Penguins are the number-one attraction for many visitors to Antarctica. If you go on a ship that is allowed to make shore landings, you may see them. But to get a close look at penguins, you have to be smart.

First of all, keep in mind that Antarctica’s visitor rules require that you remain at least five meters away from the penguins in order not to disturb them. You could easily become responsible for the death of a little penguin or the destruction of an egg if your too-close presence should disturb a penguin parent.

If a penguin is trying to move away from you, you must stop what you’re doing and back off even if you’re farther than five meters away. However, the rules don’t prevent a curious penguin from approaching within five meters of you — as long as the bird makes the move, not you.

Little penguins, in particular, are quite curious. I’ve seen several lucky tourists who were astonished to find that little penguins came right up to them. If a penguin comes extremely close to you, remember that you are not allowed to touch or hold it.

Here are more tips for getting close to penguins.

Ignore the smell: where penguins live is filled with guano（海鸟粪）and the smell takes some getting used to.

Be quiet because loud noises make penguins nervous. Fast or sudden movements signal meat — eating animals to penguins, and they react accordingly, so slow down when you walk around them.

Since it may take half an hour or more before the penguins get used to you, you need to be patient. Put away your camera — too often people are so focused on getting the pictures that they forget to look with their own eyes, but most of your most memorable experiences in Antarctica will be marked in your mind, not on a roll of films.

【小题1】What will happen if visitors disturb penguins according to Paragraph 2?

A．Visitors may step on a little penguin.

B．Penguin parents may break their eggs.

C．Visitors are easily attacked by penguins.

D．Penguin parents may attack other animals.

【小题2】When a penguin is trying to move away from you, you’d better ____________.

A．step back	B．try to stop it
C．go after it quietly	D．keep five meters away from it

【小题3】If a penguin comes very close to you, ____________.

A．you may hold it

B．you may touch it gently

C．you should stay where you are

D．you should walk away carefully

【小题4】The author advises visitors to Antarctica to ____________.

A．ignore loud strange noises

B．take as many pictures as they can

C．allow penguins to get used to them

D．stay away from meat-eating animals

阅读P18教材课文，用合适的单词(不超过三个)填入下列表格

Yeti，Bigfoot and the Wild Man of Shennongjia
What they are called	Where they are seen	What they ____3____	What they Why they look the same
Yeti	In the Himalayas	large，____4____ animal that walks on two feet like a ____5____； moving with amazing ____6____ and ___7___； large tracks more than 33 centimetres ____8____	linked to a common ___9___，an animal that lived in ___10___ some 300,000 years ago
Bigfoot	____1____ of the north­west of the USA
Wild Man in Shennongjia	In ___2___Hubei Province，China

 
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________
4. __________
5. __________
6. __________
7. __________
8. __________
9. __________
10. __________

The Beagle Brigade

Return to the United States from a trip abroad ,and your luggage will get inspected by the Beagle Brigade, a team of beagles and their human partners. Working with human partners, the beagles sniff out potential threats to American agriculture.

An orange or apple, for example, might have a Mediterranean fruit fly. Hams could carry a disease such as hog cholera. These and other pests could destroy farmers' crops and livestock. " Once we introduce something   that   is not part of the environment, there may not be any controls of it in the environment," notes Lisa Davis at the National Dog Detector Training Center in Orlando, Florida. "The best thing for us to do is prevent it from coming across the border and becoming established. "

When a beagle sniffs specific food smells, it signals its partners by siting there. The human officer then investigates. When the dog is right ——which happens 90 percent of the time ——it gets an edible（可食用的） treat.

"The dog is not out there working," explains Davis. " It's out there playing. It's a game to the dog. "The handlers give the beagles plenty of food and love. They make sure they get first-class medical attention, too. When the dogs finally retire after 9 to 11 years ,they will find caring homes for them. It's a dog's life indeed!

Their people partners work and study somewhat harder. As specialized quarantine（检疫） officers,most hold degrees in the biological sciences or related sciences.

How well does the Beagle Brigade do its job? " On average," notes Davis, " each year our 54 teams prevent around 75,000 prohibited , restricted items. Since even one infected item could cause widespread destruction, that's a great result for America's agricultural environment.

【小题1】According to the article, what is the problem with agricultural products brought into the United States by passengers traveling from abroad?

A．They generate similar types of food smells.

B．They are difficult to identify, even with trained dogs.

C．They must be inspected before being allowed to enter the country.

D．They may carry something that could harm the local agricultural environment.

【小题2】According to the article , how does the beagle signal that it has found a suspicious food product?

A．By barking at its partners.

B．By begging for a treat.

C．By sitting next to the item.

D．By playing a game.

【小题3】How is the beagle congratulated for finding a specific food product?

A．The handler praises it with a hug.

B．The beagle gets to play for a few hours.

C．The beagle gets to retire to a caring home.

D．The handler gives it an edible reward.

【小题4】In the article , how does the author support the use of the Beagle Brigade?

A．By providing statistics about the number of items detected by the dogs.

B．By showing that the dogs enjoy discovering prohibited items.

C．By pointing out that good homes are found for the dogs when they retire.

D．By praising the fact that the dogs work for a government agency.

   Ever since Grumpy Cat first appeared online, the Internet can't get enough of her.But attention is not the only thing that this cat is getting. Her fortune is estimated at $100 million, more than many famous actors and musicians earn.

So how did it all start?

Grumpy Cat's owner Tabatha Bundesen was working as a waitress when her brother Bryan decided to take a photo of her funny­looking cat and post it on Reddit, a social news site. In a matter of hours, she became a sensation (轰动)．

It got 1 million views on Imgur in 48 hours.

Grumpy Cat's real name is Tardar Sauce and she actually has a condition called dwarfism, which makes her constantly frowning. But that unique frown turned out to be worth millions of dollars.

Tabatha, who lives in Arizona in the U．S., isn't complaining. She still remembers that September 22, 2012, when her life turned upside down.

Since her cat became a worldwide phenomenon, she was able to quit her job and devote her life to managing her cat's modeling career. Sounds unbelievable, but it's true. She says that her only job now is to book Tardar's photo shoots, commercials (商业广告), and other appearances.

What are the other benefits of owning a million­dollar cat?

Apart from not having to work, Tabatha can travel all the time. She has time and money to visit her family more often and enjoy her life. She never could have imagined just how huge her cat would become, but she always knew Tardar was very special. And she is glad to see her cat bringing joy to so many people around the world.

As for the millions of dollars Tardar has earned, they come from all the products, commercials and a best­selling book. She even has her own movie Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever.

【小题1】What does the underlined part “the Internet can't get enough of her” mean?

A．The Internet can't stand her any more.

B．The Internet can't pay more attention to her.

C．People don't focus on her any longer on the Internet.

D．The Internet can't find enough information about her.

【小题2】What made Grumpy Cat become famous?

A．Her unusual appearance.

B．Her bad temper.

C．Her short and fat body.

D．Her unique fur.

【小题3】About Tabatha Bundesen, we know that ________.

A．she now works as a waitress

B．she feels very tired of her famous cat

C．she only manages her cat's modeling career

D．she is too busy to go home to visit her parents

【小题4】The general idea of the last paragraph is ________.

A．how the cat can become so famous

B．how the cat can make so much money

C．what the film about the cat is named

D．how the cat's owner spends so much money

Dinosaurs ruled the planet for millions of years, and they are generally believed to have gone extinct.But the reality is that modern versions of dinosaurs are all around us. Scientists have been exploring similarities between birds and dinosaurs; and new research shows that these two types of animals are directly linked.
The connections between birds and dinosaurs are explored in a new museum exhibit called Dinosaurs Among Us at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
According to Mark Norell, the director of the exhibit and an expert at the museum, it is based on new scientific evidence collected over the last two decades. "I think this is really going to shake up the way people think of dinosaurs “ Norell told reporters.” One could argue that we still live in the age of dinosaurs."
The exhibit includes ancient fossils and lifelike models of dinosaurs of all sizes to show the evolution of dinosaurs into birds. It examines several properties that are shared between the two species, including feathers, complex brains, the shapes. And sizes of eggs, and the ability to fly. Birds today make nests, lay eggs and tend to babies.    Fossil research shows that some dinosaurs also made nests and laid eggs. Also，birds have hollow（中空的）bones, which don’t weigh much and allow birds to take more air into their lungs. These adaptations help with flight. Some dinosaurs had these properties as well. In addition, the exhibit shows that there are many similarities between the legs, claws; and feet of dinosaurs and birds.
Norell noted that the research behind this exhibit is the result of advanced scientific, techniques; and new technologies. For example researchers used a scanning (扫描) process called computed tomography (CT) to look inside the brains of extinct dinosaurs. It combines with many X-rays to produce a 3D image. "Modern technology tells us more than we thought
we could ever know about the connections between dinosaurs and birds," Norell said.
【小题1】What' s the main idea of this text?

A．Experts .have discovered many dinosaurs' fossils.

B．A new museum has opened for visitors to New York City.

C．Research has been done on the lifestyles of birds and dinosaurs.

D．An exhibit shows the connections between birds and dinosaurs.

【小题2】What does the underlined word “properties” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Advantages.	B．Characters.
C．Changes.	D．Activities.

【小题3】One of the similarities that dinosaurs and birds share lies in________

A．their lungs	B．their light bones
C．the shapes of their nests	D．the number of their eggs

【小题4】What did Mark Norell try to show by mentioning CT?

A．The importance of the research.

B．What connects dinosaurs and birds.

C．The application of modern technology.

D．How dinosaurs lived millions of years ago.