Question

Science, as we think, was born when the Greek philosopher (哲学家) Thales ( about 640-546 B.C.) asked a difficult question: What makes up our universe?

No one had a ready answer, so Thales went on studying the earth around him, the sky and the stars. He saw so much water on earth and so much water falling from the sky as rain that he decided water must be the basic substance (物质) of the universe.

Other Greek thinkers became interested in this question. They suggested other answers. One said that because air lies around the earth, it must be air that makes up all things. Another said that fire, appearing in different forms, was the building block of the universe.

The Greek philosophers were feeling their way towards the ideas on which chemistry is based. Centuries later, scientists proved that the universe is made up of certain basic substances. But the list is much more complicated than the Greeks realized. We now know of 103 basic substances which we call “ elements (元素)”.

1.Thales, the famous Greek philosopher, died when he was about_________.

A．94 years old       B．106years old       C．40 years old       D．46 years old

2.The meaning of the underlined word “complicated” in the last paragraph is “_______”.

A．not difficult        B．not simple         C．not famous        D．not different

3.From the passage we know that _______.

A．Thales asked many questions              B．Greeks were all philosophers

C．science began long ago                   D．water and air make up all things.

4.On the whole, the passage tells about _______.

A．early tries to understand the universe       B．the famous Greek thinkers

C．water falling from the sky                 D．air lying all around the earth

5.After reading the passage, we can be sure that_______.

A．nothing ever changes in the universe

B．Thales decided that the basic substance of the universe was air

C．the universe is made up of four different substances

D．the early Greek thinkers did much valuable work for the progress of science

 

Answer 1

【答案】

1.A

2.B

3.C

4.A

5.D

【解析】

试题分析：本文讲述了希腊的科学家在很早的时候就对宇宙的组成物质有所研究，他们通过研究发现水、火和空气因为都始终伴随着宇宙，认为它们是宇宙的基本组成物质，在后来人的研究中确实发现希腊的科学家所说的宇宙是有基本物质组成的，是对的，只不过不是三种而是103种物质组成的。

1.这是计算题。根据Thales ( about 640-546 B.C.) 两数相减得知选A。

2.这是细节理解题。根据We now know of 103 basic substances which we call “ elements (元素)”我们现在知道宇宙是有103种，所以表上列出的肯定比希腊的复杂的多，故选B。.

3.这是细节理解题。根据希腊的科学家的对于宇宙研究可知，科学出现的很早，故选C。

4.这是细节理解题。根据很早的时候人们就开始研究宇宙，故选A。

5.这是细节理解题。根据The Greek philosophers were feeling their way towards the ideas on which chemistry is based. Centuries later, scientists proved that the universe is made up of certain basic substances.后来的人根据希腊的科学家的研究继续从事研究发现确实宇宙是有一些基本物质构成的，故选D。

考点：这是一篇科普性的文章。

点评：阅读能力的测试包括阅读速度，理解程度以及记忆能力等。要想获得满意的英语成绩，最根本的方法就是提高词汇量，加强阅读训练，同时熟悉一些阅读技巧和做题方法也是至关重要的。本文是比较容易读懂的，仔细阅读后能在原文找到正确答案。