Three years ago, five parrots were set free in a wild place of Arizona, thousands of miles from the Channel Islands in Jersey where they had been looked after by zookeepers. No evolutionary strategies informed them how to behave in this new landscape of mountainous pine forest unoccupied by their king for 50 years. To the researchers’ surprise, they failed to make contact with a group of wild parrots imported from Mexico and set free at the same time. Within 24 hours the reintroducing ended in failure, and the poor birds were back in cages, on their way to the safety of the Arizona reintroduction programme.

Ever since then, the programme has enjoyed great success, mainly because the birds now being set free are Mexican birds illegally caught in the wild, confiscated （沒收） on arrival north of the border, and raised by their parents in the safety of the programme. The experience shows how little we know about the behaviour and psychology（心理） of parrots, as Peter Bennett, a bird researcher, points out:” Reintroducing species of high intelligence like parrots is a lot more difficult. People like parrots, always treating them as nothing more than pets or valuable ‘collectables’.”

Now that many species of parrot are in immediate danger of dying out, biologists are working together to study the natural history and the behaviour of this family of birds. Last year was an important turning point: conservationists founded the World Parrot Trust, based at Hayle in Cornwall, to support research into both wild and caged birds.

Research on parrots is vital for two reasons. First, as the Arizona programme showed, when reintroducing parrots to the wild, we need to be aware of what the birds must know if they are to survive in their natural home. We also need to learn more about the needs oft parrots kept as pets, particularly as the Trust’s campaign does not attempt to discourage the practice, but rather urges people who buy parrots as pets to choose birds raised by humans.

1．What do we know about the area where the five parrots were reintroduced?

A．Its landscape is new to parrots pf their king.

B．It used to be home to parrots of their kind.

C．It is close to where they had been kept.

D．Pine trees were planted to attract birds.

2．The reintroducing experience three years ago shows that man-raised parrots ______. 

A．can find their way back home in Jersey

B．a(chǎn)re unable to recognize their parents

C．a(chǎn)re unable to adapt to the wild

D．can produce a new species

3．Why are researches on parrots important according to the passage?

A．The Trust shows great concern for the programme.

B．We need to knows more about how to preserve parrots  

C．Many people are interested in collecting parrots.

D．Parrots’ intelligence may some day benefit people.

4．According to the passage, people are advised_______.

A．to treat wild and caged parrots equally

B．to set up comfortable homes for parrots

C．not to keep wild parrots as pets 

D．not to let more parrots go to the wild

In the age of reality television．success isn’t the only way to the public eye．Failure can also create fame，just like William Hung，21，a native of Hong Kong．

Hung recently has made an agreement with US-based entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network．They wilt publish a full-length record，titled “The True Idol” on April 6．

The idol （偶像） is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley He did a version（改寫本）of Ricky Martin’s “She Bangs” on the television show “American Idol 3”，on January27．The Fox TV singing contest searches for pop stars among ordinary people．In the case of Hung，however, his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in mid-act．Hung’s response，“I already gave my best，so I have no regrets at all．”That’s good，because any common person would have found plenty to regret：The off-key singing．The blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high The terrible dancing The hips jerking（搖擺）to a beat that did not belong to the song，maybe not even to this planet．It was，by all accounts，bad．

But，it was this very bad act that sold well．

Marc Juris，president of Fuse，explained it this way，“Every one of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom．completely oft-key and completely unworried That’s what William did and immediately won the hearts of America．”

Whatever it is，for the moment it is big．Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks．Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and techno-music and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station．

So，what does Hung think of this?

“There were all these people saying things about me A lot were saying I was very courageous （有勇氣的） and that I was great on the show, but some didn’t have much respect for me and some were kind of mean．”

Now he says he’s not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour （魅力） or to accept it Returning to normal hasn’t been easy．

1．What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Sometimes an idol behaves quite foolishly．

B．Hung’s performance attracted the public eye．

C．How an unsuccessful person became famous．

D．Success sometimes does not require hard work．

2．What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 6 refers to?

A．William Hung．                              B．Hung’s bad act．

C．Hung’s website．                           D．The public’s opinion．

3．Which of the following shows the correct order of what happened to Hung?

a．The entertainment firms made an agreement with Hung．

b．The judges cut Hung off in mid-act in the singing contest．

c．Hung became popular among Americans．

d．Hung gave a terrible performance though he tried his best．

e．Three websites put Hung’s funny performance on the Internet．

A．d，b，e，c，a                         B．a(chǎn)，c，d，b，e

C．a(chǎn)，d，b，c，e                         D．d，c，b，a，e

4．Why was Hung able to win the hearts of America?

A．His success was based on his own hard work．

B．He attracted people’s attention in the contest．

C．He was good-looking though he didn’t sing well．

D．His character was completely different from other idols’．

閱讀理解

閱讀下列短文，從各題所給的A、B、C、D四個選項(xiàng)中，選出最佳選項(xiàng)。

　　The biggest safety - threat facing airlines today may not be a terrorist with a gun, but the man with the portable computer in business class. In the past 15 years, pilots have reported well over 100 incidents that have been caused by electromagnetic interference (電磁干擾). The source of this interference remains unconfirmed, but increasingly, experts point the blame at portable computers, radios and cassette players and mobile telephones.

　　RTCA, an organization which advises the aviation (航空) industry, has recommended that all airlines ban (禁止) such devices from being used during “critical” stages of flight, particularly take - oft and landing. Some experts have gone further, calling for a total ban during the flight. Currently, rules on using these devices are left up to individual airlines. And although some airlines forbid passengers from using such equipment during take - off and landing, most are reluctant (勉強(qiáng)) to enforce a total ban, given that many passengers want to work during the flight.

　　The difficulty is predicating how electromagnetic fields might affect an aircraft's computers. Experts know that portable devices give out radiation, which affects wave lengths which aircraft use for navigation and communication. But, because they have not been able to reproduce these effects in a laboratory, they have no way of knowing whether the interference might be dangerous or not.

　　The fact that aircraft may be vulnerable (易受損的) to interference raises the risk that terrorists may use a radio system in order to damage navigation equipment.

1．The passage above mainly talks about ________.

[　　]

A．a(chǎn) new rule for airlines

B．the disadvantages of electronic devices

C．a(chǎn) possible cause of aircraft crashes

D．safety measures for air flight

2．Over 100 air- crash incidents have taken place during the past fifteen years, the reason is probably that ________.

[　　]

A．they may have been caused by the damage to the radio system

B．they may have taken place during the take - off and landing

C．they were proved to have been caused by the passengers' portable computers

D．the pilots are not expert at electromagnetics

3．Few airlines wish to entirely forbid passengers to use electric devices because ________.

[　　]

A．they don't believe in such a danger as radio interference

B．the harmful effect of them is yet to be proved

C．most passengers don't want to take a plane which doesn't allow the use of radios or cassette players

D．they will take other safety measures

4．It can be inferred from the passage that the writer ________.

[　　]

A．is in favor of forbidding passenger's use of electronic devices completely

B．hasn't formed his own opinion on the problem

C．regards it as unreasonable to forbid using electric devices during the flight completely

D．strongly believe that air incidents are caused by electromagnetic interference

In the age of reality television．success isn’t the only way to the public eye．Failure can also create fame，just like William Hung，21，a native of Hong Kong．

Hung recently has made an agreement with US-based entertainment firms Koch Records and Fuse Music Network．They wilt publish a full-length record，titled“The True Idol”on April 6．

The idol (偶像) is a civil engineering student at the University of California at Berkeley He did a version (改寫本) of Ricky Martin’s“She Bangs”on the television show“American Idol 3”，on January27．The Fox TV singing contest searches for pop stars among ordinary people．In the case of Hung，however, his act was so bad that the judges cut him off in mid-act．Hung’s response，“I already gave my best，so I have no regrets at all．”That’s good，because any common person would have found plenty to regret：The off-key singing．The blue Hawaiian shirt worn with pants pulled up too high The terrible dancing The hips jerking (搖擺) to a beat that did not belong to the song，maybe not even to this planet．It was，by all accounts，bad．

But，it was this very bad act that sold well．

Marc Juris，president of Fuse，explained it this way，“Every one of us is happily guilty of singing our favorite song at the top of our lungs with complete freedom．completely oft-key and completely unworried That’s what William did and immediately won the hearts of America．”

Whatever it is，for the moment it is big．Three websites devoted to Hung have gone up on the Internet in the past few weeks．Versions of his performance have been remixed with hip hop and techno-music and have made it to the top 10 request list at a Chicago radio station．

So，what does Hung think of this?

“There were all these people saying things about me A lot were saying I was very courageous (有勇氣的) and that I was great on the show, but some didn’t have much respect for me and some were kind of mean．”

Now he says he’s not so sure whether to distance himself from the glamour (魅力) or to accept it Returning to normal hasn’t been easy．

64．What is the main idea of this passage?

A．Sometimes an idol behaves quite foolishly．

B．Hung’s performance attracted the public eye．

C．How an unsuccessful person became famous．

D．Success sometimes does not require hard work．

65．What does the underlined word“it”in paragraph 6 refer to?

A．William Hung．                    B．Hung’s bad act．

C．Hung’s website．               D．The public’s opinion．

66．Which of the following shows the correct order of what happened to Hung?

a．The entertainment firms made an agreement with Hung．

b．The judges cut Hung off in mid-act in the singing contest．

c．Hung became popular among Americans．

d．Hung gave a terrible performance though he tried his best．

e．Three websites put Hung’s funny performance on the Internet．

A．d，b，e，c，a                      B．a(chǎn)，c，d，b，e

C．a(chǎn)，d，b，c，e                      D．d，c，b，a，e

67．Why was Hung able to win the hearts of America?

A．His success was based on his own hard work．

B．He attracted people’s attention in the contest．

C．He was good-looking though he didn’t sing well．

D．His character was completely different from other idols’．