填空题SpaceShipOne flew in ______ space.
填空题Health in the Wild: Animal
Doctors Many animals seem able to treat their
illnesses themselves. Humans may have a thing or two to learn from
them. For the past decade Dr. Engel, a lecturer in
environmental sciences at Britain's Open University, has been collating examples
of self-medicating behaviour in wild animals. She recently published a book on
the subject. In a talk at the Edinburgh Science Festival earlier this month, she
explained that the idea that animals can treat themselves has been regarded with
some skepticism by her colleagues in the past. But a growing number of animal
behaviourists now think that wild animals can and do deal with their own medical
needs. William Karesh, of the Wildlife Conservation Society, in
New York, for example, has studied the health of a wide range of wild animals,
including anaconda snakes, macaws, penguins, guanacos (South American beasts
related to camels), impala and buffalo. The animals were mostly in good physical
condition, which is not surprising, since the weak quickly go to the wall in the
wild. But blood tests showed that many had encountered nasty viral and bacterial
diseases in the past—including diseases that are often fatal in captive animals,
even when treated by vets. Moreover, if healthy wild animals are brought into
captivity, their health often deteriorates unless great care is taken over their
living conditions. Such observations suggest that wild animals can do something
to keep themselves healthy that captive animals cannot.
Hearty animals One example of self-medication
was discovered in 1987. Michael Huffman and Mohamedi Seifu, working in the
Mahale Mountains National Park in Tanzania, noticed that local chimpanzees
suffering from intestinal worms would dose themselves with the pith of a plant
called Veronia. This plant produces poisonous chemicals called terpenes. Its
pith contains a strong enough concentration to kill gut parasites, but not so
strong as to kill chimps (nor people, for that matter; locals use the pith for
the same purpose). Given that the plant is known locally as 'goat-killer',
however, it seems that not all animals are as smart as chimps and humans. Some
consume it indiscriminately, and succumb. Since the
Veronia—eating chimps were discovered, more evidence has emerged suggesting that
animals often eat things for medical rather than nutritional reasons. Many
species, for example, consume dirt—a behaviour known as geophagy. Historically,
the preferred explanation was that soil supplies minerals such as salt. But
geophagy occurs in areas where the earth is not a useful source of minerals, and
also in places where minerals can be more easily obtained from certain plants
that are known to be rich in them. Clearly, the animals must be getting
something else out of eating earth. The current belief is that
soil—and particularly the clay in it—helps to detoxify the defensive poisons
that some plants produce in an attempt to prevent themselves from being eaten.
Evidence for the detoxifying nature of clay came in 1999, from an experiment
carried out on macaws by James Gilardi and his colleagues at the University of
California, Davis. Macaws eat seeds containing alkaloids, a
group of chemicals that has some notoriously toxic members, such as strychnine.
In the wild, the birds are frequently seen perched on eroding riverbanks eating
clay. Dr. Gilardi fed one group of macaws a mixture of a harmless alkaloid and
clay, and a second group just the alkaloid. Several hours later, the macaws that
had eaten the clay had 60% less alkaloid in their bloodstreams than those that
had not, suggesting that the hypothesis is correct.
Rough and ready A third instance of animal
self-medication is the use of mechanical scours to get rid of gut parasites. In
1972 Richard Wrangham, a researcher at the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania,
noticed that chimpanzees were eating the leaves of a tree called Aspilia. The
chimps chose the leaves carefully by testing them in their mouths. Having chosen
a leaf, a chimp would fold it into a fan and swallow it. Some of the chimps were
noticed wrinkling their noses as they swallowed these leaves, suggesting the
experience was unpleasant. Later, undigested leaves were found on the forest
floor. Dr. Wrangham rightly guessed that the leaves had a
medicinal purpose—this was, indeed, one of the earliest interpretations of a
behaviour pattern as self-medication. However, he guessed wrong about what the
mechanism was. His (and everybody else's) assumption was that Aspilia contained
a drug, and this sparked more than two decades of phytochemical research to try
to find out what chemical the chimps were after. But by the 1990s, chimps across
Africa had been seen swallowing the leaves of 19 different species that seemed
to have few suitable chemicals in common. The drug hypothesis was looking more
and more dubious. It was Dr. Huffman who got to the bottom of
the problem in 1999. He did so by watching what came out of the chimps, rather
than concentrating on what went in. He found that the egested leaves were full
of intestinal worms. The factor common to all 19 species of leaves swallowed by
the chimps was that they were covered with microscopic hooks. These caught the
worms and dragged them from their lodgings. Following that
observation, Dr. Engel is now particularly excited about how knowledge of the
way that animals look after themselves could be used to improve the health of
livestock. People might also be able to learn a thing or two—and may, indeed,
already have done so. Geophagy, for example, is a common behaviour in many parts
of the world. The medical stalls in African markets frequently sell tablets made
of different sorts of clays, appropriate to different medical conditions.
Africans brought to the Americas as slaves continued this tradition, which gave
their owners one more excuse to affect to despise them. Yet, as Dr. Engel points
out, Rwandan mountain gorillas eat a type of clay rather similar to
kaolinite—the main ingredient of many patent medicines sold over the counter in
the West for digestive complaints. Dirt can sometimes be good for you, and to be
'as sick as a parrot' may, after all, be a state to be desired.
{{B}}—Economist{{/B}}
填空题More work, fewer children?
填空题...............
填空题Questions 21-26 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 21-26 on your answer sheet, write
填空题Questions 23-26 Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2? In boxes 23-26 on your answer sheet, write
填空题 Complete the table below.
Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage for each
answer. Write your answers in boxes 8-13 on your
answer sheet.
CREATURE
EFFECTS OF LIGHT
Songbirds andseabirds
The worst-affected birds are those which are{{U}}{{U}}
8 {{/U}}{{/U}}They bump into {{U}}{{U}} 9 {{/U}}{{/U}}whichstand out
at night.
Desert rodents andbadgers
They are more at risk from {{U}}{{U}} 10
{{/U}}{{/U}}
Migrating birds
Early migration may mean the {{U}}{{U}} 11 {{/U}}{{/U}}are
notsuitable on arrival.
Sea turtles
They suffer from the decreasing number of{{U}}{{U}} 12
{{/U}}{{/U}}
Frogs and toads
If they are near {{U}}{{U}} 13 {{/U}}{{/U}}their routines will
beupset.
填空题
A. ￡150. B. ￡250. C.
￡600. D. ￡2000. E. ￡3000.
填空题Micro-credit would help to get more people to use LED lamps.
填空题...............
填空题...............
填空题Eric Martinot advises large companies on investing in renewable energy.
填空题{{B}}SECTION 4 Questions 31-40{{/B}}
{{B}}Questions 31-36{{/B}}Complete the following statements using {{B}}NO
MORE THAN THREE WORDS{{/B}} for each gap.
填空题Questions 16-18 Complete the table below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND/OR A NUMBER for each answer./r/n /r/n /r/n Membership/r/n Entry requirement/r/n Periods/r/n Annual fee/r/n Course fee/r/n /r/n Golden/r/n 18 ages and above/r/n 6-12months/r/n 6 months:￡1812 months: (16) /r/n free/r/n /r/n /r/n /r/n /r/n /r/n Silver/r/n 18 ages and above/r/n 1 year/r/n ￡20/r/n (17) /r/n /r/n /r/n Bronze/r/n (18) /r/n 1 year/r/n ￡20/r/n ￡1
填空题California's Age of
Megafires Drought, housing expansion, and
oversupply of tinder make for bigger, hotter fires. A
There's a reason fire squads now battling more than a dozen blazes in southern
California are having such difficulty containing the flames, despite better
preparedness than ever and decades of experience fighting fires fanned by the
notorious Santa Ana winds. The wildfires themselves, experts say, generally are
hotter, move faster, and spread more erratically than in the past.
B The short-term explanation is that the region, which usually has
dry summers, has had nine inches less rain than normal this year. Longer term,
climate change across the West is leading to hotter days on average and longer
fire seasons. Experts say this is likely to yield more megafires like the
conflagrations that this week forced evacuations of at least 300,000 resident in
California's southland and led the president to declare a disaster emergency in
seven counties on Tuesday. C Megafires, also called
'siege fires' are the increasingly frequent blazes that burn 500,000 acres or
more—10 times the size of the average forest fire of 20 years ago. One of the
current wildfires is the sixth biggest in California ever, in terms of acreage
burned, according to state figures and news reports. The trend to more superhot
fires, experts say, has been driven by a century-long policy of the U.S. Forest
Service to stop wildfires as quickly as possible. The unintentional consequence
was to halt the natural eradication of underbrush, now the primary fuel for
megafires. Three other factors contribute to the trend, they add. First is
climate change marked by a 1-degree F. rise in average yearly temperature across
the West. Second is a fire season that on average is 78 days longer than in the
late 1980s. Third is increased building of homes and other structures in wooded
areas. D 'We are increasingly building our homes...in
fire-prone ecosystems,' says DominikKulakowski, adjunct professor of biology at
Clark University Graduate School of Geography in Worcester, Mass. Doing that 'in
many of the forests of the Western U.S. ...is like building homes on the side of
an active volcano'. In California, where population growth has averaged more
than 600,000 a year for at least a decade, housing has pushed into such areas.
'What once was open space is now residential homes providing fuel to make fires
burn with greater intensity,' says Terry McHale of the California Department of
Forestry firefighters union. 'With so much dryness, so many communities to catch
fire, so many fronts to fight, it becomes an almost incredible job'.
E That said, many experts give California high marks for making
progress on preparedness since 2003, when the largest fires in state history
scorched 750,000 acres, burned 3,640 homes, and killed 22 people. Stung then by
criticism of bungling that allowed fires to spread when they might have been
contained, personnel are meeting the peculiar challenges of neighbourhood—and
canyon-hopping fires better than in recent years, observers say.
F State promises to provide newer engines, planes, and helicopters
have been fulfilled. Firefighters unions that then complained of dilapidated
equipment, old fire engines, and insufficient blueprints for fire safety are now
praising the state's commitment, noting that funding for firefighting has
increased despite huge cuts in many other programmes. 'We are pleased that the
Schwarzenegger administration has been very proactive in its support of us and
come through with budgetary support of the infrastructure needs we have long
sought,' says Mr. McHale with the firefighters union. Besides providing money to
upgrade the fire engines that must traverse the mammoth state and wind along
serpentine canyon roads, the state has invested in better command-and-control
facilities as well as the strategies to run them. G 'In
the fire sieges of earlier years, we found out that we had the willingness of
mutual-aid help from other jurisdictions and states, but we were not able to
communicate adequately with them,' says Kim Zagaris, chief of the state's Office
of Emergency Services, fire and rescue branch. After a 2004 blue-ribbon
commission examined and revamped those procedures, the statewide response 'has
become far more professional and responsive', he says. H
Besides ordering the California National Guard on Monday to make 1,500 guardsmen
available for firefighting efforts, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked the
Pentagon to send all available Modular Airborne Fighting Systems to the area.
The military Lockheed C-130 cargo/ utility aircraft carry a pressurised
3,000-gallon tank that can eject fire retardant or water in fewer than five
seconds through two tubes at the rear of the plane. This load can cover an area
1/4-mile long and 60 feet wide to create a fire barrier. Governor Schwarzenegger
also directed 2,300 inmate firefighters and 170 custody staff from the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to work hand in hand
with state and local firefighters. I Residents and
government officials alike are noting the improvements with gratitude, even amid
the loss of homes, churches, businesses, and farms. By Tuesday morning, the
fires had burned 1,200 homes and businesses and set 245,957 acres—384 square
miles—ablaze. Despite such losses, there is a sense that the speed, dedication,
and coordination of firefighters from several states and jurisdictions are
resulting in greater efficiency than in past 'siege fire' situations. 'I am
extraordinarily impressed by the improvements we have witnessed between the last
big fire and this,' says Ross Simmons, a San Diego-based lawyer who had to
evacuate both his home and business on Monday, taking up residence at a Hampton
Inn 30 miles south of his home in Rancho Bernardo. After fires consumed 172,000
acres there in 2003, the San Diego region turned communitywide soul-searching
into improved building codes, evacuation procedures, and procurement of new
technology. Mr. Simmons and neighbours began receiving automated phone calls at
3:30 a.m. Monday morning telling them to evacuate. 'Notwithstanding all the
damage that will be caused by this, we will not come close to the loss of life
because of what we have...put in place since then,' he says.
—Csmonitor
填空题Research on the subject of language extinction began in the 1990s.
填空题A philosophical
B angry
C pleased
D proud
填空题Listen to the conversation and complete the notes below. Use up to three words.
填空题Questions 1-6 Complete the form below. Write NO MORE THAN TWO WORDS AND~OR A NUMBER for each answer. APPLICATION FORM Type of I.D.: (1) I.D. No.: (2) Family Name: Black Other Names: Gavin Raymond D.O.B.: 22/01/1973 I.D. Expiry Date: (3) Address: (4) Meadow bank Class of Vehicle: (5) Endorsements: None Convictions: (6) (1993)
填空题Cases where the use of renewable fuels is in competition with non-renewable ones.