Some people are like homing pigeons: Drop them off anywhere, and they’ll find their way around. Other people, though, can’t tell when they’re holding a map upside down. Are the directionally challenged just bad learners?
Not all of your navigational (导航的)skills are learned. Research shows that your sense of direction is innate. An innate ability is something you are born with. Your brain has special navigational neurons—head-direction cells, place cells, and grid cells (网格细胞)—and they help program your inside compass when you’re just a baby.
In 2010, scientists carried out an experiment to study baby rats’ neural activity in their brains. Although the rats were newborns, the researchers discovered that their head-direction cells (which help them recognize the direction they’re facing) were fully grown and developed. The rats, it seemed, were born with a sense of direction. And they hadn’t even opened their eyes yet!
Humans, of course, are not rats. But the hippocampus—the brain area we use for navigation—is similar in most mammals. If the rat’s compass develops this way, then it’s likely that a human’s compass does, too.
If we’re born with a sense of direction, then why are some people so good at getting lost? The scientists found that the two other cells—place and grid cells—developed within the first month. Place cells are thought to help us form a map in our mind, while grid cells help us navigate new and unfamiliar places. The two cells work together, and that’s where the trouble might be.
People who took part in a 2013 study played a video game that required them to travel quickly between different places. Monitoring their brains, the scientists found that grid cells helped the gamers recognize where they were—even without landmarks. According to researcher Michael Kahana, differences in how grid cells work may help explain why some people have a better sense of direction than others.
1.What did the 2010 research find?
A. Rats have a natural ability to recognize directions.
B. Rats’ hippocampus is different from that of humans.
C. Rats usually find their way without opening their eyes.
D. Baby rats have as many head-direction cells as grown-ups.
2.What do we know about our navigational neurons?
A. Place cells let us know how to read a map.
B. Grid cells help us reach the place we are going to.
C. They help us use a compass when we lose our way.
D. Place and grid cells grow later than head-direction cells.
3.Why are some people so good at getting lost?
A. They can’t remember landmarks.
B. Their grid cells can’t work very well.
C. They are unfamiliar with new places.
D. Their ability to follow directions is poor.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A. Human navigational skills.
B. The compass in rats’ body.
C. Why grid cells are useful.
D. How homing pigeons work.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题
Some people are like homing pigeons: Drop them off anywhere, and they’ll find their way around. Other people, though, can’t tell when they’re holding a map upside down. Are the directionally challenged just bad learners?
Not all of your navigational (导航的)skills are learned. Research shows that your sense of direction is innate. An innate ability is something you are born with. Your brain has special navigational neurons—head-direction cells, place cells, and grid cells (网格细胞)—and they help program your inside compass when you’re just a baby.
In 2010, scientists carried out an experiment to study baby rats’ neural activity in their brains. Although the rats were newborns, the researchers discovered that their head-direction cells (which help them recognize the direction they’re facing) were fully grown and developed. The rats, it seemed, were born with a sense of direction. And they hadn’t even opened their eyes yet!
Humans, of course, are not rats. But the hippocampus—the brain area we use for navigation—is similar in most mammals. If the rat’s compass develops this way, then it’s likely that a human’s compass does, too.
If we’re born with a sense of direction, then why are some people so good at getting lost? The scientists found that the two other cells—place and grid cells—developed within the first month. Place cells are thought to help us form a map in our mind, while grid cells help us navigate new and unfamiliar places. The two cells work together, and that’s where the trouble might be.
People who took part in a 2013 study played a video game that required them to travel quickly between different places. Monitoring their brains, the scientists found that grid cells helped the gamers recognize where they were—even without landmarks. According to researcher Michael Kahana, differences in how grid cells work may help explain why some people have a better sense of direction than others.
1.What did the 2010 research find?
A. Rats have a natural ability to recognize directions.
B. Rats’ hippocampus is different from that of humans.
C. Rats usually find their way without opening their eyes.
D. Baby rats have as many head-direction cells as grown-ups.
2.What do we know about our navigational neurons?
A. Place cells let us know how to read a map.
B. Grid cells help us reach the place we are going to.
C. They help us use a compass when we lose our way.
D. Place and grid cells grow later than head-direction cells.
3.Why are some people so good at getting lost?
A. They can’t remember landmarks.
B. Their grid cells can’t work very well.
C. They are unfamiliar with new places.
D. Their ability to follow directions is poor.
4.What is the text mainly about?
A. Human navigational skills.
B. The compass in rats’ body.
C. Why grid cells are useful.
D. How homing pigeons work.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Pigeons in London have a bad reputation. Some people call them flying rats. And many blame them for causing pollution with their droppings. But now the birds are being used to fight another kind of pollution in this city of 8.5 million.
“The problem for air pollution is that it’s been largely ignored as an issue for a long time,” says Andrea Lee, who works for the London-based environmental organization Client Earth. “People don’t realize how bad it is, and how it actually affects their health.” London’s poor air quality is linked to nearly 10,000 early deaths a year. Lee says, citing(引用)a report released by the city manager last year. If people were better informed about the pollution they’ re breathing, she says, they could pressure the government to do something about it.
Nearby, on a windy hill in London’s Regent’s Park, an experiment is underway that could help—the first week of flights by the Pigeon Air Patrol. It all began when Pierre Duquesnoy, the director for DigitasLBi, a marketing firm, won a London Design Festival contest last year to show how a world problem could be solved using Twitter. Duquesnoy, from France, chose the problem of air pollution.
“Basically, I realized how important the problem was,” he says. “But also I realized that most of the people around me didn’t know anything about it.” Duquesnoy says he wants to better measure pollution, while at the same time making the results accessible to the public through Twitter.
“So”, he wondered, “how could we go across the city quickly collecting as much data as possible?” Drones were his first thought. But it’s illegal to fly them over London. “But pigeons can fly above London, right?” he says. “They live—actually, they are Londoners as well. So, yeah, I thought about using pigeons equipped with mobile apps. And we can use not just street pigeons, but racing pigeons, because they fly pretty quickly and pretty low.”
So it might be time for Londoners to have more respect for their pigeons. The birds may just be helping to improve the quality of the city’s air.
1.What can we infer about London’s air quality from Paragraph 2?
A. Londoners are very satisfied with it.
B. The government is trying to improve it.
C. Londoners should pay more attention to it.
D. The government has done a lot to improve it.
2.Duquesnoy attended the London Design Festival to _________.
A. entertain Londoners. B. solve a world problem.
C. design a product for sale. D. protect animals like pigeons.
3.Why did Duquesnoy give up using drones to fly across London?
A. Because they are too expensive. B. Because they fly too quickly.
C. Because they are forbidden. D. Because they fly too high.
4.Which can be the best title for the text?
A. Clean air in London. B. London’s dirty secret.
C. London’s new pollution fighter. D. Causes of air pollution in London.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Pigeons in London have a bad reputation. Some people call them flying rats. And many blame them for causing pollution with their droppings. But now the birds are being used to fight another kind of pollution in this city of 8.5 million.
“The problem for air pollution is that it’s been largely ignored as an issue for a long time,” says Andrea Lee, who works for the London-based environmental organization Client Earth. “People don’t realize how bad it is, and how it actually affects their health.” London’s poor air quality is linked to nearly 10,000 early deaths a year. Lee says, citing(引用)a report released by the city manager last year. If people were better informed about the pollution they’ re breathing, she says, they could pressure the government to do something about it.
Nearby, on a windy hill in London’s Regent’s Park, an experiment is underway that could help—the first week of flights by the Pigeon Air Patrol. It all began when Pierre Duquesnoy, the director for DigitasLBi, a marketing firm, won a London Design Festival contest last year to show how a world problem could be solved using Twitter. Duquesnoy, from France, chose the problem of air pollution.
“Basically, I realized how important the problem was,” he says. “But also I realized that most of the people around me didn’t know anything about it.” Duquesnoy says he wants to better measure pollution, while at the same time making the results accessible to the public through Twitter.
“So”, he wondered, “how could we go across the city quickly collecting as much data as possible?” Drones were his first thought. But it’s illegal to fly them over London. “But pigeons can fly above London, right?” he says. “They live—actually, they are Londoners as well. So, yeah, I thought about using pigeons equipped with mobile apps. And we can use not just street pigeons, but racing pigeons, because they fly pretty quickly and pretty low.”
So it might be time for Londoners to have more respect for their pigeons. The birds may just be helping to improve the quality of the city’s air.
1.What can we infer about London’s air quality from Paragraph 2?
A.Londoners are very satisfied with it.
B.The government is trying to improve it.
C.Londoners should pay more attention to it.
D.The government has done a lot to improve it.
2.Duquesnoy attended the London Design Festival to _________.
A.entertain Londoners. B.solve a world problem.
C.design a product for sale. D.protect animals like pigeons.
3.Why did Duquesnoy give up using drones to fly across London?
A.Because they are too expensive. B.Because they fly too quickly.
C.Because they are forbidden. D.Because they fly too high.
4.Which can be the best title for the text?
A.Clean air in London. B.London’s dirty secret.
C.London’s new pollution fighter. D.Causes of air pollution in London.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Now let’s discuss something about people’s habits.
1. Some of them are good ones, but some of them may be bad ones. Can you remember any of the bad habits you used to have when you were very young? 2. Of course, you do not do that any more, but you can surely remember your mothers efforts to train you. The good habits you now have in such matters as personal cleanliness were part of this early training.
We may not suck our thumbs any more, but as we get older we get other bad habits. 3. Anyone who has tried to give up smoking knows this very well! 4. In babyhood, it’s thumbsucking, In childhood, it’s nail-biting. In our teens, it’s smoking, 5. And if anyone tells you that he has no bad habits, you can be sure that he must have the worst habit of all. Isn’t that true?
A. We can’t give them up easily, either.
B Each period brings its own problems.
C. Generally speaking, a boy likes biting nails.
D. Everyone has his or her own habits.
E. We benefit from our friends, kind help.
F. In middle-age, it’s over-eating, and so on.
G. Perhaps, as a baby, you used to suck your thumb (拇指).
高三英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析
Dinah Shore said, “There are no hopeless situations — only people who are hopeless about them.” Some 30 years ago, when he was only 11 years old, Morgan Rowe lost his left arm and much of the use of his right arm. It happened when he off a tractor at his father’s fence company, and was dragged under the machine.
Young Morgan was from the hospital after three and a half months. The first thing he to do was to help pay the bill — $30,000 worth. For a boy of 11 to such a task, the situation seemed .
For five years Morgan roadsides picking up cans and bottles. He thousands of cans and picked up and old newspapers. He never gave up . First, he paid off the $455 ambulance bill. He was still a long way off his parents raised another $9,000 toward the debt.
People began to the injured boy and poured in, totaling $25,000. The bill was paid !Morgan set aside the money for future education.
What then? Morgan his projects and collected money for the hospital so he could others though the bill was paid up.
Maybe someone to tell the boy he was too injured for that kind of work. Maybe someone neglected to inform him that the was hopeless. Somehow young Morgan didn’t that an 11-year-old boy could never pay off a hospital bill so large.
Martin Luther once said, “Everything that is done in the world is done by the hopeful.” Without hope, is possible.
1.A. ran B. fell C. drove D. lay
2.A. released B. dismissed C. removed D. liberated
3.A. set about B. set up C. set out D. set down
4.A. understand B. complete C. arrange D. cancel
5.A. hopeless B. different C. meaningful D. dangerous
6.A. searched B. controlled C. explored D. examined
7.A. purchased B. recorded C. collected D. prepared
8.A. delivered B. sold C. gave D. bought
9.A. courage B. challenge C. hope D. adventure
10.A. though B. so C. but D. because
11.A. hear about B. learn from C. worry about D. benefit from
12.A. invitations B. applications C. suggestions D. donations
13.A. exactly B. fully C. deeply D. partly
14.A. voluntary B. useless C. additional D. present
15.A. ended B. kept C. began D. paused
16.A. help B. comfort C. affect D. move
17.A. attempted B. managed C. forgot D. remembered
18.A. situation B. life C. illness D. devotion
19.A. realize B. discuss C. argue D. expect
20.A. everything B. anything C. something D. nothing
高三英语完形填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
There are many people in the office, some ______ are English teachers.
A. of them B. from which
C. of who D. of whom
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Regrets are often painful. A study suggests that some people can overcome them, said Jia Wei Zhang, a psychology graduate at the University of California. But this isn’t the case for everyone, he said.
The researchers wondered why some people report feeling improvement from regrets but others don’t. Does it lie in how people approach their regrets?
In the study, the researchers focused on self-compassion (自我同情) as a potential factor in why some people have an easier lime leaving their regrets behind them.
400 people attended an experiment. First, they were asked to write about their biggest regret. Half wrote something they did but wish they hadn’t done; the other half wrote something they didn’t do but wish they had. Then, the participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: self compassion, self-esteem and a control group. The self-esteem group was asked to respond by “talking to yourself about this regret from the aspect of confirming your positive qualities”.
The control group was asked to write about their favorite hobby rather than their regret. Then, they were asked about their feelings of forgiveness, acceptance and personal improvement following the exercise.
They found that the self-compassion group reported greater feelings of acceptance, forgiveness and personal improvement, compared with the control group and the self esteem group. In other words, focusing on your best qualities is not what helps you feel better about a regret. Rather, being compassionate toward yourself is what may make a difference, the researchers found.
It’s possible that people who practice self-compassion are able to confront their regrets and see what went wrong, so they can make a better choice in the future, Zhang told Live Science. Self-compassion pushes people to accept their regret instead of running away from it.
The researchers used an example of this from a previous study on breast cancer patients who were asked to try thinking about their treatment in a positive light before it began. The women who did so reported greater feelings of personal growth later on.
1.What does the underlined word “confront” in Paragraph 7 mean?
A. Handle B. Forget.
C. Ignore D. Show.
2.What were the students in the self-esteem group asked to do?
A. Think of a way out. B. Write about their regrets.
C. Record their favorite hobbies. D. Treat their regrets in positive ways.
3.Why were the participants asked about their good qualities?
A. To cover up their regrets.
B. To see if they have weaknesses.
C. To see if they have self compassion.
D. To help them feel better about their regrets.
4.What was the aim of mentioning the researchers’ study on breast cancer patients?
A. To show the method of the research.
B. To show the value of the acceptance.
C. To show the truth of people’s feeling.
D. To show the difficulty of the research.
高三英语阅读理解极难题查看答案及解析
—The leaders are supposed to care about the sufferings of the people.
—Contrary to that, some of them act with their eyes _______ to the reality.
A. closing B. closed C. to close D. being closed
高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析
Some people think that all wild animals are very dangerous. Actually, very few of them will attack a man if he leaves them alone. If you met a lion or an elephant, suppose, you would run away, but even a lion will keep away from a man unless it is very hungry. Lions and tigers only kill and eat men when they have grown too old and too weak to catch their usual food, such as deer and other small animals. If you saw a wild elephant, perhaps you would be frightened. Elephants usually run away at once unless you attack them. Some animals get very frightened if they only smell a man; some take no notice at all but quietly walk in another direction. Wild animals only attack hunters when they are afraid that the hunters mean to harm their young ones, or then the hunters shoot at them and make them angry.
1.The word “attack” is closest in meaning to _____________ .
A.hurt | B.catch | C.hit | D.follow |
2.Lions and tigers will not kill or eat men ____________ .
A.unless men try to run away | B.if they are too old and too weak |
C.if they are able to get enough food | D.however men act towards them |
3. Some wild animals will become very dangerous ______________ .
A.when they grow old | B.if they are left alone |
C.while they are looking for food | D.when their young ones are in danger |
4.This passage is mainly about______________ .
A.how to protect wild animals | B.how animals look for their food |
C.how to make friends with wild animals | D.how animals act towards men |
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
阅读七选五
Some people make you feel comfortable when they are around. You spend an hour with them and feel as if you have known them half your life. 1.
Here are several skills that good talkers have. If you follow the skills, they'll help you put people at their ease, and make friends with them quickly.
First of all, good talkers ask questions. _2. One wellknown businesswoman says, “At business lunches, I always ask people what they did that morning. It's a common question, but it will get things going.” From there you can move on to other matters — sometimes to really personal questions. 3. Second, once good talkers have asked questions, they listen to the answers. This point seems clear, but it isn't. Your questions should have a point and help to tell what sort of person you are talking to. And to find out, you really have to listen carefully and attentively.
_4. If someone sticks to one topic, you can take it as a fact that he's really interested in it. Real listening also means not just listening to words, but to tones of voice. If the voice sounds dull, then, it's time for you to change the subject.
Finally, good talkers know well how to deal with the occasion of parting. If you're saying goodbye, you may give him a firm handshake and say, “I've really enjoyed meeting you.” 5. Let people know what you feel, and they may walk away feeling as if they've known you half their life.
A.Real listening at least means some things.
B.You can become a popular person.
C.Almost anyone, no matter how shy he is, will answer a question.
D.And how he answers will let you know how far you can go.
E.If you want to see that person again, don't keep it a secret.
F.It's polite to listen to others with a smile.
G.These people have something in common.
高三英语七选五中等难度题查看答案及解析