山西省太原双语中学高考英语-专题精选阅读理解强化训练集(十六).doc

山西省太原双语中学2012届高考英语专题精选阅读理解强化训练集（十六）
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。
A
Twenty years ago, I drove a taxi for a living. When I arrived at 2:30 a.m, the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would just honk（按喇叭）once or twice, wait a minute, then drive away.
But I had seen too many poor people who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. This passenger might be someone who needed my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80s stood before me. When we got in the taxi, she gave me an address, then asked, “Could you drive through downtown? ” “It’s not the shortest way,” I answered quickly. “Oh, I don’t mind, ” she said. “ I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice（晚期病人收容所）.”
I looked in the rearview mirror. Her eyes were glistening. “I don’t have any family left,” She continued. “The doctor says I don’t have very long time.” I quietly reached over and shut off the meter. “What route would you like me to take?” I asked. For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they were newlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she’d gone dancing as a girl.
As the first hint of sun rose from the horizon, she suddenly said, “I’m tired. Let’s go now. ” We drove in silence to the hospice. When I was leaving, she insisted on paying me, but I refused. Instead, I bent down and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,” she said. “Thank you.” I squeezed her hand, and then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.
I didn’t pick up any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver or one who was impatient to end his shift? What if I had refused to take the run or had honked once and then driven away?
On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life. We’re conditioned to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware—beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one.
1.The driver didn’t just honk but knocked at the door and waited because________.
A. he didn’t want to miss any chance to make money
B. he knew the woman was waiting for him
C. he thought maybe someone was in need of his taxi service
D. taxis was the only means of transportation for the poor
2. Why did the old woman ask the driver to drive through downtown?
A. She was in no hurry and had some time to kill.
B. She didn’t want to get to the hospice before daybreak.
C. She wanted to see some places before her life ended.
D. There were many places of interest worth her visit.
3. It can be learned from the passage that_______.
A. the driver decided not to charge the woman after they got to the hospice
B. the woman was afraid to go to the hospice for her last days
C. the woman once worked in a furniture warehouse
D. the driver didn’t feel it a pity though he didn’t earn much that shift
4. What does the driver want to share with us by telling the story?
A. The old are always those who need our help most.
B. A small kind act may mean a lot to those in need.
C. Those who offer help are the happiest in the world.
D. Sometimes it’s necessary for taxi drivers to offer free service.
B
As I traveled for several weeks in November, meeting with CEOs in different countries, I got to different airports. Here is what I learned as I travelled to Europe, South America and Asia before returning home to Chicago.
Lines form in London’s Heathrow Airport
I arrived at the new Terminal (航站楼)5 in London’s Heathrow Airport , which is a modern excellent building. It is filled with High Street stores and seems more like a shopping mall— like the Mall of America in Minneapolis or the Galleria in Houston—than a place to catch planes. At T5 they have perfected the art of making you stand in long, frustrating lines. After you spend twenty minutes in line getting your boarding pass scanned, you move to another long line to have your passport checked. T5 takes the art of waiting to a new level, so much so that even though I had nearly an hour to make a connecting flight（转机）, I missed my connection and spent the next three hours in an airport waiting hall.
Heathrow views itself as a gateway to the world. But you’d better not be in a hurry to pass through it. T5 reflects the old days of British globalization – the 1800s– when it took at least 80 days to get around the world.
Nonstop to Brazil
Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport, one of three in the city and Brazil’s busiest, has 260 check-in counters, operates around the clock, and struggles to keep up with demand. It has few passengers waiting halls and relatively little shopping. It’s difficult to connect to the Internet. Plans call for two additional terminals, a third runway, and an express train into the city. In such a developing country, Guarulhos keeps running faster, but it hasn’t yet caught up.
New Delhi Smoke
First-time visitors arriving at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport would be concerned about the smell that enters the aircraft as the plane is slowing down on the runway. It’s caused by what Delhi weather forecasters call “smoke”. When you enter the terminal, you sense the overcrowded India. It seems like all 1.1 billion people are trying to get through Customs with you. Heathrow has its queues; Gandhi has countless human bodies pressing ahead. Be prepared to wait an hour or two before you enter the country.
The airport reflects the backwardness of the Third World, where just about everything is falling apart. A new terminal is being built, but like everything in India, it will take what seems like forever to complete the job.
Charles de Gaulle International Airport
Charles de Gaulle International Airport, as you would suspect, is beautiful. Its Terminal 2 is an architectural marvel, with high ceilings and lots of light. Attractive though it may be, it’s hard to get around. Try finding your way from a gate in section 2A to a gate in section 2F. It’s all in the same terminal but it feels like you are running a maze, especially when Paris is not your final destination.
Charles de Gaulle looks great, but like French high fashion, it’s not very functional.
5. The underlined word “Galleria” in the 2nd paragraph probably refers to the name of ______.
A. a shopping mall B. High Street store C. an airport D. a hotel
6 .What does the writer dislike most about London’s Heathrow Airport ?
A. It’s more like a shopping mall than an airport.
B. He had to get his passport checked and boarding pass scanned.
C. He had to wait in the long and slow lines.
D. The flight he intended to take didn’t take off on time.
7. From the passage, we can know that ______.
A. You have to wait long both at Heathrow and Gandhi because of too many passengers
B. Guarulhos fails to meet the needs of passengers though it tries its best
C. there should be no trouble in finding your way at Charles de Gaulle
D. Heathrow lives up to its name of a gateway to the world
8. By writing the passage, the writer tried to ________.
A. point out the weak points of these airports
B. introduce the most important airports in the world
C. compare different airports among Europe, South America and Asia
D. tell us airports are mirrors of the countries that build them
C
The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has just published a report on new materials and has looked at the case of nanotechnology（纳米技术）, which describes the science of the very small. Nanotechnology covers those man-made materials or objects that are about a thousand times smaller than the microtechnology（微电子技术）we use, such as the silicon chips of computers.
Nanotechnology gets its name from the nanometer, which is a billionth of a meter. There are about 600 consumer products already on the market that use nanotechnology. Nanomedicine is also being developed to fight cancer and other fatal diseases.
The Royal Commission found no evidence of harm to health or the environment from nanomaterials, but this “absence of evidence” is not being taken as “evidence of absence”. In other words, just because there are no apparent problems, this is not to say that here is no risk now or in the future. The commission is concerned about the pace at which we are inventing and adopting new nanomaterials, which could result in future problems that we are ill-equipped to understand or even find with current testing methods.
One of the problems about nanotechnology is that when we make something very small out of a well known material, we may actually change the functionality of that material even if the chemical composition remains the same. Indeed, it is not the particle（颗粒）size that should concern us, but its functionality. Take gold, for example, which is a famously inert (惰性) substance, and valuable because of it. It doesn’t rust or corrode because it doesn’t interact with water or oxygen. However, a particle of gold that is between 2 and 5 nanometers in diameter becomes highly reactive. This is not due to a change in chemical composition, but because of a change in the physical size of the gold particles. How can a change in size result in a change of function? One reason is to do with surface area. Nanoparticles have relatively a much bigger surface area. It is like comparing the surface area of a basketball with the total surface area of many pea-sized balls with the same weight of the single basketball. The pea-sized balls have a surface area many hundreds, indeed thousands of times bigger than the basketball, and this allows them to interact more easily with the environment. It is this increased interactivity that changes their functionality—and makes them potentially more dangerous to health or the environment.
9. Why does the writer mention microtechnology in the first paragraph?
A. to introduce the topic of nanotechnology
B. to help us better understand nanotechnology
C. to help us know more about microtechnology
D. to compare microtechnology with nanotechnology
10. The example of the “gold” in the last paragraph is intended to show that_________.
A. gold is valuable because it is an inert substance
B. an inert substance like gold doesn’t interact with water or oxygen
C. the function of gold is steady because it is an inert substance
D. the function of gold changes when made into something very small
11. Which process explains that there might be risks in nanotechnology?
A. expand surface area →increase interactivity → change functionality
→cause possible dangers
B. expand surface area → change functionality → increase interactivity
→cause possible dangers
C. increase interactivity → expand surface area → change functionality
→cause possible dangers
D. increase interactivity → change functionality → expand surface area
→cause possible dangers
12. What does the passage mainly focus on?
A. the introduction of nanotechnology and its wide use
B. the present use of nanotechnology and its future
C. the potential danger nanotechnology may bring us
D. the proposal to stop nanotechnology due to the potential danger
D
Well, more and more companies are beginning to create products and services for teenagers. The Disney Company sells the Hannah Montana television show, music, film and goods to teenagers and their parents. You can get everything from branded lunchboxes and mobile phone covers, to monthly fan magazines and clothing. The High School Musical series of films is also intended for teenage audience. So, it’s all about sales, which tells us teenagers must have more money, freedom and influence upon their parents than they’ve ever had before.
Most children in the UK today get more pocket money than kids did a decade ago. In spite of the economic crisis, parents have more money to give than previously, since parents are having fewer children on average than in the past. In addition, the divorce rate in the UK is continually rising and parents spend less time with their children than they used to, so many parents try to compensate by buying presents for their children. It’s a bad habit for both parents and children to get into, but parents are under constant pressure from commercial marketing and the demands of their children.
You may wonder how teenagers have more freedom than previous generations. Well, a lot of UK children today have a television, if not a computer, in their bedrooms. They have access to much more information about life and the world. They may have experienced a lot in life as well, since 24 percent of UK children live in single-parent families, so people now say that “kids are getting older younger. ” Therefore, it’s no wonder teenagers are able to influence their parents.
UK teenagers never used to be worried about spending money on being fashionable. That’s changed. Now, they are much more fashion conscious（关注的） and concerned about their image. In a world of television programs that promise overnight success and fame at a young age, some people think it’s extremely important to look fashionable. Such ideas are also promoted by both the Hannah Montana story, in which a teenager girl suddenly becomes a world-famous pop star, and the High School Musical story, in which teenagers take part in various talent shows.
So what does teenage fashion look like? Well, it’s quite horrible really, but then I’m a bit too old to appreciate it, I suppose. It’s lots of brightly colored materials, particularly pink, and usually plain, not patterned. There are plenty of bows, necklaces and bracelets, too. It’s all very cute, if that’s your taste.
Can it really be healthy for us to encourage kids to be adults at such a young age? Are we stealing childhoods to get a bit of profit? Well, it has caused the attention of the UK government, and some strict laws have been passed to prevent companies from directly marketing their products and services at children.
13. All of the following help teenagers to have more pocket money than those a decade ago EXCEPT that ________.
A. parents generally earn more money than they used to
B. parents have fewer children on average than they used to
C. parents give their children more money to make up for less time with them
D. children expect more money of parents to buy products and services
14. Which of the following would be most unhappy if teenagers were not so fashion conscious?
A. parents B. the writer C. companies D. the government
15. Teenagers today care so much about thei