SkillsDevelopment.docx

Supplementary reading after class
A
2015 全国英语一卷 （人文类说明文）

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was one of the most popular of modern artists. The Pompidou Centre in Paris is showing its respect and admiration for the artist and his powerful personality with an exhibition bringing together over 200 paintings, sculptures, drawings and more. Among the works and masterworks on exhibition the visitor will find the best pieces, most importantly The Persistence of Memory. There is also L’Enigme sans Fin from 1938, works on paper, objects, and projects for stage and screen and selected parts from television programmes reflecting the artist’s showman qualities.
The visitor will enter the World of Dali through an egg and is met with the beginning, the world of birth. The exhibition follows a path of time and subject with the visitor exiting through the brain.
The exhibition shows how Dali draws the viewer between two infinities (无限). “From the infinity small to the infinity large, contraction and expansion coming in and out of focus: amazing Flemish accuracy and the showy Baroque of old painting that he used in his museum-theatre in Figueras,” explains the Pompidou Centre.
The fine selection of the major works was done in close collaboration (合作)with the Museo Nacional Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain, and with contributions from other institutions like the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg.
28. Which of the following best describe Dali according to Paragraph 1?
A. Optimistic.     B. Productive      C. Generous.      D. Traditional.
29. What is Dali’s The Persistence of Memory considered to be?
A. One of his masterworks.
B. A successful screen adaptation.
C. An artistic creation for the stage.
D. One of the beat TV programmes.
30. How are the exhibits arranged at the World of Dali?
A. By popularity.
B. By importance.
C. By size and shape.
D. By time and subject.
31. What does the word “contributions” in the last paragraph refer to? 
A. Artworks.    B. Projects.       C. Donations.        D. Documents.
B
Pollution is reducing the fragrance of plants
Pollution is reducing the fragrance of plants and thus preventing bees from pollinating them—endangering one of the most essential cycles of nature, a new study suggests.
The potentially hugely significant research, funded by US National Science Foundation, has found that gases mainly formed from the emissions of car exhaust prevent flowers from attracting bees and other insects to pollinate them. And the scientists who have conducted the study fear that insects’ abilities to drive away enemies and attract mates may also be disturbed.
Professor Jose Fuentes, who led the study, said, “Scent molecules(分子) produced by flowers in a less polluted environment could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters. But today they may travel only 200 to 300 meters. This makes it increasingly difficult for bees and other insects to locate the flowers.”
The researchers, who worked on the molecules of snapdragons(金鱼草),found that the molecules are volatile(易挥发的) and quickly bond with pollutants, mainly formed from vehicle emissions. This chemically changes the molecules so that they no longer smell like flowers. A harmful cycle is therefore set up where insects struggle to get enough food and the plants do not get pollinated enough to multiply.
Already bees, which pollinate most of the world’s crops, reduce in such a great decline that has never been known before in Britain and across much of the globe. At least a quarter of America’s 2.5 million honey bee colonies have been mysteriously wiped out by colony collapse disorder(CCD),where hives are found suddenly deserted.
The crisis has now spread to Europe. Politicians insist that CCD has not yet been found in Britain, but considering the present number of bees, the agriculture minister Lord Rooker has sent the warning, “The honey bee population could be wiped out in 10 years.”
Although the researchers are not certain whether this is the real cause of CCD, they say that pollution is making life more difficult for bees and other insects in many ways.
68. In what way does pollution prevent flowers from attracting bees?
  A. By shortening the distance traveled by the scent molecules of flowers.  
  B. By disturbing the bees’ ability to attract mates.
  C. By weakening the bees’ ability to fight against enemies.
  D. By stopping flowers from giving off fragrance.
69. What harm does the decreasing number of bees do to human beings?
  A. It will cause humans not to get enough honey.
  B. It will reduce the food supplies for the world.
  C. Humans will have to depend on other insects to pollinate plants.
  D. Humans will find it hard to deal with the deserted bee hives.
70. From the passage we can know that                 .
  A. Europe is affected greatly by CCD
  B.CCD has destroyed most of the honey bee colonies in Europe
  C. no honey bees will be found all over the world in the near future
  D. European officials have paid much attention to CCD
71. What would be the best title for the passage?
 A. Traffic Pollution Puts Bees in Danger    B. Traffic Pollution is to Blame for CCD
 C. Pollution Makes Flowers Reduce Their Scent  D. Pollution Causes the Decrease in flowers
C
2014年 全国新课标Ⅰ卷
Passenger pigeons(旅鸽)once flew over much of the United States in unbelievable numbers. Written accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries described flocks(群)so large that they darkened the sky for hours.
It was calculated that when its population reached its highest point, there were more than 3 billion passenger pigeons—a number equal to 24 to 40 percent of the total bird population in the United States, making it perhaps the most abundant bird in the world. Even as late as 1870 when their numbers had already become smaller, a flock believed to be 1 mile wide and 320 miles(about 515 kilometers) long was seen near Cincinnati.
Sadly, the abundance of passenger pigeons may have been their undoing. where the birds were most abundant, people believed there was an ever-lasting supply and killed them by the thousands. Commercial hunters attracted them to small clearings with grain, waited until pigeons had settled to feed, then threw large nets over them, taking hundreds at a time. The birds were shipped to large cities and sold in restaurants.
By the closing decades of the 19th century, the hardwood forests where passenger pigeons nested had been damaged by Americans’ need for wood, which scattered(驱散)the flocks and forced the birds to go farther north, where cold temperatures and spring storms contributed to their decline. Soon the great flocks were gone, never to be seen again.
In 1897, the state of Michigan passed a law prohibiting the killing of passenger pigeons but by then, no sizable flocks had been seen in the state for 10 years. The last confirmed wild pigeon in the United States was shot by a boy in Pike County, Ohio, in 1900. For a time, a few birds survived under human care. The last of them, known affectionately as Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden on September 1, 1914.
24. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, passenger pigeons        .
A.were the biggest bird in the world
B.lived mainly in the south of America
C.did great harm to the natural environment
D.were the largest bird population in the US
25. The underlined word “undoing” probably refers to the pigeons’        .
A.escape  
  B.ruin
C.liberation 
D.evolution
26. What was the main reason for people to kill passenger pigeons?
A.To seek pleasure  
  B.To save other birds
C.To make money  
  D.To protect crops
27. What can we infer about the law passed in Michigan?
A.It was ignored by the public 
  B.It was declared too late
C.It was unfair 
  D.It was strict.
D
2016(全国二卷)
Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website BookC turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.
Members go on the site and register the books they own and would like to share. BookCrossing provides an identification number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.
Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says, “The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both.”
Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.
People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossing to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce peterson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.
BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back to the “real” and not the virtual(虚拟). The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.

9. Why does the author mention book groups in the first paragraph?
A. To explain what they are.
B.To introduce BookCrossing.
C. To stress the importance of reading.
D. To encourage readers to share their ideas.
10. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2refer to?
A. The book. B.An adventure.
C.A public place. D. The identification number.
11. What will a BookCrosser do with a book after reading it?
A. Meet other readers to discuss it. B.Keep it safe in his bookcase.
C. Pass it on to another reader. D. Mail it back to its owner.
12. What is the best title for the text?
A. Online Reading: A Virtual Tour
B. Electronic Books: A new Trend
C. A Book Group Brings Tradition Back
D. A Website Links People through Books