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As the EOL develops, you might find it useful for school projects. The site will feature special pages for kids who are studying ecosystems (生态系统) in their neighborhoods. To make sure the encyclopedia is accurate, scientists will review much of the information added to it. People who visit the site will be able to choose to leave out pages that haven't been reviewed.
Another convenient feature of the EOL is that you'll be able to pick the level of detail you want to see to match your interest, age, and knowledge. If you wanted to learn about bears for a science class report, for example, you could use the "novice" setting to get basic information about the animals. On the "expert" setting, on the other hand, you could get much more detailed information about the history, literature, and exploration of bears.
It now takes years for scientists to collect all the data they need to describe and analyze species. The creators of the Encyclopedia of Life hope that their new tool will speed up that process.
36 "Spider" and "bird" mentioned in Paragraph 1 are examples to illustrate
A there are numerous living species on Earth.
B animals are people's friends.
C it is easy to see spiders and birds.
D there are many types of spiders and birds.
37 The goal of the creation of the EOL is to
A collect enough data to analyze the living sepecies on Earth.
B enlarge an existing Web site of the living sepecies on Earth.
C add new information to the existing databases of the living species on Earth.
D work out an easy-to-use catalog of every living species on Earth.
38 At the starting stage, the EOL will get information from
A all the Web sites available.
B databases built up by its creators.
C the existing scientific databases.
D nonscientists with specialized knowledge.
39 The word "novice" in Paragraph 5 could be best replaced by
A scientist.
B creator.
C beginner
D expert.
40 Which of the following statement is NOT true？
A scientist will review every piece of information added to EOL
B The EOL will be beneficial to school kids with its development.
C Scientists have cataloged only a small part of the living species on Earth.
D People with different interests and knowledge will in a way find the EOL useful.
第三篇 Longer Lives for Wild Elephants
Most people think of zoos as safe places for animals, where struggles such as difficulty finding food and avoiding predators (猛兽) don't exist. Without such problems, animals in zoos should live to a ripe (成熟的) old age1.
But that may not be true for the largest land animals on Earth. Scientists have known that elephants in zoos often suffer from poor health. They develop diseases, joint problems and behavior changes. Sometimes, they even become infertile, or unable to have babies.
To learn more about how captivity (圈养) affects elephants, a team of international scientists compared the life spans of female elephants born in zoos with female elephants living outdoors in their native lands. Zoos keep detailed records of all the animals in their care, documenting factors such as birth dates, illnesses, weight and death. These records made it possible for me researchers to analyze 40 years of data on 800 African and Asian elephants in zoos across Europe. The scientists compared the life spans of the zoo-born elephants with the life spans of thousands of female wild elephants in Africa and Asian elephants that work in logging camps(伐木场),over approximately the same time period.
The team found that female African elephants born in zoos lived an average of 16.9 years. Their wild counterparts who died of natural causes lived an average of 56 years-more than three times as long. Female Asian elephants followed a similar pattern. In zoos, they lived 18.9 years, while those in the logging camps lived 41.7 years.
Scientists don't yet know why wild elephants seem to fare so much better than their zoo-raised counterparts. Georgia Mason, a biologist at the University of Guelph in Canada who led the study, thinks stress and obesity (肥胖症) may be to blame. Zoo elephants don't get the same kind of exercise they would in the wild, and most are very fat. Elephant social lives are also much different in zoos than in the wild, where they live in large herds and family groups.
The study raises some questions about acquiring more elephants to keep in zoos. While some threatened and endangered species living in zoos reproduce (生殖) successfully and maintain healthy populations, that doesn't appear to be the case with elephants.
41 Unlike other animals in zoos, zoo-raised elephants
A live a long life
B give birth to many babies
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