Whizzfizzing FestivalOne of the “Home Countie...

Whizzfizzing Festival

One of the “Home Counties” to the north and west of London, Buckinghamshire is known for the rolling Chiltern Hills, its pretty villages, and the much-loved children’s author Roald Dahl.

The writer who penned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Matilda and The Big Friendly Giant is the i9nspiration for the Whizzfizzing Festival – which will transform the market-town of Aylesbury into all kinds of music, colour and fun on Saturday, 1 July.

Formerly known as The Roald Dahl Festival, this year’s event will celebrate a broad range of children’s films and bring to life some of its best-loved characters – from Alice in Wonderland and the Gruffala to The Big Friendly Giant and Harry Potter.

Things to see and do

The fun and festivals start at 11 a.m. with a colourful children’s parade. More than 650 local school children and teachers, many in fancy dress, will march through the town carrying giant carnival puppets（木偶）, with thousands of audiences lining the streets to watch.

The parade will be followed with a range of child-friendly activities and workshops held in venues across the town.

Don’t be late for the Mad Hatters Tea Party in the Bucks County Museum, catch a splendid screening of a Roald Dahl movie in the Old Court House, and watch leading children’s authors, including Julian Clary, give readings in the Market Square.

CBeebies’ children’s chef Katy Ashworth will once again be cooking up a storm with her inter-active

Concoction Kitchen, located outside Hale Leys Shopping Centre. Little chefs will have lots of opportunities to get involved with preparing, cooking – and best of all, tasting – Katy’s fabulous recipes.

With hands-on arts and crafts workshops, storytelling sessions, live music, a fancy dress competition, street theatre and more, there is something for everyone.

For more information, visit: http://www.aylesburyvaledc . gov.uk/cylesbury-whizzfizzing- festival-inspired- roald-dahl

1.Who is Whizzfizzing Festival intended for?

A. Children.　　 B. Film stars.

C. Publishers.　　 D. Children’s authors.

2.Which film was made from Roald Dahl’s work?

A. Gruffalo.

B. Harry Potter.

C. Alice in Wonderland.

D. The Big Friendly Giant.

3.Which of the following best describes Whizzfizzing Festival?

A. Varies.　　 B. Global.

C. Boring.　　 D. Ordinary.

4.What type of writing is this text?

A. An exhibition guide.

B. An art show review.

C. An announcement.

D. An official report.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

For a few months twice a year, the waters off California are home to gray whales moving north or south between the coast of Mexico and the Bering Sea. This year, however, it seems that fewer whales are surviving the journey north. So far this year, a total of 30 dead gray whales have washed up on the West Coast: Eight in Washington, one in Oregon and 21 in California. Those numbers are unusually high.

In Northern California, three out of four of the dead whales that have been examined so far appear to have died of starvation and the fourth was killed by a ship strike, said Barbie Halaska, a research assistant at The Marine (海洋的) Mammal Center (TMMC), a nonprofit organization that rescues and rehabilitates (使康复) marine mammals in California. Halaska and her colleagues examined the four whales—three young whales and one adult male — and planned to examine the remaining dead whales in the region in the next couple of days.

Gray whales were once severely threatened by whalers. Only around 2,000 of them lived in the ocean in 1946, so an international agreement to stop gray whale hunting was signed in order to help the population recover. Gray whales were removed from the endangered species list in 1994 when the population reached 23,000 individuals and TMMC predicts there are now around 26,000 gray whales in the Pacific Ocean, which is about the number before the whaling boom got up steam almost 200 years ago.

Although the gray whale population has recovered to a certain degree, the number of dead whales washing up this year is alarming, Halaska said. Climate change and declining fish stocks are likely key factors in the whales’ poor health, she said .

Halaska stressed that boaters and beachgoers on the West Coast should watch out for gray whales this time of year.

1.What are the statistics in paragraph 3 about?

A.Severe conditions facing gray whales.

B.An agreement to stop killing whales.

C.The evolving development of gray whales.

D.The number of gray whales in different times.

2.What’s Halaska’s attitude towards the population of gray whale?

A.Worried. B.Discouraged.

C.Optimistic. D.Uncaring.

3.What may be talked about following the last paragraph?

A.The importance of gray whales.

B.Gray whales’ living environment.

C.Things to do to help gray whales .

D.Ways to increase gray whales’ population.

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

A.Gray Whales Are Threatened by Whalers

B.Why Many Gray Whales Died on California’s Coast?

C.Gray Whales Are in Great Danger of Dying Out

D.Where Gray Whales Move to Avoid Being Hunt?

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Botswana lies immediately to the north of South Africa. It is bordered on the north and west by Namibia, on the north and east by Zimbabwe, and is connected by a narrow strip of land on the northern border to Zambia. Its territory consists almost entirely of a broad, flat, arid subtropical plateau(高原), though there are hills in the eastern part of the country.

In the northwest, the Okavango River empties into the Kalahari sands, creating the largest inland river delta in the world. While the Okavango Delta is home to relatively few large animals in comparison to other areas of Botswana, its clear waters and countless small islands are home to a variety of birds, plants, and smaller species of animals.

Nearby is Chobe National Park, a beautiful grassland reserve(保护区) that has gained international fame for its large elephant population. Southeast of Chobe are Botswana's large Makgadikgadi salt pans, home to numbers of blue wildebeest, several antelope species, and those international lovers of salt pans, flamingos(a kind of birds).

Almost the entire remaining portion of the country is covered by the Kalahari Desert--a varied environment of sand and grassland. Although this area of Botswana is where few people live, it is one of the richest wildlife areas in all of Africa.

Botswana's two largest parks, the Central Kalahari Game reserve and Gemsbok National Park, are found in this region.

Botswana's climate can get rather cool, particularly during the dry winter months of June to August when night occasionally brings frost. The rainy summer months (December through March) are best avoided for those interested in enjoying the best game viewing conditions.

72.South Africa is to the______of Botswana.

A.east     B.north   C.south   D.west

73.In the Okavango Delta we can find______.

A.a lot of large animals         B.many small islands

C.salt pans             D.polluted waters

74.If we want to see flamingo, we should go to_______ .

A.salt pans             B.Chobe National Park

C.Kalahari Desert          D.Gemsbok National Park

75.It is suggested that tourists visit Botswana in______.

A.December   B.March  C.January       D.July

76.What is the passage mainly about Botswana?

A.Location, geography and climate.     B.Living conditions, politics and salt pans.

C.Parks, animals and population.  D.Animals, races and sightseeing places.

高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

So there are four of them in this car heading north from Coleman in the heart of Texas to the town of Abilene (阿比林), some 53 miles away. It is a hot day, and the drive is dusty and boring. Someone has had the bright idea to interrupt a nice family game of dominoes (多米诺) to go on a four-hour round-trip to eat at a really not very good restaurant.

When they are back home again, one family member admits that she hasn’t enjoyed herself all that much. One by one they all confess that they would rather have stayed at home. “I only went along with it because I thought the rest of you wanted to go,” says everyone. No one wanted to go to Abilene. It had just happened.

This story was first told by Professor Jerry Harvey in an article published in 1974 called The Abilene Paradox (悖论) and other meditations on management. It offers a wonderful insight into the way that decisions can sometimes just emerge, without ever being consciously “made”.

Whether they mean to or not, groups exert a pressure to conform (顺从). A senior management team can find itself a long way down the track to a bad decision without realizing that the idea has very little support around the table.

Close-knit (组织严密的) teams are easily influenced by the pull of groupthink. The late Professor Janis suggested several ways in which teams can avoid it. Two key steps are to invite experts from outside into meetings, and to appoint at least one person to the role of “devil’s advocate” — a role that should be played by different people in different meetings.

1.The four family members have decided to go on a four-hour round-trip to the town of Abilene because _______.

A．they really like the restaurant they are going to

B．they are tired of the game they have been playing

C．they have not been to Abilene for a long time

D．everyone thinks all the other family members want to go

2.When they are back home, they find that______.

A．they have not really trusted each other

B．they have all enjoyed the trip except one family member

C．they would have had a better time if they had stayed at home

D．they have all had a good time although none of them wanted to go

3.A senior management team can make a bad decision because ______.

A．the idea has the support of everyone around the table

B．everyone on the team is too tired to think clearly

C．the group puts a pressure to conform

D．they understand what each member means

4.According to Professor Janis, at least one person should be appointed to the role of “devil’s advocate ” at each meeting so that _______.

A．the pull of groupthink can be avoided

B．each member will play a different role

C．team members can agree with each other more easily

D．experts from the outside can be invited into meetings

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

— Do you know the tower _____ in the heart of the city?

— Do you mean the one _____ to the north of the city library?

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

The entire cost of South-to –North project will be more than_____that of the Three Gorges project,which is expected to cost below us $ 22 billion.

A double  B  twice as many as  C twice than  D as much as twice

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

188. The truck is carrying a _____of bananas.  All these will be sent to the north of China.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

Some kinds of birds in winter fly to the south to ______ the cold in the north．

A．get away from      B．come up with

C．break away from    D．put up with

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

— Why do you do volunteer work in the North-West?

　　　　　　　　 — I___ to improve the lives of the children there through my efforts．

A．was trying　　　　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　 B．have tried

C．am trying　　　　　　　 　　　　　　　　　 D．tried

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析