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题型:阅读理解 题类:常考题 难易度:普通

湖南省湖湘教育三新探索协作体2019-2020学年高一上学期英语12月联考试卷

阅读理解

    On Sunday, November 3, 2019, most North Americans will mark the end of Daylight Saving Time (DST) by moving their clocks back an hour. This simple action will not only add an extra 60 minutes to their weekend, but also shift (变换,变动) daylight back into the morning hours, making it a little less painful to wake up for school and work during the shorter winter days.

    Operating the clocks was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1784. He mentioned the idea in a letter to the editor of the Journal of Paris and advised it should be a way to save candles, but it was not taken seriously. George Hudson from New Zealand also recommended moving the clocks back two hours in 1895 to get extra daylight time to study insects. Unfortunately, neither he nor British people William Willett, who suggested it in 1907 as a way to save electricity costs, got their wish.

    It was the German Empire that began the clock shifting tradition on April 30, 1916, to save fuel needed to produce weapons and bombs for World War I. Though a few others, including the US and Britain, adopted the tradition shortly after, all the countries returned to Standard Time once the war ended, only to start DST again during World War II. Once the battle ended in 1945, the US government ended DST nationally but allowed states and districts to continue the tradition and even allowed them to establish their own start and stop dates.

    However, though there have been many attempts to persuade lawmakers to end DST, both in the US and Europe, they have not been successful. Therefore, unless you live in places like Hawaii and Arizona, you have little choice but to "Fall Back" and enjoy the extra hour this weekend! Health experts suggest the best way to adjust is going to bed at your regular time, even if the day is an hour longer.

(1)、Who first suggested operating the clocks?
A、William Willett in 1907. B、Benjamin Franklin in 1784. C、George Hudson in 1895. D、The German Empire in 1916.
(2)、Why was the "DST" used by the German Empire?
A、To end the World War II earlier. B、To give the states and districts freedom. C、To meet the needs of the US and British people. D、To save fuel needed to produce weapons and bombs.
(3)、Before the start of DST, when it is 7:30 a.m. in Beijing, it is 7:30 p.m. in Boston. If it is 11:30 a.m. in Beijing, what time will it be in Boston after using DST?
A、10:30 p.m. B、11:30 p.m. C、12:30 p.m. D、9:30 p.m.
(4)、What is the best title for this passage?
A、Attempts to end DST B、The Shorter Winter Days C、End of DST this year D、Sunday's Extra Time
举一反三
阅读理解

    It seems that the great desire among the young is to be popular. The desire to be popular can force you into looking and acting like everyone else. You can lose yourself in a sea of identical hairstyles and thinking styles.

    I was forced to think about popularity not too long ago in a talk I had with my daughter. Margy had to change schools when my busy work schedule made it necessary for me to move houses. I suppose that, for a girl in her teens, entering a new school is like spending a season alone in the tropical jungles. At least that's how Margy found it at first. However, as the school year drew to a close, one student after another came to her. I told Margy that I would have been more concerned if she had been an instant social success in her new school. Nobody can please everyone. If you try to do so, you will find values as lasting as soap bubbles blown into the air.

    Some teenagers claim they want to dress as they please. But they all wear the same clothes. They set off in new directions in music. But somehow they all end up listening to the same record. Their reason for thinking or acting in a certain way is that the crowd is doing it. They have come out of their cocoon into a larger cocoon.

    I know that it has become harder for a young person to stand up against the popularity wave. Our way of life makes a young nonconformist stand out like a Martian. These days there's a great barrier for the young person who wants to find his or her own path. But the barrier is worth climbing over. You may want to listen to classical music instead of going to a party. Well, go to it. Be yourself. Popularity will come with the people who respect you for who you are. That's the only kind of popularity that really counts.

阅读理解

    A bite from a tsetse fly (采采蝇) is an extremely unpleasant experience. It is not like a mosquito, which can put its thin mouthpart directly into your blood, often without you noticing. In contrast, the tsetse fly's mouth has tiny saws on it that saw into your skin on its way to suck out your blood.

    To make matters worse, several species of tsetse fly can transmit diseases. One of the most dangerous is a parasite that causes "sleeping sickness", or "human African trypanosomiasis"to give it its official name. Without treatment, an infection is usually fatal.

    Like so many tropical diseases, sleeping sickness has often been neglected by medical researchers. However, researchers have long endeavored to understand how it avoids our bodies' defence mechanisms. Some of their insights could now help us eliminate sleeping sickness altogether.

    There are two closely-related single-celled parasites that cause this deathly sleep: Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and T. b. gambiense. The latter is far more common: it is responsible for up to 95% of cases, mostly in western Africa. It takes several years to kill a person, while T. brucei rhodesiense can cause death within months. There are still other forms that infect livestock.

    After the initial bite, sleeping sickness symptoms often start with a fever, headaches and aching muscles. As the illness goes on, those infected become increasingly tired, which is where it gets its name. Personality changes, severe confusion and poor coordination can also happen.

    While medication does help, some treatments are toxic and can themselves be deadly, especially if they are given after the disease has reached the brain.

    It is worth noting that sleeping sickness is no longer as deadly as it once was. In the early 20th Century several hundred thousand people were infected each year. By the 1960s the disease was considered "under control" and had reached very low numbers, making its spread more difficult. But in the 1970s there was another major epidemic, which took 20 years to control.

    Since then, better screening programmes and earlier interventions have reduced the number of cases dramatically. In 2009 there were fewer than 10,000 cases for the first time since records began, and in 2015 this figure dropped to fewer than 3,000, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation. The WHO hopes the disease will be completely eliminated by 2020.

    While this decline looks positive, there may be many more cases that go unreported in rural Africa. To eliminate the disease completely, infections have to be closely monitored.

    More problematically, a series of new studies have shown that the parasite is more complicated than previously believed.

    Sleeping sickness has always been considered —— and diagnosed —— as a blood disease, because T. brucei parasites can readily be detected in the blood of its victims.

阅读理解

    Seventy-three-year-old George McNeilon selected his food in Value Mart very carefully. After leaving the cashier, he estimated (估计) that he had saved 80 cents and thought that he had got good value for his money again.

    At the exit, the chilly wind reminded him of his gloves. "Now where are they?" He searched here and there, but nowhere could he find them. He was sure he was wearing them when he entered the store. The worried man made a second search in all his pockets, again including the grocery bag. He was sure they must have been dropped somewhere inside the store.

    George bought the gloves at a 25% discount, for just $30, ten years ago. They were genuine lambskin (小羊皮), soft, warm and durable. Until then, he had worn cheaper man-made material that lasted no more than three years. His impulsive decision to buy the expensive gloves turned out to be a good one, which even promoted his social status on the bus, as passengers stared at him enviously for six months out of the year. He enjoyed being envied.

    Bad luck, George thought, to lose his expensive gloves on New Year's Eve. He reentered the store and followed the same route he had walked before. But several minutes of anxious search turned out to be in vain. "Society has changed. People have changed …" he murmured to himself. "Years ago, if people picked up something lost, they would give it back."

    Back home, George was at a loss. In deep winter, he could not do anything without a pair of gloves. If he bought cheap ones, he would have to replace them very soon. If he bought new leather ones, they would cost forty dollars.

    After the holiday, poor George decided to buy another pair of leather gloves. Before boarding the subway, he stepped into Value Mart again to see if by any chance his gloves had been returned to the lost and found office.

    "What color are they?" the woman in the office asked.

    "Black," he answered.

    She looked into her drawer and drew out a pair of men's leather gloves.

    "Are they?"

    "Yes! Those are mine!"

阅读理解

    10-year-old Mikaila Ulmer from Texas is building a lemonade(柠檬水)empire, hoping to save honey bees in the process.

    It all started when Mikaila was 4 years old and she was bitten by a bee twice in one week. This caused her to become very scared whenever bees were near. In order to help her manage this new fear, Mikaila's parents asked her to do some research on bees. She learned that bees are quite important for flowers, gardens and trees. She also learned that they are dying at a rapid rate. In the past year, honeybee farmers have reported losing nearly 42% of them. Many believe that this could be due to the overuse of pesticides(杀虫剂).

    This is when she set her mind to create a product to help save bees. She started her company BeeSweet Lemonade. Her special lemonade recipe came from her great-grandmother's cookbook. She adds honey to it, instead of sugar. In order to call attention to the problems honeybees face, Mikaila sells lemonade almost every day at her lemonade stand. And she takes every opportunity to tell her customers about the problems that face honeybees.

    What began as a small activity is starting to grow. BeeSweet is projected to sell almost 140,000 bottles of lemonade this year. BeeSweet lemonade can be found on the shelves at select Whole Foods Markets as well as many restaurants and other locations near her home.

    Does Mikaila have any time to just be a kid? Sure! Every weekend Mikaila does something fun. She doesn't mind the hard work though. She says that she is happy watching people enjoy her lemonade. The more people enjoy it, the more they're learning about the bees.

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