四川省宜宾市一中2020学年高中英语中心发言提纲

专题09—阅读理解（科技说明文）

1.【2020年高考江苏卷英语】

Before birth, babies can tell the difference between loud sounds and voices. They can even distinguish their mother’s voice from that of a female stranger. But when it comes to embryonic learning (胎教), birds could rule the roost. As recently reported in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, some mother birds may teach their young to sing even before they hatch (孵化). New-born chicks can then imitate their mom’s call within a few days of entering the w orld.

This educational method was first observed in 2020 by Sonia Kleindorfer, a biologist at Flinders University in South Australia, and her colleagues. Female Australian superb fairy wrens were found to repeat one sound over and over again while hatching their eggs. When the eggs were hatched, the baby birds made the similar chirp to their mothers—a sound that served as their regular ＂feed me!＂ call.

To find out if the special quality was more widespread in birds, the researchers sought the red-backed fairy wren, another species of Australian songbird. First they collected sound data from 67 nests in four sites in

Queensland before and after hatching. Then they identified begging calls by analyzing the order and number of notes. A computer analysis blindly compared calls produced by mothers and chicks, ranking them by similarity.

It turns out that baby red-backed fairy wrens also emerge chirping like their moms. And the more frequently mothers had called to their eggs, the more similar were the babies’ begging calls. In addition, the team set up a separate experiment that suggested that the baby birds that most closely imitated their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food.

This observation hints that effective embryonic learning could signal neurological (神经系统的) strengths of children to parents. An evolutionary inference can then be drawn. ＂As a parent, do you invest in quality children, or do you invest in children that are in need?＂ Kleindorfer asks. ＂Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.＂

58.The underlined phrase in Paragraph 1 means＂__________＂.

A. be the worst

B. be the best

C. be the as bad

D. be just as good

59. What are Kleindorfer’s findings based on?

A. Similarities between the calls of moms and chicks.

B. The observation of fairy wrens across Australia.

C. The data collected from Queensland’s locals.

D. Controlled experiments on wrens and other birds.

60. Embryonic learning helps mother birds to identify the baby birds which __________.

A. can receive quality signals

B. are in need of training

C. fit the environment better

D. make the loudest call

60. C【解析】根据倒数第二段中的＂the baby birds that most closely imitated

their mom’s voice were rewarded with the most food＂和最后一段＂Our results suggest that they might be going for quality.＂可知，模仿母鸟模仿得最好的雏鸟得到最多的食物，研究结果表明，母亲会选择质量好的雏鸟。由此可知，胎教帮助母鸟辨别出那些适应环境较好的孩子。

2.【江苏省泰州市泰州中学2020届高三上学期开学考试】

The ability to speak more than one language certainly has its special benefits. It enables you to work in another country or interact with people whose language is different from your mother tongue. Cognitive（认知的）psychologists have been interested in how bilingualism（双语能力）shapes the mind for almost a century. There are those who suggest that in order to speak one language, bilinguals have to suppress（抑制）the influence of the other. In the past three decades, research had argued that this unique form of language processing trains the brain in the use of abilities known as "executive（执行的）functions" such as ignoring irrelevant information or shifting attention. Bilinguals of different ages and cultural backgrounds have been shown to be faster and more accurate than their monolingual（单语的）peers when performing cognitive tasks demanding these abilities. Furthermore, it has been argued that bilingualism may lead to a delayed onset

（发作）of symptoms associated with dementia（痴呆）.

But the scientific community recently has become increasingly skeptical of the bilingual advantage. One of the main points of criticism is that differences between monolinguals and bilinguals when it comes to executive functions are not always apparent. It appears that research on bilingualism is at a turning point. We need to pursue a new approach to understand, beyond those individual examples of executive functions, how the bilingual mind works. We have attempted to address this challenge by testing whether bilinguals and monolinguals differ in terms of how accurately they can assess their own performances. This ability is called meta cognition and is associated with other areas where bilinguals have been shown to have an advantage.

In our research, we presented participants with a situation in which they had to observe two circles on a screen and guess which one contained more dots. Sometimes the difference was obvious, making the decision easy, while at other times the decision was very difficult (for example, one circle contained 50 dots and the other 49). Participants were then asked to determine how confident they were in their decision on a scale from less to more confident than normal.

During the course of two experiments, we found that bilinguals and monolinguals were equally likely to choose the circle containing the highest number of dots. However, monolinguals were better able than bilinguals to discriminate between when they were right and when they were wrong. In other words, bilinguals had less insight into their performance than monolinguals. This went against our initial predictions, as we expected to find a bilingual advantage in meta cognitive processing. These results indicate that bilingualism may be associated with cognitive disadvantages as well as

benefits.

1. From Paragraph 2 we can learn that nowadays the scientific community______.

A. has denied the special benefits of bilingualism

B. has changed its way to understand how the bilingual mind works

C. thinks there is almost no difference between monolinguals and bilinguals

D. tries to prove whether monolinguals have more advantages than bilinguals

2. How is the last paragraph mainly developed?

A. By analyzing causes.

B. By describing a process.

C. By following time order.

D. By making a comparison.

3. What is the author's attitude towards bilingualism?

A. Supportive.

B. Doubtful.

C. Objective.

D. Ambiguous.

【答案】BDC

【分析】

1. 细节判断题。根据第二段的It appears that research on bilingualism is at

a turning point. We need to pursue a new approach to understand, beyond those individual examples of executive functions, how the bilingual mind works.可知现在研究对于双语思维如何工作的理解方法发生了改变。

2. 推理判断题。题目问：最后一段如何发展？根据最后一段的内容不难看出是将双语和一种语言进行了对比，故选D。

3. 推理判断题。从文中来看，作者既提及了双语的好处，也提到了双语的缺点，如最后一段中的In other words, bilinguals had less insight into their performance than monolinguals.。所以态度应该是“客观的”。

3.【南京、盐城2020～2020学年第一次模拟考试】

A little social support from your best buds goes a long way, whether you’re a human or a chimpanzee (黑猩猩). A new study that followed a chimpanzee community in the forests of Uganda has found that quality time with close companions significantly decreased stress hormone levels in the primates —whether they were resting, grooming or facing off against rival groups.

The findings, described this week in the journal Nature Communications, shed light on the physiological effects of close companionship in chimpanzees — and could have implications for human health too.

Researchers have long known that stress can worsen health and raise the risk of early death in humans as well as other social mammals.

“It can have effects on immune function, cardio function, fertility, cognition, and even you r mood,” said study coauthor Kevin Langergraber, a primatologist at Arizona State University.

Maintaining close social bonds can help these animals (humans included) reduce some of that stress, potentially minimizing some health risks. But scientists have yet to pin down the exact physiological mechanisms at work.

“Social bonds make you survive and produce better — but how do they do that?” Langergraber said.

To find out, the international team of researchers studied members of the Sonso chimpanzee communit y in Uganda’s Budongo Forest, a group consisting of 15 males, 35 females and 28 juveniles and infants during the study period from February 2020 to July 2020.

Like humans, chimpanzees tend to have besties —bond partners with whom they appear to feel close. The researchers wanted to see whether interactions with these bond partners led to lower stress levels during particularly

stressful situations, such as when fighting rival groups, or whether time spent with friends helped lower stress levels more generally, throughout the day.

The scientists observed the chimps perform three types of activities: resting, grooming or quarrelling with other groups of chimps. The researchers kept track of whether the chimps were doing any of these three things with their bond partners or with other chimps in their group.

A team of up to six observers watched the chimps and followed them around to collect urine (尿液) samples. The samples, collected from nine adult male and eight adult female chimps, were tested to see how much of the stress hormone cortisol they contained.

The scientists found that chimpanzees’ levels of urinary cortisol were 23% lower, on average, during the activities when they were with their bond partner. This was especially true for stressful activities, such as the intergroup rivalries, where any chimp on the front line might face physical harm or even death.

The findings in chimpanzees, some of our closest living relatives, could shed light on the role such close social relationships play in human health too, he said. Such friendships may be just as important during good times as bad — though more research needs to be done before any conclusions can be drawn.

“This has interest for a lot of people in a medical context as well,” Langergraber said.

1. The scientists carried out a research into chimpanzee community in Uganda ______.

A. to seek evidence of benefits of social bonds from physiological angle

B. to uncover whether social bonds make humans survive

C. to study how chimps perform three types of activities

D. to train chimps to maintain close social bonds with each other

2. What does the underlined word “they” in Paragraph 10 refer to?

A. Observers.

B. Chimpanzees.

C. Urine samples.

D. Bond partners.

3. The chimps’ levels of urinary cortisol decrease most when ______.

A. they are with other chimps in their group

B. they face the intergroup rivalries with friends

C. they perform three different types of activities

D. they spend time with friends throughout the day

4. What’s the author’s purpose in writing the passage?

A. To point out stress is harmful to all social mammals.

B. To illustrate how chimps control their stress level.

C. To urge scientists to do more research into chimpanzees.

D. To inform us friendships benefit both chimps and humans.

【答案】ACBD

【分析】

1.细节理解题。定位到第一段第二句“quality time with close companions significantly decreased stress hormone levels in the privates"，研究表明，黑猩猩和亲密同伴之间的陪伴会显著地减少压力荷尔蒙的水平。A选项说从生理视角寻找社会纽带的好处的证据，符合文章。B选项与黑猩猩无关。C选项说研究黑猩猩的活动形式，并不是目的。D选项理解扭曲，并没有训练黑猩猩如何维系这种纽带。

2.词义推测题。6名观察者跟随黑猩猩，收集了成年的9名雄性和8名雌性黑猩猩的尿液标本。能够测试出压力荷尔蒙的正是这些尿液标本。故选C。

3.细节理解题。定位到第11段，urinary cortisol(尿皮质醇)的平均指数是23%，根据“This was especially true fo r stressful activities, such as the

intergroup rivalries”可知在群体间竞争时这个指数降到很低。

4.主旨大意题。根据首尾段，首段说明了该研究的目的是证明黑猩猩间同伴的陪伴是可以减少压力荷尔蒙的，尾段说到在人类环境中也是这样，故选D，提醒我们友谊的好处。

4.【苏州市2020届高三第一次调研测试】

Robotic surgery is one thing, but sending a robot inside the body to carry out an operation quite another, which has long been a goal of some researchers to produce tiny robotic devices being capable of traveling through the body to deliver drugs or to make repairs without the need for a single cut, the possibility of which has just got a bit closer.

However, unlike the plot of one film—which featured a microscopic crew and submarine traveling through a scientist's bloodstream—this device could not be inserted into blood vessels(管) because it is too big. While other types of miniature swallowable robots have been developed in the past, their role has mostly been limited to capturing images inside the body. In a presentation this week to the International Conference, Daniela Rus and Shuhei Miyashita of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology described a robot they have developed that can be swallowed and used to collect dangerous objects accidentally taken in.

To test their latest version, Dr Rus and Dr Miyashita designed a robot as a battery hunter, which might seem to be an odd task, but more than 3，500 people in America alone, most of them children, swallow the tiny button cells used in small electronic devices by accident every year. To start with, the researchers created an artificial esophagus(食道) and stomach made out of silicone(硅胶). It was closely modeled on that found in a pig and filled

with medical liquid; the robot itself is made from several layers of different materials, including pig intestine(肠) , and contains a little magnet. This is folded up and encased in a 10mm×27mm capsule of ice. Once this reaches the stomach the ice melts and the robot unfolds which is moved and guided with the use of a magnetic field outside the body. In their tests, the robot was able to touch a button battery and draw it with its own magnet, and during dragging it along, the robot could then be directed towards the intestines where it would eventually be gotten rid of through the anus(肛门). After it, the researchers sent in another robot loaded with medication to deliver it to the site of the battery bum to speed up healing.

The artificial stomach being transparent on one side, the researchers were able to see the batteries and visually control the robots. If not, that will require help with the help from imaging system, which will be a bit more of a challenge, but Dr Rus and Dr Mi yashita are determined to succeed. 1. According to the passage, the robot operation will probably be able to ________．

A. travel through a scientist's bloodstream

B. photograph the body to convey to the doctor

C. enter the body to deliver drugs or make repairs

D. operate on a person outside the body completely

2. We learn from Paragraph 3 that ________．

A. the researchers did the experiment on a chosen animal

B. the robot took necessary drugs besides a little magnet

C. digesting the swallowed batteries is difficult for children

D. the actual size of the robot may be larger than the capsule of ice

3. What may the experiment mean to the medical world?

A. The surgeries will cost patients much money.

B. Patients will suffer less for some surgeries.

C. Fewer children will swallow the button cells.

D. A robot will be invented travelling blood vessels.

4. Which can be the most suitable title for the passage?

A. An Experiment on Robot

B. Tiny Robot, Significant Role

C. The Fantastic Robotic Voyage

D. The Exploration of Robot Technology 【答案】CDBC

【分析】这是一篇科普说明文。文章介绍一种可以植入人体内进行治病的微型机器人。运用它之后，可以在不给人开刀的情况下进行治病，减轻了病人的痛苦。

1. 细节理解题。根据第一段中的“to produce tiny robotic devices being capable of traveling through the body to deliver drugs or to make repairs without the need for a single cut, the possibility of which has just got a bit closer”可知选C。

2. 推理判断题。根据第三段中的“This is folded up and encased in a 10mm×27mm capsule of ice”可知，这种机器人需要被折叠后才能放进胶囊里，由此可推知，它的实际大小应该是比胶囊要大的。故选D。

3. 推理判断题。根据第一段末的“without the need for a single cut”可知，用上这个机器人后，不需要给病人开刀进行治病，当然可以减轻痛苦了。故选B。

4. 文章标题题。通读全文可知，本文主要讲的是一种可以放入人体内进行治病的机器人。故选C。

5.【2020届江苏省金陵中学高三年级期初测试】

If you cou ld change your child’s DNA in the future to protect them against diseases, would you? It could be possible because of technology known as CRISPR-Cas, or just CRISPR.

CRISPR involves a piece of RNA, a chemical messenger, designed to work on one part of DNA; it also uses an enzyme (酶) that can take unwanted genes

out and put new ones in, according to The Economist. There are other ways of editing DNA, but CRISPR will do it very simply, quickly, and exactly.

The uses of CRISPR could mean that cures are developed for everything from Al zheimer’s to cancer to HIV. By allowing doctors to put just the right cancer-killing genes into a patient’s immune system, the technology could help greatly.

In April scientists in China said they had tried using CRISPR to edit the genomes (基因组) of human embryos. Though the embryos would never turn into humans, this was the first time anyone had ever tried to edit DNA from human beings. With this in mind, the US’ National Academy of Sciences plans to discuss questions about CRISPR’s ethics (伦理问题).

For examp le, CRISPR doesn’t work properly yet. As well as cutting the DNA it is looking for, it often cuts other DNA, too. In addition, we currently seem to have too little understanding of what DNA gives people what qualities.

There are also moral questions around “playing God”. Of course, medicine already stops natural things from happening —— for example, it saves people from infections. The opportunities to treat diseases make it hard to say we shouldn’t keep going.

A harder question is whether it is ever right to edit human germ-line (种系) cells and make changes that are passed on to children. This is banned in 40 countries and restricted in many others. However, CRISPR means that if genes can be edited out, they can also be edited back in. It may be up to us as a society to decide when and where editing the genome is wrong.

Also, according to The Economist, gene editing may mean that parents make choices that are not obviously in the best interests of their children: “Deaf parents may prefer their children to be deaf too; parents might want to make their children more intelligent at all costs.”

In the end, more research is still needed to see what we can and can’t do with CRISPR. “It’s still a huge mystery how we work,” Craig Mello, a UMass Medical School biologist and Nobel Prize winner, told The Boston Globe. “We’re just trying to figure out this amazingly complicated thing we call life.”

1. What is the article mainly about?

A. How CRISPR was developed by scientists.

B. What we can and can’t do with CRISPR.

C. Ch inese scientists’ experiment of using CRISPR to edit human embryos.

D. The advantages of CRISPR and arguments about its ethics.

2. According to the article, the technology of CRISPR ________.

A. is very safe because it only cuts the DNA it is looking for

B. is banned in 42 countries and restricted in many others

C. could cause parents to make unwise choices for their children

D. could help us discover the link between DNA and the qualities it gives people

3. It can be concluded from the article that CRISPR ________.

A. could be helpful in the treatment of cancer and HIV

B. allows scientists to edit genomes for the first time

C. is a technology that uses an enzyme to work on RNA and DNA

D. has proven to be the most effective way to protect children against diseases

4. What is the author’s attitude toward CRISPR?

A. Supportive.

B. Worried.

C. Negative.

D. Objective.

【答案】1. D 2. C 3. A 4. D

【分析】文章介绍了一种为抵抗疾病而改变基因组织的新科技CRISPR，它在治疗疾

病方面的优点和在伦理方面引发的人们的各种争论。

1.主旨大意题。文章主要介绍了一种为抵抗疾病而改变基因组织的新科技CRISPR，其优点和在伦理方面引发的人们的各种争论。故选D。

2. 推理判断题。根据倒数第二段gene editing may mean that parents make choices that are not obviously in the best interests of their children: “Deaf parents may prefer their children to be deaf too; parents might want to make their children more intel ligent at all costs.”可知由于基因被改变，会导致父母不能正确对孩子做出决定，故选C。

3.推理判断题。根据第三段The uses of CRISPR could mean that cures are developed for everything from Alzheimer’s to cancer to HIV.可知CRISPR 技术可以促进这些疾病的治疗，有帮助作用。故选A。

4.推理判断题。文章中作者详细介绍了CRISPR技术，它在治疗疾病方面的帮助作用，以及在使用中人们对它的各种顾虑。作者是客观如实介绍，所以他对此技术的观点是客观的。故选D。.