Many science fiction stories tell about explo...

Many science fiction stories tell about explorers arriving in a new world. The explorers then use some kind of high-tech device to test for breathable air or signs of life. But here on Earth, science fiction is becoming reality through a new sampling technology called environmental DNA, or eDNA for short. Scientists can use it to identify rare species or estimate fish populations with just a little air or water.

Environmental DNA can be used in two ways. One is to identify the creatures that live in a certain place. The other is to confirm the presence or lack of a specific creature.

Caren Goldberg is one of the first biologists to take the technology from the testing stage to actually using it. She sees eDNA as a way to get answers more efficiently and with less destruction compared to traditional survey techniques. Until recently, scientists depended on snorkeling ( 潜水), netting or using an electric current to temporarily catch fish.

This newer way to identify what lives in the environment is becoming popular around the world. Animal experts in Vietnam are using the eDNA to find the last, wild Yangtze giant softshell turtles. One researcher on the Caribbean island of Trinidad is using the sampling technology to find endangered golden treefrogs. In Madagascar, it is being used to identify amphibian(两栖动物)diseases.

Ms Goldberg has used eDNA testing to confirm the local extinction (灭绝) of a leopard frog in the American state of Idaho. She has also been asked to document the spread of the New Zealand mudsnail in the state of Washington. The creature has been found in lakes and other waterways across the state.

Scientists working with the technology say they do not expect robots to replace field biologists anytime soon. But the old-fashioned field work could soon be more targeted.

1.Compared to traditional survey techniques, eDNA is more______.

A. complex　　 B. eco-friendly

C. dangerous　　 D. convincing

2.By using eDNA, Caren Goldberg has______.

A. succeeded in catching many fishes

B. found the existence of golden treefrogs

C. documented the spread of softshell turtles

D. confirmed the disappearance of the leopard frog in Idaho

3.What can we infer from the last paragraph ?

A. Robots will replace scientists soon.

B. Some scientists are against using eDNA.

C. The old-fashioned field work may disappear.

D. Many biologists are unwilling to do the field work.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A. Science Fiction Becomes Reality for Species Surveys

B. Biologists Explore Space with the Help of eDNA

C. Scientists Found Methods to Test for Signs of Life

D. New Technologies Are Presented in Science Fictions

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

When I was a kid, I loved reading history, science fiction, detective stories, but especially comics. I had piles of them and kept talking my Dad into making more shelves for me. One day, I read about a 13-year-old boy who had actually written one of my favorite comics, Legion of Super-Heroes, and I said, “I can do that too.” That year, I was two years younger than the writer.

Three years later, a friend and I started our own fan magazine about comics. It became the first place that regularly told people when their favorite comics were coming out and writers and artists were working on them. Because of the magazine, I won the awards for The Comic Reader, but more important, it got many of the people in the field to know who I was.

One day when I was visiting DC Comics for news for my next issue, one of the editors a chance to write text for his comic. Suddenly, at 16, I was getting paid to write.

I was able to pay for my college classes working as an assistant editor at DC Comics and learned how to write comics stories while I was there. I wrote hundreds of stories. Over the years, I worked as an editor and an executive (主管) for the company, eventually serving as a president and publisher, until earlier this year. Now I’m back to my first love, writing comics again.

Every morning, I open my e-mail and find pages of art sent in by artists across the country who draw my stories. When I’m tired of working on the stories, I can go online and find my readers commenting on my stories or telling me when I make mistakes.

Keep reading and writing, it’s a wonderful way to live.

1.At what age did the author win the awards for The Comic Reader?

A. 13 B. 14.

C. 15. D. 16.

2.What is the author’s present job?

A. An editor. B. A comics writer.

C. A painter. D. A publisher.

3.How is the passage mainly developed?

A. By listing some data. B. By giving examples.

C. By following time order. D. By making comparisons.

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

I love science and science fiction. Like many science fiction fans, I am fascinated by the possibility of time travel. However, one must combine romance with reasoning and look into the chances of time travel critically.

First of all, we must remember the whole universe is in motion. If we want to go back to yesterday, our "time machine" has to move back in time and space. If someone claimed he was at home when he suddenly travelled 200 years back in time, he either had an illusion or made the story up. Two hundred years ago, Earth was in a different place in space, so how can you travel back 200 years without moving in space? Don't get me wrong. I am not knocking the genius of science fiction writers. H.G. Wells's "The Time Machine" is a great work of fiction, but that’s all. I have read many other time travelling science fiction stories since reading H.G. Wells, but none address this problem of displacement.

My own argument for the impossibility of time travel is that physical states of the past no longer exist and those of the future are not here yet. To be able to move back and forth in time requires everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen everywhere in the whole universe at every single moment in time－past, present, and future－to be stored as a "reality" somewhere－like the save game file of a computer game that contains every single byte of information of the game at the point it was saved, but you would need an almost extremely large file and almost extremely many of them－so it can be re-entered and communicated with, and not just light signals for viewing. To me, I don’t buy it.

1.Which of the following can be the best title?

A. How to make time travel possible?

B. Why am I fascinated by time travel?

C. Why do I think time travel is not possible?

D. How to explain the possibility of time travel?

2.What’s the meaning of the underlined word “illusion”?

A. success          B. dream                C. switch               D. support

3. According to the author, which of the following is RIGHT?

A. We can go back to the past by time travel.

B. People can travel to the future by moving in space.

C. “The Time Machine” is nothing more than a science fiction.

D. Everything that happened, is happening and will happen can be stored somewhere.

4.In the author’s opinion, time travel might be possible if ________.

A. people could combine romance with reasoning

B. people could stop the movement of the whole universe

C. people could use time machine under the instruction of H.G. Wells

D. people could “save” everything in the past, present and future in a certain space

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Little Jerry was interested in stories about undersea exploration, so he gave all his pocket money to his brother ________ the novel based on such a story.

A. in favor of　　　　 B. in exchange for

C. in need of　　 　 D. in place of

高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Little Jerry was interested in stories about outer space exploration, so he gave all his pocket money to his brother ________ the novel based on such a story.

A. in favor of　　 　　　　　　　　　　 B. in exchange for

C. in return for　　　　　　　　 　　　 D. in place of

高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Adults

8:00 pm — 10:00 pm

Join us for an evening of true, personal stories about science. Come to the only show where you can hear people—scientists, not-scientists, and half-scientists—tell funny and touching stories about the role of science in their lives.

Cost: $10

Make Your Own iPhone Case through Toysinbox 3D Printing

Families & Teens & Adults

10:00 am — 12:30 pm

In this workshop, you will learn to design and 3D print your own iPhone case. First, you will learn how to use a 3D printer. Next, you will design a 3D model for your iPhone case that will have a lovely pattern and your name. Once you create the model, you will print it out on our 3D printers. A 3D printing worker will guide you through this process step-by-step. Come and enjoy this fun and unique learning experience!

Cost: $35

DIY Underwater Vehicle Design in MIT Museum

Teens

2:00 pm — 5:00 pm

Dive into the world of ocean engineering by designing and building an underwater vehicle! Test your vehicle in large tanks on the Museum’s floor. Show off your engineering creations and share your design process with Museum visitors.

Cost: $15, Ages 12+

Animal Kingdom for Young Ones in Museum of Science, Boston

Families

9:30 am — 2:00 pm

Join us for a day of hands-on science fun designed especially for pre-schoolers!

Activities include the Museum’s popular “Live Animal Story Time” shows and a talk about baby animals and book-signing by children’s book authors. Drop in on special live animal visits and activities in the exhibition halls, as well as design challenges and lab activities—all created with your young scientist in mind!

Cost: Free, Ages Pre-kindergarten – Age 8

1.What can people do in Story Show?

A. Do role-play games.　　 B. Hear touching stories.

C. Put on science shows.　　 D. Meet authors of the books.

2.If you are interested in ocean engineering, you will probably attend ________.

A. Story Show　　 B. Make Your Own iPhone Case

C. Animal Kingdom for Young Ones　　 D. DIY Underwater Vehicle Design

3.Animal Kingdom for Young Ones is designed for ________.

A. adults　　 B. kids under 8 years old

C. children of all ages　　 D. children aged twelve and older

4.What is the subject of the festival?

A. Sports.　　 B. Literature.

C. Science.　　 D. Education.

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

Here comes a story that many years ago a man arrived at a village in India to catch monkeys so he could sell them to zoos. The monkeys, however, were very clever and every sort of trap he set failed. A young boy watched the man's pathetic efforts and laughed.

The man said, “If you can catch me a monkey, I'll give you $ 2.” That was a huge amount of money then.

The boy went to his home and took a clay pot with a narrow neck. He placed a few nuts around the pot and put lots of nuts inside. He then tied the pot to a tree and told the man, “We should have a rest in a few hours. Let's wait in the village. The monkey will call us when he is ready.”

Certainly enough, a band of monkeys soon discovered the nuts and the pot. One slipped his hand in the pot and grabbed a handful of nuts, but he couldn't pull his hand out of the narrow opening of the pot because his fist(拳头) was clenched. The monkey feared and started making loud noises. Some of the other monkeys tried unsuccessfully to pull the pot off his hand.

The boy and the man heard the noises and the boy got a big strong bag. As they approached the monkeys they all ran away except the one with its hand in the pot. The boy grabbed the monkey and the pot. The man was amazed and asked the boy the secret of his monkey trap, “Why was it so easy for the monkey to get his hand in but so hard to get it out?”

The boy laughed and said, “The monkey could have easily got his hand back out and escaped, but he would have had to let go of the nuts in the pot and he just wasn't willing to let go. They never are.”

What lessons can be learned from this story? Do people sometimes trap themselves by holding onto things that they should let go? Do you?

1.What does the underlined word “clenched” in the 4th paragraph probably mean?

A. quickly pushed　　 B. lightly pulled

C. tightly fastened　　 D. closely held

2.Why couldn’t the monkey pull his hand out of the pot? The reason lies in that　　　　 .

A. the pot’s neck was too narrow　　 B. the monkey wouldn’t let go of the nuts

C. the monkey’s fist was too big　　 D. the nuts in the pot were too delicious

3.Which of the statement is NOT true according to the story?

A. The boy just played a trick on the man.

B. The monkeys were too clever to be trapped.

C. The boy was helpful.

D. The boy could ask for $2 from the man.

4.What might be the best title of this passage?

A. the monkey and the boy　　 B. the boy and the pot

C. the monkey and the pot　　 D. the man and the pot

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

There is an old story telling about a woman whose only son died in an accident. In her 26, she went to the wise man that is always 27 for his wisdom in her town and said, “What advice or what 28 ways do you have to bring my son back to life? I will 29 you with all I have if you can.”

Instead of sending her away or 30 with her, he said to her, “Fetch me a mustard (芥末) seed from a home that has never 31 sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life.” The woman went off at once in 32 of that magical mustard seed.

She came first to a splendid apartment, 33 at the door, and said in a (n) 34 voice, “I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a (n) 35 that I want? It is very important to me.”

36, she didn’t get what she wanted, even without a single word of 37. They told her that she had come to the wrong place. And they began to 38 all the tragic things that recently had happened to them.

The woman said to herself, “Who is better able to help these poor, 39 people than I, though I also have had misfortune of my own?” She 40 to comfort them till they 41. Then she went on searching for a home that had never known sorrow. But 42 she turned up, in small cottages or in other places, she found one 43 after another of sadness and misfortune. She became so 44 in helping other people out of their sorrow that finally she forgot about her quest for the special mustard seed, in fact, never 45 that it had driven the sorrow out of her life.

1.                A．joy            B．danger         C．belief    D．sorrow

2.                A．envied         B．considered      C．respected     D．treated

3.                A．strange         B．magical         C．valuable  D．important

4.                A．reward         B．supply          C．provide   D．award

5.                A．quarreling      B．discussing       C．reasoning     D．arguing

6.                A．suffered        B．known          C．obtained  D．forgotten

7.                A．honor          B．favor           C．need     D．search

8.                A．knocked        B．broke          C．stood D．pointed

9.                A．excited         B．confident       C．sad D．urgent

10.               A．place          B．answer         C．apartment D．person

11.               A．Luckily         B．Immediately     C．Gradually  D．Unfortunately

12.               A．praise          B．respect         C．comfort   D．encouragement

13.               A．exchange       B．describe        C．simplified D．decorated

14.               A．unfortunate     B．unfriendly      C．unimportant    D．unfamiliar

15.               A．planned        B．managed        C．continued D．stayed

16.               A．settle down     B．break down     C．calm down     D．get dwon

17.               A．wherever       B．whatever       C．however   D．whenever

18.               A．excuse         B．tale            C．lie    D．reason

19.               A．curious         B．puzzled         C．worried   D．involved

20.               A．recognizing     B．realizing        C．remembering   D．wondering

高二英语完型填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

The story I am going to tell you happened about three years ago when I started to learn how to drive. At first, I was very frightened, and I thought I could never learn how to drive a car. Driving a car frightened me because in my home country women never drive, but in the United States every woman has to know how to drive. My husband paid an instructor to teach me how to drive. After that, my husband practiced with me for a long time. My husband always told me that I had to learn. It was important to me and my family.

However, I couldn’t get my license right away. I failed my driving test two times. After practicing for a long time, I decided to go for my third driving test. I had failed my first test because I was very nervous. Everybody encouraged me to continue practicing. Three weeks later, I decided to try it again, but I failed again. After that, I was very embarrassed（困窘的）, and I said I couldn’t get it, so I stopped practicing for a while.

Not knowing how to drive was bad because I couldn’t do anything. I had two kids, my husband works, and I have to take care of everything. Driving was so necessary that I decided to try it again. And finally, that time, I passed the test. Now I have my license. I know how to drive, and it has changed my life in some important ways. Now I’m driving to the college, learning English and hoping I will get a good job in the future.

1.Why did the author think that she could never learn how to drive a car?

2. The underlined word “instructor” in the first paragraph probably means __________.

3. How many persons in the author’s family are mentioned except the author herself?

4.The passage mainly shows us that the author failed for quite a few times but she never gave up and __________.

5.The best title of this passage should be “__________”.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

I would like to tell you a story about my uncle Theo. He is my oldest uncle, a tall, thin, grey-haired man whose thoughts are always on learning and nothing else. He is quiet, gentle and absent-minded and with about as much sense as a child where money is concerned. Well, he applied a post in Camford University. It was a very good post and there were hundreds of candidates（候选人）who applied for it, and about fifteen, including Theo, were asked to be interviewed.

Camford is a very small town; there is only one hotel in it, and it was so full that they had to put many of the candidates two in a room. Theo was one of these, and the man who shared the room with him was a self-confident fellow called Adams, about twenty years younger than Theo, with a loud voice, and a laugh that you could hear all over the hotel. But he was a clever fellow all the same and had a good post in Iscaiot College, Narkover. Well, the Dean, who was the head of the department of the University, and the committee interviewed all the candidates; and as a result of this interview, the number of the candidates was reduced to two, Uncle Theo and Adams. The committee couldn’t decide which of the two to take, so they decided to make their final choice after each of the candidates had given a public lecture in the college lecture-hall. The subject they had to speak on was “The Civilization of the Ancient Summerians”; and the lecture had to be given in three days’ time.

Well, for these three days Uncle Theo never left his room. He worked day and night at that lecture, writing it out and memorizing it, almost without eating or sleeping. Adams didn’t seem to do any preparation at all. You could hear his voice and his laughter where he had a crowd of people around him. He came to his room late at night, asked Uncle Theo how he was getting on with his lecture, and then told him how he had spent the evening playing bridge, or at the music hall. He ate like a horse and slept like a log; and Uncle Theo sat up working at his lecture.

The day of the lecture arrived. They all went into the lecture hall and Theo and Adams took their seats on the platform. And then, Theo discovered, to his horror, that typewritten copy of his speech had disappeared! The Dean said they would call on the candidates on the alphabetical order, Adams first; and the despair in his heart, Theo watched Adams calmly take the stolen speech out of pocket and read it to the professors who were gathered to hear it. And how well he read it! Even Uncle Theo had to admit he couldn’t have read it nearly so eloquently（流利地）himself, and when Adams finished there was a great burst of applause. Adams bowed and smiled, and sat down.

Now, it was Theo’s turn. But what could he do? He had put everything he knew into the lecture. His mind was too much upset to put the same thoughts in another way. With a burning face he could only repeat, word for word, in a low, dull voice, the lecture that Adams had spoken so eloquently. There was hardly any applause when he sat down.

The Dean and the committee went out to decide who the successful candidate was, but everyone was sure what their decision would be. Adams leaned across to Theo and patted him on the back and said, smilingly, “Hard luck, old fellow, but after all, only one of us could win”.

Then the Dean and the committee came back, “Gentlemen”, the Dean said, “the candidate we have chosen is Mr. Hobdell.” Uncle Theo had won! The audience were completely taken by surprise, and the Dean continued, “I think I ought to tell you how we arrived at the decision. We were all filled with admiration at the learning and eloquence of Mr. Adams. I was greatly impressed. But, you will remember, Mr. Adams read his lecture to us. When Mr. Hobdell’s turn came, he repeated that speech, word by word from memory, though, of course, he couldn’t have seen a line of it before. Now a fine memory is absolutely necessary for this post; and what a memory Mr. Hobdell must have! This is why we decided that Mr. Hobdell was exactly the man we wanted! ”

As they walked out of the room, the Dean came up to Uncle Theo, who was so confused but so happy that he hardly knew whether he was standing on his head or heels; and as he shook Theo’s hand he said, “Congratulations, Mr. Hobdell! But, my dear fellow, when you are on our staff, you must be more careful and not leave valuable papers lying about!”

1.Which of the followings best describes Uncle Theo?

A. Good-mannered B. Modest

C. Childish　　　　 D. Bookish

2.What do we know about the post at Camford University?

A. The applicants had to sit for an examination.

B. There was much competition for the post.

C. The post requires a lot of teaching experience.

D. The post offered quite high salary.

3.Adams did not bother to do any preparation because______.

A. he was quite familiar with the subject.

B. he knew the committee members well.

C. he had a well-thought-out plan.

D. he had full confidence in himself.

4.When Uncle Theo’s turn came, _______.

A. he felt so angry that he couldn’t see a word.

B. he felt so upset that he could not remember anything.

C. he had to put the same thoughts in another way.

D. he had to repeat the speech, word by word from memory.

5.When the committee went out to make a decision, Adams _______.

A. could not help feeling worried.

B. could hardly wait to show his joy.

C. felt sorry for Theo and tried to cheer him up.

D. felt ashamed and tried to chat with Theo.

6.Theo became successful because _______.

A. he had a better memory than Adams.

B. he was more experienced than Adams.

C. the committee knew he was exactly the man they wanted.

D. the committee knew Adams had copied Theo’s speech.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析