Passage One
"A rolling stone gathers no moss (苔藓) ," but there is one living animal that does gather moss, the three-toed sloth (树獭) of South America. This slowest-moving member of the animal kingdom is so inactive that moss actually gathers on its body and turns it green strange as it seems!
Most of the sloth’s life is spent motionless, hanging upside down from a limb. And that is the way its hair grows. Long and coarse, the strands (串) from receptacles (花托) for the damp jungle algae (水藻) that turn the brown fur a mossy green. Actually this moss helps the animal survive because it serves as a per- fect camouflage against the leaf trees and hides the sloth from the jungle’s swift-moving hunters. The sloth would have little chance of survival on the ground. With long, curved claws hooked over the limb of a leafy tree, it spends the long hot hours during the day drowsing and eating. Inch by inch, it strips the leafy limbs bare and crawls
A. to help children to gain a better understanding of animal life
B. to prove that the saying "a rolling stone gathers no moss" is wrong
C. to introduce a particular animal to the common reader
D. to discuss with professionals the laziness of animals
Passage One
"A rolling stone gathers no moss (苔藓) ," but there is one living animal that does gather moss, the three-toed sloth (树獭) of South America. This slowest-moving member of the animal kingdom is so inactive that moss actually gathers on its body and turns it green strange as it seems!
Most of the sloth’s life is spent motionless, hanging upside down from a limb. And that is the way its hair grows. Long and coarse, the strands (串) from receptacles (花托) for the damp jungle algae (水藻) that turn the brown fur a mossy green. Actually this moss helps the animal survive because it serves as a per- fect camouflage against the leaf trees and hides the sloth from the jungle’s swift-moving hunters. The sloth would have little chance of survival on the ground. With long, curved claws hooked over the limb of a leafy tree, it spends the long hot hours during the day drowsing and eating. Inch by inch, it strips the leafy limbs bare and crawls
A. it senses a coming danger
B. it is forced to swim on a hot day
C. it is short of its favorite food
D. it wants to keep itself to itself
Passage Two
The sense of sound is one of our most important means of knowing what is going on around us. Sound has a waster product, too, in the form of noise. Noise has been called unwanted sound. Noise is growing and it may get much worse before it gets any better.
Scientists, for several years, have been studying how noise affects people and animals. They are surprised by what they have learned. Peace and quiet are becoming harder to find. Noise pollution is a threat that should be looked at carefully.
There is a saying that it is so noisy that you can’t hear yourself think. Doctors who study noise believe that we must sometimes hear ourselves think. If we don’t, we may have headaches, other aches and pains, or even worse mental problems.
Noise adds more tension (紧张) to a society that already faces enough stress.
But noise is not a new problem. In ancient Rome, people complained so much about noise that government stop
A. Because the world is becoming more and more noisy.
B. Because they have learned that noise is also a kind of pollution.
C. Because noise is an unwanted waste for human beings.
D. Because people knew little about noise before.
"One time, I couldn’t find Paro and was looking for ’him’ everywhere," says one caretaker at the Kirara nursing home in Japan’s Nanto City. "Finally I found Paro sleeping in a patient’s bed."
Paro is a robotic baby seal -- covered with white fur -- that was developed over 12 years at a cost of some $10 million by Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. Nanto is one of the first cities in the world to experiment using robots to help care for the elder citizens.
According to the nursing staff, Paro, which responds to human voices and loving touches, has become part of the family. In fact, nurses often find elderly patients covering the robot in blankets and trying to feed it snacks, even though Paro can’t really eat.
It’s no surprise that Japan is turning to technology for help with one of its most troublesome problems: an aging population. Japan is
A. It can adequately impact the health and well-being of the elderly positively.
B. It stimulates brain activity of patients with dementia.
C. It has little effect on lowering stress, elevating moods and decreasing depression.
D. It only positively affected the patients.
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