高三快速阅读随堂练

AFrom the health point of view we are living in an amazing age. We are free from many of the most dangerous diseases. A large number of once deadly illnesses can now be cured by modern medicine. It is almost certain that one day medicines will be found for the most stubborn remaining diseases. The expectation of life has increased greatly. But though the possibility of living a long and happy life is greater than ever before, every day we witness the unbelievable killing of men, women and children on the roads. Man vs the motor-car! It is a never-ending battle which man is losing.Thousands of people all over the world are killed or horribly killed each year and we are quietly sitting back and letting it happen.It has been rightly said that when a man is sitting behind a steering wheel (方向盘), his car becomes the extension of his personality. There is no doubt that the motor-car often brings out a man’s very worst qualities. People who are normally quiet and pleasant may become unrecognizable when they are behind a steering-wheel. They say, they are ill-mannered and aggressive, willful as two-year-olds and completely selfish. Their hidden angers and disappointments seem to be brought to the surface by the act of driving.The surprising thing is that society smiles so gently on the motorist and seems to forgive his behavior. Everything is done for his convenience. Cities are allowed to become almost uninhabitable because of heavy traffic; towns are made ugly by huge car parks; the countryside is ruined by road networks; and the deaths become nothing more than a number every year, to be easily forgotten.It is high time a world rule was created to reduce this senseless waste of human life. With regard to driving, the laws of some countries are unbelievable lenient (宽容的) and even the strictest are not strict enough. A rule which was universally accepted could only have an obviously beneficial effect on the accident rate. Here are a few examples of some of the things that might be done. The driving test should be standardized and made far more difficult than it is; all the drivers should be made to take a test every three years or so; the age at which young people are allowed to drive any vehicle should be raised to at least 21; all vehicles should be put through strict tests for safety each year. Even the smallest amount of alcohol in the blood can damage a person’s driving ability. Present drinking and driving laws (where they exist) should be made much stricter. Speed limits should be required on all roads. Governments should lay down safety specifications for car factories, as has been done in the USA. All advertising stress power and performance should be banned. These measures may not sound good enough. But surely nothing should be considered as too severe if it results in reducing the number of deaths. After all, the world is for human beings, not motor-cars.1. What is the main idea of this passage?A. Traffic accidents are mainly caused by motorists.B. Thousands of people all over the world are killed each year.C. The laws of some countries about driving are too lenient.D. Only stricter traffic laws can prevent accidents.2. What does the author think of society toward motorists?A. Society laughs at the motorists.B. Huge car parks are build in the cities and towns.C. Victims of accidents are nothing.D. Society forgives their rude driving3. What does the author mean by saying “his car becomes the extension of his personality” in Paragraph 3?A. Driving can show his hidden qualitiesB. Driving can show the other part of his personalityC. Driving can bring out his characterD. Driving can represent his manners4. Which of the following is NOT mentioned as a way against traffic accidents?A. Perfect the road networkB. Stricter driving testsC. Test drivers every three yearsD. Raise age limit and lay down safety specifications.5. The author’s attitude towards the traffic situation is ______.A. confusedB. discontentedC. appealingD. doubtfulBConsult the page adapted from an English dictionary and do Questions 6-9.6. What does the phrase “green shoots” mean in “Green shoots have begun to appear in different markets”?A. Signs of recovery.B. High prices.C. Environmental protection.D. Change in policy.7. Fill in the blank in the sentence “I can’t believe this is Joshua—he’s ______ since we last met!”A. shot outB. shot throughC. shot upD. shot down8. When you are talking about unimportant things, we say you are ______.A. shooting yourself in the footB. shooting the breezeC. shooting your mouth offD. shooting questions at somebody9. Choose a word to complete the sentence “The ______, which killed a policeman and wounded a passer-by, was reported to have lasted only 13 seconds.”A. shooterB. shootC. shotD. shootingCOne evening in February 2007, a student named Paula Ceely brought her car to a stop on a remote road in Wales. She got out to open a metal gate that blocked her path .That's when she heard the whistle sounded by the driver of a train. Her Renault Clio was parked across a railway line. Seconds later, she watched the train drag her car almost a kilometre down the railway tracks.Ceely's near miss made the news because she blamed it on he GPS (导航仪). She had never driven the route before. It was dark and raining heavily. Ceely was relying on her GPS, but it made no mention of the crossing. "I put my complete trust in the device and it led me right into the path of a speeding train," she told the BBC.Who is to blame here? Rick Stevenson, who tells Ceely's story in his book When Machines Fail Us, points the finger at the limitations of technology. We put our faith in digital devices, he says, but our digital helpers are too often not up to the job. They are filled with small problems. And it’s not just GPS devices: Stevenson takes us on a tour of digital disasters involving everything from mobile phones to wireless keyboards.The problem with his argument in the book is that it's not clear why he only focuses on digital technology, while there may be a number of other possible causes. A map-maker might have left the crossing off a paper map. Maybe we should blame Ceely for not paying attention. Perhaps the railway authorities are at fault for poor singalling system. Or maybe someone has studied the relative dangers and worked out that there really is something specific wrong with the GPS equipment. But Stevenson doesn't say.It's a problem that runs through the book. In a section on cars, Stevenson gives an account of the advanced techniques that criminals use to defeat computer-based locking systems for cars. He offers two independent sets of figures on car theft; both show a small rise in some parts of the country. He says that once again not all new locks have proved reliable. Perhaps, but maybe it's also due to the shortage of policemen on the streets. Or changing social circumstances. Or some combination of these factors.The game between humans and their smart devices is amusing and complex. It is shaped by economics and psychology and the cultures we live in. Somewhere in the mix of those forces there may be a way for a wiser use of technology.If there is such a way, it should involve more than just an awareness of the shortcomings of our machines. After all, we have lived with them for thousands of years. They have probably been fooling us for just as long.10.What did Paula Ceely think was the cause of her accident？A. She was not familiar with the road.B. It was dark and raining heavily then.C. The railway workers failed to give the signal.D. Her GPS device didn't tell her about the crossing.11.The phrase "near miss" (Paragraph 2) can best be replaced by_________.A. close hitB. heavy lossC. narrow escapeD. big mistake12. Which of the following would Rick Stevenson most probably agree with?A. Modern technology is what we can't live without.B. Digital technology often falls short of our expectation.C. Digital devices are more reliable than they used to be.D. GPS error is not the only cause for Ceely's accident.13. In the writer's opinion, Stevenson's argument is _________.A. one-sidedB. reasonableC. puzzlingD. well-based14. What is the real concern of the writer of this article?A. The major causes of traffic accidents and car thefts.B. The relationship between human and technology.C. The shortcomings of digital devices we use.D. The human unawareness of technical problems.DPsychology(心理学) has a new application in the field of medicine. Many doctors, together with their patients, are looking for alternative methods of treatment of physical problems. In large hospitals, modern therapy（疗法）seems to focus on the physical disease. Patients may feel they are treated like broken machines. Some doctors have recognized this as a problem. They are now using psychological therapy, in which the patient is working with the doctors against the disease with the help of medicine. The patient does not wait for the medicine and treatment to cure him or her, but instead the patient joins in the fight.The doctor knows that a disease affects a patient's body physically. The body of the patient changes because of the disease. He is not only physically affected, but also has an emotional response to the disease. Because his mind is affected, his attitude and behavior change. The medical treatment might cure the patient's physical problems, but the patient's mind must fight the emotional ones. For example, the studies of one doctor, Carl Simonton, M. D., have shown that a typical cancer patient has predictable attitudes. She typically feels depressed, upset, and angry. Her constant depression makes her acts unfriendly toward her family, friends, doctors, and nurses. Such attitudes and behaviors prevent recovery. Therefore, a doctor's treatment must help the patient change that. Simonton's method emphasizes treatment of the “whole” patient.The attitude of a cancer patient receiving radiation therapy, an X-ray treatment, can become more positive. The physician who is following Simonton's psychological treatment plan suggests that the patient imagine that he or she can see the tumor（肿瘤）in the body. In the mental picture, the patient "sees" a powerful beam of radiation like a million bullets of energy. The patient imagines the beam hitting the tumor cells and causing them to shrink. For another cancer patient, Dr. Simonton asks him to imagine the medicine going from the stomach into the bloodstream and to the cancer cells. The patient imagines that the medicine is like an army fighting the diseased cells and sees the cancer cells gradually dying and his blood carry away the dead cells. Both the medical therapy and the patient's positive attitude fight the disease.Doctors are not certain why this mental therapy works. However, this use of psychology doeshelp some patients because their attitudes about themselves change. They become more confident because they use the power within their own minds to help stop the disease.Another application of using the mind to help cure disease is the use of suggestion therapy. At first, the doctor helps the patient to concentrate deeply. The patient thinks only about one thing. He becomes so unaware of other things around him that he is asleep, or rather in a trance（催眠状态）. Then the physician makes “a suggestion” to the patient about the medical problem. The patient's mind responds to the suggestion even after the patient is no longer in the trance. In this way, the patient uses his mind to help his body respond to treatment.Doctors have learned that this use of psychology is helpful for both adults and children. For example, physicians have used suggestion to help adults deal with the strong pain of some disease. Furthermore, sometimes the adult patient worries about her illness so much that the anxiety keeps her from getting well. The right suggestions may help the patient to stop being anxious. Such treatment may help the patient with a chronic（慢性的）diseases. Asthma （哮喘）is an example of a chronic disorder. Asthma is a disease that causes the patient to have difficulty in breathing. The patient starts to cough and sometimes has to fight to get the air that he or she needs. Psychology can help relieve the symptoms of this disorder. After suggestion therapy, the asthma patient breathes more easily.Physicians have learned that the psychological method is very useful in treating children. Children respond quickly to the treatment because they are fascinated by it. For example, Dr. Basil R. Collison has worked with 121 asthmatic children in Sydney, Australia, and had good results. Twenty-five of the children had excellent results. They were able to breathe more easily, and they did not need medication. Another forty-three were also helped. The symptoms of the asthma occurred less frequently, and when they did, they were not as strong. Most of the children also felt better about themselves. Doctors have also used suggestion to change habits like nail-biting, thumb-sucking, and sleep-related problems.Many professional medical groups have accepted the medical use of psychology and that psychology has important applications in medicine.15. What does the passage mainly discuss?A. How suggestion therapy benefits adults and children.B. How modern therapy focuses on the disease.C. Responses from the medical world.D. How to use the mind against disease.16. How does psychological therapy work?A. The patient waits for the medicine and treatment to cure him.B. The doctor uses medical treatment to cure the patient's problems.C. The doctor, the medicine, and the patient work together to fight disease.D. The patient uses his mind to cure himself.17. What can we learn from the studies of Carl Simonton, M. D.?A. The medical treatment can cure the patient's mental disease.B. The treatment of a patient by treating the body and the mind is necessary.C. The mental treatment is more important than medical treatment.D. Few patients have emotional response to the disease.18. The use of psychological therapy is helpful to some patients in that .A. the medical effect is better with psychological therapy than without itB. the patients can see a powerful beam of radiation hitting their tumor cellsC. the patients' attitudes towards themselves have changedD. the patients are easy to accept the methods the doctors use to treat them19. It can be learned from the passage that suggestion therapy cannot be used to .A. help adults deal with the strong pain of some diseasesB. help the patients with chronic diseasesC. help change some bad habitsD. help cure patients of insomnia（失眠症）20. According to the passage, which of the following remains unknown so far?A. The value of mental therapy.B. The effectiveness of suggestion therapy.C. The working principle of suggestion therapy.D. The importance of psychology in medical treatment.Tips for Being a Good Neighbor21. _______________No one likes a noisy neighbor. Do you hold parties that last all night? Do you leave your dog outside to bark all day? Remember that not everyone has the same schedule as you do, so use some common sense. Keep noise to the lowest level. If you’re holding a party that’s likely to be loud, invite everyone within earshot(听力范围)。