外研版高考英语必修4二轮复习Module6UnexplainedMysteriesoftheNaturalWorld课件+学案+训练

地球与宇宙奥秘探索

Ⅰ.阅读理解

A

Venice is built on 118 small islands in the middle of the Venetian Lagoon of the Adriatic Sea in Northern Italy. The beautiful city experiences water surges (汹涌) from the rising tides at least four times a year, usually during winter.

However, the 1.87­meter tide that swept through the city on November 12,2019, was one of the highest ever experienced, second only to the 1.94­meter wave that flooded Venice in 1966. To make matters worse, it was followed by two water surges, both topping 1.5 meters on November 15 and 17. The rapid series of high tides covered over 80 percent of the city of canals, causing widespread destruction to museums, homes and businesses.

Though difficult, it is always important to find a hope in such events. In Venice, it has come in the form of the “Angels of the Salt” — hundreds of young volunteers who came to the city. The young people from all over Italy were alerted (提醒注意) to the situation by Venice Calls, an organization consisting of 35 young students. Its spokesperson, Piero Risica, told CNN, “When we saw the historic flooding on Tuesday night, November 12, we immediately started to gather volunteers to help the city. The first day we were 200, yesterday 550, and today more than 1,700.”

Besides helping remove the flood waters from neighbourhoods, the volunteers were also removing the garbage on the street. Some volunteers came to Venice's Music Conservatory, which suffered water damage. Because of the work of volunteers like Maria, who had been carefully using paper towel (纸巾) to absorb water from historic manuscripts (手稿) that were wet with salt water, many historic manuscripts in the Music Conservatory were rescued.

What's upsetting Venetians is that the disaster could have been avoided if the Moveable Barrier System had been in place. This project to place moveable floodgates that would prevent the high tides has been under construction since 2003, and has already cost D|S5 billion. However, due to the cost overruns, and opposition from some people concerned about the project's impact on the weak canal ecosystem, it is nowhere close to completion.

语篇解读：本文是一篇记叙文。威尼斯遭遇了潮水入侵，对该城市造成了很大破坏。

1．What makes Venice struggle according to the text?

A．The location of the city.

B．The lack of enough city canals.

C．The unpredictable weather in winter.

D．The destruction of seasonal water surges.

解析：选D　细节理解题。根据第一段中的“The beautiful city ...during winter.”和第二段中的“causing widespread destruction to museums, homes and businesses”可知答案。

2．What can be inferred from Piero Risica's words?

A．Venice Calls can predict the flooding.

B．Venice Calls is active in fighting disasters.

C．Volunteers in Venice are brave and respectful.

D．Volunteers in Venice are shocked by the disaster.

解析：选B　推理判断题。根据第三段中的“Venice Calls ... we immediately started to gather volunteers to help the city”可知，在应对灾难面前，Venice Calls工作很积极。

3．What does the author mainly talk about in Paragraph 4?

A．What volunteers did to help the city.

B．How volunteers saved the historic manuscripts.

C．Why water surges were highly destructive in Venice.

D．What damage water surges caused to Venice's Music Conservatory.

解析：选A　段落大意题。第四段主要讲述了水灾发生后志愿者所做的工作。

4．What is the author's attitude towards the Moveable Barrier System?

A．Critical.　　　　　　　 B．Regretful.

C．Confused.  D．Doubtful.

解析：选B　观点态度题。根据最后一段中的“the disaster could have been avoided if the Moveable Barrier System had been in place”可知，作者对Moveable Barrier System没有投入使用感到惋惜。

B

With outbreaks of infectious (感染性的) diseases making headlines around the world, scientists are under pressure to understand the drivers that influence the transmission of pathogens (病菌的传播) in order to better predict and control disease outbreaks.

In the wilds of Botswana, a pathogen called M. mungi has a different way of infecting the banded mongoose (a small furry animal that kills snakes and rats). The pathogen spreads from animal to animal through scent (气味) marks. “Scent marks are deposited into the environment and contain smell signals that convey information from one mongoose to another，” explained Kathleen Alexander, a wildlife biologist, who led the new study.

To conduct their experiment, Alexander and Carole Anne Nichols monitored the movements and communication of about 500 banded mongooses in protected park landscapes, urban environments, and other places with varying characteristics in Botswana. In this way, researchers were able to gain insight into the manner in which land type and animal behavior interact to influence the spread of the pathogen. The result was a comprehensive data set of mongoose behavioral interactions across a range of landscape types.

In high­traffic, predator­rich (食肉动物多的) environments, such as urban centers or national parks, the mongooses stayed constantly alerted (警觉的), devoting their energy to scanning the surrounding environment and preparing themselves for escaping. This super awareness likely kept them safe from danger, but it also greatly curtailed their contact with others, reducing the possibility that M. mungi would spread. “If you're running from a predator, you're not stopping to leave a message for other animals，” Nichols says. “You're running for your life.”

But the opposite was true at tourism cabins, where predators are scarce and food, which is often left by human hands, is easy to find. Here, the mongooses spent a good amount of time marking scent, creating a lot of opportunities for the pathogen to spread.

Previous studies by Alexander have pulled back the mask on how animal behavior shapes the spread of disease. These new findings, however, add another layer of difference to the spread of disease, stressing the role of environments.

语篇解读：本文是一篇说明文。文章介绍了一项关于缟獴(banded mongoose)的研究揭示了环境会影响传染病的传播。

5．What's the purpose of marking scent by banded mongooses?

A．To track down snakes and rats.

B．To better adapt to the environment.

C．To share information with each other.

D．To protect themselves from pathogens.

解析：选C　细节理解题。根据第二段中的“Scent marks ...convey information from one mongoose to another.”可知，缟獴之间利用气味相互交流。

6．What did Alexander and Nichols do during the experiment?

A．Analyzed the spreading way of the pathogen.

B．Marked the characteristics of different land types.

C．Collected previous data about banded mongooses' behavior.

D．Observed banded mongoose across a range of environments.

解析：选D　细节理解题。根据第三段第一句中的“... monitored the movements ...and other places with varying characteristics in Botswana.”可知，Alexander和Nichols在不同环境下观察缟獴的行为。

7．What does the underlined word “curtailed” in Paragraph 4 mean?

A．Decreased.  B．Explained.

C．Replaced.  D．Repeated.

解析：选A　词义猜测题。根据第四段画线单词后的“... you're not stopping to leave a message for other animals”可知，这种状况会“减少”缟獴之间的接触。

8．What's the finding of Alexander and Nichols's new research?

A．Predators can speed up the spread of diseases.

B．Environments can influence the spread of diseases.

C．Animals can sense potential danger around them.

D．The spread of diseases can shape animals' behavior.

解析：选B　推理判断题。根据文章内容及最后一段的内容可知，缟獴在捕食者少的地方感染病菌的概率会大很多，因此，Alexander和Nichols新的研究表明生存环境会影响疾病的传播。

Ⅱ.阅读七选五

Most of the earth's freshwater sits underground. Tapping the groundwater has enabled farming in drier places. One example is the California Central Valley. __1__ Groundwater is what made this region's crop production so bountiful.

__2__ Natural waterways will begin to empty, which can hurt freshwater ecosystems, including surface water — rivers and streams, which will begin to flow into the groundwater aquifer (含水层). It will harm what is living in rivers and streams. Scientists consider this a tipping point. That's when small actions can begin having an unusually big impact.

A new study has found that 15 to 21 percent of tapped watersheds have reached the tipping point. __3__ Farmers in these areas mainly use groundwater to water their crops. At current pumping rates, it is predicted that 42 to 79 percent of watersheds will reach tipping points by 2050. “It's really quite alarming，” says Inge de Graaf, a hydrologist (水文学者) who studies the distribution and circulation of the earth's water. “Groundwater and surface water are closely linked. __4__”

A healthy groundwater aquifer protects ecosystems against seasonal ups and downs in the availability of water. __5__ Moreover, it will maintain the biodiversity in the area. In the long term, it will benefit the human beings.

A．Pumping much groundwater can be harmful.

B．That provides stability for area plants and animals.

C．The earth's water is all connected to one big circle.

D．That's where about one­fourth of the US food comes.

E．Most of those tapped rivers and streams are in dry regions.

F．However, much pumping at this rate creates a ticking time bomb.

G．It means there will be a shortage of freshwater for human beings.

语篇解读：本文是一篇说明文。主要介绍了过度使用地下水的危害。

1．选D　设空位于段中，与上文存在指代关系。D选项中的That指代上文中的the California Central Valley。

2．选A　设空位于段首，是本段主题句。下文围绕主题句展开叙述的。

3．选E　设空位于段中，对上文做进一步的解释说明。

4．选F　设空位于段尾，与上文存在转折关系，强调过度使用地下水造成的隐患。

5．选B　设空位于段中，与上文存在因果关系。良好的地下水含水层对地区动植物的稳定提供了保障。

Ⅲ.短文改错

Dear Sir，

I am a student from the near school. Here I want to report the environmental situation for you. There used to many green trees and all kind of flowers in our school all the year round. The school looks like a beautiful garden and we had a clean studying environment. And everything has changed since your chemical factory was built a year before. Every day it produces lots of waste water and harm gases. The terrible pollution has been done great harm to our health. We all expect you factory can take measures to stop the pollution soon.

Yours，

Li Hua

答案：第一句：near→nearby

第二句：for→to

第三句：used to后加be; kind→kinds

第四句：looks→looked

第五句：And→But; before→ago

第六句：harm→harmful

第七句：去掉been

第八句：you→your