2014高考英语抓分训练：史地自然型阅读理解1(含答案解析)
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2014高考英语抓分训练：史地自然型阅读理解(一)
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A
The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be
a beautiful it is an ecological disaster
's
heartbreaking story could have one good
consequence—other countries might learn
from
its mistakes.
For thousands of
years，Polynesian people lived in the remote island
of Nauru，far from Western
first European to
arrive was John Fearn in was the British captain
of the
Hunter, a whaling called the island
Pleasant Island.
However, because it was very
remote, Nauru had little communication with
Europeans at
whaling ships and other traders
began to visit it，bringing guns and elements
destroyed the social balance of the twelve
family groups on the island.A ten-year civil war
started，
which reduced the population from
1，400 to 900.
Nauru's real troubles began in
1899 when a British mining company discovered
phosphate(磷
酸盐)on the fact，it found that the
island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate，which was
a
very important fertilizer for company began
mining the phosphate.
A phosphate mine is not
a hole in the ground；it is a strip a company
discovers strip
mining，it removes the top
layer of it takes away the material it mining
totally
destroys the lly, the lovely island of
Nauru started to look like the moon.
In
1968，Nauru became one of the richest countries in
the year the government
received millions and
millions of dollars for its phosphate.
Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money
unwisely and lost millions of addition，
they
used millions more dollars for personal people
realized that they had a terrible
problem—their phosphate was running per cent
of their island was destroyed and they
had
2000，Nauru was financially s say that it would
take
approximately$$433，600，000 and more than
20 years to repair the will probably never
happen.
1. What might be the author's
purpose in writing the text?
A．To seek help
for Nauru's problems.
B．To give a warning to
other countries.
C．To show the importance of
money.
D．To tell a heartbreaking story of a
war.
2. What was Nauru like before the
Europeans came?
A．Rich and powerful.
B．Modern and open.
C．Peaceful and
attractive.
D．Greedy and aggressive.
3.
The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted
from________．
A．soil pollution
B．phosphate
overmining
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C．farming activity
D．whale hunting
4.
Which of the following was a cause of Nauru's
financial problem?
A．Its leaders misused the
money.
B．It spent too much repairing the
island.
C．Its phosphate mining cost much
money.
D．It lost millions of dollars in the
civil war.
5. What can we learn about Nauru
from the last paragraph?
A．The ecological
damage is difficult to repair.
B．The leaders
will take the experts' words seriously.
C．The
island was abandoned by the Nauruans.
D．The
phosphate mines were destroyed.
B
That the Leaning Tower of Pisa no longer leans
quite so much after a ￡20 million project to
save it has proved to be a great success. The
tower, which was on the edge of collapse, has been
straightened by 18 inches, returning it to its
1838 position.
“It has straightened a little
bit more than we expected, but very little
helps，”said Prof. John
Burland, the only
British member of the rescue committee. “The
tower is still very slightly moving
towards
being upright. ”
The tower, which has been
leaning almost since building work first began in
1173, was closed
to the public in 1990 because
of safety fears. The 183-foot tower was nearly 15
feet off vertical
and its structure was found
to have been weakened by centuries of strain(作用力).
Prof. Burland said it could have collapsed
“at any moment”. However, it took nine years of
quarrelling before any work was done. The
last attempt at straightening the tower was
carried out.
Concrete(混凝土) was poured into
the foundations, but the result was that the tower
sank further into
the soil.
The
straightening work involved digging out around 70
tonnes of earth from the northern side
of the
tower, causing it to sink on that side. Before
the digging started, the tower was fixed with
steel ropes and 600 tonnes of lead weights.
However, halfway through the project, concerns
at the ugliness of the weights led to their
removal and the tower leaned greatly. The
weights were hurriedly reattached. One night, the
tower
moved more than it had averaged in an
entire year. The tower's stonework has also been
restored.
The Italian government stepped in
after a tower collapsed in Pavia in 1989, killing
four people.
Experts suddenly realized that
the tower at Pisa, which was similarly built and
on the same sort of
earth, could do the same.
1. What would be the best title for the
passage?
A．The building of the Leaning Tower
of Pisa
B．Saving the Leaning Tower of Pisa
C．The collapse of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
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D．The history of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
2. According to the passage, the Leaning
Tower of Pisa ________．
A．closed for the
straightening work in 1990
B．began to lean
more than 800 years ago
C．has a history of
more than 1, 000 years
D．has become vertical
3. What drove the Italian government to save
the Leaning Tower of Pisa?
A．The development
of new technology.
B．The advice of Prof. John
Burland.
C．The expectation of the rescue
committee.
D．The collapse of a tower in Pavia.
4. What most probably played the most
important part in straightening the tower?
A．The lead weights fixed to the tower.
B．Restoring the stonework.
C．Pouring
concrete into the foundations.
D．Digging earth
from the southern side of the tower.
5.
Which of the following is NOT true according to
the passage?
A．The position of the tower has
been restored to what it was 172 years ago.
B．Hundreds of years of strain has weakened the
tower's structure.
C．The tower doesn't lean
any more after the straightening work finished.
D．People spent nine years in discussing about
the straightening work.
C
Today, one can
trace Venice's rich past from its buildings. Most
cities can claim at least a
handful of
outstanding churches, palaces or houses of
historical interest, but in Venice very nearly
everything is remarkable, from the magnificent
Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square ) and the
palaces that line the Grand Canal to the
centuries-old homes of simple fishermen. It would
be easy to
say that the city itself is an
enormous museum if it were not for the fact it is
so obviously alive.
At first sight, Venice
looks unbelievably permanent, an apparently
complete Renaissance (文艺
复兴) city so untouched
by time that there seems no reason why it should
not go on forever. Now the
city is slowly
sinking, as the clay on which it is built loses
its elasticity (弹性) and the massive
wooden
piles rot (腐烂) away. Flooding, such a rare
occurrence a hundred years ago now happens
several times each winter.
The damage
caused by the flooding is immense, and the fabric
of the ancient buildings is now
being further
damaged by pollution from the mainland town as
well as by the wash produced by the
constantly
increasing number of motor boats that speed up and
down the canals.
A further threat to Venice
comes from the Venetians themselves, some of whom
are not
particularly interested in preserving
the city as one of the wonders of the world and
would prefer to
see it modernized.
“What
better place is there for the meeting of dear
friends? See how it glows with the
advancing
summer; how the sky and the sea and the rosy air
and the marble of the palaces all
glimmer and
melt together.” Thus wrote the famous author Henry
James, of Venice, which provided
the setting
for his story The Aspern Papers, in the nineteenth
century. The Splendor of Venice has
captured
the imagination of artists for centuries—and not
just of the great painters and novelists.
[来源数理化网]
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How
tragic now that she is faced with the double
threat of man and nature. Venice indeed will be
lucky to survive.
1．Venice proudly boasts
________．
A．its beautiful churches, palaces
and houses
B．its unique St. Mark's Square
and the Grand Canal
C．its picturesque
waterscape
D．its marvelous ancient
buildings
2．The writer thinks that
________．
A．Venice can be regarded as a big
museum
B．Venice is no longer a big museum
C．Venice is different from a big museum
D．Venice can never be a big museum because
of its modernization
3．How do the motor boats
endanger the buildings?
A．They produce violent
movements of water.
B．They pollute the
air.
C．They pollute the water.
D．They
produce too much noise.
4．From the fourth
paragraph, we know that ________．
A．Venetians are eager to modernize their city
B．Venetians value the Grand Canal
C．Venetians don't care about any threat to the
Grand Canal
D．the threat of man is greater
than the threat of nature
5．In the last
paragraph, the writer ________．
A．is
very confident that Venice will survive
B．is doubtful whether Venice will survive
C．thinks that Venice will have luck
D．is
afraid that Venice will no longer attract artists
and novelists
A
【要点综述】
文章主要讲述了太平洋岛国瑙鲁如何从一个环境优美的天堂岛变成一个生
态失衡、满目疮痍的小岛。
1．B 由文章第一段的“Now it is an ecological disaster
's heartbreaking story
could have one good
consequence—other countries might learn from its m
istakes.”可以看出，作者
的目的是给当前很多只注重发展经济而忽略环境保护的国家一个警告
。故选B项。
2．C 从第一段提到的“太平洋上的国家瑙鲁岛曾经是一个美丽的地方”看出，瑙鲁岛
很吸引人；由第二段第一句以及第三段第一句可知，上千年来，瑙鲁岛的人们生活在偏远的
小岛
上，过着平静的生活。故选C项。
3．B 最后一段的“Soon people realized
that they had a terrible problem－their phosphate
was running per cent of their island was
destroyed and they had nothing.”即“磷酸盐
逐渐减少，开采殆尽
”。由此可以看出，“磷酸盐的过量开采”导致了瑙鲁岛的生态灾难。
故选B项。
4．A
由最后一段的“Unfortunately, the leaders invested the
money unwisely and lost millions
of addition,
they used millions more dollars for personal
expenses.”看出，是领导人不正
确地使用资金导致了财政问题。故选A项。
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5．A
文章最后告诉我们：Experts say that it would take
approximately $$433，600，000 and
more than 20
years to repair the island.也就是说，瑙鲁岛上的生态损失弥补起来需要大量的
资金
和时间，即选项所说的“修复起来很难”。故选A项。
B
【要点综述】
本文主要讲述了比萨斜塔的倾斜历史及政府为此做出的努力。
1．B 文章第一段就提到“…has
proved to be a great
success.”，并且下文也是围绕拯救
比萨斜塔进行阐述的。
2．B
第三段第一句提到比萨斜塔自1173年建立(至今已有800多年的历史)时就开始倾
斜。
3．D 文章最后一段提到“The Italian government stepped in
after a tower collapsed in Pavia
in
1989…”，说明正是另一个地方的塔的倒塌才使政府意识到拯救比萨斜塔的迫切性，故答
案为D。
4．A 文章第六段提到把lead
weights移走后，导致塔又有很大的倾斜，这正说明lead
weights所起的作用。
5．C 从第一段第一句“…no longer leans quite so much…”可知
C项与文章内容不符。
从第一段最后一句“塔被扶正18英寸后，恢复到了它1838年时的位置”，即
172年前的样
子，可推知A项符合文章内容；从第三段最后一句可知B项符合文章内容；从第四段第二
句
可知D项符合文章内容。
C
【要点综述】
本文为说明文，主要介绍威尼斯引以为豪的古建筑正承受着来自人类与大
自然的双重威胁。
1．D 推理判断题。根据第一段“…but in Venice very nearly
everything is remarkable, from
the magnificent
Piazza San Marco (St. Mark's Square ) and the
palaces that line the Grand Canal to
the
centuries-old homes of simple
fishermen.”可判断威尼斯以它杰出的古建筑而闻名，故选D。
2．A
细节理解题。根据第一段“It would be easy to say that the city
itself is an enormous
museum if it were not
for the fact it is so obviously
alive.”可推断作者认为威尼斯是巨大的博物
馆，故选A。
3．A
细节理解题。根据第三段“…the wash produced by the constantly
increasing number
of motor boats that speed up
and down the canals.”可判断选A。
4．D 细节理解题。根据第四段“A
further threat to Venice comes from the Venetians
themselves…”可知人为因素比自然因素对威尼斯造成的损坏更大，故选D。
5．B 推理判断题。根据最后一段“How tragic now that she is
faced with the double threat of
man and
nature. Venice indeed will be lucky to survive.”可知
威尼斯面临着来自人类和自然的双
重威胁，要想幸存下去将也是一件碰运气的事，即可推断作者对威尼斯
的未来持怀疑态度，
故选B。
[来源:]
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