Scientists have been puzzled by the phenomenon that migrating birds fly not just in groups all the time, but in "V" formations and they have tried to figure out what benefit birds get from this particular formation. Now, a research group from University of London may have found the answer ― migrating birds fly in a "V" to save energy, according to a study published in the journal Nature.
When a bird flaps(振翅) its wings, it stirs the air around it and causes it to move indifferent directions. Scientist found in the study that the air creates an upward-moving wave at the tips of the wings, which means that if a bird flies around the wingtips of another bird, it can get a boost（抬高） from the rising air and therefore use less energy to stay in the air.
Apart form the "free ride" strategy, scientists were also surprised to observe that migrating birds timed their wing beats and adjusted their positions in a very precise way to maximize the lifting effect while avoiding areas where the air move downward.
"They're able to sense what's going on from the bird in front, where this 'good air' is coming from and now how to position themselves perfectly in it," lead researcher Steven Portugal told BBC.
In fact, the "V" formation has long thought to help birds fly more efficiently(效率搞地). A previous study showed that birds' heart rates went down when they were flying together in a "V" formation. Jet fighters were also found to be able reduce their energy use by up to 18% by staying near the wingtips of other jet fighters. Both of these findings led scientists to suspect that the "V" formation had an efficiency purpose, but until now they still lack proof.
"For scientists, the new study provides an insight into an interesting natural phenomenon. But it could mean even more for aircraft companies — helping them understand how they can imitate that with their plane formations to save fuel, said Portugal."What is the author's purpose in writing this article?
| A．To explain how birds benefit from migration. |
| B．To introduce how migrating birds find their way. |
| C．To tell some applications of migrating birds' "V" formations. |
| D．To report new findings about migrating birds' "V" formations. |
According to the recent study, when birds migrate .
| A．they don't change their lead birds during the whole journey |
| B．they fly in "V" formations to protect themselves against enemies |
| C．they form the shape of a "V" to make best use of the lifting effect |
| D．the air they stir around makes it hard for the birds behind to fly fast |
What is the significance of the new study according to this article?
| A．It might inspire aircraft companies to think of ways to improve efficiency. |
| B．It has proved that the "V" formation can improve in efficiency in many fields, |
| C．It has led scientists to discover that birds' heart rates go down when they fly in a "V". |
| D．It shows that the best formation of jet fighters in battle should be a "V" formation. |
The underlined word "imitate" in the last paragraph most probably means " ".
| A．use | B．copy | C．change | D．learn |
Seattle International Film Festival ：Future Wave Shorts Program
Seattle Washington
May/June annually
Deadline：March
A presentation of original short films created by youth aged 18 and under. Entries must be no longer than 10 minutes（including end titles）.The juried Future Wave winner receives a $500 each prize！
http://www.siff.net
Contact：Dustin Kasper 【dustin.Kasper @siff.Net 】
Entry fee：$20
University if Toronto Film and Video Festival
Toronto
February
Deadline：January
Annual Festival accepting all lengths and genres（流派），with an emphasis on student work.Submission （提交）form on festival website.
http://www.uoftfilmandvideofestival.ca
Contact: Steven Hoffner 【uoftfilmfest@harthousetheatre.ca】
Entry fee：$15 (early) $20（final）
Young Cuts Film Festival
Toronto Ontario
August 23th-27th
Deadline：April 30th
The Young Cuts Film Festival is one of the world’s most important film festivals for film makers under the age of 25 and is for student film makers and non-student film makers alike. It’s important because we not only evaluate young film m
akers’ short films for our own Festival competition，but we can also evaluate your film with an eye to establishing its market potential. For more information please go to our website at www.youngcuts.com or emai
l us at info@youngcut.Com
Contact：Peter Bailey 【info@youngcut.Com】
Entry fee：$60.00—$90.00
Scene First Student Film Festival
Wilmington North California
June 14th-16th
Deadline：May
The 3-day national film competition provides student film makers with an opportunity to show their short films， network with industry professionals， and learn from academic and industry leadership ——all in a relaxed social environment.
http://www.scenefirstfestival.com
Contact： Sam Connelly 【sam
c@campusentertainment.net】
Entry fee：$12
If you want to enter Seattle Int
ernational Film Festival，you have to ______.
| A．be above 18 years of age |
| B．apply before May |
| C．make a film no more than 10 minutes in length |
D．make a film with end titles |
Those who enter Young Cuts Film Festival can _______.
| A．win some prize money |
| B．have their films sold at the film market |
| C．meet very professional film makers |
| D．know whether it is possible for their films to go into market |
If a student film maker want to ask famous film makers for advice，he should go to ________.
| A．Seattle International Film Festival |
| B．University if Toronto Film and Video Festival |
| C．Young Cuts Film Festival |
| D．Scene First Student Film Festival |
How many people have I met who have told me about the book they have been planning to write but have never yet found the time ? Far too many.
This is Life, all right, but we do treat it like a rehearsal (排演) and, unhappily, we do miss so many of its best moments.
We take jobs to stay alive and provide homes for our families always making ourselves believe that this style of life is merely a temporary state of affairs along the road to what we really want to do. Then, at 60 or 65, we are suddenly presented with a clock and several grandchildren and we look back and realize that all those years waiting for Real Life to come along were in fact real life.
In America they have a saying much laughed at by the English：“Have a nice day” they speak slowly and seriously in their shops, hotels and sandwich bars. I think it is a wonderful phrase, reminding us, in effect, to enjoy the moment: to value this very day.
How often do we say to ourselves, "I'll take up horse-riding (or golf, or sailing) as soon as I get a higher position," only to do none of those things when I do get the higher position.
When I first became a reporter I knew a man who gave up a very well paid respectable job at the Daily Telegraph to go and edit a small weekly newspaper. At the time I was astonished by what appeared to me to be his completely abnormal (反常的) mental state. How could anyone turn his back
on Fleet Street in central London for a small local area？I wanted to know.
Now I am a little older and possibly wiser, I see the sense in it. In Fleet Street the man was under continual pressure. He lived in an unattractive London suburb and he spent much of his life sitting on Southern Region trains.
The first paragraph of the passage tells us that .
| A．we always try to find some time to write a book |
| B．we always make plans but seldom fulfill them |
| C．we always enjoy many of life's best moments |
| D．we always do what we really want to do |
The underlined phrase "turn his back on" (paragraph 6) most probably means .
| A．leave for | B．return to | C．give up | D．rely on |
The man ( paragraph 6) left his first job partly because he was .
| A．in an abnormal mental state | B．under too much pressure |
| C．not well paid | D．not respected |
What is probably the best title for the passage?
| A．Provide Homes For Our Family | B．Take Up Horse-riding |
| C．Value This Very Day | D．Stay Alive |
The iPhone, the iPad, the iPod, each of apple's products sounds cool and has become a pad (一时的风尚). Apple has cleverly taken advantage of the power of the letter “i”，-- and many other brands are following suit. The BBC’s iPlayer —which allows Web users to watch TV programs on the internet—adopted the title in 2008. A lovely bear—popular in the US and UK—that plays music and video is called “iTeddy”.A slimmed-down version of London’s Independent newspaper，was launched last week under the name “i”.
In general，single-letter prefix have been popular since the 1990s，when terms such as e-mail and e-commerce first came into use.
Most “i”products are targeted at young people and considering the major readers of the Independent’s “i”，it’s no surprise that they’ve selected this fashionable name.
But it’s hard to see what’s so special about the letter “i”.Why not use “a”，“b”or “c”instead？According to Tony Thorne，head of Language Center at King’s College，London，“i”works because its meaning has become ambiguous .When Apple uses “i”，no one knows whether it means internet，information，individual or interactive，Thorne told BBC magazines “even when Apple created the iPod，it seems it didn’t have one clear definition，”he says.
“However，thanks to Apple，the term is now associated with portability （轻便）， ”adds Thorne.
Clearly the letter “i”also agrees with the idea that the Western World is centered on the individual. Each person believes they have their own needs，and we love personalized products for this reason.
Along with “Google”and “blog”，readers of BBC magazines voted “i”as one of the top 20 words that have come to define the last decade.
But as history shows，people grow tired of fads. From the 1900s to the 1990s，products with “2000”in their names became fashionable as the year was associated with all things advanced and modern. However，as we entered the new century，the trend inevitably disappeared.
We can infer that the Independent’s “i”is aimed at _______.
| A．young readers | B．old readers | C．fashionable women | D．engineers |
Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be. Places of business that used to keep daytime “business hours” are now open late into the night. And on the Internet, the hour of the day and the day of the week have become irrelevant. A half century ago in the United States, most people experienced strong and precise dividing lines between days of rest and days of work, school time and summer time. Today the boundaries still exist, but they seem not clear. 
The law in almost all states used to require stores to close on Sunday; in most, it no longer does. It used to keep the schools open in all seasons except summer; in most, it still does. And whether the work week should strengthen its legal limits, or whether it should become more “flexible,” is often debated. How should we, as a society, organize our time? Should we go even further in relaxing the boundaries of time until we live in a world in which every minute is much like every other? These are not easy questions even to ask. Part of the difficulty is that we rarely recognize the “law of time” even when we meet it face to face. We know as children that we have to attend school a certain number of hours, a certain number of days, a certain number of years — but unless we meet the truant officer （学监）, we may well think that we should go to school due to social custom and parents’ demand rather than to the law. As adults we are familiar with “extra pay for overtime working,” but less familiar with the fact that what constitutes （构成） “overtime” is a matter of legal definition. When we turn the clock forward to start daylight-saving time, have we ever thought to ourselves: “Here is the law in action”? As we shall see, there is a lot of law that has great influence on how we organize and use time: compulsory education law, overtime law, and daylight-saving law — as well as law about Sunday closing, holidays, being late to work, time zones, and so on. Once we begin to look for it, we will have no trouble finding a law of time to examine and assess. . By saying “Sunday is more like Monday than it used to be”, the writer means that .
| A．work time is equal to rest time |
| B．many people have a day off on Monday |
| C．it is hard for people to decide when to rest |
| D．the line between work time and rest time is unclear |
The author raises the questions in Paragraph 2 to introduce the fact that people ________ .
| A．fail to make full use of their time | B．enjoy working overtime for extra pay |
| C．are unaware of the law of time | D．welcome flexible working hours |
According to the passage, most children tend to believe that they go to school because they ______.
| A．need to acquire knowledge | B．have to obey their parents |
C．need to find companions | D．have to observe the law |
The underlined word “it” in the last paragraph probably refers to ___
_____ .
| A．influence |
| B．overtime |
| C．a law of time |
| D．being late to work |
What is the main idea of the passage?
| A．Our life is governed by the law of time. | |
| B．How to organize time is not worth debating. |
C．New ways of using time change our society. |
| D．Our time schedule is decided by social customs. |
Movies in the theater get their recognition at awards ceremonies, such as the Oscars. But how about movies for phones? They are getting their turn at MoFilm—the first mobile film festival.
The first MoFilm competition received 250 entries from more than 100 countries. Entries were restricted to films that were five minutes or less in length—ideal 
forviewing and sharing on mobile phones. An independent jury then selected a shortlist of five film-makers. The winner was chosen from the shortlist by an audience voting using their phones.
New Platforms
The awards highlight the increasing impact that mobile phones are making in the entertainment industry. Many grassroots filmmakers start out with short films. They are thwarted by the lack of opportunities to screen their work. Therefore, mobile phones are increasingly being seen as a new platform for these short works.
It is a good place for anyone who wants to express themselves and find a way to have that expression be seen by a wide audience. Just think about how many people have mobile phones in the w
orld!
New Technology Advances
MoFilm is pioneering content for mobile and online services that is a world away from Hollywood. The majority of films made for mobiles are now short in length, taking into account the screen size. However this could be overcome as technology advances.
In the near future, longer films will likely be seen on the mobile phone. And there are mobile companies creating phones where users can watch movies at higher quality.
Wherever you see movies, one thing is certain: the quality of work, the simple ability at story telling, and the thing that inspires someone to tell a story can really come from anywhere. At the first MoFilm, .
| A．movies in the theater got their recognition |
| B．more than 100 countries took part in the competition |
| C．ideal films were five minutes or less in length |
| D．the winner was chosen by experts' voting |
They are thwarted by the lack of opportunities to screen their work. The underlined word means “ ”.
| A．disappointed | B．surprised | C．frightened | D．encouraged |
Nowadays the majority of films made for mobiles are short in length because of .
| A．online services | B．the mobile phone | C．technology advances | D．the screen size |
What’s the best title for the passage?
| A．Putting Movies on Mobiles |
| B．Introduction of Latest Mobile Phones |
| C．Mobile Phones’ Ceremonies |
| D．Film Awards Broadcast on Mobile Phones |
Which statement is NOT true?
| A．MoFilm is not a part of Hollywood. |
| B．Mobile phones are considered to be a new platform for short films. |
| C．MoFilm get their recognition through Oscars. |
| D．Films made for mobiles will likely be cleaner. |
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