Directions:In this part, you will have 15 minutes to go over the passage quickly
For questions 1-7, mark
Y (for YES)if the statement agrees with the information given in the passage;
N (for NO)if he statement contradicts the information given in the passage;
NG (for NOT GIVEN)if the information is not given in the passage；
For questions 8-10, complete the sentences with the information given in the passage.
7.The Migration of Birds
The migration of birds has never been properly explained. Homer brings it into his books, and Aristotle kept a record of the migration dates of different birds. Men of the past cut pictures of birds on stone 40,000 years ago, and they probably knew something about migration.
In the last hundred years scientists have studied migration quite closely by fixing metal bands to the legs of birds and then setting them free. The bands have on them the date and the place where the birds lived. So if, for example, a bird has an English“address”and is found in the south of Africa, the scientists learn something about its journey.
How do the birds know when to begin their migration?What tells them that the right time has come to move? It is probably not cold weather. But when the summer is ending in the north, the days become shorter and shorter. This may be the sign for the birds that the winter is coming.
In a certain experiment, some birds were put in a place where the sun could not be seen. The only light was electric. In this place the “days”were made longer and longer by keeping the light turned on for more and more hours in the day. The birds thought that spring was coming, although winter was in fact getting nearer every day. They began to sing. Therefore the light was the cause of their mistake. Perhaps the birds know when to start their migration by watching the daylight. The setting sun sends them home in the evenings. Perhaps the shorter days send them south.
But how do they find their way? That is the great difficulty. The young birds do not always go with the older ones who could perhaps remember the way from earlier journeys. The young are often left to find their own way, and they do find it.
If a bird is carried a short way from its home, it can often find its way back. But can it do this if it is carried a long way? At Midway Island eighteen birds were caught and banded. They were then put into boxes, and the boxes were placed in waiting aero planes. Some of the birds were taken to North America, some to Japan, some to the Philippines, some to the island of Oahu, and some to the Marshall Islands.
Fourteen of the birds returned home. One from the Philippines took thirtytwo days on its journey, but it had to cover more than 4,000 miles.
These long journeys are rather different from the journey of the bird that just goes home after the day’s business. Over a short journey, a bird may remember things; but not over 4,000 miles. And how does it find its way over the sea? There is nothing on the sea to remember. Some birds fly regularly from Alaska to Hawaii, a journey of 2,000 miles and there is no land on the way.
An experimenter, Robert Wood, took six birds from Ross Island and sent them 826 miles to the South Pole. The ice there does nothing to help a bird to find the right direction. Every direction from the South Pole is north. There are no stars to be seen in summer because the sun is bright for 24 hours a day. So the birds could not use the stars to help them. It seems that Robert Wood had placed the birds in an impossible position. They could not even feel the turning of the earth, because it turns slowly there: about 63 feet in 24 hours, twenty feet from the pole.
But one bird found its way home in ten days.
What, then, directs the birds?Scientists have had many ideas. Once they thought it was the turning of the earth. Then they thought it was the sun. Both of these have been proven wrong. The scientist and musician Gustav Kramer noticed that some singing birds fly only at night when the time for migration comes. Does the moon help these birds after the sun has gone down? Perhaps, some experts think so. But another scientist, R. Drost, says that birds can find a small island like Helgoland on a dark night with no moon. What is the truth? What is the answer?
A lot of important work has been done on this question, but a lot more is needed, for this is one of the greatest mysteries in the world. There is something here which we cannot understand. There are men who think that we do not know the whole truth about science. They think there is another world of which at present we know almost nothing: a world of lines of force.
T. C. Lethbridge in one of his books describes how birds can find each other when one is far away from the other. He believes that lines of force, or lines of life, stand round people, animals and even things like metals. These lines can be found with a pendulum—something heavy hanging on a long piece of silk or other material. The length of the silk is important. Each kind of thing needs a special length. An example may make this clear.
Suppose we want to find a piece of glass in a garden. We have to know the right length of the pendulum for glass. So we take the pendulum to a piece of glass, bringing nearer and nearer. It is moving from side to side, and so it will continue until we find the right length. We know now that this is 14 inches, for glass. If then, we let the length of the silk be 14 inches; the pendulum will stop moving from side to side when we bring it near to the glass. It will begin to ground in a kind of ring. (It will do this even if the glass is below the ground.) The “rate”for glass is therefore 14. Other rates are, for example, 22 for silver, 20 for diamonds, 29 for gold, 32 for iron, 20 for electricity, 24 for men and 29 for women. The pendulum stops moving from side to side because the lines of force near the thing have an effect on it.
So Mr. Lethbridge believes that there is an entirely different world around us and that it has lines of force in it. These are upanddown lines, and they may reach the sun. They seem to go up (and down) forever. Mr. Lethbridge has found them with his pendulum in a room above the room in which the object is
If there are lines of force like these, perhaps birds can sense them, or other lines like them. If so, this may in the future help to explain bird migration. But at present this science (If it is a science) is only beginning. Who knows what the future may hold?
1.Scientists fixed metal bands to birds legs so as to learn something about their flying routes.
2.The eighteen birds were let go soon after they had been brought to the island of Oahu.
3.In the experiment mentioned in paragraph four, the “days”were made longer and longer and this gave the birds an illusion that spring was approaching.
4.The turning of the earth directs the birds to their destinations.
5.According to the passage, some birds take a regular trip of 2,000 miles from Alaska to Hawaii. There is no land on their way, so they can find nothing over the blue waters to remember.
6.The ice in the South Pole does nothing to help a bird find its way.
7.Migrating birds fly up north again in the spring because of the overly dense population of different kinds of birds in the warm region.
8.tells the birds when to fly south.
9.From the South Pole, the six birds sent by Mr. Robert Wood could go nowhere but.
10.T. C. Lethbridge maintains thatcan be found in all animals, and all metals.
【答案与解析】
1.Y根据第二段的第一二句话可得出结论。
2.N文章第六段，Some of the birds were taken to North America, some to Japan, some to the Philippines, some to the island of Oahu, and some to the Marshall Islands. 并不是都去了the island of Oahu。
3.Y参看文章第四段。
4.N根据文章第九段，They could not even feel the turning of the earth, because it turns slowly there. 文章第十一段，Once they thought it was the turning of the earth. Then they thought it was the sun. Both of these have been proven wrong. 这些都证明了the turning of the earth 并不是原因。
5.Y第八段最后一句There is nothing on the sea to remember. Some birds fly regularly from Alaska to Hawaii, a journey of 2,000 miles and there is no land on the way.
6.Y根据第九段第二句话The ice there does nothing to help a bird to find the right direction.
7.NG。
8.The shorter days第三段中，But when the summer is ending in the north, the days become shorter and shorter. This may be the sign for the birds that the winter is coming. 第四段，Perhaps the shorter days send them south.
9.north第九段，Every direction from the South Pole is north.
10.lines of force/lines of life第十三段，He believes that lines of force, or lines of life, stand round people, animals and even things like metals.
