2012初中科普英语竞赛高年级组参考资料初中英语专项阅读1.We know that many animals do not stay in one place. Birds, fish and other animals move from one place to another at a certain time. They move for different reasons: most of them move to find food more easily, but some move to get away from places that are too crowded. When cold weather comes, many birds move to warmer places to find food. Some fishes give birth in warm water and move to cold water to feed. The most famous migration is probably the migration of one kind of fish, which is called “salmon”. This fish is born in fresh water but it travels many miles to salt water. There it spends most of its life. When it is old, it returns to its birthplace in fresh water. Then it gives birth and dies there. In northern Europe, there is a kind of mouse. They leave their mountain home when it becomes too crowded. They move down to the low land. Sometimes they move all the way to the seaside, and many of them are killed when they fall into the sea. Recently, scientists have studied the migration of a kind of lobster(龙虾). Every year, when the season of the bad weather arrives, the lobsters get into a long line and start to walk across the bottom of the ocean. Nobody knows why they do this, and nobody knows where they go. So, sometimes we know why humans and animals move from one placeto another, but at other times we don’t. Maybe living things just like to travel.2.What is life on Pluto(冥王星) like? Is it any different to life on the earth? If you lived on Pluto, you’d have to live 248 ea rth years to celebrate your first birthday in Pluto years. It takes Pluto much longer to make one lap (circle) around the sun. One Pluto year is the same as 248 earth years. If you weigh 45 kilograms on the earth, you would weigh only3.6 kilograms on Pluto! Pluto is much smaller than the earth. Gravity(重力) on Pluto is only 8 percent of that on the earth. Remember to bring plenty of clothes if you visit the star. Pluto is cold. Because it is far away from the sun, the temperature on it is about 200 degrees centigrade below zero. It gets even colder as it moves farther from the sun in its orbit(轨道). From Pluto, the sun looks like a dot in the sky, and it is the brightest star you can see. The light from the sun is as bright on Pluto as the light from the full moon onthe earth.3. Bananas don’t grow on trees. They grow on a thick stalk(茎) that looks just a little likea stalk of corn. The stalk is soft enough to be cut with a knife. It takes about a year before bananas are ready to be picked. Some are as small as fingers. Others are as long and thick as men’s arms. Some banana plants grow as tall as a house — even taller! Not all bananas are eaten as fruit. Some never get sweet, and they are cooked as a kind of vegetable. People in most countries never see a banana until it reaches the store. But if you visited a country where it’s hot and rains a lot all the year, you might see a banana plantation(种植园), a large farm where bananas grow. The tasty fruit doesn’t come from a seed but from a root planted deep in the ground. First a stalk pushes up into the air. Then leaves appear. In the beginning the banana plant grows very fast—sometimes as much as the length of your feet in one night. Soon, sweet-smelling flowers appear, and when their flowers drop off, bananas begin to grow. As they get bigger, bananas start turning up. It looks as if they’re growing upside down! Bananas are ready to eat when they turn soft and yellow. But they’re picked long before this —when they’re hard and bright green. This is because bananas have to travel many miles before they arrive at a store. On trucks and boats and trains bananas travel all over the world. There are special boats just for bananas and special trains that keep them just cool enough so that theywill get ripe while traveling. If bananas are picked when they are ripe, they will spoil(变坏) on the way.4.Expo Shanghai 2010 World Expositions are galleries of human inspirations and thoughts. Since 1851 when the Great Exhibition of Industries of All Nations was held in London, the World Expositions have attained increasing prominence as grand events for economic, scientific, technological and cultural exchanges, serving as an important platform for displaying historical experience,exchanging innovative ideas, demonstrating esprit de corps and looking to the future.With a long civilization, China favors international exchange and loves world peace. There is no doubt the Chinese people will present to the world a successful, splendid and unforgettable exposition.The theme of Expo 2010 is "Better City, Better Life," representing the common wish of the whole humankind for a better living in future urban environments. This theme represents a central concern of the international community for future policy making, urban strategies and sustainable development, since the urban population accounts for a higher and higher percentage.The emblem, depicting the image of three people-you, me, him/her holding hands together, symbolizes the big family of mankind. Inspired by the shape of the Chinese character"世"(meaning the world), the design conveys the organizers' wish to host an Expo which is of global scale and which showcases the diversified urban cultures of the world. Created from the Chinese character " 人," which means people, the mascot embodies the character of Chinese culture and echoes with the designing concept of the emblem of World Expo Shanghai. Using the Chinese character as the mascot of an international event is an innovation. The structure of Chinese character , in which two strokes support each other, manifests the concept that a good life should be created by all the people. The world should be supported by "people," and people should have harmonious relationships with nature and society, so that the life in cities would be better.5. Copenhagen climate conference The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 December and 18 December, with some 15000 delegates and observers from nearly 200 countries attending what is being called "the last best chance to save this planet." The Kyoto Protocol to prevent climate changes and global warming changes and global warming runs out in 2012. To keep the process on the line there is an urgent need for a new climate protocol. At While many had initially viewed the summit with renewed hope, the disappointing outcome showed how difficult it is to make those who want to maintain their standards of living and those who aspire for the same, see eye to eye. The Copenhagen Accord recognizes the scientific case for keeping temperature rises below 2℃, but does not contain commitments for reduced emissions would be necessary to achieve that aim. One part of the agreement pledges $30 billion to the developing world over the next three years, rising to $100 billion per year by 2020, to help the poor countries to adapt to the climate change. Earlier proposals, which would have aimed to limit the temperature rises to 1.5℃ and cut CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050 were dropped. The Accord also favors developed countries' paying developing countries to reduce emissions from deforestation to degradation. The agreement was non-binding but US President Obama said that countries could show the world their achievements. He said that if they had waited for a binding agreement, no progress would have been made by 31 January.6.Making greener choices, from the way you travel to the food you eat, can improve your health and well-being .Some guidelines follow:（1）.Use muscle power rather than gasoline when you can Commute by foot or bike. If all Americans used foot, they could reduce their oil dependence by more than a third. Try walking or bicycling to work a few times a week and get a healthy dose of exercise on the way. Combine errands when you have to drive. Encourage children to walk to school. Driving less also helps reduce emissions of pollutants’ that worsen heart and lung diseases. Use a push mower. By using a push mower instead of a power mower to cut your lawn, you can also cut up to 80 pounds of CO2 emissions per year.（2）.Skip the bottled water, carry tap According to the Pacific Institute’s study, the production of the 30-pl;us billion plastic water bottles Americans bought in 2006 required the equivalents of more than 17 million barrels of oil, produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide and used three times the amount of water in the bottle. So skip the bottled water and drink tap water, both at homes and at restaurants.（3）. Choose foods thoughtfully Eat less meat. Raising food animals contributes largely to climate change because a meat –based diet requires more land, energy and water than a plant-based one. Choose less-processed foods. Heavily processed foods tend to below in fiber and high in fat and sugar. They often contain lots of dyes, colorings ,and preservatives that aren’t great for your health. Avoid heavily packaged foods and buy in bulk. Processing and Packaging together take nearly a quarter of the energy used in food production. Choose minimally-packaged foods or those in the biggest containers available. Fresh fruits and vegetables are not packaged at all, and they are healthy choices.高中英语专项阅读1. The champions of hearing, by any standard, are the bats. Bat sounds long went undetected by man because they are pitched two to three octaves (八度音阶) above what we can hear. But to a number of bats flying around on a calm, still summer evening—and to the unfortunate moths (蛾) that can hear them and must try to avoid them—the evening is anything but calm. It is a madhouse of constant screaming. Each bat sends out a series of screams in short pulses, each lasting less than a hundredth of a second.不管用哪一种标准来衡量，听力的冠军都是蝙蝠。
