高考英语阅读理解冲刺训练Day 18

高考英语阅读理解冲刺训练Day 18Passage 1Instead of hitting the beach, fourteen high school students traded swimming suits for lab coats last summer and turned their attention to scientific experiments.The High School Research Program offers high school students guidance with researchers in Texas A＆M's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Jennifer Funkhouser, academic adviser for the Department of Rangeland Ecology and Management, directs this four-week summer program designed to increase understanding of research and its career potential （潜能）.Several considerations go into selecting students, including grades, school involvement and interest in science and agriculture. And many students come from poorer school districts, Funkhouser says. “This is their chance to learn techniques and do experiments they never would have a chance to do in high school.”Warner Ervin of Houston is interested in animal science and learned how to tell male from female mosquitoes （蚊子）. His adviser, Craig Coates, studies the genes of mosquitoes that allow them to fight against malaria and yellow fever. Coates thought this experience would be fun and helpful to the high school students.The agricultural research at A＆M differs from stereotypes. It's “molecular （分子）science on the cutting edge ”, Funkhouser says. The program broadened students' knowledge. Victor Garcia of Rio Grande City hopes to become a biology teacher and says he learned a lot about chemistry from the program.At the end of the program, the students presented papers on their research. They're also paid $600 for their work—another way this program differs from others, which often charge a fee.Fourteen students got paid to learn that science is fun, that agriculture is a lot more than milking and plowing and that research can open many doors.1. The research program is chiefly designed for ______.A. high school advisers from HoustonB. college students majoring in agricultureC. high school students from different placesD. researchers at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences2. It can be inferred from the text that the students in poorer areas ______.A. had little chance to go to collegeB. could often take part in the programC. found the program useful to their futureD. showed much interest in their high school experiments3. When the program was over, the students ______.A. entered that collegeB. wrote research reportsC. paid for their researchD. found a way to make money4. The underlined expression “on the cutting edge” in Paragraph 5 means “on the most ______ position”.A. importantB. favorableC. astonishingD. advanced5. What would be the best title for the text?A. A Program for Agricultural Science StudentsB. Program for Animal Science StudentsC. Program for Medical Science LoversD. Program for Future Science LoversPassage 2A study published in September suggests there is a surprising way to get people to avoid unhealthy foods: change their memories. Scientist Elizabeth Loftus of the University of California at Irvine asked volunteers to answer some questions on their personalities （个性）and food experiences. “One week later,” Loftus says, “We told those people we'd fed their answers into our smart computer and it came up with an account of their early childhood experiences.” Some accounts included one key additional detail （细节）: “You got sick after eating strawberry ice-cream.” The researchers then changed this detail into a manufactured （人造的）memory through leading questions—Who were you with? How did you feel? By the end of the study, up to 41% of those given a false memory believed strawberry ice-cream once made them sick, and many saidthey'd avoid eating it.When Loftus published her findings, she started getting calls from people begging her to make them remember hating chocolate or French fries. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. False memories appear to work only for foods you don't eat on a regular basis, But most important, it is likely that false memories can be implanted （灌输）only in people who are unaware of the mental control. And lying to a patient is immoral, even if a doctor believes it's for the patient's benefit.Loftus says there's nothing to stop parents from trying it with their overweight children. “I say, wake up—parents have been lying about Father Christmas for years, and nobody seems to mind. If they can prevent diseases caused by fatness and all the other problems that come with that, you might think that's a more moral lie. Decide that for yourself.”1. Why did Loftus ask the volunteers to answer some questions?A. To improve her computer program.B. To find out their attitudes towards food.C. To find out details she can make use of.D. To predict what food they'll like in the future.2. What did Loftus find out from her research?A. People believe what the computer tells them.B. People can be led to believe in something false.C. People tend to forget their childhood experiences.D. People are not always aware of their personalities.3. According to the study, people may stop having a certain food if they ______.A. learn it is harmful for healthB. lie to themselves that they don't want itC. are willing to let doctors control their mindsD. think they once had a bad experience of eating it4. What is the biggest concern with the method?A. Whether it is moral.B. Who it is best for.C. When it is effective.D. How it should be used.Passage 3They hide in trees, hang from helicopters, even follow people on motorcycles—all so that they can snap a shot of a celebrity. They are paparazzi—photographers who make a living by taking pictures of the rich and famous.This September, California, a state with plenty of celebrities, passed a law aimed at taking action against paparazzi. The law forbids photographers from entering private property to take pictures, from using high-tech devices to take pictures of people on private property, and from "persistently following someone in order to take a picture." Violators can be fined or spend time in prison. The United State Congress is considering passing a similar law.Supporters of the California law say it will protect the privacy of celebrities, whom paparazzi have been bothering for years. Opponents(反对者) say the law restricts photojournalists from doing their job.Most celebrities seem to like having their pictures taken when they are in public at award shows or other events. After all, it's free publicity. But when they're not in public, they say, photographers should leave them alone. Yet paparazzi have been known to secretly look in windows and worse. Actor Michael J. Fox said that paparazzi have even "tried to pretend to be medical personnel at the hospital where my wife was giving birth to our son."Celebrities have as much right to their privacy as anyone else, supporters of the law state. Supporters further argue that the California law is a fair way to keep the press at bay, because the law still allows photographers to do their job. It only punishes them, supporters say, when they violate celebrities' privacy.Opponents of the law say it violates the First Amendment to the United States Constitution(美国宪法第一修正案), which guarantees that no laws will be made to limit "the freedom of speech, or of the press." Although some people might not considerpaparazzi a part of the legal press, the California law does not single out paparazzi. It applies to photographers working for any publication.Opponents of the law are also concerned about its wording. "Does 'persistently' mean following someone for six minutes, six seconds, or six days?" asked lawyer Douglas Mirell. The wording of the law is too vague, critics complain, and could be used to punish almost any news photographer.The United States needs a free press to keep the public informed about important news, paparazzi law opponents say. Limiting the press in any way, they argue, limits the freedom of all.1. Which of following will be considered illegal by the new California law?________A. Paparazzi slipping into the house of a famous person to take a shot.B. Paparazzi taking photos of famous people with high-tech cameras.C. Paparazzi hiring helicopters as a fast means of transportation.D. Paparazzi rushing towards filming sites on motorcycles.2. Supporters of the new law believe that ________ .A. it prevents the media from getting worseB. it gives photographers a fair way to competeC. punishment forces paparazzi to quit their jobD. privacy of famous people needs special protection3. Opponents of the new law are concerned that ________ .A. it will violate paparazzi's privacyB. the First Amendment will be changedC. some photographers will be wrongly accusedD. people will not be informed of important news4. What is the author's attitude towards the new California law?________A. Critical.B. Neutral.C. Approving.D. Sceptical.Passage 4Lindsay Renwick, the mayor of Deniliquin, a country town in New South Wales,misses the constant whir (嗡嗡声) of the rice mill whose giant fans dried the rice. The Deniliquin mill, the largest rice mill in the Southern Hemisphere (南半球), once processed enough grain to meet the needs of 20 million people globally. But six years of drought have had a destructive effect, reducing Australia’s rice crop by 98 percent and leading to the mothballing of the mill last December.Drought affects every agriculture industry based in Australia, not just rice — from sheep farming, the country’s other backbone, to the cultivation of grapes for wine, the fastest-growing crop there, with that expansion often coming at the expense of rice. The drought’s effect on rice has produced the greatest impact on the rest of the world, so far. It is one factor contributing to skyrocketing prices, and many scientists believe it is among the earliest signs that a warming planet is starting to affect food production.Researchers are looking for solutions to global rice shortages — for example, rice that blooms earlier in the day, when it is cooler, to fight against global warming. Rice plants that happen to bloom on hot days are less likely to produce grains of rice, a difficulty that is already starting to emerge in inland areas of China and other Asian countries as temperatures begin to climb. “There will be problems very soon unless we have new varieties of rice in place,” said Reiner Wassmann, climate change director at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). The recent reports on climate change carried a warning that could make the news even worse: that existing models for the effects of climate change on agriculture did not yet include newer findings that global warming could reduce rainfall and make it more variable.Yet the effects of climate change are not uniformly bad for rice. Rising concentrations (浓度) of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, can actually help rice - although the effect reduces or disappears if the plants face unnecessary heat, inadequate water, severe pollution or other stresses. Still, the flexibility of farmers here has persuaded some climate experts that, particularly in developed countries, the effects of climate change may be relieved, if not completely avoided. “I’m not as negative as most people,” said Will Steffen, director of the Fenner School of Environment andSociety at Australian National University. “Farmers are learning how to do things differently.”Meanwhile, changes like the use of water to grow wine grapes instead of rice carry their own costs, as the developing world is discovering. “Rice is an essential food,” said Graeme Haley, the general manager of the town of Deniliquin. “Wine is not.”1. By “the mothballing of the mill” (in Paragraph 1) the author most probably means the mill is________ .A. kept unprocessedB. left unusedC. being entirely restoredD. being pushed round2. To find the ways to cope with the global rice shortage, researchers are________ .A. seeking new types of rice which could bloom at a lower temperatureB. building greenhouses which could provide more heat for rice to growC. studying climate changes in China which may affect rice growing in AsiaD. looking for alternative agriculture industries which may take the place of rice3. Which of the following can be learned from the passage?________A. Rice plants are fond of higher temperature in the process of growing.B. Global warming has shown few signs of influence on agriculture.C. Rice prices are rising steadily owing to the crop failure in Australia.D. Global warming may contribute to more complicated weather conditions.4. It can be inferred from the passage that________ .A. Australia is the largest rice producing country around the worldB. most people look on the bright side of the flexibility of farmersC. climate changes have simply brought negative effects to people’s livesD. wine grape cultivation has threatened the rice production in Australia5. Which of the following best serves as the title of the passage?________A. Rice shortage and wine boomB. Drought, the enemy of rice productionC. Rice crisis and its solutionD. Rice issue, a focus of the public attentionPassage 5British anthropologists Russell Hill and Robert Barton of the University of Durham, after studying the results of one-on-one boxing, tae kwon do, Greco-Roman wrestling and freestyle wrestling matches at the Olympic Games, conclude that when two competitors are equally matched in fitness and skill, the athlete wearing red is more likely to win.Hill and Barton report that when one competitor is much better than the other, colour has no effect on the result. However, when there is only a small difference between them, the effect of colour is enough to tip the balance. The anthropologists say that the number of times red wins is not simply by chance, but that these results are statistically significant.Joanna Setchell, a primate(灵长目动物) researcher at the University of Cambridge, has found similar results in nature. She studies the large African monkeys known as mandrills. Mandrills have bright noses that stand out against their white faces. Setchell's work shows that the powerful males—the ones who are more successful with females—have a brighter red nose than other males.As well as the studies on primate by Setchell, another study shows the effect of red among birds. In an experiment, scientists put red plastic rings on the legs of male zebra finches and this increased the birds' success with female zebra finches. Zebra finches already have bright red beaks(鸟喙), so this study suggests that, as with Olympic athletes, an extra flash of red is significant. In fact, researchers from the University of Glasgow say that the birds' brightly coloured beaks are an indicator of health. Jonathan Blount, a biologist, and his colleagues think they have found proof that bright red or orange beaks attract females because they mean that the males are healthier. Nothing in nature is simple, however, because in species such as the blue footed booby,a completely different colour seems to give the male birds the same advantage with females.Meanwhile, what about those athletes who win in their events while wearing red? Do their clothes give them an unintentional advantage? Robert Barton accepts that "that is the implication" of their findings. Is it time for sports authorities to consider new regulations on sports clothing?1. According to their research, Hill and Barton conclude that ________ .A. the colour of clothing has an effect on most sport eventsB. red should be the choice of colour for clothing in sportsC. red plays a role when competitors are equally capableD. athletes perform better when surrounded by bright red2. The underlined word "tip" in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ________ .A. achieveB. seekC. keepD. change3. The example of the blue footed booby proves that ________ .A. male birds use different body parts to draw attentionB. red is not the only colour to attract female birdsC. blue gives female birds the same advantageD. blue can indicate how healthy a bird is4. What is the best title for the passage?________A. What Colour Implies More Power?B. A Tip on ClothingC. Need to Change the Rules in Sports?D. Red Is for Winners参考答案Passage 11. C 细节理解题。