More than two hundred years ago the United St...

More than two hundred years ago the United States _______ from the British Empire and became an independent country.

高二英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

More than two hundred years ago the United States _______ from the British Empire and became an independent country.

A. broke down     B. broke out       C. broke away          D. broke off

高二英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

Every year, hundreds of millions of Monarch Butterflies (黑脉金斑蝶) from Canada and the United States journey as far as 2, 500 miles to the forests of Michoacan, Mexico, a place which has the world’s largest insect migration. It’s such a breathtaking sight, but as always, human greed is threatening to destroy it.

The Monarch Butterflies start to arrive in Michoacan in late October to make their winter home in the trees high up in the mountains of the natural reserve. Once there, they gather together in large masses. These masses often become so heavy that they cause tree branches to bend or even break. But there’s a purpose of all these massing - it allows the butterflies to survive in the low nighttime temperatures at these high altitudes.

The Michoacan Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary (保护区) is most impressive during the months of February and March, just before the winged insects begin their long journey home.

Mexico’s Butterfly Forest is a shelter protected by law, and one of the country’s most popular sights, but that hasn’t stopped people from slowly but steadily destroying it.

Illegal woodcutting in the heart of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve has been a longstanding problem, but criminals are rarely brought to justice. They are often set free after paying some money.

Just last month, an even greater threat rose in Michoacan’s butterfly home. The country’s largest mining corporation gained the right to reopen an old mine in the heart of the monarch reserve. Experts believe that if the mine is reopened, it will likely spell the end of this magical place.

And as if all this wasn’t bad enough, the increasing use of herbicides (除草剂) in the American corn belt has led to the decrease of a plant which is essential to the monarchs’ development from egg into butterfly.

1.When do the Monarch Butterflies begin to fly back to Canada?

A.In January. B.After March. C.In October. D.In December.

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

A.The weather. B.The reserve. C.The massing. D.The forest.

3.What can we know about the protection of Monarch Butterflies in Mexico?

A.It is very satisfying.

B.It should be strengthened.

C.It cost the government a lot.

D.It has saved many butterflies.

4.What can we infer from the last two paragraphs?

A.Monarch Butterflies have a worrying future.

B.America has many mines waiting for exploration.

C.Monarch Butterflies live in the centre of an old mine.

D.The use of herbicides will let Monarch Butterflies lay fewer eggs.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

One morning, more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor called Elias Howe finally fell asleep. He had been working all night on the design of a sewing machine but he had run into a very difficult problem: It seemed impossible to get the thread to run smoothly around the needle.

Though he was tired, Howe slept badly. He turned and turned. Then he had a dream.He dreamt that he had been caught by terrible savages whose king wanted to kill him and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine. When he tried to do so, Howe ran into the same problem as before. The thread kept getting caught around the needle. The king flew into the cage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe. They came up towards him with their spears raised. But suddenly the inventor noticed something. There was a hole in the tip of each spear. The inventor awoke from the dream, realizing that he had just found the answer to the problem. Instead of trying to get the thread to run around the needle, he should make it run through a small hole in the center of the needle. This was the simple idea that finally made Howe design and build the first really practised sewing machine.

Elias Howes was not the only one in finding the answer to his problem in this way.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light, said his best ideas came into him in dreams. So did the great physicist Albert Einstein. Charlotte Bronte also drew in her dreams in writing Jane Eyre.

To know the value of dreams, you have to understand what happens when you are asleep. Even then, a part of your mind is still working. This unconscious(无意识的), but still active part understands your experiences and goes to work on the problems you have had during the day. It stores all sorts of information that you may have forgotten or never have really noticed. It is only when you fall asleep that this part of the brain can send messages to the part you use when you are awake. However, the unconscious part acts in a special way. It uses strange images which the conscious part may not understand at first. This is why dreams are sometimes called “secret messages to ourselves”.

1.The problem Howe was trying to solve was________.

A. what kind of thread to use

B. how to design a needle which would not break

C. where to put the needle

D. how to prevent the thread from getting caught around the needle

2.Thomas Edison is spoken of because _____ .

A. he also tried to invent a sewing machine

B. he got some of his ideas from dreams

C. he was one of Howe's best friends

D. he also had difficulty in falling asleep

3.Dreams are sometimes called“secret messages to ourselves” because ________ .

A. strange images are used to communicate ideas

B. images which have no meaning are used

C. we can never understand the real meaning

D. only specially trained people can understand them

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

Early one morning, more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor called Elias Howe finally fell asleep. He had been working all night on the design of a sewing machine but he had run into a very difficult problem: It seemed impossible to get the thread to run smoothly around the needle.

Though he was tired, Howe slept badly. He turned and turned. Then he had a dream. He dreamt that he had been caught by terrible savages whose king wanted to kill him and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine. When he tried to do so, Howe ran into the same problem as before. The thread kept getting caught around the needle. The king flew into the cage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe. They came up towards him with their spears raised. But suddenly the inventor noticed something. There was a hole in the tip of each spear. The inventor awoke from the dream, realizing that he had just found the answer to the problem. Instead of trying to get the thread to run around the needle, he should make it run through a small hole in the center of the needle. This was the simple idea that finally made Howe design and build the first really practiced sewing machine.

Elias Howe was not the only one in finding the answer to his problem in this way.

Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light, said his best ideas came into him in dreams. So did the great physicist Albert Einstein. Charlotte Bronte also drew in her dreams in writing Jane Eyre.

To know the value of dreams, you have to understand what happens when you are asleep. Even then, a part of your mind is still working. This unconscious(无意识的), but still active part understands your experiences and goes to work on the problems you have had during the day. It stores all sorts of information that you may have forgotten or never have really noticed. It is only when you fall asleep that this part of the brain can send messages to the part you use when you are awake. However, the unconscious part acts in a special way. It uses strange images which the conscious part may not understand at first. This is why dreams are sometimes called “secret messages to ourselves”.

1.According to the passage, Elias Howe was________.

A. the first person we know of who solved problems in his sleep

B. much more hard-working than other inventors

C. the first person to design a sewing machine that really worked

D. the only person at the time who knew the value of dreams

2.The problem Howe was trying to solve was________.

A. what kind of thread to use

B. how to design a needle which would not break

C. where to put the needle

D. how to prevent the thread from getting caught around the needle

3.Thomas Edison is spoken of because________.

A. he also tried to invent a sewing machine

B. he got some of his ideas from dreams

C. he was one of Howe’s best friends

D. he also had difficulty in falling asleep

4.Dreams are sometimes called “secret messages to ourselves” because ________.

A. strange images are used to communicate ideas

B. images which have no meaning are used

C. we can never understand the real meaning

D. only specially trained people can understand them

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Washington, April 4----- The United States has more than 90 million families for the first time, but each contains fewer people on average than ever, the Census Bureau(统计局) reported today.

The 90,031,000 families in the United States averaged 2.64 members each as of last July 1.“The reason is, in effect, changes in the age structure,” explained Campbell Gibson, a population researcher for the bureau. Most Americans born in the great explosion of births are now in their 20’s and 30’s when they most likely to set up families, he said.

The fact that many are doing so increased the number of families from 80.4 million in 1980 t0 88.8 million in 1986 and past the 90 million mark last summer.

At the same time, the average number of people per family dropped from 2.75 in 1985 to 2.65 in 1986 and then to 2.64, Mr Gibson said.

By comparison, the 1970 Census found the average family contained 3.14 people. Families averaged more than four people in 1939 and more than five in 1880.

The growing number of ever---- smaller families is still going on, but Mr Gibson pointed out that family growth was not the same as population increase in the 1970’s.

The same age factors that are increasing the number of families also happened then, but in the 1970’s the proportion(比例) of families in each age group was also growing.

That hasn’t continued in the 1980’s for a number of possible reasons, Mr Gibson said. For example, in the 1980’s more young people have chosen to remain home with their parents instead of setting up housekeeping on their own, as many did in the 1970’s.

This could be caused by the increasing cost of housing, he said. Delays in marriage while young people go to work and school, have also been widely reported as a factor, but it was not the only factor for the family changes.

1.The smaller figure of families reported here is _________.

2.What’s the reporter’s attitude towards the present situation?

A. People should get married at later age.

3.From the last paragraph we may infer that________.

A. delay in marriage will not help the number of the families

4. The underlined word “factor” in the passage means_________.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Up till about 130 years ago, newspapers in the United States attracted only the most serious readers. They used no illustration (插图) and the articles were about politics or business.

Two men changed that - Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World and William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal. Pulitzer bought the New York World in 1883. He changed it from a traditional newspaper into a very exciting one overnight. He added lots of illustrations and he told his reporters to write articles on every crime they could find. And they did. One of them-a woman reporter, even pretended she was mad and was sent to a hospital. She then wrote many articles about the poor treatment of patients in those hospitals where mad men were kept.

In 1895, Hearst came to New York from California. He wanted the Journal to be more exciting than the World. He also wanted it to be cheaper, so he lowered the price to a penny. Hearst attracted attention because his newspaper headings were bigger than anyone else’s. He often says, “Big print makes big news.”

Pulitzer and Hearst did anything they could to sell newspapers. For example, Hearst sent Frederic Remington, the famous illustrator, to draw pictures of the Spanish-American War. When he got there, he told Hearst that no fighting was going on, Hearst answered, “You provide the pictures. I’ll provide the war.”

1.What kind of news did American newspapers carry 130 years ago?

A.Only serious matters. B.All kinds of exciting news.

C.Crimes and mad people. D.The treatment of patients in hospital.

2.What can we know about the woman reporter in the second paragraph?

A.She helped Joseph Pulitzer buy the New York Journal.

B.She was forced to be mad and was sent to a hospital.

C.She learned a lot about the real life of the mad patients in hospital.

D.She made the newspaper from traditional to exciting.

3.Pulitzer and Hearst used all the means EXCEPT ________ to make newspapers exciting.

A.adding illustrations into newspapers

B.satisfying the needs of politicians

C.getting the reporters to write about crimes

D.printing big newspaper headings

4.What does this passage mainly talk about?

A.The difficulties that the newspaper owners faced.

B.Two most famous reporters of the United States.

C.Newspaper owners were fond of crimes and war.

D.Two important men changed newspapers greatly.

高二英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

Up till about 130 years ago, newspapers in the United States attracted only the most serious readers. They used no illustration (插图) and the articles were about politics or business.

Two men changed that - Joseph Pulitzer bought the New York World and William Randolph Hearst of the New York Journal. Pulitzer bought the New York World in 1883. He changed it from a traditional newspaper into a very exciting one overnight. He added lots of illustrations and he told his reporters to write articles on every crime they could find. And they did. One of them-a woman reporter, even pretended she was mad and was sent to a hospital. She then wrote many articles about the poor treatment of patients in those hospitals where mad men were kept.

In 1895, Hearst came to New York from California. He wanted the Journal to be more exciting than the world. He also wanted it to be cheaper, so he lowered the price to a penny. Hearst attracted attention because his newspaper headings were bigger than anyone else’s. He often says, “Big print makes big news.”

Pulitzer and Hearst did anything they could to sell newspapers. For example, Hearst sent Frederic Remington, the famous illustrator, to draw pictures of the Spanish-American War. When he got there, he told Hearst that no fighting was going on, Hearst answered, “You provide the pictures. I’ll provide the war.”

1.What kind of news did American newspapers carry 130 years ago?

A.Only serious matters. B.All kinds of exciting news.

C.Crimes and mad people. D.The treatment of patients in hospital.

2.What can we know about the woman reporter in the second paragraph?

A.She helped Joseph Pulitzer buy the New York Journal.

B.She was forced to be mad and was sent to a hospital.

C.She learned a lot about the real life of the mad patients in hospital.

D.She made the newspaper from traditional to exciting.

3.What does this passage mainly talk about?

A.The difficulties that the newspaper owners faced.

B.Two most famous reporters of the United States.

C.Newspaper owners were fond of crimes and war.

D.Two important men changed newspapers greatly

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

Although the United States covers so much land and the land produces far more food than the present population needs，its people are by now almost entirely an urban society. Less than a tenth of the people are engaged in agriculture and forestry(林业), and most of the rest live in or around towns，small and large．Here the traditional picture is changing: every small town may still be very like other small towns，and the typical small town may represent a widely accepted view of the country，but most Americans do not live in small towns any more. Half the population now lives in some thirty metropolitan areas(1arge cities with their suburbs, of more than a million people each—a larger proportion than in Germany or England，let alone France). The statistics(统计)of urban and rural population should be treated with caution because so many people who live in areas classified as rural travel by car to work in a nearby town each day. As the rush to live out of town continues，rural areas within reach of towns are gradually filled with houses, so that it is hard to say at what moment a piece of country becomes a suburb. But more and more the typical American lives in a metropolitan rather than a small town environment．

1.If now America has 250 million people．how many of them are engaged in agriculture and forestry?

2.Which of the following four countries has the smallest proportion of people living in metropolitan areas?

3.What’s the meaning of the word“metropolitan”in the middle of the passage?

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

As the United States nears the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that killed more than 3,000 people, President Obama announced Sunday night that the al Qaeda（基地组织） leader and mastermind of that horrific day, Osama bin Laden, has been killed.

CNN reports that a senior government official confirmed that bin Laden was shot by a small team of U.S. soldiers while in a mansion with family members outside Islamabad（伊斯兰堡）. His body is now in American custody（拘押） and is being handled according to Islamic customs. Three other adult men were killed in the firefight, including a son of bin Laden's, who was a senior member of the terrorist organization.

"Justice has been done," the president announced, saying that the operation he ordered after receiving intelligence information is "the most significant achievement to date in our nation's effort to defeat al-Qaeda."

The immediate reactions ranged from cautious to ecstatic. Crowds cheered outside the White House. But officials said a "worldwide caution" would be set for Americans in case of al Qaeda retaliation（报复）.

Will bin Laden's death be the justice Americans have sought for nearly a decade?

Gordon Felt, president of Families of Flight 93, said it does bring comfort.

"This is important news for us, and for the world. It cannot ease our pain, or bring back our loved ones. It does bring a measure of comfort that the mastermind of the September 11th tragedy and the face of global terror can no longer spread his evil," Felt said.

President Obama says this victory does not close the book.

"His death does not mark the end of our effort. There's no doubt that al Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must and we will remain cautious," he noted.

1.The underlined word “ecstatic” most probably means _________.

A. scared              B. extremely happy and excited

C. doubtful            D. amazed

2.The author mentions all of the items listed below EXCEPT_________.

A. Four people were killed in the firefight.

B. Families of the victims in the 9/11 attacks celebrated together.

C. President Obama thought highly of the Anti-Terrorist Military Action

D. Obama thought that al Qaeda will continue attack against the United States.

3.It can be inferred from the text _________.

A. The 9/11 attacks happened on September 11, 2001.

B. Osama bin Laden has three sons.

C. Some soldiers were injured in the firefight.

D. More than 3000 people were killed in the 9/11 attacks.

4.From the last paragraph we can learn that _________.

A. Osama bin Laden’s death will put an end to terrorism.

B. President Obama doesn’t think bin Laden's death is a victory.

C. The United States will make efforts to defeat the al-Qaeda

D. The al Qaeda has a new leader now.

高二英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析