科普科研类（Passage 19～24）
Passage 19 题材：科普科研类字数：380 建议用时：5分钟
Scrub jays （灌木丛鸟）can trick you, researchers say. Monkeys kick themselves for mistakes in judgment. And at least one parrot figured out something close to the mathematical concept of zero. In study after study over the past decade, they’ve shown abilities previously thought to exist only in humans.
Take the scrub jays. A few years ago, Cambridge University professor Nicky Clayton, PhD, found that these birds can be surprisingly cunning, remembering not only what foods they’ve hidden but where, how long ago, and whether anyone else might have noticed. “If another bird was watching, they’d wait until that bird was gone and then move the food,” Clayton says.
Even more interesting, not all jays protected their food that way—only those that had previously raidedother birds’ stores. “It takes a thief to know a thief,” says Clayton.
Another recent experiment hints that monkeys experience regret when they make the wrong choice:Researchers say brain scans suggest the animals were having “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve” thoughts.
“I knew monkeys were smart, but I didn’t think they were that smart,” says Michael Platt, PhD, theDuke University neurobiologist who led the study.
But perhaps no animal has done more to challenge conventional notions than Alex, an African gray parrot, a 30-year research subject for scientist Irene.
Pepperberg, PhD. He was constantly being tested; when he was tired of it, he would tell Pepperberg, “Wanna go back”—to his cage. If the request annoyed her, Alex would say, “Sorry.” One afternoon, he showed an apparent grasp of something only humans and a few apes had been known to understand: the notion of zero.
Pepperberg had a tray of different-colored balls; she wanted Alex to count each group. Using their shorthand, she asked, “What color six? What color two?” Bored, Alex threw the balls on the floor instead. Then, finally, he said, “Five.” And repeated it: “Five. Five.” There were no five of anything on the tray. So Pepperberg asked, “Okay, smarty, what color five?”
Alex said, “None.”
Not only had the bird figured out an abstract mathematical concept, he had manip ulated Pepperberginto asking the question so he could prove it. “I nearly dropped the tray,” she says.
1. Which of the following kinds of scrub jays are “surprisingly cunning”?
A. Those that were stolen of their food.
B. Those that learned from parents to steal.
C. Those that stole other birds of their food.
D. Those that observed other birds steal.
2. The “could’ve, would’ve, should’ve” thoughts indicate that monkeys could ________.
A. feel regretful
B. feel angry
C. be conscientious
D. be objective
3. The author thinks that it is most beyond imagination that Alex could ________.
A. understand numbers
B. interact with humans
C. show various emotions
D. grasp the concept of zero
4. How did Alex manipulate Pepperberg into asking the question “what colo r five?”?
5. Which paragraph best sums up the main idea of the passage?
「文章大意」
研究人员发现，动物表现出了一些只有人类才具有的能力。以灌木鸟为例，它们能将自己的事物藏好，并不想让其他的鸟儿分享食物。另一个项实验则表明，猴子会为自己错误的选择而感到后悔。在另一个实验中，一只非洲灰鹦鹉颠覆了传统观念，它表现出只有人类和少数猩猩才拥有的理解力，即“零”的概念。
答案详解
1.C 由文章第三段最后一句中Clayton提到的“It takes a thief to know a thief”推断可
知raided other bird’s stores是偷窃其他鸟类贮藏食物的意思，结合第二段和第三段的内容推断可知“特别狡猾”的灌木丛鸟会把自己的食物藏好，免受其他鸟类的偷窃，而这些鸟正是曾经偷过其他鸟类食物的，所以本题答案为C
2.A 根据第四段首句提到的“...monkeys experience regret when they make the
wrong choice…”可知，猴子做出错误的选择会产生“后悔”的情绪，而题干中的“could’ve, would’ve, should’ve”一般用于评论过去的事情，所以本题答案为A。
3.D 由题干内容可将本题的答案定位到文章首段和最后四段。根据首段第三句提到的“至
少已经有一只鹦鹉能够理解一些与“0”相近的数学概念”和最后四段对鹦鹉Alex的详细描述可知，这些段落提到Alex意在说明它能理解“0”这一个数学概念，所以本题答案为D。
4. By mentioning the number “five”.
本题的答案在文章第七段结尾部分。从该段倒数第4句的“Then, finally，…”开始描述如何发现Alex有理解“0”这个概念的能力，根据该段后四句可知，Alex首先提到了“5”这个数字，然后Pepperberg才对它提出了问题，根据该细节推断可知Alex 通过提到“5”去引导Pepperberg提问题。
5. Paragraph 1.
文章首段结尾句“In study after study over the past decade, they’ve shown abilities previously thought to exist only in humans.”提到“过去十年间，一项又一项研究表明，动物表现出过去被认为只有人类才具有的能力。”该句即为本文主旨，下文分别以“灌木丛鸟”、“猴子”和“鹦鹉Alex”为例说明第1段提到过的主题。
由此可见第一段概括了全文的内容。
「词汇装备」
cunning adj. 狡猾的；巧妙的
neurobiologist神经生物学
figure out计算出；解决；断定；领会到
raid n. 袭击；搜捕v. 奇袭，搜捕
manipulate v. （熟练地）操作，使用（机器等）；操纵；利用
Passage 20 题材：科普科研类字数：364 建议用时：5分钟
Naturally, in a group of animals as diverse as the snakes, and with so many varied enemies, there are numerous defensive reactions and devices. There is, however, one general pattern of behavior. In the presence of suspected enemy the first reaction is to try to escape observation; if this fails, the next resort is the flight to some inaccessible retreat, but if this is not possible, or is circumvented, various kinds of intimidatory gestures and warning devices are brought into play; in the last resort the snake attacks. This pattern varies with the circumstances; some stages may be omitted or combined unpredictably whilst; some notoriously irascible species may dispense with all the preliminaries and attack almost at once, though seldom or never without some provocation.
Amongst the factors that increase aggressiveness are hunger, the mating season and surprise, with the last mentioned the commonest; when hunting for food or for mate, activity and the aggressive instinct are both at their peak. Owing to their poor sense of hearing snakes are very liable to be, quite literally, caught napping and a similar situation arises during their periods of temporary blindness just before sloughing （蜕皮）begins. By far the greatest number of snake-bit accidents result from the unwitting disturbance of resting snakes, and this hazard is
much increased with species that are well disguised and whose natural instinct is to trust to this concealment as their principal defense. As well as differences in aggressiveness between individuals of the same species according to the circumstances and conditions, there are also no- table differences between species, even closely allied species; and the reports of those who have been attacked may understandably be lacking in objectivity. So it is impossible to forecast, even in outline, howany encounter will develop.
The Hamadryad, for example, is usually credited with being amongst the most aggressive of snakes, and there are many accounts of unprovoked attacks, yet on one occasion fourteen men and seven dogs passed and returned within two yards from a nest and no snake was seen although the female, which guards the nest, could not have been far away.
1. By “dispense with all the preliminaries” （Line 7, Para.1）, the author most probably means that _______.
A. the snakes combine all the previous three steps.
B. the snakes give up all the previous three steps.
C. the snakes follow all the previous steps one by one.
D. the snakes reverse the order of all the previous steps.
2. It is difficult to predict what would happen when a snake meets a man because ________.
A. no one has ever clearly known how he himself was bit.
B. man tends to be subjective when he describes his encounter with a snake.
洛基英语，中国在线英语教育领导品牌 综合题，请根据题目给出的内容，来回答下面给出的试题。An unidentified wit once said, "laugh, and the world laughs with you. Snore, and you sleep alone." Yet snoring is far from a laughing matter, as those unfortunates with good hearing, who are rightly subjected to the sounds of the snoring disorder, will testify. It has been estimated that one of eight Americans snores; this means that there are approximately 21 million people --- women as well as men - who render an unpleasant sound when they are asleep. And assuming that each snorer disturbs the sleep of at least one other person, it necessarily follows that there are 21 million unhappy listeners. While a sleeping person breathes, either in or out, several structures in his nose and throat generate the snoring. The sounds, coming from the soft palate and other soft structures of the throat, are caused by vibratory responses to inflowing and outflowing air. When the soft tissues of the mouth and throat come close to the lining of the throat, the vibrations that occur are caused by the position of the tongue. In short, the noise made by snoring can be compared to the noise when breezes flutter a flag on a pole. The frequency of the vibrations depends on the size, density, and elasticity of the affected tissues and on the force of the air flow. Although it is usually the process of in haling or exhaling through the mouth that cause snoring, short snores come from the nose of an open-mouthed sleeper. In all fairness to snorers, however, it should be emphasized that snoring is an involuntary out which stops as the offender is awakened. 请根据上面给出的内容，来回答下面的单项选择题（下列每小题备选答案中，只有一个符合题意的正确答案。每小题0分，共5题。）16. If each snorer disturbs the sleep of one other person,the number of Americans that are unfortunately subjected the sound of the snores will be _____. A ：one out of five B ：one out of eight C ：eight out of one hundred D ：one out of eighteen 请选择答案：A:B:C:D:17. The snoring is caused by _____. A ：the soft palate and other structures of the throat B ：the inflwoing and outflwoing air through the nose C ：the inflowing and outflowing air throught mouth D ：the vibrations as a result of the inflwoing and outflowing air 请选择答案：A:B:C:D:18. If a person produces short snores,most probably he has _____. A ：a soft palate B ：a big nose
英语四级阅读理解练习题及解析 【阅读练习】 What is it about Americans and food? We love to eat,but we feel 1 about it afterward. We say we want only the bes t, but we strangely enjoy junkfood. We’re 2 with health an d weight loss but face an unprecedented epidemic of obes ity(肥胖). Perhaps the 3 to this ambivalence(矛盾情 结) lies in our history. The first Europeans cameto this con tinent searching for new spices but went in vain. The first cash crop(经济作 物)wasn’t eaten but smoked. Then there was Prohibition, i ntended to prohibit drinking butactually encouraging more 4 ways of doing it. The immigrant experience, too, has been one of inharmon y. Do as Romans do meanseating what “real Americans” e at, but our nation’s food has come to be 5 by imports—piz za,say, or hot dogs. And some of the country’s most treas ured cooking comes from people whoarrived here in shack les.
1. When I was growing up, the whole world was Jewish. The heroes were Jewish and the villains were Jewish. The landlord, the doctor, the grocer, your best friend, the village idiot, and the neighborhood bully: all Jewish. We were working class and immigrants as well, but that just come with the territory. Essentially we were Jews on the streets of New York. We learned to be kind, cruel, and smart and feeling in a mixture of language and gesture that was part street slang, part grade-school English, part kitchen Yiddish. One Sunday evening when I was eight years old my parents and I were riding in the back seat of my rich uncle's car. We had been out for a ride and now we were back in the Bronx, headed for home. Suddenly, another car sideswiped us. My mother and aunt shrieked. My uncle swore softly. My father, in whose lap I was sitting, said out the window at the speeding car, “That's all right. Nothing but a few Jews in here.” In an instant I knew everything. I knew there was a world beyond our streets, and in that world my father was a humiliated man, without power or standing. When I was sixteen a girl in the next building had her nose straightened; we all went together to see Selma Shapiro lying in state, wrapped in bandages from which would emerge a person fit for life beyond the block. Three buildings away a boy went downtown for a job, and on his application he wrote “Anold Brown”instead of “Anold Braunowiitz.”The news swept through the neighborhood like a wild fire. A name change? What was happening here? It was awful; it was wonderful. It was frightening; it was delicious. Whatever it was, it wasn't standstill.Thing felt lively and active. Self-confidence was on the rise, passivity on the wane. We were going to experience challenges. That's what it meant to be in the new world. For the first time we could imagine ourselves out there. But whom exactly do I mean when I say we? I mean Arinie, not Selma. I mean my brother, not me. I mean the boys, not the girls. My mother stood behind me, pushing me forward. “The girls goes to college, too,” she said. And I did. But my going to college would not mean the same thing as my brother's going to college, and we all knew it. For my brother, college meant going from the Bronx to Manhattan. But for me? From the time I was fourteen I yearned to get out of the Bronx, but get out into what? I did not actually imagine myself a working person alo ne in Manhattan and nobody else did either. What I did imagine was that I would marry, and that the man I married would get me downtown. He would break the perils of class and race, and some how I'd be there alongside him. 1.In the passage, we can find the author was____.
PART Ⅱ READING COMPREHENSION ［25 MIN.］ In this section there are four passages followed by fifteen questions or unfinished statements, each with four suggested answers marked A, B, C and D. Choose the one that you think is the correct answer.Mark your choice on your ANSWER SHEET. TEXT A As many as one thousand years ago in the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni Indians of North America were building with adobe－sun baked brick plastered with mud. Their homes looked remarkably like modern apartment houses. Some were four stories high and contained quarters for perhaps a thousand people, along with storerooms for grain and other goods. These buildings were usually put up against cliffs, both to make construction easier and for defense against enemies. They were really villages in themselves, as later Spanish explorers must have realized since they called them “pueblos”, which is Spanish for town.The people of the pueblos raised what are called “the three sisters”—corn, beans, and squash. They made excellent pottery and wove marvelous baskets, some so fine that they could hold water. The Southwest has always been a dry country, where water is scarce. The Hopi and Zuni brought water from streams to their fields and gardens through irrigation ditches. Water was so important that it played a major role in their religion. They developed elaborate ceremonies and religious rituals to bring rain. The way of life of less settled groups was simpler and more strongly influenced by nature. Small tribes such as the Shoshone and Ute wandered the dry and mountainous lands between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. They gathered seeds and hunted small animals such as small rabbits and snakes. In the Far North the ancestors of today’s Inuit hunted seals, walruses, and the great whales. They lived right on the frozen seas in shelters called igloos built of blocks of packed snow. When summer came, they fished for salmon and hunted the lordly caribou. The Cheyenne, Pawnee, and Sioux tribes, known as the Plains Indians, lived on the grasslands between the Rocky Mountains and the Mississippi River. They hunted bison, commonly called the buffalo. Its meat was the chief food of these tribes, and its hide was used to make their clothing and covering of their tents and tipis. 16. What does the passage mainly discuss? A. The architecture of early American Indian buildings. B. The movement of American Indians across North America. C. Ceremonies and rituals of American Indians. D. The way of life of American Indian tribes in early North America. 17. It can be inferred from the passage that the dwellings of the Hopi and Zuni were ___ A. very small B. highly advanced C. difficult to defend D. quickly constructed TEXT B Most earthquakes occur within the upper 15 miles of the earth’s surface. But earthquakes can and do occur at all depths to about 460 miles. Their number decreases as the depth increases. At about 460 miles one earthquake occurs only every few years. Near the surface earthquakes may run as high as 100 in a month, but the yearly average does not vary much. In comparison with the total number of earthquakes each year, the number of disastrous earthquakes is very small.[JP] The extent of the disaster in an earthquake depends on many factors. If you carefully build a toy house with an erect set, it will still stand no matter how much you shake the table. But if you build a toy house with a pack of cards, a slight shake of the table will make it fall. An earthquake in Agadir, Morocco, was not strong enough to be recorded on distant instruments, but it completely destroyed the city. Many stronger earthquakes have done
大学英语四级阅读理解（1）We find that bright children are rarely held back by mixed-ability teaching. On the contrary, both their knowledge and experience are enriched. We feel that there are many disadvantages in streaming(把......按能力分班) pupils. It does not take into account the fact that children develop at different rates. It can have a bad effect on both the bright and the not-so-bright child. After all, it can be quite discouraging to be at the bottom of the top grade! Besides, it is rather unreal to grade people just according to their intellectual ability. This is only one aspect of their total personality. We are concerned to develop the abilities of all our pupils to the full, not just their academic ability. We also value personal qualities and social skills, and we find that mixed-ability teaching contributes to all these aspects of learning. In our classrooms, we work in various ways. The pupils often work in groups: this gives them the opportunity to learn to co-operate, to share, and to develop leadership skills. They also learn how to cope with personal problems as well as learning how to think, to make decisions, to analyse and evaluate, and to communicate effectively. The pupils learn from each other as well as from the teacher. Sometimes the pupils work in pairs; sometimes they work on individual tasks and assignments, and they can do this at their own speed. They also have some formal class teaching when this is appropriate. We encourage our pupils to use the library, and we teach them the skills they need in order to do this efficiently. An advanced pupil can do advanced work: it does not matter what age the child is. We expect our pupils to do their best, not their least, and we give them every
大学英语四级阅读40篇(1) 2/40 The economy of the United states after 1952 was the econnomy of a well-fed,almost fully employed people. Despit occasional alarms, the country escaped any postwar depression and lived in a state of boom. A n economic survey of the year 1955, a typical year of the 1950’s, may be typical as illustrating the rapid economic growth of the decade. The national output was value at 10 percent above that of 1954 (1955 output was estimated at 392 billion dollars). The production of manufacturers was about 40 percent more than it had averaged in the years immediately following World War 2. The country’s business spent about 30billion dollars for new factories and machinery. National income available for spending was almost a third greater than it had been it had been in 1950. Consumers spent about 256 billion dollars; that is about 700 million dollars a day ,or about twenty-five million dollars every hour , all round the clock. Sixty-five million people held jobs and only a little more than two million wanted jobs but could not find them . Only agriculture
大学英语四级阅读理解试题40篇之一（含答案） There are three kinds of goals: short-term,medium-range and long-term goals. Short-range goals are those that usually deal with current activities,which we can apply on a daily basis.Such goals can be achieved in a week or less,or two weeks,or possible months.It should be remembered that just as a building is no stronger than its foundation ,out long-term goals cannot amount to very munch without the achievement of solid short-term goals.Upon completing our short-term goals,we should date the occasion and then add new short-term goals that will build on those that have been completed. The intermediate goals bukld on the foundation of the short-range goals.They might deal with just one term of school or the entire school year,or they could even extend for several years.Any time you move a step at a time,you should never allow yourself to become discouraged or overwhelmed. As you complete each step,you will enforce the belief in your ability to grow adn succeed.And as your list of completion dates grow,your motivation and desire will increase. Long-range goals may be related to our dreams of the future. They might cover five years or more. Life is not a static thing.We should never allow a long-term goal to limit us or our course of action. 1.Our long-term goals mean a lot______. A.if we complete our short-range goals B.if we cannot reach solid short-term goals C.if we write down the dates D.if we put forward some plans 2.New short-term goals are bulid upon______. A.two years B.long-term goals C.current activities D.the goals that have been completed 3.When we complete each step of our goals ,______. A.we will win final success B.we are overwhelmed C.we should build up confidence of success D.we should strong desire for setting new goals 4.Once our goals are drawn up,_______. A.we should stick to them until we complete them B.we may change our goals as we have new ideas and opportunities C.we had better wait for the exciting news of success D.we have made great decision 5.It is implied but not stated in the passage that ______. A.those who habe long-term goals will succeed B.writing down the dates may discourage you C.the goal is only a guide for us to reach our desination D.every should have a goal 答案：adcbc 大学英语四级阅读理解试题40篇之二（含答案） The economy of the United states after 1952 was the econnomy of a well-fed,almost fully employed people. Despit occasional alarms, the country escaped any postwar depression and lived in a state of boom. A n economic survey of the year 1955, a typical year of the 1950’s, may be
大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案.
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3 大学英语四级阅读理解试题及答案（四） 十六 Trees should only be pruned when there is a good and clear reason for doing so and , fortunately,the number of such reasons is small. Pruning involves the cutting away of obergrown and unwanted branches, and the inexperienced gardener can be encouraged by the thought that more damage results from doing it unnecessarily than from leaving the tree to grow in its own way. First, pruning may be done to make sure that trees have a desired shape or size. The object may be to get a tree of the right height, and at the same time to help the growth of small side branches which will thicken its appearance or give it a special shape. Secondly, pruning may be done to make the tree healthier. You may cut diseaed or dead wood, or branches that are rubbing against each other and thus cause wounds. The health of a tree may be encouraged by removing branches that are blocking up the centre and so preventing the free movement of air. One result of pruning is that an open wound is left on the tree and this provides an easy entry for disease, but itis a wound that will heal. Often there is a race between the healing and the desease as to whether the tree will live or die, so that there is a period when the tree is at risk. It should be the aim of every gardener to reduce which has been pruned smooth and clean, for healing will be slowed down by roughness. You should allow the cut surface to dry for a few hurs and then paint it with one of the substances available from garden shops produced especially for this purpose. Pruning is usually without interference from the leaves and also it is very unlikely that the cuts yu make will bleed. If this does happen,it is, of course,impossible to paint them properly. 1.Pruning should be done to ______. a.make the tree grow taller
大学英语四级2017年6月阅读理解汇总 17.6.1 The method for making beer has changed over time. Hops (啤酒花)，for example, which give many a modem beer its bitter flavor, are a (26)_______ recent addition to the beverage. This was first mentioned in reference to brewing in the ninth century. Now, researchers have found a (27)_______ingredient in residue (残留物）from 5,000-year-old beer brewing equipment. While digging two pits at a site in the central plains of China, scientists discovered fragments from pots and vessels. The different shapes of the containers (28)_______ they were used to brew, filter, and store beer. They may be ancient “beer-making tools,”and the earliest (29_______ evidence of beer brewing in China, the researchers reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. To (30)_______ that theory, the team examined the yellowish, dried (31)_______ inside the vessels. The majority of the grains, about 80%, were from cereal crops like barley (大麦),and about 10% were bits of roots, (32)_______lily,which would have made the beer sweeter, the scientists
2012 TEM4 TEXT A Saying “thank you ”is probably the first thing most of us learn to do in a foreign language．After all，we’re brought up to be polite，and it is important to make a good impression upon other people—especially across national divides．So．what exactly are you supposed to say when "thank you" is only the 20th most popular way to express gratitude? According to a recent survey,19 other ways of expressing appreciation finished ahead of "thank you" in a poll of 3,000 people ． Pollsters found almost half of those asked preferred the more informal“cheers”，while others liked to use such expressions as“ta”,“great" and“nice one”． So，just what is the appropriate form of words to express your thanks? Fortunately, the clue is in the language itself ．“ Cheers”， despite its popularity，is considered an informal way to say thank you—and this is a definite clue as to when you can best use it．