Otters arescmiaqualic (or in the case of the sea otter, aquatic) monirnals. rHiey uremi'inbers of the Mustelid family which includes badgers, polecats, martens,weasels, stoats an have inluibited the earth for the last 30 million years andover the years have undergone subtle changes to the carnivore bodies to exploitthe rich aquatic environment. Otters have long liiin body and short legs~idealfor pushing dense undergrowth or hunting in tunnels. An adult male may be up to4 feet long and 30 pounds. Females are smaller, around 16 pounds typically. TheEurasian otter nose is about ihc smallest among the otter species andhas a characteristic shape described as a shidlow "W".An otter's tail(or rudder, or stern) is stoul at tlie base and tapers towards the tip where ilflattens. ITiis forms part of the propulsion unit when swimming fast underwater. Oder fur consists of iwo types of hair: stout guard hairs which form awaterproof outer covering, and undcrfiir which is dense and fine，equivalentto an otter's thermal underwear. The fur must he kept in good condition bygrooming. Sea water reduces the waterproofing and insulating qualities of otterfur when salt water gets in the fur. This is why freshwater pools are importantto otters living on the coast. After swimming, they wash the salts ofT in thepools and then squirm on the ground to rub dry against vegetation.
B
Scent is used forhunting on land, for communication and for detecting danger. Otterine sense ofsmell is likely to similar in sensitivity to dogs. Otters have small eyes andarc probably short-siglited on land. Bui they do have the ability to modify theshape of the lens in the eye to make it more spherical, and hence overcome therefraction of water In clear water and good liglit, otters can hunt fish bysight. The otter's eyes and nostrils are placed high on its head so thatit c-an see and breulhc oven when the rest of die body is submerg'd, "Thelong whiskers growing iinmnd the muzzle are used to detect the presence offish. They detect regular vihrutions cruised by the beat of the fish's tail asit swims awuy. I'his tdlows otters to hunt even in very murky water.Underwater, the otter holds its legs against the body, except for steering, andthe hind end of the body is flexed in a series of vertical undulations. Riverotters have webbing which extends for much of the length of each digit,though not lo the very end. Giant otters ami sea otters have even moreprominent webs, while the Asian short-clawed otter lias no webbing-they huntfor shrimps in ditches and paddy fields so they need the swimming speed. Otterears are protected by valves which close them against water pressure.
C
A number ofconstraints and preferences limit suitable liabitats for otters. Water is amust and the rivers must be large enough to support a healthy populationof fish. Being such shy and wary creatures. they will prefer territorieswhere mail's activities do nol impinge grcally. Of course, there must also beno other otter already in residence-this has only become significant againrecently as populalions start to recover. A typical range for a mule riverotter might he 25km of river, a female's range loss than half this. I lowcver,ihc pnMluclivity of the river affecls ihis hugely and one sitidy found maleranges between 12 and 80km. Coastal oilers havr a mucli more abundant Uwdsupply aiul ranges for males and females may be just a few kilometers ofcoastline. Because male ranges are usually larger, a male otter may find hisrange overlaps with two or three females. Otters will eat anytliing that theycan get hold of there are records of sparrows and snakes and slugs gobbled.Apart from fish the most common prey are crayfish, oralis and water birds.Small munmmls are occasionally taken, most mmmonly rabbits but soinelimes evenmoles.
D
Eurasian otterswill bretnJ any time where food is readily available. In places where conditionis more severe, Sweden for example where the lakes are frozen for much ofwinter, cubs arc bom in Spring, This ensures that they are wdl grown beforesevere weather returns. In the Shetlands. cubs are bam in summer when fish ismore abundant. Though otters can breed every year, some do not. Again, thisdepends on food availability. Other factors such as food range and quality ofthe female muy have an effect. Gestation for Eurasian otter is 63 days, withthe exception of North American river otter whose embryos may undergo delayedimplantation.
E
Otters normallygive birth in more secure dens to avoid disturbances. Nests are linceing themost common). For some unknown reason, a^astal otters lend to produce smallerlitters. At five weeks they open their eyes~a liny cub of 700g. At seven weeksthey're weaned onto solid food. At five weeks they leave the nest,blinking into daylight for the first time. After three months they finally meetthe water and learn to swim. After eight months they are hunting, though themother still provides a lot of food herself. Finally, after nine months shettan chase them all away with a clear conscience, and relax-until the nextfella shows up.
F
The plight of theBritish oiler was recognised in the early 60s,but it wasn^t until the late 70sthat ihe chief cause was discovered. Pcslicides. such as diddrin and aldriiuwere first used in 1955 in iigriculture and other industries--these clicmiadsare very persistenl and liad already been recognised as the muse of hugedeclines in the population of ficregrinc falcons, sparrowhawks and oilierpredators. The pesticides entered the river systems and the foodchain-micro-organisms. fish and finally otters, with every step increasingihc concentration of the chemicals. From 1962 the chemicals were phased out,but while some species recovered quickly, otter numbers did not and continuedto fall into the 80s/niis was probably mainly to habitat destruction and roaddeaths. Acting on popuIations fragmented by the sudden decimalion in the 50sand 60s, the loss of just a handful of otters in one area can make anentire population unviable and spoil the end.
G
Otter numkiers anrrecovering all around Britain--populations arc growing again in the few areaswhere they had remained and have expanded from those areas into the rest of thecountry. This is almost entirely due to law and conservationefforts, slowing down and reversing the destruction of suitable otter habitatand reintroductions from captive breeding programs. Releasing captive-bredotters is seen by many as a last resort, The argument runs that where there isno suitable habitat for them they will not survive after release and when thereis suitable habitat, natural populations should be able lo expand inlo thearea. However, reintroducing animals into a fragmented and fragile populationmay add just enough im|petus for it to stabilise and expand, rather than dieout. This is what the Otter Trust accomplished the 1980s. The Otter Trusthas now finished its captive breeding program entirely. Great news because it meansit is no longer needed.
题目：
Questions 1-9Reading Passage 1 has seven paragraphs, A-G.
Which paragraphcontains the following information?
Write the correctletter, A-G, in boxes 1-9 on your answer sheet.
NB You may use anyletter more than once.
1 A description ofhow otters regulate vision underwater
2 Thefit-for-purpose characteristics of otter's body shape
3 A reference to anunderdeveloped sense
4 An explanation ofwhy agriculture failed in otter conservation efforts
5 A description ofsome of the otter’s social characteristics
6 A description ofhow baby otters grow
7 The conflictedopinions on how to preserve
8 A reference to alegislative act
9 An explanation ofhow otters compensate for heat loss
Questions 10-13
Answer thequestions below.
Choose NO MORE THANTWO WORDS from the passage for each answer.
Write your answersin boxes 10-13 on your answer sheet
10 What affects theouter fur of otters?
11 What skill isnot necessary for Asian short-clawed otters?
12 Which type ofotters has the shortest range?
13 Which type ofanimals do otters hunt occasionally?
答案：
1. B 2. A 3. B 4. F 5. C 6. E 7. G 8. G 9. A
10. salt water 11. swimming speed 12. coastal otters 13. small mammals
第二篇：renewable energy （澳洲清洁能源）
文章主旨：文章讲澳大利亚可再生能源的自然资源丰富但是利用不多，文中讲了几个能源公司的再生能源利用方式：风能／地热／太阳能／潮汐。
A
The race is on for theultimate goal of renewable energy: electricity production at prices that arecompetitive with coal-fired power stations, but without coal’s pollution.Some new technologies are aiming to be the first to push coal from its positionas Australia’s chief source of electricity.
B
At the moment thefront-runner in renewable energy is wind technology. According to Peter Berginof Australian Hydro, one of Australia’s leading wind energy companies, there have been nodramatic changes in windmill design for many years, but the cumulative effectsof numerous small improvements have had a major impact on cost. 4 We’re reaping thebenefits of 30 years of research in Europe, without having to make the samemistakes that they did,’ Mr. Bergin says.
C
Electricity can beproduced from coal at around 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, but only if theenvironmental costs are ignored. ‘Australia has the second cheapest electricity inthe world, and this makes it difficult for renewable to compete,’ says RichardHunter of the Australian Ecogeneration Association (AEA). Nevertheless, the AEAreports: The production cost of a kilowatt-hour of wind power is one fifth ofwhat it was 20 years ago,’ or around 7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
D
Australian Hydro hasdozens of wind monitoring stations across Australia as pari of its aim tobecome Australia’s pre-eminent renewable energy company. Despite allthese developments, wind power remains one of the few forms of alternativeenergy where Australia is nowhere near the global cutting edge, mostly justreplicating European designs.
E
While wind maycurrently lead the way, some consider a number of technologies underdevelopment have more potential. In several cases, Australia is at theforefront of global research in the area. Some of them are very site-specific,ensuring that they may never become dominant market players. On the other hand,these newer developments are capable of providing more reliable power, avoidingthe major criticism of windmills – the need for back-up on a calm day.
F
One such developmentuses hot, dry rocks. Deep beneath South Australia, radiation from elementscontained in granite heats the rocks. Layers of insulating sedimentation raisethe temperatures in some location to 250° centigrade. An Australian firm, Geoenergy,is proposing to pump water 3.5 kilometres into the earth, where it will travelthrough tiny fissures in the granite, heating up as it goes, until it escapesas steam through another drilled hole.
G
No greenhouse gases areproduced, but the system needs some additional features if it is to beenvironmentally friendly. Dr Prue Chopra, a geophysicist at the AustralianNational University and one of the founders of Geoenergy, note that the steamwill bring with it radon gas, along through a heat exchanger and then sent backunderground for another cycle. Technically speaking, hot dry rocks are not arenewable source of energy. However, the Australian source is so large it couldsupply the entire country’s needs for thousands of years at current rates ofconsumption.
H
Two other proposals forvery different ways to harness sun and wind energy have surfaced recently.Progress continues with Australian company EnviroPower’s plans for Australia’s first solar chimney near Mildura, inVictoria. Under this scheme, a tall tower will draw hot air from a greenhousebuilt to cover the surrounding 5 km2. As the air rises, it will drive aturbine* to produce electricity. The solar tower combines three very old technologies– the chimney,the turbine and the greenhouse – to produce something quite new. It is thisreliance on proven engineering principles that led Enviropower’s CEO, RichardDavies, to state: There is no doubt this technology will work, none at all.’
I
This year, Enviropowerrecognized that the quality of sunlight in the Mildura district will require asubstantially larger collecting area than was previously thought. However,spokesperson kay Firth says that a new location closer to Mildura will enable Enviropowerto balance the increased costs with extra revenue. Besides saving intransmission costs, the new site ‘will mean increased revenue from tourism and use ofpower for telecommunications. We’ll also be able to use the outer 500 metres foragribusiness.’ Wind speeds closer to the tower will be too highfor farming.
J
Another Australiancompany, Wavetech, is achieving success with ways of harvesting the energy inwaves. Wavetech’s invention uses a curved surface to push wavesinto a chamber, where the flowing water column pushes air back and forththrough a turbine. Wavetech was created when Dr. Tim Devine offered the idea tothe world leader in wave generator manufacturers, who rather surprisinglyrejected it. Dr. Devine responded by establishing Wavetech, and making a numberof other improvements to generator design. Wavetech claims that, at appropriatesites, ‘ the cost of electricity produced with our technology should be below 4cents per kilowatt-hour.
K
The diversity of formsof greenhouse -friendly energy under development in Australia is remarkable.However, support on a national level is disappointing. According to RichardHunter of the AEA, ‘Australia has huge potential for wind, sun and wavetechnology. We should really be at the forefront, but the reality is we are along way behind.
Question 14-20
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 2?
In boxes 14-20on your answer sheet
14 In Australia，alternative energies are less expensive than conventional electricity.
15 Geo energy needs to adapt its system to make it less harmful to the environment.
16 Dr. Prue Chopra has studied the effects of radon gas on the environment.
17 Hot，dry rocks could provide enough power for the whole of Australia.
18 The new Enviro power facility will keep tourists away.
19 Wave tech was established when its founders we returned down by another company.
20 According to the AEA，Australia is a world leader in developing renewable energy.
Question 21-26
Look at the following statements(Questions 21-26) and the list of companies below.
Match each statement with the correct company，A-D.
Write the correct letter，A-D，in boxes 21-26on your answer sheet.
NB You may use any letter more than once.
21 During the process，harmful substances are prevented from escaping.
22 Water is used to force air through a special device.
23 Techniques used by other countries are being copied
24 The system can provide services other than energy production
25Itis planned to force water deep under the ground.
26 Original estimates for part of the project have been revised.
List of Companies
A Australian Hydro
B Geo energy
C Enviropower
D Wave tech
答案：
14. FALSE 15. TRUE 16. NOT GIVEN 17. TRUE 18. FALSE 19. TRUE
20. FALSE 21. B 22. D 23. A 24. C 25. B 26. C
第三篇：The art of deception 答案:
27-29 选择
27 选 peers
28 选 describe the origin of Ek research
29 选 micro-expressions are common for all people
30 选 are examined to learn about micro-expressions
31 选 micro-expression can be used in a limited range of occupations
32-36 填空
32 false relief
33 crimes
34 research
35 justice
36 acting
37-40 判断
37 NG
38 N
39 NG
40. Y
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