The arm bones of women who lived 7,000 years ago show a surprising level of strength--even higher than today's professional athletes. That's according to a first-ever study comparing prehistoric(史前的) bones to those of living people. The finding suggests a revision of history- the everyday lives of prehistoric women were filled with hard labor, rather than just sitting at home doing lighter tasks while the men struggled and fought for life.
“Before the study, there are no clear records describing how our ancient ancestors lived. It can be easy to forget that bone is a living tissue, one that responds to the difficulties we put our bodies through,” said lead author Alison Macintosh. “Physical force and muscle activity both put pressure on the bone. The bone reacts by changing in shape, thickness and other aspects over time.”
Previous studies only compared female bones to contemporary male bones, the researchers said-and that's a problem, because the response of male bones to stress and change is much bigger than that of women. For instance, as humans moved from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle constantly on the move to a more settled agrarian(农耕的) one, changes can be observed in the structure of the shinbone(胫骨)- and these changes were much more evident in men.
However, a comparison of the bones of prehistoric women to the bones of living female athletes can help us work out a more accurate picture of what those prehistoric women were doing. "By analyzing the bones of living people and comparing them to the ancient bones, we can start to explain the kinds of labor our ancestors were reforming, Macintosh said. What they found was that women's leg strength hasn't changed a great deal, but their arms used to be very powerful. Prehistoric women, the researchers found, had arm strength 11-16 percent stronger than those of modern rowers(桨手), and 30 percent stronger than those of non-athletes.
1.What does the study tell about prehistoric women?
A. They were stronger than men. B. They had lighter bones than men.
C. They did tough tasks as the men. D. They spent most time staying at home.
2.What problem did previous studies on prehistoric bones have?
A. They lacked enough comparison. B. They only studied men' s bones.
C. They focused little on bones. D. They ignored the lifestyles.
3.What does the underlined word "that" in Paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Bones’ structure. B. Bones' thickness.
C. Bones’ response to stress. D. Bones’ stress from hard labor.
4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. It's still hard to explain our ancestors' lifestyle.
B. Prehistoric women went through much suffering.
C. Women's arms have become much stronger over time.
D. Prehistoric women are stronger than contemporary females.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
Plan your dream vacation to one of these excellent destinations.
St. Lucia
Abundant（丰富的） rainforests and splendid mountains are all reasons to visit this Caribbean island. St. Lucia offers the perfect mix of relaxation and adventure. To take in the breathtaking scenery, plan to hike the Piton Mountains or dive in the waters of Anse Chastanet.
Banff. Alberta
This Canadian destination will bring out the explorer in anyone who visits. From hiking and whitewater rafting to skiing and snowboarding, Banff offers travelers an abundance of year-round outdoor activities. The Lake Louise Ski Resort is one of the largest in North America and the striking photo opportunities of the Canadian Rockies from Moraine Lake can’t be underestimated (低估).
Machu Picchu
According to travelers, a visit to this Peruvian UNESCO World Heritage (遗产) site is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure. Located in the Andes Mountains, it is the most familiar icon (象征物) of Inca civilization. Spend a few days accustoming yourself to the altitude in the neighboring city of Cusco, where you can experience a mix of Incan and Spanish cultures.
Great Barrier Reef
It’s easy to see why the Great Barrier Reef is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World – it stretches nearly 1,500 miles along the eastern coastline of Australia and features about 3,000 reefs, 900 islands and more than 1,500 species of fish. Travelers can see these amazing natural structures from the air or underwater. However, large amounts of coral bleaching (褪色) caused by rising ocean temperatures put this place’s continued existence at risk, so plan your visit soon to see this awesome sight up close.
1.What can you enjoy both in St. Lucia and Banff?
A. Hiking. B. Skiing.
C. Diving. D. Snowboarding.
2.Where may a historian choose to go?
A. St. Lucia. B. Banff. Alberta.
C. Machu Picchu. D. Great Barrier Reef
3.What do we know about the Great Barrier Reef?
A. It’s on the western coast of Australia.
B. It’s famous for coral reefs rather than fish.
C. People must take a plane to enjoy its beauty.
D. It may disappear if temperature keeps on rising.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
Watching the Northern Lights（北极光）shining on the sky’s natural canvas may be on your list already, but be prepared to up the money.
A developer is creating a floating, snowflaked - shaped（雪花形状的）glass hotel from which guests can stare in fear at the Northern Lights from their beds. The project is called Krystall. Eighty –six luxury rooms will be covered within a glass structure alongside conference rooms and a spa, all of which is only accessible by boat.
The stationery hotel will be built near in northern Norway reportedly between bays. It will be constructed, in pieces, in dry docks（码头）, before being fit together on location.
Explaining the physics and design of the hotel, Koen Olthuis, Dutch architect and founder of Waterstudio, a specialist in floating structures, said: “The floating base is very big and because of that also very stable. You will not notice any movement. Different to any vessel this hotel is a floating building and will not move. The shape provides most of the stability but cables（缆绳）are used to take away any speed.”
“Same look and feel as a land based hotel but then on the most beautiful spot on the water. The hotel is not connected to land so all the things will be provided by boats.”
According to Mr Olthuis, who wouldn’t tell the actual cost of the project, the budget is 15 percent more than it would have been if it were built on land. He said that an important thing to the hotel’s construction was for its creation to be “scarless” on the perfect environment surrounding it.
“We call it a scarless development. If you take it away after a hundred years or so it will not leave any physical footprint. That is the only way to bring developments to such a valuable and beautiful marine environment in Norway.”
It is hoped that the hotel will be “self-supporting and sustainable” using top of the range technology, helping to support the “growing eco-tourism market.”
“Dutch Docklands has learned to live with the water instead of fighting it,” the firm states. “Floating houses are common in the Netherlands but we took that technology abroad and scale it up in size.”
1.According to the text, Krystall is stable because ________.
A. it is linked to the land with cables. B. it is fixed together on location.
C. it is built in the form of snow flakes. D. it has the same look as any vessel.
2.While building Krystall, waterstudio concerns most about ________.
A. how to keep it existing for a hundred years.
B. how to cause no damage to each piece.
C. how to build it with a lot less money.
D. how to make it environmentally friendly.
3.What Mr Olthuis said in the last paragraph implies that ________.
A. The Dutch developed a sense of adapting to nature.
B. eco-tourism is a growing market in the Netherlands.
C. it needs technology to build floating houses.
D. it is common to see house floating on water.
4.What is the main idea of the passage?
A. Build a floating house to live in.
B. View the Northern Lights in a floating hotel.
C. Live with water in a glass hotel in Norway.
D. Use the Northern Lights in a glass hotel.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容（1个单词）或括号内单词的正确形式。
People have all turned to sad music to make themselves feel better at some point in their lives, 1.why does the music with double or even triple sadness help drag people out of low spirits?
A new study throws light on what's going on inside people’s brains when they match their music to their feelings, and it looks as if sad music can be enjoyable, rather than 2.(simple) depressing. Music of this sort can arouse positive memories in people’s life , thus3.(lift)their mood.
Psychologist Adrian North from Curtin University in Australia says there 4.(existence) two groups of possible explanations for why people enjoy listening to sad music like this---one from social psychology, and the other from cognitive neuroscience(神经学).
5.terms of social psychology, one idea about this is that people will feel 6.(good) about themselves if they focus on someone who's doing even worse. Everything's going to be okay, because this person is having 7.even worse day than they are.
Another idea from social psychology is that people like to listen to the very music 8.shows their present life circumstances, because this kind of music makes them feel they are understood. With their emotions9.(share), they definitely get a certain amount of comfort.
So, the 10.(conclude) again—sad music does cheer people up, and it works far better than happy music, in most cases.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
“No man is an island” is a well-known line from John Donne’s Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, written more than three hundred years ago. Even now people still agree with him.
1. So we all need to have friends. For some of us, though making friends is not difficult, we may not want to make the first move. It is also difficult at times to keep the friends we already have.
There are many books about friendship, but Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People, written in 1936, is the most famous. 2. It was later put into 28 languages.
Here is the list of advice from his book:
★ Be friendly and polite.
Always greet with a smile. Begin with “excuse me” or “would you please”, when you want to ask somebody. 3.
★ Go out of your way to be nice.
4. Making some soup for a sick neighbor may seem like a little thing to you, but it will make your neighbor feel a lot better.
★ Remember names.
They say that the sweetest music to a person’ ears is the sound of his or her own name.
★5.
Try to understand other people’s ways and ideas and learn something from them.
A. Be open-minded.
B. Try to help your friends get out of trouble.
C. Without other people, life became empty and sad.
D. Find some time to do some things for other people.
E. It’s also important to keep close friends in our daily life.
F. Remember to say “thank you” and try to be as helpful as you can.
G. This “How to” book about getting along with other people became a best seller.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
At a gathering, we were all telling stories of our most embarrassing moments. It came around to Frank.
Frank began to tell us of his childhood. "I____________in San Pedro. My Dad was a fisherman, and he loved the sea. He had his own boat, but it was____________making a living on the sea. He worked hard and would stay out until he caught enough to_____________the family."
He looked at us and said, "I __________you could have met my Dad. He was a big man, and he was strong from pulling the nets and fighting the seas for the___________. When you got close to him, he____________like the ocean. He would wear his old coat and his overalls. No matter how much my mother___________them, they would still smell of the sea and of fish."
Frank's voice dropped a bit. "When the weather was bad he would _____________me to school. He had this old truck that was older than he was. As he would drive toward the school, I would shrink down into the seat hoping to___________. He would_________ right in front of the school gate, and it seemed like everybody would be__________around and watching. Then he would__________over and give me a big kiss on the cheek and tell me to be a good boy. It was so__________for me. I was twelve years old, and my Dad would lean over and kiss me goodbye!"
He__________and then went on, "I remember the day when I said 'No' "
It was the first time I had ever talked to him that________, and he had this surprised look on his face. I said, "Dad, I'm too_________for a goodbye kiss."
My Dad looked at me for the longest time, and his eyes started to tear up. I had never seen him_________.
He turned and looked out the windshield(挡风玻璃). "You're right," he said. "You are a big boy....a man. I won't kiss you anymore. "
Frank got a sad look on his face, and the tears began to__________in his eyes, as he spoke. "It wasn't long after that when my Dad went to sea and never came back." Tears were running down Frank's cheeks. He spoke again. "Guys, you don't know what I would__________to have my Dad give me just one more kiss on the cheek....to feel his rough old face...to smell the ocean on him...to feel his arm around my neck. I wish I had been a man then. If I had been a__________, I would never have told my Dad I was too old for a goodbye kiss."
1.A. kept up B. grew up C. came up D. started up
2.A. hard B. absurd C. easy D. necessary
3.A. remove B. reach C. feed D. urge
4.A. prefer B. request C. suggest D. wish
5.A. fish B. favorite C. benefit D. glory
6.A. sounded B. looked C. smelled D. felt
7.A. processed B. washed C. handled D. managed
8.A. drive B. limit C. adapt D. devote
9.A. rise B. emerge C. fade D. disappear
10.A. back up B. pick up C. pull up D. speed up
11.A. seating B. standing C. sobbing D. seizing
12.A. lean B. hold C. run D. watch
13.A. frightening B. challenging C. embarrassing D. entertaining
14.A. recovered B. paused C. requested D. admitted
15.A. day B. time C. aspect D. way
16.A. old B. delighted C. anxious D. proud
17.A. sigh B. shout C. cry D. yell
18.A. break down B. hold back C. well up D. start off
19.A. demand B. give C. rush D. infer
20.A. boy B. seaman C. backbone D. man
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
下面短文中共有10处语言错误，请在有错误的地方增加、删除或修改某个单词。
增加： 在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除： 把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。修改： 在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意： 1、每句不超过两个错误；
2、每处错误及其修改均限一词；
3、只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Is it necessary to practice handwriting? Some students consider handwriting least important than before. They preferred the keyboard to the pen now, for the former is fast, convenient and clear. They think it is waste of time practicing handwriting. However, others think Chinese handwriting is an important part of our traditional culture.
Though computers are very convenient, but handwriting still plays an important role in the modern world. Beside, beautiful handwriting makes a good impression in others. It shows your attitude to do things. Chinese character are very beautiful and rich in culture. As for me, when reading a neat written article, you will feel pleased and relaxed.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
你所在的校园内部浪费现象十分严重。请你在班会课上发表演讲，号召同学们从我做起，杜绝浪费。
1、现象：水电，粮食；
2、危害：浪费资源；增加经济负担。
注意：（1）词数100左右，开头和结尾已写好，不计入总词数。
（2）不要逐条翻译，要组成一篇通顺的短文。文中不能出现真实的人名和地名。
Dear classmates,
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难度: 中等查看答案及解析