高三英语寒假作业：(四)(Word版含答案)

高三英语寒假作业（四）

第一部分阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）

第一节(共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)

阅读下列列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项。并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑．

A

One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap(包装).

On September 11th, 1958, Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying. "I promised you a gift, and here it is." What an honor! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. I told it over and over how much I loved it!

One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it. Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as "hopeless", "pitiful", and "dying", which sounded ominous.

Christmas was ing. "Don’t expect any presents this year." Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room. "If your baby brother lives, that'll be Christmas enough." As he spoke, his eyes were filled with tears. I'd never seen him cry before.

The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say. "What? He's all right?" He hung up and shouted upstairs. ―The hospital said we can bring Richard home!"

"Thank God.'" I heard Mum cry.

From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I ran downstairs. My sacks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!

1. What happened to the author on September 11 1958?

A. He got a baby brother

B. He got a Christmas gift

C. He became four years old

D. He received a doll

2.What does the underlined word ―ominous‖ in Paragraph 3 probably mean？

A. Impossible.

B. Boring

C. Difficult

D. Fearful

3. Which word can best describe the feeling of the father when Christmas was ing?

A. Excitement.

B. Happiness.

C. Sadness.

D. Disappointment.

B

American researchers found females are the more talkative sex because of a special ―language protein‖ in the brain.

The study, conducted by neuroscientists(神经学家) and psychologist from the University of Maryland, concluded that women talked more because they had more of the Foxp2 protein. The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found that higher levels were found among humans that were women but in rats that were males. Their findings came after it was previously claimed that ladies speak about 20,000 words a day –over 13,000 more than men. ―This study is one of the first to report a sex difference in the expression of a language-associated protein in humans or animals,‖ said Prof Margaret McCarthy, who led the study. In their study, the researchers attempted to determine what might make male rats more vocal than their female friends.

They separated four-day-old rats from their mothers and then counted the number of times they cried out in the ―ultrasonic（超声波的）range‖, the frequencies higher than humans can hear, over five minutes. While both sexes called out hundreds of cries, the males called out twice as often, they found. But when the pups were returned to their mother’s cage, she fussed over her sonsfirst. Tests conducted on the parts of the brain known to be associated with vocal calls showed the male pups have up to twice as much Foxp2 protein as the females. The researchers then increased the production in the brains of female pups and reduced it in males. This led to the female rats crying out more often and their mothers showing more interest to them. In contrast, males became less ―talkative‖.

The researchers then tested samples from ten children, aged between three and five, which showed that females had up to 30 per cent more of the Foxp2 protein than males, in a brain area key to language in humans.

―Based on our observations, we assume higher levels of Foxp2 in girls and higher levels of Foxp2 in male rats is an indication that Foxp2 protein levels are associated with the more communicative sex,‖ said Prof McCarthy.

―Our results imply Foxp2 as a component (成分)of the neurobiological basis of sex differences in vocal communication in mammals.‖

1. From the second paragraph, we can learn that ________.

A. women always speak more words than men

B. men and male rats have low levels of language protein

C. women and male rats have similar levels of Foxp2

D. McCarthy isn’t the first to find females more talkative

2. The underlined phrase ―fussed over‖ in the third paragraph probably means______.

A. paid attention to

B. related to

C. put pressure

on D. counted on

3. The researchers carried out the experiments on rats in order to _______.

A. test which part of the brain is key to language in rats and humans

B. prove the levels of Foxp2 protein in humans and rats are different

C. determine the reason why female rats are more talkative than male rats

D. discover the association between Foxp2 protein and vocal communication