学进去

①In a room at Stanford University (大学), scientists (科学家) are studying a small animal called gecko. It’s an amazing animal because it can move very quickly up and down a tree and it can even walk upside down (倒立行走) on ceilings (机器人). The scientists are quite interested in the gecko’s feet. They want to use the same design on their own robots. The metal robot looks like the gecko. It has four feet which can also walk up walls made of glass. However, it still has a more difficult time when it tries to walk upside down.

②Animals and plants can teach people a lot about design and engineering (工程学). When scientists and engineers have a problem, nature (大自然) often has the answer. This science is called biomimetics (仿生学). Bio means “studying living things” and mimetics means “copying (模仿) the movement of things”. In other words, scientists study animals and plants in order to copy the design.

③Takea whale (鲸) as an example. Engineers in Canada are studying their flippers (鳍) because they move very fast through water. The engineers think the shape (形状) can also make the wind turbines (涡轮机) move faster. The boxfish is another animal from the sea which is helping car makers in Germany. Mercedes Benz (奔驰) is using the shape of the fish for one of its new cars. The shape makes it faster and more fuelefficient (节能的).

④Velcro is probably the most famous example of biomimetics. Most people have some Velcro on their clothes. It was invented (发明) by the Swiss engineer, George de Mestral in 1948. He was walking in the countryside when he pulled a plant’s bur (刺果) from his trousers. He noticed how the bur stuck so well to his clothes. He worked on his idea and the result was Velcro and it became an alternative to the traditional zip (传统的拉链).

⑤In a word, biomimetics has helped to design our world and there are many more future possibilities (可能性). Unluckily, it might take a long time to discover (发现) all the possibilities. This isn’t really surprising because it’s taken nature thousands of years to design its animals and plants.

1．The writer organizes Paragraph 1 by ________.

A．using pictures	B．using numbers
C．giving an example	D．showing reasons

2．What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 3 refer to (指)? ________

A．The whale.	B．The boxfish.
C．The wind turbine.	D．The car.

3．Which of the following shows the structure (结构) of the passage?（P＝Paragraph）________

A．

B．

C．

D．

4．What does the underlined word “alternative” mean in Chinese? ________

A．产物

B．原材料

C．制造商

D．替代品

5．What can we infer (推断) according to the passage? ________

A．Nature can provide people with ideas to make better things.

B．George de Mestral invented the traditional zip too.

C．The robot designed at Stanford University can walk upside down easily.

D．Mercedes Benz is using the shape of the whale for one of its new cars.