Through a series of experiments an American scientist has gained an understanding of the social structure of the most complex of ant societies. The ants examined are the only creatures other than man to have given up hunting and collecting for a completely agricultural way of life. In their underground nests they plant gardens on soils made from finely cut leaves. This is a complex operation requiring considerable division of labor. The workers of this type of ant can be divided into four groups according to size. Each of the groups performs a particular set of jobs.   

The making and care of the gardens and the nursing of the young ants are done by the smallest workers. Slightly larger workers are responsible for cutting leaves to make them suitable for use in the gardens and for cleaning the nest. A third group of still larger ants do the construction work and collect fresh leaves from outside the nest. The largest are soldier ants, responsible for defending the nest.

To find out how good the various size - groups are at different tasks, the scientist measured the amount of work done by the ants against the amount of energy they used. He examined first the gathering and carrying of leaves. He selected one of the size groups, and then measured how efficiently these ants could find leaves and run back to the nest. Then he repeated the experiment for each of the other size groups. In this way he could see whether any group could do the job more efficiently than the group normally undertaking it. 

The intermediate-sized (中等的) ants that normally perform this task proved to be the most efficient for their energy costs, but when the scientist examined the whole set of jobs performed by each group of ants, it appeared that some sizes of worker ants were not suited to the particular jobs they performed .

1．According to the passage, the ants______.

A．grow something in their nests             B．go hunting for a living

C．cut leaves to make a fire                  D．do each of the jobs all together

2．It is observed that slightly larger ants perform more of the______.

      A．construction tasks                      B．defensive work

      C．household tasks                         D．dangerous work

3．The underlined word "good" means ______.

      A．co-operating       B．efficient            C．hardworking      D．responsible

4．The experiments made by the scientist were based on ______.

      A．special methods                         B．scientific theories

       C．personal interests                    D．systematic observations

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2013屆浙江省協(xié)作體高三摸底測(cè)試英語(yǔ)試卷（解析版） 題型：閱讀理解

Jack London had endured more hardships by the age of twenty-one than most people experience in a lifetime. His struggles developed in him sympathy for the working class and a lasting dislike of hard work and provided inspiration for his career as a writer.

London grew up in San Francisco in extreme poverty. At an early age, he left school and supported himself through a succession of un skilled jobs ----working as a paper boy, in bowling alleys, on ice wagons, and in canneries（罐頭食品廠） and mills. Despite working long hours at these jobs, London was able to read constantly, borrowing travel and adventure books from the library.

The books London read inspired him to travel, and his job experiences led him to become active in fighting for the fights of workers. He sailed to Japan on a journey aiming at catching seals and joined a cross-country protest march with a group of unemployed workers. After being arrested for vagrancy near Buffalo, New York, London decided to educate himself and reshape his life. He quickly completed high school and entered the University of California.

After only one term, however, the appeal of fortune and adventure proved uncontrollable. London gave up his studies and traveled to the Alaskan Yukon in 1897 in search of gold. Jack London was among the first of these miners. He may have searched for more than gold, however. London once commented, “ True, the new region was mostly poor; but its several hundred thousand square miles of coldness at least gave breathing space to those who else would have choked at home.” Although he was unsuccessful as a miner, London’s experiences in Alaska taught him about the human desire for wealth and power and about humankind’s inability to control the forces of nature. While in Alaska, London also absorbed memories and stories that would make him known one hundred years later.

Once back in California, London became determined to earn a living as a writer. He rented a typewriter and worked up to fifteen hours a day, spinning his Alaskan adventures into short stories and novels.

According to legend, London’s piles of rejection slips from publishers grew to five feet in height!

    Even so, London preserved. In 1903, he earned national fame when he published the popular novel The Call of the Wild. He soon became the highest paid and most industrious writer in the country. During his career, he produced more than fifty books and earned more than a million dollars. Several of his novels, including The Call of the Wild(1903),the Sea-Wolf(1904),the White Fang(1906),have become American classics. In fact, he was a creative writer whose fiction explored several regions and their cultures: the Yukon, California, Hawaii, and the Solomon Islands. He experimented with many literary forms, from traditional love stories and dystopias（反面烏托邦小說(shuō)）to science fantasy. His noted journalism included war communication, boxing stories, and the life of Molokai lepers（麻風(fēng)病患者）. He was among the most influential figures of his day, who understood how to create a public persona and use the media to market his self-created image of poor-boy-turned-success. London's great passion was agriculture, and he was well on the way of creating a new model for spreading through his Beauty Ranch when he died of kidney disease at age 40. He left over fifty books of novels, stories, journalism, and essays, many of which have been translated and continue to be read around the world. His best works describe a person’s struggle for survival against the powerful forces of nature. “To Build a Fire”, for example, tells the story of a man’s fight to survive the harsh cold of the Alaskan winter.

1._________made Jack London reconsider his life in the future.

    A. His job experience                       B. The books he read

    C. Being arrested                           D. Long-hour work

2.What is TRUE about Jack London?

    A. Jack London was poor all his life.

    B. Jack London got enough money while in the search of gold.

    C. The books Jack London read inspired him to travel and become active.

    D. The experience of gold searching made Jack London determined to write novels about Alaska adventures.

3.After the experience in Alaska, Jack London ________________.

    A. realized the nature of human beings.

    B. knew people could control the nature finally.

    C. regretted being there.

    D.thought highly of himself.

4.In paragraph 4, the sentence “True, the new region was mostly poor; but its several hundred thousand square miles of coldness at least gave breathing space to those who else would have choked at home.”  implies_______________________________.

    A. Jack London regarded Alaska a poor place as he never got any gold there.

    B. people would have been ill at home if they had never been Alaska.

    C. People searching for gold there still have chance to win.

    D. Alaska was a poor but large region.

5.Which one of following works doesn’t belong to Jack London according to the passage?

    A. love stories     B. poetry       C. journalism       D. essays

6.What can we learn from Jack London’s final success?

    A. Failure is the mother of success.

    B. Practice makes perfect.

    C. Knowledge is powerful.

    D. All of above.

 

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：江蘇省2010屆高三考前適應(yīng)性考試英語(yǔ)試題 題型：任務(wù)型閱讀

 

 

第四部分：任務(wù)型閱讀（每小題1分，滿分10分）

    請(qǐng)認(rèn)真閱讀下列短文，并根據(jù)短文的內(nèi)容要點(diǎn)完成文章后的表格。注意：補(bǔ)全填空應(yīng)符合語(yǔ)法和搭配要求，每空只填一個(gè)單詞。請(qǐng)將答案寫(xiě)在答題紙上的相應(yīng)位置。

An oral history is a piece of writing based on an interview with a person who has lived through a significant period in history or experienced a historical event. His or her memories provide a personal view of the past.

     The first goal of all oral histories is to record stories about a specific subject. That subject may be a historical event like the D-Day invasion. It may be a period of history like the Depression, or a social or cultural trend, such as child labor. The first step in an oral history project, therefore, is to select a subject that interests you and is of historical significance.

     Before attempting to identify people to interview for your project, you must first gather background information about the subject. The Library of Congress, which houses thousands of oral histories, provides these tips for researching your subject.

     Before entering the library or logging onto the internet, decide on key words to use in your search. Use detailed search words. For example, search for rock and roll of the ’60s instead of the more general term music.

     Look through newspaper and magazine articles and Internet Web sites to identify documents that are related to your subject. Make copies of those that will help you plan your interview questions and discard all others.

     Discuss what you’ve read about your subject surprised you? What aspect of your subject would you like to know more about? Asking questions like these will help you to focus your subject and to identify the voice or voices you need to interview.

     Oral histories are as much about self as they are about subject. One goal of an oral history interview is to find out what happened. A second and equally important goal is to discover how people reacted to or were affected by what happened. The person you select to interview, therefore, should have had some experience with the subject – either as a participant or a witness.

     Once you have identified one or more people to interview, begin preparing your questions. The best questions are open-ended, encouraging the speaker to respond with more than a mere “Yes” or “No.” For example, an interviewer might have asked Clarence Hughart this question about his D-Day experience: Were you scared? That question, however, would probably not have elicited the sort of dramatic storytelling that Hughart provided.

     Make a list of ten possible interview questions. The first two or three should be fairly general, asking the interviewee to talk about his or her childhood, perhaps. These kinds of questions put people at ease. Save more sensitive questions until the interview has been underway for five, 10, or 15 minutes or more.

     After the interview come the final steps: writing a summary of the interview and then shaping it into a finished piece of writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：新疆農(nóng)七師高級(jí)中學(xué)2009-2010學(xué)年度高二下學(xué)期第二階段考試英語(yǔ)試題 題型：閱讀理解

 

  The Pathfinder

    When we found him, he was a sorry sight. His clothes were torn, his hands bleeding. Before we reached him, we saw him fall. He lay a moment. Then he pulled himself to his feet, walked unsteadily a few yards through the woods and fell again.

         After we got him out, we went back to find the gun that he had thrown down. His tracks showed that for two days he had circled in the forest, within 200 yards of the road. His senses were so dulled by fear and tiredness that he did not hear the cars going by or see the lights at night.

         We found him just in time.

         This man, like others before him, had simply been frightened when he knew he was lost. What had been a near disaster might have turned out as only a pleasant walk, had he made a few preparations before he stepped from the highway or off a known path.

         Whatever sense of direction that a man may have, it’s still largely a question of observation. A skilled woodsman always keeps an eye on his surroundings. He notes that the shape of a mountain, the direction water flows through a swamp, and the way a tree leans across a path. With these in mind, he may be turned around many times, but he is seldom lost.

         There are exceptions, of course, and once in a while a man does come across some strange problem that puts him into the “l(fā)ost” situation. A rainstorm or sudden blizzard may catch him without a compass（指南針）in his pocket. Darkness may find him in a rough area, where travel is dangerous without a light.

         When this happens, the normal first reaction（反應(yīng)）is the fear of being laughed at as a result of his poor knowledge in the woods. He may also be concerned about the inconvenience that he will cause his friends when he doesn’t show up. This false pride may lead him to keep on the move in a false effort to find his way against all difficulties.

         The person who thinks ahead is seldom in great danger. He’ll be safe if he observes carefully, thinks ahead, and remains calm.

1 The author suggested that if the man had not been found, he would have __________.

         A. been shot by a gun                   B. become confused

         C. been attacked by wild animals           D. been in great danger

2. According to the passage, if a person gets lost in the forest, at the very beginning, he would __________.

         A. worry about being laughed at    

B. push himself to find his way out

         C. feel it is convenient to ask for help from his friends

         D. be concerned about being frightened by wild animals

3. When a person tries to find his way in the woods, __________ is the most important 

A. intelligence  B. observation       C. direction      D. chance

4. The author tells the story of the lost man as an example of people who __________.    

A. go into the woods by themselves

         B. don’t know how to signal for help properly

         C. are frightened when they think they are lost

         D. notice everything when stepping from the highway

 

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：天津市南開(kāi)區(qū)20092010學(xué)年度高一下學(xué)期期末質(zhì)檢試題（英語(yǔ)） 題型：填空題

第二節(jié)完形填空（共20小題，每小題1分，滿分20分）閱讀下面短文，按照句子結(jié)構(gòu)的語(yǔ)法性和上下文連貫的要求，在空格處填入一個(gè)適當(dāng)?shù)脑~或使用括號(hào)中詞語(yǔ)的正確形式填空。

What will the city of the future look like? No one knows for sure, and (26) ____________ (make) predictions is a risky business. But one thing is certain—they are going to get bigger before they get smaller. In the future, care for the environment will become very important as earth’s natural (27)____________ (resource) run out. We will use lots of (28) ____________       (recycle) materials, such as plastic, aluminium, steel, glass, wood and paper, and we will waste fewer natural resources. We will also have to rely more (29) ____________ alternative energy, such as solar and wind power. All this seems certain, (30) ____________ there are plenty of things about city life in the future which are not certain.

B

Public transport (31) ____________ (provide) a cheap way to get around in Beijing. There are 20,000 buses and (32) ____________ (trolleybus) in Beijing, but they can get very (33) ____________ (crowd). It’s a good idea to avoid public transport during the (34) ____________ hour (6：30 am - 8：00 am and 5：00 pm - 6：30 pm). Fares are cheap, (35) ____________ (start) at 1 yuan.  Air-conditioned buses cost more.

C

We use “l(fā)earned” body language when we are (36) ____________ (introduce) to strangers. Like other animals, we are on guard until we know it is safe to (37) ____________ (relax). So every culture has developed a formal way to greet strangers, to show them we are not (38) ____________ (aggress). Traditionally, Europeans and Americans shake hands. They do this with the right hand—the (39) ____________ (strong) hand for most people. If our right hand is busy (40) ____________ (greet) someone, it cannot be holding a weapon.

D

We left the docks (41) ____________ a beautiful afternoon. The sun was shining (42) ____________ (bright) as we sailed downstream through a hilly region. Men (43) ____________ (ride) bamboo rafts along the river’s edge and coal boats went past. As the sun set we docked at Fengdu. We could see the sun (44) ____________ (set) behind the white pagoda. It was beautiful.

We slept through the first gorge, (45) ____________ is called the Qutang Gorge. 

 

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科目：高中英語(yǔ) 來(lái)源：2011-2012學(xué)年陜西省高三開(kāi)學(xué)第一次考試英語(yǔ)試題 題型：閱讀理解

Shopping in the United States changes a lot．About ninety years ago most people shopped in small stores that were owned by one person or a family．Women went from the bakery to the butcher’s to the grocer and on to the fruit and vegetable seller in order to get their food for the week．Then, about sixty years ago, supermarkets were born．In a supermarket, people could get all the different kinds of food they needed without going to different stores．

    The next big change in shopping in the United States was the shopping mall．A shopping mall is a group of stores under one roof．Because malls allowed people to shop without worrying about the weather, they soon became very popular．The mall became a place for people to socialize in addition to shopping．If you walk through a mall, you will see older people sitting, chatting and drinking coffee．Malls are places for teenagers to hang out．Many teens will often just “go to the mall” and spend time with their friends．

    The recent change in American shopping was the superstore．Large chain stores such as Wal-Mart, Office Depot and Toys“R”Us have been built all across the United States．Because they are so large, they can buy goods at a great discount and sell them much cheaper than smaller stores．Sometimes, when they are built near small towns, many of the small town stores have to close．They just cannot compete with their giant neighbors．

    And now, online shopping is becoming more and more popular all over the States．People are too busy to go to the physical stores, so they go shopping over the Internet．Online shopping has lots of advantages．For instance, online stores are usually available 24 hours a day．Searching or browsing online shops can be faster than browsing the physical stores．While, online shopping also has its disadvantages．People are at higher risk of being cheated on the part of the merchant than in a physical store．And privacy of personal information may be let out．

1.Which of the following shows the right order of shopping development in the United States?

    ①small stores          ②superstores    ③shopping malls

    ④shopping online      ⑤supermarkets

    A．①②③④⑤                       B． ①⑤②③④   

   C．②③④①⑤                       D． ①⑤③②④

2.Which is the place for people to spend time with others according to the passage?

    A． Small stores．                  B． Shopping malls．

    C． Supermarkets．                  D． Superstores．

3.Why can the superstores sell products at much lower prices?

    A． Because they can buy goods at a reduction in price．

    B． Because they are across the United States．

    C． Because they sell all kinds of products people need．

    D． Because they are built near small towns．

4.What’s the disadvantage of online shopping according to the passage?

A． Wasting time．   

B． Fixed prices．

C． Leaking personal information．

D． No chance to do physical activities．

 

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