Paul, the oracle octopus (神算章鱼), was given a replica of the World Cup as a reward for his perfect eight-for-eight record in predicting the results of matches.
The two-year-old octopus with possible supernatural powers turned into a worldwide celebrity for accurately predicting the German team’s five World Cup wins as well as their two defeats. Paul also predicted Spain to beat Netherlands in the final.
“We have had a lot of offers for Paul but he will definitely be staying with us and returning to his usual job--making children smile,” Sea Life spokeswoman Tanja Munzig in Oberhausen said after presenting Paul with the World Cup replica.
There are no reasonable reasons why Paul always got it right. Bettors around the world made small fortunes based on Paul’s guess, said Graham Sharpe, media relations director at William Hill in London. “I’ve seen a lot of things in my lifetime but this is the first time I’ve ever seen people making their picks based on what an octopus tells them. We had people coming in saying they didn’t know how to place a bet but heard about this German octopus and wanted to bet with him. It’s funny. But he kept getting it right.” said Sharpe.
Sharpe said that anyone who had placed a 10-pound accumulator bet(累计下注)on Paul’s prediction from the start of the World Cup would have won 3,000 pounds($4,500)by the end of the tournament.
Paul’s home at Sea Life aquarium(水族馆)in Oberhausen has been crowded with visitors and media from across Europe. Many networks broadcast his predicting live. Many networks broadcast his picks live. Hundreds were on hand to watch the World Cup replica lowered into his tank on Monday, 12 July, 2010.
63. Paul was rewarded a replica of the Word Cup because he . A. would celebrate his birthday soon B. helped many fans earn much money
C. helped beat Netherlands in the final match
D. correctly told the results of matches ahead of time 64. We can learn from this passage that . A. Paul used to be loved by children
B. it was useless betting with the oracle octopus
C. Paul was born with the ability to predict World Cup results D. Germany would never be beaten if Paul stayed with them
65. If a fan had placed a 200-pound accumulator bet on Paul’s prediction, he would have won during the tournament.
A. $60,000 B. $45,000 C. $90,000 D. $30,000 66. According to Sharpe’s words, it can be inferred that ______.
A. it’s amazing for Paul to make more exact prediction than people B. octopus like Paul may all have the ability to predict exactly C. it’s common for people to believe in sea life for prediction
D. we’d better not bet with animals when we have trouble making our picks 67. The best title should be ___________. A. Come On! Bet with Oracle Octopus! B. Oracle Octopus Rose to Fame!
1
C. Octopus Made People Merry
D. Paul, the Octopus in Germany B
If you are worried the world will end this year based on the Mayan calendar, relax: the end of time is still a distant destination.
Mayan experts, who want to remove any belief that the ancient Mayans predicted a world apocalypse(世界末日)in 2012, say so.
The Mayan calendar marks the end of a 5,126 year old cycle around December 12, 2012, which should bring the return of Bolon Yokte, a Mayan god related to war and creation.
Author Jose Arguelles called the date “the ending of time as we know it” in a 1987 book that gave birth to an army of Mayan theorists (理论家), whose theories on the end were everywhere online. But specialists meeting at this ancient Mayan city in southern Mexico say it only marks the termination of one period of creation and the beginning of another.
“We have to be clear about this. There is no prediction for 2012,” said Erik Velasquez, an etchings(刻画) specialist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). “It’s a marketing fallacy(谬论).”
The National Institute of Anthropological History in Mexico has been trying to get rid of the large number of forecasts predicting the apocalypse. “The West's Messianic thinking has misled the world view of ancient civilizations like the Mayans,” the institute said in a statement.
In the Mayan calendar, the long calendar count begins in 3,114 BC and is divided into about 394-year periods called Baktuns. Mayans held the number 13 holy and the 13th Baktun ends this year.
Sven Gronemeyer, a researcher of Mayan codes from La Trobe University in Australia, who has been trying to explain the calendar in simple modern language, said the so-called end day reflects a change from one age to the next in which Bolon Yokte returns.
“Because Bolon Yokte was already present at the day of creation ... it just seemed natural for the Mayan that Bolon Yokte will again be present,” he said.
Of the 15,000 registered glyphic(浮雕) texts found in different parts of what was then the Mayan empire, only two mention 2012, the Institute said.
“The Maya did not think about humanity, global warming or predict the two poles would become one,” said Alfonso Ladena, a professor from the Complutense University of Madrid. “We project our worries on them.”
68. The underlined word termination in paragraph 4 probably means_______. A. consideration B. conclusion C. end D. exchange 69. We can imply from the passage that___________.
A. the West's Messianic thinking has misled the world view of the Mayans B. Erik and Alfonso both hold the negative attitude to the prediction C. plenty of evidence supports the forecast of the end
D. the Institute has got rid of people’s predictions of the end
2
70. The passage is mainly developed by _______. A. comparison and contrast B. presenting views from different fields C. providing statistics D. analyzing causes and effects 71. Which of the following best states the main idea of the passage? A. 2012 only means a change from one age to another. B. It is widely believed that 2012 is the end of the world.
C. It is difficult to tell whether the Mayan apocalypse is true or not.
D. The prediction of the end is a misunderstanding of the Mayan calendar.
C
Everybody is happy as his pay rises. Yet pleasure at your own can disappear if you learn that a fellow worker has been given a bigger one. Indeed, if he is known as being lazy, you might even be quite angry. Such behavior is regarded as “all too human”, with the belief that other animals would not be able to have this well developed sense of sadness. But a study by Sarah Brosnan of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, which has just been published in Nature, suggests that it is all too monkey, as well. The researchers studied the behaviors of some kind of female brown monkeys. They look smart. They are good-natured, co-operative creatures, and they share their food happily. Above all, like female human beings, they tend to pay much closer attention to the value of “goods and services” than males.
Such characteristics make them perfect subjects for Doctor Brosnan's study. The researchers spent two years teaching their monkeys to exchange tokens (奖券) for food. Normally, the monkeys were happy enough to exchange pieces of rock for pieces of cucumber. However, when two monkeys were placed in separate and connected rooms, so that each other could find out what the other is getting in return for its rock, they became quite different.
In the world of monkeys, grapes are excellent goods (and much more preferred than cucumbers). So when one monkey was handed a grape in exchange for her token, the second was not willing to hand hers over for a mere piece of cucumber. And if one received a grape without having to provide her token in exchange at all, the other either shook her own token at the researcher, or refused to accept the cucumber. Indeed, the mere presence of a grape in the other room (without an actual monkey to eat it) was enough to bring about dissatisfaction in a female monkey.
The researches suggest that these monkeys, like humans, are guided by social senses. In the wild, they are co-operative and group-living. Such co-operation is likely to be firm only when each animal feels it is not being cheated. Feelings of anger when unfairly treated, it seems, are not the nature of human beings alone. Refusing a smaller reward completely makes these feelings clear to other animals of the group. However, whether such a sense of fairness developed independently in monkeys and humans, or whether it comes from the common roots that they had 35 million years ago, is, as yet, an unanswered question.
3
72. The underlined sentence it is all too monkey in paragraph 1 may mean_________. A. monkeys are also angry with lazy fellows
B. no animals other than monkeys can develop such feelings C. monkeys, like humans, are likely to admire each other
D. feeling uncomfortable at unfairness is also monkey's nature
73. Female monkeys are chosen for the research most probably because they are
_____.
A. more likely to weigh what they get
B. attentive to researchers’ instructions C. nice in both appearance and behaviors
D. more ready to help others than their male companions
74. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE? A. Only humans can have the sense of fairness in the world.
B. Monkeys can exchange cucumbers for grapes, for grapes are more attractive. C. In the wild, monkeys are unhappy to share their food with each other. D. Women will show more dissatisfaction than men when unfairly treated. 75. What can we conclude from Sarah's study?
A. The monkeys can be trained to develop social senses. B. They usually show their feelings openly as humans do.
C. The monkeys may show their satisfaction with equal treatment. D. Co-operation among the monkeys remains effective in the wild.
4
因篇幅问题不能全部显示，请点此查看更多更全内容