Scientists have found what look like caves on Mars, and say they could be protecting life from the planet’s terrible environment.
The first caves discovered beyond the Earth appear as seven mysterious black dots on the pictures sent back by NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter. Each as large as a football field, they may be openings into natural caves below the Martian surface.
“If there is life on Mars, there is a good chance you’d find it in caves,” said Jut Wynne, one of the researchers who noticed the features while working on a US Geological Survey Mars Cave Detection Program.
Jonathan Clarke, a geologist with the Mars Society of Australia, yesterday described the discovery as exciting.
One photo taken at night by an infrared imager(红外线成像器) showed one hole to be unusually warm, suggesting hot air trapped during the day is flowing out.
“I said: ‘Wow, that’s a cave’.” Dr. Clarke said excitedly. “People have been looking for these for a long time; now we have found them.”
He agreed such caves would be perfect places to hunt for life escaping from the bitterly cold, radiation-soaked(充满辐射的), dry surface.
“Tiny drops of water could collect inside,” he said. “If there are gases coming out, they could provide energy for a whole range of bacteria. A cave is also a protection from radiation; the surface of Mars is exposed to high levels of space radiation.”
The caves probably formed when tube-shaped lave flows(管状岩浆流) spread across the planet long ago. The outside of the tubes cooled, forming solid walls, while something hotter inside allowed the remaining have to flow out, forming caves.
1.What does the passage mainly talk about?
A. How the caves were formed on Mars.
B. How scientists found these caves on Mars.
C. Caves on Mars may be full of hot air or a sign of life.
D. Scientists have completely recognized the surface of Mars.
2.What can the “cave” be used for according to the scientists?
A. They can protect life from the planet’s terrible environment.
B. They can provide energy for people’s life.
C. They can be used to prevent space radiation
D. Both A and C.
3.We can learn from the passage that .
A. water has already been found on Mars
B. the scientists found all the caves at night
C. it is certain that there is life in these caves
D. the surface of Mars is bitterly cold, radiation-soaked and dry
4.According to the passage, Dr. Clarke was so excited because .
A. such caves could provide energy for life
B. they had finally found the caves on Mars
C. such caves would be perfect places to hunt for life
D. scientists had long been looking for these caves
5.Necessary conditions for life on Mars mentioned in the passage may include .
A. lave and energy
B. water and radiation from space
C. gases and lave
D. water and protection from radiation
Fish have ears. Really. They’re quite small and have no opening to the outside world carrying sound through the body. For the past seven years, Simon Thorrold, a university professor, has been examining fish ears, small round ear bones called otoliths.
As fish grow, so do their otoliths. Each day, their otoliths gain a ring of calcium carbonate (碳酸钙). By looking through a microscope (显微镜) and counting these rings, Thorrold can determine the exact age of a young fish. As a fish gets older, its otoliths no longer get daily rings. Instead, they get yearly rings, which can also be counted, giving information about the fish’s age, just like the growth rings of a tree.
Ring counting is nothing new to fish scientists. But Thorold has turned to a new direction. They’re examining the chemical elements (元素) of each otolith ring.
The daily ring gives us the time, but chemistry tells us about the environment in which the fish swam on any given day. These elements tell us about the chemistry of the water that the fish was in. It also says something about water temperature, which determines how much of these elements will gather within each otolith ring.
Thorrold can tell, for example, if a fish spent time in the open ocean before entering the less salty water of coastal areas. He can basically tell where fish are spending their time at any given stage of history.
In the case of the Atlantic croaker, a popular saltwater food fish, Thorrold and his assistant have successfully followed the traveling of young fish from mid-ocean to the coast, a journey of many hundreds of miles.
This is important to managers in the fish industry, who know nearly nothing about the whereabouts of the young fish for most food fish in the ocean. Eager to learn about his technology, fish scientists are now lending Thorrold their ears.
1.What can we learn about fish ears from the text?
A. They are small soft rings.
B. They are not seen from the outside.
C. They are openings only on food fish.
D. They are not used to receive sound.
2.Why does the writer compare the fish to trees?
A. Trees gain a growth ring each day.
B. Trees also have otoliths.
C. Their growth rings are very small.
D. They both have growth rings.
3.Why is it important to study the chemistry of otolith rings?
A. The elements of the otoliths can tell the history of the sea.
B. Chemical contents of otoliths can tell how fast fish can swim.
C. We can know more about fish and their living environment.
D. Scientists can know exactly how old a fish is.
4.How would you understand “fish scientists are now lending their ears”?
A. They are very interested in Thorrold’s research findings.
B. They want to know where they can find fish.
C. They lend their fish for chemical studies.
D. They wonder if Thorrold can find growth rings from their ears.
London-Lazy students can now give up on work altogether as two Oxford University students have made scores of A-grade essays on the website for students to copy.
The essays are on the new website, “revise.it”
The website includes an “EssayLab” designed to make cheating (舞弊) as effective and effortless as possible.
Its homepage announces to surfers (网上冲浪者): “The revise.it EssayLab is a bank of hundreds of A-Level essays covering popular topics.”
“Next time you are asked to write an essay, why not see what we have on the subject-if you are in a lazy state of mind you can even use our guide to writing the essays and then just hand them in.”
Nick Rose and Jordan Mayo, both 19 and first from Manchester, spent much of their first year as students at the university setting up the website. There is no charge for downloading the essays.
“I have never been very good at essay writing,” Rose admitted. “We don’t see essay bank as a cheating way. It’s a surprising valuable resource. You can learn a lot by reading other people’s work on the subject.”
Among other tips, the website suggests inventing important speeches to give essays extra weight: “Popular people to quote (引用) are Douglass Hurd or Disraeli.”
Hurd was a foreign secretary in the 1980s and Disraeli was a 19th century prime minister.
Teachers are expressing their opinions by e-mail that they are angry about the website that “encourages students to cheat”, but students disagree.
According to Rose: “Exams are a fight. It’s us against them.”
1.It can be inferred from this passage that ______.
A. students who visit the website “revise. it” are all lazy
B. students in Oxford University are all lazy
C. websites in Oxford University are all set up by students
D. websites can provide people with different kinds of information
2.Nick Rose and Jordan Mayo set up their website for the purpose of ______.
A. helping students to cheat in exams
B. helping students to improve their writing
C. making money to pay for their schooling
D. making their teacher free
3.What Rose said at last suggests that in England ______.
A. it is difficult for students to pass their exams
B. it is difficult for teachers to finish their teaching
C. students are not satisfied with the education system
D. students are too lazy to learn anything
Sharpen your axe (斧头)
A young man approached the foreman (工头)of a logging crew and asked for a job.
“That ” replied the foreman. “Let’s see you fell this tree.”
The young man stepped forward and skillfully a great tree. , the foreman exclaimed, “You can start Monday.”
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and on Thursday afternoon the foreman approached the young man and said, “You can pick up your on the way out today.” , the young man replied, “I thought you paid on Friday.”
“ we do,” said the foreman. “But we’re letting you go today because you’ve . Our daily felling charts show that you’ve from first place on Monday to last place today.”
“But I’m a worker,” the young man objected. “I arrive first, leave last, and have worked through my coffee breaks!”
The foreman, the young man’s honesty, thought for a minute and then asked, “Have you ____ your axe?”
The young man replied, “No, sir, I’ve been working too hard to take time for !”
Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so that we don’t take time to sharpen the axe. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but happy than ever. Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to sharp?
There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we all need time to , to think and meditate(谋划), to learn and . If we don’t take time to sharpen the axe, we will become and lose our effectiveness.
1.A. depends B. expects C. experiences D. makes
2.A. cut down B. pulled down C. moved away D. put down
3.A. Scared B. Disappointed C. Impressed D. Approved
4.A. ran off B. went by C. came on D. went along
5.A. spirit B. effort C. work D. paycheck
6.A. Discouraged B. Moved C. Astonished D. Satisfied
7.A. Unfortunately B. Excitedly C. Commonly D. Normally
8.A. fallen behind B. finished up C. cut up D. speeded up
9.A. reduced B. dropped C. decreased D. climbed
10.A. excellent B. new C. young D. hard
11.A. usually B. even C. yet D. ever
12.A. noticing B. observing C. sensing D. watching
13.A. repairing B. sharpening C. breaking D. operating
14.A. that B. one C. those D. something
15.A. busy B. tired C. easy D. ready
16.A. more B. rather C. less D. most
17.A. make B. turn C. grow D. stay
18.A. explore B. motivate C. relax D. work
19.A. grow B. observe C. play D. practice
20.A. full B. dull C. stupid D. lazy
Much disappointed as he is _______ in the job interview, he still keeps his confidence.
A. to have failed B. failed
C. having failed D. failing
____ awake, he finished a cup of coffee and ordered another.
A. Staying B. Stayed
C. To stay D. Having stayed
