阅读理解-----B----(2017·郑州市二模，B)
It was an autumn morning shortly after my husband and I moved into our first house. Our children were upstairs unpacking, and I was looking out of the window at my father moving around mysteriously on the front lawn. “What are you doing out there？” I called to him.
He looked up, smiling, “I'm making you a surprise.” I thought it could be just about anything. When we were kids, he always created something surprising for us. Today, however, Dad would say no more, and caught up in the business of our new life, I eventually forgot about his surprise.
Until one gloomy day the next March when I glanced out of the window, I saw
a dot of blue across the yard.
I headed outside for a closer look.
They were
crocuses (番红花) throughout the front lawn—blue, yellow and my favorite pink,
with little faces moving up and down in the cold wind. I remembered the things Dad secretly
planted last autumn. He knew how the darkness and dullness of winter always got me down.
What could have been more perfectly timely to my needs?
My father's crocuses bloomed (开花) each spring for the next five seasons, always bringing
the same assurance: Hard times are almost over. Hold on, keep going, and light is coming soon.
Then a spring came with only half the usual blooms and the next spring there were none. I
missed the crocuses, so I would ask Dad to come over and plant new bulbs. But I never did. He
died suddenly one October day. My family were in deep sorrow, leaning on our faith.
On a spring afternoon four years later, I was driving back when I felt depressed. It was
Dad's birthday, and I found myself thinking about him. This was not unusual—my family often
talked about him, remembering how he lived up to his faith. Suddenly I slowed as I turned into
our driveway. I stopped and stared at the lawn. There on the muddy grass with small piles of
melting snow, bravely waving in the wind, was one pink crocus.
How could a flower bloom from a bulb more than 18 years ago, one that hadn't bloomed in
over a decade? But there was the crocus. Tears filled my eyes as I realized its significance.
Hold on, keep going, and light is coming soon. The pink crocus bloomed for only a day, but
it built my faith for a lifetime.
文章大意：本文是一篇充满爱和哲理的记叙文。文章主要讲述了搬家之后，作者的父亲在她家草坪里种下了番红花。这让作者在寒冷的冬天情绪也不会低落。多年之后的一个下午，作者发现18年前种下的已有10多年未曾生长开花的球茎，如今重新开放，这让作者理解了其深刻的含义：只要坚持不懈，光明就会来临。
4．According to the first three paragraphs, we learn that ________.
A．it kept bothering the author not knowing what the surprise was
B．the author was unpacking when her father was making the surprise
C．it was not the first time that the author's father had made a surprise
D．the author knew what the surprise was because she knew her father
答案：C 细节理解题。根据文章第二段第三句“When we were kids, he always created something surprising for us.”可知，作者的父亲从她小的时候就一直给她惊喜，这已不是第一次了。故答案选C。
5．Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A．The author usually felt depressed in the season of winter.
B．The author's father planted the crocuses to lift her low spirits.
C．The author often thought about her father after he died.
D．The crocuses bloomed each spring before her father died.
答案：D 细节理解题。根据文章第三段倒数第二句“He knew how the darkness and dullness of winter always got me down.”可知，A、B两项正确。根据文章倒数第三段第二句“It was Dad's birthday, and I found myself thinking about him.”和第三句可知，作者经常会想起她的父亲，所以C正确。所以本题应选D。
6．The author's father should be best described as ________.
A．a parttime worker who loved flowers
B．a kindhearted man who lived with faith
C．a fulltime gardener with skillful hands
D．an ordinary man with doubts in his life
答案：B 推理判断题。根据文章中讲述父亲为防止作者在冬天情绪低落而为她种了番红花可知，他有爱心且心地善良；根据文章倒数第三段第三句中“remembering how he lived up to his faith”可知，父亲实践着自己的信仰。故答案选B。
7．What can be the best title for the passage?
A．Crocuses—My Source of Faith
B．Crocuses—Father's Surprise
C．A Pink Crocus—My Memory
D．Crocuses in Blossom—My Favorite
答案：A 标题概括题。根据文章最后一段第二句“The pink crocus bloomed for only a day, but it built my faith for a lifetime.”可知，作者在父亲为她种的番红花上找到了人生信仰。故答案选A。
阅读理解--------C
This is our country, America. The country where everyone is supposed to have a shot at financial success. The country of dreams and ambition. Yet, caused by the endless pursuit of individual profit, our country is a mess. And we owe it all to capitalism.
We live in a society where people are forced to live without health coverage. A country where the poor can hardly feed themselves while the rich decide which one of their 10 homes to stay at for the night. All of these sad things arise out of capitalism.
Sadly, our country values little more than money. It motivates our decisions and even influences entire political parties. We have gotten to the point in society where a human life comes secondary to our financial security. Any rational society would value life above all else and realize that health is a basic human right. Yet in our world, money comes first.
I never once have claimed to be an economist and have no interest in debating the financial advantages of any economic system. Yet socialism surely looks better than what we have.
If we lived in a socialist society, we would be a country without such an unfair wealth distribution. We would value friendship over business and we would treat one another as humans. Most importantly, however, is that money would stop controlling our lives and we could act how humans should act.
Capitalism has created an “every man for himself” existence. Everything is a battle for limited resources and fuels. We have become so accustomed to the life value that we will do whatever we have to look out for ourselves. Yet is this really the kind of life we want?
We have become so illusioned. We are tired of the misdirection. All economic systems have their issues, but I feel like ours is turning our country into something it shouldn’t be. The good of man falls secondary to money. In our world, it is all about dollars and cents, which, unfortunately for most, makes no sense.
51. In the author’s opinion, the root cause of the present situation in his country is __________.
A. money
B. people’s value
C. social unfairness
D. social system
【答案】D
【解析】细节理解题。根据we owe it all to capitalism所有的一切都是因为是资本主义社会，也就是他们国家的制度，故选D。
52. According to the passage, which is NOT the characteristic of capitalism?
A. individualism
B. endless pursuit of wealth
C. humanism
D. great gap between the rich and the poor
【答案】C
【解析】细节理解题。individualism个人利己主义； endless pursuit of wealth 无休止追求财富；humanism 人道主义；great gap between the rich and the poor富人和穷人的距离拉大；根据Capitalism has created an “every man for himself” existence.利己主义；caused by the endless pursuit of individual profit, 无休止追求财富；If we lived in a socialist society, we would be a country without such an unfair wealth distribution. 财富分配不均；这些都是资本主义的特征，只有人道主义是社会主义的特征，故选C。
53. How does the author feel about his country?
A. concerned
B. angry
C. skeptical
D. hopeless
【答案】A
【解析】细节理解题。concerned关心的； angry生气的； skeptical 怀疑的； hopeless绝望的。根据Yet is this really the kind of life we want? I feel like ours is turning our country into something it shouldn’t be.这里显示出作者很关心自己的国家，故选A。
54. Which of the following would the author agree with?
A. Life should be placed at the top of our considerations.
B. Socialism is perfect.
C. Health is equally important as wealth.
D. The pursuit for wealth should be restricted.
【答案】A
【解析】细节理解题。根据Any rational society would value life above all else 及The good of man falls secondary to money.作者同意钱放在第二位，生命放在第一位，故选A。
55. Which of the following might be the best title of the passage?
A. How to Save America
B. Capitalism Is in Trouble
C. Why Is America in Trouble
D. America Is in Trouble
【答案】C
【解析】标题归纳题。根据本文的内容叙述了美国为什么处于困境之中，故选C。
阅读理解--------A
Technology has been an encouragement of historical change. It acted as such a force in England beginning in the eighteenth century, and across the entire Western World in the nineteenth. Rapid advances were made in the use of scientific findings in the manufacture (制造) of goods, which has changed ideas about work. One of the first changes was that other forms of energy have taken the place of human power. Along with this came the increased use of machines to manufacture products in less time. People also developed machines that could produce the same parts for a product: each nail was exactly like every other nail, meaning that each nail could be changed for every other nail. This means that goods could be mass production, although mass production required breaking production down into smaller and smaller tasks.
Workers no longer started on the product and labored to complete it. Instead, they might work only one thousandth of it, other workers completing their own parts in certain order. There is nothing strange about this manufacturing work by today's standards. Highly skilled workers were unable to compare with the new production techniques, as mass production allowed goods of high standard to be produced in greater number than could ever be done by hand. But the skilled worker wasn't the only loser, the common workers lost too. Similar changes forced farmer away. The increased mechanization (机械化) of agriculture freed masses of workers from ploughing the land and harvesting its crops. They had little choice but to stream toward the rapidly developing industrial centers. Increasingly, standards were set by machines. Workers no longer owned their own tools, their skill was no longer valued, and pride in their work was no longer possible. Workers fed, looked after and repaired the machines that could work faster than humans at greatly reduced cost.
1. In this passage, which of the following is NOT considered as a change caused by the use of scientific findings in the production of goods?
A. Other forms of energy have taken the place of human power.
B. The increased exploitation of workers in the 19th century.
C. The increased use of machines to make products in less time.[
D. The use of machines producing parts of the same standard.
答案解析：答案为B。本题为细节题。从文章的第一段 “One of the first changes was that other forms of energy have taken the place of human power. Along with this came the increased use of machines to manufacture products in less time. People also developed machines that could produce the same parts for a product:” 可知，A、C、D都在文中提到了。故答案为B。
2. According to the writer, highly skilled workers ______
A. completely disappeared with the coming of the factory system
B. were dismissed by the boss
C. were unable to produce goods of high standard
D. were unable to produce fine goods at that same speed as machines
答案解析：答案为D。本题为细节题。从文章第二段 “Highly skilled workers were unable to compare with the new production techniques, as mass production allowed goods of high standard to be produced in greater number than could ever be done by hand.” 可知，机器批量生产的产品标准高，数量多，这是手工生产无法匹敌的。故答案为D。
3. According to the passage, what did the farmers have to do with the coming of mechanization of agriculture?
A. Many of them had to leave their farmland for industrial centers.
B. They stuck to their farm work.
C. They refused to use machines.
D They did their best to learn how to use the machines.
答案解析：答案为A。本题为细节题。从第二段的倒数第四句话 “They had little choice but to stream toward the rapidly developing industrial centers.” 可知，答案为A。
阅读理解---------D
A lot of interesting things have happened in the past several months as people from all walks of life learn how to stretch their money. A lot of changes have been accelerated by the fuel shocks during the summer of 2008; in a lot of ways we seem to be reverting to the frugal(economical) sensibilities of a past generation. More people are choosing to be more picky when they swipe their credit cards even if that means not buying things until they have money in their bank accounts, the days of the $0-down mortgage(抵押贷款)seem to be murdered, and there is a lot more acceptance of environmentally-friendly technologies that promise to reduce our overall dependency on foreign oil even if it means taking a hit to the excesses that used to define our quality of living.
An interesting new trend being taken by small businesses is the practice of offering discounted prices to customers willing to pay in cash. This is not the same as paying “under the table”---rather, the store saves its merchant processing fees and passes those savings on to the customers. The idea is a good one in principle---paying in cash forces consumers to take stock of what they are spending as much as it saves stores from transaction(交易) fees.
Of course there are drawbacks to the plan. When people pay in cash, they tend to be more conservative with their spending since they tangibly(really) feel their money leave their possession. That will cause stores to lose profits because customers will think twice before buying high—margin “impulse” products at checkout whereas before they might not have thought twice before charging it. Increased volume of cash handling opens stores to loss through employee theft at the till(抽屉), not to mention controls that need to be put into place to count and deposit physical currency.
Our family has saved a fortune by switching to cash. When getting to the bottom of your change jar means no more purchase power until your next pay period, you really start to appreciate the fine art of merchandising(做买卖) and the expertise applied to make you want to buy more and more. Cold hard cash feels more organic, and helps us to appreciate the effort it takes to maintain our lifestyle.
56. From the passage, we can learn that __________.
A. customers are in a more favorable position by paying in cash.
B. people will not be allowed to use their credit cards if there is no money in their bank account.
C. people have adjusted their way of living to the new situation.
D. people are living better than before by paying in cash.
【答案】C
【解析】细节理解题。根据全文的内容可知出现了新的现象时，人们会慢慢地去适应，故选C。
57. By saying “people from all walks of life learn how to stretch their money”, the author means that _________.
A. people walk to work in order to save money.
B. people of all professions learn to make the best use of their money.
C. people of the whole society learn to earn more money.
D. all people learn to extend money so that it is worth more.
【答案】B
【解析】句意理解题。all walks of life各行各业；stretch their money充分利用钱；这句应该是来自各行各业的人们都充分利用他们自己的钱，也就是让钱发挥最大的作用，故选B。
58. When the customers pay their goods in cash, the stores will be affected in the following ways EXCEPT ___________.
A. the sale of their goods will decrease as the customers are more reluctant to buy things.
B. there is a potential danger of money loss by their staff.
C. it brings a burden to the stores as they need to deal with the cash.
D. the stores make less money as they need to give some money back to the customers.
【答案】D
【解析】细节理解题。根据That will cause stores to lose profits because customers will think twice因为顾客不是情愿地去买东西所以商店的销售量会有所下降，选项A符合原文；Increased volume of cash handling opens stores to loss through employee theft at the till(抽屉), not to mention controls that need to be put into place to count and deposit physical currency.
有大量地现金使员工处理现金时负担增大，同时也增加了员工丢失钱的危险，选项CD符合原文；只有选项D没有提到，故选D。
59. What caused people to start to use cash instead of credit cards?
A. The rising prices.
B. High unemployment.
C. The fuel shocks.
D. The economic crisis.
【答案】C
【解析】细节理解题。根据A lot of changes have been accelerated by the fuel shocks during the summer of 2008; in a lot of ways we seem to be reverting to the frugal(economical) sensibilities of a past generation.由于燃料的冲击，我们为了节俭，又开始使用现金来代替信用卡，故选C。
60. What’s the author’s attitude towards the practice of paying in cash?
A. Approving
B. Ridiculous
C. Uninterested
D. Opposed
【答案】A
【解析】细节理解题。approving赞成的； ridiculous荒谬的； uninterested不感兴趣的；
opposed 反对的。根据Cold hard cash feels more organic, and helps us to appreciate the effort it takes to maintain our lifestyle.可知作者对于现金支付是赞成的，故选A。