The brain of an insect isn’t very big. But insects are somehow still able to make lots of important decisions. Bees, ants and roaches(蟑螂) build hives(巢穴)with thousands of workers doing specialized work. The jobs are done without a head or even a plan. How do insects manage this?

To solve the mystery, scientists in Belgium spent months building robotic roaches and then putting them among real roaches. The final goal of the research is to find out how the simple behavior of individuals gives rise to a collective decision. The roach is a good starting point for trying to answer the big question because its social system is simple enough for scientists to study.

The first step was to build robots that real roaches would accept as their own. Although the robotic roaches don’t look much like the real thing, they have similarities with them in three key ways: they naturally head toward dark areas, they are influenced by the behavior of other roaches, and even more importantly, they smell like roaches.

The next step was getting the robotic and real roaches to work together on common tasks. In experiments, the robots would collectively head towards a dark place, copying the behavior of natural roaches. That got the researchers wondering: if you program the robotic roaches to go toward the lighted place, would the real roaches follow, going against their natural instincts.(本能) ?

They will – it turned out. Many of the real roaches followed the robots to a lighter shelter. But influence turned out to be a two- way street. On occasion, the real roaches were able to override the programming of the robot roaches and get them to turn into dark hiding places. Being social creatures, both the robotic and natural roaches were paying attention to and following the example set by others.

In theory, it would be possible to create a robot that could influence collective decision-making in humans. To do this, researchers would have to invent a robot that people would accept. Fortunately, the technology isn’t there yet.

1．Why do scientists choose the roaches to study?

     A．They are social creatures

     B．Their social system is simple.

     C．They are able to build their hives quite well.

     D．It is easy to create robotic ones.

2．The robotic roaches are accepted by real ones because of all of the following EXCEPT that _________ .

       A．they smell like real ones

       B．they look exactly like real ones

       C．what they do are somewhat influenced by other roaches

       D．they naturally head toward dark areas

3．What’s the author’s attitude to creating a robot that would influence collective decision- making in humans?

     A．Uninterested      B．Positive              C．Negative            D．Doubtful

4．Which of the following might be the best title of the passage ?

     A．Robotic Roaches                     B．Scientists’ Research

     C．Amazing Insects                 D．Insects’ Social System

請(qǐng)認(rèn)真閱讀下列短文，并根據(jù)所讀內(nèi)容在文章后表格中的空格里填入最恰當(dāng)?shù)膯卧~。

A new set of brain images shows why : Reading the Roman alphabets and Chinese characters uses different parts of the brain.

The results also suggest that Chinese schoolchildren have reading problems in a different part of the brain than the part used in reading alphabet-based languages. This shows that the learning disorder dyslexia (inability to read properly) is not the same in every culture and does not have a universal biological cause.

Scientists described the results as “ very important and revolutionary”. While dyslexia has certain common roots, they said, they now have some proof that this kind of functional problem works differently according to the different demands that Western and Eastern languages place on the brain.

Dyslexia is a common developmental disorder in which people of normal intelligence have difficulty learning to read, spell and master other language skills.

The results suggest that treating dyslexia around the world probably will require different treatments.

“Reading is complex,” said Guinevere Eden, Georgetown University professor. “ This shows we need to be more open-minded about diverse treatment approaches.”

Its origins are complex. There appears to be a genetic aspect to the illness. It also may result from brain injury before birth that changes visual and hearing pathways in the brain.

Earlier brain scans show that English-reading dyslexics don’t function properly in a left part of the brain associated with the awareness of 44 sounds from the English alphabet. However, according to the new study, reading Chinese uses some different parts of the brain located in the left-front of the brain. It is associated with symbol interpretation. Unlike alphabet letters, Chinese characters represent entire thoughts and physical objects.

Dyslexia

目前高三學(xué)生普遍感到學(xué)習(xí)負(fù)擔(dān)重，壓力大，因此焦慮、憂郁等多種心理問(wèn)題日益突出。為此，你校學(xué)生會(huì)成立了快樂(lè)俱樂(lè)部（Happy Club）。請(qǐng)用英語(yǔ)寫(xiě)一個(gè)書(shū)面通知，準(zhǔn)備刊登在你校英文校刊上，歡迎高三學(xué)生加入該俱樂(lè)部。內(nèi)容要點(diǎn)如下：

1．宗旨：幫助學(xué)生以積極樂(lè)觀的態(tài)度面對(duì)問(wèn)題，迎接挑戰(zhàn)。

2．活動(dòng)內(nèi)容：1）定期請(qǐng)專家開(kāi)講座，解決心理問(wèn)題。

             2）組織討論，交流學(xué)習(xí)經(jīng)驗(yàn)

             3）請(qǐng)你再擬定兩項(xiàng)活動(dòng)

3．活動(dòng)時(shí)間：周六下午

4．報(bào)名方式：在學(xué)生會(huì)填寫(xiě)申請(qǐng)表或在校園網(wǎng)上登記

注意：1）不要簡(jiǎn)單翻譯所給要點(diǎn)，要有適當(dāng)發(fā)揮；

      2）詞數(shù)150，短文中已寫(xiě)出的部分不計(jì)入總詞數(shù)；

    3）參考詞匯：心理的psychological；學(xué)生會(huì)the Student Union

Do you feel stressed up? Do you want to keep up a good state of mind? Why not join our Happy Club?

Don’t hesitate. It’ll be great fun!

―Well, my daughters take great interest in most of the food on the menu.

―Thanks. _____?

―Salad, fried fish, chips and orange juice, please.

A．Shall I take your order                               B．At your service

C．What to follow                                           D．Can I help you

At _____ dawn word came that the river water had risen to ______ height of the main road beside it.

A．the; a      B．不填; the        C．the; the  D．不填; a

—What did mother say to you just now?

—She told me that I _______ go to grandma’s birthday party tomorrow if I finish my homework today.

A．must               B．need         C．will          D．shall

Their play ________ great success and brought in a large profit to the theatre.

A．a(chǎn)ppreciated          B．enjoyed     C．expected     D．seized

None of them _________ the thin girl could keep her end up and came out first in the international marathon.

A．have predicted  B．would predict C．were predicted D．had predicted

—Mom, have you seen my mobile phone?

—_________ you bought last week? I’m afraid I haven’t seen ________.

A．The one; one    B．The one; it       C．One; it      D．One; one

A new _______ bus service to Tianjin Airport started to operate two months ago.

A．normal      B．usual C．common   D．regular