高二英语阅读理解强化训练附解析Day 42

高二英语阅读理解强化训练附解析

Day 42

Passage 1

The advent of warm weather here in Maine calls for a seasonal ritual

that, for me, puts an end to winter—fetching the wooden screen door.

Note that I wrote “wooden”. The aluminum models just won’t do it—

they close too neatly and keep their perfect form for decades. In the 1960s,

a

time

of

imperfection,

there

was

no

perfect

house,

no

perfect

car,

no

perfect kids or parents. Why should a screen door be an exception?

I grew up with my siblings in a working-class neighborhood in New

Jersey. When the warm weather arrived, my dad would pull out the wooden

screen door and install it over the back door, which could then be left wide

open, admitting a refreshing breeze (we had no air conditioning).

My father was a Mr. Fix-it, so keeping the screen door serviceable was

one of his hobbies. Every few years he gave it a fresh coat of paint and

fixed it a bit. I distinctly remember him putting the last screw in the last

hinge (

铰链

), and swinging the door shut with a “crack!”

A good, wooden screen door, unsightly as it was, had an invaluable

function in the age of the stay-at-home mom: It alerted her to the coming

and going of the kids. My siblings, and my friends ran in and out of the

house, tearing the screen door open and letting it slap shut behind us. A

hundred times a day. It was all good, and my mom never complained about

the noise, because that was the purpose of a wooden screen door—to slam

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shut and thereby announce that her children were within earshot.

Several years ago, in a fit of nostalgia (

怀旧

), I went shopping for a

wooden

screen

door.

I

was

disappointed

in

the

choices

available.

They

looked a bit too solid, too well made. But I found one online, and within a

week it was delivered to my doorstep.

The firm had sent me one with the wrong dimensions, so I asked my

carpenter to make the necessary adjustments. Ozzie worked away at it for

a couple of hours until he got it to sit neatly in its frame. I gave it a test: I

pulled

it

open

and

let

go.

It

closed

in

a

lazy

fashion.

“Not

good,”

I

pronounced. “Please remove the automatic door closer and adjust the door

so it swings shut with a good crack.”

Ozzie went about his work and a short while later the task was done.

The door was uneven in its frame, and the screen no longer lay flat. But

when I pulled open the door and released it, the thing clapped shut like a

rifle shot. “What do you think?” I asked. “It looks like hell,” said Ozzie.

“But it sounds like heaven,” I said. And I, being the owner of the door—

and the memory—had the final word.

1. What

particular

function

did

the

wooden

screen

door

perform

in

the

writer’s childhood?

A. It functioned as an air conditioner in summer.

B. It helped sharpen his father’s repairing skills.

C. It was more like a toy that kids often played with.

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D. It made Mom aware that the kids were close by.

2. The reason why the writer asked the carpenter to continue to adjust the

door is that ________.

A. the door was not the right size for the frame

B. the door was poorly made that it didn’t suit him

C. he wanted to see how the door was supposed to shut

D. he was determined to seize the ownership of the door

3. What does the wooden screen door mean to the writer now?

A. It is a reminder of the imperfect things.

B. It is a symbol of his memory of summer.

C. It is a contributor to the better life he leads.

D. It is an antique worth cherishing in the museum.

4. What is the best title for the passage?

A. The good old days are gone

B. Never judge a door by its appearance

C. Summer announces itself with a crack

D. Every single imperfection adds to beauty

Passage 2

Following the outbreak of

the novel coronavirus

pneumonia

(NCP),

also named COVID-19 by WHO, there is a general fear of the unknown

virus

as

its

full

effects

remain

to

be

seen.

Fever,

coughing,

sore

throat,

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difficulty breathing —the NCP’s symptoms are similar to the common cold

or the flu, but it’s potentially more dangerous.

Viruses could be deadly, like HIV and Ebola. But what are viruses?

How can they cause so much trouble?

Viruses

are

non-living

organisms

(

有

体

)

approximately

one-

millionth

of

an

inch

long.

Unlike

human

cells

or

bacteria,

they

can’t

reproduce on their own. Instead, they invade the cells of living organisms

to reproduce, spread and take over.

Viruses can infect every living thing – from plants and animals down

to the smallest bacteria. For this reason, they always have the potential to

be

dangerous

to

human

life.

Sometimes

a

virus

can

cause

a

disease

so

serious that it is fatal. Other viral infections trigger no noticeable reaction.

Viruses lie around our environment all of the time, waiting for a host

cell to come along. They can enter our bodies by the nose, mouth, eyes or

breaks in the skin. Once inside, they try to find a host cell to infect. For

example,

HIV

,

which

causes

AIDS,

attacks

the

T-cells

of

the

immune

system.

But the basic question is, where did viruses first come from? Until now,

no clear explanation for their origin exists. “Tracing the origins of viruses

is difficult”, Ed Rybicki, a virologist (

病毒学家

) at the University of Cape

Town

in

South Africa,

told

Scientific American,

“because

viruses

don’t

leave

fossils

and

because

of

the

tricks

they

use

to

make

copies

of

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themselves within the cells they’ve invaded”.

However, there are three main hypotheses (

假说

) to explain the origin

of viruses. First, viruses started as independent organisms, then became

parasites (

寄生者

). Second, viruses evolved from pieces of DNA or RNA

that “escaped” from larger organisms. Third, viruses co-evolved with their

host cells, which means they existed alongside these cells.

For

the

time

being,

these

are

only

theories.

The

technology

and

evidence we have today cannot be used to test these theories and identify

the most plausible explanation. Continuing studies may provide us with

clearer

answers.

Or

future

studies

may

reveal

that

the

answer

is

even

murkier (

含糊不清的

) than it now appears.

1. What can we learn about viruses from the text?

A. Viruses have nothing to do with the common cold.

B. Viruses are really small living organisms.

C. Viruses can’t reproduce unless they find a host cell.

D. Viruses enter our bodies mainly through the mouth, nose and hair.

2. Which of the following might explain the origin of viruses?

A. They evolved from the fossils of large organisms.

B. They evolved from parasites into independent organisms.

C. They evolved from the T-cells in animals.

D. They evolved along with their host cells.

3. The underlined word “plausible” in the last paragraph probably means

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________.

A. reasonable

C. creative

B. common

D. unbelievable

4. What can we conclude from the text?

A. Viruses live longer in human host cells than in animals’.

B. Viruses will become more like bacteria as they evolve.

C. It may take a long time to understand the origin of viruses.

D. The author is optimistic about future virus research.

Passage 3

Every new parent knows that rocking can calm that uneasy baby when

it’s time to take a nap. But the benefits of gentle movement may go beyond

the

baby

stage.

Because

two

new

studies

show

that

rocking

also

helps

grown- ups, both human and mouse, get a good night’s sleep.

What should be no surprise is that movement can calm someone. Think

of how many times you’ve fallen asleep on a train. But can motion really

cause a nap, and make for a deeper sleep?

To find out, researchers invited 18 healthy volunteers for a sleepover.

“So they came to the lab and slept one time on the motionless, normal bed.

And

one

night

where

they

got

rocked.”

said

Aurore

Perrault,

a

sleep

researcher at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. “And what we find

is that when compared to a motionless night, a whole night of rocking sleep

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has

a

beneficial

effect

not

only

on

sleep

beginning

but

also

on

sleep

continuity. “Subjects who were rocked also did better on a memory test the

next morning than the stiller sleepers.

In the second study, Kompotis, a student at the University of Lausanne,

rocked a group of mice. “Whether rocking affects sleep in other species

was

never

before

discussed.

So

the

main

questions

for

our

study

were

whether rocking affects sleep in mice and what is the possible system? ”

Kompotis placed the mouse cages on a platform that moved from side

to

side.

Though

mice

were

rocked

four

times

faster

than

their

human

counterparts—a frequency of one back- and-forth per second, or 1 Hertz,

worked

best—the

results

were

strikingly

similar.

“During

rocking

at

1

Hertz, time spent asleep increased, and mice fell asleep twice as fast as at

still condition.” However, additional studies could allow the researchers to

identify a new aim for treating sleep disorders, including insomnia (

失眠

).

If you want a good night’s sleep, you might think about adding a little

swing to your night-time routine.

1. What’s the purpose of the second study in the passage?

A. To do research on the sleep system of other species.

B. To see whether rocking affects sleep of other species.

C. To discuss in which case rocking affects baby’s sleep.

D. To study the influence of rocking on sleep disorders.

2. What do we know about the mice in Paragraph 5?

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A. Their sleeping time went up when rocked at 1 Hertz.

B. Their sleep disorder including insomnia was treated.

C. When rocked, they fell asleep four times faster than at still condition.

D. When rocked, they slept faster than their human counterparts.

3. What’s the best title of the passage?

A. Rocking Helps Grown-ups Sleep Too.

B. Deep Sleep Needs the Constant Swing.

C. Rocking Greatly Affects Deep Sleep.

D. Rocking Can Treat Sleep Disorders.

Passage 4

Elderly women who eat foods higher in potassium

（钾）

are less likely

to have strokes and die than women who eat less potassium-rich foods,

according to new research in the American Heart Association.

studies have shown that potassium consumption may lower blood pressure.

But whether potassium intake could prevent stroke or death wasn't clear,

said Smoller, professor of the department of population health at Albert

Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY

.

Researchers studied 90, 137 women, aged from 50 to 79 for an average

11 years. They looked at how much potassium the women consumed, as

well as if they had strokes, including ischemic strokes (

缺血性中风

), or

died during the study period. Women in the study were stroke-free at the

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start and their average dietary potassium intake was 2, 611 mg/day. Results

of this study are based on potassium from food, not supplements.

The researchers found: Women who ate the most potassium were 12

percent less likely to suffer stroke in general and 16 percent less likely to

suffer an ischemic stroke than women who ate the least. Women who ate

the most potassium were 10 percent less likely to die than those who ate

the least. Among women who did not have high blood pressure, those who

ate the most potassium had a 27 percent lower ischemic stroke risk and 21

percent reduced risk for all stroke types, compared to women who ate the

least

potassium

in

their

daily

diets.

Among

women

with

high

blood

pressure, those who ate the most potassium had a lower risk of death, but

potassium intake did not lower their stroke risk.

findings

suggest

that

women

need

to

eat

more

potassium-rich

foods. You

won't

find

high

potassium

in junk

food.

Some

foods rich in

potassium include white and sweet potatoes, bananas and white beans.

The U. S. Department of Agriculture recommends that women eat at

least 4, 700 mg of potassium daily.

study met or went beyond this level. The World Health Organization's daily

potassium recommendation for women is lower, at 3, 510 mg or more. Still,

only 16. 6 percent of women we studied met or went beyond that,

Smoller.

While increasing potassium intake is probably a good idea for most

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