M: So do I. The wind is biting into my skin like a mad dog.
Q: What are they doing?
(15)
A. Discussing a dinner invitation.
B. Talking about a mad dog.
C. Freezing the ice for the dinner.
D. Waiting for a bus in cold weather.
Section A
Directions: In this section, you will hear 8 short conversations and 2 long conversations. At the end of each conversation, one or more questions will be asked about what was said. Both the conversation and the questions will be spoken only once. After each question there will be a pause. During the pause, you must read the four choices marked A, B, C and D, and decide which is the best answer.
听力原文:W: Dear, how's you day at office today? Did your secretary come in on time this morning?
M: Well, yes, she did. In fact, she resigned today.
Q: What do you know about the secretary?
(12)
A. The secretary was late again.
B. The secretary was fired.
C. The secretary quit her job.
D. The secretary was assigned another job.
There is little reason to believe that the United States will ______ from its stated goal
A. back down
B. blow off
C. pop up
D. step up
Bilateral asymmetry of the claws comes about gradually. In the juvenile fourth and fifth stages of development, the paired claws are symmetrical and cutter like. Asymmetry begins to appear in the juvenile sixth stage of development, and the paired claws further diverge toward well-defined cutter and crasher claws during succeeding stages. An intriguing aspect of this development was discovered by Victor Emmer. He found that if one of the paired claws is removed during the fourth or fifth stage, the intact claw invariably becomes a crusher, while the regenerated claw becomes a cutter. Removal of a claw during a later juvenile stage or during adulthood, when asymmetry is present, does not alter the asymmetry; the intact and regenerate claws retain their original structures.
These observations indicate that the conditions that trigger differentiation must operate in a random manner when the paired claws are intact, but in a nonrandom manner when one of claws is lost. One possible explanation is that differential use of the claws determines their asymmetry. Perhaps the claw that is used more becomes the crusher. This would explain why, when one of the claws is missing during the fourth or fifth stage, the intact claw always becomes a crusher. With two intact claws, initial use of one claw might prompt the animal to use it more than the other throughout the juvenile fourth and fifth stages, causing it to become a crusher.
To test this hypothesis, researchers raised lobsters in the juvenile fourth and fifth stages of development in a laboratory environment in which the lobsters could manipulate oyster chips. (Not coincidentally, at this stage of development lobsters typically change from a habitat where they drift passively, to the ocean floor where they have the opportunity to be more active by borrowing in the substrate.) Under these conditions, the lobsters developed asymmetric claws, haft with crusher claws on the left, and half with crusher claws on the right. In contrast, when juvenile lobsters were reared in a smooth tank without the oyster chips, the majority developed two cutter claws. This unusual configuration of symmetrical cutter claws did not change when the lobsters were subsequently placed in a manipulatable environment or when they lost and regenerated one or both claws.
The passage is primarily concerned with ______.
A. drawing an analogy between asymmetry in lobsters and handedness in humans
B. developing a method for predicating whether crusher claws in lobster will appear on the left or right side
C. explaining differences between lobsters' crusher claws and cutter claws
D. discussing a possible explanation for the way bilateral asymmetry is determined in lobsters