Reading comprehension. Many experts complain that media too often take advan

题型：上海高考真题难度：来源：

Reading comprehension.     Many experts complain that media too often take advantage of the science fiction aspects of nanotech (纳
米技术). Reports of nanotech often refer to K. Eric Drexler"s book Engines of Creations, which predicts an
age full of dominant molecular (分子的) manufacturing and a world without material scarcity. Whatever
humans need will one day be built cheaply with microscopic self-replicating machines (微细自我复制机) that
put atoms together to create copies of anything alive in the world-from trees to human bodies.
     In fact, the scientific community is deeply divided over whether self-replication machines are possible. If
they are, major dangers could exist. Mr. Drexler himself thought that self-replicating machines could probably
go out of control. He writes in his book that man-made "plants" with "leaves no more efficient than today"s solar
cells could win over real plants,crowding the earth with leaves that are not suitable to be eaten. Tough "bacteria"
could be more competitive than the real bacteria: They could spread everywhere, replicate swiftly, and reduce
the earth to dust in a matter of days."
     Critics of nanotech have made use of such images, calling for a delay on commercial nanotech until
regulations are established. They also point to the possible military uses of nanotech. Bill Joy, the co-founder of
Sun Microsystems, wrote in a Wired magazine essay in 2000 that if nanotech falls into the wrong hands, it could
bring dangers to society.
     Opponents say Mr. Joy is overreacting. "In a way, calling for bans on research into molecular manufacturing
is like calling for a delay on faster-than-light travel because no one is doing it," says Glenn Reynolds, a University
of Tennessee law professor.
     Professor Reynolds says it is a good idea to regulate nanotech, but in ways the government would regulate
any products that could be dangerous. Export controls and certification systems for nanotech companies are
examples. US lawmakers have put forth four bills on nanotech research and development. 1. K. Eric Drexler in his book predicts a future world with sufficient material, because _____. A. man-made plants could replace real plants and grow more quickly
B. plants produced by nanotech would be as efficient as today"s solar cells
C. man-made bacteria would be widespread and capable of self-replicating
D. humans could create copies of anything alive with high technology 2. To call for a delay on commercial nanotech, critics of nanotech make use of _____. A. current social problems
B. science fiction descriptions
C. disagreements in the scientific community
D. the fact that no one is doing molecular manufacturing 3. Opponents of Bill Joy would NOT agree to _____. A. control nanotech export
B. ban nanotech research to avoid any possible dangers
C. put forth bills on nanotech research and development
D. establish a certification system for annotech companies 4. Which of the following statements best summarizes the main idea of the passage? A. Nanotech should not be put into wrong use in the military field.
B. The government should regulate products that could be dangerous.
C. Nanotech regulations should be established in spite of the divided opinions.
D. The media should not take advantage of the science fiction aspects of nanotech.

答案

1-4 DBBC

举一反三

阅读理解。     One of the greatest killers in the Western world in heart disease. The death rate (率) from the disease
has been increasing at an alarming speed for the past thirty years. Today in Britain, for example, about
four hundred people a day die of heart disease. Mdical experts know that people can reduce their chances
of getting heart disease by exercising regularly, by not smoking, by changing their diets, and by paying
more attention to reducing stress (压力) in their work.
     However, Western health-care systems are still not paying enough attention to the prevention of the
disease. There is a need for more programs to educate the public about the causes and prevention of heart
disease. Instead of supporting such programs,however, the U.S. health-care system is spending large sums
of money on the surgical (外科的) treatment of the disease after it develops. This emphasis (强调) on
treatment clearly has something to do with the technological advances that have taken place in the past ten
to fifteen years. In this time,modern technology has enabled doctors to develop new surgical techniques.
Many operations that were considered impossible or too risky (有风险的) a few years ago are now
performed every day in U.S.hospitals. The result had been a huge increase in heart surgery.
     Although there is no doubt that heart surgery can help a large number of people, some people point out
that the emphasis on the surgical treatment of the disease has three clear disadvantages. First, it attracts
interest and money away from the question of prevention.Second, it causes the costs of general hospital
care to rise. After hospitals buy the expensive equipment that is necessary for modern heart surgery, they
must try to recover the money they have spent. To do this, they raise costs for all their patients, not just
those patients whose treatment requires the equipment. The third disadvantage is that doctors are
encouraged to perform surgery-even on patients for whom an operation is unnecessary-because the
equipment and expert skills are there. A government office recently stated that major heart surgery was
often performed even though its chances of success were low. In one type of heart surgery, for example,
only 15 percent of patients improved their conditions after the surgery. However,more than 100,000 of these
operations are performed in the United States every year. 1. What effect has modern technology had on medicine? A. It has reduced the costs of medical treatment.
B. It has helped save the lives of most patients
C. It has encouraged doctors to do more heart surgeries
D. It has helped educate people about the prevention of heart disease 2. "To do this" (in Paragraph 3)means _____. A. to help patients recover
B. to increase the number of heart surgeries
C. to get back the money spent on the equipment
D. to buy new equipment for the treatment to heart disease 3. The author would agree that _____.A. more money should be spent on the prevention of heart disease
B. heart surgery has helped most patients improve their conditions
C. modern technology has made heart surgery more risky than before
D. the public have known a great deal about the causes of heart disease 4. What would be the best title for the passage? A. The Greatest Killer in the West
B. Heart Disease: Treat or Prevent
C. Modern Technology and Heart Surgery
D. Heart Surgery:Advantages and Disadvantages

题型：北京高考真题难度：| 查看答案

阅读理解。     The tower of Big Ben, London"s most famous building, has always leaned (倾斜) slightly, but
construction work on a new line for the London Underground seemed likely to give the tower a
real lean. Engineers have had to prop up (支撑) its base to prevent it from damaging the rest of the
Houses of Parliament.
     To control the tower"s movement,engineers pumped grout (水泥浆) into the soil under the tower.
The tower not leans an extra few centimeters, but the lean can only be seen by the most sharp-eyed
observer.
     Between 1995 and 1997, to lengthen the Jubilee line of the Underground, builders dug a
40-metre-deep hole just 31 metres north of the clock tower. And the new tube (underground ) tunnels
were even nearer to the tower. John Burland, who recently helped stop the increasing lean in the
Leaning Tower of Pisa and was an adviser to the Jubilee line project, believed the work would affect
the tower. In his opinion,no further lean should go beyond a safety limit of 27.5 millimetres over the
existing lean of 220 millimetres.
     To keep the lean within this limit,Burland told the British Association about the new method of
pumping grout immediately unde the base of the tower.More than 300 tons of grout were pumped
in during construction.The tower"s additional lean went between 10 and 25 millimetres,but never
passed 27.5 millimetres.
      After the construction work was completed in last 1997, a review of movements in nearby walls
showed that the building was in better shape than had been thought before and the safety limit was
raised to 35 millimetres before any action needs to be taken.
     Since 1997,the tower had continued to lean, Burland told Modern Constuction.The latest
measurements,taken this year,suggest that the tower"s lean had just reached 35 millimetres.But
following regular re-examinations of the tower,experts are sure that the tower has stabilised(稳定).
A spokesman for London Underground says: "We understand the tower has stabilised and retuned to
its normal movement cycle."
                                                                                   From Modern Construction, 16 September 2000 1. Which of the following drawings correctly shows how the propping up construction was carried out?

2. What does the word " review"(in Paragraph 5) mean? A. Observation
B. Description
C. Discussion
D. Re-examination 3. Why was the propping up construction necessary? A. To stop the tower of Big Ben from leaning
B. To stop sharp-eyed people from seeing the lean
C. To stop the Tower Pisa from leaning too much
D. To stop the clock tower from leaning beyond its safety limit 4. What was the existing lean of the tower at the time when the article was written? A. 220 millimetres
B. 255 millimetres
C. 35 millimetres
D. 27.5 millimetres 5. We can infer from the article that _____.A. the tower of Big Ben will damage the Houses of Parliament
B. the Jubilee line should be stopped in Burland"s opinion
C. the writer is blaming Burland for making a mistake
D. the propping up work has proved to be successful

题型：北京高考真题难度：| 查看答案

阅读理解。     A newspaper in Helsinki, Finland, recently published a cartoon of a baby with a mobile phone, telling
his parents that his diaper (尿布) needed changing. But it"s hardly a joke. Helsinki is home to Nokia, the
mobile-phone maker. It"s one of the most "mobile" cities in the world: About 92 percent of its households
have at least one mobile phone. And the kids start young.
     "A relatively normal age to get a mobile phone is now 7," says Jan Virkki, marketing manager for a
mobile-phone company. Among the second graders at the Kulosaari Elementary School, the most popular
object of desire this year is not a Barbie or a Gameboy. It is a Nokia mobile phone with a picture of their
own choice on the screen.
      "One of the first things we discuss when school starts is the rules for mobile phones," says Tiia Korppi,
a teacher. Among the rules: You have to put it away out of sight. You cannot turn it on. You cannot send
text messages to your friends, or play amusing tunes (令人发笑的曲调) in class, or call your parents or
call for a pizza during history.

1. The author uses the newspaper cartoon to show that _____. A. he is good at telling jokes
B. he cares much for children
C. mobile phones are toys for new-born babies
D. mobile phones are widely used in Finland 2. The passage is mainly about _____. A. different uses of mobile phones
B. a successful mobile-phone maker
C. effects of mobile phones on children
D. school rules for the use of mobile phones

题型：北京高考真题难度：| 查看答案

阅读理解。 If you dream of going someplace warm to escape the cold winter weather, a trip to a recently discovered
planet would certainly warm you right up, The planet, named OCLE-TR-56b, has temperatures of more than
3,000 °F. "This is the hottest planet we know about," says Dr. Dimitar Sasselov, a scientist who led the
discovery team, "It is hot enough to have an iron fog and to rain hot iron droplets (细沫)"
The new planet is 30 times farther away than any planet discovered by scientists before. It is in the Milky
Way (银河) but it is not in our solar (太阳的) system The new planet moves around a star much like our sun,
however. Seientists discovered the planet by using a new planet-searching method, called "transit technique"
They were able to catch sight of the planet when it moved in front of its star, causing the star"s light to dim
(变暗). Scientists compare the method to discovering the shadow of a bee flying in front of a searchlight 200
miles away. "We believe the door has heen opened wide to go and discover planets like Earth," says Sasedlov. 1. We can infer from the passage that _____. A. there is iron on the new planet
B. we could go to the new planet in winter
C. the star could block our view of the new planet
D. scientists are studying the weather on the new planet 2. The "transit technique" can _____. A. help dim the light of a star.
B. help scientists with a searchlight
C. help discover a bee on a planet
D. help find a planet moving before its star 3. Which is the best title for the passage? A. New Planet-searching Technique
B. New Distant Discovery
C. Space Searching
D. Dream Planet

题型：北京高考真题难度：| 查看答案

阅读理解。     Elephants don"t forget-at least, female (雌性的) elephants don"t. Elephant families are matriarchal. And
the social knowledge gained by the oldest females is the key to a family group"s survival (生存), according
to a study published in April by Karen McComb, a biologist at Sussex University in England.
     Elephants announce their presence by making a deep, long sound, a practice referred to as contact calling
(联络呼叫). An unfamiliar call may mean that an elephant from outside the family group is nearby. A stranger
can cause trouble. Interrupting feeding or disturbing the young. So an elephant matriarch signals the family to
gather around her; then they all lift their trunks in the air to smell the unfamiliar caller. False alarms can disturb
the group and take time and energy away from feeding, so survival may depend in part on getting it right.
     Working with Cynthia Moss, who founded the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in Kenya 30 years ago,
McComb tested the social knowledge of 21 Amboseli elephant families with matriarchs 27 to 67 years old. She
played recordings of contact calls to each family and found that the oldest matriarchs were much better at
picking out unfamiliar calls. In fact, a group with a matriarch in her fifties was several thousand times more
likely to form into a group upon hearing an unfamiliar contact call than when hearing a familiar call. However,
families with younger matriarchs were less than twice as likely to gather together upon hearing an unfamiliar
contact call as compared with a familiar call. And they gathered together a lot. Moreover, the social knowledge
of older matriarchs translated into favourable results: Families with older matriarchs produced more baby
elephants in each female-reproductive year.
     This finding shows how difficult it is to protect the oldest members of elephant families. As elephants age,
they continue to grow larger,as do their much wanted tusks (象牙). So the older-and wiser-a matriarch is, the
greater the chance she will be killed. About 800,000 elephants have been killed by people in the past 20 years.

1. What does the underlined word "matriarch" mean? A. An old member of an elephant family.
B. A female head of an elephant family
C. A wise elephant.
D. A large elephant. 2. When do elephants form into a group?A. When they are feeding the young.
B. When they see a familiar elephant.
C. When they are giving birth to baby elephants.
D. When the leading elephant gives out a warning.3. The research with recordings of contact calls shows _____. A. how fast elephants form into groups
B. how important the age of a leading elephant is
C. how frightened elephants are when hearing a strange call
D. how frequently old elephants call other members of the family 4. The older a female elephant is, _____. A. the stronger she will be
B. the poorer memory she will have
C. the more useless her tusks will be
D. the more likely she will be killed 5. We can infer from the passage that elephants may _____. A. run into other elephant families
B. give wrong warnings to their mothers
C. run away open hearing a strange sound
D. produce more babies by gathering together often

题型：北京高考真题难度：| 查看答案