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第二篇 Don’t Count on Dung "Conservationists(自然保护主义者)may be miscalculating the numbers of the threatened animals such as elephants, " say African and American researchers. The error occurs because of a flaw in the way they estimate animal numbers from the piles of dung(粪)the creatures leave behind. The mistake could lead researchers to think that there are twice as many elephants as there really are in some regions according to Andrew Plumptre of the Wildlife Conservation Society(WCS) in New York. Biologist Katy Payne of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, agrees. "We really need to know elephant numbers and the evidence that we have is quite indirect, "says Payne, who electronically tracks elephants Counting elephants from planes is impossible in the vast rainforests of Central Africa. So researchers often estimate elephant numbers by counting dung piles in a given area. They also need to know the rate at which dung decays because it’s extremely difficult to determine these rates. However, researchers counting elephants in one region tend to rely on standard decay rates established elsewhere. "But researchers at the WCS have found that this decay rate varies from region to region depending on the climate and environment. Using the wrong values can lead the census astray(离开正道)," says Plumptre. He and his colleague Anthony Chifu Nchanji studied decaying elephant dung in the forests of Cameroon. They found that the dung decayed between 55 and 65 per cent more slowly than the dung in the rainforests of neighbouring Gabon. If researchers use decay rates from Gabon to count elephants in Cameroon, they would probably find more elephants than are actually around. "This could mean estimates in Cameroon are at least twice as high as those derived from decay rates calculated locally," says Plumptre "However accurate your dung density estimate might be the decay rate can severely affect the result." Plumptre also says that the dung-pile census should be carried out over a region similar in size to an elephant’s natural range. The usual technique of monitoring only small, protected areas distorts numbers because elephants move in and out of these regions, he says" If the elephant population increases within the protected area, you can not determine whether it is a real increase or whether it is due to elephants moving in because they are being poached(入侵偷猎)outside. " Plumptre says that similar problems may also affect other animal census studies that rely on indirect evidence such as nests, tracks or burrows(地洞). Why do researchers estimate elephant numbers in an area by counting dung piles
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下面的短文后有2项测试任务：(1)第23～30题要求从所给的6个选项中为第1～5段各其中4段选择1个最佳标题；(2)第 27～30题要求从所给的4个选项中为每个句子确定1个最佳选项。 Is There a Way to Keep the Britain’s Economy Growing 1. In today’s knowledge economy, nations survive on the things they do best. Japanese design electronics while Germens export engineering(工程) techniques. The French serve the best food and Americans make computers. 2. Britain specializes in the gift of talking. The nation doesn’t manufacture much of anything. But it has lawyers, stylists and business consultants who earn their living from talk and more talk. The World Foundation think tank says the UK’s four iconic (图标的)jobs today are not scientists, engineers, teachers and nurses. Instead, they’re hairdressers, celebrities, management consultants (顾问) and managers. But can all this talking keep the British economy going The British government thinks it can. 3. Although the country’s trade deficit was more than ￡60 billion in 2006, UK’s largest in the postwar period, officials say the country has nothing to worry about. In fact, Britain does have a world-class pharmaceutical(制药学的) industry and it still makes a small sum from selling arms abroad. It also trades services — accountancy, insurance, banking and advertising. The government believes Britain is on the cutting edge of the knowledge economy. After all, the country of Shakespeare and Wordsworth has a literary tradition of which to be proud. Rock’ n’ roll is an English language medium, and there are billions to be made by their cutting-edge bands. In other words, the creative economy has plenty of strength to carry the British economy. 4. However, creative industries account for only about 4 percent of UK’s exports of goods and services. The industries are finding it hard to make a profit, according to a report of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts. The report shows only 38 percent of British companies were engaged in "innovation activities", 3 percentage points below the EU average and well below Germany(61 percent)and Sweden(47 percent). 5. In fact, it might be better to call Britain a "servant" economy — there are at least 4 million people "in service". The majority of the population are employed by the rich to cook, clean, and take care of their children. Many graduates are even doing menial jobs for which they do not need a degree. Most employment growth has been, and will continue to be, at the low-skill end of the service sector — in shops, bars, hotels, domestic service and in nursing and care homes. A. Growth of Economy B. "Servant" Economy C. Strength of the Creative Economy D. Weakness of the Creative Economy E. Gift of Talking F. Export of Talking Machines The creative industries find it difficult
下面的短文后列出了7个句子，请根据短文的内容对每个句子做出判断，如果该句提的是正确信息， 请选择A；如果该句提的是错误信息，请选择B；如果该句的信息句的信息文中没有提及，请选择C。 Marriage Advertisements in India Every Sunday morning millions of Indians settle down with a cup of tea and special weekend issues of their newspapers, just as Americans do. But here, with the marriage season approaching, many of them quickly to a Sunday feature that is particularly Indian — the columns of marriage advertisements in which young people look for husbands and wives. This is relatively(相关地)modern change in the age-old custom of the arranged marriage. The thousands of advertisements published each week increasingly reflect social changes that coming to this traditional society. For example, although women are still described in terms of appearance, or skill in "the wifely arts," information about her earning power is entering more and more of the advertisements. This reflects the arrival in India of the working wife. Divorce, which used to be almost unheard of in India, is sometimes now mentioned in the advertisements as in the case of a woman whose advertisement in New Delhi newspaper explained that had been "the innocent party" when her marriage broke up. Because the custom of the dowry(嫁妆)(marriage payment) is now illegal(违法的), some advertisements say "no dowry", or "simple marriage", which means the same thing. However, the fathers of many bridegrooms still require it. In a land where light skin is often regarded as socially preferable, many also require that a woman have a "wheat-color" complexion(面色) or that a man be "tall, fair and handsome". Advertisements are placed and eagerly read by a wide range of people in the upper classes, mostly in cities. Many of them receive dozens of answers. "There’s nothing embarrassing about it, " explained a Calcutta businessman advertising a son-in-law. "It’s just another way of broadening the contacts and increases the possibility of doing the contacts and increasing the possibilities of doing the best one for one’s daughter." Because of high unemployment and a generally poor standard of living here, one of the best attractions a marriage advertisement can offer is a permit to live abroad, especially in Canada or the United States. A person who has one can get what he wants. One recent Sunday in Madras, for example, a Punjabi engineer living in San Francisco advertised for a "beautiful slim bride with lovely features knowing music and dance. " And a man whose advertisement said that he held an American immigration permit was able to say, only girls from rich, well-connected families need apply. The word "dowry" in the third paragraph means marriage payment.
第二篇 Don’t Count on Dung "Conservationists(自然保护主义者)may be miscalculating the numbers of the threatened animals such as elephants, " say African and American researchers. The error occurs because of a flaw in the way they estimate animal numbers from the piles of dung(粪)the creatures leave behind. The mistake could lead researchers to think that there are twice as many elephants as there really are in some regions according to Andrew Plumptre of the Wildlife Conservation Society(WCS) in New York. Biologist Katy Payne of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, agrees. "We really need to know elephant numbers and the evidence that we have is quite indirect, "says Payne, who electronically tracks elephants Counting elephants from planes is impossible in the vast rainforests of Central Africa. So researchers often estimate elephant numbers by counting dung piles in a given area. They also need to know the rate at which dung decays because it’s extremely difficult to determine these rates. However, researchers counting elephants in one region tend to rely on standard decay rates established elsewhere. "But researchers at the WCS have found that this decay rate varies from region to region depending on the climate and environment. Using the wrong values can lead the census astray(离开正道)," says Plumptre. He and his colleague Anthony Chifu Nchanji studied decaying elephant dung in the forests of Cameroon. They found that the dung decayed between 55 and 65 per cent more slowly than the dung in the rainforests of neighbouring Gabon. If researchers use decay rates from Gabon to count elephants in Cameroon, they would probably find more elephants than are actually around. "This could mean estimates in Cameroon are at least twice as high as those derived from decay rates calculated locally," says Plumptre "However accurate your dung density estimate might be the decay rate can severely affect the result." Plumptre also says that the dung-pile census should be carried out over a region similar in size to an elephant’s natural range. The usual technique of monitoring only small, protected areas distorts numbers because elephants move in and out of these regions, he says" If the elephant population increases within the protected area, you can not determine whether it is a real increase or whether it is due to elephants moving in because they are being poached(入侵偷猎)outside. " Plumptre says that similar problems may also affect other animal census studies that rely on indirect evidence such as nests, tracks or burrows(地洞). 39 According to Plumptre, the region over which a dung-pile census is carried out should be
下面有3篇短文，每篇短文后有5道题，请根据短文内容，为每题确定1个最佳选项。 第一篇Pool Watch Swimmers can drown in busy swimming pools when lifeguards(救生员) fail to notice that they are in trouble. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents says that on average 15 people drown in British pools each year, but more suffer major injury after getting into difficulties. Now a French company has developed an artificial intelligence system called Poseidon that sounds the alarm when it sees someone in danger of drowning. When a swimmer sinks towards the bottom of the pool, the new system sends an alarm signal to a poolside(游泳池边) monitoring station and a lifeguard’s pager. In trials(试验)at a pool in Ancenis, near Nantes, it saved a life within just a few months, says Alistair McQuade, a spokesman for its maker, Poseidon Technologies. Poseidon keeps watch through a network of underwater and overheard video cameras. AI software analyses the images to work out swimmers trajectories(轨道). To do this reliably, it has to tell the difference between a swimmer and the shadow of someone being cast onto the bottom or side of the pool. "The underwater environment. Is a very dynamic one, with many shadows and reflections dancing around, " says McQuade. The software does this by "projecting" a shape in its field of view onto an image of the far wall of the pool. It does the same with an image from another camera viewing the shape from a different angle. If the two projections are in the same position, the shape is identified as a shadow and is ignored. But if they are different, the shape is a swimmer and so the system follows its trajectory. "To pick out potential drowning victims, anyone in the water who starts to descend slowly is added to the software’s "pre-alert" list," says McQuade. Swimmers who then stay immobile on the pool bottom for 5 seconds or more are considered in danger of drowning. Poseidon double-cheeks that the image really is of a swimmer, not a shadow, by seeing whether it obscures the pool’s floor texture when viewed from overhead (在头顶上). If so, it alerts the lifeguard, showing the swimmer’s location on a poolside screen. The first full-scale Poseidon system will be officially opened next week at a pool in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. One man who is impressed with the idea is Travor Baylis, inventor of the clockwork(时钟机构) radio. Baylis runs a company that installs swimming pools — and he was once an underwater escapologist (表演脱身术的人) with a circus. "I say full marks to them if this works and can save lives, " he says. But he adds that any local authority spending ￡30,000-plus on a Poseidon system ought to be investing similar amounts in teaching children to swim. AI means the same as
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