Scientists who try to predict earthquakes have gotten some new helpers recently—animals.
That’s right, animals. Scientists have begun to understand what farmers have known for thousands of years. Animals often seem to know in advance that an earthquake is coming, and they show their fear by acting in strange ways. Before a Chinese quake in 1975, snakes awoke from their winter sleep early only to freeze to death in the cold air. Cows broke their halters (韁繩) and tried to escape. Chickens refused to enter their cage. All of this unusual behavior, as well as physical changes in the earth, warned Chinese scientists of the coming quake. They moved people away from the danger zone and saved thousands of lives.
One task for scientists today is to learn exactly which types of animal behavior predict quakes. It’s not an easy job. First of all not every animal reacts to the danger of an earthquake. Just before a California quake in 1977, for example, an Arabian horse became very nervous and tried to break out of his enclosure. The Australian horse next to him, however, remained perfectly calm. It’s also difficult at times to tell the difference between normal animal restlessness and “earthquake nerves”. A zoo keeper once called earthquake researchers to say that his cougar had been acting strangely. It turned out that the cat had an upset stomach.
A second task for scientists is to find out exactly what kind of warnings the animals receive. They know that animals sense far more of the world than humans do. Many animals can see, hear, and smell things that people do not even notice. Some can sense tiny changes in air pressure, gravity, or the magnetism of Earth. This extra sense probably helps animals predict quakes.
A good example of this occurred with a group of dogs. They were shut in an area that was being shaken by a series of tiny earthquakes. (Several small quakes often come before or after a large one.) Before each quake a low booming sound was heard. Each boom caused the dogs to bark wildly. Then the dogs began to bark during a silent period. A scientist who was recording quakes looked at his machine. It was acting as though there were a loud noise too. The scientist realized that the dogs had reacted to a booming noise. They also sensed the tiny quake that followed it. The machine recorded both, though humans felt and heard nothing.
In this case there was a machine to monitor what the dogs were sensing. Many times, however, our machines record nothing extraordinary, even though animals know a quake is coming. The animals might be sensing something we measure but do not recognize as a warning. Discovering what animals sense, and learning how they know it is a danger signal, is a job for future scientists.
【小題1】Through the passage the writer hopes to explore __________.
| A．why animals send a danger signal before an earthquake |
| B．how animals know when an earthquake is coming |
| C．why animals not men have good sense of danger |
| D．how much animals know about an earthquake |
| A．chickens refused to go out of their cage |
| B．snakes were frozen to death in their caves |
| C．snakes awoke from their winter sleep earlier |
| D．cows broke their halters and escaped from their sheds |
| A．An Arabian horse tried to escape from his enclosure. |
| B．A cougar had an upset stomach unexpectedly. |
| C．An Australian horse was perfectly calm. |
| D．A cat acted very strangely in a zoo. |
| A．find out that the machine could record unusual happenings |
| B．compare the reactions of animals and those of humans |
| C．prove that animals could sense more than humans |
| D．find out what exact warnings animals sent |
名校課堂系列答案科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Batteries can power anything from small sensors to large systems. While scientists are finding ways to make them smaller but even more powerful, problems can arise when these batteries are much larger and heavier than the devices themselves. University of Missouri(MU) researchers are developing a nuclear energy source that is smaller, lighter and more efficient.
“To provide enough power, we need certain methods with high energy density(密度)”，said Jae Kwon, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at MU. “The radioisotope(放射性同位素) battery can provide power density that is much higher than chemical batteries.”
Kwon and his research team have been working on building a small nuclear battery, presently the size and thickness of a penny, intended to power various micro / nanoelectromechanical systems (M/NEMS). Although nuclear batteries can cause concerns, Kwon said they are safe.
“People hear the word ‘nuclear’ and think of something very dangerous,” he said, “However, nuclear power sources have already been safely powering a variety of devices, such as pace-makers, space satellites and underwater systems.”
His new idea is not only in the battery’s size, but also in its semiconductor(半導體). Kwon’s battery uses a liquid semiconductor rather than a solid semiconductor.
“The key part of using a radioactive battery is that when you harvest the energy, part of the radiation energy can damage the lattice structure(晶體結構) of the solid semiconductor,” Kwon said, “By using a liquid semiconductor, we believe we can minimize that problem.”
Together with J. David Robertson, chemistry professor and associate director of the MU Research Reactor, Kwon is working to build and test the battery. In the future, they hope to increase the battery’s power, shrink its size and try with various other materials. Kwon said that battery could be thinner than the thickness of human hair.
Which of the following is true of Jae Kwon?
A. He teaches chemistry at MU.
B. He developed a chemical battery.
C. He is working on a nuclear energy source.
D. He made a breakthrough in computer engineering.
Jae Kwon gave examples in Paragraph 4_________.
A. to show chemical batteries are widely applied.
B. to introduce nuclear batteries can be safely used.
C. to describe a nuclear-powered system.
D. to introduce various energy sources.
Liquid semiconductor is used to _________.
A. get rid of the radioactive waste
B. test the power of nuclear batteries.
C. decrease the size of nuclear batteries
D. reduce the damage to lattice structure.
According to Jae Kwon, his nuclear battery _______.
A. uses a solid semiconductor
B. will soon replace the present ones.
C. could be extremely thin
D. has passed the final test.
The text is most probably a ________.
A. science news report B. book review
C. newspaper ad D. science fiction story
PART FOUR WRITING (45%)
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：
The fact has worried many scientists ______ the earth is becoming warmer and warmer these years.
A. what B. which C. that D. though
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
People diet to look more attractive. Fish diet to avoid being beaten up, thrown out of their social group, and getting eaten as a result. That is the fascinating conclusion of the latest research into fish behavior by a team of Australian scientists.
The research team have discovered that subordinate fish voluntarily diet to avoid challenging their larger competitors. “In studying gobies we noticed that only the largest two individuals, a male and female, had breeding(繁殖) rights within the group," explains Marian Wrong. “All other group members are nonbreeding females, each being 5-10% smaller than its next largest competitor. We wanted to find out how they maintain this precise size separation."
The reason for the size difference was easy to see. Once a subordinate fish grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor, it causes a fight which usually ends in the smaller goby being driven away from the group. More often than not, the evicted fish is then eaten up.
It appeared that the smaller fish were keeping themselves small in order to avoid challenging the boss fish. Whether they did so voluntarily, by restraining how much they ate, was not clear. The research team decided to do an experiment. They tried to fatten up some of the subordinate gobies to see what happened. To their surprise, the gobies simply refused the extra food they were offered, clearly preferring to remain small and avoid fights, over having a feast.
The discovery challenges the traditional scientific view of how boss individuals keep their position in a group. Previously it was thought that large individuals simply used their weight and size to threaten their subordinates and take more of the food for themselves, so keeping their competitors small.
While the habits of gobies may seem a little mysterious. Dr. Wong explains that understanding the relationships between boss and subordinate animals is important to understanding how hierarchical(等級的) societies remain stable.
The research has proved the fact that voluntary dieting is a habit far from exclusive to human.”As yet, we lack a complete understanding of how widespread the voluntary reduction of food intake is in nature," the researchers comment. “Data on human dieting suggests that, while humans generally diet to improve health or increase attractiveness, rarely does it improve long-term health and males regularly prefer females that are fatter than the females' own ideal."
65 When a goby grows to within 5-10% of the size of its larger competitor, it ______.
A. faces danger B. has breeding rights
C. eats its competitor D. leaves the group itself
66. The underlined words “the evicted fish" in Paragraph 3 refer to _____.
A. the fish beaten up B. the fish found out
C. the fish fattened up D. the fish driven away
67 The experiment showed that smaller fish ____.
A. fought over a feast B. went on diet willingly
C. preferred some extra food D. challenged the boss fish
68. What is the text mainly about?
A. Fish dieting and human dieting.
B. Dieting and health.
C. Human dieting.
D. Fish dieting.
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
What makes a person a scientist? Does he have ways or tools of learning that are different from those of others??The answer is“no”.It isn't the tools a scientist uses but how he uses these tools which makes him a scientist .You will probably agree that knowing how to use a power is important to a carpenter（木匠）.You will probably agree,too, that knowing how to investigate（調查）,how to discover information ,is important to everyone. The scientist ,however ,goes one step further ;he must be sure that he has a reasonable answer to his questions and that his answer he gets to many questions is into a large set of ideas about how the world works.?
The scientist's knowledge must be exact .There's no room for half right or right just half the time. He must be as nearly right as the conditions permit .What works under one set of conditions at one time must work under the same conditions at other times. If the conditions are different ,any changes the scientist observes in a demonstration（實證）must be explained by the changes in the conditions. This is one reason why investigations are important in science .Albert Einstein ,who developed the Theory of Relativity ,arrived at this theory through mathematics. The accuracy（正確性）of his mathematics was later tested through investigation. Einstein's ideas were proved to be correct .A scientist uses many tools for measurements .Then the measurements are used to make mathematical calculations（計算）that may test his investigations.
1.What makes a scientist according to the passage??
A.The tools he uses.
B.His ways of learning.?
C.The way he uses his tools.
D.The various tools he uses.?
2.“...knowing how to investigate ,how to discover information ,is important to everyone.”The writer says this to show_______.?
A.the importance of information
B.the difference between scientists and ordinary people?
C.the importance of thinking
D.the difference between carpenters and ordinary people?
3.A sound scientific theory should be one that_______.?
A.works under one set of conditions at one time and also works under the same conditions at other times?
B.leaves no room for improvement?
C.doesn't allow any change even under different conditions?
D.can be used for many purposes?
4.What is the main idea of the passage??
A.Scientists are different from ordinary people.?
B.The Theory of Relativity.?
C.Exactness is the core（核心）of science.?
D.Exactness and way of using tools are the keys to making of a scientist.?
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科目：高中英語 來源：2012-2013學年河北省邢臺一中高二第三次月考英語試卷（帶解析） 題型：單選題
Nowadays，scientists are working hard to find a best way of treating addictions ________ drugs.
| A．of | B．in | C．on | D．to |
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