Suppose we built a robot to explore the planet Mars. We provide the robot with seeing detectors(探测器) to keep it away from danger. It is powered entirely by the sun. Should we program the robot to be equally active at all times? No, the robot would be using up energy at a time when it was not receiving any. So we would probably program it to stop its activity at night and to wake up at dawn the next morning.
According to evolutionary(进化的) theory of sleep, evolution equipped us with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking for the same reason. The theory does not deny that sleep provides some important restorative functions. It merely says that evolution has programmed us to perform those functions at a time when activity would be inefficient and possibly dangerous. However, sleep protects us only from the sort of trouble we might walk into; it does not protect us from trouble that comes looking for us. So we sleep well when we are in a familiar, safe place, but we sleep lightly, if at all, when we fear that bears will nose into the tent.
The evolutionary theory explain the differences in sleep among creatures. Why do cats, for instance, sleep so much, while horses sleep so little? Surely cats do not need five times as much repair and restoration as horses do. But cats can afford to have long periods of inactivity because they spend little time eating and are unlikely to be attacked while they sleep. Horses must spend almost all their waking hours eating, because what they eat is very low in energy value. Moreover, they cannot afford to sleep too long or too deeply, because their survival depends on their ability to run away from attackers.
1. The author uses the example of the robot in space exploration to tell us _______.
A. the differences between robots and men
B. the reason why men need to sleep
C. about the need for robots to save power
D. about the danger of men working at night
2. Evolution has programmed man to sleep at night chiefly to help him ______.
A. keep up a regular pattern of life
B. prevent trouble that comes looking for him
C. avoid danger and inefficient labor
D. restore his bodily functions
3. Which of the following is the main idea of the passage?
A. Evolution has equipped all creatures with a regular pattern of sleeping and waking.
B. The study of sleep is an important art of the evolutionary theory.
C. Sleeping patterns must be taken into consideration in the designing of robots.
D. The sleeping pattern of a living creature is determined by the food it eats.
科目:高中英语 来源:选修导学英语译林7 译林版 题型:054
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科目:高中英语 来源:湖北省华中师大附中2009-2010学年度高一下学期期中考试英语试题 题型:阅读理解
As we know, most of the material things in our daily life have to be bought with money. But money is not all powerful. Money can't buy many things such as time and true love. There are 24 hours in a day. Sometimes when we are very happy, we wish that the period of happiness would last longer. But no matter what we do, or how much money we are willing to pay, we cannot make a day last longer than 24 hours. On the other hand, when we are unhappy, money cannot make the unhappy time pass away more quickly. True love is another thing which money cannot buy. Suppose we have someone who really loves us very much. Once he dies, he can give us no more love. Can our money raise him from death and make him love us as before? Here we can see very clearly that money cannot buy us love. Money can buy us diamond things, beautiful clothes, but never time and love. So money, after all, is not all powerful.
72. According to the passage, it is quite impossible for you to buy ______.
A. true friendship B. real diamond C. a large house D. an expensive car
73. Which of the sentences expresses the main idea of this passage?
A. Money cannot buy time and love. B. Money is not powerful at all.
C. Money can buy people material things. D. Money doesn't mean everything.
74.Through the passage the writer wants to tell people not to ______.
A. make money B. waste money C. save money D. worship(崇拜) money
75. From the passage we can see that in our life, besides something material, we need something ______.
A. spiritual B. beautiful C. lovely D. useful
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科目:高中英语 来源:2012-2013学年浙江省台州市书生中学高二下学期期中考试英语试卷(带解析) 题型:阅读理解
It was Saturday. As always, it was a busy one, for “Six days shall you labor and all your work” was taken seriously back then. Outside, Father and Mr. Patrick next door were busy chopping firewood. Inside their own houses, Mother and Mrs. Patrick were engaged in spring cleaning.
Somehow the boys had slipped away to the back lot with their kites. Now, even at the risk of having brother caught to beat carpets, they had sent him to the kitchen for more string(线). It seemed there was no limit to the heights to which kites would fly today.
My mother looked at the sitting room, its furniture disordered for a thorough sweeping. Again she
cast a look toward the window. “Come on, girls! Let’s take string to the boys and watch them fly the kites a minute.”
On the way we met Mrs. Patric, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something wrong, together with her girls. There never was such a day for flying kites! We played all our fresh string into the boys’ kites and they went up higher and higher. We could hardly distinguish the orange-colored spots of the kites. Now and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down in the wind, and finally bringing it down to earth, just for the joy of sending it up again.
Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like schoolgirls. I think we were all beside ourselves. Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. “Perhaps it’s like this in the kingdom of heaven,” I thought confusedly.
It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to the housed. I suppose we had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been surface tidying-up, for the house on Sunday looked clean and orderly enough. The strange thing was, we didn’t mention that day afterward. I felt a little embarrassed. Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that deepest part of me where we keep “the things that cannot be and yet they are.”
The years went on, then one day I was hurrying about my kitchen in a city apartment, trying to get some work out of the way while my three-year-old insistently cried her desire to “go park, see duck.” “I can’t go!” I said. “I have this and this to do, and when I’m through I’ll be too tired to walk that far.”
My mother, who was visiting us, looked up from the peas she was shelling. “It’s a wonderful day,” she offered, “really warm, yet there’s a fine breeze. Do you remember that day we flew kites?”
I stopped in my dash between stove and sink. The locked door flew open and with it a rush of memories. “Come on,” I told my little girl. “You’re right, it’s too good a day to miss.”
Another decade passed. We were in the aftermath(余波) of a great war. All evening we had been asking our returned soldier, the youngest Patrick Boy, about his experiences as a prisoner of war. He had talked freely, but now for a long time he had been silent. What was he thinking of --- what dark and horrible things?
“Say!” A smile sipped out from his lips. “Do you remember --- no, of course you wouldn’t. It probably didn’t make the impression on you as it did on me.”
I hardly dared speak. “Remember what?”
“I used to think of that day a lot in POW camp (战俘营), when things weren’t too good. Do you remember the day we flew the kites?”
【小题1】Mrs. Patrick was laughing guiltily because she thought________.
A.she was too old to fly kites |
B.her husband would make fun of her |
C.she should have been doing her housework |
D.her girls weren’t supposed to the boy’s games |
A.felt confused | B.went wild with joy |
C.looked on | D.forgot their fights |
A.The boys must have had more fun than the girls. |
B.They should have finished their work before playing. |
C.Her parents should spend more time with them. |
D.All the others must have forgotten that day. |
A.She suddenly remembered her duty as a mother. |
B.She was reminded of the day they flew kites. |
C.She had finished her work in the kitchen. |
D.She thought it was a great day to play outside. |
A.the writer was not alone in treasuring her fond memories |
B.his experience in POW camp threw a shadow over his life |
C.childhood friendship means so much to the writer |
D.people like him really changed a lot after the war |
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科目:高中英语 来源:2011年吉林省高考复习质量监测英语卷 题型:阅读理解
It seems that every week someone becomes “the first” or “the youngest” or even “the first married couple” to do something that doesn’t seem to be very useful to the rest of us.
Why do they do it? Don’t they have better things to do with their time and money? And why should I be interested anyway? Human beings have already climbed the highest mountains, sailed across the oceans and flown around the world. Many of these things were done a long, long time ago. There just isn’t anything left to explore nowadays. I suppose there’s still a lot of the universe left, and the bottom of the ocean is still a bit of a mystery, but you need a lot of technology to explore areas like that. So, those people who feel the need for adventure can only do things that have been done before.
In May of this year a British man became the first person to walk alone from Canada to the North Pole. Personally, if I wanted to visit the Arctic, I’d rather go as a tourist on a cruise ship, with a helicopter trip to the North Pole included in the price. But OK, this man decided that he wanted to walk. The problem was that he went in the spring when the ice begins to melt and break up. So he got stuck on a longely piece of ice and a plane had to be sent in to rescue him.
These sorts of rescues are making many Australians angry with these record breakers. People trying to break sailing or rowing records get into trouble in the seas. So the Australian navy has to send ships to save them and this costs the government millions of dollars. I suppose we can’t just leave them to drown but we should give the bill to the people who are rescued.
1.According to the author, the so-called record breakers .
A.do not benefit other people at all
B.inspire people to continue exploring
C.are boring and should be stopped
D.are usually not wealthy enough
2.We can infer from the second paragraph that .
A.there are no high mountains for people to climb
B.nothing is left for people to explore in the universe
C.it’s beyond ordinary people to explore the unknown
D.human beings could fly around the world long ago
3.Many Australians are angry because the record breakers .
A.often get into trouble
B.never use a cruise ship or a helicopter
C.never pay their own costs
D.satisfy their needs at the cost of others’ interest
4.What is the writer’s attitude towards the record breakers?
A.Positive. B.Negative.
C.Uninterested. D.Neutral(中立的).
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科目:高中英语 来源:20102011学年度河北省高二第二次阶段考试英语试题 题型:单项填空
I suppose we’ll have to, bad weather conditions, spend more than 500 days undertaking the construction.
A. considering B. allowed for C. including D. linked with
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