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  Indian's snake charmers are to be retrained as wildlife teachers under a plan to prevent their unique skills and knowledge from being lost. The charmers, who make snakes dance to the sound of flutes(笛子), used to be a traditional feature of Indian life, performing in towns and villages, until they were banned in 1972 to control the trade in snake skins.

The government is now considering a plan to train the saperas, as they are known, to visit schools and zoos to tell children about forests and wildlife. There is also a proposal to set up a “dial a snake charmer” service to help householders to deal with unwelcome intruders.

“For generations they have been a feature of Indian life but now they can't earn a living for fear of arrest,” said Behar Dutt, a conservationist behind the plans, “if a policeman doesn’t catch them, animal rights activists report them.

  Many snake charmers have continued to work clandestinely since the ban, despite the threat of up to three years in jail. But their trademark cloth-covered baskets, hung from a bamboo pole carried across their shoulders, make them an easy target for police.

  The fate of Shisha Nath, 56, from Badarpur, a village just outside of Delhi, is typical of practitioners(從業(yè)者) of the dying art. “I used to earn enough to support my family and send my children to school, "he said. "Now it's hard to earn even f, 1 a day. My children want to be snake charmers. It’s our identity. We love the work. But it s become impossible.

  Next month Dutt’s project to train 30 snake charmers will begin at a snake park in Pune, western India, where experts will enrich their home-grown skills with some formal knowledge.

  More than the law, though, it is the dishonest attitude of their fellow countryman that angers many snake charmers.

  “We're disturbed all the time but when people want a snake removed from the house, they rush to us,” said Prakash Nath, who was ordered recently to the home of Sonia Gandhi, the Congress party leader.

(1)

According to the passage, snake charmers will be retrained as wildlife teachers mainly because________.

[  ]

A.

schools need large numbers of such teachers

B.

most of them cannot support their families

C.

their performances on the street are banned

D.

the government plans to save the dying art

(2)

The purpose of the proposed "dial a snake charmer" telephone service is ________.

[  ]

A.

to give performance of snake dancing

B.

to teach householders how to catch and kill snakes

C.

to offer cleaning service to wealthy householders

D.

to help remove unwanted snakes from the houses

(3)

The word "clandestinely" in paragraph 4 can be best replaced by the word "________"

[  ]

A.

secretly

B.

publicly

C.

subconsciously

D.

diligently

(4)

Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?

[  ]

A.

Snake charmers can easily be recognized by the police on the street.

B.

Children of snake charmers would not like to continue their fathers' job.

C.

Snake charmers are quite angry with the attitude of their fellow countrymen.

D.

The animal rights activists take a negative attitude towards snake charmers.

答案:1.D;2.D;3.A;4.B;
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科目:高中英語 來源:2009年高考英語(浙江卷) 題型:050

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  Plants can’t communicate by moving or making sounds,as most animals doInstead,plants produce volatile compounds,chernicals that easily chasse trom a liquid to a gasA flower’s sweet smell,for example,comes from volatile compounas that the plant produces to attract insects such as bugs and bees

  Plants can also detect volatile compounds produced by other plants,A tree under attack by hungre insects ,for instance, may give off volatile compounds that let other trees know about the attack,In response,the other trees may send off chemicals to keep the bugs away- or even chemicals that attract the bugs'natural enemies

  Now scientists have created a quick way to understand what plants are sayinga chemical sensor(傳感器)called an electronise nose,The e-nose can tell compounds that crop plants make when they’re attackedSeientists say the e-nose could help quickly detest whether plants are being eaten by insects,But today the only way to detect such insects is to visually inspect individual plants this is a challenging task for managers of greenhouses,enclosed gardens that can house thousands of plants

  The research team worked with an e-nose that recognizes volatile compoundsInside the device,13 sensors chemically react with volatile compounds,Based on these interactions ,the e-nose gives off electronie signals that the scentists analyze using computer software

  To test the nose,the team presented it with healthy leaves from cueumber,pepper and tomato plants, all common greenhouse cropsThen the scientists colleced samples of air around damaged leaves from each type of cropThese plants had been chaged by insects, or by scientists who made holes in the leaves with a hole punch(打孔器)

  The e-nose,it turns out,could identify healthy cucumber,pepper and tomato plants based on the volatile compounds they produce,It could also identify tomato leaves that had been damagedBut even more impressive,the device could tell which type of damageby insects or with a hole punch – had been done to the tomato leaves

  With some fine tuning,a device like the e-nose could one day be used in greehouses to quickly spot harmful bugs,the researchers say,A device like this could also be used to identify fruits thet are perfectly ripe and ready to pick and eat,says Natalia Dudareve,a biochemist at Purdue University in West lafayette,Ind,who studies smells of flowers and plantsHopefully,scientists believe,the device could bring large benefits to greenhouse managers in the near future

(1)

We learn from the text that plants communicate with each other by ________

[  ]

A.

making some sounds

B.

waving their leaves

C.

producing some chemicals

D.

sending out electronic signals

(2)

What did the scientists do to find out if the e-nose worked?

[  ]

A.

They presented it with all common crops

B.

They fixed 13 sensors inside the device

C.

They collected different damaged leaves

D.

They made tests on damaged and healthy leaves

(3)

According to the writer,the most amazing thing about the e –nose is that it can ________

[  ]

A.

pick out ripe fruits

B.

spot the insects quickly

C.

distiinguish different damages to the leaves

D.

recognize unhealthy tomato leaves

(4)

We can infer from the last paragraph that the e-nose ________

[  ]

A.

is unable to tell the smell of flowers

B.

is not yet used in greehouses

C.

is designed by scientists at Purdue

D.

is helpful in killing harmful insects

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科目:高中英語 來源:福建省福州八縣(市)一中2011-2012學(xué)年高一上學(xué)期期中聯(lián)考英語試題 題型:050

閱讀理解

  Going on a road trip? The St.Louis Arch, Statue of Liberty and Golden Gate Bridge are great tourist sites.But if you prefer offbeat destinations(目的地), check out the following roadside attractions.

  World's Largest Ball of Paint

  Alexandria, Ind.

  In 1977, Michael Carmichael set out to create the biggest ball of paint anywhere.Starting with a baseball as center, he painted layer after layer of paint day after day, year after year.The ball weighs more than 1,300 pounds, with more than 20,000 coats of paint,” which is recognized by Guinness World Records.Visitors can paint the ball themselves and become part of history.

  The Museum of Dirt

  Boston, Mass.

  The museum is the idea of Glenn Johnson.Labeled(貼有標(biāo)簽的)glass bottles contain such treasures as dirt from the Great Wall of China, as well as sand from a desert in Saudi Arabia and Omaha Beach in France.Best of all, the cost of seeing this museum is dirt cheap:It's free.

  Mount Horeb Mustard Museum

  Mount Horeb, Wis.

  It's heaven for hotdog lovers! This museum claims to have the world's largest collection of prepared mustard(芥末).Its more than 4,100 bottles of spices come from 60 nations, including Turkey and China.Visitors learn the history of mustard, from how it's made to how it's advertised and sold.The museum's creator, Barry Levenson, loves mustard so much that he even puts it on ice cream!

  Paper House

  Rockport, Mass.

  Swedish immigrant(移民)Ellis Stenman was much ahead of his time in 1922, when he started to build a two-room house almost entirely out of newspaper.At the time, people didn't give much –if any--thought to recycling paper.The house is framed with wood, but the walls are made of 215 layers(層)of newspaper.

(1)

The underlined word “offbeat” in the first paragraph has the same meaning as ________.

[  ]

A.

great

B.

foreign

C.

unusual

D.

historical

(2)

If you want to add your own work to what you visit, you may choose ________.

[  ]

A.

World's Largest Ball of Paint

B.

The Museum of Dirt

C.

Mount Horeb Mustard Museum

D.

Paper House

(3)

Which of the following is true of Barry Levenson according to the text?

[  ]

A.

No spices but mustard can be found in his museum.

B.

He travels around the world to collect mustard.

C.

Mustard is advertised and sold in his museum.

D.

In a way, he shows much preference for mustard.

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