填空题Rain forest structure is distinct from most other forest types because of its many layers of vegetation, referred to as strata. The lowest stratum is the understory, composed of palms, herbaceous plants (such as wild ginger), and tree seedlings and saplings. (1) . Many have deep red coloring on the underside of their leaves to capture some of the scarce light that does manage to reach the forest understory. This red coloring enables understory plants to absorb light of different wavelengths than do the plants with rich, green-foliaged canopy, the umbrella-shaped upper structure of trees. Above the forest floor but below the canopy are one or more midstory strata, made up of woody plants, such as large shrubs and midsized trees. The overstory is the canopy, in which the tree crowns form a continuous layer that captures the major part of the rainwater and sunlight hitting the forest. The height of the canopy varies from region to region and forest to forest, ranging from 20 to 50 m (65 to 165 ft). (2) . Researchers use hot air balloons, cables, catwalks, towers, sophisticated tree-climbing gear, and even robots to study the millions of plants and animals that make their home high up in the forest canopy. Canopy researchers also use huge cranes that are dropped into the heart of the forest by helicopters. Suspended from the crane's long, movable arm is a large cabin that functions as a mobile treetop laboratory. Moving from tree to tree, forest researchers collect specimens, conduct experiments, and observe life in the canopy frontier. The highest stratum of the rain forest is made up of the emergent trees, those individuals that stick up above the forest canopy. Emergents, which do not form a continuous layer, are usually the giants of the forest, reaching heights of 35 to 70 m (115 to 230 It) or more, and trunk sizes of over 2 m (6.6 It) in diameter. (3) . However, these trees tend to be so large that they collectively account for the vast majority of the woody mass, or biomass, of the forest. The nicely ordered strata of the rain forest, including the continuous layer of the canopy, are regularly disturbed by naturally occurring events, such as falling trees. Trees in a rain forest canopy are often interconnected by vines, and a falling tree may pull as well as push other trees down with it, producing a domino effect of falling trees. The resulting opening in the forest canopy enables light to pour onto the forest floor. (4) . Other natural disturbances create even larger openings in the forest canopies. For example, along the hurricane belt in the Caribbean and the typhoon belt along the western Pacific, some forests are substantially altered when high winds and storms blow down hundreds of trees every few decades. (5) . Scientists have found that these natural disturbances and the subsequent forest regeneration are a vital process that leads to healthy and diverse forests. A. New plants and animals then move into the area and begin to grow. B. Just 2 percent of the sunlight goes through the many layers of leaves and branches above, so understory plant species have developed special traits to cope with low light levels. C. On a smaller scale, large mammals, such as elephants, regularly destroy rain forest vegetation in the Congo River Basin in Africa. D. An understory of shorter trees and a lacework of woody vines, or lianas, produce a forest of such complex internal architecture that many animals, including some sizable ones, rarely or never descend to the ground. E. Less than one percent of the trees in the forest reside in the canopy and emergent layers. F. Because more light penetrates the canopy, however, the vegetation of the understory and forest floor is better developed than in the tropics. G. The rich, green canopy is teeming with life, and forest researchers have developed ingenious methods for accessing this mysterious ecosystem.

填空题Drawing on biomechanics and other sports science, Olympic hopefuls target just the right muscles and moves. Olympians of yesteryear shared the same goal, but they would hardly recognize today's training techniques. To achieve to Olympian ideal of "faster, higher, stronger," coaches now realize, athletes don't have to train more but they do have to, train smarter. That's why, these days, cross-country (Nordic) skiers kneel on skateboards and tug on pulleys to haul themselves up a ramp. By analyzing every motion that goes into a ski jump or a luge run, the science of biomechanics breaks down events into their component parts and determines which movements of which muscles are the key to a superlative performance. Knowing that is crucial for a simple but, to many coaches and trainers, unexpected reason: it turns out that although training for general conditioning improves fitness, the best way to boost performance is by working the muscles and practicing the moves that will be used in competition. It's called sport-specific training. 41. Ways to work the right muscles and train the right patterns of movement. Sport-specific training doesn't have to mean running the actual course or performing the exact event. There are other ways to work the right muscles and train the right pattern of movement. Doing situps on a Swiss ball, for instance, develops torso control as well as strength. The Finnish ice-hockey team recently added acrobatics to its training regime because it helps players to balance on the ice, says head coach Raimo Summanen. Performance-enhancing strategies. The advances in physiology that have revolutionized training are giving sports scientists a better under-standing of how to improve strength, power, speed and both aerobic and anaerobic fitness: 42. Training the start-up. Speed is partly genetic. A star sprinter is probably born with a preponderance of fast-twitch muscle fibers, which fire repeatedly with only microsecond rests in between. Speed training therefore aims to recruit more fast-twitch fibers and increase the speed of nerve signals that command muscles to move. 43. Strength reflects the percentage of muscle fibers the body can recruit for a given movement. "Someone with pure strength can recruit 90 percent of these fibers, while someone else recruits only 50 percent," says the USOC's Davis. 44. Developing anaerobic fitness. Anaerobic fitness keeps the muscles moving even when the heart can't provide enough oxygen. To postpone the point when acid begins to accumulate, or at least train the body to tolerate it, Jim Walker has the speed skaters he works with push themselves beyond what they need to do in competition. Power is strength with speed. "One of the biggest changes in strength training is that we're getting away from pure strength and emphasizing power, or explosive strength," says USOC strength-and- conditioning coordinator Kevin Ebel. 45. Difficulties under way. It's still difficult to persuade coaches to let sports scientists mess with their athletes. To overcome such resistance, the USOC's Peter Davis has set up "performance-enhancing teams" where coaches and scientists put their heads together and apply the best science to training. Come February, the world will see how science fared in its attempt to mold athletic excellence.[A] Zach Lund races skeleton (a head-first, belly-down sled race), in which the start is crucial. He has to sprint in a bent-over position (pushing his sled along the track), then hop in without slowing the sled. "You have to go from a hard sprint to being really calm in order to go down the track well," says Lund. To improve his speed he does leg presses while lying on his back, or leg curls on his stomach (bringing his foot to his backside).[B] Despite the finding that drafting reduces the demand on the heart of a speed skater and generally improves performance, for instance, most skaters still prefer to go out fast and first.[C] Sprinters who skate 500 meters in the Olympics, for instance, power through multiple 300 meters, and do it faster than they Skate the 500. By raising the anaerobic threshold, the training gives skaters a better shot at exploding with a sprint at the finish.[D] Luge, for instance, requires precise control of infinitesimal muscle movements: "Overcorrect on a turn," says driver Mark Grimmette, "and you're dead." To achieve that precise control, he and his doubles partner, Brian Martin, devote a good chunk of their training time to exercises on those squishy rubber spheres called Swiss balls.[E] Aerobic fitness is hockey star Cammi Granato's goal one autumn morning as she pedals a stationary bike with sweaty fury at the USOC training center in Lake Placid, New York. When Granato finally staggers off the bike and crumples onto the padded platform, she's had a tougher workout than in any hockey period which is exactly the point.[F] The thigh's quadriceps, for instance, consist of millions of fibers organized into what are called motor units. When a speed skater pushes off the ice, he recruits a certain percentage of them to fire; the others are relaxing and so do not contribute to the movement.

填空题{{B}}Directions:{{/B}} In the following article, some sentences have been removed. For Questions 41--45, choose the most suitable paragraph from the list A--F to fit into each of the numbered blank. There is one extra choice that does not fit in any of the gaps. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. Theories of the value of art are of two kinds, which we may call extrinsic and intrinsic. The first regards art and the appreciation of art as means to some recognized moral good, while the second regards them as valuable not instrumentally but as objects unto themselves. It is characteristic of extrinsic theories to locate the value of art in its effects on the person who appreciates it. (41) _____________________ The extrinsic approach, adopted in modem times by Leo Tolstoy in What Is Art in 1896, has seldom seemed wholly satisfactory. Philosophers have constantly sought for a value in aesthetic experience that is unique to it and that, therefore, could not be obtained from any other source. The extreme version of this intrinsic approach is that associated with Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, and the French Symbolists, and summarized in the slogan "art for art's sake."(42) _____________________ Between those two extreme views there lies, once again, a host of intermediate positions. We believe, for example, that works of art must be appreciated for their own sake, but that, in the act of appreciation, we gain from them something that is of independent value. (43) _____________________ The analogy with laughter--which, in some views, is itself a species of aesthetic interest--introduces a concept without which there can be no serious discussion of the value of art: the concept of taste. (44) _____________________ Similarly, we regard some works of art as worthy of our attention and others as not. In articulating this judgment, we use all of the diverse and confusing vocabulary of moral appraisal; works of art, like people, are condemned for their sentimentality, coarseness, vulgarity, cruelty, or self-indulgence, and equally praised for their warmth, compassion, nobility, sensitivity, and truthfulness. Clearly, if aesthetic interest has a positive value, when motivated by good taste; it is only interest in appropriate objects that can be said to be good for us. (45) _____________________. [A] Thus a joke is laughed at for its own sake, even though there is an independent value in laughter, which lightens our lives by taking us momentarily outside ourselves. Why should not something similar be said of works of art, many of which aspire to be amusing in just the way that good jokes are? [B] All discussion of the value of art tends, therefore, to turn from the outset in the direction of criticism. Can there be genuine critical evaluation of art, a genuine distinction between that which deserves our attention and that which does not? [C] Art is held to be a form of education, perhaps an education of the emotions. In this case, it becomes an open question whether there might not be some more effective means of the same result. Alternatively, one may attribute a negative value to art, as Plato did in his Republic, arguing that art has a corrupting or diseducative effect on those exposed to it. [D] Artistic appreciation, a purely personal matter, calls for appropriate means of expression. Yet, it is before anything a process of “cultivation", during which a certain part of one's "inner self" is "dug out" and some knowledge of the outside world becomes its match. [E] If I am amused it is for a reason, and this reason lies in the object of my amusement. We thus begin to think in terms of a distinction between good and bad reasons for laughter. Amusement at the wrong things may seem to us to show corruption of mind, cruelty, or bad taste; and when it does so, we speak of the object as not truly amusing, and feel that we have reason on our side. [F] Such thinkers and writers believe that art is not only an end in itself but also a sufficient justification of itself. They also hold that in order to understand art as it should be understood, it is necessary to put aside all interests other than an interest in the work itself.

填空题[A] The petitioners argue that repealing the tax will cost the Treasury billions of dollars in lost revenues and will result in either increased taxes ill the long run or cuts to Medicare, Social Security, environmental protection and other government programs. Repealing the levy " would enrich the heirs of America's millionaires and billionaires, while hurting families who struggle to make ends meet," the petition says.[B] About 120 wealthy Americans had signed or supported a petition to oppose phasing out the tax. President Bush has included the repeal of the lax in his $1.6 trillion lax-cut proposal. Normally when " dozens " of Americans join in a political cause, it is not particularly noteworthy, but in this case the dozens include: George Soros, a billionaire financier; Warren Buffett, an investor listed as America's fourth-richest person; the philanthropist David Rockefeller Jr.; and William Gates Sr., a Seattle lawyer and father of America's richest man, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates.[C] Buffett and company cite these factors in their petition calling for opposition to the estate-tax-repeal. They also discuss something that's equally emotional and far more complex: the principle of meritocracy. The idea that everyone in America has an equal chance, that our Fates are not determined by accidents of birth, is one of our core values And nowhere is this principle more reverend than in the technology economy; entrepreneurship is almost by definition all expression of meritocracy.[D] Buffett told the New York Times that repealing the estate tax would be a " terrible mistake " and the equivalent of " choosing the 2020 Olympic team by picking the eldest sons of the gold medal winners in the 2000 Olympics. "[E] An old brokerage commercial says: " He made his money the old-fashioned way: He earned it. " There was a perfect parody of the ad in which tile line read: " He made his money the old-fashioned way: He inherited it. " In 20 or 50 or 100 years, which of these lines will be right? Buffett and Soros and friends, to their credit. want to help make the first one real. Let's hope this is only one step in that process.[F] It was refreshing to see Buffett and George Soros and a number of other extremely wealthy luminaries stand up in opposition to President Bush's proposed repeal of the estate tax. While the policy has some emotional attractions—it would protect the inheritors of some small businesses from having to sell the companies to pay taxes, and it is true that most people have been taxed on their savings once already—in practice the tax repeal would mainly be a windfall for a very small number of very, very rich people.[G] President Bush will make his case for his $1.6 trillion tax cut plan, delivering a speech at a community center in St. Louis. The proposal would slash federal tax rates across all levels of income, eliminate tile so-called marriage penalty and phase out estate taxes. Democrats complain that the plan—which would cut the top rate from 39 to 33 percent—would disproportionately benefit the wealthy and unnecessarily squander expected budget surpluses. Some of the richest Americans are urging Congress not to repeal the estate tax, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. Order: 41.______→B→42.______→43.______→44.______→D→45.______

填空题America's liberal and conservative elites disagree about everything under the sun. from the role of God in the constitution to John Bolton's table manners. Yet on one issue they are as one: the country is going to hell in a hand-basket.41. __________. For liberals, Americans are suffering from epidemics of "traumas" and "syndromes". The left has always worried about the effects of rapacious capitalism on the American psyche. Listen to Mary Pipher, a bestselling clinical psychologist, on girls: "Just as planes and ships disappear mysteriously into the Bermuda Triangle, so do the selves of girls go down in droves. They crash and burn" Or compare William Pollak. a Harvard psychologist, on boys: "Our nation is home to millions of boys who...are cast out to sea in separate lifeboats, and feel that they are drowning in isolation, depression. loneliness and despair." Half an hour listening to "Oprah" or browsing in a bookshop could produce a dozen equally depressing theses, expressed in equally dismal metaphors, about every, sort of American.42. __________. This literature is built on one huge assumption: that Americans are a fragile bunch. Forget about the flinty Pilgrims who built a hyperpower out of a wilderness. Today's Americans are so vulnerable they need to be shielded from competition. In their excellent new book. "One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance" (St. Martin's Press). Christina Hoff Sommers and Sally Satel. of the American Enterprise Institute, detail the rise of an ever-proliferating profession of grief counsellors, trauma therapists, syndrome specialists, stress-reducers and assorted degree-bearing charlatans.43. __________. This book has naturally garnered favourable reviews from fellow conservatives. Yet the right is equally prey to its own variety of crisis-mongering. Conservatives blame sin. rather than syndromes, and cultural decline, rather than economic dislocation. But many share the left's sense of human vulnerability, and a surprising number have a weakness for psychobabble. It is no accident that the most powerful man in the Christian right. James Dobson. the head of Focus on the Family, is both a child psychologist and a veritable fountain of social' science statistics.44. __________. For conservatives, the family is being battered by pop culture, gay rights and feminism. Rebecca Hagelin of the Heritage Foundation argues that, thanks in pan to the ubiquity of the porn culture, America has gone "stark raving mad" (to use the subtitle of her new book). Gloomy conservative groups issue toe-curling warnings about the "inexorable grip of homosexual lust" and "feminism's love affair with abortion, and lesbianism".45. ___________. Is this really true? Take a look at most of the recent cultural indicators, and it is hard to know where to start with the good news. The proportion of black children living with married parents is increasing. The proportion of women with infants in the. workforce (the women that is, not the infants) is declining, meaning that more mothers are staying at home. Both teenage pregnancy rates and teenage abortion rates have declined by about a third over the past 15 years. For all the talk of "hooking up", a growing proportion of schoolchildren are waiting to have sex until they are older. The good news is not confined to sex. Child poverty is down substantially from its high in 1993 (whatever happened to the "disastrous consequences" of welfare reform?). So is juvenile crime. Alcohol and drug use are lower. The idea that young America is tossing about on a sea of misery hardly tallies with academic evidence, which shows 73% of teenagers to be "hopeful and optimistic, in thinking about the future" (a Horatio Alger study in 2002-03 ), a mere 7.5% of college students feeling frequently depressed (UCLA. 2003 ) and the teen-suicide rate down by a quarter (the Centres for Disease Control. 2004).[A] The literature assumes that Americans are vulnerable.[B] The conservatives' opinions of Americans' psychological problems[C] The conservatives think that Americans are fragile.[D] The liberals' opinions about the American psyche[E] The conservatives regard the social problems as the cause of the American's psychological problems.[F] The recent data indicates that Americans have an improvement in many social problems.

填空题 For years pediatricians didn’t worry much about treating hypertension in their patients. After all, kids grow so fast, it’s hard keeping up with their shoes size, let alone their blood pressure. Sure, hypertension in adults places them at greater risk of heart attack and stroke. But nobody likes the idea of starting youngsters on blood-pressure medicine they could wind up taking the rest of their lives. Who knows what previously unheard-of side effects could crop up after five or six decades of daily use? The rationale has been: kids grow out of so many things; maybe they’ll grow out of this too. 41．Now, though, comes word that high blood pressure can be destructive even in childhood. 42．Who is most at risk? Boys are more than girls, especially boys who are overweight. Their heart works so hard to force blood through extra layers of fat that its walls grow denser. Then, after decades of straining, it grows too big to pump blood very well. 43．How can you tell if yours are like the 670,000 American children ages 10 to 18 with high blood pressure? It’s not the sort of thing you can catch by putting your child’s arm in a cuff at the free monitoring station in your local grocery. You should have a test done by a doctor, who will consult special tables that indicate the normal range of blood pressure for a particular child’s age, height and sex. 44．About half the cases of hypertension stem directly from kids being overweight. 45．How can you do? You can keep your children from joining their ranks by clearing the junk food from your pantry and hooking you kids — the earlier the better — on healthy, attractive snakes like fruits (try freezing some grapes/or carrot sticks with salsa. ) Not only will they lower your children’s blood pressure: These foods will also boost their immune system and unclog their plumbing. [A] And the problem is likely to grow. Over the past 30 years the proportion of children in the U. S. who are overweight has doubled, from 5% to 11% or 4.7 million kids. [B] According to a recent report in the journal Circulation, 19 of 30 children with high blood pressure developed a dangerous thickening of the heart muscle that, in adults at least, has been linked to heart failure. “No one knows if this pattern holds true for younger patients as well, ” says Dr. Stephen Daniels, a pediatric cardiologist who led the study at Children’s Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. “But it’s worrisome. ” [C] Feed your children nutritious foods three times a day to keep his immune system healthy. Make sure the meals include all the food groups to ensure they are getting plenty of vitamins. [D] Fortunately the abnormal thickening can be spotted by ultrasound. And in most case, getting that blood pressure under control — through weight loss and exercise or, as a last resort, drug treatment — allows the overworked muscle to shrink to normal size. [E] If the doctor finds an abnormal result he will repeat the test over a period of months to make sure the reading isn’t a fake. He’ll also check, whether other conditions, like kidney disease, could be the source of the trouble, because hypertension is hard to be detected. The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute recommends annual blood-pressure checks for every child over age 3. [F] High blood pressure isn’t just an issue for adults; keeping kids blood pressure levels in a healthy range is also important. In a new study reported in Hypertension, researchers found that increased exercise duration among kids leads to lower blood pressure levels, however the same cannot be said for increased intensity. [G] Meanwhile, make sure your kids spend more time on the playground than with their PlayStation. Even if they don’t shed a pound, vigorous exercise will help keep their blood vessels nice and wide, lowering their blood pressure. And of course, they’ll be more likely to eat light and, exercise if you set a good example.

填空题Screaming headlines about stars arrested for everything from spousal abuse to firearms violations make it painfully clear that athletic talent isn't enough to deal with the rigors of being a pro. 41. ______________________ A team that finds itself in serious behavioral straits will often hire a famous person to help defuse the situation and help polish a tarnished franchise images -- witness the Dallas Cowboys naming extremely-clean former All-Pro running back Calvin Hill, a Yale Divinity School graduate, as a special consultant. There is an accompanying commandment, handed down from on high by the czars of prosports: If you're an elite athlete, the role of role model is mandatory, not optional. 42. ______________________ "We're running a business where players are our products. It's a business with very visible and prominent young men in the forefront," says Pat Williams, senior executive vice president of the NBA's Orlando Magic, a franchise that has hired "Doctor J", Julius Erving, as a broad-ranging am- bassador to the community, and the locker room. "Sure, we're protecting the business, but we're also protecting the sport, too. And having a bunch of lawbreakers playing your sport doesn't make it attractive -- to fans or to sponsors. It's also the right thing to do for these young men." 43. ______________________ Hill, who has held executive positions with the Cleveland Browns and the Baltimore Orioles since ending his playing days, says the pressure and scrutiny faced by his son, Detriot Pistons star Grant Hill, are far more intense than what he endured during his days in the 1960s and 1970s with the Cow- boys, Redskins and Browns. 44. ______________________ "What scares me about free agency is the same thing that scares me about society -- there is no longer stability or a sense of community," says Hill. "and that's helped break down a sense of team culture and tradition." 45. ______________________ Not only are today's new pros younger than ever, they have a healthy disrespect for their athletic elders and the traditions of the leagues they are entering, according to Gary Sailes, a sports sociologist at Indiana University.[A] But ask yourself: Does Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, hire Hill because he is genuinely concerned about the psychological effects of fame on Michael Irvin, a married man, who was found in a hotel room full of cocaine and exotic dancers? Or does Jones. want to expropriate Hill's upright image as whitewash for the damage done to his cash flow and corporate relations by Irvin and other members of "America's Team"?[B] "The value system are different," says Sailes, "The boundaries of their mainstream don't intersect with the boundaries of mainstream America. And if you're not finding some way to bridge the gap between mainstream America and where these kids come from, you're wasting your time."[C] At the heart of all this counseling and concern is the day-to-day pressure on a pro athlete. "There is a lot of money and fame involved when you sign a NBA contract," says Lamont Winston, who handles player programmes for the Kansas City Chiefs. "Yet there is nowhere in that contract that says you will feel tremendous stress, you will feel tremendous anxiety and pressure."[D] In basketball, Williams sees a more devastating version of the maturity problem affecting pro sports, cause by the influx of younger and younger players who have decided to abandon the final two years of college, or ditch college altogether.[E] And this touches on a key problem that a generic mentoring programme may not address: there are crucial cultural differences between the athletes and the world they are about to enter.[F] He also points to a destructive consequence of free agency -- the end of a natural clubhouse system of veteran players who served as mentors to young rookies, passing on the traditions and expectations of a particular club, be it the Detriot Tigers or the Washington Redskins.[G] Coaches, owners and managers acknowledge the increasing need to teach their talents how to act, what and whom to avoid and what burdens accompany the money and the fame. The players need to be taught about everything from finances and career choices outside the game to emotional counseling and substance abuse.