how low solar activity affected winter weather
patterns.
However, the researchers were eager to stress that their findings did not suggest that the
region was about to fall suddenly into a "little ice age".The findings appear in the journal
Environmental Research Letters."We could get to the point where oneinseven winters are very cold, as we had at the start of last winter and all through the winter before last."said coauthor
Mike Lockwood, professor of space environment physics at the University of Reading.
Using the Central England Temperature (CET) record, the world"s longest instrumental data
series that dates back to 1659,the team said that in general temperatures during recent winters
had been obviously lower than the longerterm temperatures."The mean CET for December,
January and February for the recent relatively cold winters of 2008~2009 and 2009~2010
were 3.50℃ and 2.53℃ respectively," they wrote."However, the mean value for the previous 20 winters had been 5.04℃.The series of lower winter temperatures in the UK during the last three years had raised questions about the probability of more similar, or even colder winters
occurring in the future."
Last year Professor Lockwood and colleagues published a paper that found a link between
fewer sunspots and atmospheric conditions that "blocked" warm westerly winds reaching
Europe during winter months, opening the way for cold easterly winds from the Arctic and
Russia to sweep across the region.Professor Lockwood, while acknowledging that there were a
range of possible meteorological factors (气象因素) that could influence blocking events, said
the latest study moved things forward by showing that there was "improvement in the predictive skill" when solar activity was taken into consideration.
B. Mike Lockwood"s research focuses on space environment physics
C. it was quite cold in Britain over the entire winter last year
D. so far oneinseven winters have been very cold in Britain
2. The underlined word "mean" in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to "________".
B. stable
C. ungenerous
D. changeable
B. Meteorological factors hardly have any influence on blocking events.
C. The latest study done by Professor Lockwood was of little practical value.
D. Considering solar activity or not affects the accuracy of weather forecasting.
B. Research Finds out Solar Activity Is to Blame for the Cold
C. UK Faces More Cold Winters Due to Weaker Solar Activity
D. Changes in Weather Patterns Should Be Responsible for Low solar Activity
A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has come up with the unexpected conclusion
that the African elephant is divided into two distinct (不同的) species.
The discovery was made by researchers at York and Harvard Universities when they were
examining the genetic relationship between the ancient woolly mammoth and mastodon to
modern elephants-the Asian elephant, African forest elephant,and African savanna elephant.
Once they obtained DNA sequences (序列) from two fossils (化石), mammoths and mastodons,
the team compared them with DNA from modern elephants.They found to their amazement that modern forest and savanna elephants are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants and
mammoths.
The scientists used detailed genetic analysis to prove that the African savanna elephant and
the African forest elephant have been distinct species for several million years.The divergence
of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of Asian elephants and woolly
mammoths.This result amazed all the scientists.
There has long been debate in the scientific community that the two might be separate
species, but this is the most convincing scientific evidence so far that they are indeed different
species.
Previously, many naturalists believed that African savanna elephants and African forest
elephants were two populations of the same species, despite the elephants" significant size
differences.The savanna elephant has an average shoulder height of 3.5 metres while the forest elephant has an average shoulder height of 2.5 metres.The savanna elephant weighs between six and seven tons, roughly double the weight of the forest elephant.But the fact that they look so
different does not necessarily mean they are different species.However the proof lay in the
analysis of the DNA.
Alfred Roca, assistant professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of
Illinois, said, "We now have to treat the forest and savanna elephants as two different units for
conservation purposes.Since 1950, all African elephants have been conserved as one species.
Now that we know the forest and savanna elephants are two very distinctive animals, the forest elephant should become a bigger priority(优先) for conservation purposes."
B. the forest elephant
C. the savanna elephant
D. the mastodon elephant
B. exhibition
C. separation
D. examination
B. height
C. weight
D. population
A. The conservation of African elephants.
B. The purpose of studying African elephants.
C. The way to divide African elephants into two units.
D. The reason for the distinction of African elephants.
Simply turning pages of a book quickly may not seem like the best way to scan it. A Japanese
research group at Tokyo University has created new software that allows hundreds of pages to be
scanned within minutes. Scanning text is normally a boring process with each page having to be inserted
into a scanner, but the team led by Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa uses a high speed camera that takes
500 pictures a second to scan pages as they are turned by workers.
Normal scanners can only scan the information that is actually before them on the page. This high
speed book scanner uses a camera that captures pages at 1000fps as they are turned. A system built in
allows it to automatically correct any changes to the text due to the page bending as well as light differences due to shadows. "It takes a shot of the shape, then it calculates the shape and uses those calculations to
film the scanning," Ishikawa said, explaining the system used to reconstruct the original page.
The current system is able to scan an average 250-page book in a little over 60 seconds using basic
computer hardware. While it now requires extra time to process the scanned images (影像), the
researchers hope to eventually make the technology both faster and much smaller. "In the more distant
future, once it becomes possible to put all of this processing on one chip (芯片) and then put that in an
iPad or iPod, one could scan just using that chip. At that point, it becomes possible to scan something
quickly to save for later reading," Ishikawa said.
Being able to scan books with an iPhone may be further off, but Ishikawa says that a commercial
version of the large-scale computer based scanning system could be available in two or three years.
While the technology has the potential to take paper books into the digital age, it remains to be how
publishers will react to people scanning their books while just turning pages quickly.
1. According to the passage, the advantage of the new scanning software is that ______.
A. there is no need to scan every page
B. it can work much more effectively
C. no manpower is needed in operating the scanner
D. it can make the scanning process more interesting
2. According to Ishikawa, the scanner works by_____.
A. changing the shape of the images
B. reducing the size of the images
C. reconstructing the original page
D. scanning several pages at the same time
3. What is Ishikawa"s attitude towards the development of the scanning system?
A. Optimistic.
B. Uncertain.
C. Disapproving.
D. Cautious.
4. What does the underlined sentence mean?
A. People will get any book they like more easily.
B. Publishers will refuse to comment on the new software.
C. Publishers will probably not welcome the new software.
D. People won"t need to buy books any more with an iPhone.
多余选项.
Early Childhood Education
Early childhood education is the formal (正规的) teaching and care of young children .It primarily
focuses on learning through playing to encourage the child"s different kinds of development. 1
Studies with Head Start programs throughout the United States have shown some evidence that there
are quite a few advantages to early childhood education, which can produce significant gains in children"s
learning and development. Compared to a child who does not attend pre-school, children completing
their early education programs are found to be better at math and reading skills. They are excited to learn
and have the tools to do so. 2 These children are more competent in their pre-school, kindergarten
and school-age years, and they are usually reported as "friendlier" by parents and the children"s peers
(同伴).
3 In studies with matched control groups, more students who had early schooling experiences were
employed at the age of 19, fewer were on welfare, and fewer were involved with the criminal activity.
What"s more, some studies show that children attending pre-school are more likely to graduate and have
higher education, and be well integrated (综合) as an adult.
Early childhood education gives most children a jump-start on education for their kindergarten and
primary school years. It is clear that early childhood education can have some great benefits for children.
4 If early childhood education is less effective, perhaps the best model is finding strategies for
allowing a parent to stay home with his or her child for at least the first two to three years. Also important
is considering a child"s own personality. 5
A. The long-term influence of early education is significant as well.
B. They can benefit greatly from encouragement in their early childhood.
C. Yet its quality must be assessed to see what kind of benefits it actually provides.
D. They are also able to relate to others in a superior way and that improves their social skills.
E. Many experts of education have concerned about what early childhood education means today.
F. Individual differences in children mean that not all children will get equal benefits from early
childhood education.
G. It consists of activities that serve children in the pre-school years and is designed to improve
later school performance.
The most widespread fallacy(谬误) of all is that colds are caused by cold. They are not. They are
caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly
or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect
the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated arctic regions explorers have
reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected people from the outside
world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes.
During the First World War soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches(战壕), cold and wet,
showed no increased tendency to catch colds.
In the Second World War prisoners at the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp(奥斯维辛集
中营), naked and starving, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds. At the Common Cold
Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in Experiments in which they gave themselves to the
discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing
suits, allowed themselves to be with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in drafty room.
Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the
volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.
If, then, cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in the
winter?Despite the most pains-taking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation
offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times,
and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.
No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain suppressors(止痛片) such as
aspirin, but all they do is relieve the symptoms.
1. The writer offered _______ examples to support his argument.
A. 4
B. 5
C. 6
D. 3
2. Which of the following does not agree with the chosen passage?
A. The Eskimos do not suffer from colds all the time.
B. Colds are not caused by cold.
C. People suffer from colds just because they like to stay indoors.
D. A person may catch a cold by touching someone who already has one.
3. Arctic explorers may catch colds when _______.
A. they are working in the isolated arctic regions
B. they are writing reports in terribly cold weather
C. they are free from work in the isolated arctic regions
D. they are coming into touch again with the outside world
4. Volunteers taking part in the experiments in the Common Cold Research Unit _______.
A. suffered a lot
B. never caught colds
C. often caught colds
D. became very strong
5. The passage mainly discusses _______.
A. the experiments on the common cold
B. the fallacy about the common cold
C. the reason and the way people catch colds
D. the continued spread of common colds
"physiological (生理的) age".
Researchers studying genes believe they can now tell exact physiological age by looking at a
number of clues in DNA. They don"t have to ask people how they feel or look at their appearance.
The breakthrough could solve the mystery of why some 70-year-olds function at the level of those
in their 50s, while others become weak sooner than you would think.
The researchers made the breakthrough by finding the "biomarkers" of aging in tiny worms.
The worms they studied had an average lifespan (寿命) of three weeks. Like humans, some remain
lively much longer than other similarly-aged worms, while others show signs of premature aging.
By genetically profiling (基因识别) 104 different worms at various ages, the researchers found a
group of genes that are involved in the aging process.
"This is a first step; our results were not perfect, but we were able to predict the ages of the animals
70 percent of the time, which is far better than anything that has been done before," said Simon Melov,
the lead researcher at Buck Institute for Age Research in California.
Now they want to extend their studies to mice and eventually humans.
"I am confident that at some point there will be a non-subjective method of determining how old
someone is with a high level of confidence," said Melov.
The speed at which people age depends on a number of things including genetic inheritance (遗传),
lifestyle and mental health.
Determining chronological (按时间顺序的) age in both worms and humans is easy - count forward
from birth. But determining physiological age has remained subjective ? based on how someone looks
or functions.
The findings have major implications for age research in humans. Examining biomarkers over time
would provide a scientific basis for anti-aging medicines. The technology would also provide a means
of determining whether a person is aging faster or slower than people would normally think.
1. How can researchers tell one"s exact physiological age?
A. By looking at their appearance.
B. By asking people how they feel.
C. By looking at a number of clues in DNA.
D. By finding the "biomarkers" of aging in tiny worms.
2. What did the researchers base their survey on as their first breakthrough?
A. Humans.
B. Worms.
C. Mice.
D. Lifespan.
3. The researchers found__________.
A. some 70-year-olds function become weak sooner than expected.
B. anyone was as old as he was feeling.
C. a group of genes were involved in the aging process.
D. the speed at which people age only depends on their genetic inheritance.
4. What is the best title of the passage?
A. Genetically profiling
B. Find your true age
C. Worms and humans
D. Research in humans
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- 2函数y=9-4x2的最大值是______.
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