2016年湖北武汉市高考英语阅读理解二轮基础训练（51）（含答案）
【2016高考训练】阅读理解—词义猜测题、观点态度题。
Carrier Pigeons
People have used pigeons to carry messages to one another for hundreds of years. In fact, pigeons were a common way to send messages right up through World War Ⅱ.
In 1815 an English banker named Nathan Rothschild made his fortune by relying on messages sent to him by carrier pigeons. English troops were fighting Napoleon's forces in France, and the English were believed to be losing. A financial panic gripped London. Government bonds were offered at low prices. Few people noticed that Rothschild was snapping up these bonds when everyone else was desperately trying to sell them. A few days later, London learned the truth; the Duke of Wellington had defeated Napoleon at the battle of Waterloo. The value of the bonds went up, and Rothschild became extremely wealthy-all because his pigeons had brought him news of the victory before anyone else knew of it.
Most of the time, however, carrier pigeons were used to benefit an entire country, not just one individual. The United States, England, France, Germany, and Italy, in both World War I and World War , used carrier pigeons. Not only were the birds often the fastest, most reliable way to send messages, they could also be used to reach soldiers far behind enemy lines, where radios and field telephone lines were useless. Since they could easily be released from airplanes or ships, every branch of the armed services used the birds. In World War Ⅱ, more than 3,000 soldiers and 150 officers were needed to care for and train the tens of thousands of birds in the US Pigeon Service.
Carrying messages could be a dangerous job. Some pigeons performed with such bravery that they became famous and were even awarded medals, such as England's Dicken Medal of Gallantry. In a few cases, pigeons even became prisoners of war. In 1918 American forces captured a pigeon named The Kaiser, which had been trained to fly special missions for Germany during battle. He was taken to America. Where he lived to the age of 32.
The most famous pigeon of all may have been Cher Ami. Stationed in France during World War I. he carried twelve important messages for American forces. On his last mission, though wounded, he carried a message that saved the lives of 194 American soldiers. For his extraordinary service, he was awarded the French” Croix de guerre”.
Carrier pigeons are a slightly different breed from the kind of pigeon you see on city streets. They ate much thinner and taller, with longer legs. Many people find carrier pigeons ugly because of their big wattle, a knobby buildup of skin on the beat; however, people who raise pigeons often enjoy this odd appearance and consider carriers the best of their breeds.
Today, modern communication methods can carry information from one place to another hundreds of times faster than a pigeon could do it. However, few people would argue with the fact that carrier pigeons—especially those that served in the military(军队)—have earned their place in history. Stories about brave pigeons such as Cher Ami, President Wilson, and Colonel's Lady have the power to inspire us as no fax machine or high-speed Internet connection could ever do.
The author provides specific dates throughout the passage in order to
.
Make a comparison between pigeons in different periods
Describe the development of us of pigeons during wartime
Indicate greater importance of pigeons in the past then now
Show the impact of carrier pigeons at particular points in history
The underlined phrase “snapping up” in Paragraph 2 means”
“
Giving away
B. putting aside
C. getting in
D. using up
The passage leads us to believe that
.
There were more civil carrier pigeons than military ones during wartime
Not all types of pigeon can be used to carry messages for human beings
Nobody could succeed in stopping carrier pigeons carrying out their tasks
Modern devices give us even greater enthusiasm than the famous pigeons
The passage suggests the successful use of carrier pigeons depends on
.
Their nature
B. proper training
C. their quality
D. the geography
语篇解读
本文主要介绍了在过去没有其他快捷的通讯方式的情况下，信鸽起到的巨大作用。比如，两次世界大战期间，信鸽成为传递信息的主要途径。另外，文章还列举了几个著名的信鸽的事迹。
D 推理判断题。文章里列举了一些具体时段里信鸽起到的重要作用，比如1815年时Rothschild利用信鸽提供的信息变成富翁、第一次世界大战和第二次世界大战期间信鸽传递信息救助士兵等。由此可推知，D项正确
C 词义猜测题。第二段讲述的是英法战争期间，多数人认为英国要失败了，因此政府债券价格大跌，很多人绝望地抛售政府债券，而Rothschild 偷偷地收购这些债券。Snap up 意为“抢购”， 只有C 项有“购进”的意思。
B 推理判断题。根据第六段第一句“Carrier pigeons are a slightly different breed from the kind of pigeon you see on city
streets.” 可知，信鸽和普通的鸽子是不同的。由此可以推断出，不是所有的鸽子都可以作为信鸽的。故答案选B。
B 推理判断题。根据第三段最后一句“In World War Ⅱ … US Pigeon Service.” 可知，二战期间，美国有关机构有3000多名士兵和150多名官员专门负责照顾和培训信鸽用来为战争服务。由此可以推断出，信鸽需要专业训练才能更好地传递信息。故答案选B。
社会生活类阅读理解。
Some people believe that a Robin Hood is at work, others that a wealthy person simply wants to distribute his or her fortune before dying. But the donator who started sending envelopes with cash to deserving causes, accompanied by an article from the local paper, has made a northern German city believe in fairytales(童话)．
The first envelope was sent to a victim support group. It contained 10,000 with a cutting from the Braunschweiger Zeitung about how the group supported a woman who was robbed of her handbag; similar plain white anonymous(匿名) envelopes, each containing 10,000, then arrived at a kindergarten and a church.
The envelops keep coming, and so far at least 190, 000 has been distributed. Last month, one of them was sent to the newspaper's own office. It came after a story it published about Tom, a 14yearold boy who was severely disabled in a swimming accident. The receptionist at the Braunschweiger Zeitung opened an anonymous white envelope to find 20 notes of 500 inside, with a copy of the article.The name of the family was underlined.
“I was driving when I heard the news，”Claudia Neumann, the boy's mother, told Der Spiegel magazine.“I had to park on the side of the road; I was speechless.”
The money will be used to make the entrance to their house wheelchairaccessible and for a course of treatment that their insurance company refused to pay for.
“For someone to act so selflessly, for this to happen in such a society in which everyone thinks of himself, was astonishing，” Mrs.Neumann said. Her family wonder whether the donator is a Robin Hood character, taking from banks to give to the needy.
Henning Noske, the editor of the Braunschweiger Zeitung, said：“Maybe it is an old person who is about to die. We just do not know.”However, he has told his reporters not to look for the city's hero, for fear that discovery may stop the donations.
1．The Braunschweiger Zeitung is the name of ________.
A．a church
B．a bankC．a newspaper
D．a magazine
．Which of the following is TRUE about the donation to Tom?
A．The donation amounted to 190, 000.
B．The donation was sent directly to his house.
C．The money will be used for his education.
D．His mother felt astonished at the donation.
．It can be inferred from the passage that ________.
A．the donator is a rich old man
B．the donation will continue to come
C．the donation comes from the newspaper
D．the donator will soon be found out
．What would be the best title for the passage?
A．Money Is Raised by the Newspaper
B．Newspaper Distributes Money to the Needy
C．Unknown Hero Spreads Love in Envelopes
D．Robin Hood Returns to the City
【要点综述】本文是一篇记叙文。介绍了城市英雄以匿名信封的形式在经济上帮助需要帮助的人。
. C 推理判断题。从第一段“But the donator who started sending envelopes with cash to deserving causes, accompanied by an article from the local paper”和第二段“with a cutting from the Braunschweiger Zeitung”可推出Braunschweiger Zeitung是当地一家报纸。
. D 细节理解题。从倒数第二段Tom的妈妈所说的话可知答案。
. B 推理判断题。从最后一段“he has told his reporters not to look for the city’s hero, for fear that discovery may stop the donations.”可知捐赠还会继续。
. C 主旨大意题。本文介绍了城市英雄以匿名信封的形式在经济上帮助需要帮助的人。Most mornings, the line begins to form at dawn: scores of silent women with babies on their backs, buckets balanced on their heads, and in each hand a bright-blue plastic jug. On good days, they will wait less than an hour before a water tanker goes across the dirt path that serves as a road in Kesum Purbahari, a slum on the southern edge of New Delhi. On bad days, when there is no electricity for the pumps, the tankers don’t come at all. “That water kills people,” a young mother named Shoba said one recent Saturday morning, pointing to a row of pails filled with thick, caramel (焦糖)-colored liquid.“Whoever drinks it will die.”The water was from a pipe shared by thousands of people in the poor neighborhood. Women often use it to wash clothes and bathe their children, but nobody is desperate enough to drink it.
There is no standard for how much water a person needs each day, but experts usually put the minimum at fifty litres. The government of India promises (but rarely provides) forty. Most people drink two or three litres—less than it takes to wash a toilet. The rest is typically used for cooking and bathing. Americans consume between four hundred and six hundred litres of water each day, more than any other people on earth. Most Europeans use less than half that. The women of Kesum Purbahari each hoped to drag away a hundred litres that day—two or three buckets’ worth. Shoba has a husband and five children, and that much water doesn’t go far in a family of seven, particularly when the temperature reaches a hundred and ten degrees before noon. She often makes up the difference with bottled water, which costs more than water delivered any other way. Sometimes she just buys milk; it’s cheaper. Like the poorest people everywhere, the people of New Delhi’s slums spend a far greater percentage of their incomes on water than anyone lucky enough to live in a house connected to a system of pipes.
1 The underlined word “slum” most likely means ______.
A. a village
B. a small town
C. an area of a town with badly-built, over-crowded buildings
D. the part of a town that lacks water badly
2. Sometimes the water tanker doesn’t come because ______.
A. the weather is bad
B. there is no electricity
C. there is no water
D. people don’t want the dirty water
3. A person needs at least ________ litres of water a day.
A. a hundred
B. four hundred
C. forty
D. fifty
4. Which of the following statements is wrong?
A. a hundred litres of water a day is enough for Shoba’s family
B. Americans uses the largest amount of water each day
C. in Kesum Purbahari milk is cheaper than bottled water
D. Shoba has a family of seven people
5. The passage mainly tells us ______.
A. how women in Kesum Purbahari gets their water
B. how much water a day a person deeds
C. that India lacks water badly
D. how India government manages to solve the problem of water
【参考答案】1—5、CBDAC
2016高考训练题。阅读理解阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table, reading his book. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to copy him in every way he could.
One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa, I try to read the book just like you, but I don’t understand it, and I forget what I understand as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the book do?”
The grandpa quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.”
The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandpa laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again.
This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned. Out of breath, he told his grandpa that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, so he went to get a bucket instead.
The grandpa said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard enough.”
The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandpa the basket was empty again. Out of breath, he said, “Grandpa, it’s useless!”
“So, you think it is useless?” the grandpa said, “Look at the basket.”
The boy looked at the basket and for the first time he realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean.
“Grandson, that’s what happens when you read the book. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you’ll be changed, inside and out.”
1. What puzzled the grandson most was ________.
A. whether it was useful to read books
B. why he forgot what he read soon
C. what kind of book he could understand
D. how he could read books like his grandpa
2. Why did Grandpa ask his grandson to fetch a basket of water?
A. To train him to run faster.
B. To clean the dirty basket in the river.
C. To punish him for not reading carefully.
D. To get him to realize the use of reading books.
3. What lesson can we learn from the story?
A. The old are always wiser than the young.
B. It is foolish to carry water with a basket.
C. Reading books can change a person gradually.
D. You can’t expect to remember whatever you read.
参考答案1—3、A D C