二、阅读理解。
A
Some fish weigh more than an elephant. Some fish look like cows. Now, getting to know these very special creatures is becoming easier. On a new website (www.eol.org), called the Encyclopaedia of Life (EOL), you will find basic facts on 30,000 species of fish.
But as surprising as 30,000 fish sounds, it's just a baby step for the website. Its designers dream of making it the largest biological (生物学的) encyclopaedia ever, with a web page for every living species.
Although there are already a lot of websites about living things, and a lot of encyclopaedias too, they're not the best tools for scientists, say the encyclopaedia's designers. Scientists need websites with information that has been double-checked by other scientists. A dream site would include links to all the basic research and also automatically update(自动更新) itself as new research is published. Finally, even people who aren't scientists should be able to use such a site to get to know what's living in their backgrounds-or anywhere else in the world.
Think of it as one huge book that can keep growing in size—to millions of pages. If those pages were made of paper, the book would become large and heavy and hard to update. However, because it's used online, anyone who has a computer can search its pages easily. Moreover, those new pages can be added quickly.
( ) 1. What's the Encyclopaedia of Life?
A. An organization studying special species.
B. A website where people can find information of 30,000 fish.
C. A meeting where people discuss the research of the living things.
D. A large, heavy book which is a record of living things.
( ) 2. What is "a baby step" in paragraph 2?
A. An important project.
B. A difficult problem.
C. An uncertain beginning.
D. A tiny success.
( ) 3. What's the aim of the EOL designers?
A. To make the encyclopaedia popular.
B. To provide description of every species.
C. To give correct information to the scientists.
D. To challenge the other websites and encyclopaedias.
( ) 4. What can be inferred from today's websites and encyclopaedias about living things?
A. They are the best tools for scientists.
B. They provide wrong information.
C. They seldom update the information.
D. They are easy to search for information.
( ) 5. Which one is the best title of this passage?
A. a "Book" of Life.
B. a Dream Website.
C. an Automatic Encyclopaedia.
D. a Surprising Tool.
答案:1. B
解析:根据第一段“On a new website (www.eol.org), called the Encyclopaedia of Life (EOL), you will find basic facts on 30,000 species of fish.”可知,EOL是一个能找到30,000种鱼类信息的网站,选B。
2. D
解析:第二段提到网站有30,000种鱼类信息,但设计师梦想让它成为最大的生物学百科全书,所以“a baby step”指这只是一个小小的成功,选D。
3. B
解析:根据第二段“Its designers dream of making it the largest biological encyclopaedia ever, with a web page for every living species.”可知,设计师的目标是为每个物种提供描述,选B。
4. C
解析:根据第三段“A dream site would include... also automatically update itself as new research is published.”可推断现在的网站和百科全书很少更新信息,选C。
5. A
解析:文章主要介绍了EOL这个像一本不断增长的关于生命的“书”,A选项“a 'Book' of Life”最能概括主旨,选A。