Over a hundred years ago people in London were surprised to see a very unusual boat come sailing up the Thames River.The boat was eighty feet long flat-bottomed,with big wooden eyes on both sides in the front and was colorfully painted at the back. People came to know that it was a sailing boat from Fuzhou in distant China.The boat had sailed round the Cape of Good Hope up the western coast of Africa,and finally to England.It had covered fifteen thousand miles--more than half of the distance round the world. Although it was unexpected,the Chinese were warmly welcomed.The boat carried goods such as silk and tea as well as a number of gifts from the Emperor of China for the Queen of England. People had always mistakenly thought of the Chinese as a people not used to sea.However,from centuries of trading and sailing in dangerous seas,the Chinese had learned how to build good boats and sailed them well.The coming of this sailing boat to London proved once again that the Chinese could sail to distant countries in the world. .The writer wants to prove that a long time ago the Chinese _ . A) carried silk,tea and other goods to England B) could reach many parts of the world by sea C) could sail along the Thames River D) surprised Londoners with an unusual boat
B
Recently, one of my best friends, whom I'd shared just about everything with since the first day of kindergarten, spent the weekend with me. Since I moved to a new town several years ago, we'd both always looked forward to the few times a year when we could see each other. Over the weekend, we spent hours and hours, staying up late into the night, talking about the people she was hanging around with. She started telling me stories about her new boyfriend, about how she experimented with drugs and was into other bad habits. I was blown away! She told me how she had been lying to her parents because they didn't want her around him. I tried to convince her that she was ruining her future and heading for big trouble. But she didn't believe me. Her self-respect seemed to have disappeared. I just couldn't believe that she really thought it was acceptable to hang out with such a loser. By the time she left, I was really worried about her. It had been so discouraging, and I had come close to telling her several times during the weekend that maybe we had just grown too far apart to continue our friendship--but I didn't. I put the power of friendship to the ultimate test. We'd been friends for far too long. I had to hope that she valued me enough to know that I was trying to save her from hurting herself. I wanted to believe that our friendship could conquer anything. A few days later, she called to say that she had thought long and hard about our conversation,and then she told me that she had broken up with her boyfriend.I just listened on the other end of the phone with tears of joy running down my face. It was one of the truly rewarding moments in my life. Never had I been so proud of a friend. From the beginning of the text,we can learn that the author _ . A) lost touch with the girl several years ago. B) used to spend weekends with the girl. C) moved to the same town as the girl. D) kept in touch with the girl.
D
Q: Zoo elephants don't live as long as those in the wild, according to a study sure to cause debate about keeping the giant animals on display. Researchers compared the life spans of elephants in European zoos with those living in Amboseli National Park in Kenya and others working on a timber enterprise in Buma. Animals in the wild or in natural working conditions had life expectancies twice than or more of their relatives in zoos. Animal care activists have urged in recent years to discourage keeping elephants in zoos, largely because of the lack of space and small numbers of animals that can be kept in a group. The researchers found that the _ life span for African elephants in European zoos was 16.9 years, compared with 56 years for elephants who died of natural causes in Kenya's Amboseli Park. Adding in those elephants killed by people in Africa lowered the median life expectancy there to 35.9 years. For the more endangered Asian elephants, the median life span in European zoos was 18.9 years, compared with 41.7 years for those working in the Burma Timber Enterprise. Median means half died younger than that age and half lived longer. There is some good news, though. The life expectancies of zoo elephants have improved in recent years, suggesting an improvement in their care and raising, but "Protecting elephants in Africa and Asia is far more successful than protecting them in Western zoos." There are about 1,200 elephants in zoos, half in Europe, researchers concentrated on female elephants, which make up 80 percent of the zoo population. One amazing thing was that Asian elephants born in zoos had shorter life spans that those brought to the zoos from the wild. Zoos usually lack large areas that elephants are used to in the wild, and that zoo animals often are alone or with one or two other unrelated animals, while in the wild they tend to live in related groups of 8 to 12 animals. In Asian elephants, baby death rates are two to three times higher in zoos than in the Burmese logging camps, and then, in... Who are expected to pay more attention to the issue addressed? A) Zoologists. B) Animal care activists. C) Zoo visitors. D) The public.
A: D
(Q).
We have seen that humor and laughter positively influence our body in many ways, but little research has been done on whether a better sense of humor actually helps keep you from getting sick. However, since people with a better sense of humor have higher IgA levels, and since research has shown that those with higher levels of salivary IgA are less likely to get colds or be infected with Streptococcus, humor should reduce the frequency of colds. The only study to directly examine this question found that the impact of one's sense of humor upon colds depends on the kind of sense of humor you have. It was only individuals whose sense of humor took the form of seeking out and appreciating humor who had fewer and less severe colds/flu than their low humor counterparts. Surprisingly, those whose sense of humor took the form of initiating humor more often did not have fewer or less severe colds/flu. The researchers argued that being a person who likes to tell jokes or otherwise initiate humor takes them into more frequent contact with other people, which serves to expose them to infectious agents more often, robbing them of the advantage that a more active sense of humor otherwise offers. Obviously, more research is required to clear up this confusing picture. The importance of active use of one's sense of humor in producing humor's health benefits was confirmed in another study in an unusual way. It found that among a group of mothers with newborn infants, those who actively used humor to cope with the stress in their lives had fewer upper respiratory infections and their infants also had fewer infections. This seemed to be because these mothers had higher levels of immunoglobulin A (A) in their breast milk. Among adults, if we look at bodily symptoms alone, independent of any diagnosed illness, there is some evidence that individuals who have more negative reactions to humor report more bodily symptoms and complaints. Students complaining of cardiovascular symptoms and gastroenterological symptoms also have... According to the passage, IgA is _ . A) a medicine B) enzyme C) factor D) measure
(A).
B