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题型:阅读理解 题类:真题 难易度:普通

2012年高考英语真题试卷(陕西卷)

阅读理解

    Eating too much fatty food, exercising too little and smoking can raise your future risk of heart disease.But there is another factor that can cause your heart problems more immediately: the air you breathe.

    Previous studies have linked high exposure (暴露)to environmental pollution to an increased risk of heart problem, but two analyses(分析) now show that poor air quality can lead to heart attack or stroke (中风)within as little as a few hours after exposure.In one review of the research, scientists found that people exposed to high levels of pollutants (污染物)were up to 5% more likely(可能的) to suffer a heart attack within days of exposure than those with lower exposure.A separate study of stroke patients showed that even air that the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers to be of “moderate” (良好)quality and relatively safe for our health can raise the risk of stroke as much as 34% within 12 to 14 hours of exposure.

    The authors of both studies stress(强调)that these risks are relatively(相对的)small for healthy people and certainly modest compared with other risk factors such as smoking and high blood pressure.However, it is important to be aware of these dangers because everyone is exposed to air pollution regardless of lifestyle choices.So stricter regulation(规章制度)by the EPA of pollutants may not only improve environmental air quality but could also become necessary to protect public health.

(1)、The text mainly discusses the relationship between _______.
A、heart problems and air quality B、heart problems and exercising C、heart problems and smoking D、heart problems and fatty food
(2)、The underlined word “modest” in Paragraph 3 most probably means_________ .
A、relatively high B、extremely(极大地)low C、relatively low D、extremely high
(3)、What can we learn from the text?
A、Eating fatty food has immediate effects on your heart B、The EPA conducted many studies on air quality C、Moderate air quality is more harmful than smoking D、Stricter regulations on pollutants should be made.
(4)、The author's purpose of writing the text is most likely to________
A、inform B、persuade(说服) C、describe D、entertain(娱乐)
举一反三
阅读理解

    Winters are long and unforgiving in North Dakota. The winter of 1996 was especially brutal. It was a hard time in my own life too, A neck injury had kept me flat in bed for nearly a year. “Just in time for Easter,” my husband, Dick, said. But how could I feel the joy when the snow was four feet deep and I had months of painful physical treatment ahead?

    I was doing the dishes one day, feeling hopeless when there was a tap against the glass. It was a branch of the troublesome cottonwood (棉白杨).Back in the fall of 1979, it was a new subdivision (分支) then, an eight-foot stick. The people who'd briefly occupied the house before us had placed the pipe from the pump next to it. The earth was so wet that the poor thing had fallen down, most of its bare root system pointing skyward, and blowing hopelessly back and forth in the cold wind. Dick decided to pull it out one day, but I disapproved of it.

    “Look at how hard it's trying!” I said, pointing to the way it strongly kept hold of the earth. “It deserves a chance.”

    Dick borrowed some tools. We packed dry soil around the tree and put up some stakes (桩) into the ground, making it stand upright. That winter was still terrible. Surprisingly, in the spring my “rescue stick” put forth a few leaves, then with lots of branches. The year after that, we were able to remove the stakes. By the 1990s that little stick was a giant, towering over the house.

    Now the tapping at the window continued, louder as the wind picked up, almost as though to tell me to look up. At last, I did. I caught ray breath. In the window against the icy blue sky, thousands and thousands of fresh red buds were waving in the wind.

    The tree was bursting with life and I had a wonderful Easter.

阅读理解

    We've all been there: in a lift, in line at the bank or on an airplane, surrounded by people who are, like us, deeply focused on their smartphones or, worse, struggling with the uncomfortable silence.

    What's the problem? It's possible that we all have compromised conversational intelligence. It's more likely that none of us start a conversation because it's awkward and challenging, or we think it's annoying and unnecessary. But the next time you find yourself among strangers, consider that small talk is worth the trouble. Experts say it's an invaluable social practice that results in big benefits.

    Dismissing small talk as unimportant is easy, but we can't forget that deep relationships wouldn't even exist if it weren't for casual conversation. Small talk is the grease(润滑剂) for social communication, says Bernardo Carducci, director of the Shyness Research Institute at Indiana University Southeast. "Almost every great love story and each big business deal begins with small talk," he explains. "The key to successful small talk is learning how to connect with others, not just communicate with them."

    In a 2014 study, Elizabeth Dunn, associate professor of psychology at UBC, invited people on their way into a coffee shop. One group was asked to seek out an interaction with its waiter; the other, to speak only when necessary. The results showed that those who chatted with their server reported significantly higher positive feelings and a better coffee shop experience. "It's not that talking to the waiter is better than talking to your husband," says Dunn. "But interactions with peripheral(边缘的) members of our social network matter for our well-being also."

    Dunn believes that people who reach out to strangers feel a significantly greater sense of belonging, a bond with others. Carducci believes developing such a sense of belonging starts with small talk. "Small talk is the basis of good manners," he says.

阅读理解

    Imagine you're standing in line to buy a snack at a store. You step up to the counter and the cashier scans your food. Next, you have to pay. But instead of scanning a QR Code(二维码) with your smart phone, you just hold out your hand so the cashier can scan your fingerprint. Or, a camera scans your face, your eyes or even your ear.

    Now, this type of technology might not be far away. As technology companies move away from the traditional password, biometric (生物特征识别的) security, which includes fingerprint, face and voice ID, is becoming increasingly popular.

    In 2013, Apple introduced the iPhone 5s, one of the first smart phones with a fingerprint scanner. Since then, using one's fingerprint to unlock a phone and make mobile payments has become a commonplace, bringing convenience to our lives. And since 2016, Samsung has featured eye-scanning technology in its top smart phones, while Apple's new iphone X can even scan a user's face. But despite its popularity, experts warn that biometrics might not be as secure as we imagine." Biometrics is ideally good in practice, not so much," said John Michener, a biometrics expert.

    When introducing the new iPhone's face ID feature, Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice-president, said. "The chance that a random person in the population could look at your iPhones X and unlock it with their face is about one in a million." But it's already been done. In a video posted on a community website Reddit, two brothers showed how they were each able to unlock the same iPhone X using their own face. And they aren't even twins.

    "We may expect too much from biometrics," Anil Jain, a computer science professor at Michigan State University, told CBS News. "No security systems are perfect."

    Earlier last year, Jain found a way to trick biometric security. Using a printed copy of a thumbprint, she was able to unlock a dead person's smart phone for the police, according to a tech website Splinter. "It's good to see biometrics being used more," Jain told CBS News, "because it adds another factor for security. But using multiple security measures is the best defense."

阅读理解

    Chinese retail giant Alibaba has developed a new automated(自动化的) vehicle which is easy to mass-produce and could serve a number of functions. These could include delivery messenger or automated coffee selling machine, it said.

    The Cainiao G Plus can travel at up to nine miles per hour, reports The Verge news site. It was showed at a conference where Alibaba founder Jack Ma announced a 100bn yuan ($15.5bn) would be put into smart logistics(物流).This includes devices such as warehouse robots as well as delivery aids.

    AI expert and author Calum Chace described the G Plus as being like the "ugly big brother" of a delivery project developed by UK firm Starship Technologies. Starship has been working on this project for several years, so the Alibaba project looks to be behind as well as ugly, he said. "But that won't matter. Anything to do with artificial intelligence is put in the first place for China, which has set itself the target of overtaking the US as world leader in AI by 2030".

    China benefits from having free access to large amounts of data, essential for training algorithms(算法), he added, probably a disadvantage in Europe since the introduction of GDPR law, designed to protect privacy.

    "Don't bet against the Chinese pulling ahead in any AI-related competition, be it self-driving cars, facial recognition, or delivery projects," Mr Chace said.

    The G Plus vehicle is fitted with solid state Lidar – the laser sensors which form an important part of the system autonomous vehicles use to be aware of their surroundings.

    Solid state Lidar is cheaper and easier to produce than the traditional system, which involves spinning multiple lasers in circles to help build up a 360-degree image of what surrounds the vehicle. There are various developers creating their own versions but essentially it uses fewer lasers and a tiny swinging mirror.

    Last month BMW said that its autonomous vehicles will be fitted with solid state Lidar when they will be launched in 2021.

阅读理解

    More students than ever before are taking a gap year(间隔年) before going to university. It used to be the "year off" between school and university. The gap﹣year phenomenon originated(起源) with the months left over to Oxbridge applicants between entrance exams in November and the start of the next academic year.

    This year, 25310 students who have accepted places in higher education institutions have put off their entry until next year, according to statistics on university entrance provided by the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).

    That is a record 14.7% increase in the number of students taking a gap year. Tony Higgins from UCAS said that the statistics are good news for everyone in higher education. "Students who take a well﹣planned year out are more likely to be satisfied with, and complete, their chosen course. Students who take a gap year are often more mature and responsible, "he said.

    But not everyone is happy. Owain James, the president of the National Union of Students (NUS), argued that the increase is evidence of student hardship﹣young people are being forced into earning money before finishing their education. "New students are now aware that they are likely to leave university up to£15, 000 in debt. It is not surprising that more and more students are taking a gap year to earn money to support their study for the degree. NUS statistics show that over 40% of students are forced to work during term time and the figure increases to 90% during vacation periods," he said.

阅读理解

    In the western Los Angeles sits the famous city of Hollywood, known as the global center of movie studios and film stars.

    The Selig Film Manufacturing Company was the first major film company to come to Hollywood, shooting its first film entitled The Heart of A Race Tout in 1908. The next year the film company built the first permanent film studio.

    Although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately expose film. The best source of illumination for movie production was nature sunlight. Besides the sunny weather, film producers were also drawn to Hollywood because of its open spaces and wide variety of natural scenery.

    Another reason was the distance of Southern California from New Jersey, which made it more difficult for Thomas Edison to enforce his film patents. At that time, Edison owned almost all the patents relevant to film production. As a result, in the East, movie producers acting independently out of Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company were often accused by Edison. But in Los Angeles, things were different. If he sent his men to California, word would usually reach Los Angeles before they did and the movie makers could escape to nearby Mexico.

    In 1911, a second movie studio—Nestor Studios, was founded. At about the same time, many film production companies from New York and New Jersey started moving to sunny California because of the good weather.

    The first Academy Awards presentation ceremony took place in 1929 in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Tickets were $10 and there were 250 people attending the ceremony.

    From about 1930, five major "Hollywood" movie studios in Hollywood, Paramount, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros, owned almost all large theatres throughout the country for the exhibition of their movies. The period between the years 1927 to 1984 was considered the "Golden Age of Hollywood".

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