(A)
When a group of children politely stop a conversation with you, saying: “We have to go to work now,” you’re left feeling surprised and certainly uneasy. After all, this is the 1990s and the idea of children working is just unthinkable. That is, until you are told that they are all pupils of stage schools, and that the “work” they go off to is to go on the stage in a theatre.
Stage schools often act as agencies(代理機(jī)構(gòu)) to supply children with stage and television work. More worthy of the name “stage school” are those few places where children attend full time, with a training for the theatre and a general education.
A visit to such schools will leave you in no doubt that the children enjoy themselves. After all, what lively children wouldn’t settle for spending only half the day doing ordinary school work, and acting, singing or dancing their way through the other half of the day?
Then of course there are times for the children to make a name and make a little money in some big shows. Some stage schools give their children too much professional work at such a young age. But the law is very tight on the amount they can do. Those under 13 are limited to 40 days in a year; those over 13 do 80 days.
The schools themselves admit that not all children will be successful in the profession for which they are being trained. So what happens to those who don’t make it? While all the leading schools say they place great importance on children getting good study results, the facts seem to suggest this is not always the case.
1. People would stop feeling uneasy when realizing that the children they’re talking to ____.
A. attend a stage schoolB. are going to the theatre
C. have got some work to doD. love singing and dancing
2. In the writer’s opinion, a good stage school should ____.
A. produce star performers
B. help pupils improve their study skills
C. train pupils in language and performing arts
D. provide a general education and stage training
3. “Professional work” used in the text means ____.
A. ordinary school workB. money-making performances
C. stage training at schoolD. acting, singing or dancing after class
4. Which of the following best describes how the writer feels about stage schools?____.
A. He thinks highly of what they have to offer
B. He favours an early start in the training of performing arts
C. He feels uncomfortable about children putting on night shows
D. He doubts the standard of ordinary education they have reached
(B)
As if there weren’t enough of them in the world already, scientists have succeeded in cloning flies. The alike fruit flies are the first insects ever cloned, says the Canadian team that created them. The question everyone asks is why anyone would want to clone flies in the first place. She hopes that the insects, which are very easy to experiment with, will help to adjust the cloning process in other animals and even in humans, where the technique is being researched to aid production of therapeutic(治療的) stem cells.
In cloning, the DNA—containing nucleus of an adult cell is injected into an egg whose own nucleus has been removed. At the moment, the majority of cloned mice, sheep and other animals die before birth. It is thought this is because the adult DNA is not properly “reprogrammed”.
Using flies, researchers might discover genes that are important for this reprogramming, and that have matches in other animals. That is because it is relatively easy in flies to knock out the function of a single gene and then attempt cloning with these cells, which will test whether that gene is important. If such genes are confirmed, then in theory cloned mammalian embryos(晶胚) might be grown in selected solutions that change the activity of those genes to improve the technique’s success rate. Although some groups have attempted to clone insects before. Loyal says this is the first time it has been successful. The team used a slight difference on the standard cloning process: they transferred nuclei taken from embryos rather than fully-grown adult cells. They sucked several nuclei out of developing fly embryos, and injected them into a fertilized(已受精的) fly egg. From over 800 early attempt, they cloned five adult insects, the group reports in the journal Genetics.
1. The best title of this passage probably is ____.
A. The Importance of CloneB. The Insects Are Cloned
C. The Disagreement in CloneD. The Advantages of Clone
2. The scientists cloned flies because ____.
A. there are fewer and fewer flies in the world
B. flies are easy to find and cheap to use
C. they can gain some experience before cloning other animals
D. it is safe to clone flies
3. The failure of most cloned animals is due to ____.
A. the difference of other animals’ genesB. the improper technique of clone
C. the complex of other animalsD. the improper rearrange of the adult gene
4. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that ____.
A. the clone of insects before used grown-up cells
B. the clone of insects were never experimented before
C. this time scientists cloned flies successfully and easily
D. based on this success, other animals will be cloned in large quantities
(C)
If you’ve ever tried to grow own flowers or vegetables, you know that gardening is an art as it is a science. The science part just took a step forward, at least for tomatoes.
The way a tomato plant grows depends on how a farmer covers and fertilizers it, say researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They’ve discovered some unexpected details about the biochemistry that goes into producing the juicy red fruit.
To cut down on weeds and make plants grow more quickly, farmers and gardeners often put black plastic around their tomato plants. Instead of plastic cover, however, some growers have long preferred to use a type of plant called vetch(野豌豆) as a cover.
Over the winter, the farmers grow hairy vetch, which belongs to the bean family. When spring comes, they cut down the vetch and plant tomatoes in the cuttings. The vetch keeps weeds out and nutrients(營(yíng)養(yǎng)) in. Some researcher has shown that tomatoes last longer and get fewer fungal(真菌) diseases when grown in dried vetch.
To understand why the system works so well, the researchers first compared two fields of tomatoes. One field got a cover of vetch and a half amount of fertilizer. The other field got a cover of plastic and a full amount of fertilizer.
In years with enough rain, tomatoes in the plastic-covered field began to grow a little bit sooner. But vetch-covered field yielded(生產(chǎn)) a bigger, healthier crop.
Then, the researchers compared specific genes and proteins in the two crops. In the vetch-covered plants, they found higher activity in two better genes that help protect the plants from fungal attacks and two genes that control how the plants age.
Vetch-covered tomatoes end up with especially big root systems. So, the researchers suspect that these plants are better at taking in nutrients from the soil. Better nutrition could affect how certain genes work.
1. The best title of this passage probably is ____.
A. How to Plant Tomato PlantsB. Growing Healthier Tomato Plants
C. Two Kinds of Tomato PlantsD. Growing Tomatoes With a Plastic Cover
2. The plastic-cover has an advantage over the vetch-cover is ____.
A. tomato plants grow stronger in it
B. the genes of tomato plants are not changed
C. tomato plants grow faster in it
D. weeds are kept out
3. The safe description about vetch-covered tomato growing is that ____.
A. first grow tomato plants, then plant vetch and let it grow as a cover
B. grow tomato plants and vetch side by side, and then cut down
C. first grow vetch, then cut it and then plant tomato plants in it
D. first use a plastic cover, then change for the vetch cover
4. Tomato plants benefit from dried vetch in the way ____.
A. that four certain genes are made more active to keep them healthier
B. that the vetch cover provides them a protection from the sun
C. that two certain genes are made more active to keep them younger
D. that the vetch cover helps prevent water from escaping
Key(1)