Whale researchers believe they have found a new way to measure the amount of stress felt by whales when they experience serious threats, such as being hit by a ship, and they say the technique could help protect the huge sea creatures from dying off.
American Rosalind Rolland is the lead scientist on the project. She and her team are with the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts. They measured stress hormones (荷尔蒙 ) by studying baleen, a substance found in the upper part of the mouth of some kinds of whale. She explains that the baleen serves as a record that shows a spike in stress hormones when whales face dangers such as a changing climate and ship strikes. Scientists can then read these records, similar to reading the rings on a tree.
Understanding the information is important because whales who often feel stressed are less likely to be reproductive and more likely to become sick. That combination is not good for the whale population, which is already dangerously low.
The scientists did their work on a whale that had become trapped in fishing equipment, which some scientists estimate kills up to 300, 000 whales and dolphins annually. It was finally killed by Inuit hunters who found it trying to drag the fishing equipment. The hunters said the whale seemed to lack energy. When scientists examined the dead whale, they found its mouth showed an increase in stress hormones 20 times greater than normal.
Regina Asmutis-Silvia is a biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation in Massachusetts. She didn’t participate in the research, but she says it is important. “We clearly understand that stress is bad for humans. We also need to understand that stress is bad for other animals, too,” she adds.
1.What does the text mainly tell us?
A.The dangers the whale often faces.
B.The measures to stop sea life being hit.
C.A discovery to measure stress on whales.
D.A way to protect the mouth of the whale.
2.Which of the following can best replace “spike” underlined in Paragraph 2?
A.Rise. B.Change. C.Crash. D.Slide.
3.What may a whale living a stressful life be like?
A.Calm and fierce. B.Unhealthy and unable to reproduce.
C.Uneasy and energetic. D.Sizeable and likely to lose appetite.
4.Why does the author mention the words by Regina?
A.To move on to another topic.
B.To stress the importance of the finding.
C.To tell the necessity of studying other animals.
D.To show the similarity between humans and animals.
高二英语阅读理解简单题
Whale researchers believe they have found a new way to measure the amount of stress felt by whales when they experience serious threats, such as being hit by a ship, and they say the technique could help protect the huge sea creatures from dying off.
American Rosalind Rolland is the lead scientist on the project. She and her team are with the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts. They measured stress hormones (荷尔蒙 ) by studying baleen, a substance found in the upper part of the mouth of some kinds of whale. She explains that the baleen serves as a record that shows a spike in stress hormones when whales face dangers such as a changing climate and ship strikes. Scientists can then read these records, similar to reading the rings on a tree.
Understanding the information is important because whales who often feel stressed are less likely to be reproductive and more likely to become sick. That combination is not good for the whale population, which is already dangerously low.
The scientists did their work on a whale that had become trapped in fishing equipment, which some scientists estimate kills up to 300, 000 whales and dolphins annually. It was finally killed by Inuit hunters who found it trying to drag the fishing equipment. The hunters said the whale seemed to lack energy. When scientists examined the dead whale, they found its mouth showed an increase in stress hormones 20 times greater than normal.
Regina Asmutis-Silvia is a biologist with the Whale and Dolphin Conservation in Massachusetts. She didn’t participate in the research, but she says it is important. “We clearly understand that stress is bad for humans. We also need to understand that stress is bad for other animals, too,” she adds.
1.What does the text mainly tell us?
A.The dangers the whale often faces.
B.The measures to stop sea life being hit.
C.A discovery to measure stress on whales.
D.A way to protect the mouth of the whale.
2.Which of the following can best replace “spike” underlined in Paragraph 2?
A.Rise. B.Change. C.Crash. D.Slide.
3.What may a whale living a stressful life be like?
A.Calm and fierce. B.Unhealthy and unable to reproduce.
C.Uneasy and energetic. D.Sizeable and likely to lose appetite.
4.Why does the author mention the words by Regina?
A.To move on to another topic.
B.To stress the importance of the finding.
C.To tell the necessity of studying other animals.
D.To show the similarity between humans and animals.
高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
New research has found that animals have memories, too — , they might be much cleverer than we thought.
A. in other words B. above all
C. in many ways D. all in all
高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
New research has found that animals have memories, too —________, they might be much cleverer than we thought.
| A．in other words | B．above all | C．in many ways | D．all in all |
高二英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
Chinese researchers say they have come up with a simple way to find out a person’s biological age —how much the body has aged physically – through a urine (尿) test.
Their findings will help researchers conduct numbers of ageing studies and even predict a person’s risk of age-related diseases, according to a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience.
Another paper by researchers at the Beijing Hospital and the West China Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province, said on Tuesday that people aged at different rates due to changes in their genetic make-up and their environment.
Chronological age – which is based on one’s birth date —was not an exact measure of biological age so a more exact method was needed, the team said.
Ageing is driven by the lifelong gradual accumulation(积累) of a broad variety of molecular (分子) faults in the body’s cells. The team said they had identified a matter 8-oxoGsn that indicated increases in oxidative (氧化性) damage in urine as people’s bodies aged.
Cai Jianping, a co-author at the Beijing Hospital, said: “As we age, we suffer increasing oxidative damage and so the levels of oxidative matters increase in our body.” The team tested the levels of 8-oxoGsn in urine samples from 1,228 Chinese people aged two to 90 and concluded the marker helped accurately determine the stage of biological ageing in adults.
They had previously found that 8-oxoGsn levels also increased with age in the urine of animals such as mice.
The team has also developed a rapid analysis technique called ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography(层析法), which can process up to 10 urine samples an hour, according to the study.
1.Scientifically speaking, by what does a doctor judge the stage of a person getting old?
A. His psychology. B. His condition.
C. His biological age. D. His chronological age.
2.What are the outer factors the speed of one’s ageing physically depend on?
A. One’s birth date.
B. The changes in their genetic make-up and their environment.
C. The accumulation of various molecular faults in the body’s cells.
D. The increases in oxidative damage in urine.
3.Which can take the place of the underlined word “marker” in the sixth paragraph?
A. Molecular faults. B. 8-oxoGsn.
C. Oxidative damage. D. Stage of biological ageing in adults.
4.What is the passage about?
A. Why people are ageing.
B. What determines the stage of people’s ageing physically.
C. A rapid method with which to judge how much people are aging physically.
D. How to delay people’s ageing physically.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
An international team of researchers from the University of Oxford have found that the way people use the Internet is closely tied to the seasonal movements in the natural world. Their online species searches follow the patterns of seasonal animal migrations (迁徙).
Migratory birds ( 候 鸟 ) flood back to where they reproduce every spring. That migratory behavior is accompanied by some human behavior. “In English-language Wikipedia ( 维基百科), the online searches for migratory species tend to increase in spring when those birds arrive in the United States,” said the lead author John Mittermeier.
And not just birds. Mittermeier and his team surveyed nearly 2.5 billion Wikipedia search records, for 32,000 species, across 245 languages. They also saw variable search rates for insects, horsetails and flowering plants. Seasonal trends seemed to be widespread in Wikipedia behavior for many species of plants and animals.
This finding suggests new ways to monitor changes in the world’s biological diversity. It also shows new ways to see how much people care about nature, and which species and areas might be the most effective targets for conservation.
Mittermeier is encouraged by the search results. He commented, “I think there’s a concern among conservationists (生态环境保护者) that people are losing touch with the natural world and that they’re not interacting with native species anymore. And so in that sense, it was really exciting and quite unexpected for me to see people’s Wikipedia interest closely related to changes in nature.” Richard Grenyer, Associate Professor from the University of Oxford, says search data is useful to conservation biologists, “By using these big data approaches, we can direct our attention towards the difficult questions in modern conservation: which species and areas are changing, and where are the people who care the most and can do the most to help.”
1.What have researchers found about species searches?
A.They strengthen ties among people. B.They affect the animal movements.
C.They reflect animal migration seasons. D.They differ in language backgrounds.
2.What is the purpose of writing Paragraph 3?
A.To further support the research findings.
B.To show the variety of species searches.
C.To summarize the research process.
D.To present researchers’ heavy work load.
3.How does Mittermeier feel about the search results?
A.Sad about people’s not getting close to nature.
B.Worried about Wikipedia behavior.
C.Amazed at people’s care about nature.
D.Satisfied with Wikipedia’s service.
4.From which is the text probably taken?
A.A scientific magazine. B.A biology textbook.
C.A biography. D.A travel brochure .
高二英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
The technique can lead to new ways to produce medicines, the researchers from the universities of Istanbul and Hawaii hope.
As part of an effort to improve treatments for life-threatening illnesses, a team of scientists have created rabbits that glow(发光) in the dark.
Their efforts produced two rabbits out of a litter of eight that went from being a normal, fluffy white to glowing green in the dark. The rabbits were born at the University of Istanbul as part of a collaboration（合作） between scientists from universities in Turkey and Hawaii.
The rabbits glow to show that a genetic manipulation technique can work efficiently, though the specific color is more cosmetic than scientific. "The green is not important at all – it's just a marker to show the experiment can be done successfully," said University of Hawaii associate professor Stefan Moisyadi.
To produce the glowing effect, researchers injected jellyfish DNA into a mother rabbit's embryos. Those altered embryos（胚胎）. Those altered embryos were then inserted back into the mother. Similar experiments have resulted in glowing cockroaches and cats.
Eventually, the researchers hope the technique can lead to new ways to produce medicines, Moisyadi said. “The final goal is to develop animals that act as barrier reactive to produce beneficial molecules in their milk that
can be cheaply extracted, especially in countries that can’t afford big pharma plants that make drugs, that usually cost $1bn to build, and be able to produce their own protein-based medication in animals," Moisyadi said.
The rabbits are expected to have the same life span as their non-glowing counterparts（副本）, but Moisyadi said he understands people can object to this kind of experimentation involving live animals.
"To the people against, I say: think about, what are the benefits and what are the injuries?" Moisyadi said. "And if the benefits outweigh the injuries, let's go with the benefits."
Moisyadi, a native of Turkey who is now with the University of Hawaii, started developing the project in 2006, and researchers are now waiting to see if pregnant sheep produce similar results.
1.Moisyadi’s attitude towards this kind of experiment is .
A. doubtful.
B. indifferent.
C. supportive.
D. objective.
2.How did glowing effect produce?
A. It was just the result of genetic selection.
B. Put a light into a mother rabbit’s embryos.
C. Injected glowing cats DNA into a mother rabbit’s embryos.
D. Injected Jellyfish DNA into a mother rabbit’s embryos.
3.The final goal of this research is .
A. To make animals cuter.
B. To make nights brighter.
C. To produce all kinds of glowing animals.
D. To produce beneficial molecules in animals’ milk.
4.What can we learn according to the passage?
A. The life span of glowing rabbits is much shorter than that of non-glowing ones.
B. The glowing rabbits were born only at the University pf Hawaii.
C. Scientists have created glowing cockroaches and cats before.
D. Three rabbits out of eight can glow in the experiment.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Plants have family values, too; it seems, with new research suggesting they can recognize close relatives in order to work together.
An ability to tell family from strangers is well known in animals, allowing them to cooperate and share resources, but plants may possess similar social skills, scientists believe.
Susan Dudley and Amanda File of McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, report they have demonstrated for the first time that plants can recognize their kin.
This suggests that plants, though lacking recognition and memory, are capable of complex social interactions.
“Plants have this kind of hidden but complicated social life，” Dudley said.
The study found plants from the same species of beach-dwelling wildflower grew aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors but were less competitive when they shared soil with their families.
Sea rocket, a North American species, showed stronger and healthier root growth when planted in pots with strangers than when raised with relatives from the same maternal(母系的) family, the study found.
This is an example of kin selection, a behavior common in animals in which closely related individuals take a group approach to succeeding in their environment, the researchers said.
Kin selection also applies to competition, because if family members compete less with each other, the group will do better overall. “Everywhere you look, plants are growing right up next to other plants，” Dudley said，“ Usually it’s a case of each plant for itself. But sometimes those plants are related, and there are benefits to not wasting resources on being competitive, and there is not really a cost to not being competitive as long as your neighbor is also not being competitive.”
Learning and memory appear to be important for kin recognition in animals, but this isn’t an option for plants, she noted.
Some researchers speculate(猜测) that plants communicate through their roots, identifying themselves using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.
1.What’s the main idea of the message?
A．Studies find plants can recognize, communicate with relatives.
B．Kin selection is important for plants.
C．Animals can recognize and memorize their relatives.
D．Competition asks plants to recognize their relatives.
2.Which of the following is NOT right about animals’ social skill?
A．Animals can recognize and memorize their relatives.
B．Animals’ social skill is to cooperate and share resources.
C．Animals’ social skill can recognize close relatives in order to work together.
D．Animals’ social skill is no use at all.
3.Plants’ kin selection is to ________.
A．grow well B．compete with other kinds of plants
C．strengthen the relationship among siblings D．find which one is the best
4.From the passage，we learn that ________.
A．sea rocket is a South American species
B．sea rocket grows aggressively alongside unrelated neighbors
C．sea rocket grows aggressively alongside its siblings
D．sea rocket is a kind of bush without flowers
5.How can the plants communicate with each other according to experts’ suppose?
A．Plants communicate by using tiny chemical signatures specific to each plant’s family.
B．Plants communicate with each other through their roots.
C．Plants communicate with each other by their leaves.
D．Plants communicate with each other with their flowers.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Researchers are finding new ways to save snakebite victims.Experts discussed the latest findings during a recent conference.
Scientists in Australia have shown that a chemical called nitric oxide could increase the chances of surviving a poisonous snakebite.The scientists injected rats with a deadly amount of snake venom.Then they rubbed an ointment(软膏)containing nitric oxide on the skin around the injection site.The study found that the rats lived about one-third longer than if nitric oxide had not been used.But the treatment had to be started very quickly.
Dirk van Helden led the research.He says the nitric oxide ointment also showed promise in humans.The study appeared earlier this year in the journal Nature Medicine.Scientists say the findings could help save many lives.A recent study found that poisonous snakes cause as many as ninety-four thousand deaths worldwide each year.But Ulrich Kuch of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Center in Frankfurt,Germany,says that number appears to be low.
Mr Kuch says many deaths could be prohibited if snakebite victims are treated correctly,but they often go to traditional healers or do not seek any help at all.He said,“Sometimes it’s because there is no treatment available—no antivenom(抗蛇毒血清),which is the specific(特殊的)drug to treat snakebites—or health care staff do not know how to treat snakebites,and sometimes its because transportation to get to a health facility is not available or too expensive.
Here is no single antivenom that can be used to treat all snakebites.The antivenom must be specific to the kind of snake that bit the person.In some countries the treatment is costly,while in others there is no such treatment.
1.What is this passage mainly about?( )
A.Snakebite deaths around the world.
B.Progress in fighting snakebite deaths.
C.Snakebite treatment around the world.
D.The chances of surviving a poisonous snakebite.
2.After being rubbed an ointment containing nitric oxide,the rats .
A.suffered no pain
B.died immediately
C.lived a little longer
D.started feeling uncomfortable
3.What does Paragraph 3 suggest?( )
A.The number of deaths caused by snakebites is becoming lower each year.
B.The nitric oxide ointment has saved thousands of people’s lives.
C.It is very important to find an effective way to treat snakebites.
D.The number of deaths caused by snakebites worldwide is low.
4.What does the underlined word “prohibited” in Paragraph 4 mean?( )
A. caused. B.considered.
C.examined. D.prevented.
5.What is implied in the last paragraph?( )
A.Antivenom can be made very easily.
B.It’s very important to use the correct antivenom to treat snakebite victims.
C.Antivenom is extremely expensive all over the world.
D.A person bitten by a snake will survive as long as there is antivenom.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Researchers are finding new ways to save snakebite victims.Experts discussed the latest findings during a recent conference.
Scientists in Australia have shown that a chemical called nitric oxide could increase the chances of surviving a poisonous snakebite.The scientists injected rats with a deadly amount of snake venom.Then they rubbed an ointment(软膏)containing nitric oxide on the skin around the injection site.The study found that the rats lived about one-third longer than if nitric oxide had not been used.But the treatment had to be started very quickly.
Dirk van Helden led the research.He says the nitric oxide ointment also showed promise in humans.The study appeared earlier this year in the journal Nature Medicine.Scientists say the findings could help save many lives.A recent study found that poisonous snakes cause as many as ninety-four thousand deaths worldwide each year.But Ulrich Kuch of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Center in Frankfurt,Germany,says that number appears to be low.
Mr Kuch says many deaths could be prohibited if snakebite victims are treated correctly,but they often go to traditional healers or do not seek any help at all.He said,“Sometimes it’s because there is no treatment available—no antivenom(抗蛇毒血清),which is the specific(特殊的)drug to treat snakebites—or health care staff do not know how to treat snakebites,and sometimes its because transportation to get to a health facility is not available or too expensive.
Here is no single antivenom that can be used to treat all snakebites.The antivenom must be specific to the kind of snake that bit the person.In some countries the treatment is costly,while in others there is no such treatment.
1.What is this passage mainly about?( )
A.Snakebite deaths around the world.
B.Progress in fighting snakebite deaths.
C.Snakebite treatment around the world.
D.The chances of surviving a poisonous snakebite.
2.After being rubbed an ointment containing nitric oxide,the rats .
A.suffered no pain B.died immediately
C.lived a little longer D.started feeling uncomfortable
3.What does Paragraph 3 suggest?( )
A.The number of deaths caused by snakebites is becoming lower each year.
B.The nitric oxide ointment has saved thousands of people’s lives.
C.It is very important to find an effective way to treat snakebites.
D.The number of deaths caused by snakebites worldwide is low.
4.What does the underlined word “prohibited” in Paragraph 4 mean?( )
A. caused. B.considered.
C.examined. D.prevented.
5.What is implied in the last paragraph?( )
A.Antivenom can be made very easily.
B.It’s very important to use the correct antivenom to treat snakebite victims.
C.Antivenom is extremely expensive all over the world.
D.A person bitten by a snake will survive as long as there is antivenom.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Researchers are finding new ways to save snakebite victims.Experts discussed the latest findings during a recent conference.
Scientists in Australia have shown that a chemical called nitric oxide could increase the chances of surviving a poisonous snakebite.The scientists injected rats with a deadly amount of snake venom.Then they rubbed an ointment(软膏)containing nitric oxide on the skin around the injection site.The study found that the rats lived about one-third longer than if nitric oxide had not been used.But the treatment had to be started very quickly.
Dirk van Helden led the research.He says the nitric oxide ointment also showed promise in humans.The study appeared earlier this year in the journal Nature Medicine.Scientists say the findings could help save many lives.A recent study found that poisonous snakes cause as many as ninety-four thousand deaths worldwide each year.But Ulrich Kuch of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Center in Frankfurt,Germany,says that number appears to be low.
Mr Kuch says many deaths could be prohibited if snakebite victims are treated correctly,but they often go to traditional healers or do not seek any help at all.He said,“Sometimes it’s because there is no treatment available—no antivenom(抗蛇毒血清),which is the specific(特殊的)drug to treat snakebites—or health care staff do not know how to treat snakebites,and sometimes its because transportation to get to a health facility is not available or too expensive.
Here is no single antivenom that can be used to treat all snakebites.The antivenom must be specific to the kind of snake that bit the person.In some countries the treatment is costly,while in others there is no such treatment.
1.What is this passage mainly about?( )
A.Snakebite deaths around the world.
B.Progress in fighting snakebite deaths.
C.Snakebite treatment around the world.
D.The chances of surviving a poisonous snakebite.
2.After being rubbed an ointment containing nitric oxide,the rats .
A.suffered no pain
B.died immediately
C.lived a little longer
D.started feeling uncomfortable
3.What does Paragraph 3 suggest?( )
A.The number of deaths caused by snakebites is becoming lower each year.
B.The nitric oxide ointment has saved thousands of people’s lives.
C.It is very important to find an effective way to treat snakebites.
D.The number of deaths caused by snakebites worldwide is low.
4.What does the underlined word “prohibited” in Paragraph 4 mean?( )
A. caused. B.considered.
C.examined. D.prevented.
5.What is implied in the last paragraph?( )
A.Antivenom can be made very easily.
B.It’s very important to use the correct antivenom to treat snakebite victims.
C.Antivenom is extremely expensive all over the world.
D.A person bitten by a snake will survive as long as there is antivenom.
高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析