高三寒假阅读综合测试(99360)-高三英语阅读(547)-21英语网

本文作者： 21ST

A

Italians like to say that when it comes to alcohol, they have a sipping (小酌) culture rather than a drinking culture. That means that while Italians may enjoy a glass of wine or beer, they don’t usually get very drunk.

That’s not true anymore. The new study by the Italian National Health Institute found that 63 percent of Italians under age 18 get drunk on the weekends. Now, the city of Milan has created a law that will stop anyone under 16 from buying alcohol. Anyone who sells or gives alcohol to a person under 16 can be fined up to $700.

Young people who feel that the new law is unfair should go to the US for some perspective (观点). The US has the highest drinking age in the world: It’s illegal for anyone under 21 to buy alcohol, and stores or restaurants that are caught selling alcohol to people under the legal age risk losing their licenses.

Many young Americans complain that the drinking laws are unfair: They are allowed to vote in elections and join the military (军队) at age 18, so why wait another three years just to buy a bottle of beer?

These young people have found help in an unusual place. Last year, more than 100 presidents of US universities joined together to ask lawmakers to consider changing the drinking age. They argued that the law doesn’t stop underage college kids from getting drunk – it just makes them want to drink more.

For now, the law seems unlikely to change. But US teenagers who want alcohol can go north to Canada, where the drinking age is 18-19, or south to Mexico where the legal age is 18. Throughout much of Asia, Africa and Europe, the legal drinking age ranges 16-18.

In plenty of places though, the official drinking age is ignored, and even young children can buy alcohol if they have the money to pay for it.

No matter how old you are, you should always be responsible with alcohol. Teenagers in Milan are now learning that their reckless (不顾后果的) drinking behavior may come at a high price.

1. The new law by the city of Milan _______.

A. aims to keep Italy’s sipping culture alive

B. forbids selling alcohol to people under 16

C. is welcomed by Italian young people

D. has reduced the number of underage youths getting drunk

2. Which of the following places has the lowest legal drinking age?

A. Milan.

B. New York.

C. Mexico.

D. Canada.

3. Many US university presidents want lawmakers to consider changing the drinking age because _______.

A. they have received complaints from many young Americans about the unfairness of the laws

B. they agree that people old enough to vote and join the army should be allowed to drink

C. they believe that the law is pushing underage youths toward alcohol instead of stopping them

D. they don’t want to see US teenagers going to neighboring countries for a drink

4. What can we infer from the article?

A. Restaurants in the US don’t sell alcohol to people under 21 for fear of a $700 fine.

B. The author thinks that US teenagers should go to Canada or Mexico to drink.

C. In many places around the world, shop owners don’t mind selling alcohol to underage customers.

D. Teens in Milan have to pay a lot of money for their reckless drinking behavior.

B

Anyone for kimchi (韩国泡菜)? Around 2,000 women made the traditional dish last week in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea (ROK).

More than 270 tons of kimchi were produced and handed out to needy neighbors.

In the ROK, kimchi is more than a dish to be eaten with every meal, even though Koreans are said to eat about 40 pounds (around 18kg) of kimchi per person each year.

According to korea.net, the country’s official multilingual (多语种的) website, kimchi represents (代表) “the spirit” of the Koreans.

Kimchi traditionally has a rosy color. Korea.net says: “The color red wards off (避开) evil spirits. The color represents the spirit of the Korean people and kimchi is more than just a food. It’s a culture.”

A meal without kimchi is unthinkable. So what is kimchi?

Joan Raymond, food writer for US website health.com, writes: “It’s a reddish (淡红色的), fermented (发酵的) cabbage dish, made with a mix of garlic (大蒜), salt, vinegar, chili peppers and other spices.

It is served at every meal, either along with or mixed with rice and noodles. It is part of a high-fiber, low fat diet, which has kept obesity (肥胖) at bay.”

Kimchi is used in everything from soups to pancakes and as a topping (配料) on pizza and burgers.

Health.com named kimchi in its list of the world’s top five healthiest foods as it is rich in vitamins, aids digestion (消化) and may even reduce the risk of cancer.

A study conducted by Seoul National University claimed that chickens infected with the H5N1 virus (bird flu) recovered after eating food containing the same bacteria found in kimchi.

When Koreans pose for photos, they say “kimchi”, instead of “cheese”.

5. From the first two paragraphs, we can conclude that ______.

A. kimchi is mostly eaten by poor families

B. kimichi is usually made in winter

C. kimichi is very common in ROK

D. every Korean woman knows how to make kimchi

6. According to the article, which of the following statements about kimchi is TRUE?

A. Each person eats 40 pounds of kimchi per month.

B. Kimchi is a cultural treasure for Koreans.

C. Kimchi is rated as the healthiest food in the world.

D. Kimchi contains something that can kill the H5N1 virus.

7. What does the underlined phrase “keep … at bay” in the eighth paragraph mean?

A. Affect.

B. Develop.

C. Control.

D. Prevent.

8. What does the article mainly talk about?

A. The origin of kimchi.

B. Ways of making kimchi.

C. Kimchi and what it means to Koreans.

D. The nutritional value of kimchi.

C

This afternoon, my office sent out over 34,000 e-mail notifications to high school seniors who were waiting to learn whether they would be invited to spend the next four years at Stanford. Even though I have been in the admission field for over 30 years, I still feel the pain of the many exceptional youths who were not offered places.

Given that today’s teens already have enough pressure in their lives, I wish to impart (告知) three messages to any particularly disappointed parents.

First, it’s all relative. While the number admitted into the undergraduate (本科的) class has remained unchanged for years, Stanford, like many of its peer (同类的) schools, has had a record number of total applicants – more than 42,000. Regardless of arguments over whether too much preference is given to one category over another, thousands of students are going to be turned away, and there is no doubt that the vast majority of them could have met the demands of a Stanford education.

I wish there were a formula (公式) to explain who is accepted and who isn’t, but the decision-making is as much art as Each class is a symphony with its own distinct composition (乐曲) it is science. and sound. The final roster (花名册) is an effort to create harmony (和谐), and that means that some extraordinary bass players don’t get a chair. What’s more, even among my staff (员工) there are legitimate (合理的) differences about applicants.

Second, celebrate the bigger picture. Most of the applications I reviewed are truly remarkable. The transition from high school to college is a turning point, and it’s more important to focus on how a young adult is moving on to a new stage than where that stage happens to be. You should mark the success of your children and rejoice (喜悦) in the excitement that the next four years will bring.

Education is what a student makes of it. Of course, certain schools have resources (资源) that others don’t, but they all offer opportunities to learn and to grow. Thousands of applicants who aren’t accepted to Stanford go on to have fulfilling lives. What parents and college applicants across the country need to remember is that the news they receive, whether good or bad, is but a single step on a much longer journey.

9. What is the main purpose of the article?

A. To inform us of the characteristics of a Stanford education.

B. To congratulate those who have been admitted into Stanford.

C. To inform us what kinds of applicants are more likely to be accepted by Stanford.

D. To tell parents that there is no need to feel down if their children weren’t admitted to Stanford.

10. Which of the following statements might the author agree with?

A. There are more students applying to study at Stanford than its peer schools in the US.

B. Those who fail to get admitted into Stanford don’t necessarily do worse than those who make it.

C. Those who fail to get admitted by Stanford probably wouldn’t meet the demands of a Stanford education.

D. Bass players, even some extraordinary ones, have little chance of being accepted by Stanford.

11. In the last two paragraphs, the author intends to convey the message that ______.

A. most colleges offer students the same resources as Stanford does

B. Stanford offers the best opportunities for young adults to learn and grow

C. parents should tell their children that this rejection will only make them stronger

D. it’s not which college that students enter but what they do there that counts

D

Believe it or not, the size of the human brain has become smaller over the past 20,000 years. Scientists argue over whether this means we are becoming more or less intelligent as a species.

The size of the average modern human brain has declined 10 percent over the period – from 1,500 to 1,359 cubic (立方的) centimeters. The missing brain matter is roughly the size of a tennis ball.

“I’d called that a major downsizing (规模减小) in an evolutionary eye blink (眨眼),” John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin, US, told Discover magazine.

Why is the brain becoming smaller?

There are different theories to explain it. One is that tens of thousands of years ago, before the decline began, to survive in cold, dangerous conditions humans needed a stronger and larger body and therefore, a larger head. Also they had to chew the tough meat of rabbits, foxes and horses. As conditions improved, the brain stopped growing, according to supporters of this theory.

Another theory comes from a recent study by David Geary and Drew Bailey from the University of Missouri, US. They looked at the relationship between brain size and social environment between 1.9 million and 10,000 years ago, when the social environment was becoming increasingly complex. They found that brain size decreased as population density (密度) increased.

“As complex societies emerged (出现), the brain became smaller because people did not have to be as smart to stay alive,” Geary told AFP.

But smaller brain size does not necessarily mean that modern humans are less smart than their ancestors. Modern humans simply developed different, more complex forms of intelligence, said Brian Hare, an assistant professor at Duke University, US.

Hare’s studies focus on two types of great ape (黑猩猩): chimpanzees and bonobos. Both are much like humans, but are physically quite different from one another. The bonobo has a smaller brain than the chimpanzee – and is also much less aggressive and more tolerant.

When it comes to working out a problem, Hare says, chimpanzees are much less likely to accomplish it if it involves working together. Not so with bonobos.

“The smaller brain in modern humans may be evidence that we can cooperate,” Hare told the US National Public Radio.

12. The main purpose of article is to ______.

A. explain why human brains have become smaller

B. analyze the effect of living conditions on human brain size

C. inform us about theories about the smaller human brain

D. state what a smaller human brain means to modern humans

13. Some scientists believe the human brain has become smaller because _____.

A. humans no longer need to compete to get food

B. living conditions have changed for the better

C. foods have become complex and tasty

D. population density has decreased

14. According to the article, David Geary ______.

A. considers the smaller human brain to be a sign of lower intelligence

B. mainly studies the social environment between 1.9 million and 10,000 years ago

C. claims human brains may have become smaller in size, but more efficient

D. believes human brain size decreased in a rather short time considering human history

15. From the article, we can conclude ______.

A. the brain size has nothing to do with body size

B. the author is worried about the downsizing of the human brain

C. chimpanzees are smarter than bonobos, which are physically quite different

D. Brian Hare thinks that the decrease in brain size may be a sign of improving ability to cooperate

E

Not a day passes in which a child does not find something or other to make him happy, though he may be in tears the next moment. But a grown man is different. Weeks and months can pass and he will greet each day with nothing more than resignation (听之任之).

A man cannot smile like a child. A child smiles with his eyes whereas a man smiles with his lips alone. It is not a smile but a grin, and is something more to do with humor than happiness. Then there is a point when a man becomes old and smiles again.

It would seem that happiness is something to do with simplicity, and that it is the ability to extract pleasure from the simple things in life.

It is obvious that it has nothing to do with success, for Sir Henry Stewart was certainly successful. It is 20 years since he came down to our village from London, and bought a couple of old cottages, which he had knocked into one. He used his house as a weekend refuge (避难所). He was a barrister (律师).

I remember some ten years ago when he was made a King’s Counsel (法律顾问). Amos and I, seeing him get off the London train, went to congratulate him. We grinned with pleasure. He merely looked miserable as though he’d received a penal sentence (判刑). Not one of his achievements brought even a smile to his tired eyes.

Yesterday I was passing his house when I heard a shout of joy come from the other side of the wall. I peered over. There stood Sir Henry doing nothing less than a dance of sheer (纯粹的) unashamed ecstasy (狂喜). Even when he observed my bewildered face staring over the wall, he did not seem put out or embarrassed, but shouted for me to climb over.

He was holding a small box of earth in his hand. I could see three tiny shoots (嫩芽) coming out of it.

“Three peach stones (核桃),” Sir Henry said. “I’ve always wanted to make peach stones grow, ever since I was a child. And I used to plant them and then forget where I planted them. But now at last I have done it, and, what’s more, I had only three stones, and there you are, one, two, three shoots,” he counted.

Sir Henry ran off, calling for his wife to come and see his achievement of simplicity.

16. What can we conclude from the first two paragraphs?

A. We’d better greet each day with a peaceful mind.

B. Adults tend to be more humorous than children.

C. Children and the old are more likely to enjoy real happiness.

D. The more humorous an adult is, the happier he or she is.

17. Which of the following is TRUE about Sir Henry?

A. He made a living by working as a barrister in the village for 20 years.

B. The achievements he made didn’t actually bring him happiness.

C. He bought some old cottages and turned them into a refuge for the villagers.

D. He considered it an honor to be a King’s Counsel and devoted himself to the work.

18. What does the underlined word “bewildered” mean in Paragraph 6?

A. Confused.

B. Frightened.

C. Delighted.

D. Sympathetic.

19. The writer’s purpose for writing this article is to _______.

A. describe an unusual person he knew about

B. offer some practical advice on how to be happy

C. compare the differences between the happiness of children and adults

D. reveal it is simplicity rather than success that contributes to happiness