Once I invited a group of friends round to my house, telling them that I was going to record their speech. I said I was interested in their regional accents, and that it would take only a few minutes. Thus, on one evening, three people turned up at my house and were shown into my front room. When they saw the room they were a bit alarmed, for it was laid out as a studio. In front of each easy chair there was a microphone at head height, with wires leading to a tape-recorder in the middle of the floor. I explained that all I wanted was for them to count from one to twenty. Then we could relax and have a drink.
I turned on the tape-recorder and each in turn seriously counted from one to twenty in their best accent. When it was over, I turned the tape-recorder off and brought round the drinks, and for the rest of the evening there was general cheerful conversation—interrupted only by the fact that I had to take a telephone call in another room, which unfortunately lasted some time.
Or at least that was how it would appear. For, of course, the microphones were not connected to the tape-recorder in the middle of the room at all but to another one, which was turning happily away in the kitchen. The participants, having seen the visible tape-recorder turned off, paid no more attention to the microphones which stayed in front of their chairs, only a few inches from their mouths, thus giving excellent sound quality. And my lengthy absence meant that I was able to obtain as natural a piece of conversation as it would be possible to find.
I should add, perhaps, that I did tell my friends what had happened to them, after the event was over, and gave them the choice of destroying the tape. None of them wanted to—though for some years afterwards it always seemed to be my round when it came to the buying of drinks. Linguistic research can be a very expensive business.
【小题1】The writer asked his friends to count from one to twenty because _______.
| A．he wanted to record the numbers for his research |
| B．he wanted to find out whether the tape recorder was working |
| C．he wanted to make his friends relax before real recording started |
| D．he wanted his friends to think that was all he wanted to record |
| A．get a natural recording of his friends’ conversation |
| B．stay away from too much drinking with his friends |
| C．bring a telephone into the front room |
| D．answer a long distance phone call |
| A．he had to answer a phone call |
| B．he wanted his friends to enjoy some drinks |
| C．he thought the tape-recorder might bother his friends |
| D．he wanted to make his friends believe he had finished the recording |
| A．The writer destroyed the tape. |
| B．The writer’s friends destroyed the tape. |
| C．The writer did tell his friends what had happened. |
| D．The writer’s friends like to drink. |
【小题1】D
【小题2】A
【小题3】D
【小题4】C
解析试题分析：作者邀请了一些朋友到他家，作者告诉他们要把他们说的话录下来。当进到一个像录音室一样的房间时，作者的朋友们感到有点不知所措，作者只是简单的让他们数数。在朋友们喝茶聊天的时候，作者通过麦克风把他们额聊天录了下来。
【小题1】根据第一二行“telling them that I was going to record their speech. I said I was interested in their regional accents”可知，作者想记录下他们的声音，面对朋友们的吃惊，作者告诉他们只需要从一数到二十就可以了，作者的解释使问题简单化了，因为作者只是要记录他们的声音，故选D。
【小题2】根据第三段“And my lengthy absence meant that I was able to obtain as natural a piece of conversation as it would be possible to find.”可知，通过事先安装好的麦克风，作者能够清晰地记录下他们的谈话，故选A。
【小题3】根据第三段“The participants, having seen the visible tape-recorder turned off, paid no more attention to the microphones which stayed in front of their chairs”可知，参加的被试看到录音机被关掉了，他们以为录音工作已经结束了，故选D。
【小题4】根据最后一段“I should add, perhaps, that I did tell my friends what had happened to them, after the event was over, and gave them the choice of destroying the tape.”可知，作者告诉了朋友们实情，但是朋友们并未把录音带毁掉，故选C。
考点：故事类短文阅读
阅读快车系列答案科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
While the presence of rats in homes may cause anxiety and annoyance, they rarely result in driving out the residents. But that is exactly what happened to the inhabitants of the 10squaremile Hawadax Island off the coast of Alaska, almost 230 years ago. Now thanks to a fiveyear effort by scientists, the terribly silent “Rat Island” as it had been called for many years has been returned to its rightful owners ——birds!
Hawadax Island is part of a chain of volcanic islands in the Bering Sea called the Aleutian Islands. The rats that arrived there in 1780, when a Japanese ship carrying them broke down nearby, completely destroyed the native population because the environment of the island was not built to defend its animals from these predators. There isn't any tree on the Island, which meant that the birds were accustomed to building their nests low in the ground, giving the rodents(啮齿动物) easy access to both eggs and baby chicks. As years passed, the birds that had called the island home for thousands of years became endangered and eventually, disappeared completely.
In 2007, the U．S. FWS (Fish and Wildlife Service) started a serious plan to rid the island of the rats and try bringing back the beautiful birds that had once called it home. Given that there were an estimated 10,000 rodents inhabiting “Rat Island” and the fact that they reproduce rapidly, it was not an easy task. But by 2009, the Island was officially declared rat free!
Then slowly but surely, the birds began to return. Unfortunately, some of the pioneers were unintentionally killed from the leavings of the raticide, a poison that had been used to wipe out the rodents. But now it seems things are becoming more stable and the Island is starting to increasingly look like its former self. Before the transformation, “Hawadax”， also known as “Rat Island”， was a silent and ghostly place with bird bones, snail remains and rocks covered in rat feces(粪便)．
Today, birds' singing and flying in and out is a common sight. Tufted puffins and song sparrows, which had long disappeared, are gradually making their way back. Scientists have also been observing an increase in ground nesting and shorebirds. Though the Island is still not back to its full glory, the signs are encouraging and things can only get better, as time passes.
【小题1】The underlined word “that”in Para.1 probably refers to ________.
| A．the presence of rats |
| B．birds' being driven out |
| C．birds' returning to the island |
| D．residents' worrying about rats |
| A．this island was treeless |
| B．they nested randomly |
| C．they reproduced too rapidly |
| D．their chicks were extremely weak |
| A．has helped the island fully recovered |
| B．cost little but benefited greatly |
| C．involved poisoning the rats on a large scale |
| D．accomplished its goal after exactly 24 months |
| A．FWS Help Get Rare Birds Back to Alaska Island |
| B．Japanese Changed a Bird Paradise into Rat Island |
| C．FWS Plan to Drive Rats Out Of Rat Island |
| D．Alaska's Rat Island Returns to a Bird Paradise |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Johnny the Explorer
Johnny was three when he ran away from home for the first time. Somebody left the garden gate open. Johnny wandered out, crossed some fields and, two hours later, arrived in the next village. He was just able to give his name and address.
By the time he was seven, Johnny used to disappear from home two to three times a year. Sometimes he covered quite long distances on foot. Sometimes he got on a bus or even a train, and simply sat there until someone asked for his ticket. Generally the police brought him home. “Why do you do it?” they used to ask. “I just like seeing places,” Johnny told them.
Johnny continued to “see places” although everyone tried to stop him. His parents used to watch him closely, and so did his teachers; but sooner or later Johnny managed to slip away. As he grew older, his favorite trick was to hide on a long distance truck. Sometimes he travelled hundreds of miles before anyone discovered him.
It is hardly surprising that eventually Johnny managed to board a plane. He was twelve at the time. It was a cargo plane and, a few hours later, Johnny found himself in Cairo. How did he get on board? No one knows! According to Johnny himself, it was easy: he just went into the airport, walked along some passages and got on board the nearest plane.
In spite of all this, Johnny did well at school. He enjoyed mathematics and languages and, perhaps not surprisingly, he was especially good at geography. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” his teachers asked him. “An explorer!” he answered. “But it’s difficult to become an explorer in this modern age,” they tried to tell him. But it was no use: Johnny knew what he wanted!
Just before he left school, Johnny saw a notice in a daily paper. A long journey was about to go to Brazil to travel up the Amazon River. There were jobs for three young people “willing to work hard and with a sense of adventure”. Johnny applied, and two months later, he was on his way to Brazil.
【小题1】At what age did Johnny board a plane for the first time?
| A．Three | B．Seven | C．Twelve | D．Not mentioned |
| A．he preferred to stay alone |
| B．he enjoyed seeing new places |
| C．he couldn’t do well at school |
| D．he didn’t get along well with his parents |
| A．tried to stop him from slipping away |
| B．kept following him to get him back |
| C．booked tickets for him if necessary |
| D．were clear about how he travelled abroad |
| A．Johnny worked for a daily paper |
| B．Johnny lacked a sense of adventure |
| C．Johnny went exploring along the Amazon River |
| D．Johnny went to Brazil two months after he finished school |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Born in America in 1898, William was an extraordinary boy, gifted with an amazing IQ between 250 and 300. The genius went to a grammar school when he was only 6 years old and graduated just within 7 months. At the age of 11, he became the youngest student of the Harvard University. He graduated with high scores at the age of 16 and entered Harvard Law School at 18.
Gifted with an amazing IQ between 220 and 230, Terence Tao makes it to this list of the people with the highest IQ in the world. Born in Adelaide, Australia in 1975, this genius first displayed his incredible intelligence at a mere age of 2, when he managed to solve basic arithmetic questions on his own. At the age of 16, he graduated with both Master's and Bachelor's degrees at the Flinders University. He has been considered as ''Mr. Fix it " by Charles Fefferman, who is a professor of Mathematics at Princeton University, and many other mathematicians want to interest him in their problems.
This 31-year-old Japanese-American astrophysicist lands him third in this list. At the age of 12, Christopher Hirata already worked on college-level courses, around the time most of us were just in the 7th grade. At the age of 13, this gifted kid became the youngest American to have ever won the gold medal in the International physics Olympiad.
At the age of 16, he was already working with NASA on its project to conquer planet Mars. After he was awarded the Ph.D. at Princeton University, he went back to California Institute of Technology.
The next person with very high IQ is Albert Einstein. With an IQ between 160 and 190, Albert Einstein is the genius behind the theory of relativity, which has had great impact on the world of science. He possessed such an amazing ability that after his death, researchers were eager to preserve and make research on his brain in search for clues to his exceptional brilliance, which to this day, has remained a mystery.
【小题1】About William, which of the following is true?
| A．His IQ reached between 220 and 230. |
| B．At the age of 16, he graduated from a grammar school. |
| C．At the age of 6, he graduated with both Master's and Bachelor's degrees. |
| D．At the age of 11, he became the youngest student at the Harvard University. |
| A．3 | B．4 | C．5 | D．6 |
| A．William | B．Terence Tao | C．Christopher Hirata | D．Albert Einstein |
| A．when William graduated from the Harvard University, he got the highest scores |
| B．at the age of 2, Terence solved basic arithmetic questions on his own |
| C．Christopher Hirata is a Japanese |
| D．researchers have found out why Albert Einstein was so brilliant |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
After a terrible electrical accident，which caused him to become both blind and deaf，the whole world became completely dark and quiet for Robert Edwards for almost ten years. The loss of sight and hearing threw him into such sorrow that he tried a few times to put an end to his life. His family，especially his wife，did their best to tend and comfort him and finally he regained the will to live.
One hot summer afternoon，he was taking a walk with a stick near his house when a thunderstorm started all at once. He stood under a large tree to avoid getting wet，but he was struck by the lightning. Witnesses thought he was dead but he woke up some 20 minutes later lying face down in muddy water at the base of the tree. He was trembling badly，but when he opened his eyes，he could hardly believe what he saw——a plough and a wall. When Mrs Edwards came running up to him，shouting to their neighbors to call for help，he could see her and hear her voice for the first time in nearly ten years.
The news of Robert regaining his sight and hearing quickly spread，and many doctors came to examine him. Most of them said that he regained his sight and hearing from the shock he got from the lightning. However，none of them could give a convincing answer as to why this should have happened. The only reasonable explanation given by one doctor was that，since Robert lost his sight and hearing as a result of sudden shock，perhaps，the only way for him to regain them was by another sudden shock.
【小题1】The reason for Robert's attempts to kill himself was that________.
| A．a terrible traffic accident happened to him |
| B．he had to live in a dark and silent world |
| C．he was struck by the lightning once more |
| D．nobody in the world cared about him |
| A．Sheltering for the rain under a tree. |
| B．Driving a car. |
| C．Taking a walk with a stick. |
| D．Lying on the ground. |
| A．His wife. | B．His neighbours. | C．A plough and a wall. | D．Many doctors. |
| A．Robert had been deaf and blind for nearly ten years. |
| B．Robert hid himself under the tree for 20 minutes. |
| C．Robert could hear his wife's shouting for help when he woke up. |
| D．The family's love helped Robert regain confidence to live. |
| A．there was no accurate explanation for Robert's recovery |
| B．many doctors came because Robert was badly injured |
| C．Robert's wife sent for doctors immediately after the shock |
| D．a sudden injury in the head led to Robert's recovery |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
For over one hundred and fifty years, Americans of all social classes have worn blue jeans． 【小题1】 Whether they are worn for work or for fashion today．Strauss' invention continues to be popular not only among Americans but also among people around the world．
Levi Strauss was born in Germany in 1829． 【小题2】 He grew up in Kentucky before moving to New York in 1847．Before becoming an American citizen and moving to the West in 1853, Strauss worked in his brother's dry goods business．This gave him a chance to produce his famous invention．After the gold rush of 1949, Strauss decided to move to the West to seek his fortunes．
Strauss did not want to be a person who searched an area for minerals．Instead, he knew he could make a good living by selling supplies to the miners．At first, he planned to sell sewing supplies and cloth． 【小题3】 When he heard miners complaining that their clothes were easily broken or they usually tore their pockets during mining, he decided to use a special fabric to make pants for the miners．These pants proved so popular that he quickly ran out of materials to make more．
In 1873, Strauss received a letter from a Jewish tailor named Jacob Davis who had invented a process of connecting pockets with copper rivets（铆钉）．This made the pants last a long time．Because Davis did not have the money to patent his idea, he offered to share it with Strauss if Strauss would agree to pay for the patent． 【小题4】 ．
The business has been growing ever since and Levi Strauss' company is now one of the largest clothing companies in the world．
By the time Strauss died in 1902, he had made a great contribution to American fashion．【小题5】
| A．As a young boy, he moved with his family to the United States． |
| B．Nobody knew what kind of material was suitable． |
| C．He did and Levi jeans have been made with metal rivets ever since． |
| D．However, he did not get much business for those products． |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Most people know that Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and the first person to win it twice. However, few people know that she was also the mother of a Nobel Prize winner.
Born in September, 1897, Irene Curies was the first of the Curies’ two daughters. Along with nine other children whose parents were also famous scholars, Irene studied in their own school, and her mother was one of the teachers. She finished her high school education at the College of Sevigne in Paris.
Irene entered the University of Paris in 1914 to prepare for a degree in mathematics and physics. When World War I began, Irene went to help her mother, who was using X-ray facilities to help save the lives of wounded soldiers. Irene continued the work by developing X-ray facilities in military hospitals in France and Belgium. Her services were recognized in the form of a Military Medal by the French government.
In 1918, Irene became her mother’s assistant at the Curie Institute. In December 1924, Frederic Joliot joined the Institute, and Irene taught him the techniques required for his work. They soon fell in love and were married in 1926. Their daughter Helene was born in 1927 and their son Pierre five years later.
Like her mother, Irene combined family and career. Like her mother, Irene was awarded a Nobel Prize, along with her husband, in 1935. Unfortunately, also like her mother, she developed leukemia because of her work with radioactivity (辐射能). Irene Joliot-Curie died from leukemia on March 17, 1956.
【小题1】Why was Irene Curie awarded a Military Medal?
| A．Because she received a degree in mathematics. |
| B．Because she contributed to saving the wounded. |
| C．Because she won the Nobel Prize with Frederic |
| D．Because she worked as a helper to her mother. |
| A．At the Curie Institute. | B．At the University of Paris. |
| C．At a military hospital. | D．At the College of Sevigne. |
| A．In 1932. | B．In 1927. | C．In 1897. | D．In 1926. |
| A．Irene worked with radioactivity. |
| B．Irene combined family and career. |
| C．Irene won the Nobel Prize once. |
| D．Irene died from leukemia. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
A house of cards? Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? Not if the architect is 31-year-old Bryan Berg. He’s made a career out of building fantastic card houses, stadiums, capitols, castles — and the world’s tallest card tower. How does he do it?
Bryan’s structures are amazing because they are made entirely of perfectly balanced, freestanding playing cards. He never uses glue, tape, or anything else to hold the cards together. Nor does he fold the cards. He’s discovered another way to make a strong house of cards, using a trick from nature.
To make plants strong, nature builds them with cells that have tough walls. Rows and rows of these cells form a grid(格子) that helps leaves and stems keep their shape. Bees use the same kind of repeating pattern to create strong honeycombs, where they live and store honey. Bryan designs similar grids, using cards to create a repeating pattern of cells.
He begins with a single cell made by balancing four cards against one another to form a box. Then he repeats the cell over and over, expanding outward to form the grid, which makes a good foundation for a strong card structure. The larger the grid, the more weight it can carry. Sometimes Bryan uses several cards, instead of just one, to construct the cell walls, making the grid even stronger. The trick, he tells kids when he speaks in classrooms, is to place your cards as tightly together as possible when laying out your grid, making sure the cards are not leaning at all.
After building this solid base, Bryan lays cards across the top to make the floor for the next “story” of the building. He may add towers, columns, steeples, or domes. Using the principle of repeating cells, Bryan builds structures of amazing strength.
In the Cards
Not surprisingly, Bryan has always been interested in building things. Growing up on a “big, old farm” in rural Iowa, he had plenty of room to play. “We were in the middle of nowhere,” Bryan remembers, “with lots of space to do whatever we wanted. I was always making something, using things like sticks or bales of hay.”
Bryan’s grandfather taught him how to stack cards. Bryan’s two interests — building and card stacking — soon combined. But stacking in his family’s farmhouse was challenging. “Our old house had wood floors that weren’t all level,” he reports. “And they weren’t very firm. When people walked around, it was like ‘earthquake action.’ It was a challenge to build something that wouldn’t fall down immediately.”
Bryan constructed tower after tower; he went through a lot of trial and error before he built anything taller than himself. When he placed a few decks of cards on top of his grid, he discovered how strong it was. Bryan’s towers began to grow taller.
How Tall Is Too Tall?
Bryan’s first Guinness World Record for the world’s tallest card tower came in the spring of 1992, when he was in high school. Learning that the world record was 12 feet 10 inches, Bryan built a slim tower that topped out at 14 feet 6 inches. Done as a project for his geometry class, it took him 40 hours and 208 decks of cards. Since then he’s gone on to win world records for even taller buildings. His latest winner measured 25 feet 3.5 inches and used about 2,400 decks of cards. The building, which tapered to a high, narrow point, had 131 stories.
Why don’t these towers fall down? The key is in a good solid base, a repeating pattern of stories, and a tapering top. Bryan likes to point out how card buildings resemble real ones. They are built cell by cell, story by story. The separate parts make one strong whole. The heavier the building, the stronger and more stable it is. But the weight can’t all be at the top.
After spending so much time building something so cool, Bryan admits it’s sometimes painful to see his structures destroyed. But he compares his work to the building of a sandcastle or an ice sculpture.
“They wouldn’t be as special if they were permanent,” he points out. “My buildings are like snowdrifts, or clouds in the sky. They can’t last forever.
【小题1】According to the article, which natural structure is a model for Bryan’s card structures?
| A．A sand dune. | B．A honeycomb. |
| C．A snowdrift. | D．A thundercloud. |
| A．The tallest card tower. | B．The widest card dome. |
| C．The heaviest card house. | D．The sturdiest card structure. |
| A．Plant cells and honeycombs. |
| B．World records and geometry. |
| C．Building things and stacking cards. |
| D．Playing cards and designing houses. |
| A．The floors of the house were uneven. |
| B．The ceilings in the house were too low. |
| C．The floors of the house were slippery. |
| D．The windows in the house were windy. |
| A．older | B．shinier | C．stronger | D．thinner |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Tasha Tudor(August 28，1919 — June 18，2008) was an American illustrator(插画家)and writer of children’s books. She received many awards and honors for her contributions to children’s literature. When people talk about her creativity in artwork，she said,“I do it to support my dogs and my four children.”Her great publishing record, the number of magazine stories that have been written about her over the years, and her admirers have no effects on her at all.
Much of Tasha’s artwork and her reading are done in the wintertime.“I love winter. It’s delightful，”she says.“I don’t have to go anywhere because I work at home. If I’m snowed in，I can stay this way for months.”She hopes for early, deep snow to protect her garden from the hardship of the New England winter，and when it comes she puts on snowshoes when she needs to get down the mile-long dirt path that leads to the road.
Given her enjoyment of winter and her fantasy(梦幻)way of life，it’s not surprising that Tasha’s Christmas is a storybook holiday. She hangs flowers over the front door. Her tree comes from the woods,
and it goes up on Christmas Eve，lit by homemade candles and decorated with her great- grandmother’s collection that dates from 1850. In a place of honor on the tree are large cookies cut into the shapes of her animals.
The grandchildren and friends get presents from Tasha’s old dolls；so do the animals and they
have their own Christmas tree. “Of course，it’s a known fact that all the animals talk on Christmas
Eve,”she has written. Small, handmade gifts fill a big wooden box
At the end 0f each year, Tasha can look back and know that her life is perfect，that she has
again ignored the twentieth century，and that the magic continues. And for the rest of us，here’s
a bit of advice, Tasha style：“Nowadays, people are so restless．If they took some tea anti spent more time rocking on the porch(门廊)in the evening listening to light music，they might enjoy life more.”
【小题1】Tasha loved winter because it allowed her to ____________．
| A．read stories to her grandchildren |
| B．show her DIY snowshoes to kids |
| C．stay indoors working mid reading |
| D．enjoy bicycle tiding along the path |
| A．modern and fashionable | B．simple and fantastic |
| C．lonely and hard | D．adventurous and inspiring |
| A．She cared little about fame. |
| B．She created an animal fund. |
| C．She wrote many stories for magazines. |
| D．She bought presents for her relatives. |
| A．Travel. | B．Sports. | C．Economy. | D．People. |
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