专题06 阅读理解之说明文10篇(第一期)-备战2024年高考英语名校模拟真题速递(江苏专用)

备战2024年高考英语名校模拟真题速递(江苏专用)

第一期

专题06 阅读理解之说明文10篇

（2023·江苏南京·南京市第一中学校考模拟预测）Trees don’t look at the calendar to see when spring arrives, but they seem to know when spring is here better than we do. The annual shift from winter to spring is a breathtaking event to watch as leaves become green and a lush(苍翠的) environment reveals itself. Recently a research takes a look at why trees in cities are turning green earlier than expected.

Scientists use satellite imagery to see when plants turn green. By comparing spring green ups in the 85 largest US cities, scientists found that on average trees start to turn green nine days earlier in cities due to the combined effect of artificial lights and urban heat effect.

According to the findings, one of the reasons is the artificial light. City lights brightening the night skies, billboard signs lit up on roadways and car headlights all contribute to shifting the regular day to night cycle that plants and trees rely on. In order to stay alive during cruel winters, trees hit the pause button on their growth. Since temperatures can vary dramatically throughout the winter, the length of daylight is the signal trees look for to safely start growing again and turn green.

On average cities are typically 1.8 to 5.4F warmer than rural areas. This is known as the urban heat island effect. The changes in city environments may affect seasonal changes even more than climate warming and mosquito season, water cycles, and also affect pollinators(授粉媒介).

Despite the worries and concern, it isn’t all bad news. “With a longer growing season, trees would be able to absorb more carbon dioxide,” A researcher said. “Hopefully they’d have a longer period to do the cooling effect that can help relieve the urban heating effect in cities.”

1．What is the purpose of the text?

A．To reveal how trees survive bitter winters.

B．To warn how human activities disturb nature.

C．To explain why trees turn green earlier in cities.

D．To clarify how trees turning green earlier benefits cities.

2．How did the scientists conduct their research?

A．Bringing out urban heat island effect.

B．Comparing the green-up time in sample cities.

C．Allowing the city environment to reveal itself.

D．Developing pictures shot by the satellite.

3．Which of the following elements contributes to trees turning green earlier?

A．Plant pollinators. B．Water cycle. C．Road signs. D．Street lamps.

4．In which section of a website can the text be found?

A．Environment. B．Education. C．Entertainment. D．Business.

 

（2023·江苏扬州·扬州中学校考模拟预测）With an abundance of sun and wind, Spain is positioning itself as Europe’s future leader in green hydrogen production to clean up heavy industries. But some energy experts express caution because this process relies on massive availability of zero-carbon electricity.

Green hydrogen is created when renewable energy sources power an electrical current that runs through water, separating its hydrogen and oxygen molecules (分子). The process doesn’t produce planet-warming carbon dioxide, but less than 0.1% of global hydrogen production is currently created in this way.

The separated hydrogen can be used in the production of steel, ammonia (氨) and chemical products, all of which require industrial processes that are harder to stop fossil fuels. Hydrogen also can be used as a transportation fuel, which could one day transform the highly polluting shipping and aviation sectors.

Spain’s large, windswept and thinly populated territory receives more than 2,500 hours of sunshine on average per year, providing ideal conditions for wind and solar energy, and therefore green hydrogen production.

“If you look at where hydrogen is going to be produced in Europe in the next million years, it’s in two countries, Spain and Portugal,” said Thierry Lepercq, the founder and president of HyDeal Ambition, an industry platform bringing together 30 companies. “Hydrogen is the new oil.”

Lepercq is working with companies like Spanish gas pipeline corporation Enagas and global steel giant ArcelorMittal to design an end-to-end model for hydrogen production, distribution and supply at a competitive price. Criticism has centered on green hydrogen’s higher cost compared with highly-polluting “gray hydrogen” drawn from natural gas. Lepercq argues that solar energy produced in Spain is priced low enough to compete.

Globally, Lepercq said, “Electricity is 20% of energy consumption. What about the 80% that is not electrified? ... You need to replace those fossil fuels. Not in 50 years’ time. You need to replace them now.”

5．Why are some experts cautious about green hydrogen production in Spain?

A．It needs large amounts of sun and wind. B．It has an effect on heavy industries.

C．It causes conflicts among countries. D．It uses lots of zero-carbon electricity.

6．What is the advantage of green hydrogen production in Spain?

A．Ideal geographical conditions. B．The support from government.

C．Hydrogen production technology. D．Well-developed public transports.

7．What can be inferred about green hydrogen in Spain according to Lepercq?

A．It is highly priced. B．It is easy to store.

C．It is competitive. D．It is highly-polluting.

8．What is the passage mainly about?

A．Spain manages to use zero-carbon electricity. B．Spain struggles to lead EU in heavy industry.

C．Spain takes the lead in preventing air pollution. D．Spain replaces fossil fuel with green hydrogen.

 

（2023·江苏苏州·统考模拟预测）There’s no tune, no lyrics and you can’t dance to it. Don’t let that put you off: white noise is the music industry’s next big thing. Streaming services have seen an explosion of tracks in the last year consisting entirely of recordings of rainfall, ocean waves and winds.

Some of the recordings have earned their creators millions of pounds. Record companies and tech firms have taken notice. Apple is including background noise in its next operating system, and TikTok has been promoting pink noise and brown noise — sounds with lower frequencies as an aid to concentration for students at the start of the school year.

Noise fans say that studying, sleeping and meditation (冥想) are all enhanced by listening to these sounds at proper levels. The economics of music-streaming mean noise-makers can cash in. Someone falling asleep to White Noise Baby Sleep’s 90-second track Clean White Noise on repeat for seven hours will win up 280 plays. By last Friday it had been played 837 million times, worth an estimated $2.5m in royalties (版税). The lead track on Spotify’s own Rain Sounds playlist, two minutes of rainfall, has more than 100m plays.

In contrast, Laura Mvula only has 541,000 Spotify streams for the title track of this year’s award-winning album, Pink Noise — not a slice of sleepiness but tuneful, lyrical dance-pop that took her three years to make. Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming services pay royalties in roughly the same way. They set aside a total pot for royalties, which is then divided up between distributors, record labels, recording artists and songwriters. That means that Mvula will get a smaller slice of the Spotify pie than will White Noise Baby Sleep, although most of it goes to the major record companies.

It’s hard to work out who is making such noise. Spotify lists White Noise Baby Sleep’s songwriting credits as belonging to an Erik Eriksson. It’s not obvious who Eriksson is or whether he is part of a larger organization, but the Medium website One Zero last year established that many of the artists’ names are pseudonyms (假名) used by companies.

9．Which of the following best describes white noise?