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What would you do if you had invited friends to your house and they asked you for directions? Well, you could draw a map! And, if you did, you most likely would include your street and theirs, as well as the landmarks between the two. Using these places on the map as markers, your friends can then plan the best route to take.
Generally speaking, a map is an illustration of the earth’s surface, and a person who draws maps is called a cartographer. But how are maps made? In prehistoric times, hunters would sometimes draw their hunting territories on cave walls. In the millennia that followed, maps would have been painted by hand on various materials, including clay, ivory, and even the hide of an animal.
Fast forward to modern times. With the invention of such tools as compasses, telescopes, and sextants, cartographers were able to define and show distances much more accurately. Today, aerial photography, satellite images, and computer software such as Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have made mapmaking even more precise. For example, mapmakers are now able to illustrate the physical features of our earth. Using satellite images, they can create three-dimensional maps that exceptionally correct.
Do all maps show the same contents? No! There are many different types of maps. Physical maps give us views of the earth’s continents, mountains, forests, and waterways. Political maps identify countries and their boundaries. Economic maps offer information about the agricultural products or minerals found in a certain region. There are also maps that detail the climate or the population density in a particular location.
Of course, there are maps that offer details other than those connected with land masses. Nautical maps, for instance, are important tools for ship captains. They include information about the depth of the water, land formations along the coastline, navigational dangers, harbors, and bridges. They also provide data on tides and currents, as well as the earth’s magnetic field. Aeronautical maps help airplane pilots to determine position and altitude, and assist ground controllers in airport towers with planning and deciding the best route to a particular destination. In emergency situations, aeronautical maps can help responders locate an alternative landing area.
Today, people who have no special map training can observe the world from above without having to leave their homes. Most likely, you have used software such as Google Earth or Google Maps. Thanks to satellite images, we can now easily spot the smallest details of our house and environment by using the Internet. Not everyone, however, is fond of these tools, because their easy access may lead to violations of privacy. Lawmakers around the world are presently addressing this issue.
1.The author mentions inviting friends to your house at the beginning to indicate that ___ .
A.details in maps matter more than land masses
B.maps have a significant place in our life
C.planning routes is the key to reaching destinations
D.it is necessary to get satellite images accurately
2.Which of the following maps mainly focus on details?
A.Aeronautical maps. B.Political maps.
C.Climatic maps. D.Economic maps.
3.What is the main purpose of the passage?
A.To underline the importance of drawing maps.
B.To compare prehistoric maps and modern maps.
C.To appeal to address the issue of violations of privacy.
D.To introduce the development and functions of maps.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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I came home one day recently and, for reasons I don’t quite understand, my living room smelled like my grandmother’s house. Suddenly I felt as if I were 12 years old, happy and relaxed, sitting in her kitchen. I can remember what her house looked like, though it was sold 20 years ago – her three-level plant stand, the plates lining the walls, the window over her sink – but these visual memories don’t have the power that smell does. The funny thing is, I can’t even begin to describe the odor(气味) that was so distinctively hers. The best I can do is this: “It smelled like my grandmother’s house.”
It’s a common experience, and a common linguistic( 语言学的) problem. In cultures worldwide, people have powerful olfactory memories. This odor-memory link is also called “the Proust phenomenon,” after Marcel Proust’s famous description of the feelings aroused by a cake dipped in tea in “Remembrance of Things Past.”
Olfactory memories seem to be more closely bound up with emotions than are visual or auditory ones.
Not all these memories are pleasant, of course, and smells can also trigger feelings of pain.
It is surprisingly hard for English-speakers to describe the odors that occasion such strong emotions, however. English possesses almost no abstract smell words that pick out links or themes among unrelated aromas(芳香).
We have plenty of these in the visual field. “Yellow,” for example, identifies a characteristic that bananas, lemons, some cars, some flowers, old book pages, and the sun all share.
But for odors, we don’t have many more than the vague “musty” (smells old and stale) and “musky” (smells perfumey). We usually have no choice but to say that one thing smells like another – like a banana, like garlic, like diesel fuel.
A few languages, though, do have a rich odor vocabulary. Linguist Asifa Majid has found that the Jahai, the Semaq Beri, and the Maniq, hunter-gatherer groups in Malaysia and Thailand, employ a wide range of abstract smell words and can identify aromas as easily as we can colors. The Jahai have a word, for example, that describes “the seemingly dissimilar smell of petrol, smoke, bat poop, root of wild ginger and wood of wild mango.”
Last year my cat got sprayed by a skunk(臭鼬), and the vet told me to wash its face with coffee to cover the bad smell. Until then, I had never realized that coffee, which I find delicious, smells remarkably like skunk spray, which I do not.
Science has identified the chemicals that both share. They are called mercaptans (硫醇). But in oral English, we have no word for the underlying note that connects these two odors. If the Jahai drank coffee and encountered skunks, I bet they would.
1.The opening paragraph is mainly intended to .
A.express the writer’s affection for his grandmother
B.direct the readers’ attention to a linguistic problem
C.tell us the odor of the grandmother’s house stayed the same
D.prove smell has a greater power than visual memories
2.Which of the following is related to olfactory memories?
A.Forming an image in mind after seeing the word “injury”.
B.Feeling sympathetic when seeing a sick cat.
C.Dancing to the music upon hearing it played.
D.Missing fried eggs with garlic cooked by mum.
3.The example of the Jahai suggests that .
A.the Jahai don’t have many words in the visual field
B.English possesses many vague words like “musty” and “musky”
C.the Jahai has more abstract smell words than English
D.skunk and coffee have the same smell, but different functions
4.What can we learn from the passage?
A.The author feels pity about the limitation of his language.
B.English has a wide range of visual and odor vocabulary.
C.Olfactory memories can bring nothing but pleasant feelings.
D.Cultures worldwide always collide with each other.
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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A few weeks ago, a 71-year-old man pulled his car to the roadside in Northwest Portland and stopped. He rolled down the window, turned off the engine and stared at a house.
The place, distinguished by three gables, is partially hidden by hedges and trees. Most people who pass by would never notice it. And if they did give it a glance, they’d probably think it’s a nice house in a nice neighborhood. Nothing more.
The house, in the 2500 block of Northwest Westover Road, is known as the Bessie & Louis Tarpley House. Built in 1907, it’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The current owner is Barbee Lyon, 79.
He and his first wife took possession in 1975. When they divorced, he bought out her share.
A retired lawyer, Lyon learned Louis Tarpley, the home’s first owner, had also been a Portland lawyer. Setbacks in Tarpley’s life led to the house auction(拍卖) in the late 1920s.
“I’m only the fifth owner of the home,” Lyon said. A previous owner was Frank Masco.
He and his wife, Esther, and their nine children had lived across town in a tiny house needing constant repairs. In the mid-1950s, the elder Masco wanted to move to a bigger house and one closer to work. A docker ( 码 头 工 人 ), he was on-call 24 hours a day and had to quickly get to the Willamette River docks.
He found a home on Westover Road. At the time, many people wanted to live in new construction in the suburbs. The Westover house was offered at a deep discount.
And later the family moved on several times, finally living in Vancouver.
One Sunday in July 2019, Charley Masco drove to Portland for an appointment at a computer store.
When it ended, he traveled the familiar route to Westover Road, pulled over and looked at that home.
He decided to do something bold. He got out of his car and walked up the steps and rang the doorbell. He waited. No response. Nervous, he thought it was a mistake to do this and considered turning around and walking back to his car.
Barbee Lyon opened the door and saw a stranger.
“I’m not selling anything,” Masco said quickly. “I just want you to know I once lived here.” Lyon opened the door wide.
“Come in.”
And for the first time since 1966, Masco stepped into his childhood home.
Every room looked as Masco had remembered it: The built-in china hutch in the dining room, the hanging lights above the table and, in the kitchen, a massive wood-burning stove where his mother used to cook family meals. It was as if he had walked into his own museum.
Lyon told Masco he’d never done major structural remodeling, which meant Masco knew his way around the home.
It was as if he had never left.
There, on the top floor, was the window he and his siblings quietly opened to sneak out at night and return before their parents knew they were gone. The loft where friends daydreamed about the future. The living room – no TV ever allowed – where the family gathered to share music, play cards or just talk with each other.
Then they all walked to the basement.
In the far corner, Masco saw his father’s old wooden workbench. And above it, baby food jars.
Masco had forgotten about them.
He explained that his father had nailed lids from the jars to a rafter, filling the glass with different size screws, nuts and bolts, and then screwing the jars back into the lids to give him easy access while working.
Masco thought about his father, his mother and three of his siblings who have died. He thought about his father, tinkering in the basement, while his mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner.
He thought about the 71-year-old man he was and the boy he had once been.
Kruse, Lyon’s wife, reached up and unscrewed a jar. She handed it to Masco, believing it belonged to this stranger.
Masco thanked her.
He clutched the small bottle to his chest. “My dad,” he said quietly. “This is my dad.”
1.Why did Charley Masco come to visit the Westover house?
A.He wanted to review his past and hold memories.
B.He attempted to buy back his childhood house.
C.His friend invited him to be a guest at his newly-bought house.
D.He came to the house where his father lived to seek roots.
2.What made Frank Masco decide to buy the house?
A.The house’s owner had been a Portland lawyer.
B.The house was auctioned at a very low price.
C.He desired to improve his family’s living conditions.
D.The house was equipped with a basement.
3.What do we know about Barbee Lyon?
A.He bought the house from Louis Tarpley.
B.He took possession of the house at about 35.
C.He lived in the house with his first wife Kruse.
D.He disliked being disturbed by strangers.
4.Why did Charley Masco feel nervous when he rang the doorbell?
A.He knew the house owner was a bad-tempered man.
B.He thought it was improper to pay an unexpected visit.
C.He might not hold back his feelings when he went in.
D.He feared the house owner would take him for a salesman.
5.After Masco entered the house, he found that _.
A.every room was not as he had remembered it
B.the house had experienced great structural changes
C.the childhood home was where his heart was
D.he couldn’t recall anything about baby food jars
6.What can be a suitable title for the passage?
A.Collision of Two Hearts B.Experiences of Two Families
C.An Unexpected Meeting D.The Harbour of the Heart
难度: 困难查看答案及解析
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1.The purpose of making an anemometer in this way is to __.
A.measure the unknown speed of winds on a certain day
B.develop the producer’s creative thinking
C.know better about the working principle of an anemometer
D.develop the practical ability to make handcrafts
2.Which of the following is true according to the instruction above?
A.An anemometer made in this way can only measure gentle winds.
B.The wind speed put next to the mark can be obtained from local media.
C.The end of the strip is taped into a loop to add support to the paper strip.
D.The cardboard and paper strip are used for measuring gusts and slow winds separately.
难度: 中等查看答案及解析
