American scientists have developed the first ...

American scientists have developed the first material that repairs itself. The material is a form of plastic that has been engineered to fill breaks in its surface.

Plastics are used today in everything. Scientists wanted to find a way to make objects made of plastic last longer. The researchers hope their new discovery can be used to make objects that are difficult or impossible to replace.

The surface of plastic objects breaks over time. Very small breaks develop every time a plastic object is used. The researchers wanted to find out how to stop plastic from developing small breaks that weaken and destroy it. They found the answer in the chemical structure of plastic itself. The research team found a way to make plastic that contains very small balloons filled with monomer(单体) liquid.　 When the new plastic cracks, the monomer liquid is let out and flows into the crack. Thus the break is repaired. The repaired plastic has seventy-five percent of the strength of undamaged plastic.

The new self-repairing plastic is not yet ready for production. But it has several possible uses. One could be in space vehicles where parts cannot be repaired or replaced. Another possible use might be in bridges. And it could be used in people, to replace bone joints that have become broken or damaged.

1.The passage mainly talks about_______ .

A. plastic that repairs itself

B. the chemical structure of plastic

C. permanent material invented

D. small balloons that makes plastic stronger

2.We know from the passage that the repair is done as_______.

A. the cracked plastic parts are changed

B. the plastic cracks

C. the liquid is put into the plastic cracks

D. the plastic is made

3.The scientist are planning to use the new material in space vehicles, bridges and people because________.

A. the plastic parts in them are required to last longer

B. they want to experiment in these places first

C. the new material cannot be used elsewhere

D. the plastic parts in them are easily broken or damaged

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Now scientists have discovered the first evidence that the animals actually behave like their masters. Just like children, they adopt a “look and learn” approach which means they can mimic (模仿) human's actions when going about their tasks.

Biologists and psychologists at the universities of Vienna and Oxford designed an experiment to test the theory that dogs do have the ability to copy what they see, using a simple wooden box. In the study, ten owners showed their dogs how to open the wooden box, sometimes using their heads to push a handle and sometimes using their hands.

In the first part of the test, five dogs were rewarded with a piece of sausage for copying their owners' actions. The other five were rewarded with food for not copying, and using other methods. With each dog the experiment was repeated hundreds of times, and the time taken for a dog to get it “right” on 85 percent of attempts (17 goes out of 20) was recorded. The dogs encouraged to mirror their owners reached this point almost three times sooner on average than those rewarded for not copying them. In the second part of the test, all the dogs were only rewarded for copying the method their owners used. The five dogs previously rewarded for copying their owners reached the 85 percent mark more than twice as the other five.

In a paper published in Proceeding of the Royal Society, they concluded, “Like humans, dogs can't help imitating actions they see.” Going further, they said, “The results suggest the imitative (模仿的) behavior of dogs is shaped more by their developmental interactions with humans than by their evolutionary (进化的) history of domestication (驯化).”

Caroline Kisko, from the Kennel club, said, “A dog's behavior is influenced much like that of a child learning right from wrong and adopting similar patterns of behavior. We hope that owners understand the importance of their actions and use this knowledge to set good examples and therefore positively influence the behavior of their pets.”

1.What's the best title of the passage?

A. Dogs Are Intelligent Animals

B. Dogs Are like Children Most

C. Dogs Behave like Their Masters

D. Dogs Can Complete Simple Tasks

2.The underlined part “they” in Paragraph 4 most probably refers to ________.

A. the dogs' masters

B. the magazine's publishers

C. all the people involved in the experiment

D. the biologists and psychologists

3.The researchers believe dogs' imitative behavior comes mainly from ______.

A. domestication　　　　　　　 B. human rewards

C. evolution　　　　　 　　　 　 D. human-dog interactions

4.What can be inferred from the last paragraph?

A. Masters should influence their dogs as early as possible.

B. A man's bad behavior may influence his dog.

C. Dogs can't be influenced by men easily.

D. Dogs always behave positively.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

阅读下面短文，根据其内容写一篇 60 词左右的内容概要。

Scientists have announced that they have cloned the first human embryo. This has caused much debate round the world. On the one hand, some scientists point out that if you clone an embryo, you can produce valuable human tissues—such as bone or lung tissue—that could be used to save human lives. On the other hand, many people, including some scientists, disagree and are afraid that, if mankind toys with nature in this way, we may be on our way to producing a real-life Frankenstein’s monster.

Cloning is producing an exact copy of a plant or an animal using its cells. The first mammal to be cloned successfully from an adult cell was Dolly the sheep. She was born in 1996 and died in early 2003, at a much younger age than normal. When she was born, many people were worried that cloning would lead to more diseases in the animal world. However, in general the scientists were praised for their wonderful scientific advance.

Ian Wilmut, the Scottish scientist who created Dolly, is shocked that some scientists are now considering cloning human beings. Although he researches cloning, his intention has never been to create copies of humans. Instead, he thinks research efforts should concentrate on creating new tissues and organs that can be used to cure diseases like cancer. However, some people believe that cloning human embryos with the intention of destroying them shows no respect for human life.

Even though human cloning is causing a lot of anxiety, it is good news for Faye Wilson, a 41-year-old saleswoman who cannot have a baby. “I am anxious to have a child of my own,” she says. “I don’t want to adopt someone else’s child—if I had the chance, I would have a cloned baby right now.”

While cloning human embryos is not legal in many countries, some scientists are already pushing ahead with research in order to produce a cloned human baby. Severino Antinori, an Italian physician, has declared that he wants to be the first to clone a human being.

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高二英语概要写作中等难度题查看答案及解析

Scientists in Argentina have created the world’s first cow with two human genes that will enable it to produce human-like milk.

Genetic engineering was used to introduce the "mothers’ milk" genes into the animal before birth, according to the National Institute of Agribusiness Technology in Buenos Aires.

As an adult, the cloned cow "will produce milk that is similar to that of humans", which will prove "a development of great importance for the nutrition of infants(婴儿)", said the institute. "The cloned cow, named Rosita ISA, is the first in the world with two human genes that contain the proteins present in human milk," said the statement.

In April, scientists in China published details of research showing that they had created dairy cows which produced milk containing proteins found in human breast milk. But the Argentine team said the Chinese only introduced one human gene, while their research involved two, meaning the milk will more closely resemble that of humans.

“Our goal was to raise the nutrition value of cows’ milk by adding two human genes, which do good to the immune system of infants,” said Adrian Mutto, from the National University of San Martin which worked with the institute.

Cristina Kirchner, President of Argentina, said that the scientific institute made all Argentines proud. She also said that she had refused the "honor" of having the cow named after her. "They came to tell me that the name is Cristina, but what woman would like to have a cow named after her? It appeared to me to be more proper to call it Rosita.”

1.What is the passage mainly about?

A. The importance of genetic engineering.

B. Ways to improve mothers’ milk.

C. Advanced agricultural technology in Argentina.

D. A cloned cow to produce human-like milk.

2.Which of the following can best replace “more closely resemble” in Para 4?

A. have more varieties than

B. have more nutrition than

C. be more similar to

D. be more different from

3.What can be inferred from Cristina Kirchner’s statements?

A. She was quite satisfied with the research done by the institute.

B. She considered it an honor to name the special cow.

C. She felt it improper to be named after the cow.

D. She refused to give a name to the cow out of self-respect.

4.What’s Adrian Mutto’s attitude to the genetic engineering?

A. negative　　 B. supportive

C. indifferent　　 D. mixed

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Is this the very material that scientists ______ the 2012 London Olympic Games torch?

A. used to light                         B. are used to lighting

C. use to light                           D. are used to light

高二英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

Scientists claim to have developed a revolutionary new giant 3D concrete printer that can build a 2,500-square-foot house in just 24 hours.

The 3D printer, developed by Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis from the University of Southern California, could be used to build a whole house, layer by layer, in a single day.

"It is basically scaling up 3D printing to the scale of building," said Khoshnevis.

The giant robot replaces construction workers with a nozzle (喷嘴), which can quickly build a home based on a computer pattern, MSN News reported.

Contour Crafting, as it is named, is a layered fabrication (构造) technology. Using this process, a single house or a colony of houses, each with possibly a different design, may be constructed in a single run, embedded (嵌入) in each house all the wires and pipes for electrical, plumbing and air-conditioning.

The potential applications of this technology are far-reaching including in emergency, low-income, and commercial housing.

"Our research also addresses the application of Contour Crafting in building habitats on other planets. Contour Crafting will most probably be one of the very few feasible approaches for building structures on other planets, such as the Moon and Mars, which are being targeted for human habitation before the end of the new century," researchers said on the project website.

The technology may potentially reduce energy use and emissions. And the main advantages of the Contour Crafting process over existing technologies are the superior surface finish that is realized and the greatly increased speed of construction.

1.Professor Khoshnevis has recently developed a 3D printer that can ________.

A. build a 2500-square-foot house in a single day

B. construct a skyscraper, layer by layer

C. design a group of houses automatically

D. assist construction workers in their work

2.The new 3D printer uses the following to build a house EXCEPT ________.

A. a nozzle　　 B. a computer pattern　　 C. a robot　　 D. an air-conditioner

3.According to the text, the potential applications of Contour Crafting include building _______.

A. emergency vehicles　　 B. low-income housing

C. commercial centers　　 D. space stations on other planets

4.What advantages of this new technology is mentioned in the text?

A. It creates more jobs.　　 B. It is less time-consuming.

C. It saves the building cost.　　 D. It emits no carbon dioxide.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Scientists at the University of Oxford have developed new artificial intelligence software to recognize the faces of chimpanzees in the wild. The new software will allow researchers to significantly cut back on time and resources spent analyzing video footage.

“For species like chimpanzees, which have complex social lives and live for many years, recording their behavior from short-term field research can only tell us so much.” says Dan Schofield, researcher and DPhil student at Oxford University’s Primate Models Lab. “By using the power of machine learning to unlock large video footage, it makes it feasible to measure behavior over the long term. Observing how the social lives of a group change over several generations become possible as well.”

The computer model was trained using over 10 million images from Kyoto University’s Primate Research Institute (PRI) video footage of wild chimpanzees in West Africa. The new software is the first to recognize individuals in a wide range of poses, performing with high accuracy in difficult conditions such as low lighting, poor image quality and movement blur (模糊).

“Access to this large video footage has allowed us to use cutting edge deep neural networks to train models at a scale that was previously not possible.” says Arsha Nagrani, co-author of the study and DPhil student in University of Oxford. “Additionally, our method differs from previous primate face recognition software in that it can be applied to raw video footage with limited manual intervention (人工干预) or pre-processing, saving hours of time and resources.”

The technology has potential for many uses, such as monitoring species for protection. Although the current application focused on chimpanzees, the software provided could be applied to other species, and help drive the adoption of artificial intelligence systems to solve a range of problems in the wildlife sciences.

“All our software is available open-source for the research community.” says Nagrani. “We hope that this will help researchers across other parts of the world apply the same cutting-edge techniques to their unique animal data sets. As a computer vision researcher, it is extremely satisfying to see these methods applied to solve real, challenging biodiversity (生物多样性) problems.”

“With an increasing biodiversity crisis and many of the world’s ecosystems under threat, the ability to closely monitor different species and populations using systems will be important for protection efforts, as well as animal behavior research.” adds Schofield. “Interdisciplinary cooperation like this have huge potential to make an impact, by finding solutions for old problems, and asking biological questions which were previously not available on a large scale.”

1.What’s the function of the new artificial intelligence software?

A.Analyzing video footage in difficult conditions.

B.Recognizing the faces of chimpanzees in the wild.

C.Cutting edge deep neural networks to train models at a scale.

D.Saving hours of time and resources without manual intervention.

2.What does the underlined word “feasible” in Paragraph 2 probably mean?

A.possible B.important

C.natural D.official

3.From the passage, we know that the artificial intelligence software could ________.

A.recognize individuals but not clearly

B.save time and resources only

C.help to protect different species

D.hardly solve biodiversity problems

4.What is the main purpose of the passage?

A.To introduce a new software.

B.To explain a measure.

C.To assess a project.

D.To describe a procedure.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Scientists have always been interested in the high level of organization in ant societies. American researchers have watched ants build life-saving rafts to keep afloat during floods. They also have recorded how ants choose their next queen — the female whose job is to produce eggs.

New technology is helping to improve researchers’ understanding of the insects. But there is still a lot to be learned.

Fire ants living in Brazilian forests are perfectly at home in an environment where flooding is common. To save themselves, the insects connect their legs together and create floating rafts. Some ant rafts can be up to 20 centimeters wide.

David Hu is an engineer with the Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as Georgia Tech, saying, "If you have 100 ants, which means 600 legs, 99 percent of those legs will be connected to a neighbor. So they’re very, very good at keeping this network."

David Hu and other Georgia Tech researchers wanted to study ants and the secret of their engineering. They froze ant rafts and then looked at them with the help of computed technology, or CT images. The pictures showed that larger ants serve in central positions to which smaller ants hold. The larger ants create pockets of air that keep the insects afloat.

Scientists say small robots or materials that can change shape could be programmed in a similar way, working towards a shared goal.

Researchers at North Carolina State University are also studying ants. They examined how Indian jumping ants choose the leader of the colony when they lose their top female or queen.

1.The author takes fire ants as an example to tell us ________.

A. how ants survive　　 B. how ants seek food

C. how ants communicate　　 D. how ants live together

2.What can we know from what David Hu said in paragraph 4?

A. Ants know the way to keep in touch in the river.

B. Ants know the way to join together closely.

C. Ants know the way to look for each other.

D. Ants know the way to build a large raft.

3.Why did the larger ants serve in central positions in their ant rafts?

A. To stress their importance.　　 B. To help all the ants float.

C. To fight against the enemies.　　 D. To defend their top female.

4.What ideas do the ants give us according to the passage?

A. We can use similar-shaped machines in flooding areas.

B. We can combine small robots or materials into larger ones.

C. Small and shape-changeable things might work just like ants do.

D. Small robots or materials in the shape of ants can be made.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Scientists have always been interested in the high level of organization in ant societies. American researchers have watched ants build life-saving rafts to keep afloat during floods. They also have recorded how ants choose their next queen — the female whose job is to produce eggs.

New technology is helping to improve researchers’ understanding of the insects. But there is still a lot to be learned.

Fire ants living in Brazilian forests are perfectly at home in an environment where flooding is common. To save themselves, the insects connect their legs together and create floating rafts. Some ant rafts can be up to 20 centimeters wide.

David Hu is an engineer with the Georgia Institute of Technology, also known as Georgia Tech, saying, "If you have 100 ants, which means 600 legs, 99 percent of those legs will be connected to a neighbor. So they're very, very good at keeping this network. "

David Hu and other Georgia Tech researchers wanted to study ants and the secret of their engineering. They froze ant rafts and then looked at them with the help of computed technology, or CT images. The pictures showed that larger ants serve in central positions to which smaller ants hold. The larger ants create pockets of air that keep the insects afloat.

Scientists say small robots or materials that can change shape could be programmed in a similar way, working towards a shared goal.

Researchers at North Carolina State University are also studying ants. They examined how Indian jumping ants choose the leader of the colony when they lose their top female or queen.

1.The author takes fire ants as an example to tell us _____ .

A. how ants seek food　　 B. how ants survive

C. how ants communicate　　 D. how ants live together

2.What can we know from what David Hu said in paragraph 4?

A. Ants know the way to join together closely.

B. Ants know the way to keep safe in the river.

C. Ants know the way to look for each other.

D. Ants know the way to build a large raft.

3.Why did the larger ants serve in central positions in their ant rafts?

A. To stress their importance.　　 B. To help all the ants float.

C. To fight against the enemies.　　 D. To defend their top female.

4.What ideas do the ants give us according to the passage?

A. We can use similar-shaped machines in flooding areas.

B. We can combine small robots or materials into larger ones.

C. Small and shape-changeable things might work just like ants do.

D. Small robots or materials in the shape of ants can be made.

高二英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Two American scientists told the people in industrial nations that they would be much healthier if they ate more of the same kind of foods eaten by humans living more than 10,000 years ago.

The scientists say that the human body has changed very little since human first appeared on earth, but the way we live has changed greatly. Our body has not been able to deal with these changes in life style and this has led to new kinds of sicknesses. These new sicknesses were not known in ancient times. So they are called “diseases of civilization”. Many cancers and diseases of the blood system, including heart attacks and strokes（中风） are examples of such diseases.

Scientists noted that early stone-age people used very little alcohol or tobacco, probably none. Ancient people also got a great deal of physical exercise, but a change in food is one of the main differences between life in ancient times and life today.

Stone-age people hunted wild animals for their meat, which had much less fat than farm animals. They also ate a lot of fresh wild vegetables, and fruits. They did not use milk and other dairy products, and they made very little use of grains. But today, we eat a large amount of dairy products and grain foods. We eat six times more salt than stone-age people. We eat more sugar. We eat twice as much fat but only one third as much protein and much less vitamin C.

People today probably do not want to live as people thousands of years ago did, but scientists say that we would be much healthier if we ate as those ancient people did, cutting the amount of fatty, salty and sweet foods.

1.The people in industrial nations would be much healthier if they ate ______.

A．more foods as humans living 10,000 years ago did

B．as humans living 10,000 years ago ate

C．more kinds of food eaten by people living over 10,000 years ago

D．more of the same kinds of foods eaten by people over 10,000 years ago

2.New kinds of sicknesses have been found because ______

A．the human body has changed compared with human first appearing on earth

B．the way we live has changed a little

C．our body can’t deal with the changes in life style

D．the way we live today are improper for the human body

3.What is the main cause mentioned in the article why people suffer from a lot of new sicknesses?

A．Ancient people did a great deal of physical exercise.

B．People today have a lot of alcohol.

C．People today have more tobacco.

D．Food is quite different between life today and life in ancient times.

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析