专题04 阅读理解-2023中考英语逆袭冲刺名校模拟真题特快专递（浙江专用）

2023浙江中考英语逆袭冲刺 名校模拟真题特快专递 第三期 专题04 阅读理解 （2022·浙江·温州外国语学校三模）One midsummer day, biologist Andrew Parker knelt in the baking sand of an Australian desert and gently placed the right back leg of a small lizard into a dish of water. The small lizard that has learned to survive in the extreme heat—has a secret that attracted Parker. “Look!” he shouted. “Its back is completely drenched!” In less than a minute, water from the dish had traveled up the lizard’s leg, across its skin, and into its mouth. It was drinking through its foot. The lizard can also do this when standing on wet sand. Parker had come here to solve the riddle of how it does this, with a specific purpose in mind: to make an object to help people collect water in the desert. Parker is a leading scientist in the field of biomimetics*—applying designs from nature to solve problems in engineering, materials science, medicine, and other fields. His studies of the body coverings of butterflies and beetles have led to brighter screens for cell phones. The work of Parker is only one part of a growing global biomimetics movement. Scientists around the world are trving to copy a wide variety of nature’s design secrets. In the United States, researchers are looking at the shape of humpback whale fins to help wind turbines* produce more electric energy. The shape of the body of a certain fish has inspired* designers at Mercedes—Benz to develop a more efficient car design. By analyzing how termites — a kind of insect keep their large mounds’ at the right temperature and humidity, architects in Zimbabwe have built more comfortable buildings. And in Japan, medical researchers have developed a painless needle that is similar in shape to the proboscis* of a mosquito. Perhaps, one of the most useful applications of biomimetics is the robot. Professor Ronald Fearing is creating a tiny robot fly that can be used in surveillance or rescue operations. Although it will be years before his robot fly can perform anything like an