高三英语二轮复习话题训练科普小品类阅读理解.doc

话题二：科普小品类(一)(2011·全国卷Ⅱ)For those who study the development of intelligence (智力) in the animal world，self­awareness is an important measurement. An animal that is aware (意识) of itself has a high level of intelligence.Awareness can be tested by studying whether the animal recognizes itself in the mirror, that is，its own reflected image (反射出的影像). Many animals fail this exercise bitterly, paying very little attention to the reflected image. Only humans, and some intelligent animals like apes and dolphins，have been shown to recognize that the image in the mirror is of themselves.Now another animal has joined the club. In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report that an Asian elephant has passed the mirror self­reflection test. “We thought that elephants were the next important animal.” said Diana Reiss of the Wildlife Conservation Society, an author of the study with Joshua M. Plotnik and Fans B. M. de Waal of Emory University. With their large brains, Reiss said, elephants “seemed like cousins to apes and dolphins”．The researchers tested Happy, Maxine and Patty, three elephants at the Bronx Zoo. They put an 8­foot­square mirror on a wall of the animals' play area (out of the sight of zoo visitors) and recorded what happened with cameras, including one built in the mirror.The elephants used their long noses to find what was behind it, and to examine parts of their bodies.Of the three, Happy then passed the test, in which a clear mark was painted on one side of her face. She could tell the mark was there by looking in the mirror, and she used the mirror to touch the mark with her long nose.Diana Reiss said, “We knew elephants were intelligent, but now we can talk about their intelligence in a better way.”1．What can mirror tests tell us about animals?A．Whether they have large brains.B．Whether they have self­awareness.C．Whether they enjoy outdoor exercises.D．Whether they enjoy playing with mirrors.2．Why does the author mention apes and dolphins in the text?A．They are most familiar to readers.B．They are big favorites with zoo visitors.C．They are included in the study by Reiss.D．They are already known to be intelligent.3．What made Happy different from Maxine and Patty?A．She used her nose to search behind the mirror.B．She recognized her own image in the mirror.C．She painted a mark on her own face.D．She found the hidden camera.答案与解析1.B　细节理解题。

根据第二段第一句可知，通过研究动物是否在镜子中识别自己可以测试它们的自我意识2.D　推理判断题根据第二段最后一句可知，作者提到猿和海豚是因为它们和人一样可以识别镜中自己的形象，是人们已知的有智力的动物；再根据第三段，一个亚洲象也通过了该测试，也加入到有智力的行列里，故选D项3.B　细节理解题根据倒数第二段，三个大象中只有Happy通过了镜子测试，也就是说只有她能识别镜中自己的形象，因此这是她有别于其他大象的地方，故选B项二)(2011·江苏高考)According to the US government, wind farms off the Pacific coast could produce 900 gigawatts of electricity every year. Unfortunately, the water there is far too deep for even the tallest windmills (see picture) to touch bottom. An experiment under way off the coast of Norway, however, could help put them anywhere.The project, called Hywind, is the world's first large­scale deepwater wind turbine (涡轮发电机). Although it uses a fairly standard 152­ton, 2.3­megawatt turbine, Hywind represents totally new technology. The turbine will be fixed 213 feet above the water on a floating spar ( see picture), a technology Hywind's creator, the Norwegian company StatoilHydro, has developed recently. The steel spar, which is filled with stones and goes 328 feet below the sea surface, will be tied to the ocean floor by three cables (缆索); these will keep the spar stable and prevent the turbine from moving up and down in the waves. Hywind's stability (稳定性) in the cold and rough sea would prove that even the deepest corners of the ocean are suitable for wind power. If all goes according to plan, the turbine will start producing electricity six miles off the coast of southwestern Norway as early as September.To produce electricity on a large scale, a commercial wind farm will have to use bigger turbines than Hywind does, but it's difficult enough to balance such a large turbine so high on a floating spar in the middle of the ocean. To make that turbine heavier, the whole spar's centre of gravity must be moved much closer to the ocean's surface. To do that, the company plans to design a new kind of wind turbine, one whose gearbox (变速箱) sits at sea level rather than behind the blades (see picture)．Hywind is a test run, but the benefits for perfecting floating wind­farm technology could be extremely large. Out at sea, the wind is often stronger and steadier than close to shore, where all existing off­shore windmills are planted. Deep­sea farms are invisible from land, which helps overcome the windmill­as­eyesore objection. If the technology catches on, it will open up vast areas of the planet's surface to one of the best low­carbon power sources available.1. The Hywind project uses totally new technology to ensure the stability of ________.A. the cables which tie the 。