湖南省汝城二中2014届高考英语一轮复习阅读训练 (26)

　　阅读专练

　　第二部分：阅读理解第一节20小题，第二节5小题；每小题2分，满分50分第一节：阅读下列从每题所给的四个选项A、B、C和D中选出最佳选项并在答题纸上将该选项标号涂黑。

　　grinnies, if I thought about the term at all — which is unlikely. After all, everyone in my family used the word quite naturally, and we understood each other. So far as I knew, it was a word like any other word

　　?like bath, or wchocolate, or homework. But it was my homework which led to my discovery that grinnies was a word not known outside my family.

　　My last report card had said that I was a “C” student in English, and my parents, both teachers, decided that no child of theirs would be just an average student of anything. So nightly I spelled words aloud and answered questions about the fine points of grammar. I wrote and rewrote and rewrote every composition until I convinced my mother that I could make no more improvements. And the hard work paid off. One day the teacher returned compositions, and there it was ?a big fat, bright red h“A” on the top of my paper. Naturally, I was delighted, but I didn’t know I was attracting attention until the teacher spoke sharply, “Helen, what are you doing?”

　　Called suddenly out of my happy thoughts, I said “Oh, I’ve got the grinnies!” The teacher and my classmates burst into laughter, and then I understood that grinnies were used inside my family. Other people were not so lucky.

　　And it is really lucky to have the grinnies, an uncontrollable, natural state of great pleasure. Grinnies are shown on the outside by sparkling eyes and a wide, wide smile ?not just any smile, but one that shows the teeth and stretches the mouth to its limits. A person experiencing the rgrinnies appears to be all mouth. On the inside grinnies are characterized by a feeling of joyful anxiety. Grinnies usually last just a few seconds, but they can come and go. Sometimes, when life seems just perfect, I have occasional attacks of the grinnies for a whole day.

　　The term originated in my mother’s family. Her younger sister, Rose, who had deep dimples (酒窝), often expressed her pleasure with such a grin that the dimples appeared to become permanent. When Rose was about four, she started explaining her funny look by saying, “I have the grinnies”. The term caught on, and it has been an important word in our family now for two generations.

　　The occasion doesn’t matter. Anything can bring on the grinnies ?just so long as one feels great delight. When my brother finally rode his bicycle ?without training wheels ?from our house to the corner and back, he came home with the siogrinnies. When I was little, my mother’s announcement that we would have homemade ice cream for dessert always gave me the grinnies. My father had the grinnies when I was chosen to make a speech at the end-of-school-year ceremony. Grinnies can be brought on by a good meal, a sense of pride, a new friend, a telephone call from someone special, an achievement. Or sometimes one gets the grinnies for no reason at all: just a sudden sense of happiness can bring on a case. Whatever brings them on, an attack of the grinnies is among life’s greatest pleasures.

　　In fact, now that I look back on the experience, I feel sorry for my seventh-grade teacher. I think it’s a pity that she didn’t know the word grinnies. It’s such a useful term for saying, “I’m really, really pleased!”

　　41. After the writer was twelve years old, she ______.

　　A. thought everyone knew the meaning of “grinnies”

　　B. equaled “grinnies” to bath or chocolate in meaning

　　C. got to know “grinnies” was used only inside her family

　　D. discovered the word “grinnies” through her mother

　　42. When her English teacher called her name, the writer was ______.

　　A. looking at the big “A” on the top of her paper

　　B. listening to her English teacher attentively

　　C. too happy to notice what’s happening around her

　　D. busy rewriting and improving her compositions

　　43. According to the writer, the word “grinnies” originates from______.

　　A. her mother

　　B. her aunt

　　C. her brother

　　D. her father

　　44. The writer feels sorry for her seventh-grade teacher because the teacher______.

　　A. has no pity on her students

　　B. should not have laughed at her

　　C. doesn’t have any luck to meet her parent

　　D. has no idea of what “grinnies” is

　　45. What method does the writer use to explain “grinnies”?

　　A. Cause and effect.

　　B. Examples.

　　C. Comparison and contrast.

　　D. Process.

　　B

　　Below is a page from The World Almanac（年鉴）and Book of Facts 2008.

　　46. Which park has 365 miles of explored underground passages?

　　A. Arches, UT .

　　B. Cuyahoga Valley, OH.

　　C. Acadia, ME.

　　D. Mammoth Cave, KY.

　　47. In which year was Channel Islands first authorized as a protection site for sea lions, sea birds and unique plants?

　　A. 1929.

　　B. 1938.

　　C. 1978.

　　D. 1980.

　　48. The world’s tallest trees are found in _______.

　　A. Redwood, CA

　　B. Gates of the Arctic, AK

　　C. Canyonlands, UT

　　D. Kings Canyon, CA

　　49. In 1917, the national park Denali was named as _______.

　　A. Black Canyon of the Gunnison

　　B. Mount Desert Isl.

　　C. Mt. McKinley National Park

　　D. Rocky Mountain

　　C

　　Bonus（奖金） culture has become the subject of many studies nowadays. Many people have been angered by the way some bankers and high officials seem to have been rewarded for failure. Others find the idea of offering many-million-dollar bonuses morally disgusting.

　　But few have asked whether performance-related bonuses really do improve performance. The answer seems so obvious that even to ask the question can appear ridiculous. Indeed, in spite of all the complaints about them, financial encouragements continue to be introduced in more and more areas, from healthcare and public services to teaching and universities.

　　So it may come as a shock to many to learn that paying for results can actually make people perform badly in many circumstances, and that the more you pay, the worse they perform.

　　No one is arguing that bonuses can help companies and institutions attract and keep the best staff. Nor does anyone argue against the idea that you can encourage people to do specific tasks by linking payments to those tasks. Rather, the point is about how to get the best out of people. Do employees really perform better if you promise to pay them more for getting results?

　　There are some obvious reasons why such payments can fail. It has been argued, for instance, that cash bonuses contributed to the financial crash, because traders had little enthusiasm to make sure that their companies enjoyed long-term survival.

　　Most bonus projects are poorly designed, says Professor Malcolm Higgs. He thinks the reason is that organisations try to keep bonus arrangements simple. Nevertheless, he thinks bonus projects can work as long as they link the interests of individual employees with the long-term goals of a business.

　　Bonuses can also encourage cheating. “Once you start making people’s rewards dependent on outcomes rather than behaviours, the evidence is people will do whatever they can to get those outcomes,” says Professor Edward Deci. “In many cases the high officials simply lied and cheated to make the stock (股票) price go up so they got huge bonuses.”

　　But the work of Deci and others suggests the problem with bonuses runs far deeper than poor design or cheating. In 1971, he asked students to solve puzzles, with some receiving cash prizes for doing well and others getting nothing. Deci found those offered cash were less likely to keep working on puzzles after they had done enough to get paid.

　　These studies suggest that offering rewards can stop people doing things for the pure joy of it. This was the basis for a series of books by Kohn in which he argues that rewarding children, students and workers with grades, scholarships and other “bribes” (贿赂) leads to low-quality work in the long run.

　　Those who believe in the power of bonuses fail to distinguish between inner drive and outside pressure — wanting to do something because you like it for itself in contrast to doing something because you want the reward, Kohn says. “It’s not just that these two are different, it’s often that the more you reward people for doing something, the more their inner drive tends to decline.”

　　A “do this and get that” approach might improve performance in the short term, but over longer periods it will always fail, Kohn says. People who receive bonus will naturally play safe, become less creative, cooperate less and feel less valued, he adds. What’s more, the studies also suggest that offering rewards can also stop people taking responsibility.

　　50. The effect of performance-related bonuses has not been well studied because people _______.

　　A. take the function of bonuses for granted

　　B. see that bonus offering is done everywhere

　　C. think financial encouragement is disgusting

　　D. are shocked by the practice of rewarding for failures

　　51. According to Malcolm Higgs, designs that _________ are the good ones.

　　A. drive people to finish short-term tasks

　　B. help to attract and keep good employees

　　C. link financial rewards with the quality of the outcomes

　　D. connect individual interests with long-term business goals

　　52. If a person plays safe to get a bonus, he is probably being ________.

　　A. more enthusiastic

　　B. more risk-taking

　　C. less daring

　　D. less responsible

　　53. Which of the following do you think the author would most probably agree with?

　　A. Companies should make their bonus projects simple.

　　B. The benefit of bonus helps to get the best out of people.

　　C. The biggest problem with bonus is it creates cheating.

　　D. Bonus offering can stop people doing things for pure joy.

　　54. Which do you think is the best title of the passage?

　　A. What Is Bonus?

　　B. Does Bonus Work?

　　C. Why Bonus Offered?

　　D. How Bonus Works?

　　D

　　Which is sillier: denying we ever went to the moon or trying to convince the true nonbelievers?

　　Once upon a time – July 20, 1969, to be specific – two men got out of their little spaceship and wandered around on the moon for a while. Ten more men walked on the moon over the next three and a half years. The end.

　　Unfortunately, not quite. A fair number of Americans think that this whole business of moon landings really is a fairy tale. They believe that the landings were a big hoax (骗局) staged in the Mojave Desert, to convince everyone that U.S. technology was the “bestest” in the whole wide world.

　　Which is the harder thing to do: Send men to the moon or make believe we did? The fact is the physics behind sending people to the moon is simple. You can do it with computers whose entire memory capacities can now fit on chips the size of postage stamps and that cost about as much as, well, a postage stamp. I know you can because we did.

　　However, last fall NASA considered spending $15,000 on a public-relations campaign to convince the unimpressed that Americans had in fact gone to the moon. That idea was mostly a reaction to a Fox television program, first aired in February 2001, that claimed to expose the hoax. The show’s creator is a publicity hound (猎狗) who has lived up to the name in more ways than one by hounding Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon. Mr. X (as I will call him, thereby denying him the joyous sight of his name in print) recently followed Buzz Aldrin around and called him “a thief, liar and coward” until the 72-year-old astronaut finally lost it and hit the 37-year-old Mr. X in the face.

　　Anyway, NASA’s publicity campaign began to slow down. The nonbelievers took the campaign as NASA’s effort to hide something while the believers said that $15,000 to convince people that the world was round ?eI mean, that we had gone to the moon ?mwas simply a waste of money. (Actually, the $15,000 was supposed to pay for an article by James E. Oberg, an astronomy writer who, with Aldrin, has contributed to Scientific American.)

　　If NASA’s not paying Oberg, perhaps it could put the money to good use by hiring two big guys to drag Neil Armstrong out of the house. Armstrong is an extremely private man, but he is also the first man on the moon, so maybe he has a duty to be a bit more outspoken about the experience. Or NASA could just buy Aldrin a commemorate plaque (纪念匾) for his recent touch on the face of Mr. X.

　　55. We can learn from Paragraphs 2 and 3 that some Americans believe _______.

　　A. moon landings were invented

　　B. U.S. technology was the best

　　C. moon landing ended successfully

　　D. the Mojave Desert was the launching base

　　56. According to the writer, which of the following is to blame for the story about the hoax?

　　A. NASA’s publicity campaign.

　　B. The Fox television program.

　　C. Buzz Aldrin.

　　D. James E. Oberg.

　　57. According to the writer, Mr. X _______.

　　A. told a faithful story

　　B. was not treated properly

　　C. was a talented creator

　　D. had a bad reputation

　　58. The believers think that NASA’s publicity campaign is ________.

　　A. proof to hide the truth

　　B. stupid and unnecessary

　　C. needed to convince the non-believers

　　D. important to develop space technology

　　59. What is implied in the last paragraph?

　　A. NASA should not bother with the non-believers.

　　B. Armstrong was a very private and determined person.

　　C. Armstrong should be as outspoken as Buzz Aldrin.

　　D. NASA should send more astronauts to outer space.

　　60. The tone of the article is _______.

　　A. angry

　　B. conversational

　　C. humorous

　　D. matter-of-fact

　　浙江省岱山县大衢中学2012届高三12月月考（英语）

　　第二部分：阅读理解（第一节２０小题，第二节５小题；　每小题２分，满分５０分）

　　第一节：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“The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer

　　himself; to be conquered by himself is, of all things, the most shameful,” says Plato. Self-control is at the root of all the advantages. Let a man give in to his impulses (冲动) and feelings, and from that moment he gives up his moral freedom.

　　A single angry word has lost many friends. When Socrates found in himself any temper or anger, he would check it by speaking low in order to control himself. If you are conscious of being angry, keep your mouth shut so that you can hold back rising anger. Many a person has dropped dead in great anger. Fits of anger bring fits of disease. “Whoever the gods would destroy, they first make them mad.” “Keep cool,” says Webster, “anger is not argument.” “Be calm in arguing,” says George Herbert, “for fierceness (狂怒) makes error a fault.”

　　To be angry with a weak man is to prove that you are not strong yourself. “Anger,” says Pythagoras, “begins with foolishness and ends with regret.” You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings he conquers, not by the power of those which conquer him.

　　Self-control is man’s last and greatest victory.

　　If a man lacks self-control he seems to lack everything. Without it he can have no patience, no power to govern himself; he can have no self-confidence, for he will always be controlled by his strongest feeling. If he lacks self-control, the very backbone and nerve of character are lacking too.

　　41. What’s the main idea of the passage?

　　A. Self- control is important for a man.

　　B. We should learn to be strong.

　　C. A man who keeps cool won’t lose any game.

　　D. The great heroes in history knew how to control themselves.

　　42. What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 2 mean?

　　A. If you are mad, the gods will fail you.

　　B. If you lose your temper first, gods will fail you first.

　　C. If you can’t control yourself, you will be crazy.

　　D. If the gods want to fail you, they will make you mad first.

　　43. Which of the following is NOT true, according to passage?

　　A. The first and best of victories for a man is to conquer himself.

　　B. You will make a small mistake serious if you don’t keep cool.

　　C. You must measure a man’s strength by the power of the feelings which conquer him.

　　D. Anger begins with foolishness and ends with regret.

　　44. Which of the following can’t help you avoid anger, according to the passage?

　　A. Being calm in arguing.

　　B. Checking your temper or anger by speaking low.

　　C. Keeping your mouth shut.

　　D. Trying to make the other angry first.

　　B

　　Homestay provides English language students with the opportunity to speak English outside the classroom and the experience of being part of a British home.

　　What to Expect

　　The host will provide accommodation and meals. Rooms will be cleaned and bedcovers changed at least once a week. You will be given the house key and the host is there to offer help and advice as well as to take an interest in your physical and mental health.

　　Accommodation Zones

　　Homestays are located in London mainly in Zones 2,3 and 4 of the transport system. Most hosts don’t live in the town center as much of central London is commercial and not residential (居住的). Zones 3 and 4 often offer larger accommodation in a less crowded area. It is very convenient to travel in London by underground.

　　Meal Plans Available

　　Continental Breakfast

　　Breakfast and Dinner

　　Breakfast ,packed Lunch and Dinner.

　　It’s important to note that few English families still provide a traditional cooked breakfast . Your accommodation includes Continental Breakfast which normally consists of fruit juice, cereal(谷物)，bread and tea or coffee. Cheese ,fruit and cold meat are not normally part of a Continental Breakfast in English. Dinners usually consist of meat or fish with vegetables followed by dessert , fruit and coffee.

　　Friends

　　If you wish to invite a friend over to visit, you must first ask your host’s permission. You have no right to entertain friends in a family home as some families feel it is an invasion of their privacy.

　　Self-Catering Accommodation in Private Homes

　　Accommodation on a room-only basis includes shared kitchen and bathroom facilities and often a main living room. This kind of accommodation offers an independent lifestyle and is more suitable for the long-stay student . However, it does not provide the same family atmosphere as an ordinary homestay and may not benefit those who need to practice English at home quite as much.

　　45.The passage is probably written for

　　A. hosts willing to receive foreign students

　　B. foreigners hoping to build British culture

　　C. travellers planning to visit families in London

　　D. English learners applying to live in English homes

　　46.Which of the following will the host provide?

　　A. Room cleaning.

　　B. Medical care. C .Free transport.

　　D .Physical training.

　　47.What can be inferred from Paragraph3?

　　A. Zone 4 is more crowded than Zone 2.

　　B. The business centre of London is in Zone 1.

　　C. Hosts dislike traveling to the city centre.

　　D .Accommodation in the city center is not provided

　　48. According to the passage. What does continental Breakfast include?

　　A. Dessert and coffee

　　B. Fruit and vegetables.

　　C. bread and fruit juice

　　D. Centre and cold meat.

　　49.Why do some people choose self-catering accommodation?

　　A. To experience a warmer family atmosphere.

　　B. To enrich their knowledge of English

　　C. To entertain friends as they like.

　　D. To enjoy much more freedom.

　　C

　　Don’t you just love ice skating every winter? I am sure, that since winter is approaching, your skates are set to come out, just waiting to be used. Impress your friends with your new trick on how to ice-skate backwards with the help of these tips. Skating backwards on ice is a bit difficult but once you master the basic, there’s nothing like it. Follow the steps given below and you will be able to skate backwards in no time.

　　Stand Straight

　　The first thing that you need to do is, stand straight. If you feel that you are falling backwards, then just put your chin (下巴) up and slightly bend your knees. Don’t worry; this happens to all.

　　Confidence is What You Need

　　The most important step while learning how to skate backwards, is having enough confidence in yourself and in what you are doing. How can you achieve this? By practice. Just practice rolling backwards down a gentle slop every single day or just by pushing off from a wall or something of that sort. But before you do that, make sure that the place where you are practicing is free from any kind of debris (碎片) because otherwise, you could land up in the hospital due to some accident. While going backwards, just get used to the feeling of moving backwards. One of the important ice skating tips and techniques is that if you feel that you are losing your balance, then scissor (做剪式运动) your skates. Keep practicing this till you are confident about it.

　　Maintain Speed

　　Confident now? Great! Now the next step is to maintain your speed. While rolling in a straight line with one skate, with the other try sculling (滑桨), that is, keep pushing yourself backwards with an outwards stroke (滑动). Now bring the skate which you were using to scull, and then again, repeat the same process. Make sure that you put most of your weight on the skate which is moving straight and not the one with which you are sculling. Now, try the same thing using the other foot. Again keep doing this till you are confident enough.

　　Increase Your Speed Now

　　Once you are confident that you can scull with either foot, the next thing that you have to do is increase your speed. Try some of your own tricks now. Scull with either foot or with both at the same time.

　　Scull and Be Aware

　　While you keep one foot straight, keep sculling with the other. You can do that simultaneously(同时，一起) with both feet. Concentrate on what you are doing but don’t get so involved, that you don’t see where you are going. If you are not watching your back, you might just bang against something or someone.

　　50. According to the text confidence comes from ___________ .

　　A. high speed

　　B. strict coaches

　　C. constant exercise

　　D. good techniques

　　51. Which is the right order of ice-skating backwards?

　　a. Increasing your speed.

　　b. Being able to scull with one foot.

　　c. Being about to stand straight.

　　d. Trying some different tricks.

　　A. c→a→d→b

　　B. c→b→d→a

　　C. a→c→b→d

　　D. c→b→a→d

　　52. In order to keep balance when skating backwards you should__________.

　　A. skate in a scissor gesture

　　B. use both your feet to scull

　　C. skate forward first and then backward

　　D. put most of your weight on the skate with which you are sculling

　　53. In the last paragraph the author mainly wants to express___________.

　　A. skating and keeping cautious are both important

　　B. one must be brave to learn to ice-skate backwards

　　C. it’s difficult to concentrate when ice-skating backwards

　　D. it’s a common thing to hit someone when ice-skating backwards

　　54. The purpose of the text is________________.

　　A. to compare different ways of ice-skating backwards

　　B. to introduce the culture of ice-skating backwards

　　C. to explain advantages of ice-skating backwards

　　D. to offer some advice on ice-skating backwards

　　D

　　When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember well the polished old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with great interest when my mother used to talk to it. Then I discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device lived an amazing person — her name was Information Please and there was nothing she did not know. Information Please could supply anybody’s number.

　　My first personal experience with Information Please came one day while my mother was visiting a neighbor. I accidentally hit my finger with a hammer. The pain was terrible, but there didn’t seem to be any reason in crying because there was no one home to give sympathy. I walked around the house sucking my hurting finger, finally arriving at the stairway — The telephone! Climbing up I unhooked the receiver and held it to my ear. “Information Please,” I said.

　　A click or two and a small clear voice spoke into my ear. “Information.”

　　“I hurt my finger …” I cried. The tears came readily enough now that I had an audience. “Isn’t your mother home?” came the question. “Nobody’s home but me.” I sobbed. “Are you bleeding?” “No,” I replied. “I hit my finger with the hammer and it hurts.” “Can you open your icebox?” she asked. I said I could. “Then chip off a little piece of ice and hold it to your finger.”

　　After that I called Information Please for everything. I asked her for help with my geography and she told me where Philadelphia was. And there was the time that Petey, our pet canary (金丝雀) died. I called Information Please and told her the sad story. She listened, and then said the usual things grown-ups say to comfort a child. But I was unconsoled. Why is it that birds should sing so beautifully and bring joy to all families, only to end up as a heap of feathers, feet up on the bottom of a cage?

　　She must have sensed my deep concern, for she said quietly, “Paul, always remember that there are other worlds to sing in.” Somehow I felt better.

　　Another day I was on the telephone. “Information Please.” “Information,” said the now familiar voice. “How do you spell fix?” I asked.[

　　All this took place in a small town in the pacific Northwest. Then when I was 9 years old, we moved to Boston. I missed my friend very much. Information Please belonged in that old wooden box back home, and I somehow never thought of trying the tall, shiny new phone that sat on the hall table. Yet as I grew into my teens, the memories of those childhood conversations never really left me; often in moments of doubt and sadness I would recall the sense of security I had then. I appreciated now how patient, understanding, and kind she was to have spent her time on a little boy.

　　A few years later, on my way west to college, my plane put down in Seattle. I had about half an hour or so between planes, and I spent 15 minutes or so on the phone with my sister, who lived there now. Then without thinking what I was doing, I dialed my hometown operator and said, “Information Please.”

　　Miraculously (出乎意料地), I heard again the small, clear voice I knew so well, “Information.” I hadn’t planned this but I heard myself saying, “Could you tell me please how to spell fix?” There was a long pause. Then came the soft spoken answer, “I guess that your finger must have healed by now.”

　　I laughed, “So it’s really still you,” I said. “I wonder if you have any idea how much you meant to me during that time.”

　　“I wonder,” she said, “if you know how much your calls meant to me. I never had any children, and I used to look forward to your calls.”

　　I told her how often I had thought of her over the years and I asked if I could call her again when I came back to visit my sister.

　　“Please do; just ask for Sally.”

　　Just three months later I was back in Seattle … A different voice answered Information and I asked for Sally.

　　“Are you a friend?” “Yes, a very old friend.” “Then I’m sorry to have to tell you. Sally has been working part-time the last few years because she was sick. She passed away five weeks ago.” But before I could hang up she said, “Wait a minute. Did you say your name was Paul?”

　　“Yes.”

　　“Well, Sally left a message for you. She wrote it down. Here it is. I’ll read it. ‘Tell him I still say there are other worlds to sing in. He’ll know what I mean.’”

　　I thanked her and hung up. I did know what Sally meant.

　　55. According to the text, Information Please is actually _________.

　　A. a robot

　　B. the author’s mother

　　C. a telephone operator

　　D. the telephone itself

　　56. The author picked up the telephone for the first time to ________.

　　A. call his mother who was visiting a neighbor[

　　B. find someone to give him sympathy

　　C. call the doctor for his wounded finger

　　D. find out what exactly lived in the telephone

　　57. The underlined word “unconsoled” in Paragraph 6 means ________.

　　A. too sad to have a talk

　　B. difficult to deal with somebody

　　C. hard to communicate with somebody

　　D. unable to accept comfort

　　58. Why did the author never think of trying the new phone after moving to Boston?

　　A. He hadn’t got used to the line service in Boston yet.

　　B. There was something wrong with the new phone.

　　C. He missed Information Please in the old phone so much.

　　D. He didn’t like the tall and shiny style of the new phone.

　　59. We can learn from the text that Sally _________.

　　A. had no children

　　B. changed her job at last

　　C. didn’t want to meet the author

　　D. had been away from Seattle for year

　　60. What did Sally mean by saying those underlined words in the message?

　　A. She went to another place to make a living as a singer.

　　B. The world without her would still be good to the author.

　　C. The author should explore new worlds for his new life.

　　D. The author didn’t need to feel sad for her death.