评论
打印
C
Foxes and farmers have never got on well. These small dog-like animals have long been accused of killing farm animals. They are officially classified as harmful and farmers try to keep their numbers down by shooting or poisoning them.
Famers can also call on the services of their local hunt to control the fox population. Hunting consists of running after a fox across the countryside, with a group of specially trained dogs, followed by men and women riding horses. When the dogs eventually catch the fox, the kill it or a hunter shoots it.
People who take part in hunting think of it as a sport. They wear a special uniform of red coats and white trousers, and follow strict rules of behavior. But owning a horse and hunting regularly are expensive, so most hunters are wealthy.
It is estimated that up to 100,000 people watch or take part in fox-hunting. But over the last couple of decades the number of people who are against fox-hunting, because they think it is brutal(残暴的), has risen sharply. Nowadays it is rare for a hunt to pass off without some kind of conflict between hunters and hunt opponents (阻止者). Sometimes these incidents lead to violence, but mostly opponents discourage the hunt by misleading riders and disturbing the trail of the fox's smell, which the dogs follow.
Noisy conflicts between hunters and opponents have become so common that they are almost as much a part of hunting as running after foxes itself. But this year supporters of fox-hunting face a much bigger threat to their sport. A Labour Party member of
Parliament(英国议会), Mike Foster, is trying to get Parliament to approve a new law which will make the hunting of wild animals with dogs illegal. If the law is passed, wild animals like foxes will be protected under the ban in Britain.
28. Wealthy people in Britain have been hunting foxes to ______.
A. benefit the farmers B. get entertainment
C. show off their wealth D. limit the fox population
29. The opponents of fox-hunting often discourage the game by ______.
A. using violence B. taking legal action
C. seeking help from farmers D. confusing the fox hunters
30. A new law may be passed by the British Parliament to ______.
A. protect wild animals like foxes B. control fox-hunting on a large scale
C. prohibit farmers from hunting foxes D. standardize the behavior of fox-hunting
31. What can be inferred from this passage?
A. Limiting the fox population is unnecessary at all.
B. Killing foxes with poison is not allowed by the law.
C. Hunting foxes with dogs is considered cruel and violent.
D. Fox-hunting causes conflicts between hunters and farmers.
D
"A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically with a smart phone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website" is the definition of "selfie" in the Oxford English Dictionary. In fact, it wasn't even in the dictionary until August of last year. It earned its place there because people are now so obsessed with (对……痴迷) selfies ─ we take them when we try on a new hat, play with our pets or when we meet a friend whom we haven't seen in a while.
But is there any scientific explanation for this obsession? Well, you should probably ask James Kilner, a neuroscientist(神经系统科学家) at University College London.
Through our lifetime we become experts at recognizing and interpreting other people's faces and facial expressions. In contrast, according to Kilner, we have a very poor understanding of our own faces since we have little experience of looking at them ─ we just feel them most of the time.
This has been proved in previous studies, according to the BBC.
Kilner found that most people chose the more attractive picture. This suggests that we tend to think of ourselves as better-looking than we actually are. To further test how we actually perceive our own faces, Kilner carried out another study. He showed people different versions of their own portrait ─ the original, one that had been edited to look less attractive and one that was made more attractive ─ and asked them to pick the version which they thought looked most like them. They chose the more attractive version.
But what does it say about settles? Well, isn't that obvious? Selfies give us the power to create a photograph ─ by taking it from various angles, with different poses, using filters (滤色镜) and so on ─ that better matches our expectations with our actual faces. "You suddenly have control in a way that you don't have in non-virtual(非虚拟的) interactions," Kilner told the Canada-based CTV News. Selfies allow you "to keep taking pictures until you manage to take one you're happy with" , he explained.
32. What is the passage mainly about?
A. The definition and fun of taking selfies.
B. A study of why people love taking selfies.
C. How taking selfies influences people's daily lives.
D. How to interpret people's facial expressions in their selfies.
33. The underlined word "perceive" in Paragraph 5 can be replaced by "______".
A. interpret B. beautify C. choose D. explain
34. What did Kilner discover from his researches?
A. People interpret others' facial expressions worse than their own.
B. People tend to spend more time looking at their faces than at others'.
C. People tend to believe they look more attractive than they actually are.
D. People who like taking selfies know more about their facial expressions.
35. According to Kilner, people like taking selfies probably because they think ______.
A. it is a good chance to learn more about their actual faces
B. it is a way to respond to others' facial expressions correctly
C. it enables them to interact with their friends in social media
D. it allows them to satisfy their expectations with their appearances
