阅读理解综合训练(102740)-高二英语阅读(603)-21英语网

A

Lauren Ribordy has several theories as to why women are not better represented in the field of computer science. But the 18-year-old senior at Glenbrook South High School in Illinois, US is trying her best to change that.

In November, Ribordy competed alongside five undergraduate (本科的) students – all men – from the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) as part of a team in the SC14 Student Cluster Competition in New Orleans. It is a computing event that brings together students from all over the world.

Ribordy was the only high school student in that competition, said Ioan Raicu, an assistant professor at IIT and the coach of Ribordy’s team. In fact, according to the organizers of the event, she is the only female high school student to ever compete in the two-day event.

Ribordy and the five IIT students on her team competed on eight computers. They put together advanced hardware (硬件) to run a set of applications using a limited amount of power.

Ribordy was tasked with building a device (装置) that would show how much power the team was using at any given time. She made the device with LED strips she programmed herself and it took weeks of her time.

“She was bright and smart ... and she did very well,” Raicu said.

Ribordy was also the state winner and national runner-up (亚军) for the National Center for Women and Information Technology’s women in computing award in her junior year.

Apart from devoting herself to computing, Ribordy is also trying her best to get more women interested in computer science.

“I developed a club specifically for women interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math),” she said. “Right now, we have 40 members.”

Ultimately, Ribordy said she and fellow club members hope to get students involved with computer science at the middle school level.

Both Raicu and Ribordy say a lack of experience with computer science at a young age may be one of the reasons why few women work in the field.

But Ribordy is becoming more and more hopeful. Her sister, Anne Ribordy, who is in 6th grade, has received computing and coding (编程) training in school – something Lauren Ribordy never had in middle school.

1. Which of the following is TRUE about the Student Cluster Competition?

A. It is a two-day national computing event.

B. It used to reject all female players.

C. It was open only to college students until 2014.

D. The first female high school student ever to compete in the competition did so last November.

2. During the competition, Ribordy and her teammates ______.

A. competed on six computers

B. designed a new kind of LED strip

C. put together hardware to complete the task

D. built a device to make the computers’ power stable

3. Which of the following does Ribordy think may be the reason few women work in computer science?

A. People’s prejudice against females working in this area.

B. Females’ lack of confidence in the field of computer science.

C. Young girls having little access to computer science.

D. The shortage of experienced female computing teachers.

4. Which of the following words best describe Ribordy as she is shown in the article?

A. Devoted and modest.

B. Creative and humorous.

C. Brilliant and ambitious.

D. Patient and flexible.

B

It is its soccer culture that has put the city on the world map. But the UK Prime Minister David Cameron is hoping that Manchester has more to offer than just successful soccer teams. He wants more from the city, aiming to make it as successful as US cities Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta, according to a Daily Mail report from last week.

Cameron said the UK cannot just rely on London’s success: “We need a strong London, but we need a northern powerhouse too.”

You may be wondering what can be found in Manchester to make it a “powerhouse”. Well, it turns out the city has a rich history and an interesting present to explore. As with many northern British cities, it has a working class past as a factory town from Britain’s industrialization (工业化), far away from posh (优雅的) London. It was also the place where Germans Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels began to write the Communist Manifesto (《共产党宣言》) at Chetham Library, the oldest library in the English-speaking world.

In addition, Manchester has long had a reputation for having a great cultural scene. Popular bands such as Oasis started out in Manchester, and the city’s music scene was so famous in the late 1980s and 1990s that it had its own name “Madchester”. Even nowadays the city’s many students and other young people keep nightclubs busy into the early hours. There is also a great media tradition, as The Guardian newspaper started there and a lot of the BBC has now moved from London to MediaCityUK in Manchester.

Manchester is still a major city in the UK, and its locals will not be shy to tell you that because they are “known for many virtues (美德) but not for their modesty”, according to The Economist. Why not look beyond London and pay it a visit? It has much more to offer than two successful soccer teams, after all.

By Paul Creasy

5. What is the author’s main purpose in writing the article?

A. To report on David Cameron’s impression of Manchester.

B. To show all the differences between Manchester and London.

C. To explain what makes Manchester stand out in the UK.

D. To introduce the reader to the history of Manchester’s splendid football culture.

6. Which of the following statements is TRUE about Manchester according to the article?

A. Located in the south of Britain, it is where the industrial revolution began.

B. Karl Marx once worked as a librarian at Chetham Library in the city.

C. It is where The Guardian newspaper and the BBC started.

D. A music scene named “Madchester” developed in the city.

7. How is Paragraph 4 mainly developed?

A. By giving examples.

B. By making comparisons.

C. By following the order of time.

D. By analyzing causes and effects.

C

Want to improve your life? Then do something awesome (使人赞叹的).

According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal, researchers have found that awe-inspiring experiences improve our prosocial (亲社会的) behaviors, making us more generous and more humble (谦逊的). Awe-inspiring experiences make us more empathetic, allowing us to recognize another person’s emotional expressions better and respond with concern. And they make us more willing to engage with trust and connect with others.

What kind of experiences can be called “awe-inspiring”? The examples mentioned by the journal include scuba diving (潜水), witnessing the birth of a child, watching a meteor (流星) shower, and visiting a forest. A man said he found it awe-inspiring to work with homeless people and witness their courage and kindness. Awe is an emotional response to something very large, says the article, and it challenges and expands our way of seeing the world.

But the feeling of awe is felt differently by different individuals, and for different reasons. The deep blue ocean might inspire different feelings in a poet than in a fisherman, for example. According to an article in The Atlantic, a 2012 study from Stanford University investigated several aspects of awe and came to an interesting conclusion: the feeling of awe changes the way you think about time. The study says an awe-inspiring experience is a moment so overwhelming (无法抗拒的) that time seems to stand still.

When you look at or experience something awesome, like looking at a waterfall or a sky filled with stars, your mind is fixed on the present moment. Time seems to slow down, the Stanford researchers concluded, making you feel like you have more of it to spare. This makes you feel more patient, less materialistic, and more willing to help others.

Other researchers believe awe is powerful because it takes us out of our own heads. “Awe makes our individual identity less important and gets us to think about things bigger than ourselves,” Paul Piff, assistant professor of psychology at the University of California, told The Wall Street Journal. Piff has found that many simple things in life inspire awe – listening to a piece of music you haven’t heard before, going on a nature hike, or going to a pop concert. All you need to do is start noticing and marveling (对……惊叹) at the world around you.

8. The underlined word “empathetic” in Paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to ______.

A. tolerant B. enthusiastic

C. independent D. understanding

9. The following things are mentioned as awe-inspiring experiences EXCEPT ______.

A. scuba diving or witnessing the birth of a child

B. watching a meteor shower or visiting a forest

C. listening to your favorite music or going to a pop concert

D. looking at a waterfall or going on a nature hike

10. How do awe-inspiring experiences change the way people think about time and make them more prosocial, according to the research?

A. By changing their emotional response to something large.

B. By making them more focused on the present moment.

C. By making them realize that life is too short to waste.

D. By inspiring them to face the challenges ahead of them.

11. According to Paul Piff, ______.

A. awe is beneficial for social harmony

B. awe often comes in an unexpected way

C. only adventurous experiences inspire awe

D. awe makes us more confident in ourselves

D

Nowhere is the dish of fish and chips more loved than in the UK. The former prime minister Winston Churchill called fish and chips “the good companions”. The Independent newspaper even said the dish was more iconic (具有代表性的) than the Queen or The Beatles in the UK.

No wonder that a heated discussion began when a new study came out on April 13 suggesting the dramatic warming of sea waters due to climate change could threaten the fish used in the classic dish.

So what is the dish? Quite simply, a boneless fish is covered in batter (面糊), a mixture of eggs, flour (面粉) and milk, and deep-fried. The chips are thick fingers of potato, also fried until they are soft and golden brown.

Fish and chips can be cooked at home, but more often the British buy them from a fish and chip shop. It’s a takeaway dish. You buy the fish and chips, wrapped in paper so they stay warm, and take them away to eat at work, on a park bench, or at home.

Fish and chips is a warmly symbolic dish in the UK. For example, in the minds of many, it’s associated with holidays. There can’t be many people in Britain who don’t remember how a rainy day in a seaside town was cheered up with fish and chips. The whole family would eat it sitting on the pier (码头) and forget the wind and gloomy (阴沉的) sky.

When I was a child, fish and chips was a meal eaten on Friday evenings. School was over for me and my brother and sister; work was done for my parents. Really tired, the last thing Mom and Dad wanted to do was prepare food. The solution was a short walk to the fish and chip shop on the corner of the street. We’d eat our meals off trays (盘子) in front of the TV set, and wash them down with big mugs of tea, thankful that the weekend had arrived.

By Paul Brennan

12. What is the author’s purpose in writing the text?

A. To teach readers how to make fish and chips.

B. To explain why Britons love fish and chips so much.

C. To share the author’s childhood memories of fish and chips.

D. To report on a new study on the effects of climate change on fish and chips in the UK.

13. Which of the following is TRUE about fish and chips according to the article?

A. It is a popular take-away food that is usually wrapped in paper.

B. It consists of lightly-fried fish in batter and lightly-fried chipped potatoes.

C. Most British people prefer to make it at home rather than buy it from shops.

D. It is becoming less popular in the UK than it used to be because of climate change.

14. What can we conclude from Paragraph 5?

A. Fish and chips is mainly a dish for busy people in Britain.

B. Many Britons love to eat fish and chips when they are depressed.

C. For many Britons, there is more to fish and chips than flavor.

D. In Britain, fish and chips is a traditional dish for an indoor family gathering.

15. What can we learn from the article?

A. It was part of the author’s family’s routine to eat fish and chips on Friday nights.

B. Not many people shared the author’s family’s habit of eating fish and chips on the weekend.

C. When the author was young, his parents would treat him to fish and chips when he did something good.

D. Since the fish and chip shop was far away from the author’s home, his parents usually made it themselves.

E

People may use the expression “birdbrain” in English to talk about someone who is stupid, but crows prove that this is unfair. Now it has been discovered that crows may understand analogies (类推法).

It was once thought that only humans could understand analogies, which help us to solve problems creatively, put things into categories, and make scientific discoveries.

To test this ability in animals, scientists do “relational matching-to-sample (RMTS, 依照示例中物品的关联进行匹配)” tests, according to the IFL Science website. If a pair was AA, for example, then picking BB to match it would be correct. If the pair was CD, however, then EF would be correct.

Apes (猿) and monkeys have learned RMTS, but scientists wanted to know if crows could do it, too. An international team led by Edward Wasserman from the University of Iowa in the US first trained two hooded crows (灰鸦) to match things by color, shape, and number in what is called “identity matching-to-sample (IMTS, 依照示例进行匹配)”, then moved onto RMTS.

For the IMTS test, the birds were put in a cage with a plastic tray (塑料盘) that had three cards and two cups in it. The card in the middle was the sample card. The cups on either side were covered with the other two cards: One was the same as the sample (in the color, shape, or number of shapes pictured), while the other wasn’t. The cup with the card that matched the sample card contained two worms (虫子) to eat.

In the second part of the experiment, the birds were tested with relational matching pairs. A card with two same-sized circles, for example, meant they should pick the test card with two same-sized squares and not two different-sized circles. The birds did well in the more difficult test and picked the correct card more than three quarters of the time, Science News reports.

Wasserman was surprised that crows were able to solve the problem without any training in RMTS. “What the crows have done is extraordinary,” he said in a news release. “Honestly, if it was only by force that the crows showed this learning, then it would have been an impressive result. But this was spontaneous.”

So perhaps it’s time to stop saying “birdbrain” for good!

By Paul Creasy

16. Why does the author mention the expression “bird brain” in the opening paragraph?

A. To get the reader interested in the origins of the expression.

B. To urge people to stop saying that birds are stupid.

C. To introduce the topic of Edward Wasserman and his experiments.

D. To introduce recent findings about crows’ intelligence.

17. Which of the following is TRUE about the tests on the hooded crows?

A. The birds did better in RMTS than in IMTS.

B. The birds were first made to do RMTS, then IMTS.

C. The birds picked almost all the correct cards in RMTS.

D. In the IMTS test, the birds needed to identify the sample card to get rewards.

18. In the RMTS test, if the birds were given the sample card with two same-sized triangles, they had to pick the test card with _____.

A. two same-sized circles B. one circle and one triangle

C. two different-sized circles D. two different-sized triangles

19. The underlined word “spontaneous” in the second-to-last paragraph is closest in meaning to _____.

A. natural B. creative

C. trustworthy D. predictable