考点4 阅读理解主旨大意之段落大意（核心考点精讲精练）-备战2024年高考英语一轮复习考点帮（新高考专用）（学生版）

这是一份考点4 阅读理解主旨大意之段落大意（核心考点精讲精练）-备战2024年高考英语一轮复习考点帮（新高考专用）（学生版），共33页。试卷主要包含了 命题规律及备考策略等内容，欢迎下载使用。
考点4 阅读理解
主旨大意之段落大意（核心考点精讲精练）

1. 2021-2023年三年高考真题考点分布
考点
题型
段落大意

阅读理解
2023

试卷类型
设问
考点
2023浙江1月高考
C篇31．What can we learn from the last paragraph?


段落大意
2023·新高考I卷
D篇32.What is Paragraph 2 of the text mainly about?

段落大意
2022
2022·新高考I卷
阅读D14. What is paragraph 5 mainly about?
段落大意
2022·全国甲卷 D
阅读D32. What is the first paragraph mainly about?
段落大意
2021
2021年全国乙卷
B篇24. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?

段落大意
2021年6月浙江卷
C篇10. What is the last paragraph mainly about?

段落大意


2. 命题规律及备考策略
【命题规律】近3年新高考卷对于阅读理解中段落大意的考查共计6次，主要考查：
根据阅读文章中的某一段落，概括段落大意。概括段落大意的方法：1.利用主题句；2.没有主题句，总结段落大意。
【备考策略】系统归类段落大意的总结方法，尤其是主题句、同义句表达的技巧；熟练掌握阅读技能。
【命题预测】
2024年阅读理解对段落大意的考查仍然是重点。

【2024年高考命题预测】
主旨大意之段落大意考点是高考中的必考点。一篇文章有多个段落，为什么把题出在其中的某个段落？因为这个段落在文章中起着至关重要的作用，这些段落或引出话题或承上启下或总结全文。命题者的意图是明确的，他们着眼于文章中起重要作用的段落进而设题。预测在2024高考中，段落大意题会继续在高考阅读理解中呈现。
【主旨大意之段落大意考点指南】
段落大意题常考问题：
  The main point /idea of the passage is…
  The passage is mainly about…     
  The passage mainly discusses…
  The last but one paragraph is chiefly concerned with…?
  Which of the following statements best expresses the main idea of the passage?
近几年高考段落大意考查的特点：
考查的段落一般没有主题句，这需要考生对整段进行归纳，找出段落的重点，总结段落大意。

[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.
(　)32.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.
【2023年1月·浙江卷】C
A machine can now not only beat you at chess, it can also outperform you in debate. Last week, in a public debate in San Francisco, a software program called Project Debater beat its human opponents, including Noa Ovadia, Israel’s former national debating champion.
Brilliant though it is, Project Debater has some weaknesses. It takes sentences from its library of documents and prebuilt arguments and strings them together. This can lead to the kinds of errors no human would make. Such wrinkles will no doubt be ironed out, yet they also point to a fundamental problem. As Kristian Hammond, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern University, put it: “There’s never a stage at which the system knows what it’s talking about.”
What Hammond is referring to is the question of meaning, and meaning is central to what distinguishes the least intelligent of humans from the most intelligent of machines. A computer works with symbols. Its program specifies a set of rules to transform one string of symbols into another. But it does not specify what those symbols mean. Indeed, to a computer, meaning is irrelevant. Humans, in thinking, talking, reading and writing, also work with symbols. But for humans, meaning is everything. When we communicate, we communicate meaning. What matters is not just the outside of a string of symbols, but the inside too, not just how they are arranged but what they mean.
Meaning emerges through a process of social interaction, not of computation, interaction that shapes the content of the symbols in our heads. The rules that assign meaning lie not just inside our heads, but also outside, in society, in social memory, social conventions and social relations. It is this that distinguishes humans from machines. And that’s why, however astonishing Project Debater may seem, the tradition that began with Socrates and Confucius will not end with artificial intelligence.
31．What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A．Social interaction is key to understanding symbols.
B．The human brain has potential yet to be developed.
C．Ancient philosophers set good examples for debaters.
D．Artificial intelligence ensures humans a bright future.
规律方法：如何总结段落大意？
段落大意即某一段的中心思想，通常中心思想会在首句体现出来，这就是常说的段落主题句。主题句具有鲜明的概括性，句子结构简单，段落中其他句子均用来解释、支撑或扩展主题句所表达的主题思想。主题句通常位于段首，也可位于段尾、段中。有时作者没有写出明显的主题句，要学会根据段落内容去概括主题句。

【2023届安徽省A10联盟高考最后一卷】
When I was a kid, a sycamore (枫树) grew in front of my home. At the age of 10, I was just tall enough to reach its lowest branch and lift myself into its embrace. Sometimes two or three of my friends would join me in the sycamore, or in the maple down the street, or Mrs. DiMarco’s old peach tree, some of whose stout horizontal branches allowed us to sit shoulder to shoulder, eating sweet fruit.
In my small town there are some kinds of trees, their branches spreading wide, open for business. But I have not yet seen a climber. Perhaps computer games have replaced tree climbing, or maybe the activity went the way of monkey bars, which came to be viewed as too risky and have largely disappeared from playgrounds.
It is a sad loss. I have always believed that, since low-hanging branches provide no benefit to the tree, they must be meant for the child. Robert Frost understood this when he wrote:
When I see baches (桦树) bend to left and right,
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
My only disagreement with Frost is his inference that tree climbing is a gender-specific task. Both boys and girls make a joyful climb.
The campus of the university where I teach has all sorts of trees. During a recent walk, I found myself bending under the branch of an immense spruce (云杉). I grabbed the thing, and a moment later was sitting on a branch. Then the memories came flooding back. The old sycamore, the friends, and finally, the reluctance to return to earth when the parental call to supper came.
I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn’t hear the student calling to me from below. He asked what I was doing. I didn’t waste time on explanations. “Come on up,” I said “The air’s fine.” But he only laughed and waved me off. He didn’t know what he was missing.
4．What does the underlined word “stout” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?
A．Slim. B．Bent. C．Smooth. D．Strong.
5．What is the second paragraph mainly about?
A．Why kids don’t climb trees.
B．Why monkey bars are dangerous.
C．Why there is no business under trees.
D．Why kids are addicted to computer games.
6．What does the author want to prove by mentioning Robert’s poem?
A．Some branches of trees are useless.
B．Trees are intended for kids to climb.
C．Trees are a source of inspiration for poets.
D．Climbing trees is a unique right of boys.
7．What did the author think the student had missed?
A．The explanations to his question.
B．The fresh air above the tree.
C．The pleasure of climbing trees.
D．The sense of safety on earth.


基础过关
（最新模拟试题演练）
1.【2023届广东省部分学校高三5月联合考试模拟预测】
As the costs of fuel, groceries and housing increase suddenly around the world, scientists are fighting inflation (通货膨胀) at the bench. Almost all items needed to conduct science are more expensive than they were just a year ago. And that means that nearly every researcher is feeling the pressure. “Nobody is immune to this economy,” says Tola Olorunnisola, who leads innovation in the lab at Avantor, an international science-management company in Pennsylvania. Olorunnisola visited labs in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Ireland to help researchers find ways to enlarge their budgets. “Scientists are becoming more conscious of costs,” she says.
The increase in lab costs has forced scientists to make some difficult choices. Scientific budgets are pretty fixed. If they pay double for something, it means they’re not buying something else. Scientists can keep their research projects moving forward, but to avoid overspending on their budgets, they’ll probably need to adjust their buying habits and take steps to make their labs more efficient.
Julien Sage, a cancer researcher and geneticist at Stanford University in California, estimates that lab supplies historically account for roughly 20%of his overall budget, but he says that the balance is shifting.
Without significant boosts in funding to keep pace with inflation, it’s up to scientists to find creative ways to diminish costs. One option is to rethink experimental design.
“It will probably take more than discounts from lab-supply companies to truly protect scientists from the impact of rising prices,” Sage says. “Unless something is done on a large scale to either stabilize costs or increase funding, science is likely to suffer. If you have less money, you’re going to have fewer people or be less productive, which means you’re going to have fewer grants (拨款) which means you’re going to have fewer people. That’s probably happening to a lot of labs these days, and the question is: When is it going to stop?”
12．For what did Olorunnisola visit some labs in different places?
A．Seeing how researchers struggle against inflation.
B．Proving everyone has to face the rising price.
C．Learning about the pressure of researchers.
D．Helping researchers overcome economic difficulty.
13．What is paragraph 2 mainly about?
A．The cause of increasing lab costs. B．The effects of the rising lab costs.
C．The tough choices of researchers. D．The ways of making labs efficient.
14．What does the underlined word “diminish” mean in paragraph 4?
A．Reduce. B．Calculate. C．Restore. D．Keep.
15．Which can be a suitable title for the text?
A．Scientists face many problems B．The price of goods is rising quickly
C．Labs have to tighten supplies budgets D．People hold different opinions of price
2.【2023届广东省部分学校高三5月联合考试模拟预测】
Born in France, but raised in Spain, linguistics and literature professor Juan José Ciruela Alferez from the University of Granada is passionate about Chinese literature and has been doing some research about it. With painstaking effort, his Spanish translation of a Chinese classic was published last year.
Ciruela said translating the novel was an interesting challenge. In recent years, many Chinese works have been introduced to Spain. However, as most of them had been translated first into English and then from that language into Spanish, much of the originality was lost. For this reason, when the Spanish publishing house Kailas contacted Ciruela to translate it directly from Chinese, he accepted the mission immediately, even if it presented difficulties like a heavy workload within a short time limit.
“I encountered various difficulties, especially at the beginning of the task,” said Ciruela in an interview. “This novel, in particular, needs a prior reading process in which the translator gets into the plot and the characters, since at first it is difficult to enter the world that the novel constantly raises. So I read the novel first in Chinese, paying attention to all those details and how all of that could be translated in a way that the Spanish readers would understand.
For Ciruela, the most important criterion when translating is fidelity (忠诚) to the original text. While it is true that one cannot always be strictly faithful, he believes translators should not be too far from original texts. For example, the translation of culturemes (expressions of culture in language)is quite complicated due to the cultural gap between Spanish and Chinese. Ciruela believes that these must always be appropriate to the specific function they perform within the text, in each specific case and moment.
4．What does the underlined phrase “that language” probably refer to?
A．Spanish. B．English. C．Chinese. D．French.
5．What caused Ciruela to translate the Chinese classic?
A．His passion for Spanish literature. B．His determination to popularize it.
C．The lack of its direct translation into Spanish. D．The loss of diversity in Spanish translation.
6．What aspect of the translation task does paragraph 3 mainly talk about?
A．Its barrier. B．Its principle. C．Its style. D．Its meaning.
7．What does Ciruela think is the most important in translation?
A．Meeting readers’ needs. B．Targeting cultural phenomena.
C．Bridging the cultural gap. D．Being loyal to the original text.
3.【2023届海南省海口市高考模拟】
A new device known as Shark Guard is being trialed which gives off a pulse to protect sharks and rays from fishing hooks (鱼钩). The data so far suggests that it has been very effective in reducing the number of sharks and stingrays caught by commercial fishing equipment.
Commercial fishing is known to threaten sharks and rays worldwide. Research has found that 24 per cent of the average monthly space used by sharks around the world falls under the-footprint of distant long line fisheries. This is when hooks hang near the surface to catch fish like tuna and swordfish. A quarter of shark habitats are within active fishing zones.
It is estimated that over 20,000,000 sharks are caught as bycatch every year. Stingrays are also frequently caught as bycatch. “Bycatch” refers to unwanted fish and marine creatures caught by commercial fishing equipment, and is typically discarded (丢弃) overboard either dead or dying.
Shark Guard was designed by marine scientists to protect sharks and rays from fishing equipment. It is a small battery-powered device that can be fastened on the line next to a baited hook and gives off a short pulse every two seconds.
Study found that the device reduced the number of blue sharks caught in a French long line tuna fishery in the Mediterranean by 91 per cent, and stingrays by 71 per cent. These are promising numbers, although Dr. Phil Doherty, lead author of the study, said that Shark Guard should “be designed on a case-by-case basis to ensure it’s fit for purpose.”
28．What is the new device used to do?
A．Stop sharks being caught. B．Reduce the number of sharks.
C．Confirm a scientific guess. D．Prevent commercial hunting.
29．What is paragraph 2 mainly about?
A．The places fishing hooks hang. B．The range of commercial fishing.
C．The benefits of protecting sharks. D．The harm of commercial fishing.
30．What does Phil Doherty think of the device?
A．It is promising. B．It is ineffective.
C．It needs improving. D．It is perfectly designed.
31．What is the text?
A．A diary entry. B．A news report.
C．A fantasy story. D．A book review.
4.【2023届海南省海南中学、海口一中 、文吕中学、嘉积中学高三4月联考】
Every time I stare at the rows of jars filled with my parents’ homemade tomato sauce, I wonder: “Should I really use one?”
I have been keeping these jars like precious treasures. No matter how hard I try to find alternatives, nothing compares. Store-bought sauce? It just doesn’t taste right. Even if I try to recreate it, it will never taste the same.
While growing up, I hated the tomato season. My parents would use the basement to ripen the tomatoes they had collected locally in September. Like the other Italian families in the area, we would then take them to the garage when they were ripe enough. There they were cleaned and boiled.
Having been stewed (炖), whole tomatoes were passed through my father’s homemade machine to separate the sauce from the skins. Jars at the ready, we filled them with sauce and seasoning. The jars would be hot for a few days, sealed to keep their own heat. They would then be lined up and ready to use.
This tradition was hard to carry on when my father got ill. After being diagnosed with cancer in 2019, he spent most of his time in hospital. In September that year he came home, and on the weekend we decided to continue the tradition. I have glorious memories of that day as we once again made the sauce. It was a beautiful but short-lived moment. My father died soon after.
I can’t keep these jars forever. But it doesn’t make it any easier to open one. Every time I go to reach for one, something stops me. My mother, ever practical, is visiting us recently and just stares at them.
“You should use these or they will go to waste.”
What will it feel like to use that last jar? It would mean the end of an era. Who knows? Maybe it’s time to bring new traditions into life.
4．What stops the author from using the tomato sauce?
A．It has gone bad. B．He doesn’t like tomato sauce
C．He values it too much. D．He keeps it for future use.
5．What do Para.3 and Para.4 mainly talk about?
A．The tomato harvest. B．The homemade machine.
C．The fruitful tomato season. D．The making of tomato sauce.
6．What will the author most probably do next?
A．Open one jar. B．Keep the jars.
C．Collect tomatoes. D．Make tomato sauce
7．Which of the following can describe the author?
A．Practical. B．Faithful. C．Affectionate. D．Sensitive.
5.【2023届河北省高三适应性考试】
Teens interested in losing weight, for instance, got advertisements for unhealthy tips on how to become anorexic (厌食者). Such advertisements targeted these kids in hopes of persuading them to try things that were either dangerous or illegal at their age.
Advertisements are just one example of persuasion—trying to change another’s mind. Advertisements may try to convince us to buy something or do something new and different. Marketing is a field of persuasion designed to sell things, notes Jacob Teeny. Persuasion can be used to sell things. At its worst, it can be used to control people. Clearly, persuasion can be used for good and bad.
People open to new experiences tend to be more easily persuaded, Teeny says. But open-minded people can resist some persuasive arguments—such as the idea that eating junk food is cool. And closed-minded people can sometimes be persuaded. “If you haven’t really thought about the arguments” ahead of time, Teeny says, you’re going to be “much more persuadable.”
You might resist the message if you think about it as you listen to it for the first time. You might find reasons why their line of reasoning does not make sense by spotting holes in someone’s argument. But when you’re busy or distracted, you are easier to be persuaded, Teeny says.
“Persuasion is a science,” Teeny says. In fact, he notes, “It’s studied as one.” So educate yourself about the factors that go into persuasion. You will become more persuasive about the social appeals that matter to you, he says. At the same time, you will become more resistant to undue (不适当的) persuasion by others.
8．Why are advertisements mentioned in Paragraph 1?
A．To introduce the topic. B．To explain its function.
C．To ask children to lose weight. D．To tell teens to avoid dangerous things.
9．What is the main idea of Paragraph 2?
A．Marketing is designed to sell things.
B．Persuasion is used to control people.
C．Persuasion has advantages and disadvantages.
D．We should follow advertisements to buy things.
10．How can you find an argument unreasonable?
A．By working busily. B．By being distracted.
C．By being closed-minded. D．By finding its weak points.
11．What does the writer think of “knowing about persuasion”?
A．Useful. B．Interesting. C．Difficult. D．Wasteful.
6.【2023届河北省邯郸市高考三模（保温卷）】
Human tears could carry a flood of useful information. With just a few drops, a new technique can spot eye disease and even signs of diabetes (糖尿病), scientists report July 20 in ACS Nano.
“We wanted to demonstrate the potential of using tears to detect disease,” says Fei Liu, a biomedical engineer at Wenzhou Medical University in China. It’s possible the droplets could open a window for scientists to look closely at the entire body, he says, and one day even let people quickly test their tears at home.
Tears contain tiny sacs (液囊) stuffed with cellular messages. If scientists could get these microscopic mailbags, they could offer new evidence on what’s happening inside the body. But collecting enough of these sacs is tricky. Unlike fluid (体液) from other body parts, just a small amount of liquid leaks from the eyes.
So Liu’s team invented a new way to obtain the sacs from tiny volumes of tears. First, the researchers collected tears from study participants. Then, the team added a solution containing the tears to a device and within minutes, the technique lets small molecules (分子) escape, leaving the sacs behind for analysis.
The results gave scientists an eyeful. Different types of dry-eye disease leave their own molecular fingerprints in people’s tears, the team found. What’s more, tears could potentially help doctors monitor how a patient’s diabetes is progressing.
Now, the scientists want to employ tears for evidence of other diseases as well as depression or emotional stress, says study coauthor Luke Lee, a bioengineer at Harvard Medical School. “This is just the beginning,” he says. “Tears express something that we haven’t really explored.”
12．What can we learn about human tears?
A．They contain many diseases. B．They are useful in detecting disease.
C．They are the sign of diabetes. D．They have a deep impact on the whole body.
13．What is mainly talked about in paragraph 4?
A．The process of getting sacs. B．The difficulty of collecting tears.
C．The method of using the device. D．The technique of analyzing tears.
14．What does Luke Lee think of the future of the research into tears?
A．Stressful. B．Profitable. C．Challenging. D．Promising.
15．What can be a suitable title for the text?
A．A Solution to Eye Disease.
B．A Novel Treatment for Diabetes.
C．A New Technology Uses Human Teardrops to Spot Disease.
D．A Biomedical Engineer Finds the Potential Use of Human Tears.
7.【2023届黑龙江省齐齐哈尔市高三下学期三模】
A multi-institutional team of researchers conducted the first study to evaluate how the duration of nightly sleep early in the semester affects first year college students’ end-of-semester grade point average (GPA), Using Fitbit sleep trackers, they found that students on average sleep 6.5 hours a night, but negative outcomes accumulate when students received less than six hours of sleep a night. The results are available in the Feb. 13 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Sleep guidelines recommend teenagers get 8 to 10 hours of sleep every night. Many college students experience irregular and insufficient sleep.
David Creswell, the William S. Dietrich Ⅱ Professor in Psychology and Neuroscience at the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, led a team of researchers to evaluate the relationship between sleep and GPA．“Animal studies have shown how critical sleep is for learning and memory,” said Creswell.“Here we show how this work translates to humans.The less nightly sleep a first year college student gets at the beginning of the school term predicts lower GPA at the end of the term. Lack of sleep may be hurting students’ ability to learn in their college classrooms.”
The study evaluated more than 600 first-year students across five studies at three universities. The students wore wrist Fitbit devices to monitor and record their sleep patterns. The researchers found that students in the study sleep on average 6.5 hours a night.More surprisingly, the researchers found that students who receive less than six hours of sleep experienced a pronounced decline in academic performance. In addition, each hour of sleep lost corresponded to a 0.07 decrease in end-of-term GPA．
“Once you start dipping(下降)below six hours, you are starting to accumulate massive sleep debt that can impair a student’s health and study habits, compromising the whole system,” said Creswell.“Most surprising to me was that no matter what we did to make the effect go away, it persisted.”
12．What is the recommended sleep duration for teenagers per night?
A．6 hours. B．6.5 hours.
C．8 to 10 hours. D．Over 10 hours.
13．What’s Paragraph 5 mainly talking about?
A．The process of the research. B．The reason for the research.
C．The result of the research. D．The shortage of the research.
14．What does the underlined word “impair” in the last paragraph probably mean?
A．Change. B．Damage.
C．Improve. D．Attack.
15．What surprised Creswell most?
A．Sleep can influence college students’learning.
B．Many college students experience insufficient sleep.
C．College students have poor academic performance for lack of sleep.
D．The negative effect of insufficient sleep on college students won’t disappear.
8.【2023届湖北省荆门市龙泉中学、荆州中学、宜昌一中三校高三下学期5月第二次联考】
On a tram smoothly pulling into the heart of Luxembourg City, Marck gives a smile and takes a look at the fabric of the seat next to him. For him, the city’s trams are more than just transport. More even than the focus of his job. They are about transforming his country and, perhaps, changing the world.
Marck is the director general of Luxtram, Luxembourg’s modern trams. It first started running services two years ago. Next year, Luxembourg will become the world’s only country to get rid of fares on all its forms of public transport. Luxembourg’s traffic problems come from its army of workers. The population of the capital city almost doubles during the working day, when more than 110,000 people travel in and out.
After three decades when its roads have become so crowded, Luxembourg is going to do something remarkable. Free fares, and a plan to persuade people to switch from cars to trams or trains. Marck, along with many others, is excited to see what happens next. “The fact that this is free means that everyone can use it — young or old, rich or poor,” he said. “Everyone can say to themselves it’s better to leave the car at home. We must continue to improve and extend the network. It must always be comfortable, well-connected, efficient.”
Lydie Polfer, the city’s mayor, says she hopes to reach the point where more than a third of people come into the city using public transport — at the moment, it’s less than one in five. She said, “It’s not practical to ban cars because some people, like the elderly, need them. But everyone has to be aware that he or she can do something to improve the situation. There is an expression in German — you are not in the traffic jam — you are the traffic jam, and that is true. I think that making it free will be the biggest arguments for people to use public transport. ”
24．Why does Marck think the city’s trams are more than just transport?
A．The trams are his goal that he strives for.
B．There are more means of transportation than trams.
C．City’s trams bring more changes beyond transport.
D．The trams are the heart of Luxembourg City transport system.
25．What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?
A．The cause of the traffic problems. B．The means of public transport.
C．The development of running services. D．The increase of working population.
26．What concerns people most when using the public transport?
A．The convenience. B．The fare. C．The comfort. D．The efficiency.
27．What can be inferred from what Lydie Polfer said?
A．The elderly needn’t use public transport.
B．It’s possible to persuade most people to use the trams.
C．Everyone can do his part to improve transport situation.
D．Those who don’t take public transport cause traffic jams.
9.【2023届湖北省武汉市武昌区高三5月质量检测】
The Daintree rainforest is overflowing with flora (植物群) and fauna (动物群) not found anywhere else in the world. It is also believed to be the oldest continual area of tropical rainforest in existence. With more than half of the world’s rainforests already destroyed,  here’s why it is important to help support activities to ensure this impressing part of Australia can’t be developed.
HalfCut is an innovative charity created in 2017 which is helping to save the Daintree rainforest in Far North Queensland. In fact, during the covid lockdowns of 2021, they helped raise more than $1.2 million for the Daintree “buy back” program which protected over 500,000 square metres of endangered Daintree rainforest. This is equal to 123.55 footbal fields worth of tropical rainforest.
Anyone wanting to support the protection of the Daintree is welcome by HalfCut. Created by James Standon-Cooke and life partner Jessie Clarke, this environmental activity is challenging you to cut off half of your hair, beard or moustache, since half stylish face makeup, baking goods, and even the odd half cut lawn have been popular more recently. If you feel like spending hundreds of dollars in colouring, then style your hair a different shade or braid (编) half of your hair, undercut or even get a normal haircut showing half of the length removed. Visit www. Go. HalfCut. org to share your new hairdo on social media with friends and family to help raise money. Every $2. 50 is one more square metre saved of the world’s oldest rainforest. It is up to you how long you stay halfcut. It may be for a day, a week or even a month. All money donated helps protect Daintree Rainforest in Far North Queensland which provides crucial habitat for many endangered species.
Don’t want to mess with your perfect hair? Then help spread the word by buying a HalfCut T-shirt, bag, hat or jacket and save 10 square metres of rainforest for life per purchase, or simply make a donation to this great cause. It is all about doing your bit to help to protect the oldest rainforest in the world.
4．Why do people protect the Daintree rainforest?
A．It hasn’t been developed. B．Half of it has been destroyed.
C．It has unique ecological diversity. D．It’s the biggest tropical rainforest.
5．What can we know about HalfCut according to the passage?
A．It has helped save 123. 55 football fields.
B．It raises money online for rainforest protection.
C．It leads the fashion trend in the hairdressing industry.
D．It donates $2. 50 to rainforest protection for each customer.
6．What do the last two paragraphs talk about?
A．The origin of HalfCut. B．The development of HalfCut.
C．The services offered by HalfCut. D．The ways people can get involved in HalfCut.
7．What is the purpose of this passage?
A．To inform people of the achievements of HalfCut.
B．To advocate readers to support HalfCut and save forest.
C．To introduce current situation of the Daintree rainforest.
D．To raise government’s awareness of protecting environment.
10.【2023届吉林省长春吉大附中实验学校高三第四次模拟】
A walk around the workplace is also a trip back in time. The office is where colleagues meet, work and bond. But it is also a time capsule, where the traces of historic patterns of working ere visible everywhere. The pandemic has enhanced this sense of office as a dig site for corporate archaeologists(考古学家).
The most obvious object is the landline phone, a reminder of the days when mobility meant being able to stand up and keep talking. Long after people have junked them in their personal lives—less than 15% of Americans aged between 25 and 34 had one at home in the second half of 2021—landline phones survive in offices.
There might be good reasons for its persistence: they offer a more secure and stable connection than mobile phones, and no one worries that they are about to run out of battery. In practice, the habit of using them was definitely lost during the pandemic. Now they sit on desk after desk, rows of buttons unpressed, ring tones unheard.
Landline phones were already well on their way out before covid-19 struck. Whiteboard charts have suffered a swifter desertion. These objects signal a particular type of pain—people physically crowded together into a room while a manager sketches a graph with a marker pen and points meaningfully to the top-right-hand corner, giving requirements never to be satisfied. This manager is still making graphs but is now much more likely to use a PowerPoint. The crowd is still being tortured but is now much more likely to be watching on the screen. The office still has whiteboards, but they are left in corners and the charts on them are slowly yellowing.
Real archaeologists need tools and time to do their painstaking work: brushes, shovels and picks. Corporate archaeology is easier: you just need eyes and a memory of how things used to be. But you also need to be quick as more and more work places are rearranged for the post-pandemic era. Now its time to take a careful look around the office: you may see something that will soon seem outdated.
12．Why does the author refer to the office as a time capsule?
A．It is a place for time travel. B．Old-fashioned practices can be seen.
C．Some cultural relics are buried here. D．Archaeologists visit it to explore history.
13．What is paragraph 4 mainly about?
A．The use of whiteboard charts. B．The necessity of landline phones.
C．The convenience of new technology. D．The dislike for some office routines.
14．Which may the author agree with according to the last paragraph?
A．Clerks should get well prepared before daily work.
B．Office work is much easier than work in archaeology.
C．The pandemic plays a part in the change of office settings.
D．Plenty of workplaces will disappear in our vision very soon.
15．Which of the following is a suitable title for the text?
A．The Archaeology of the Office B．The History of Old-fashioned Objects
C．Why Landline Phones Went Outdated D．The Impact of Pandemic on Workplace
11.【2023届辽宁省辽东南协作校高三第三次模拟】
Set in the snow-covered Himalayan mountains, Nainital’s waterways and forests are popular places for tourists. The road to Nainital is covered with woodlands that elephants, snakes, and squirrels always use as well. Nainital’s wildlife and human visitors exist together in the same place, but increasing tourist traffic causes a danger to some of these animals while they cross the roads. Then on the way to Nainital, an eco-bridge appears on a busy highway.
A forest manager said, “This is a rich forest, and elephant, leopards, deer and bulls move in this area. Drivers can see these large animals from some distance and slow down or stop, but they seldom do so for animals like snakes, lizards and squirrels.” To make things safer for these smaller animals, an eco-bridge was built.
No iron was found in the building of the 90-foot-long bridge. It was only made from materials like bamboo and grass and high up in the air above the road. Workers are now growing grass and plants to cover the bridge in order to attract animals. It is hoped that a green bridge will draw animals to use it. Meanwhile, it is always attracting tourists, who stop to take photos of the amazing bridge. It will make drivers realize how dangerous their high driving speed will be to animals and then reduce their speed.
Although the eco-bridge is the first Indian wildlife bridge for small animals, Indian people have recently worked on a number of projects to help cars and larger animals share the road. For example, six bridges were built over a highway in the Annamalai Hills. These bridges were built to support monkeys in reaching both sides of the highway. On India’s busy National Highway 44, several bridges have successfully enabled large wild animals to cross the crowded highway. Plans for more animal crossings are already carried out in India, including one for elephants on the Chen-nai-Bangalore National Highway.
India has some of the most unique wildlife in the world. Hopefully, nature-based city planning will benefit both India’s native wildlife and its human neighbors.
12．Why was an eco-bridge designed on the way to Nainital?
A．To attract more tourists to go there. B．To keep small animals safe.
C．To protect some rare animals. D．to prevent wild animals hurting people.
13．What is special about the eco-bridge?
A．It is cost-effective to build. B．It is the first bridge in India.
C．It can improve visitor’s safety. D．It draws on the natural materials.
14．What is expected of the drivers after the building of the bridge?
A．Avoiding taking photos of animals when they are passing by.
B．Using the new bridge only if it is necessary.
C．Visiting Nainital’s forests as little as possible.
D．Improving their awareness of slowing down for wild animals.
15．What is the main idea of para 4?
A．Indians’ effort in building wildlife-friendly highway systems.
B．The difficulties of building animal crossing in big cities.
C．Why most highways in India are safe for wild animals.
D．How animal crossing influence wildlife and humans.
12.【2023届山东省泰安市高三下学期三模】
Chinese scientists say they have found a solution to help the CR450 bullet train run smoothly at 400 km/h by 2025.
China’s fastest trains currently reach a top speed of around 350km/h and passengers usually have an extremely smooth experience, but that doesn’t make it get complacent. The country planned to launch a new bullet train model by 2025 that can run 400 km/h — a speed that only some commercial super cars like the Bugatti Veyron can run.
At such high speed, even a small collision (碰撞) can cause the whole train to shake. Continuous vibrations (振动) can make passengers seasick. The team led by Professor Shi Jin from Beijing Jiaotong University said the problem could be solved by adjusting the height of the rails by just a few millimeters at some sensitive points. Shi’s team ran tests on a test line, and the results showed that their method really worked.
“As trains go faster, the interaction between wheels and tracks increases, making existing measures to reduce ride vibrations less effective,” Shi said. According to the team’s calculations, the vibration felt by passengers during a400 km/h trip will be 5% higher than at present. That might seem like a small difference, but it can increase the wavelength of the vibrations felt along the train by 15%. If not effectively controlled, this can make passengers uncomfortable during the journey, even unsafe. Research shows that lifting sleepers by just a few millimeters can resist this impact.
Trains with different speeds can operate on the same track, but each speed setting requires different sleepers. Existing Chinese safety standards allow only an error of one millimeter when adjusting the sleepers. China has more than 40,000 km of high-speed railways in operation. To make them all suitable for 400 km/h trains will be a difficult task. However, it’s necessary to find a solution soon because according to the government’s 5-year plan, the new generation of high-speed train, the CR450, will be completed and put into operation in less than 3years.
12．What does the underlined phrase “get complacent” mean in paragraph 2?
A．Convenient. B．Successful. C．Respected. D．Satisfied.
13．What is paragraph 4 mainly talking about?
A．The way wheels and tracks interact.
B．The effect of vibration on passengers.
C．The difficulty in adjusting the sleepers.
D．The reason why existing sleepers should be lifted.
14．What can we know about China’s existing high-speed railways?
A．Their sleepers need adjusting all the time.
B．The more these railways are built, the better.
C．Enough of them will be in use in three years.
D．It’s hard to make 400 km/h trains run on all of them.
15．What’s the best title for the text?
A．China Develops 400 km/h Bullet Train
B．China’s Trains Care More for Passengers
C．China’s CR450s Replace Other Trains
D．China Focuses on Railway Technology
13.【2023·山东省潍坊市三模】
Researcher Ruijia Hu said wildlife habitat in crowded places like south went Ohio is becoming increasingly fragmented (分散) as forests give way to new construction. Eventually, this could make trouble to an animal with specific habitat needs like Ohio’n pileated (红冠) woodpecker.
Pileated woodpeckers have the nickname carpenter birds for their never-ending natural woodworking. They peck out holes in trees for their nests every year, creating lots of valuable homes for animals like fox squirrels and owls. “They make new nests every year. They won’t reuse old ones,” Hu said. “Other animals depend on them.”
Pileated woodpeckers are private birds that are more often heard than seen. Studying them can be especially difficult. So Hu turned to citizen science for help. To identify where woodpeckers have been seen, she used eight years of sightings collected by birders and logged into the website eBird, a free online tool and app that anyone can use to record their observations and locations. She overlaid these sightings with remote sensing data and found that corridors along rivers and creeks with abundant mature trees and deadwood helped the birds adjust to their increasingly fragmented urban landscape.
“With fragmented forests, many habitats that were once suitable for wildlife are broken up,” Hu sa id. “Wildlife is unable to find habitat big enough to meet their survival needs. And even if there are suitable habitats, the distance between them can be too great. Wildlife corridors link up these habitat patches. Since wildlife can travel and migrate from one patch to another, the probability of finding food and shelter is higher.”
“There are so many species in urban areas that we don’t pay attention to, especially when they’re not considered vulnerable,” Hu said. “With development chipping away at more forest in this crowded county, the tipping point (临界点) could come quickly and unexpectedly. You can’t fix it overnight. It’s not just about planting more trees. The birds need mature forest, so it could take 30 to 50 years to replace their habitat. At least we can protect these riverside forest corridors and see that existing trees reach maturity.”
8．What can we infer from the second paragraph?
A．The magpie’s nest is occupied by the dove.
B．Birds abandon the old for the new easily.
C．Friendship really exists among animals.
D．One’s trash is another treasure.
9．What is the main idea of the third paragraph?
A．The effect of  Hu’s study on birds.
B．The process of  Hu’s  research.
C．The difficulty Hu had in his study.
D．The application of technology.
10．What role do wildlife corridors play for birds?
A．Helping them survive in the fragmented landscape.
B．Making them adjust to deadwood quickly.
C．Providing them with enough food for survival.
D．Ensuring them a stable and safe habitat.
11．What does Hu imply in the last paragraph?
A．One tree doesn’t make a forest.
B．Be wise after the event.
C．Prepare for a rainy day.
D．Take things as they come.
14.【2023届山西省大同市高三下学期5月三模】
Have you ever wished you could speak a foreign language without taking the classes? Have you ever had trouble while travelling abroad, because of the language? Have you ever dreamed about being able to talk to almost every person in the world? Language barrier should no longer be your concern anymore.
MUAMA Enence, a Japanese high-tech invention that allows you to communicate in more than 40 languages, without wasting your time and money on boring language classes. No more language learning, no more troubles when travelling abroad, no more time and money wasted on language learning programmes that simply do not work.
Enence was built with simplicity in mind so anyone can use it. Although it is armed with the latest technology, using the device is super easy. All you need to do is choose the language in which you want to communicate and record your words or sentences. You can even record really long sentences and Enence will translate everything perfectly!
Enence translator was previously used by governments and large corporations only, however, for a limited time, Enence became available for the general public. After outstanding success with its product, Enence started having supply chain issues. So hurry up and order your translator today.
This genius device allows you to start communicating (YES, speaking!) with almost every person in the world. This technology was never before available to the public. For a limited time only, this device is available for a heavily reduced price of $89 (previously $189).
The low cost and high quality Enence translator is changing the world. The product has been selling like crazy, but the stock won’t last long as the supplies are limited. We recommend ordering MUAMA Enence Translator while it is still available.
8．What does the author intend to do in Paragraph 1?
A．Question some language learning courses. B．Draw attention to the topic of the text.
C．Show how to overcome language barriers. D．Express wishes to learn a foreign language.
9．What is MUAMA Enence?
A．It is an instant translator. B．It is a travel guide.
C．It is a Japanese learning App. D．It is a language course.
10．What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?
A．How to choose a foreign language. B．How to use MUAMA Enence.
C．Why MUAMA Enence is casy to use. D．What to learn with MUAMA Enence.
11．What can we infer from the last two paragraphs?
A．MUAMA Enence is unavailable to everyone.
B．The function of MUAMA Enence is limited.
C．MUAMA Enence is crazily changing the world.
D．The author thinks highly of MUAMA Enence.
15.【2023届山西省长治市部分学校高三下学期三模联合考试】
Every community has an ice cream store, but not all of them have a mission. When Charles Foreman opened his store, Everyday Sundae, he had a goal in mind, “My objective is to make a positive impact in my community by treating people like family and remembering them,” he said.
With his business slogan,“A place for community,” Foreman’s store has quickly gained a devoted following. Customers visit to enjoy their favorite flavors; artwork and cards from them decorate the walls; and some purchase their paper napkins there to support the store. Foreman has also organized events like storybook readings accompanied by sweet treats for children. What truly sets this business apart is the free ice cream that Foreman generously gives out.
“You know when they come in, you can see it. It was natural to notice some of the kids have it and others don’t. So I’m going to sponsor them.” Foreman said as he talked about how he can tell when a visitor wants a treat they can’t afford.“I just want to do some positive things. I believe my community is missing a family-friendly ice cream shop.”
One day, Nicole Harkin, one of his regular customers, noticed Foreman give a free ice cream to children without money. For Foreman, this was a constant gesture that had just gone unnoticed, but Harkin reacted with surprise. She came back and handed him an envelope containing 100 dollars. Foreman was so touched by Harkin’s gift that he posted it on Instagram. Foreman and Harkin’s kind behaviors also moved other customers to cover Foreman’s free ice creams for people they didn’t know. Foreman’s ice cream fund has received many donations since then.
“When you see people doing their best, you want to do your best,” Foreman said. “Everything is contagious, whether you do something negative or positive. We’re supposed to do all we can to help each other.”
24．Why was Charles Foreman’s store so special?
A．It provides free goods to the community. B．It offers children ice cream for free.
C．It is a place to show creativity. D．It collects donations from others.
25．What does Foreman really want to stress in paragraph 3?
A．The motive for his generous action. B．The sympathy for those poor children.
C．The urge for an ice cream shop. D．The methods to help those in need.
26．Which of the following led to a wider donation for his fund?
A．A report on his unnoticed gesture. B．An envelope with a letter in it.
C．A post of someone’s generous action. D．A game between him and his customer.
27．What does the underlined word “contagious” in the last paragraph mean?
A．Critical. B．Influential. C．Precious. D．Optimistic.
16.【2023届浙江省精诚联盟三模】
Stéphanie Frappart made history on Thursday as the first woman to referee (裁判) a men’s World Cup match. Alongside assistants Neuza Back from Brazil and Karen Diaz from Mexico, the Frenchwoman was part of an all-female refereeing trio officiating Costa Rica vs. Germany in their Group E match.
Throughout her career, Frappart has achieved a seemingly endless series of firsts. In April 2019, she became the first female referee to take charge of a Ligue 1 match, in August 2019, the first to take charge of a major men’s European match, and in 2020, the first to officiate a men’s UEFA Champions League match.
At the World Cup,a referee might make 245 decisions in a single game, Sky Sports estimates, and if just one is wrong, it will be analyzed in microscopic detail.
It could alter the course of a game, or even a team’s World Cup-denying it a title or ensuring it progresses no further in the tournament. “When you make a mistake, it’s more important than if a player makes a mistake-there are more consequences for the teams,” Frappart says. “It’s also easy to say that it’s the fault of the referee and not the fault of our team when you lose.”
Inevitably, female referees are carefully examined, as they straddle (跨越) two traditionally male-dominated fields: football and leadership. “There are many questions involved if she’s there because she’s a woman.” Frappart recalls when she made her debut in Ligue. “It’s not only in football. I think in every job when you’re a woman you need to prove that you have the quality and after that they let you continue.” But as Frappart refereed more matches, the stance towards her gradually changed. “Now, it’s not a question of gender. It’s now only a question about competencies.”
With women refereeing, the matches at the Qatar World Cup broadcast to huge audiences worldwide. Frappart knew it encouraged more women to pick up a whistle and take more and more responsibility. “So if you have more female referees on the TV perhaps it might make it easier for women to say: ‘OK, this is possible.’”
28．What is paragraph 2 mainly about?
A．Frappart’s life experience. B．Frappart’s achievements.
C．Frappart’s contributions. D．Frappart’s habits.
29．Which of the following words can best describe Frappart’s job as a referee?
A．Creative and rewarding. B．Challenging but inspiring.
C．Difficult and meaningless. D．Easy but troublesome.
30．The underlined words “made her debut ” in paragraph 5 means _______ .
A．made a speech B．made full preparations
C．made her first appearance D．made a living
31．What can we learn about Frappart?
A．The Qatar World Cup drew huge audiences for women refereeing.
B．It’s easy to put the blame for teams’failures on referees.
C．Frappart impressed the world with competencies in her first match.
D．In August 2019, Frappart was the first female referee in a Ligue 1 match.
17.【2023届重庆市高三第一次联合诊断检测】
New research suggests that one night of sleep with just a small amount of light may have negative effects on health.
The small, 20-person study conducted by Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian (生理节奏的) and Sleep Medicine, was designed to measure the physiological effects of 100 lux (照度) of artificial light on healthy adults while they were sleeping. For the study, all the participants spent their first night sleeping in a mostly dark room. The next night, half of them slept in a better lit room. Meanwhile, the researchers ran tests on the sleepers: brainwaves, heart rates and blood. In the morning, they’d give both groups a large amount of sugar to see how well their systems responded to it.
The group exposed to the light had raised heart rates throughout the night, and also had trouble getting their blood sugar into a normal range.
These changes suggest the small amount of light was enough to shift the nervous system to a more excited and alert state. “It’s almost like the brain and the heart knew that the lights were on, although the individual was sleeping,” says Zee.
While the findings of this study alone can’t predict what would happen in the long term, Dr. Colwell suspects the harmful effects would be cumulative: “This was only one night, so imagine if you’ re living that way constantly?”
“That’s going to increase the risk of long-term diseases,” says Dr. Charles Czeisler whose research has looked at the consequences of circadian rhythm sleep disorder for longer than just one night. He concluded that the unpleasant effects were primarily because of the “internal clock” being disturbed — not necessarily because of the lack of sleep.
This is not to say that the lack of sleep doesn’t also have negative effects on health — it does — but he says it simply stresses the lasting consequences of being exposed to light at nighttime.
“People think that as long as they fall asleep and are unconscious, it’s not having physiological effects, but that’s simply not true,” Czeisler says.
12．What is Paragraph 2 mainly about?
A．How the study is carried out. B．What type of light affects sleep.
C．Who is in charge of the research. D．Why light and sleep are connected.
13．What do we know about the new research?
A．Light plays a critical role in regulating circadian rhythm.
B．A small amount of light at night is linked with sleep depth.
C．Leaving the bedroom lights on leads to mental disorder.
D．Sleeping with a little bit of light isn’t good for your health.
14．What does the underlined word “cumulative” in Paragraph 5 mean?
A．Common. B．Slight. C．Increasing. D．Accidental.
15．Which of the following might Czeisler agree with?
A．The more you sleep, the healthier you will be.
B．Physiological effects disappear with a sound sleep.
C．Sleep quality lies in how you feel about the sleep.
D．It is the circadian rhythm sleep disorder that matters.
18.【湖北省华大新高考联盟2021-2022学年高三下学期4月教学质量测】
Rachael Blackmore walked along the track the evening before the Grand National. The jockey (赛马师) was determined, and she would fight to the last bit of her strength to win.
But the way for her to be a jockey was not easy. She grew up a farmer’s daughter. “Being a professional jockey was something I had never thought of,” she said. She studied science at university. But through all that time she was riding because “I just love riding. And I love winning too.” When finishing college at 25, she assumed her riding days were over because “I had to get a real job.”
However, fortune smiled on her because she was filled with talent and banging on the door. Her coach said he would turn her professional. It was harder for female to get rides and open doors, yet she did not tell her story as a victory over hardship. “Once you break down that initial barrier, then you are fine.” she said.
On the day of the Grand National, she thought her horse, Minella, would take well to the fences. But the race was dominated by Jett at first. Rachael did not give up. It was with the last two fences to jump when Jett was fading. “I was beside him and Minella seemed to grab the opportunity.”
They jumped the last with a lead. “I couldn’t hear or feel another horse behind me and Minella was still going forward for me. I tried to keep balance and we hit the line,” she said, “I definitely started crying.”
She became a history maker but she was not proud at all. “I am looking forward to next year, looking at my upcoming races. I know, my best race is certainly the next one!” she said.
24．What does “that initial barrier” in paragraph 3 refer to?
A．The financial hardship.
B．The improper education background.
C．The lack of an excellent and qualified jockey coach.
D．The prejudice against being a professional woman jockey.
25．What’s the main idea of the second and third paragraphs?
A．Rachael’s difficult process of being a real jockey.
B．The fortunes Rachael had when growing up.
C．The friendship between Rachael and her coach.
D．The good personalities helping Rachael succeed.
26．Why did Rachael cry at the end of the race?
A．She lost her chance. B．She fell off Minella.
C．She was stopped by a line. D．She won the Grand National.
27．Which word best describes Rachael according to the last paragraph?
A．Reflective. B．Carefree.
C．Ambitious. D．Practical.
19.【2023届湘豫名校联考高三第三次模拟】
According to Dr. John Swaddle, a professor at the Institute for Integrative Conservation at William & Mary, hundreds of millions of birds die every year from window collisions(碰撞).
However, if you put decals(贴花纸) or colorful stickers outside of your windows, the birds are more likely to see the barrier and therefore avoid it. Remember: never inside your window; always outside of your window.
“Double-glazed(双层的) windows reflect a lot of light, especially when you view them from a slight angle, as a flying bird would do,” Swaddle told Salon. He is the corresponding author of a recent study which tries to figure out how this basic reality of physics impacts on a bird’s experience as it flies near a standard window. For their experiment, researchers had birds perform repeated and controlled flight trials near windows with film(薄膜) products, BirdShades film and Haverkamp film, respectively.
“In our collision avoidance trials, BirdShades increased window avoidance by 47% and the Haverkamp increased avoidance by 39%. But neither product was effective when the films were applied to the internal surface of windows,” the authors concluded.
When breaking down the problem of avoiding window collisions from a bird’s point of view, Swaddle explained, “The light and reflected imagery from the external surface of the glass is sufficient to obscure a film or decal that is stuck to the inner surface from being seen clearly.”
If you want to protect birds from easily avoidable deaths without buying window film products, there are other solutions. Swaddle recommended “pleasing fritted glass that could be used in new construction and which is also bird-friendly”. Besides, he notes that screens can be helpful as well, not only by limiting reflectiveness but by providing birds with a cushion if they make impact. It is also possible to use everyday household objects to signal to birds that there are barriers — netting, bits of string, colorful stickers, and paint. These can all be used to this effect.
12．Which of the following can work to reduce bird window collisions?
A．Choosing double-glazed windows.
B．Avoiding opening windows at night.
C．Covering the inner windows with decals.
D．Sticking decals to the outer side of windows.
13．What did the researchers want to find in the experiment?
A．The bird-friendly film products and glass.
B．The efficient measures of collision avoidance.
C．The bird behaviors when hitting the bright window.
D．The link between light reflection and bird window collisions.
14．What does the underlined word “obscure” in Paragraph 5 probably mean?
A．Protect. B．Use. C．Shade. D．Find.
15．What is mainly talked about in the last paragraph?
A．Solutions to reducing the window cost.
B．Other ways to avoid bird collisions.
C．Bird-friendly objects to attract birds.
D．Environmentally friendly glass products.
20.【2023届甘肃省高三第三次高考诊断】
More American businesses are starting to use artificial intelligence(AI)tools to come up with new ideas and to deal with customers.
Mattel is known for making children’s toys. The company recently used an AI image generator called DALL-E to come up with ideas for new Hot Wheels toy cars. The used vehicle seller CarMax is using ChatGPT to gather thousands of customer comments. The social media service Snapchat has added a chatbot to its messaging service. And Instacart, a delivery service, now uses ChatGPT to answer food questions.
Even the Coca-Cola company plans to use AI to help create new marketing content. It has not said exactly how it plans to use the technology. But the move shows that businesses are under pressure to use the tools that many of their employees and customers are already trying on their own. “We must embrace the risks,” Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said in a video announcing a partnership with OpenAI—maker of both DALL-E and ChatGPT. Some experts warn that businesses should carefully consider possible harms to customers, society, and their own companies before choosing to use AI tools in the workplace.
Claire Leibowicz is with The Partnership on AI, a nonprofit group. The group recently released recommendations for companies producing AI-generated images, audio and other media. “I want people to think deeply before deploying this technology,” Leibowicz said. “They should play around...but we should also think, what purpose are these tools serving in the first place?”
While text generators like ChatGPT can make the process of writing emails and marketing documents faster and easier, they also appear to present misinformation as fact. And image generators like DALL-E are trained in copying widely available digital art and photography. This has raised copyright concerns from the creators of those works.
“It is safer to use AI tools as a ‘thought partner’ but still people as the creator of final products,”said Anna Gressel, who is with the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton.
4．What does Paragraph 2 mainly tell us about AI tools?
A．Their target users. B．Their major functions.
C．Their increasing popularity. D．Their creative service.
5．What can we say about the Coca-Cola company?
A．It calls on its staff to use AI tools. B．It hesitates to use AI tools.
C．It accepts the risks of using AI tools. D．It has been warned by experts.
6．What does the underlined word “deploying” in Paragraph 4 mean?
A．Using effectively. B．Promoting successfully.
C．Questioning publicly. D．Presenting confidently.
7．What can be inferred from Anna Gressel’s words?
A．Copyright concerns are unnecessary. B．AI tools should just be humans’ assistants.
C．A business should partner with a law firm. D．The use of AI tools is an open question.

真题感知
1. [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.
(　)32.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.
2.【2023年1月·浙江卷】C
A machine can now not only beat you at chess, it can also outperform you in debate. Last week, in a public debate in San Francisco, a software program called Project Debater beat its human opponents, including Noa Ovadia, Israel’s former national debating champion.
Brilliant though it is, Project Debater has some weaknesses. It takes sentences from its library of documents and prebuilt arguments and strings them together. This can lead to the kinds of errors no human would make. Such wrinkles will no doubt be ironed out, yet they also point to a fundamental problem. As Kristian Hammond, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Northwestern University, put it: “There’s never a stage at which the system knows what it’s talking about.”
What Hammond is referring to is the question of meaning, and meaning is central to what distinguishes the least intelligent of humans from the most intelligent of machines. A computer works with symbols. Its program specifies a set of rules to transform one string of symbols into another. But it does not specify what those symbols mean. Indeed, to a computer, meaning is irrelevant. Humans, in thinking, talking, reading and writing, also work with symbols. But for humans, meaning is everything. When we communicate, we communicate meaning. What matters is not just the outside of a string of symbols, but the inside too, not just how they are arranged but what they mean.
Meaning emerges through a process of social interaction, not of computation, interaction that shapes the content of the symbols in our heads. The rules that assign meaning lie not just inside our heads, but also outside, in society, in social memory, social conventions and social relations. It is this that distinguishes humans from machines. And that’s why, however astonishing Project Debater may seem, the tradition that began with Socrates and Confucius will not end with artificial intelligence.
31．What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A．Social interaction is key to understanding symbols.
B．The human brain has potential yet to be developed.
C．Ancient philosophers set good examples for debaters.
D．Artificial intelligence ensures humans a bright future.

3.D【2020·全国I】
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.316
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.
4. B【2020·全国新课标III】
When "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was first shown to the public last month, a group of excited animal activists gathered on Hollywood Boulevard. But they weren’t there to throw red paint on fur-coat-wearing film stars. Instead, one activist, dressed in a full-body monkey suit, had arrived with a sign praising the filmmakers: "Thanks for not using real apes (猿)!"
The creative team behind "Apes" used motion-capture (动作捕捉) technology to create digitalized animals, spending tens of millions of dollars on technology that I records an actor’s performance and later processes it with computer graphics to create a final image (图像). In this case, one of a realistic-looking ape.
Yet "Apes" is more exception than the rule. In fact, Hollywood has been hot on live animals lately. One nonprofit organization, which monitors the treatment or animals in filmed entertainment, is keeping tabs on more than 2,000 productions this year. Already, a number of films, including "Water for Elephants," "The Hangover Part Ⅱ" and "Zookeeper," have drawn the anger of activists who say the creatures acting in them haven’t been treated properly.
In some cases, it’s not so much the treatment of the animals on set in the studio that has activists worried; it’s the off-set training and living conditions that are raising concerns. And there are questions about the films made outside the States, which sometimes are not monitored as closely as productions filmed in the Sates.241
25. What does paragraph 2 mainly talk about?
A. The cost of making "Apes."
B. The creation of digitalized apes.
C. The publicity about “Apes."
D. The performance of real apes.
5.D【2022·新高考I卷】
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.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. 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.
15. 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.
6.D【2022·全国甲卷】
Sometime in the early 1960s, a significant thing happened in Sydney, Australia. The city discovered its harbor. Then, one after another, Sydney discovered lots of things that were just sort of there — broad parks, superb beaches, and a culturally diverse population. But it is the harbor that makes the city.
Andrew Reynolds, a cheerful fellow in his early 30s, pilots Sydney ferryboats for a living. I spent the whole morning shuttling back and forth across the harbor. After our third run Andrew shut down the engine, and we went our separate ways — he for a lunch break, I to explore the city.
“I’ll miss these old boats,” he said as we parted.
“How do you mean?” I asked.
“Oh, they’re replacing them with catamarans. Catamarans are faster, but they’re not so elegant, and they’re not fun to pilot. But that’s progress, I guess.”
Everywhere in Sydney these days, change and progress are the watchwords (口号), and traditions are increasingly rare. Shirley Fitzgerald, the city’s official historian, told me that in its rush to modernity in the 1970s, Sydney swept aside much of its past, including many of its finest buildings. “Sydney is confused about itself,” she said. “We can’t seem to make up our minds whether we want a modern city or a traditional one. It’s a conflict that we aren’t getting any better at resolving (解决).”
On the other hand, being young and old at the same time has its attractions. I considered this when I met a thoughtful young businessman named Anthony. “Many people say that we lack culture in this country,” he told me. “What people forget is that the Italians, when they came to Australia, brought 2000 years of their culture, the Greeks some 3000 years, and the Chinese more still. We’ve got a foundation built on ancient cultures but with a drive and dynamism of a young country. It’s a pretty hard combination to beat.”
He is right, but I can’t help wishing they would keep those old ferries.
32. What is the first paragraph mainly about?
A. Sydney’s striking architecture. B. The cultural diversity of Sydney.
C. The key to Sydney’s development. D. Sydney’s tourist attractions in the 1960s.
33. What can we learn about Andrew Reynolds?
A. He goes to work by boat. B. He looks forward to a new life.
C. He pilots catamarans well. D. He is attached to the old ferries.
34. What does Shirley Fitzgerald think of Sydney?
A. It is losing its traditions. B. It should speed up its progress.
C. It should expand its population. D. It is becoming more international.
35. Which statement will the author probably agree with?
A. A city can be young and old at the same time.
B. A city built on ancient cultures is more dynamic.
C. modernity is usually achieved at the cost of elegance.
D. Compromise should be made between the local and the foreign.
7.2021年全国乙卷之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?
24. 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.
25. What does the underlined word “concede” in paragraph 3 mean?
A. Admit. B. Argue.
C. Remember. D. Remark.
26. 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.
27. 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.
8.2021年6月浙江卷之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 on 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 between the pictures based on a simple cue, such as the sight of teeth," said study author Corsin Muller. "Instead, our results suggest that the successful 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.
8. 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
9. 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 lest.
10. 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.
9.2020年新课标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?
10.2019年全国卷I之D篇
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
11.2019年北京卷之D篇
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
12.2019年江苏卷之B篇
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.
13.2019年浙江卷之C篇
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
14.2018年江苏卷之B篇
In the 1760s, Mathurin Roze opened a series of shops that boasted(享有) a special meat soup called consommé. Although the main attraction was the soup, Roze's chain shops also set a new standard for dining out, which helped to establish Roze as the inventor of the modern restaurant.
Today, scholars have generated large amounts of instructive research about restaurants. Take visual hints that influence what we eat: diners served themselves about 20 percent more pasta(意大利面食) when their plates matched their food. When a dark-colored cake was served on a black plate rather than a white one, customers recognized it as sweeter and more tasty.
Lighting matters, too. When Berlin restaurant customers ate in darkness, they couldn't tell how much they'd had: those given extra-large shares ate more than everyone else, none the wiser—they didn’t feel fuller, and they were just as ready for dessert.
Time is money, but that principle means different things for different types of restaurants. Unlike fast-food places, fine dining shops prefer customers to stay longer and spend. One way to encourage customers to stay and order that extra round: put on some Mozart(莫扎特).When classical, rather than pop, music was playing, diners spent more. Fast music hurried diners out.
Particular scents also have an effect: diners who got the scent of lavender(薰衣草) stayed longer and spent more than those who smelled lemon, or no scent.
Meanwhile, things that you might expect to discourage spending—"bad" tables, crowding. high prices — don't necessarily. Diners at bad tables — next to the kitchen door, say — spent nearly as much as others but soon fled. It can be concluded that restaurant keepers need not "be overly concerned about ‘bad’ tables," given that they're profitable. As for crowds, a Hong Kong study found that they increased a restaurant's reputation, suggesting great food at fair prices. And doubling a buffet's price led customers to say that its pizza was 11 percent tastier.
58. The underlined phrase "none the wiser" in paragraph 3 most probably implies that the customers were .
A. not aware of eating more than usual
B. not willing to share food with others
C. not conscious of the food quality
D. not fond of the food provided
59. How could a fine dining shop make more profit?
A. Playing classical music.
B. Introducing lemon scent.
C. Making the light brighter,
D. Using plates of larger size.
60. What does the last paragraph talk about?
A. Tips to attract more customers.
B. Problems restaurants are faced with.
C. Ways to improve restaurants' reputation.
D. Common misunderstandings about restaurants.