As more Europeans arrived in America 500 year...

As more Europeans arrived in America 500 years ago, they were in such great need of the land that they and the Native American Indians battled constantly. By the end of the 19th century, most Indian tribes (部落) were moved to reservations. A lot of their children were taken away to boarding schools to learn to speak English. By the end of the 20th century, more than half of the Native Americans in the US were living in the cities. They gave up speaking their old tribal language and only used English. As a result, many Native American languages disappeared and with that their culture.

Today some American Indian languages are usually spoken by the older members of the tribes who still live on the reservations. In North America there are 150-170 languages that have at least one speaker. One ancient language spoken by the Northern Paiute tribe has over 100 speakers.

But the good news is that some of these people are keeping their culture and language alive. They are also receiving help from the National Geographic Society’s Enduring Voices project, whose aim is to help languages around the world which are dying out. The team meets these “last speakers”. The experts interview them and they are recorded with video, pictures and so on. They also tell old stories which are written down in English so people can learn more about the cultures.

Recording the language and culture is only part of the project. The next stage is to pass on the language to the next generation. The Salish tribe is an excellent example of how schools can help. The tribe lives on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana. Their language is spoken by about 50 people aged over 75. So now, the local people have set up a school. It has 30 students aged two to twelve during the day and there are also courses for adults in the evening.

1.Why did Europeans fight with the American Indians?

A. To live in American cities　　 B. To occupy more living space

C. To have Indians speak English　　 D. To make Indian cultures disappear

2.What does the underlined word “They” refer to in Paragraph 3?

A. The experts　　 B. The recordings

C. The Indian cultures　　 D. The last speakers

3.What can we know about the Salish tribe?

A. It has its own language school.　　 B. It has given up speaking English.

C. Its next generation speaks English.　　 D. Its language is only learnt by adults.

4.What can be a suitable title for the text?

A. Learning American Indian Languages

B. Researching on American Indian Languages

C. Saving American Indian Languages

D. Finding Lost American Indian Languages

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

This year arrives amid a few interesting trends. More America ns are interested in local and sustainable foods: urban farming, chicken-raising. And more Americans are hunting, spending increasing time and money on that pursuit.

Viewed from the right angle, though, both these trends could have a place at the holiday table. What would happen if more Americans made Thursday's (Thanksgiving Day) meal out of wild turkeys? What if more people enjoyed a wild Christmas goose, or wild pig ham? If more did, the results might be better for the environment, for our health-and perhaps for our souls as well.

Americans' growing interest in local food is evident everywhere. According to the US Department of Agriculture, the number of farmers markets rose from 1,755 in 1994 to 8,144 this year. Cities from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to Gainesville Florida, have eased restrictions on backyard chickens, some “locavores” are content to get community-supported agricultural produce delivered, and buy grass-fed beef. But for a growing number, hunting is the next step. The meat is local and avoids the ethical complications of factory farms.

Hun ting has definitely enjoyed a resurge nee. Census statistics show that the percentage of America ns who hunt -which had been falling for decades-is back up at a 20-year high.

Hank Shaw, author of the new wild bird cookbook Duck, Duck, Goose, and owner of the James Beard Award-winning website Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, calls it The Omnivore's Dilemma effect. After reading Michael Pollan's best-selling book on where food comes from many people join a community-supported agriculture group, but some get a hunting license, too.

“I can't tell you how many people I talk to who view hunting as a part of a larger, personal goal of sustainable eating,” Shaw says.

Of course, characterizing hunting this way blurs many lines. To some, shooting animals cannot possibly be an environmentally friendly activity. The existence of “hipster hunters" is also limited by cultural attitudes toward guns. It's almost impossible to legally own a hunting weapon in Brooklyn. But hunting wild animals requires the preservation of wild land -certainly an environ mental plus -and if you're going to eat meat, hunting has a lot going for it that industrial farms do not. The animal lived a free and natural life, up to its last day.

Add to this the fact that some game populations have grown unnaturally large due to the lack of predators(食肉动物). The East Coast is filled with white-tailed deer. Geese take up residence on golf courses, and wild pigs wander through the woods. In his 2012 book Nature Wars journalist Jim Sterba argued that more humans live in closer contact with wild animals than at my point in history. Hunting can keep a check on that.

Hunting can keep a check on our appetites too, Susan Cameron Devitt, a biologist who recently moved from Florida to Texas, notes that one of the things you learn quickly from hunting is how much labor goes into producing a meal. “If you buy meat at the grocery store, you can eat three servings a day, but if you imagine trying to keep that up with hunting, it just wouldn't be possible;” she says.

Which brings us back to holiday tables? In the original version of Thanksgiving and Christmas, these were special meals, based around dishes you wouldn't eat frequently. These days, you can buy turkey whenever. A wild turkey, caught and then cooked, is a different matter. A speckle-belly goose elevates the Christmas dinner in a way a regular supermarket ham does not.

When you know where your food comes from, when you've labored to bring it to your table, you more naturally feel grateful for the amazing abundance of this planet. “There's no better way to engage with nature than to seek dinner within it” says Shaw.

1.What can we learn about the trends?

A.Few people regard hunting as a part of a personal goal of sustainable eating.

B.Hunting in the USA is consistent with the cultural attitude to guns.

C.The media play a part in promoting the popularity of hunting.

D.Hunting is likely to replace industrial farms

2.The underlined phrase “game populations” in paragraph 8 refers to ______

A.the number of hunters

B.the number of wild animals and birds

C.animals and birds caught through hunting

D.campaigns to ban the hunting of wild animals and birds

3.The underlined part in Paragraph 9 implies ______

A.some hunters do not have the desire to eat meat from industrial farms

B.hunting provides hunters with three servings a day

C.some hunters do not have a healthy appetite

D.hunting helps hunters control their appetite

4.What can we infer from the last but one paragraph?

A.In the past, people ate turkeys only on Thanksgiving Day.

B.Supermarket turkeys will not be accepted by people any more.

C.Wild turkeys are more delicious then those bought from grocery stores.

D.Wild turkeys help bring back the festive atmosphere of Thanksgiving Day.

5.According to the last paragraph, hunting is beneficial for ______

A.our mental health B.our physical fitness

C.the environment D.farmers’ markets

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

In order to keep fit, people eat ________ vegetables per person today as they did two years ago.

A．as many twice　　　　　     B．twice more than

C．twice as many    D．more than twice

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Dogs were living as companions to the early settlers of North America over 10,000 years ago.

The oldest domestic dogs in the Americas were thought to be around 9500 years old. Angela Perri of Durham University, UK, and her colleagues have carried out fresh radiocarbon dating on the two dog skeletons that gave this date, discovered in the prehistoric Koster site in Illinois, and found they were even older: around 10,100 years old.

A third dog from another Illinois site called Stilwell II was older still，at 10,190 years old. That makes it the oldest known domesticated dog in the Americas.

The team concluded that all three dogs were domesticated as their skeletons were complete and unskinned, and so hadn’t been butchered for food. They had also been carefolly buried, evidence they were valued by their owners. The Stilwell II dog, which probably resembled a small English settler, was under what seemed to be the floor of a living area.

It is unclear why it took so long for tame dogs to arrive in the Americas, given that they were domesticated at least 14,000 years ago in Eurasia. By this time, people were already moving into North America from Siberia; there is evidence some reached Chile 18,500 years ago. Geneticists have found signs of at least three waves of migration over the following millennia. There is no evidence that domestic dogs accompanied them.

“We don’t know if dogs were part of the first waves of immigration to the Americas” says Luc Janssens of Ghent University in Belgium. “It could be so, but no archaeological bones have yet been found.”

It is “overwhelmingly probable” that some of the early settlers did bring dogs to the Americas, but they may not have had “the time or the spiritual compulsion to bury them’％ says Pat Shipman of Pennsylvania State University.

1.How old is the oldest known domestic dog in the Americas?

A. About 9500 years.　　 B. About 10,100 years.

C. 10,190 years.　　 D. 18,500 years.

2.The underlined word “butchered” in the fourth paragraph could be replaced by .

A. killed　　 B. bought

C. trained　　 D. raised

3.What is the attitude towards when tame dogs arrived in the Americas in the last three paragraphs?

A. Undoubted.　　 B. Unsure.

C. Indifferent.　　 D. Unconfident.

4.What is the main topic of this passage?

A. The earliest domestic dog in the Americas.

B. The first dog arriving in the Americas.

C. How dogs were domesticated in the Americas.

D. When the oldest dog was found in the Americas.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

In a new study, 186 four-year-old kids were given regular carrots and, on other lunch days, they were given the same vegetables renamed X-ray Vision Carrots. On the latter days, they ate nearly twice as many.

The study suggests the influence of these names might persist. Children continued to eat about 50 percent more carrots even on the days when they were no longer labeled as anything special.

The research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was presented at the annual meeting of the School Nutrition Association in Washington, D.C..

“Cool names can make for cool foods,” said the lead author Brian Wansink of Cornell University. “Whether it be ‘power peas’ or ‘dinosaur broccoli trees’, giving a food a fun name makes kids think it will be more fun to eat. And it seems to keep working — even the next day,” Wansink said.

Similar results have been found with adults. A restaurant study showed that when the Seafood Filet was changed to Romantic Hawaii, sales increased 28 percent and taste rating increased by 12 percent. “Same food, but different expectations, and a different experience,” said Wansink, author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.”

The study was conducted in pre-schools, but the researchers believe the same naming tricks can work with children at home.

“I’ve been using this with my kids,” said researcher Collin Payne, “Whatever sparks(激发) their imagination seems to spark their appetite.”

1.Those four-year-old kids ate ________ when the carrots were renamed X-ray Vision Carrots.

A. twice more carrots               B. nearly double carrots

C. about 50 percent more carrots        D. as many carrots as they used to

2.According to the passage, _______ make(s) kids think it will be more fun to eat.

A. power peas                       B. dinosaur broccoli trees

C. fun names of food                D. cool foods

3.The restaurant study didn’t show that ________.

A. sales increased 28 percent when the name Romantic Hawaii was taken

B. taste rating increased by 12 percent after the Seafood Filet was renamed

C. same food would let people have a different experience with different names

D. the researchers got similar results when they work with children at home

4.The purpose of the passage is to tell us ________.

A. people prefer food with cool names

B. how to name the food which kids eat

C. how to help kids eat in a healthy way

D. kids often imagine when they eat food

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

America’s first transcontinental railroad, completed 150 years ago today at Promontory Summit in Utah, connected the vast United States and brought America into the modern age. Chinese immigrants contributed greatly to this notable achievement, but the historical accounts that followed often ignored their role.

Between 1863 and 1869, as many as 20,000 Chinese workers helped build the dangerous western part of the railroad, a winding ribbon of track known as the Central Pacific. At first, the Central Pacific Railroad’s directors wanted a whites-only workforce. When not enough white men signed up, the railroad began hiring Chinese men for the backbreaking labor. Company leaders were skeptical of the new recruits’ ability to do the work, but they proved themselves not only capable but even superior to the other workers.

Chinese workers cut through dense forests, filled deep narrow steep-sided valley, constructed long trestles(高架桥) and built enormous retaining walls(防护墙) -- some of which remain complete and undamaged today. All work was done by hand using carts, shovels and picks but no machinery. However, progress came at great cost: an estimated 1,200 Chinese laborers died along the Central Pacific route.

Despite these facts, Chinese workers were often left out of the official story because of their identity of foreigners. On the transcontinental railroad's 100th birthday, the Chinese workers were still not honored. It was another fifty years later that their role was gradually highlighted. To celebrate the railroad’s 150th anniversary in 2019, the California assembly passed a resolution in 2017 to recognize and honor the Chinese railroad workers by designating May 10, 2017, and every May 10 thereafter, as California Chinese Railroad Workers Memorial Day.

1.What might be the best title for the text?

A.The Birth of the Central Pacific Cost Dearly

B.May 10--A Special Day for Chinese Immigrants

C.Chinese Workers’ Contributions Gained Recognition

D.The 150th anniversary of the Central Pacific Railroad

2.What does “they” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A.Chinese laborers. B.White workers.

C.Company leaders. D.Railroad directors.

3.Why does the author make such detailed descriptions in Paragraph 3?

A.To prove Chinese workers’ superior skills.

B.To stress the danger and difficulty of the work.

C.To describe the grand scenery along the railroad.

D.To show notable achievements made by Chinese workers.

4.What does the text intend to tell us?

A.None so blind as those who won’t see. B.No pains, no gains.

C.Truth will come to light sooner or later. D.Doing is better than saying.

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

America is growing older. Fifty years ago, only 4 out of every 100 people in the United States were 65 or older. Today, 10 out of every 100 Americans are over 65. The aging of the population will affect （影响） American society in many ways — education, medicine, and business. Quietly, the graying of America has made us a very different society— one in which people have a quite different idea of what kind of behavior（行为）is suitable （合适）at various ages. A person's age no longer tells you anything about his/her social position, marriage or health. There's no longer a particular year in which one goes to school or goes to work or gets married or starts a family. The social clock that kept us on time and told us when to go to school ,get a job, or stop working isn't as strong as it used to be. It doesn't surprise us to hear of a 29-year-old university president or a 35-year-old grandmother, or a 70-year-old man who has become a father for the firs time. Public ideas are changing. Many people say, 'I am much younger than my mother - or my father - was at my age.' No one says ‘Act your age’ anymore. We've stopped looking with surprise at older people who act in youthful ways.

1.It can be learnt from the text that the aging of the population in America_________  .

A.has made people feel younger

B.has changed people's social position

C. has changed people's understanding of age

D. has slowed down the country's social development

2.The underlined word ‘one’ refers to_________.

A. a society        B. America                C. a place                 D. population

3.‘Act your age’ means people should_________.

A.be active when they are old

B.do the right thing at the right age

C. show respect for their parents young or old

D. take more physical exercise suitable to their age

4.If a 25-year-old man becomes general manager of a big firm, the writer of the text would most probably consider it ______.

A.normal            B.wonderful              C.unbelievable                   D.unreasonable

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

About 12,000 years ago- long before the famous UFO crash make headlines in America—an alien spaceship crashed in China. And their descendants are still living in a faraway Chinese village today! That is the mind-bending claim made in the new book Out of Time and Place, a collection of reports from the files of Fate, a magazine edited by Terry O’Neil.

The story first came to light in 1937 when an expedition led by Chi Pu-Tei came across a group of caves deep in the Bayan-Kara-Ula Mountains. In the caves were found strange-looking skeletons with big heads and small, slender bodies—closely matching typical descriptions of space aliens. The explorers also uncovered 716 mysterious stone discs with strange hieroglyphics(象形文字) on them.

In Qinghai Province, where the mountains lie, ancient stories tell of small, skinny beings with oversize heads who came from the sky long long ago. And to this day, locals live in fear of attack from strange-looking creatures from above.

And there is more. In 1947, British scientist Karyl Robin-Evans led an expedition into the mountains and discovered a group of dwarfs(侏儒) who called themselves the Droza. “They told him that their ancestors came from a planet in the Sirius（天狼星）system and crashed in this mountain area a long time ago,” writes Hausdorf, “Many of them were killed, but survivors adapted to living on this rough planet far from home.”

For decades, Robin-Evans’ claims were dismissed as nonsense. But in 1995, the Associated Press reported that in the region a village named Huilong had been discovered—populated by 120 dwarfs ranging from 3-foot-10 to 2-foot-1tall.Hausdorf asks, “Could these people be the last living descendants of the survivors of the legendary UGO crash—the Chinese Roswell?”

1.Which of the following are the findings of Chi Pu-Tei?

a. strange-looking skeletons           b. UFO crash

c. stone discs                       d. dwarfs

e. strange hieroglyphics               f. skinny beings

2.Paragraph 3 and 4 mainly _____.

3.What can be safely concluded from the passage?

4.What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Twelve years ago, I arrived in Central Florida from Puerto Rico. I had heard of a job opportunity and decided to pursue it. But it never became a reality. I quickly learned that being alone without resources in an unfamiliar city was not a comfortable situation to be in.

Once my limited funds ran out I became homeless and spent a year and a half living on the streets of Orlando. Apart from feeling not being noticed and missing my family, I had to face another challenge—hunger.

For the first time in my life, I, as a foreign man, who had lived my life in the relative comfort of the middle class, understood the desperation someone feels when they don’t get enough to eat. I clearly remembered having run a distance of more than 7 miles on many occasions just to make it to a local feeding program before they closed at 7 pm.

Once the need for food was met, the next challenge would arise—where to find a place to sleep for the night. Fortunately, local programs like the Coalition for the Homeless, Second Harvest Food Bank and the Wayne Densch Center were an important part of my ability to survive my painful experience.

With the assistance of these programs, I was accepted by a college scholarship program through the Coalition and obtained two degrees from Valencia.

My experience has helped me understand that devoting my life to helping others offers lasting rewards. Today, I am employed as Childhood Hunger Programs Manager at Second Harvest Food Bank and oversee the summer feeding, Hi-Five Kids Pack, and Kids Café programs. I am so proud to be able to distribute food resources to those wonderful programs and help hundreds more like me.

1.What can be inferred from Paragraph 1?

A. It was impossible for the author to get a job then.

B. Many local people were out of work in Florida.

C. Florida was not a good place for people living there.

D. The author rejected many chances to get a job in Florida.

2.Why did the author run a distance of over 7 miles on many occasions?

A. Because he didn’t want to be late for work there.

B. Because he desired to get some food to eat.

C. Because he went there to help the poor.

D. Because he helped distribute food resources to the poor.

3.Before being accepted by a college scholarship program, the author_____.

A. had lived with his relatives happily.

B. had won his degree in a university.

C. had been struggling financially.

D. had lost hope of facing the future.

4. From his experience, the author learns that ______.

A. misfortune may be an actual blessing.

B. a friend in need is a friend indeed.

C. where there is a will there is a way.

D. one good turn deserves another.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Twenty years ago, I drove a taxi for a living. One time I arrived in the middle of the night for a pickup at a building that was ________ except for a single light in a ground floor window. I walked to the door and knocked.

A small woman in her 80’s opened the door. I took her suitcase to the cab then returned to ________ her into the cab. She thanked me for my kindness. When we got in the taxi, she gave me a(n)  , then asked, “Could you drive through downtown ?”

“It’s not the ________ way,” I answered.

“Oh, I don’t mind,” she said. “I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to a hospice (临终关怀医院).”

I looked in the rear view mirror. Her eyes were glistening.

“The doctor says I don’t have very long.”

I quietly reached over and ________ the meter (计程器). “What ________ would you like me to take?” I asked.

For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived. Sometimes she’d ask me to ________ in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

As the sun was ________, she suddenly said: “I’m tired. Let’s go now.”

We drove in ________ to the address she had given me. There were people waiting for her and they put her in a wheelchair.

“How much do I have to pay you?” she asked, reaching into her purse.

“Nothing,” I said.

Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.

“You gave an old woman a little moment of ________,” she said.

I squeezed her hand, then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut.

I didn’t ________ any more passengers that shift. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought. We tend to think that our lives revolve around great moments. But great moments often 47 us unconsciously.

1.A. ancient                   B. dark                            C. dirty                    D. remote

2.A. invite                      B. watch                      C. help                        D. receive

3.A. address                  B. letter                      C. speech                   D. present

4.A. wrong                     B. funniest                      C. safest                  D. shortest

5.A. cut out                    B. showed off            C. switched off          D. turned on

6.A. direction            B. order                              C. role                         D. route

7.A. break down           B. get off                              C. speed up               D. slow down

8.A. changing            B. moving                           C. rising                 D. Setting

9.A. darkness                B. noise                       C. silence                   D. sadness

10.A. joy                     B. interest                          C. trouble                   D. surprise

11.A. talk with           B. call up                             C. pick up                   D. take away

12.A. catch                    B. drive                  C. improve                  D. puzzle

高三英语完型填空中等难度题查看答案及解析