专题03阅读理解猜词义探究-备战2022年高考英语阅读技巧探究

这是一份专题03阅读理解猜词义探究-备战2022年高考英语阅读技巧探究，共62页。学案主要包含了针对性的解释， 内在逻辑关系，通过构词法，根据上下文情景进行猜测等内容，欢迎下载使用。
阅读猜词义探究
高考阅读理解专题之词义猜测题的解题技巧
高考阅读理解—词义猜测题主要考查考生根据上下文推测生词短语的能力，突出考查语境的分析和把握能力。十余年的教学经历告诉我，一篇文章中不认识的单词占全文词汇总量的比例只要控制在8%以内，是不会影响到我们对全文观点的理解的。基于这一点，学生们大可不必因为遇到了几个完全没见过的奇形怪状的单词而感到纠结。因为它们不足以影响我们对整个语篇的理解。
　 在阅读中我们经常会遇到许多生词，许多同学会立即翻阅词典，查找词义。这样做不但费时费力，而且影响阅读速度、影响对语篇的整体把握。事实上，阅读材料中的每个词与它前后的词语或句子甚至段落都有联系。我们可以利用语境（各种已知信息）推测、判断某些生词的词义。近年来全国统一高考中加大了对考生猜词义能力的考查，因此，掌握一定的猜词技巧，对突破高考阅读理解、提高我们的英语语言能力都有非常重要的意义。
阅读理解题中所设置的词义猜测题多是对生词、短语、指示代词的猜测。一方面，命题者要求考生所猜测的单词或短语可能是已学过的或是考生较熟悉的，但高考所考查的是不太常见的意思；另一方面命题者要求考生所猜测的单词或短语可能是考生没有学过的。此时，对单词或短语的猜测不要停留在字面上,要根据语境来判断。考生可以通过构词法知识分析生词词义，或通过上下文尤其是生词所在的句子以及其前后两句话猜测词义。还可以通过联想进行推测，即回想已知词汇中是否存在拼写与该生词类似的词。此种题型常见的提问方式有：
According to the passage, which of the following statements about… is true?
What can be inferred from the passage about …?
　　The word “…” in paragraph … can best be replaced by … ….
　　The underlined word “…” most probably means ….
　　By saying “…”, the author means …
　　The expression “…” is closest to …
　　According to the passage, the phrase “…” suggests …
The underlined part “… …” (in Para. … ) means …..
做这种类型的题，要根据词、词组、句子所在的语境来判断其意义。因此熟练掌握一些猜词技巧是做好这类题的关键。命题者在出这类题时惯用常规词义来麻痹考生，我们要特别注意熟词生义，切不可脱离语境想当然。猜测词义时，一般可从以下几方面入手：
　　一、针对性的解释
　　针对性解释是作者为了更好的表达思想，在文章中对一些重要的概念、难懂的术语或高深的词汇等所做的通俗化的解释。这些解释提供的信息明确具体，所使用的语言通俗易懂，利用它们来猜测词义就非常简单。有些文章，特别是科技文章，通常会对一些关键词给予定义，我们可以利用定义来猜测这些词的意思。释义法就是根据文章中的字里行间，对生词以定语(从句)、表语甚至用逗号、破折号等标点符号引出并加以解释说明的方式。
　　1． 根据定义（definition）猜测词义
　　如果生词有一个句子或段落来定义，那么理解这个句子或段落本身就是推断词义。定义常用的谓语动词多为：be, mean, deal with, be considered, to be, be called, define, represent, refer to, signify 等。
　　2．根据复述推测词义
　　为了强调某个观点或把某事叙述得更明白，作者有时运用不同语句来复述同一概念，这时可以利用这些重复和表达形式的变化来猜测词义。虽然复述不如定义那样严谨、详细，但是它提供的信息可以为阅读者猜测词义提供依据，复述部分可以是单词、短语或者从句。而同等关系则是指一个词、一个词组或短语在句中作同一成分，而且他们的词义属于同一范畴。只要我们认出其中一个或几个词或短语，即可以确定同等关系中生词的词性，作用和大概的意思。
　　同位语复述：在复述中构成同位关系的两部分之间常用逗号连接，有时也使用破折号、冒号、分号、引号和括号等。同位语前常有 or、similarly、that is to say、 in other words、 namely、or other 等。
3、根据举例猜测词义
为了说明或证实，文章中经常会举例，往往用来列举说明前面较难理解的词，这些例子可帮助我们猜测生词。举例时，常常会用一些连接性的词，如：such as, like, for example, for instance等。恰当的举例能够带来意想不到的效果。
　　二、 内在逻辑关系
　　根据内在逻辑关系推测词义是指应用语言知识分析和判断相关信息之间存在的逻辑关系，然后根据逻辑联系推断生词词义。
　　1、根据对比关系猜测词义
　　对比是描述，说明事物的常用方式。在对比中，对比的事物是互为相反的，因此根据反义或对比关系可从已知推出未知。利用反义词来说明生词的意义，如反义词hot and cold, perfect and imperfect，甚至前、后句为肯定与否定或是与不是等，在句内词与词之间，在段内句与句之间的关系上起着互为线索的作用。在一个句子或段落中，有对两个事物或现象进行对比性的描述，我们可以根据生词的反义词猜测其词义。表示对比关系的词汇和短语主要有：unlike, not, but, however, despite, in spite of, in contrast 等。表示对比关系的句子结构：while 引导的并列句。
　　2． 根据比较关系猜测词义
　　同对比关系相反，比较关系表示意义上的相似关系。表示比较关系的词和短语主要有：similarly, like, just as, also, as well as 等。
　　例如：Green loves to talk, and his brothers are similarly loquacious.
　　该句中副词similarly表明短语loves to talk和loquacious 之间的比较关系，其意义相近。由此我们可推断出loquacious的意思是“健谈的”。　　
　 3、利用副词或连词的转折、因果等关系
　　有些词虽然不能直接猜测出其意义，但在上下文中能找到一些与之具有对比关系的词，通过了解这些词的意义，就可以推断出所考查词的意思。考生通过这种对比关系，就很容易猜出生词的词义了。还可以通过近义词或反义词提供的信息猜测生词的词义。
俗话说，“有因必有果，有果必有因” 。根据原因可以预测结果，根据结果也可以找出原因。如because, since与as是连接原因状语从句的从属连词；so是连接表示结果状语从句的连词；so...that与such...that中的'that是连接结果状语从句的连词。当这些信息词出现在有生词的句子中，考生通过因果关系，依据已知部分就能猜出生词的词义。有时文章的作者为了增强表达效果，会用一些含有表示意思转折的连词，副词或短语。如：though, although, still, but, yet, instead, instead of, however, while, on the contrary, on the other hand, unlike, rather than, for one thing, for another等，我们可以根据转折意思猜测词义。就可以看到前后句在意义上的差别，从而依据某一句的含义，来确定另一句的含义。另外，分号也可以表示转折、对比或不相干的意义。
　　4、根据同义、近义、并列、替代、说明等关系猜测词义
当词或短语之间有并列连词and 或or时，其连接的两项内容在含义上是接近的或递进的，由此确定同等关系中的某个生词所属的义域,由此可推知其大致意思。阅读中出现的难词有时后面紧跟一个同位语对其进行解释，这时可利用同位关系对前面或后面的词义或句意进行猜测。
　　在生词所出现的上下文中，有时会出现与之同义或近义的词语或结构，这时可从熟悉的词语中推知生词的含义。统称在词或短语之间有并列连词and或or，这些词语或短语在句中作相同的成分，并且and或or连接的两项内容在含义上是接近的或递进的，由此确定同等关系中的某个生词所属的义域，甚至推出它的大致词义。因此，在句子或段落中，我们可以利用熟悉的词语，根据语言环境所表示的关系推断生词词义。
　　三、通过构词法
　　阅读中常常会遇到一些由熟悉的单词派生或合成的新词。掌握构词法对猜测词义很有帮助。如：unforeseeable.这个词，可以根据构词法把它拆成un, fore, see , able;其中 see 是词根，fore是“先，前，预”的含义，un是否定，able是“能……的，可……的”，因此unforeseeable是“未能预见到的”意思。在猜测词义过程中，我们还可以依靠构词法方面的知识，从生词本身猜测词义。
　　1． 根据前缀猜测词义
　　例如：（江西卷E段）Do you have any strong opinion on co-educational or single-sex schools?
　　根据词根educational （教育的），结合前缀co-（共同，一起），我们便可以猜出co-educational的意思是：“男女同校教育的”意思。
　　2． 根据后缀猜测词义
　　例如：（ 广东卷E段）It's a quiet, comfortable hotel overlooking (俯瞰) the bay in an uncommercialized Cornish fishing village on England's most southerly point．
　　后缀 -ise/ize意思是“使成为…；使…化”，结合词根commercial（商业的），不难猜出 uncommercialized 的意思是：“未被商业化的”。
　　3． 根据复合词的各部分猜测词义
　　例如：（ 北京卷B段）Good tool design is important in the prevention of overuse injuries. Well – designed tools and equipment will require less force to operate them and prevent awkward（别扭的）hand positions.
　　Well-designed 或许是个生词，但我们分析该词的结构后，就能推测出其含义。它由well （好，优秀）和design （设计）两部分组成，合在一起便是“设计精巧的”意思。
　　（浙江卷D 段）We live in a technological society where most goods are mass-produced by unskilled labor. Because of this, most people that craft (手艺) no longer exists.
　　根据合成词中的mass （大量的）和produce （生产），我们可以推测 mass-produce的意思是：“大批量生产；规模生产”的意思。
四、根据上下文情景进行猜测
猜测任何词义都离不开上下文的语境，所以可借助上下文语境对需要猜测的词或短语进行合乎逻辑的推测。
1、 根据上下文的指代关系进行猜测
任何一篇文章中的句子在内容上都不是绝对孤立的，都跟句子所在的'段落及整整篇文章有关。利用上下文提供的情景和线索，进行合乎逻辑的综合分析进而推测词义，是阅读过程中的一大关键，这也是近年来高考考查的热点。英语中代词使用得比较频繁，文章中的代词one、it、 that、 he、 him 或them等可以指上文提到的人或事物。有时代词与指代的对象相隔较远，要认真查找；有时需要对前面提到的内容进行总结，才能得出代词所指代的事。
　　特别提醒：在做英语阅读理解题时，一定要注意熟词生义！这类猜词题也常见于各年高考题当中。熟词生义比生词本身的障碍要大得多。原因有三：其一、高考对生词的数量有规定；其二、熟词生义很容易引起考生的误解；其三、熟词生义的数量没有限制。如果这种现象在一篇文章中出现得多，那就更难理解了。
　 2、利用词义搭配关联猜词
　　任何一个单词在句子中总是与其他词相关联的，我们可以通过这些前后的关联来猜测生词的词义。
　　3、利用经验和常识猜词
　　例如：Young Hoover died. Over a thousand people attended his funeral.
　　分析：通过“年轻的Hoover去世了”，根据我们的常识猜测出一千多人参加的应该是他的“葬礼”。
综上所述，利用各种已知的信息推测判断生词词义是一项重要的阅读技能。但是掌握了一定的生词推测技巧后，也不要去“死抠”个别词，除了人名、地名等一些专有名词不必去细究每一处，那些一时难以断定其意思却又不妨碍理解或答题的生词，大可不必理会。在阅读中我们可以根据实际灵活应用上面提到的几种猜词技巧，排除生词的干扰，理解文章的思想，提高阅读速度，同时，提高我们在高考阅读理解中的得分率。

2015高考浙江英语试题C
If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars，we would go in darkness happily, the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal(夜间活动的) species on this planet. Instead, we are diurnal creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun's light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don't think of ourselves as diurnal beings. Yet it's the only way to explain what we've done to the night: We've engineered it to receive us by filling it with light.
The benefits of this kind of engineering come with consequences — called light pollution — whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design, which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky. Ⅲ-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and completely changes the light levels — and light rhythms — to which many forms of life, including, ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect of life is affected.
In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze(霾) that mirrors our fear of the dark. We've grown so used to this orange haze that the original glory of an unlit nigh, - dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadow on Earth, is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost.
We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further from the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing, Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet(磁铁). The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being“captured”by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms. Migrating at night, birds tend to collide with brightly lit tall buildings.
Frogs living near brightly lit highways suffer nocturnal light levels that are as much as a million times brighter than normal, throwing nearly every aspect of their behavior out of joint, including their nighttime breeding choruses. Humans are no less trapped by light pollution than the frogs. Like most other creatures, we do need darkness .Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.
Living in a glare of our making, we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage—the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night .In a very real sense, light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way — the edge of our galaxy — arching overhead.
51. What does “it”(Paragraph 1) most probably refer to?
A. The night. B. The moon C. The sky D. The planet
D
In 2004, when my daughter Becky was ten, she and my husband, Joe, were united in their desire for a dog. As for me, I shared none of their canine lust.
But why, they pleaded. “Because I don’t have time to take care of a dog.” “But we’ll do it.” “Really? You’re going to walk the dog? Feed the dog? Bathe the dog?” “Yes, yes, and yes.” “I don’t believe you.” “We will. We promise.”
They didn’t. From day two (everyone wanted to walk the cute puppy that first day), neither thought to walk the dog. While I was slow to accept that I would be the one to keep track of her shots, to schedule her vet appointments, to feed and clean her, Misty knew this on day one. As she looked up at the three new humans in her life (small, medium, and large), she calculated, “The medium one is the sucker in the pack.”
Quickly, she and I developed something very similar to a Vulcan mind meld (心灵融合) . She’d look at me with those sad brown eyes of hers, beam her need, and then wait, trusting I would understand — which, strangely, I almost always did. In no time, she became my fifth appendage(附肢), snoring on my home-office couch as I worked, cradling against my feet as I read, and splaying across my stomach as I watched television.
Even so, part of me continued to resent walking duty. Joe and Becky had promised. Not fair, I’d balk ( 不心甘情愿地做 ) silently as she and I walked . “Not fair,” I’d loudly remind anyone within earshot upon our return home.
Then one day — January 1, 2007, to be exact — my husband’s doctor uttered an unthinkable word: leukemia ( 白血病 ) .With that, I spent eight to ten hours a day with Joe in the hospital, doing anything and everything I could to ease his discomfort. During those six months of hospitalizations, Becky, 12 at the time , adjusted to other adults being in the house when she returned from school. My work colleagues adjusted to my taking off at a moment's notice for medical emergencies. Every part of my life changed; no part of my old routine remained.
Save one: Misty still needed walking. At the beginning, when friends offered to take her
through her paces, I declined because I knew they had their own households to deal with.
As the months went by，I began to realize that I actually wanted to walk Misty. The walk in the morning before I headed to the hospital was a quiet, peaceful time to gather my thoughts or to just be before the day's medical drama unfolded. The evening walk was a time to shake off the day's upsets and let the worry tracks in my head go to white noise.
When serious illness visits your household, it's not just your daily routine and your assumptions about the future that are no longer familiar. Pretty much everyone you know acts differently.
Not Misty. Take her for a walk, and she had no interest in Joe's blood counts or bone marrow test results. On the street or in the park, she had only one thing on her mind: squirrels! She was so joyous that even on the worst days, she could make me smile. On a daily basis, she reminded me that life goes on.
After Joe died in 2009，Misty slept on his pillow.
I'm grateful一to a point. The truth is, after years of balking, I've come to enjoy my walks with Misty. As I watch her chase after a squirrel, throwing her whole being into the here-and-now of an exercise that has never once ended in victory, she reminds me, too, that no matter how harsh the present or unpredictable the future , there's almost always some measure of joy to be extracted from the moment.
56. Which of the following is the closest in meaning to "The medium one is the sucker in the pack.” (Paragraph 3)?
A. "The middle-aged person loves me most.”
B. “The medium-sized woman is the hostess.”
C. "The man in the middle is the one who has the final say.”
D. "The woman is the kind and trustworthy one in the family.”
2015天津卷D
Once when I was facing a decision that involved high risk, I went to a friend. He looked at me for a moment, and then wrote a sentence containing the best advice I’ve ever had: Be bold and brave—and mighty (强大的) forces will come to your aid.
Those words made me see clearly that when I had fallen short in the past, it was seldom because I had tried and failed. It was usually because I had let fear of failure stop me from trying at all. On the other hand, whenever I had plunged into deep water, forced by courage or circumstance, I had always been able to swim until I got my feet on the ground again.
Boldness means a decision to bite off more than you are sure you can eat. And there is nothing mysterious about the mighty forces. They are potential powers we possess: energy, skill, sound judgment, creative ideas—even physical strength greater than most of us realize.
Admittedly, those mighty forces are spiritual ones. But they are more important than physical ones. A college classmate of mine, Tim, was an excellent football player, even though he weighed much less than the average player. “In one game I suddenly found myself confronting a huge player, who had nothing but me between him and our goal line,” said Tim. “I was so frightened that I closed my eyes and desperately threw myself at that guy like a bullet(子弹) —and stopped him cold.”
Boldness—a willingness to extend yourself to the extreme—is not one that can be acquired overnight. But it can be taught to children and developed in adults. Confidence builds up. Surely, there will be setbacks (挫折) and disappointments in life; boldness in itself is no guarantee of success. But the person who tries to do something and fails is a lot better off than the person who tries to do nothing and succeeds.
So, always try to live a little bit beyond your abilities—and you’ll find your abilities are greater than you ever dreamed.
52. What is the implied meaning of the underlined part?
A. Swallow more than you can digest.
B. Act slightly above your abilities.
C. Develop more mysterious powers.
D. Learn to make creative decisions.
2015四川卷B
Nothing could stop Dad. After he was put on disability for a bad back, he bought a small farm in the country, just enough to grow food for the family. He planted vegetables, fruit trees and even kept bees for honey.
And every week he cleaned Old Man McColgin's chicken house in exchange for manure(肥料). The smell really burned the inside of your nose. When we complained about the terrible smell, Dad said the stronger the manure, the healthier the crops, and he was right. For example, just one of his cantaloupes filled the entire house with its sweet smell, and the taste was even sweeter.
As the vegetables started coming in, Dad threw himself into cooking. One day, armed with a basket of vegetables, he announced he was going to make stew(炖菜).Dad pulled out a pressure cooker and filled it up with cabbages, eggplants, potatoes, corns, onions and carrots. For about half an hour, the pressure built and the vegetables cooked. Finally, Dad turned off the stove, the pot began to cool and the pressure relief valve sprayed out a cloud of steam. If we thought Dad's pile of chicken manure was bad, this was 10 times worse. When Dad took off the lid, the smell nearly knocked us out.
Dad carried the pot out and we opened doors and windows to air out the house. Just how bad was it? The neighbors came out of their houses to see if we had a gas leak!
Determined, Dad filled our plates with steaming stew and passed them around. It didn’t look that bad, and after the first wave had shut down my ability to smell, it didn’t offend the nose so much, either.I took a taste.It would never win a prize in a cooking competition,but it was surprisingly edible,and we drank up every last drop of soup.
36. What does the underlined word “offend” in the last paragraph mean?
A. To attract B. To upset C. To air D. To shut
2015四川卷D
Their cheery song brightens many a winter's day. But robins are in danger of wearing themselves out by singing too much. Robins are singing all night—as well as during the day,British-based researchers say.
David Dominoni, of Glasgow University, said that light from street lamps, takeaway signs and homes is affecting the birds' biological clocks, leading to them being wide awake when they should be asleep.
Dr Dominoni, who is putting cameras inside nesting boxes to track sleeping patterns, said lack of sleep could put the birds'health at risk.His study shows that when robins are exposed to light at night in the lab, it leads to some genes being active at the wrong time of day. And the more birds are exposed to light, the more active they are at night.
He told people at a conference, "There have been a couple of studies suggesting they are increasing their song output at night and during the day they are still singing. Singing is a costly behaviour and it takes energy.So by increasing their song output, there might be some costs of energy."
And it is not just robins that are being kept awake by artificial light. Blackbirds and seagulls are also being more nocturnal. Dr Dominoni said, "In Glasgow where I live, gulls are a serious problem.I have people coming to me saying ‘You are the bird expert. Can you help us kill these gulls?'.During the breeding(繁殖)season,between April and June,they are very active at night and very noisy and people can't sleep."
Although Dr Dominoni has only studied light pollution,other research concluded that robins living in noisy cities have started to sing at night to make themselves heard over loud noise.
However, some birds thrive(兴旺)in noisy environments. A study from California Polytechnic State University found more hummingbirds in areas with heavy industrial machinery. It is thought that they are capitalising on their predators(天敌)fleeing to quieter areas.
44. What does the underlined word "nocturnal" in Paragraph 5 mean?
A. Active at night. B. Inactive at night.
C. Active during the day. D.Inactive during the day.
2015四川卷E
No one is sure how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramids near Cairo. But a new study suggests they used a little rock‘n’roll. Long-ago builders could have attached wooden poles to the stones and rolled them across the sand, the scientists say.
“Technically, I think what they’re proposing is possible,” physicist Daniel Bonn said.
People have long puzzled over how the Egyptians moved such huge rocks. And there’s no obvious answer. On average, each of the two million big stones weighed about as much as a large pickup truck. The Egyptians somehow moved the stone blocks to the pyramid site from about one kilometer away.
The most popular view is that Egyptian workers slid the blocks along smooth paths. Many scientists suspect workers first would have put the blocks on sleds(滑板). Then they would have dragged them along paths. To make the work easier, workers may have lubricated the paths either with wet clay or with the fat from cattle. Bonn has now tested this idea by building small sleds and dragging heavy objects over sand.
Evidence from the sand supports this idea. Researchers found small amounts of fat, as well as a large amount of stone and the remains of paths.
However, physicist Joseph West thinks there might have been a simpler way, who led the new study. West said, “I was inspired while watching a television program showing how sleds might have helped with pyramid construction. I thought, ‘Why don’t they just try rolling the things?’ ” A square could be turned into a rough sort of wheel by attaching wooden poles to its sides, he realized. That, he notes, should make a block of stone “a lot easier to roll than a square”.
So he tried it.
He and his students tied some poles to each of four sides of a 30-kilogram stone block.That action turned the block into somewhat a wheel.Then they placed the block on the ground.
They wrapped one end of a rope around the block and pulled.The researchers found they could easily roll the block along different kinds of paths.They calculated that rolling the block required about as much force as moving it along a slippery(滑的)path.
West hasn’t tested his idea on larger blocks,but he thinks rolling has clear advantages over sliding.At least,workers wouldn’t have needed to carry cattle fat or water to smooth the paths.
47.The underlined part “lubricated the paths” in Paragraph 4 means____.
A.made the paths wet B.made the paths hard
C.made the paths wide D.made the paths slippery
48.What does the underlined word “it”in Paragraph 7 refer to?
A.Rolling the blocks with poles attached.
B.Rolling the blocks on wooden wheels.
C.Rolling poles to move the blocks.
D.Rolling the blocks with fat.




2015上海卷B

Scary Bunny
The Curse of the Were-Rabbit(2005) is the first full-length feature film made by directors Nick Park and Steve Box with their amazing plasticine (粘土) characters Wallace and Gromit. It won an Oscar in 2006, and if you watch it, you’ll understand why. It’s an absolutely brilliant cartoon comedy.
Cheese-loving inventor Wallace and his brainy dog Gromit have started a company to protect the town’s vegetables from hungry rabbits. However, just before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, an enormous rabbit begins terrorising the town. It is attacking all the vegetables and destroying everything in its path. The competition organizer, Lady Tottington, hires Wallace and Gromit to catch the monster alive. But they will have to find the were-rabbit before gun-crazy hunter Victor Quartermaine who is desperate to kill it.
The screenplay is witty and full of amusing visual jokes. As usual, the voice of Peter Sallis is absolutely perfect for the role of Wallace, and Gromit is so beautifully brought to life, he can express a huge range of emotions without saying a word. And both Helena Bonham-Carter, who plays the part of Lady Tottington, and Ralph Fiennes as Victor are really funny.
To sum up, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit is an amazing film which is suitable for both children and adults. If you liked Wallace and Gromit’s previous adventures and you appreciate the British sense of humour, you’ll love this film. Don’t miss it!



71. According to the film review, “the monster” (Paragraph B) refers to ______.
A. a gun-crazy hunter  B. a brainy dog
C. a scary rabbit     D. a giant vegetable
2015江苏卷D Freedom and Responsibility
Freedom’s challenge in the Digital Age is a serious topic. We are facing today a strange new world and we are all wondering what we are going to do with it.
Some 2,500 years ago Greece discovered freedom. Before that there was no freedom. There were great civilizations, splendid empires, but no freedom anywhere. Egypt and Babylon were both tyrannies, one very powerful man ruling over helpless masses.
In Greece, in Athens(雅典), a little city in a little country, there were no helpless masses. And Athenians willingly obeyed the written laws which they themselves passed, and the unwritten, which must be obeyed if free men live together. They must show each other kindness and pity and the many qualities without which life would be very painful unless one chose to live alone in the desert. The Athenians never thought that a man was free if he could do what he wanted. A man was free if he was self-controlled. To make yourself obey what you approved was freedom. They were saved from looking at their lives as their own private affair. Each one felt responsible for the welfare of Athens, not because it was forced on him from the outside, but because the city was his pride and his safety. The essential belief of the first free government in the world was liberty for all men who could control themselves and would take responsibility for the state.
But discovering freedom is not like discovering computers. It cannot be discovered once for all. If people do not prize it, and work for it, it will go. Constant watch is its price. Athens changed. It was a change that took place without being noticed though it was of the extreme importance, a spiritual change which affected the whole state. It had been the Athenian’s pride and joy to give to their city. That they could get material benefits from her never entered their minds. There had to be a complete change of attitude before they could look at the city as an employer who paid her citizens for doing her work. Now instead of men giving to the state, the state was to give to them. What the people wanted was a government which would provide a comfortable life for them; and with this as the primary object, ideas of freedom and self-reliance and responsibility were neglected to the point of disappearing. Athens was more and more looked on as a cooperative business possessed of great wealth in which all citizens had a right to share.
Athens reached the point when the freedom she really wanted was freedom from responsibility. There could be only one result. If men insisted on being free from the burden of self-dependence and responsibility for the common good, they would cease to be free. Responsibility is the price every man must pay for freedom. It is to be had on no other terms. Athens, the Athens of Ancient Greece, refused responsibility; she reached the end of freedom and was never to have it again.
But, "the excellent becomes the permanent,"Aristotle said. Athens lost freedom forever, but freedom was not lost forever for the world. A great American, James Madison, referred to: "The capacity(能力) of mankind for self-government."No doubt he had not an idea that he was speaking Greek. Athens was not in the farthest background of his mind, but once man has a great and good idea, it is never completely lost. The Digital Age cannot destroy it. Somehow in this or that man’s thought such an idea lives though unconsidered by the world of action. One can never be sure that it is not on the point of breaking out into action only sure that it will do so sometime.
65.What does the underlined word "tyrannies"in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A.Countries where their people need help.
B.Powerful states with higher civilization.
C.Splendid empires where people enjoy freedom.
D.Governments ruled with absolute power.
2015湖北卷B
What Theresa Loe is doing proves that a large farm isn’t a prerequisite for a modern grow-your-own lifestyle. On a mere 1/10 of an acre in Los Angeles, Loe and her family grow, can（装罐）and preserve much of the food they consume.
 Loe is a master food preserver, gardener and canning expert. She also operates a website, where she shares her tips and recipes, with the goal of demonstrating that everyone has the ability to control what’s on their plate.
 Loe initially went to school to become an engineer, but she quickly learned that her enthusiasm was mainly about growing and preparing her own food. “I got into cooking my own food and started growing my own herbs (香草) and foods for that fresh flavor,”she said. Engineer by day, Loe learned cooking at night school. She ultimately purchased a small piece of land with her husband and began growing their own foods.
“I teach people how to live farm-fresh without a farm,” Loe said. Through her website Loe emphasizes that “anybody can do this anywhere.” Got an apartment with a balcony （阳台）? Plant some herbs. A window? Perfect spot for growing. Start with herbs, she recommends, because “they’re very forgiving.” Just a little of the herbs “can take your regular cooking to a whole new level,” she added. “I think it’s a great place to start.” “Then? Try growing something from a seed, she said, like a tomato or some tea.”
Canning is a natural extension of the planting she does. With every planted food, Loe noted, there’s a moment when it’s bursting with its absolute peak flavor. “I try and keep it in a time capsule in a canning jar,” Loe said. “Canning for me is about knowing what’s in your food, knowing where it comes from.”
In addition to being more in touch with the food she’s eating, another joy comes from passing this knowledge and this desire for good food to her children: “Influencing them and telling them your opinion on not only being careful what we eat but understanding the bigger picture,” she said, “that if we don’t take care of the earth, no one will.”
55.The underlined word “prerequisite” (Pare. 1) is closest in meaning to “______”.
A. recipe B. substitute C. requirement D. challenge
58.What is the“the bigger picture” (Para. 6) that Loe wishes her children to understand?
A. The knowledge about good food
B. The way to live a grow-our-own life
C. The joy of getting in touch with foods 
D. The responsibility to protect our earth
2015广东卷D
It was once common to regard Britain as a society with class distinction. Each class had unique characteristics.
In recent years, many writers have begun to speak of the ‘decline of class’ and ‘classless society’ in Britain. And in modern day consumer society everyone is considered to be middle class.
But pronouncing the death of class is too early. A recent wide-ranging study of public opinion found 90 percent of people still placing themselves in a particular class; 73 percent agreed that class was still a vital part of British society; and 52 percent thought there were still sharp class differences. Thus, class may not be culturally and politically obvious, yet it remains an important part of British society. Britain seems to have a love of stratification.
One unchanging aspect of a British person’s class position is accent. The words a person speaks tell her or his class. A study of British accents during the 1970s found that a voice sounding like a BBC newsreader was viewed as the most attractive voice. Most people said this accent sounded‘educated’ and ‘soft’. The accents placed at the bottom in this study, on the other hand, were regional(地区的)city accents. These accents were seen as ‘common’ and ‘ugly’.However, a similar study of British accents in the US turned these results upside down and placed some regional accents as the most attractive and BBC English as the least. This suggests that British attitudes towards accent have deep roots and are based on class prejudice.
In recent years, however, young upper middle-class people in London, have begun to adopt some regional accents, in order to hide their class origins. This is an indication of class becoming unnoticed. However, the 1995 pop song‘Common People’ puts forward the view that though a middle-class person may ‘want to live like common people’ they can never appreciate the reality of a working-class life.
42.The word stratification in Paragraph 3 is closest in meaning to 　　　.
A.variety B.division C.authority D.qualification
2015福建卷E
Group exercise is one of the most effective ways to improve physical fitness and sustain(保持) a healthy lifestyle. Group exercise is challenging, yet fun and empowering! Of course everyone knows that exercise is good for the body. However, studies have shown that when exercise is performed in groups, it’s not only great for improving physical health but for psychological health. It’s an opportunity to be social, release endorphins（内啡肽）, and improve your strength. Additionally, group exercise creates a community feel and the shared common goal motivates participants to work hard. The instrumental support of taking on a fitness journey with others proves more effective than going to the gym alone.
Another beneficial aspect of group exercise is the informational support participants receive from the instructor. Many people fear the gym because they feel lost and don’t want to embarrass themselves. If you feel you can relate, then group training is an even better option for you. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about fitness through the clear instruction and supervision (监管) of a fitness instructor. If you’re tired of wandering around the gym wasting time and becoming bored, you can attend an upbeat group fitness class that’ll keep your workout on track. Don’t let fitness frighten you!
If you’re serious about wanting to live a healthy lifestyle, it’s extremely important to surround yourself with people who’ll provide you with the proper emotional support. I wouldn’t scold anyone for deciding to party on weekends and in turn I wouldn’t expect anyone to give offence to me for focusing on my health. Surround yourself with people who uplift, encourage and understand you! Make fitness even more fun by trying something new or any group fitness class, with a friend. Plan to go for a jog together. Then try a fun healthy restaurant or fresh juice bar! Fitness can be both fun and social!
Surrounding yourself with people who’ll provide you with respect and support can be very beneficial while working towards reaching health and fitness goals. First, decide to do it for yourself and work towards staying positive. Then make sure the people you surround yourself with are supportive. Don’t let negativity ruin your motivation.
73.The underlined word "upbeat" in the second paragraph probably means "___________".
A. cheerful B. average C. serious D. temporary
2015 北京卷C Life in the Clear
Transparent animals let light pass through their bodies the same way light passes through a window. These animals typically live between the surface of the ocean and a depth of about 3,300 feet—as far as most light can reach. Most of them are extremely delicate and can be damaged by a simple touch. Sonke Johnsen, a scientist in biology, says, ＂These animals live through their life alone. They never touch anything unless they’re eating it, or unless something is eating them.＂
And they are as clear as glass. How does an animal become see-through? It’s trickier than you might think.
The objects around you are visible because they interact with light. Light typically travels in a straight line. But some materials slow and scatter(散射) light, bouncing it away from its original path. Others absorb light, stopping it dead in its tracks. Both scattering and absorption make an object look different from other objects around it, so you can see it easily.
But a transparent object doesn’t absorb or scatter light, at least not very much. Light can pass through it without bending or stopping. That means a transparent object doesn’t look very different from the surrounding air or water. You don’t see it —you see the things behind it.
To become transparent, an animal needs to keep its body from absorbing or scattering light. Living materials can stop light because they contain pigments(色素) that absorb specific colors of light. But a transparent animal doesn’t have pigments, so its tissues won’t absorb light. According to Johnsen, avoiding absorption is actually easy. The real challenge is preventing light from scattering.
Animals are built of many different materials —skin, fat, and more —and light moves through each at a different speed. Every time light moves into a material with a new speed, it bends and scatters. Transparent animals use different tricks to fight scattering. Some animals are simply very small or extremely flat. Without much tissue to scatter light, it is easier to be see-through. Others build a large, clear mass of non-living jelly-like(果冻状的)material and spread themselves over it.
Larger transparent animals have the biggest challenge, because they have to make all the different tissues in their bodies slow down light exactly as much as water does. They need to look uniform. But how they’re doing it is still unknown. One thing is clear for these larger animals, staying transparent is an active process. When they die, they turn a non-transparent milky white.
64. The underlined word ＂dead＂ in Paragraph 3 means__________.
A. silently B. gradually
C. regularly D. completely
2015安徽卷D
There are an extremely large number of ants worldwide. Each individual (个体的) ant hardly weighs anything, but put together they weigh roughly the same as all of mankind. They also live nearly everywhere, except on frozen mountain tops and around the poles.For animals their size, ants have been astonishingly successful, largely due to their wonderful social behavior.
In colonies (群体) that range in size from a few hundred to tens of millions, they organize their lives with a clear division of labor. Even more amazing is how they achieve this level of organization. Where we use sound and sight to communicate, ants depend primarily on pheromone (外激素), chemicals sent out by individuals and smelled or tasted by fellow members of their colony. When an ant finds food, it produces a pheromone that will lead others straight to where the food is. When an individual ant comes under attack or is dying, it sends out an alarm pheromone to warn the colony to prepare for a conflict as a defense unit.
In fact, when it comes to the art of war, ants have no equal. They are completely fearless and will readily take on a creature much larger than themselves, attacking in large groups and overcoming their target. Such is their devotion to the common good of the colony that not only soldier ants but also worker ants will sacrifice their lives to help defeat an enemy.
Behaving in this selfless and devoted manner, these little creatures have survived on Earth for more than 140 million years, far longer than dinosaurs. Because they think as one, they have a collective (集体的) intelligence greater than you would expect from its individual parts.
70. What does the underlined expression "take on" in Paragraph 3 mean?
A. Accept. B. Employ. C. Play with. D. Fight against.
2016全国卷 I C
I am Peter Hodes, a volunteer stem cell courier. Since March 2012, I’ve done 89 trips—of those , 51 have been abroad. I have 42 hours to carry stem cells（干细胞）in my little box because I’ve got two ice packs and that’s how long they last. In all, from the time the stem cells are harvested from a donor(捐献者) to the time they can be implanted in the patient, we’ve got 72 hours at most. So I am always conscious of time.
I had one trip last year where I was caught by a hurricane in America. I picked up the stem cells in Providence, Rhode Island, and was meant to fly to Washington then back to London. But when I arrived at the check-in desk at Providence, the lady on the desk said:＂Well, I’m really sorry, I’ve got some bad news for you—there are no flights from Washington.＂ So I took my box and put it on the desk and I said:＂In this box are some stem cells that are urgently needed for a patient-please, please, you’ve got to get me back to the United Kingdom.＂ She just dropped everything. She arranged for a flight on a small plane to be held for me，re-routed(改道)me through Newark and got me back to the UK even earlier than originally scheduled.
For this courier job, you’re consciously aware that in that box you’re got something that is potentially going to save somebody’s life.
29. Which of the following can replace the underlined word ＂courier＂ in Paragraph1?
A. provider B. delivery man C.collector D. medical doctor
2016全国卷Ⅱ B
Five years ago, when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students. I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said: "Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today — and 45 minutes each day for the rest of the week."
A few students hesitated to start. They waited to see what the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginations.
Once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time. His constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home. I was delighted at the presence of such a student. Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect(感染)other students.
Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside. I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking. Without fail one would declare, "But I’m just not creative."
"Do you dream at night when you’re asleep?"
"Oh, sure."
"So tell me one of your most interesting dreams." The student would tell something wildly imaginative. Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads. "That’s pretty creative. Who does that for you?"
"Nobody. I do it."
"Really — at night, when you’re asleep?"
"Sure."
"Try doing it in the daytime, in class, okay?"
27. What does the underlined word "downside" in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A. Mistake. B. Drawback. C. Difficulty. D. Burden.
2016全国卷Ⅱ C
Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website BookCrossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.
Members go on the site and register the books they own and would like to share. BookCrossing provides an identification number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.
Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says, "The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both."
Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.
People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it.E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossers to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Pederson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.
BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back to the "real" and not the virtual(虚拟). The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.
30. What does the underlined word "it" in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A. The book. B. An adventure.
C. A public place. D. The identification number.
2016年全国卷III B
On one of her trips to New York several years ago, Eudora Welty decided to take a couple of New York friends out to dinner. They settled in at a comfortable East Side cafe and within minutes, another customer was approaching their table.
＂Hey, aren’t you from Mississippi?＂the elegant, white-haired writer remembered being asked by the stranger. ＂I’m from Mississippi too.＂
Without a second thought, the woman joined the Welty party. When her dinner partner showed up, she also pulled up a chair.
＂They began telling me all the news of Mississippi,＂ Welty said. ＂I didn’t know what my New York friends were thinking.＂
Taxis on a rainy New York night are rarer than sunshine. By the time the group got up to leave, it was pouring outside. Welty’s new friends immediately sent a waiter to find a cab. Heading back downtown toward her hotel, her big-city friends were amazed at the turn of events that had changed their Big Apple dinner into a Mississippi state reunion(团聚).
＂My friend said: ‘Now we believe your stories,’＂ Welty added. ＂And I said: ‘Now you know. These are the people that make me write them.’＂
Sitting on a sofa in her room, Welty, a slim figure in a simple gray dress, looked pleased with this explanation.
＂I don’t make them up,＂ she said of the characters in her fiction these last 50 or so years.＂I don’t have to.＂
Beauticians, bartenders, piano players and people with purple hats, Welty’s people come from afternoons spent visiting with old friends, from walks through the streets of her native Jackson, Miss., from conversations overheard on a bus. It annoys Welty that, at 78, her left ear has now given out. Sometimes, sitting on a bus or a train, she hears only a fragment(片段) of a particularly interesting story.
6. The underlined word ＂them＂ in Paragraph 6 refers to Welty’s _____________.
A. readers B. parties C. friends D. stories
2016年全国卷III C
If you are a fruit grower — or would like to become one — take advantage of Apple Day to see what’ around. It’ called Apple Day but in practice it’ more like Apple Month. The Day itself is on October 21, but since it has caught on, events now spread out over most of October around Britain.
Visiting an apple event is a good chance to see, and often taste, a wide variety of apples. To people who are used to the limited choice of apples such as Golden Delicious and Royal Gala in supermarkets, it can be quite an eye opener to see the range of classical apples still in existence, such as Decio which was grown by the Romans. Although it doesn’t taste of anything special, it’s still worth a try, as is the knobbly(多疙瘩的) Cat’ Head which is more of a curiosity than anything else.
There are also varieties developed to suit specific local conditions. One of the very best varieties for eating quality is Orleans Reinette, but you’ll need a warm, sheltered place with perfect soil to grow it, so it’ a pipe dream for most apple lovers who fall for it.
At the events, you can meet expert growers and discuss which ones will best suit your conditions, and because these are family affairs, children are well catered for with apple-themed fun and games.
Apple Days are being held at all sorts of places with an interest in fruit, including stately gardens and commercial orchards(果园). If you want to have a real orchard experience, try visiting the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale, near Faversham in Kent.
10. What does the underlined phrase ＂a pipe dream＂ in Paragraph 3 mean?
A. A practical idea. B. A vain hope. C. A brilliant plan. D. A selfish desire.
2016天津卷C
When John was growing up, other kids felt sorry for him. His parents always had him weeding the garden, carrying out the garbage and delivering newspapers. But when John reached adulthood, he was better off than his childhood playmates. He had more job satisfaction, a better marriage and was healthier. Most of all, he was happier. Far happier.
These are the findings of a 40-year study that followed the lives of 456 teenage boys from Boston. The study showed that those who had worked as boys enjoyed happier and more productive lives than those who had not. “Boys who worked in the home or community gained competence (能力) and came to feel they were worthwhile members of society,” said George Vaillant, the psychologist (心理学家) who made the discovery. “And because they felt good about themselves, others felt good about them.”
Vaillant’s study followed these males in great detail. Interviews were repeated at ages 25, 31 and 47. Under Vaillant, the researchers compared the men’s mental-health scores with their boyhood-activity scores. Points were awarded for part-time jobs, housework, effort in school, and ability to deal with problems.
The link between what the men had done as boys and how they turned out as adults was surprisingly sharp. Those who had done the most boyhood activities were twice as likely to have warm relations with a wide variety of people, five times as likely to be well paid and 16 times less likely to have been unemployed. The researchers also found that IQ and family social and economic class made no real difference in how the boys turned out.
Working — at any age — is important. Childhood activities help a child develop responsibility, independence, confidence and competence — the underpinnings (基础) of emotional health. They also help him understand that people must cooperate and work toward common goals. The most competent adults are those who know how to do this. Yet work isn’t everything. As Tolstoy once said, “One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love, to work for the person one loves and to love one’s work.”
49. What does the underlined word “sharp” probably mean in Paragraph 4?
A. Quick to react. B. Having a thin edge.
C. Clear and definite. D. sudden and rapid.
2016四川卷B
If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Dreaming about whether you would want to read minds, see through walls, or have superhuman strength may sound silly, but it actually gets to the heart of what really matters in your life.
Every day in our work, we are inspired by the people we meet doing extraordinary things to improve the world.
They have a different kind of superpower that all of us possess: the power to make a difference in the lives of others.
We’re not saying that everyone needs to contribute their lives to the poor. Your lives are busy enough doing homework, playing sports, making friends, seeking after your dreams. But we do think that you can live a more powerful life when you devote some of your time and energy to something much larger than yourself. Find an issue you are interested in and learn more. Volunteer or, if you can, contribute a little money to a cause. Whatever you do, don’t be a bystander. Get involved. You may have the opportunity to make your biggest difference when you’re older. But why not start now?
Our own experience working together on health, development, and energy the last twenty years has been one of the most rewarding parts of our lives. It has changed who we are and continues to fuel our optimism about how much the lives of the poorest people will improve in the years ahead.
24.What does the underlined part in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A. Your life style. B. Your life value.
C. Your trouble in life. D. Your life experience.
C
In the depths of the French Guianese rainforest, there still remain unusual groups of indigenous (土著的) people. Surprisingly, these people live largely by their own laws and their own social customs. And yet, people in this area are in fact French citizens because it has been a colony (殖民地) of the French Republic since 1946. In theory, they should live by the French law. However, their remote locations mean that the French law is often ignored or unknown, thus making them into an interesting area of "lawlessness" in the world.
The lives of these people have finally been recorded thanks to the efforts of a Frenchman from Paris called Gin. Gin spent five months in early 2015 exploring the most remote corners of this area, which sits on the edge of the Amazon rainforest, with half its population of only 250,000 living in its capital, Cayenne.
"I have a special love for the French Guianese people. I have worked there on and off for almost ten years," says Gin. "I’ve been able to keep firm friendships with them. Thus I have been allowed to gain access to their living environment. I don’t see it as a lawless land. But rather I see it as an area of freedom."
"I wanted to show the audience a photographic record touching upon the uncivilized life," continues Gin. "I prefer to work in black and white, which allows me to show different specific worlds more clearly."
His black-and-white pictures present a world almost lost in time. These pictures show people seemingly pushed into a world that they were unprepared for. These local citizens now have to balance their traditional self-supporting hunting lifestyle with the lifestyle offered by the modern French Republic, which brings with it not only necessary state welfare, but also alcoholism, betrayal and even suicide.
31.What does the underlined word "it" in the last paragraph refer to?
A. The modern French lifestyle. B. The self-supporting hunting.
C. The uncivilized world. D. The French Republic.
2016上海卷C
Enough ＂meaningless drivel＂. That’s the message from a group of members of the UK government who have been examining how social media firms like LinkedIn gather and use social media data.
The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s report, released last week, has blamed firms for making people sign up to long incomprehensible legal contracts and calls for an international standard or kitemark (认证标记) to identify sites that have clear terms and conditions.
＂The term and conditions statement that we all carelessly agree to is meaningless drivel to anyone,＂ says Andrew Miller, the chair of the committee. Instead, he says, firms should provide a plain-English version of their terms. The simplified version would be checked by a third party and awarded a kitemark if it is an accurate reflection of the original.
It is not yet clear who would administer the scheme, but the UK government is looking at introducing it on a voluntary basis. ＂we need to think through how we make that work in practice,＂ says Miller.
Would we pay any more attention to a kitemark? ＂I think if you went and did the survey, people would like to think they would,＂ says Nigel Shadbolt at the University of Southampton, UK, who studies open data. ＂We do know people worry a lot about the inappropriate use of their information.＂ But what would happen in practice is another matter, he says.
Other organisations such as banks ask customers to sign long contracts they may not read or understand, but Miller believes social media requires special attention because it is so new. ＂We still don’t know how significant the long-term impact is going to be of unwise things that kids put on social media that come back and bite them in 20 years’ time,＂ he says.
Shadbolt, who gave evidence to the committee, says the problem is that we don’t know how companies will use our data because their business models and uses of data are still evolving. Large collections of personal information  have become valuable only recently, he says.
The shock and anger when a social media firm does something with data that people don’t expect, even if users have apparently permission, show that the current situation isn’t working. If properly administered, a kitemark on terms and conditions could help people know what exactly they are signing up to. Although they would still have to actually read them.
73. What does the phrase ＂ meaningless drivel＂ in paragraphs 1 and 3 refer to?
A. Legal contracts that social media firms make people sign up to.
B. Warnings from the UK government against unsafe websites.
C. Guidelines on how to use social media websites properly.
D. Insignificant data collected by social media firms.
2016北京卷 D Why College Is Not Home
The college years are supposed to be a time for important growth in autonomy(自主性) and the development of adult identity. However, now they are becoming an extended period of adolescence, during which many of today’s students are not shouldered with adult responsibilities.
For previous generations, college was a decisive break from parental control; guidance and support needed to come from people of the same age and from within. In the past two decades, however, continued connection with and dependence on family, thanks to cell phones, email and social media, have increased significantly. Some parents go so far as to help with coursework. Instead of promoting the idea of college as a passage from the shelter of the family to autonomy and adult responsibility, universities have given in to the idea that they should provide the same environment as that of the home.
To prepare for increased autonomy and responsibility, college needs to be a time of exploration and experimentation. This process involves ＂trying on ＂ new ways of thinking about oneself bother intellectually(在思维方面) and personally. While we should provide ＂safe spaces＂ within colleges, we must also make it safe to express opinions and challenge majority views. Intellectual growth and flexibility are fostered by strict debate and questioning.
Learning to deal with the social world is equally important. Because a college community(群体) differs from the family, many students will struggle to find a sense of belonging. If students rely on administrators to regulate their social behavior and thinking pattern, they are not facing the challenge of finding an identity within a larger and complex community.
Moreover, the tendency for universities to monitor and shape student behavior runs up against another characteristic of young adults: the response to being controlled by their elders. If acceptable social behavior is too strictly defined(规定) and controlled, the insensitive or aggressive behavior that administrators are seeking to minimize may actually be encouraged.
It is not surprising that young people are likely to burst out, particularly when there are reasons to do so. Our generation once joined hands and stood firm at times of national emergency. What is lacking today is the conflict between adolescent’s desire for autonomy and their understanding of an unsafe world. Therefore, there is the desire for their dorms to be replacement homes and not places to experience intellectual growth.
Every college discussion about community values, social climate and behavior should include recognition of the developmental importance of student autonomy and self-regulation, of the necessary tension between safety and self-discovery.
68. The underlined word ＂passage＂ in Paragraph 2 means _________.
A. change B. choice
C. text D. extension
2017新课标 I D
A build-it-yourself solar still（蒸馏器） is one of the best ways to obtain drinking water in areas where the liquid is not readily available. Developed by two doctors in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it’s an excellent water collector. Unfortunately, you must carry the necessary equipment with you, since it’s all but impossible to find natural substitutes. The only components required, though, are a 5＇5＇ sheet of clear or slightly milky plastic, six feet of plastic tube, and a container — perhaps just a drinking cup — to catch the water. These pieces can be folded into a neat little pack and fastened on your belt.
To construct a working still, use a sharp stick or rock to dig a hole four feet across and three feet deep. Try to make the hole in a damp area to increase the water catcher’s productivity. Place your cup in the deepest part of the hole. Then lay the tube in place so that one end rests all the way in the cup and the rest of the line runs up — and out — the side of the hole.
Next, cover the hole with the plastic sheet, securing the edges of the plastic with dirt and weighting the sheet’s center down with a rock. The plastic should now form a cone(圆锥体) with 45-degree-angled sides. The low point of the sheet must be centered directly over, and no more than three inches above, the cup.
The solar still works by creating a greenhouse under the plastic. Ground water evaporates(蒸发) and collects on the sheet until small drops of water form, run down the material and fall off into the cup. When the container is full, you can suck the refreshment out through the tube, and won’t have to break down the still every time you need a drink.
33. What does the underlined phrase ＂the water catcher＂ in paragraph 2 refer to?
A. The tube. B. The still. C. The hole. D. The cup.
2017全国课标卷Ⅱ B
I first met Paul Newman in 1968, when George Roy Hill, the director of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, introduced us in New York City. When the studio didn’t want me for the film — it wanted somebody as well known as Paul — he stood up for me. I don’t know how many people would have done that; they would have listened to their agents or the studio powers.
The friendship that grew out of the experience of making that film and The Sting four years later had its root in the fact that although there was an age difference, we both came from a tradition of theater and live TV. We were respectful of craft(技艺) and focused on digging into the characters we were going to play. Both of us had the qualities and virtues that are typical of American actors: humorous, aggressive, and making fun of each other — but always with an underlying affection. Those were also at the core(核心) of our relationship off the screen.
We shared the belief that if you’re fortunate enough to have success, you should put something back — he with his Newman’s Own food and his Hole in the Wall camps for kids who are seriously ill, and me with Sundance and the institute and the festival. Paul and I didn’t see each other all that regularly, but sharing that brought us together. We supported each other financially and by showing up at events.
I last saw him a few months ago. He’d been in and out of the hospital. He and I both knew what the deal was, and we didn’t talk about it. Ours was a relationship that didn’t need a lot of words.
26. What does the underlined word "that" in paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Their belief. B. Their care for children.
C. Their success. D. Their support for each other.
2017全国课标卷Ⅱ D
When a leafy plant is under attack, it doesn’t sit quietly. Back in 1983, two scientists, Jack Schultz and Ian Baldwin, reported that young maple trees getting bitten by insects send out a particular smell that neighboring plants can get. These chemicals come from the injured parts of the plant and seem to be an alarm. What the plants pump through the air is a mixture of chemicals known as volatile organic compounds, VOCs for short.
Scientists have found that all kinds of plants give out VOCs when being attacked. It’s a plant’s way of crying out. But is anyone listening? Apparently. Because we can watch the neighbors react.
Some plants pump out smelly chemicals to keep insects away. But others do double duty. They pump out perfumes designed to attract different insects who are natural enemies to the attackers. Once they arrive, the tables are turned. The attacker who was lunching now becomes lunch.
In study after study, it appears that these chemical conversations help the neighbors. The damage is usually more serious on the first plant, but the neighbors, relatively speaking, stay safer because they heard the alarm and knew what to do.
Does this mean that plants talk to each other? Scientists don’t know. Maybe the first plant just made a cry of pain or was sending a message to its own branches, and so, in effect, was talking to itself. Perhaps the neighbors just happened to "overhear" the cry. So information was exchanged, but it wasn’t a true, intentional back and forth.
Charles Darwin, over 150 years ago, imagined a world far busier, noisier and more intimate(亲密的) than the world we can see and hear. Our senses are weak. There’s a whole lot going on.
33. What does the author mean by "the tables are turned" in paragraph 3?
A. The attackers get attacked. B. The insects gather under the table.
C. The plants get ready to fight back. D. The perfumes attract natural enemies.
2017年新课标全国卷III C
After years of heated debate, gray wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park. Fourteen wolves were caught in Canada and transported to the park. By last year, the Yellowstone wolf population had grown to more than 170 wolves.
Gray wolves once were seen here and there in the Yellowstone area and much of the continental United States, but they were gradually displaced by human development. By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They went farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there were fewer humans around.
The disappearance of the wolves had many unexpected results. Deer and elk populations — major food sources (来源) for the wolf — grew rapidly. These animals consumed large amounts of vegetation (植被), which reduced plant diversity in the park. In the absence of wolves, coyote populations also grew quickly. The coyotes killed a large percentage of the park’s red foxes, and completely drove away the park’s beavers.
As early as 1966, biologists asked the government to consider reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone Park. They hoped that wolves would be able to control the elk and coyote problems. Many farmers opposed the plan because they feared that wolves would kill their farm animals or pets.
The government spent nearly 30 years coming up with a plan to reintroduce the wolvers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carefully monitors and manages the wolf packs in Yellowstone. Today, the debate continues over how well the gray wolf is fitting in at Yellowstone. Elk, deer, and coyote populations are down, while beavers and red foxes have made a comeback. The Yellowstone wolf project has been a valuable experiment to help biologists decide whether to reintroduce wolves to other parts of the country as well.
29. What does the underlined word ＂displaced＂ in paragraph 2 mean?
A. Tested. B. Separated. C. Forced out. D. Tracked down.
2017浙江卷A
Benjamin West, the father of American painting, showed his talent for art when he was only six years of age. But he did not know about brushes before a visitor told him he needed one. In those days, a brush was made from camel’s hair. There were no camels nearby. Benjamin decided that cat hair would work instead. He cut some fur from the family cat to make a brush.
The brush did not last long. Soon Benjamin needed more fur. Before long, the cat began to look ragged(蓬乱). His father said that the cat must be sick. Benjamin was forced to admit what he had been doing.
The cat’s lot was about to improve. That year, one of Benjamin’s cousins, Mr. Pennington, came to visit. He was impressed with Benjamin’s drawings. When he went home, he sent Benjamin a box of paint and some brushes. He also sent six engravings(版画) by an artist. These were the first pictures and first real paint and brushes Benjamin had ever seen.
In 1747, when Benjamin was nine years old, Mr.Pennington returned for another visit. He was amazed at what Benjamin had done with his gift. He asked Benjamin’s parents if he might take the boy back to Philadelphia for a visit.
In the city, Mr.Pennington gave Benjamin materials for creating oil paintings. The boy began a landscape(风景) painting. William Williams, a well-known painter, came to see him work. Williams was impressed with Benjamin and gave him two classic books on painting to take home. The books were long and dull. Benjamin could read only a little, having been a poor student. But he later said, "Those two books were my companions by day, and under my pillow at night." While it is likely that he understood very little of the books, they were his introduction to classical paintings. The nine-year-old boy decided then that he would be an artist.
22.What does the underlined sentence in paragraph 3 suggest?
A. The cat would be closely watched.
B. The cat would get some medical care.
C. Benjamin would leave his home shortly.
D. Benjamin would have real brushes soon.
2017天津卷C
This month, Germany’s transport minister, Alexander Dobrindt, proposed the first set of rules for autonomous vehicles(自主驾驶车辆). They would define the driver’s role in such cars and govern how such cars perform in crashes where lives might be lost.
The proposal attempts to deal with what some call the “death valley” of autonomous vehicles: the grey area between semi-autonomous and fully driverless cars that could delay the driverless future.
Dobrindt wants three things: that a car always chooses property(财产) damage over personal injury; that it never distinguishes between humans based on age or race; and that if a human removes his or her hands from the driving wheel — to check email, say — the car’s maker is responsible if there is a crash.
“The change to the road traffic law will permit fully automatic driving,” says Dobrindt. It will put fully driverless cars on an equal legal footing to human drivers, he says.
Who is responsible for the operation of such vehicles is not clear among car makers, consumers and lawyers. “The liability(法律责任) issue is the biggest one of them all,” says Natasha Merat at the University of Leeds, UK.
An assumption behind UK insurance for driverless cars, introduced earlier this year, insists that a human “be watchful and monitoring the road” at every moment.
But that is not what many people have in mind when thinking of driverless cars. “When you say ‘driverless cars’, people expect driverless cars.” Merat says. “You know — no driver.”
Because of the confusion, Merat thinks some car makers will wait until vehicles can be fully automated without human operation.
Driverless cars may end up being a form of public transport rather than vehicles you own, says Ryan Calo at Stanford University, California. That is happening in the UK and Singapore, where government-provided driverless vehicles are being launched.
That would go down poorly in the US, however. “The idea that the government would take over driverless cars and treat them as a public good would get absolutely nowhere here,” says Calo.
46. What does the phrase “death valley” in Paragraph 2 refer to?
A. A place where cars often break down.
B. A case where passing a law is impossible.
C. An area where no driving is permitted.
D. A situation where drivers’ role is not clear.
2017江苏卷B
Before birth, babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices. They can even distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger. But when it comes to embryonic learning(胎教),birds could rule the roost. As recently reported in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch(孵化). New-born chicks can then imitate their mom’s call within a few days of entering the world.
This educational method was first observed in 2012 by Sonia Kleindorfer, a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia, and her colleagues. Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs. When the eggs were hatched, the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers — a sound that served as their regular "feed me!" call.
To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds, the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren, another species of Australian songbird. First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in Queensland before and after hatching. Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes. A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks, ranking them by similarity.
It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs, the more similar were the babies’ begging calls. In addition, the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most closely imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food.
This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological(神经系统的) strengths of children to parents. An evolutionary inference can then be drawn. "As a parent, do you invest in quality children, or do you invest in children that are in need?"Kleindorfer asks. "Our results suggest that they might be going for quality."
58. The underlined phrase in Paragraph 1 means "　　　".
A.be the worst B.be the best
C.be just as bad D.be just as good
2017江苏卷D Old Problem, New Approaches
While clean energy is increasingly used in our daily life, global warming will continue for some decades after CO2 emissions(排放) peak. So even if emissions were to begin to decrease today, we would still face the challenge of adapting to climate change. Here I will stress some smarter and more creative examples of climate adaptation.
When it comes to adaptation, it is important to understand that climate change is a process. We are therefore not talking about adapting to a new standard, but to a constantly shifting set of conditions. This is why, in part at least, the US National Climate Assessment says that: "There is no ‘one-size fits all’ adaptation." Nevertheless, there are some actions that offer much and carry little risk or cost.
Around the world, people are adapting in surprising ways, especially in some poor countries. Floods have become more damaging in Bangladesh in recent decades. Mohammed Rezwan saw opportunity where others saw only disaster. His not-for-profit organization runs 100 river boats that serve as floating libraries, schools, and health clinics, and are equipped with solar panels and other communicating facilities. Rezwan is creating floating connectivity(连接) to replace flooded roads and highways. But he is also working at a far more fundamental level: his staff show people how to make floating gardens and fish ponds to prevent starvation during the wet season.
Elsewhere in Asia even more astonishing actions are being taken. Chewang Norphel lives in a mountainous region in India, where he is known as the Ice Man. The loss of glaciers(冰川) there due to global warming represents an enormous threat to agriculture. Without the glaciers, water will arrive in the rivers at times when it can damage crops. Norphel’s inspiration came from seeing the waste of water over winter, when it was not needed. He directed the wasted water into shallow basins where it froze, and was stored until the spring. His fields of ice supply perfectly timed irrigation(灌溉) water. Having created nine such ice reserves, Norphel calculates that he has stored about 200,000m3of water. Climate change is a continuing process, so Norphel’s ice reserves will not last forever. Warming will overtake them. But he is providing a few years during which the farmers will, perhaps, be able to find other means of adapting.
Increasing Earth’s reflectiveness can cool the planet. In southern Spain the sudden increase of greenhouses(which reflect light back to space) has changed the warming trend locally, and actually cooled the region. While Spain as a whole is heating up quickly, temperatures near the greenhouses have decreased. This example should act as an inspiration for all cities. By painting buildings white, cities may slow down the warming process.
In Peru, local farmers around a mountain with a glacier that has already fallen victim to climate change have begun painting the entire mountain peak white in the hope that the added reflectiveness will restore the life-giving ice. The outcome is still far from clear. But the World Bank has included the project on its list of "100 ideas to save the planet".
More ordinary forms of adaptation are happening everywhere. A friend of mine owns an area of land in western Victoria. Over five generations the land has been too wet for cropping. But during the past decade declining rainfall has allowed him to plant highly profitable crops. Farmers in many countries are also adapting like this — either by growing new produce, or by growing the same things differently. This is common sense. But some suggestions for adapting are not. When the polluting industries argue that we’ve lost the battle to control carbon pollution and have no choice but to adapt, it’s a nonsense designed to make the case for business as usual.
Human beings will continue to adapt to the changing climate in both ordinary and astonishing ways. But the most sensible form of adaptation is surely to adapt our energy systems to emit less carbon pollution. After all, if we adapt in that way, we may avoid the need to change in so many others.
65. The underlined part in Paragraph 2 implies　　　.
A. adaptation is an ever-changing process
B. the cost of adaptation varies with time
C. global warming affects adaptation forms
D. adaptation to climate change is challenging
2018新课标 I C
Languages have been coming and going for thousands of years, but in recent times there has been less coming and a lot more going. When the world was still populated by hunter-gatherers, small, tightly knit(联系) groups developed their own patterns of speech independent of each other. Some language experts believe that 10,000 years ago, when the world had just five to ten million people, they spoke perhaps 12,000 languages between them.
Soon afterwards, many of those people started settling down to become farmers, and their languages too became more settled and fewer in number. In recent centuries, trade, industrialization, the development of the nation-state and the spread of universal compulsory education, especially globalisation and better communications in the past few decades, all have caused many languages to disappear, and dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.
At present, the world has about 6,800 languages. The distribution of these languages is hugely uneven. The general rule is that mild zones have relatively few languages. Often spoken by many people while hot, wet zones have lots, often spoken by small numbers. Europe has only around 200 Languages: the Americas about 1,000, Africa 2,400; and Asia and the Pacific perhaps 3,200, of which Papua New Guinea alone accounts for well over 800. The median number(中位数) of speakers is a mere 6.000, which means that half the worlds languages are spoken by fewer people than that.
Already well over 400 of the total of 6,800 languages are close to extinction(消亡), with only a few elderly speakers left. Pick, at random, Busuu in Cameroon (eight remaining speakers), Chiapaneco in Mexico(150). Lipan Apache in the United States(two or three) or Wadjigu in Australia (one, with a question-mark): none of these seems to have much chance of survival.
29. Which of the following best explains "dominant" underlined in paragraph 2？
A. Complex. B. Advanced.
C. Powerful. D. Modern.
2018全国课标卷Ⅱ B
Many of us love July because it’s the month when nature’s berries and stone fruits are in abundance. These colourful and sweet jewels form British Columbia’s fields are little powerhouses of nutritional protection.
Of the common berries, strawberries are highest in vitamin C, although, because of their seeds, raspberries contain a little more protein (蛋白质), iron and zinc (not that fruits have much protein). Blueberries are particularly high in antioxidants (抗氧化物质). The yellow and orange stone fruits such as peaches are high in the carotenoids we turn into vitamin A and which are antioxidants. As for cherries (樱桃), they are so delicious who cares? However, they are rich in vitamin C.
When combined with berries of slices of other fruits, frozen bananas make an excellent base for thick, cooling fruit shakes and low fat “ice cream”. For this purpose, select ripe bananas for freezing as they are much sweeter. Remove the skin and place them in plastic bags or containers and freeze. If you like, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on the bananas will prevent them turning brown. Frozen bananas will last several weeks, depending on their ripeness and the temperature of the freezer.
If you have a juicer, you can simply feed in frozen bananas and some berries or sliced fruit. Out comes a “soft-serve” creamy dessert, to be eaten right away. This makes a fun activity for a children’s party; they love feeding the fruit and frozen bananas into the top of the machine and watching the ice cream come out below.
26. What is “a juicer” in the last paragraph?
A. A dessert. B. A drink.
C. A container. D. A machine.
2018新课标III卷D
Adults understand what it feels like to be flooded with objects. Why do we often assume that more is more when it comes to kids and their belongings? The good news is that I can help my own kids learn earlier than I did how to live more with less.
I found the pre-holidays a good time to encourage young children to donate less-used things, and it worked. Because of our efforts, our daughter Georgia did decide to donate a large bag of toys to a little girl whose mother was unable to pay for her holiday due to illness. She chose to sell a few larger objects that were less often used when we promised to put the money into her school fund(基金)(our kindergarten daughter is serious about becoming a doctor)
For weeks, I've been thinking of bigger, deeper questions: How do we make it a habit for them? And how do we train ourselves to help them live with, need, and use less? Yesterday, I sat with my son, Shepherd, determined to test my own theory on this. I decided to play with him with only one toy for as long as it would keep his interest. I expected that one toy would keep his attention for about five minutes, ten minutes, max. I chose a red rubber ball-simple, universally available. We passed it, he tried to put it in his mouth, he tried bouncing it, rolling it, sitting on it, throwing it. It was totally, completely enough for him. Before I knew it an hour had passed and it was time to move on to lunch.
We both became absorbed in the simplicity of playing together. He had my full attention and I had his. My little experiment to find joy in a single object worked for both of us.
32. What do the words “more is more” in paragraph 1 probably mean?
A. The more, the better. B. Enough is enough.
C. More money, more worries. D. Earn more and spend more.
2018浙江卷 B
Steven Stein likes to follow garbage trucks. His strange habit makes sense when you consider that he’s an environmental scientist who studies how to reduce litter, including things that fall off garbage trucks as they drive down the road. What is even more interesting is that one of Stein’s jobs is defending an industry behind the plastic shopping bags.
Americans use more than 100 billion thin film plastic bags every year. So many end up in tree branches or along highways that a growing number of cities do not allow them at checkouts(收银台). The bags are prohibited in some 90 cities in California, including Los Angeles. Eyeing these headwinds, plastic-bag makers are hiring scientists like Stein to make the case that their products are not as bad for the planet as most people assume.
Among the bag makers’ argument: many cities with bans still allow shoppers to purchase paper bags, which are easily recycled but require more energy to produce and transport. And while plastic bags may be ugly to look at, they represent a small percentage of all garbage on the ground today.
The industry has also taken aim at the product that has appeared as its replacement: reusable shopping bags. The stronger a reusable bag is, the longer its life and the more plastic-bag use it cancels out. However, longer-lasting reusable bags often require more energy to make. One study found that a cotton bag must be used at least 131 times to be better for the planet than plastic.
Environmentalists don’t dispute(质疑) these points. They hope paper bags will be banned someday too and want shoppers to use the same reusable bags for years.
25. What does the word “headwinds” in paragraph 2 refer to?
A. Bans on plastic bags.
B. Effects of city development.
C. Headaches caused by garbage.
D. Plastic bags hung in trees.
2018江苏卷B
In the 1760s, Mathurin Roze opened a series of shops that boasted(享有）a special meat soup called consomme. Although the main attraction was the soup, Roze's chain shops also set a new standard for dining out, which helped to establish Roze as the inventor of the modern restaurant.
Today, scholars have generated large amounts of instructive research about restaurants. Take visual hints that influence what we eat: diners served themselves about 20 percent more pasta(意大利面食）when their plates matched their food. When a dark-colored cake was served on a black plate rather than a white one, customers recognized it as sweeter and more tasty.
Lighting matters, too. When Berlin restaurant customers ate in darkness, they couldn't tell how much they'd had: those given extra-large shares ate more than everyone else, but were none the wiser—they didn’t feel fuller, and they were just as ready for dessert.
Time is money, but that principle means different things for different types of restaurants. Unlike fast-food places. fine dining shops prefer customers to stay longer and spend. One way to encourage customers to stay and order that extra round: put on some Mozart(莫扎特）.When classical, rather than pop, music was playing, diners spent more. Fast music hurried diners out.
Particular scents also have an effect: diners who got the scent of lavender(薰衣草）stayed longer and spent more than those who smelled lemon, or no scent.
Meanwhile, things that you might expect to discourage spending—"bad" tables, crowding. high prices — don't necessarily. Diners at bad tables — next to the kitchen door, say — spent nearly as much as others but soon fled. It can be concluded that restaurant keepers need not "be overly concerned about ‘bad' tables," given that they're profitable. As for crowds, a Hong Kong study found that they increased a restaurant's reputation, suggesting great food at fair prices. And doubling a buffet's price led customers to say that its pizza was 11 percent tastier.
58. The underlined phrase "none the wiser" in paragraph 3 most probably implies that the customers were .
A. not aware of eating more than usual
B. not willing to share food with others
C. not conscious of the food quality
D. not fond of the food provided
2018北京卷D Preparing Cities for Robot Cars
The possibility of self-driving robot cars has often seemed like a futurist’s dream, years away from materializing in the real world. Well, the future is apparently now. The California Department of Motor Vehicles began giving permits in April for companies to test truly self-driving cars on public roads. The state also cleared the way for companies to sell or rent out self-driving cars, and for companies to operate driverless taxi services. California, it should be noted, isn’t leading the way here. Companies have been testing their vehicles in cities across the country. It’s hard to predict when driverless cars will be everywhere on our roads. But however long it takes, the technology has the potential to change our transportation systems and our cities, for better or for worse, depending on how the transformation is regulated.
While much of the debate so far has been focused on the safety of driverless cars(and rightfully so), policymakers also should be talking about how self-driving vehicles can help reduce traffic jams, cut emissions(排放) and offer more convenient, affordable mobility options. The arrival of driverless vehicles is a chance to make sure that those vehicles are environmentally friendly and more shared.
Do we want to copy — or even worsen — the traffic of today with driverless cars? Imagine a future where most adults own individual self-driving vehicles. They tolerate long, slow journeys to and from work on packed highways because they can work, entertain themselves or sleep on the ride, which encourages urban spread. They take their driverless car to an appointment and set the empty vehicle to circle the building to avoid paying for parking. Instead of walking a few blocks to pick up a child or the dry cleaning, they send the self-driving minibus. The convenience even leads fewer people to take public transport — an unwelcome side effect researchers have already found in ride-hailing(叫车) services.
A study from the University of California at Davis suggested that replacing petrol-powered private cars worldwide with electric, self-driving and shared systems could reduce carbon emissions from transportation 80% and cut the cost of transportation infrastructure(基础设施) and operations 40% by 2050. Fewer emissions and cheaper travel sound pretty appealing. The first commercially available driverless cars will almost certainly be fielded by ride-hailing services, considering the cost of self-driving technology as well as liability and maintenance issues(责任与维护问题). But driverless car ownership could increase as the prices drop and more people become comfortable with the technology.
Policymakers should start thinking now about how to make sure the appearance of driverless vehicles doesn’t extend the worst aspects of the car-controlled transportation system we have today. The coming technological advancement presents a chance for cities and states to develop transportation systems designed to move more people, and more affordably. The car of the future is coming. We just have to plan for it.
49. What does the underlined word ＂fielded＂ in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A. Employed. B. Replaced.
C. Shared. D. Reduced.
2019江苏B
In the 1960s，while studying the volcanic history of Yellowstone National Park，Bob Christiansen became puzzled about something that，oddly，had not troubled anyone before:he couldn't find the park's volcano. It had been known for a long time that Yellowstone was volcanic in nature — that's what accounted for all its hot springs and other steamy features. But Christiansen couldn't find the Yellowstone volcano anywhere.
Most of us，when we talk about volcanoes，think of the classic cone(圆锥体)shapes of a Fuji or Kilimanjaro，which are created when erupting magma(岩浆)piles up. These can form remarkably quickly. In 1943，a Mexican farmer was surprised to see smoke rising from a small part of his land. In one week he was the confused owner of a cone five hundred feet high. Within two years it had topped out at almost fourteen hundred feet and was more than half a mile across. Altogether there are some ten thousand of these volcanoes on Earth，all but a few hundred of them extinct. There is，however，a second les known type of volcano that doesn't involve mountain building. These are volcanoes so explosive that they burst open in a single big crack，leaving behind a vast hole，the caldera. Yellowstone obviously was of this second type，but Christiansen couldn't find the caldera anywhere.
Just at this time NASA decided to test some new high-altitude cameras by taking photographs of Yellowstone. A thoughtful official passed on some of the copies to the park authorities on the assumption that they might make a nice blow-up for one of the visitors' centers. As soon as Christiansen saw the photos，he realized why he had failed to spot the caldera; almost the whole park-2.2 million acres—was caldera. The explosion had left a hole more than forty miles across—much too huge to be seen from anywhere at ground level. At some time in the past Yellowstone must have blown up with a violence far beyond the scale of anything known to humans.
60. What does the underlined word "blow-up" in the last paragraph most probably mean？
A. Hot-air balloon. B. Digital camera.
C. Big photograph. D. Bird's view.
2019全国III卷B
For Western designers, China and its rich culture have long been an inspiration for Western creative.
"It's no secret that China has always been a source(来源)of inspiration for designers," says Amanda Hill, chief creative officer at A+E Networks, a global media company and home to some of the biggest fashion(时尚)shows.
Earlier this year, the China Through A Looking Glass exhibition in New York exhibited 140 pieces of China-inspired fashionable clothing alongside Chinese works of art, with the aim of exploring the influence of Chinese aesthetics(美学)on Western fashion and how China has fueled the fashionable imagination for centuries. The exhibition had record attendance, showing that there is huge interest in Chinese influences.
"China is impossible to overlook," says Hill. "Chinese models are the faces of beauty and fashion campaigns that sell dreams to women all over the world, which means Chinese women are not just consumers of fashion — they are central to its movement. "Of course, only are today's top Western designers being influenced by China-some of the best designers of contemporary fashion are themselves Chinese." Vera Wang, Alexander Wang, Jason Wu are taking on Galiano, Albaz, Marc Jacobs-and beating them hands down in design and sales," adds Hil.
For Hill, it is impossible not to talk about China as the leading player when discussing fashion. "The most famous designers are Chinese, so are the models, and so are the consumers," she says. "China is no longer just another market; in many senses it has become the market. If you talk about fashion today, you are talking about China-its influences, its direction, its breathtaking clothes, and how young designers and models are finally acknowledging that in many ways."
26. What do the underlined words "taking on" in paragraph 4 mean?
A. learning from B. looking down on C. working with D. competing against
2019全国 II卷B
“You can use me as a last resort(选择), and if nobody else volunteers，then I will do it.” This was an actual reply from a parent after I put out a request for volunteers for my kids lacrosse(长曲棍球)club.
I guess that there's probably some demanding work schedule, or social anxiety around stepping up to help for an unknown sport. She may just need a little persuading. So I try again and tug at the heartstrings. I mention the single parent with four kids running the show and I talk about the dad coaching a team that his kids aren’t even on … At this point the unwilling parent speaks up,“Alright. Yes, I’ll do it.”
I’m secretly relieved because I know there’s real power in sharing volunteer responsibilities among many. The unwilling parent organizes the meal schedule, sends out emails, and collects money for end-of-season gifts. Somewhere along the way, the same parent ends up becoming an invaluable member of the team. The coach is able to focus on the kids while the other parents are relieved to be off the hook for another season. Handing out sliced oranges to bloodthirsty kids can be as exciting as watching your own kid score a goal.
Still, most of us volunteers breathe a sigh of relief when the season comes to a close. That relief is coupled with a deep understanding of why the same people keep coming back for more: Connecting to the community(社区)as you freely give your time, money, skills, or services provides a real joy. Volunteering just feels so good.
In that sense, I’m pretty sure volunteering is more of a selfish act than I’d freely like to admit. However, if others benefit in the process, and I get some reward too, does it really matter where my motivation lies?
25. What does the underlined phrase“tug at the heartstrings”in paragraph 2 mean ?
A. Encourage team work. B. Appeal to feeling.
C. Promote good deeds. D. Provide advice.
2019北京卷D
By the end of the century，if not sooner，the world's oceans will be bluer and greener thanks to a warming climate，according to a new study.
At the heart of the phenomenon lie tiny marine microorganisms(海洋微生物)called phytoplankton. Because of the way light reflects off the organisms，these phytoplankton create colourful patterns at the ocean surface. Ocean colour varies from green to blue，depending on the type and concentration of phytoplankton. Climate change will fuel the growth of phytoplankton in some areas，while reducing it in other spots，leading to changes in the ocean's appearance.
Phytoplankton live at the ocean surface，where they pull carbon dioxide(二氧化碳)into the ocean while giving off oxygen. When these organisms die，they bury carbon in the deep ocean，an important process that helps to regulate the global climate. But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean's warming trend. Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth，since they need not only sunlight and carbon dioxide to grow，but also nutrients.
Stephanie Dutkiewicz，a scientist in MIT's Center for Global Change Science，built a climate model that projects changes to the oceans throughout the century. In a world that warms up by 3℃，it found that multiple changes to the colour of the oceans would occur. The model projects that currently blue areas with little phytoplankton could become even bluer. But in some waters，such as those of the Arctic，a warming will make conditions riper for phytoplankton，and these areas will turn greener. “Not only are the quantities of phytoplankton in the ocean changing. ”she said，“but the type of phytoplankton is changing. ”
43. What does the underlined word“vulnerable”in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
A. Sensitive. B. Beneficial C. Significant D. Unnoticeable

2019全国I卷 B
For Canaan Elementary’s second grade in Patchogue, N.Y.，today is speech day ,and right now it’s Chris Palaez’s turn. The 8-year-old is the joker of the class. With shining dark eyes, he seems like the of kid who would enjoy public speaking.
But he’s, nervous.“I’m here to tell you today why you should … should…”Chris trips on the“-ld,”a. pronunciation difficulty for many non-native English speakers. His teacher ,Thomas Whaley ,is next to him, whispering support.“…Vote for …me …”Except for some stumbles, Chris is doing amazingly well. When he brings his speech to a nice conclusion ,Whaley invites the rest of the class to praise him.
A son of immigrants, Chris stared learning English a little over three years ago. Whaley recalls(回想起)how at the beginning of the year，when called upon to read，Chris would excuse himself to go to the bathroom.
Learning English as a second language can be a painful experience. What you need is a great teacher who lets you make mistakes. “It takes a lot for any student，” Whaley explains，“especially for a student who is learning English as their new language，to feel confident enough to say，‘I don’t know，but I want to know.’”
Whaley got the idea of this second-grade presidential campaign project when he asked the children one day to raise their hands if they thought they could never be a president. The answer broke his heart. Whaley says the project is about more than just learning to read and speak in public. He wants these kids to learn to boast(夸耀)about themselves.
“Boasting about yourself，and your best qualities,” Whaley says，“is very difficult for a child who came into the classroom not feeling confident.”
25. What does the underlined word “stumbles” in paragraph 2 refer to?
A. Improper pauses. B. Bad manners. C. Spelling mistakes. D. Silly jokes.
2019天津卷D
Would you BET on the future of this man？He is 53 years old. Most of his adult life has been a losing struggle against debt and misfortune. A war injury has made his left hand stop functioning，and he has often been in prison. Driven by heaven-knows-what motives，he determines to write a book.
The book turns out to be one that has appealed to the world for more than 350 years. That former prisoner was Cervantes，and the book was Don Quixote《堂吉诃德》. And the story poses an interesting question: why do some people discover new vitality and creativity to the end of their days，while others go to seed long before？
We've all known people who run out of steam before they reach life's halfway mark. I'm not talking about those who fail to get to the top. We can't all get there. I'm talking about people who have stopped learning on growing because they have adopted the fixed attitudes and opinions that all too often come with passing years.
Most of us，in fact，progressively narrow the variety of our lives. We succeed in our field of specialization and then become trapped in it. Nothing surprises us. We lose our sense of wonder. But，if we are willing to lean，the opportunities are everywhere.
The things we learn in maturity seldom involve information and skills We learn to bear with the things we can't change. We learn to avoid self-pity. We learn that however much we try to please，some people are never going to love us-an idea that troubles at first but is eventually relaxing.
With high motivation and enthusiasm，we can keep on learning. Then we will know how important it is to have meaning in our life. However，we can achieve meaning only if we have made a commitment to something larger than our own little egos（自我），whether to loved ones，to fellow humans，to work，or to some moral concept.
Many of us equate（视……等同于）“commitment” with such “caring” occupations as teaching and nursing. But doing any ordinary job as well as one can is in itself an admirable commitment. People who work toward such excellence whether they are driving a truck，or running a store-make the world better just by being the kind of people they are. They've learned life's most valuable lesson.
52. What does the underlined part in Paragraph 3 probably mean？
A. End one's struggle for liberty.
B. Waste one's energy taking risks.
C. Miss the opportunity to succeed.
D. Lose the interest to continue learning.
2019浙江卷 B
Money with no strings attached. It’s not something you see every day. But at Union Station in Los Angeles last month, a board went up with dollar bills attached to it with pins and a sign that read, "Give What You Can, Take What You Need."
People quickly caught on. And while many took dollars, many others pinned their own cash to the board. “People of all ages, races, and socio-economic(社会经济的)backgrounds gave and took, ”said Tyler Bridges of The Toolbox, which created the project. "We even had a bride in her wedding dress come up to the board and take a few dollars." Most of the bills on the board were singles, but a few people left fives, tens and even twenties. The video clip(片段)shows one man who had found a $ 20 bill pinning it to the board.
“What I can say for the folks that gave the most, is that they were full of smiles,” Bridges said. “There’s a certain feeling that giving can do for you and that was apparent in those that gave the most." Most people who took dollars took only a few, but Bridges said a very small number took as much as they could.
While the clip might look like part of a new ad campaign, Bridges said the only goal was to show generosity and sympathy. He added that he hopes people in other cities might try similar projects and post their own videos on the Internet.
“After all, everyone has bad days and good days," he said. “Some days you need a helping hand and some days you can be the one giving the helping hand.”
24. What does the expression "money with no strings attached" in paragraph 1 mean?
A. Money spent without hesitation.
B. Money not legally made.
C. Money offered without conditions.
D. Money not tied together.
2020山东C
In the mid-1990s, Tom Bissell taught English as a volunteer in Uzbekistan. He left after seven months, physically broken and having lost his mind. A few years later, still attracted to the country, he returned to Uzbekistan to write an article about the disappearance of the Aral Sea.
His visit, however, ended up involving a lot more than that. Hence this book, Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia, which talks about a road trip from Tashkent to Karakalpakstan, where millions of lives have been destroyed by the slow drying up of the sea. It is the story of an American travelling to a strange land, and of the people he meets on his way: Rustam, his translator, a lovely 24-year-old who picked up his colorful English in California, Oleg and Natasha, his hosts in Tashkent, and a string of foreign aid workers.
This is a quick look at life in Uzbekistan, made of friendliness and warmth, but also its darker side of society. In Samarkand, Mr Bissell admires the architectural wonders, while on his way to Bukhara he gets a taste of police methods when suspected of drug dealing. In Ferghana, he attends a mountain funeral（葬礼）followed by a strange drinking party. And in Karakalpakstan, he is saddened by the dust storms, diseases and fishing boats stuck miles from the sea.
Mr Bissell skillfully organizes historical insights and cultural references, making his tale a well-rounded picture of Uzbekistan, seen from Western eyes. His judgment and references are decidedly American, as well as his delicate stomach. As the author explains, this is neither a travel nor a history book, or even a piece of reportage. Whatever it is, the result is a fine and vivid description of the purest of Central Asian traditions.
9. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?
A. Developing a serious mental disease.
B. Taking a guided tour in Central Asia.
C. Working as a volunteer in Uzbekistan.
D. Writing an article about the Aral Sea.
2020山东 D
According to a recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research, both the size and consumption habits of our eating companions can influence our food intake. And contrary to existing research that says you should avoid eating with heavier people who order large portions（份）, it’s the beanpoles with big appetites you really need to avoid.
To test the effect of social influence on eating habits, the researchers conducted two experiments. In the first, 95 undergraduate women were individually invited into a lab to ostensibly（表面上）participate in a study about movie viewership. Before the film began, each woman was asked to help herself to a snack. An actor hired by the researchers grabbed her food first. In her natural state, the actor weighed 105 pounds. But in half the cases she wore a specially designed fat suit which increased her weight to 180 pounds.
Both the fat and thin versions of the actor took a large amount of food. The participants followed suit, taking more food than they normally would have. However, they took significantly more when the actor was thin.
For the second test, in one case the thin actor took two pieces of candy from the snack bowls. In the other case, she took 30 pieces. The results were similar to the first test: the participants followed suit but took significantly more candy when the thin actor took 30 pieces.
The tests show that the social environment is extremely influential when we’re making decisions. If this fellow participant is going to eat more, so will I. Call it the “I’ll have what she’s having” effect. However, we’ll adjust the influence. If an overweight person is having a large portion, I’ll hold back a bit because I see the results of his eating habits. But if a thin person eats a lot, I’ll follow suit. If he can eat much and keep slim, why can’t I?
13. What does the underlined word "beanpoles" in paragraph 1 refer to?
A. Big eaters. B. Overweight persons.
C. Picky eaters. D. Tall thin persons.
2020全国卷I B
Returning to a book you’ve read many times can feel like drinks with an old friend. There’s a welcome familiarity — but also sometimes a slight suspicion that time has changed you both, and thus the relationship. But books don’t change, people do. And that’s what makes the act of rereading so rich and trans-formative.
The beauty of rereading lies in the idea that our bond with the work is based on our present mental register. It’s true, the older I get, the more I feel time has wings. But with reading, it’s all about the present. It’s about the now and what one contributes to the now, because reading is a give and take between author and reader. Each has to pull their own weight.
There are three books I reread annually. The first, which I take to reading every spring, is Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. Published in 1964, it’s his classic memoir of 1920s Paris. The language is almost intoxicating (令人陶醉的)，an aging writer looking back on an ambitious yet simpler time. Another is Annie Dillard’s Holy the Firm, her poetic 1975 ramble (随笔) about everything and nothing. The third book is Julio Cortazar’s Save Twilight: Selected Poems, because poetry. And because Cortazar.
While I tend to buy a lot of books, these three were given to me as gifts, which might add to the meaning I attach to them. But I imagine that, while money is indeed wonderful and necessary, rereading an author’s work is the highest currency a reader can pay them. The best books are the ones that open further as time passes. But remember, it’s you that has to grow and read and reread in order to better understand your friends.
26. What does the underlined word ＂currency＂ in paragraph 4 refer to?
A. Debt. B. Reward. C. Allowance. D. Face value.

2020全国卷II C
When you were trying to figure out what to buy for the environmentalist on your holiday list, fur probably didn’t cross your mind. But some ecologists and fashion (时装）enthusiasts are trying to bring back the market for fur made from nutria(海狸鼠).
Unusual fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn have showcased nutria fur made into clothes in different styles. “It sounds crazy to talk about guilt-free fur — unless you understand that the nutria are destroying vast wetlands every year”, says Cree McCree, project director of Righteous Fur.
Scientists in Louisiana were so concerned that they decided to pay hunters $5 a tail. Some of the fur ends up in the fashion shows like the one in Brooklyn last month.
Nutria were brought there from Argentina by fur farmers and let go into the wild. “The ecosystem down there can’t handle this non-native species（物种）. It’s destroying the environment. It’s them or us," says Michael Massimi, an expert in this field.
The fur trade kept nutria in check for decades, but when the market for nutria collapsed in the late 1980s, the cat-sized animals multiplied like crazy.
Biologist Edmond Mouton runs the nutria control program for Louisiana. He says it’s not easy to convince people that nutria fur is green, but he has no doubt about it. Hunters bring in more than 300,000 nutria tails a year, so part of Mouton’s job these days is trying to promote fur.
Then there’s Righteous Fur and its unusual fashion. Model Paige Morgan says, “To give people a guilt-free option that they can wear without someone throwing paint on them — I think that’s going to be a massive thing, at least here in New York.” Designer Jennifer Anderson admits it took her a while to come around to the opinion that using nutria fur for her creations is morally acceptable. She’s trying to come up with a label to attach to nutria fashions to show it is eco-friendly.
30. What does the underlined word “collapsed” in paragraph 5 probably mean?
A. Boomed. B. Became mature.  C. Remained stable.  D. Crashed.
2020全国卷II D
I have a special place in my heart for libraries. I have for as long as I can remember. I was always an enthusiastic reader, sometimes reading up to three books a day as a child. Stories were like air to me and while other kids played ball or went to parties, I lived out adventures through the books I checked out from the library.
My first job was working at the Ukiah Library when I was 16 years old. It was a dream job and I did everything from shelving books to reading to the children for story time.
As I grew older and became a mother, the library took on a new place and an added meaning in my life. I had several children and books were our main source(来源) of entertainment. It was a big deal for us to load up and go to the local library, where my kids could pick out books to read or books they wanted me to read to them.
I always read, using different voices, as though I were acting out the stories with my voice and they loved it! It was a special time to bond with my children and it filled them with the wonderment of books.
Now, I see my children taking their children to the library and I love that the excitement of going to the library lives on form generation to generation.
As a novelist, I’ve found a new relationship with libraries. I encourage readers to go to their local library when they can’t afford to purchase a book. I see libraries as a safe haven(避风港) for readers and writers, a bridge that helps put together a reader with a book. Libraries, in their own way, help fight book piracy(盗版行为) and I think all writers should support libraries in a significant way when they can. Encourage readers to use the library. Share library announcements on your social media. Frequent them and talk about them when you can.
33. What does the underlined phrase “an added meaning” in paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Pleasure from working in the library.
B. Joy of reading passed on in the family.
C. Wonderment from acting out the stories.
D. A closer bond developed with the readers.
2020浙江卷B
The traffic signals along Factoria Boulevard in Bellevue, Washington, generally don’ t flash the same length of green twice in a row, especially at rush hour. At 9：30 am, the full red/yellow/green signal cycle might be 140 seconds. By 9：33 am, a burst of additional traffic might push it to 145 seconds. Less traffic at 9：37 am could push it down to 135. Just like the traffic itself, the timing of the signals changes.
That is by design. Bellevue, a fast-growing city, just east of Seattle, uses a system that is gaining popularity around the US：intersection（十字路口） signals that can adjust in real time to traffic conditions. These lights, known as adaptive signals, have led to significant declines in both the trouble and cost of travels between work and home.
“Adaptive signals can make sure that the traffic demand that is there is being addressed,” says Alex Stevanovic, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University.
For all of Bellevue’ s success, adaptive signals are not a cure-all for jammed roadways. Kevin Balke, a research engineer at the Texas A&M University Transportation Institute, says that while smart lights can be particularly beneficial for some cities, others are so jammed that only a sharp reduction in the number of cars on the road will make a meaningful difference. “It’s not going to fix everything, but adaptive signals have some benefits for smaller cities,” he says.
In Bellevue, the switch to adaptive signals has been a lesson in the value of welcoming new approaches. In the past, there was often an automatic reaction to increased traffic: just widen the roads, says Mark Poch, the Bellevue Transportation Department’s traffic engineering manager. Now he hopes that other cities will consider making their streets run smarter instead of just making them bigger.
25. What does the underlined word “that” in paragraph 2 refer to?
A. Increased length of green lights. B. Shortened traffic signal cycle.
C. Flexible timing of traffic signals. D. Smooth traffic flow on the road.
2020江苏C
For those who can stomach it, working out before breakfast may be more beneficial for health than eating first, according to a study of meal timing and physical activity.
Athletes and scientists have long known that meal timing affects performance. However, far less has been known about how meal timing and exercise might affect general health.
To find out, British scientists conducted a study. They first found 10 overweight and inactive but otherwise healthy young men, whose lifestyles are, for better and worse, representative of those of most of us. They tested the men's fitness and resting metabolic (新陈代谢的) rates and took samples (样品) of their blood and fat tissue.
Then, on two separate morning visits to the scientists' lab, each man walked for an hour at an average speed that, in theory should allow his body to rely mainly on fat for fuel. Before one of these workouts, the men skipped breakfast, meaning that they exercised on a completely empty stomach after a long overnight fast (禁食). On the other occasion, they ate a rich morning meal about two hours before they started walking.
Just before and an hour after each workout, the scientists took additional samples of the men's blood and fat tissue.
Then they compared the samples. There were considerable differences. Most obviously, the men displayed lower blood sugar levels at the start of their workouts when they had skipped breakfast than when they had eaten. As a result, they burned more fat during walks on an empty stomach than when they had eaten first. On the other hand, they burned slightly more calories (卡路里), on average, during the workout after breakfast than after fasting.
But it was the effects deep within the fat cells that may have been the most significant, the researchers found, Multiple genes behaved differently, depending on whether someone had eaten or not before walking. Many of these genes produce proteins (蛋白质) that can improve blood sugar regulation and insulin (胰岛素) levels throughout the body and so are associated with improved metabolic health. These genes were much more active when the men had fasted before exercise than when they had breakfasted.
The implication of these results is that to gain the greatest health benefits from exercise, it may be wise to skip eating first.
61. The underlined expression "stomach it" in Paragraph 1 most probably means "______".
A. digest the meal easily B. manage without breakfast
C. decide wisely what to eat D. eat whatever is offered
2021全国甲卷C
When I was 9, we packed up our home in Los Angeles and arrived at Heathrow, London on a gray January morning. Everyone in the family settled quickly into the city except me. Without my beloved beaches and endless blue—sky days, I felt at a loss and out of place. Until I made a discovery.
Southbank, at an eastern bend in the Thames, is the center of British skateboarding, where the continuous crashing of skateboards left your head ringing .I loved it. I soon made friends with the local skaters. We spoke our own language. And my favorite: Safe. Safe meant cool. It meant hello. It meant don't worry about it. Once, when trying a certain trick on the beam（横杆）, I fell onto the stones, damaging a nerve in my hand, and Toby came over, helping me up: Safe, man. Safe. A few minutes later, when I landed the trick, my friends beat their boards loud, shouting: “ Safe! Safe! Safe!” And that's what mattered—landing tricks, being a good skater.
When I was 15, my family moved to Washington. I tried skateboarding there, but the locals were far less welcoming. Within a couple of years, I'd given it up.
When I returned to London in 2004, I found myself wandering down to Southbank, spending hours there. I've traveled back several times since, most recently this past spring. The day was cold but clear: tourists and Londoners stopped to watch the skaters. Weaving（穿梭）among the kids who rushed by on their boards, I found my way to the beam. Then a rail—thin teenager, in a baggy white T—shirt, skidded（滑）up to the beam. He sat next to me. He seemed not to notice the man next to him. But soon I caught a few of his glances. “I was a local here 20 years ago,” I told him. Then, slowly, he began to nod his head. “Safe, man. Safe.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Safe.”
9. What do the underlined words “Safe! Safe! Safe!” probably mean?
A. Be careful! B. Well done! C. No way! D. Don't worry!

2021年全国高考乙卷B
When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline（座机）?
These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.
Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter （29%） rely only on their smartphones according to a survey （调查）. Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.
More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor（因素）— only 58 percent of Generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.
Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone（using Caller ID would take the fun out of it）.
How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?
25. What does the underlined word “concede” in paragraph 3 mean?
A. Admit. B. Argue.
C. Remember. D. Remark.
2021 新高考 I 卷C
When the explorers first set foot upon the continent of North America, the skies and lands were alive with an astonishing variety of wildlife. Native Americans had taken care of these precious natural resources wisely. Unfortunately, it took the explorers and the settlers who followed only a few decades to decimate a large part of these resources. Millions of waterfowl ( 水 禽 ) were killed at the hands of market hunters and a handful of overly ambitious sportsmen. Millions of acres of wetlands were dried to feed and house the ever-increasing populations, greatly reducing waterfowl habitat.
In 1934, with the passage of the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act (Act), an increasingly concerned nation took firm action to stop the destruction of migratory ( 迁徙的) waterfowl and the wetlands so vital to their survival. Under this Act, all waterfowl hunters 16 years of age and over must annually purchase and carry a Federal Duck Stamp. The very first Federal Duck Stamp was designed by J.N. “Ding” Darling, a political cartoonist from Des Moines, lowa, who at that time was appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt as Director of the Bureau of Biological Survey. Hunters willingly pay the stamp price to ensure the survival of our natural resources.
About 98 cents of every duck stamp dollar goes directly into the Migratory Bird Conservation Fund to purchase wetlands and wildlife habitat for inclusion into the National Wildlife Refuge System — a fact that ensures this land will be protected and available for all generations to come. Since 1934, better than half a billion dollars has gone into that Fund to purchase more than 5 million acres of habitat. Little wonder the Federal Duck Stamp Program has been called one of the most successful conservation programs ever initiated.
29. What does the underlined word “decimate” mean in the first paragraph?
A. Acquire. B. Export.
C. Destroy. D. Distribute.

2021年高考浙江卷B
We live in a town with three beaches. There are two parts less than 10 minutes’ walk from home where neighborhood children gather to play. However, what my children want to do after school is pick up a screen — any screen — and stare at it for hours. They are not alone. Today's children spend an average of four and a half hours a day looking at screens, split between watching television and using the Internet.
In the past few years, an increasing number of people and organisations have begun coming up with plans to counter this trend. A couple of years ago film-maker David Bond realised that his children, then aged five and three, were attached to screens to the point where he was able to say “chocolate” into his three-year-old son’s ear without getting a response. He realised that something needed to change, and, being a London media type, appointed himself “marketing director from Nature”. He documented his journey as he set about treating nature as a brand to be marketed to young people. The result was Project Wild Thing, a film which charts the birth of the World Network, a group of organisations with the common goal of getting children out into nature.
“Just five more minutes outdoors can make a difference,” David Bond says. “There is a lot of really interesting evidence which seems to be suggesting that if children are inspired up to the age of seven, then being outdoors will be on habit for life.” His own children have got into the habit of playing outside now: “We just send them out into the garden and tell them not to come back in for a while.”
Summer is upon us. There is an amazing world out there, and it needs our children as much as they need it. Let us get them out and let them play.
6. Which of the following can replace the underlined word “charts” in paragraph 2?
A. records B. predicts C. delays D. confirms
你的收获与反思：











猜词义答案
2015浙江
51A。根据Yet it's the only way to explain what we've done to the night: We've engineered it to receive us by filling it with light. 可知用光照亮黑夜。
56.D。根据前句While I was slow to accept that I would be the one to keep track of her shots, to schedule her vet appointments, to feed and clean her, Misty knew this on day one. As she looked up at the three new humans in her life (small, medium, and large), she calculated, 可知我照顾她比较多，他认为我是值得信赖的。
2015(天津卷)
52. B词句猜测题。根据上下文可知勇敢就是咬掉比你确信你能吃的更多的东西决定，由此可知划线部分表示你的行动要稍微超过你的能力，故B项正确。
53. 2015（四川卷）
36.B词义判断题。根据文章上文的the first wave had shut down my ability to smell,可知，此处指的是鼻子闻不到那种味道，故选择B，意为搅乱。
44.A 。根据划线词所在的段落中的being kept awake及During the breeding season, between April and June,they are very active at night可知答案选A。
47.D。 词义猜测题。根据第四段的To make the work easier,以及下文的either with wet clay or with the fat from cattle.可知，这样做是为了让路更加平滑，故选择D。
48.A 词义猜测题。这是考查指代词的指代内容，由于是指代词，可知内容应该在上文，根据第六段的内容可知，选择A，意为把杆绑在石块上，然后滚动石块。
2015（上海卷）
71.C。 前文出现了rabbit一词，主要说有个大兔子吃光了所有的蔬菜，因此此处意思是说组织者雇人去抓它，所以黑体词指前文提到的兔子。
2015（江苏卷）
65. D词义猜测题。根据划线词所在句子后半句“one very powerful man ruling over helpless masses”可知tyrannies是指拥有绝对统治权的政府。故选D项。
2015（湖北卷）
55.C。根据On a mere 1/10 of an acre in Los Angeles, Loe and her family grow, can（装罐）and preserve much of the food they consume.可知。
58.D词义猜测题。根据最后一段中尾句“that if we don’t take care of the earth, no one will”可知the bigger picture指的是保护地球的责任。故选D项。
2015（广东卷）42.B词义猜测题。根据短文第三段的内容可知，根据一项关于英国社会阶级是否开始消亡的调查可知，绝大多数人仍然认为英国社会中存在不同的阶级，这是英国社会中重要的一部分。由此可知，英国人好像对阶级划分非常热衷。stratification划分，跟B选项是同义词，故选B。
2015（福建卷）
73.A 根据If you’re tired of wandering around the gym wasting time and becoming bored可知upbeat 与bored对比。
2015 (北京卷)
64.D。根据But some materials slow and scatter(散射) light, bouncing it away from its original path. Others absorb light, 可知划线词意思是完全地，故答案选D。
2015(安徽卷)
70.D词义猜测题。根据attacking in large groups and overcoming their target可知答案为D。
2016(新课标 I )
29. B词义猜测题。根据本段内容 I’ve done 89 trips和I have 42 hours to carry stem cells in my little box以及第二段内容可知作者是运送干细胞的人，也就是delivery man。故选B 。
2016全国课标卷Ⅱ
27. B【解析】考查词义猜测。根据下文的"I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking"可知,作者冒着失去那些有不同思维风格的学生的风险。故可知该词的意思为"不足,缺点",所以 选B项。
30.A 根据根据第二段中的hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide可知答案选A。
2016年（新课标全国卷III）
6.D 根据划线词所在句These are the people that make me write them中的主语These指的就是像那两位陌生人那样的人，这些新朋友就成了Welly 笔下的写作素材，这些人就是让她写小说的人。故答案选D。
10.B词义猜测题。but you’ll need a warm, sheltered place with perfect soil to grow it种植条件和土壤要求高，对于想大饱口福的人来说是一种脱离实际的愿望。
2016（天津卷）
49.C 根据 Those who had done the most boyhood activities were twice as likely to have warm relations with a wide variety of people, five times as likely to be well paid and 16 times less likely to have been unemployed.可知是明确的，一定的意思。
2016（四川卷）
24.B词义猜测题。生活价值的核心。
31.A词义猜测题。法国的生活风格。根据These local citizens now have to balance their traditional self-supporting hunting lifestyle with the lifestyle offered by the modern French Republic,可知答案选A。
2016（上海卷）
73.A 词义猜测题。根据第三段第一句可知很多社交媒体公司和用户签订了没有意义的法律合同。而这些合同是没有意义的废话，也起不到任何作用，很多用户根本没有仔细阅读合同的具体内容。故A正确。
2016（北京卷）
68. A词义猜测题。根据＂from the shelter of the family to autonomy and adult responsibility＂可知，从受家庭的庇护到有自主性和肩负成年人的责任，这是一种转变、变化，故选A。
2017(新课标 I )
33.B词义猜测题。接水器。
2017年高考英语试题全国课标卷Ⅱ
26.A 。分享这个信念。根据We shared the belief that if you’re fortunate enough to have success, you should put something back可知
33.A。 根据The attacker who was lunching now becomes lunch.（正吃午餐的袭击者变成了午餐）可知。
2017年（新课标全国卷III）
29.C。根据By the 1920s, wolves had practically disappeared from the Yellowstone area. They went farther north into the deep forests of Canada, where there were fewer humans around.（灰狼被人类挤走了）可知。
2017（浙江卷）
22.D 【解析】句意猜测题。根据第三段＂These were the first pictures and first real paint and brushes Benjamin had ever seen＂可知Benjamin在剪完猫的毛做刷子之后，就很快有了真正的刷子，故选D。
2017（天津卷）
46.【答案】D
【解析】试题分析：根据第二段的句子the grey area between semi-autonomous and fully driverless cars that could delay the driverless future可知选D。
考点：考查词义猜测。
2017（江苏卷）
58. B【解析】根据第二段＂when the errs were hatched, the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers＂可知，鸟儿在孵化小鸟的时候，鸣叫对未出生的小鸟有很大影响，它们被孵化后也能发出类似的声音，说明鸟儿很擅长胎教。
65.A 【解析】考查句意理解。根据上文中的"We are therefore...but to a constantly shifting set of conditions"可知，对于不断变化的环境，没有一个通用的方法来解决所有这样的问题。故画线部分暗示的是适应环境也是一个不断变化的过程。故A正确。
2018(新课标 I )
【29题详解】
猜测词义题。根据文章第二段中的dominant languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over.可知，英语、西班牙语和汉语正在快速替代其他语言。由此推知dominant languages意为“强有力的语言”。故选C。
2018全国课标卷Ⅱ
【26题详解】
词义猜测题。根据最后一段中they love feeding the fruit and frozen bananas into the top of the machine and watching the ice cream come out below可知，孩子们喜欢把一些水果和冷冻的香蕉放入到这台机器的上部，然后看到冰激凌从下面出来。故可以推出a juicer就是一台机器。故选D。
2018（新课标III卷）
【32题详解】
词义猜测题。根据文章第一段最后一句…I can help my own kids learn earlier than I did how to live more with less可以推断出，人们通常认为越多越好。故选A。
2018年6月普通高等学校招生全国统一考试（浙江卷）
【25题详解】
词义猜测题。上文介绍在许多美国大城市塑料袋被禁用，看到这种现状，塑料袋生产商雇用Steven Stein等科学家是为了证明他们的产品并不像大多数人想象的那样对地球有害。headwinds意为“逆风”，此处指塑料袋被禁用的现状，即Bans on plastic bags，故选A。
2018（江苏卷）
【58题详解】
词义猜测题。根据文章第三段划线部分的前句they couldn't tell how much they'd had: those given extra-large shares ate more than everyone else,可知，在黑暗中，他们说不清自己吃了多少，再根据划线后的句子they didn’t feel fuller, and they were just as ready for dessert.可知，他们虽然吃得很多，但并没有感觉更饱，仍然在等着吃甜点，所以他们没有意识到自己吃多了，故A正确。
2018 （北京卷）
【49题详解】
词义猜测题。根据第四段The first commercially available driverless cars will almost certainly be fielded by ride-hailing services, considering the cost of self-driving technology as well as liability and maintenance issues(责任与维护问题).可知，鉴于自主驾驶的费用以及责任和维护问题，无人驾驶车几乎可以肯定将会被打车服务使用。故划线词是“被应用”的意思。A. Employed被应用；B. Replaced被取代；C. Shared被分享；D. Reduced被减少。故选A。
2019江苏
【60题详解】
词义猜测题。根据第三段第一句Just at this time NASA decided to test some new high-altitude cameras by taking photographs of Yellowstone. A thoughtful official passed on some of the copies to the park authorities on the assumption that they might make a nice blow-up for one of the visitors’ centers.可知，美国国家航空和宇宙航行局为测试一些新的高海拔照相机而拍摄了黄石公园的照片。一位深思熟虑的官员把其中的一些照片副本转交给了公园管理部门，认为他们可能会将其放大以供一个游客中心展示。故可知，此处意为将照片放大，选C。
2019全国卷三
【26题详解】
词义猜测题。下文and beating them hands down in design and sales说并在设计和销售上击败他们。由此推断出上文Vera Wang, Alexander Wang, Jason Wu are taking on Galliano, Albaz, Mare Jacobs的意思是Vera Wang、Alexander Wang和Jason Wu正在与Galliano、Albaz和 Mare Jacobs竞争。taking on意思是“竞争”，故选D。
2019全国卷二
【25题详解】
词义猜测题。根据划线前句she may just need a little persuading.和下面的一句话I mention the single parent with four kids running the show and I talk about the dad coaching a team that his kids aren't even on ...可知，作者为了劝服这位家长，举了两个例子。故可知，划线句此处应是“煽情”之意。故选B。
2019北京
【43题详解】
猜测词义题。根据划线词后的“Warming changes key characteristics of the ocean and can affect phytoplankton growth, since they need not only sunshine and carbon dioxide to grow, but also nutrients.”可知，气候变暖会改变海洋的主要特征，并会影响浮游植物的生长。由此可判断“But phytoplankton are vulnerable to the ocean’s wamning trend”可知，浮游植物很容易受到海洋变暖趋势的影响。可知A项正确。
【25题详解】
词义猜测题。根据第二段 “I’m here to tell you today why you should…should…” Chris trips on the “-ld”, a pronunciation difficulty for many non-native English speakers. 以及后文except for some stumbles, Chris is doing amazingly well 可知, Chris 发ld比较困难，这对于英语不是母语的学习者来说都是一个困难，总体来说Chris做得出奇的好。根据前文可知，ld发音不准，因此有些结巴，停顿得不准，故选A。
2019天津
【52题详解】
词义猜测题。根据第三段I’m talking about people who have stopped learning on growing because they have adopted the fixed attitudes and opinions that all too often come with passing years.故可知，作者谈论的不是那些没有到达巅峰的人，而是谈论那些不再学习成长的人，故可知run out of steam可知，停止学习，故选D。
2019浙江
【24题详解】
词义猜测题。由第一段“But at Union Station in Los Angeles last month, a board went up with dollar bills attached to it with pins and a sign that read, "Give What You Can, Take What You Need.”可知，但是上个月在洛杉矶的联合车站，一块牌子上别针别满了美元，上面写着“给予你所能给与的，拿走你所需要的”。所以通过下文的语境，判断出第1段中的money with no strings attached是“无条件提供的钱”的意思。故B选项正确。
2020山东
C篇9. D 词义猜测题。第一段第二句中，“A few years later, still attracted to the country, he returned to Uzbekistan to write an article about the disappearance of the Aral Sea.”“that”通常指代的上文所说的内容，可知，“that”指代的是主人公写的书 Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia，故选D。
D篇13. D 词义猜测题。根据划线单词所在句上文“And contrary to existing research that says you should avoid eating with heavier people who order large portions”（与现有的研究结果相反的是，你应该避免和体重较胖的人一起吃饭，因为他们点的食物份量比较大）可知，beanpoles是heavier people的反义词，故选D。
2020全国I
B篇26. B词义猜测题。根据题干信息定位至划线句所在句子“rereading an author’s work is the highest currency a reader can pay them.”，此处意为：“奖励，回报”，故选B。
2020全国II
C篇30.D考查词义猜测题。根据划线词所在句的后半部分“the cat-sized animals multiplied like crazy…”（猫那么大小的动物疯狂地繁殖），与之相反，海狸鼠市场在20世纪80年代末崩溃了，故选D。
D篇33.B。考查词义猜测题。根据题干定位到第三段，“伴随着年龄的增长，我成了一位母亲，图书馆对我来说呈现成了一个新地方，并且有了附加的意义。我有了几个孩子，书本成了我们娱乐的源泉。”可知这个意义是与家庭和快乐有关的，故选B。
2020浙江
B篇25.C.指代猜测题。That位于第二段句首，应是指代第一段的内容。根据第一段内容尤其是第一段最后一句“Just like the traffic itself, the timing of the signals changes.(就像交通本身一样，信号灯的时间也会变化)”可知，第一段主要讲述的是信号灯的时间会灵活变化；“That is by design.”意为“那是有意为之”，由此可推知，That指代第一段中“信号灯的灵活时间”。故选C项。
2020江苏
C篇 61.B词句猜测题。根据下文working out before breakfast may be more beneficial for health than eating first可知，早餐前锻炼可能比先吃饭再锻炼对健康更有益，因此推断这里说的是那些不吃早饭先锻炼的人，因此推断划线词与B项”不吃早饭能应付”意思相近。故选B。
2021全国甲卷
【9题详解】B
词义猜测题。根据画线词后文“And that's what mattered—landing tricks, being a good skater. (那才是真正重要的——滑板的落地技巧掌握了才是一名好的滑板玩家)”可知，作者掌握了滑板落地技巧，因此他的朋友大声欢呼，因此可以推出本句的Safe是赞美的含义，结合选项，故选B。
【25题详解】A
词句猜测题。根据划线单词的上文“Of those Australians who still have a landline (在那些仍然有固定电话的澳大利亚人中)”可知，这个调查的目标人群是仍然有固定电话的澳大利亚人；根据下文“it's not really necessary and they're keeping it as a security blanket — 19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies (固定电话并不是必须的，他们将其作为一种安全保障——19%的人表示他们从未使用过固定电话，另有13%的人保留固定电话以防紧急情况)”可知，很多人认为固定电话并不是必须拥有的，有些人保留固定电话只是为了防止紧急情况。从而推知，在调查中，他们应该是承认了固定电话的非必要性。由此推知，划线单词“concede”意为“承认”。故选A项。
2021 （新高考 I 卷）
【29题详解】C
词义猜测题。根据前一句“Native Americans had taken care of these precious natural resources wisely.”可知，北美的土著人把这些珍贵的自然资源保护的很合理，本句中的“Unfortunately”可知，本句与上一句形成了转折，前一句陈述北美土著人做的好的地方，故可知，本句阐述移民者做的不好的地方，即移民者破坏了这些自然资源，故画线词意思是“破坏”。A. Acquire获得；B. Export出口；C. Destroy破坏；D. Distribute分配。故选C。
2021年高考浙江卷
6题详解】A
词句猜测题。根据划线词上文“a film”可知，本句主语是一部电影，下文“the birth of the World Network (世界网络的诞生)”解释了这部电影的主旨。由此推知，划线词charts意为“记录、描绘”，与“records”意思一致。故选A项。