完形填空答案.docx

1.Captain Cook Arrow Legend(库克船长弓箭的传说)It was a great legend while it lasted, but DNA testing has finally ended a two-century-old story of the Hawaiian arrow carved from the bone of British explorer Captain James Cook who died in the Sandwich Islands in 1779.“There is 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 exhibition, “Uncovered: Treasures of the Australian Museum,” which 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 discovering the “Great South Land,” now Australia, in 1770. He was clubbed to death in the Sandwich Islands, now Hawaii.The legend of Cooks arrow began in 1824 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 fight with islanders.In the 1890s the arrow was given to the Australian Museum and the legend continued 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 likely made of animal bone, said Philp.However, Cooks fans 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 all of Cooks body was buried at sea in 1779. “On this occasion technology has won,” said Cliff Thornton, president of the Captain Cook Society, in a statement from Britain. “But I am sure that one of these days one of the Cook legends will prove to be true and it will happen one day.”2.Avalanche and Its Safety(雪崩和安全问题)An avalanche is a sudden and rapid flow of snow, often mixed with air and water, down a mountainside. Avalanches are 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 that supports it. Determining the critical load, the amount of over-burden which is likely to cause an avalanche, is a complex task involving the evaluation of a numberof factors.Terrain slopes flatter than 25 degrees or steeper than 60 degrees typically have a low risk of avalanche. Snow does not gather significantly on steep slopes; also, snow does not flow easily on flat slopes. Human-triggered avalanches have the greatest incidence when the snows angle of rest is 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 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 use; that is , the more a slope is disturbed by skiers, thd 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 process, including route selection and examination of the snowpack, weather conditions, and human factors. Several well-known good habits can also reduce the risk. If local authorities issue avalanche risk reports, they should be considered and all warnings should be paid 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 missing or damaged. Avoid traveling below others who might trigger an avalanche.3.Giant Structures(巨型建筑)It is an impossible task to select the most amazing wonders of the modern world since every year more wonderful constructions appear.Here are three giant structures which are worthy of our admiration although they may have been surpassed by some more recent wonders.The Petronas Twin TowerThe petronas Towers were the tallest buildings in the world when they were completed in 1999.With a height of 452 metres;the tall twin owers,like two thin pencils,dominate the city of Kuala Lumpur.At the 41 flool,the towers are linked by a bridge,symbolizing a gateway to the city.The American architect Cesar Pelli designed the skyscrapers.Constructed of high-strength concrete,the building provides around 1800 square metres of office space on every floor.And it has a shopping centre and a concert hall at the base.Other features of this impressive building include double-deckder lifts, and glass and steel sunshades.The Millau BridgeThe Millau Bridge was opened in 2004 in the Tarn Valley, in southern France. At the time it was built, it was the worlds highest bridge, reaching over 340m at the highest point. The bridge is described as one of the most amazingly beautiful bridge in the world. It was built to relieve Millaus congestion problems. The congestion was then caused by traffic passing from Paris to Barcelona in Spain. The bridge was built to withstand the most extreme seismic and climatic conditions. Besides, it is guaranteed for 120 years! The Itaipu DamThe Itaipu hydroelectric power plant is one of the largest constructions of its kind in the world. It consists of a series of dams across the River Parana, which forms a natural border between Brazil and Paraguay. Started in 1975 and taking 16 years to complete, the construction was carried out as a joint project between the two countries. The dam is well-known for both its electricity output and its size. In 1995 it produced 78% of Paraguays and 25% of Brazils energy needs. In its construction, the amount of iron and steel used was equivalent to over 300 Eiffel Towers. It is a truly amazing wonder of engineering. 4.Animals “Sixth Sense”(动物的”第六感”)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, however, seem to have escaped that terrible tsunami. This phenomenon adds weight to notions that they possess a “sixth sense” for disasters, experts said.Sri Lankan wildlife officials have said the giant waves that killed over 24000 people along the Indian Ocean islands coast clearly missed wild beasts, with no dead animals found.“No elephants are dead, not even a dead rabbit. I think animals can 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 waves washed floodwaters up to 2 miles inland at Yala National Park in the ravaged southeast, Sri Lankas biggest wildlife reserve and home to hundreds of wild elephants and several leopards.“There has been a lot of 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 specialist at Johannesburg Zoo.“There have been no specific studies because you cant really test it in a lab or field setting,” he told Reuters. Other authorities concurred with this assessment.“Wildlife seem to be able to pick up certain phenomenon, especially birds there are many reports of birds detecting impending disasters,” said Clive Walker, who has written several books on African wildlife.Animals 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 some other mythical power is an enduring one which the evidence on Sri Lankas ravaged coast is likely to add to.The Romans saw owls as omens of impending disaster and many ancient cultures viewed elephants as sacred animals endowed with special powers or attributes.5Singing 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 with directional sound alarms capalbe of guiding you to the exit.Sound Alert, a company run by the University of Leeds, is installing the alarms in a residential home for blind people in Sommerset and a resource centre for the blind in Cumbria. The alarms produce a wide range of frequencies that enable the brain to determine where the sound is coming from.Deborah Withington of Sound Alert says that the alarms use most of the frequencies that can be heard by humans. “It is a burst of white noise 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 thermal-imaging cameras trying to find their way out of a large smoke-filled room. It took them nearly four minutes to find the door without a sound alarm, but only 15 seconds with one.Withington studies how the brain processes sounds at the university. She says that the source of a wide band of frequencies can be pinpointed more easily than the source of a narrow band. Alarms 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 or down stairs. They were developed with the aid of a large grant from British Nuclear Fuels.6.Car Thieves Could Be Stopped Remotely(远程制止偷车贼)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 off, he will not be able to start it again.For now, such devices 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 should be available to ordinary cars in the UK in two months.The idea goes like this. A control box fitted to the car incorporates a miniature cellphone, a microprocessor and memory, and a GPS satellite positioning receiver. If the car is stolen, a coded cellphone signal will tell the unit to block the vehicles engine management system and prevent the engine being restarted.There are even plans for immobilizers 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 life harder for car thieves. “The pattern of vehicles crime has changed,” says Martyn Rand all of Thatcham, a security research organization based in Berkshire that is funded in part by the motor insurance industry.He says it would only take him a few minutes to 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 allow them to start unless they receive a unique ID code beamed out by the ignition key. In the UK, technologies like this 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 by using the owners keys, which doubles the previous years figure.Remote-controlled immobilization system would 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 go on the market sooner than the customer expects.7.An Intelligent Car(智能汽车)Driving needs sharp eyes, keen ears, quick brain, and coordination between hands and the brain. Many human drivers have all 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 minicameras on each side of the car are his “eyes”, which observe the road conditions ahead of it. They watch the traffic to the cars left and right. There is also a highly automatic driving system in the car. It is the built-in computer, which is the virtual drivers “brain”. His “brain” calculates the speeds of other moving cars near it and analyzes their positions. Basing on this information, it chooses the right path for the intelligent car, and gives instructions to the “hands” and “feet” to act accordingly. In this way, the virtual driver controls his car.What is the virtual drivers best advantage? He reacts quickly. The minicameras are sending images continuously to the “brain.” It completes the processing of the images within 100 milliseconds. However, the worlds best driver at least needs one second to react. Besides, when he takes action, he needs one more second.The virtual driver is really wonderful. He can reduce the accident rate considerably on expressways. In this case, can we let him have the wheel at any time and in amy place? Experts warn that we cannot do that just yet. His ability to recognize things is still limited . He can now only drive an intelligent car on expressways.8.Why India Needs Its Dying Vultures(印度为什么需要濒临灭亡的秃鹰) The vultures in question may look ugly and threatening, but the sudden sharp decline in three species of Indias vultures is producing alarm rather than celebration. and it presents the world with a new kind of environmental problem. The dramatic decline in vulture numbers is causing widespread disruption to people living in the Same areas as the birds. It is also causing serious public health problems across the Indian sub-continentWhile4their reputation and appearance may be unpleasant to many Indians. vultures have long played a very important role in keeping towns and villages all over India clean. It is because they feed on dead cows. In India. cows are sacred animals and are traditionally left in the open when they die in their thousands upon thousands every year. The disappearance of the vultures has led to an explosion in the numbers of wild dogs feeding on the remains of these dead animals. There are fears that rabies may increase as a resultAnd this terrifying disease may ultimately affect humans in the region, since wild dogs are its main carriersRabies could also spread to other animal species, causing an even greater problem in the futureThe need for action is urgent , so an emergency project has been launched to find a solution to this serious vulture problem. Scientists are trying to identify the disease causing the birds deaths and, if possible, develop a cure. Large-scale vulture deaths were first noticed at the end of the 1980s in India. A population survey at that time showed that the three species of vultures had. Declined by over 90 percent. All three species are now listed as“critically endangered”. As most vulture lay only single eggs and take about five years to reach maturity, reversing their population decline will be a long and difficult exercise.一.库克船长弓箭的传说这本是个绝妙的传说，但DNA测试最终结束了这个长达两个世纪之久的古老故事。传说是关于一支据说是用1779年在桑伟奇群岛死去的英国探险家船长詹姆士库克的遗骨刻成的夏威夷弓箭。在不久前DNA 证据宣布该弓箭并非来自于库克船长的遗骨时，奥大利亚博物馆收藏经理尤大书菲利普说：“澳大利亚博物馆里并没有库克的遗骨。”但这并不能停止博物馆在展览会上展出弓箭。“考古发现：澳大利亚博物馆的宝藏”展览中的确还展示了一个在1778年夏威夷国王卡兰尼欧普送 给库克的一个羽毛斗篷。库克是英国最伟大探险家之一，他在1770年发现了“南大陆”，也就是现在的澳大利亚。此后在桑伟奇群岛被棒击致死。库克弓箭传说始于1824年，当时夏威夷国王卡莫哈莫哈在弥留之际将弓箭赐给了库克妻子的亲戚，一名伦敦外科医生威廉正当斯，并告诉他弓箭是在那次致命殴打后用库克的遗骨做成的。在19世纪90年代，弓箭被交给澳大理亚博物馆。这个传说直到与科学直接接触才停止。据菲利普说，澳大利亚和新西兰的试验室的DNA测试证实弓箭并非取材于库克的遗骨，而更可能来自动物的骨头。但是，库克迷们却不肯放弃希望。他们期待库克传说之一将会被证明是正确，并且他人部分遗骨还会被发现。正如他们所说，有证据表明库克的遗骨并不是在1779年全都葬身大海了。库克船长协会的会长克利夫托马森在一个来自英国的声明中说：“在这个问题上，科技取得了胜利。我坚信某一天库克传说之一将会被证明是真的。”二.雪崩和安全问题雪崩是雪掺杂着空气和水沿着山体突然迅猛地滑动造成的。雪崩是造成山区人们生命和财产安全的最大危险之一。所有雪崩都是由于物质的过渡负荷造成，通常是积雪堆积过厚，很不稳固，超出了山坡面的承载能力。要确定山坡的临界承载量，可能造成突然雪崩的负荷量是一项很复杂的任务，需要衡量多个因素。通常倾斜度小于25度，大于60度的山坡发生雪崩的危险要小一些。积雪不会在陡峭的山坡上大量堆积，同样也不会在平缓的山坡上快速滑动。当雪在静止状态下的角度在35_45度之间，最可能发生人为触发的雪崩。人为引发雪崩的临界角度是38度，是最易人为引发雪崩的角度。常规经验是：一个平缓的足以堆积积雪，同时陡峭的适合人们滑雪的山坡，无论角度如何，都有可能产生雪崩。此外，雪崩的危险随着使用的增加而增加，换言之，滑雪者活动得越频繁，雪崩的可能性越大。由于雪崩研究的复杂性，冬天在人烟稀少的地区旅行从来不是百分之百的安全。很好地躲避雪崩，保持安全是一个连续的过程，包括选择路线、检查积雪、了解天气状况及其他人为因素。以下几个广为人知的好习惯也可以降低风险：如果当地权威部门发布了雪崩警报，你应当予以考虑，加以注意。绝不要不加审度，就立刻接受他人意见。积雪自形成的那时就几乎注定要发生变化。认真观察地形，注意明显的雪崩路径：没有植物或植物被毁坏的地方。不要在那些可能引发雪崩的人或事物下面行走。三.巨型建筑挑选当今世界最神奇的奇观是一个不可能完成的任务。原因是每年都有新的更令人叹为观止的建筑出现。有这样三座巨大的建筑值得人们赞叹，尽管它们可能被某些最近建成的奇观所超越。第一座：国油双峰塔。国油双峰塔在1999年建成时是世界上最高的建筑物，高452米，高高的双塔就像两支细铅笔，高耸于吉隆坡市。在41层，两个塔由一座桥连接，象征着通向城市的大门。该建筑的设计者是美国建筑师Cesar Pelli。该建筑由高强度混凝土建成，每一层都有大约1800平方米的办公区域；在底部还有一个购物中心和一个音乐厅。该建筑的其他特色是双层电梯以及建材为玻璃和钢的遮阻阳篷。第二座：米约高架桥。米约高架桥位于法国南部的Tarn山谷，2004年建成通车。它是当时世界上最高的大桥，最高点超过340米。该桥被人们描写为“世界上最神奇最美丽的大桥之一”。它是为舒缓米约的交通拥挤所建。当时的拥挤是由从巴黎到西班牙的巴塞罗那的过往车辆太多所致。该桥可以承受强震和极端气候。另外，它可以使用120年! 第三座：伊泰普水电站。伊泰普水电站是同类建筑中最大的一个。它由横跨巴拉那河的一组大坝组成，成为巴西和巴拉圭的自然边境。该建筑作为两个国家的共同开发项目，1975年动工修建，历时16年完工。该大坝因它的发电量和规模之大而闻名。1995年，它为巴拉圭和巴西分别提供了78%和25%的能源需求。该建筑使用的钢铁量是埃菲尔铁塔的300倍还多。该建筑令人叹为观止，名不虚传。四.动物的“第六感” 2004年12月由印度洋海域地震引发的海啸造成亚洲和东非十几万人死亡。但野生动 物们似乎躲过了可怕的海啸的袭击。有专家表示，这进一步证实了动物对自然灾难有“第 六感”的观点。 斯里兰卡负责野生动物的官员表示，巨浪席卷印度洋海岛沿岸，淹死了两万四千多人， 但野生动物似乎都幸免于难，目前尚未发现一具动物的尸体。 斯里兰卡野生动物部门的副部长HD，拉特纳亚克在海啸袭击过后一个月说道：“没有一头大象死亡，甚至没有一只野兔死亡。我认为动物能够感知灾难。它们有 第六感，它们知道灾难何时发生。”海洪冲向离岸二英里远的亚拉国家公园，这里是斯里兰卡最大的野生动物保护区，生活着几百头野生大象和一些美洲豹，海啸引发的洪水使亚拉国家公园所 在的东南部地区变得一片狼藉。“每当火山爆发或地震发生前，动物们的行为就会发生许多异常，比如犬吠或鸟类迁 徙，但这些现象尚未得到科学证明。”南非约翰内斯堡动物园的动物行为专家马修范利 罗普说。他对路透社记者说：“目前还没有这方面的专门研究，因为你无法在实验室或实际环境 中进行真正的试验。”其他专家也同意这一看法。野生动物似乎能够感知某些特殊现象，尤其是鸟类。很多报告显示鸟类能察觉即将来临的灾难。克莱夫沃克这样说，他曾经写过数本关于非洲野生动物的书。一些动物确实是依靠嗅觉或听觉等人类已知的官能来躲避危险的，比如食肉动物。关于动物“第六感”(或者其他神秘力量)的说法已有很长时间，斯里兰卡被摧残的海滩可能会为这一说法再添一笔证据。罗马人把猫头鹰视为迫近凶险的征兆，很多古代文明都将大象看做拥有特殊能力或象征的“圣兽”。五.警报器救盲人如果看不见，那你可能会