1、Unit 1 HOME LISTENINGaudio SCRIPTTarantula PetsIn recent years, tarantulas have become increasingly popular as pets. For many people, caring for these creatures has become an enormously entertaining and educational hobby. There are over 800 different species to choose from and the majority of them a
2、re very easy to care for.Handling a tarantulaWhen one is considering getting a tarantula, it is important to be aware that experts do not advocate handling them regularly. Not to protect the pet owner, but to prevent stress and injury to the spider. Tarantulas are not aggressive unless threatened by
3、 an abrupt motion, so gentle handling isnt usually a problem. If a person is bitten, the bite generally only causes redness and swelling similar to a bee sting. However, even a short fall can cause the delicate outer covering of the tarantulas body, its “carapace(壳),” to break, causing it to bleed t
4、o death.Choosing a tarantulaTarantulas can be purchased in pet stores, at pet shows, or even over the Internet. It is advisable to buy a spider only from a knowledgeable dealer who knows its exact scientific name and has already determined its sex. Knowing the species is important because each one r
5、equires slightly different care and feeding. Being aware of the sex is important because female tarantulas live much longer than males. A typical female can live for as long as 20 years, while most males die within a year or two. The most important aspect of purchasing a tarantula is making sure tha
6、t it is healthy. A tarantula that is shrinking back in a corner with its legs pulled in under itself is probably dying.Caring for a tarantulaFor the most part, adult tarantulas require very little care. They should be fed once a week but can easily last for two weeks without any food. The cage requi
7、res only an annual cleaning. However, a tarantula regularly goes through a process called “molting” in which it works its soft inner body out of its existing carapace and produces a new one. During the process, the spiders soft inner body is temporarily exposed and it can easily be injured or killed
8、. It is essential not to disturb the spider during this process and, if there are signs that the tarantula is bleeding (its blood is pale blue), it may be necessary to coat the injured area with a hard substance to stop the loss of blood.Unit2 HOME LISTENINGHEINLE TimesHomes for Humans A Sanctuary（避
9、难所） for KoalasNew South Wales, March 8 Koalas, with their cute, expressive faces and gentle behavior, are a favorite of animal-lovers all over the world. They exist only in Australia, and in the early 1900s, a demand for coats made from the soft, gray fur of these animals threatened to destroy the e
10、ntire species. In the 1930s the Australian government passed legislation to protect the animals, but that didnt solve the problem. Since then, the clearing of land for development has displaced large numbers of koalas and resulted in an even greater threat to the survival of the species.Luckily, as
11、urban development continues to spread, some Australian construction companies are trying to find ways to balance the issues. They are working to create new housing for humans, while giving priority to protecting the habitat of the koalas. The developers of Koala Beach Estates on the north coast of N
12、ew South Wales have managed to do just that. Theyve been able to follow the dictates（指示） of an ecologically sensitive（敏感） building program, while also providing an attractive living environment for people.Work on the project began in 1993 with a thorough survey of the local koala population. First,
13、a researcher for the Australian Koala Foundation fitted koalas in the area with radio transmitters. The information gathered by the researcher showed which koalas were permanent residents and which were visitors, and also which areas of the proposed development even which specific trees were used by
14、 the koalas. As a result of this study, the entire housing development was designed around the koalas habitats.Other koala-friendly components（组成） were included at Koala Beach Estates. Dogs and cats were banned from the development because they sometimes kill koalas. Planners also provided “traffic
15、calming elements such as speed prevention methods and warning signs to protect the animals from cars. Since koalas have favorite paths between food trees, all fences were raised 30 centimeters above the ground to allow them to pass easily underneath. Ropes were placed in swimming pools so koalas cou
16、ld climb out if they fell in. An enormous amount of careful planning went into the project, which resulted in a pleasant coincidence; twenty-five other rare or endangered species including bats, frogs, and birds ultimately（基本） chose Koala Beach as their home. This bonus（红利） has increased homeowners
17、excitement over this outstanding wildlife-friendly community even more than expected.Unit 3August 10thTo the members of the city council of Albion,As a lifelong resident of Albion, I have seen many changes to our beautiful town. Fifty years ago, the population was 32,000 and Main Street was the cent
18、er of everything. People went there to shop, eat in restaurants, see movies, and sometimes just walk around and visit with people. Today, Albions population is over 80,000 and nobody even thinks about going downtown. We shop at malls and shopping centers and on the Internet. We take out fast food an
19、d stay home and watch TV. Most of the downtown businesses have closed, putting people out of work, and taking away thousands of dollars of city tax revenues.I advocate a radical（基本的） proposal to turn things around. Lets declare the four block area to the north of Main Street a pedestrian-only （只可步行）
20、zone. Once we accomplish that, we can begin creating a lively street scene with antique（古董的） stores, open-air markets, sidewalk cafs, and street musicians or other performers. Instead of going to another city for entertainment, people may start making downtown Albion their free-time destination. Par
21、ents can bring their children, and teenagers would be able to get together in a safe, public setting. New public transportation options（选择） could encourage people to leave their cars at home and provide the city with additional income.The changes could also have economic benefits for the city. Art g
22、alleries, clothing stores, and other businesses might begin to convert (转变) the abandoned stores into new businesses, providing renewed visitor traffic. As downtown street life becomes more exciting, Main Street could also begin to attract new residents. Young people responding to the energizing atm
23、osphere may move into the apartments above the stores. In this instance（实例） , real estate（不动产） investors（投资） will start building new apartments, providing new housing as well as work for local residents. All of this activity would help to restore（重建） the citys commercial and residential(住宅的) tax bas
24、e.If you want confirmation that this kind of plan works, just look at Springfields results. When they instituted(创立) their pedestrian-only zone in 2003, the changes were dramatic（戏剧性的）. Restaurants and hotels began to fill up, tax revenues（收入） rose, unemployment rates went down, and there were even
25、fewer auto accidents and deaths. At the same time, the people of the town gained an exciting new neighborhood. I certainly hope youll give this idea your serious consideration.Unit 4Museum News Traveling ExhibitionsIn the past, if a person wanted to see the national treasures of a country, one had t
26、o go there in person. Therefore, very few people were able to enjoy some of historys most important and fascinating artifacts. This has changed with a recent increase in the number of traveling museum exhibitions. Today, more and more Ministries of Culture and federal government offices are allowing
27、 important historical and artistic works to be taken on around-the-world journeys to allow people everywhere to witness them with their own eyes.King Tutankhamen ArtifactsA traveling exhibition of artifacts from the tomb of King Tutankhamen, popularly known as “King Tut,” toured the United States fr
28、om November 1976 to April 1979. The 55 objects in this display were shown in six cities and were seen by around eight million museum-goers. A subsequent （后来的）touring exhibit was launched in 2007, this time with 130 artifacts（史前古器物） and stops in London and three different American cities. However som
29、e items, like the kings golden face mask, are too valuable or too delicate to be transported long distances, so “replicas（复制品） ,” or pieces which simulate（模仿） the real piece, are featured in the show.Japanese Color Woodblock PrintsThe University of Virginia Art Museum, in Charlottesville, Virginia,
30、has an extraordinary collection of Japanese color woodblock（木板） prints. These prints document the period from about 1850 to 1900, a time when Japan was opening itself to Western influences. Before this point, Japan was a closed society that had little contact with the world outside of its borders. T
31、hese works of art beautifully show the feeling of change and the trend toward modernization. The museum has put together a traveling exhibition of 60 of these prints, which can be borrowed and exhibited worldwide for periods of eight weeks or more.Face-to-face with “Lucy”One of the worlds most famou
32、s archaeological（考古学） finds in history are the 3.2 million-year-old bones of a 106-centimeter-tall female found in the Ethiopian desert in 1974. Lucy, a name given to her by the discovery team, is a “hominid（原始人类）,” or a creature that scientists believe is a primitive ancestor of modern human beings
33、. Anthropologists（人类学） believe that human life began in this region, and Lucy is important to our understanding the evolution of humans. Rarely is an artifact this valuable allowed to travel widely, but Lucy has been taken to several museums in the U.S. while a detailed replica（仿真品） remains at the E
34、thiopian Natural History Museum.Unit 5New ScienceDinosaur DebateThere are several differing theories about what happened to the dinosaurs. Scientists agree that about 50 percent of all the plants and animals that existed on earth became extinct about 65 million years ago. They also agree that at a s
35、imilar time, a huge piece of rock from outer space, called a “meteorite,” landed in Mexico. Using this as a starting point, Doctor of Physics Luis Alvarez proposed the following theory: the impact of the meteorite was so strong that it caused enormous clouds of dirt and dust to cover the sky, blocki
36、ng out the sun and causing the temperature on Earth to fall greatly. The result was called “impact winter.” Followers of this theory believe that during this cool period, many types of plants died out, which in turn resulted in the extinction of many animals on Earth, including dinosaurs.Other scien
37、tists have somewhat different interpretations（解释）of why the dinosaurs disappeared. Dewey McLean, a geologist at Virginia Polytechnic University, agrees that the impact caused severe changes in the earths climate. However, he believes that the earth was already experiencing an overall rise in the tem
38、perature of its atmosphere called “global warming.” He felt that this was due to extremely active volcanoes on the Indian subcontinent（次大陆）, which were spilling out vast quantities of melted rock, or lava（火山岩）, onto the earths surface. Scientists believe that the lava covered over a million square m
39、iles of India and the surrounding countries. McLean believes that this volcanic activity resulted in changes to the balance of chemicals in the air and the ocean water. He theorizes that these changes contributed to the global extinction of plant and animal species because they could not survive the
40、 chemical changes in their environment.Peter Ward, professor of geological sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, adds his own view to those of earlier researchers. He agrees with Dr. McLean that dinosaurs did not become extinct because of a single meteorite impact. He also agrees that
41、 global warming, principally（主要的） caused by volcanic activity, was the reason for their dying out. However, he suggests that volcanoes in northern Russia contributed to the changes in the climate. He points to scientific evidence showing that the process of extinction was a slow one, lasting millions of years, which indicates that it was not a sudden occurrence（出现）. Other scientists hold very different theories and it will probably be many years before the debate is resolved completely.
