Life on Mars could become a reality and it could happen in your lifetime.
A welcoming planet
Scientists say Earth’s neighbor Mars, a bright red planet about half Earth’s size, is the most likely to support human life. Mars even has frozen water on its surface.
Since the late 1990s, NASA has been exploring Mars using remote-controlled vehicles（装置）. Most recently Curiosity, a car-size vehicle, traveled through space on an unpiloted spacecraft(航天器) and landed on Mars in August 2012. Directed by NASA scientists , the vehicles move on the surface, taking pictures , collecting and analyzing soil, and looking for signs of life.
But what about human explorers? Plans are already in the works to send astronauts to Mars as soon as the mid-2030s.
_____________________________________
But before you start packing your bags, let’s consider the challenges. For starters, Mars is far away. Just getting there could take up to 10 months.
Scientists already know that time away from Earth’s gravity harms the human body. Bones and muscles get weaker. The body produces less blood. What damage would months and months of living in space do?
And then there is the matter of water, oxygen, food and fuel. Scientists will have to find solutions to these problems, or the first humans on Mars won’t survive very long in their new home.
Tiny Dangers
There’s another tinier risk. It’s so tiny that you can’t even see it: germs.
Some scientists believe that our germs could pollute the whole planet of Mars. Potentially killing Martian life before we have the chance to discover it. Worse, there is a small but terrifying chance that any microscopic life already there might be harmful to us .
Worse still, if any of those Martian germs(火星细菌) were brought back to Earth, the result could be disastrous. Animals, plants, and people could be wiped out.
Worth the $$$?
A more practical concern is the cost. The price could approach $ 1 trillion(万亿). How can we justify spending that much when so many problems—poverty, disease—could use the cash here on Earth?
【小题1】Which of the following is TRUE according to the “A welcoming planet” part?
| A．Mars is a little bigger than Earth. |
| B．There are flowing rivers on Mars. |
| C．People haven’t been to Mars so far. |
| D．Scientists have discovered signs of life on Mars. |
| A．Living in space. | B．Limited resources. |
| C．Extreme conditions. | D．Interesting challenges. |
| A．there is no serious danger |
| B．people won’t be in any danger |
| C．it’s difficult for people to realize the danger |
| D．the danger may be caused by very small things |
| A．Martian germs may be different from those on Earth. |
| B．Martian germs may be brought back to Earth. |
| C．People may carry germs to Mars. |
| D．There may be germs on Mars. |
| A．People | B．History | C．Science | D．Business |
【小题1】C
【小题2】C
【小题3】D
【小题4】B
【小题5】C
解析试题分析：火星移民到底能不能实现？科学家目前对火星进行了许多研究，并认为目前移民是很困难、有风险的。火星的环境和地球差距很大，但是并不代表未来不可行。这吸引了人们的执着追寻。
【小题1】细节理解题。由“ Plans are already in the works to send astronauts to Mars as soon as the mid-2030s.”可知让人们登上火星还要等到21世纪年30年代中期。 故选C。
【小题2】推理判断题。这一部分主要讲了前往火星最主要的困难，因此是极端的条件。Living in space. 生活在太空；Limited resources.有限的资源；Extreme conditions.极端的条件；Interesting challenges.有趣的条件。故选C。
【小题3】推理判断题。由“There’s another tinier risk. It’s so tiny that you can’t even see it: germs.”可知，微生物对火星和地球都是潜在的威胁，但是它们太小以至于看不见。故选D。
【小题4】细节理解题。根据“Worse still, if any of those Martian germs(火星细菌) were brought back to Earth, the result could be disastrous. Animals, plants, and people could be wiped out. ”可知，火星带回来的细菌很可能是致命的。故选B。
【小题5】推理判断题。本文主要讲了火星移民的风险和困难，是一篇科普性质的文章，因此来源于“科学” 报。故选C。
考点：科普类阅读。
科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
It's hardly surprising that weather is a favorite topic for so many people around the world—it affects where we choose to live, what we wear, our moods, and perhaps even our national characteristics.Studies have shown that changeable weather can make it difficult to concentrate, cloudy skies slow down reaction, and hot，dry winds make many people badtempered.
If you live in a place like Britain, where the weather seems to change daily if not hourly，you could be forgiven for thinking that the weather is random.In fact the weather is controlled by systems which move around areas of the globe.In the UK the weather depends on depressions (低压气流), often called lows，and anticyclones(反气旋)，also known as highs.These systems start in the Atlantic Ocean, and make their way across the British Isles from the west to the east.Highs bring sunny weather, while lows bring rain and wind.In modern times, human activities seem to be altering weather patterns.Gases produced by heavy industry change the temperature of the earth's surface，and affect cloud formation.Some researchers say that factories in Europe and North America may have been one of the causes of the droughts in Africa in the 1980s.
The human race has always tried to guess the weather，especially in areas of the world where there are frequent changes.Traditional rhymes point to early attempts to identify weather patterns; popular poems include：
Red sky at night, shepherd's delight；red sky in the morning, shepherd's warning.
Flies will swarm before a storm.
Rain before 7，clear by 11.
While folk wisdom can provide a guide to help forecast weather, today's methods of prediction increasingly rely on technology.Satellites, balloons，ships, aircrafts and weather centers with sensitive monitoring equipment, send data to computers.The data is then processed, and the weather is predicted.However，even this system cannot predict weather for longer than about a week.
【小题1】When weather keeps changing，________.
| A．people become badtempered |
| B．people's reaction slows down |
| C．people find it hard to focus on their work |
| D．people find it easy to focus on their work |
| A．random | B．moist |
| C．depressing | D．satisfying |
| A．windy | B．rainy |
| C．fine | D．snowy |
| A．Anticyclones often bring rain and wind. |
| B．Weather forecasting has been done for a long time. |
| C．Weather could never be predicted. |
| D．Modern methods of weather prediction are developed from folk wisdom. |
| A．Changes in weather. |
| B．Weather in Britain. |
| C．African droughts. |
| D．Research on weather. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
The extraordinary Eastgate Building in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city, is said to be the only one in the world to use the same cooling and heating principles as the termite mound(白蚁堆).
Architect Mick Pearce used precisely the same strategy when designing the Eastgate Building, which has no air-conditioning and almost no heating. The building—the country’s largest commercial and shopping complex—uses less than 10% of the energy of a conventional building of its size. The Eastgate’s owners saved $3.5 million on a $36 million building because an air-conditioning plant didn’t have to be imported.
The complex is actually two buildings linked by bridges across a shady, glass-roofed atrium(天井) open to the air. Fans suck fresh air in from the atrium, blow it upstairs through hollow spaces under the floors and from there into each office through baseboard vents(通风口). As it rises and warms, it is drawn out via ceiling vents and finally exists through forty-eight brick chimneys.
During summer’s cool nights, big fans blow air through the building seven times an hour to cool the empty floors. By day, smaller fans blow two changes of air an hour through the building, to circulate the air which has been in contact with the cool floors. For winter days, there are small heaters in the vents.
This is all possible only because Harare is 1600 feet above sea level, has cloudless skies, little dampness and rapid temperature swings—days as warm as 31℃ commonly drop to 14℃ at night. “You couldn’t do this in New York, with its fantastically hot summers and fantastically cold winters,” Pearce said.
The engineering firm of Ove Arup&Partners monitors daily temperatures. It is found that the temperature of the building has generally stayed between 23℃ and 25℃, with the exception of the annual hot period just before the summer rains in October and three days in November, when a doorkeeper accidentally switched off the fans at night. And the air is fresh—far more so than in air-conditioned building, where up to 30% of the air is recycled.
【小题1】What’s the meaning of “complex” in the second paragraph?
| A．Something that is difficult to understand. |
| B．A group of buildings together in one place. |
| C．A group of things that are connected. |
| D．A mental state that is not normal. |
| A．By fans. | B．Via ceiling vents. |
| C．Through chimneys. | D．Via ceiling vents and through chimneys. |
| A．Skies without clouds. |
| B．Little dampness. |
| C．Daily rapid temperature changes |
| D．Seasonal rapid temperature changes. |
| A．It changes in a certain range with some exception. |
| B．It changes from one extreme to another. |
| C．It remains the same without any exception. |
| D．It is hard to endure. |
| A．The engineering firm of Ove Arup&Partners. |
| B．How air-conditioning works. |
| C．Fans make Eastgate Building’s temperature comfortable. |
| D．How Eastgate Building’s temperature control system works. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
There has been a large increase in the number of natural disasters over the past few years, and it is believed that global warming and climate change could cause even more disasters in thefuture. Some of the world’s leading cities are facing disasters like floods and heat waves.
London
London’s flood defences are getting older. Since 1982, the Thames Barrier(水闸)has protected the city from the threat (威胁)of flooding, but it was only designed to last until 2030 and close once every two or three years. About 31 years later the barrier now closes five or six times a year and according to Environment Agency predictions, by 2050 the barrier will be closed on almost every tide if the problem is not solved
There are 26 underground stations, 400 schools, 16 hospitals, an airport and 80 billion worth of property(财产）in London’s flood risk area, so large scale flooding would be disastrous.
Paris
Over a six week period in July and August 2003, more than 1 1,400—mainly elderly people—died in France from dehydration(脱水)and extremely high body temperature in a deadly heat wave. Heat waves of similar intensity(强度)are expected every seven years by 2050, so what can be done to make sure such a disaster does not happen again?
One solution is to have air-conditioners installed（安装）in elderly care homes. But this is considered a short-term solution, as the increase in demand for electricity also increases carbon emissions(排放).
In Paris the local authorities are encouraging architects to design new types of buildings such as the building “Flower Tower,” which uses a covering of bamboo to act as a natural air-conditioner.
Shanghai
Shanghai is the fastest growing city on Earth. It has a population of 18 million and is only 4 meters above sea level. Sea levels are predicted to rise by 20 cm within the next century.
About 250，000 people move to Shanghai every year in search of work, placing extra demands on energy consumption（消耗）. China depends heavily on coal—fired power stations, but these emissions increase temperatures and, in turn, warmer seas increase the risk of typhoons.
【小题1】What problem should be settled now in London?
| A．How to protect the city’s property |
| B．Where to build its flood defences |
| C．How to use the Thames Barrier to protect the city |
| D．How to improve the function of the old flood defences |
| A．Putting up new types of buildings with a covering of bamboo. |
| B．Having air-conditioners installed in elderly care homes. |
| C．Forbidding the city to build “Flower Tower”. |
| D．Encouraging architects to design new types of buildings. |
| A．increasing population and coal-fired power stations |
| B．rising sea levels and typhoons |
| C．extremely high temperature and rising sea levels |
| D．extra demands on energy consumption and typhoons |
| A．to tell us how to protect the big cities |
| B．to give advice on how to defend natural disasters |
| C．to explain what causes flood and heat waves |
| D．to warn us of the increasing natural disasters in big cities |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Electrical devices(仪器)could soon use power made by human energy. Scientists say they have developed an experimental device that produces electricity from the physical movement of a person walking , British scientist Max Donelan and other scientists in Canada and the United States developed the device.
The device connects to a person’s knee. As the person walks ,the device captures energy each time the person slows down. To do this ,the device helps with the slowing sown movement of the leg, the movements of the walking person push parts of a small machine that produces electricity. Using the device, an adult walking quickly could produce thirteen watts of electricity in just a minute. Donelan says walking at that speed could produce enough power to operate a laptop computer for six minutes.
There are several possible uses for the device. Developers say it could help people who work in areas without electricity to operate small computers. The device could also he used in hospitals to operate heart pacemakers(起博器), it could even be used to assist in the movement of robotic arms and legs.
The experimental version of the device weighs about one and a half kilograms, but it is too costly for most people to buy, but the researchers hope to make a lighter, less costly version, An improved version should be ready in one year.
The developers hope the device will one day help developing countries; nearly twenty five percent of people around the world live without electric power.
A similar product was invented in 2005 by Larry Rome of the University of Pennsylvania, He created a bag carried on a person’s back that also produces power from walking. The knee device does not produce as much electricity as the bag, but the bag requires the walker to carry a load of twenty to thirty kilograms.
【小题1】. The second paragraph mainly talks about
| A．who developed the device | B．how the device works |
| C．several possible uses for the devices | D．how much electricity the device can produce |
| A．It is too heavy for the walker to bear | B．It is too complex for people to use |
| C．It is too expensive for most people to afford | D．It will slow down one’s walking speed |
| A．produces power without adding more loads to the walker |
| B．can produce more power in a much shorter time |
| C．needs to be equipped with a battery |
| D．can help the walker walk faster |
| A．help housewives operate the washing machine |
| B．make it much easier for us to go online |
| C．produce more electricity than that invented by Larry Rome |
| D．be applied in medical fields to operate heart pacemakers |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Everybody knows that colors are connected with certain feelings. For example, why do some people paint the walls of their rooms yellow and others pink? The same is true in stores. They want us to feel something when we look at their products.
Green, for example, tries to show the quality of a product: how good it is for us or for our environment. It also suggests that the product is healthier, has less fat and maybe fewer calories. Red, on the other hand is an aggressive color that is often used for packaging food. Red wants us to become hungry or thirsty. Purple is a kind of color that is often seen as royal. It indicates that it is something special. Producers use purple to show that something is of good quality. Blue is not very often found in food packaging because there are not very many foods that have a blue color.
Colors can also have different meaning in different cultures and countries. For example, while the color white is used in many Western countries to represent purity and innocence, it is seen as a symbol of mourning in many Eastern countries. The Egyptian pharaohs(法老) wore white crowns. A white sale is a sale of sheets, towels, and other bed and bath items. A white flag is the universal symbol for truce(休战). A white elephant is a rare, pale elephant sacred(神圣的) to the people of India, Thailand, Burma, and Sri Lanka. In these countries, something that is a white elephant is either a possession that costs more than it is worth to keep or an item that the owner doesn’t want but can’t get rid of.
Consumers are aware that certain foods must have certain colors. When Pepsi brought out a crystal clear cola in 1992, it thought that consumers would buy it because clear meant pure and healthy. After a few months Pepsi found out that a cola had to be dark-colored. Crystal Pepsi failed and the company pulled it off the market.
Advertising professionals often need to look at a product through the consumers’ eyes when choosing a color. The right packaging colors can truly improve the sales of a product but choosing a wrong color could end in failure.
【小题1】According to the passage, blue is rarely used in food packaging because ____.
| A．most consumers dislike it |
| B．it matches very few foods |
| C．it brings people low spirits |
| D．it doesn’t catch people’s eyes |
| A．a white flag | B．a white elephant |
| C．a white sale | D．a white crown |
| A．Pepsi’s success comes from failures |
| B．health is the main concern in drink making |
| C．crystal clear drinks can’t attract consumers |
| D．people have fixed ideas about products and colors |
| A．Colors in advertising |
| B．Colors in food packaging |
| C．Our everyday life and colors |
| D．Foods in different colors |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Popeye the Sailor first became a popular cartoon in the 1930s.The sailor in that cartoon ate lots of spinach to make him strong. People watched him, and they began to buy and eat a lot more spinach. Popeye helped sell 33 percent more spinach than before! Spinach became a necessary part of many people’s diets. Even some children who hated the taste began to eat the vegetable.
Many people thought that the iron in spinach made Popeye strong, but this is not true. Spinach does not have any more iron than any other green vegetable.
People only thought spinach had a lot of iron because the people who studied the food made a mistake. In the 1890s, a group of people studied what was inside vegetables. This group said that spinach had ten times more iron than it did. The group wrote the number wrong, and everyone accepted it.
Today, we know that the little iron that is in spinach cannot make a difference in how strong a person is. However, spinach does have something else which the body needs—folic acid.
It is interesting to point out that folic acid can help make a person strong. Maybe it was really the folic acid that made Popeye strong all along.
【小题1】A good title for this reading passage is______.
| A．Popeye the Sailor | B．The Truth About Spinach |
| C．A Mistake with Numbers | D．Folic Acid Makes You Strong |
| A．They thought spinach made them strong. |
| B．They thought Popeye was funny. |
| C．Spinach had a lot of iron. |
| D．People liked folic acid. |
| A．made Popeye strong |
| B．was a green vegetable |
| C．had less iron than other green vegetables |
| D．had more iron than other green vegetables |
| A．iron | B．folic acid | C．spinach | D．exercise |
| A．something in food | B．a vegetable | C．dangerous | D．a certain kind of spinach |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
We probably all know people, either at work or in our personal lives, who are really good listeners. No matter what kind of situation we’re in, they always seem to know just what to say and how to say it so that we’re not offended(被冒犯) or upset. We probably also know people who are masters at managing their emotions(情绪). They don’t get angry in stressful situations. Instead, they have the ability to calmly look at a problem and find a solution. They take criticism(批评) well, and they know when to use it to improve their performance.
People like these who have a high degree of emotional intelligence, or EI(情商). They know themselves very well, and they’re also able to sense the emotional needs of others.
As more and more people accept that emotional intelligence is just as important to professional success as technical(专业的) ability, companies are increasingly using EI when they hire and promote(提拔) someone. For example, one large cosmetics (化妆品) company recently changed their hiring process for salespeople to choose candidates(被选的人) based on emotional intelligence. The result? Salespeople hired with the new system have sold, on average, $91,000 more than salespeople selected under the old system.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize your emotions, understand what they are telling you, and realize how your emotions affect people around you. Emotional intelligence also involves your perception (洞察力) of others: when you understand how they feel, this allows you to manage relationships more effectively.
People with high emotional intelligence are usually successful in most things they do. Why? Because they are the ones that others want on their team. When people with high EI send an email, it get answered. When they need help, they get it. Because they make others feel good, they go through life much more easily than people who are easily angered or upset.
The good news is that emotional intelligence can be taught and developed. Many books and tests are available to help you determine your current EI, and identify where you may need to do some work.
【小题1】According to the passage, we’re all probably impressed by people who _____.
| A．are ready to help others |
| B．are very successful in their lives |
| C．have high emotional intelligence |
| D．know how to control their temper |
| A．stress the importance of emotional intelligence |
| B．speak highly of its new salespeople |
| C．show its effective hiring system |
| D．explain what improvements it has made |
| A．your emotions | B．people around you |
| C．effective relationships | D．your opinions of others |
| A．They are usually good speakers. |
| B．They are born to be sensitive and intelligent. |
| C．They don’t get angry in any situation. |
| D．They can understand others’ feelings well. |
| A．What emotional intelligence is. |
| B．How emotional intelligence can be improved. |
| C．Many books on emotional intelligence. |
| D．More people with high emotional intelligence. |
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
It is not unusual for people to speak two or three languages; they’re known as bilinguals or trilinguals. Speakers of more than three languages are known as polyglots. And when we refer to people who speak many languages, perhaps a dozen or more, we use the term hyper-polyglot.
The most famous hyper-polyglot was Giuseppe Mezzofanti, a 19th century Italian cardinal, who was said to speak 72 languages. This claim sounds absurd. If you assume each language had 20,000 words, Mezzofanti would have to learn a word a minute, six hours a day, for eleven years—an impossible task. But Mezzofanti was tested by critics, and they were all impressed.
Did Mezzofanti have an extraordinary brain? Or are hyper-polyglots just ordinary people with ordinary brains who manage to do something extraordinary through hard work?
U.S. linguist Stephen Drashen believes that outstanding language learners just work harder at it and then they acquire unusually strong language ability. As an example, he mentions a Hungarian woman who worked as an interpreter during the 20th century. When she was 86, she could speak 16 languages and was still working on learning new languages. She said she learned them mostly on her own, reading fiction or working through dictionaries or textbooks.
Some researchers argue to the contrary. They believe that there is such a thing as a talent for learning languages. In the 1930s, a German scientist examined parts of the preserved brain of a hyper-polyglot named Emil Krebs, who could speak 60 languages fluently. The scientist found that the area of Krebs’s brain called Broca’s area, which is associated with language, looked different from the Broca’s area in the brains of men who speak only one language. However, we still don’t know if Krebs was born with a brain ready to learn dozens of languages or if his brain adapted to the demands he put on it.
Although it is still not clear whether the ability to learn many languages is in born, there’s no doubt that just about all of us can acquire skills in a second, third, or even fourth language by putting our mind to it.
【小题1】What does the underlined sentence imply?
| A．Mezzofanti could remember 360 words a day. |
| B．Mezzofanti had a special way to learn languages. |
| C．Mezzofanti’s achievement was ridiculous. |
| D．Mezzofanti language ability was astonishing. |
| A．good memory | B．unique brain | C．hard work | D．learning methods |
| A．had an unusual brain |
| B．was born with great talent |
| C．had worked hard at languages |
| D．expected too much of himself |
| A．it is not hard to learn foreign languages |
| B．hard work plays a part in language learning |
| C．there is no such thing as a talent for languages |
| D．hyper-polyglots have an inborn talent for language |
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