Conversation 1
W: One of the most interesting experiments with dolphins must be one done by Doctor Jarvis Bastian. What he tried to do was to teach a male dolphin called Bass and a female called Doris to communicate with each other across a solid barrier.
M: So how did he do it exactly?
W: Well, first of all, he kept the two dolphins together in the same tank and taught them to press levers whenever they saw a light. The levers were fitted to the side of the tank next to each other. If the light flashed on and off several times, the dolphins were supposed to press the left-hand lever followed by the right-hand one. If the light was kept steady, the dolphins were supposed to press the levers in reverse order. Whenever they responded correctly, they were rewarded with fish.
M: Sounds terribly complicated.
W: Well, that was the first stage. In the second stage, Doctor Bastian separated the dolphins into two tanks. They could still hear one another, but they couldn’t actually see each other. The levers and light were set up in exactly the same way except that this time it was only Doris who could see the light indicating which lever to press first. But in order to get their fish, both dolphins had to press the levers in the correct order. This meant of course that Doris had to tell Bass whether it was a flashing light or whether it was a steady light.
M: So did it work?
W: Well, amazingly enough, the dolphins achieved a 100 % success rate.
Questions 19-21 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Q19. What is the purpose of Doctor Jarvis Bastian’s experiment?
Q20. What were the dolphins supposed to do when they saw a steady light?
Q21. How did the second stage of the experiment differ from the first stage?
Conversation 2
W: This week’s program Up Your Street takes you to Harrogate, a small town in Yorkshire. Harrogate became a fashionable resort during Victorian times, when people came to take a bath in the mineral waters. Today, few people come to visit the town for its mineral waters. Instead, Harrogate has become a popular town for people to retire to. Its clean air, attractive parks, and the absence of any industry, make this an ideal spot for people looking for a quiet life. Now, to tell us more about Harrogate, I have with me Tom Percival, President of the Chamber of Commerce. Tom, one of the things visitor notices about Harrogate is the large area of open park land right down into the middle of the town. Can you tell us more about it?
M: Yes, certainly. The area is called the Stray.
W: Why the Stray?
M: It’s called that because in the old days, people let their cattles stray on the area, which was common land.
W: Oh, I see.
M: Then, we’ve changes in farming and in land ownership. The Stray became part of the land owned by Harrogate.
W: And is it protected?
M: Oh, yes, indeed. As a special law, no one can build anything on the stray. It’s protected forever.
W: So it will always be park land?
M: That’s right. As you can see, some of the Stray is used for sports fields.
W: I believe it looks lovely in the spring.
M: Yes, it does. There’re spring flowers on the old trees, and people visit the town just to see the flowers.
Question 22-25 are based on the conversation you have just heard.
Q22. Where does this conversation most probably take place?
Q23. What do we learn about modern Harrogate?
Q24. What does the man say about the area called the Stray?
Q25. What attracts people most in the Stray during the spring time?
About 700,000 children in Mexico dropped out of school last year as recession-stricken families pushed kids to work, and a weak economic recovery will allow only slight improvement in the drop-out rate in 2010, a top education official said.
Mexico's economy suffered more than any other in Latin America last year, shrinking an estimated 7 percent due to a plunge in U.S. demand for Mexican exports such as cars.
The decline led to a 4 percent increase in the number of kids who left primary or middle school in 2009, said Juan de Dios Castro, who heads the nation's adult education program and keeps a close watch on drop-out rates.
"Poverty rose and that is a factor that makes our job more difficult," Castro told Reuters in an interview earlier this month.
Hindered by higher taxes and weak demand for its exports, Mexico's economy is seen only partially recovering this year. As a result, drop-out rates will not improve much, Castro said.
"There will be some improvement, but not significant," Castro said.
Mexicohas historically had high drop-out rates as poor families pull kids out of school to help put food on the table, and children often sell candy and crafts in the streets or work in restaurants.
The nation's drop-out problem is just the latest bad news for the long-term competitiveness of the Mexican economy. Mexico's politicians have resisted mending the country's tax, energy and labor laws for decades, leaving its economy behind countries such as Brazil and Chile.
每日一句西班牙语
感受西语魅力加关注法国美食
经典法式美食加关注人生哲理美句
哲理加美句加关注沪江小学部
小学生的窝窝加关注英语谚语
智慧语言加关注沪江2018威廉希尔决赛赔率 部
初中生的天地加关注
Passage One