专题07 阅读理解之说明文（名校最新期中真题）-2023-2024学年高一英语上学期期中复习查缺补漏冲刺满分（人教版2019）

人教版（2019）高一英语上学期期中复习 查缺补漏冲刺满分

(名校最新期中真题)

专题07 阅读理解之说明文

（2022秋·湖北鄂州·高一校联考期中）This summer has brought extreme heat and droughts to places around the world. The droughts are leading to serious problems, including shortages of food and energy, problems with transportation, and food price increases. The effects of the droughts are likely to be felt for years.

From Africa to Europe to the US to China, record temperatures and low rainfall have been causing problems. Droughts aren’t new, but Earth’s rising temperatures because of global warming are making them much harder to avoid.

The drought in the Horn of Africa may be the most serious situation. For several years, the area has had very little rain during the rainy seasons. Now the area, which includes Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, is suffering from its worst drought in 40 years.

Almost two-thirds of Europe is threatened (威胁) by what may be the worst drought there in 500 years. With temperatures reaching 40℃ and hotter, many crops have been damaged. In France, Spain, Portugal, and even Britain, firefighters have struggled to control wildfires.

In the US, many states that use water from the Colorado River are struggling with low water levels. Farmers in California and Arizona have been hit particularly hard. In California water use is being limited now and farmers aren’t able to grow as many crops. That can drive up food prices, and that affects everyone.

China is facing similar problems. It has been attacked by a terrible drought this summer, with temperatures as high as 45℃. The drought has dried up much of the water in the Yangtze, China’s longest river. That has cut the amount of energy produced by the world’s largest dam by 40%.

There are no easy solutions for any of these droughts. It took years to create the climate crisis, and it will take a long time to get it under control. For now, governments and people will need to carefully manage water supplies and other resources to limit the damage as much as possible.

1．What does the underlined word “them” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A．Problems. B．Droughts.

C．The effects of the droughts. D．Earth’s rising temperatures.

2．What make farmers in California grow fewer crops?

A．Wildfires. B．Food prices.

C．Water limits. D．High water levels.

3．How does the author develop the text?

A．By giving some examples. B．By offering some reasons.

C．By answering some questions. D．By explaining some puzzles.

4．What would be the best title for the text?

A．The Reasons Behind Worldwide Droughts

B．The Effects of Extreme Heat and Droughts

C．Droughts Cause Problems Around the World

D．Solutions Are Needed for Worldwide Droughts

 

（2022秋·湖北鄂州·高一校联考期中）Scientists report that people in Sydney, Australia are in a war with cockatoos (凤头鹦鹉). The birds have learned to open the lids on trash bins (垃圾桶盖), and people are figuring out new ways to keep the lids closed. But the clever birds are quickly discovering new tricks.

Cockatoos are large, white birds in the parrot family. They’re common in western Australia, where they normally live in wooded areas. But as forests have been cut down, cockatoos have gotten used to living near people.

Last year, scientists at the Max Planck Institute reported that cockatoos had learned how to open the lids on trash bins. Cockatoos open the lids to find food scraps (剩下的食物). But they can also make a big mess, which upsets the people who own the trash bins.

What really interested the scientists was that the birds were teaching other cockatoos how to do the same thing. When scientists first began studying the cockatoos in 2018, only three areas near Sydney had lid-opening cockatoos. A year and a half later, cockatoos in 44 different areas knew the trick.

The researchers asked over 1,100 people from around Sydney about their trash bins. More than 15% of the people were taking steps. The goal was to make it hard for the cockatoos to open the bins. The most common way of protecting the bins was putting a brick or other heavy object on the lid.

The scientists discovered that the humans were teaching each other tricks, too. In most neighbourhoods, many people used the same cockatoo-stopping methods as their neighbours.

The researchers say it’s like a race between humans and cockatoos to learn new ways of doing things. Now many cockatoos have learned how to push heavy things off the bins. As a result, humans have figured out ways to attach the items to the top of their bins. The researchers describe the situation as a “human-wildlife conflict (冲突)”. They expect these conflicts to become more common as humans take over more areas that used to be wild.

5．Why do cockatoos choose to live near people?

A．To avoid being killed. B．To look for some food.

C．They like playing with trash bins. D．Their homes have been destroyed.

6．How do the owners of trash bins feel about the cockatoos’ behaviour?

A．Worried. B．Surprised.

C．Annoyed. D．Interested.

7．What do the researchers think of the situation between cockatoos and people?

A．It’s a boring game. B．It’s an interesting contest.

C．It’s a necessary competition. D．It’s an effective communication.

8．What can we infer about the cockatoos?

A．They are stupid indeed. B．They like making trouble.

C．They like communicating with people. D．They keep learning and making progress.

 

（2023春·浙江杭州·高一浙江省杭州第二中学校联考期中）Despite their bad reputation, sharks are critical to the marine ecosystem and can even help fight climate change.

In the shallows of Shark Bay, Western Australia, seagrass is food for the sea cows, which can weigh as much as 500kg and eat roughly 40kg of seagrass a day. Sea cows are a rich source of food for tiger sharks. By keeping the sea cow population in check, tiger sharks help seagrass meadows (草地) thrive. A flourishing seagrass meadow stores twice as much CO2 per square mile as forests typically do on land.

But tiger shark numbers are declining. Off Australia’s northeast coast of Queensland, tiger sharks are estimated to have fallen by at least 71 percent, largely due to overfishing. A reduction in tiger sharks means more seagrass consumed by herbivores (食草动物) and less carbon stored in sea vegetation. This begged the question: What if they were absent from the Shark Bay—would the seagrass-dominated ecosystem survive?

To find out, researchers led by Rob Nowicki of Florida International University, spent time in Eastern Australia, where shark numbers were lower and sea cows ate seagrass largely undisturbed. “When uncontrolled, sea cows can rapidly destroy wide areas of seagrass,” said Nowicki. “When the seagrass recovers, the seagrass community looks different, with more tropical species dominating than before.”

Those findings underlined the role that tiger sharks were playing in Shark Bay. If their populations continue to decline, the resilience (恢复能力) of carbon-rich ocean ecosystems will likely decrease.

When it comes to boosting shark numbers, there have been movements toward more sustainable fishing, but a large percentage of the industry have not changed their methods, which is a reason why the population of many marine top predators (捕食者) continues to decline.