The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the Americans from being discovered by the people of Europe.

       Many wrong ideas about the Atlantic made early sailors unwilling to sail far out into it. One idea was that it reached out to “the edge of the world.” Sailors were afraid that they might sail right off the earth. Another idea was that at the equator（赤道）the ocean would be boiling hot.

       The Atlantic Ocean is only half as big as the Pacific, but it is still very large. It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at its narrowest it is about 2,000 miles (3,200km) wide.

       Two things make the Atlantic Ocean rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has very few islands. Also, it is the world’s saltiest ocean.

       There is so much water in the Atlantic that it is hard to imagine how much there is. But suppose no more rain fell into it and no more water was brought to it by rivers. It would take the ocean about 4,000 years to dry up. On the average the water is a little more than two miles (3.2km) deep, but in places it is much deeper. The deepest spot is near Puerto Rico. This “deep” measures 30,246 feet-almost six miles (9.6km).

       One of the longest mountain ranges of the world rises from the floor of the Atlantic. This mountain range runs north and south down the middle of the ocean. The tops of a few of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands.

       Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet, for there is little wind. In the days of sailing vessels（船）the crew were afraid they would be becalmed（停滞不前）here. Sometimes they were.

       Today the Atlantic is a great highway. It is not, however, always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs（冰山）float down from the Far North across the paths of ships.

       We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for more than two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make the trip in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from south America to Africa in four!

At the beginning of this century, medical scientists made an interesting discovery; we are built not just of flesh and blood but also of time. They were  (1)  to show that we all have “a body clock”  (2)  us, which controls the  (3)  and fall of our body energies,  (4)  us different from one day one to the next.

The   (5)  of “a body clock” should not be too  (6)  since the lives of most living things are controlled  (7)   the 24 hour night-and-day cycle. We feel  (8)  and fall asleep at night and become   (9)  and energetic during the day. If the 24 hour-cycle is  (10)  , most people experience unpleasant  (11)   . For example, people who are not  (12)   to working at night can find that  (13)   of sleep causes them to  (14)  badly at work.

  (15)   the daily cycle of sleeping and  (16)  , we also have other cycles which  (17)  longer than one day. Most of us would   (18)  that we feel good on some days and not so good on  (19)   ; sometimes our ideas seem to flow and at other times, they  (20)  ​do not exist.

     Now satellites are helping to forecast（预报）the weather. They are in space, and they can reach any part of the world. The satellites take pictures of the atmosphere（大气）, because this is where the weather forms（形成）. They send these pictures to the weather stations. So meteorologists（气象学家）can see the weather of any part of the world. From the pictures, the scientists can often say how the weather will change.

       Today, nearly five hundred weather stations in sixty countries receive satellite pictures. When they receive new pictures, the meteorologists compare（比较）them with earlier ones. Perhaps they may find that the clouds have changed during the last few hours. This may mean that the weather on the ground may soon change, too. In their next weather forecast, the meteorologists can say this.

         So the weather satellites are a great help to the meteorologists. Before satellites were invented, the scientists could forecast the weather for about 24 or 48 hours. Now they can make good forecasts for three or five days. Soon, perhaps, they may be able to forecast the weather for a week or more ahead（提前）.

Biologist Robert Pitman and his colleagues tracked orcas，or killer whales, and humpback whales off the coast of Western Australia. To research further, the scientists attached a tracker to a female orca, which allowed them to use satellites to monitor her movements. They followed her for six days. During that time, the orca attacked eight young humpback whales. During the seven attacks, the orca killed the humpback whale calf(幼兽) on three occasions.

But the story doesn’t end there. Humpback whales themselves are popularly thought to be large but generally, passive creatures. Pitman’s study findings may let people think otherwise.

When chased by orcas, humpback whales are known to try to outswim orcas. They are thought to do this at high speed so that the orcas can’t keep up. On some occasions, the humpback whales sought out protection. They swam to shallow water, nearby reefs, or even under the researchers’ boats. These ways often reduced the attack. But at other times, the humpback whales decided to stay and fight.

As the orcas approached, the mother humpback would sometimes move her calf to her side, or lift it out of the water using her head or flippers. She also blew huge breaths of air to disturb the orcas, and lunged or charged at them, slashing(劈) and slapping her tail and flippers. Perhaps most surprisingly, humpback whales also have adult escorts(护卫队) that try to protect calves that are not their own, joining the mother in defending the smaller whale. These escort whales either charged at the orcas, or placed themselves between the attackers and calves, slashing their tails and flippers.

Despite the efforts of the mother whales and escorts, the orcas were more often than not successful in their attacks. But the presence of the escorts did reduce how many times a whale calf was killed.

  Every now and then，a product comes along that proves itself a complete game－changer; as is the case with new British brand and invention，Eyejusters － the reading glasses that you can focus yourself － for less than ￡70！

      With 6 in 10 people wearing glasses in the UK，those with perfect vision are increasingly in the minority. And of those who do require glasses，many find themselves requiring two or three pairs of glasses in order to complete different tasks throughout the day. As well as being an added expense on top of everything else，this also means carrying around （and trying not to lose） those extra pairs！

      Evejusters allow you to instantly change the lens（镜片） strength of your glasses with hidden dials，tucked just inside the frames themselves. Eyejusters work by the wearer simply turning the concealed eyeDials to change the focus to fit your needs. The lenses adjust from ＋0.00 to ＋3.00 D，they also have anti－scratch technology and are lightweight in design so you aren't paying the price of comfort for convenience.

      The creator of Eyejusters，Owen Reading － who came up with the idea for Eyejusters with friend David Crosby，who studied physics at Oxford with him，explained: "Lots of people need reading glasses but they need glasses with lots of different strengths. They might have a pair with ＋l prescription－strength lenses for the computer，＋2s for reading and ＋3s for really close－up stuff. Eyejusters replace the need for multiple pairs of reading glasses，by covering the whole range from zero to ＋3，which is the strongest you will find in over－the－counter products."

      He added: "If you wear reading glasses，these are a much more flexible alternative. You can put them on and just turn the dial until what you want to see comes into focus. They are much like using binoculars（望远镜）."

Gray wolves once were seen here and there in the Yellowstone area and much of the continental United States, but they were gradually displaced by human development. By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They went farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there were fewer humans around.

The disappearance of the wolves had many unexpected results. Deer and elk populations—major food sources(来源) for the wolf—grew rapidly. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation(植被), which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park’s red foxes, and completely drove away the park’s beavers.

As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. They hoped that wolves would be able to control the elk and coyote problems. Many farmers opposed the plan because they feared that wolves would kill their farm animals or pets.

The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolves. The U．S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolf packs in Yellowstone. Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone. Elk, deer, and coyote populations are down, while beavers and red foxes have made a comeback. The Yellowstone wolf project has been a valuable experiment to help biologists decide whether to reintroduce wolves to other parts of the country as well.

I had the honour of being elected chief of my tribe(部落)．With the title came great responsibility. It was my job to make peace with the Maori Tamaki tribe, whose village we visited. Their soldiers jumped from a canoe and faced us down with fierce crying, sticking eyes and much noise of sticks. They laid a palm leaf on the ground and, as head, I was forced to accept this peace offering by picking it up, then touching noses with their chief. “Kia ora，”  he said,  welcoming us into the woodland home of his people.

My “tribe” was my New Zealand coach tour group, who had forced me into being their leader. We’d been warned that the ceremony was a serious occasion and that to laugh or even smile would be considered rude to the Tamaki. After that it was non-stop fun as they demonstrated their ancient customs and I received instruction in performing the haka, the war dance immortalized(使不朽) by the All Blacks rugby team.

Then they pulled our dinner of lamb, beef and vegetables out of the ground. It had been slow-cooked in the heat just below the surface in the geothermal(地热的) area of North Island, a Maori tradition known as a hangi that goes back an extremely long period of time.

Obviously, this form of it is put on for tourists but it was hugely enjoyable. The journey back to the hotel was alone worth the effort, our elder Maori driver being deserving of his own television show. “The wheels on the bus go round and round，” he got us singing, while he circuited a round about three times.

A couple of days from the end of our trip, there was still something missing, a New Zealand icon I wanted to see to make my grand tour complete. Riding over a ridge, there it was—Aotearoa. The Maori name for New Zealand translates as “the land of the long white cloud”. Can I say “Kia ora, Aotearoa？” You bet I can.

   Fans of the movie Finding Nemo may remember the terrifying fish that scares Dory and Marlin at the bottom of a trench.

   But in reality this "monster", a black seadevil, is only about 9 cm long, which would make it about a third of the size of Dory and potentially smaller than Marlin or Nemo.

   While this inaccuracy may seem harmless, it could cause problems for future conservation efforts, as people are more likely to support conservation of adorable rather than scary-looking animals.

   The black seadevil is just one of the mysterious "monsters". From 2000—2010, scientists described about 1,200 new species in the Census of Marine Life Program. While this figure may seem astonishing, a further 5,000 individual dead creatures are in specimen(标本) jars, waiting to be described.

   Specimens must be methodically collected, identified, and then the identity of new deep-water species must be confirmed.

   If we call unusual deep sea animals monsters, then we may harm their conservation as people are unlikely to connect with them or care about saving them.

   On the other hand, their rarity clearly makes them popular on social media sites. For other species, this has already resulted in increases in illegal trading for unusual pets. Deep sea species may potentially become illegally obtained specimens or food. Humans may end up eating these animals of the deep to extinction before their species are even known to science.

   Every habitat on earth is interconnected, and whatever we as humans do has an influence on marine ecosystems. In reality, about 80% of our oxygen is produced by microorganisms(微生物) in the oceans. This makes our oceans both the lungs and lifeblood of our planet and we must all try harder to save them.

What can we know about the black seadevil in reality?

What does the author think of the progress of describing new species?

What does the underlined word "this" in Paragraph 7 probably refer to?

What can we infer about those unusual sea animals?

Warm weather brought by El Nino has had mixed effects on animals in usually snowy places in North America, including New England, according to an Associated Press article.

Some animals seem to benefit from having a chance to gather more food before winter, and from expending less energy in daily survival mode. Others, like snowshoe hares, are put at center stage in predators’(捕食者) view when they lack snow for disguising their white fur — not a good thing for them, of course.

Black bears, on the other hand, have been keeping busy gathering nuts and apples, when they would normally have settled into their winter homes by now. Vermont and Massachusetts officials have asked residents to wait till snow falls to take out their bird feeders for the sake of safety, the article said.

“We suggest waiting for6or more inches of snow that lasts before taking out your bird feeders, especially if you have been visited in the past by bears or if there are sightings of bears in your neighborhood,” Forrest Hammond, Vermont Fish and Wildlife’s bear biologist, said in the article. “Due to lack of snow and frozen ground, birds are able to seek food in fields and forests for their natural foods.”

Snow amounts can also determine how comfortable bears are and how quickly they consume their accumulated fat during hibernation(冬眠), noted Hammond in the article. This is because snow covers and traps them in their winter homes, and also hides them from predators.

Good afternoon，and welcome to England. We hope that your visit here will be a pleasant one. Today，I would like to draw your attention to a few of our laws.

The first one is about drinking. Now，you may not buy alcohol in this country. If you are under 18 years of age，nor may your friends buy it for you.

Secondly，noise. Enjoy yourselves by all means，but please don’t make unnecessary noise，particularly at night. We ask you to respect other people who may wish to be quiet.

Thirdly，crossing the road. Be careful！The traffic moves on the left side of the road in this country. Use pedestrian crossings and do not take any chances when crossing the road.

My next point is about litter (throwing away waste material in a public place)．It is an offence (违法行为) to drop litter in the street. When you have something to throw away，please put it in your pocket and take it home，or put it in a litter bin.

Finally，as regards something，it is against the law to buy cigarettes or tobacco if you are under 16 years of age.

I’d like to finish by saying that if you require any sort of help or assistance，you should contact your local police，who will be pleased to help you.

Now，are there any questions?