专题十六 阅读理解之科普类说明文

1.【2015·湖北卷】D

The oddness of life in space never quite goes away. Here are some examples.

First consider something as simple as sleep. Its position presents its own challenges. The main question is whether you want your arms inside or outside the sleeping bag. If you leave your arms out, they float free in zero gravity, often giving a sleeping astronaut the look of a funny balled （芭蕾）dancer. “I’m an inside guy,” Mike Hopkins says, who returned from a six-month tour on the International Space Station. “I like to be wrapped up.”

On the station, the ordinary becomes strange. The exercise bike for the American astronauts has no handlebars. It also has no seat. With no gravity, it’s just as easy to pedal violently. You can watch a movie while you pedal by floating a microcomputer anywhere you want. But station residents have to be careful about staying in one place too long. Without gravity to help circulate air, the carbon dioxide you exhale (呼气) has a tendency to form an invisible （隐形的）cloud around you head. You can end up with what astronauts call a carbon-dioxide headache.

Leroy Chiao, 54, an American retired astronaut after four flights, describes what happens even before you float out of your seat,”Your inner ear thinks your’re falling . Meanwhile your eyes are telling you you’re standing straight. That can be annoying—that’s why some people feel sick.” Within a couple days —truly terrible days for some —astronauts’ brains learn to ignore the panicky signals from the inner ear, and space sickness disappears.

Space travel can be so delightful but at the same time invisibly dangerous. For instance, astronauts lose bone mass. That’s why exercise is considered so vital that National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) puts it right on the workday schedule. The focus on fitness is as much about science and the future as it is about keeping any individual astronauts return home, and, more importantly, how to maintain strength and fitness for the two and a half years or more that it would take to make a round-trip to Mars.

63.What is the major challenge to astronauts when they sleep in space?

A. Deciding on a proper sleep position

B. Choosing a comfortable sleeping bag

C. Seeking a way to fall asleep quickly

D. Finding a right time to go to sleep.

64.The astronauts will suffer from a carbon-dioxide headache when _____.

 A. the y circle around on their bikes

B. they use microcomputers without a stop

C. they exercise in one place for a long time

D. they watch a movie while pedaling

65.Some astronauts feel sick on the station during the first few days because _____.

A. their senses stop working

B. they have to stand up straight

C. they float out of their seats unexpectedly

D. whether they are able to go back to the station

66.One of the NASA’s major concerns about astronauts is _____.

A. how much exercise they do on the station

B. how they can remain healthy for long in space

C. whether they can recover after returning home

D. whether they are able to go back to the station

【解析】

试题分析：这是一篇说明文。本文通过举例说明了太空生活的奇妙：在太空睡觉时，对宇航员来说主要的挑战在于恰当的睡眠姿势；宇航员在一个地方运动久了会出现碳毒性头痛；宇航员的大脑接收到矛盾的信息时会感到恶心。最后告诉我们美国国家宇航局对宇航员主要的担心是宇航员回家后的修养期和如何在太空长久地保持健康。

63.A细节理解题。根据第二段第一、二句“First consider something as simple as sleep. Its position presents its own challenges.”可知在太空睡觉时，对宇航员来说主要的挑战在于恰当的睡眠姿势。故选A项。

64. C细节理解题。根据第三段中“But station residents have to be careful about staying in one place too long. …You can end up with what astronauts call a carbon-dioxide headache”可知宇航员在一个地方运动久了会出现碳毒性头痛。故选C项。

65. D细节理解题。根据第四段中“Your inner ear thinks you’re failing. Meanwhile your eyes are telling you you’re standing straight. That can be annoying-that’s why some people feel sick.”可知宇航员在大脑接收到矛盾的信息时会感到恶心。故选D项。

66.B细节理解题。根据最后一段倒数第一、二句“The focus on fitness is as much about science and the future as is about keeping any individual astronaut healthy…NASA is worried about two things :… and, more importantly, how maintain strength and fitness…”可知美国国家宇航局对宇航员主要的担心之一是如何在太空长久地保持健康。故选B项。

【考点定位】说明文阅读

【名师点睛】科普类说明文历来是高考阅读理解命题的重点，文章逻辑性强，条理清楚，主要考查学生对语篇的整体把握和领悟能力以及对特定细节的认读和处理能力。考生应注意：1.平时多读科普知识类文章，学习科普知识，积累常见的科普词汇，从根本上提高科普英语的阅读能力。2.熟悉科普类文章的结构特点。科普类文章一般由标题（高考题中一般不给出标题）、导语、背景、主体和结尾五部分构成。导语一般位于整篇文章的首段。背景交待一个事实的起因。主体则对导语概括的事实进行详细叙述，这部分是命题的重点，考生应该重点把握。结尾往往也是中心思想的概括，并与导语相呼应，命题者常在此要设计一道推理判断题。3. 在进行推理判断时，考生一定要以阅读材料所提供的科学事实为依据，同时所得出的结论还应符合基本的科普常识。

2.【2015·北京卷】C

Life in the Clear

   Transparent animals let light pass through their bodies the same way light passes through a window. These animals typically live between the surface of the ocean and a depth of about 3,300 feet—as far as most light can reach. Most of them are extremely delicate and can be damaged by a simple touch. Sonke Johnsen, a scientist in biology, says, “These animals live through their life alone. They never touch anything unless they’re eating it, or unless something is eating them.”

   And they are as clear as glass. How does an animal become see-through? It’s trickier than you might think.

   The objects around you are visible because they interact with light. Light typically travels in a straight line. But some materials slow and scatter(散射) light, bouncing it away from its original path. Others absorb light, stopping it dead in its tracks. Both scattering and absorption make an object look different from other objects around it, so you can see it easily.

   But a transparent object doesn’t absorb or scatter light, at least not very much, Light can pass through it without bending or stopping. That means a transparent object doesn’t look very different from the surrounding air or water. You don’t see it ----you see the things behind it.

   To become transparent, an animal needs to keep its body from absorbing or scattering light. Living materials can stop light because they contain pigments(色素) that absorb specific colors of light. But a transparent animal doesn’t have pigments, so its tissues won’t absorb light. According to Johnsen, avoiding absorption is actually easy. The real challenge is preventing light from scattering.

Animals are built of many different materials----skin, fat, and more----and light moves through each at a different speed. Every time light moves into a material with a new speed, it bends and scatters. Transparent animals use different tricks to fight scattering. Some animals are simply very small or extremely flat. Without much tissue to scatter light, it is easier to be see—through. Others build a large, clear mass of non-living jelly-lie(果冻状的)material and spread themselves over it .

Larger transparent animals have the biggest challenge, because they have to make all the different tissues in their bodies slow down light exactly as much as water does. They need to look uniform. But how they’re doing it is still unknown. One thing is clear for these larger animals, staying transparent is an active process. When they die, they turn a non-transparent milky white.

63. According to Paragraph 1, transparent animals_______.

 A. stay in groups                   B. can be easily damaged

 C. appear only in deep ocean         D. are beautiful creatures

64. The underlined word “dead” in Paragraph 3 means__________.

 A. silently      B. gradually

 C. regularly    D. completely

65. One way for an animal to become transparent is to ________.

 A. change the direction of light travel

 B. gather materials to scatter light.

 C. avoid the absorption of light

 D. grow bigger to stop light.

66. The last paragraph tells us that larger transparent animals________.

  A. move more slowly in deep water

  B. stay see-through even after death

  C. produce more tissues for their survival

  D. take effective action to reduce light spreading

【解析】

试题分析：文章解释了生活在海洋的透明生物的特点，透明原理，以及形成机制。

63.B 细节理解题。文章第一段第三行：Mostof them are extremely delicate and can be damaged by a simple touch。得知B选项：透明动物是很容易受伤的。故选B。

64.D 词义猜测题。该词出现在文章第三段第三行。前文提到了：你能看到的物体一种是对光线进行了散射；而另外一种是对光线的吸收。既然吸收了，那在光的传播过程中就完全阻止了，因此这里dead是完全的意思。故选D。

65.C 推理判断题。根据第五段第一句To become transparent, an animal needs to keep its body from absorbing or scattering light。可知，想变透明就要避免散射或吸收光线，因此其中的一个方法是C选项，避免光线的吸收。故选C。

66.D 推理判断题。根据最后一段第一句中的make all the different tissues in their bodies slow down light exactly as much as water does可以推断出D为正确答案。其中slowdown对应reduce。故选D。

【考点定位】科技类说明文

 

【名师点睛】做科技类说明文时，考生应能：理解语篇主旨要义，理解文中具体信息，根据上下文提供的线索推测生词的词义，根据文中事实和线索作出简单的判断和推理。此次出现了新型科技类说明文。往年科技类说明文的阅读难点在于专业类词汇，但是今年的“新型耳机”在问题设置上难度不大，属于文章难但题目不难的题目。所以要理解好文章做好此题就不是难题。

4.C

Suppose you become a leader in an organization. It’s very likely that you’ll want to have volunteers to help with the organization’s activities. To do so, it should help to understand why people undertake volunteer work and what keeps their interest in the work.

Let’s begin with the question of why people volunteer. Researchers have identified several factors that motivate people to get involved. For example, people volunteer to express personal values related to unselfishness, to expand their range of experiences, and to strengthen social relationships. If volunteer positions do not meet these needs, people may not wish to participate. To select volunteers, you may need to understand the motivations of the people you wish to attract.

People also volunteer because they are required to do so. To increase levels of community service, some schools have launched compulsory volunteer programs. Unfortunately, these programs can shift people’s wish of participation from an internal factor (e.g., “I volunteer because it’s important to me”) to an external factor (e.g., “I volunteer because I’m required to do so”). When that happens, people become less likely to volunteer in the future. People must be sensitive to this possibility when they make volunteer activities a must.

Once people begin to volunteer, what leads them to remain in their positions over time? To answer this question, researchers have conducted follow-up studies in which they track volunteers over time. For instance, one study followed 238 volunteers in Florida over a year. One of the most important factors that influenced their satisfaction as volunteers was the amount of suffering they experienced in their volunteer positions. Although this result may not surprise you, it leads to important practical advice. The researchers note that attention should be given to “training methods that would prepare volunteers for troublesome situations or provide them with strategies for coping with the problem they do experience”.

Another study of 302 volunteers at hospitals in Chicago focused on individual differences in the degree to which people view “volunteer” as an important social role. It was assumed that those people for whom the role of volunteer was most part of their personal identity would also be most likely to continue volunteer work. Participants indicated the degree to which the social role mattered by responding to statements such as “Volunteering in Hospital is an important part of who I am.” Consistent with the researchers’ expectations, they found a positive correlation (正相关) between the strength of role identity and the length of time people continued to volunteer. These results, once again, lead to concrete advice: “Once an individual begins volunteering, continued efforts might focus on developing a volunteer role identity.... Items like T-shirts that allow volunteers to be recognized publicly for their contributions can help strengthen role identity”.

61.People volunteer mainly out of ______ .

A. academic requirements           B. social expectations

C. financial rewards                D. internal needs

62.What can we learn from the Florida study?

A. Follow-up studies should last for one year.   B. Volunteers should get mentally prepared.

C. Strategy training is a must in research.       D. Volunteers are provided with concrete advice.

63.What is most likely to motivate volunteers to continue their work?

A. Individual differences in role identity.       B. Publicly identifiable volunteer T-shirts.

C. Role identity as a volunteer.               D. Practical advice from researchers.

64.What is the best title of the passage?

A. How to Get People to Volunteer             B. How to Study Volunteer Behaviors

C. How to Keep Volunteers’ Interest            D. How to Organize Volunteer Activities

【解析】

试题分析：本文是一篇议论文。文章分析讲述志愿者为什么自发地去服务社会，并通过3个实验研究志愿者的意图。

61.  D细节理解题。根据文章第二段内容可知人们做志愿者工作的原因为：“to express personal values related to unselfishness, to expand their range of experiences, and to strengthen social relationships”，再结合“If volunteer positions do not meet these needs, people may not wish to participate” 可知答案为D项（满足内在的需求）。

62．B推理判断题。根据第四段最后一句中“training methods that would prepare volunteers for troublesome situations or provide them with strategies for coping with the problem they do experience”可知志愿者应该从心理上做好充分的准备。故选B项。

63.C细节理解题。根据第五段第二句中“those people for whom the role of volunteer was most part of their personal identity would also be most likely to continue volunteer work”可知志愿者身份认同会激励他们继续从事志愿者工作。故选C项。

64.A标题归纳题。文章首段提出假设：假如你是一名组织领导人，很想得到志愿者的帮助。并指出在此之前，必须弄清志愿者为什么自发地去服务社会，并通过3个实验研究志愿者的意图。因此A项（如何使人们从事志愿者服务）是文章的最佳标题。

【考点定位】议论文阅读

 

【名师点睛】议论说理类文章具有以下特点：1．一般按提出问题、分析问题、解决问题的方法写作。作者一般从日常生活中的热点问题、社会上的重大问题、与读者息息相关的问题入手，即提出问题。然后，分析利弊，举例说明，推理判断，即分析问题。最后，阐述观点，提出办法，即解决问题。2．以作者的观点或情感为核心，对细节推理等方面进行考查。3．文章的主题一般是生活中的热点问题、重大问题或与生活息息相关的问题等。考生应注意抓住作者提出的观点、给出的例证及最后得出的结论。同时，理清作为论据的诸多事例和理由之间以及它们和观点/结论之间的内在联系，把握文章的结构。

7.【2015·四川】D

Their cheery song brightens many a winter's day. But robins are in danger of wearing themselves out by singing too much. Robins are singing all night一as well as during the day, British-based researchers say.

    David Dominoni, of Glasgow University, said that light from street lamps, takeaway signs and homes is affecting the birds' biological clocks, leading to them being wide awake when they should be asleep.

    Dr Dominoni, who is putting cameras inside nesting boxes to track sleeping patterns, said lack of sleep could put the birds’ health at risk. His study shows that when robins are exposed to light at night in the lab, it leads to some genes being active at the wrong time of day. And the more birds are exposed to light, the more active they are at night.

He told people at a conference, "There have been a couple of studies suggesting they are increasing their song output at night and during the day they are still singing. Singing is a costly behaviour and it takes energy. So by increasing their song output, there might be some costs of energy."

And it is not just robins that are being kept awake by artificial light. Blackbirds and seagulls are also being more nocturnal. Dr Dominoni said, "In Glasgow where I live, gulls are a serious problem. I have people coming to me saying `You are the bird expert. Can you help us kill these gulls?'.During the breeding(繁殖)season, between April and June, they are very active at night and very noisy and people can't sleep."

Although Dr Dominoni has only studied light pollution, other research concluded that robins living in noisy cities have started to sing at night to make themselves heard over loud noise.

However, some birds thrive(兴旺)in noisy environments. A study from California Polytechnic University found more hummingbirds in areas with heavy industrial machinery. It is thought that they are capitalising on their predators(天敌)fleeing to quieter areas.

42.According to Dr Dominoni's study, what cause robins to sing so much?

  A. The breeding season.                                       B. The light in modern life

  C. The dangerous environment.                      D. The noise from heavy machinery.

43.What is the researchers' concern over the increase of birds' song output?

  A. The environment might be polluted.

  B. The birds' health might be damaged.

  C. The industry cost might be increased.

  D. The people's hearing might be affected.

44.What does the underlined word "nocturnal" in Paragraph 5 mean?

  A. Active at night.                                  B. Inactive at night.

  C. Active during the day.                        D. Inactive during the day.

45.Why do some birds thrive in noisy environments?

  A. Because there are fewer dangers.

  B. Because there is more food to eat.

C. Because there is less light pollution

D. Because there are more places to take shelter.

【解析】

试题分析：本文主要介绍了一项研究调查的结果，由于人类制造的光线问题，越来越多的鸟类如知更鸟在晚上也会唱歌，这极大地影响了鸟的健康。

42.B 细节理解题。根据文章第二段的David Dominoni, of Glasgow University, said that light from street lamps, take away signs and homes is affecting the birds' biological clock, leading to them being wide awake可知选择B。

43.B 细节理解题。根据文章Singing is a costly behaviour and it takes energy. So by increasing their song output, there might be some costs of energy."可知，唱歌唱得越多，就会损耗更多的能量，故选择B。

44.A 词义辨析题。根据上文的And it is not just robins that are being kept awake by artificial light. Blackbirds and seagulls are also being可知乌鸦和海鸥情况也一样，也就是说这两种鸟晚上也唱歌，故选择A，指晚上很兴奋。学优高考网

45.A 细节理解题。根据文章最后一段的It is thought that they are capitalising on their predators(天敌)fleeing to quieter areas.可知，它们的天敌都去了安静的地方，故选择A，指在这些工业区，天敌更少，也就是危险更少。

【考点定位】考查说明文阅读

 

【名师点睛】本篇文章考查了科普说明文的阅读。科普说明文是高考阅读理解中的重点与难点。在阅读此类文章时，考生会觉得篇幅长、生词多、逻辑性强、长句多、话题陌生且枯燥，表达方式专业化。因此，要求考生要掌握相对的解题技巧与能力。在读此类文章时，要弄清文章的主题，本文主题为人造光影响了鸟类的生物钟，使得它们晚上还在歌唱，影响了鸟类的健康。在设题时，此类文章常考词义辨析题，如，要求考生要从上文的具体现象中概括出生词词义。