阅读理解综合训练（一）(111027)-高三英语阅读(590)-21英语网

A

难度：★★★ 话题：Society 建议时间：7分钟文章词数：365 正确率： /4

The largest number of unsheltered homeless in the United States stay in a 54-block area in downtown Los Angeles. In this area, nicknamed “Skid Row”, culinary (烹饪的) prospects are low, and hopes can be even lower.

However, one operation – and one woman in particular – is trying to make a change for the better.

Delilah Cannon, 23, is the senior chef at Union Rescue Mission (URM), a Los Angeles nonprofit that prepares more than 2,000 meals a day for homeless people. Before joining URM to direct and oversee (监管) the preparation of these mass meals, Cannon worked as a caterer (烹调师) for the Grammy Awards and Universal Studios, definitely worlds away from the Rescue Mission.

“I got kind of bored working at Universal Catering,” Cannon says in the short documentary video produced by BuzzFeed, adding, “It was a point in my life where I think I needed a deeper meaning.”

That deeper meaning came in the form of the Mission, who reached out and asked if she might be interested in taking over their kitchen. She was.

“I’d never been to Skid Row, so when I first came down here it was a little bit shocking,” Cannon says in the video. However, she quickly took to the position, adding, “I love working here. I love my job. I look forward every day to coming to work.”

Cannon, who oversees a team of volunteers, manages a menu which offers a variety of selections for each night of the week. On Tuesday, it’s taco night – meaning steak tacos, rice, beans, and salad. And don’t forget the ice cream for dessert.

Still, working in an area in such horrible need is challenging, and Cannon says, “Coming around here, it’s heartbreaking.”

What raises her spirits, however, are the people she gets to serve every day. “They’re like family. They’re like my nieces, my nephews, my sisters, my brothers,” she says.

For that reason, Cannon takes great pride in her job and the mission of the URM.

In her own words, “Hopefully when they come and eat, they’ll be happy and forget about where they are. Because that’s my main goal, to get them to forget and think they’re at a five-star restaurant.”

1. The underlined words “Skid Row” in the first paragraph probably refer to _______.

A. the name of a nonprofit culinary company

B. a city block frequented by homeless people

C. a city block area with a lot of restaurants and shops in it

D. the name of a restaurant operated by Union Rescue Mission

2. Before joining Union Rescue Mission, Cannon _______.

A. had been a producer at BuzzFeed in Los Angeles

B. had been a star trying to win Grammy awards

C. had served as a caterer at Universal Catering

D. had run a famous restaurant in Washington D.C.

3. What did Cannon mean by saying she “needed a deeper meaning” in the fourth paragraph?

A. She found working at Union Rescue Mission quite difficult.

B. She thought she had to make a change and do something more significant.

C. She had to improve her culinary skills constantly in order to take over a kitchen.

D. She considered it a great challenge for her to work at Universal Catering. 4. What does Canon think of her job in Union Rescue Mission?

A. It took her a long time to get accustomed to the new position.

B. She felt a little bit shocked and heartbroken to work there and hated the job.

C. She felt inspired when she recognized that her family were among the people she served.

D. She was proud of her job and wanted to make the people she served happy.

B

难度：★★★ 话题：Art trend 建议时间：8分钟文章词数：405 正确率： /4

The year 2114 will be an eventful one for art. In May of that year in Berlin, the philosopher-artist Jonathon Keats’ “century cameras” – cameras with a 100-year-long exposure time – will be retrieved from hiding places around the city to have their results developed and exhibited. Six months after that, the Future Library in Oslo, Norway, will open its doors for the first time, presenting 100 books printed on the wood of trees planted in the distant past of 2014.

As Katie Paterson, the creator of the Future Library, puts it: “Future Library is an artwork for future generations.” These projects, more than a century in the making, are part of a new wave of “slow art” intended to push viewers and participants to think beyond their own lifetimes. They aim to challenge today’s short-term thinking and the brief attention spans of modern consumers, forcing people into considering works more deliberately. In their way, too, they are fighting against modern culture – not just regarding money, but also the way in which artistic worth is measured by attention.

In a similar fashion, every April on Slow Art Day, visitors are encouraged to stare at five works of art for 10 minutes at a time – a tough ask for the average museum visitor, who typically spends less than 30 seconds on each piece of art.

Like the Future Library, the century cameras are very much a project for cities, since it’s in cities that time runs fastest and the pace of life is fastest. “Since I started living in a city, I’ve somehow been quite disconnected,” Anne Beate Hovind, the Future Library project manager, who described how working on the library drew her back to the pace of life she knew when she was growing up on a farm in her youth, told The Atlantic magazine.

Works like Future Library and the century cameras raise all sorts of questions. Will any of the cameras survive? Will any of the Future Library works be any good? What will future generations make of century art, and will they see it as the gift that it’s intended to be? More specifically, for those of us struggling with “a crisis of attention”, the question seems to be: How can we adopt this attitude now, in everyday life? When we struggle to look up from our mobile phones, how can we look beyond the present moment and think broadly and generously across time?

5. What will happen in May 2114 in Berlin according to the article?

A. A camera produced 100 years ago will be exhibited.

B. The Future Library will open its doors for the first time.

C. Photos with a 100-year exposure time will be developed and exhibited.

D. Books printed on the wood of trees planted in 2014 will be displayed in the city.

6. What does the underlined word “retrieved” in Paragraph 1 probably mean?

A. brought back B. put away C. replaced D. repaired

7. We can learn from the article that the wave of slow art ______.

A. started in the late 20th century in Germany

B. is pushing people to spend more money on works of art

C. aims to promote modern culture

D. encourages people to pay more attention to works of art

8. What can be concluded from the article?

A. People living in urban areas are likely to feel more connected to the outside world.

B. Katie Paterson is very optimistic about the survival of the century cameras.

C. Anne Beate Hovind believes the Future Library will be a perfect solution to the current crisis of people paying attention.

D. There remain a lot of doubts about works like the Future Library and the century cameras.

C

难度：★★★★ 话题：Space technology 建议时间：7分钟文章词数：370 正确率： /4

NASA’s New Horizons performed the first-ever flyby of Pluto (冥王星) on Tuesday, about 12,472 kilometers above the surface, making the closest approach to the dwarf planet (矮行星) at 7:49 am EDT (美国东区时间).

“Hello Pluto! We’re at closest approach. Congrats to all!” said the mission team on New Horizons’ Twitter account.

To celebrate, US space agency NASA unveiled a “love note” from Pluto, showing a reddish world with a heart-shaped feature on its face, which is the last and most detailed image of the dwarf planet sent to Earth before the moment of closest approach.

At a press briefing after the encounter, the mission’s principal investigator Alan Stern revealed some first science results from the New Horizons’ Pluto flyby.

The spacecraft currently is in data-gathering mode and not in contact with flight controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physical Laboratory, NASA said in a statement.

Scientists are waiting to find out whether New Horizons “phones home”, transmitting (传送) to Earth a series of status updates that indicate the spacecraft survived the flyby and is in good health.

“We will breathe the final sigh of relief at 9 pm and that is when we can call it a successful flyby,” said Stern.

A small batch of images is expected to be released later. After a voyage of nine and half years, the probe (探测器) is more than 4.77 billion kilometers away, where radio signals, even traveling at light speed, need 4.5 hours to reach Earth. Round trip communication between the spacecraft and its operators requires about nine hours.

It’s the first mission to Pluto and its five moons. After Tuesday’s encounter, all nine of the solar system’s originally recognized planets have now been visited by a spacecraft. Pluto is now the most distant object ever visited by humanity.

The unmanned, piano-sized probe, which was launched in 2006, has traveled more than 5.2 billion kilometers to reach Pluto. But the probe won’t orbit nor land on Pluto. Instead, it will keep flying, heading its journey deeper into the Kuiper Belt, a region that scientists think is filled with hundreds of small, icy objects. Scientists believe that Kuiper Belt objects, such as Pluto, preserve evidence about the early formation of the solar system.

9. Which adjectives best describe the tone of the Twitter post mentioned in Paragraph 2?

A. Thrilled and proud. B. Calm and friendly.

C. Amused and hopeful. D. Concerned and serious.

10. According to the article, NASA’s New Horizons ______.

A. began its long journey about a decade ago

B. always keeps in contact with flight controllers

C. remains in good condition after its successful flyby of Pluto

D. has transmitted a lot of extra data about Pluto to Earth besides its images

11. What have we found out about Pluto so far?

A. It is the most distant planet in space as far as we know.

B. It is a dwarf planet in the solar system, five times the size of the moon.

C. Even traveling at light speed, we would need at least 9 hours to get there.

D. It may help solve the mystery of the early formation of the solar system.

12. After visiting Pluto, New Horizons will ______.

A. come back to Earth

B. find a way to land on it

C. orbit the nearest planet it can reach

D. explore deeper into the Kuiper Belt

D

难度：★★★★ 话题：Society 建议时间：7分钟文章词数：374 正确率： /4

The group of Americans born between the years 1981 and 1997 have been called a lot of names: Millennials, Generation Y, The Laziest Generation, etc. But according to a new survey from the investment (投资) company T. Rowe Price, a more appropriate term might actually be “the Money-Conscious (有意识的) Generation”.

Currently, 18- to 34-year-olds set are not only better about tracking their spending and sticking to a budget than Baby Boomers (出生在1946-1964年间的美国人), but more of them have increased their savings in the past year, too. A new study from T. Rowe Price analyzed the spending and savings habits of more than 3,000 working adults over the age of 18. Specifically, 75% of Millennials told T. Rowe that they track their expenses carefully, compared to 64% of Baby Boomers. And 40% of Millennials have increased their 401(k) contributions (401养老金计划) in the past twelve months, nearly double the 21% of Boomers who did the same.

“When [Millennials] have the means to do the right thing, it appears that they often do,” Anne Coveney, a senior manager at T. Rowe Price, said in a statement accompanying the survey results. “They are managing their spending and are going against the stereotype (刻板印象) that this generation wastes money and is full of short-sighted thinking,” she added.

Other findings from the T. Rowe study further show the idea of the financially-conscious Millennial: 88% of Generation Y people asked said they are pretty good at living within their means, and 67% told T. Rowe they save “by any means necessary”. Seventy-four percent said they are more comfortable saving money rather than spending it.

That Millennials prioritize saving over spending is not entirely surprising: many were financially hurt by the Great Recession (大萧条), especially after graduating into an environment with a 16%-plus unemployment rate and little wage growth. Over the past several years, Millennials have drawn comparisons to the post-Depression (萧条) generation in the way that they stay out of the stock (股票) market and hold on to cash.

“They think like people from the Depression period largely because they experienced market problems and job security issues very early in their careers, or watched their parents experience them, and it has had a significant impact on their attitudes and behaviors,” Emily Pachuta of UBS said in an interview last year.

13. Which of the following names seems to reflect the truth about Americans born between 1981 and 1997 according to the survey?

A. The Laziest Generation. B. The Creative Generation.

C. The Money-Conscious Generation. D. The Self-Centered Generation.

14. What percentage of Millennials track their expenses carefully?

A. 88%. B. 75%. C. 67%. D. 64%.

15. What is the stereotype about Millennials according to the article?

A. They tend to waste money.

B. They stay out of the stock market.

C. They prioritize saving over spending.

D. They often increase their 401(k) contributions.

16. What are the reasons behind Millennials saving money?

a. They are financially insecure.

b. It’s more difficult for them to find a job.

c. They often have the means to do the right thing.

d. They have learned to do it from their parents’ difficult situations.

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

E

难度：★★★ 话题：Culture 建议时间：6分钟文章词数：295 正确率： /4

The “melting pot” in American cuisine is a myth, not terribly unlike the idea of a melting pot of American culture, notes chef Dan Barber. “Most cultures don’t think about their cuisine in such monolithic (统一的) terms,” he says. “French, Mexican, Chinese, and Italian cuisines each consist of dozens of distinct regional foods. And I think ‘American’ cuisine is moving in the same direction, becoming more localized, not globalized.”

American cuisine is shaped by the natural wealth of the country. Having never faced agricultural hardship, Americans don’t have to rely on rotating crops (轮作谷物), such as the Japanese, whose food culture now showcases buckwheat (荞麦) alongside rice, or the Indians, or the French and Italians, who feature beans alongside wheat. “That kind of negotiation with the land forced people to incorporate (接受) those crops in to the culture,” says Barber. And so eating soba noodles (荞麦面) becomes part of what it means to be Japanese, and eating beans becomes part of what it means to be French.

So if what we eat is what we are, what are Americans? Well, meat. “If Americans have any unifying (统一的) food identity, I would say we are a mostly white meat culture,” says Barber. “The protein-centric dinner plate, whether you’re talking about a boneless chicken breast, or a 16-ounce steak, as an everyday expectation is something that America really created, and now exports to the rest of the world.”

Every single culture and religion uses food as part of their celebrations, says Ellen Gustafson, co-founder of the FEED Project and The 30 Project, which aims to deal with both hunger and overweight issues globally. “The celebratory nature of food is universal. Every season, every harvest, and every holiday has its own food, and this is true in America as well. It helps define us.”

17. According to the first paragraph, American cuisine ______.

A. consists of varieties of regional foods

B. is becoming more and more globalized

C. has absorbed a lot from Chinese cuisine

D. is not as unified as its culture

18. What has made American cuisine different from other cuisines according to the article?

A. Relying on rotating crops. B. The difficulty of planting crops.

C. The US’ melting pot culture. D. The US’ agricultural wealth.

19. We can conclude from the article that ______ has become part of what it means to be American.

A. eating rice B. eating beans

C. eating white meat D. eating soba noodles

20. Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the article?

A. American cuisine is healthier than other cuisines.

B. American cuisine hasn’t changed much over time.

C. Americans use food as part of their celebrations.

D. Americans are quite proud of their own cuisine.