湖北大学 施竹军供稿

Who Was More Stupid?谁更愚蠢？

One day,two rich men were talking when they were eating bread and drinking coffee at their countrypub(酒吧).One of them said to the other one,“My driver is reallystupid(愚蠢 的 ).You don’t think so?Let me show you.”

So he called his driver,Banta,over and said,“Banta,here is a ten-dollar bill.Go to the car shop and buy me aBenz (奔驰).”Banta replied(回答),“Yes,Sir!Right away!”and rushed off to the shop.The rich man turned to his friend and said,“See,I told you he was stupid.”

The other rich man said,“That’s nothing.I will show you something really stupid.”And he called his driver Santa over,“Santa,go home now to see if I’m at home.”Santa said,“Yes,Sir!Right away,Sir.”Then he ran away.

“See what I told you?He doesn’t even have enough brains to know that I cannot be at home if I am here.”

Later on,the two drivers met on the road.Banta said to Santa,“Eh,you know my boss is so stupid.He gave me 10 dollars and asked me to go to the car shop and buy him a Benz...Doesn’t he know that today is Sunday?The shop is closed!”Santa replied,“You think he is stupid,huh?My boss is more stupid.He asked me to go home to see if he is at home...He’s got a cell phone,right?He can just call home to ask!”

阅读短文并回答下列问题。

1.Where were the two rich men?

2.How much money did Banta’s boss give him to buy a Benz?

3.What did Santa’s boss ask him to do?

4.What did the two divers think of their bosses?

5.Who was more stupid,Banta or Santa?

Wonderful“Clocks”奇妙的“钟”

在这个五彩缤纷的世界上，有许多令人惊奇的事情。下面讲的是一些生物的“报时器”，一起来看看吧！

★Tree Clock

In South Africa,there is a kind of tree which has large leaves.The leaves turn over every two hours.So the people thereregard(当作)it as theirlabor(劳动)time,and give the tree a name—labor time tree.

★Insect Clock

In the thick forest of Africa,there is a kind of insect.The insect changes its color every other hour.People living there take it home.They regard the insect as a clock that can tell them time.

★Bird Clock

In South America,a bird called Tina sings every 30 minutes.Theerror(误差)time she begins singing each time is less than 15 seconds.So the villagers living there can get the time according to the bird’s singing.

★Donkey Clock

In the Yellow Sea of China,there is an island.The donkey living on this islandbrays(嘶叫)every other hour.The error time he begins braying each time is less than 3 minutes.So the soldiers who are on duty exchange their posts according to the donkey’s braying.

★Flower Clock

InArgentina(阿根廷),there is a kind of wild flower.When the early summer comes,this kind of flowerblooms(开花)at eight o’clock in the evening.The young men and women who fall in love will meet at this time.So people call this flower telling-loving-time flower.

阅读短文并完成下列表格。

Tree Clock People there regard it as their 6 .7 The insect changes its color every other hour.Bird Clock The bird is called 8 .9 The soldiers who are on duty exchange their posts according to the donkey’s braying.Flower Clock People call this flower 10 flower.

6.________ _7._________8._________

9.________10.________

Fish Also Have Personalities鱼儿也有个性

我们常说“某人有个性”。可是一项研究表明鱼儿也有自己的个性。我们一起来看看吧！

Do you know fish also have different personalities(个性)?Like human beings,their personalities change as they experience life’s highs and lows.Some fish are very confident when they face new things,but some are silent andfearful(恐惧的).

The scientistschose brave and shy rainbow trout(虹鳟鱼).Theyarranged(安排)fights for the fish to test whether the fish changed theirbehaviors(行为)depending on what they would experience.The result showed that the winners seemed to be even braver when later they met new food,while the losers looked very careful.

The researchers found that fish also learn by watching others.After a brave fish watched a shy fish getting close to amystery(神秘的)object(物体),it would be much more nervous when it was given a new thing later.

We may think that shy fish that won a fight became more confident.Butsurprisingly(令人惊讶地),shy fish that lost their fight also grew braver when meeting strange new food,a researcher said.It could be called“desperado effect(亡命徒效应)”.

阅读短文并判断正（T）误（F）。

( )11.Fish will change their personalities like human beings.

( )12.All the fish are not confident when they meet new things.

( )13.The winners would be braver when later they met new food.

( )14.Fish could learn by watching others.

( )15.Shy fish that won a fight became less confident.