When an ant dies, other ants take it out of the nest, often within an hour after its death. This behavior interests scientists and they wonder how ants know for sure—and so soon—that another ant is dead.
One scientist recently came up with a way to explain this ant behaviour. Dong-Hwan Choe is a biologist, a scientist who studies animals and plants. He found that ants have a chemical on the outside of their bodies that signals to other ants, “I'm dead—take me away” when it is dead.
But there's a question to answer: As we know, if an ant is dead, it stops moving. But when an ant is sleeping or knocked unconscious, it is also not moving. However, other ants don't move the living ant out of the nest. How do they know this ant is not dead? Choe found that ants have another chemical on their bodies, which tells nearby ants something like, “Wait—I'm not dead yet” when it is not dead. Choe suspects that when an ant dies, the chemical that says, “Wait I'm not dead yet” quickly goes away. When other ants detect the “dead” chemical without the “not dead yet” chemical, they move away the body.
To test his theory , Choe and his team put different chemicals on ants. When the scientists used the “I'm dead” chemical, other ants quickly moved the treated ant away. When the scientists used the “Wait—I'm not dead yet” chemical, other ants left the treated ant alone. Choe believes this behavior shows that the “not dead yet” chemical overrides the “dead” chemical when picked up by other ants. And that when an ant dies, the “not dead yet” chemical fades away. Other nearby ants then detect the remaining “dead” chemical and remove the body from the nest.
Understanding this behavior can help scientists figure out how to stop ants from invading new places and causing problems.What is the function of the first paragraph?
| A．Leading the following paragraphs. |
| B．Showing the main idea of the passage. |
| C．Introducing the background of the passage. |
| D．Giving a summary of the passage. |
Which of the following has the closest meaning to the underlined word “overrides” in the fourth paragraph?
| A．is weaker than | B．is stronger than |
| C．is better than | D．is worse than |
What can we learn from the passage?
| A．Living ants can also be taken away when they are not moving. |
| B．When an ant dies, it can tell others using a certain chemical. |
| C．A living ant can pretend to be dead using a special chemical. |
| D．Ants often use chemicals to communicate with each other. |
Which of the following descriptions about Dong-Hwan Choe is right?
| A．Choe did this study in order to stop ants from invading new places. |
| B．Choe is a biologist who is only interested in animals, especially in ants. |
| C．Choe first came up with an idea to explain this ant behavior，and then did some tests to prove his theory. |
| D．Choe did the research on this ant behavior on his own |
People would keep reproducing. Countries would probably pass ‘no reproduction’ laws to keep population balanced, but obviously not everyone would observe. The world’s population would grow very quickly at that. Animals and plants would die out, because humans needed the food.
There would be no room for more people in the world. Scientists would most likely try to create living ‘communities’ underwater, on the moon, and in space stations. The state of starvation and lack of space would be difficult to deal with. Natural selection would happen with humans, which is when certain types of animals or plants are selected for, or selected against. For instance, rich humans and strong, tough humans would be more likely to live, because the rich could afford to buy the limited food, and the tough humans could kill people for their food, and steal the food. This possibility relates directly to the assumption that humans would not die of diseases and such, but must be killed or run out of the necessities for living.
If you mean that no one could ever die, even if they were shot, burned, starved and eaten, then that would never ever happen; it’s a fantasy. However, if that were the case, then at some point, if there were not more areas to live than the land that humans live on now, then we would end up so packed that it would be virtually impossible to move, and humans would be forced to be on top of other people. It would be ridiculously crowded.
Although, if humans lived forever, then I assume that we would all be extremely smart, and would have figured out solutions to the living situations, like on another planet, on the moon, under water, etc. What can we infer from the underlined part in Paragraph 1?
| A．More food would be produced for humans |
| B．More room would be found for the growing population. |
| C．New babies would come into this world without an end. |
| D．Humans would continue to develop their intelligence. |
How is Paragraph 2 mainly developed?
| A．By making comparisons. | B．By making conclusions. |
| C．By giving advice. | D．By giving examples. |
What does the author mean by “it’s a fantasy” in paragraph 3?
| A．It will surely happen. |
| B．It will probably become a fact. |
| C．It is a story that is based on facts. |
| D．It is a belief based on imagination. |
What is the author’s main purpose of writing the passage?
| A．To analyze the possibility that animals and plants die out. |
| B．To explain why scientists will create living areas for humans. |
| C．To argue that no human being is likely to live forever. |
| D．To convince people that it is possible for humans to live on other planets. |
1. Mean old ladies
There is always a reason why an old lady gives you a serious look – you are being too loud, dressed improperly or not crossing the street in the right place. Sometimes it can be lovely, but if you are already having a bad day, a mean old lady can drive you mad.
What to do about it:
I’ve come to realize that when people start conflicts, it is actually an expression of their inner state expressed in an outside way. You, your personality, your looks or your actions have nothing to do with it. It is not personal, so why take it personally?
2. That person, who cuts in front of everybody in line
This is something that gets me angry. Even if I am not in a hurry, I still feel bad for the other people in line who are being treated unjustly. Are you more patient than I am or do you feel annoying too?
What to do about it:
If we have negative thoughts then we are wasting our energy on negativity. Situations like this could be a great opportunity to learn to control our first negative responses and practice understanding. After all, the person may just have a quick question or maybe there is an emergency.
3. Friends that tell you “I told you so”
It is one thing to admit that you made a mistake and another to hear it from a friend. Friends should be there to support you and cheer you up when you are feeling down, not make themselves feel better at your expense, right?
What to do about it:
It helps to remember that when people say “I told you so”, they may mean, “Please listen to my advice to avoid future mistakes.” If this is not the help you need – voice it out, without getting defensive. According to the author, what can you do when meeting with a mean old lady?
| A．Take it personally. |
| B．Take it seriously. |
| C．Don’t apologize to her. |
| D．Don’t get upset. |
When seeing someone cutting in line, we’d better ________.
| A．stop him immediately |
| B．treat it with a good state of mind |
| C．pretend not to see it |
| D．teach him a good lesson |
The third tip intends to advise you ________.
| A．not to keep silent at a friend’s improper suggestion |
| B．to tell your friend if they have misunderstood you |
| C．not to talk to your friend if they feel better at your expense |
| D．to apologize to your friend when you’ve done something wrong |
What is the best title for this passage?
| A．What to do when meeting with these people? |
| B．How to ask your friends for help when in trouble? |
| C．How to give advice to your friends when asked to? |
| D．What to say when faced with different situations? |
Page last updated at 04:08, Friday, Nov. 22, 2013
US jumbo jet leaves tiny airport
A Boeing 747 Dreamlifter cargo (货物) plane has safely taken off from a tiny airport in Kansas after it landed there by mistake.
The huge cargo jet had been heading for McConnell air force base in Wichita, but instead touched down at nearby Colonel James Jabara airport.
No one was injured and no property damage occurred when the plane landed.
There had been questions as to whether the aircraft would be able to depart from the much shorter runway at Jabara.
The Dreamlifter normally needs a runway of 2,780m (9,119ft) to get into the air at maximum weight;
Jabara’s runway is only 1,860m long.
A tug (牵引车) was sent to the airport to turn around the huge cargo plane.
Brad Christopher of the Wichita Airport Authority told the Associated Press news agency that the company operating the aircraft had assured(使确信) us they've run all the engineering calculation and performance and the aircraft is very safe for a normal departure at its present weight and conditions here.
The Dreamlifter, which landed at Jabara on Wednesday evening, is a modified 747-400 passenger aeroplane, which can carry more cargo than any aeroplane in the world, according to Boeing.
The aerospace company uses its fleet of four Dreamlifters to transport large assembled components(组装零件) of its 787 Dreamliner from suppliers around the world to the final location in Washington State.From the passage we can learn that the Dreamlifter landed at Jabara airport ________.
| A．on Nov. 19, 2013 | B．on Nov. 20, 2013 |
| C．on Nov. 21, 2013 | D．on Nov. 22, 2013 |
What does the underlined word “jumbo” mean?
| A．Wonderful. | B．Crashed. | C．Small. | D．Huge. |
We can infer from the passage that the Dreamlifter landed at Jabara with ________.
| A．as much cargo as it could carry |
| B．more cargo than it could carry |
| C．less cargo than it could carry |
| D．heavier cargo than it could carry |
What’s the main idea of the news?
| A．A Boeing 747 Dreamlifter is stuck in a tiny air force base. |
| B．A US huge cargo plane has left a tiny airport after a wrong landing. |
| C．A modified 747-400 passenger aeroplane landed at Jabara by mistake. |
| D．A tug was sent to the Jabara airport to help a stuck Boeing 747 Dreamlifter take off. |
Making email easier is a task that several applications and email customers have tried and failed at SaneBox, like many add-ons, aims to make your digital life easier without forcing you to change your email platform.
To be sure, you can apply various priority (优先处理) classes and groupings using SaneBox. What really makes SaneBox worth checking out is its ability to ensure unimportant and low-priority emails don’t take up even a second of your day.
When you apply SaneBox to your email client (客户端), it spends a good deal of time scanning your entire inbox, including ones you’ve already read. This helps the add-on determine which emails are most important to you. From then on you’ll only see emails that SaneBox determines are must-reads, with all others falling into a “Later” folder which you can read at your spare time.
Each day --- or however often you want it --- SaneBox will produce a report of all the low-priority emails it has collected for you, like a secretary gathering all the odds and ends for a short daily report. If you find an important email has been flagged as low-priority, you can adjust the settings so it never happens again.
SaneBox works with all IMAP, WebDAV and OWA email customers including Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, MS Exchange and others. The program also supports OS X’s Mail customers, though it requires a bit of adjusting POP-only email services are not supported.
You can try out SaneBox for two weeks with no charge and after that point 3 options of subscriptions (订阅) are available, ranging from US$2 to $20 per month.What does the underlined word “add-ons” most probably mean?
| A．Extra programmes. | B．Email-boxes. |
| C．Additional machines. | D．Other email clients. |
The most important function of SaneBox is ________.
| A．to clear your mail box when it is full |
| B．to scan your inbox faster than others |
| C．to classify your emails to your preference |
| D．to gather all the odds and ends for you |
If an important email falls into the wrong collection, you can correct it ________.
| A．by putting it aside |
| B．by changing the settings |
| C．by flagging it as low-priority |
| D．by adding the right information |
What is the main purpose of this passage?
| A．To promote SaneBox. |
| B．To explain how to use SaneBox. |
| C．To compare email clients. |
| D．To introduce new email platforms. |
Sweetest Day in America is always the third Saturday in October. This holiday is much more important in some regions than in others (Detroit, Cleveland and Buffalo being the biggest Sweetest Day cities). It is a holiday that is gaining in popularity every year throughout the country.
Sweetest Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in October as a day to make someone happy. It is an occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged, and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed.
Over 60 years ago, a man in Cleveland, believing that the city’s orphans and shut-ins (卧病在床的人) too often felt forgotten and neglected, thought of the idea of showing them that they were remembered. He did this through the distribution of small gifts. With the help of his friends and neighbors, he distributed these small remembrances on a Saturday in October. During the years that followed, other Clevelanders began to participate in the celebration ceremony, which came to be called “Sweetest Day”. In time, the Sweetest Day idea of spreading cheer to the underprivileged was broadened to include everyone, and became an occasion for remembering others with a kind act or a small remembrance. And soon the idea spread to other cities all over the country.
Sweetest Day is not based on any single group’s religious affection or on a family relationship. It is a reminder that a thoughtful word or deed enriches life and gives it meaning.
Because for many people remembering takes the form of gift-giving, Sweetest Day offers us the opportunity to show others that we care, in a practical way.We can learn from the first paragraph that Sweetest Day is ________.
A. sometimes the third Saturday in October
B. hardly celebrated in Detroit
C. of equal importance in every part of the USA.
D. getting increasingly popular in the USASweetest Day was originally intended to remember ________.
| A．the young and disabled | B．friends and relatives |
| C．orphans and shut-ins | D．the sick and aged |
We can infer from the passage that the birthplace of Sweetest Day is ________.
| A．Detroit | B．Cleveland |
| C．Buffalo | D．Washington |
Now on Sweetest Day gifts are given to those ________.
| A．we care | B．we admire |
| C．in need of help | D．in trouble |
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