题目
题型:不详难度:来源:
Every year, moist (潮湿的) air masses,known as monsoon,produce large amounts of rainfall in India, East Asia, Northern Australia and East Africa. All this wet air is pulled in by a high pressure area over the Indian Ocean and a low pressure area to the south.
According to Edward Cook, a weather expert at Columbia University in New York, the complex nature of the climate systems across Asia makes monsoons hard to predict. In addition, climate records for the area are too recent and not detailed enough to be of much use. Therefore, he and a team of researchers spent more than fifteen years traveling across Asia, looking for trees old enough to provide long-term records. They measured the rings(年轮), or circles, inside thousands of ancient trees in more than 300 places.
Rainfall has a direct link to the growth and width of rings on some kinds of trees. The researchers developed a document they are calling a Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas. It shows the effect of monsoons over seven centuries, beginning in the 1300s.
Professor Cook says the tree-ring records show periods of wet and dry weather. “If the monsoon basically fails or is a very weak one, the trees affected by monsoons at that location might put on a very narrow ring. But if the monsoon is very strong, the trees affected by that monsoon might put on a wide ring for that year. So, the wide and narrow ring widths of the chronology(大事年表) that we developed in Asia provide us with a measure of monsoon variability.” With all this information, researchers say they can begin to improve computer climate models for predicting the behavior of monsoons.
“There has been widespread famine and starvation and human dying in the past in large droughts. And on the other hand, if the monsoon is particularly heavy, it can cause extensive flooding.” said Eugene Wahl, a scientist with America’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “So, to get a sense of what the regional moisture patterns have been, dryness and wetness over such a long period of time in great detail, I would call it a kind of victory for climate science.”
小题1:What’s the passage mainly about?
A.The effects of Asian monsoons. | B.The necessity of weather forecast. |
C.The achievements of Edward cook. | D.A breakthrough in monsoon prediction. |
A.it is hard to keep long-term climate records. |
B.they are formed under complex climate systems. |
C.they influence many nations. |
D.there is heavy rainfall in Asia. |
A.Long and detailed climate records can offer useful information for monsoon research. |
B.The Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas has a monsoon record for about 1,300 years. |
C.The trees affected by monsoon grow fast if the monsoon is weak. |
D.The rainfall might be low although the monsoon is strong in monsoon-affected areas. |
A.determine the regional climate. |
B.have a great influence on the regional climate. |
C.offer people information about the regional climate. |
D.reflect all kinds of regional climate information. |
A.It is a great achievement in climate science. |
B.It should include information about human life in the past. |
C.It has analysed moisture models world wide, |
D.It will help people prevent droughts and floods. |
A.Matter-of –fact | B.Pessimistic | C.Humorous | D.Friendly. |
答案
小题1:D
小题2:B
小题3:A
小题4:C
小题5:A
小题6:A
解析
试题分析:本文讲述的是在亚洲季风预测方面取得的一个巨大的成就。
小题1:D 主旨大意题。根据文章倒数第二段最后一句With all this information, researchers say they can begin to improve computer climate models for predicting the behavior of monsoons.可知本文介绍的是在季风预测方面的所取得的一个巨大的突破,已经设计出预测季风的计算机模型了。故D正确。
小题2:B 细节题。根据文章第三段1,2行According to Edward Cook, a weather expert at Columbia University in New York, the complex nature of the climate systems across Asia makes monsoons hard to predict.可知复杂的气候体系是其难以预测的主要原因。故B正确。
小题3:A 推断题。根据第三段2,3行In addition, climate records for the area are too recent and not detailed enough to be of much use.可知太短,不够详细的数据记录不利于我们预测季风,也就是说长期的详细的数据有利于我们预测季风。故A正确。
小题4:C 细节题。根据文章第五段前5行Professor Cook says the tree-ring records show periods of wet and dry weather. “If the monsoon basically fails or is a very weak one, the trees affected by monsoons at that location might put on a very narrow ring. But if the monsoon is very strong, the trees affected by that monsoon might put on a wide ring for that year. So, the wide and narrow ring widths of the chronology(大事年表) that we developed in Asia provide us with a measure of monsoon variability.”可知树木的年轮可以告诉我们当地的气候变化情况。故C正确。
小题5:A 推理题。根据文章最后一段1,2行“There has been widespread famine and starvation and human dying in the past in large droughts. And on the other hand, if the monsoon is particularly heavy, it can cause extensive flooding.” said Eugene Wahl可知这一发现作用巨大,在气候科学方面是一个巨大的成就。故A正确。
小题6:A 推理题。本文主要运用了摆事实,讲道理的方法来讲述科学原理,用一种很平和的实事求是的语调在讲述文章中的原理。故A正确。
点评:本文讲述的是在亚洲季风预测方面取得的一个巨大的成就。这篇文章比较难,先看问题,再带着问题读短文,找出各段落的主旨句,理解全文内容,总结全文中心,然后再回到问题上来,很容易选出正确答案。多了解一些常识性知识有利于阅读理解。如果对文章的相关背景有所了解,读起文章一定既省时又省力。因此,在学习过程中,了解各方面的背景知识是十分重要的。
核心考点
试题【Half of the world’s population is affected by Asian monsoons (季风), but monsoons 】;主要考察你对题材分类等知识点的理解。[详细]
举一反三
These may sound like strange things to put together. But scientists, inventors, and designers are doing just that. They are learning from nature to create new technology.
The word biomimicry (仿生学) combines two words: biology and mimicry. So people using biomimicry try to use examples in nature to design new technology.
Biomimicry is not a new idea. People have been studying nature for hundreds of years. Leonardo DaVinci used birds as models to invent his flying machine. And when the Wright Brothers made the first successful airplane, they also studied birds. In 998, Janine Benyus, a natural science writer and teacher, wrote a book about biomimicry. To develop her interest in the subject, Janine Benyus started the Biomimicry Institute.
The Biomimicry Institute is a non-profit organization. It brings together scientists, designers, inventors and many other people. It offers classes to teach people biomimicry. It provides money for people to research and test new technologies. And it wants all people, from children to adults, to think about new ways to learn from nature.
People involved with the Biomimicry Institute believe that biomimicry can help solve many of the world’s problems. Often, new technologies can harm nature, but this is not true for biomimicry. Let’s look at some examples.
Butterflies have colorful wings because light shines off them in a special way. Scientists want to copy these same ways to make light shine off computers. They hope this will make for more colorful screens.
Another example of biomimicry is the bullet train. It travels at speeds of over 250 kilometers per hour! But it had a problem: it made too much noise!
Through the observation of birds, scientists thought about a kind of bird, the kingfisher(翠鸟). The kingfisher can dive into water without making any noise because of the shape of its beak(喙). Researchers thought that if they could design the front of the train like this beak, the train would be quieter. Well, it worked!
小题1:The first paragraph is written to_____.
A.start a discussion | B.make a brief summary |
C.introduce the topic of the text | D.test readers" knowledge on science |
A.To honor the Wright Brothers. |
B.To show her recent inventions. |
C.To gather talented people for her research. |
D.To explore the link between nature and technologies. |
A.earns a lot by giving classes on biomimicry | B.tells people about their technologies |
C.gives free support to scientists | D.teaches children about birds |
A.biomimcry works harmoniously with nature | B.the fast development of modern technology |
C.how biomimcry changes our life | D.how nature inspires scientists |
A.Biomimicry is widely used in the world. |
B.People copy nature to create new technologies. |
C.The Biomimicry Institute was set up for science. |
D.Birds play an important part in new technologies. |
Lippl and his colleagues invited 20 overweight men to an environmental research station about 300 meters below the summit of Zugspitze, a mountain around 2,970 meters near the Austrian border. They were allowed to eat as much as they liked. The men also gave blood so that researchers could test for hormones linked to appetite and fatness. At the end of the week, the men, whose mean weight starting out was 105kg, had lost on average about l.5kg. The men’s blood pressure also dropped, which the researchers believed was due to weight lost.
Exactly what caused the weight loss is uncertain. Loss of appetite is common at higher altitudes, and indeed the men ate significantly less than usual—about 700 calories fewer per day. Lippl also notes that because their consumption was being recorded, they may have been more self-conscious about what they ate. Regardless, eating less accounts for just l kg of the l.5 kg lost, says Lippl. He thinks the increased metabolic (新陈代谢的) rate, which was measured, also contributed to weight loss but cannot separate the different effects with the given data.
Appetite loss at high altitudes could certainly be key, notes Damian Bailey, a physiologist at the University of Glamorgan, UK, who recently lost 11 kg during a 3-month expedition to the Andes in Chile.
Unfortunately, for the average person there is no treatment that can resemble living at high altitude, says Lippl. The only alternative is hypobaric chamber, which exposes subjects to low oxygen and isn’t practical as a treatment. He says, half- jokingly, “If fat people plan their holidays, they might not go to the sea, but maybe to the mountain.”
小题1:What contributes the most to one’s heart rates according to the first paragraph?
A.our bodyweight | B.the consumption of energy |
C.the rates of our breathing | D.the amount of oxygen provided |
A.one’s bodyweight | B.one’s blood pressure |
C.one’s way of living | D.one’s metabolic rate |
A.They controlled what to eat self-consciously. |
B.They took in much fewer calories than usual. |
C.They lost appetite because of lack of physical activity. |
D.They were provided with a healthier diet than before. |
A.He experimented with the new weight loss plan in the Andes. |
B.He found no other reasons for his loss of weight in the Andes. |
C.He researched the related subject in the Andes. |
D.He lost much weight in the high altitude Andes. |
A.casual | B.inaccurate | C.uncertain | D.confident |
“The more physically fit kids were, the higher their scores,” said the study’s lead author, Trent Petrie, director of the Center for Sport Psychology at the University of North Texas in Denton. “Parents should encourage their kids to be physically active. There are some real cognitive (认知的) and academic benefits that come from physical fitness”, Petrie said.
Results of the study are scheduled to be presented Friday at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association in Orlando, Fla. The study included more than 1,200 middle school students from five schools in a suburban area of Texas, with 561 boys and 650 girls. About 57 percent of the children were white, and nearly one-quarter were Mexican American. Nine percent were black and about 2 percent were of Asian descent.
The school district provided the researchers with information on the children’s race, age, grade level and whether they qualified for the free school lunch program, which was an indicator of the family’s socioeconomic status. The schools also provided scores to the tests, which were given between one and four months after the researchers had assessed the children’s levels of fitness. Fitness tests were administered during physical education classes to determine the youngsters’ heart and lung health (cardiorespiratory fitness), as well as their body mass index (BMI), an indicator of how much body fat a person has. The children also filled out questionnaires that helped the researchers determine factors such as self-esteem and social support.
After accounting for factors such as age, sex, family income and self-esteem, the researchers found that for both boys and girls, higher levels of heart and lung health predicted better scores on both the math and reading tests.
For boys, perceived (感观的) social support also seemed to increase their reading scores, the investigators found. In girls, while being physically fit predicted higher reading scores, so too did a higher BMI-- which indicates more body fat. “We were a little surprised by this finding,” Petrie said.
“It was not as strong an association as the one with physical fitness,” he added. The authors suspect it may have something to do with girls this age entering adolescence, which may be related to a higher BMI and slightly higher brain development. He said he plans to make great effort to look for this relationship again in larger studies to see if it was a chance finding, or if the association holds up.
“While we can’t say 100 percent that physical fitness causes better academic performance, we can say that there is a strong and predictive relationship between physical fitness and academic performance,” Petrie said.
“It’s hard to tease apart (梳理) the exact reason for this association,” said Becky Hashim, an attending clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the departments of psychiatry and pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiore, in New York City.
“It may be that the children are getting more oxygen. When the heart and lungs are working at a higher capacity, it may allow the brain to work at peak performance. Children who are less fit may be sleepier during school,” she noted. “I personally feel that there’s probably a strong relationship between the confidence you get from being able to do something physical well and academic performance.”
Whatever the reason behind this association may be, “there’s certainly no harm in pushing physical fitness,” Hashim added. “Physical fitness may make you feel better, give you more confidence and improve your performance across the board,” she said.
Petrie agreed. “Physically fit kids are happier, have higher self-esteem and, tend to have better relationships, and now we’re beginning to see that there also seem to be benefits cognitively and academically. Our study sends a strong warning to policymakers to reconsider the service program of physical education classes for kids,” he said.
小题1:How did the school district help the researchers carry out the study?
A.By analyzing the data of fitness tests. |
B.By giving some basic information. |
C.By completing some questionnaires. |
D.By offering a certain amount of Money. |
A.in a book | B.in a journal | C.at a conference | D.on the Internet |
A.Parents should be aware of the benefit of fitness. |
B.Fitter kids are likely to make better grades. |
C.Fitness affects kids’ social behavior greatly. |
D.Teachers should value physical education classes. |
A.Supportive | B.Indifferent | C.Critical | D.Doubtful |
A.The BMI. | B.The body fat. | C.The brain development. | D.The test score. |
A.deserve to be treated well | B.live much longer than others |
C.get along well with others | D.enjoy a peaceful life |
What is “being eco-conscious”?
Being eco-conscious means being aware of your actions, and what you do to the environment. For example, you might think, “Using hairspray is great for fixing my hair.” However, if you are eco-conscious, you would ask, “Does this hairspray have CFCs in it? Could I be destroying the earth by using hairspray?”
How can I be eco-conscious?
You can find many simple ways to help the environment in your everyday life.
When you go shopping, bring a bag or a basket with you. Please try not to use plastic bags as much as you can.
You can go to work by bike or on foot if it is not far from your home.
You can put your rubbish into different bags, which makes it convenient for recycling.
You can eat less chewing gum.
You can use your own chopsticks instead of the disposable ones in your company or in restaurants.
You can put batteries in a special box instead of in garbage bins.
You can use the water which has been used for washing vegetables or fruits to clean the floor and the toilet or to water your garden.
You can turn off the decorative lights in your room when watching TV.
You can turn down your air conditioner by one degree, as this will cause a 10% reduction in energy use.
You can use recycled paper. Every ton of recycled office paper saves 380 gallons of oil. You can also use recycled glass instead of glass made from raw materials. This will reduce the related air pollution by 20%, and the related water pollution by 50%.
Please believe that. If you do a little, it will make a big difference.
小题1:Human beings should care about the environment because _________ .
A.if we make the earth unlivable, we’ll have to live in space |
B.it can help our children live better |
C.if we don’t, the earth will become a garbage dump |
D.it will help to make the world a good living place |
A.be aware of the importance of protecting the environment |
B.use plastic bags when he buys something |
C.know nothing about CFCs |
D.turn his air conditioner to a higher degree |
A.share a car with your colleagues |
B.use paper bags instead of plastic bags |
C.use hairspray containing CFCs |
D.use recycled glass instead of glass made from raw materials |
A.it’s very hard for human beings to keep the earth clean and comfortable |
B.protecting the environment is the duty of everybody |
C.we should protect the environment together, as it’s no use doing it individually |
D.it’s very easy to be eco-conscious |
A.Being eco-conscious means you should know much about the environment. |
B.The more we care, the better the environment will be. |
C.If each of us just does a little, we can’t make any difference. |
D.If we treat the earth badly, we’ll make a lot of trouble for ourselves. |
Eco City Farms in Edmonton, Maryland, is located near shopping centers, car repair shops and homes. The neighborhood is a working-class community. People do not have very much money. And they have limited access to fresh food in markets.
Over the past two years, the farm has attracted volunteers form the community like Marcy Clark. She schools her four children at home. On a recent day she brought them to Eco City Farms for a lesson, her son Alston Clark thinks his experience is very valuable. “I like coming out here,” he says, “You know, you connect with the earth, where your food comes from. You appreciate the food a little bit more.”
Margaret Morgan started Eco City Farms. She thinks of it as a place where people can learn to live healthier lives. “Growing food in a community brings people together, ”she continues, “Every piece of what we do here is a demonstration (范例) to show people everything about how to have an eco-friendly community.” she says. From the Eco City Farms people come to know that they are not only growing food and raising chickens and bees, but improving the soil with compost (肥料) made from food waste.
Eco City Farms is an experimental operation. The farm gets its power not from the local electricity networks, but from the sun with solar panels (板). In winter, the green house use a geothermal (地热) system.
Vegetables can be grown all year. So once a week, all winter long, neighbors like Chris Moss and her three children bike to the farm to pick up a share of the harvest.
“I like eating the vegetables” say five-year-old Owen Moss.
小题1:What is mainly talked about in the passage?
A.Eco City Farms save a lot of energy. |
B.Eco City Farms are influencing community life. |
C.Eco City Farms helps the working-class live better. |
D.Eco City Farms are gaining popularity. |
A.Enthusiastic. | B.Disappointed. |
C.Surprised. | D.Doubtful. |
A.shopping centers |
B.car repair shops |
C.fast-food restaurants |
D.working-class community |
A.People. | B.Travel. |
C.Environment. | D.Education. |
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