Do you know why different animals or pests (昆虫) have their special colors? Colors in them seem to be used mainly to protect themselves.
Some birds like eating locusts (蝗虫), but birds cannot easily catch them. Why? It is because locusts change their colors together with the change of the colors of crops(庄稼). When crops are green, locusts look green. But as the harvest time comes, locusts change to the same brown color as crops have. Some other pests with different colors from plants are easily found and eaten by others. So they have to hide themselves for lives and appear only at night.
If you study the animal life, you’ll find the main use of coloring is to protect themselves. Bears, lions and other animals move quietly through forests. They cannot be easily seen by hunters (猎人). This
is because they have the colors much like the trees.
Have you ever noticed an even stranger act? A kind of fish in the sea can send out a kind of very black liquid (液体)when it faces danger. While the liquid spreads over (散开), its enemies (敌人)cannot find it. And it immediately swims away. So it has lived up to now though it is not strong at all.
36. From the passage we learn that locusts________.
A. are small animals B. are easily found by birds
C. are dangerous to their enemies D. change their colors to protect themselves
37. How can pests with different colors from plants keep out of danger?
A. They run away quickly.
B. They have the colors much like their enemies.
C. They hide themselves by day and appear at night.
D. They have to move quietly.
38. Bears and lions can keep safe because _________.
A. they have the colors much like the trees B. they move quietly
C. they like brown and gray colors D. they live in forests
39. Why can the kind of fish live up to now?
A. Because it is very and strong.
B. Because the liquid it sends out can help it escape from its enemies.
C. Because the liquid it sends out can kill its enemies.
D. Because it swims faster than any other fish.
40. Which is the best title for this passage?
A. The Change of Colors for Animals and Pests
B. Colors of Different Animals and Pests
C. The Main Use of Colors for Animals and Pests
D. Some Animals and Pests
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The entire Pimsleur Approach is what language learning should be: quick, fun, and easy! Each lesson is the foundation for the next. You’ll keep building on what you’ve learned.What can prove Pimsleur courses to be successful ?
| A．Full 30-day money-back guarantee |
| B．Eight fluency-focused lessons on four audio CDs |
| C．25 million people have graduated with success . |
| D．30-minute lessons are perfect for your daily commuting, lunch break, or workout. |
According to the text, what does the course offer?
| A．Effective language instruction. |
| B．Language rules for you to recite. |
| C．Learning a new language by repeating many times |
| D．Opportunities to work with business professionals. |
According to the text, which of the following is NOT a reason for choosing the Pimsleur Approach?
| A．It will correct your accent. |
| B．It will build your confidence. |
| C．It will help you remember things easily. |
| D．It will teach you how to control your balance . |
It can be inferred that the text is a(n) __________.
| A．report on a new language learning method |
| B．ad of a language training organization |
| C．notice of the opening of a new course |
| D．comment on a language training organization |
Many people take it for granted that black is a color of bad things while white should always mean something good. This may be because, in their opinion, black is related to darkness and white to purity. However, that is not always the case. Did you know that the same one color may mean something differently in different places of the world?
In the English-speaking world, black is the color of mourning—people wear black at the funeral. Red is concerned with danger or bloodshed（伤亡）. Yellow is the word for fear. If you are afraid, you are yellow. Yet none of these sayings is true outside the English-speaking world. In China and Korea white is the color of mourning. In Russia, China and some other countries, red stands for beauty, life and excellence. In Italy and Germany, you are yellow with anger, not with fear.
Even within the English-speaking area, it is not difficult to find color contradictions（矛盾）.A redcap in the United States is a porter in a railway station. In Britain, however, a redcap is a military policeman. Both names are logical, because both men wear red caps. Similarly, the British term for an American white-collar worker is sometimes called a black-coated worker.
One does not have to cross an area to find color differences. Would you rather be red-blooded or a blue-blooded? If we go back to the origin, we find that both terms are logical as both names suggest. The expression “blueblood” comes from Spain, where some noble families proudly told the world that they had “blue blood”. Actually they meant that they had no Moorish or Jewish blood. But then why “blue” blood? Because they were fair-skinned, and it is only natural that their blood vessels (血管)stood out appearing blue. Yellow is concerned with anger in ________________.
| A．India | B．Britain |
| C．China | D．Italy |
Both Britain and America would probably agree that ________________.
| A．a redcap is a porter in a station |
| B．black is the color of mourning |
| C．red stands for beauty and excellence |
| D．a black-coated worker is employed in an office |
In Britain , a redcap is a
| A．porter | B．nobleman | C．clerk | D．military policeman |
The best title for this reading selection is ________________.
| A．The Origin of Blue Blood |
| B．Colors that Carry Bad Meanings |
| C．The Meaning Concerned with Certain Colors |
| D．The Development of the Symbolic Use of Colors |
If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in sympathy with their point of view. Depending on whom you are addressing, the problems will be different.
If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the disorganized methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to comment on their disorganized bosses.
Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses' convention, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushes to the head of the line, grabs his food and stomps over to a table by himself. "Who is that?" the new arrival asked St. Peter. "Oh, that's God." came the reply, "but sometimes he thinks he's a doctor."
If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it'll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about the inedible canteen food or the chairman's notorious bad taste in ties. With other audiences you mustn't attempt to cut in with humor as they will resent an outsider making disparaging remarks about their canteen or their chairman. You will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoats like the Post Office or the telephone system.
If you feel awkward being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural. Include a few casual and apparently off-the-cuff(即兴的)remarks which you can deliver in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it's the delivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are making a light-hearted remark.
Look for the humor. It often comes from the unexpected. A twist on a familiar quote "If at first you don't succeed, give up" or a play on words or on a situation. Search for exaggeration and understatements. Look at your talk and pick out a few words or sentences which you can turn about and inject with humor.To make your humor work, you should ________.
| A．take advantage of different kinds of audience |
| B．make fun of the disorganized people. |
| C．address different problems to different people. |
| D．show sympathy for your listeners. |
The joke about doctors implies that, in the eyes of nurses, they are ________.
| A．impolite to new arrivals. |
| B．very conscious of their godlike role. |
| C．entitled to some privileges. |
| D．very busy even during lunch hours. |
It can be inferred from the text that public services ________.
| A．have benefited many people. |
| B．are the focus of public attention. |
| C．are an inappropriate subject for humor. |
| D．have often been the laughing stock. |
To achieve the desired result, humorous stories should be delivered ________.
| A．in well-worded language. | B．as awkwardly as possible. |
| C．in exaggerated statement. | D．as casually as possible. |
The best title for the text may be ________.
| A．Use Humor Effectively. | B．Various Kinds of Humor. |
| C．Add Humor to Speech. | D．Different Humor Strategies. |
When Charles Strattion was five, he stopped growing. His mother took him to see the famous showman, P.T.Barnum, and thought a small person would be the perfect addition to his show. He hired Charles’ parents along with him, and they traveled around the world together.
He gave the two-foot-tall Charles a new name, general Tom Thumb. He taught Tom how to sing, dance, act, and tell jokes. When he felt Tom was ready to perform on stage, he made up ads. To stir up great interest, he said that Tom was eleven years old and had come from England.
During the show, Tom fought battles pretendedly with tall people. He also danced upon a wooden plate held by a person who was eight feet tall.
Tom’s act was very popular and brought in a lot of money. By the time Tom was an adult, he had grown very rich. He had become a billionaire at the age of twenty-five.
Fortunately for Tom, Mr. Barnum added more little people to his show, and Tom became lucky in love as well. One of the little people was Lavinia Warren, a school teacher. Tom was able to win her love, and they married.
The ceremony and reception were the talk of the town. They were attended by many rich and famous people and by about two thousand guests. Crowds filled the streets of New York to have a look at their tiny wedding carriage. The couple even met with President Abraham Lincoln on their honeymoon, just before going to live in Tom’s house in Connecticut.
Their wedding, which took place during the Civil War, provided a welcome escape from the sad problems of war. Not willing to let this bit of sunshine fade, communities throughout the country sponsored “Tom Thumb” weddings. In these weddings, small boys and girls, all dressed up, went through marriage ceremony for fun.“the talk of the town” means _________ .
| A．they were in the newspaper |
| B．people spread mean rumors about them |
| C．they were the most popular things happening |
| D．they were discussed in a city meeting |
What does the author think about Tom Thumb’s wedding?
| A．People gave it too much of their attention. |
| B．It helped people cheer up in a dark time. |
| C．It was funny and ridiculous. |
| D．Tom and Lavinia were stupid. |
Which of the following is the best clue to the fact that Tom was smart?
| A．He became a billionaire at twenty-five. |
| B．He learned how to sing, dance, and act at a very young age. |
| C．He met with President Lincoln during his honeymoon. |
| D．He married a school teacher. |
It was very funny when Tom danced on a wooden plate held by a person who was eight feet tall because ________ .
| A．the wooden plate would make it sound as if Tom were tap dancing |
| B．it made Tom feel taller |
| C．the eight-foot-tall man was the only tall person Tom trusted |
| D．the difference between them would make Tom look even smaller |
What does the author imply in the last paragraph?
| A．Weddings always make people feel full of sunshine. |
| B．People are always disappointed during wartime. |
| C．Entertainment can serve an important purpose. |
| D．People should be married even if they are small. |
In 1993, New York State ordered stores to charge a deposit on beverage (="drink)" containers. Within a year, consumers had returned millions of aluminum cans and glass and plastic bottles. Plenty of companies were eager to accept the aluminum and glass as raw material for new products, but because few could figure out what to do with the plastic, much of it would end up buried in landfills(垃圾填埋场). The problem was not limited to New York. Unfortunately, there were too few uses for second-hand plastic.
Today, one out of five plastic soda bottles is recycled in the United States. The reason for the change is that now there are dozens of companies across the country buying discarded plastic soda bottles and turning them into fence post, paint brushes, etc.
As the New York experience shows, recycling involves more than simply separating valuable materials from the rest of the rubbish. A discard remains a discard unti1 somebody figures out how to give it a second life — and until economic arrangements exist to give that second life va1ue.Without adequate markets to absorb materials collected for recycling, throwaways actually depress prices for used materials.
Shrinking landfill space and rising costs for burying and burning rubbish are forcing local governments to look more closely at recycling. In many areas, the East Coast especially, recycling is already the least expensive waste-management option. For every ton of waste recycled, a city avoids paying for its disposal, which, in parts of New York, amounts to savings of more than $100 per ton. Recycling also stimulates the local economy by creating jobs and reduces the pollution control and energy costs of industries that make recycled products by giving them a more refined raw material.What regulation was issued by New York State concerning beverage containers?
| A．A fee should be charged on used containers for recycling. |
| B．Throwaways should be collected by the state for recycling. |
| C． Consumers had to pay for beverage containers and could get their money back on returning them. |
| D．Beverage companies should be responsible for collecting and reusing discarded plastic soda bottles. |
The returned plastic bottles in New York used to .
| A．be turned into raw materia1s |
| B．be separated from other rubbish |
| C．have a second-life value |
| D．end up somewhere underground |
The key problem in dealing with returned plastic beverage containers is .
| A．how to reduce their recycling costs |
| B．to sell them at a profitable price |
| C．how to turn them into useful things |
| D．to lower the prices for used materials |
Recycling has become the first choice for the disposal of rubbish because .
| A．recycling causes litt1e pollution |
| B．other methods are more expensive |
| C．recycling has great appeal for the jobless |
| D．local governments find it easy to manage |
It can be concluded from the passage that .
| A． recycling is to be recommended both economically and environmentally |
| B．local governments in the U. S. can expect big profits from recycling |
| C．rubbish is a potential remedy for the shortage of raw materials |
| D．landfills will sti1l be widely used for waste disposal |
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