高考英语二轮专题复习阅读理解极限突破测试卷(10)
阅读理解（A）
How Room Designs Affect Our Work and Feelings
Architects have long had the feeling that the places we live in can affect our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. But now scientists are giving this feeling an empirical（经验的，实证的） basis. They are discovering how to design spaces that promote creativity, keep people focused and lead to relaxation.
Researches show that aspects of the physical environment can influence creativity. In 2007, Joan Meyers-Levy at the University of Minnesota, reported that the height of a room's ceiling affects how people think. Her research indicates that higher ceilings encourage people to think more freely, which may lead them to make more abstract connections. Low ceilings, on the other hand, may inspire a more detailed outlook.
In additions to ceiling height, the view afforded by a building may influence an occupant's ability to concentrate. Nancy Wells and her colleagues at Cornell University found in their study that kids who experienced the greatest increase in greenness as a result of a family move made the most gains on a standard test of attention.
Using nature to improve focus of attention ought to pay off
academically, and it seems to, according to a study led by C. Kenneth Tanner, head of the School Design & Planning Laboratory at the University of Georgia. Tanner and his team found that students in classrooms with unblocked views of at least 50 feet outside the window had higher scores on tests of vocabulary, language arts and maths than did students whose classrooms primarily overlooked roads and parking lots.
Recent study on room lighting design suggests than dim（暗淡的） light helps people to loosen up. If that is true generally, keeping the light low during dinner or at parties could increase relaxation. Researchers of Harvard Medical School also discovered that furniture with rounded edges could help visitors relax.
So far scientists have focused mainly on public buildings. "We have a very limited number of studies, so we're almost looking at the problem through a straw（吸管）," architect David Allison says. "How do you take answers to very specific questions and make broad, generalized use of them? That's what we're all struggling with."
(
) 1. What does Joan Meyers-Levy focus on in her research?
A. Light.
B. Ceilings.
C. Windows.
D. Furniture.
(
) 2. The passage tells us that ______.
A. the shape of furniture may affect people's feelings
B. lower ceilings may help improve students' creativity
C. children in a dim classroom may improve their grades
D. students in rooms with unblocked views may feel relaxed
(
) 3. The underlined sentence in the last paragraph probably means that ______.
A. the problem is not approached step by step
B. the researches so far have faults in themselves
C. the problem is too difficult for researchers to detect
D. research in this area is not enough to make generalized patterns
(
) 4. Which of the following shows the organization of the passage?
CP: Central Point
P: Point
SP: Sub-point（次要点）
C: Conclusion
64.B。
细节理解题。根据第二段内容可知Joan Meyers-Levy focus on ceilings.
65.A。
细节判断题。根据文中内容可知B,C和D均是错误的。
66.D。
句意猜测题。根据划线句子后面的一句话可以知道该题的正确答案为:D。
67.C。
考查文章结构。注意解题技巧。第一段为总要点，最后一段为结论，要点123
共同服务于结论，重要的是要点二又包含了两个次要点。综上分析可知答案为:C。
阅读理解----（B）
Even at school there had been an unhealthy competition between George and Richard.
“I’ll be the first millionaire in Coleford!” Richard used to boast.
“And you’ll be sorry you knew me,” George would reply “because I’ll be the best lawyer in town!”
George never did become a lawyer and Richard never made any money. Instead both men opened bookshops on opposite sides of Coleford High Street. It was hard to make money from books, which made the competition between them worse.
Now with only one bookshop in town, business was better for George. But sometimes he sat in his narrow , old kitchen and gazed out of the dirty window , thinking about his former rival （竞争对手）。Perhaps he missed him?
George was very interested in old dictionaries, He’d recently found a collector in Australia who was selling a rare first edition. When the parcel arrived, the book was in perfect condition and George was delighted. But while he was having lunch, George glanced at the photo in the newspaper that the book had been wrapped in. He was astonished—the smiling face was older than he remembered but unmistakable! Trembling, George started reading.
“Bookends have bought ten bookstores from their rivals Dylans. The company, owned by multi-millionaire Richard Pike, is now the largest bookseller in Australia. ”
(
) 1. George and Richard were
at school.
A. roommates
B. good friends
C. competitors
D. booksellers
(
) 2. How did George feel about Richard after his disappearance?
A. He envied Richard’s marriage.
B. He thought of Richard from time to time.
C. He felt lucky with no rival in town.
D. He was guilty of Richard’s death.
(
) 3. George got information about Richard from
.
A. a dictionary collector in Australia
B. the latter’s rivals Dylans
C. a rare first edition of a dictionary
D. the wrapping paper of a book
65.C 细节理解题。由第一段“Even at school there had been an unhealthy competition between George and Richard.”可知从上学开始，乔治和理查德就是竞争对手。A、B、D三项没有根据，可排除。
66.B细节理解题。由第五段“But sometimes he sat in his narrow , old kitchen and gazed out of the dirty window , thinking about his former rival （竞争对手）, Perhaps he missed him?”可知理查德消失后乔治常常想起他来，故B项正确。A、D两项文中没有交代，属于主观臆测。C项也无从推断出乔治在没有了竞争对手后感到很幸运。
67.D 细节把握题。由第六段“But while he was having lunch, George glanced at the photo in the newspaper that the book had been wrapped in.”一句可知乔治是从包书的一张报纸上得知理查德的消息的，故答案为D。Passage Eight(The Development of Cities) Mass transportation revised the social and economic fabric of the American city in three fundamental ways. It catalyzed physical expansion, it sorted out people and land uses, and it accelerated the inherent instability of urban life. By opening vast areas of unoccupied land for residential expansion, the omnibuses, horse railways, commuter trains, and electric trolleys pulled settled regions outward two to four times more distant form city centers than they were in the premodern era. In 1850, for example, the borders of Boston lay scarcely two miles from the old business district; by the turn of the century the radius extended ten miles. Now those who could afford it could live far removed from the old city center and still commute there for work, shopping, and entertainment. The new accessibility of land around the periphery of almost every major city sparked an explosion of real estate development and fueled what we now know as urban sprawl. Between 1890 and 1920, for example, some 250,000 new residential lots were recorded within the borders of Chicago, most of them located in outlying areas. Over the same period, another 550,000 were plotted outside the city limits but within the metropolitan area. Anxious to take advantage of the possibilities of commuting, real estate developers added 800,000 potential building sites to the Chicago region in just thirty years – lots that could have housed five to six million people. Of course, many were never occupied; there was always a huge surplus of subdivided, but vacant, land around Chicago and other cities. These excesses underscore a feature of residential expansion related to the growth of mass transportation: urban sprawl was essentially unplanned. It was carried out by thousands of small investors who paid little heed to coordinated land use or to future land users. Those who purchased and prepared land for residential purposes, particularly land near or outside city borders where transit lines and middle-class inhabitants were anticipated, did so to create demand as much as to respond to it. Chicago is a prime example of this process. Real estate subdivision there proceeded much faster than population growth. 1.With which of the following subjects is the passage mainly concerned? [A] Types of mass transportation. Instability of urban life. [C] How supply and demand determine land use. [D] The effect of mass transportation on urban expansion. 2.Why does the author mention both Boston and Chicago? [A] To demonstrate positive and negative effects of growth. To exemplify cities with and without mass transportation. [C] To show mass transportation changed many cities. [D] To contrast their rate of growth. 3.According to the passage, what was one disadvantage of residential expansion? [A] It was expensive. It happened too slowly. [C] It was unplanned. [D] It created a demand for public transportation. 4.The author mentions Chicago in the second paragraph as an example of a city, [A] that is large. that is used as a model for land development. [C] where the development of land exceeded population growth. [D] with an excellent mass transportation system. Vocabulary 1.revise 改变 2.fabric 结构 3.catalyze 催化，加速 4.sort out 把……分门别类，拣选 5.omnibus 公共汽车/马车 6.trolley （美）有轨电车，（英）无轨电车 7.periphery 周围，边缘 8.sprawl 建筑物无计划延伸，蔓延，四面八方散开 9.lot 小片土地 10.underscore 强调，在下面划横线 11.transit lines 运输线路 12.subdivision （出售的）小块土地，再划分小区 写作方法与文章大意 文章论述了“公共交通从三方面改变了城市的社会和经济结构。”采用分类写法。文章一开始就提出三方面：第一，促进城市实质性的扩展；第二，把人和土地分民别类加以利用；第三，加速了城市生活的不稳定性。然后就是三方面的具体内容。 答案详解 1.D 公共交通运输对城市扩展的影响。文章开门见山提出这一点“公共交通运输从三个根本方面改变了美国城市的社会和经济结构。”后面文章内容就是三方面的具体化。 A. 公共交通运输类型。 B. 城市生活的不稳定性。 C. 供需如何决定土地利用。这三项文中作为具体问题提到，并不是文章涉及的主要题目。 2.C 说明公共交通改变了许多城市。答案箭第一段第四句“举例说，1850年，波士顿市界离老的商业地区几乎不到2英里，到了这世纪末，其半径扩至10英里。现在供得起的人们可以住得很远，远离老的城市中心，仍然来回去那里上班、购物和娱乐”。第七句，“举例说，在1890至1920年期间，据记载，芝加哥市界内有约250，000个新的住宅楼区大多数设在郊区。经过同样这段时期，市区外，但仍在芝加哥大都市地区内，又计划建造了550，000个住宅楼区。” A. 表示成长的正反两方面效果。B. 举有无公共交通运输的城市为例。 D. 对比两者成长率；都不是本文中举两城市例子的目的。 3.C 没有计划。见第二段第三句起“城市扩展蔓延根本无计划，好几千个小的投资商进行扩展，毫不考虑相互协调配合利用土地，也不考虑未来土地利用。” A. 太贵 和 B.太慢，两个选项，文内没有提。D. 它创造了对公共交通运输的需求。这不是住宅扩展的一个缺点，而是三个根本改变城市的一个方面。见第一段第三句：“通过大量开发未占土地扩建住宅，公共汽车、马车、铁路、来回火车，有轨电车把已有人定居的居住区向外扩展了三四倍，比他们先现代时期的市中心更远。” 4.C（第二段中以芝加哥城市例子说明）土地开发超过人口增长速度。答案详见第二段“这些购买和置备土地建设住宅，特别是购置临近城市或就在市界外的土地，抢在交通线路和中产阶层的居民进去之前。他们这样做的目的是创造一种需求，也是响应这种需求。芝加哥就是这种过程的典型例子。那里的房地产小块土地比人口增长快得很多很多。” A. 城市大。B. 用作土地开发的样板。 D. 具有优越的公共的交通系统。