【正文】 nd expressions.(C) Babies are more sensitive to sounds than are adults.(D) Babies notice even minor differences between speech sounds.11. According to the author, why do babies listen to songs and stories, even though they cannot understand them?(A) They understand the rhythm.(B) They enjoy the sound.(C) They can remember them easily.(D) They focus on the meaning of their parents39。 words.PASSAGE 67 Geographers say that what defines a place are four properties: soil, climate, altitude, and aspect, or attitude to the Sun. Florida39。s ancient scrub demonstrates this principle. Its soil is pure silica, so barren it supports only lichens as ground cover. It does, however, sustain a sandswimming lizard that cannot live where there is moisture or plant matter the soil. Its climate, despite more than 50 inches of annual rainfall, is blistering desert. The only plant life it can sustain is the xerophytic, the quintessentially dry. Its altitude is a mere couple of hundred feet, but it is high ground on a peninsula elsewhere close to sea level, and its drainage is so critical that a difference of inches in elevation can bring major changes in its plant munities. Its aspect is flat direct, brutal — and subtropical. Florida39。s surrounding lushness cannot impinge on its desert scrubbiness. This does not sound like an attractive place. It does not look much like one either: shrubby little oaks, clumps of scraggly bushes prickly pear, thorns, and tangles. It appears, Said one early naturalist, to desire to display the result of the misery through which it has passed and is passing. By our narrow standards, scrub is not beautiful。 neither does it meet our selfish utilitarian needs. Even the name is an epithet, a synonym for the stunted, the scruffy, the insignificant, what is beautiful about such a place? The most important remaining patches of scrub lie along the Lake Wales Ridge, a chain of paleoislands running for a hundred miles down the center of Florida, in most places less than ten miles wide. It is relict seashore, tossed up millions of years ago when ocean levels were higher and the rest of the peninsula was submerged. That ancient emergence is precisely what makes Lake Wales Ridge so precious: it has remained unsubmerged, its ecosystems essentially undisturbed since the Miocene era. As a result, it has gathered to itself one of the largest collections of rare organisms in the world. Only about 75 plant species survive there, but at least 30 of these are found nowhere else on Earth. 1. What does the passage mainly discuss?(A) How geographers define a place(B) The characteristics of Florida39。s ancient scrub(C) An early naturalist39。s opinion of Florida(D) The history of the Lake Wales Ridge2. The author mentions all of the following factors that define a place EXCEPT(A) aspect(B) altitude(C) soil(D) lifeforms3. It can be inferred from the passage that soil posed of silica(A) does not hold moisture(B) is found only in Florida(C) nourishes many kinds of ground cover(D) provides food for many kinds of lizards4. The word sustain in line 6 is closets in meaning to(A) select(B) strain(C) support(D) store5. The author mentions the prickly pear (line 12) as an example of(A) valuable fruitbearing plants of the scrub area(B) unattractive plant life of the scrub area(C) a pant discovered by an early naturalist(D) plant life that is extremely rare6. The author suggests that human standards of beauty are(A) tolerant(B) idealistic(C) defensible(D) limited7. The word insignificant in line 16 is closest in meaning to(A) unimportant(B) undisturbed(C) immature(D) inappropriate8. According to the passage , why is the Lake Wales Ridge valuable?(A) It was originally submerged in the ocean.(B) It is less than ten miles wide.(C) It is located near the seashore.(D) It has ecosystems that have long remained unchanged9. The word it in line 21 refer to(A) Florida(B) the peninsula(C) the Lake Wales Ridge(D) the Miocene era10. The passage probably continues with a discussion of(A) ancient scrub found in other areas of the country(B) geographers who study Florida39。s scrub(C) the climate of the Lake Wales Ridge(D) the unique plants found on the Lake Wales RidgePASSAGE 68(30) In the North American colonies, red ware, a simple pottery fired at low temperatures, and stone ware, a strong, impervious grey pottery fired at high temperatures, were produced from two different native clays. These kinds of pottery were produced to supplement imported European pottery. When the American Revolution (17751783) interrupted the flow of the superior European ware, there was incentive for American potters to replace the imports with parable domestic goods. Stoneware, which had been simple, utilitarian kitchenware, grew increasingly ornate throughout the nineteenth century, and in addition to the earlier scratched and drawn designs, threedimensional molded relief decoration became popular. Representational motifs largely replaced the earlier abstract decorations. Birds and flowers were particularly evident, but other subjects — lions, flags, and clipper ships — are found. Some figurines, mainly of dogs and lions, were made in this medium. Sometimes a name, usually that of the potter, was diestamped onto a piece. As more and more large kilns were built to create the highfired stoneware, experiments revealed that the same clay used to produce lowfired red ware could produce a stronger, paler pottery if fired at a hotter temperature. The result was yellow ware, used largely for serviceable items。 but a further development was Rockingham ware — one of the most important American ceramics of the nineteenth century. (The name of the ware was probably derived from its resemblance to English brownglazed earthenware made in South Yorkshire.) It was created by adding a br