高考英语二轮专题复习提升精选阅读理解34 .doc

2014届高考英语二轮专题复习提升精选：阅读理解1.western artist r.v. (ron) jahns creates his unique western wildlife paintings by tapping into (利用) his vast experience of true life. he had rich western experiences out in the mountains in the great northwest.ron paints from the heart and his experience as a cowboy in the west. he has a particular passion (激情) for the mountains from eastern oregon to alaska and draws from his many years of mountain adventures as inspiration for his western paintings. born and raised on a farm, this cowboy artist is well knowledgeable with the subjects of his western art. ron struggles for historical accuracy in his western cowboy paintings when an artist gives a false description of the facts about cowboys in the west!living in alaska for 17 years added a new factor to rons western art. as a hunter and fisherman he observed the wildlife in its natural setting and has conveyed this spirit to his canvas. rons western art can be viewed throughout the united states, in europe and through occasional private showings. you can find western wildlife paintings by ron at various art shows throughout the year. for a list of art shows the cowboy artist will be attending, visit his art show page. although a self-taught western artist, ron himself has taught painting in colleges and through private lessons. ron is quite a storyteller and the last of an old kind of cowboy poets and western storytellers. if youve met ron at the flea markets in sumpter, oregon then you no doubt have already had a taste of his knack (诀窍) for telling tall tales and sharing his original cowboy poems of true life on the ranch.36. what is the best title of the passage?a. a handsome cowboy b. a cowboy artist c. an artist in the west d. a famous artist37. why can ron truly present the facts about cowboy life in the west?a. because he has read a lot about cowboys life.b. because he has seen many such paintings.c. because he has experienced such life. d. because he knows western styles well.38. what does the underlined word “canvas” in the second paragraph mean?a. a kind of cloth. b. blue jeans c. thoughts d. paintings 39. from the passage we can see ron is _.a. a good artist as well as a story teller and poet b. skilled at his teachingc. a rich artist d. a british artist40. which of the following is true?a. rons painting focuses on city life. b. ron learned a lot from his teacher.c. ron was born and raised on a farm. d. rons paintings cant be seen in europe.2.a team of engineers at harvard university has been inspired by nature to create the first robotic fly. the mechanical fly has become a platform for a series of new high-tech integrated systems. designed to do what a fly does naturally, the tiny machine is the size of a fat housefly. its mini wings allow it to stay in the air and perform controlled flight tasks.“its extremely important for us to think about this as a whole system and not just the sum of a bunch of individual components (元件),” said robert wood, the harvard engineering professor who has been working on the robotic fly project for over a decade. a few years ago, his team got the go-ahead to start piecing together the components. “the added difficulty with a project like this is that actually none of those components are off the shelf and so we have to develop them all on our own,” he said.they engineered a series of systems to start and drive the robotic fly. “the seemingly simple system which just moves the wings has a number of interdependencies on the individual components, each of which individually has to perform well, but then has to be matched well to everything its connected to,” said wood. the flight device was built into a set of power, computation, sensing and control systems. wood says the success of the project proves that the flying robot with these tiny components can be built and manufactured.while this first robotic flyer is linked to a small, off-board power source, the goal is eventually to equip it with a built-in power source, so that it might someday perform data-gathering work at rescue sites, in farmers fields or on the battlefield. “basically it should be able to take off, land and fly around,” he said.wood says the design offers a new way to study flight mechanics and control at insect-scale. yet, the power, sensing and computation technologies on board could have much broader applications. “you can start thinking about using them to answer open scientific questions, you know, to study biology in ways that would be difficult with the animals, but using these robots instead,” he said. “so there are a lot of technologies and open interesting scientific questions that are really what drives us on a day to day basis.”41. the robotic fly project has been conducted _.a. just by accidentb. within a decadec. just by a professord. for more than ten years42. the difficulty the team of engineers met with while making the robotic fly was that _.a. they had no model in their mindb. they did not have sufficient timec. they had no ready-made componentsd. they could not assemble the components43. it can be inferred from paragraphs 3 and 4 that the robotic fly _.a. consists of a flight device and a control systemb. can just fly in limited areas at the present timec. can collect information from many sourcesd. has been put into wide application44. which of the following can be learned from the passage?a. the robotic flyer is designed to learn about insects.b. animals are not allowed in biological experiments.c. there used to be few ways to study how insects fly.d. woods design can replace animals in some experiments.45. which of the following might be the best title of the passage?a. father of robotic flyb. inspiration from engineering sciencec. robotic fly imitates real life insectd. harvard breaks through in insect study3.how could we possibly think that keeping animals in cages in unnatural environmentsmostly for entertainment purposesis fair and respectful?zoo officials say they are concerned about animals. how ever, most zoos remain “collections” of interesting “things” rather than protective habitats. zoos teach people that it is acceptable to keep animals bored, lonely, and far from their natural homes.zoos claim to educate people and save endangered species, but visitors leave zoos without having learned anything meaningful about the animals natural behavior, intelligence, or beauty. zoos keep animals in small spaces or cages, and most signs only mention the species name, diet, and natural range. the animals normal behavior is seldom noticed because zoos dont usually take care of the animals natural needs.the animals are kept together in small spaces, with no privacy and little opportunity for mental and physical exercise. this results in unusual and self-destructive behavior called zoochosis. a worldwide study of zoos found that zoochosis is common among animals kept in small spaces or cages. another study showed that elephants spend 22 percent of their time making repeated head movements or biting cage bars, and bears spend 30 percent of their time walking back and forth, a sign of unhappiness and pain.furthermore, most animals in zoos are not endangered. captive breeding (圈养繁殖) of endangered big cats, asian elephants, and other species has not resulted in their being sent back to the wild. zoos talk a lot about their captive breeding programs because they do not want people to worry about a species dying out. in fact, baby animals also attract a lot of paying customers. havent we seen enough competitions to name baby animals?actually, we will save endangered species only if we save their habitats and put an end to the reasons people kill them. instead of supporting zoos, we should support groups that work to protect animals natural habitats.36. how would the author describe the animals life in zoos?a. dangerous.b. unhappy.c. natural. d. easy.37. in the state of zoochosis, animals _.a. remain in cagesb. behave strangelyc. attack other animalsd. enjoy moving around38. what does the author try to argue in the passage?a. zoos are not worth the public support.b. zoos fail in their attempt to save animals.c. zoos should treat animals as human beings.d. zoos use animals as a means of entertainment.39. the author tries to persuade readers to accept his argument mainly by _.a. discussing the advantages of natural habitats b. using evidence he has collected at zoosc. questioning the way animals are protectedd. pointing out the faults in what zoos do40. although he argues against zoos, the author would still agree that _.a. zoos have to keep animals in small cagesb. most animals in zoos are endangered speciesc. some endangered animals are reproduced in zoosd. its acceptable to keep animals away from their habitats4.in modern society there is a great deal of argument about competition. some value it highly, believing that it is responsible for social progress and prosperity. others say that competition is bad; that it sets one person against another; that it leads to unfriendly relationship between people.i have taught many children who held the belief that their self-worth relied on how well they performed at tennis and other skills. for them, playing well and winning are often life-and-death affairs. in their single-minded pursuit of success, the development of many other human qualities is sadly forgotten.however, while some seem to be lost in the desire to succeed, others take an opposite attitude. in a culture which values only the winner and pays no attention to the ordinary players, they strongly blame competition. among the most vocal are youngsters who have suffered under competitive pressures from their parents or society. teaching these young people, i often observe in them a desire to fail. they seem to seek failure by not trying to win or achieve success. by not trying, they always have an excuse: “i may have lost, but it doesnt matter because i really didnt try.” what is not usually admitted by themselves is the belief that if they had really tried and lost, that would mean a lot. such a loss would be a measure of their worth. clearly, this belief is the same as that of true competitors who try to prove themselves. both are based on the mistaken belief that ones self-respect relies on how well one performs in comparison with others. both are afraid of not being valued. only as this basic and often troublesome fear begins to dissolve (缓解) can we discover a new meaning in competition.31. what does this passage mainly talk about?a. competition helps to set up self-respect.b. opinions about competition are different among people.c. competition is harmful to personal quality development.d. failures are necessary experience in competition.32. why do some people favor competition according to the passage?a. it pushes society forward.b. it builds up a sense of duty.c. it improves personal abilities.d. it encourages individual efforts.33. the underlined phrase “the most vocal” in paragraph 3 means _.a. those who try their best to winb. those who value competition most highlyc. those who are against competition most stronglyd. those who rely on others most for success34. what is the similar belief of the true competitors and those with a “desire to fail”?a. ones worth lies in his performance compared with others.b. ones success in competition needs great efforts.c. ones achievement is determined by his particular skills.d. ones success is based on how hard he has tried.35. which point of view may the author agree to?a. every effort should be paid back.b. competition should be encouraged.c. winning should be a life-and-death matter.d. fear of failure should be removed in competition.5.in the fall of 1985, i was a bright-eyed girl heading off to howard university, aiming at a legal career and dreaming of sitting on a supreme court bench somewhere. twenty-one years later i am still a bright-eyed dreamer and one with quite a different tale to tell. my grandma, an amazing woman, graduated from college at the age of 65. she was the first in our family to reach that goal. but one year after i started college, she developed cancer. i made the choice to withdraw from college to care for her. it meant that school and my personal dream would have to wait. then i got married with another dream: building my family with a combination of adopt and biological children. in 1999, we adopted our first son. to lay eyes on him was fantasticand very emotional. a year later came our second adopted boy. then followed son no. 3. in 2003, i gave birth to another boy. you can imagine how fully occupied i became, raising four boys under the age of 8! our home was a complete zooa joyous zoo. not surprising, i never did make it back to college full-time. but i never gave up on the dream either. i had only one choice: to find a way. that meant taking as few as one class each semester. the hardest part was feeling guilty about the time i spent away from the boys. they often wanted me to stay home with them. there certainly were times i wanted to quit. but i knew i should set an example for them to follow through the rest of their lives.in 2007, i graduated from the university of north carolina. it took me over 21 years to get my college degree!i am not special, just single-minded. it always struck me that when youre looking at a big challenge from the outside it looks huge, but when youre in the midst of it, it just seems normal. everything you want wont arrive in your life on one day. its a process. remember: little steps add up to big dreams.26. when the author went to howard university, her dream was to be _.a. a writerb. a teacherc. a judged. a doctor27. why did the author quit school in her second year of college?a. she wanted to study by herself.b. she fell in love and got married.c. she suffered from a serious illness.d. she decided to look after her grandma. 28. what can we learn about the author from paragraphs 4 and 5?a.she was busy yet happy with her family life.b.she ignored her guilty feeling for her sons.c.she wanted to remain a full-time housewife.d.she was too confused to make a correct choice.29. what dose the author mostly want to tell us in the last paragraph?a.failure is the mother of success.b.little by little, one goes far.c.every coin has two sides.d.well begun, half done.30. which of the following can best describe the author?a.caring and determined.b.honest and responsible.c.ambitious and sensitive.d.innocent and single-minded.6.rock stars and their moneyaround the world young people are spending unbelievable sums of money listening to rock music. forbes reports that at least fifty rock stars have incomes between two million and six million dollars per year.it doesnt make sense, says johnny mathis, one of the older music millionaires, who made a million dollars a year when he was popular in 1950s. performers arent worth this kind of money. in fact, nobody is.but the rock stars admirers seem to disagree. those who love rock music spend about two billion dollars a year for records. they pay 150 million to see rock stars in person.luck is a key word for explaining the success of many. in 1972 one of the luckiest was kon mclean, who wrote and sang american pie. mclean writes his