People who have lost the ability to understand or use words due to brain damage are called aphasics（失语症患者）.Such patients can be extremely good at something else.From the changing expressions on speakers' faces and the tones of their voices,they can tell lies from truths.

    Doctors studying the human brain have given a number of examples of this amazing power of aphasics.Some have even compared this power to that of a dog with an ability to find out the drugs hidden in the baggage.

    Recently,scientists carried out tests to see if all that was said about aphasics was true.They studied a mixed group of people.Some were normal;others were aphasics.It was proved that the aphasics were far ahead of the normal people in recognizing false speeches—in most cases,the normal people were fooled by words,but the aphasics were not.

    Some years ago,Dr.Oliver Sacks wrote in his book about his experiences with aphasics.He mentioned a particular case in a hospital.Some aphasics were watching the president giving a speech on TV.Since the president had been an actor earlier,making a good speech was no problem for him.He was trying to put his feelings into every word of his speech.

    But his way of speaking had the opposite effect on the patients.They didn't seem to believe him.Instead,they burst into laughter.The aphasics knew that the president did not mean a word of what he was saying.He was lying!

    Many doctors see aphasics as people who are not completely normal because they lack the ability to understand words.However,according to Dr.Sacks,they are more gifted than normal people.Normal people may get carried away by words.Aphasics seem to understand human expressions better,though they cannot understand words.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 （A 、B 、C  和 D ）中，选出最佳选项。

When I lived in Spain, some Spanish friends of mine decided to visit England by car. Before they left, they asked me for advice about how to find accommodation. I suggested that they should stay at "bed and breakfast" houses, because this kind of accommodation gives a foreign visitor a good chance to speak English with the family. My friends listened to my advice, but they came back with some funny stories.

"We didn't stay at bed and breakfast houses," they said, "because we found that most families were on holiday." I thought this was strange. Finally I understood what had happened. My friends spoke little English, and they thought "VACANCIES" meant "holidays", because the Spanish word for "holidays" is said "vacaciones". So they did not go to house where the sign outside said "VACANCIES", which in English means there are free rooms. Then my friends went to houses where the sign said "NO VACANCIES", because they thought this meant people who owned the house were not away on holiday. But they found that these houses were all full. As a result, they stayed at hotels.

We laughed about this and about mistakes my friends made in reading other signs. In Spanish, the word "DIVERSION" means "fun". In English, it means that workmen are repairing the road, and that you must take a different road. When my friends saw the word "DIVERSION" on a road sign, they thought they were going to have fun. Instead, the road ended in a large hole.

English people have problems too when they learn foreign languages. Once in Paris when someone offered me some more coffee, I said "Thank you" in French, I meant that I would like some more, however to my surprise the coffee pot was taken away! Later I found out that "Thank you" in French means "No, Thank you".

    In recent years, much of the sea ice that polar bears use as a hunting platform for seal meals has melted, forcing some bears — particularly young males — farther north or onto land, where they are not as skilled at hunting. When stuck on land for months, a polar bear typically is forced to survive on its own fat reserves.

    The bears were listed earlier this year as a threatened species under the U. S. Endangered Species Act as populations have declined. Meanwhile, snow geese are booming near the western Hudson Bay, and there are in fact too many of them. Their eggs can be a good food source. The geese nest on tundra (冻原；苔原) that some bears have retreated to.

    "Over 40 years, six subadult (接近成年的) male bears were seen among snow goose nests, and four of them were sighted after the year 2000," says Robert Rockwell. "I've seen a subadult male eat goose eggs whole or press its nose against the shell, break it, and eat the contents."

    Ice is melting, on average, 0.72 days earlier each year in the region studied. Snow geese are hatching eggs about 0.16 days sooner each year, according to Rockwell and his graduate student Linda Gormezano. Current trends indicate that the arrival of polar bears will correspond to the average hatching period in 3.6 years, and egg consumption could become a viable option, which the researcher concluded in a statement released today.

    A polar bear, the largest land carnivore (食肉动物), would need to consume the eggs of 43 nests to replace the energy gained from the average day of hunting seals, but Rockwell and his colleagues figure that while many polar bears may starve in coming years, the resourceful animals just might survive disappearance.

    Polar bears survived a warm period about 125,000 years ago, when sea level was 12 to 18 feet higher than it is now and trees lived above the Arctic Circle, the scientists point out.  "They've been through the warm period before，" Rockwell said.

    The polar bears' potential movement to a diet of more eggs brought to mind a quote by Ilkoo Angutikjuak, an Inuit who lives in the Canadian province of Nunavut, in the February 2008 issue of Natural History magazine, Rockwell said. Angutikjuak said: "The animals will adapt. I've heard that because they depend on sea ice, polar bears will disappear, but I don't believe it. They are very adaptable. As the sea ice changes, polar bears might get skinnier and some might die, but I don't think they will disappear."

    In the U. S. state of Washington, a road called Interstate(州际公路；州际的)90 cuts through a wild mountainous area to reach the city of Seattle. For the area's many kinds of animals, busy high- way greatly limits their movements. Animals need to move to find food, to find mates, to find new places to live as their populations expand or just when conditions change, like a fire breaks out. Crossing I-90 – as the road is called – is a risky but sometimes necessary act. But soon, animals will have a safer choice. They will be able to go above it.

    To help the animals, the state is finishing work on its largest - ever wildlife bridge. The 11-meter-tall, 20 - meter - wide bridge begins in the forest. It forms two arches above the highway, one for each direction of traffic. Workers are adding fencing anti plants to help guide the animals across the bridge, Two-meter-thick walls will help block noise from vehicles below. Scientists chose the area because it is within a natural migration(迁徙)path for some animals.

    The I -90 bridge is part of a growing number of wildlife crossings across the United States. Some are fences, some are overland bridges，and some are underpasses. They all aim to keep drivers and animals away from each other.

    A U. S. Transportation Department study found crashes between animals and humans rose year by year. The accidents made up about 5 percent of all crashes nationally, and cost the economy (经济)about ＄8 billion. Such costs come from car repaid, emergency room visits and removal of the dead animals on roads. Collisions between animals and drivers are rarely deadly to people. But they are often deadly to wildlife. The study also found that 21 endangered or threatened species in the U.S. are affected by vehicle hits. Bridges, underpasses and fencing reduce I he area's animal - driver collisions by 80 percent.

    Most of the wildlife bridges are in western states. Many other areas also need such paths. But finding money for more crossings is "the- number - one problem". Patty Garvey — Darda of the U. S. Forest Service has worked on the I - 90 crossing from the start of the project. She says the $ 6 - million bridge will one day pay for itself because the highway will not have to be fully or partly closed each time a large animal is struck. "If you shut clown Interstate 90, you shut down interstate trade." she adds.

    Tiredness, coughing, a runny nose and a sore throat—among all sicknesses there is probably none more common than the flu (流感), which we all get now and then. However, bird flu is a completely different story.

    In 2003, the H5N1 bird flu swept across 15 countries, including China, with sufferers reporting chest pain, difficulty breathing, fever and severe coughing. More than 600 people were infected, and about 60 percent died. Now, another type of bird flu hit Shanghai and three neighboring provinces, and this time the virus is called H7N9. By the afternoon of April 11, the new virus had taken nine lives out of 35 infected, according to Xinhua News Agency.

    The "H" and "N" in the virus' name refer to two kinds of proteins (蛋白质) on the surface of the virus. Any change of the numbers of the two proteins indicates a new mutation(变异). Most of the mutations only affect birds, such as chickens and pigeons, and don't normally spread to humans. But once they do, the results can be disastrous.

    "Any time an animal influenza virus crosses to humans, it is a cause for concern, " Malik Peiris, virologist (病毒学家) at the University of Hong Kong, told Nature magazine. Take the SARS epidemic (传染病) in 2003 as an example. The virus behind the disease is thought to have jumped to humans from animals. The virus was a complete "stranger" to human bodies, which hadn't developed an immunity (免疫力) against it.

    But there is something more about the new H7N9 bird flu. Unlike the H5N1 bird flu, which causes severe sickness in birds, the H7N9 has been evolving under the radar(悄悄地) since it travels between birds without causing noticeable illness. That makes it difficult to keep track of the disease.

    The good news is that there's so far no sign that the virus is spreading from person to person. But since there is no vaccine (疫苗) for the disease yet, the World Health Organization recommends that you wash your hands after meeting with sick people and before and after you eat or prepare food, and they also suggest avoiding contact with birds or their eggs.

    Memory, they say, is a matter of practice and exercise. If you have the wish and really make a conscious(自觉的) effort, then you can quite easily improve your ability to remember things. But even if you are successful, there are times when your memory seems to play tricks on you.

    Sometimes you remember things that really did not happen. One morning last week, for example, I got up and found that I had left the front door unlocked all night, yet I clearly remember locking it carefully the night before.

    Memory "tricks" work the other way as well. Once in a while you remember not doing something, and then find out that you did. One day last month, for example, I was sitting in a barber shop waiting for my turn to get a haircut, and suddenly I realized that I had got a haircut two days before at the barber shop across the street from my office.

    We always seem to find something funny and amusing in incidents caused by people's forgetfulness or absent-mindedness. Stories about absent-minded professors have been told for years, and we never get tired of hearing new ones. Unfortunately, however, absent-mindedness is not always funny. There are times when "tricks" of our memory can cause us great trouble.