A recent study of ancient and modern elephants has  come up with the unexpected conclusion that the African elephant is divided into two distinct (不同的) species
The discovery was made by researchers at York and Harvard universities when they were examining the genetic relationship between the ancient woolly mammoth and mastodon to modern elephants—the Asian elephant, African forest elephant and African savanna elephant
Once they obtained DNA sequences (序列) from two fossils (化石)，mammoths and mastodons the team compared them with DNA from modern elephants. They found to their amazement that modern forest and savanna elephants are as distinct from each other as Asian elephants and mammoths.
The scientists used detailed genetic analysis to prove that the African savanna elephants and the African forest elephants have been distinct species for several million years. The divergence of the two species took place around the time of the divergence of Asian elephants and woolly mammoths. This result amazed all the scientists.
There has long been debate in the scientific community that the two might be separate species but this is the most convincing scientific evidence so far that they are indeed different species.
Previously, many naturalists believed that African savanna elephants and African forest elephants were two populations of the same species despite the elephants’ significant size differences. The savanna elephant has an average shoulder height of 3.5metres while the forest elephant has an average shoulder height of 2.5metres. The savanna elephant weighs between six and seven tons, roughly double the weight of the forest elephant. But the fact that they look so different does not necessarily mean they are different species. However, the proof lay in the analysis of the DNA.
Alfred Roca, assistant professor in the department of Animal Sciences at the University of Minois, said, “We now have to treat the forest and savanna elephants as two different units for conservation purpose. Since 1950 all African elephants have been conserved as one species. Now that we know the forest and savanna elephants are two very distinct animals, the forest elephant should become a bigger priority (優(yōu)先)for conservation purpose .”
小題1:One of the fossils studied by the researchers is that of ________.

A．the Asian elephant	B．the forest elephant
C．the savanna elephant	D．the mastodon elephant

小題2:The underlined word “divergence” in paragraph 4means “________”

A．evolution

B．exhibition

C．separation

D．examination

小題3:The researcher’s conclusion was based on a study of the African elephant’s ____________

A．DNA

B．height

C．weight

D．population

小題4: What were Alfred Roca’s words mainly about?

A．The conversation of African elephants.

B．The purpose of studying African elephants

C．The way to divide African elephants into two units

D．The reason for the distinction of African elephants

小題5: Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?

A．Naturalist’s Belief about Elephants.

B．Amazing Experiment about Elephants

C．An Unexpected Finding about Elephants

D．A Long scientific Debate about Elephants

Since the 1970s, scientists have been searching for ways to link the brain with computers. Brain-computer interface(BCI) technology could help people with disabilities send commands to machines.
Recently, two researchers, Jose Millan and Michele Tavella from the Federal Polytechnic school in Lausanne, Switzerland, demonstrated（展示）a small robotic wheelchair directed by a person’s thoughts.
In the laboratory, Tavella operated the wheelchair just by thinking about moving his left or right band. He could even talk as he watched the vehicle and guided it with his thoughts.
“our brain has billions of nerve ceils. These send signals through the spinal cord （脊髓）to the muscles to give us the ability to move. But spinal cord injuries or other conditions can prevent these weak electrical signals from reaching the muscles,” Tavella says.  “Our system allows disabled people to communicate with external world and also to control devices.”
The researchers designed a special cap for the user. This head cover picks up the signals from the scalp(頭皮) and sends them to a computer. The computer interprets the signals and commands the motorized wheelchair. The wheelchair also has two cameras that identify objects in its path. They help the computer react to commands from the brain.                                               
Prof. Millan, the team leader, says scientists keep improving the computer software that interprets brain signals and turns them into simple commands. “The practical possibilities that BCI technology offers to disabled people can be grouped in two categories: communication, and controlling devices. One example is this wheelchair.”
He says his team has set two goals. One is testing with real patients, so as to prove that this is a technology they can benefit frotn. And the other is to guarantee that they can use the technology over long periods of time.
小題1:
BCI is a technology that can              

A．help to update computer systems	B．link the human brain with computers
C．help the disabled to recover	D．control a person's thoughts

小題2:
How" did Tavella operate the wheelchair in the laboratory?

A．By controlling his muscles.	B．By talking to the machine.
C．By moving his hand.	D．By using his mind.

小題3:
Which of the following shows the path of the signals described in Paragraph 5?

A．scalp→computer→cap→wheelchair

B．computer→cap→scalp→wheelchair

C．scalp→cap→computer→wheelchair

D．cap→computer→scalp→wheelchair

小題4:
The team will test with real patients to

A．make profits from them	B．prove the technology useful to them
C．make them live longer	D．learn about their physical condition

小題5:
Which of the following would be the best title for the text?

A．Switzerland, the BCI Research Center

B．New Findings About How the Human Brain Works

C．BCI Could Mean More Freedom for the Disabled

D．Robotic Vehicles Could Help to Cure Brain Injuries

Howling is a behavior commonly observed among a wolf nark. An animals, wolves work together to hunt and rely on howling was an important means of communication each other. There are different explants of a wolf’s howl and it appears that there may be more to discover.      One theory is that wolves howl to bend better together. It’s almost as if howling together helps the pack stay together. Perhaps something similar to people feeling a sense of involvement with each other when singing a song together . But this theory may be wrong, explains Fred H. Harington, a professor who studies wolf behavior.     Indeed, there have been tines when wolves have been seen one moment howling in a exhorts, and the next, quarreling anions each other. It appears that usually the lowest-tanking menthes of the pack may actually be “punished” for
Joining in the churs at times. So is howling a way to strcagthen a social boad or just a way to reconfirm status among its members? ——Why do welves howl for sure?
What is cleat, however, is that howling is often used among packmates to locate each other. Hunting grounds are distant and it happens that woloves may separate from one another at times. When this happens, howling appcars to be an ercellent means of gathering.
Howling, interestingly, is a contagious behaviour. When one wolf starts to howl, very likely others will follow. This is often seen to occat in the morning, as if wolves were doing some sotr of “roll rall”where wolves all howl togeter to howl, very likely others will follow. This is often seen to occar in the morning, as if wolves were doing w some sotr of “roll call”where wolves all howl together to repotr their pteence.
小題1:.What the por similarity between wolves’ how humaes ting in chorus?

A．The act of calling each other.

B．the sense of accomplishment.

C．The act of hunting for something.

D．The sense of belonging to a group.

小題2:.Why does Harrington think the“secial boad”theory may be wrong?

A．Wolves separate from each other after howling.

B．Wolves tend to protect their hunting grounds.

C．Wolves sometimes have quarrels after howling together.

D．Wolves of low rank are encouraged to join in the chorus.

小題3:Reseatchers are sure that wolves often howl to______.

A．show their ranks

B．find their companion

C．report the missing ones

D．express their lonelingess

小題4:“Howling… is a contagious behaviour”(in the last paragraph)means_ ______.

A．howling is a signal for hunting

B．howling is a way of communication

C．howling aften occurs in the morning

D．howling spreads from one to another

Which are you more likely to have wath you at sny given mement—your cell phone or your wallet? Soon you may be able to throw your wallet away and pay for things with a quick wave of your smart phone over an electroue scannet.
In January, Starbucks announced that customers could start using their phones to buy coffee in 6,800 of its states. This is the first pay-by-phone practice in the U.S., but we’re likely to see more witeless payment alternatives as something called ucar field communcation(NFC)GETS IN TO America’s consumet electanies. Last Deccmbet some new smart phanes which cantain an NFC chip were introduced to the public.
Already in use in part of Asia and Europe, NFC allows shoppers to wave theie phones a few inchs above a payment terminal-a contact-free system build for speed and convenience.  plan a few incees live a payment tetminal a one a few ptaht need to be worked out, like who will get to collect the profitable trunsacian(交易)fees. Although some credit card providers have been experimenting with wave and pay systems that use NFC enabled credit cards, cellphone service providers truay try to mused their way into the point of sale (POS)market. Three big cell phone service providers have formed a joinf tenture(合資企業(yè))that will go into opention over the next 15 months. Its goal is“to lead the U.S. payments industry from cards to mobile phone.”
The other big NFC sue, apart from how paymeats will be processed, is security, For instance, what’s to stop a thief from digitally pickpocketing you? “We’re still not at the point where an attacker can just brush against yee in a crowd and steal all the money out of your phone,”says Jimmy Shah. A mobile security rescarcher, “Usera may also be able to set transaction timeits,requiring a password to be enteced for larger putchases.
Bussiness? Keep in mund you lost your smart phone, it can be located on a located on a map and remotely disabled. Plus, your phone can be password protected, Your wallet isn’t.
小題1:What is predicted to happen in the U.S.?

A．The expansion of cellphone companices.

B．The boom of pay by phone business.

C．The dissppearanceof credit cards.

D．The increase of Starbucks sales.s

小題2:The NFC technology can be used to________.

A．ensure the safety of shoppers

B．collect transaction fees easily

C．make purchase faster and smpler

D．improve the quality of cellphones

小題3:Three cellphone service providers form a joint venture to__________.

A．strengthen their relationship

B．get a share in the payments industry

C．sell more cellphones

D．test the NFC teehnoingy

小題4:According to the what can users do if they lose their smart phones?

A．Stop the luneting of niet phones.

B．Stop a passwant.

C．Cat all the money out of their phones.

D．Can large purchases.

Every pet owner loves his pet .There is no argument here.
But when we asked our readers whether they would clone their beloved animals , the responses were split(分裂) almost down the middle . Of the 228 readers who answered it ,108 would clone, 111 would not and nine weighed each side without offering an opinion .
Clearly, from readers’ response, this is an issue that reaches deeply into both the joy and eventual (最終的)sadness of owning a pet. It speaks, as well, to people’s widely differing expectations over the developing scientific procedure (步驟)
Most of the readers who favored the idea strongly believed it would produce at least a close copy of the original; many felt the process would actually return an exact copy. Those on the other side, however, held little hope that clone could truly recreate a pet; many simply did not wish to go against the natural law of life and death.
Both sides expressed equal love for their animals. More of them owned “the best dog/cat in the world”. They thought of their pets as their “best friend” or “a member of the family”. They told moving stories of pets’ heroism, intelligence and selfless devotion.
No wonder the loss is so disturbing---and the cloning so attractive. “People become very close to their animals, and the loss can be just as hard to bear as when a friend or family member dies,” says Gary Kowalski, author of goodbye, Friend: Healing Wisdom for Anyone Who Has Ever Lost a Pet. “For me, cloning feels like an attempt to turn death away…It’s understandable. Death is always painful. It’s difficult to deal with. It’s hard to accept.”
But would cloning reduce the blow? This question seems to be at the heart of this problem.
小題1:
As far as the cloning of pets is concerned, a recent survey shows that, of all pet owners,     .

A．a lot more of them are for it	B．a lot more of them are against it
C．very few of them are willing to tell their opinions ．	D．about half of them are for it and the other half against it

小題2:
The expression “eventual sadness of owning a pet.” (in paragraph 3) refers to       .

A．the death of one’s pet

B．the final ownership of a pet

C．the troubles one has to deal with in keeping a pet

D．the dangers involved in the cloning of a pet

小題3:
In spite of their differences on the problem of cloning, it seems that     .

A．all pet owners love their pets very much

B．all pet owners try to go against the natural law of life and death

C．people who support cloning love their pets more

D．people who dislike cloning love their pets more

小題4:
From what Gary Kowalski says, we can know that he     .

A．has never thought about the problem of cloning

B．thinks it hard to accept the idea of cloning pets

C．is in favor of the idea of cloning pets

D．is all against the cloning of pets

Plastics are considered one of the most serious pollutants causing environmental problems. The garbage containing plastics end up in the waterways that eventually flow into the oceans. Accumulation (聚集)of plastic in the ocean endangers marine life and pollutes the water.
Does a plastic continent exist? Yes, a plastic continent does exist and was discovered by Captain Charles Moore a decade ago. The plastic continent is twice the size of Britain and it is the region between the Hawaii Islands and California in the central Pacific Ocean.
One of the causes of the lack of marine life in this region is due to pollution and pollutants are none other than plastics. Captain Charles Moore believes plastic waste started accumulating in the 1950s.
The plastic continent is the man-made continent of floating plastic waste. The fisher men and the sailors have avoided this region for years. The reasons are:
1. There are no fish here because of the lack of nutrients.
2. The zone also lacks the wind that is essential for sailing.
To do research on the ocean pollution, Captain Moore founded Algalita Marine Research Foundation. Other organizations such as Greenpeace supported his cause. The reports of The United Nations Environment Program show that millions of seabirds and marine animals are dying due to the invasion(入侵)of plastics. The waste plastics can be recycled, but in fact they are being thrown into the oceans. The marine animals mistake these for food and eat them. This leads to their death that affects the marine food chain.
To save the oceans from the plastic continent you need to reduce the use of plastics, reuse plastic bags and recycle plastics.
小題1: What can we learn from the first paragraph?

A．A plastic continent does exist in the Pacific Ocean

B．Endangered marine life is well protected.

C．Plastics are one of the main causes of water pollution.

D．Plastics should be forbidden in people’s daily life.

小題2: What is the direct influence of the plastic continent?

A．Local fishermen have to fish in other areas.

B．The water becomes shallow and fish have to move away.

C．The wind is too strong there and it makes sailing more difficult.

D．It makes people realize the importance of protecting the environment.

小題3: It is implied that the work of plastic recycling proves to be ______.

A．effective

B．expensive

C．a difficult task

D．not good enough

小題4:What can we learn from the passage?

A．Many marine animals are dying due to the broken marine food chain.

B．Captain Moore founded Greenpeace to do research on the ocean pollution.

C．The marine animals have no choice but to eat plastics for lack of food.

D．There are three ways to prevent the oceans from becoming a plastic continent.

Motorists who used to listen to the radio or their favorite tunes on CDs may have a new way to entertain themselves, after engineers in Japan developed a musical road surface.
A team from the Hokkaido Industrial Research Institute has built a number of“melody roads,”which use cars as tuning forks to play music as they travel.
The concept works by using grooves(凹槽).They are cut at very specific intervals in the road surface. The melody road uses the spaces between to create different notes.
Depending on how far apart the grooves are, a car moving over them will produce a series of high or low notes, and designers are able to create a distinct tune.
Paten documents for the design describe it as notches “formed in a road surface so as to play a melody without producing simple sound or rhythm and reproduce melody-like tones”.
There are three musical strips in central and northern Japan—one of which plays the tune of a Japanese pop song. Reports say the system was invented by Shizuo Shinoda. He scraped some markings into a road with a bulldozer before driving over them and found that they helped to produce all kinds of tones.
The optimal speed for melody road is 44kph,but people say it is not always easy to get the intended sound.
“You need to keep the car windows closed to hear well,”wrote one Japanese blogger.“Driving too fast will sound like playing fast forward, while driving around 12mph［20km/h］has a slow-motion effect, making you almost car-sick.”
小題1:According to the passage, melody roads use        to create different notes.

A．cars

B．grooves

C．spaces between intervals

D．bulldozers

小題2:We can learn from the passage that the highness of notes is depended on        .

A．how far the grooves are	B．how big the grooves are
C．the number of the grooves	D．the speed of the car

小題3:The underlined word “optimal” in the passage might mean        .

A．fastest

B．possible

C．best

D．suitable

小題4:In order to hear the music well, you have to        .

A．drive very fast	B．drive slowly
C．open the windows wide	D．keep the windows closed

小題5:What’s the best title of the passage?

A．A New Type of Music	B．Melody Roads in Japan
C．A Musical Road Surface	D．A New Invention in J

In the future your automobile（汽車） will run on water instead of gas! You will be able to buy a supercomputer that fits in your pocket! You might even drive a flying car!
For each prediction that has come true today, several others have missed by a mile. Many of these predictions didn’t consider how people would want to use the technology, or if people really needed it in their lives or not. Let’s look at some predictions from the not-too-distant past.
Robot Helpers
Where’s the robot in my kitchen? Nowhere, of course. And he’s probably not coming anytime soon. Robots do exist today, but mostly in factories and other manufacturing environments.
Back in the 1950s, however, people said that by now personal robots would be in most people’s homes.
So why hasn’t it happened?  Probably because robots are still too expensive and clumsy. And maybe the idea of robots cooking our dinners and washing our clothes is just too weird. At home we seem to be doing fine without them.
Telephones of Tomorrow
In 1964 an American company introduced the video telephone. They said by the year 2000 most people would have a video phone in their homes. But of course the idea hasn’t caught on yet.
Why? The technology worked fine, but it over—looked something obvious: people’s desire for privacy（隱私）. Would you want to have a video phone conversation with someone after you just step out of the shower（淋�。�?  Probably not---it could be embarrassing! Just because a technology available doesn’t always mean people will want to use it.
And finally, how about that crazy prediction of the flying car? It’s not so crazy anymore! But a flying car remains one of the most fascinating technology ideas to capture our imagination. Keep watching the news, or perhaps the sky outside your window, to see what the future will bring.
小題1:
The whole passage is mainly about ________________.

A．predictions that have come true.	B．predictions that haven’t come true.
C．why predictions don’t come true easily.	D．what technology will bring about.

小題2:
The author of this passage won’t believe that _________________.

A．predictions needn’t consider people’s practical use of technology.

B．the future isn’t always easy to guess.

C．not all past predictions have come true.

D．many of the high—tech things our parents thought we’d be using by now

simply never appeared.
小題3:
The underlined word “weird” probably means __________.

A．wonderful

B．stupid

C．practical

D．strange

小題4:
What does the author think of the flying car?

A．It is too difficult to imagine.	B．It is too crazy an idea.
C．It is likely to be made.	D．It is often reported in the news.

Construction workers in Southern California have made a wild discovery. They were digging at a building site in San Timoteo Canyon (峽谷) when they unearthed hundreds of ancient animal fossils. Researchers say the bones hold important clues about the history of the region.
Nearly 1, 500 fossils were recovered from the dusty canyon. The remains are about 1.4 million years old. They include the bones of a new species of deer, several small rodents (嚙齒目動物) and more. A giant cat fossil was also found. Scientists believe the animal was an ancestor of the saber- toothed tiger. Signs of plant life were uncovered as well.
“This is a huge find,” says Rick Greenwood, a scientist studying the site. “I don’t think most people had any idea that those types of animals were wandering around here more than a million years ago.”
San Timoteo Canyon is located about 85 miles from Los Angeles. The area of the canyon where the fossils were found was once part of a green river valley. Today, the region is dry and plant life is rare.
Most of the fossils are well preserved. Experts say a muddy lake bed may have trapped thirty animals that wandered over for a drink. The mud helped to protect the animal fossils.
The remains are a million years older than those discovered at the famous La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles. Scientists studying the bones will be able to learn more about how the animals adapted to changes in the environment.
“We have a confused view of what this time period was like, ” says another scientist. “A discovery like this could really be an important contribution.”
About 35 different animal species are represented in the fossil collection. Scientists began removing bones from the site last fall. The project was completed this summer. Starting next year, the fossils will be on display at the Western Science Center in the nearby city of Hemet, California.
小題1:
What does the passage mainly focus on?

A．The secret of ancient animals’ deaths.

B．The preparation for a future fossil exhibition.

C．A great discovery of fossils.

D．The history of San Timoteo Canyon.

小題2:
From what Rick says, we know ________. (原創(chuàng))

A．fossils were discovered in the canyon for the first time.

B．the canyon in ancient times was quite different.

C．more research work will be carried on in the canyon.

D．the river water helped to protect the animal fossils.

小題3:
Compared to the discovery at the La Brea Tar Pits, the canyon-involved fossils _______.

A．are far older	B．include more species
C．are better preserved	D．make experts more confused

小題4:
What do we know about the fossils from the passage?

A．All of them are of new species.

B．Some of them have been destroyed

C．They were looked for under experts’ guidance.

D．They will be on show in the near future.

You know that pearls grow inside oysters(牡蠣), but would you ever think to look for diamonds inside an ostrich(鴕鳥)? Well, a hunter once shot an ostrich and discovered, to his great surprise, that the big bird had swallowed a bunch of diamonds. How could such a strange thing happen?
Like many other birds, the ostrich swallows small stones that stay inside its “gizzard”. The gizzard is a bird’s second stomach. It is where the food is ground up. The small stones help to grind up the food so it can be digested. The small stones do the chewing because birds don’t have teeth. In that case of the ostrich with the diamonds, the bird simply had expensive taste in rocks. It used the diamonds to digest its dinner.
Diamonds and stones aren’t all that an ostrich will swallow. If there are no stones around, it will eat just about anything. Sadly for ostriches in zoos, this can be a fatal habit. The tendency to swallow anything it sees has caused the death of many an ostrich. Cruel or careless people often throw things into the bird’s living space. They throw keys, coins, and even large objects such as horseshoes. The ostrich swallows them without hesitation. Coins can be the worst. Inside the ostrich they wear down to a razor-sharp edge. They will cut open the bird’s gizzard from the inside. When one young zoo ostrich died, 484 coins weighing more than eight pounds were found in its gizzard.
小題1:
Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A．Birds often eat strange and funny things.

B．Ostriches will swallow anything to help them digest food.

C．One ostrich died with 484 coins in its gizzard.

D．Ostriches are often hurt by cruel or careless people.

小題2:
The ostrich is not smart enough to ______.

A．digest its own food	B．eat only diamonds
C．avoid eating harmful objects	D．escape from the zoo

小題3:
The sentence “the small stones do the chewing” makes rocks seem as though they were ______.

A．important	B．alive
C．dangerous	D．uncomfortable

小題4:
he word “fatal” in the third paragraph is another word for “______”.

A．foolish

B．careless

C．deadly

D．cruel