Imagine putting some bacteria in the freezer and taking them out millions of years later to find that they are still alive.

That would be similar to what happened recently, when scientists brought eight-million-year-old bacteria back to life ― simply by thawing them out.

The ancient bacteria were found frozen in the world's oldest known tracts of ice, the glaciers (冰川) of Antarctica.

Professor Bidle and his colleagues found and revived (復(fù)活) two samples of bacteria from the glacial ice. The first was a hundred thousand years old, and the second was around eight million years old. The eight-million-year-old bacteria were alive. But their genes were seriously damaged from long exposure to cosmic (宇宙 ) radiation, which is higher at the earth's poles.

Most of the bacteria in the samples probably blew over from African deserts, said Paul Falkowski, a scientist at Rutgers University. Once the bacteria landed on the glacier's snowy surface, they combined with the snow to form ice. "These ices are actually gene banks," he added.

As glaciers and ice caps melt as a result of increasing global warming, large amounts of bacterial genetic material might be washed into the ocean.

These bacteria might get incorporated into today's bacteria in the ocean, or living bacteria from the ice might also grow and have an important effect on the ecosystem.

"How that's going to play out, we don't know," Bidle said. He and Falkowski plan to focus their future work on how current ice melting influences modem bacteria's genetic diversity.

68. Professor Bidle found that the eight-million-year-old bacteria were __.

A. alive with their genes damaged

B. as active as the one-hungred-thousand-year-old ones

C. totally the same as what they used to be

D. harder to revive than the one-hundred-thousand-year-old ones

69. According to Paul Falkowski, the ices in Antarctica are gene banks because ____.

A. there are bacteria from African deserts    B. dead bacteria in them can be easily revived

C. they are fit for people to store bacteria    D. plenty of living bacteria can be found in them

70. Professor Bidle and Paul Falkowski will probably do research into the influences of ____.

A. global warming                         B. bacteria's genetic diversity

C. glacier melting                          D. biological diversity

71. What is the passage mainly about?

A. Ocean exploration.                        B. A scientific plan.

C. A scientific discovery.                   D. An interesting experiment.

Request a teacher training workshop or school visit

 If you are interested in discovering new ways to supplement the materials you use in the classroom through the use of a daily newspaper, our Youth Outreach Specialist can come to your school and show you how to incorporate(將...包括在內(nèi) )the news into your curriculum. Armed with your newspapers and experience, she can conduct an activity with your class, making it fun and easy for you to bring real-world learning into your classroom.

The Outreach Specialist is also available to run workshops with staff who are also looking for new ideas on how to use the newspaper as a learning tool. Please send us an e-mail at ghiten@seattletimes.com or give us a call at 206/652-6290. Once we have received your request, we will confirm the date, time, place and activity with you. Your request will be honored of a first-come, first-served basis.

These services are FREE for current Newspapers In Education (NIE) subscribers (訂戶). We recently visited Ridgecrest Elementary and conducted a class workshop. An overview of our time in the classroom, and our in-class lesson, can be read online.

Schedule a tour

Follow a newspaper from start to finish ... and get your copy that has just recently been printed. See how robots move giant paper rolls, how the press is "prepared" for printing and much more. Tours of our North Creek production facility in Bothell are offered Thursdays throughout the school year at either 10 am, 11 am or 4 pm. The tour lasts one hour.

To make reservations contact:

Kate Palmer

425/489-7000

kpalmer® seattletimes.com

North Creek Facility is located at:

19200 120th Avenue NE, Bothell. WA 98011-9506

64. The Youth Outreach Specialist is most probably ____.

A. a daily newspaper                                      B. an educational organization

C. a person in an educational aid project            D. a learning tool

65. People who send an e-mail at ghiten@seattletimes.com earliest may ____.

A. be offered Newspapers In Education free

B. be offered latest reading materials free

C. become a good organizer in the classroom

D. get the earliest service offered by the advertiser

66. The purpose of the tour is to ____.

A. show people how a newspaper is made     B. show people how a newspaper is edited

C. encourage people to visit Bothell              D. encourage people to read a newspaper

67. When can people go on a trip to the North Creek production facility?

A. At any time on Thursdays.

B. On Thursday mornings during the school year.

C. On Thursdays during summer vacation.

D. At either 10 am, ll am or 4 am all the year around.

When asked what they want for a gift, most teens would say a CD player, or maybe an iPod, but I want Lego. I received my first set for my fifth birthday, a tiny pizzeria with an umbrella and a delivery truck. Since then my collection has expanded rapidly and I have built skyscrapers, constructed spaceships and designed submarines.

There is a small area in my house designated (命名) as The Lego Room. Beyond its door, I fantasize and govern my own small world of castles, modem cities, and thousands of Lego people. Each time I enter The Lego Room, a new story is created. Once, a friend asked to tour this room.

Amazed by my Star Wars models, he reached for a ship and accidentally knocked over a restaurant, breaking it to pieces! This disaster became an opportunity to rebuild and I fashioned a two-story food court with a McDonald's, pizzeria, and drive-thru. It was better than the original!

Ideas for new constructions fill my head and I write them down in a sketchbook. Lego represents a creative consistency (堅(jiān)持) in my life, much as an artist has his canvas (帆布) and a musician, his violin. Lego has taught me to be an architect, engineer, governor, economist and so on.

Lego has provided the building blocks of my future, developing my math skills and ability to follow complex directions. As I build new worlds, brick by brick, I imagine my own possibilities and opportunities. Through the "lives" of my Lego friends, I have been able to act out all kinds of experiences. They have served as a link between my childhood and manhood. My friends say I'm childlike and there is truth to that, but perhaps we should all find a way to keep in touch with our childhood. Lego is mine.

60. What did the author receive for his fifth birthday?

A. Some CDs.        B. An iPod.        C. A kind of toy.      D. A book

61. When one of the author's friends visited The Lego Room, ____.

A. he destroyed a model by accident

B. he became very disappointed

C. he tried building a new model

D. he gave the author some advice

62. With Lego in the room, the author probably feels ____.

A. regretful            B. shameful       C. childlike            D. proud

63. What can we infer from the passage?

A. The author likes collecting anything but Lego.

B. The author wants to be an architect.

C. The author has benefited a lot from playing with Lego.

D. The author doesn't want to grow up.

BOGOTA (Reuters) ― Colombian mobile telephone users are being tricked by criminals who pretend to be phone operators and instruct them to turn off their cellphones just long enough to demand a large amount of money from their families.

Colombia has seen a large number of cases in which mobile phone customers receive messages telling them to turn off their cellphones for two hours because their telephones havebeen cloned, police say.

The criminals then contact family members of the phone user to say that he or she has been taken hostage (人質(zhì)). Families who have no way of contacting their relative are directed where to drop off money before the two hours are up.

"If you get a call telling you to turn off your cellphone, contact the official department." Local television channel Caracol told viewers during a Tuesday news program.

BERLIN (Reuters) ― A Berlin court has sentenced a man known as "Schnitzel Stephan" to 18 months in prison for cheating 64 restaurants in the past year.

The man of 160 kg, with a thin grey beard, would regularly order lamb chops, steak or Viennese schnitzel along with several beers. When the bill came, he either ran for the door or told the waiter he had no money.

Iris Berger, a spokeswoman for the Berlin Justice Department, said on Thursday the 43-year-old jobless truck driver had been convicted (判罪 ) on 64 counts of fraud (欺詐 ). The total damage to restaurants was $4,100.

56. According to the first piece of news, which of the following happens first?

A. Cellphone users turn off their mobile telephones.

B. Cellphone users receive messages from criminals.

C. Criminals contact family members of the phone user.

D. Criminals get lots of money from the victims.

57. If cellphone users are told to turn off their phones, what are they advised to do?

A. Contact TV stations.                   B. Keep in touch with their family members.

C. Report it to the police.                 D. Think twice before doing something.

58. The man in the second piece of news was accused of____.

A. murder        B. robbery            C. theft          D. fraud

59. We can learn from the passage that Viennese schnitzel is.___.

A. the name of a kind of food              B. the name of a restaurant

C. the name of a person                      D. the name of a truck

While eating lunch with my 4-year-old daughter this afternoon at a fast food restaurant, I noticed an old man walking to the table with a stick. The manager kindly carried his   36   for him. During the meal I overheard the man tell a woman it was his birthday. So I whispered what I 37  to my daughter. She loves when people have  38  .1 told her it was OK for her to wish him a happy birthday. He  39    was spending this special day alone.

At first she was _40_ and decided against it. As I was emptying our plates into the dustbin she turned to him and 41  wished him a Happy Birthday. I could tell he was  42  by the way he looked at her. I  43  behind her and gave him my own wishes. He was  44  .

As we walked away he called my daughter back and  45  her a brand-new gold $1 coin. She thanked him. But that wasn't enough  46  him. He dug into his  47  and at that I kindly told him that wasn't necessary. He  48 me and pulled out an envelope with about a dozen of a different kind of gold coins. He  49  to give her another one and tell her how   50  it was and that one day it would be worth  51 . He then looked me in the eye and wished me a good day.

What a(n) 52 man. I'm sure my daughter  53  his day. On such a special day, how can I 54 his glory and turn away his offering of 55 ?

Happy Birthday!

― Tell me. Jack. Do you often surf the Internet?

― Well, ____, I'm so busy with work.

A. all right         B. I have no idea    C. in other words    D. to tell you the truth

― You should have thanked her before you left.

― I meant ____, but when I was leaving I couldn't find her anywhere.

A. to do               B. to              C. doing            D. doing so

―Hi, is that Peter Brown?

―Sorry. You ____ the wrong number.

A. must have dialed     B. must dial       C. should dial       D. should have dialed

It was in the lab ____ was taken charge of by Prof. Harris ____ they did the experiment.

A. which; where       B. that; where     C. that; which       D. which;, that

Tim kept on teasing me until finally I couldn't_     with him and got annoyed.

A. put up            B. put on      C. put through     D. put away