Ants keep traffic flowing by changing their behavior to meet changing conditions, according to new research.
For their experiment, researchers from the University of Toulouse and the University of Arizona focused on Argentine ants, which are only 2-3 millimeters long and frequently move from colony (栖息地) to colony depending on how far food is. Tapping into the ants' talent for fast commutes (通勤), the researchers constructed bridges between their colonies. The bridges varied in width from a fifth to three-quarters of an inch.
Then the researchers sat back and monitored the traffic. To their surprise, even when those narrower bridges were nearly overloaded, there were no 20-ant pile-ups. And traffic remained steady regardless of how crowed the bridges were because ants could adjust to the flow of road conditions.
"When crowding on the path increased, ants assessed it locally and adjusted their speed accordingly to avoid any interruption of traffic flow," the researchers said. "Moreover, ants avoided entering a crowded path and made sure the bridge was never overloaded."
The lesson for humans? The traffic problem mostly lies in our loss of the quality that the ants have. You've probably noticed it on your own commute to work. Driving is fun when there're few cars on the road-a lane-change (车道变换)here, a little acceleration there. Then traffic slows down. But some impatient drivers still constantly move between lanes.
"Traffic jams are common in human society where some people are focusing on their own personal objectives," the researchers said. "In contrast, ants share a common goal: the survival of the colony, thus they're expected to act cooperatively to get food."
The research also suggests that the ever-widening of highways may never free us from traffic jams. As long as we drive along with our own agendas, no matter how many other people are on the road, we'll always end up in a traffic jam. Indeed, less space may be a good thing. It leaves less room for personal choices and forces us to take a page from the driving handbook of ants.
1.What did the researchers do to the ants in the experiment?
A.They fed them with much delicious food.
B.They trained them to avoid heavy traffic.
C.They built bridges linking their colonies.
D.They improved their colonies constantly.
2.How did the ants behave during the experiment?
A.They worked together to remove the road blocks.
B.They sped up to get out of the traffic jam quickly. .
C.They made their way carefully in the given direction.
D.They adjusted themselves for the flow of the traffic.
3.What is the biggest cause of the traffic jam in human society?
A.Poor road const ruction. B.People's inability to adjust.
C.People's selfish driving. D.Too many vehicles on roads.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A.What ants help us do for driving safety.
B.What ants can teach us about traffic jams.
C.Why ants drive much better than humans.
D.Why ants are best at handling traffic jams.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题
Ants keep traffic flowing by changing their behavior to meet changing conditions, according to new research.
For their experiment, researchers from the University of Toulouse and the University of Arizona focused on Argentine ants, which are only 2-3 millimeters long and frequently move from colony (栖息地) to colony depending on how far food is. Tapping into the ants' talent for fast commutes (通勤), the researchers constructed bridges between their colonies. The bridges varied in width from a fifth to three-quarters of an inch.
Then the researchers sat back and monitored the traffic. To their surprise, even when those narrower bridges were nearly overloaded, there were no 20-ant pile-ups. And traffic remained steady regardless of how crowed the bridges were because ants could adjust to the flow of road conditions.
"When crowding on the path increased, ants assessed it locally and adjusted their speed accordingly to avoid any interruption of traffic flow," the researchers said. "Moreover, ants avoided entering a crowded path and made sure the bridge was never overloaded."
The lesson for humans? The traffic problem mostly lies in our loss of the quality that the ants have. You've probably noticed it on your own commute to work. Driving is fun when there're few cars on the road-a lane-change (车道变换)here, a little acceleration there. Then traffic slows down. But some impatient drivers still constantly move between lanes.
"Traffic jams are common in human society where some people are focusing on their own personal objectives," the researchers said. "In contrast, ants share a common goal: the survival of the colony, thus they're expected to act cooperatively to get food."
The research also suggests that the ever-widening of highways may never free us from traffic jams. As long as we drive along with our own agendas, no matter how many other people are on the road, we'll always end up in a traffic jam. Indeed, less space may be a good thing. It leaves less room for personal choices and forces us to take a page from the driving handbook of ants.
1.What did the researchers do to the ants in the experiment?
A.They fed them with much delicious food.
B.They trained them to avoid heavy traffic.
C.They built bridges linking their colonies.
D.They improved their colonies constantly.
2.How did the ants behave during the experiment?
A.They worked together to remove the road blocks.
B.They sped up to get out of the traffic jam quickly. .
C.They made their way carefully in the given direction.
D.They adjusted themselves for the flow of the traffic.
3.What is the biggest cause of the traffic jam in human society?
A.Poor road const ruction. B.People's inability to adjust.
C.People's selfish driving. D.Too many vehicles on roads.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A.What ants help us do for driving safety.
B.What ants can teach us about traffic jams.
C.Why ants drive much better than humans.
D.Why ants are best at handling traffic jams.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Ants know when an earthquake is about to strike, researchers have discovered. Their behavior changes significantly prior to the quake and they resume normal functioning only a day after it. Gabriele Berberich of the University Duisburg-Essen in Germany presented these findings on Thursday at the European Geosciences Union annual meeting in Vienna according to LiveScience.
Berberich and her colleagues discovered that red wood ants preferred to build their colonies right along active faults in Germany. They counted 15,000 mounds （土堆)）lining the faults. These faults are the places where the earth violently bursts in earthquakes.
Using a special camera that tracked changes in activity. Berberich and her colleagues tracked the ants round the clock for three years, 2016 to 2019. They found that the ants' behavior changed only when the quake was over magnitude （级数）2. There were 10 earthquakes between magnitude 2.0 and 3.2 during this period, and many smaller ones. Humans can also sense quakes of over magnitude 2 only.
According to Berberich, normal ant activity consists of going about collecting food etc,during the day and resting in the night But before an earthquake, the ants didn't go back to their mound in the night and moved around outside it. This strange and abnormal behavior continued till a day after the earthquake, Berberich told a news conference, according to Livescience.
How do ants know an earthquake is coming? Berberich suggested that they could either be picking up changing gas emissions or noting tiny changes in the Earth's magnetic fields （磁场）. "Red wood ants have special cells which can detect changes in carbon dioxide levels. They also have special cells for detecting electromagnetic fields." she said. Berberich and her colleagues are planning to continue the research in areas where there are more and bigger earthquakes
1.What's the meaning of the underlined word "resume" in Paragraph 1?
A.Form. B.Avoid.
C.Recover. D.Improve.
2.What's the function of the first paragraph?
A.To lead to the main topic. B.To describe a new species of ant,
C.To introduce a famous researcher D.To tell how to predict an earthquake.
3.What happens to the ants before an earthquake?
A.They have no appetite. B.They are too excited to rest.
C.They get lost on their way home. D.They refuse to go inside their nests.
4.What can we conclude from the last paragraph?
A.Ants can only detect smaller earthquakes.
B.The result of the research is completely reliable.
C.Ants may have two ways to predict earthquakes.
D.Researchers don't know how ants predict earthquakes.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Some of the drivers were ______ by the police because of their good behavior in the traffic accident.
A．examined B．questioned C．praised D．punished
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Parents are fuelling bad behavior among their children by attempting to "buy" their love with expensive gifts nowadays.
Over recent decades we seem to have created a "must have" culture among our young people. Many mothers and fathers believe they are "failing as parents" if they are unable to ensure that their children have the latest toy, electronic devices (the lap-top, cellphones, Game Boy, etc.) along with their friends. In many cases, families also feel pressured to enroll (使加入) children in "'every interest club or after-school activity that is available" to fill up their time like most of the other children.
But experts warned that the move might affect "precious family time" negatively. Graham Gorton, chairman of the Independent Schools Association, said that parents spent too much time filling their children's lives, which had a series of negative effects on "the very precious family time that exists".
"It seems that those times when a whole weekend without planned work was seen as a luxury (奢侈) and a perfect opportunity to spend time together and share those valuable moments of childhood are long gone," Mr. Gorton said. "As a child I only once said that phrase that parents feared 'I'm bored'. Immediately my mother took action and produced a list of jobs and then insisted that I complete every one of them. Though l didn't think cleaning all the floors could really get rid of my boredom, I enjoyed the feeling of staying at home with my mother and brothers."
Earlier this year, some researchers suggested that relatively wealthy parents were sometimes guilty of failing to teach basic social skills to children. "Often, it’s the rich middle classes that buy off their children through the computer and the TV. That then sets them apart from their family, and then the parents are surprised when their child isn’ t coming to school."
1.The second paragraph mainly tells us that ________.
A. today’s children have little time to play
B. today’s children depend on electronic tools too much
C. today’s parents feel pressured by the "'must have" culture
D. being qualified parents becomes harder for today's young people
2.What does the "must have" phenomenon refer to based on the passage?
A. That children must have what other children have.
B. That children must have proper pressure to work hard.
C. That children must have special skills to ensure a better future.
D. That parents must have patience to know their children better.
3.Which of the following is the best advice you could give to parents based on Gorton’s statement?
A. Plan fewer activities for their children to improve family time.
B. Buy their children fewer things that they are fond of.
C. Give their children more housework to do.
D. Leave their children alone when the kids feel bored.
4.From the passage we can infer that ________.
A. wealthy parents don’t like teaching basic social skills to children
B. parents should be much more strict with their children at home
C. children should not be brought up in a wealthy and pleasant environment
D. only satisfying children’s material needs is not a good way of parenting
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Eating different colored foods can keep you healthy, as well as change your mood and behavior. Here is a list of colors, which can change your life.
Blue/Purple
Blue is considered to be peaceful and calming and it has the same effect on our health. The blue / purple color in food is due primarily to their anthocyanins which are antioxidants (抗氧化剂) that are particularly heart healthy and may help support healthy blood pressure. Out of all the blue and purple foods available, blueberries are considered to have the highest antioxidant level. An analysis of the latest data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Study found that people who eat purple and blue fruits and vegetables are at a reduced risk for high blood pressure and are less likely to be overweight.
A food and health expert says that blue and purple color foods can prevent blood mass formation, and they also lower the risk of cancer.
Foods that contain blue and purple colors are: reddish eggplant (especially the skin), blueberries, blackberries, purple grapes, etc.
Green
We all know that we should eat green as green symbolizes nature. The green foods are rich in isothiocyanates, which help resist cancer.
Dr. Ashok Agarwal, a food and nutrition specialist, explains, "They are excellent sources of folic acid, vitamin K, as well as carotene （胡萝卜素）. Diets high in those above are associated with lowered blood pressure."
Foods that contain the green color are: broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, etc.
Red
Lycopene (番茄红素) in reddish fruits and vegetables is a powerful antioxidant that has been associated with a reduced risk of some cancers, and also provides protection against heart attacks.
Dr. Smiths says, "Cooked tomato sauces are associated with greater health benefits as compared with the uncooked version as the heating process allows lycopene to be more easily absorbed by the body. Obtaining the most benefit from food depends on proper selection, storage and cooking of the produce."
Foods that contain red color are: Tomatoes and tomato products, watermelon, guava, red onions, red chili, red apples, red grapes, cherries, etc.
Orange
The orange foods are also rich in carotene, which are particularly good antioxidants. These foods are commonly considered eyesight foods because they contain vitamin A.
"Orange fruits and vegetables also play a part in preventing cancer, particularly of the lungs and stomach. Foods that contain the color orange are: Carrots, mangoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, etc.
1.The passage tries to tell us that ______.
A. colors mean a lot to people and their health
B. foods of different colors will have different benefits
C. eating foods with a color must prevent diseases
D. what people should eat in their daily lives
2.All the colors mentioned in the passage have the function of ______.
A. lowering blood pressure B. improving eyesight
C. preventing cancer D. reducing the risk of heart disease
3.Which color can help keep us thin according to the passage?
A. Purple. B. Green. C. Red. D. Orange.
4.The green and orange foods are both rich in _______.
A. vitamin A B. folic acid C. carotene D. vitamin K
5.It can be inferred from the passage that _______.
A. all grapes help lower the risk of high blood pressure and cancer
B. lung cancer can be prevented by eating red-colored foods
C. green-colored foods contain a lot of vitamin A which is good for eye health
D. tomatoes should be eaten cooked so that we can benefit the most
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
“The impact will only grow________Iran’s leaders decide to change course and meet their international obligations,” US Secretary of State Clinton warned．
A． in case that B． provided that C． unless D． until
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Jiaxing is a small city. Therefore, to ______ the flow of traffic, the government has decided to broaden some main streets.
A．speed up B．build up C．put up D．come up
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
109. The information allows businessmen to keep _____ of their list of goods by showing which items are being sold and how fast they are moving.
| A．sight | B．track | C．touch | D．Sign |
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
. This system allows businessmen to keep ______of their list of goods by showing which items are
being sold and how fast they are moving.
A. sight B. track C. touch D. sign
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
This system allows businessmen to keep ______of their list of goods by showing which items are
being sold and how fast they are moving.
A. sight B. track C. touch D. sign
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析