Some fish form huge schools. Could fish set up schools and teach their children how to survive in the ocean? You may ask. No. Here the “schools” are not the places where you study. They are fish shoals (魚群) that cover tens of kilometers. What causes hundreds of millions of fish to gather and move together is one of biology’s mysteries.
Darkness appears to be the first step to the creation of shoals, according to a study published in the March 27 journal Science. A team of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and five other institutions studied Atlantic herring (鯡魚), which forms shoals on a fishing ground off Massachusetts. They used an underwater imaging technology and fish-finding sonar (聲納) to observe the herring over several days in autumn when they spawn (產卵).
They found that, as the sun set, fish in scattered (分散的) groups began swimming much closer to one another than they normally do. When the number of fish reached a certain point in an area, this set off a chain reaction of similar behavior that spread like a sound wave through the water.
The herring’s movement seemed to be started by sunset. The team didn’t record the breakup of these shoals, but a previous study suggested that as the sun rose, the shoals fell apart.
“When the light fades (逐漸消失), it’s safer for the fish to move away from the seabed,” says Nicholas Makris, a professor at MIT who led the research. “Once they have a certain number of other fish, they suddenly come together - forming a shoal covering tens of kilometers within tens of minutes.”
Herring form shoals to migrate during the autumn spawning season. Some shoals were 40 km across and 30 m from top to bottom. They formed in deep water and moved into more shallow waters to spawn.
Forming shoals helps protect them from predators (掠食者) by giving them simple strength in numbers. The ordered movement of the shoal means the fish can reach their spawning ground more quickly and more safely.
Scientists have never before gathered information on so many animals acting together. Understanding these herring shoals could lead to more ideas about what causes animals to move in schools, says Iain Couzin, a biologist at Princeton University, US.
1. Which school in the following expressions is used the same way as the underlined one in the first paragraph?
A. schools of thoughts       B. school a horse   C. a school of whales       D. a medical school
2. Which of the following statements is true?
A. There are more large shoals of herring at night than in the daytime.
B. The research on Atlantic herring was conducted independently by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
C. The larger the shoal of herring is, the more slowly it moves.
D. Scientists have found out the reason why fish gather and move together in huge shoals.
3. According to the research, herring tend to get together except ______.
A.when there are predators around  B. when they spawn C. when the sun sets  D. when the sun rises
4. What seems to be the main reason for herring to gather and move together?
A. To avoid the darkness.
B. To keep other kinds of fish out of their spawning ground.
C. To spawn in the shallow waters.
D. To make themselves feel safe.

小題1:C
小題2:A
小題3:D
小題4:D
練習冊系列答案
相關習題

科目:高中英語 來源:不詳 題型:閱讀理解



People should be warned against using mobile phones outdoors in stormy weather because they may “be struck by lightning”, according to doctors.
Three experts have described how a teenage girl was struck by lightning while using her phone in a large London park. The girl, aged 15, recovered, but a year later was still wheelchair-bound and found to be suffering complex physical and emotional problems.
The girl also had a perforate eardrum(打孔耳膜)on the side where she had been holding the mobile phone. She was having general recovery in Northwick Park Hospital, Middlesex.
Swinda Esprit, a senior house offi­cer, said that while the brain and muscle damage was similar to that of many lightning victims—who can experience heart attacks on being struck— the ear problems were not.
She said that the damages were particularly relevant for people who might be involved in less seri­ous lightning incidents, who might other­wise recover, but would never get their full hearing back if struck while on the phone.
“We were shocked by the damage, which is why we wanted to draw attention to it,” Dr Esprit said. “A year on and she still was suffering these difficult hearing.”
They added that three other cases had been reported in newspapers in China, South Korea, and Malaysia. In the Malaysian case, a sales executive was killed by lightning while talking on his phone during a thun­derstorm near Kuala Lumpur.
“All these events resulted in death,” the doctors wrote. “This rare phe­nomenon is a public health issue, and edu­cation is necessary to stress the risk.”
The Australian Lightning Protection Standard recommends that metallic objects, including cordless or mobile phones, should not be carried out­doors during thunderstorms. However, “the United States National Weather Service says on its website that both are safe to use “because there is no direct path between you and the lightening”.
Paul Taylor, of “the Met Office”, said the ear injuries were a consequence of mobile phones being metal, and not related to radio waves.
Mr. Taylor said that mobile phones should be treated as another piece of metal, similar to carrying coins or wearing rings, and people need to be warned against the possi­ble danger.
51. What do we know about the teenage girl?
A. She was struck by lightning at school.
B. She completely recovered from being struck.
C. She still suffered from mental problems.
D. She had to press her ear all day.
52. It can be inferred that damage done by lightening while using mobile phones ______.
A. is more serious than that when one is not using a mobile phone                         
B. can be healed quickly except for heart attacks
C. is less serious because the victims can usually recover                   
D. is mainly in the brain and muscle of the victims
53. Why did doctors stress the risk about using phones outside in lightening?
A. Because more people are faced with it.     B. Because some deaths have been caused.
C. Because lightning is harmful for the brain.   D. Because a teenage girl got killed.
54. We can infer from the last three paragraphs that ______.
A. both cordless and mobile phones are safe to use outside in lightning
B. there is no direct connection between lightning and ear injuries at all
C. opinions differ as to whether it is safe to use mobiles phones in lightning
D. ear injuries are the result of carrying coins or wearing rings in lightning
55. The purpose in writing this passage is ______.
A. to draw attention to the risk of using mobile phones in lightening
B. to focus on various damages done to lightning victims
C. to tell us the news that a teenage girl was struck by lightning
D. to stress the danger of making phone calls in lightning

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語 來源:不詳 題型:閱讀理解


For Sparky, school was all but impossible. He failed every subject in the eighth grade. He flunked physics in high school, getting a grade of zero. Sparky also flunked Latin, algebra and English. He didn't do much better in sports. Although he did manage to make the school's golf team, he promptly lost the only important match of the season. There was a consolation(安慰) match; he lost that, too.
Throughout his youth Sparky was awkward socially. He was not actually disliked by the other students; no one cared that much. He was astonished if a classmate ever said hello to him outside of school hours. There's no way to tell how he might have done at dating. Sparky never once asked a girl to go out in high school. He was too afraid of being turned down.
Sparky was a loser. He, his classmates...everyone knew it. So he rolled with it. Sparky had made up his mind early in life that if things were meant to work out, they would. Otherwise he would content himself with what appeared to be his inevitable mediocrity(平凡).
However, one thing was important to Sparky - drawing. He was proud of his artwork. Of course, no one else appreciated it. In his senior year of high school, he submitted some cartoons to the editors of the Yearbook. Although the cartoons were turned down., Sparky was so convinced of his ability that he decided to become an artist.
After completing high school, he wrote a letter to Walt Disney Studios. He was told to send some samples of his artwork, and the subject for a cartoon was suggested. Sparky spent a great deal of time o it. Finally, the reply came from Disney Studios. He had been rejected once again. Anther loss for the loser.
So Sparky decided to write his own autobiography(自傳) in cartoons. He described his childhood - a little boy loser and chronic underachiever. The cartoon character would soon become famous worldwide. For Sparky, the boy who had such a lack of success in school and whose work was rejected again and again, was Charles Schultz. He created the Peanuts comic strip(連環(huán)漫畫) and the little cartoon character whose kite would never fly and who never succeeded in kicking a football--Charlie Brown.
68.From the first paragraph we can see that Sparky was       in high school.
A.a failure   B.an artist    C.a good player   D.a top student
69.Sparky never asked a classmate to go out with him because he was afraid of     .
A.making mistakes      B.making friends
C.being refused          D.being invited
70.In his senior year, Sparky felt confident that he had ability to         .
A.play golf  B.draw cartoons   C.learn English    D.write novels
71.His only success mentioned in this passage is       .
A.his golf match in high school  B.his artwork sent to the Yearbook
C.his subjects in the senior year  D.his autobiography in cartoons
72.From the passage we can infer that Sparky is a         person.
A.weak B.proud       C.disabled    D.determined

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語 來源:不詳 題型:閱讀理解


Which gender is the most talkative? No matter what you answer, you are partially right.
A recent Gallup Poll showed that both men and women believe that women possess the gift of talking and some even believe women are biologically built for conversation, but all of that is challenged in a research published in the November issue of Personality and Social Psychology Review.
In a recent research by Campbell Leaper and Melanie Ayres, they collected all of the available evidence from decades of scientific study and systematically combined the findings into an overall picture of the differences between men and women regarding talkativeness.
They found a small but reliable tendency(趨勢) for men to be more talkative than women in certain cases, such as when they were conversing with their wives or with strangers. Women talked more to their children and to their college classmates.
The type of speech was also explored in the research. The researchers discovered that, with strangers, women were generally more talkative when it came to using speech to ensure her connection to the listener, while men’s speech focused more on an attempt to influence the listener. With close friends and family, however, there was very little difference between genders in the amount of speech.
60.This passage mainly talks about a research conducted by _______ .
A. Gallup Poll       B. Personality and Social Psychology Review
C. Campbell Leaper and Melanie Ayres       D. the author
61.Which of the following statements describes the main idea of the passage?
A. Women are born more talkative than men.
B. Men are born more talkative than women.
C. Women and men are talkative in different cases.
D. Women are no more talkative than men.
62.The underlined word gender means _______.
A. people       B. nationality  C. culture       D. sex
63.Talking with strangers, ________.
A. women are more talkative than with people they know
B. men are more talkative than with their wives
C. women prefer to listen more rather than speak more
D. men speak a lot to have their opinions accepted

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語 來源:不詳 題型:閱讀理解

If you don’t use a dictionary. What should you do instead? The first thing you can do is trying to guess what the word means. Often the surrounding context gives a very clear idea of the meaning of the word. Even if you can’t work out the meaning exactly, you may be able to get a vague idea, enough to enable you to continue reading.
Sometimes It is impossible to guess the meaning of a word from the context and then you will have to decide whether the word is important enough to make it worthwhile stopping and looking it up in a dictionary or whether you can just pass it by.
Many times in your reading, you will come across words which you don’t know, but which do not prevent you from understanding all the main points of the text. You can made your dictionary use much more efficient if you only look up the words which are necessary to understand the text. and this means that you must develop the skill to decide whether the words are worth looking up.
小題1:The passage mainly tells us in our reading what we would do         .
A.without knowledge of English
B.when we look up words in a dictionary
C.when we are guessing new words
D.without using a dictionary
小題2:What does the underlined word“vague”mean?
A.Mysterious.B.Not clear.C.Exact. D.Important.
小題3:In our reading some words we don’t know         .
A.help us to understand the text well
B.don’t prevent us from understanding the main points of the text
C.will be remembered forever
D.are borrowed from other languages
小題4:In this passage the writer         
A.advised us to use the dictionary as much as possible
B.told us not to be discouraged by the sight of a dictionary
C.gave us some advice on how to deal with these unknown words
D.introduced some ways to take notes in the course of reading

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語 來源:不詳 題型:完形填空


二:完形填空(共15小題,每小題1分,滿分15分)
閱讀下面的短文,掌握其大意。然后從21-35各題所給的四個選項中選出最佳選項,并在答題卡上將該項涂黑。
How to get rid of waste is a great problem for the world today. Waste must be treated   21  it does not become a danger to life.   22  , in some countries, waste from factories is still poured straight into rivers. People who use the water from one of these rivers often get   23 . The water  may become so polluted that it   24  all the fish in the river. When these rivers finally reaches the   25  , it pollutes the ocean.
In many countries with   26 , human waste is piped directly into the sea without being dealt with. This is not   27  . Although the sea itself can break up the waste, beaches   28  become polluted.   29  scientists suggest people take the waste far out to sea in ships where the wind and waves break it down.
In 1989 an international law was passed to   30  people putting waste into the sea. It is now against the   31   to put anything into the sea nearby. Such rubbish as plastics may not be thrown   32  the sea anywhere. Other waste may be put into the sea, either 19 or more than 40 kilometers from land,   33  the nature of the materials.
The   34  of dealing with waste has become so great that several international organizations have been   35   to protect the world and control pollution.
21. A. as if                   B. so that             C. ever since               D. now that
22. A. Luckily               B. Happily           C. Unfortunately         D. Hopefully
23 A. sick                        B. hope               C. rich                        D. fun
24. A. raises                  B. feeds               C. kills                       D. breaks
25. A. pool                   B. lake                C. spring                    D. sea
26. A. grassland         B. plains                 C. sea coasts          D. deserts
27. A. safe                    B. useful                     C. dirty                 D. wrong
28. A. need                   B. may                   C. can’t             D. needn’t
29. A. So                      B. Because              C. Since                D. But
30. A. stop                    B. suggest               C. keep                 D. find
31. A. school                B. organization        C. factory                     D. law
32. A. out of                 B. away from                 C. into                  D. above
33. A. depending on    B. feeding on                 C. leading to       D. connecting to
34. A. news                  B. method               C. problem            D. disadvantage
35. A. punished             B. set up                     C. refused              D. called at

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語 來源:不詳 題型:閱讀理解


A.I. (人工智能) is just starting to become part of our lives, and books and movies have been talking about A.I. and robots for years. Mostly, in these books and movies,  the computers and robots turn out to be the enemies of  the human race. Here is a selection of some famous A.I.  movies..
2001: A Space Odyssey
In the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, HAL is one of the first computers to talk like a human.  HAL is very frightening because it speaks in a calm voice as it goes on a killing spree (瘋狂殺戮). When the astronauts attempt to hide in a smaller spaceship and switch off the microphones,  HAL uses a camera to read their lips and understand what the astronauts are saying.
The Terminator
In The Terminator, a computer thinks that its deadly enemies are human beings.  As a result,  the computer launches missiles (導彈) to start international wars and then builds killer robots to destroy the human race.
The Matr/x
In The Matrix,  a computer takes over the world and uses human beings for energy.   The computer keeps people alive by making them think that they are still living normal lives. A few brave rebels (叛逆者) decide to fight against the computer.
Star War movies
In the Star War movies,  computerised robots are used as servants and soldiers. R2-D2, a small cylindrical (圓柱形的) robot, and C-3PO, a tall talking robot, help some humans defeat the evil ruler,  Darth Vader,  in a dangerous battle between the forces of good and evil.
1, In the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, the astronauts switch off the microphones to
A. prevent HAL hearing whom they axe calling
B. prevent HAL hearing what they are saying
C. force HAL to use a camera
D. force HAL to speak loudly
2. If you want to know how an intelligent computer uses human beings for energy, you should watch __
A. The Terminator.
B. 2001: A Space Odyssey'
C. Star War movies
D. The Matrix
3. R2-D2 and C-3PO stand for
A. the scientific forces
B. the natural forces
C. the good forces
D. the evil forces
4. What do the four movies have in common?
A. They all have the same ending.
B. They are about a similar theme.
C. They are all based on science fiction books.
D. They started heated discussions about A.I.

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語 來源:不詳 題型:閱讀理解


The “Bystander Apathy Effect” was first studied by researchers in New York after neighbours ignored --- and in some cases turned up the volume on their TVs --- the cries of a woman as she was murdered (over a half-hour period). With regard to helping those in difficulty generally, they found that:
women are helped more than men;
men help more than women;
attractive women are helped more than unattractive women.
Other factors relate to the number of people in the area, whether the person is thought to be in trouble through their own fault, and whether a person sees himself as being able to help.
According to Adrian Furnham, Professor of University College, London, there are three reasons why we tend to stand by doing nothing:
“Shifting of responsibility” --- the more people there are, the less likely help is to be given. Each person excuses himself by thinking someone else will help, so that the more “other people” there are, the greater the total shifting of responsibility.
“Fear of making a mistake” --- situations are often not clear. People think that those involved in an incident may know each other or it may be a joke, so a fear of embarrassment makes them keep themselves to themselves.
“Fear of the consequences if attention is turned on you, and the person is violent.”
Laurie Taylor, Professor of Sociology at London University, says: “In the experiments I’ve seen on intervention(介入), much depends on the neighborhood or setting. There is a silence on public transport which is hard to break. We are embarrassed to draw attention to something that is happening, while in a football match, people get involved , and a fight would easily follow.”
Psychotherapist Alan Dupuy identifies the importance of the individual: “the British as a whole have some difficulty intervention, but there are exceptional individuals in every group who are prepared to intervene, regardless of their own safety. These would be people with a strong moral code or religious ideals.”
60. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. Pretty women are more likely to be helped.
B. People on a bus are more likely to stop a crime.
C. Religious people are more likely to look on.
D. Criminals are more likely to harm women.
61. Which factor is NOT related with intervention according to the passage?
A. Sex.          B. Nationality.                     C. Profession.               D. Setting.
62. Which phenomenon can be described as the “Bystander Apathy Effect”?
A. A man is more likely to help than a woman.
B. In a football match, people get involved in a fight.
C. Seeing a murder, people feel sorry that it should have happened.
D. On hearing a cry for help, people keep themselves to themselves.
63. The author wrote this article _______.
A. to explain why bystanders behave as they do
B. to urge people to stand out when in need
C. to criticize the selfishness of bystanders
D. to analyze the weakness of human nature

查看答案和解析>>

科目:高中英語 來源:不詳 題型:閱讀理解


Talking to plants makes them grow, especially if you ‘re a woman ,according to an experiment by the Ryal  Horticultural Society(RHS皇家園藝學會).
Women gardeners’ voices speed up growth of tomato plants much more than men’s, it found.
In an experiment that ran over a month, they found that tomato plants grew up  two inches taller if they were serenaded by the sweet tones of a female rather tha a male.
Appropriately the most effective talk came from Sarah Darwin ,whose great-great grandfather was legendary botanist(植物學家)Charles Darwin, one of the founding fathers of the RHS’ Scientific Committee. She read a passage from On the Orgin of Species and beat nine other”voices”.
Her plant grew nearly two inches taller than the best performing male and half an inch higher than her nearest competitor.
The experment began in Apirl,2009 at RHS Garden Wisley in Surrey. A variety of recorded voices were picked to play to 10 taomato plants over a month. Every plant was played a voice through headphones connected to the plant pot, and the conditions for all the plants remained the same throughout the experiment. To ensure the experiment was fair, two control plants were also left to grow in silence.
The results showed that women on average saw their plants rise by an inch on their male competitors. Some men were so bad that their plants actually grew less than a plant that was left completely alone.
Colin Crosbie, the leader at RHS, said:”We’re not sure why the female voice is more effecitive, It could be that they have a greater range of pitch and tone that affects the sound waves that hit the plant. Sound waves are an emvironmental effect just like rain or light.”
67.What is the best title for the passage?
A. Plants can’t grow faster without female voices
B. Women’s voices are more useful than men’s
C. Women’s voices make plants grow faster
D. Voices have positive effects on the growth of plants
68.The underlined word”serenaded” in Paragraph 3 most probably means”________”.
A.sung songs to
B.spoken to
C.talked about
D. played music to
69.According to the passage, ten_________were used in the experiment.
A.tomato plants
B.headphones
C. tape recorders
D.plant pots
70.What can we know about the findings of the experiment from the passage?
A. The women’s voices made the palnts grow faster by half an inch than the men’s.
B.Sarah Darwin’s plant grew 2 inches taller than her neraest competitor’s.
C. The plants which grew in silence did not necessarily grow the slowest
D. The women’s plants grew 2 inches taller than the men’s on average.

查看答案和解析>>

同步練習冊答案