Part Two Reading Comprehension

Directions:

    In this part there are three passages and one chart, each followed by five questions, or unfinished statements. For each of them, there are four choices marked A, B, C and D.Choose the best one and mark your answer on the ANSWER SHEET with a single line through the center.

Questions 11-15 are based on the following passage:

    Lazy? Shy? Live in a cave? Those might not be positive attributes for the average human, but they sure are good for animals, trying to survive in a changing environment. According to a new study, beasts that hibernate （冬眠） or crawl into holes are less likely to be listed as endangered than those that don’t.

    Following up a previous study on extinct animals, which showed that species exhibiting “sleep or hide” (SLOH) behaviors did better than others, the researchers wanted to see if the same was true of modern creatures like moles and bears. To find out if our more timid animals have a leg up in the survival game, researchers made a master list of 443 sleep-or-hide mammals.

    With their list in hand, the team compared their 443 to the “red list” of endangered species published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. As suspected, a sleepy or hiding animal was less likely to be on the red list than a regular animal, and a red-list animal was also less likely to be a SLOH-er.

    This makes a lot of sense, as animals that hide away in a cave or a tree hole are protected by their physical shelters from a variable environment outside, while hibernators enjoy a flexible metabolism （新陈代谢） that can help them adapt to a changing climate.

11. On the list of extinct animals studied, there were _____.

A more SLOH-ers than expected

B fewer SLOH-ers than regular animals

C as many SLOH-ers as regular animals

D hardly any SLOH-ers

12. The phrase “ a leg up” in Paragraph 2 probably means “________”

A an advantage

B an instinct

C a fight

D a chance

13. The study of modern creatures________.

A is unrelated to the study of extinct animals

B finds evidence missing in the study of extinct animals

C reveals a different pattern from the study of extinct animals

D has findings similar to those of the study of extinct animals

14. According to the passage, red-list animals are more likely to _____.

A be lazy

B be timid

C sleep less

D live long

15. In the last paragraph the author ____.

A offers an explanation for the survival of sleepers and hiders

B compares the behaviors of sleepers and hiders

C analyzes how a changing environment affects SLOH-ers

D emphasizes what can be learned from SLOH-ers

Questions 16-20 are based on the following passage:

    Happy hours are not necessarily happy, nor do they last for an hour, but they have become a part of the ritual of the office worker and businessman.