(2011·廣東)

　　B

　　Can dogs and cats live in perfect harmony in the same home? People who are thinking about adopting a dog as a friend for their cats are worried that they will fight. A recent research has found a new recipe of success. According to the study, if the cat is adopted before the dog, and if they are introduced when still young (less than 6 months for cats, a year for dogs), it is highly probable that the two pets will get along swimmingly. Two-thirds of the homes interviewed reported a positive relationship between their cat and dog.

　　However, it wasn’t all sweetness and light. There was a reported coldness between the cat and dog in 25% of the homes, while aggression and fighting were observed in 10% of the homes. One reason for this is probably that some of their body signals were just opposite. For example, when a cat turns its head away it signals aggression, while a dog doing the same signals submission.

　　In homes with cats and dogs living peacefully, researchers observed a surprising behaviour. They are learning how to talk each other’s language. It is a surprise that cats can learn how to talk ‘dog’， and dogs can learn how to talk ‘Cat’．

　　What’s interesting is that both cats and dogs have appeared to develop their intelligence. They can learn to read each other’s body signals, suggesting that the two may have more in common than was previously suspected. Once familiar with each other’s presence and body language, cats and dogs can play together, greet each other nose to nose, and enjoy sleeping together in the sofa. They can easily share the same water bowl and in some cases groom(梳理) each other.

　　The significance of this research on cats and dogs may go beyond pets—to people who don’t get along, including neighbors, colleagues at work, and even world superpowers. If cats and dogs can learn to get along, surely people have a good chance.

　　【語篇解讀】　本文是一篇科普知識文章。通過科學研究表明貓和狗在一定的情況下是能夠和平相處的。如果先收養貓并且貓不到6個月，狗不到一年，他們就能順利地和平相處。通過觀察他們不能和平相處的原因是他們之間誤解了彼此的身勢語而造成的。但有趣的是貓和狗能夠相互學習彼此的身勢語，這樣他們就能和平相處。

　　1. The underlined word swimmingly in Paragraph 1 is closest in meaning to________.

　　A. early

　　B. sweetly

　　C. quickly

　　D. smoothly

　　解析　考查推測詞義。如果先收養貓并且貓不到6個月，狗不到一年，他們就能順利的和平相處。2/3被采訪的家庭也表明這樣的結果。

　　答案　D

　　2. Some cats and dogs may fight when________.

　　A. they are cold to each other

　　B. they look away from each other

　　C. they misunderstand each other’s signals

　　D. they are introduced at an early age

　　解析　考查細節理解。根據第二段while aggression and fighting were observed in 10% of the homes. One reason for this is probably that some of their body signals were just opposite.可知選C。

　　答案　C

　　3. What is found surprising about cats and dogs?

　　A. They eat and sleep together

　　B. They observe each other’s behaviors

　　C. They learn to speak each other’s language

　　D. They know something from each other’s voice

　　解析　考查細節理解。根據文章第三段In homes with cats and dogs living peacefully, researchers observed a surprising behaviour. They are learning how to talk each other’s language.可知C正確。

　　答案　C

　　4. It is suggested in paragraph 4 that cats and dogs________.

　　A. have common interests

　　B. are less different than was thought

　　C. have a common body language

　　D. are less intelligent than was expected

　　解析　考查細節理解。根據文章第四段中的They can learn to read each other’s body signals, suggesting that the two may have more in common than was previously suspected.可知B正確。

　　答案　B

　　5. What can we human beings learn from cats and dogs?

　　A. We should learn to live in harmony

　　B. We should know more about animals

　　C. We should live in peace with animals

　　D. We should learn more body languages

　　解析　考查推理判斷。根據文章的最后一段可知，在動物王國，人們公認的貓和狗都能和平相處，何況人呢？

　　答案　A

　　Passage 1

　　Attractive fathers do not pass their looks onto their sons but they will hand their good looks down to their daughters，research shows.

　　In a study of family photographs，Professor David Perrett and Elisabeth Cornwell－now at the University of Colorado have found that while both father and mother can influence the attractiveness of their daughters，the couple’s good looks do not necessarily contribute to the attractiveness of their son as an adult.Handsome men with masculine(陽剛的) looks are likely to pass on masculine features，but not facial attractiveness.

　　The theory suggests it is not unusual for attractive parents to produce a beautiful daughter while failing to pass on the same good looks to a son.

　　While many celebrity mothers produce beautiful daughters—such as Goldie Hawn and her daughter Kate Hudson or Jerry Hall and her daughter Georgia—the same is not necessarily true of celebrity fathers.Sean Stewart，the son of Rod Stewart and his first wife Alana，would probably be judged less attractive than his model sister Kimberly.“We can’t see a strong relationship between the parents’ attractiveness and the sons.If the parents are supermodels，their daughters will be lookers，”Perrett said.

　　Prof Perrett said it has previously been suggested that a woman could increase her own reproductive(繁殖的)success by choosing a good-looking man whose genes would be passed onto male children.But the new study，published in the current edition of the journal Animal Behaviour，disagrees with the theory.

　　He said：“When we looked at woman’s faces，we found clear evidence that attractiveness passed from both father and mother to daughter.For the male line，we find that facial masculinity follows the rule‘like father-like son’．Masculine dads have masculine sons.But we did not find any evidence that facial attractiveness is passed from father to son.”

　　【語篇解讀】　本文介紹父母的相貌對后代的影響，Perrett教授提出理論認為，父母美貌往往遺傳給女兒而不會遺傳給兒子，而兒子往往只繼承父親陽剛的體魄。

　　1．Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

　　A．Father and mother can influence the attractiveness of their children.

　　B．Handsome fathers with masculine looks will not pass on masculine features.

　　C．There is a strong relationship between the parents’ attractiveness and the daughters.

　　D．If the parents are supermodels，their sons will be good-looking.

　　解析　 細節判斷題。第二段介紹David Perrett 從事對家庭照片研究發現，父母都會影響女兒容貌，不會影響兒子的容貌，由此判斷本題C項正確。

　　答案　C

　　2．What does the underlined word “lookers”in the fourth paragraph most probably mean?

　　A．On-lookers.　

　　B．Models.

　　C．Beauties. D．Passers-by.

　　解析　 詞義猜測題。根據David Perrett提出的原理，父母的美貌遺傳給女兒，所以如果父母是超級模特，他們的女兒就會貌美若仙，由此猜測looker是指貌美的女子。

　　答案　C

　　3．How many celebrity families are mentioned in the passage?

　　A．Three.

　　B．One.

　　C．Two.

　　D．Four.

　　解析　 細節理解題。第四段作者舉例說明漂亮貌美的父母對女兒、兒子美貌的影響，其中有Goldie Hawn，Jerry Hall，她們的女兒都很漂亮，而Rod Stewart和他第一位妻子Alana生的兒子就不怎么漂亮。由此看出作者提到三位名人家庭。

　　答案　A

　　4．The passage is most likely to be found in a book about________.

　　A．popular science

　　B．historical events

　　C．successful people

　　D．political systems

　　解析　 確定文章所屬類別(主題)。通讀文章可知，短文主要探討父母容貌遺傳情況，所以文章應屬于大眾科學類。

　　答案　A

　　Passage 2

　　(2011·湖南長郡中學高三第四次月考)Even plant can run a fever, especially when they’re under attack by insects or disease. But unlike human, plants can have their temperature taken from 3, 000 feet away straight up. A decade ago, adopting the infrared (紅外線)scanning technology developed for military purposes and other satellites, physicist Stephen Paley came up with a quick way to take the temperature of crops to determine which ones are under stress. The goal was to let farmers precisely target pesticide (殺蟲劑)spraying rather than rain poison on a whole field, which invariably includes plants that don’t have pest (害蟲)problems.

　　Even better, Paley’s Remote Scanning Services Company could detect crop problems before they became visible to the eye. Mounted on a plane flown at 3, 000 feet at night, an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops. The data were transformed into a color-coded map showing where plants were running“fevers”. Farmers could then spot-spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would.

　　The bad news is that Paley’s company closed down in 1984, after only three years. Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers were hard to find. But with the renewed concern about pesticides on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning, Paley hopes to get back into operation. Agriculture experts have no doubt the technology works. “This technique can be used on 75 percent of agricultural land in the United States，” says George Oerther of Texas A & M. Ray Jackson , who recently retired from the Department of Agriculture, thinks remote infrared crop scanning could be adopted by the end of the decade. But only if Paley finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago.

　　【語篇解讀】　本篇是一篇說明文，主要介紹了將原用于軍事和衛星的紅外線掃描技術運用于農業的前景，人們為此所做出的努力及遇到的困難。

　　1．Plants will emit an increased amount of heat when they are________.

　　A. sprayed with pesticides

　　B. facing an infrared scanner

　　C. in poor physical condition

　　D. exposed to excessive sun rays

　　解析　細節理解題。依據文章第二自然段第2行“...an infrared scanner measured the heat emitted by crops.The data were transformed into a color-coded map showing where plants were running‘fevers’”，說明植物在發“高燒”，也就是說，“身體狀況”不佳時才會散發熱，所以選項C符合題意。

　　答案　C

　　2．In order to apply pesticide spraying precisely, we can use infrared scanning to________.

　　A. estimate the damage to the crops

　　B. measure the size of the affected area

　　C. draw a color-coded map

　　D. locate the problem area

　　解析　推理判斷題。本題要求判斷使用紅外線掃描技術的目的。依據文章第二自然段第4行“...showing where plants were running ‘fevers’．Farmers could then spot-spray，...”說明目的是確定有問題的區域，以使農民有針對性地噴殺蟲劑。顯然，選項D(確定有問題的地域)為最佳選項。

　　答案　D

　　3．Farmers can save a considerable amount of pesticide by________.

　　A. resorting to spot-spraying

　　B. consulting infrared scanning experts

　　C. transforming poisoned rain

　　D. detecting crop problems at an early stage

　　解析　細節理解題。依據文章第二自然段最后一句“Farmers could then spot-spray, using 50 to 70 percent less pesticide than they otherwise would”(采取點噴，農民們可以節省平時用量的50%至70%的殺蟲劑)，選項A符合題意。

　　答案　A

　　4．The application of infrared scanning technology to agriculture met with some difficulties________.

　　A. the lack of official support

　　B. its high cost

　　C. the lack of financial support

　　D. its failure to help increase production

　　解析　推理判斷題。依據文章第三自然段的第1句“The bad news is that Palely’s company closed down in 1984，after only three years.Farmers resisted the new technology and long-term backers were hard to find”，從中可以看出紅外線掃描技術應用于農業遇到了一些問題，原因有兩個：一是農民對新技術的抵制，二是難以找到長期贊助商。文章中還有一處明顯的提示出現在最后一句：“But only if Palely finds the financial backing which he failed to obtain 10 years ago”．從該句提供的信息同樣可以反推出10年前的情形，所以選項C正確。

　　答案　C

　　5．Infrared scanning technology may be brought back into operation because of________.

　　A. the desire of farmers to improve the quality of their produce

　　B. growing concern about the excessive use of pesticides on crops

　　C. the forceful promotion by the Department of Agriculture

　　D. full support from agricultural experts

　　解析　細節理解題。依據文章第三自然段第2行“But with the renewed concern about pesticide on produce, and refinements in infrared scanning，Palely hopes to get back into operation”，可知B項(出于對殺蟲劑過度使用的擔心)符合題意。

　　答案　B

　　Passage 3

　　(2011·蘇錫常鎮四市教學調查)If you see a student napping (打瞌睡) in the library，don’t roll your eyes.New research from the University of California，Berkeley，shows that an hour’s nap can considerably improve and restore your brain power.Indeed，the findings suggest that a nap not only refreshes the mind，but can make you smarter.

　　“Sleep not only rights the wrong of extended wakefulness but it moves you beyond where you were before you took a nap.”said Matthew Walker，an assistant professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and the lead investigator of UC Berkeley sleep studies.

　　The latest study suggests that the brain may need sleep to process short-term memories，creating“space”for new facts to be learned.In their experiment,39 healthy adults were given a hard learning task in the morning—with broadly similar results，before half of them were sent for their nap.When the tests were repeated，the nappers improved their scores by 10 percent on average after sleeping；the scores of those who didn’t nap actually dropped by 10 percent.

　　The results support previous data from the same research team that staying up all night—a common practice at college during midterms and finals—decreases the ability to memorize new facts by nearly 40 percent，due to a shutdown of brain regions for lack of sleep，said Walker.

　　“Sleep is needed to clear the brain’s short-term memory storage and make room for new information.”said Walker.“It’s as though the e-mail inbox in your brain is full and，until you sleep and clear out those e-mails，you’re not going to receive any more e-mails.”

　　However，Professor Derk Jan Dijk，the director of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre，said that there was no clear evidence that daytime napping offered a distinct advantage over sleeping soundly just once over 24 hours.

　　“The sleep-wake cycle is not as fixed as we might think—we have the capability to sleep in different ways.”said Professor Derk-Jan Dijk.

　　“The size of these effects is much more difficult to judge—if I have to learn something，for example，it’s easier to do this when I’m feeling awake and ready than when I’m sleepy.”he added.

　　語篇解讀　這是一篇科普文章，主要介紹了有關睡眠問題的兩個研究。這兩個研究共同的結論是：充足的睡眠有利于提高學習成績。

　　1．According to UC Berkeley’s new findings，the benefit of a nap is that________.