Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill ...

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given behind. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Living off grid

When you need electricity, you just plug in the machine and switch it on. If you need water, you turn on the tap. 1. For many people, these facilities are the basics of civilized society and the idea of living without them seems risky. Yet for a growing number of people, the idea of living off grid — without electricity, water or sewage — is an increasingly attractive lifestyle.

Off-gridders do not have to give up electricity or a modern lifestyle — some choose to, but most use small hydroelectric power systems, solar panels or windmills to generate enough power for their needs. Heating and cooking needs are met by solar energy or wood burning systems, and toilet facilities range from non-water toilets to outside compost toilets. 2. It ranges from traditional yurts (a type of tent) to luxury house with high-speed internet and central heating. Whether they live in simple homes or luxury houses, what they all have in common is that their lifestyles do not create any pollution or carbon emissions — the ultimate goal for off-gridders.

Around 100,000 people are thought to be living off grid in the UK now. 3. They grow their own food, home-school their children and provide their own medical care. They are people who have been priced out of the housing market or who have grown disillusioned with what modern society can offer and who decides that an alternative lifestyle isn’t a pipe dream, but a viable option.

A part from living an alternative lifestyle, cost is a big factor in choosing to live off-grid. Off-grid houses are far cheaper to build than ordinary homes since they don’t need to be connected to the electricity or water supplies and even road access is not necessary. Materials tend to be cheaper, too. Popular options include straw or old tyres and cement.

Surprisingly, the biggest problem off-gridders face is not building their homes or becoming self-sufficient but getting permission to build. Rural areas away from town are the perfect choice but these are often protected by law from construction of any kind or have building restrictions. There are now several websites dedicated to land-sharing so that the costs of buying land and getting permission can be shared, and there are increasing numbers of off-grid communities. 4. Off-gridding could soon be common all over Europe and America.

A.Many are self-sufficient, not just providing their own electricity, water and sewage systems, but in all aspects.

B.After you use the toilet, you flush it and the waste disappears.

C.This shift from individual to group off-gridding reflects the fact that the trend is growing noticeably.

D.They live in a huge variety of types of accommodation.

E.Living off-grid still has a long way to go before it becomes a mainstream way of living.

F.Rather than building permanent homes, vans or mobile homes or even old shipping containers are other options.

高三英语六选四中等难度题查看答案及解析

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Is Multitasking Always Good?

Not only do smart-phones provide unrestricted access to information, they provide perfect opportunities to multitask. Any activity can be accompanied by music, selfies or social media updates. Of course, some people pick poor times to tweet or text, and lawmakers have steeped in. 1. In Honolulu, it’s illegal to text or even look at your phone while crossing the street, and in the Netherlands they’ve banned texting while biking.

2. You need to self-regulate. Understanding how the brain multitasks and why we find multitasking so appealing will help you realize the danger or pulling out your phone.

Multitasking feels like doing two things at the same time, so it seems the danger lies in asking one mental process to do two unrelated things -- for texting drivers, watching the screen and the road.

Twenty states have instituted bans on driving using a hand - held phone while still allowing hands - free calls. Yet hands - free or hand - held makes no difference. 3. The real problem is the switch of attention between the conversation and road, and that affects performance.

Please sense this, and when on the phone they drive slower and increase their following distance, but they are far too confident that these measures reduce risks. This overconfidence extends to other activities. A 2015 survey showed that a majority of students who use social media, text or watch TV while studying think that they can still comprehend the material they’re studying.

People multitask merely because they see no harm in it; they see benefits.　 4. Most people will still choose to multitask. But they should, at the very least , be fully aware of how that choice affects them and the potential consequences for themselves and others. They need to pay attention to how much -- or how little -- they are paying attention.

A. But legislation（法律）won’t ban all situations in which multitasking is unwise.

B. They multitask for efficiency, to fight boredom or to keep up with social media.

C. Forty - eight states have banned texting while driving.

D. However, texting while biking seems so undemanding as to be harmless.

E. They damage driving equivalently as far as external dangers go.

F. Instead of multitasking, they take more rest breaks and get a social media fix during a break.

高三英语六选四困难题查看答案及解析

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

How Colleges Can Measure Up in Teaching “Critical Thinking”

After becoming president of Purdue University in 2013, Mitch Daniels asked the teaching staff to prove that their students have actually achieved one of higher education’s most important goals: critical thinking skills. 1. Mr. Daniels needed to justify the high cost of attending Purdue to its students and their families. After all, the percentage of Americans who say a college degree is “very important” has fallen dramatically in the last 5-6 years.

Purdue now has a pilot test to assess students’ critical thinking skills. 2. However, they need not worry so much. The results of a recent experiment showed that professors could use standard grading scale to measure how well students did in three key areas: critical thinking, written communication and language literacy.

3. The organizers of the experiment concluded that far fewer students were achieving at high levels on critical thinking than they were doing for written communication or language literacy. And that conclusion is based only on students nearing graduation.

American universities, despite their global reputation for excellence in teaching, have only begun to demonstrate what they can produce in real-world learning. Knowledge-based degrees are still important, but employers are demanding advanced thinking skills from college graduates. 4.

A. If the intellectual worth of a college degree can be accurately measured, more people will seek higher education―and come out better thinkers.

B. Two years before, a nationwide study of college graduates had shown that more than a third had made no significant gains in such mental abilities during their school years.

C. Despite the success of the experiment, the actual results are frustrating, and mostly confirm earlier studies.

D. Many can’t reason clearly or perform competently in analyzing complex, non-technical problems.

E. Yet like many college teachers in the U.S., the professors remain doubtful that their work as educators can be measured by a “learning outcome” such as a graduate’s ability to investigate and reason.

F. It is important to identify the common goals of general higher education and translate them into the design of the learning outcomes assessment.

高三英语六选四困难题查看答案及解析

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Slower Walkers Have Slower Minds, Scientists Reveal

Of all human activities, few are so readily credited with enhancing the power of the mind as going for a good walk. However, those who assume that strolling along at a gentle pace is the symbol of superior intellect should think again, scientists have said. 1.

Doctors have long used walking speed to gain a quick and reliable understanding of older peopled mental capability, as it is increasingly recognized that pace is associated with not only muscular strength but also the central nervous system. 2. The relationship was so obvious, however, that the US scientists now say walking tests could be used to provide an early indication of dementia（痴呆）.

Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study revealed an average difference of 16 IQ points between the slowest and the fastest walkers at the age of 45, This reflected both the participants’ natural walking speed and the pace they achieved when asked lo walk as fast as they could. 3. Actually, slower walkers were shown to have “speeded aging'' on a 19-measure scale devised by researchers, and their lungs, teeth and immune systems tended to be in worse shape than the people who walked faster.

The 904 New Zealand men and women who were tested at 45 were tracked from the age of three, each undergoing multiple tests over the years. The long-term data collection enabled researchers to establish that kids with lower IQ scores, lower linguistic ability and weaker emotional control tended to have slower walking speeds by middle age. 4.

The research team said genetic factors may explain the link between walking speed, brain capacity and physical health or that better brain health might promote physical activity, leading to better walking speed. Some of the differences in health and intellect may be the result of lifestyle choices individuals have made.

A. Those with a slower pace also scored less well in physical exercises such as hand-grip strength and biological markers of good health.

B. There are already signs in early life of who would become the slowest walkers.

C. In fact, based on a new series of experiments, they now believe the slower a person’s tendency to walk，the less able their brain.

D. Brain scanning during their final assessment at 45 showed the slower walkers tended to have lower total brain volume and less brain surface area.

E. Until now, however, no one knew it could signify underlying brain health so much earlier in life.

F. Researchers performed walking speed analysis on hundreds of middle-aged people, comparing their psychological results.

高三英语六选四困难题查看答案及解析

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

True intelligence

Taking charge of yourself involves putting to rest some very prevalent myths. At the top of the list is the notion that intelligence is measured by your ability to solve complex problems, to read, write and compute at certain levels, and to resolve abstract equations quickly. 1.It encourages a kind of intellectual prejudice that has brought with it some discouraging results. We have come to believe that someone who has more educational merit badges, who is very good at some form of school discipline is "intelligent". Yet mental hospitals are filled with patients who have all of the properly lettered certificates. A truer indicator of intelligence is an effective, happy life lived each day and each present moment of every day. 2.

Problem solving is a useful help to your happiness, but if you know that given your inability to resolve a particular concern you can still choose happiness for yourself, or at a minimum refuse to choose unhappiness, then you are intelligent. You are intelligent because you have the ultimate weapon against the big N. B.D. --Nervous Break Down.

"Intelligent" people do not have N. B. D. because they are in charge of themselves. 3.

You can begin to think of yourself as truly intelligent on the basis of how you choose to feel in the face of trying circumstances. The life struggles are pretty much the same for each of us. Everyone who is involved with other human beings in any social context has similar difficulties. Disagreements, conflicts and compromises are a part of what it means to be human. 4.But some people are able to make it, to avoid immobilizing depression and unhappiness despite such occurrences, while others collapse or have an N, B. D. Those who recognize problems as a human condition and don't measure happiness by an absence of problems are the most intelligent kind of humans we know; also, the most rare.

A. Holding a university degree indicates one’s ability to write properly worded documents.

B. If you are happy, if you live each moment for everything it’s worth, then you are an intelligent person.

C. N.B.D refers to an illness that causes a person to suffer from anxiety and to have difficulty living and working as usual.

D. Similarly, money, growing old, sickness, deaths, natural disasters and accidents are all events which present problems to virtually all human beings.

E. They know how to choose happiness over depression, because they know how to deal with the problems of their lives.

F. This vision of intelligence asserts formal education and bookish excellence as the true measures of self-fulfillment.

高三英语六选四中等难度题查看答案及解析

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Each of us has a time of the day when we’re at our best. For some, it’s the morning, and for others, the afternoon or evening. These times relate to what scientists call our circadian clock (生物钟). 1.

The research is the work of two authors, Aaron Schirmer and Benjamin Smarr. The pair used data from a university computer system to study the rhythms and activities of 15,000 students at Northeastern Illinois University between 2014 and 2016. They studied the data to see if there was a connection between the students’ schedules, their natural circadian clocks and their school performance.

2. But if students’ clock doesn’t agree with the rest of their lives, their performance was likely to suffer.

According to the study, those students who suffered from a mismatch underwent a kind of “social jet lag（时差）”. For example, some students performed best at night and therefore chose to study in the evening. But if those students had an early morning class, they often felt tired from late night studying and didn’t get the most out of the class. They might then go on to get a lower grade for exams and coursework. 3.

The authors say mismatches between a student’s schedule and circadian clock can have a harmful effect, and not just in terms of academic performance. Social jet lag can also be bad for students’ health.

The authors don’t claim their study proves anything, but they do say that it provides food for thought for school administrators, who might like to think about special ways to help students who suffer on account of their schedules. 4.

A.In addition, the findings alerted parents to their children’s sleeping patterns.

B.The study found that the closer a student’s schedule and their circadian clock, the better their grades were.

C.All students in the study suffered some degree of social jet lag, but late-night studiers suffered the most.

D.The clock genes create circadian rhythms in the body, which help control the timing of a variety of biological changes.

E.The findings could also help everyone to be aware, and hopefully take advantage, of their own biological rhythms to lead a healthy life.

F.Now, a new study suggests that the relationship between students’ circadian clocks and their study schedules can have a big effect on their grades.

高三英语六选四中等难度题查看答案及解析

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Einstein's Opinions on Creative Thinking

“The greatest scientists are artists as well,” said Albert Einstein, one of the greatest physicists and an amateur pianist and violinist.

For Einstein, insight did not come from logic or mathematics. 1. As he told one friend, “When I examine myself and my methods of thought. I find that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than any talent for absorbing absolute knowledge. All great achievements of science must start from intuitive knowledge. Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

But how did art differ from science for Einstein? Surprisingly, it wasn't the content of an idea, or its subject, that determined whether something was art or science, but how the idea was expressed. If what is seen and experienced is described in the language of logic, then it is science. If it is communicated and recognized intuitively, then it is art. 2. That's why he said that great scientists were also artists. Einstein first described his intuitive thought processes at a physics conference in Kyoto in 1922 when he indicated that he used images and feelings to solve his problems and found words, logical symbols or mathematical equations later.

3. “If I were not a physicist,” he once said, “I would probably be a musician. I often think in music and I see my life in terms of music. I get most joy in life out of music. Whenever I feel that I have come to the end of the road or into a difficult situation in my work. I would bury myself in music, and that would usually solve all my difficulties.”

Music provided Einstein with a connection between time and space which both combine spatial and structural aspects. “The theory of relativity occurred to me my intuition and music is the driving force behind this intuition”, said Einstein. “My parents had me study the violin from the time I was six. 4..”

A.There is no doubt that my theory was a great breakthrough then.

B.Instead, it came from intuition and inspiration

C.For Einstein, it was the humanities that mainly contributed to his achieve-ments.

D.Einstein also owed his scientific insight and intuition mainly to music.

E.My new discovery is the result of musical perception.

F.Einstein himself worked intuitively and expressed himself logically.

高三英语六选四中等难度题查看答案及解析

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

If you shower before bed, you’ve probably wondered whether sleeping with damp hair is a problem. Maybe you’ve heard it could make you sick, or that it can damage your hair or skin.

What’s the truth? Let’s address the “it can make you sick” myth first. “1.” says Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of medicine. While this idea persists, Schaffner says it was long ago disproved. It’s true that you’re much more likely to catch a common cold during the winter months. But this has to do with the ways respiratory (呼吸的) viruses spread, he says.

2. Illness-causing bacteria and viruses don’t appear naturally, and so you’re not going to make yourself ill by getting your pillow a little damp at night, Schaffner says. But there is a possible exception. Some research has shown that pillows—especially those made with synthetic materials—can contain asthma- or allergy-triggering molds (哮喘或致敏菌) and fungus, which tend to do well in damp environments, and so do dust mites, says Dr. Payel Gupta, a spokesperson for the American Lung Association.

Gupta says there’s no evidence that people who sleep with wet hair experience more allergy or asthma symptoms. 3. But if you wake up with a stuffy nose, itchy or watery eyes, breathing problems or other allergy or asthma symptoms—or even if you don’t—you should wash your pillow cases and sheets in hot water at least once a week to reduce your exposure to any potential irritants (刺激物).

When it comes to the health of your hair and skin, there may be a few other reasons to worry about wet hair. “Generally, it’s thought not to be good for hair to sleep with it wet,” says Dr. George Cotsarelis, a professor of dermatology (皮肤病学), “4.”

It’s also worth noting that almost anything you do to your hair—from brushing and blow-drying it to coloring it or exposing it to the sun—can damage it.

A. Hence, any concerns about wet hair are theoretical.

B. In some cases, wet hair may actually be a helpful sleep aid.

C. Over time, it can lead to breakages, as well as a loss of shine.

D. There may be some mild risks associated with going to bed with wet hair.

E. Another wet-hair rumor (谣传) is the idea that harmful bacteria will colonize your pillow.

F. This idea seems to fit into the old bit of custom that getting yourself chilled and wet will cause you to come down with a cold.

高三英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析

Directions: Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Many people know that trash is a big problem on planet Earth. What many people don’t know is that trash has become a problem in outer space too. 1.

Statistically, there are more than 22,000 pieces of junk in space around the earth. And these are just the items that we can see from the surface of the earth by telescopes or radars. 2.

Objects, like bits of old space rockets or satellites, move around the planet at very high speeds, so fast that even a very small piece can break important satellites or become dangerous to people, particularly astronauts. If the tiniest piece of junk crashed into a spacecraft, it could damage the vehicle. That’s because the faster an object moves, the greater the impact if the object collides with something else.

To help minimize additional space junk, countries around the world have agreed to limit the time their space tools stay in orbit to 25 years. Each tool must be built to fall safely into the earth’s atmosphere, or the mass of gases that surround the earth, after that.　 3.

Many scientists are also proposing different ways to clean up space junk. The Germans have been planning a space mission with robots that would collect pieces of space trash and bring them back to Earth so that they can be safely destroyed.

"In our opinion the problem is very challenging, and it's quite urgent as well," said Marco Castronuovo, an Italian Space Agency researcher who is working to solve the problem.　 4. Many of these objects are tools that help people use their cell phones or computers.

"The time to act is now; as we go farther in time we will need to remove more and more fragments," he says.

A. One reason that it’s urgent is that countries are sending more and more objects into space.

B. There are also millions of smaller pieces of junk that we can’t see.

C. Blowing up older satellites with a missile may create thousands of smaller pieces!

D. In the upper parts of the atmosphere, it will burn up.

E. When two objects in space collide, the two objects break into many smaller pieces.

F. Years of space exploration have left tons of “space junk” in orbit around the planet.

高三英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析

Directions:Read the passage carefully. Fill in each blank with a proper sentence given in the box. Each sentence can be used only once. Note that there are two more sentences than you need.

Every Little Bit Counts?

One of the weapons in the fight against poverty is microcredit also called microlending). Microcredit is the practice of giving very small, short-term loans to poor people.1. The loans help the borrowers start or upgrade small businesses. Microcredit organizations assume that poor people can lift themselves out of poverty if they only have access to standard financial services.

Grameen Bank, started as a project in 1976, is a pioneer of microcredit.2. Borrowers often have no steady job no other property, and no one to co-sign on the loan - common requirements for getting a loan elsewhere. Grameen Bank promotes credit as a human right, and with a 98% repayment rate, it seems to have helped its borrowers improve their lives and made a profit through interest in the meantime.

Successes like Grameen Bank and others caused governments and NGOs to rush to fund microcredit operations. How wonderful to imagine that the cure for poverty could be profitable! However, recent studies question how effective microcredit really is. Critics say that poor people with enoughentrepreneurial(创业的) drive to get a loan would have succeeded anyway. Those without the drive don't end up in better circumstances after paying back loans，which aren’t always used for businesses. 3. And though microcredit is described as a way to empower women，some say the loans aren’t causing any measurable improvement in women’s lives.

The ideas behind microcredit are uplifting: that all humans are filled with potentials and that one small bit of assistance can help a whole family live better. 4. Time and close study will tell if microcredit is really the miracle it appears to be.

A. They also say that without a basic education, poor borrowers aren't equipped to manage the businesses they create.

B. In general, the loans are 100 USD or less, usually paid back within six months.

C. Borrowers need to provide the credit history, which the lenders will use as the criteria when evaluating a loan.

D. They may, however, ignore systematic causes of large-scale poverty.

E. Most microcredit agencies are struggling as the vast majority of loans are not paid back.

F. It has given out more than eight billion dollars in loans to people who could never borrow money otherwise.

高三英语六选四困难题查看答案及解析