If a diver surfaces too quickly, he may suffer the bends. Nitrogen (氮) dissolved (溶解) in his blood is suddenly liberated by the reduction of pressure. The consequence, if the bubbles (氣泡) accumulate in a joint, is sharp pain and a bent body—thus the name. If the bubbles form in his lungs or
his brain, the consequence can be death.
Other air-breathing animals also suffer this decompression (減壓) sickness if they surface too fast: whales, for example. And so, long ago, did ichthyosaurs (魚龍). That these ancient sea animals got the bends can be seen from their bones. If bubbles of nitrogen form inside the bone they can cut off its blood supply. This kills the cells in the bone, and consequently weakens it, sometimes to the point of collapse. Fossil (化石) bones that have caved in on themselves are thus a sign that the animal once had the bends.
Bruce Rothschild of the University of Kansas knew all this when he began a study of ichthyosaur bones to find out how widespread the problem was in the past. What he particularly wanted to investigate was how ichthyosaurs adapted to the problem of decompression over the 150 million years. To this end, he and his colleagues traveled the world’s natural-history museums, looking at hundreds of ichthyosaurs from the Triassic period and from the later Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
When he started, he assumed that signs of the bends would be rarer in younger fossils, reflecting their gradual evolution of measures to deal with decompression. Instead, he was astonished to discover the opposite. More than 15% of Jurassic and Cretaceous ichthyosaurs had suffered the bends before they died, but not a single Triassic specimen (標(biāo)本) showed evidence of that sort of injury.
If ichthyosaurs did evolve an anti-decompression means, they clearly did so quickly—and, most strangely, they lost it afterwards. But that is not what Dr Rothschild thinks happened. He suspects it was evolution in other animals that caused the change.
Whales that suffer the bends often do so because they have surfaced to escape a predator (捕食動(dòng)物) such as a large shark. One of the features of Jurassic oceans was an abundance of large sharks and crocodiles, both of which were fond of ichthyosaur lunches. Triassic oceans, by contrast, were mercifully shark- and crocodile-free. In the Triassic, then, ichthyosaurs were top of the food chain. In the Jurassic and Cretaceous, they were prey (獵物) as well as predator—and often had to make a speedy exit as a result.
【小題1】Which of the following is a typical symptom of the bends?

A．A twisted body. B．A gradual decrease in blood supply.
C．A sudden release of nitrogen in blood. D．A drop in blood pressure.
【小題2】The purpose of Rothschild’s study is to see _______.
A．how often ichthyosaurs caught the bends
B．how ichthyosaurs adapted to decompression
C．why ichthyosaurs bent their bodies
D．when ichthyosaurs broke their bones
【小題3】Rothschild’s finding stated in Paragraph 4 _______. 
A．confirmed his assumption B．speeded up his research process
C．disagreed with his assumption D．changed his research objectives
【小題4】Rothschild might have concluded that ichthyosaurs _______.
A．failed to evolve an anti-decompression means
B．gradually developed measures against the bends
C．died out because of large sharks and crocodiles
D．evolved an anti-decompression means but soon lost it


【小題1】A
【小題2】B
【小題3】C
【小題4】A

解析試題分析：本篇為科普說明文，講述魚龍患減壓病的原因和后果。Dr Rothschild通過實(shí)驗(yàn)推翻了關(guān)于魚龍進(jìn)化的一些猜測(cè)。
【小題1】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)the bends可定位到首段。由“The consequence…is sharp pain and a bent body—thus the name.”可知答案，a bent body和a twisted body是同義轉(zhuǎn)換。由第二句的“Nitrogen dissolved in his blood is suddenly liberated by the reduction of pressure.”可知，這是說the bends的形成原因，故C、D項(xiàng)錯(cuò)，而B項(xiàng)文章沒有提及。選A。
【小題2】推理判斷題。題干中的關(guān)鍵詞是Rothschild's study，由此可定位到第三段的前兩句。根據(jù)“…to find out how widespread the problem was in the past…to investigate was how ichthyosaurs adapted to the problem of decompression…”可知答案為B。
【小題3】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第四段“…h(huán)e assumed that signs of the bends would be rarer in younger fossils, reflecting their gradual evolution of measures to deal with decompression.Instead, he was astonished to discover the opposite.”可知，Rothschild的假設(shè)結(jié)論與在研究過程中得出的結(jié)果是相反的，故選C項(xiàng)。
【小題4】推理判斷題。根據(jù)倒數(shù)第二段可知，Rothschild認(rèn)為魚龍?jiān)谶M(jìn)化過程中反減壓方式進(jìn)化失敗，故選A項(xiàng)。
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

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【小題4】This passage can be classified as     .
A．a(chǎn)n argumentative writingB．a(chǎn) feature story
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

Scholars and researchers have tried to discover what personality characteristics go along with success in different cultural experiences. Their findings have often been unclear or incomplete. But three typical characteristics stand out in their reports: patience, a sense of humor, and the awareness of being unclear.
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A．a(chǎn)bout some uneasy traveling experiences in foreign countries 
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

Rene Descartes’ explanation of pain has long been acknowledged in medicine. He proposed that pain is a purely physical phenomenon – that tissue injury makes specific nerves send a signal to the brain, causing the mind to notice pain. The phenomenon, he said, is like pulling on a rope to ring a bell in the brain. It is hard to overstate how deeply fixed this account has become. In medicine, doctors see pain in Descartes’ terms— as a physical process, a sign of tissue injury.
The limitations of this explanation, however, have been apparent for some time, since people with obvious injuries sometimes report feeling no pain at all. Later, researchers proposed that Descartes’ model be replaced with what they called the gate control theory of pain. They argued that before pain signals reach the brain, they must first go through a gating mechanism in the spinal cord(脊髓). In some cases, this imaginary gate could simply stop pain signals from getting to the brain.
Their most amazing suggestion was that what controlled the gate was not just signals from sensory nerves but also emotions and other “output” from the brain. They were saying that pulling on the rope need not make the bell ring. The bell itself—the mind— could stop it. This theory led to a great deal of research into how such factors as mood, gender, and beliefs influence the experience of pain. In a British study, for example, researchers measured pain threshold and tolerance levels in 53 ballet dancers and 53 university students by using a common measurement: after immersing your hand in body-temperature water for two minutes to establish a baseline condition, you put your hand in a bowl of ice water and start a clock running. You mark the time when it begins to hurt: that is your pain threshold. Then you mark the time when it hurts too much to keep your hand in the water: that is your pain tolerance. The test is always stopped at 120 seconds, to prevent injury.
The results were striking. On average female students reported pain at 16 seconds and pulled their hands out of the ice water at 37 seconds. Female dancers were almost three times as long on both counts. Men in both groups had a higher threshold and tolerance for pain, but the difference between male dancers and male nondancers was nearly as large. What explains that difference? Probably it has something to do with the psychology of ballet dancers—a group known for self-discipline, physical fitness, and competitiveness, as well as by a high rate of chronic(慢性) injury. Their driven personalities and competitive culture evidently accustom them to pain. Other studies along these lines have shown that outgoing people have greater pain tolerance and that, with training, one can reduce one’s sensitivity to pain.
There is also striking evidence that very simple kinds of mental suggestion can have powerful effects on pain. In one study of 500 patients undergoing dental procedures, those who were given a placebo(安慰劑) injection and promised that it would relieve their pain had the least discomfort— not only less than the patients who got a placebo and were told nothing but also less than the patients who got actual drug without any promise that it would work.
Today it is abundantly evident that the brain is actively involved in the experience of pain and is no more bell on a string. Today every medical textbook teaches the gate control theory as fact. There’s a problem with it, though. It explains people who have injuries but feel no pain, but it doesn’t explain the reverse, which is far more common— the millions of people who experience chronic pain, such as back pain, with no signs of injury whatsoever. So where does the pain come from? The rope and clapper are gone, but the bell is still ringing.
【小題1】The primary purpose of the passage is to               .

A．describe how modern research has updated an old explanation
B．support a traditional view with new data
C．promote a particular attitude towards physical experience
D．suggest a creative treatment for a medical condition
【小題2】Which statement best describes Descartes theory of pain presented in paragraph 1?
A．The brain can shut pain off at will.
B．The brain plays no part in the body’s experience of pain.
C．Pain can be caused in many different ways.
D．Pain is an automatic response to bodily injury.
【小題3】The author implies that the reason why the gate control was “amazing” was that it        .
A．offered an extremely new and original explanation
B．was just opposite to people’s everyday experiences
C．was grounded in an ridiculous logic
D．was so sensible it should have been proposed centuries before
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A．costly, because it troubles millions of people
B．puzzling, because it sometimes has no obvious cause
C．disappointing, because it does not improve with treatment
D．worrying, because it lies beyond the reach of medicine
【小題5】The last sentence of the passage serves mainly to express that         .
A．scientific judgments are difficult to understand
B．theoretical investigations are generally useless
C．researchers still have a long way to go before the puzzle is made clear
D．there is always something puzzling at the heart of science

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