每周的周末为复习周，请大家将这一周的阅读重新回顾，人的第七个记忆周期是7天，如果我们每天只一味地做新的阅读而从不回顾之前的要点，那做200篇的效果也和做1篇是一样的。以前做过的朋友请耐心的地再做一遍，做完考虑这几个问题，并请以回帖的形式和大家一起分享：
1. 错了几道？错的题是不是和第一次做的时候错的一样?
2. 对做错的题能不能想起正确答案的解释？
第一次做的朋友可以任选一篇来做，答案请注明是哪一期的。
2008年7月7日第101期阅读理解擂台赛
One of my favorite posters says, “ Life is a test. It is only a test. Had this been a real life you would have been instructed where to go and what to do.” Whenever I think of this humorous bit of wisdom, it reminds me to not take my life so seriously.
When you look at life and its many challenges as a test, or series of tests, you begin to see each issue you face as an opportunity to grow, a chance to discover more about life. Whether you're being bombarded（攻击；质问） with problems, responsibilities,even insurmountable（不能克服的，不能超越的） difficulties, when looked at as a test, you always have a chance to succeed, in the sense of rising above that which is challenging you. If, on the other hand, you see each new issue you face as a serious battle that must be won in order to survive, you're probably in for a very rocky journey. The only time you're likely to be happy is when everything is working out just right. And we all know how often that happens.
As an experiment, see if you can apply this idea to something you are forced to deal with. Perhaps you have much pressure from your parents or you have a demanding boss. See if you can redefine the issue you face from being a “ problem” to being a test. Rather than struggling with your issue, see if there is something you can learn from it. Ask yourself, “ Why is this an issue in my life? What would it mean and what would be involved to rise above it? Could I possibly look at this issue any differently? Can I see it as a test of some kind?”
If you give this strategy a try you may be surprised at your changed responses. It has become far more acceptable to me to accept things as they are.
1. According to the passage,what is the author's attitude towards life?
A.He takes his life seriously.
B.He considers life as test.
C.He knows where to go and what to do.
D.He thinks life is full of humorous wisdom.
2. When you begin to consider life as a test,you will find _____.
A.you are bombarded with problems and responsibilities
B.the result of the test is so good that you are delighted
C.you have many opportunities to grow
D.you have to go to school to take tests everyday
3. Which of the following statement is TRUE according to the author?
A.When you look at life as a test, you have a chance to overcome problems you face.
B.When you take life seriously, you are more likely to succeed and become happy.
C.When you see each problem as a serious battle, you have more chance to survive.
D.When everything is working out just right, you can know how often it happens.
4. It is implied from the passage that you'd better look at life as a test when_____.
A.you try to get the meaning of the poster
B.your parents give you much pressure
C.you are carrying out an experiment
D.you are in a rocky journey
5. Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
A.My Favorite Poster
B.Take Life Seriously
C.Face Challenge of Life
D.Life Is Only A Test
Vocabulary:
(in order to improve your ability of guessing words, you'd better see this section after you answer the quenstions)
1. demanding adj.过分要求的，苛求的
*To be a CEO of a big company is a real demanding job. 当大公司的执行总裁真的是一件费力的工作。
2008年7月8日第102期阅读理解擂台赛
Development of a widely accepted chronology for the arrival of humans has been equally difficult, and it was only with the development of optically stimulated luminescence dating that a human presence in Australia was confirmed at 53,000 to 60,000 years ago. Older dates for a human presence in Australia have now been shown to be erroneous.
The importance of Australia as a separate natural laboratory in which to test extinction theories lies in the fact that humans arrived there much earlier than they arrived in the other continental areas (the Americas and northern Eurasia) that experienced substantial megafaunal extinction. What Miller et al. have shown is that the extinction of Genyornis occurred simultaneously across southeastern Australia (indeed probably right across the continent) about 50,000 years ago. This is very close to the presently accepted time of arrival of humans in Australia. It was also a period of modest climate change, well before the dramatic climatic fluctuations of the terminal Pleistocene. The data of Miller et al., therefore, support those who see human hunting rather than climate as causing the extinction of the megafauna.
Genyornis was a ponderous bird, around 80 to 100 kg in weight, about twice as heavy as the living emu and cassowary. It was an inhabitant of Australia's inland plains and some coastal regions, but its legs were relatively short and thick, suggestion that it was a slower runner than the emu. Proponents of humancaused extinction suggest that it is just such characteristics that made the megafauna vulnerable to human hunting.
A new school of thought has recently established itself in the extinction debate. It advocates the idea that a combination of human impact and climate change was responsible for the extinction of the world's megafauna. The new Genyornis data also weaken that argument, for the following reason. Fifty thousand years ago, Australia was experiencing mild cooling; 11,000 to 12,000 years ago, the Americas were experiencing rapid warming. These disparate climatic conditions, all coincident with megafaunal extinction, suggest that whatever was happening with climate, it was bad for the big animals. Under these conditions, the hybrid model becomes indistinguishable from the human caused extinction model for the influence of climate becomes extremely weak, and only the arrival of humans is important in predicting extinction.
1. The last word “megafauna” in Paragraph 2 most probably means
A birds.
B plants.
C big animals.
D small animals.
2. Genyornis was vulnerable to human hunting because it was
A a delicacy.
B very weak.
C very small in size.
D clumsy.
3. How many models have been put forward for the extinction of Genyoris?
A One.
B Two.
C Three.
D Four.
4. That Australia experienced mild cooling and the Americas rapid warming suggests that
A the climatic conditions were unfit for Genyornis to live.
B Genyornis were highly adaptable to different climatic conditions.
C The two climatic conditions were both bad for Genyornis.
D The climatic conditions had nothing to do with the extinction of Genyoris.
5. The selection is mainly about
A the debate over the time of the human presence in Australia.
B the relationship between the human presence and magafaunal extinction.
C the relationship between human activities and climatic changes.
D the debate over factors causing megafaunal extinction.
Vocabulary:
(in order to improve your ability of guessing words, you'd better see this section after you answer the quenstions)
1.chronology [ krə'nɔlədʒi ] n.年代学
2.luminescence [ ,lu:mi'nesns ] n.发光
3.erroneous [ i'rəunjəs ] a.错误的 ［同义］ false, incorrect, inexact
4.megafauna [ˈmeɡəˌfɔ:nə] n.巨型动物
5.fluctuation [ ,flʌktju'eiʃən ] n.变化 ［同义］ oscillation, rolling
6.ponderous [ 'pɔndərəs ] a.笨重的 ［同义］ heavy, weighty, massive, bulky
7.cassowary [ 'kæsəwɛəri ] n.食火鸡
2008年7月9日第103期阅读理解擂台赛
Today, the Black Sea is a brackish inland sea, fed by fresh water from European rivers and saltier, Mediterranean seawater flowing in through the Bosporus strait. In the 1970s and 1980s, cores through now submerged sediments off the northern and western coasts revealed the remains of a coastal plain that was exposed late in the last ice age and into the interglacial warmth of the past 10,000 years. Long after glacial melt waters began raising world sea levels, it seems, the Black Sea was a freshwater lake, much smaller and lower than today's sea; it was cut off from the Mediterranean because the level of that sea was even lower than the Bosporus.
Evidence that a rising Mediterranean suddenly refilled this lowered Black Sea emerged from a joint Russian US expedition in 1993, during which researchers used seismic waves to image the layers of sediment at the bottom of the Black Sea. If rising waters had crept slowly across the coastal plain, they would have deposited a wedge of sediment as they went. But as Ryan, Pitman, and colleagues reported in Marine Geology last year, they saw no sign of that. Instead they found a thin, uniform dusting of sediment, consistent with a geologically instantaneous refilling of the Black Sea.
In addition, radiocarbon dating of the shells of the first salt tolerant molluscan invaders from the Mediterranean yielded the same age—7550 years before present, plus or minus 100 years—regardless of whether the shells came from deep, permanently flooded sediments or from the shallow shelf. If the refilling had been gradual, the team reasoned, the shells in deeper water would have been laid down first.
Finally, seismic probing has shown that the hard rock basement beneath the sediments filling the Bosporus channel lies at a depth of nearly 100 meters, rather than 35 meters, as had been thought. So the floodwaters could have cut a very deep channel through the sediments and down to bedrock, letting the water spill through far faster.
1. The purpose of the author in writing the text is to
A outline the geographical features of the Bosporus.
B explain why the Black Sea was a freshwater lake.
C describe a joint RussianUS expedition to the Black Sea.
D provide new evidence that a rising Mediterranean suddenly refilled the lowered Black Sea.
2. By referring to the report of the expedition team, the author shows that
A the Black Sea was gradually refilled 10,000 years ago.
B a wedge of sediment was found at the bottom of the Black Sea.
C the hard rock basement beneath the sediments filling the Bosporus channel lies at a depth of nearly 35 meters.
D a thin and uniform dusting of sediment with a geologically instantaneous refilling of the Black was found.
3. “Brackish” water (Line 1, Para.1) is not pure because it is
A slightly salty.
B unclear.
C polluted.
D not fresh.
4. The text is most likely a part of a
A journalist interview.
B book review.
C scientific report.
D narrative story.
5. If a rising Mediterranean had gradually refilled the lowered Black Sea,
A the floodwaters would have left a thicker, uniform dusting of sediment.
B the Black Sea would have become a much smaller freshwater lake.
C radiocarbon dating of the shells from deeper sediments would have yielded older age than those from shallow shelf.
D the hard rock basement beneath the sediments filling the Bosporus would have lain at a depth of 35 meters.
Vocabulary:
(in order to improve your ability of guessing words, you'd better see this section after you answer the quenstions)
1.brackish [ 'brækiʃ ] a.(指水)略咸的 ［同义］ saltish, somewhat salt
2.flow in through 不断涌入
3.coastal plain 沿海平原
4.refill v.再装满，再充满
5.seismic [ 'saizmik ] a. 地震的 ［例］ seismic research 地震研究
6.sediment [ 'sedimənt ] n.沉淀物 ［同义］ dregs, lees, settlings, grounds
7.radiocarbon [ 'reidiəu'kɑ:bən ] n.放射性炭
8.molluscan [ mɔ'lʌskən ] n.软体动物
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>>尽量以最快速度把文章阅读一遍，了解内容大意，然后再根据每个小题的标题到文章中寻找答案，最后可以通过查词典把整篇文章弄懂。
为了鼓励大家积极参与比赛，一起来提高阅读水平，我们将拿出500论坛金币按照先后顺序奖励给参与者，奖完为止，大家可以到个人管理中将论坛金钱兑换成大耳朵金币。
题外话：重在参与，寻找差距，相互鼓励，朋友加油！
Never frown
Even when you are sad
Because you never know who is falling in love with your smile
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本帖最后由 Alice-nemo 于 2008-7-19 20:46 编辑 ]
