五年(2019-2023)高考英语真题分项汇编(新高考专用)专题12 阅读理解说明文(原卷版)
展开专题12 阅读理解说明文(原卷版)
全国各地历年高考真题全收录
一、 2023年高考真题
(一) 2023新高考全国Ⅰ卷C
The goal of this book is to make the case for digital minimalism, including a detailed exploration of what it asks and why it works, and then to teach you how to adopt this philosophy if you decide it’s right for you.
To do so, I divided the book into two parts. In part one, I describe the philosophical foundations of digital minimalism, starting with an examination of the forces that are making so many people’s digital lives increasingly intolerable, before moving on to a detailed discussion of the digital minimalism philosophy.
Part one concludes by introducing my suggested method for adopting this philosophy: the digital declutter. This process requires you to step away from optional online activities for thirty days. At the end of the thirty days, you will then add back a small number of carefully chosen online activities that you believe will provide massive benefits to the things you value.
In the final chapter of part one, I’ll guide you through carrying out your own digital declutter. In doing so, I’ll draw on an experiment I ran in 2018 in which over 1,600 people agreed to perform a digital declutter. You’ll hear these participants’ stories and learn what strategies worked well for them, and what traps they encountered that you should avoid.
The second part of this book takes a closer look at some ideas that will help you cultivate (培养) a sustainable digital minimalism lifestyle. In these chapters, I examine issues such as the importance of solitude (独处) and the necessity of cultivating high-quality leisure to replace the time most now spend on mindless device use. Each chapter concludes with a collection of practices, which are designed to help you act on the big ideas of the chapter. You can view these practices as a toolbox meant to aid your efforts to build a minimalist lifestyle that words for your particular circumstances.
8. What is the book aimed at?
A. Teaching critical thinking skills. B. Advocating a simple digital lifestyle.
C. Solving philosophical problems. D. Promoting the use of a digital device.
9. What does the underlined word “declutter” in paragraph 3 mean?
A. Clear-up. B. Add-on. C. Check-in. D. Take-over.
10. What is presented in the final chapter of part one?
A. Theoretical models. B. Statistical methods.
C. Practical examples. D. Historical analyses.
11. What does the author suggest readers do with the practices offered in part two?
A. Use them as needed. B. Recommend them to friends.
C. Evaluate their effects. D. Identify the ideas behind them.
(二) 2023新高考全国Ⅰ卷D
On March 7, 1907, the English statistician Francis Galton published a paper which illustrated what has come to be known as the “wisdom of crowds” effect. The experiment of estimation he conducted showed that in some cases, the average of a large number of independent estimates could be quite accurate.
This effect capitalizes on the fact that when people make errors, those errors aren’t always the same. Some people will tend to overestimate, and some to underestimate. When enough of these errors are averaged together, they cancel each other out, resulting in a more accurate estimate. If people are similar and tend to make the same errors, then their errors won’t cancel each other out. In more technical terms, the wisdom of crowds requires that people’s estimates be independent. If for whatever reasons, people’s errors become correlated or dependent, the accuracy of the estimate will go down.
But a new study led by Joaquin Navajas offered an interesting twist (转折) on this classic phenomenon. The key finding of the study was that when crowds were further divided into smaller groups that were allowed to have a discussion, the averages from these groups were more accurate than those from an equal number of independent individuals. For instance, the average obtained from the estimates of four discussion groups of five was significantly more accurate than the average obtained from 20 independent individuals.
In a follow-up study with 100 university students, the researchers tried to get a better sense of what the group members actually did in their discussion. Did they tend to go with those most confident about their estimates? Did they follow those least willing to change their minds? This happened some of the time, but it wasn’t the dominant response. Most frequently, the groups reported that they “shared arguments and reasoned together.” Somehow, these arguments and reasoning resulted in a global reduction in error. Although the studies led by Navajas have limitations and many questions remain the potential implications for group discussion and decision-making are enormous.
12. What is paragraph 2 of the text mainly about?
A. The methods of estimation. B. The underlying logic of the effect.
C. The causes of people’s errors. D. The design of Galton’s experiment.
13. Navajas’ study found that the average accuracy could increase even if ________.
A. the crowds were relatively small B. there were occasional underestimates
C. individuals did not communicate D. estimates were not fully independent
14. What did the follow-up study focus on?
A. The size of the groups. B. The dominant members.
C. The discussion process. D. The individual estimates.
15. What is the author’s attitude toward Navajas’ studies?
A. Unclear. B. Dismissive. C. Doubtful. D. Approving.
(三) 2023新高考全国Ⅱ卷C
Reading Art: Art for Book Lovers is a celebration of an everyday object — the book, represented here in almost three hundred artworks from museums around the world. The image of the reader appears throughout history, in art made long before books as we now know them came into being. In artists’ representations of books and reading, we see moments of shared humanity that go beyond culture and time.
In this “book of books,” artworks are selected and arranged in a way that emphasizes these connections between different eras and cultures. We see scenes of children learning to read at home or at school, with the book as a focus for relations between the generations. Adults are portrayed (描绘) alone in many settings and poses —absorbed in a volume, deep in thought or lost in a moment of leisure. These scenes may have been painted hundreds of years ago, but they record moments we can all relate to.
Books themselves may be used symbolically in paintings to demonstrate the intellect (才智), wealth or faith of the subject. Before the wide use of the printing press, books were treasured objects and could be works of art in their own right. More recently, as books have become inexpensive or even throwaway, artists have used them as the raw material for artworks — transforming covers, pages or even complete volumes into paintings and sculptures.
Continued developments in communication technologies were once believed to make the printed page outdated. From a 21st-century point of view, the printed book is certainly ancient, but it remains as interactive as any battery-powered e-reader. To serve its function, a book must be activated by a user: the cover opened, the pages parted, the contents reviewed, perhaps notes written down or words underlined. And in contrast to our increasingly networked lives where the information we consume is monitored and tracked, a printed book still offers the chance of a wholly private, “off-line” activity.
8. Where is the text most probably taken from?
A. An introduction to a book. B. An essay on the art of writing.
C. A guidebook to a museum. D. A review of modern paintings.
9. What are the selected artworks about?
A. Wealth and intellect. B. Home and school.
C. Books and reading. D. Work and leisure.
10. What do the underlined words “relate to” in paragraph 2 mean?
A. Understand. B. Paint.
C. Seize. D. Transform.
11. What does the author want to say by mentioning the e-reader?
A. The printed book is not totally out of date.
B. Technology has changed the way we read.
C. Our lives in the 21st century are networked.
D. People now rarely have the patience to read.
(四) 2023新高考全国Ⅱ卷D
As cities balloon with growth, access to nature for people living in urban areas is becoming harder to find. If you’re lucky, there might be a pocket park near where you live, but it’s unusual to find places in a city that are relatively wild.
Past research has found health and wellness benefits of nature for humans, but a new study shows that wildness in urban areas is extremely important for human well-being.
The research team focused on a large urban park. They surveyed several hundred park-goers, asking them to submit a written summary online of a meaningful interaction they had with nature in the park. The researchers then examined these submissions, coding (编码) experiences into different categories. For example, one participant’s experience of “We sat and listened to the waves at the beach for a while” was assigned the categories “sitting at beach” and “listening to waves.”
Across the 320 submissions, a pattern of categories the researchers call a “nature language” began to emerge. After the coding of all submissions, half a dozen categories were noted most often as important to visitors. These include encountering wildlife, walking along the edge of water, and following an established trail.
Naming each nature experience creates a usable language, which helps people recognize and take part in the activities that are most satisfying and meaningful to them. For example, the experience of walking along the edge of water might be satisfying for a young professional on a weekend hike in the park. Back downtown during a workday, they can enjoy a more domestic form of this interaction by walking along a fountain on their lunch break.
“We’re trying to generate a language that helps bring the human-nature interactions back into our daily lives. And for that to happen, we also need to protect nature so that we can interact with it,” said Peter Kahn, a senior author of the study.
12. What phenomenon does the author describe at the beginning of the text?
A. Pocket parks are now popular. B. Wild nature is hard to find in cities.
C. Many cities are overpopulated. D. People enjoy living close to nature.
13. Why did the researchers code participant submissions into categories?
A. To compare different types of park-goers. B. To explain why the park attracts tourists.
C. To analyze the main features of the park. D. To find patterns in the visitors’ summaries.
14. What can we learn from the example given in paragraph 5?
A. Walking is the best way to gain access to nature.
B. Young people are too busy to interact with nature.
C. The same nature experience takes different forms.
D. The nature language enhances work performance.
15. What should be done before we can interact with nature according to Kahn?
A. Language study. B. Environmental conservation.
C. Public education. D. Intercultural communication.
(五) 2023全国甲卷C
I was about 13 when an uncle gave me a copy of Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World. It was full of ideas that were new to me, so I spent the summer with my head in and out of that book. It spoke to me and brought me into a world of philosophy (哲学).
That love for philosophy lasted until I got to college. Nothing kills the love for philosophy faster than people who think they understand Foucault, Baudrillard, or Confucius better than you — and then try to explain them.
Eric weiner’s The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers reawakened my love for philosophy. It is not an explanation, but an invitation to think and experience philosophy.
Weiner starts each chapter with a scene on a train ride between cities and then frames each philosopher’s work in the context (背景) of one thing they can help us do better. The end result is a read in which we learn to wonder like Socrates, see like Thoreau, listen like Schopenhauer, and have no regrets like Nietzsche. This, more than a book about undestanding philosophy, is a book abour learning to use philosophy to improve a life.
He makes philosophical thought an appealing exercise that improves the quality of our experiences, and he does so with plenty of humor. Weiner enters into conversation with some of the most important philosophers in history, and he becomes part of that crowd in the process by decoding (解读) their mssages and adding his own interpretation.
The Socrates Express is a fun, sharp book that draws readers in with its apparent simplicity and gradually pulls them in deeper thoughts on desire, loneliness, and aging. The invitation is clear: Weiner wants you to pick up a coffee or tea and sit down with this book. I encourage you to take his offer. It’s worth your time, even if time is something we don’t have a lot of.
8. Who opened the door to philosophy for the author?
A. Foucault. B. Eric Weiner.
C. Jostein Gaarder. D. A college teacher.
9. Why does the author list great philosophers in paragraph 4?
A. To compare Weiner with them.
B. To give examples of great works.
C. To praise their writing skills.
D. To help readers understand Weiners book.
10. What does the author like about The Socrates Express?
A. Its views on history are well-presented.
B. Its ideas can be applied to daily life.
C. It includes comments from readers.
D. It leaves an open ending.
11. What does the author think of Weiners book?
A. Objective and plain.
B. Daring and ambitious.
C. Serious and hard to follow.
D. Humorous and straightforward.
(六) 2023全国甲卷D
Grizzly bears, which may grow to about 2.5 m long and weigh over 400 kg, occupy a conflicted corner of the American psyche-we revere (敬畏) them even as they give us frightening dreams. Ask the tourists from around the world that flood into Yellowstone National Park what they most hope to see, and their answer is often the same: a grizzly bear.
“Grizzly bears are re-occupying large areas of their former range,” says bear biologist Chris Servheen. As grizzly bears expand their range into places where they haven’t been seen in a century or more, they’re increasingly being sighted by humans.
The western half of the U.S. was full of grizzlies when Europeans came, with a rough number of 50,000 or more living alongside Native Americans. By the early 1970s, after centuries of cruel and continuous hunting by settlers, 600 to 800 grizzlies remained on a mere 2 percent of their former range in the Northern Rockies. In 1975, grizzlies were listed under the Endangered Species Act.
Today, there are about 2,000 or more grizzly bears in the U.S. Their recovery has been so successful that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has twice attempted to delist grizzlies, which would loosen legal protections and allow them to be hunted. Both efforts were overturned due to lawsuits from conservation groups. For now, grizzlies remain listed.
Obviously, if precautions (预防) aren’t taken, grizzlies can become troublesome, sometimes killing farm animals or walking through yards in search of food. If people remove food and attractants from their yards and campsites, grizzlies will typically pass by without trouble. Putting electric fencing around chicken houses and other farm animal quarters is also highly effective at getting grizzlies away. “Our hope is to have a clean, attractant-free place where bears can pass through without learning bad habits,“ says James Jonkel, longtime biologist who manages bears in and around Missoula.
12. How do Americans look at grizzlies?
A. They cause mixed feelings in people.
B. They should be kept in national parks.
C. They are of high scientific value.
D. They are a symbol of American culture.
13. What has helped the increase of the grizzly population?
A. The European settlers’ behavior.
B. The expansion of bears’ range.
C. The protection by law since 1975.
D. The support of Native Americans.
14. What has stopped the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service from delisting grizzlies?
A. The opposition of conservation groups.
B. The successful comeback of grizzlies.
C. The voice of the biologists.
D The local farmers’ advocates.
15. What can be inferred from the last paragraph?
A. Food should be provided for grizzlies.
B. People can live in harmony with grizzlies.
C. A special path should be built for grizzlies.
D. Technology can be introduced to protect grizzlies.
(七) 2023全国乙卷A
A
PRACTITIONERS
Jacqueline Felice de Almania (c.1322) highlights the suspicion that women practicing medicine faced. Born to a Jewish family in Florence, she moved to Paris where she worked as a physician and performed surgery. In 1322 she was tried for practicing unlawfully. In spite of the court hearing testimonials (证明) of her ability as a doctor, she was banned from medicine.
James Barry (c.1789 — 1865) was born Margaret Bulkley in Ireland but, dressed as a man, she was accepted by Edinburgh University to study medicine. She qualified as a surgeon in 1813, then joined the British Army, serving overseas. Barry retired in 1859, having practiced her entire medical profession living and working as a man.
Tan Yunxian (1461 — 1554) was a Chinese physician who learned her skills from her grandparents. Chinese women at the time could not serve apprenticeships (学徒期) with doctors. However, Tan passed the official exam. Tan treated women from all walks of life. In 1511, Tan wrote a book, Sayings of a Female Doctor, describing her life as a physician.
Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831 — 1895) worked as a nurse for eight years before studying in medical college in Boston in 1860. Four years later, she was the first African American woman to receive a medical degree. She moved to Virginia in 1865, where she provided medical care to freed slaves.
1. What did Jacqueline and James have in common?
A. Doing teaching jobs. B. Being hired as physicians.
C. Performing surgery. D. Being banned from medicine.
2. How was Tan Yunxian different from the other practitioners?
A. She wrote a book. B. She went through trials.
C. She worked as a dentist. D. She had formal education.
3. Who was the first African American with a medical degree?
A Jacqueline Felice de Almania. B. Tan Yunxian.
C. James Barry. D. Rebecca Lee Crumpler.
(八) 2023全国乙卷C
What comes into your mind when you think of British food? Probably fish and chips, or a Sunday dinner of meat and two vegetables. But is British food really so uninteresting? Even though Britain has a reputation for less-than-impressive cuisine, it is producing more top class chefs who appear frequently on our television screens and whose recipe books frequently top the best seller lists.
It’s thanks to these TV chefs rather than any advertising campaign that Britons are turning away from meat-and-two-veg and ready-made meals and becoming more adventurous in their cooking habits. It is recently reported that the number of those sticking to a traditional diet is slowly declining and around half of Britain’s consumers would like to change or improve their cooking in some way. There has been a rise in the number of students applying for food courses at UK universities and colleges. It seems that TV programmes have helped change what people think about cooking.
According to a new study from market analysts, 1 in 5 Britons say that watching cookery programmes on TV has encouraged them to try different food. Almost one third say they now use a wider variety of ingredients (配料) than they used to, and just under 1 in 4 say they now buy better quality ingredients than before. One in four adults say that TV chefs have made them much more confident about expanding their cookery knowledge and skills, and young people are also getting more interested in cooking. The UK’s obsession (痴迷) with food is reflected through television scheduling. Cookery shows and documentaries about food are broadcast more often than before. With an increasing number of male chefs on TV, it’s no longer “uncool” for boys to like cooking.
8. What do people usually think of British food?
A. It is simple and plain. B. It is rich in nutrition.
C. It lacks authentic tastes. D. It deserves a high reputation.
9. Which best describes cookery programme on British TV?
A. Authoritative. B. Creative. C. Profitable. D. Influential.
10. Which is the percentage of the people using more diverse ingredients now?
A. 20%. B. 24%. C. 25%. D. 33%.
11. What might the author continue talking about?
A. The art of cooking in other countries. B. Male chefs on TV programmes.
C. Table manners in the UK. D. Studies of big eaters.
(九) 2023年2月四省联考C
For years, David James, who studies insects at Washington State University, had wanted to examine the migration (迁徙)patterns of West Coast monarch butterflies (黑脉金斑蝶). The route the butterflies travel has been hardly known because the populations are too small to follow. For every 200 monarchs tagged (打标签)by a researcher, only one is usually recovered at the end of its trip, James says, and finding even 200 in the wild to tag is unlikely. Knowing the route is vital to conservation efforts, but James had no way to figure it out- until he got a phone call from Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla.
The prison was looking for new activities to improve the mental health of those serving long-term sentences. So James began working with prisoners to raise monarchs through the whole process of their transformation. The adult insects were then tagged and released from the prison. Over five years, nearly 10, 000 monarchs flew from the facility. Elsewhere in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, researchers released another few thousand.
The tags included email addresses, and soon after the first butterflies took off, James started receiving messages from people who had spotted them. The butterflies, the reports confirmed, wintered in coastal California. Twelve of them landed at Lighthouse Field State Beach in Santa Cruz. Several more headed to Bolinas and Morro Bay.
The work helps researchers identify ideal places to plant milkweed and other vegetation that are important to the life cycle of West Coast monarch butterflies. It also brought out the gentler side of some of the prisoners. “They were very worried that they were going to harm the butterflies, ”James says. Watching the monarch change their form also touched the men. “This butterfly changed, ” James recalls prisoners telling him, “and maybe we can too. ”
8. What was hard for David to do in his study?
A. Gain financial support. B. Hire qualified workers.
C. Build a new laboratory. D. Find enough monarchs.
9. Why are the butterflies tagged before being released?
A. To guarantee their safety.
B. To enable them to fly longer distances.
C. To track their travel routes.
D. To distinguish them from other species.
10. What makes the prisoners feel that they can change?
A. The patience the butterflies showed.
B. The hardship the butterflies underwent.
C. The transformation of the butterflies.
D. The devotion of James to the butterflies.
11. What is the last paragraph mainly about?
A. The impact of the research.
B. The findings of James’ study.
C. The release of the prisoners.
D. The life cycle of the butterflies.
(十) 2023年2月四省联考D
We all know that unpleasant feeling when we’re talking about something interesting and halfway through our sentence we’re interrupted. But was that really an interruption? The answer depends on whom you ask, according to new research led by Katherine Hilton from Stanford University.
Using a set of controlled audio clips (录音片段), Hilton surveyed 5, 000 American English speakers to better understand what affects people’s perceptions of interruptions. She had participants listen to audio clips and then answer questions about whether the speakers seemed to be friendly and engaged, listening to one another, or trying to interrupt.
Hilton found that American English speakers have different conversational styles. She identified two distinct groups: high and low intensity speakers. High intensity speakers are generally uncomfortable with moments of silence in conversation and consider talking at the same time a sign of engagement. Low intensity speakers find it rude to talk at the same time and prefer people speak one after another in conversation.
The differences in conversational styles became evident when participants listened to audio clips in which two people spoke at the same time but were agreeing with each other and stayed on topic, Hilton said. The high intensity group reported that conversations where people spoke at the same time when expressing agreement were not interruptive but engaged and friendlier than the conversations with moments of silence in between speaking turns. In contrast, the low intensity group perceived any amount of simultaneous (同时) chat as a rude interruption, regardless of what the speakers were saying.
“People care about being interrupted, and those small interruptions can have a massive effect on the overall communication,” Hilton said. “Breaking apart what an interruption means is essential if we want to understand how humans interact with each other.”
12. What does Hilton’s research focus on?
A. What interruptions mean to people.
B. Whether interruption is good or not.
C. How to avoid getting interrupted.
D. Why speakers interrupt each other.
13. What do participants of the study need to do?
A. Record an audio clip. B. Answer some questions.
C. Listen to one another. D. Have a chat with a friend.
14. What do low intensity speakers think of simultaneous chat?
A. It’s important. B. It’s interesting.
C. It’s inefficient. D. It’s impolite.
15. What can we learn from Hilton’s research?
A. Human interaction is complex.
B. Communication is the basis of life.
C. Interruptions promote thinking.
D. Language barriers will always exist.
(十一) 2023年1月浙江卷D
According to the Solar Energy Industry Association, the number of solar panels installed(安装)has grown rapidly in the past decade, and it has to grow even faster to meet climate goals. But all of that growth will take up a lot of space, and though more and more people accept the concept of solar energy, few like large solar panels to be installed near them.
Solar developers want to put up panels as quickly and cheaply as possible, so they haven’t given much thought to what they put under them. Often, they’ll end up filling the area with small stones and using chemicals to control weeds. The result is that many communities, especially in farming regions, see solar farms as destroyers of the soil.
“Solar projects need to be good neighbors,” says Jordan Macknick, the head of the Innovative Site Preparation and Impact Reductions on the Environment(InSPIRE)project. “They need to be protectors of the land and contribute to the agricultural economy.” InSPIRE is investigating practical approaches to “low-impact” solar development, which focuses on establishing and operating solar farms in a way that is kinder to the land. One of the easiest low-impact solar strategies is providing habitat for pollinators(传粉昆虫).
Habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change have caused dramatic declines in pollinator populations over the past couple of decades, which has damaged the U.S. agricultural economy. Over 28 states have passed laws related to pollinator habitat protection and pesticide use. Conservation organizations put out pollinator-friendliness guidelines for home gardens, businesses, schools, cities—and now there are guidelines for solar farms.
Over the past few years, many solar farm developers have transformed the space under their solar panels into a shelter for various kinds of pollinators, resulting in soil improvement and carbon reduction. “These pollinator-friendly solar farms can have a valuable impact on everything that’s going on in the landscape,” says Macknick.
32. What do solar developers often ignore?
A. The decline in the demand for solar energy.
B. The negative impact of installing solar panels.
C. The rising labor cost of building solar farms.
D. The most recent advances in solar technology.
33. What does InSPIRE aim to do?
A. Improve the productivity of local farms.
B. Invent new methods for controlling weeds.
C. Make solar projects environmentally friendly.
D. Promote the use of solar energy in rural areas.
34. What is the purpose of the laws mentioned in paragraph 4?
A. To conserve pollinators. B. To restrict solar development.
C. To diversify the economy. D. To ensure the supply of energy.
35. Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A. Pollinators: To Leave or to Stay B. Solar Energy: Hope for the Future
C. InSPIRE: A Leader in Agriculture D. Solar Farms: A New Development
二、 2022年高考真题
(十二) 2022新高考1卷 B
Like most of us, I try to be mindful of food that goes to waste. The arugula (芝麻菜)was to make a nice green salad, rounding out a roast chicken dinner. But I ended up working late. Then friends called with a dinner invitation. I stuck the chicken in the freezer. But as days passed, the arugula went bad. Even worse, I had unthinkingly bought way too much; I could have made six salads with what I threw out.
In a world where nearly 800 million people a year go hungry, “food waste goes against the moral grain,” as Elizabeth Royte writes in this month’s cover story. It’s jaw-dropping how much perfectly good food is thrown away — from “ugly” (but quite eatable) vegetables rejected by grocers to large amounts of uneaten dishes thrown into restaurant garbage cans.
Producing food that no one eats wastes the water, fuel, and other resources used to grow it. That makes food waste an environmental problem. In fact, Royte writes, “if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world.”
If that’s hard to understand, let’s keep it as simple as the arugula at the back of my refrigerator. Mike Curtin sees my arugula story all the time — but for him, it's more like 12 bones of donated strawberries nearing their last days. Curtin is CEO of DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C., which recovers food and turns it into healthy meals. Last year it recovered more than 807,500 pounds of food by taking donations and collecting blemished (有瑕疵的) produce that otherwise would have rotted in fields. And the strawberries? Volunteers will wash, cut, and freeze or dry them for use in meals down the road.
Such methods seem obvious, yet so often we just don’t think. “Everyone can play a part in reducing waste, whether by not purchasing more food than necessary in your weekly shopping or by asking restaurants to not include the side dish you won’t eat,” Curtin says.
24. What does the author want to show by telling the arugula story?
A. We pay little attention to food waste. B. We waste food unintentionally at times.
C. We waste more vegetables than meat. D. We have good reasons for wasting food.
25. What is a consequence of food waste according to the test?
A. Moral decline. B. Environmental harm.
C. Energy shortage. D. Worldwide starvation.
26. What does Curtin’s company do?
A. It produces kitchen equipment. B. It turns rotten arugula into clean fuel.
C. It helps local farmers grow fruits. D. It makes meals out of unwanted food.
27. What does Curtin suggest people do?
A. Buy only what is needed. B. Reduce food consumption.
C. Go shopping once a week. D. Eat in restaurants less often.
(十三)
2022新高考1卷 C
The elderly residents (居民) in care homes in London are being given hens to look after to stop them feeling lonely.
The project was dreamed up by a local charity (慈善组织) to reduce loneliness and improve elderly people’s wellbeing, It is also being used to help patients suffering dementia, a serious illness of the mind. Staff in care homes have reported a reduction in the use of medicine where hens are in use.
Among those taking part in the project is 80-year-old Ruth Xavier. She said: “I used to keep hens when I was younger and had to prepare their breakfast each morning before I went to school. ”
“I like the project a lot. I am down there in my wheelchair in the morning letting the hens out and down there again at night to see they’ve gone to bed.”
“It’s good to have a different focus. People have been bringing their children in to see the hens and residents come and sit outside to watch them. I’m enjoying the creative activities, and it feels great to have done something useful.”
There are now 700 elderly people looking after hens in 20 care homes in the North East, and the charity has been given financial support to roll it out countrywide.
Wendy Wilson, extra care manager at 60 Penfold Street, one of the first to embark on the project, said: “Residents really welcome the idea of the project and the creative sessions. We are looking forward to the benefits and fun the project can bring to people here.”
Lynn Lewis, director of Notting Hill Pathways, said: “We are happy to be taking part in the project. It will really help connect our residents through a shared interest and creative activities.”
28. What is the purpose of the project?
A. To ensure harmony in care homes. B. To provide part-time jobs for the aged.
C. To raise money for medical research. D. To promote the elderly people’s welfare.
29. How has the project affected Ruth Xavier?
A. She has learned new life skills. B. She has gained a sense of achievement.
C. She has recovered her memory. D. She has developed a strong personality.
30. What do the underlined words “embark on” mean in paragraph 7?
A. Improve. B. Oppose. C. Begin. D. Evaluate.
31. What can we learn about the project from the last two paragraphs?
A. It is well received. B. It needs to be more creative.
C. It is highly profitable. D. It takes ages to see the results.
(十四) 2022新高考1卷 D
Human speech contains more than 2,000 different sounds, from the common “m” and “a” to the rare clicks of some southern African languages. But why are certain sounds more common than others? A ground-breaking, five-year study shows that diet-related changes in human bite led to new speech sounds that are now found in half the world’s languages.
More than 30 years ago, the scholar Charles Hockett noted that speech sounds called labiodentals, such as “f” and “v”, were more common in the languages of societies that ate softer foods. Now a team of researchers led by Damián Blasi at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, has found how and why this trend arose.
They discovered that the upper and lower front teeth of ancient human adults were aligned (对齐), making it hard to produce labiodentals, which are formed by touching the lower lip to the upper teeth. Later, our jaws changed to an overbite structure (结构), making it easier to produce such sounds.
The team showed that this change in bite was connected with the development of agriculture in the Neolithic period. Food became easier to chew at this point. The jawbone didn’t have to do as much work and so didn’t grow to be so large.
Analyses of a language database also confirmed that there was a global change in the sound of world languages after the Neolithic age, with the use of “f” and “v” increasing remarkably during the last few thousand years. These sounds are still not found in the languages of many hunter-gatherer people today.
This research overturns the popular view that all human speech sounds were present when human beings evolved around 300,000 years ago. ”The set of speech sounds we use has not necessarily remained stable since the appearance of human beings, but rather the huge variety of speech sounds that we find today is the product of a complex interplay of things like biological change and cultural evolution,“ said Steven Moran, a member of the research team.
32. Which aspect of the human speech sound does Damián Blasi’s research focus on?
A. Its variety. B. Its distribution. C. Its quantity. D. Its development.
33. Why was it difficult for ancient human adults to produce labiodentals?
A. They had fewer upper teeth than lower teeth.
B. They could not open and close their lips easily.
C. Their jaws were not conveniently structured.
D. Their lower front teeth were not large enough.
34. What is paragraph 5 mainly about?
A. Supporting evidence for the research results.
B. Potential application of the research findings.
C. A further explanation of the research methods.
D. A reasonable doubt about the research process.
35. What does Steven Moran say about the set of human speech sounds?
A. It is key to effective communication. B. It contributes much to cultural diversity.
C. It is a complex and dynamic system. D. It drives the evolution of human beings.
(十五) 2022年全国甲卷 B
Goffin’s cockatoos, a kind of small parrot native to Australasia, have been shown to have similar shape-recognition abilities to a human two-year-old. Though not known to use tools in the wild, the birds have proved skilful at tool use while kept in the cage. In a recent experiment, cockatoos were presented with a box with a nut inside it. The clear front of the box had a “keyhole” in a geometric shape, and the birds were given five differently shaped “keys” to choose from. Inserting the correct “key” would let out the nut.
In humans, babies can put a round shape in a round hole from around one year of age, but it will be another year before they are able to do the same with less symmetrical (对称的) shapes. This ability to recognize that a shape will need to be turned in a specific direction before it will fit is called an “allocentric frame of reference”. In the experiment, Goffin’s cockatoos were able to select the right tool for the job, in most cases, by visual recognition alone. Where trial-and-error was used, the cockatoos did better than monkeys in similar tests. This indicates that Goffin’s cockatoos do indeed possess an allocentric frame of reference when moving objects in space, similar to two-year-old babies.
The next step, according to the researchers, is to try and work out whether the cockatoos rely entirely on visual clues (线索), or also use a sense of touch in making their shape selections.
24. How did the cockatoos get the nut from the box in the experiment?
A. By following instructions. B. By using a tool.
C. By turning the box around. D. By removing the lid.
25. Which task can human one-year-olds most likely complete according to the text?
A. Using a key to unlock a door. B. Telling parrots from other birds.
C. Putting a ball into a round hole. D. Grouping toys of different shapes.
26. What does the follow-up test aim to find out about the cockatoos?
A. How far they are able to see. B. How they track moving objects.
C. Whether they are smarter than monkeys. D. Whether they use a sense of touch in the test.
27. Which can be a suitable title for the text?
A. Cockatoos: Quick Error Checkers B. Cockatoos: Independent Learners
C. Cockatoos: Clever Signal-Readers D. Cockatoos: Skilful Shape-Sorters
(十六) 2022年全国甲卷 C
As Ginni Bazlinton reached Antarctica, she found herself greeted by a group of little Gentoo penguins (企鹅) longing to say hello. These gentle, lovely gatekeepers welcomed her and kick-started what was to be a trip Ginni would never forget.
Ever since her childhood, Ginni, now 71, has had a deep love for travel. Throughout her career (职业) as a professional dancer, she toured in the UK, but always longed to explore further. When she retired from dancing and her sons eventually flew the nest, she decided it was time to take the plunge.
After taking a degree at Chichester University in Related Arts, Ginni began to travel the world, eventually getting work teaching English in Japan and Chile. And it was in Chile she discovered she could get last-minute cheap deals on ships going to Antarctica from the islands off Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the South American mainland. “I just decided I wanted to go,” she says. “I had no idea about what I’d find there and I wasn’t nervous, I just wanted to do it. And I wanted to do it alone as I always prefer it that way.”
In March 2008, Ginni boarded a ship with 48 passengers she’d never met before, to begin the journey towards Antarctica. “From seeing the wildlife to witnessing sunrises, the whole experience was amazing. Antarctica left an impression on me that no other place has,” Ginni says. “I remember the first time I saw a humpback whale; it just rose out of the water like some prehistoric creature and I thought it was smiling at us. You could still hear the operatic sounds it was making underwater.”
The realization that this is a precious land, to be respected by humans, was one of the biggest things that hit home to Ginni.
28. Which of the following best explains “take the plunge” underlined in paragraph 2?
A. Try challenging things. B. Take a degree.
C. Bring back lost memories. D. Stick to a promise.
29. What made Ginni decide on the trip to Antarctica?
A. Lovely penguins. B. Beautiful scenery.
C. A discount fare. D. A friend’s invitation.
30. What does Ginni think about Antarctica after the journey?
A. It could be a home for her. B. It should be easily accessible.
C. It should be well preserved. D. It needs to be fully introduced.
31. What is the text mainly about?
A. A childhood dream. B. An unforgettable experience.
C. Sailing around the world. D. Meeting animals in Antarctica.
(十七) 2022全国乙卷C
Can a small group of drones (无人机) guarantee the safety and reliability of railways and, at the same time, help railway operators save billions of euros each year? That is the very likely future of applying today’s “eyes in the sky” technology to making sure that the millions of kilometres of rail tracks and infrastructure (基础设施) worldwide are safe for trains on a 24/7 basis.
Drones are already being used to examine high-tension electrical lines. They could do precisely the same thing to inspect railway lines and other vital aspects of rail infrastructure such as the correct position of railway tracks and switching points. The more regularly they can be inspected, the more railway safety, reliability and on-time performance will be improved. Costs would be cut and operations would be more efficient (高效) across the board.
That includes huge savings in maintenance costs and better protection of railway personnel safety. It is calculated that European railways alone spend approximately 20 billion euros a year on maintenance, including sending maintenance staff, often at night, to inspect and repair the rail infrastructure. That can be dangerous work that could be avoided with drones assisting the crews’ efforts.
By using the latest technologies, drones could also start providing higher-value services for railways, detecting faults in the rail or switches, before they can cause any safety problems. To perform these tasks, drones for rail don’t need to be flying overhead. Engineers are now working on a new concept: the rail drones of the future. They will be moving on the track ahead of the train, and programmed to run autonomously. Very small drones with advanced sensors and AI and travelling ahead of the train could guide it like a co-pilot. With their ability to see ahead, they could signal any problem, so that fast-moving trains would be able to react in time.
28. What makes the application of drones to rail lines possible?
A. The use of drones in checking on power lines. B. Drones’ ability to work at high altitudes.
C. The reduction of cost in designing drones. D. Drones’ reliable performance in remote areas.
29. What does “maintenance” underlined in paragraph 3 refer to?
A. Personnel safety. B. Assistance from drones.
C. Inspection and repair. D. Construction of infrastructure.
30. What function is expected of the rail drones?
A. To provide early warning. B. To make trains run automatically.
C To earn profits for the crews. D. To accelerate transportation.
31. Which is the most suitable title for the text?
A. What Faults Can Be Detected with Drones
B. How Production of Drones Can Be Expanded
C. What Difficulty Drone Development Will Face
D. How Drones Will Change the Future of Railways
(十八) 2022全国乙卷D
The Government’s sugar tax on soft drinks has brought in half as much money as Ministers first predicted it would generate, the first official data on the policy has shown.
First announced in April, 2016, the tax which applies to soft drinks containing more than 5g of sugar per 100ml, was introduced to help reduce childhood obesity (肥胖). It is believed that today’s children and teenagers are consuming three times the recommended level of sugar, putting them at a higher risk of the disease.
Initially the sugar tax was expected to make £520m a year for the Treasury. However, data of the first six months showed it would make less than half this amount. At present it is expected to generate £240m for the year ending in April 2019, which will go to school sports.
It comes after more than half of soft drinks sold in shops have had their sugar levels cut by manufacturers (制造商) so they can avoid paying the tax. Drinks now contain 45 million fewer kilos of sugar as a result of manufacturers’ efforts to avoid the charge, according to Treasury figures. Since April drinks companies have been forced to pay between 18p and 24p for every litre of sugary drink they produce or import, depending on the sugar content.
However some high sugar brands, like Classic Coca Cola, have accepted the sugar tax and are refusing to change for fear of upsetting consumers. Fruit juices, milk-based drinks and most alcoholic drinks are free of the tax, as are small companies manufacturing fewer than 1m litres per year.
Today’s figures, according to one government official, show the positive influence the sugar tax is having by raising millions of pounds for sports facilities (设施) and healthier eating in schools. Helping the next generation to have a healthy and active childhood is of great importance, and the industry is playing its part.
32. Why was the sugar tax introduced?
A To collect money for schools. B. To improve the quality of drinks.
C. To protect children’s health. D. To encourage research in education.
33. How did some drinks companies respond to the sugar tax?
A. They turned to overseas markets. B. They raised the prices of their products.
C. They cut down on their production. D. They reduced their products’ sugar content.
34. From which of the following is the sugar tax collected?
A. Most alcoholic drinks. B. Milk-based drinks. C. Fruit juices. D. Classic Coke.
35. What can be inferred about the adoption of the sugar tax policy?
A. It is a short-sighted decision. B. It is a success story.
C. It benefits manufacturers. D. It upsets customers.
(十九) 2022年新高考2卷C篇
Over the last seven years, most states have banned texting by drivers, and public service campaigns have tried a wide range of methods to persuade people to put down their phones when they are behind the wheel.
Yet the problem, by just about any measure, appears to be getting worse. Americans are still texting while driving, as well as using social networks and taking photos. Road accidents, which had fallen for years, are now rising sharply.
That is partly because people are driving more, but Mark Rosekind, the chief of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said distracted(分心)driving was "only increasing, unfortunately. "
"Big change requires big ideas. " he said in a speech last month, referring broadly to the need to improve road safety. So to try to change a distinctly modern behavior, lawmakers and public health experts are reaching back to an old approach: They want to treat distracted driving like drunk driving.
An idea from lawmakers in New York is to give police officers a new device called the Textalyzer. It would work like this: An officer arriving at the scene of a crash could ask for the phones of the drivers and use the Textalyzer to check in the operating system for recent activity. The technology could determine whether a driver had just texted, emailed or done anything else that is not allowed under New York's hands-free driving laws.
"We need something on the books that can change people's behavior,” said Félix W. Ortiz, who pushed for the state's 2001 ban on hand-held devices by drivers. If the Textalyzer bill becomes law, he said, "people are going to be more afraid to put their hands on the cell phone. "
8. Which of the following best describes the ban on drivers' texting in the US?
A. Ineffective. B. Unnecessary.
C. Inconsistent. D. Unfair.
9. What can the Textalyzer help a police officer find out?
A. Where a driver came from. B. Whether a driver used their phone.
C. How fast a driver was going. D. When a driver arrived at the scene.
10. What does the underlined word "something" in the last paragraph refer to?
A. Advice. B. Data. C. Tests. D. Laws.
11. What is a suitable title for the text?
A. To Drive or Not to Drive? Think Before You Start
B. Texting and Driving? Watch Out for the Textalyzer
C. New York Banning Hand-Held Devices by Drivers.
D. The Next Generation Cell Phone: The Textalyzer.
(二十) 2022年新高考2卷D篇
As we age, even if we’re healthy, the heart just isn’t as efficient in processing oxygen as it used to be. In most people the first signs show up in their 50s or early 60s. And among people who don’t exercise, the changes can start even sooner.
“Think of a rubber band. In the beginning, it is flexible, but put it in a drawer for 20 years and it will become dry and easily broken,” says Dr. Ben Levine, a heart specialist at the University of Texas. That’s what happens to the heart. Fortunately for those in midlife, Levine is finding that even if you haven’t been an enthusiastic exerciser, getting in shape now may help improve your aging heart.
Levine and his research team selected volunteers aged between 45 and 64 who did not exercise much but were otherwise healthy. Participants were randomly divided into two groups. The first group participated in a program of nonaerobic (无氧) exercise—balance training and weight training—three times a week. The second group did high-intensity aerobic exercise under the guidance of a trainer for four or more days a week. After two years, the second group saw remarkable improvements in heart health.
“We took these 50-year-old hearts and turned the clock back to 30-or 35-year-old hearts,” says Levine. “And the reason they got so much stronger and fitter was that their hearts could now fill a lot better and pump (泵送) a lot more blood during exercise. ” But the hearts of those who participated in less intense exercise didn’t change, he says.
“The sweet spot in life to start exercising, if you haven’t already, is in late middle age when the heart still has flexibility,” Levine says. “We put healthy 70-year-olds through a yearlong exercise training program, and nothing happened to them at all. ”
Dr. Nieca Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association, says Levine’s findings are a great start. But the study was small and needs to be repeated with far larger groups of people to determine exactly which aspects of an exercise routine make the biggest difference.
12. What does Levine want to explain by mentioning the rubber band?
A. The right way of exercising. B. The causes of a heart attack.
C. The difficulty of keeping fit. D. The aging process of the heart.
13. In which aspect were the two groups different in terms of research design?
A. Diet plan. B. Professional background.
C. Exercise type. D. Previous physical condition.
14. What does Levine’s research find?
A. Middle-aged hearts get younger with aerobic exercise.
B. High-intensity exercise is more suitable for the young.
C. It is never too late for people to start taking exercise.
D. The more exercise we do, the stronger our hearts get.
15. What does Dr. Nieca Goldberg suggest?
A. Making use of the findings. B. Interviewing the study participants.
C. Conducting further research. D. Clarifying the purpose of the study.
(二十一) 2022.1浙江卷B篇
The United States rose to global power on the strength of its technology, and the lifeblood that technology has long been electricity. By providing long-distance communication and energy, electricity created the modem world. Yet properly understood, the age of electricity is merely the second stage in the age of steam, which began a century earlier.
"It is curious that no one has put together a history of both the steam and electric revolutions." writes Maury Klein in his book The Power Makers, Steam, Electricity, and the Men Invented Modem America. Klein, a noted historian of technology, spins a narrative so lively that at times it reads like a novel.
The story begins in the last years of the 18th century in Scotland, where Watt perfected "the machine that changed the world". Klein writes, "America did not invent the steam engine, but once they grasped its passwords they put it to more uses than anyone else. "
Meanwhile, over the course of 19th century, electricity went from mere curiosity to a basic necessity. Morse invented a code for sending messages over an electromagnetic circuit. Bell then gave the telegraph a voice. Edison perfected an incandescent bulls that brought electric light into the American home.
Most importantly, Edison realized that success depended on mass electrification, which he showed in New York City. With help from Tesla, Westinghouse's firm developed a system using alternating current, which soon became the major forms of power delivery.
To frame his story, Klein creates the character of Ned, a fictional witness to the progress brought about by the steams and electric revolutions in America during one man's lifetime. It's a technique that helps turn a long narrative into an interesting one.
4. What is Klein's understanding of the age of electricity?
A. It is closely linked to the steam age.
B. It began earlier than proper thought.
C. It is a little-studied period of history.
D. It will come to an end sooner or later.
5. What can be inferred about Ned?
A. He was born in New York City. B. He wrote many increasing stories,
C. He created an electricity company. D. He lived mainly in the 19th century.
6. What is the text?
A. A biography. B. A book review. C. A short story. D. A science report.
(二十二) 2022.1浙江卷C篇
The benefits of regular exercise are well documented but there’s a new bonus to add to the ever-growing list. New researchers found that middle-aged women who were physically fit could be nearly 90 percent less likely to develop dementia in later life, and as they did, it came on a decade later than less sporty women.
Lead researcher Dr. Helena Horder, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said: "These findings are exciting because it’s possible that improving people's cardiovascular (心血管)fitness in middle age could delay or even prevent them from developing dementia. "
For the study, 191 women with an average age of 50 took a bicycle exercise test until they were exhausted to measure their peak (最大值的) cardiovascular capacity. The average peak workload was measured at 103 watts.
A total of 40 women met the criteria for a high fitness level, or 120 watts or higher. A total of 92 women were in the medium fitness category; and 59 women were in the low fitness category, defined as a peak workload of 80 watts or less, or having their exercise tests stopped because of high blood pressure, chest pain or other cardiovascular problems.
These women were then tested for dementia six times over the following four decades. During that time, 44 of the women developed dementia. Five percent of the highly fit women developed dementia, compared to 25 percent of the women with medium fitness and 32 percent of the women with low fitness.
"However, this study does not show cause and effect between cardiovascular fitness and dementia, it only shows an association. More research is needed to see if improved fitness could have a positive effect on the risk of dementia and also to look at when during a lifetime a high fitness level is most important. " She also admitted that a relatively small number of women were studied, all of whom were form Sweden, so the results might not be applicable to other groups.
7. What is on the ever-growing list mentioned in the first paragraph?
A. Positive effects of doing exercises.
B. Exercises suitable for the middle-aged.
C. Experimental studies on diseases.
D. Advantages of sporty woman over man
8. Why did the researchers ask the woman to do bicycle exercise?
A. To predict their maximum heart rate.
B. To assess their cardiovascular capacity
C. To change their habits of working out
D. To detect their potential health problems
9. What do we know about Dr Horder's study?
A. It aimed to find a cure for dementia.
B. Data collection was a lengthy process.
C. Some participants withdrew from it.
D. The results were far from satisfactory.
10. Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A. More Women Are Exercising to Prevent Dementia
B. Middle-Aged Women Need to Do More Exercise
C. Fit Women Are Less Likely to Develop Dementia
D. Biking Improves Women's Cardiovascular Fitness
三、 2021年高考真题
(二十三) 2021新高考1卷 C篇
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 have taken care of these precious natural resourses 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(栖息地).
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.
1.What was a cause of the waterfowl population decline in North America?
A.Loss of wetlands. B.Popularity of water sports.
C.Pollution of rivers. D.Arrival of other wild animals.
2.What does the underlined word "decimate" mean in the first paragraph?
A.Acquire. B.Export. C.Destroy. D.Distribute.
3.What is a direct result of the Act passed in 1934?
A.The stamp price has gone down.
B.The migratory birds have flown away.
C.The hunters have stopped hunting.
D.The government has collected money.
4.Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?
A.The Federal Duck Stamp Story
B.The National Wildlife Refuge System
C.The Benefits of Saving Waterfowl
D.The History of Migratory Bird Hunting
(二十四) 2021年新高考I卷之D篇
Popularization has in some cases changed the original meaning of emotional (情感的) intellingence. Many people now misunderstand emotional intelligence as almost everything desirable in a person's makeup that cannot be measured by an IQ test, such as character, motivation, confidence, mental stability, optimism and “people skills.” Research has shown that emotional skills may contribute to some of these qualities, but most of them move far beyond skill-based emotional intelligence.
We prefer to describe emotional intelligence as a specific set of skills that can be used for either good or bad purposes. The ability to accurately understand how others are feeling may be used by a doctor to find how best to help her patients, while a cheater might use it to control potential victims. Being emotionally intelligent does not necessarily make one a moral person.
Although popular beliefs regarding emotional intelligence run far ahead of what research can reasonably support, the overall effects of the publicity have been more beneficial than harmful. The most positive aspect of this popularization is a new and much needed emphasis (重视) on emotion by employers, educators and others interested in promoting social well-being. The popularization of emotional intelligence has helped both the public and researchers re-evaluate the functionality of emotions and how they serve people adaptively in everyday life.
Although the continuing popular appeal of emotional intelligence is desirable, we hope that such attention will excite a greater interest in the scientific and scholarly study of emotion. It is our hope that in coming decades, advances in science will offer new perspectives (视角) from which to study how people manage their lives. Emotional intelligence, with its focus on both head and heart, may serve to point us in the right direction.
32. What is a common misunderstanding of emotional intelligence?
A. It can be measured by an IQ test. B. It helps to exercise a person’s mind.
C. It includes a set of emotional skills. D. It refers to a person’s positive qualities.
33. Why does the author mention “doctor” and “cheater” in paragraph 2?
A. To explain a rule. B. To clarify a concept.
C. To present a fact. D. To make a prediction.
34. What is the author’s attitude to the popularization of emotional intelligence?
A. Favorable. B. Intolerant.
C. Doubtful. D. Unclear.
35. What does the last paragraph mainly talk about concerning emotional intelligence?
A. Its appeal to the public. B. Expectations for future studies.
C. Its practical application. D. Scientists with new perspectives.
(二十五) 2021年新高考II卷之D篇
An Australian professor is developing a robot to monitor the health of grazing cattle, a development that could bring big changes to a profession that's relied largely on a low-tech approach for decades but is facing a labor shortage.
Salah Sukkarieh, a professor at the University of Sydney, sees robots as necessary given how cattlemen are aging. He is building a four-wheeled robot that will run on solar and electric power. It will use cameras and sensors to monitor the animals. A computer system will analyze the video to determine whether a cow is sick. Radio tags (标签) on the animals will measure temperature changes. The quality of grassland will be tracked by monitoring the shape, color and texture (质地) of grass. That way, cattlemen will know whether they need to move their cattle to another field for nutrition purposes.
Machines have largely taken over planting, watering and harvesting crops such as com and wheat, but the monitoring of cattle has gone through fewer changes.
For Texas cattleman Pete Bonds, it's increasingly difficult to find workers interested in watching cattle. But Bonds doesn't believe a robot is right for the job. Years of experience in the industry - and failed attempts to use technology - have convinced him that the best way to check cattle is with a man on a horse. Bonds, who bought his first cattle almost 50 years ago, still has each of his cowboys inspect 300 or 400 cattle daily and look for signs that an animal is getting sick.
Other cattlemen see more promise in robots. Michael Kelsey Paris, vice president of the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association, said a robot could be extremely useful given rising concerns about cattle theft. Cattle tend to be kept in remote places and their value has risen, making them appealing targets.
12. What is a problem with the cattle-raising industry?
A. Soil pollution. B. Lack of workers.
C. Aging machines. D. Low profitability.
13. What will Sukkarieh's robot be able to do?
A. Monitor the quality of grass. B. Cure the diseased cattle.
C. Move cattle to another field. D. Predict weather changes.
14. Why does Pete Bonds still hire cowboys to watch cattle?
A. He wants to help them earn a living. B. He thinks men can do the job better.
C. He is inexperienced in using robots. D. He enjoys the traditional way of life.
15. How may robots help with cattle watching according to Michael Kelsey?
A. Increase the value of cattle. B. Bring down the cost of labor.
C. Make the job more appealing. D. Keep cattle from being stolen.
(二十六) 2021全国甲卷 B篇
Port Lympne Reserve, which runs a breeding(繁育) programme, has welcomed the arrival of a rare black rhino calf (犀牛幼崽). When the tiny creature arrived on January 31. she became the 40th black rhino to be born at the reserve. And officials at Port Lympne were delighted with the new arrival, especially as black rhinos are known for being difficult to breed in captivity(圈养).
Paul Beer, head of rhino section at Port Lympne, said: "Obviously we're all absolutely delighted to welcome another calf to our black rhino family. She's healthy, strong and already eager to play and explore. Her mother, Solio, is a first-time mum and she is doing a fantastic job. It's still a little too cold for them to go out into the open, but as soon as the weather warms up, I have no doubt that the little one will be out and about exploring and playing every day."
The adorable female calf is the second black rhino born this year at the reserve, but it is too early to tell if the calves will make good candidates to be returned to protected areas of the wild. The first rhino to be born at Port Lympne arrived on January 5 to first-time mother Kisima and weighed about 32kg. His mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all born at the reserve and still live there.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the global black rhino population has dropped as low as 5500, giving the rhinos a "critically endangered" status.
1.Which of the following best describes the breeding programme?
A.Costly. B.Controversial. C.Ambitious. D.Successful.
2.What does Paul Beer say about the new-born rhino?
A.She loves staying with her mother.
B.She dislikes outdoor activities.
C.She is in good condition.
D.She is sensitive to heat.
3.What similar experience do Solio and Kisima have?
A.They had their first born in January.
B.They enjoyed exploring new places.
C.They lived with their grandmothers.
D.They were brought to the reserve young.
4.What can be inferred about Port Lympne Reserve?
A.The rhino section will be open to the public.
B.It aims to control the number of the animals.
C.It will continue to work with the World Wildlife Fund.
D.Some of its rhinos may be sent to the protected wild areas.
(二十七) 2021全国甲卷 D篇
Who is a genius? This question has greatly interested humankind for centuries.
Let's state clearly: Einstein was a genius. His face is almost the international symbol for genius. But we want to go beyond one man and explore the nature of genius itself. Why is it that some people are so much more intelligent or creative than the rest of us? And who are they?
In the sciences and arts, those praised as geniuses were most often white men, of European origin. Perhaps this is not a surprise. It's said that history is written by the victors, and those victors set the standards for admission to the genius club. When contributions were made by geniuses outside the club—women, or people of a different color or belief—they were unacknowledged and rejected by others.
A study recently published by Science found that as young as age six, girls are less likely than boys to say that members of their gender(性别)are "really, really smart." Even worse, the study found that girls act on that belief: Around age six they start to avoid activities said to be for children who are "really, really smart." Can our planet afford to have any great thinkers become discouraged and give up? It doesn't take a genius to know the answer: absolutely not.
Here's the good news. In a wired world with constant global communication, we're all positioned to see flashes of genius wherever they appear. And the more we look, the more we will see that social factors(因素) like gender, race, and class do not determine the appearance of genius. As a writer says, future geniuses come from those with “intelligence, creativity, perseverance(毅力), and simple good fortune, who are able to change the world."
1.What does the author think of victors' standards for joining the genius club?
A.They're unfair. B.They're conservative.
C.They're objective. D.They're strict.
2.What can we infer about girls from the study in Science?
A.They think themselves smart.
B.They look up to great thinkers.
C.They see gender differences earlier than boys.
D.They are likely to be influenced by social beliefs.
3.Why are more geniuses known to the public?
A.Improved global communication.
B.Less discrimination against women.
C.Acceptance of victors' concepts.
D.Changes in people's social positions.
4.What is the best title for the text?
A.Geniuses Think Alike
B.Genius Takes Many Forms
C.Genius and Intelligence
D.Genius and Luck
(二十八) 2021年全国乙卷之A篇
The Biggest Stadiums in the World
People have been pouring into stadiums since the days of ancient Greece. In around 80 A.D., the Romans built the Colosseum, which remains the world’s best known stadium and continues to inform contemporary design. Rome’s Colosseum was 157 feet tall and had 80 entrances, seating 50,000 people. However, that was small fry compared with the city’s Circus Maximus, which accommodated around 250,000 people.
These days, safety regulations-not to mention the modern sports fan’s desire for a good view and comfortable seat—tend to keep stadium capacities(容量) slightly lower. Even soccer fans tend to have a seat each; gone are the days of thousands standing to watch the match.
For the biggest stadiums in the world, we have used data supplied by the World Atlas list so far, which ranks them by their stated permanent capacity, as well as updated information from official stadium websites.
All these stadiums are still funtiona1, still open and still hosting the biggest events in world sport.
·Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, Pyongyang D.P.R. Korea. Capacity: 150,000. Opened: May 1,1989.
·Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U. S. Capacity: 107,601. Opened: October 1, 1927.
·Beaver Stadium, State College, Pennsylvania, U. S. Capacity: 106,572. Opened: September 17, 1960.
·Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio, U. S. Capacity: 104,944. Opened: October 7,1922.
·Kyle Field, College Station, Texas, U. S. Capacity: 102,512. Opened: September 24, 1927.
21. How many people could the Circus Maximus hold?
A. 104,944. B. 107,601. C. About 150,000. D. About 250,000.
22. Of the following stadiums, which is the oldest?
A. Michigan Stadium. B. Beaver Stadium. C. Ohio Stadium. D. Kyle Field.
23. What do the listed stadiums have in common?
A. They host big games. B. They have become tourist attractions.
C. They were built by Americans. D. They are favored by architects.
(二十九) 2021全国乙卷 B篇
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?
1.What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?
A.Their target users.
B.Their wide popularity.
C.Their major functions.
D.Their complex design.
2.What does the underlined word "concede" in paragraph 3 mean?
A.Admit. B.Argue. C.Remember. D.Remark.
3.What can we say about Baby Boomers?
A.They like smartphone games.
B.They enjoy guessing callers' identity.
C.They keep using landline phones.
D.They are attached to their family.
4.What can be inferred about the landline from the last paragraph?
A.It remains a family necessity.
B.It will fall out of use some day.
C.It may increase daily expenses.
D.It is as important as the gas light.
(三十) 2021全国乙卷 C篇
You've heard that plastic is polluting the ocean—between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.
At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called "Strawpocalypse, " a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168, 000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source(来源)of plastic pollution, but they've recently come under fire because most people don't need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that's part of Von Wong's artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.
In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate(说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload's worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled "Truckload of Plastic, " Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10, 000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they'd been dumped(倾倒) from a truck all at once.
Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.
1.What are Von Wong's artworks intended for?
A.Beautifying the city he lives in.
B.Introducing eco-friendly products.
C.Drawing public attention to plastic waste.
D.Reducing garbage on the beach.
2.Why does the author discuss plastic straws in paragraph 3?
A.To show the difficulty of their recycling.
B.To explain why they are useful.
C.To voice his views on modern art.
D.To find a substitute for them.
3.What effect would "Truckload of Plastic" have on viewers?
A.Calming. B.Disturbing.
C.Refreshing. D.Challenging.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A.Artists' Opinions on Plastic Safety
B.Media Interest in Contemporary Art
C.Responsibility Demanded of Big Companies
D.Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures
(三十一) 2021全国乙卷 D篇
During an interview for one of my books, my interviewer said something I still think about often. Annoyed by the level of distraction(干扰)in his open office, he said, "That's why I have a membership at the coworking space across the street—so I can focus." His comment struck me as strange. After all, coworking spaces also typically use an open office layout(布局). But I recently came across a study that shows why his approach works.
The researchers examined various levels of noise on participants as they completed tests of creative thinking. They were randomly divided into four groups and exposed to various noise levels in the background, from total silence to 50 decibels(分贝), 70 decibels, and 85 decibels. The differences between most of the groups were statistically insignificant; however, the participants in the 70 decibels group—those exposed to a level of noise similar to background chatter in a coffee shop—significantly outperformed the other groups. Since the effects were small, this may suggest that our creative thinking does not differ that much in response to total silence and 85 decibels of background noise.
But since the results at 70 decibels were significant, the study also suggests that the right level of background noise—not too loud and not total silence—may actually improve one's creative thinking ability. The right level of background noise may interrupt our normal patterns of thinking just enough to allow our imaginations to wander, without making it impossible to focus. This kind of "distracted focus" appears to be the best state for working on creative tasks.
So why do so many of us hate our open offices? The problem may be that, in our offices, we can't stop ourselves from getting drawn into others' conversations while we're trying to focus. Indeed, the researchers found that face-to-face interactions and conversations affect the creative process, and yet a coworking space or a coffee shop provides a certain level of noise while also providing freedom from interruptions.
1.Why does the interviewer prefer a coworking space?
A.It helps him concentrate.
B.It blocks out background noise.
C.It has a pleasant atmosphere.
D.It encourages face-to-face interactions.
2.Which level of background noise may promote creative thinking ability?
A.Total silence. B.50 decibels.
C.70 decibels. D.85 decibels.
3.What makes an open office unwelcome to many people?
A.Personal privacy unprotected.
B.Limited working space.
C.Restrictions on group discussion.
D.Constant interruptions.
4.What can we infer about the author from the text?
A.He's a news reporter.
B.He's an office manager.
C.He's a professional designer.
D.He's a published writer.
(三十二) 2021年北京卷C篇
Hundreds of scientists, writers and academics sounded a warning to humanity in an open letter published last December: Policymakers and the rest of us must engage openly with the risk of global collapse. Researchers in many areas have projected the widespread collapse as “a credible scenario(情景) this century”.
A survey of scientists found that extreme weather events, food insecurity, and freshwater shortages might create global collapse. Of course, if you are a non-human species, collapse is well underway.
The call for public engagement with the unthinkable is especially germane in this moment of still-uncontrolled pandemic and economic crises in the world's most technologically advanced nations. Not very long ago, it was also unthinkable that a virus would shut down nations and that safety nets would be proven so disastrously lacking in flexibility.
The international scholars’ warning letter doesn't say exactly what collapse will look like or when it might happen. Collapseology, the study of collapse, is more concerned with identifying trends and with them the dangers of everyday civilization. Among the signatories(签署者) of the warning was Bob Johnson, the originator of the “ecological footprint” concept, which measures the total amount of environmental input needed to maintain a given lifestyle. With the current footprint of humanity, “it seems that global collapse is certain to happen in some form, possibly within a decade, certainly within this century,” Johnson said in an email.
“Only if we discuss the consequences of our biophysical limits,” the December warning letter says, “can we have the hope to reduce their speed, severity and harm”. And yet messengers of the coming disturbance are likely to be ignored. We all want to hope things will turn out fine. As a poet wrote,
Man is a victim of dope(麻醉品)
In the incurable form of hope.
The hundreds of scholars who signed the letter are intent(执着) on quieting hope that ignores preparedness. “Let's look directly into the issue of collapse,” they say, “and deal with the terrible possibilities of what we see there to make the best of a troubling future.”
28. What does the underlined word “germane” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
A. Scientific. B. Credible.
C. Original. D. Relevant.
29. As for the public awareness of global collapse, the author is________.
A worried B. puzzled
C. surprised D. scared
30. What can we learn from this passage?
A. The signatories may change the biophysical limits.
B. The author agrees with the message of the poem.
C. The issue of collapse is being prioritized.
D. The global collapse is well underway.
(三十三) 2021年6月天津卷之C篇
In the fictional worlds of film and TV, artificial intelligence (Al) has been described as so advanced that it is indistinguishable from humans. But what if we're actually getting closer to a world where Al is capable of thinking and feeling?
Tech company UneeQ is heading for its "digital humans", which appear life like on the screen not only in terms of language, but also because of facial movements: raised eyebrows, a smile, even a nod. They look close to a human, but not quite.
What lies beneath UneeQ9 s digital humans? Their 3D faces are modeled on actual human features. Speech recognition enables them to understand what a person is saying, and natural language processing is used to work out a response. Meanwhile, another Al company, Soul Machines, is taking a more biological approach, with a "digital brain", that imitates aspects of the human brain to adjust the emotions "felt" and "expressed" by its "digital people".
Shiwali Mohan, an Al scientist at the Palo Research Center, is skeptical of these digital beings. "They're humanlike in their looks and the way they sound, but that in itself is not being human," she says. "Human qualities also involve how you think, how you approach problems, and how you break them down; and that takes a lot of algorithmic (算 法)design. Designing for human-level intelligence is a different attempt than designing images that behave like humans." She then continues, “If something looks like a human, we have high expectations of them, but they might behave differently in ways that humans just instinctively (直觉地)know how other humans react.
Yet the demand is there, with UneeQ seeing high adoption of its digital employees across the financial, health care, and commercial sectors (行业). "Unless these sectors make their business models much more efficient digitally, they might be left behind," says Chetan Dube, UneeQ9s CEO.
Some other companies are taking their digital beings a step further, enabling organizations and individuals to create digital humans themselves using free-access platforms they provide. "The biggest motivation for such platforms is to popularize Al," Dube says.
Mohan is cautious about this approach, yet she supports the purpose behind these digital beings and is optimistic about where they are headed. "As we develop more advanced Al technology, we would then have to use new ways of communicating with that technology,she says. "'Hopefully, all of that is designed to support humans in their goals."
46. According to Para. 2, in what respect(s) do UneeQ9s "digital humans" resemble human beings?
A. In the way they move around.
B. In the way they act and react.
C. In observation and analysis.
D. In speech and facial expressions.
47. Soul Machines’digital brain is a technological breakthrough because it .
A. leams to make proper emotional responses
B. tends to imitate human beings' tone vividly
C. recognizes the speech sounds it receives
D. processes the natural language it hears
48. In Mohan's opinion, what human quality is lacking in digital beings?
A. Calculating brain.
B. Language skills.
C. Instinctive judgements.
D. Problem-solving ability.
49. What makes many sectors employ digital humans?
A. The fear of falling behind in efficiency.
B. The urgency to promote e-commerce.
C. The wish to spread digital technology.
D. The need to upgrade the health care system.
50. What does Mohan think of the future of digital beings?
A. It's well planned.
B. It is promising.
C. It is uncertain.
D. It's quite hopeless.
(三十四) 2021年6月天津卷之D篇
Art is everywhere. Any public space has been carefully designed by an artistic mind to be both functional and beautiful. Why, then, is art still so widely considered to be "the easy subject" at school, insignificant to wider society, a waste of time and effort?
Art can connect culture with commercial products in a way that not many other things can; art generates money and holds significant emotional and cultural value within communities. When people attend a concert, they are paying for music, sure, maybe even hotel rooms, meals, and transport, but they also gain an incredible experience, a unique atmosphere and a memory that will go through the rest of their lives. People don't just want material things anymore, they want to experience life一the arts are a perfect crossover(交迭)between culture and commerce.
Furthermore, the arts can bring communities together, reducing loneliness and making people feel safer. Social bonds are created among individuals when they share their arts experiences through reflection and discussion, and their expression of common values through artworks in honour of events significant to a nation's experience.
The arts clearly have a pretty positive impact on physical and psychological health. It is found that people who frequent cultural places or participate in artistic events are more likely to gain good health compared to those who do not; more engagement with the arts is linked to a higher level of people's wellbeing. The Royal Society of Public Health discovered that music and art, when used in hospitals, help to improve the conditions of patients by reducing stress, anxiety and blood pressure.
Children who are involved with the arts make greater achievements in their education: those engaged with drama have greater literary ability while others taking part in musical practice exhibit greater skills in math and languages. Kids with preference for the arts have a greater chance of finding employment in the future. Participating in the arts is essential for child development; encouraging children to express themselves in constructive ways could help to form healthy emotional responses in later life.
Vital to human life, art is celebrated and used by nations across the world for various purposes. Life without art would be boring and dead still, for art is a part of what makes us human.
51. Art products differ from most other commercial products because .
A. most people purchase them for collection
B. they are more expensive and less accessible
C. they have both commercial and cultural values
D. their prices may climb up as time passes
52. By sharing their arts experiences, community members can .
A. keep the community safe from illnesses
B. develop a stronger tie between them
C learn to appreciate their own works of art
D. offer honourable solutions to their problems
53. What can we learn about people who are involved in artistic activities?
A. They enjoy better living conditions.
B. They like to compare themselves with others.
C. They are particularly good at both music and art.
D. They tend to be healthier physically and mentally.
54. How does kids' engagement with the arts benefit them?
A. It promotes their academic performance and emotional growth.
B. It gives them more confidence in exhibiting their learning skills.
C. It inspires their creativity in designing their future career.
D. It helps to make responsible people out of them.
55. What is the best title for this passage?
A. How Art Cures Our Hearts
B. Art: A Blessing to Humankind
C. How Art Benefits Communities
D. Art: A Bridge Between Cultures
(三十五) 2021年1月浙江卷之C篇
Researchers say they have translated the meaning of gestures that wild chimpanzees (黑猩猩) use to communicate. They say wild chimps communicate 19 specific messages to one another with a "vocabulary" of 66 gestures. The scientists discovered this by following and filming groups of chimps in Uganda, and examining more than 5,000 incidents of these meaningful exchanges.
Dr Catherine Hobaiter, who led the research, said that this was the only form of intentional communication to be recorded in the animal kingdom. Only humans and chimps, she said, had a system of communication where they deliberately sent a message to another group member.
"That's what's so amazing about chimp gestures," she said. "They're the only thing that looks like human language in that respect. ”
Although previous research has shown that apes and monkeys can understand complex information from another animal's call, the animals do not appear to use their voices intentionally to communicate messages. This was a significant difference between calls and gestures, Dr Hobaiter said.
Chimps will check to see if they have the attention of the animal with which they wish to communicate. In one case, a mother presents her foot to her crying baby, signaling:" Climb on me. " The youngster immediately jumps on to its mothers back and they travel off together. "The big message from this study is that there is another species (物种) out there. that is meaningful in its communication, so that's not unique to humans," said Dr Hobaiter.
Dr Susanne Shultz, an evolutionary biologist from the University of Manchester, said the study was praiseworthy in seeking to enrich our knowledge of the evolution of human language. But, she added, the results were "a little disappointing".
"The vagueness of the gesture meanings suggests either that the chimps have little to communicate, or we are still missing a lot of the information contained in their gestures and actions," she said. "Moreover, the meanings seem to not go beyond what other animal convey with non-verbal communication. So, it seems the gulf remains. "
44.What do chimps and humans have in common according to Dr Hobaiter?
A.Memorizing specific words. B.Understanding complex information.
C.Using voices to communicate. D.Communicating messages on purpose.
45.What did Dr Shultz think of the study?
A.It was well designed but poorly conducted.
B.It was a good try but the findings were limited.
C.It was inspiring but the evidence was unreliable.
D.It was a failure but the methods deserved praise.
46.What does the underlined word "gulf" in the last paragraph mean?
A.Difference. B.Conflict. C.Balance. D.Connection.
47.Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A.Chimpanzee behaviour study achieved a breakthrough
B.Chimpanzees developed specific communication skills
C.Chimpanzees: the smartest species in the animal kingdom
D.Chimpanzee language: communication gestures translated
(三十六) 2021.6 浙江卷 C篇
If you ever get the impression that your dog can "tell" whether you look content or annoyed, you may be onto something. Dogs may indeed be able to distinguish between happy and angry human faces, according to a new study.
Researchers trained a group of 11 dogs to distinguish between images(图像) of the same person making either a happy or an angry face. During the training stage, each dog was shown only the upper half or the lower half of the person's face. The researchers then tested the dogs' ability to distinguish between human facial expressions by showing them the other half of the person's face or images totally different from the ones used in training. The researchers found that the dogs were able to pick the angry or happy face by touching a picture of it with their noses more often than one would expect by random chance.
The study showed the animals had figured out how to apply what they learned about human faces during training to new faces in the testing stage. "We can rule out that the dogs simply distinguish hetween the pictures bused on a simple cue, such as the sight of teeth, " said study anthor Corsin Muller. "Instead, our results suggest that the surcessful dogs realized that a smiling mouth means the same thing as smiling eyes, and the same rule applies to an angry mouth having the same meaning as angry eyes."
"With our study, we think we can now confidently conclude that at least some dogs can distinguish human facial expressions," Muller told Live Science.
At this point, it is not clear why dogs seem to be equipped with the ability to recognize different facial expressions in humans."To us, the most likely explanation appears to be that the basis lies in their living with humans, which gives them a lot of exposure to human facial expressions, ” and this exposure has provided them with many chances to learn to distinguish between them, Muller said.
1.The new study focused on whether dogs can .
A.distinguish shapes
B.make sense of human faces
C.feel happy or angry
D.communicate with each other
2.What can we learn about the study from paragraph 2?
A.Researchers tested the dogs in random order.
B.Diverse methods were adopted during training.
C.Pictures used in the two stages were different.
D.The dogs were photographed before the test.
3.What is the last paragraph mainly about?
A.A suggestion for future studies.
B.A possible reason for the study findings.
C.A major limitation of the study.
D.An explanation of the research method.
(三十七) 2021年3月天津卷之C篇
A trial project by the Montreal Children's Hospital suggested that the use of medical hypnosis(催眠)can reduce pain and anxiety in patients. The project also resulted in a reduction in the amount of medicines used to perform medical-imaging imaging(医学影像) procedures.
“During the examination children don't move. It works perfectly. It's amazing, “said Johanne L'Ecuyer, a medical-imaging technologist at the hospital.
The project was inspired by a French team from Rouen University Hospital Centre where examinations are done under hypnosis instead of general anesthesia(麻醉).
A French medical-imaging technologist-also a hypnotist — was invited to train a few members in the medical-imaging department of the children's hospital. In all, 80 examinations were conducted for the project between January and September, 2019, focusing on the imaging procedures that would cause anxiety.
Hypnosis is not a state of sleep: It is rather a modified(改变的)state of consciousness. The technologist will guide the patient to this modified state—an imaginary world that will disassociate itself more and more from the procedure that follows.
“The technologist must build up a story with the patient," Ms. L'Ecuyer said. "The patient is left with the power to choose what he wants to talk about. Do you play sports? Do you like going to the beach? We establish a subject that we will discuss throughout the procedure."
Everything that happens next during the procedure must be related to this story — an injection (注射)becomes the bite of an insect; the heat on the skin becomes the sensation of the sun and a machine that rings becomes a police car passing nearby.
“The important thing is that the technologist associates what is happening outside the patient's body with what the patient sees in his head," Ms. L'Ecuyer said. "It requires creativity on the part of the technologist, imagination, a lot of patience and kindness."
The procedure appealed to the staff a lot when it was introduced in January. It spread like wildfire that someone from France was here to train the technologists,” Ms. L'Ecuyer said. She added that she had a line of staff at her door wanting to take the training.
51.One of the results produced by the trial project is ________ .
A.a better understanding of children
B.less use of certain medicines
C.new medical-imaging technology
D.an improved reputation of the hospital
52.The French technologist came to the children's hospital to ________.
A.assist in treating a patient
B.carry out hypnosis training
C.start up a new department
D.learn about the procedure
53.According to Paragraph 5, hypnosis works by ________.
A.creating a perfect world for patients
B.forcing patients into a state of deep sleep
C.putting patients into an unconscious state
D.leading patients' consciousness away from reality
54.What can we learn about the story used in the procedure?
A.It should keep pace with the procedure.
B.It reflects the patient's creativity.
C.It is selected by the technologist.
D.It tells what doctors are doing to the patient.
55.The procedure was received among the staff with ________.
A.uncertainty
B.enthusiasm
C.worry
D.criticism
56.What is the passage mainly about?
A.An easy way to communicate with patients.
B.The standard method of conducting hypnosis.
C.An introduction of medical-imaging technology.
D.The use of hypnosis in medical-imaging procedures.
四、 2020年高考真题
(三十八) 2020·全国卷I,C
Race walking shares many fitness benefits with running, research shows, while most likely contributing to fewer injuries. It does, however, have its own problem.
Race walkers are conditioned athletes. The longest track and field event at the Summer Olympics is the 50-kilometer race walk, which is about five miles longer than the marathon. But the sport’s rules require that a race walker’s knees stay straight through most of the leg swing and one foot remain in contact (接触) with the ground at all times. It’s this strange form that makes race walking such an attractive activity, however, says Jaclyn Norberg, an assistant professor of exercise science at Salem State University in Salem, Mass.
Like running, race walking is physically demanding, she says, According to most calculations, race walkers moving at a pace of six miles per hour would burn about 800 calories(卡路里) per hour, which is approximately twice as many as they would burn walking, although fewer than running, which would probably burn about 1,000 or more calories per hour.
However, race walking does not pound the body as much as running does, Dr. Norberg says. According to her research, runners hit the ground with as much as four times their body weight per step, while race walkers, who do not leave the ground, create only about 1.4 times their body weight with each step.
As a result, she says, some of the injuries associated with running, such as runner’s knee, are uncommon among race walkers. But the sport’s strange form does place considerable stress on the ankles and hips, so people with a history of such injuries might want to be cautious in adopting the sport. In fact, anyone wishing to try race walking should probably first consult a coach or experienced racer to learn proper technique, she says. It takes some practice.
1. Why are race walkers conditioned athletes?
A. They must run long distances.
B. They are qualified for the marathon.
C. They have to follow special rules.
D. They are good at swinging their legs.
2. What advantage does race walking have over running?
A. It’s more popular at the Olympics.
B. It’s less challenging physically.
C. It’s more effective in body building.
D. It’s less likely to cause knee injuries.
3. What is Dr. Norberg’s suggestion for someone trying race walking?
A. Getting experts’ opinions.
B. Having a medical checkup.
C. Hiring an experienced coach.
D. Doing regular exercises.
4. Which word best describes the author’s attitude to race walking?
A. Skeptical. B. Objective.
C. Tolerant. D. Conservative.
(三十九) 2020·全国卷I,D
The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown,Ohio,for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another,employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants.
The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)have taken it a step further changing the actual composition of plants in order to get them to perform diverse,even unusual functions. These include plants that have sensors printed onto their leaves to show when they’re short of water and a plant that can detect harmful chemicals in groundwater. "We’re thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day,"explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT.
One of his latest projects has been to make plants glow(发光)in experiments using some common vegetables. Strano’s team found that they could create a faint light for three-and-a-half hours. The light,about one-thousandth of the amount needed to read by,is just a start. The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn trees into self-powered street lamps.
In the future,the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant’s lifetime. The engineers are also trying to develop an on and off"switch"where the glow would fade when exposed to daylight.
Lighting accounts for about 7% of the total electricity consumed in the US. Since lighting is often far removed from the power source(电源)-such as the distance from a power plant to street lamps on a remote highway-a lot of energy is lost during transmission(传输).Glowing plants could reduce this distance and therefore help save energy.
1. What is the first paragraph mainly about?
A. A new study of different plants.
B. A big fall in crime rates.
C. Employees from various workplaces.
D. Benefits from green plants.
2. What is the function of the sensors printed on plant leaves by MIT engineer?
A. To detect plants’ lack of water
B. To change compositions of plants
C. To make the life of plants longer.
D. To test chemicals in plants.
3. What can we expect of the glowing plants in the future?
A. They will speed up energy production.
B. They may transmit electricity to the home.
C. They might help reduce energy consumption.
D. They could take the place of power plants.
4. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A. Can we grow more glowing plants?
B. How do we live with glowing plants?
C. Could glowing plants replace lamps?
D. How are glowing plants made pollution-free?
(四十) 2020·全国卷II,B
Some parents will buy any high-tech toy if they think it will help their child, but researchers said puzzles help children with math-related skills.
Psychologist Susan Levine, an expert on mathematics development in young children the University of Chicago, found children who play with puzzles between ages 2 and 4 later develop better spatial skills. Puzzle play was found to be a significant predictor of cognition(认知) after controlling for differences in parents’ income, education and the amount of parent talk, Levine said.
The researchers analyzed video recordings of 53 child-parent pairs during everyday activities at home and found children who play with puzzles between 26 and 46 months of age have better spatial skills when assessed at 54 months of age.
“The children who played with puzzles performed better than those who did not, on tasks that assessed their ability to rotate(旋转)and translate shapes,” Levine said in a statement.
The parents were asked to interact with their children as they normally would, and about half of children in the study played with puzzles at one time. Higher-income parents tended to have children play with puzzles more frequently, and both boys and girls who played with puzzles had better spatial skills. However, boys tended to play with more complex puzzles than girls, and the parents of boys provided more spatial language and were more active during puzzle play than parents of girls.
The findings were published in the journal Developmental Science.
1. In which aspect do children benefit from puzzle play?
A. Building confidence. B. Developing spatial skills.
C. Learning self-control. D. Gaining high-tech knowledge.
2. What did Levine take into consideration when designing her experiment?
A. Parents’ age. B. Children’s imagination.
C. Parents’ education. D. Child-parent relationship.
3. How do boy differ from girls in puzzle play?
A. They play with puzzles more often.
B. They tend to talk less during the game.
C. They prefer to use more spatial language.
D. They are likely to play with tougher puzzles.
4. What is the text mainly about?
A. A mathematical method. B. A scientific study.
C. A woman psychologist D. A teaching program.
(四十一) 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 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-1 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 trying to come up with a lable to attach to nutria fashions to show it is eco-friendly.
28. What is the purpose of the fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn?
A. To promote guilt-free fur.
B. To expand the fashion market.
C. To introduce a new brand.
D. To celebrate a winter holiday.
29. Why are scientists concerned about nutria?
A. Nutria damage the ecosystem seriously.
B. Nutria are an endangered species.
C. Nutria hurt local cat-sized animals.
D. Nutria are illegally hunted.
30. What does the underlined word “collapsed” in paragraph 5 probably mean?
A. Boomed. B. Became mature. C. Remained stable. D. Crashed.
31. What can we infer abouf wearing fur in New York according to Morgan?
A. It’s formal. B. It’s risky. C. It’s harmful. D. It’s traditional.
(四十二) 2020·全国卷III,D
We are the products of evolution, and not just evolution that occurred billions of years ago. As scientists look deeper into our genes(基因), they are finding examples of human evolution in just the past few thousand years. People in Ethiopian highlands have adapted to living at high altitudes. Cattle -raising people in East Africa and northern Europe have gained a mutation (突变) that helps them digest milk as adults.
On Thursday in an article published in Cell, a team of researchers reported a new kind of adaptation — not to air or to food, but to the ocean. A group of sea-dwelling people in Southeast Asia have evolved into better divers. The Bajau, as these people are known, number in the hundreds of thousands in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. They have traditionally lived on houseboats; in recent times, they’ve also built houses on stilts (支柱) in coastal waters. “They are simply a stranger to the land,” said Redney C. Jubilado, a University of Hawaii researcher who studies the Bajau.
Dr. Jubilado first met the Bajau while growing up on Samal Island in the Philippines. They made a living as divers, spearfishing or harvesting shellfish. “We were so amazed that they could stay underwater much longer than us local islanders,” Dr. Jubilado said. “I could see them actually walking under the sea.”
In2015, Melissa Ilardo, then a graduate student in genetics at the University of Copenhagen, heard about the Bajau. She wondered if centuries of diving could have led to the evolution of physical characteristics that made the task easier for them. “it seemed like the perfect chance for natural selection to act on a population,” said Dr. Ilardo. She also said there were likely a number of other genes that help the Bajau dive.
32. What does the author want to tell us by the examples in paragraph 1?
A. Environmental adaptation of cattle raisers. B. New knowledge of human evolution.
C. Recent findings of human origin. D. Significance of food selection.
33. Where do the Bajau build their houses?
A. In valleys. B. Near rivers. C. On the beach. D. Off the coast.
34. Why was the young Jubilado astonished at the Bajau?
A. They could walk on stilts all day. B. They had a superb way of fishing.
C. They could stay long underwater. D. They lived on both land and water.
35. What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. Bodies Remodeled for a Life at Sea B. Highlanders’ Survival Skills
C. Basic Methods of Genetic Research D. The World’s Best Divers
(四十三) 2020年新高考Ⅰ卷之B篇
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 transformative.
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 Emest Hemningway’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 gifs, 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.
24. Why does the author like rereading?
A. It evaluates the writer-reader relationship.
B. It’s a window to a whole new world.
C. It’s a substitute for drinking with a friend.
D. It extends the understanding of oneself.
25. What do we know about the book A Moveable Feas!?
A. It’s a brief account of a trip.
B. It’s about Hemingway’s life as a young man.
C. It’s a record of a historic event.
D. It’s about Hemingway’s friends in Paris.
26. What does the underlined word "currency" in paragraph 4 refer to?
A. Debt
B. Reward.
C Allowance.
D. Face value.
27. What can we infer about the author from the text?
A. He loves poetry.
B. He’s an editor.
C. He’s very ambitious.
D. He teaches reading.
(四十四) 2020年新高考Ⅰ卷之C篇
Race walking shares many fitness benefits with running, research shows, while most likely contributing to fewer injuries. It does, however, have its own problem.
Race walkers are conditioned athletes. The longest track and field event at the Summer Olympics is the 50-kilometer race walk, which is about five miles longer than the marathon. But the sport’s rules require that a race walker’s knees stay straight through most of the leg swing and one foot remain in contact (接触) with the ground at all times. It’s this strange form that makes race walking such an attractive activity, however, says Jaclyn Norberg, an assistant professor of exercise science at Salem State University in Salem, Mass.
Like running, race walking is physically demanding, she says, According to most calculations, race walkers moving at a pace of six miles per hour would burn about 800 calories(卡路里) per hour, which is approximately twice as many as they would burn walking, although fewer than running, which would probably burn about 1,000 or more calories per hour.
However, race walking does not pound the body as much as running does, Dr. Norberg says. According to her research, runners hit the ground with as much as four times their body weight per step, while race walkers, who do not leave the ground, create only about 1.4 times their body weight with each step.
As a result, she says, some of the injuries associated with running, such as runner’s knee, are uncommon among race walkers. But the sport’s strange form does place considerable stress on the ankles and hips, so people with a history of such injuries might want to be cautious in adopting the sport. In fact, anyone wishing to try race walking should probably first consult a coach or experienced racer to learn proper technique, she says. It takes some practice.
28. Why are race walkers conditioned athletes?
A. They must run long distances.
B. They are qualified for the marathon.
C. They have to follow special rules.
D. They are good at swinging their legs.
29. What advantage does race walking have over running?
A. It’s more popular at the Olympics.
B. It’s less challenging physically.
C. It’s more effective in body building.
D. It’s less likely to cause knee injuries.
30. What is Dr. Norberg’s suggestion for someone trying race walking?
A. Getting experts’ opinions.
B. Having a medical checkup.
C. Hiring an experienced coach.
D. Doing regular exercises.
31. Which word best describes the author’s attitude to race walking?
A. Skeptical. B. Objective.
C. Tolerant. D. Conservative.
(四十五) 2020年新高考Ⅰ卷之D篇
The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown,Ohio,for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another,employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants.
The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)have taken it a step further changing the actual composition of plants in order to get them to perform diverse,even unusual functions. These include plants that have sensors printed onto their leaves to show when they’re short of water and a plant that can detect harmful chemicals in groundwater. "We’re thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day,"explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT.
One of his latest projects has been to make plants grow(发光)in experiments using some common vegetables. Strano’s team found that they could create a faint light for three-and-a-half hours. The light,about one-thousandth of the amount needed to read by,is just a start. The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn tree into self-powered street lamps.
in the future,the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant’s lifetime. The engineers are also trying to develop an on and off"switch"where the glow would fade when exposed to daylight.
Lighting accounts for about 7% of the total electricity consumed in the US. Since lighting is often far removed from the power source(电源)-such as the distance from a power plant to street lamps on a remote highway-a lot of energy is lost during transmission(传输).
Glowing plants could reduce this distance and therefore help save energy.
32. What is the first paragraph mainly about?
A. A new study of different plants.
B. A big fall in crime rates.
C. Employees from various workplaces.
D. Benefits from green plants.
33. What is the function of the sensors printed on plant leaves by MIT engineer?
A. To detect plants’ lack of water
B. To change compositions of plants
C. To make the life of plants longer.
D. To test chemicals in plants.
34. What can we expect of the glowing plants in the future?
A. They will speed up energy production.
B. They may transmit electricity to the home.
C. They might help reduce energy consumption.
D. They could take the place of power plants.
35. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A. Can we grow more glowing plants?
B. How do we live with glowing plants?
C. Could glowing plants replace lamps?
D. How are glowing plants made pollution-free?
(四十六) 2020年新高考ⅠI卷之B篇
Some parents will buy any high-tech toy if they think it will help their child, but researchers said puzzles help children with math-related skills.
Psychologist Susan Levine, an expert on mathematics development in young children the University of Chicago, found children who play with puzzles between ages 2 and 4 later develop better spatial skills. Puzzle play was found to be a significant predictor of cognition(认知) after controlling for differences in parents’ income, education and the amount of parent talk, Levine said.
The researchers analyzed video recordings of 53 child-parent pairs during everyday activities at home and found children who play with puzzles between 26 and 46 months of age have better spatial skills when assessed at 54 months of age.
“The children who played with puzzles performed better than those who did not, on tasks that assessed their ability to rotate(旋转)and translate shapes,” Levine said in a statement.
The parents were asked to interact with their children as they normally would, and about half of children in the study played with puzzles at one time. Higher-income parents tended to have children play with puzzles more frequently, and both boys and girls who played with puzzles had better spatial skills. However, boys tended to play with more complex puzzles than girls, and the parents of boys provided more spatial language and were more active during puzzle play than parents of girls.
The findings were published in the journal Developmental Science.
24. In which aspect do children benefit from puzzle play?
A. Building confidence. B. Developing spatial skills.
C. Learning self-control. D. Gaining high-tech knowledge.
25. What did Levine take into consideration when designing her experiment?
A. Parents’ age. B. Children’s imagination.
C. Parents’ education. D. Child-parent relationship.
26. How do boy differ from girls in puzzle play?
A. They play with puzzles more often.
B. They tend to talk less during the game.
C. They prefer to use more spatial language.
D. They are likely to play with tougher puzzles.
27. What is the text mainly about?
A. A mathematical method. B. A scientific study.
C. A woman psychologist D. A teaching program.
(四十七) 2020年新高考ⅠI卷之C篇
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 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. Morgan says,”To give people a guilt-free option that they can wear without someone throwing paint on them-1 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 trying to come up with a lable to attach to nutria fashions to show it is eco-friendly.
28. What is the purpose of the fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn?
A. To promote guilt-free fur.
B. To expand the fashion market.
C. To introduce a new brand.
D. To celebrate a winter holiday.
29. Why are scientists concerned about nutria?
A. Nutria damage the ecosystem seriously.
B. Nutria are an endangered species.
C. Nutria hurt local cat-sized animals.
D. Nutria are illegally hunted.
30. What does the underlined word “collapsed” in paragraph 5 probably mean?
A. Boomed. B. Became mature. C. Remained stable. D. Crashed.
31. What can we infer abouf wearing fur in New York according to Morgan?
A. It’s formal. B. It’s risky. C. It’s harmful. D. It’s traditional.
(四十八) 2020年新高考ⅠII卷之D篇
We are the products of evolution, and not just evolution that occurred billions of years ago. As scientists look deeper into our genes (基因), they are finding examples of human evolution in just the past few thousand years. People in Ethiopian highlands have adapted to living at high altitudes. Cattle -raising people in East Africa and northern Europe have gained a mutation (突变) that helps them digest milk as adults.
On Thursday in an article published in Cell, a team of researchers reported a new kind of adaptation - not to air or to food, but to the ocean. A group of sea-dwelling people in Southeast Asia have evolved into better divers. The Bajau, as these people are known, number in the hundreds of thousands in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. They have traditionally lived on houseboats; in recent times, they’ve also built houses on stilts (支柱) in coastal waters. “They are simply a stranger to the land,” said Redney C. Jubilado, a University of Hawaii researcher who studies the Bajau.
Dr. Jubilado first met the Bajau while growing up on Samal Island in the Philippines. They made a living as divers, spearfishing or harvesting shellfish. “We were so amazed that they could stay underwater much longer than us local islanders,” Dr. Jubilado said. “I could see them actually walking under the sea.”
In201, Melissa Ilardo, then a graduate student in genetics at the University of Copenhagen, heard about the Bajau. She wondered if centuries of diving could have led to the evolution of physical characteristics that made the task easier for them. “it seemed like the perfect chance for natural selection to act on a population,” said Dr. Ilardo. She also said there were likely a number of other genes that help the Bajau dive.
32. What does the author want to tell us by the examples in paragraph 1?
A. Environmental adaptation of cattle raisers. B. New knowledge of human evolution.
C. Recent findings of human origin. D. Significance of food selection.
33. Where do the Bajau build their houses?
A. In valleys. B. Near rivers. C. On the beach. D. Off the coast.
34. Why was the young Jubilado astonished at the Bajau?
A. They could walk on stilts all day. B. They had a superb way of fishing.
C. They could stay long underwater. D. They lived on both land and water.
35. What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. Bodies Remodeled for a Life at Sea B. Highlanders’ Survival Skills
C. Basic Methods of Genetic Research D. The World’s Best Divers
(四十九) 2020年江苏卷之B篇
Sometimes it’s hard to let go. For many British people, that can apply to institutions and objects that represent their country’s past-age-old castles, splendid homes… and red phone boxes.
Beaten first by the march of technology and lately by the terrible weather in junkyards (废品场), the phone boxes representative of an age are now making something of a comeback. Adapted in imaginative ways, many have reappeared on city streets and village greens housing tiny cafes, cellphone repair shops or even defibrillator machines (除颤器).
The original iron boxes with the round roofs first appeared in 1926. They were designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect of the Battersea Power Station in London. After becoming an important part of many British streets, the phone boxes began disappearing in the 1980s, with the rise of the mobile phone sending most of them away to the junkyards.
About that time, Tony Inglis’ engineering and transport company got the job to remove phone boxes from the streets and sell them out. But Inglis ended up buying hundreds of them himself, with the idea of repairing and selling them. He said that he had heard the calls to preserve the boxes and had seen how some of them were listed as historic buildings.
As Inglis and, later other businessmen, got to work, repurposed phone boxes began reappearing in cities and villages as people found new uses for them. Today, they are once again a familiar sight, playing roles that are often just as important for the community as their original purpose.
In rural areas, where ambulances can take a relatively long time to arrive, the phone boxes have taken on a lifesaving role. Local organizations can adopt them for l pound, and install defibrillators to help in emergencies.
Others also looked at the phone boxes and saw business opportunities. LoveFone, a company that advocates repairing cellphones rather than abandoning them, opened a mini workshop in a London phone box in 2016.
The tiny shops made economic sense, according to Robert Kerr, a founder of LoveFone. He said that one of the boxes generated around $13,500 in revenue a month and cost only about $400 to rent.
Inglis said phone boxes called to mind an age when things were built to last. I “like what they are to people, and I enjoy bringing things back,” he said.
58. The phone boxes are making a comeback ______.
A. to form a beautiful sight of the city
B. to improve telecommunications services
C. to remind people of a historical period
D. to meet the requirement of green economy
59. Why did the phone boxes begin to go out of service in the 1980s?
A. They were not well-designed. B. They provided bad services.
C. They had too short a history. D. They lost to new technologies.
60. The phone boxes are becoming popular mainly because of ______.
A. their new appearance and lower prices B. the push of the local organizations
C. their changed roles and functions D. the big funding of the businessmen
(五十) 2020年江苏卷之C篇
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
62. Why were the 10 people chosen for the experiment?
A. Their lifestyles were typical of ordinary people.
B. Their lack of exercise led to overweight.
C. They could walk at an average speed.
D. They had slow metabolic rates.
63. What happened to those who ate breakfast before exercise?
A. They successfully lost weight.
B. They consumed a bit more calories.
C. They burned more fat on average.
D. They displayed higher insulin levels.
64. What could be learned from the research?
A. A workout after breakfast improves gene performances.
B. Too much workout often slows metabolic rates.
C. Lifestyle is not as important as morning exercise.
D. Physical exercise before breakfast is better for health.
(五十一) 2020年天津卷之A篇
How to Use a Modern Public Library
Has it been a while since your last visit to a public library? If so, you may be surprised to learn that libraries have changed for the better. It’s been years since they were dusty little rooms with books. They have transformed themselves into places where you can develop your love of knowledge meet interesting people, or find out how to start a business.
Check out a book. While libraries still loan out(出借)books, you’ll find it easier to get a copy of whatever you’re looking for, thanks to a cooperative network of area libraries. Via such networks, libraries share their books with each other through the use of delivery vehicles. Once the book you’ve requested is delivered to the nearest branch, they will inform you by e-mail, so you can pick it up.
Check out other items. The library is now a multimedia zone, loaded with information in many formats(载体形式). You can borrow movies on DVDs, music on CDs, and popular magazines. Some libraries even loan out toys and games. If a popular magazine you want isn’t offered and the library keeps a list of such requests, they may bring it in when enough interest is shown.
Join targeted reading groups. Libraries will often hold reading-group sessions targeted to various age groups. Perhaps you’d like to learn a language or improve your English. The library may sponsor a language group you could join. If you have difficulties reading, ask about special reading opportunities. Your library might be able to accommodate you. And you might find it relaxing to bring your small kid to a half-hour Story Time while you sit quietly in a corner with a good book.
Start a business using the help of your local library. If you want to have a business of your own, your local library can become a launch space for it. In library books and computers, you can find information on starting a business. Many libraries will help you with locally supplied information about business management shared through chambers of commerce(商会)and government agencies, and they will offer printing, faxing and database services you need.
36. Public libraries connected by a cooperative network benefit readers by______.
A. sharing their books on the Internet
B. giving access to online reading at a library branch
C. sending a needed book to a library branch nearby
D. making the checkout procedures diverse
37. According to Paragraph 3, what items may be checked out from a public library?
A. A magazine and an e-book.
B. A game and an oil painting.
C. A music CD and a kid’s toy.
D. A DVD and a video player
38. As is described in Paragraph 4, taking a small kid to a half-hour Story Time allows ______.
A. the kid to learn a new language
B. the parent to enjoy quiet reading
C. the kid to overcome reading difficulties
D. the parent to meet their program sponsor
39. Your local library can help you start a business by ______.
A. providing relevant information and supporting services
B. offering professional advice on business management
C. supplying useful information of your potential buyers
D. arranging meetings with government officials
40. What is the purpose of the passage?
A. To point out the importance of public libraries.
B. To encourage people to work in public libraries.
C. To introduce the improved services of public libraries.
D. To call for the modernization of public library systems.
(五十二) 2020年天津卷之C篇
For people, who are interested in sound, the field of sound technology is definitely making noise. In the past, sound engineers worked in the back rooms of recording studios, but many of today’s sound professionals are sharing their knowledge and experience with professionals in other fields to create new products based on the phenomenon we call sound.
Sound can be used as a weapon. Imagine that a police officer is chasing a thief. The thief tries to escape. And the officer can’t let him get away. He pulls out a special device, points it at the suspect, and switches it on. The thief drops to the ground. This new weapon is called a Long Range Acoustic Device(LRAD, 远程定向声波发射器). It produces a deafening sound so painful that it temporarily disables a person. The noise from the LRAD is directed like a ray of light and travels only into the ears of that person, but it is not deadly.
For those who hunger for some peace and quiet, sound can now create silence. Let’s say you are at the airport, and the little boy on the seat next to you is humming(哼唱) a short commercial song. He hums it over and over again, and you are about to go crazy. Thanks to the Silence Machine, a British invention, you can get rid of the sound without upsetting the boy or his parents. One may wonder how the Silence Machine works. Well, it functions by analyzing the waves of the incoming sound and creating a second set of outgoing waves. The two sets of waves cancel each other out. Simply turn the machine or point it at the target, and your peace and quiet comes back.
Directed sound is a new technology that allows companies to use sound in much the same way spotlights(聚光灯) are used in the theater. A spotlight lights up only one section of a stage; similarly, “spotsound” creates a circle of sound in on targeted area. This can be useful for businesses such as restaurants and stores because it offers a new way to attract customers. Restaurants can offer a choice of music along with the various food choices on the menu, allowing customers more control over the atmosphere in which they are dining. Directed sound is also beginning to appear in shopping centers and even at homes.
46. What could be inferred from Paragraph 2 about the effect of the LRAD?
A. It causes temporary hearing loss.
B. It slows down a running man.
C. It makes it easy to identify a suspect.
D. It keeps the suspect from hurting others.
47. The Silence Machine is a device specially designed to ________.
A. silence the people around you
B. remove the sound of commercials
C. block the incoming sound waves
D. stop unwanted sound from affecting you
48. What feature do spotsounds and spotlights share?
A. They travel in circles.
B. They clear the atmosphere.
C. They can be transformed into energy.
D. They can be directed onto a specific area.
49. Directed sound can be used for ________.
A. creative designs of restaurant menus
B. ideal sound effects on the theater stage
C. different choices of music for businesses
D. strict control over any suspicious customer
50. What does the passage focus on?
A. How professionals invented sound products.
B. Inventions in the field of sound technology.
C. The growing interest in the study of sound.
D. How sound engineers work in their studios.
(五十三) 2020·山东卷,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?
12. What is the recent study mainly about?
A. Food safety. B. Movie viewership.
C. Consumer demand. D. Eating behavior.
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.
14. Why did the researchers hire the actor?
A. To see how she would affect the participants.
B. To test if the participants could recognize her.
C. To find out what she would do in the two tests.
D. To study why she could keep her weight down.
15. On what basis do we “adjust the influence” according to the last paragraph?
A. How hungry we are. B. How slim we want to be.
C. How we perceive others. D. How we feel about the food.
(五十四) 2020年6月浙江卷之A篇
I am an active playgoer and play-reader, and perhaps my best reason for editing this book is a hope of sharing my enthusiasm for the theater with others. To do this I have searched through dozens of plays to find the ones that I think best show the power and purpose of the short play.
Each play has a theme or central idea which the playwright(剧作家) hopes to get across through dialogue and action. A few characters are used to create a single impression growing out of the theme. It is not my intention to point out the central theme of each of the plays in this collection, for that would, indeed, ruin the pleasure of reading, discussing, and thinking about the plays and the effectiveness of the playwright. However, a variety of types is represented here. These include comedy, satire, poignant drama, historical and regional drama. To show the versatility(多面性) of the short play, I have included a guidance play, a radio play and a television play.
Among the writers of the plays in this collection, Paul Green, Susan Glaspell, Maxwell Anderson, Thornton Wilder, William Saroyan, and Tennessee Williams have all received Pulitzer Prizes for their contributions to the theater. More information about the playwrights will be found at the end of this book.
To get the most out of reading these plays, try to picture the play on stage, with you, the reader, in the audience. The houselights dim(变暗). The curtains are about to open, and in a few minutes the action and dialogue will tell you the story.
21. What do we know about the author from the first paragraph?
A. He has written dozens of plays. B. He has a deep love for the theater.
C. He is a professional stage actor. D. He likes reading short plays to others.
22. What does the author avoid doing in his work?
A. Stating the plays’ central ideas. B. Selecting works by famous playwrights.
C Including various types of plays. D. Offering information on the playwrights.
23. What does the author suggest readers do while reading the plays?
A. Control their feelings. B. Apply their acting skills.
C. Use their imagination. D. Keep their audience in mind.
24. What is this text?
A. A short story. B. An introduction to a book.
C A play review. D. An advertisement for a theater.
(五十五) 2020年6月浙江卷之B篇
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 9:30am, the full red/yellow/green signal cycle might be 140 seconds. By 9:33am, a burst of additional traffic might push it to 145 seconds. Less traffic at 9:37am 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.
26. What does Kevin Balke say about adaptive signals?
A. They work better on broad roads.
B. They should be used in other cities.
C. They have greatly reduced traffic on the road.
D. They are less helpful in cities seriously jammed.
27. What can we learn from Bellevue’s success?
A. It is rewarding to try new things. B. The old methods still work today.
C. I pays to put theory into practice. D. The simplest way is the best way.
(五十六) 2020年6月浙江卷之C篇
Challenging work that requires lots of analytical thinking, planning and other managerial skills might help your brain stay sharp as you age, a study published Wednesday in the journal Neurology suggests.
Researchers from the University of Leipzig in Germany gathered more than 1, 000 retired workers who were over age 75 and assessed the volunteers’ memory and thinking skills through a battery of tests. Then, for eight years, the scientists asked the same group to come back to the lab every 18 months to take the same sorts of tests.
Those who had held mentally stimulating(刺激), demanding jobs before retirement tended to do the best on the tests. And they tended to lose cognitive(认知) function at a much slower rate than those with the least mentally challenging jobs. The results held true even after the scientists accounted for the participants’ overall health status.
“This works just like physical exercise, ” says Francisca Then, who led the study. “After a long run, you may feel like you’re in pain, you may feel tired. But it makes you fit. After a long day at work-sure, you will feel tired, but it can help your brain stay healthy. ”
It's not just corporate jobs, or even paid work that can help keep your brain fit, Then points out. A waiter’s job, for example, that requires multitasking, teamwork and decision-making could be just as stimulating as any high-level office work. And “running a family household requires high-level planning and coordinating(协调), ” she says. “You have to organize the activities of the children and take care of the bills and groceries. ”
Of course, our brains can decline as we grow older for lots of reasons-including other environmental influences or genetic factors. Still, continuing to challenge yourself mentally and keeping your mind busy can only help.
28. Why did the scientists ask the volunteers to take the tests?
A. To assess their health status. B. To evaluate their work habits.
C. To analyze their personality. D. To measure their mental ability.
29. How does Francisca Then explain her findings in paragraph 4?
A. By using an expert’s words. B. By making a comparison.
C. By referring to another study. D. By introducing a concept.
30. Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A. Retired Workers Can Pick Up New Skills
B. Old People Should Take Challenging Jobs
C. Your Tough Job Might Help Keep You Sharp
D. Cognitive Function May Decline As You Age
(五十七) 2020年1月浙江卷之B篇
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is road testing a new way to keep winter roads ice-free – by spreading on them cheese brine, the salty liquid used to make soft cheese, like mozzarella.
Wisconsin, also called "America's Dairyland," is famous for its cheese. The state produced 2.8 billion pounds of cheese last year! a result, there was a lot of leftover cheese brine. Disposing of(处置)the brine can be expensive. So what should cheese makers do with the waste?
Normally, towns use rock salt to de-ice streets. The salt lowers waters' freezing point, causing ice to melt(融化). But using cheese brine could help both cheese producers and cities save money, while keeping roads safe. Cheese brine has salt in it, which, like the rock salt, helps lower water's freezing point.
In addition to saving money, cheese brine could also be a more environment-friendly option. Many people suspect that all the rock salt used every winter is harming the environment.
Rock salt is made of sodium chloride, the sane con-pound (化合物)in ordinary table salt. Sounds harmless, right? But while you probably add only a small amount of salt to your food, road crews spread about 20 million tons of salt on U.S. Roads every year!
The chemical washes off roads and goes into the ground. There it can pollute drinking water, harm plants. and eat away soil. By spreading cheese brine on streets before adding a layer of rock salt, Milwaukee may be able to cut its rock salt use by 30 percent.
Cheese brine has a downside too – a shell similar to that of bad milk. "I don't really mind it," Emil Norby told Modern Farmer magazine. He works for one of Wisconsin's county highway commissions and came up with the idea of using cheese brine. "Our roads smell like Wisconsin!" he said.
24. Why can cheese brine help keep winter roads ice-free?
A. It is soft. B. It contains salt. C. It is warm. D. It has milk in it.
25. What is a benefit of using cheese urine on roads?
A. Improving air quality. B. Increasing sales of rock salt.
C. Reducing water pollution. D. Saving the cheese industry.
26. Milwaukee's new way to de-ice streets may be an example of_______________.
A. barking up the wrong tree B. putting the cart before the horse
C. robbing Peter to pay Paul D. killing two birds with one stone
(五十八) 2020年1月浙江卷之C篇
Today's world is not an easy adjustment for young adults. Key skill set for success is persistence (毅力), a characteristic that researchers say is heavily influenced by fathers. Researchers from Brigham Young University discovered that fathers are in a unique position to help their adolescent children learn persistence.
BYU professors Laura Padilla-Walker and Randal Day arrived at these findings after following 325 American families over several years. And over time,the persistence gained through fathers led to higher achievement in school.
"There are relatively few studies that stress the unique role of fathers,"Padilla-Walker said. "This research also helps to prove that characteristics such as persistence-which can be taught-are key to a child's life success.”
Researchers determined that dads need to practice an "authoritative" parenting style. Authoritative parenting is not authoritarian:rigid,demanding or controlling. Rather,an authoritative parenting style includes some of the following characteristics:children feel warmth and love from their father;responsibility and the reasons behind rules are stressed children are given an appropriate level of autonomy(自主权).
In the study,about 52 percent of the dads exhibited above-average levels of authoritative parenting. A key finding is that over time,children raised by an authoritative father were significantly more likely to develop persistence,which leads to better outcomes in school.
This particular study examined 11 to 14-year-olds living in two-parent homes. Yet the researchers suggest that single parents still may play a role in teaching the benefits of persistence,which is an avenue of future research.
27. What is special about the BYU professors' study?
A. It centered on fathers' role in parenting.
B. It was based on a number of large families.
C. It analyzed different kinds of parenting styles.
D. It aimed to improve kids' achievement in school.
28. What would an authoritative father do when raising his children?
A. Ignore their demands. B. Make decisions for them.
C. Control their behaviors. D. Explain the rules to them.
29. Which group can be a focus of future studies according to the researchers?
A. Single parents.
B. Children aged from 11 to 14.
C. Authoritarian fathers.
D. Mothers in two-parent homes.
30. Which of the following is the best title for the text?
A. Three Characteristics of Authoritative Fathers.
B. Key Skills for Young Adults to Succeed in Future.
C. Children Tend to Learn Determination from Father.
D. Family Relationship Influences School Performance.
五、 2019年高考真题
(五十九) 2019·全国卷I,C
As data and identity theft becomes more and more common, the market is growing for biometric(生物测量)technologies—like fingerprint scans—to keep others out of private e-spaces. At present, these technologies are still expensive, though.
Researchers from Georgia Tech say that they have come up with a low-cost device(装置)that gets around this problem: a smart keyboard. This smart keyboard precisely measures the cadence(节奏)with which one types and the pressure fingers apply to each key. The keyboard could offer a strong layer of security by analyzing things like the force of a user's typing and the time between key presses. These patterns are unique to each person. Thus, the keyboard can determine people's identities, and by extension, whether they should be given access to the computer it's connected to—regardless of whether someone gets the password right.
It also doesn't require a new type of technology that people aren't already familiar with. Everybody uses a keyboard and everybody types differently.
In a study describing the technology, the researchers had 100 volunteers type the word “touch”four times using the smart keyboard. Data collected from the device could be used to recognize different participants based on how they typed, with very low error rates. The researchers say that the keyboard should be pretty straightforward to commercialize and is mostly made of inexpensive, plastic-like parts. The team hopes to make it to market in the near future.
28. Why do the researchers develop the smart keyboard?
A. To reduce pressure on keys. B. To improve accuracy in typing
C. To replace the password system. D. To cut the cost of e-space protection.
29. What makes the invention of the smart keyboard possible?
A. Computers are much easier to operate.
B. Fingerprint scanning techniques develop fast.
C. Typing patterns vary from person to person.
D. Data security measures are guaranteed.
30. What do the researchers expect of the smart keyboard?all 1o soisgitieoco oll.
A. It'll be environment-friendly. B. It'll reach consumers soon.
C. It'll be made of plastics. D. It'll help speed up typing.
31. Where is this text most likely from?
A. A diary. B. A guidebook C. A novel. D. A magazine.
(六十) 2019·全国卷I,D
During the rosy years of elementary school(小学), I enjoyed sharing my dolls and jokes, which allowed me to keep my high social status. I was the queen of the playground. Then came my tweens and teens, and mean girls and cool kids. They rose in the ranks not by being friendly but by smoking cigarettes, breaking rules and playing jokes on others, among whom I soon found myself.
Popularity is a well-explored subject in social psychology. Mitch Prinstein, a professor of clinical psychology sorts the popular into two categories: the likable and the status seekers. The likables’ plays-well-with-others qualities strengthen schoolyard friendships, jump-start interpersonal skills and, when tapped early, are employed ever after in life and work. Then there’s the kind of popularity that appears in adolescence: status born of power and even dishonorable behavior.
Enviable as the cool kids may have seemed, Dr. Prinstein’s studies show unpleasant consequences. Those who were highest in status in high school, as well as those least liked in elementary school, are “most likely to engage(从事)in dangerous and risky behavior.”
In one study, Dr. Prinstein examined the two types of popularity in 235 adolescents, scoring the least liked, the most liked and the highest in status based on student surveys(调查研究). “We found that the least well-liked teens had become more aggressive over time toward their classmates. But so had those who were high in status. It clearly showed that while likability can lead to healthy adjustment, high status has just the opposite effect on us."
Dr. Prinstein has also found that the qualities that made the neighbors want you on a play date-sharing, kindness, openness — carry over to later years and make you better able to relate and connect with others.
In analyzing his and other research,Dr. Prinstein came to another conclusion: Not only is likability related to positive life outcomes, but it is also responsible for those outcomes, too. "Being liked creates opportunities for learning and for new kinds of life experiences that help somebody gain an advantage, ” he said.
32. What sort of girl was the author in her early years of elementary school?
A. Unkind. B. Lonely. C. Generous. D. Cool.
33. What is the second paragraph mainly about?
A. The classification of the popular.
B. The characteristics of adolescents.
C. The importance of interpersonal skills.
D. The causes of dishonorable behavior
34. What did Dr. Prinstein’s study find about the most liked kids?
A. They appeared to be aggressive.
B. They tended to be more adaptable.
C. They enjoyed the highest status.
D. They performed well academically.
35. What is the best title for the text?
A. Be Nice-You Won’t Finish Last
B. The Higher the Status, the Beer
C. Be the Best-You Can Make It
D. More Self-Control, Less Aggressiveness
(六十一) 2019·全国卷II,D
Bacteria are an annoying problem for astronauts. The microorganisms(微生物) from our bodies grow uncontrollably on surfaces of the International Space Station, so astronauts spend hours cleaning them up each week. How is NASA overcoming this very tiny big problem? It’s turning to a bunch of high school kids. But not just any kids. It depending on NASA HUNCH high school class, like the one science teachers Gene Gordon and Donna Himmelberg lead at Fairport High School in Fairport, New York.
HUNCH is designed to connect high school classrooms with NASA engineers. For the past two years, Gordon’s students have been studying ways to kill bacteria in zero gravity, and they think they’re close to a solution(解决方案). “We don’t give the students any breaks. They have to do it just like NASA engineers,” says Florence Gold, a project manager.
“There are no tests,” Gordon says. “There is no graded homework. There almost are no grades, other than‘Are you working towards your goal?’ Basically, it’s ‘I’ve got to produce this product and then, at the end of year, present it to NASA.’ Engineers come and really do an in-person review, and…it’s not a very nice thing at time. It’s a hard business review of your product.”
Gordon says the HUNCH program has an impact(影响) on college admissions and practical life skills. “These kids are so absorbed in their studies that I just sit back. I don’t teach.” And that annoying bacteria? Gordon says his students are emailing daily with NASA engineers about the problem, readying a workable solution to test in space.
32. What do we know about the bacteria in the International Space Station?
A. They are hard to get rid of. B. They lead to air pollution.
C. They appear different forms. D. They damage the instruments.
33. What is the purpose of the HUNCH program?
A. To strengthen teacher-student relationships. B. To sharpen students’ communication skills.
C. To allow students to experience zero gravity. D. To link space technology with school education
34. What do the NASA engineers do for the students in the program?
A. Check their product. B. Guide project designs
C. Adjust work schedules. D. Grade their homework.
35. What is the best title for the text?
A. NASA: The Home of Astronauts.
B. Space: The Final Homework Frontier.
C. Nature: An Outdoor Classroom.
D. HUNCH:A College Admission Reform.
(六十二) 2019·全国卷III,C
Before the 1830smost newspapers were sold through annual subscriptions in America, usually $8 to $10 a year. Today $8 or $10 seems a small amount of money, but at that time these amounts were forbidding to most citizens. Accordingly, newspapers were read almost only by rich people in politics or the trades. In addition, most newspapers had little in them that would appeal to a mass audience. They were dull and visually forbidding. But the revolution that was taking place in the 1830s would change all that.
The trend, then, was toward the "penny paper"-a term referring to papers made widely available to the public. It meant any inexpensive newspaper; perhaps more importantly it meant newspapers that could be bought in single copies on the street.
This development did not take place overnight. It had been possible(but not easy)to buy single copies of newspapers before 1830,but this usually meant the reader had to go down to the printer's office to purchase a copy. Street sales were almost unknown. However, within a few years, street sales of newspapers would be commonplace in eastern cities. At first the price of single copies was seldom a penny-usually two or three cents was charged-and some of the older well-known papers charged five or six cents. But the phrase "penny paper " caught the public's fancy, and soon there would be papers that did indeed sell for only a penny.
This new trend of newspapers for "the man on the street" did not begin well. Some of the early ventures(企业)were immediate failures. Publishers already in business, people who were owners of successful papers, had little desire to change the tradition. It took a few youthful and daring businessmen to get the ball rolling.
28. Which of the following best describes newspapers in America before the 1830s?
A. Academic. B. Unattractive. C. Inexpensive. D. Confidential.
29. What did street sales mean to newspapers?
A. They would be priced higher. B. They would disappear from cities.
C. They could have more readers. D. They could regain public trust.
30. Who were the newspapers of the new trend targeted at?
A. Local politicians. B. Common people.
C. Young publishers. D. Rich businessmen.
31. What can we say about the birth of the penny paper?
A. It was a difficult process. B. It was a temporary success.
C. It was a robbery of the poor. D. It was a disaster for printers.
(六十三) 2019·全国卷III,D
Monkeys seem to have a way with numbers.
A team of researchers trained three Rhesus monkeys to associate 26 clearly different symbols consisting of numbers and selective letters with 0-25 drops of water or juice as a reward. The researchers then tested how the monkeys combined—or added—the symbols to get the reward.
Here's how Harvard Medical School scientist Margaret Livingstone, who led the team, described the experiment: In their cages the monkeys were provided with touch screens. On one part of the screen, a symbol would appear, and on the other side two symbols inside a circle were shown. For example, the number 7 would flash on one side of the screen and the other end would have 9 and 8. If the monkeys touched the left side of the screen they would be rewarded with seven drops of water or juice; if they went for the circle, they would be rewarded with the sum of the numbers—17 in this example.
After running hundreds of tests, the researchers noted that the monkeys would go for the higher values more than half the time, indicating that they were performing a calculation, not just memorizing the value of each combination.
When the team examined the results of the experiment more closely, they noticed that the monkeys tended to underestimate(低估)a sum compared with a single symbol when the two were close in value—sometimes choosing, for example, a 13 over the sum of 8 and 6. The underestimation was systematic: When adding two numbers, the monkeys always paid attention to the larger of the two, and then added only a fraction(小部分)of the smaller number to it.
"This indicates that there is a certain way quantity is represented in their brains, "Dr. Livingstone says. “But in this experiment what they're doing is paying more attention to the big number than the little one.”
32. What did the researchers do to the monkeys before testing them?
A. They fed them. B. They named them.
C. They trained them. D. They measured them.
33. How did the monkeys get their reward in the experiment?
A. By drawing a circle. B. By touching a screen.
C. By watching videos. D. By mixing two drinks.
34. What did Livingstone's team find about the monkeys?
A. They could perform basic addition. B. They could understand simple words.
C. They could memorize numbers easily. D. They could hold their attention for long.
35. In which section of a newspaper may this text appear?
A. Entertainment. B. Health. C. Education. D. Science.
(六十四) 2019·北京卷,C
The problem of robocalls has gotten so bad that many people now refuse to pick up calls from numbers they don't know. By next year,half of the calls we receive will be scams(欺诈).We are finally waking up to the severity of the problem by supporting and developing a group of tools,apps and approaches intended to prevent scammers from getting through. Unfortunately,it's too little,too late. By the time these “solutions"(解决方案)become widely available,scammers will have moved onto cleverer means. In the near future,it's not just going to be the number you see on your screen that will be in doubt. Soon you will also question whether the voice you're hearing is actually real.
That's because there are a number of powerful voice manipulation ( 处理 ) and automation technologies that are about to become widely available for anyone to use .At this year's I/O Conference ,a company showed a new voice technology able to produce such a convincing human –sounding voice that it was able to speak to a receptionist and book a reservation without detection.
These developments are likely to make our current problems with robocalls much worse. The reason that robocalls are a headache has less to do with amount than precision A decade of data breaches(数据侵入)of personal information has led to a situation where scammers can easily learn your mother 's name ,and far more. Armed with this knowledge. they're able to carry out individually targeted campaigns to cheat people. This means. for example,that a scammer could call you from what looks to be a familiar number and talk to you using a voice that sounds exactly like your bank teller 's,ricking you into "confirming " your address,mother's name,and card number. Scammers follow money,so companies will be the worst hit. A lot of business is still done over the phone,and much of it is based on trust and existing relationships. Voice manipulation technologies may weaken that gradually.
We need to deal with the insecure nature of our telecom networks. Phone carriers and consumers need to work together to find ways of determining and communicating what is real. That might mean either developing a uniform way to mark videos and images, showing when and who they were made by. or abandoning phone calls altogether and moving towards data-based communications—using apps like Face Time or WhatsApp, which can be tied to your identity.
Credibility is hard to earn but easy to lose, and the problem is only going to harder from here on out.
38. How does the author feel about the solutions to problem of robecalls?
A. Panicked. B. Confused. C. Embarrassed. D. Disappointed.
39. taking advantage of the new technologies,scammer can______.
A. aim at victims precisely B. damage databases easily
C. start campaigns rapidly D. spread information widely
40. What does the passage imply?
A. Honesty is the best policy.
B. Technologies can be double-edited.
C. There are more solutions than problems.
D. Credibility holds the key to development.
41. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A. Where the Problem of Robocalls Is Rooted
B. Who Is to Blame for the Problem of Roboealls
C. Why Robocalls Are About to Get More Dangerous
D. How Robocalls Are Affecting the World of Technology
(六十五) 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. ”
42. What are the first two paragraphs mainly about?
A. The various patterns at the ocean surface.
B. The cause of the changes in ocean colour.
C. The way light reflects off marine organisms.
D. The efforts to fuel the growth of phytoplankton.
43. What does the underlined word“vulnerable”in Paragraph 3 probably mean?
A. Sensitive. B. Beneficial C. Significant D. Unnoticeable
44. What can we learn from the passage?
A. Phytoplankton play a declining role in the marine ecosystem.
B. Dutkiewicz's model aims to project phytoplankton changes
C. Phytoplankton have been used to control global climate
D. Oceans with more phytoplankton may appear greener.
45. What is the main purpose of the passage?
A. To assess the consequences of ocean colour changes
B. To analyse the composition of the ocean food chain
C. To explain the effects of climate change on oceans
D. To introduce a new method to study phytoplankton
(六十六) 2019·天津卷,C
How does an ecosystem(生态系统)work?What makes the populations of different species the way they are?Why are there so many flies and so few wolves?To find an answer,scientists have built mathematical models of food webs,noting who eats whom and how much each one eats.
With such models,scientists have found out some key principles operating in food webs. Most food webs,for instance,consist of many weak links rather than a few strong ones. When a predator(掠食动物)always eats huge numbers of a single prey(猎物),the two species are strongly linked;when a predator lives on various species,they are weakly linked. Food webs may be dominated by many weak links because that arrangement is more stable over the long term. If a predator can eat several species,it can survive the extinction(灭绝)of one of them. And if a predator can move on to another species that is easier to find when a prey species becomes rare,the switch allows the original prey to recover. The weak links may thus keep species from driving one another to extinction.
Mathematical models have also revealed that food webs may be unstable,where small changes of top predators can lead to big effects throughout entire ecosystems. In the 1960s,scientists proposed that predators at the top of a food web had a surprising amount of control over the size of populations of other species---including species they did not directly attack.
And unplanned human activities have proved the idea of top-down control by top predators to be true. In the ocean,we fished for top predators such as cod on an industrial scale,while on land,we killed off large predators such as wolves. These actions have greatly affected the ecological balance.
Scientists have built an early-warning system based on mathematical models. Ideally,the system would tell us when to adapt human activities that are pushing an ecosystem toward a breakdown or would even allow us to pull an ecosystem back from the borderline. Prevention is key,scientists says because once ecosystems pass their tipping point(临界点),it is remarkably difficult for them to return.
46. What have scientists discovered with the help of mathematical models of food webs?
A. The living habits of species in food webs.
B. The rules governing food webs of the ecosystems.
C. The approaches to studying the species in the ecosystems.
D. The differences between weak and strong links in food webs.
47. A strong link is found between two species when a predator______
A. has a wide food choice
B. can easily find new prey
C. sticks to one prey species
D. can quickly move to another place
48. What will happen if the populations of top predators in a food web greatly decline?
A. The prey species they directly attack will die out.
B. The species they indirectly attack will turn into top predators.
C. The living environment of other species will remain unchanged.
D. The populations of other species will experience unexpected changes.
49. What conclusion can be drawn from the examples in Paragraph 4?
A. Uncontrolled human activities greatly upset ecosystems.
B. Rapid economic development threatens animal habitats.
C. Species of commercial value dominate other species.
D. Industrial activities help keep food webs stable.
50. How does an early-warning system help us maintain the ecological balance?
A. By getting illegal practices under control.
B. By stopping us from killing large predators.
C. By bringing the broken-down ecosystems back to normal.
D. By signaling the urgent need for taking preventive action.
(六十七) 2019·江苏卷,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.
58. What puzzled Christiansen when he was studying Yellowstone?
A. Its complicated geographical features.
B. Its ever-lasting influence on tourism.
C. The mysterious history of the park.
D. The exact location of the volcano.
59. What does the second-paragraph mainly talk about?
A. The shapes of volcanoes.
B. The impacts of volcanoes.
C. The activities of volcanoes.
D. The heights of volcanoes.
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.
(六十八) 2019·浙江卷,C
California has lost half its big trees since the 1930s, according to a study to be published Tuesday and climate change seems to be a major factor(因素).
The number of trees larger than two feet across has declined by 50 percent on more than 46, 000 square miles of California forests, the new study finds. No area was spared or unaffected, from the foggy northern coast to the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the San Gabriels above Los Angeles. In the Sierra high country, the number of big trees has fallen by more than 55 percent; in parts of southern California the decline was nearly 75 percent.
Many factors contributed to the decline, said Patrick Mclntyre, an ecologist who was the lead author of the study. Woodcutters targeted big trees. Housing development pushed into the woods. Aggressive wildfire control has left California forests crowded with small trees that compete with big trees for resources(资源).
But in comparing a study of California forests done in the 1920s and 1930s with another one between 2001 and 2010, Mclntyre and his colleagues documented a widespread death of big trees that was evident even in wildlands protected from woodcutting or development.
The loss of big trees was greatest in areas where trees had suffered the greatest water shortage. The researchers figured out water stress with a computer model that calculated how much water trees were getting in comparison with how much they needed, taking into account such things as rainfall, air temperature, dampness of soil, and the timing of snowmelt(融雪).
Since the 1930s, Mclntyre said, the biggest factors driving up water stress in the state have been rising temperatures, which cause trees to lose more water to the air, and earlier snowmelt, which reduces the water supply available to trees during the dry season.
27. What is the second paragraph mainly about?
A. The seriousness of big-tree loss in California.
B. The increasing variety of California big trees.
C. The distribution of big trees in California forests.
D. The influence of farming on big trees in California.
28. Which of the following is well-intentioned but may be bad for big trees?
A. Ecological studies of forests.
B. Banning woodcutting.
C. Limiting housing development.
D. Fire control measures.
29. What is a major cause of the water shortage according to Mclntyre?
A. Inadequate snowmelt. B. A longer dry season.
C. A warmer climate. D. Dampness of the air.
30. What can be a suitable title for the text?
A. California's Forests: Where Have All the Big Trees Gone?
B. Cutting of Big Trees to Be Prohibited in California Soon
C. Why Are the Big Trees Important to California Forests?
D. Patrick Mclntyre: Grow More Big Trees in California
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