高考說明文專題

                         高考說明文專題（來源11年到15年全國卷）

A

    Thousands of people living in the Chinese capital will celebrate the start of the Chinese

New year by heading for the ski   resorts (滑雪場). Never mind that Beijing's dry weather seldom

produces snow. It is cold enough in winter for snow-making machines to make a covering for the

hills north to the capital. And the rapid growth of a pleasure-seeking middle class has formed the basis for this new craze(熱潮）     

Since Beijing's first ski resort was opened ten years ago, the sport has enjoyed astonishing increase. There are now more than a dozen resorts. Clothes markets in the city   have added bright colored ski suits to their winter collections. Mr. Wei, a manager of a newly-opened ski resort in Beijing, sees the growth of an industry that could soon lead Chinese to head for the ski resorts of Europe, In recent years ski resorts offering natural snow have opened in China. But many are in faraway areas of the country and can't really match the equipment and services of some ski resorts in Europe.

Beijing's skiing craze is partly a result of the recent increase in private (私有的) cars. This has led to the growth of a Ieisure industry in the capital's suburbs (郊區(qū)), which until the late-1990s were unreachable to ordinary people, According to Mr, Wei, about 40% of the visitors to his resort come in their own cars. The rest are bused in by schools, businesses or government Offices.   

The problem is making money. Starting ski resorts requires quite a lot of money; hiring land from the local government, preparing the hills, buying snow machines, making sure there are enough water and electricity to run them, and buying ski equipment for hiring out to customers.

    The ski resort where Mr. Wei works cost nearly $4m to set up. And. as so often in China when someone comes up with a good idea, many others hash in and price wars break out. Beijing now offers some of the cheapest ski training classes in the world, though with most people rather new to the sport, expecting a few more doing the same job.

50. What does this text mainly talk about?

    A. Convenience for skiers brought about by private cars.

    B. Skiing as a new way of enjoying one's spare time.

    C. Things to be considered when starting a ski resort.

    D. A sudden increase of ski training classes in Beijing.

51. Why are some Chinese likely to go skiing in Europe?

    A. To visit more ski areas.               B. To ski on natural snow.

    C. For a large collection of ski suits.    D. For better services and equipment.

52. The underlined words "leisure industry" in Paragraph 3 refer to -

     A. transport to ski resorts              B. production of family cars

     C. business of providing spare time enjoyments

     D part-time work for people living in the suburbs

53. What is the main problem in running a ski resort?

      A. Difficulty in hiring land.             B. Lack of business experience.

      C. Price wars with other ski resorts,      D. Shortage of water and electricity,

B

The word advertising refers to any kind of public announcement that brings products and

Services to the attention 0f people．Throughout history , advertising has been all effective way to

promote(促進)the trading and selling of goods．In the Middle Ages，merchants ants employed “town criers” to read public messages aloud to promote their goods．When printing was invented in the fifteenth century , pages of advertisements(ads)could be printed easily and were either hung in

public places   or put in books．

By the end of the seventeenth century , when newspapers were beginning to be read by more

People , printed materials became all important way to promote products and services．The London Gazette was the first newspaper to set aside a place just for advertising .This was SO successful

that by the end of the century several companies started businesses for the purpose of making

newspaper ads for merchants．

  Advertising spread quickly throughout the eighteenth century．Ad writers were starting to Pay

more attention to the design of the ad text．Everything，from clothes to drinks，was promoted with

clever methods such as repetition of the firm’s name or product ,words organized in eye-Catching

patterns，the use of pretty pictures and expressions easy to remember．

Near the end of the nineteenth century ,companies that were devoted to the production of ads

Came to be known as“advertising agencies(廣告商)．”The agencies developed new ways to get

people to think of themselves as members of a group．Throughout the twentieth century,

advertising agencies promoted consumerism(消費主義)as a way of life，spreading the belief that

people could be happy only if they bought the“righ”products.

    60．What was advertising like in the Middle Ages?

      A．Merchants were employed to promote products．

      B．Ad messages were shouted out in public places．

      C．Product information was included in books．

      D．Ad signs were put up in towns．

    61．What does the word ”This” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

         A．Advertising in newspapers．

        B．Including pictures in ads．

        C．Selling goods in markets．

        D．Working with ad agencies．

62．The l8th century advertising was special in its______．

  A.growing spending     B．printing materials

  C．a(chǎn)dvertising companies D．a(chǎn)ttractive designs

63 Which of the following might be the best title for the text?

  A．1flle Story of Advertising

  B．ne Value of Advertising Designs

  C．The Role of Newspaper Advertising

  D．1]be Development of Printing for Advertising

   C

  While small may be beautiful，tall is just plain uncomfortable it seems，particularly when砘

com~$to staying in hotels and eating in restaurants．

  The Tall Persons Club Great Britain(TPCGB)，which was formed six months ago to campaign

(發(fā)起運動)for the needs of the tall，has turned its attention to hotels and restaurants．Beds that are too small，shower heads that are too low ,and restaurant tables with hardly any leg．room all make

life difficult for those of above average height ,it says．

  But it is not j us t the extra-tall whose needs are not being met．The average height of the

population has been increasing yet the standard size of beds,doorways，and chairs has remained unchanged．

  ‘'The bedding industry says a bed should be six inches larger than the person using it, SO even a king—size bed at 6．6”(6 feet and 6 inches)is falling short for 25％of men，while the standard 6'3nbed caters for(滿足需要)less than half of the male(男性)population，"said TPCGB president

Phil Heinricy,“Seven-foot beds would work f me．"

  Similarly, restaurant tables can cause no end of problems．Small tables，which mean the long．

1egged have to sit a foot or so away from them，are enough to make tall customers go elsewhere．

  Some have already taken note，however．At Queens Moat Houses’Caledonian Hotel inl

Edinburgh，6'6”beds are now put in as standard after requests for longer beds from taller visitors,

particularly Americans．

64．What is the purpose of the TPCGB campaign?

  A．To provide better services．

  B．T0 rebuild hotels and restaurants．

  C．To draw public attention to the needs of the tall．

  D．To attract more poeple to become its members．

65。Which the following might be a bed of proper length according to Phil Heinricy?

  A．7'2”．    B．7'．    C．6'6”．D．6'3”．

66．What may happen to restaurants with small tables?

  A．They may lose some customers．

  B．They may start businesses elsewhere．

  C．They have to find easy chairs to match the tables．

  D．They have to provide enough space for the long-legged．

67．What change has already been made in a hotel in Edinburgh?

  A．Tall people pay more for larger beds．

  B．6'6” beds have taken the place of 6'3” beds．

  C．Special rooms are kept for Americans．

  D．Guest rooms are standardized．

D

Cold weather can hard on pets, just like it can be hard on people. Sometimes owners forget that their cats are just as used to the warm shelter (住所) as they are. Some owners will leave their animals outside for a long period of time, thinking that all animals are used to living outdoors. This can put their pets in danger of serious illness. There are things you can do to keep your animal warm and safe.

Keep your pets inside as much as you can when the weather is bad. If you have to take them out, stay outside with them. When you’re cold enough to go inside, they probably are too. I you must leave them outside for a long time, make sure they have a warm, solid shelter against the wind, thick bedding, and plenty of non-frozen water.

If left alone outside, dogs and cats can be very smart in their search for warm shelter. They can dig into snow banks or hide somewhere. Watch them closely when they are left outdoors, and provide them with shelter of good quality. Keep an eye on your pet’s water. Sometimes owners don’t realize that a water bowl has frozen and their pet can’t get anything to drink. Animals that don’t have clean and unfrozen water may drink dirty water outside, which may contain something unhealthy for them.

41. What do we learn about pets from Paragraph 1?

    A. They are often forgotten by their owners.

    B. They are used to living outdoors.

    C. They build their won shelters.

    D. They like to stay in warm places.

42. Why are pet owners asked to stay with their pets when they are out in cold weather?

    A. To know when to bring them inside.

    B. To keep them from eating bad food.

    C. To help them find shelters.

    D. To keep them company.

43. If pets are left on their own outdoors in cold weather, they may ___.

    A. run short of clean water    B. dig deep holes for fun

    C. dirty the snow nearby    D. get lost in the wild

44. What is the purpose of this text?

    A. To solve a problem.    B. To give practical advice.

    C. To tell an interesting story.    D. To present a research result.

                                E

Facial expressions carry meaning that is determined by situations and relationships. For example, in American culture (文化) the smile is in general an expression of pleasure. Yet it also has other uses. A woman’s smile at a police officer does not carry the same meaning as the smile she gives to a young child. A smile may show love or politeness. It can also hide true feelings. It often causes confusion (困惑) across cultures. For example, many people in Russia consider smiling at strangers in public to be unusual and even improper. Yet many Americans smile freely at strangers in public places (although this is less common in big cities). Some Russians believe that Americans smile in the wrong places; some Americans believe that Russians don’t smile enough. In Southeast Asian culture, a smile is frequently used to cover painful feelings. Vietnamese people may tell a sad story but end the story with a smile.

Our faces show emotions (情感), but we should not attempt to “read” people from another culture as we would “read” someone from our own culture. The fact that members of one culture do not express their emotions as openly as do members of another does not mean that they do not experience emotions. Rather, there are cultural differences in the amount of facial expressiveness permitted. For example, in public and in formal situations many Japanese do not show their emotions as freely as Americans do. When with friends, Japanese and Americans seem to show their emotions similarly.

It is difficult to generalize about Americans and facial expressiveness because of personal and cultural differences in the United States. People from certain cultural backgrounds in the United States seem to be more facially expressive than others. The key is to try not to judge people whose ways of showing emotion are different. If we judge according to our own cultural habits, we may make the mistake of “reading” the other person incorrectly.

49. What does the smile usually mean in the U.S.?

    A. Love.    B. Politeness.    C. Joy.    D. Thankfulness.

50. The author mentions the smile of the Vietnamese to prove that smile can ___ .

    A. show friendliness to strangers    B. be used to hide true feelings

    C. be used in the wrong places    D. show personal habits

51. What should we do before attempting to “read” people?

    A. Learn about their relations with others.

    B. Understand their cultural backgrounds.

    C. Find out about their past experience.

    D. Figure out what they will do next.

52. What would be the best title for the test?

    A. Cultural Differences    B. Smiles and Relationship

    C. Facial Expressiveness    D. Habits and Emotions

F

Make Up Your Mind to Succeed

Kind-hearted parents have unknowingly left their children defenseless against failure. The generation born between 1980 and 2001 grew up playing sports where scores and performance were played down because “everyone’s a winner.” And their report cards sounded more positive (正面的) than ever before. As a result, Stanford University professor Carol Dweck, PhD, calls them “the overpraised generation.”

Dweck has been studying how people deal with failure for 40 years. Her research has led her to find out two clearly different mind-sets that have a great effect on how we react to it. Here’s how they work:

A fixed mind-set is grounded in the belief that talent (才能) is genetic – you’re a born artist, point guard, or numbers person. The fixed mind-set believes it’s sure to succeed without much effort and regards failure as personal shame. When things get difficult, it’s quick to blame, lie, and even stay away from future difficulties.

On the other hand, a growth mind-set believes that no talent is entirely heaven-sent and that effort and learning make everything possible. Because the ego (自尊) isn’t on the line as much, the growth mind-set sees failure as a chance rather than shame. When faced with a difficulty, it’s quick to rethink, change and try again. In fact, it enjoys this experience.

We are all born with growth mind-sets. (Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to live in the world.) But parents, teachers, and instructors often push us into fixed mind-sets by encouraging certain actions and misdirecting praise. Dweck’s book, Mind-set: The New Psychology of Success, and online instructional program explain this in depth. But she says there are many little things you can start doing today to make sure that your children, grandchildren and even you are never defeated by failure.

57. What does the author think about the present generation?

    A. They don’t do well at school.    B. They are often misunderstood.

    C. They are eager to win in sports.    D. They are given too much praise.

58. A fixed mind-set person is probably one who ___ .

    A. doesn’t want to work hard

    B. cares a lot about personal safety

    C. cannot share his ideas with others

    D. can succeed with the help of teachers

59. What does the growth mind-set believe?

    A. Admitting failure is shameful.

    B. Talent comes with one’s birth.

    C. Scores should be highly valued.

    D. Getting over difficulties is enjoyable.

60. What should parents do for their children based on Dweck’s study?

    A. Encourage them to learn from failures.

    B. Prevent them from making mistakes.

    C. Guide them in doing little things.

    D. Help them grow with praise.

G

Honey(蜂蜜)from the African forest is not only a kind of natural sugar, it is also delicious. Most people, and many animals, like eating it. However, the only way for them to get that honey is to find a wild bees' nest(巢)and take the honey from it. Often, these nests are high up in trees, and it is difficult to find them. In parts of Africa, though, people and animals looking for honey have a strange and unexpected helper一a little bird called a honey guide.

The honey guide does not actually like honey, but it does like the wax (蜂蠟) in the beehives (蜂房). The little bird cannot reach this wax, which is deep inside the bees’ nest. So, when it finds a suitable nest, it looks for someone to help it. The honey guide gives a loud cry that attracts the attention of both passing animals and people. Once it has their attention, it flies through the forest, waiting from time to time for the curious animal or person as it leads them to the nest. When they finally arrive at the nest, the follower reaches in to get at the delicious honey as the bird patiently waits and watches. Some of the honey, and the wax, always falls to the ground, and this is when the honey guide takes its share.

    Scientists do not know why the honey guide likes eating the wax, but it is very determined in its efforts to get it. The birds seem to be able to smell wax from a long distance away. They will quickly arrive whenever a beekeeper is taking honey from his beehives, and will even enter churches when beeswax candles are being lit.

60. Why is it difficult to find a wild bees' nest?

A. It's small in size.

B. It's hidden in trees.

C. It's covered with wax.

D. It's hard to recognize.

61. What do the words "the follower" in Paragraph 2 refer to?

  A. A bee.                           B. A bird.

  C. A honey seeker.                    D. A beekeeper.

62. The honey guide is special in the way____________。

  A. it gets its food

  B. it goes to church

  C. it sings in the forest

D. it reaches into bees' nests

63. What can be the best title for the text?

A. Wild Bees

B. Wax and Honey

C. Beekeeping in Africa

D. Honey-Lover's Helper

H

They baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert （警覺）. Twenty centimeters from her face researchers have placed a white card with two black spots on it. She stares at it carefully. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced. As the cards change from one to the other, her gaze（凝視） starts to lose its focus — until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns: she looks at it for twice as long as she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?

Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots shown before two, shows the same return of interest when the number of spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of objects (a comb, a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of objects had an effect separate from changing the objects themselves. Could it be the pattern that two things make, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to squares moving randomly on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots became more excited when they then heard three drumbeats than when they heard just two; likewise （同樣地） when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.

60. The experiment described in Paragraph 1 is related to the baby’s__.

A. sense of hearing        B. sense of sight        C. sense of touch        D. sense of smell

61. Babies are sensitive to the change in______.

A. the size of cards                            B. the colour of pictures

C. the shape of patterns                        D. the number of objects

62. Why did the researchers test the babies with drumbeats?

A. To reduce the difficulty of the experiment.    B. To see how babies recognize sounds.

C. To carry their experiment further.            D. To keep the babies’ interest.

63. Where does this text probably come from?

A. Science fiction.        B. Children’s literature.    C. An advertisement.    D. A science report.

I

Passenger pigeons (旅鴿)once flew over much of the United States in unbelievable numbers.

Written accounts from the 18^th and 19^th centuries described flocks (群)so large that they   the sky for

hours.

It was calculated that when it population reached its highest point ,they were more than 3billlion

passenger pigeons—a number equal to 24 to 40 percent of the total bird population in the United States, making it perhaps the most abundant bird in the world. Even as late as 1870 when their numbers had already become smaller, a flock believed to be 1 mile wide and 320 miles (about 515 kilometers) long was seen near Cincinnati.

   Sadly the abundance of passenger pigeons may have been their undoing. Where the birds were

most abundant, people believed there was an ever-lasting supply and killed them by the thousands,

Commercial hunters attracted them to small clearings with grain, waited until pigeons had settled to feed, then threw large nets over them, taking hundreds at a time. The birds were shipped to large cities and sold in restaurants.

   By the closing decades of the 19^th century ,the hardwood forests where passenger pigeons nested had

been damaged by American’s need for wood, which scattered (驅(qū)散) the flocks and forced the birds to

go farther north, where cold temperatures and storms contributed to their decline. Soon the great flocks

were gone, never to be seen again.

   In 1897, the state of Michigan passed a law prohibiting the killing of passenger pigeons but by then,

no sizable flocks had been seen in the state for 10 years. The last confirmed wi pigeon in the United

States was shot by a boy in Pike County, Ohio, in 1900. For a time , a few birds survived under human

care. The last of them, known affectionately as Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoological Garden on

September 1, 1914.

24. In the 18^th and early 19teh centuries, passenger pigeons____.

   A. were the biggest bird in the world

B. lived mainly in the south of America

C. did great harm to the natural environment

D. were the largest bird population in the Us

25. The underlined word “ undoing” probably refers to the pigeons’ ____.

A. escape         B. ruin     C. liberation     D. evolution

26. What was the main reason for people to kill passenger pigeons?

A. To seek pleasure.       B. To save other birds.

C. To make money.        D. To protect crops.

27. What can we infer about the law passed in Michigan?

A. It was ignored by the public.       B.   It was declared too late.

C. It was unfair.                D. It was strict.

J

As more and more people speak the global languages of English, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic, other languages are rapidly disappearing. In fact, half of the 6,000-7,000 languages spoken around the world today will likely die out by the next century, according to the United Nations Educational , Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

In an effort to prevent language loss, scholars from a number of organizations _UNESCO and National Geographic among them—have for many years been documenting dying languages and the cultures they reflect.

Mark Turin, a scientist at the Macmillan Centre Yale University, who specializes in the languages and   oral traditions of the Himalayas, is following in that tradition. His recently published book, A Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and Their Culture, grows out of his experience living, working, and raising a family in a village in Nepal.

Documenting the Thangmi language and culture is just a starting point for Turin, who seeks to include other languages and oral traditions across the Himalayan reaches of India , Nepal, Bhutan, and China . But he is not content to simply record these voices before they disappear without record.

At the University of Cambridge Turin discovered a wealth of important materials-including photographs, films, tape recordings, and field notes—which had remained unstudied and were badly in need of care and protection.

Now, through the two organizations that he has founded –the Digital Himalaya Project and the World Oral Literature Project __Turin has started a campaign to make such documents, for the world available not just to scholars but to the younger generations of communities from whom the materials were originally collected. Thanks to digital technology and the widely available Internet, Turin notes, the endangered languages can be saved and reconnected with speech communities.

32. Many scholars are making efforts to ______.

A. promote global languages          B. rescue disappearing languages

C. search for language communities    D. set up language research organizations.

33. What does “that tradition’ in Paragraph 3 refer to ?

A. Having full records of the languages

B. Writing books on language teaching.

C. Telling stories about language users

D. Living with the native speaker.

34. What is Turin’s book based on?

A. The cultual studies              B. The documents available at Yale.     

C. His language research in Bhutan.   D. His personal experience in Nepal.

35. Which of the following best describe Turin’s work?

A. Write, sell and donate.         B. Record, repair and reward.

C. Collect, protect and reconnect.   D. Design, experiment and report.

K

Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener” toward the environment . “We didn’t know at that time that there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it, ”says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA.

But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement . Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement. “The understanding has increased many, many times, ”says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first Earth Day.

According to US government reports , emissions (排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10. 3 million tons a year to 5. 5 tons . The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9 . Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with , the world is a safer and healthier place . A kind of “Green thinking ” has become part of practices .

Great improvement has been achieved . In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs , ; today in 1995 there are about 6, 600 . Advanced lights , motors , and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution .

   Twenty –five years ago , there were hardly any education programs for environment . Today , it’s hard to find a public school , university , or law school that does not have such a kind of program . ” Until we do that , nothing else will change! ” say Bruce Anderson .

25. According to Anderson , before 1970, Americans had little idea about ___

A the social movement

B recycling techniques

C environmental problems

D the importance of Earth Day

26 Where does the support for environmental protection mainly come from?

A The grass –roots level

B The business circle

C Government officials

D University professors

27 What have Americans achieved in environmental protection ?

A They have cut car emissions to the lowest

B They have settled their environmental problems

C They have lowered their CO levels in forty cities.

D They have reduced pollution through effective measures .

28. What is especially important for environmental protection according to the last paragraph ?

A Education

B Planning

C Green living

D CO reduction

L

   One of the latest trends（趨勢） in American Childcare is Chinese au pairs. Au Pair in Stamford, Conn, for example, has got increasing numbers of request for Chinese au pairs from aero to around 4, 000 since 2004. And that’s true all across the country.

    “I thought it would be useful for him to learn Chinese at an early age” Joseph Stocke, the managing director of a company, says of his 2-year old son. “I would at least like to   give him the chance to use the language in the future, ” After only six months of being cared by 25-year-old woman from China, the boy can already understand basic Chinese daily expressions, his dad says.

    Li Drake, a Chinese native raising two children in Minnesota with an American husband, had another reason for looking for an au pair from China. She didn’t want her children to miss out on their roots. ” Because I am Chinese, my husband and I wanted the children to keep exposed to(接觸) the language and culture. ” she says.

    “Staying with a native speaker is better for children than simply sitting in a classroom, ” says Suzanne Flynn, a professor in language education of Children. ”But parents must understand that just one year with au pair is unlikely to produce wonders.   Complete mastery demands continued learning until the age of 10 or 12. ”

  The popularity if au pairs from china has been strengthened by the increasing numbers of American parents who want their children who want their children to learn Chinese. It is expected that American demand for au pairs will continue to rise in the next few years.

29. What does the   term” au pair” in the text mean?

  A. A mother raising her children on her own

  B. A child learning a foreign language at home

  C. A professor in language education of children

  D. A young foreign woman taking care of children.

30. Li Drake has her children study Chinese because she wants them ______.

  A. to live in China some day

  B. to speak the language at home

  C. to catch up wit other children

  D. to learn about the Chinese culture

31. What can we infer from the text?

  A. Learning Chinese is becoming popular In America,

  B. Educated woman do better in looking after children

  C. Chinese au pairs need to improve their English Skills.

  D. Children can learn a foreign language well in six months.