For thousands of years, mankind has produced plants and animals to create more desired and useful plants and animals. For example, modern com has been produced to such a large size that it is no longer able to reproduce without man’s assistance. Modern dairy cows produce too much milk and if they are not often emptied of milk, they could leak, burst, become infected, and possibly die. Besides, most dogs raised by people can not survive in the wild even with special training.
Since natural evolution is extremely slow and mankind’s selective production programs only take a few generations to produce a completely new species, natural evolution has already taken a back seat to mankind’s production programs. In addition, mankind has successfully killed off several species all together. For example, there are no more European wolves in existence and mammoths (猛犸象) probably died out because of mankind. Even certain diseases have been permanently got rid of from the planet, and dozens of other diseases will soon be too. Again, natural evolution did i»t cause most of the destruction during man’s rule of the world.
Currently, scientists are creating new species with desired characteristics in the lab significantly faster than natural evolution creates new species. In a single generation, new species can be created and destroyed by mankind, while natural evolution could take thousands of years to do the same but only accidentally. Scientists are even able to replace defective (有缺陷的) or damaged genes with different genes to attempt to cure genetic defects. This is something that natural evolution could possibly never correct.
Eventually scientists will even be able to improve the quality of people. For example, imagine not only correcting your eyesight with gene treatment, but also ensuring that all of your children do not receive your old genes of poor eyesight too. Scientists will one day be able to improve the memory and intelligence of your children, so that they will do better in school and achieve more in life. Doctors and scientists will be able to customize (订制) babies before they are born just like picking options at a car store.
【小题1】According to the first paragraph,______ .
A. man-made evolution has improved all species
B. man-made evolution has weakened some species
C man-made evolution can make up for all natural losses
D. natural evolution won’t happen without man’s assistance
【小题2】What does the underlined part “taken a back seat to” in Paragraph 2 mean?
A. Become powerful assistance to.
B. Become a huge barrier to.
C Speeded up the process of.
D. Played a less important role than.
【小题3】What does the third paragraph mainly talk about?
A.Why natural evolution happens so slowly. |
B.The way scientists adopt to have genetic defects repaired. |
C.The advantages of man-made evolution over natural evolution. |
D.How scientists make use of man-made evolution to create new species. |
A.Near-sighted parents will be able to produce babies with good eyesight in the future. |
B.Doctors and scientists will be responsible for mass production of babies in the future. |
C.It is natural evolution that is to blame for the destruction of European wolves and mammoths. |
D.Children can now have their memory and intelligence improved with the help of gene treatment. |
【小题1】B
【小题2】D
【小题3】C
【小题4】A
解析试题分析:人为进化比自然进化好吗?进化为人类带来了财富,如奶牛可以专门产奶,玉米的产量比以前也高很多,但是 离开人类的照料那些动植物都不会很好的生存。但是的确人为的科学进化给那些有疾病的人带来新希望。科学家甚至能修补基因以试图治愈基因缺陷。
【小题1】细节理解题。根据第一段可知,没有人类的帮助玉米不能再栽种;没有人类狗不能再野外生存。没有人类挤空牛奶,奶牛就会得病甚至死亡。所以人类的改进是弱化了一些物种的能力。故选B。
【小题2】词意猜测题。根据该短语所在的句子的意思判断,自然的进化很慢,而人类的精选高产计划只用了几代的时间就可以培养出全新的品种。这样对比,自然的进化就落后于人类了。故选D。
【小题3】段落大意题。该段提到人为进化的优点如:时间短,还可以改变基因缺陷等都是比自然进化强的地方。所以选C。
【小题4】推理判断题。最后一段提到,科学家可以改变人的质量。如人的视力、智慧和记忆力等。所以视力不好的人将来可以有视力好的孩子。选A。
考点:科普类短文阅读。
科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
Cast your mind back to the past twenty years and hardly did anyone have their own email account. The Internet had just taken off in 1991 and people were only using office and PCbased email exchanges.
In the mid 1990s external email providers appeared. The most famous of these was Hotmail, the first free email provider and webbased email service. Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith launched Hotmail on July 4, 1996. And Microsoft took note of and bought Hotmail for $400 million on December 30, 1997, a nice birthday present for Bhatia who turned 29 that day. It was relaunched as MSN Hotmail and in 2007 was relaunched again as Windows Live Hotmail.
Fast forward the present day and most of us have at least a personal webbased email account. It seems impossible to live without them. One of the biggest advantages of email is the fact that communication has become so much easier, especially with those across different time zones. Email takes seconds to send a message whereas letters, as we used to communicate by, could take weeks. Of course there was the fax, that beeping invention from the 1980s, but it wasn’t as secure as email and you never knew if the person on the other end had picked up your fax or if it had got lost somewhere in the office.
In conclusion, one of the best inventions from the 1990s has to be email. But sometimes people are too closely connected to their email and have a compulsion to check it several times a day. At work, people have become lazy and instead of going to speak to the person sitting next to them, they send an email,causing an in box to pile up with more time spent reading email and responding rather than working. Clearly, an invention that saved time because of its quick and speedy connection can now also cause us to waste a lot of time.
【小题1】The earliest web-based email came into being probably _______.
A.in 1991 | B.in 1996 | C.in 1997 | D.in 2007 |
A.it is exactly as good as email |
B.it is much better than email |
C.it is less convenient than email |
D.it is easier and faster than email |
A.strong desire | B.common sense | C.special curiosity | D.general idea |
A.We should check email boxes frequently. |
B.Lazy people like sending an email. |
C.Email brings us great convenience. |
D.Good inventions also cause problems. |
查看答案和解析>>
科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
Dan Bebber is a senior research fellow at the University of Exeter in Britain. He says research has shown that wild plants and animals are moving toward Earth's North and South poles as the planet warms.
Mr Bebber wanted to know if the same thing was happening with organisms that attack agricultural crops. He examined reports of first sightings of new insects and diseases around the world. The records came from CABI - the Centre for Agricultural Bioscience International. He says the group began collecting information from developing and industrialized countries years ago.
Dan Bebber and his research team studied 612 different organisms - from viruses and bacteria to insects like beetles and butterflies. They found that since 1960, crop pests and diseases have been moving toward the poles at an average rate of about 3 kilometers each year. Mr Bebber says this puts the most productive farmland in the world in danger.
"As new species of pests and diseases evolve and potentially the environment for them becomes more amenable at higher latitudes, the pressure on the breadbaskets of the world is going to increase."
Farmers face other threats. Invasive species passed through trade are also causing problems. Gene Kritsky is an Entomologist at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio. He specialises in the study of insects. He says climate change may improve conditions for some invasive species.
“It means that species in other parts of the world that might do well in warmer temperatures can now do well in the breadbasket of America.”
Another Entomologist Christian Krupke of Purdue University says the effects of these changes will depend very much on the crop, the insect and the disease. But he says the research is a warning sign that people should care about climate change and do something about it.
【小题1】The purpose of Dan Bebber’s research was to find ______.
A.if farmland could be moved to colder places thanks to global warming |
B.if diseases and insects harmful to crops were going towards colder areas |
C.if organisms were moving to the north and south poles |
D.if the number of crop pests was increasing |
A.it will be hard for farmers to kill them |
B.the most productive farmland will produce more crops |
C.the earth will not produce enough food to support the world |
D.the conditions for some crops may be improved |
A.Climate change helps crop pests to adapt to new environment. |
B.Foreign species are brought in by trade. |
C.Invasive species doing well in warmer places might do well in America. |
D.The impacts of the climate and species changes on crops are not easy to determine. |
A.agreeable | B.terrible | C.unfriendly | D.changeable |
查看答案和解析>>
科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
As a result of pollution, Lake Erie, on the borders of the USA and Canada, is now without many living things.
Pollution in water is not simply a matter of “poisons” killing large numbers of fish overnight. Very often the effects of pollution are not noticed for many months or years because the first organisms (生物体) to be affected are either plants or plankton (浮游生物). These organisms are the food of fish, birds, and other creatures. When this food disappears, the fish and birds die too. In this way a whole food chain can be wiped out, and it is not until dead fish and water birds are seen at the river’s edge or on the sea shore that people realize what is happening.
Where do the substances which pollute water come from? There are two main sources, sewage(污水) and industrial waste. As more detergent (洗涤剂)is used in homes, more of it is finally put into our rivers, lakes and seas. Detergents harm water birds by breaking down the natural substances which keep their feathers waterproof. Sewage itself, if not properly treated, makes the water dirty and prevents all forms of life in rivers and the sea from receiving the oxygen they need. Industrial waste is even more harmful since there are many highly poisonous materials in it, such as copper and lead.
So if we want to stop this pollution, the answer is simple. Sewage and industrial waste must be made clean before flowing into the water reservoirs. It may already be too late to save some rivers and lakes, but others can still be saved if the correct action is taken at once.
【小题1】Pollution in water is noticed ________.
A.when the first organisms are affected |
B.when many fish and birds die |
C.when poisons are poured into water |
D.As soon as the balance of nature is destroyed |
A.water | B.fish | C.Poison | D.oxygen |
A.full of water | B.not allowing water to go through |
C.covered with water | D.cleaned by water |
A.Industrial waste and chemicals | B.Water in the river |
C.Coal and wood | D.plastic |
查看答案和解析>>
科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
How to Tell If Someone Is Happy or Sad on the Phone
Scientists have come up with some researches on what makes different types of people“tick”.
The scientists at the University of Cambridge have developed new mobile phone technology called Emotion Sense that can tell if a caller is happy, angry or sad.
Scientists hope to fit the speech recognition system to standard mobile phones and use it to determine emotions—it will also use a GPS tracking system to log where the call is made.
And they’ve already made some pretty major breakthroughs into really getting under the skin of us humans.
The results from the pilot scheme make interesting scientific reading. Among the key revelations (﹦facts) are that callers feel happier at home and sadder at work.
To break it down, scientifically, it shows 45 percent of all emotions produced at home are “happy”and 54 percent of emotions at work are “sad”.
Meanwhile, people show more “intense”(﹦nervous) emotions in the evening than they do in the morning.
Of course, this could just be because most people feel too tired in the morning to get overly “intense”. Eating breakfast and getting to work on time is usually enough of an achievement.
Anyway, the Emotion Sense technology has been developed by psychologists(心理学家) and computer scientists who say it uses speech recognition software and phone sensors(传感器) attached to standard smart phones to judge how callers’ emotions are changed by everyday factors.
The sensors analyze voice samples and these are then divided into five categories: happiness, sadness, fearfulness, anger or neutral-—boredom or passivity(消极) would fit into this last category.
【小题1】How many emotions can the sensors tell?
A.Two | B.Three | C.Four | D.Five |
A.Scientists have put something testing people’s emotions under humans’ skin. |
B.There were some breakthroughs in this technology in getting something from people’s skin. |
C.In this technology, people’s skin was broken through. |
D.There were improvements in testing people’s emotions. |
A.Because morning is the start of a new day. |
B.because they feel too tired in the morning. |
C.Because of humans’ physiological structure. |
D.Because of the fresh air and bright sunlight. |
A.Speech recognition software. | B.Phone sensors. |
C.GPS sensors. | D.Translation system. |
查看答案和解析>>
科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
Think about the different ways that people use the wind. You can use it to fly a kite or to sail a boat. Wind is one of our cleanest and richest power sources, as well as one of the oldest. Evidence shows that windmills(风车) began to be used in ancient Iran back in the seventh century BC. They were first introduced to Europe during the 1100s, when armies returned from the Middle East with knowledge of using wind power.
For many centuries, people used windmills to grind(碾碎) wheat into flour or pump water from deep underground. When electricity was discovered in the late 1800s, people living in remote areas began to use them to produce electricity. This allowed them to have electric lights and radios. However, by the 1940s when electricity was available to people in almost all areas of the United States, windmills were rarely used.
During the 1970s, people started becoming concerned about the pollution that is created when coal and gas are burned to produce electricity. People also realized that the supply of coal and gas would not last forever. Then, wind was rediscovered, though it means higher cost. Today, there is a global movement to supply more and more of our electricity through the use of wind.
【小题1】 From the text we know that windmills________.
A.were invented by European armies |
B.have a history of more than 2,800 years |
C.used to supply power to radio in remote areas |
D.have rarely been used since electricity was discovered |
A.Sailing a boat. | B.Producing electricity. |
C.Grinding wheat into flour. | D.Pumping water from underground. |
A.wind power is cleaner |
B.it is one of the oldest power sources. |
C.it was cheaper to create energy from wind |
D.the supply of coal and gas failed to meet needs |
A.The advantages of wind power. |
B.The design of wind power plants. |
C.The worldwide movement to save energy. |
D.The global trend towards producing power from wind. |
查看答案和解析>>
科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
Have you dreamed of building your own machine? Do you wish you could invent something new? Here we look at a few British inventions of recent times.
Adaptable glasses
Do you wear glasses? If so, can you imagine life without them? In 1985, Joshua Silver, a professor at Oxford University, asked himself, “Can I invent a pair of glasses that could be changed by the wearer?” He designed two plastic lenses(透镜)that are filled with a special liquid. Using syringes(注射器)you change the liquid between the lenses until you can see clearly. The glasses are not beautiful but they are easy to use and cheap to make.
The wind-up radio
When you switch your TV on tonight, think about all those people without electricity. Thinking about this, Trevor Baylis came up with the idea of designing a radio that could be powered by hand. In common with Joshua Silver he wanted his invention to be cheap and easy to use. He wanted even the poorest people in developing countries, who don’t have electricity and cannot afford batteries, to use it. The radio has a generator (发电机) which is powered by turning a handle. In 1996 it won a BBC Design Award for Best Protect and Best Design.
The Dyson cleaner
In many homes around the world you can see a cleaner that looks like a spaceship. This is the Dyson vacuum (真空) cleaner which uses something called “cyclonic separation” to separate the dirt. You do not need a bag for your cleaner and it does not get blocked so it is very practical. The idea came to Sir James Dyson after he kept having problems with his vacuum cleaner. He decided he could design a better one and in 1993 he opened his own factory. The Dyson is now one of the best-selling cleaners in the UK and Dyson is believed to have earned over a billion pounds.
The Zapata fly-board
Ever dreamed of zooming through the water and leaping in the air like a dolphin? Now you can thanks to a fly-board, built by water sports enthusiast Frank Zapata. With it you can dive back in the water and out again. It’s possible to jump to incredible heights out of the water — over 30 feet. The basic fly-board model comes in at £4,200.
So keep dreaming and inventing. One day you might get it right.
【小题1】What can we learn about Adaptable glasses?
A.They are very expensive. | B.The inventor is a student. |
C.The glasses are fragile. | D.They don’t look very nice. |
A.Adaptable glasses. | B.The wind-up radio. |
C.The Dyson cleaner. | D.The Zapata fly-board. |
A.helping people use cleaners more easily |
B.making Dyson a rich businessman |
C.keeping the house cleaner than before |
D.taking the place of human cleaners |
查看答案和解析>>
科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
To get a chocolate out of a box requires a lot of unpacking: the box has to be taken out of the paper bag in which it arrived, the cellophane (玻璃纸) wrapper has to be torn off, the lid opened and the paper removed, the chocolate itself then has to be unwrapped from its own piece of paper. But this overuse of wrapping is not limited to luxuries. It is now becoming increasingly difficult to buy anything that is not done up in beautiful wrapping.
The package itself is of no interest to the shopper, who usually throws it away immediately. Useless wrapping accounts for much of the refuse put out by the average London house-hold each week. So why is it done? Some of it, like the cellophane on meat, is necessary, but most of the rest is simply competitive selling. This is absurd. Packaging is using up valuable energy and resources and polluting the environment.
Recycling is already happening with milk bottles which are returned to the dairies (牛奶场), washed out, and refilled. But both glass and paper are being threatened by the growing use of plastic. More dairies are experimenting with plastic bottles.
The trouble with plastic is that it does not rot. Some environmentalists argue that the only solution to the problem of ever increasing plastic containers is to throw away plastic altogether in the shops, a suggestion unacceptable to many producers who say there is no alternative (替代品) to their handy plastic packs.
It is evident that more research is needed into the recovery and re-use of various materials and into the cost of collecting and recycling containers rather than producing new ones. Unnecessary packaging, intended to be used just once, and to make things look better so more people will buy them, is clearly becoming increasingly absurd. But it is not so much a question of throwing away packaging as using it wisely. What is needed now is a more advanced approach to using scarce resources for what is, after all, a relatively unimportant function.
【小题1】The underlined part “this overuse of wrapping is not limited to luxuries” in Paragraph l means ______.
A.more wrapping is needed for ordinary products |
B.the wrapping used for luxury products is unnecessary |
C.more wrapping is used for luxuries than for ordinary products |
D.too much wrapping is used for both luxury and ordinary products |
A.It is easy to use it again. |
B.Packaged things will not go rotten. |
C.They want to attract more shoppers. |
D.Shoppers are all interested in beautiful packaging. |
A.reusing their paper containers |
B.giving up the use of glass bottles |
C.increasing the use of plastic bottles |
D.experimenting with the use of paper bottles |
A.too much plastic is wasted |
B.shops should stop using plastic containers |
C.no alternative can be found to plastic packaging |
D.plastic packaging should be made more convenient |
查看答案和解析>>
科目:高中英语 来源: 题型:阅读理解
Welcome to your future life!
You get up in the morning and look into the mirror. Your face is firm and young-looking. In 2035, medical technology is better than ever. Many people of your age could live to be 150, so at 40, you’re not old at all. And your parents just had an anti-aging (抗衰老的) treatment. Now, all three of you look the same age!
You say to your shirt, “Turn red.” It changes from blue to red. In 2035, “smart clothes” contain particles (粒子) much smaller than the cells in your body. The particles can be programmed to change clothes’ color or pattern.
You walk into the kitchen. You pick up the milk, but a voice says, “You shouldn’t drink that!” Your fridge has read the chip (芯片) that contains information about the milk, and it knows the milk is old. In 2035, every article of food in the grocery store has such a chip.
It’s time to go to work. In 2035, cars drive themselves. Just tell your “smart car” where to go. On the way, you can call a friend using your jacket sleeve. Such “smart technology” is all around you.
So will all these things come true? “For new technology to succeed,” says scientist Andrew Zolli, “it has to be so much better that it replaces what we have already.” The Internet is one example. What will be the next?
【小题1】We can learn from the text that in the future ________.
A.people will never get old |
B.everyone will look the same |
C.red will be the most popular color |
D.clothes will be able to change their pattern |
A.Milk will be harmful to health. |
B.More drinks will be available for sale. |
C.Food in the grocery store will carry electronic information. |
D.Milk in the grocery store will stay fresh much longer. |
A.Nothing can replace the Internet. |
B.Fridges will know what people need. |
C.Jacked sleeves can be used as a guide. |
D.Cars will be able to drive automatically. |
A.Food and clothing in 2035. |
B.Future technology in everyday life. |
C.Medical treatments of the future. |
D.The reason for the success of new technology. |
查看答案和解析>>
湖北省互联网违法和不良信息举报平台 | 网上有害信息举报专区 | 电信诈骗举报专区 | 涉历史虚无主义有害信息举报专区 | 涉企侵权举报专区
违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com