第6讲 初中英语阅读(中级3)

A. Choose the best answer. (5%)

Dogs might be man’s best friend and loyal to their pals, but dogs do not go out of their way to be kind to a stranger.

Research published in Scientific Reports has shown that dogs will give food to others – if they know the other dog.

“Prosocial behaviour” is any action intended to help someone else, such as sharing, giving and cooperating. It has already been demonstrated（验证） in primates（灵长类动物） and studied experimentally in rats and jackdaws.

To study the behaviour, researchers trained “donor dogs” to pull a string, which would bring forward a tray. The donors were paired with either a familiar dog that they lived with, or a non-threatening stranger dog of the same sex, and they could choose to either give their partner an empty tray or a tray containing (包含) a treat.

When paired with a familiar dog, the donors gave food twice more often than when paired with a stranger.

“We weren’t surprised that they gave to their familiar partners, but we were surprised by how little they gave to the strangers,” says co-author Rachel Dale of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria.

While there has been research into prosocial behaviour between dogs and humans in the past, Dale says the results were mixed. It was impossible to tell whether the dogs were showing true prosocial behaviour or simply being obedient.

“It is difficult because they are so primed to（习惯于）training and taking cues（暗示）from humans,” Dale says. “We need to be so careful.”

Before you get too disappointed in dogs giving strangers the cold shoulder, there could be a good reason for the behaviour.

In order to cooperate with others, you need to have the ability to share with them: for example, when packs（兽群）hunt large prey（猎物）they need to share the kill.

Dale is currently running a similar study with a wolf pack. She hopes it will shed further light on whether dogs’ prosocial behaviour is down to domestication（驯化） or their wild roots.

1. Which of the following statements about dogs is true? A. Dogs are considered to be our best friends. B. Dogs never go out on their own. C. Dogs are kind even to strangers.

D. Dogs share their food with each other. 2. Which is NOT prosocial behaviour? A. Sharing B. giving C. cooperating D. asking 3. Which of the following statements about the experiment is NOT true? A. The donor dogs are trained to pull a string to bring forward a tray. B. The donor dogs are paired with either a familiar dog or a stranger dog.

C. The donor dogs are supposed to give their partner an empty tray or a tray with food. D. It turned out that the familiar dog got much less food than the one strange. 4. The results were mixed because . A. The dogs might not show true prosocial behavior. B. The dogs were just being obedient.

C. The dogs were trained to show true prosocial behavior to humans. D. The dogs took cues from humans.

5. Which of the following phrases can replace the phrase underlined in paragraph 11? A. make it clearer B. be understood better C. bring it to light D. lighten up

A. Choose the words or expressions and complete the passage. (6%)

Today I’m going to talk about rainforests. Are you 1 with them? They’re interesting and exciting places! Many kinds of the world’s plants and animals live in the rainforests.

However, rainforests are 2 now — they are disappearing very fast because they are cut down or burnt every day. As a result, various animals and plants are dying out.

Maybe you have never been to a rainforest, so why should you protect them 3 care? Rainforests are important to everyone. They are important because the plants in the rainforests make oxygen. We need 4 to breathe.

Rainforest also help to control the weather. When trees are cut down, it gets hotter.

5 , one quarter of our medicines come from plants. Many of these plants can be found only in rainforests. There is a lot that we have not learnt about rainforests. If we destroy them, we will never find out.

In my opinion, our future 6 saving the rainforests. We must tell more people how important rainforests are so that they will stop doing harm to them. We must protect the rainforests now. We have to act now to save our only home. 1. A. similar B. interested C. familiar D. family 2. A. in trouble B. in use C. in need D. in the danger 3. A. from B. with C. of D. for 4. A. air B. oxygen C. carbon dioxide D. Hydrogen 5. A. Besides B. As well as C. In addition to D. However 6. A. looks forward to B. protected by C. takes on D. depends on C. Read the passage and fill in the blanks with proper words. (9%)

Our home star, the Sun, bathes us in light, and s 1 the energy for almost all the life on Earth. But it won't be friendly forever.

As we saw earlier, the Sun is gradually getting hotter. In the end, it will be hot enough to evaporate (蒸发) all Earth's oceans, and cause an uncontrollable greenhouse effect that sends temperatures r 2 upwards. This process might begin in about a billion years, and would wipe out all but the most resistant microorganisms(微生物).

But that's not all. Beginning a 3 5 billion years from now, the Sun will expand, becoming a swollen (膨胀的) star called a red giant. By 7.5 billion years in the future, its surface will be past where Earth's orbit is now. So the expanding Sun will engulf (吞噬), and d 4 , the Earth.

It's been suggested that Earth might escape. The Sun will lose mass (质量) as it grows, so Earth will spiral further out. But according to calculations performed in 2008, this won't be enough to s 5 our planet.

If that's true, the only hope lies with us. If any humans are still around, they might have the technology to move the Earth to s 6 . Otherwise, life on Earth has a maximum life expectancy (寿命) of 7.5 billion years. D. Answer the questions. (6%)

There was this kid who lived in the neighbourhood next to mine, and for some reason everyone called him “Nasty Pants.” Every time me and my friend Rowley went through Nasty Pants’ neighbourhood, he chased us with a stick.

The thing that really stunk was that me and Rowley used the woods in that neighbourhood as a shortcut to get to school. So we started having to go out of our way to avoid getting harassed by Nasty Pants.

After getting chased a few more times, I decided I’d had enough, so I told Dad about the situation. I was afraid Dad was gonna say I needed to toughen up and deal with the problem myself, but he surprised me. Dad said that he had problems with a bully at my age and he knew just what I was going through.

Dad’s bully was named Billy Staples, and Billy’s favorite thing to do was pin a kid’s arm behind his back and hold it there until he cried.

Dad said that the kids in the neighbourhood told their parents about Billy and they all went to Billy’s house to confront his mom and dad. Mr. Staples made Billy promise never to pick on anyone ever again, and Dad said Billy burst into tears and might have even wet his pants.

Well, after hearing that story, I don’t think Billy Staples would’ve been any match for Nasty Pants. But I told Dad I liked the idea of complaining to the bully’s parents. I called up Rowley and told him to come over and bring his dad, because we needed as much backup as we could get.

Dad knocked on Nasty Pants’ door, and we waited for one of his parents to open it. But Nasty Pants himself came to the door and me and Rowley were shocked. Dad talked to Mrs. Pants, and she told Dad her son was only five and that he just gets a little excited sometimes.

On the way home, Dad was pretty mad at me for letting myself get bullied by a kid who was still in kindergarten. But let me just say in my defense that when some kid is chasing you with a stick, you don’t stop to ask him how old he is. 1. What did “Nasty Pants” do to me and Rowley?

2. What did I do after getting chased a few more times?

3. Dad had gone through the same situation at my age, hadn’t he? 4. What did they decide to do with “Nasty Pants” trouble? 5. Who opened the Nasty Pants’ door, his mother or his father? 6. Why was Dad pretty mad at me?