Ⅳ.阅读理解(共15小题;每小题2分,满分30分)
阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四选项(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
People in cities all over the world shop in supermarkets. Who decides what you buy in the supermarket? Do you decide? Does the supermarket decide?
When you enter the supermarket, you see shelves full of food. You walk in the aisles between the shelves. You push a shopping cart and put your food in it.
You probably hear soft, slow music as you walk along the aisles. This may be an attempt to please you, so you will enjoy shopping. Some supermarkets want to increase their profits by playing soft and slow music, because the slow music makes you walk slowly and you have more time to buy things.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are usually put near the entrance. When you arrive at the supermarket, you concentrate on the kinds of fruit and vegetables you need first. Once you've got that out of the way, you can relax and do the rest of the shopping without any hurry. Besides, if you see fresh goods first, it gives you a "feel good" impression of freshness, so you can not help spending your money.
Maybe you go to the meat department then. There is some meat on sale, and you want to find it. The manager of the supermarket knows where customers enter the meat department. The cheaper meat is at the other end of the meat department, away from where the customers enter. You have to walk past all the expensive meat before you find the cheaper meat. Maybe you will buy some of the expensive meat instead of the meat on sale.
Most of the food in supermarkets is very attractive. It all says "Buy me quickly!" to the customers. The fresh fruit and vegetables say "Buy me quickly!" as you walk by. The expensive meat says "Buy me quickly!" The supermarket tells you what to buy.
56. Some supermarkets play soft, slow music because it ________.
A. can help customers get the things they want
B. makes customers walk slowly and buy more
C. can make customers relaxed and happy
D. can tell customers exactly where to go
57. The manager knows ________.
A. where customers come from B. which customers like slow music
C. where fresh meat should be put D. which customers like cheap meat
58. When walking past the expensive meat, the customers will _______.
A. possibly buy some B. pay no attention to it
C. look for some cheap meat D. feel uncomfortable
59. If you see fresh goods first in the supermarket, ________.
A. you know where to get things B. it brings you good luck
C. it makes you spend less money D. you’ll get a fresh impression
60. Supermarket managers make the food attractive so that ________.
A. the customers will buy more B. it looks very expensive
C. the customers come often D. it seems cheap and fine
America’s greatest technological achievement, the Hoover Dam, now has a companion piece, a bridge held up by the longest arch in the Western Hemisphere(半球). The Mike O’Callaghan-Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge, which opened this month and connects the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, crosses the vast chasm(峡谷)890 feet above the Colorado River that is controlled by the dam.
The striking 1,900-foot-long structure will improve traffic in the region and help protect the dam from being destroyed. It is the seventh highest bridge in the world, behind four in China, one in Papua New Guinea and one in the US state of Colorado.
“The Hoover Dam is the greatest civil engineering achievement in America’s history,” said the bridge project manager Dave Zanatell. “Our goal was not to outdo or outshine it. Our goal was to, in a respectful way, do something that would be great for our generation and that would stand besides Hoover Dam in a respectful and quality way that would become a part of Hoover’s legacy(遗产).”
Just as the Hoover Dam was built in the heart of the Great Depression(大萧条)and was seen as an example of the nation’s can-do spirit, some hope this project can also provide some uplift.
The bridge is surprising: at 1,050 feet, its support arch holds up a roadway that lies on 300-foot-long concrete pillars(柱子), some of the tallest in the world. It contains 16 million pounds of steel.
The idea of the bridge came into being in the 1960s because the top of the Hoover Dam has been a narrow two-lane road that is the fastest route from Arizona to Las Vegas and then the Pacific Northwest and Canada.
Access to the dam from each direction is a dangerously winding route, but massive trucks and passenger vehicles shared it for decades. During the day, when thousands of tourists travel to the dam from Las Vegas three times as many accidents as on a normal road will happen.
The bridge has a sidewalk on the side facing the dam. The wall on both sides is 54 inches high, so walkers can take photos there.Which of the following is true of the Hoover Dam?
A.It was completed recently. |
B.It was built during the hard times. |
C.It has the longest arch. |
D.It’s the seventh highest dam in the world. |
What is one of the purposes of building the bridge?
A.To protect the dam. | B.To save the cultures. |
C.To outdo the dam. | D.To develop the tourism. |
The underlined word “uplift” in Paragraph 4 means _____.
A.lift of the heavy object | B.support in money |
C.spiritual encouragement | D.instruction in technology |
Which of the followings shows the right position of the bridge and dam?
The text is mainly about ______.
A.the Hoover Dam |
B.American western development |
C.a tour along the Colorado River |
D.a recently built bridge |
A town in Oxfordshire has become the first in the UK to have biomethane(生物甲烷)gas from human waste piped to their homes for gas central heating and cooking.
Up to 200 families in Didcot now receive the gas via the national gas power system. Head of energy and technology at British Gas, Martin Orrill, said customers wouldn’t notice any difference as the gas is purified(提炼)to the highest standard and has no smell. The gas is produced at a sewage(污物)treatment works plant in Didcot.
The entire process takes only less than three weeks, with the sewage being collected and sent first to settlement tanks. The solid waste material is then fed into digesters, where anaerobic bacteria(厌氧菌)digest the sewage, with the aid of enzymes(酶)to speed up the process. The digestion process produces methane, which can be burned to drive machines to produce electricity, or can be purified and fed into the gas network and piped to homes and businesses. British Gas says supplying the gas rather than electricity is far more efficient since around two-thirds of the energy is lost in producing electricity.
Partners in the Didcot project, British Gas, Scotia Gas Networks, and Thames Water, all hope to expand the process to other towns, and other companies such as Ecotricity and United Utilities have also announced biomethane projects being planned. One of these projects, in Manchester, could be supplying 500 homes with biomethane by mid next year. Another British Gas project in Suffolk will provide gas from digestion of brewery wastes to around 235 families.
The Didcot project cost £2.5m and was influenced by promises of government aids aimed at encouraging companies to develop renewable technologies. An EU directive means the UK must ensure at least 15 percent of its energy is from renewable sources by 2020.
The UK produces about 1.73 million tons of sewage annually. If all sewage treatment works in the UK were fitted with the technology, they could supply gas for up to 350,000 families.Which of the following is true of the biomethane gas?
A.It’s mainly made from rotting plants. |
B.It’s an environmentally friendly gas. |
C.Its production process is too long. |
D.It’s easily recognized by the customers. |
What is the function of the enzymes?
A.To digest the solid waste material. |
B.To help get rid of anaerobic bacteria. |
C.To help purify the biomethane. |
D.To speed up the digestion process. |
According to British Gas, the biomethane gas had better be used _____.
A.as the power for the vehicles |
B.for the heating and cooking |
C.to produce the electricity |
D.to drive a variety of machines |
The last three paragraphs mainly show that _____.
A.UK government supports the biome thane projects |
B.the biome thane projects are very costly |
C.the biome thane projects still face many barriers |
D.the biome thane projects are promising |
What should the text belong to?
A.Computer science. | B.Engineering. | C.Energy. | D.Business. |
IQUIQUE, Chile (Reuters) — Rescue workers at the San Jose gold and copper mine in northern Chile had reason to sing this week. A small hole drilled into the earth became a passage to freedom for 33 trapped miners, who spent 69 days underground. “Never have people been trapped for so long so deeply,” says a doctor at NASA, the American space agency, which helped in the rescue.
But the chief medical officer for the miners said most are in good enough health to leave the hospital within a day or so. The first three recovered and went home Thursday night.
For much of the day the miners relaxed with Chilean President Sebastian Pinera. The 32 Chileans and 1 Bolivian still wore special sunglasses to protect their eyes.
A partial mine collapse on 5th August trapped them more than half a kilometer underground. They had to stretch a two-day food supply. For two weeks no one knew if they were alive or dead. Later, they received supplies.
The first miner rescued on Wednesday was Florencio Avalos. The second was Mario Sepulveda, who talked about how the experience tested his faith. The last miner up was Luis Urzua, who was the shift leader when his crew became trapped.
Rescuers used a metal cage to pull the miners to safety in less than 24 hours — faster than expected. The rescue capsule was a half-meter wide and known as the Phoenix, an imaginary bird from ancient stories. It bursts into flames but is continually reborn and rises from the ashes.
Chile’s Navy built the capsule with advice from mining experts and NASA engineers. It worked like an elevator, traveling up and down on a cable through a shaft(竖井)drilled 622 meters into the rocks.
Millions of people around the world watched the rescue. More than one thousand journalists traveled to the mine in the Atacama Desert to report on the rescue. They joined family members of the miners and rescue crews housed in an area of tents known as Camp Hope.What would be the best title for the passage?
A.Rescued miners speak out |
B.Miners’ life deep underground |
C.A rebirth for 33 rescued miners in Chile |
D.Chilean president honors rescued miners |
How many rescued miners are still in hospital?
A.3. | B.30. | C.33. | D.69. |
We can infer from the passage that ______.
A.all the trapped miners are Chileans |
B.the Chileans rescued the miners alone |
C.the rescue caught the world’s attention |
D.the trapped miners lived easily underground |
Which of the following is true of the Phoenix?
A.It was a wooden cage like a capsule. |
B.It worked efficiently in the rescue. |
C.It was named after a real Chilean bird. |
D.It was built by NASA engineers. |
The rescue is great for the reason that ______.
A.33 trapped miners were saved |
B.the American space agency took part |
C.Chilean President was on the rescuing spot |
D.it lasted so long and the miners were trapped so deep |
A daughter’s duty? Adult daughters are often expected to caregiver for older parents. In 2007, Jorjan Sarich and her dad moved from California to Idaho. It was where he wanted to live his rest time.
“I left my occupation, I left my friends; he did the same thing,” said Sarich, who bought a house with her father, George Snyder, in the China Gardens neighborhood of Hailey after his health began to decline. Though a graduate student struggling to finish her dissertation(论文), Sarich chose to be her dad’s full-time caregiver.
“It’s only now, several years later, that I’m realizing how much work it was. It’s the kind of exhaustion(疲惫)that sleep doesn’t cure,” she said.
About 6 million Americans provide care to elderly relatives or friends living outside of nursing homes. Laurel Kennedy, author of “The Daughter Trap” (Thomas Dunne Books, $25.95), says that women bear a disproportionate(不成比例的)share of the burden — about 70 percent of hands-on care giving such as bathing.
“I want to be clear: Women don’t hate this,” Kennedy said. “What they hate is that everyone just assumes they’ll do it.”
Kennedy is calling for a social revolution equal to the rise of affordable child care and day care: Employers should help working caregivers by offering accommodations. Men should step up more often. It’s unfair that women are always chosen to provide care for an elderly family member.
Despite the hard work it took on Sarich — interrupted sleep and the knowledge that his 2009 death was the end game, she would do it again. Since about half a century had gone by, she wasn’t the person he remembered, and he wasn’t the person she remembered either. Caring for her father changed how each saw the other. Why did Jorjan Sarich caregiver for her father?
A.It was a very easy job. | B.She had no work to do. |
C.It was the social practice. | D.She lived with her father. |
What can we infer from the book “The Daughter Trap”?
A.Daughters don’t like care giving. |
B.Daughters devote a lot to care giving. |
C.Care giving is daughters’ duty. |
D.Care giving should be sons’ duty. |
What does the underlined phrase “a social revolution” refer to?
A.The child care revolution. | B.The reform in day care. |
C.The social development. | D.The change in care giving. |
How many years did Jorjan Sarich work as her father’s full-time caregiver?
A.Five years. | B.Only one year. | C.Four years. | D.Two years. |
In her care giving, Jorjan Sarich _____.
A.got along well with her father | B.was a little tired of her father |
C.changed her father in every way | D.felt it was unfair to do so |
The common cold is the world's most widespread illness, which is plagues(疫病) that flesh receives.
The most widespread fallacy(谬误) of all is that colds are caused by cold. They are not. They are caused by viruses passing on from person to person. You catch a cold by coming into contact, directly or indirectly, with someone who already has one. If cold causes colds, it would be reasonable to expect the Eskimos to suffer from them forever. But they do not. And in isolated Arctic regions explorers have reported being free from colds until coming into contact again with infected people from the outside world by way of packages and mail dropped from airplanes.
During the First World War soldiers who spent long periods in the trenches(战壕), cold and wet, showed no increased tendency to catch colds.
In the Second World War prisoners at the notorious Auschwitz Concentration Camp(奥斯维辛集中营), naked and starving, were astonished to find that they seldom had colds. At the Common Cold Research Unit in England, volunteers took part in Experiments in which they gave themselves to the discomforts of being cold and wet for long stretches of time. After taking hot baths, they put on bathing suits, allowed themselves to be with cold water, and then stood about dripping wet in drafty room. Some wore wet socks all day while others exercised in the rain until close to exhaustion. Not one of the volunteers came down with a cold unless a cold virus was actually dropped in his nose.
If, then, cold and wet have nothing to do with catching colds, why are they more frequent in the winter? Despite the most pains-taking research, no one has yet found the answer. One explanation offered by scientists is that people tend to stay together indoors more in cold weather than at other times, and this makes it easier for cold viruses to be passed on.
No one has yet found a cure for the cold. There are drugs and pain suppressors(止痛片) such as aspirin, but all they do is relieve the symptoms. Which of the following does not agree with the chosen passage?
A.The Eskimos do not suffer from colds all the time. |
B.Colds are not caused by cold. |
C.People suffer from colds just because they like to stay indoors. . . |
D.A person may catch a cold by touching someone who already has one. |
Arctic explorers may catch colds when.
A.they are working in the isolated arctic regions |
B.they are writing reports in terribly cold weather |
C.they are free from work in the isolated arctic regions |
D.they are coming into touch again with the outside world |
Volunteers taking part in the experiments in the Common Cold Research Unit.
A.suffered a lot | B.never caught colds | C.often caught colds | D.became very strong |
The passage mainly discusses.
A.the experiments on the common cold | B.the fallacy about the common cold |
C.the reason and the way people catch colds | D.the continued spread of common colds |