In spring, you may have seen white foam on a green tree or other plants. As a matter of fact, the foam is where young spittlebugs live. These insects are protected by the foam, and they usually don't do much harm to the plants. As we all know, in late summer, a mother spittlebug lays her eggs on the plant. The babies will hatch in spring. After they come to the new world, they begin to eat juice from the plant. The babies eat more juice than their bodies need for food. The extra juice mixes with a special waste that the spittlebugs produce. When this fluid is released, it mixes with the air, forming bubbly foam. What is so great about having a foam home? The space inside is so wet that it can keep the bugs' soft bodies from drying out. And the foam tastes bad, so it keeps away most animals that would eat the bugs. Some birds will reach their heads through the foam to find the bugs. Wasps and ants might eat them, too. But most of the bugs stay safe inside the foam. Once the bugs have grown into adults, they stop making foam. They leave their homes and jump from plant to plant in search of food. The adults look a little like tiny frogs. For this reason they are also called froghoppers. If you see some foam on a plant, you might want to take a careful look inside. Gently push some of the foam aside with a small stick. Deep inside you may see a few insects eating plant juice. They might also be making more foam. Be sure to push the foam back after a moment to cover the insects and keep them safe. Soon the spittlebugs will grow up and leave their foam home. They will join the other insects in the grassland. According to the passage, the white foam _ . A) does much harm to the plant B) protects the plant from being harmed C) is where a mother spittlebug is living D) is plant juice mixed with spittlebugs' waste and the air
D
(Question)
In 1966,Allen and Beatrice Garden, two professors at the University of Nevada in Reno, had a bright idea.They were interested in the evolution of language and the language abilities of great apes . Previous attempts to teach chimpanzees to talk had ended in failure and the matter was considered by most people to be closed. But the Gardens realized that speech and the language are not the same thing. Many deaf people, for example, are unable to speak but are perfectly able to communicate by gestures that have all the features of spoken language. The Garders suspected that previous experiments had failed because chimpanzees are physically unable to speak. They therefore decided to try teaching a chimpanzee to sign in the way that deaf people do. And their chosen _ , a female chimpanzee named Washoe after the country in which the university is, proved to be a skillful pupil. Though there is still debate about whether what Washoe learned was really equal to human language, there is no doubt that she learned a lot of words. All of this, however, raises a second question. If Washoe can learn a complex vocabulary of gestures from people, do they have such vocabularies naturally ? To examine that possibility, Amy Pollick and Frans de Waal of Emory University have looked at gestures and expressions in chimpanzees, Signaling by facial and oral expressions is common among primates . Signaling by gestures is limited to great apes. The researchers supposed that the meaning of expressions has been fixed by evolution while the meaning of gestures is learnt. If that were true, particular sorts of facial and oral expressions would occur only in particular circumstances, and this would be the same across groups and even species. The same gestures, on the contrary, would be used in different circumstances. The researchers found exactly what they expected. Expressions almost always occurred in the same circumstances in different groups and different species. Gestures seemed to have completely different meanings.... According to Pollick and Waal gestures are different from facial and oral expressions in that _ . A) the meaning of facial and oral expressions can vary with circumstances. B) particular gestures occur only in particular circumstances. C) facial and oral gestures are not born but learnt. D) gestures are limited to a certain type of primates.
(Answer)
D
Ques: Fix it on your own Did you know that a bowl of rice could save your iPod if you drop it in a swimming pool by accident? Or that the camera on your phone could tell you what's wrong with your TV remote control? The experts at Geek Squad (geelsquad.co.uk) have made a gadget rescue guide.So, let's take a look at some of their useful advice. How to get more juice out of your phone batter If your battery goes dead but you need to get a number or send one last text, try warming it up.That may give you a tiny bit of power.Take the battery from the phone and rub it between your hands.Or warm it under your arm for a few minutes.Then try to start the phone but use it quickly. What to do if your gadget gets wet First, try drying it out with a vacuum cleaner .If a vacuum cleaner isn't at hand, fill a pot or bowl with uncooked rice and put your wet gadget inside.The dry, uncooked rice will absorb all the water and, after a few hours, you should be able to use the gadget.Don't forget to remove the battery and SIM card before you dry it. What to do if your TV remote control stops working If replacing the batteries doesn't work, get the camera function up on your phone and point the remote at the lens .When you press a button on the remote, if it is working, the glass bobble at the front of the remote will light up when you look at it on the screen of your phone.This is because the screen on a phone or digital camera picks up infrared rays , even though your eyes don't.If the glass bobble doesn't light up, the remote is broken.If it does, the receiving device is broken. Why can a phone be used to prove the TV remote control works well? Because it can _ . A) improve the TV remote control B) receive infrared ray C) picture the TV remote control D) reflect infrared ray
Ans: B
Question: In 1939 two brothers, Mac and Dick McDonald, started a drive-in restaurant in San Bernardino, California. They carefully chose a busy corner for their location. They had run their own businesses for years, first a theater, then a barbecue restaurant, then another drive-in. But in their new operation, they offered a new, shortened menu: French fries, hamburgers, and sodas. To this small selection they added one new idea: quick service,no waiters or waitresses, and no tips. Their hamburgers were sold for fifteen cents. Cheese was another four cents. Their French fries and hamburgers had a remarkable uniformity , for the brothers had developed a strict routine for the preparation of their food, and they insisted on their cooks' sticking to their routine. Their new drive-in became surprisingly popular, particularly for lunch. People drove up by the hundred during the busy noontime. The self-service restaurant was so popular that the brothers had allowed ten copies of their restaurant to be opened. They were content with this modest success until they met Ray Kroc. Kroc was a salesman who met the McDonald brothers in 1954 when he was selling milkshake-mixing machines. He quickly saw the special attraction of the brothers' fast-food restaurants and bought the right to franchise other copies of their restaurants. The agreement included the right to duplicate the menu, the equipment, even their red and white buildings the golden arches . Today McDonald's is really a household name. In 1976, McDonald's had over$1 billion in total sales. Its first twenty-two years is one of the most surprising successes in modern American business history. This passage mainly talks about _ . A) the development of fast food services B) how McDonald's became a billion-dollar business C) the business careers of Mac and Dick McDonald D) Ray Kroc's business talent
Answer:
B