Hey, man,
Good to hear from you again. Your e-mail came in just as I was chatting with another friend, Jeff. I wish I had better advice.
You know, after I left the Shenandoah Valley, my next job was in Rocky Mount. The two other sportswriters on staff, Travis and Jeff, were in their mid-20s too. Honestly, we’d come to Rocky Mount to leave Rocky Mount. We complained about our shop and envied the Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer. What resources they had! Writers who covered only one team didn’t have to lay out pages. Talk about living the dream. If we could just get to one of those places! Then we could go somewhere else!
Travis, Jeff, and I bonded over our desire to part ways. We ate dinner together and went out to cover our games and came back to help send the final pages to the printer. On the best nights, we’d grab the news editors and play Wiffle ball, laughing and joking until almost sunrise.
We all left there within a year, as intended. Jeff became one of the most well-known NASCAR writers in the country, with almost 200,000 Twitter followers. Now he’s got his own media company that’s doing quite well. In 2017, Jeff and I went to a Charlotte Knights game, and Jeff said something about Rocky Mount that I won’t forget. “I didn’t appreciate it then, but honestly, when I look back, it’s probably the best time I’ve ever had in my career.”
Maybe success isn’t measured in achievements, or “being happy with who you are”. Goals and personal peace are selfish markers, and I don’t mean to imply selfishness is a bad thing, not at all. Selfishness is the axis of humankind, from cavemen to astronauts to saints on earth. Individual accomplishments bring worldwide accomplishments. But all of the accomplishments may not leave you feeling successful, right?
The point is, maybe success is a smaller calculation, something more like what Jeff hinted at. Maybe success is having the wherewithal (所需的物资) to be grateful at the precise moment you have something to be grateful for.
Thank you for writing, old friend.
Mike
1.When Mike went to the Rocky Mount, ________.
A.he appreciated life there.
B.he lived the dream there.
C.he intended to land a better job elsewhere.
D.he got a job with all resources he longed for there.
2.What did Mike do in Rocky Mount?
A.A printer. B.A reporter.
C.A player. D.An editor.
3.Which of the following is true?
A.Mike believes selfishness is part of human nature.
B.We feel happy when we are calculating small numbers.
C.Mike disagrees with Jeff’s comment on their life in Rocky Mount.
D.Individual accomplishments are unrelated to worldwide accomplishments.
4.Mike is giving advice on ______.
A.what happiness is B.what success is
C.how to achieve more D.how to land a better job
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
The connection between people and plants has long been the subject of scientific research. Recent studies have found positive effects. A study conducted in Youngstown,Ohio,for example, discovered that greener areas of the city experienced less crime. In another,employees were shown to be 15% more productive when their workplaces were decorated with houseplants.
The engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT)have taken it a step further changing the actual composition of plants in order to get them to perform diverse,even unusual functions. These include plants that have sensors printed onto their leaves to show when they’re short of water and a plant that can detect harmful chemicals in groundwater. "We’re thinking about how we can engineer plants to replace functions of the things that we use every day,"explained Michael Strano, a professor of chemical engineering at MIT.
One of his latest projects has been to make plants glow(发光)in experiments using some common vegetables. Strano’s team found that they could create a faint light for three-and-a-half hours. The light,about one-thousandth of the amount needed to read by,is just a start. The technology, Strano said, could one day be used to light the rooms or even to turn trees into self-powered street lamps.
In the future,the team hopes to develop a version of the technology that can be sprayed onto plant leaves in a one-off treatment that would last the plant’s lifetime. The engineers are also trying to develop an on and off"switch"where the glow would fade when exposed to daylight.
Lighting accounts for about 7% of the total electricity consumed in the US. Since lighting is often far removed from the power source(电源)-such as the distance from a power plant to street lamps on a remote highway-a lot of energy is lost during transmission(传输).Glowing plants could reduce this distance and therefore help save energy.
1.What is the first paragraph mainly about?
A.A new study of different plants.
B.A big fall in crime rates.
C.Employees from various workplaces.
D.Benefits from green plants.
2.What is the function of the sensors printed on plant leaves by MIT engineer?
A.To detect plants’ lack of water
B.To change compositions of plants
C.To make the life of plants longer.
D.To test chemicals in plants.
3.What can we expect of the glowing plants in the future?
A.They will speed up energy production.
B.They may transmit electricity to the home.
C.They might help reduce energy consumption.
D.They could take the place of power plants.
4.Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A.Can we grow more glowing plants?
B.How do we live with glowing plants?
C.Could glowing plants replace lamps?
D.How are glowing plants made pollution-free?
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Race walking shares many fitness benefits with running, research shows, while most likely contributing to fewer injuries. It does, however, have its own problem.
Race walkers are conditioned athletes. The longest track and field event at the Summer Olympics is the 50-kilometer race walk, which is about five miles longer than the marathon. But the sport’s rules require that a race walker’s knees stay straight through most of the leg swing and one foot remain in contact (接触) with the ground at all times. It’s this strange form that makes race walking such an attractive activity, however, says Jaclyn Norberg, an assistant professor of exercise science at Salem State University in Salem, Mass.
Like running, race walking is physically demanding, she says, According to most calculations, race walkers moving at a pace of six miles per hour would burn about 800 calories(卡路里) per hour, which is approximately twice as many as they would burn walking, although fewer than running, which would probably burn about 1,000 or more calories per hour.
However, race walking does not pound the body as much as running does, Dr. Norberg says. According to her research, runners hit the ground with as much as four times their body weight per step, while race walkers, who do not leave the ground, create only about 1.4 times their body weight with each step.
As a result, she says, some of the injuries associated with running, such as runner’s knee, are uncommon among race walkers. But the sport’s strange form does place considerable stress on the ankles and hips, so people with a history of such injuries might want to be cautious in adopting the sport. In fact, anyone wishing to try race walking should probably first consult a coach or experienced racer to learn proper technique, she says. It takes some practice.
1.Why are race walkers conditioned athletes?
A.They must run long distances.
B.They are qualified for the marathon.
C.They have to follow special rules.
D.They are good at swinging their legs.
2.What advantage does race walking have over running?
A.It’s more popular at the Olympics.
B.It’s less challenging physically.
C.It’s more effective in body building.
D.It’s less likely to cause knee injuries.
3.What is Dr. Norberg’s suggestion for someone trying race walking?
A.Getting experts’ opinions.
B.Having a medical checkup.
C.Hiring an experienced coach.
D.Doing regular exercises.
4.Which word best describes the author’s attitude to race walking?
A.Skeptical. B.Objective.
C.Tolerant. D.Conservative.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
These days, nobody needs to cook. Families graze on high-cholesterol(胆固醇)take-aways and microwaved ready-meals. Cooking is an occasional hobby and a vehicle for celebrity chefs, which makes it odd that the kitchen has become the heart of the modern house. What the great hall was to the medieval castle, the kitchen is to the 21st - century home.
The money spent on kitchens has risen with their status. In America the kitchen market is now worth $ 170 billion, five times the country's film industry. In the year to August 2007, the Swedish furniture chain IKEA sold over one million kitchens worldwide. The average budget for a "major" kitchen overhaul in 2006, calculates Remodeling magazine, was a staggering $ 54,000, even a "minor" improvement cost on average $ 18,000.
Exclusivity, more familiar in the world of high fashion, has reached the kitchen: Robinson & Cornish, a British manufacturer of custom-made-kitchens, offers a Georgian-style one, which would cost 145,000 to 155,000 pounds -- excluding building, plumbing and electrical work. Its big selling point is that nobody else will have it: "You won't see this kitchen anywhere else in the word."
The elevation of the room that once belonged only to the servants for the modern family tells the story of a century of social change. Right into the early 20th century, kitchens were smoky, noisy places, generally located underground, or to the back of the house, as far from living space as possible. That was as it should be: kitchens were for servants, and the aspiring middle classes wanted nothing to do with them.
But as the working classes prospered and the servant shortage set in, housekeeping became a matter of interest to the educated classes. One of the pioneers of a radical new way of thinking about the kitchen was Catharine Esther Beecher, sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe. In American Human's Home, published in 1869, the Beecher sisters recommended a scientific approach to household management, designed to enhance the efficiency of a woman's work and promote order. Many contemporary ideas about kitchen design can be traced back to another American, Chris Frederick, who set about enhancing the efficiency of the housewife. Her 1919 work, House-Engineering: Scientific Management in the Home, was based on detailed observation of a wife's daily routine. She borrowed the principle of efficiency on the factory floor and applied mystic tasks on the kitchen floor.
Frederick's central idea, that "stove, sink and kitchen table must be placed in such a relation that useless steps are avoided entirely," inspired the first fully fitted kitchen, designed in the 1920s by Mangarete Schutter Libotsky. It was a modernist triumph, and many elements remain central features of today's kitchen.
1.What does the author say about the kitchen of today?
A.It is where housewives display their cooking skills.
B.It is where the family entertains important guests.
C.It has become something odd a modern house.
D.It is regarded as the center of a modern home.
2.Why does the Georgian-style kitchen sell at a very high price?
A.It is believed to have tremendous artistic value.
B.There will be no kitchen exactly the same anywhere.
C.It is manufactured by a famous British company.
D.No other manufacturer can produce anything like it.
3.What was the Beecher sisters' idea of a kitchen?
A.A place where women could work more efficiently.
B.A place where high technology could be applied.
C.A place of interest to the educated people.
D.A place to experiment with new ideas.
4.What do we learn about today's kitchen?
A.It represents the rapid technological advance in people's daily life.
B.Many of its central features are no different from those of the 1920s.
C.It has been transformed beyond recognition.
D.Many of its functions have changed greatly.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Choosing a name for a child is often a headache for parents, but new research shows that picking well could be more crucial than previously thought.
Academics have found that your first name actually changes the way you look. For example, someone called ‘Bob’ is expected by society to have a rounder and happier face than a man called ‘Tim’. That expectation eventually leads ‘Bobs’ to become more social, while ‘Tims’ may appear thinner and reserved. The connection may be linked to the “bouba-kiki” effect which suggests that across languages, rounder and smoother objects are labelled with rounded ‘bouba’ sounds, while thinner pointed objects have ‘kik’ sounds. Likewise ‘Winstons’ are believed to be feeling blue, while ‘Marys’ are considered to be moral, both traits which may change appearance, and over time, change face shape. And a woman named ‘Katherine’ is considered to be more serious and dependable than a girl named ‘Bonnie’. Such cultural expectations may encourage ‘Katherines’ to be more studious and academic, which could gradually influence the development of facial muscles, perhaps through increased concentration.
“Prior researches have shown there are cultural stereotypes attached to names, including how someone should look,” said lead author Dr Yonat Zwebner, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. “For instance, people are more likely to imagine a person named Bob to have a rounder face than a person named Tim. We believe these stereotypes can, over time, affect people’s facial appearance.”
To find out if face shape was linked to name, researchers conducted eight studies to see whether it was possible for strangers to correctly identify the names of people simply by looking at their faces. In every experiment, the participants were significantly better (up to 40 percent accurate) at matching the name to the face than random chance (20-25 percent accurate) even when nationality, age and other socioeconomic variables were controlled for. “Together, these findings suggest that facial appearance represents social expectations of how a person with a particular name should look. In this way, a social tag may influence one’s facial appearance,” said co-author Dr Ruth Mayo.
1.What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
A.How your name sounds simply counts.
B.Your name may tell how you look.
C.Social expectations determine your name.
D.It’s important to concentrate on facial muscles.
2.What can we learn from the eight studies?
A.Most of the participants match the name with the face correctly.
B.The findings are contradictory to those of the previous research.
C.They are based on the data from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
D.The findings are similar to those of the previous research.
3.According to Dr Ruth Mayo, one’s facial appearance is basically affected by ___________.
A.social expectations B.the experience of their life
C.their parents’ preference D.the meaning of their names
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Anecdotal evidence has long held that creativity in artists and writers can be associated with living in foreign parts. Rudyard Kipling, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Hemingway, Paul Gauguin, Samuel Beckett and others spent years living abroad. Now a pair of psychologist has proven that there is indeed a link.
As they report in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, William Maddux of INSEAD, a business school in Fontainebleau, France, and Adam Galinsky, of the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, presented 155 American business students and 55 foreign ones studying in America with a test used by psychologists as a measure of creativity Given a candle, some matches and a box of drawing pins, the students were asked to attach the candle to a cardboard wall so that no wax would drip on the floor when the candle was lit. (The solution is to use the box as a candleholder and fix it to the wall with the pin.) They found 60% of the students who were either living abroad or had spent some time doing so, solved the problem, whereas only 42% of those who had not lived abroad did so.
A follow-up study with 72 Americans and 36 foreigners explored their creative negotiating skills. Pairs of students were asked to play the role of seller of a petrol station who then needed to get a job and a buyer who would need to hire staff to run the business. The two were likely to reach a deadlock because the buyer had been told he could not afford what the seller was told was his minimum price. Nevertheless, when both negotiators had lived abroad 70 % struck a deal in which the seller was offered a management job at the petrol station in return for a lower asking price. When neither of the negotiators had lived abroad, none was able to reach a deal.
Merely travelling abroad, however, was not enough. You do have to live there. Packing your beach towel and suntan lotion will not, by itself make you Hemingway.
1.What is the purpose of mentioning the famous names in the opening paragraph?
A. To show the relationship between creativity and living abroad.
B. To indicate the link between artistic creation and life experience.
C. To emphasize how great these artists are.
D. To impress the importance of creativity.
2.What can be inferred from the text?
A. William Maddux and Adam Galinsky have carefully designed the test.
B. Negotiators who had lived abroad are more flexible in negotiating.
C. American business students are less creative than those oversea students.
D. One's creativity is associated with the length one has spent abroad.
3.What does the author mean in the last sentence of paragraph 4?
A. There exist sharp differences between travelling and living abroad.
B. You shouldn't lie on the beach when travelling.
C. Only real experience of living abroad can help drive creativity.
D. Living abroad is more meaningful than just travelling abroad.
4.Where is the text most likely from?
A. A diary. B. A magazine.
C. A novel. D. A guidebook.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Everyone loves a holiday! A little time off for some much-needed R & R (rest and relaxation) can be exactly the thing to refresh. That said, if you’re struggling to think of your next destination, then look no further. Don’t waste time debating, let your blood decide.
Everybody has a lineage (宗系). Recently, finding out more about our family origins has become popular. By the start of 2019, 26 million people had taken an ancestry DNA test at home, according to a report by MIT Technology Review. They believe by 2021 this number will have risen to 100 million.
This trend has been noticed by opportunistic travel operators. Some are looking to provide a service that both allows people to trace their heritage-by literally going back to their roots-and travel to the destinations where their ancestors originated from.
Airbnb, an online lodging marketplace, recently partnered with 23andMe, a DNA testing and analysis company, to offer recommendations that encourage travelers to walk in the footsteps of their forefathers. And they aren’t the only ones. The Shelbourne hotel in Dublin has its own advisor. Hellen Kelly offers consultations to help guests trace their Irish origin using official records. This allows them to ‘fill in the blanks of their Irish ancestry’, she told Good Morning America. The Conte Club, a luxury travel company, offers custom travels based on DNA tests. “These experiences are about exploring deeper into who we really are,” says Conte Club CEO Rebecca Fielding in an article in the Condé Nast Traveller. “It might be the most meaningful trip we can take.”
So next time you think of going on vacation, why not take a DNA test first? Once you know how far your family has come, take the time to holiday back.
1.What’s the purpose of the author to write the text?
A.To advise people to take a trip.
B.To persuade people to take a DNA test.
C.To introduce some famous travel operators.
D.To encourage people to take ancestry travels.
2.What does the underlined words “this trend” in paragraph 3 refer to?
A.More people take time off for holidays.
B.More people trace their family origins.
C.More people take an ancestry DNA test.
D.More people find out their travel destinations.
3.What does paragraph 4 mainly focus on?
A.Clubs providing luxury custom travels.
B.Hotels offering travelling consultations.
C.Companies offering DNA testing and analysis.
D.Travel operators providing services to trace the roots.
4.What does Rebecca Fielding think of the ancestry travel?
A.Significant. B.Relaxing. C.Popular. D.Inspiring.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
It is 4:45 am in Samasati village in north-western Zambia and the Chimwanga family, champion beekeepers of the village, are already on their way to collect honey from one of their many hives(蜂房). Samasati has been famous for beekeeping but it is only in the last ten years that the business has begun to make a difference to the lives of the producers, since they began to trade through an organization guaranteeing them a fair price for their crop.
Samasati is a beautiful place, where nature provides and pollution is non-existent. Here, 61 miles from the nearest telephone or source of electricity, the 322 inhabitants support themselves from the forest and rivers and the only income available to the villagers is from selling their honey.
It is a half-hour walk from the Chimwangas’ house to the hive. On reaching the site, the Chimwangas tear off low, leaf-covered branches from nearby trees. They place these in a pile on the ground as a bundle(捆)and put some dry plants in the middle. A match then sets the plants alight and thick smoke is produced as the fire spreads from the dry plants to the green leaves.
Mr. Chimwanga climbs quickly up the tree trunk and moves carefully along a branch towards the hanging hive, carrying the smoking bundle with him. When he reaches the hive, he waves smoke into the entrance to calm the bees. The bees circle his head continuously. Unafraid, he pulls up a bucket and fills it with the precious delicious honey, fragrant but not too sweet ‒ the result of hundreds of wild flowers the bees have enjoyed in the forest.
This honey is sold straight to the exporting company, North West Bee Products, through Bon Malichi. He is the vital middleman for the beekeepers. Bob believes the honey is Zambia’s future. “Our honey is produced without adding anything.” he says. The honey is transported to Dares Salaam, in neighbouring country Tanzania, for export. Within a month of a Zambian beekeeper climbing to his hive, his honey can be spread on bread anywhere in the world.
1.What are the Chimwanga family going out so early to do?
A.Look for bees.
B.Get honey in the forest.
C.Make honey for trading.
D.Sell their honey crop.
2.Mr. Chimwanga lit dry plants in order to ________.
A.get light and see the hives clearly
B.scare away the bees by thick smoke
C.produce smoke to protect him from the bees
D.keep warm by the burning plants
3.Why does Bob believe the honey is Zambia’s future?
A.It is popular for its superior quality.
B.It has a large quantity of production.
C.He can guarantee a fair price for it.
D.He can help export it to neighboring countries.
4.What can we learn about Samasati from the text?
A.It enjoys beautiful nature and less pollution.
B.It has an abundant supply of electricity.
C.It is well known for processing honey.
D.It is a small, poor and backward village.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
We knew Sylvia and Jack had problems with their flats, but we hadn’t been told the details. Not until they came for a weekend in October, that is.
At dinner on the Friday evening Kitty said, “You wrote that the flat wasn’t quite what you expected. Of course it could be too small. You’re sharing with another couple, aren’t you?”
“Were sharing, Mother,” Slyvia replied.
“It really wasn’t necessary,” Jack explained proudly, “I’ve had a big rise, and we can easily manage. It’s much better to be independent.”
“Oh, much,” I agreed.
“What was the trouble?” Kitty asked, impatient and unwilling to let her go.
“Nothing much,” Sylvia said, “The flat is fine. It was the other couple, Sally and Tom Ford. You’ve never seen such an untidy pair. We shared the sitting room and the kitchen and the bathroom anfd got fed up with the mess of it all.”
“And what made it worse,” Jack put in, “was that they accused us of the same sort of thing. Tom and I nearly came to blows when he locked up some of their wedding presents we were all using, as they used ours, naturally.”
“You take a chance when you make a sharing arrangement.” Kitty said.
“I am in my own flat,” Sylvia said, “Sally and Tom left a month ago.”
“We could have left instead,” Jack said, “But why we should leave? After all, the flat was in our names, not theirs. We were glad to see the back of them.”
Two weeks later Kitty and I returned their visit for lunch on Sunday. It was the first time we had been to their flat. To say that we were shocked is not true, because we know our daughter extremely well. The flat had fairly recently been in quite good condition; it was now a chaos. I did not know how anyone could possibly live there. But Sylvia noticed nothing.
1.Who was Kitty?
A.The owner of the flat.
B.Jack’s mother in law.
C.Sylvia’s mother in law.
D.The author’s good friend.
2.Sylvia’s response to Kitty shows that ________.
A.she was not getting along well with the other couple
B.she was really expecting to live in her own flat
C.she felt tired of cleaning and tidying up their rooms
D.she managed to drive Sally and Tom out of the flat
3.What did Kitty mean by saying “You take a chance … sharing arrangement.”?
A.Sylvia and Jack would take steps to deal with the problems.
B.Syliva and Jack were lucky to learn to share with others.
C.Sylvia and Jack might have problems when living with others.
D.Sylvia and Jack loved to manage their own affairs.
4.From the passage we can learn that ________.
A.Sylvia and Jack were spoiled by their parents
B.Sylvia and Jack were a pair of great ability
C.Sylvia and Jack had fights with Sally and Tom
D.Sylvia and Jack were in fact an untidy pair
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
Archeology (考古学)isn't the dusty science it was a generation ago. New technologies that once seemed out of sci-fi are now locating buried traces of buildings and revealing the ruins of cities.
For more than a decade, Sarah Parcak and her team have been on the front line of this revolution. They use satellite images to find and explore ancient sites around the globe. Now they're about to take on a new challenge as they focus Global Xplorer citizen-science project on India.
In 2017, Parcak launched an online platform, called Global Xplorer, to crowd source (群众外包)the initial assessment of satellite images for signs of cultures from long ago. Anyone in the world with a computer and Internet access could help discover and protect remains of Peru's rich cultural heritage. The results have been surprising. About 80,000 participants from a hundred countries have identified 19,000 sites that were not in Peru's database. The platform for Peru is still running.
If all goes well, the work in India could last for years. "India has had relatively little archaeological work done," Parcak says. Also, the full extent of India's archaeological work has never been mapped completely. Parcak expects her project to make up that. “Wherever we end up going, the crowd's going to be able to see extraordinary things," Parcak says.
Thirty six India's cultural heritage relics are already listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Parcak thinks there could be tens of thousands of as yet unknown sites mapped as part of this project. The discoveries promise to be amazing across the land that has seen a parade of cultures come and go.
In the future, she hopes other countries will contact her to launch their own satellite surveys. The possibilities are huge. Parcak estimates that there are at least 12 million potential archaeological sites yet to be discovered. That means the sky is the limit for her project now that it has gotten off the ground successfully.
1.What's the purpose of Parcak's project?
A.To interview citizens via the Internet.
B.To dig out more remains of ancient cities.
C.To build databases for unknown cultural heritage.
D.To identify unknown ancient sites through joint efforts.
2.What do we know about the participants in Peru project?
A.They are Internet-equipped volunteers.
B.They are well-trained voluntary scholars.
C.They are mostly fans of archeology in Peru.
D.They are all archaeologists all over the world.
3.Why is Parcak's project important to India?
A.India lacks thorough archaeological work.
B.Indians call for the protection of their rich cultures.
C.There's no amazing archaeological discovery in India.
D.India needs more relics listed as World Heritage Sites.
4.What does the underlined sentence "The possibilities are huge. " in Paragraph 6 mean?
A.Parcak's project will become successful.
B.Few countries will start satellite surveys.
C.There will be amazing discoveries in India.
D.More archaeological sites will be identified.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析