高考英语阅读理解科普类说明文4篇--较难(有答案)

高考英语说明文4篇

1

make Here is an astonishing and significant fact: Mental work alone can’ｔ

us tire. It sounds absurd/?b's??d/荒谬的. But a years ago, scientists tried to find out

how long the human brain could labor without reaching a stage 阶段

of fatigue /f?'ti?g/(疲劳). To the amazement of these scientists, they discovered that

blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If we

took

a drop of blood from a day laborer劳动者, we would find it full

of fatigue toxins /'t?ks?n/ (毒素) and fatigue products. But if we

took blood from the brain of an Albert Einstein, it would show no

fatigue toxins at the end of the day.

So far as the brain is concerned, it can work as well and swiftly很快地

at the end of eight or even twelve hours of effort as at the beginning. The brain

is

totally tireless. So what makes us tired?

Some scientists declare that most of our fatigue comes from our mental

m ost outstanding

and emotional(情绪的) attitudes. One of England’ｓ

scientists, J.A. Hadfield, says, “The greater part of the fatigue from which we

suffer is of mental origin /'?r?d??n/起源. In fact, fatigue of purely physical origin is Dr. Brill, a famous American scientist, goes even further. He declares, “One rare.”

hundred percent of the fatigue of sitting worker in good health is due to

emotional problems.”

What kinds of emotions make sitting workers tired? Joy? Satisfaction?

No! A feeling of being bored, anger, anxiety/??'za??t?/焦虑, tenseness紧张

, worry, a feeling of not being appreciated---those are the emotions that tire

sitting workers. Hard work by itself seldom causes fatigue. We get tired

because our emotions produce nervousness in the body.

1. What surprised the scientists a few years ago?

s blood.

A. Fatigue toxins could hardly be found in a laborer’

work.

feel worn after a day’ｓ

B. Albert Einstein didn’ｔ

C. The brain could work for many hours without fatigue.

D. A mental worker’ｓ

blood was filled with fatigue toxins.

2. According to the author, which of the following can make sitting workers

tired?

A. Challenging mental work.

B. Unpleasant emotions.

C. Endless tasks.

D. Physical labo

idea?

attitude towards the scientists’

the author’ｓ

3. What’ｓ

A. He agrees with them.

B. He doubts them.

C. He argues against them.

D. He hesitates to accept them.

4. We can infer from the passage that in order to stay energetic, sitting workers need to ________.

A. have some good food.

B. enjoy their work

C. exercise regularly

D. discover fatigue toxins

2

They baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet

but alert /?'l??t/（警觉）. Twenty centimeters厘from her face researchers

have placed a white card with two black spots on it. She stares at it carefully.

A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced. As the cards change from one to the other, her gaze（凝视）starts to lose its focus — until a third, with three black spots,

is presented. Her gaze returns: she looks at it for twice as long as she did at

the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three,

just 24 hours after coming into the world?

Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but

with three spots shown before two, shows the same return of interest when

the number of spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness 名，新奇? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of objects (a comb, a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of objects had an effect separate from changing the objects themselves. Could it be the pattern that two things

make, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to squares

moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three,

or three to two. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots became more excited when they then heard three drumbeats than when they heard just two; likewise （同样地）when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.

5. The experiment described in Paragraph 1 is related to the baby’s__.

A. sense of hearing

B. sense of sight

C. sense of touch D sense of smell

6. Babies are sensitive to the change in______.

A. the size of cards

B. the colour of pictures

C. the shape of patterns

D. the number of objects

7. Why did the researchers test the babies with drumbeats?

A. To reduce the difficulty of the experiment.

B. To see howbabies recognize sounds.

C. To carry their experiment further.

interest.

D. To keep the babies’

8. Where does this text probably come from?

literature.

A. Science fiction.

B. Children’ｓ

C. An advertisement.

D.A science report

3

Last night’ｓ

meteor(流星) 英/'mi?t??/ shower left many people in the community dissatisfied and demanding 苛求的；要求高的；吃力的answers. According

mayor市长, people gathered in the

to Gabe Rothsclild, Emerald Valley’ｓ

suburbs /'s?b??b/

of the city, carrying heavy telescopes, expecting to watch the brightly burning meteors passing through the sky. What they found instead was a sky so brightene lights that it darkened the light of the meteors passing overhead.

by the city’ｓ

admitted town resident Duane Cosby, “We “My family was so frustrated,”

wanted to make this an unforgettable family outing, but it turned out to be a

huge disappointments.”

Astronomers- /?'str?n?m?/n. 天文学家--scientists who study stars and planets---- have beencomplaining about this problem for decades. They say that light pollution prevents them from seeing objects in the sky that they could see quite easily in the past. They call on people and the government to take measures to

fight

against it.

There is yet a population besides professional and amateur /??m?t?(r)/

美 /'?m?.t??r/n. 爱好者star observers that suffers even more from light pollution. This population consists of birds, bats frogs, snakes, etc. For example, outdoor lighting severely affects migrating(迁徙的)birds. According to the International Dark-Sky Association. “100million birds a year throughout North America die in crashes 撞碎with lighted buildings and towers.”

Countless more animals casualties(伤亡）result from the use of artificial lighting. Clearly, people enjoy the benefits of lighting their evenings, but some scientists think it can be harmful for humans, too. They worry that exposure to light while sleeping can increase person’ｓchances of getting cancer. Emerald Valley is only one community that is becoming aware of the negative effects of light pollution. For years, Flagstaff, Arizona/,?ri'z?un?/

美 /,?ri'z?un?/n. 美国亚利桑那州, has enforced lighting regulations in its city in order to assist astronomers at the Lowell Observatory.英 /?b'z??v?t(?)r?/美 /?b'z?v?t?ri/

n. 天文台；气象台；瞭望台Similar efforts have been made worldwide, and a movement is

underway 进行中的to remind us to turn off lights when we are not using them, so that

other creatures can share the night.

9.It happened last night that

lights affected the meteor watching

A. the city’ｓ

B. the meteors flew past before being noticed

C. the city light show attracted many people

D. the meteor watching ended up a social outing

10. What do the astronomers complain about?

A. Meteor showers occur less often than before

B. Their observation equipment is in poor repair

C. Light pollution has remained unsolved for years

D. Their eyesight is failing due to artificial lighting

11. What the author concerned about according to Paragraph 4?

A. Birds may take other migration paths

B. Animals living habits may change

suddenly

C. Varieties of animals will become sharply

reduced

D. Animals’

survival is threatened by

outdoor lighting

12. Lighting regulations in Flagstaff, Arizona are

put into effect to

A. Lessen the chance of getting cancer

B. create an ideal observation condition

C. ensure citizens a good sleep at night

D. enable all creatures to live in harmony

13.What message does the author most want to give us?

A. Saving wildlife is saving ourselves

B. Great efforts should be made to save energy

C. Human activities should be environmentally friendly

D. New equipment should be introduced for space study

4

Almost every machine with moving parts has wheels, yet no one knows exactly when the first wheel was invented or what it was used for. We do know，however，that they existed over 5,500years ago in ancient Asia.

The oldest known transport wheel was discovered in 2002 in Slovenia. It is over 5，100 years old. Evidence suggests that

wheels for transport didn't become popular for .while, though . This

could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying

farming tools and humans around.

But it could also be because of a difficult situation. While wheels need to roll on smooth surfaces, roads with smooth surfaces

weren't going to be constructed until there was plenty of demand

for them. Eventually, road surfaces did become smoother, but this

difficult situation appeared again a few centuries later. There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the

arrival of modern road design.

In the mid-1700s,a Frenchman came up with a new design of

road--a base layer (层)of large stones covered with a thin layer of smaller stones. A Scotsman苏格兰人improved on this design in the 1820s and a strong, lasting road surface became a reality. At around the

same time, metal hubs英 /h?b/美 /h?b/n. 中心；毂；木片(the central part of a wheel)、came into being, followed by the Wheels were invented in 1967, sixty years after the appearance of tarmacked roads(泊油路). As wheel design took off,

vehicles got faster and faster.

14. What might explain why transport wheels didn’ｔb ecome popular for some time?

A. Few knew how to use transport wheels.

B. Humans carried farming tools just as

well. C. Animals were a good means of

transport.

D. The existence of transport wheels was not known.

15. What do we know about road design from the passage?

A. It was easier than wheel design.

B. It improved after big changes in vehicle design.

C. It was promoted by fast-moving vehicles.

D. It provided conditions for wheel design to develop.

16. How is the last paragraph mainly developed?

A. By giving examples.

B. By making comparisons.

C.By following time order.

D.By making classifications.

17.What is the passage mainly about ?

A.The beginning of road deaign.

B.The development of transport wheel.

C.The history of public transport.

D.The invention of fast-moving vehicles.