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On Sunday, August 24th, comic book lovers across the world held their breath to watch how much crazy collectors would pay for a rare Superman comic book. Though bids (出价) above the initial asking price of 1 million dollars had been coming in gradually since the copy was placed on the auction site (拍卖网站) eBay on July 14th, things really started to heat up during the final minutes when the price jumped from $2.5 to $2.6 and then $2.7 million, before shooting up to unbelievable 3,207,852 dollars!
This of course was no ordinary Superman comic book, but an edition of the extremely sought-after (很吃香地) No. 1 of Action Comics series — the first publication of the superhero that was born from the creative minds of teenagers Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. Though Action Comics No. 1, which depicted a diaper-clad baby Superman lifting furniture, had a print run of 200,000 copies, only about 100 are known to exist today.
While the rarity is certainly a reason for the high price, Stephen Fisher, CEO of ComicConnect.com, thinks it also has a lot to do with the fact that Superman was the world’s first superhero! Even so, none of the copies have been able to fetch (售得) as much as the most recent one, simply because they have not been as well-preserved. Graded a rare 9 out of 10 by CGC, a third party grading service for comic books, the book is the highest rated copy of Action Comics No. 1 so far. According to CGC officials, the 76-year-old comic book looks and feels as though it has just come off the newsstand (报摊).
That is not surprising given that the original owner, a Virginian man who bought the book for only 10 cents in 1938, had carefully tucked it away (藏起来) in a wooden box for four decades. Fortunately, when he passed away, the book was bought by a string of collectors who all realized it was a rare treasure that needed to be looked after.
Before this, the highest price paid for an Action Comics No. 1 had been $2 million for a copy sold by Hollywood actor Nicholas Cage in 2011. Ironically, the two teenagers responsible for creating Superman received just 130 dollars when they sold the rights to the superhero to comic book publisher Detective Comics in 1938.
1.the Superman comic book was placed on eBay on July 14th, .
A. it attracted no attention at all
B. things started to heat up immediately
C. the bid price didn’t go up very quickly at first
D. people thought it was worth millions of dollars
2.What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?
A. Why the comic book is well-preserved.
B. Why the comic book is well worth reading.
C. Why the comic book is worth so much money.
D. Why the comic book has drawn so much attention.
3.When the other collectors got the comic book after the Virginian man, they .
A. all took very good care of it
B. all liked reading it very much
C. didn’t believe it was worth a fortune
D. all kept it in the same way as that man
4.What do we know about the creators of Superman?
A. They didn’t want to sell the rights to a comic book publisher.
B. They knew all along Superman would be the most successful comic book.
C. They were professional comic book writers when they created Superman.
D. They didn’t make much money from creating Superman.
高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析
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It looked to all the world like something that might have graced the cover of a 1950s comic book. On September 28th, on a warm Texas evening, Elon Musk, the boss of SpaceX, a rocketry firm, introduced his company's newest machine, Starship Mkl. It stands 50 metres tall and is made from shiny plates of stainless steel. Despite its name, it is not in fact an interstellar （恒星之间的） spacecraft. But it is a prototype （雏形）of an interplanetary one. Mr Musk hopes, one day, to use its successors to ferry passengers to the Moon or to Mars — or perhaps even, according to one piece of SpaceX concept art, all the way to Saturn （土星）.
In the 17 years since its founding, SpaceX’s cheap, reusable machines have revolutionised the rocket business. The firm's ukra-low prices have seen it seized a dominant share of the commercial satellite-launching market. Along with Boeing, an American aerospace giant, SpaceX is responsible for ferrying supplies to the International Space Station, It may soon fly astronauts there as well. But all of this commercial success is merely a necessary first step in Mr Musk’ bigger plan, which is to make humanity into a "niultiplanetary species" by establishing colonies in the universe.
That is where the Starship comes in. The prototype on display in Texas is only one half of an enormous rocket stack designed with planetary colonisation in mind. When paired with a Falcon Super Heavy booster （助推火箭），which is also being developed, the result should be able of lifting around 150 tonnes into orbit. That would make it the most powerful rocket ever built, superior to the Saturn V, which sent astronauts to the Moon in the 1960s and 1970s. And unlike the Saturn V, whose three stages were abandoned to the sea or to space as their fuel was used up, the Starship and its booster will be reusable which should keep costs down.
It is a bold plan. Mr Musk's shorter-term plans are bold too. Besides designing a new spaceship and booster, SpaceX engineers are busy working on a new. more efficient engine to power them. Called Raptor, it is designed to bum super-cold methane rather than the kerosene that fuels the company's current Merlin engines. The Starship will sport six Raptor engines. But each Super Heavy booster will need somewhere between 24 and 37. The result will be a repairman's nightmare.
Mr Musk has said, perhaps optimistically, that a Starship prototype might be ready for a test flight all the way to orbit (although without its booster stage) within six months. That would be of a piece with its crazy development schedule. The traditional rocket-building industry is used to generous government contracts that are about job creation as much as rocket creation. However, SpaceX has adopted a different approach, closer to the rapid-fire development practices of the software industry.
The Starship prototype, for instance, was put together in a matter of months. It was built out in the open, rather than in a carefully controlled factory environment. The firm has two teams competing against each other to produce the best design,
1.What is the passage mainly about?
A.Starship Mkl VS Satum V
B.Development of space travel
C.A promising company in the rocket business
D.Starship Mk 1, a new kind of rocket in a sense
2.Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the passage?
A.Starship Mkl was designed to beat Boeing and dominate the market.
B.SpaceX aims to realize interplanetary travel and set up space colonies.
C.SpaceX is not dependent on the government's contracts to expand its business.
D.Starship Mkl beats Satum V in that it is recyclable, cost-saving and more powerful.
3.What does the underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 probably mean?
A.Repairmen hate working with a powerful rocket.
B.The special fuel is in great demand and not always available.
C.Ifs no easy job to equip the rocket with the engines needed.
D.Too many engines may bring about great trouble once going wrong.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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On Tuesday August 11th, 1911, in the room where the world’s most famous painting, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, was on display, there was an empty space where the painting should have been．The next day headlines all over the world announced the theft．
Actually the Leonardo had been long gone．The museum was always closed on Mondays for maintenance(维修)．Just before closing time on Sunday three men had entered the museum, and hid themselves in a storeroom．Early next morning, they took the painting and left．
Nothing was seen or heard of the painting for two years until Perrugia tried to sell it to a dealer for half a million lire．Perrugia was arrested and imprisoned for seven months．It seemed that the crime of the century had been solved．
But had it? Perrugia claimed all responsibility for the theft, and it was twenty years before the whole story came out．In fact Perrugia had been working for Valfierno and Chaudron, who went unpunished for their crime．They would offer to steal a famous painting from a gallery(美术馆) for a dishonest dealer or private collector．They would then make a copy of the picture and, with the help of bribed(受贿的) gallery workers, would then attach the copy to the back of the original painting．The dealer would then be taken to the gallery and make a secret mark on the back of the painting．Of course the dealer would actually be marking the copy．After having been given the marked painting, if the dealer were to see the painting still in the gallery, he would be persuaded that it was a copy, and that he possessed the genuine one．
This time, however, they stole the original．Before Perrugia was arrested, Valfierno and Chaudron had gone to New York．Valfierno told the story to a journalist in 1914, on condition that it would not be published until his death．
Does the story end there? Collectors have claimed that Perrugia returned a copy．It is also possible that Leonardo may have painted several versions of the Mona Lisa, or they might be copies made by Leonardo’s pupils．There has been a lot of argument about the 450-year-old painting, but after all, maybe that’s what she’s smiling about．
1.The Mona Lisa was stolen on _________．
A．August 9th B．August 10th C．August 11th D．August 12th
2.Choose the right time order of the following events．
a．Valfierno told the story to a journalist． b．Perrugia was arrested．
c．The truth was published． d．The Mona Lisa was stolen．
e．Valfierno went to New York． f．The theft was announced．
A．d, f, b, e, a, c B．d, f, e, b, a, c C．d, f, b, e, c, a D．f, d, e, b, c, a
3.We can infer from the passage that _________．
A．In most cases, Valfierno did not sell the original paintings
B．The Mona Lisa was painted 45 years ago
C．Perrugia returned a copy
D．Perrugia was not to blame for the theft
4.All of the following about Valfierno and Chaudron are true EXCEPT_________．
A．They stole paintings and then sold them to dishonest dealers．
B．They were not punished for stealing the Mona Lisa．
C．They kept the story to themselves until death．
D．They sometimes bribed gallery workers to help them．
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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While nature lovers across the world wish all humans to realize the significance of their natural surroundings, many Australians are turning caring for the environment into a way of life.
Julie Astonis, an Australian housewife in Brisbane is one such example. Even though autumn is approaching Australia’s Brisbane in April, one can still watch colorful blooming (盛开的) flowers in Julie’s little garden, as she tells that in her community, “Each of us has a beautiful yard. The whole community, from children to elderly people, takes care of the environment as if they are taking care of their own garden.
“Gardening is the most popular club in our community,” she says. “A lot of retired people don’t just regularly organize gardening lectures, but also personally visit families in the community to provide gardening training. So you can see that flowers continue to blossom in our gardens throughout the year.”
Talking about her people’s sense of care for the environment, Julie says when people in the community take along their dog, they always carry a garbage bag to deal with the dog’s waste. “In our community, you will never experience the embarrassment of stepping on the dirty waste while you are walking on the grass,” says Julie with a smile.“Taking care of the dog’s waste can a1so help to develop children’s sense of responsibility!”
As to protecting water resources, the Australian government has made strict rules for families. Julie says, “We certainly would not use tap water to water the flowers!” She says almost every family in her community has a huge tank used to store rainwater, which is later used as the resource of all outdoor water use, connect the water tank with their toilets.
1.From the first three paragraphs we learn that .
A. gardening is popular in most part of Australia
B. April is a great time for people to enjoy flowers
C. it’s not easy to keep a garden without proper training
D. Julie’s community has a deep sense of caring for nature
2.What do we know about Julie from this passage?
A. She takes pride in her community.
B. She once stepped on a dog’ s waste.
C. She is quite in favor of raising a dog.
D. She finds it embarrassing to walk on the grass.
3.From what Julie says in the last paragraph, we know .
A. rainwater is not the best resource
B. her community owns a public tank
C. her community makes full use of resources
D. it is not necessary to water flowers very often
4.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Love nature, the Australian way
B. How Australians save resources
C. How Australians lead their life
D. Protect nature, a must of life
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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While nature lovers across the world wish all humans to realize the significance of their natural surroundings, many Australians are turning caring for the environment into a way of life.
Julie Astonis, an Australian housewife in Brisbane is one such example. Even though autumn is approaching Australia’s Brisbane in April, one can still watch colorful blooming(盛开的)flowers in Julie’s little garden, as she tells that in her community,“Each of us has a beautiful yard. The whole community, from children to elderly people, takes care of the environment as if they are taking care of their own garden.
“Gardening is the most popular club in our community,”she says.“A lot of retired people don’t just regularly organize gardening lectures, but also personally visit families in the community to provide gardening training. So you can see that flowers continue to blossom in our gardens throughout the year.”
Talking about her people’s sense of care for the environment, Julie says when people in the community take along their dog, they always carry a garbage bag to deal with the dog’s waste.“In our community, you will never experience the embarrassment of stepping on the dirty waste while you are walking on the grass,” says Julie with a smile.“Taking care of the dog’s waste can a1so help to develop children’s sense of responsibility!”
As to protecting water resources, the Australian government has rnade strict rules for families. Julie says,“We certainly would not use tap water to water the flowers!”She says almost every family in her community has a huge tank used to store rainwater, which is later used as the resource of all outdoor water use, connect the water tank with their toilets.
1.From the first three paragraphs we learn that________.
A. gardening is popular in most part of Australia
B. April is a great time for people to enjoy flowers
C. it’s not easy to keep a garden without proper training
D. Julie’s community has a deep sense of caring for nature
2.What do we know about Julie from this passage?
A. She takes pride in her community.
B. She once stepped on a dog’s waste.
C. She is quite in favor of raising a dog.
D. She finds it embarrassing to walk on the grass.
3.From what Julie says in the last paragraph, we know________.
A. rainwater is not the best resource
B. her community owns a public tank
C. her community makes full use of resources
D. it is not necessary to water flowers very often
4.How many examples are given to show the caring for the environment in Australia?
A. Two B. Three C. Four D. Five
5.What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Love nature, the Australian way
B. How Australians save resources
C. How Australians lead their life
D. Protect nature, a must of life
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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When will the speakers arrive at the camp?
A.On August 5th. B.On August 6th. C.On August 7th.
高三英语短对话中等难度题查看答案及解析
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One mile long runway can take people across the oceans, to reach every corner of the world.
That’s the magic power of airplanes as well as airports. Similar as most airports are, some do have their unique features.
Lukla Airport
Lukla Airport, is a small airport in the town of in the town of Lukla, eastern Nepal. A program titled Most Extreme Airports, rated the airport as the most dangerous airport in the world. The airport is popular because Lukla is the place where most people start the climb to Mount Everest Base Camp. High wind, cloud cover, and changing visibility often mean flights can be delayed or the airport closed. The airport’s runway is accessible only to helicopters and small, fixed-wing, short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft. The runway is only 527m with an elevation of 2,845m.
Princess Juliana International Airport
Princess Juliana International Airport is in the country of Saint Maarten. The airport is perhaps best known for very low-altitude flyover landing approaches due to one end of its runway being extremely close to the shore and Maho Beach. The thrilling approaches and ease of access for shooting spectacular images make the airport one of the world’s favorite places among plane spotters.
Gibraltar Airport
Gibraltar Airport serves the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, a tiny peninsula with an area of only 6.8 square kilometers. The lack of flat space there means the peninsula’s only runway is bisected by its busiest road, the Winston Churchill Avenue that heads towards the land border with Spain. It is really scary that there is a four lane highway passing through the middle of the runway!
Kai Tak Airport
Kai Tak Airport was officially known as Hong Kong International Airport from 1954 to 6 July 1998, when it was closed and replaced by the new one at Chek Lap Kok, 30 kms to the west. With numerous skyscrapers and mountains located to the north and its only runway jutting out into Victoria Harbour, landing at the airport were dramatic to experience and technically demanding for pilots. The low altitude manoeuvre required to line up with the runway was so spectacular that some passengers claimed to have glimpsed the television through apartment windows along the final approach.
1.Which of the following pictures can be a scene of Princess Juliana International Airport
2.All of the following can be inferred from this passage Except ________.
A. The transportation of Winston Churchill Avenue might be affected by planes.
B. Lukla airport is the most dangerous airport because of extremely harsh weather
C. An inexperienced pilot might have difficulty landing on Kai Tak Airport
D. People on Maho Beach may have a good chance to view the plane flying overhead
3.Which of these airports is out of business now?
A. Lukla Airport
B. Princess Juliana International Airport
C. Gibraltar Airport
D. Kai Tak Airport
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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There are hundreds of publishers across the world and millions of books get printed every year. Moreover, a book can be printed by several polishers.1.
To overcome the problem of identifying books, publishers have come up with a unique numbering system. For instance, if 50,000 copies of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes are printed by a publisher at one time (called an edition), all of them are identified by one number code. 2. your address begins with your house number, street, locality, state and ends with a statement of the country where you live. An ISBN book number achieves a similar aim of identifying and tracing a book
If you pick up any book, turn it around you will see a number which looks something like this — ISBN 90-70002-34-5. This is called the ISBN number. ISBN stands for International Standard Book Numbering. 3. The ISBN number is divided into four groups that are separated by a space or a hyphen.
The first part of the ISBN identifies the country and is called the Group Identifier. 4.The second part is called the Publisher Prefix. The Publisher Prefix is used to identify the publisher of the book. The publisher prefix may contain up to seven digits.
The third part identifies the title and the edition of the book and so is called the Title Identifier, which may consist of up to six digits. 5.Since you can have the same book from the same publisher but with different editions, the Title Identifier helps to differentiate between them.
The fourth and the final part is called the Check digit, a single digit (from 0 to 9) used to check whether the given ISBN number is correct or wrong. If an ISBN number is incorrect, this means that the book is a version printed illegally.
A.It may consist of up to five digits.
B.So what can the ISBN number do for you?
C.This makes the task of identifying a book very difficult.
D.It is a numbering system that is used to describe the book.
E.Book publishers often come out with newer and updated versions of earlier books.
F.The number Code is your home — address that can only be shared by your parents and
G.The ISBN numbering system helps book stores and book publishers to handle categorize to handle, categorize, store and identify books easily.
高三英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析
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Construction on Knolly's Tunnel began in 1896， and it was opened on August 13th， 1898 by the man it was named after--Sir Clement C． Knolly， Acting Governor of Trinidad． It linked Rio Claro with Port of Spain． Its architecture is still admired and studied today， and many are amazed that Knolly's Tunnel has stood up to the earth's movement over so many years．
Much research is being done on the tunnel． At the top of Knolly's Tunnel are cottages covered with leaves， where visitors can sit and enjoy the beauty of nature． Standing at the beginning of Knolly's Tunnel， you can see nothing but the tiny light at the end． The train tracks have been removed and replaced with small stones． Visitors can drive through the tunnel or walk through， but should do so in groups for safety． In the old days， there were no lights， but now there are street lights on the way to the tunnel， though not inside．
On your way in， you may notice some manholes on the walls of the tunnel． These were there for individuals to step into for safety as the train passed． Knolly's Tunnel can be accessed through Tabaquite and through Mitchell Gap． The road was recently improved， but is better when you enter from Tabaquite， and there are signs on the road directing you to Knolly's Tunnel．
On the drive to Knolly's Tunnel there are two other cottages where visitors can sit and just enjoy nature． At the site itself， there is nothing to purchase to eat or drink， but in Tabaquite there are several bars， a restaurant， and food outlets． A gas station and a health centre are also close by．
For those who admire architecture， Knolly's Tunnel is a must-see when visiting Trinidad． For the nature lovers， there is no better place for them to be and for the historians， they can walk or drive through Knolly's Tunnel knowing that many of our ancestors toiled （worked hard） on its structure． So when you visit Trinidad， don't forget to take a look at Knolly's Tunnel!
1.Knolly's Tunnel is special in ______ ．
A. its environment B. its function
C. its location D. its architecture
2.The underlined word "site" in the paragraph 4 refers to ______ ．
A. Trinidad B. Tabaquite
C. Mitchell Gap D. Knolly's Tunnel
3.What is the purpose of the passage？ ______
A. To suggest a visit to Knolly's Tunnel．
B. To introduce the history of Knolly's Tunnel．
C. To evaluate the value of Knolly's Tunnel．
D. To witness the change of Knolly's Tunnel
4.The passage above is probably taken from ______ ．
A. a geography textbook B. a travel journal
C. a sports report D. a health and fitness magazine
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
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If you’re ever reading a book or watching a movie and get the distinct feeling you’ve come across the story before — or even better, can predict exactly what's going to happen next — there could be a good reason for that.
Researchers from the Computational Story Laboratory at the University of Vermont studied the complete text of some 1,737 fiction works available on Project Gutenberg, an online collection of more than 50,000 digital books in the public area. They discovered that English literature consists of just six kinds of emotional arcs (情感弧线) that make up nearly all of the most well-known stories. By analysing the sentiment (情感) of language used in these texts, the researchers were able to show the emotional ups and downs for the stories as a whole. They discovered that negative words like “poverty”, “dead”, and “punishment” dragged the emotion down, while positive terms like “love”, “peace”, and “friend” brought it up.
According to the researchers, those six core (核心的) emotional arcs are:
“Rags to riches” (An ongoing emotional rise)
“Tragedy, or riches to rags” (An ongoing emotional fall)
“Man in a hole” (A fall followed by a rise)
“Icarus” (A rise followed by a fall)
“Cinderella” (Rise–fall–rise)
“Oedipus” (Fall–rise–fall)
Interestingly, based on download statistics from Project Gutenberg, the researchers say the most popular stories are ones that use more complex emotional arcs, with the “Cinderella” and “Oedipus” arcs registering the most downloads. Also popular are works that combine these core arcs together in new ways within one story, such as two “Man in a hole” arcs stuck together, or the “Cinderella” arc coupled with a tragic ending.
1.Readers often feel familiar when reading a new story because stories have similar ______.
A. beginnings B. endings
C. characters D. emotional arcs
2.How did researchers carry out their study?
A. By conducting surveys among readers.
B. By reading books borrowed from libraries.
C. By analysing works from an online collection.
D. By interviewing authors of the well-known stories.
3.Which set of works may drag emotion down?
A. Hope, fortune and riches.
B. Disease, murder and war.
C. Smile, health and beauty.
D. Cold, earthquake and spring.
4.According to the last paragraph, which kind of works are most popular among readers?
A. Works with an ongoing emotional rise.
B. Works with an ongoing emotional fall.
C. Works with a rise followed by a fall.
D. Works with more than one rise and fall.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析