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.

   Just like humans, birds rely on sound to communicate, too. Often, birds recognize their mates or young by sound rather than sight. Hungry young birds use begging calls to let their mothers know it is feeding time, and warning calls are other sounds given out frequently by the adults. In addition to all these regular calls, some male birds develop beautiful songs intended（打算）to attract the females.

A new study carried out by an American university shows that songbirds practice their songs even in their sleep. The research team discovered that the electrical brain activity of the birds that were asleep was similar to the brain activity produced when the birds were awake and singing. Clearly the bird stores a song after hearing it, then practices it later in its sleep. Scientists now believe the birds dream of songs to help them master the fine art of singing and that sleep plays a key role in the learning process！

It is commonly known that many songbirds learn to sing by listening to adult birds of the same species. If taught the song of an adult of another bird species, the chick grows up singing the new song and passes on the foreign song to its chicks. For instance, researchers carried out an experiment in which a male bullfinch（红腹灰雀）was raised by a female canary（金丝雀）. The bullfinch soon learned the canary's songs and when it was later mated to a female bullfinch, Mr. Bullfinch taught his children the canary's songs.

Early last year, a British survey of London's songbirds showed that the city's birds are losing their melodies. Birds could hardly hear one another over the traffic noise；as a result they had difficulty in learning songs and communicating with potential mates. And instead of copying the sweet notes of the adults, chicks were copying sounds, which they heard most often—namely car horns（喇叭）and mobile phones！

【小题1】What can we learn according to Paragraph 2？

A．Sleep helps songbirds master new songs.

B．Songbirds can even hear songs in their dreams.

C．The study was carried out by Australian scientists.

D．The brain activity of songbirds would stop in their sleep.

【小题2】Why does Mr. Bullfinch teach his children the canary's songs？

A．Because he wants to help them learn a foreign language.

B．Because he can't sing bulfinches' songs.

C．Because he wants to make them get along well with other birds.

D．Because the canary's songs are more attractive.

【小题3】What's the problem of the city's birds according to the passage？

A．They have lost their voices.

B．They are losing their habitats.

C．They are bothered by the city's noises.

D．They tend to refuse to learn songs from adults.

【小题4】What conclusion can we draw from the passage？

A．The city's birds can learn more songs.

B．All birds learn foreign songs during their life.

C．It may be difficult for the city's birds to find their mates.

D．Young birds can tell the difference between songs and noises.

How did the sea horse get its name? It's not hard to guess. The top half of this fish looks like a small horse. But looking at the sea horse's tail, you might think "sea monkey" is a better name. Then there's the sea horse's pouch(口袋). "Sea kangaroo" might also be a good name for this fish.
Sea horse live in warm ocean waters all over the world. They keep safe from other fish by hiding in plants and grasses that grow under the sea. They can also change colors to match their surroundings(环境). A sea horse in one place for hours at a time by winding its tail around a plant. It feeds on live food, such as small shrimp(虾). For a fish that doesn't move around much, the sea horse eats a lot-- in just one day, a sea horse can eat 3,000 shrimp!
A sea horse keeps the same mate for its whole life, and it's the male(雄性的) sea horse that gives birth to baby sea horses. How does this happen? Baby sea horse start out as eggs, which come from the female's(雌性的) body. The male carries the eggs in its pouch for about three weeks until they hatch(孵化). Soon after the babies are born, the female gives her mate a new set of eggs.
Sadly, the number of sea horses is becoming smaller. Why is this happening? Some places where sea horses once lived have been filled in to make new land. Also, many sea horses are caught and sold as aquarium(水族馆) fish. This really is not a good idea because most sea horses don't live long in aquarium. The best place for a sea horse is the ocean.
【小题1】The sea horse got its name because of its_______.

A．pouch	B．head
C．skin	D．tail

【小题2】How does a sea horse keep safe from other fish?

A．It rolls up.	B．It runs away quickly.
C．It remains still.	D．It hides in plants and grasses.

【小题3】We can learn from the text that sea horses_______.

A．like to move around	B．feed on small sea animals
C．live in cold ocean waters	D．change color with the temperature

【小题4】What does a female sea horse do with her eggs?

A．She carries them around.	B．She hides them in sea grasses.
C．She puts them in the male's pouch.	D．She hatches them.

【小题5】Why is the number of the sea horses becoming smaller?

A．They grow at a very low speed.

B．Their food is becoming less and less.

C．They are killed by people for food.

D．Their homes are being destroyed.

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.

短文改错
When the soldiers are being attacked, they are worrying. Then a good idea occurs on to an officer. He writes a short message on a piece of paper and rolls it up. After attached it to a pigeon's leg, he makes the pigeon loose. The pigeon immediately flies into the air and disappeared in the dark.
Why does an officer choose a pigeon to send an important message? Pigeons have a wonderful sense of direction and can find its way home over long distances. That's why pigeons have used since ancient times to carry news. However, it was in war which people found their greatest use. During both World War I and World War Ⅱ, pigeons were employed by armies to carry messages to or from the front lines, saving the lives of many soldier.