阅读理解三则

(A)

When I asked my daughter which item she would keep: the phone, the car, the cooker, the computer, the TV, or her boyfriend, she said “the phone”. Personally, I could do without the phone entirely, which makes me unusual. Because the telephone is changing our lives more than any other piece of technology.

Point 1. The telephone creates the need to communicate, in the same way that more roads create more traffic. My daughter comes home from school at 4:00 pm and then spends an hour on the phone talking to the very people she has been at school with all day. If the phone did not exist, would she have anything to talk about?

Point 2. The mobile phone means that we are never alone. “The mobile saved my life,” says Crystal Johnstone. She had an accident in her Volvo on the A45 between Otley and Skipton. Trapped inside, she managed to make the call that brought the ambulance(救护车) to her rescue.

Point 3. The mobile removes our secret. It allows marketing manager of Haba Deutsch, Carl Nicolaisen, to ring his sales staff all round the world at any time of day to ask where they are, where they are going, and how their last meeting went.

Point 4. The telephone separates us. Antonella Bramante in Rome says, “We worked in separate offices but I could see him through the window. It was easy to get his number. We were so near—but we didnt meet for the first two weeks!”

Point 5. The telephone allows us to reach out beyond our own lives. Today we can talk to several complete strangers simultaneously(同时地) on chat lines (At least my daughter does. I wouldnt know what to talk about). We can talk across the world. We can even talk to astronauts (if you know any) while theyre space-walking. And, with the phone line hooked up to the computer, we can access(存取) the Internet, the biggest library on Earth.

1. How do you understand ‘Point 1—The telephone creates the need to communicate, …？____.

A. People dont communicate without telephone

B. People communicate because of the creating of the telephone

C. People communicate more since telephone has been created

D. People communicate more because of more traffic

2. Which of the following best shows peoples attitude towards mobile phones? ____.

A. Mobile phones help people deal with the emergency

B. Mobile phones bring convenience as well little secret to people

C. Mobile phones are so important and should be encouraged

D. Mobile phones are part of peoples life

3. Which points do you think support the idea that phones improve peoples life? ____.

a. Point 1. b. Point 2. c. Point 3. d. Point 4. e. Point 5.

A. c, d B. a, e C. a, c D. b, e

4. It is possible to talk to several complete strangers simultaneously through ____.

A. the TV screen

B. a fax machine

C. the phone line hooked up to the computer

D. a microphone

5. The best headline for the passage is ____.

A. Phone Power B. Kinds of Phone

C. How to Use Phones D. Advantage of Phones

(B)

Nuclear powers(核能的) danger to health, safety, and even life itself can be described in one word： radiation(辐射).

Nuclear radiation has a certain mystery about it, partly because it cannot be detected(探测) by human senses. It cant be seen or heard, or touched or tasted, even though it may be all around us. There are other things like that. For example, radio waves are all around us but we cant detect them, sense them without a radio receiver. Similarly, we cant sense radioactivity without a radiation detector. But unlike common radio waves, nuclear radiation is not harmless to human beings and other living things.

At very high levels, radiation can kill an animal or a human being outright by killing masses of cells (细胞) in important organs (器官). But even the lowest levels can do serious damage. There is no level of radiation that is completely safe. If the radiation does not hit anything important, the damage may not be significant. This is the case when only a few cells are hit, and if they are killed outright. Your body will replace the dead cells with healthy ones. But if the few cells are only damaged, and if they reproduce themselves, you may be in trouble. They reproduce themselves in an unusual way. They can grow into cancer. Sometimes this does not show up for many years.

This is another reason for some of the mystery about nuclear radiation. Serious damage can be done without the knowledge of the person at the time that damage has occurred. A person can be irradiated(放射治疗) and feel fine, then die of cancer five, ten, or twenty years later as a result. Or a child can be born weak or easy to get serious illness as a result of radiation absorbed by its grandparents.

Radiation can hurt us. We must know the truth.

1. According to the passage, the danger of nuclear power lies in ____.

A. nuclear mystery B. radiation detection

C. radiation level D. nuclear radiation

2. Radiation can lead to serious results even at the lowest level ____.

A. when it kills few cells

B. if it damages few cells

C. though the damaged cells can repair themselves

D. unless the damaged cells can reproduce themselves

3. Radiation can hurt us in the way that it can ____.

A. kill large numbers of cells in main organs so as to cause death

immediately

B. damage cells which may grow into cancer years later

C. affect the healthy growth of our younger generation

D. lead to all of the above results

4. Which of the following can be best inferred from the passage? ____.

A. The importance of protection from radiation cannot be overemphasized (过分强调).

B. The mystery about radiation remains unsolved

C. Cancer is mainly caused by radiation

D. Radiation can hurt those who do not know about its danger

(C)

The volcano is one of the most surprising frightening forces of nature. Maybe you have seen pictures of these “fireworks” of nature. Sometimes when a volcano erupts, a very large wall of melted rock moves down the side of a mountain. It looks like a “river of fire”. Sometimes volcanoes explode, throwing the melted rock and ashes(灰) high into the air. But where does this melted rock come from?

The earth is made up of many layers(层). The top layer that we see is called the crust. Under the crust are many layers of hard rock. But far, far beneath the crust whose rock is so hot that it is soft. In some places it even melts. The melted rock is called magma. Sometimes the magma breaks out to the surface through cracks(爆裂声) in the crust. These cracks are volcanoes.

Most people think of mountains when they think of volcanoes. But not every mountain is a volcano. A volcano is simply the opening in the earth from which the magma escapes. The hot magma, or lava as it is called, cools and builds up on the surface of the earth. Over thousands of years, this pile of cooled lava can grow to be very, very big. For example, the highest mountain in Africa, Kilimanjaro, is a volcano. It towers more than 16,000 feet above the ground around it.

1. The underlined word “erupts” means “____”.

A. moves down B. breaks away

C. builds up D. suddenly throws out lava

2. Which words in the passage have the same meaning as “melted

rock”? ____.

A. “volcano” and “explode” B. “crust” and “hard rock”

C. “magma” and “lava” D. “volcano” and “magma”

3. Which is the correct order of the layers of the earth (beginning with the top layer)? ____.

A. crust—hard rock—magma—soft rock

B. crust—hard rock—soft rock—magma

C. magma—soft rock—hard rock—crust

D. volcano—cracks—magma—crust

4. The best title (标题) of the passage should be ____.

A. The Volcano B. Kilimanjaro Volcano

C. The Mountains D. The Melted RockKey(1)