9． 　　They weigh almost nothing. Yet they are (1)       than steel. In fact, some spiders' webs are among the world's strongest materials, (2)       they can be pulled longer than elastic (橡皮筋). They can also be any (3)      . Spider webs are amazing.
　　A spider has hundreds of small openings in its body. Silk comes out of these openings as a liquid (液体), and, as it reaches the air, it becomes thread-like. These (4)       threads (线) come together to form a single thread.
　　The spider can make many different kinds of thread. The thread can be thick or thin, wet or dry, or sticky. Each kind has a different (5)      . Some webs create an egg box. Others (6)       hiding places. The most common purpose of a spider web, however, is to catch food.
　　There are many (7)       the spider uses its web to catch food. For example, some spiders produce a single thread. An insect then sits on it (8)       realizing what it is doing, and becomes (9)      . Slowly, the spider moves towards the insect. (10)      , it covers its food in silk.
　　 Some spiders use a different kind of (11)      . They make webs that cheat insects. An insect sees the web and thinks it's a flower. It then (12)       the web. The spider can feel even the smallest movement of the web, and rushes at the insect (13)       it can get away.
　　Spider webs are so (14)       that engineers have been studying them for years. They want to learn why they are so strong and elastic. However, for the moment, spiders are keeping their (15)      . Although they have made great progress in science and technology, humans still haven't been able to copy natural webs.

10．
　　Look up at the sky at night. What can you see? Before electric lights, people could often see about 2,500 different stars. Now, light fills the skies over our cities. This is called light (1)            . Because of it, people in cities can often only see about ten (2)            !
　　Most of the time, light helps us. We can (3)             because of it. It gives plants energy. But light isn't always (4)            . We need times of dark (5)            . One hundred years ago, we had those times of dark. Now the night is like day. Some scientists are worried about (6)             this light effects (影响) our health. These scientists are studying the effects of light pollution.
　　Other scientists are finding ways to (7)             light pollution and make our lives better. For example, many street lights now have covers. The covers focus the light (8)             the ground. They stop the light from going (9)             into the sky. They also save energy. The covers are a (10)             change, but they can (11)            have a positive (正面的) effect.

12． 　　British adventurer (冒险家) Alastair Humphreys had ridden his bike around the world, walked cross India, and rowed (划船) from Africa to South America. In 2011, however, Humphreys had some of the biggest adventures of his life—and he never even left the United Kingdom.
　　For a year, Humphreys went on microadventures—small, low-cost trips close to home. Why did he do this? "I started to think that it was possible to have an adventure anywhere," he explains. For his first trip, he went hiking with a friend around the M25—a 188-kilometre road that goes all the way around London. Other adventures included swimming in the River Thames, sleeping outside on a hill, and going on a mountain biking trip. Humphreys learned something important from his microadventures: We find adventures when we try something new.
　　Humphreys wanted other people to make this discovery, too, so he decided to share his idea. He challenged people to go on microadventures and send him four-minute videos of their trips. He asked them to do things like climb a hill, go away for a weekend, or choose a random (任意的) place on a map and go there. People from all over the world accepted his challenge and posted their videos on Twitter.

13． 　　Today, by carefully choosing dog parents, humans have created many different kinds of dog. Each kind has its own look and talents and its own role within human society. Here are three examples of "a dog's life" in the human world.
　　Today, many hospitals let specially trained dogs in to bring love and cheer to patients. Shaynee is a therapy (治疗) dog. She visits children who are in hospital. Dogs like Shaynee help patients feel calm and at peace, which can be hard in a busy hospital. They help both children and adults stay strong during long hospital stays, and, some suggest, even help them get better.
　　Today some beagles (小猎犬) work in airports for the government. They are part of the program called the Beagle Brigade. A beagle is good for the work because of its powerful nose, and ability to follow smells. The Beagle Brigade's job is to smell everything that comes into the country. They make officers notice illegal (非法的) fruits, vegetables, and other foods in luggage or in mail. The beagles do the job far better than any human could.
　　While some dogs are working hard, others are free to spend their days resting and playing. Across the world, many pet dogs are treated like children. Many have their own rooms and all the things a dog could want. Some even have their own clothes. Many of these pets spend their days playing, learning to follow or even going to classes. Their owners give them the best, and enjoy doing so.
　　Whether as workers or objects of affection (钟情), dogs have become helpful to humans in many ways. There are plenty of advantages for the dog, too. Many kinds of wild dogs have nearly disappeared from the Earth. However, the domestic dog's special place as "man's best friend" has allowed it to survive (存活) in a human world.

14． 　　Eight hundred years ago, a man in southern Turkey invented an amazing clock. It was more than 7 meters high. At its base (基座) was a life-size model elephant. Every half hour, something amazing happened. The whole clock came alive: Model birds, dragons, and people started to move.
　　The clock's inventor was an engineer named al-Jazari. He lived in Turkey. Al-Jazari was probably one of the greatest engineers in history. Some historians call him "the father of modern-day engineering."
　　We know about al-Jazari mostly from a book that he wrote. ________ They include clocks and hand-washing machines. The book also has drawings that show how each machine works.
　　Many everyday things today—from toys to car engines (发动机)一still use al-Jazari's ideas. Without his machines with moving parts, we might not have modern-day robots.
　　Today, it is still possible to see what al-Jazari's elephant clock looked like. A full-size working mode is in Dubai's Ibn Battuta Mal. There, every half hour, al-Jazari's most amazing invention comes to life once again.
How Does the Elephant Clock Work?
　　A bowl with a small hole floats (浮) in a water tank (水箱) inside the elephant's body. As the bowl slowly sinks (下沉), it pulls a rope that moves a human figure. His moving pen shows the number of minutes past the hour.
　　Every half hour, the water bowl becomes full and sinks completely. This causes a ball to fall from the top of the clock. The movement of the ball causes a phoenix to move and make a sound.
　　The ball then drops out of a falcon's mouth into the mouth of a Chinese dragon. The weight of the ball causes the dragon's head to move down and the dragon's tail pulls the water bowl back up.
　　Finally, the ball drops out of the dragon's mouth and into a vase. As the ball lands in the vase, the elephant driver moves and makes a sound. The cycle begins again until there are no more balls in the top of the clock.

15． 　　Many scientists once believed that physical similarities between identical twins are genetic (基因的), while their personalities, intelligence and other differences between them are an effect of their environment. Now scientists are discovering that the boundaries (界限) between genes and environment are not so clear.
　　Twins Jim Springer and Jim Lewis were adopted (领养) as babies and raised by different couples. When the Jims finally met at age 39, they discovered they had plenty in common. Both were six feet tall, 180 pounds. They had the same smile and the same voice. When scientist Thomas Bouchard Jr. invited the Jim twins to his lab, people there found it very hard to tell them apart.
　　But the similarities didn't stop at the physical. They'd both had dogs named Toy. They had both married women named Linda and then their marriage broke up. They'd both been policemen, enjoyed music, and left love notes around the house for their wives. They had so much in common. It seemed unlikely these were just coincidences (巧合).
　　The Jim twins were just one of 137 sets of separated twins Bouchard tested. When they compared the twins' IQ scores, Bouchard and his team reached a surprising conclusion (结论). They concluded that intelligence was mostly connected to genes rather than to training or education. It seemed the differences in family and environment had little effect.
　　However, genes can't control everything, argues geneticist Danielle Reed, who also studies twins. Reed's research shows that though nothing can truly change our DNA, environmental differences that a child experiences before birth and in their first year can sometimes affect the way the DNA behaves, making even identical twins into very different people. "What I like to say is that Mother Nature writes some things in pencil and some things in pen," She explains. "Things written in pen you can't change. That's DNA. But things written in pencil you can."

16．The Value of Negative Results
We all avoid failure (失败), and most of us fear it. However, without failure, progress would be impossible. What does success usually come after? Failure. It seems that one cannot exist (存在) without the other.
Accepting failure is not easy for many, though. We are often unwilling to accept failure because our professional fame depends on success. (1)             In the past ten years, for example, some scientific magazines have published reports of failed tests. It is believed that scientists can learn more "negative (负面的)" results and that this can finally lead to positive results.
(2)             The ABN AMRO bank started an Institute (机构) of Brilliant Failures to learn more about what works and what doesn't in banking. Eli Lilly and Company had failure parties to study the drugs (药物) that don't work.
　　In fact, one of the business world's most famous failures became one of its biggest successes, in part because the product's makers learned from their mistakes. (3)             The product, though unique (独特的) at the time, was expensive and heavy; besides, some of its most important features (特点) didn't work properly. As a result, it became one of Apple's biggest failures, and in 1998, the company stopped selling it. However, Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, believed in the product and he began to find out ways of improving it. In time, this led to the production of the iPhone and the iPad, two of the company's most successful products.
　　(4)             Not only should we try to learn from it; if we want to succeed, we must also be persistent (执着的). Though Apple stopped selling the Newton in 1998, the first iPhone wasn't available until 2007. It took a lot of research and hard work to go from the Apple Newton to iPhone, but in the end, the effort became successful.
　　All in all, there is a lot we can learn by studying mistakes. Perhaps the most important lesson is that failure and success are two sides of the same coin. (5)            

17．(Jack and Reem are talking in front of the house. Jack＝J Reem＝R)
J: Hey, Reem. (1)       What's wrong?
R: I've fallen out (闹翻) with Lee!
J: I can't believe that. Calm down! (2)      
R: Well, you know we were planning to go horse riding in the summer holidays.
J: Yes.
R: Well, it's not going to happen! He said his friend has invited him to visit him and his family in
the USA this summer.
J: Well, that's not so bad! He probably thought it was a good chance. (3)      
R: I know, but I was really looking forward to learning to ride! Anyway, we argued, and he hasn't spoken to me all day!
J: Look, Reem, it's not the end of the world. He's probably upset at the moment, too. (4)      
R: Good idea. He usually listens to you.
J: Cheer up! (5)      And Lee is, too!
R: Yes, I know. Thanks, Jack.

18．失败乃成功之母。本卷阅读理解B部分文章讨论了失败对于获取成功具有重要的价值。请你根据下面提示，写一篇英语短文，谈谈你如何借鉴Apple的成功经验，采取有效行动，变失败为成功。
写作要点：
1. What have you learned from Apple's story?
2. Have you ever experienced a failure? What was it?
3. What will you do to turn it into a success?
要求：
1. 短文应包括提示中所有的写作要点，条理清楚，行文连贯，可适当发挥；
2. 短文中不能出现真实的人名和地名；
3. 词数不少于80。
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