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8 Composer germson（理工类）14年完形填空第一篇 Captain Cook Arrow Legend库克船长箭传说It was a great legend while it lasted，but DNA testing has (1) finally ended a two-century-old story of the Hawaiian arrow carved from the bone of British explorer Captain James Cook(2) who died in the Sandwich Islandsin 1779. “There is (3) no Cook in the Australian Museum，museum collection manager Jude Philip said not long ago in announcing the DNA evidence that the arrow was not made of CookS bone.But that will not stop the museum from continuing to display the arrow in its(4) exhibition ，“Uncovered：Treasures of the Australian Museum,” which(5) does include a feather cape presented to Cook by Hawaiian King Kalaniopuu in 1778. Cook was one of Britains great explorers and is credited with(6) discovering the“Great South Land，(7) now Australia, in 1 770.He was clubbed to death in the Sandwich Islands，now Hawaii。The 1egend of Cooks arrow began in 1824 (8) when Hawaiian King Kamehameha on his deathbed gave the arrow to William Adams，a London surgeon and relative of Cooks wife，saying it was made of Cooks bone after the fatal(9) fight with islanders. In the 1890s the arrow was given to the Australian Museum and the legend continued (10) until it came face=to-face with science. DNA testing by laboratories in Australia and New Zealand revealed the arrow was not made of Cooks bone but was more (11) likely made of animal bone。said Philp. However, Cooks fans (12) refuse to give up hope that one Cook legend will prove true and that part of his remains will still be uncovered.as they say there is evidence not a11 of Cooks body was (13) buried at sea in 1 779.“On this occasion technology has won，”said Cliff Thornton，president of the Captain Cook Society, in a (14) statement from Britain.“But I am (15) surethat one of these daysone of the Cook legends will prove to be true and it will happen one day.第二篇 Avalanche and Its Safety雪崩和它的安全 An avalanche is a sudden and rapid flow of snow, often mixed with air and water, down a mountainside. Avalanches are (1) among the biggest dangers in the mountains for both life and property. All avalanches are caused by an over-burden of material, typically snowpack, that is too massive and unstable for the slope (2) that supports it. Determining the critical load, the amount of over-burden which is (3)likely to cause an avalanche, (4) is a complex task involving the evaluation of a number of factors. Terrain slopes flatter than 25 degrees or steeper than 60 degrees typically have a low (5)risk of avalanche. Snow does not (6)gather significantly on steep slopes; also, snow does not (7)flow easily on flat slopes. Human-triggered avalanches have the greatest incidence when the snows angle of rest is (8)between 35 and 45 degrees; the critical angle, the angle at which the human incidence of avalanches is greatest, is 38 degrees. The rule of thumb is: A slope that is (9) flat enough to hold snow but steep enough to ski has the potential to generate an avalanche, regardless of the angle. Additionally, avalanche risk increases with (10) use ; that is, the more a slope is disturbed by skiers, the more likely it is that an avalanche will occur. Due to the complexity of the subject, winter travelling in the backcountry is never 100% safe. Good avalanche safety is a continuous (11) process , including route selection and examination of the snowpack, weather (12) conditions , and human factors. Several well-known good habits can also(13) reduce the risk. If local authorities issue avalanche risk reports, they should be considered and all warnings should be paid (14) attention to. Never follow in the tracks of others without your own evaluations; snow conditions are almost certain to have changed since they were made. Observe the terrain and note obvious avalanche paths where plants are （15）missing or damaged. Avoid traveling below others who might trigger an avalanche. 第三篇 Germs on Banknotes纸币上的病菌People in different countries use different types of (1)money yuan in China, pesos in Mexico, pounds in the United Kingdom, dollars in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. They may use(2)differentcurrencies, but these countries, and probably all countries, still have one thing in common1: Germs on the banknotes.Scientists have been studying the germs on money for well over2 100 years. At the turn of the 20th(3)century, some researchers began to suspect that germs living on money could spread disease.Most studies of germy money have looked at the germs on the currency(4) within one country. In a new study, Frank Vriesekoop3 and other researchers compared the germ populations found on bills of different(5) countries .Vriesekoop3 is a microbiologist at the University of Ballarat in Australia4. He led the study, which compared the germ populations found on money(6) gatered from 10 nations. The scientists studied 1,280 banknotes in total; all came from places where people buy food, like supermarkets street vendors and cafes,(7)because those businesses often rely on cash.Overall, the Australian dollars hosted the fewest live bacteria - no more than 10 per square centimeter. Chinese yuan had the most - about 100 per square centimeter. Most of the germs on money probably would not cause harm.What we call “paper” money usually isnt made from paper. The U. S. dollar, for example, is printed on fabric that is mostly(8)cotton .Different countries may use different(9)materials to print their money. Some of the currencies studied by Vriesekoop and his (10)team such as the American dollar were made from cotton. Others were made from polymers.The three (11)currencies with the lowest numbers of bacteria were all printed on polymers. They included the Australian dollar, the New Zealand dollar and some Mexican pesos. The other currencies were printed on fabric made(12)mostlyof cotton. Fewer germs lived on the polymer notes. This connection suggests that(13)germshave a harder time staying alive on polymer surfaces. Scientists need to do more studies to understand how germs live on money-and whether or not we need to be concerned. Vnesekoop is now starting a study that will(14)compare the amounts of time bacteria can stay alive on different types of bills.Whatever Vriesekoop finds, the fact remains: Paper money harbors germs We should wash our (15)hands -after touching it; after all5, you never know where your money s been. Or whats living on it第四篇 Animals “Sixth Sense” 动物的 第六个感 A tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the Indian Ocean in December, 2004. It killed tens of thousands of people in Asia and East Africa. Wild animals, （1）however, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that I they possess a “sixth sense” for （2）disasters, experts said. Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24,000 people along the Indian Ocean islands coast clearly （3）missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found. “No elephants are dead, not （4）even dead rabbit. I think animals can （5）sense disaster. They have a sixth sense. They know when things are happening.” H.D. Ratnayake, deputy director of Sri Lankas Wildlife Department, said about one month after the tsunami attack. The （6）waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lankas biggest wildlife （7）reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards. “There has been a lot of （8）apparent evidence about dogs barking or birds migrating before volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. But it has not been proven,” said Matthew van Lierop an animal behavior（9）specialist at Johannesburg Zoo. “There have been no （10）specific studies because you cant really test it in a lab or field setting2,” he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this （11）assessment. “Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain （12）phenomenon, especially birds there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters,” said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife. Animals （13）certainly rely on the known senses such as smell or hearing to avoid danger such as predators. The notion of an animal “sixth sense”-or （14）some other mythical power-is an enduring one3 which the evidence on Sri Lankas ravaged coast is likely to add to. The Romans saw owls （15）as omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes. 第五篇 Singing Alarms Could Save the Blind警报器救盲人If you cannot see, you may not be able to find your way out of a burning building - and that could be fatal. A company in Leeds could change all that （1）with directional sound alarms capable if guiding you to the exit.Sound Alert, a company （2）run by the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for （3）blind people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria.（4）The alarms produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the （5）sound is coming from.Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be （6）heard by humans. “Its a burst of white noise （7）that people say sounds like static on the radio,”she says. “Its life-saving potential is great.”She conducted an experiment in which people were filmed by thermalimaging cameras trying to find their way out of a large （8）smoke-filled room. It （9）took them nearly four minutes to find the door （10）without a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one.Withington studies how the brain （11）processes sounds at the university. She says that the （12）source of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms （13）based on the same concept have already been installed on emergency vehicles.The alarms will also include rising or falling frequencies to indicate whether people should go up （14）or down stairs. They were（15）developed with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels.第六篇 Car Thieves could Be Stopped Remotely汽车小偷可能很远地被停止 Speeding off in a stolen car, the thief thinks he has got a great catch. But he is in a nasty surprise. The car is fitted with a remote immobilizer and a radio signal from a control center miles away will ensure that once the thief switches the engine (1) off , he will not be able to start it again. For now, such devices (2) are only available for fleets of trucks and specialist vehicles used on construction sites. But remote immobilization technology could soon start to trickle down to ordinary cars, and (3) should be available to ordinary cars in the UK (4) in two months. The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the carincorporates (5) a miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver. (6) If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicles engine management system and prevent the engine (7) being restarted. There are even plans for immobilizers (8) that shut down vehicles on the move, though there are fears over the safety implications of such a system. In the UK. an array of technical fixes is already making (9) life harder for car thieves. “The pattern of vehicles crime has changed,” says Martyn Randall of Thatcham, a security research organization based in Berkshire that is funded in part (10) by the motor insurance industry. He says it would only take him a few minutes to (11) teach a novice how to steal a car, using a bare minimum of tools. But only if the car is more than 10 years old. Modern cars are a far tougher proposition, as their engine management computer will not (12) allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this (13) have helped achieve a 31 per cent drop in vehicle-related crime since 1997. But determined criminals are still managing to find other ways to steal cars. Often by getting hold of the owners keys in a burglary. In 2000, 12 per cent of vehicles stolen in the UK were taken using the owners keys double the previous years figure. Remote-controlled immobilization system would (14) put a major new obstacle in the criminals way by making such thefts pointless. A group that includes Thatcham, the police, insurance companies and security technology firms have developed standards for a system that could goon the market sooner than the (15) customer expects.第七篇 An intelligent car一辆聪明的汽车Driving needs sharp eyes, keen ears, quick brain, and coordination between hands and the brain. Many human drivers have all (1) these and can control a fast-moving car. But how does an intelligent car control itself?There is a virtual driver in the smart car. This virtual driver has “eyes,”“brains”，“hands” and “feet”，too. The mini-cameras (2) on each side of the car are his “eyes,” which observe the road and conditions ahead of it. They watch the (3) traffic to the cars left and right. There is also a highly (4) automatic driving system in the car. It is the built-in computer, which is the virtual drivers “brain. ” His “brain” calculates the speeds of (5) other moving cars near it and analyzes their positions. Basing on this information, it chooses the right (6) path for the intelligent cars, and gives (7) instructions to the “hands”and “feets”to act accordingly. In this way, the virtual driver controls his car.What is the virtual drivers best advantage? He reacts (8) quickly. The mini-cameras are (9) sending images continuously to the “brain”. It (10) completes the processing of the images within 100 milliseconds. However, the worlds best drier (11) at least needs one second to react. (12) Besides, when he takes action, he needs one more second.The virtual driver is really wonderful. He can reduce the accident (13) rate considerably on expressway. In this case. Can we let him have the wheel at any time and in any place? Experts (14) warn that we cannot do that just yet. His ability to recognize things is still (15) limited. He can now only drive an intelligent car on expressways.第八篇 A Biological Clock一个生物时钟Every living thing has what scientists call a biological clock that controls behavior. The biological clock tells (1) humans when to form flowers and when the flowers should open1. It tells (2) insects when to leave the protective cocoon茧 and fly away, and it tells animals and human beings when to eat, sleep and wake.Events outside the plant and animal (3) affect the actions of some biological clocks. Scientists recently found, for example, that a tiny animal changes the color of its fur (4) because the number of hours of daylight. In the short (5) days of winter, its fur becomes white. The fur becomes gray brown in color in the longer hours of daylight summer.Inner signals control other biological clocks. German scientists found that some kind of internal clock seems to order birds to begin their long migration (6) flight twice each year. Birds (7) prevented from flying become restless when it is time for the trip, (8) but they become calm again when the time of the flight has ended.Scientists say they are beginning to learn which (9) parts of the brain contain biological clocks. An American researcher, Martin Moorhead, said a small group of cells near the front of the brain (10) seems to control the timing of some of our actions. These (11) cells tell a person when to (12) awaken, when to sleep and when to seek food. Scientists say there probably are other biological clock cells that control other body activities.Dr. Moorhead is studying (13) how our biological clocks affect the way we do our work2. For example, most of us have great difficulty if we must often change to different work hours. (14) It can take3 many days for a human body to accept the major change in work hours. Dr. Moorhead said industrial officials should have a better understanding of biological clocks and how they affect workers. He said (15) such understanding could cut sickness and accidents at work and would help increase a factorys production.第九篇Wonder Webs惊奇网络 Spider webs are more than homes, and they are ingenious traps. And the worlds best web spinner may be the Golden Orb Weaver spider. The female Orb Weaver spins a web of fibers thin enough to be invisible to insect prey, yet (1)tough enough to snare a flying bird without breaking. The secret of the webs strength? A type of super-resilient (2)silk called dragline. When the female spider is ready to (3)weave the webs spokes and frame, she uses her legs to draw the airy thread out through a hollow nozzle in her belly. Dragline is not sticky, so the spider can race back and forth along (4)it to spin the webs trademark spiral.恒星英语论坛 Unlike some spiders that weave a new web every day, a Golden Orb Weaver (5)reuses her handiwork until it falls apart, sometimes not for two years. The silky thread is five times stronger than steel by weight and absorbs the force of an impact three times better than Kevlar, a high-strength human-made (6)material used in bullet-proof vests. And thanks to its high tensile strength, or the ability to resist breaking under the pulling force called tension, a single strand can stretch up to 40 percent longer than its original (7)length and snap back as well as new. No human-made fiber even comes (8)close . It is no (9)wonder manufacturers are clamoring for spider silk. In the consumer pipeline: High-performance fabrics for athletes and stockings that never run. Think parachute cords and suspension bridge cables. A steady (10)supply of spider silk would be worth billions of dollars but how to produce it? Harvesting silk on spider farms does not (11)work because the territorial arthropods have a tendency to devour their neighbors. Now, scientists at the biotechnology company Nexia are spinning artificial silk modeled after Golden Orb dragline. The (12)first step: extract silk-making genes from the spiders. Next, implant the genes into goat egg cells. The nanny goats that grow from the eggs secrete dragline silk proteins in their (13)milk . “The young goats pass on the silk-making gene without (14)any help from us,” says Nexia president Jeffrey Turner. Nexia is still perfecting the spinning process, but they hope artificial spider silk will soon be snagging customers (15)as fast as the real thing snags bugs. 第十篇 Chicken Soup for the Soul：Comfort Food Fights Loneliness心灵鸡汤：爽心食品排解孤独感 Mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, may be bad for your arteries,(1)but according to a study in Psychological Science, theyre good for your heart and(2) emotionsThe study focuses on “comfort food” and how it makes people feel For me(3)personally,food has always played a big role in my family,” says Jordan Troisi, a graduate student at the University of Buffalo, and lead author on the studyThe study came out of the research program of his coauthor Shira GabrielIt has(4)looked at non-human things that may affect human emotionsSome people reduce loneliness by bonding with their(5)favoriteTV show, building virtual relationships with a pop song singer or looking at pictures of loved onesTroisi and Gabriel wondered if comfort food could have the same effect (6)by making people think of their nearest and dearest. In one experiment, in order to make(7)class feel lonely, the researchers had them write for six minutes about a fight with someone close to themOthers were given an emotionally neutral writing assignment. Then, some people in each(8)group wrote about the experience of eating a comfort food and others wrote about eating a new
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