Researchers in over 80 nations are taking part in a project to conduct a decade-long census(統(tǒng)計) of sea life. Scientists presented some of their findings at a recent conference as the project neared its completion.
In deep icy waters under Antarctica, scientists found bulbous tunicates, an underground animal, and many newly-discovered creatures believed to be related to starfish (海星) and other marine(海洋的）creatures.
Elsewhere in the world’s oceans, they have recently discovered many kinds of underwater life forms new to science. It is all part of a research effort called the Census of Marine Life.
“There are about 2,000 scientists worldwide involved,” said Bob Gagosian, President, CEO of the Consortium for Ocean Leadership. Gagosian helps manage the project. “Everywhere they’ve gone they’ve found new things,” he says. “The ocean basically is unexplored from the point of view of marine living things.”
Researchers have placed small markers on hundreds of fish and marine animals to track by satellite their migration(遷移）routes and to discover places where sea life gathers.
According to Ron O’Dor, a senior scientist with the Census of Marine Life, knowledge of life on the ocean floor is especially limited. “90% of all the information we have is from the top hundred meters of the ocean,” O’Dor states.
And he says the sea floor is, on average, at a depth of 4, 000 meters. And so, as some machines dive far below what people have previously seen, scientists are discovering new species of plants, animals and living things.
Since the census project began, more than 5,300 new marine animals have been found. Ocean researchers say they hope to catalogue 230,000 species during the census —which some say is only a small part of all the creatures living in the sea.
【小題1】Why do the researchers place small markers on many marine creatures?

I was walking down the road one day when my cellphone rang. I heard a little girl on the other end 36 ,“Dad, please come back soon. I miss you so much!” Because I just have a little 37 , I knew it was a wrong number. So I rudely 38 “you’ve dialed the wrong number!”and then 39 .
During the following days, I got the same call 40 .But I didn’t care much about it.
Then one day she continually called me, 41  I didn’t answer. In the end, I answered the phone and heard a torpid(有氣無力的) voice, “ Dad, please come back. I miss you so much! Dad , I m 42 so much pain! Mom said you were too busy to take 43  of me. But, Dad ,please 44  me again, OK?” The kind of 45  was difficult to reject. I made a loud kiss on the phone and heard the 46  voice say, “Thank you … Dad , I am so … happy…”
Shortly after this, I became 47  about who had been on the other end of my phone. So I called back, and a woman answered, “Sorry, sir. I am really sorry to have 48  you. My daughter has suffered from bone cancer 49  she was born. And her father … died in a(n) 50  last week. I 51  not tell her the news. Poor  baby. When she couldn’t 52  the painful chemotherapy(化療), she would cry for her dad, who had always 53  her. I really couldn’t bear it, so I gave her a random(任意的)phone number …”
“How is your daughter now?” I couldn’t 54  to ask.
“She has 55 . You must have kissed her on the phone, because she went with a smile,” she said, “and I am glad that she gets rid of the pain and stays with her father forever.”
I couldn’t keep my tears back.

【小題15】

A．matter B．event C．a(chǎn)ccident D．a(chǎn)ffair

【小題19】

A．stop B．help C．wait D．keep

One evening in February 2007 . a student named Paula Ceely brought her car to a stop on a remote in Wales . She got out to open a metal gate that blocked her path . That's when she heard the whistle sounded by the driver of a train.Her Renault Clio parked across a railway line. Second later,she watched  the train drag her car almost a kilometre down the railway tracks.
Ceely's near miss  made the news because she blamed it on her GPS device(導航儀).She had never driven the route before .It was dark and raining heavily . Ceely was relying on her GPS. But it made no mention of the crossing ."I put my complete trust in the device and it led me right into the path of a speeding train ,"she told the BBC.
W ho is to blame here ? Rick Stevenson ,who tells Ceely's story in his book When Machines Fail US, finger at the limitations of technology. We put our faith in digital devices, he says,
but our digital helpers are too often not up to the job. They are filled with small  problems. And it’s not just GPS devices: Stevenson takes us on a tour of digital disasters involving everything from mobile phones to wireless key boards.
The problem with his argument in the book is that it’s  not clear why he only focuses digital technology,while  there may be a number of other possible  causes. A map-maker might have left the crossing off a paper map. Maybe we should blame Ceely for not paying attention. perhaps the railway authorities are at fault for poor signaling system. Or maybe someone has studied the relative dangers and worked out that there really is something specific wrong with the CPS equipment. But Stevenson doesn’t say.
It’s a problem that runs through the book. In a section on cars, Stevenson gives an accout of the advanced techniques that criminals use to defeat computer-based locking systems for cars. He offers two independent sets of figures on car theft; both show a small rise in some parts of the country. He says that once once again not all new locks have proved reliable. Perhaps, but maybe it’s also due to the shortage of policemen on the streets. Or changing social circumstances. Or some combination of these factors .
The game between humans and their smart devices  is complex. It is shaped by economics and psychology and the cultures we live in. Somewhere in the mix of those forces there may be  way a wiser use of technology.   
If there is such a way, it should involve more than just  an awareness of the shortcomings of our machines. After all, we have lived with them for thousands  of years. They have probably been fooling us for just as long .
【小題1】
What did Paula Ceely think was the cause of her accident?           

A．closebit

B．heavyloss

C．narrow escape

D．bigmistake

It can greet people, show DVDs and hand out balloons. “Ubiko”, a robot-on –wheels with a catlike face, is joining the crew of temporary workers supplied by a Japanese job-referral company, Ubiquitous Exchange, to stores, events and even weddings. Next month, the 44-inch tall robot will be selling mobile phones at a store.
Ubiko can be hired as a temporary worker for two hours for 105,000 yen, or $890.
“We see this as serious business. There are jobs that robots are better at,” Akiko Sakurai said “people do develop a relation with the robot, and it’s lovable.”
The $255,000 robot, which is equipped with a camera and sensors, greets customers with a nasal electronic voice, shows DVDs with a projector in its head and hands out balloons and other goods with wireless remote-controllable arms.
Ubiko sounds like a Japanese female name, which often ends with “ko”.
Tmsuk, the Japanese company that makes the robot, sold three last month to hospital, where they are working as full-time, rather than temporary, receptionists and guides. One of the hospital’s robots serves as a receptionist and has been programmed to greet visitors. It also has a touch-panel(控制板) on its body, and visitors can use it to get directions for where they want to go. 
“Just give it electricity, and a robot can work for long hours, even do repetitive work, and you don’t have to worry about labor laws,” Sudo said.
Japan’s lower birth rate means that in the coming years it could face a labor shortage, and some experts believe robots could be part of the key to that problem. Robots are very popular in Japan partly because of the popularity of cartoons that describe robots as friends and assistants to humans.
【小題1】The news report is mainly to _________________.

My father is a smart man. He spent many years of his life listening to people’s arguments, first as assistant district lawyer and then as a judge. My dad knows rubbish rhetoric when he hears it.
One of his favorite phrases is: “If you don’t have anything smart to say, then don’t say it at all.” Yet, for all of his legal training and life experience, he can’t help but keep talking about the Mega Millions jackpot.
We all know the odds(幾率)of winning the jackpot this evening with one ticket are extraordinarily low ... 1 in 175, 711, 536, to be exact. Still, people go out and buy hundreds of tickets with the hopes of becoming wealthier beyond their dreams. Why? There are two possible explanations for this “irrationality”(不理智).
One idea is that the way we calculate odds in our heads has nothing to do with mathematical odds in the traditional sense. We don’t go to the mathematical odds table and say, “Well, this would be a terrible investment. I think I’m better off putting my money in the bank!” Rather, it has everything with the ability to picture an event happening.
My father, for instance, watches the news every night and sees people winning the lottery(彩票). Therefore, he thinks the chance of him winning the lottery is much higher than they actually are.
The second thought is that the expected effect of playing cannot be represented merely by the odds. My father and, I’m sure, others get a thrill from the mere idea of winning. He loves imagining what it would be like to actually win and losing doesn’t really affect him. Sure, he’s disappointed, but it’s “better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” When you combine the utility of thinking you can win with the utility of actually winning (no matter how small the chance of that occurring), it’s worth it for many people to spend the one dollar on a ticket.
My analysis is that both factors are at play in taking a chance on the lottery. My father and others really do underestimate the odds of winning, but the thrill of participation is not denied by a realistic assessment of the odds. Still, I would probably put my finger on the scale for the first explanation.
All told, a review of the odds of other events happening confirms that there just aren’t many events that occur with less frequency than your winning the Mega Millions jackpot. Look at the graph below, you may understand some:

In many ways, it’s like the lottery, something that features often on television and about which people fantasize, but that rarely happens.
So, when you watch, along with my Pa, to see if your lucky number is drawn this evening, keep in mind three things: that your number almost certainly won’t come up; that you are still going to have fun; and that, finally, a lot of other things are more likely to happen—but getting eaten by a shark isn’t one of them.
【小題1】It can be learned from the article that ________.