January 8th saw events taking place in the US...

January 8th saw events taking place in the US city of Memphis to mark______ would have been

Elvis Presley’s 75th birthday.

A. what           B. which          C. that              D. where

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

Today's word, pan, takes us back to the days of the gold rush in California.

On January 24th, 1848, a man named James Wilson Marshall discovered gold in California. The news spread quickly. Thousands rushed west. They traveled on foot, on horseback and by boat to reach the gold fields. By 1849, the great gold rush was on. Towns and cities grew overnight. Throughout California --- in the mountains, along the streams and rivers --- thousands of people searched for gold.

Some found areas of mountain rock thick with gold. These men got rich. But such areas were few and quickly claimed by the first men to find them. Others searched for gold in the rivers coming down the mountains. They were after pieces of gold that the rains had washed down from above .

The only way to find this gold was by panning. First a gold miner put dirt in a metal pan and added water. Then he shook the pan so that the water would wash the dirt. Slowly, he poured the water out of the pan. If he was a lucky miner, pieces of gold would remain.

Across the nation, newspapers carried stories of the gold being found. Each one hoped that the place he claimed panned out well --- had some gold.

For many, gold mining did not pan out. For a few, it panned out well. But in time, huge machines were built that could wash many tons of dirt at a time. Panning died out.

The word, however, remained in the language. Today, Americans still say, “ It panned out well ,” when something they have done pleases them. A business, a discovery, a simple event pans out well if it is successful. Unhappily, sometimes things do not pan out.

In recent years, the word pan has taken on another meaning. Today, it also means to criticize. How it got this meaning is hard to discover. But the job of a critic is to sometimes pan the work of a writer, artist or singer.

1.Why did so many people flood to California in 1848?

A. Because towns and cities there developed quickly.

B. Because the mountains in California were a great place for travel.

C. Because they wanted to get rich by looking for gold.

D. Because the land of California was fertile at that time.

2.The underlined part “It panned out well" in Paragraph 7 has the same meaning as “______”

A. Everything turned out well     B. Nothing could be worse

C. It's not the case              D. It's a pity

3.What is the purpose of this passage?

A. To tell us some stories about the gold rush.

B. To introduce the word "pan" in American English.

C. To teach us how to look for gold in rivers.

D. To introduce the history of the gold rush in California

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Since the beginning of the year, smog has covered parts of North China. In January, Beijing saw only five days without smog. The rising PM 2.5 readings terrified many people, and some health experts said that whenever the smog gets serious, hospitals receive more patients suffering acute respiratory（呼吸系统）and heart diseases.

Later, news of polluted underground water in some provinces scared people who wondered whether the water they drink is safe.

So the need to emphasize environmental protection while developing the economy is heard everywhere.

Smog especially is a common concern. Like a popular online post said, air may be the only thing that is equal for everyone, despite your income or vocation. People with higher incomes are able to drink only bottled spring water and eat only organic food by paying higher prices, but they breathe the same air as everyone else.

At a meeting on Monday, many Representatives have expressed their concerns about the air quality, too. One talked about his experience in Beijing. “After taking a taxi from the capital airport to my hotel, which took about an hour, I washed my nose and found the inside of my nose was black. We should ask ourselves this question: Why do we want to develop? It's for living a better life. Dirty air is definitely not a better life," he said.

China needs to develop its economy and invest(投资) in high-tech. Every Chinese wants a strong country. But without blue sky, clean water and safe food, the achievements in the economy will become meaningless. Space technologies are not to be developed for building a base on Mars so that one day all human beings can migrate to the red planet because they have destroyed Earth.

What the public wants is a strong and beautiful China. Former president Hu Jintao spoke at the 18th Party Congress last November saying that great efforts must be made to promote ecological progress and build a beautiful China. The words have shown the central government's resolution to address the environment issue.

1.The effect of smog doesn’t include.

A．the rising of PM 2.5 readings

B．more people suffering diseases

C．the increase of people’s income

D．patients increased in hospital

2.Why smog has become a common concern?

A．Because people have to pay higher prices.

B．Because nobody can avoid it.

C．Because we have to develop industry.

D．Because a popular online-post discussed it.

3.The underlined word “they” in paragraph 6 refers to.

A．human beings             B．other plants

C．space technologies    D．industrial development

4.From the last two paragraphs we can infer that.

A．high-tech can completely solve the problem of pollution

B．space technologies should be developed in a large scale

C．we can move to the Mars after the earth has been destroyed

D．we must protect the environment while developing economy

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

On January 15, 2009, the crew of US Airways Flight 1549 experienced a never-in-a-lifetime event. Less than two minutes after takeoff, some birds found their way into the airplane’s two engines and brought them to a sudden stop. Over the next three and a half minutes, the crew managed to identify the problem, decide what to do about it, and make the most successful emergency landing in aviation (航空) history.

We all experience similar moments. Running into the person you canceled a date with – while you’re on another date. Realizing you hit “reply all” on an e-mail that you’d do anything to have back. Earthquakes, medical emergencies – whatever the situation, the first thing you probably do is panic. Everybody does. While many of us think that we’re cool in a crisis, science tells us that we seldom are. At the moment we need to be keenly aware of our surroundings, but our attention goes to the scariest thing on the scene, leaving us unaware of the other sights, sounds, and even smells around us. At the moment, we’re anything but at our best.

These normal human reactions can be reversed. For example, firefighters are taught how to bring down their blood pressure and heart rates quickly, Box breathing, belly breathing, hum breathing – you can learn these techniques in minutes. Once you calm down, you’ll identify accurately what the problem is really about. Lack of practice always causes us to judge problems in wrong ways. Doing the thinking ahead of time also helps you fire off the solution when it’s show time. This is why you are advised to find the closest exit before the flight. And sometimes we aren’t prepared with all the knowledge we need. Let’s say we’re on a hike and a bear shows up. What shall we do? Better to read suggestions on how to respond before heading into the wild.

Performing in a crisis is becoming more important for all of us for two reasons. Back in the good old days, the reliability of most anything we used or did was far less than it is today. Now think about what happens to our preparedness as the likelihood of something had happening reduces. Unless we practice what hardly ever happens, our ability to respond when it does happen tends to slip away. Reliability can kill you. Also, the systems we use today are more complex. There are seldom moving parts in plain view that allow us to see when things are about to go wrong. Consequently, terrible situations can “come out of nowhere”. Ironically, the systems that were designed to lessen our workload might require us to remain in a state of increased vigilance (警觉) in order to survive these increasingly infrequent events when they do happen.

As technology becomes part of most everything, and as once-large risks break into countless small ones, crisis situations may become standard affairs. We should all learn to breathe, recognize the situation, and carry out the plan that we are smart enough to prepare well in advance.

1.According to the passage, when an armed robbery (抢劫) happens, most witnesses will first ______.

A.observe the surroundings

B.pretend to be calm

C.decide what to do

D.focus on the gun

2.What does the underlined word “reversed” in Paragraph 3 probably mean?

A.Tested.

B.Changed.

C.Predicted.

D.Understood.

3.It can be inferred from Paragraph 4 that ______.

A.things are less dependable than they used to be

B.cautiousness helps prevent the occurrence of crisis

C.convenience reduces our problem-solving capability

D.the complexity of present systems ensures our safety

4.What is the main purpose of the passage?

A.To introduce ways of avoiding crisis situations.

B.To point out the connection between stress and risks.

C.To raise awareness of the preparation for emergencies.

D.To analyse the influence of technology on crisis management.

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

— A US pilot says he saw a UFO in the shape of triangle, moving very low over bushes two days ago.

— ______, but I didn't think that’s true.

A. It’s a pity　　 B. Come off it

C. Excuse me 　　 D. Please say it again

高三英语单项填空困难题查看答案及解析

_____is known to us all is that we should do as much as we can ______ stop the pollution of the environment.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

The children _____long wool coats stopped to look at us.

A.dressed in　　 B.dressing in

C.dressed　　　　 D.were dressed in

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Stephen Hawking was born in Oxford, England on 8th January, 1942. He went to school in St. Albans—a small city near London. Although he did well，he was never top of his class. After leaving school, Hawking went first to Oxford University where he studied physics，and then he went to Cambridge University where he studied cosmology （宇宙学）. As he himself admitted he wasn't very serious about studying. He was a very lazy student, and did very little work. However, he still achieved extremely good marks.

Hawking first noticed something was wrong with him at the age of 20. He started to bump into things, and often fell over for no reason. When he visited his family at Christmas time, his father was so worried that he was sent to hospital for a test. Finally, the result came back. Hawking had motor neurone disease（运动神经元病），an incurable illness which causes the muscles of the body to waste away. Doctors said he would die before he was 23.

At first, Hawking became extremely depressed（忧郁的）. After a while, though, he began to see his life in a different way. As he later wrote, “Before my illness had been diagnosed（诊断），there had not seemed to be anything worth doing. But shortly after I came out of hospital. I suddenly realized that there were a lot of worthwhile things I could do.” Hawking married, found a job at Cambridge University, where he still works today, and had three children. He also went to do some of the most important scientific research ever carried out.

His story shows that nobody, however bad their situation is, should lose hope. “Life is not fair,” he once said, “ You just have to do the best you can in your own situation.”

1.As a university student, Stephen Hawking ________.

A. worked extremely hard

B. studied maths and chemistry

C. was lazy and did very little work

D. only achieved average marks

2.Hawking first noticed something was wrong with him when________.

A. he visited his family at Christmas time one year

B. he was 20

C. his father made him see a doctor

D. he was sent to hospital for a test

3.In the passage the underlined word “incurable” means“________”.

A. untreatable　　 B. uncommon

C. complicated　　 D. unknown

4.What might be the best title of this passage?

A. A lazy boy　　 B. Life is Fair

C. Motor Neurone Disease　　 D. Professor Stephen Hawking

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

The punishment a criminal deserves should be in proportion to the______of the offence.

A.gravity B.division C.analysis D.composition

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

Of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists (语言学家) say, nearly half are likely to disappear this century. In fact, one falls out of use about every two weeks.

Some languages die out in an instant, at the death of the only surviving speaker. Others are lost gradually in bilingual (双语的) cultures, as local tongues are edged out by the dominant (占主导地位的) language at school, in the marketplace and on television.

New research, supported by the National Geographic Society and the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, has found the five regions where languages are disappearing most rapidly. They are northern Australia, central South America, North America's upper Pacific coastal zone, eastern Siberia, and Oklahoma and the southwestern United States.

K. David Harrison, an associate professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College, US, said that more than half the languages had no written form and were vulnerable to loss and being forgotten." Their loss leaves no dictionary, no text, or no record of the accumulated knowledge and history of a disappeared culture.

Harrison and other researchers started their rescue project last year. They have been trying to identify and record endangered languages. They interviewed and made recordings of the few remaining speakers of a language and collected basic word lists. The individual projects, some lasting three to four years, involve hundreds of hours of recording speech, developing grammar and preparing children's readers in the obscure (逐渐没落的) language. The research has concentrated on preserving entire language families.

"These are probably languages that cannot be brought back, but at least we made records of them," said Gregory Anderson, director of the Living Tongues Institute, in Oregon, US.

1.What does the passage mainly tell us?

A. Many languages are quickly disappearing.

B. Some languages are disappearing because they are hard to remember.

C. Chinese is one of the languages that are disappearing.

D. Thanks to some researchers, many endangered languages have been rescued.

2.What does the word vulnerable in the fourth paragraph mean?

A. easy to remember.                         B. easy to forget.

C. likely to be damaged.                     D. likely to be protected.

3.Which of the following is true according to the fifth paragraph?

A. Harrison and other researchers are trying to find out why some languages died out.

B. Harrison and other researchers tried to start a rescue project.

C. Harrison and other researchers have concentrated on preserving all the languages.

D. Harrison and other researchers have done some rescue work on the obscure languages.

4.One of the things that Harrison and other researchers did was ________.

A. to have more people speak the disappearing language

B. to make records of the disappearing language

C. to limit dominant languages

D. to publish a dictionary of the disappearing language

5.What do you think is the suggested reason for some languages disappearing?

A. Local tongues are gradually edged out by the dominant language at school, in the marketplace and on television.

B. The number of people who speak the languages are small.

C. There are no dictionaries for the languages.

D. No one make records of the languages, so they gradually disappear.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析