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Why is the Native Language Learnt So Well?How does it happen that children learn their mother tongue so well? When we compare them with adults learning a foreign language, we often find this interesting fact a little child without knowledge or experience often succeeds in a complete mastery of the language. A grown-up person with fully developed mental powers, in most cases, may end up with a faulty and inexact command. What accounts for this difference?Despite other explanations, the real answer in my opinion lies partly in the child himself, partly in the behavior of the people around him. In the first place, the time of learning the mother tongue is the most favorable of all, namely, the first years of life. A child hears it spoken from morning till night and, what is more important, always in its genuine form, with the right pronunciation, right intonation, right use of words and right structure. He drinks in all the words and expressions which come to him in a fresh, ever-bubbling spring. There is no resistance: there is perfect assimilation.Then the child has, as it were, private lessons all the year round, while an adult language-student has each week a limited number of hours which he generally shares with others. The child has another advantage: he hears the language in all possible situations, always accompanied by the right kind of gestures and facial expressions. Here there is nothing unnatural, such as is often found in language lessons in schools, when one talks about ice and snow in June or scorching heat in January. And what a child hears is generally what immediately interests him. Again and again, when his attempts at speech are successful, his desires are understood and fulfilled.Finally, though a child’s “teachers” may not have been trained in language teaching, their relations with him are always close and personal. They take great pains to make their lessons easy.New Efforts to Lean about MarsTwo weeks ago, the United States launched a spaceship named Mars Global Surveyor. It is expected to arrive at Mars next September after traveling about 7 hundred million kilometers. It will orbit the planet. Its main task is to make the most detailed map of Mars. On December 2nd, the United States is to launch another spacecraft Mars Pathfinder. Although the two spacecrafts are not designed to search for life, they will seek out conditions that could support life.Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun the next beyond Earth. It has been a bright object of mystery in the night sky since ancient times. It is named for the Roman God of War. Because of the color of its soil and rocks, Mars is also called the red planet. If life, past or present, is to be found anywhere else in the solar system, scientists say, Mars is probably the space. They think Mars and Earth were similar as young planets. They believe that young Mars was much warmer and wetter than it is now; and had much thicker atmosphere. Today, Mars’ atmosphere is less than 1% as thick as Earth’s. It is mostly carbon dioxide while Earth’s atmosphere is mainly nitrogen. Mars is about half the size of Earth. It is almost 7,000 kilometers across. It has huge volcanoes and canyon 4,000 kilometers across, the biggest known in the solar system. Mars is also known for great dust storms which sometimes cover the planet. The average temperature on Mars is 53 degrees below zero Celsius. Mars’ warm atmosphere is 27 above zero.In some places the Martian surface looks like a desert on Earth. In others, it looks like the surface of our moon. By studying Mars, scientists say we can hope to learn more about the history and perhaps the future of our own planet. Surface on Mars that are almost 4,000 million years old show remains of ancient lakes. These suggest that that liquid water once flowed. Mars water is hidden under its surface now. Instruments on the spacecraft will search for it.Extinction Stalks World’s TigersUnless governments take significant measures to protect tigers, they may go extinct by 2010, the World Wildlife Fund said Thursday.The conservation group said tiger numbers have decreased 95 percent in the past century and only 5,000—7,200 tigers still survive in the wild—compared with nearly 10 times that many at the start of the century.WWF, published an update Feb. 11, 2019 of their study—Wanted Alive: Tigers in the Wild, marking the end of the Chinese Year of the Tiger.The report states that despite sustained efforts over the past year, much remains to be done to prevent the tiger from becoming extinct early next century. If governments do not crack down on poaching and eliminate the demand for tiger products, the tiger will be stalked to extinction, says WWF.“We cannot let up for one moment if we are to ensure that tigers will still exist in the wild by the next Chinese Year of the Tiger in 2010,” said Elizabeth Kemf, species conservation information manager at WWF International and one of the authors of the report.The group cites illegal hunting for the medicinal trade, loss of prey species weak law enforcement, poaching, habitat loss and a shrinking gene pool as the other major threats facing the world’s tiger population.The WWF said one major success during 1998 was the passage of legislation by the U.S. Congress banning the import and sale of any product claiming to contain ingredients made of rhinoceros—another endangered species—or tiger parts.In addition, WWF established a Tiger Emergency Fund, supported the Tiger Conservation Program in India, and worked in the Russian Far East.Three of the eight subspecies of tiger—the Bali, Caspian and Javan tigers are extinct. The South China tiger faces the same facts as only 20 or 30 are known to remain in the wild, down from an estimated 4, 000 in the 1950s.

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There are some earth phenomena you can count on, but the magnetic field, someday is not of them. It fluctuates in strength, drifts from its axis, and every few 100,000 years undergo, dramatic polarity reversal—a period when north pole becomes south pole and south pole becomes north pole. But how is the field generated, and why is it so unstable?Groundbreaking research by two French geophysicists promises to shed some light on the mystery. Using 80 meters of deep sea sediment (沉淀物) core, they have obtained measurements of magnetic-field intensity that span 11 polarity reversals and four million years. The analysis reveals that intensity appears to fluctuate with a clear, well-defined rhythm. Although the strength of the magnetic field varies irregularly during the short term, there seems to be an inevitable long term decline preceding each polarity reversal. When the poles flip—a process that takes several hundred thousand years—the magnetic field rapidly regains its strength and the cycle is repeated.The results have caused a stir among geophysicists. The magnetic field is thought to originate from molten (熔化的) iron in the outer core, 3,000 kilometers beneath the earth’s surface. By studying mineral grains found in material ranging from rocks to clay articles, previous researchers have already been able to identify reversals dating back 170 million years, including the most recent switch 730,000 years ago. How and why they occur, however, has been widely debated. Several theories link polarity flips to external disasters such as meteor impacts. But Peter Olson, a geophysicist at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, says this is unlikely if the French researchers are right. In fact, Olson says intensity that predictably declines from one reversal to the next contradicts 90 percent of the models currently under study. If the results prove to be valid, geophysicists will have a new theory to guide them in their quest to understand the earth’s inner physics. It certainly points the direction for future research.1. Which of the following titles is most appropriate to the passage?2. The word “flip” (Para. 2) most probably means ____.3. What have the two French geophysicists discovered in their research?4. The French geophysicists’ study is different from currently prevailing theories in ____.5. In Peter Olson’s opinion the French experiment ____.

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The concept of personal choice in relation to health behaviors is an important one. An estimated 90 percent of all illnesses may be preventable if individuals would make sound personal health choices and do not like to see it restricted when it is within the legal and moral boundaries of society. The structure of American society allows us to make almost all our own personal decisions that may concern our health. If we so desire, we can smoke, drink excessively refuse to wear seat belts, eat whatever foods we want and live a completely sedentary life style without any exercise. The freedom to make such personal decisions is a fundamental aspect of our society although the wisdom of these decisions can be questioned. Personal choices relative to health often cause a difficulty. As one example a teenager may know the facts relative to smoking cigarettes and health but may be pressured by friends into believing it is the socially accepted thing to do.A multitude of factors both inherited and environmental influence the development of health related behaviors and it is beyond the scope of this text to discuss all these factors as they may affect any given individual. However the decision to adopt a particular health related behavior is usually one of personal choices. There are healthy choices and there are unhealthy choices. In discussing the morals of personal choice Fries and Grapo drew a comparison. They suggest that to knowingly give oneself over to a behavior that has a statistical probability of shortening life is similar to attempting suicide. Thus for those individuals who are interested in preserving both the quality and quantity of life, personal health choices should reflect those behaviors that are associated with a statistical probability of increased vitality and longevity.1. The concept of personal choice concerning health is important because ____.2. To “live a completely sedentary life-style” (Para. 1) in the passage means ____.3. Sound personal health choice is often difficult to make because ____.4. To knowingly allow oneself to pursue unhealthy habits is compared by Fries and Crapo to ____.5. According to Fries and Crapo sound health choices should be based on ____.

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After Los Angeles, Atlanta may be America’s most car-dependent city. Atlantans sentimentally give their cars names; compare speeding tickets and jealously guard any side-street where it is possible to park. The city’s roads are so well worn that the first act of the new mayor, Shirley Franklin, was to start repairing potholes. In 1998, 13 metro counties lost federal highway funds because their air-pollution levels violated the Clean Air Act. The American Highway Users Alliance ranked three Atlanta interchanges among the 18 worst bottlenecks in the country.Other cities in the same fix have reorganized their highways, imposed commuter and car taxes, or expanded their public-transport systems. Atlanta does not like any of these things. Public transport is a vexed subject, too. Atlanta’s metropolitan region is divided into numerous county and smaller city governments, which find it hard to work together. Railways now serve the city center and the airport, but not much else; bus stops are often near invisible poles, offering no indication of which bus might stop there, or when.Georgia’s Democratic governor, Roy Barnes, who hopes for re-election in November, has other plans. To win back the federal highway money lost under the Clean Air Act, he created the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA), a 15-member board with the power to make the county governments, the city and the ten-county Atlanta Regional Commission cooperate on transport plans, whether they like it or not.Now GRTA has issued its own preliminary plan, allocating $4.5 billion over the next three years for a variety of schemes. The plan earmarks money to widen roads; to have an electric shuttle bus shuttle tourists among the elegant villas of Buck head; and to create a commuter rail link between Atlanta and Macon, two hours to the south. Counties will be encouraged, with generous ten-to-one matching funds, to start express bus services.Public goodwill, however, may not stretch as far as the next plan, which is to build the Northern Arc highway for 65 miles across three counties north of the city limits. GRTA has allotted $270 million for this. Supporters say it would ease the congestion on local roads; opponents think it would worsen over-development and traffic. The counties affected, and even GRTA’s own board, are divided.The governor is in favor, however, and since he can appoint and fire GRTA’S members, that is probably the end of the story. Mr. Barnes has a tendency to do as he wants, regardless. His arrogance on traffic matters could also lose him votes. But Mr. Barnes think that Atlanta’s slowing economy could do him more harm than the anti-sprawl movement.1. The author’s presentation of Atlantans’ car-dependence is meant ____.2. Which of the following is not part of the “anti-sprawl movement” as planned by Governor Roy Barnes?3. Which of the following is NOT mentioned in the text?4. It can be learnt from the text that Georgia’s Governor Roy Barnes ____.5. In eyes of the writer, the best solution to the traffic problem in Atlanta seems to lie in ____.

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Dirty buses, their passengers pale and tired, jam the crowded streets. Drivers shout at one another, horns making great noise all over the streets. The scene is Athens at rush hours. The ancient Greek city is in a sorry state of affairs. Even Athens’ ruins are in ruin: sulfur dioxide (二氧化硫) is eating away treasures on the Acropolis.So great has been the pollution flow toward the city that entire villages stand vacant or nearly so. The migrant (移居者) come for the few, available jobs, which are usually no better than the ones they fled. At the current rate of migration, Athens by the year 2000 will have a population of 6.5 million, more than half the nation.Aside from overcrowding and poor public transport, the biggest problems are noise and pollution. A government study conclude that Athens is the noisiest city in the world. Smog is at killing levels: up to four times the World Health Organization considers safe. Nearly half the pollution comes from cars. Despite high prices for vehicles and fuel, nearly 100,000 automobiles sold in Greece each year.After decades of neglect, Athens is at last getting some attention. In March a committee of representatives met to discuss a plan to unclog the city and clean up the environment. A save-Athens organization, which will soon begin functioning, will propose heavy taxes to discourage migration. A master plan that will move many government offices to the suburbs is already in the works. Meanwhile, more Greeks keep moving into Athens. With few parks and precious few oxygen-producing plants, the citizens are finding it more difficult to breathe.1. In the first paragraph, the author describes a scene of Athens at rush hours to ____.2. According to the second paragraph, the increased population of Athens is mainly due to ____.3. The phrase “unclog the city” (Para 4) most probably means ____.4. The major measure suggested by the Save-Athens organization is to ____.5. The best title for this passage can be ____.

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