2018届高考英语大一轮复习Unit2Workingtheland课时规范训练新人教版必修420171014155

***

1 Unit 2 Working the land

Ⅰ.阅读理解

A

Recordings of angry bees are enough to send big, tough African elephants running

away, a new study says.Beehives(蜂窝)—either recorded or real—may even prevent

elephants from damaging farmers' crops.

In 2002, scientist Lucy King and her team found that elephants avoid certain

trees with bees living in them. Today, Lucy wants to see if African honeybees might

discourage elephants from eating crops. But before she asked farmers to go to the

trouble of setting up beehives on their farms, she needed to find out if the bees

would scare elephants away.

Lucy found a wild beehive inside a tree in northern Kenya and set up a recorder.

Then she threw a stone into the beehive, which burst into life. Lucy and her assistant

hid in their car until the angry bees had calmed down. Next, Lucy searched out

elephant families in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya and put a speaker

in a tree close to each family.

From a distance, Lucy switched on the pre­recorded sound of angry bees while

at the same time recording the elephants with a video camera. Half the elephant groups

left the area within ten seconds. Out of a total of 17 groups, only one group ignored

the sound of the angry bees. Lucy reported that all the young elephants immediately

ran to their mothers to hide under them. When Lucy played the sound of a waterfall

(瀑布) instead of the angry bees to many of the same elephant families，the animals

were undisturbed. Even after four minutes，most of the groups stayed in one place.

Lucy is now studying whether the elephants will continue to avoid the sound of

angry bees after hearing it several times. She hasn't tested enough groups yet to

know, but her initial (最初的) results were promising enough to begin trials with

farmers. She has now begun placing speakers in the fields to see if elephants are

frightened away.

1．We know from the passage that elephants may be frightened of ________.

A．loud noises B．some crops

C．video cameras D．angry bees

2．Why did Lucy throw a stone into a wild beehive?

A．To record the sound of bees.

B．To make a video of elephants. ***

2 C．To see if elephants would run away.

D．To find out more about the behavior of bees.

3．As mentioned in the passage, Lucy ________.

A．works by herself in Africa

B．needs to test more elephant groups

C．has stopped elephants eating crops

D．has got farmers to set up beehives on their farms

4．Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Young elephants ignore African honeybees.

B．Waterfalls can make elephants stay in one place.

C．Elephants do not go near trees with bees living in them.

D．Farmers do not allow Lucy to conduct tests in their fields.

【语篇导读】 本文介绍了一项有趣的科学实验，科学家通过大量实验来验证小蜜蜂能否有效阻止庞然大物——非洲大象损坏农作物。

1．解析：选D。细节理解题。根据第三、四段Lucy所做的实验可知大象可能会被生气的蜜蜂吓跑。

2．解析：选A。细节理解题。根据第三段可知Lucy在一棵树上找到了一个蜂窝，并且安装了一个录音机，她扔石头的目的是想惹蜜蜂生气，然后发出声音，从而录制其声音；第四段开头也提到了她录制好的声音。故选A。

3．解析：选B。推理判断题。根据最后一段可知Lucy现在正在研究是否大象在几次听到生气的蜜蜂发出的声音后还会被继续吓跑，她还没有将这一现象在足够多的大象群体中检验，由此可以推断她还需做足够多的实验。

4．解析：选C。细节理解题。根据第二段第一句可知，2002年Lucy和她的队员就发现大象会避开住着蜜蜂的树。故C项表述是正确的。

B

Organic farming is a big­picture exercise. It's not only targeted at this

season's results, but considers future generations. In the long run it makes better

economic sense as well. But its main goal is to contribute to a healthier world.

Studies conducted all over the world have shown the effects that conventional

chemical farming has on the environment. Certainly, chemical fertilizers,

pesticides, and her­bicides increase the quantity of a farm's production. They help

produce more grains and vegetables. But at what cost？A Swiss study showed that

organic farming produces an average of 20% less than conventional methods. But the

organically grown food contained 50% less fertilizer and 97 % less pesticides. ***

3 Though only a part of the amount of pesticides a farm uses actually does the

job of killing bugs, all of it remains active in the soil for months or even years

after application.Perhaps worse, each generation of pests is growing increasingly

immune (免疫的)to the chemicals used. It's not even all about the food and the soil.

The pesticides used in conventional agriculture are finally spilling their chemical

residues (化学残留) into the waterways. It affects wildlife, soil and ecosystems

as a whole. According to a Worldwatch paper，Deep Trouble: The Hidden Threat of

Groundwater Pollution, poisonous chemicals are polluting groundwater on every

inhabited continent, endangering the world's most valuable supplies of freshwater.

Perhaps not so intuitive, organic farming affects the air.“Organic agriculture

can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by effectively locking more carbon into the soil