Monkeys seem to have a way with numbers.
A team of researchers trained three Rhesus monkeys to associate 26 clearly different symbols consisting of numbers and selective letters with 0-25 drops of water or juice as a reward. The researchers then tested how the monkeys combined—or added—the symbols to get the reward.
Here’s how Harvard Medical School scientist Margaret Livingstone, who led the team, described the experiment: In their cages the monkeys were provided with touch screens. On one part of the screen, a symbol would appear, and on the other side two symbols inside a circle were shown. For example, the number 7 would flash on one side of the screen and the other end would have 9 and 8. If the monkeys touched the left side of the screen they would be rewarded with seven drops of water or juice; if they went for the circle, they would be rewarded with the sum of the numbers—17 in this example.
After running hundreds of tests, the researchers noted that the monkeys would go for the higher values more than half the time, indicating that they were performing a calculation, not just memorizing the value of each combination.
When the team examined the results of the experiment more closely, they noticed that the monkeys tended to underestimate(低估) a sum compared with a single symbol when the two were close in value—sometimes choosing, for example, a 13 over the sum of 8 and 6. The underestimation was systematic: When adding two numbers, the monkeys always paid attention to the larger of the two, and then added only a fraction(小部分) of the smaller number to it.
“This indicates that there is a certain way quantity is represented in their brains, ”Dr. Livingstone says. “But in this experiment what they’re doing is paying more attention to the big number than the little one.”
1.What did the researchers do to the monkeys before testing them?
A.They fed them. B.They named them.
C.They trained them. D.They measured them.
2.How did the monkeys get their reward in the experiment?
A.By drawing a circle. B.By touching a screen.
C.By watching videos. D.By mixing two drinks.
3.What did Livingstone’s team find about the monkeys?
A.They could perform basic addition. B.They could understand simple words.
C.They could memorize numbers easily. D.They could hold their attention for long.
4.In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?
A.Entertainment. B.Health. C.Education. D.Science.
高三英语阅读理解困难题
Monkeys seem to have a way with numbers.
A team of researchers trained three Rhesus monkeys to associate 26 clearly different symbols consisting of numbers and selective letters with 0-25 drops of water or juice as a reward. The researchers then tested how the monkeys combined—or added—the symbols to get the reward.
Here’s how Harvard Medical School scientist Margaret Livingstone, who led the team, described the experiment: In their cages the monkeys were provided with touch screens. On one part of the screen, a symbol would appear, and on the other side two symbols inside a circle were shown. For example, the number 7 would flash on one side of the screen and the other end would have 9 and 8. If the monkeys touched the left side of the screen they would be rewarded with seven drops of water or juice; if they went for the circle, they would be rewarded with the sum of the numbers—17 in this example.
After running hundreds of tests, the researchers noted that the monkeys would go for the higher values more than half the time, indicating that they were performing a calculation, not just memorizing the value of each combination.
When the team examined the results of the experiment more closely, they noticed that the monkeys tended to underestimate(低估) a sum compared with a single symbol when the two were close in value—sometimes choosing, for example, a 13 over the sum of 8 and 6. The underestimation was systematic: When adding two numbers, the monkeys always paid attention to the larger of the two, and then added only a fraction(小部分) of the smaller number to it.
“This indicates that there is a certain way quantity is represented in their brains, ”Dr. Livingstone says. “But in this experiment what they’re doing is paying more attention to the big number than the little one.”
1.What did the researchers do to the monkeys before testing them?
A.They fed them. B.They named them.
C.They trained them. D.They measured them.
2.How did the monkeys get their reward in the experiment?
A.By drawing a circle. B.By touching a screen.
C.By watching videos. D.By mixing two drinks.
3.What did Livingstone’s team find about the monkeys?
A.They could perform basic addition. B.They could understand simple words.
C.They could memorize numbers easily. D.They could hold their attention for long.
4.In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?
A.Entertainment. B.Health. C.Education. D.Science.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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 differ in language backgrounds.
D. They reflect animal migration seasons.
2.What is the purpose of writing Paragraph 3?
A. To summarize the research process.
B. To further support the research findings.
C. To show the variety of species searches.
D. To present researchers’ heavy work load.
3.How does Mittermeier feel about the search results?
A. Satisfied with Wikipedia’s service.
B. Worried about Wikipedia behavior.
C. Amazed at people’s care about nature.
D. Sad about people’s not getting close to nature.
4.Why does Richard think such search data is useful?
A. It helps to aim at conservation targets.
B. It increases interest in big data approaches.
C. It keeps track of trends in biologists’work.
D. It pushes people to solve difficult problems.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Plants do not listen to the radio. But a team of researchers in Greece recently found a way to turn lemons into very small “radio stations” that can broadcast information about their trees’ moisture content to a smartphone—the first step toward creating what the researchers call an “Internet of plants.”
Scientists had previously attached sensors to trees to measure their water use, but “no other team had created a wireless radio network among plants, sending information while consuming only a few microwatts and costing just a few dollars,” says project leader Aggelos Bletsas, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the Technical University of Crete.
The network consists of several basic components: an existing FM radio station, an antenna (天线) attached to a lemon growing on a tree, a humidity (湿度) sensor in the lemon, a transistor connected to an antenna and an FM receiver. First, the antenna picks up the signal from the FM station, and then passes the signal to the transistor, which is modulated by the humidity sensor. The sensor switches the transistor on and off at a rate dependent on the plant’s moisture level: if the soil is wet or if the atmosphere is humid, that rate is lower; if it is dry, the rate is higher. Finally, the antenna broadcasts this information to the radio receiver on a mobile phone.
In this way, plants can tell farmers if they are thirsty. “We can literally ‘listen’ to the moisture of the plant, using our mobile FM radio with a $3.4 sensor,” Bletsas says. “Two of these sensors for every acre on any given farm might change the way we conduct agriculture and ‘understand’ plants.” He notes that more sensors may be needed for the best possible results. Such real-time information could enable better control of air and soil moisture.
Why go through all this trouble and not just use already common wireless technology, such as Bluetooth? “Not only is our technique less complex, as we are just borrowing signals in the environment,” Bletsas says, but “a Bluetooth-based sensor costs about $25. Our final aim is to launch sensors onto the market costing less than $1.”
“Bletsas and his team are completely changing the way of environmental sensing using very simple equipment and surprisingly little power,” says Alexandros Dimakis, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Texas at Austin, who was not involved in the research. “Their work could be a transformational Internet of Things technology for agriculture and for monitoring the environment.”
Bletsas and his colleagues have already applied for a patent for their innovative technology in America.
1.The radio network created by Greek researchers _________.
A.consumes much energy
B.can be put in a smartphone
C.uses simple technology at low cost
D.broadcasts radio programs to plants
2.What does the underlined word “modulated” in Paragraph 3 mean?
A.Monitored. B.Adjusted.
C.Measured. D.Connected.
3.What is Alexandros Dimakis’ attitude to the “radio network”?
A.Positive. B.Critical.
C.Neutral. D.Doubtful.
4.What is the purpose of the passage?
A.To discuss methods of studying plants.
B.To assess the efficiency of Internet of plants.
C.To stress the importance of keeping soil’s moisture.
D.To introduce a new way of measuring plants’ water use.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
At the well-known research institute at Princeton, they have a number of laboratories with computers _________ each room.
A.equipping with B.equipped C.equipped with D.equipping
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
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 an inaccurate measure of biological age so a more accurate method was needed, the team said.
Ageing is driven by the lifelong gradual accumulation 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, 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 biological age. B. His condition.
C. His psychology. 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 increases in oxidative damage in urine.
C. The accumulation of various molecular faults in the body’s cells.
D. The changes in their genetic make-up and their environment.
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. How to delay people’s ageing physically.
C. A rapid method with which to judge how much people are aging physically.
D. What determines the stage of people’s ageing physically.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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 an inaccurate measure of biological age so a more accurate method was needed, the team said.
Ageing is driven by the lifelong gradual accumulation 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, 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 condition. B. His biological age.
C. His psychology. 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 increases in oxidative damage in urine.
C. The changes in their genetic make-up and their environment.
D. The accumulation of various molecular faults in the body’s cells.
3.Which can take the place of the underlined word “marker” in the sixth paragraph?
A. 8-oxoGsn.
B. Molecular faults.
C. Oxidative damage.
D. Stage of biological ageing in adults.
4.What is the passage about?
A. Why people are ageing.
B. How to delay people’s ageing physically.
C. What determines the stage of people’s ageing physically.
D. A rapid method with which to judge how much people are aging physically.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Recently, researchers at the University of Toronto figured out a way with a quick video selfie to accurately measure blood pressure with your smartphone’s camera by developing a technology known as transdermal optical imaging (TOI)(透皮光学成像).
Cameras on smartphones can catch red light reflected from hemoglobin (血红素)under our skin, which permits TOI to visualize and measure blood flow changes. Researchers measured the blood pressure of 1,328 Canadian and Chinese adults by getting two-minute videos of their faces on an iPhone. “From the video got by the technology, you can see how the blood flows in different parts of the face and through this flow, you can get a lot of information,” said Kang Lee, lead author of the study.
Lee also helped create an app called Anura, which allows people to try out the TOI software for themselves, giving them the ability to record a 30-second video of their face and receive measurements for stress levels and resting heart rate. Lee said more research was needed to make sure that the measurements were as accurate as possible, explaining that the study didn’t test people with very dark or very fair skin.
“In order to improve our app to make it usable, particularly for people with hypertension (高血压),we need to collect a lot of data from them, which is very hard because a lot of them are already taking medicine,” Lee explained. “We cannot tell them not to take medicine, but from time to time, we get participants who don’t take medicine so we can get hypertensive people this way.”
The scientists said there were many potential applications of the technology, including providing health services for those who lived in remote areas.
1.What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 2?
A.Information offered by TOI. B.New findings on hypertension.
C.How TOI is put into smart phones. D.How the TOI technology works.
2.What might people benefit from the new technology mentioned above?
A.Living a life free from stress. B.Improving the heart function gradually.
C.Accessing health services for free. D.Knowing abnormal blood pressure earlier.
3.What can be done for a better Anura?
A.Equipping phones with better cameras.
B.Allowing phones to record longer videos.
C.Collecting data from more diverse samples.
D.Persuading participants not to take medicine.
4.Why does the author write this text?
A.To predict future applications of TOI.
B.To introduce TOI and an app related.
C.To describe functions of cameras on phones.
D.To evaluate the quality of an app called Anura.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Monkeys prefer heavy metal to classical music, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin whose findings are published this week in Biology Letters.
Scientists played a selection of music to a group of South American cotton-top monkeys but the only sound that got a reaction were from the heavy metal band Metallica. They were seemingly disinterested in Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis and Bach, but after the beautiful sound of Master of Puppets by Metallica was played the monkeys calmed down.
"Monkeys interpret rising and falling sounds differently than humans. Oddly, their only response to several samples of human music was a calming response to the heavy-metal band Metallica," said Professor Charles Snowdon, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Rather than making them excited or aggressive, the heavy metal tracks had a comforting effect. Dr Snowdon, who teamed up with National Symphony Orchestra musican David Teie, also played the monkeys music composed specifically for them. Although they enjoyed Metallica, they were much more interested in these pieces.
A melody(乐曲) based on the short calls of scared monkeys led to anxiety levels rapidly growing, researchers found, while one based on long calls the creatures make when they are happy had a calming effect.
Frans B.M. de Waal, a professor of psychology at Emory University who studies animals, said the findings appear to say more about how monkeys respond to the sounds they make than they do about music or the evolution of music.
Dr Snowdon no longer has a monkey colony to use in his research, but he said his co-author David Teie is exploring the concept of music for cats.
"If we understand how we can affect their emotional states through using musical sound and aspects of our speech, maybe those of us living with companion animals can have a better relationship with them, too," Snowdon said.
1.The research mentioned in the passage is mainly about ______.
A. the change of music over time B. animals’ response to music
C. special music for animals D. the origin of music
2.When the monkeys heard the music they liked, they ______.
A. looked anxious B. became restless
C. felt at ease D. made long calls
3.According to the passage, the monkeys are most interested in the music ______.
A. of Led Zeppelin B. of Miles Davis
C. of Metallica D. specially composed for them
4.The aim of the research, according to Professor Snowdon, is to ______.
A. build better ties between animals and humans
B. compare monkeys and cats in term of music
C. develop new music based on animals’ calls
D. find better ways to keep animals under control
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
BEIJING - A research team led by Chinese scientists have discovered dietary modulation of gut microbiota(膳食干预肠道菌群)can alleviate both genetic and simple obesity in children.
The findings of the team, led by Zhao Liping with Shanghai Jiaotong University, Yin Aihua with the Guangdong province children's hospital, and Tang Huiru with Chinese Academy of Sciences, have been published on EBioMedicine, a renowned medical journal co-sponsored by Cell and The Lancet in July.
The team identified bacterial genomes specifically for producing obesity-related metabolites(代谢物), and said an improved gut microbiota can significantly help to treat genetic obesity such as Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS).
Beginning in childhood, PWS affected kids develop an insatiable appetite, leading to chronic overeating and obesity.
The scientists used a diet therapy with beneficial gut bacteria on trial patients and found considerable diminished appetite, weight loss and improved health conditions on the patients.
The paper concluded dysbiosis (失调)of gut microbiota is highly related with both genetic and simple obesity in children, implicating dietary modulation of gut microbiota a potentially effective treatment method.
1. Which of the following factors contributes to child obesity?
A. dietary modulation of gut microbiota
B. beneficial gut bacteria
C. an improved gut microbiota
D. dysbiosis of gut microbiota
2. Which can replace the underlined word “diminished”?
A. unsatisfied B. increased
C. decreased D. good
3. Where is the passage extracted?
A. Medicine book B. Science book
C. Doctor’s instructions D. News report
4. Which might be the best title for the passage?
A. Chinese scientists discover treatment to child obesity.
B .The reasons for genetic obesity in children has been found.
C. Obesity-related research has been done by Chinese scientists.
D. An effective treatment to obesity has been found.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
BEIJING - A research team led by Chinese scientists have discovered dietary modulation of gut microbiota(膳食干预肠道菌群)can alleviate both genetic and simple obesity in children.
The findings of the team, led by Zhao Liping with Shanghai Jiaotong University, Yin Aihua with the Guangdong province children's hospital, and Tang Huiru with Chinese Academy of Sciences, have been published on EBioMedicine, a renowned medical journal co-sponsored by Cell and The Lancet in July.
The team identified bacterial genomes specifically for producing obesity-related metabolites(代谢物), and said an improved gut microbiota can significantly help to treat genetic obesity such as Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS).
Beginning in childhood, PWS affected kids develop an insatiable appetite, leading to chronic overeating and obesity.
The scientists used a diet therapy with beneficial gut bacteria on trial patients and found considerable diminished appetite, weight loss and improved health conditions on the patients.
The paper concluded dysbiosis(失调)of gut microbiota is highly related with both genetic and simple obesity in children, implicating dietary modulation of gut microbiota a potentially effective treatment method.
1.Which of the following factors contributes to child obesity ?
A. dietary modulation of gut microbiota
B. beneficial gut bacteria
C. an improved gut microbiota
D. dysbiosis of gut microbiota
2.Which can replace the underlined word “diminished”?
A. unsatisfied B. increased
C. decreased D. good
3.Where is the passage extracted?
A. Medicine book B. Science book
C. Doctor’s instructions D. News report
4.Which might be the best title for the passage?
A. Chinese scientists discover treatment to child obesity.
B.The reasons for genetic obesity in children has been found.
C. Obesity-related research has been done by Chinese scientists.
D. An effective treatment to obesity has been found.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析