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题型:阅读理解 题类:常考题 难易度:普通

北京市东城区2018届高三上学期英语期末考试试卷

阅读理解

Ig Nobel Prize

    Having a meal is an easy and delightful process for most people. However, for a woodpecker (啄木鸟), it's not that simple. To get dinner, a woodpecker has to hit its head against a tree numerous times per day. Yet, amazingly, it never suffers any ill effects like brain damage. According to research, it is the woodpecker's thick head bones that protect it from the impact of the blows. For explaining that, Ivan Schwab won an Ig Nobel Prize.

    Ig Nobel Prizes are organized by The Annals of Improbable Research, an American magazine that celebrates the funny side of science. Each year, ten winners are awarded prizes in honor of their “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”. Most of the award-winning research, like Schwab's, may seem unusual, but it usually grabs people's attention indeed. And no matter how ridiculous the research sounds, people can find it inspiring and amusing.

    Brian Wansink's research might interest you. He took home an Ig Nobel Prize for looking into the influence of visual factors on people's appetites. He used specially designed bowls that refilled themselves with soup while people were eating. Since these people had no idea this was happening, they just kept eating from these “bottomless bowls”. They said they didn't feel full because their bowls were not empty yet. People in this experiment ate 73 percent more soup than normal. Owing to these results, Wansink concluded that it's not people's stomachs that decide when they have eaten enough, but their eyes.

    Ig Nobel Prizes also give attention to science and technology that is a part of our daily lives. Take the karaoke machine for example. Its inventor Daisuke Inoue was employed at a nightclub, playing the piano for the customers who wanted to sing. He wasn't skillful enough to play all the songs properly. To clear up the problem, he created the karaoke machine. To Inoue's surprise, the machine caused considerable changes in entertainment worldwide. The Ig Nobel Prize was awarded to Inoue not only because his invention was entertaining, but also because it brought about “an entirely new way for people to learn to tolerate each other”.

    These research results of Ig Nobel Prizes may not be as great as Edison's light bulb or Newton's laws of motion. However, they do show people's willingness to take action and to try new ways to solve problems. According to Marc Abrahams, a founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes. “If you win one, it means that you have done something.”

(1)、Why did Ivan Schwab win an Ig Nobel Prize?
A、His discovery can be applied in daily life. B、His research result benefits the environment. C、He invented a new way to avoid the impact of blows. D、He found why woodpeckers could be free from brain damage.
(2)、What is mainly talked about in Paragraph 3?
A、Why Ig Nobel Prizes can get people's trust. B、Why people's eyes decide their stomachs. C、Why Wansink won an Ig Nobel Prize. D、Why visual research interests people.
(3)、The Ig Nobel Prize awarded to Daisuke Inoue suggests ________.
A、Ig Nobel Prize's inventions can easily become popular B、Ig Nobel Prize winners are familiar with entertainment C、most Ig Nobel Prize's inventions are created by accident D、Ig Nobel Prizes may go to inventions with global influence
(4)、What do the research results of Ig Nobel Prizes have in common?
A、They are related to everyday life. B、They solve problems in people's work. C、They seem unexpected but meaningful. D、They are ridiculous and hard to understand.
举一反三
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    One advantage of the Internet is shopping conveniently online for clothes; one disadvantage of the Internet is also shopping conveniently online for clothes.

    "Nothing fits," said Lam Yuk Wong, a senior in electrical and computer engineering at Rice University. "Everyone says this. They order clothes and they don't fit. People get very unhappy."

    Wong and her design partner, Xuaner "Cecilia" Zhang, are Team White Mirror, creators of what they call a "virtual (虚拟)fitting room". Their goal is simple and consumer-friendly: to let online clothing shoppers have a perfect fit and a perfect look when shopping every time. Both women are from China, Wong from Hong Kong and Zhang from Beijing. They both order most of their clothing online. They got the idea from their own experience as consumers and from listening to the complaints of friends and relatives. "They say, 'The color is wrong' or 'I got the right size but it still does not fit.' We want to make it like you're in the store trying on the clothes," Zhang said.

    Using a Kinect developed by Microsoft for use with its Xbox 360 video game player, Zhang scans Wong and turns her image into, in effect, a virtual model, keeping Wong's dimensions (尺寸), and even her skin and hair color. "We put the clothes on the shopper's 3-D body models and show how they look when they are dressed," Wong said. So far, Wong and Zhang have adapted the software to show dresses and shirts, and they are now working on shorts.

    Asked if she thought men as well as women might be interested in using their virtual fitting room, Wong said, "I think their wives will care about this, so it will also be important to men."

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A Teenage Inventor

    The world could be one step closer to quick and inexpensive Ebola detection thanks to a teenager from Connecticut.

    Olivia Hallisey, a junior at Greenwich High School, was awarded $50,000 in the Google Science Fair for her new method that detects Ebola, a virus that causes bleeding from different parts of the body and usually causes death. Olivia's method is to ask patients to put their saliva (唾液) onto a testing card. The card changes color if the person is catching Ebloa. Present Ebloa tests take up to 12 hours and cost $1,000. Olivia's method, however, can be done just in 30 minutes for about $25. Besides, the sample (样本) doesn't have to be put in a refrigerator thanks to the silk material Olivia uses to produce the testing cards.

    Olivia was inspired to deal with this global problem after watching the news that more than 10,000 people died from Ebola in West Africa. She was particularly worried about the fact that, while the acts of involvement can improve survival rates, present detection methods are costly, time-consuming and require complex tools. Olivia got help from her science research teacher. She drew out directions from past research, and figured out detection systems that have proven to work with other diseases, including Lyme disease and yellow fever.

    "What affects one country affects everyone," Olivia told CNBC. "We have to work together to find answers to the huge challenges which cause harm to the global health." The Connecticut's teen, who hopes to become a doctor one day, was named the Google Science Fair winner in the competition of 20 competitors from across the globe. The fair is open to young people between the ages of 13 and 18 in most countries.

    Olivia hopes her success will inspire other girls interested in science and computers. "I would just encourage girls to try it in the beginning, and remind them that they don't have to feel naturally drawn or feel like they have a special talent for maths or science," she told CNBC, "but just really look at something they are interested in and then think how to improve something or make it more enjoyable or relate it to their interests."

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    The University of Tokyo has eight museums covering various fields such as medicine, agriculture and art. Click the names of the museums below to read brief introductions about their histories and exhibits.

    The University Museum

    Having accumulated over three million academic materials for its collection since the University of Tokyo was founded in 1877, the University Museum is the largest museum of its kind in Japan. From the time of its reorganization into an independent entity in May 1996, the Museum has held exhibitions over 60 times.

    The Museum of Health and Medicine

    The Museum of Health and Medicine seeks to provide information about health and medicine to the general public and advance education for students studying medicine. The Museum features both a permanent and a temporary exhibition space and a temporary exhibition space, with the latter focusing on topics related to medical care and the study of medicine.

    The Agricultural Museum

    The Agricultural Museum displays materials from the collection of the University's Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Science, Notable items on display include the documents and portraits of scientists affiliated (隶属的)with the University, internal organs of Japan's famous dog Hachiko, and drawings illustrating German agriculture and the varieties of Japanese cows.

    The Farm Museum

    The Farm Museum opened in 2007 within a renovated dairy bam. The bam was built in 1934 as part of the moving of the University of Tokyo's farm from Komaba to Tanashi, an area in Western Tokyo. The Museum features both permanent and temporary exhibitions. Permanent exhibitions include European farming equipment used on the Komaba Farm, tools for agricultural experiments, agricultural machinery, American tractors and drawings illustrating German agriculture.

阅读短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项。

    In China, chain restaurants especially the big multinational ones are cool. Going to Starbucks, for example, is a status symbol. It not only says, "I'm rich enough to buy this overpriced coffee, "but also, "I'm cosmopolitan (见多识广的) enough to be part of globalization."

    Where I come from in the UK, however, chains are neither fashionable nor gourmet (美食的). Chains are where you go on New Year's Day when nowhere else is open, or when you are 5 years old and your parents can't stand hearing, "I'm hungry!" any longer. In my own case (with regards to McDonald's), a chain is where you are taken on your first "date". Even at the age of 13, I knew to give the guy the "let's just be friends" phone call the next day.

    In the UK, independent cafes and restaurants are making a comeback on the fashion scene. Nowadays, a Londoner who says "let's meet for a coffee at Monmouth" (an independent café) is much cooler than one who says "let's go to Starbucks". Even if Monmouth's coffee is a little more expensive, there's a satisfaction in knowing your pounds aren't going straight to the big corporations.

    Of course, there are chain stores all over the UK; you can't go five minutes without spotting a Costa Coffee. But numbers do not add up to good taste.

    I do, however, have a confession (坦白). After moving to China I had moments when all the rice and Kung Pao Chicken became too much. I, too, have retreated to McDonald's.

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