Nature has its own way of balancing itself ou...

Nature has its own way of balancing itself out, but when we humans get involved, we tend to throw things out of control. Forests and oceans are natural carbon sinks that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, but since we’ve been pumping too much into the air, those sinks can’t keep up. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, led by biologist Tobias Erb, have figured out a way to supercharge plants to make them better at absorbing CO2, which could be a key defense against climate change.

Erb and his team figured out a way to make plants more efficient at absorbing carbon, so that they consumed more carbon in a shorter amount of time. “If you think about plants, they are efficient CO2-fixing filters, but they are not fast, ” Erb said. “I think there is a chance to improve existing biology with synthetic(人造的) biology.”

Erb’s team identified 17 enzymes(酶) from nine different organisms, re-engineering three of them, that had an enlarged carbon consumption. When those enzymes worked together as a team, they worked better at not only plants’ natural enzymes, but also themselves individually. Existing enzymes in plants consume about 5 to 10 molecules(摩尔) of CO2 per second. The team of enzymes that Erb used consumed 80 molecules per second.

So far, these enzymes have only been tested in test tubes in the lab, but the next step is real world testing where the enzymes would be introduced into plants to see if the same result occurs. If those tests show that plants really can be supercharged, we could have a new tool in the fight against climate change where not only do we protect the amazing carbon-absorbing forests we have, but we also add these super plants or an artificial leaf technology using the enzymes into other mixed fields.

1.Why can’t forests and oceans balance nature?

A. Because oceans and forests are getting smaller.

B. Because a large number of forests are cut down.

C. Because we human beings give off too much CO2.

D. Because there are too many creatures in the world.

2.Which is the key defense against climate change according to Erb and his team?

A. To increase the plants’ ability and efficiency to absorb CO2.

B. To make oceans and forests to absorb more CO2 quickly.

C. To reduce the human’s activities giving off too much CO2.

D. To increase the number of plants in the world.

3.What can we get from the last paragraph?

A. The enzymes have proved useful in real world.

B. The technology has worked against climate change.

C. The enzymes have not been used in the lab.

D. The technology may have a bright future.

4.This passage is intended to ________.

A. call on people to pay more attention to the balance of nature

B. introduce a possible way to better plants’ ability of absorbing CO2

C. analyze the cause and result of climate change related to plants

D. explore the possibility of using plants to fight against climate change

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Accidents happen, but when they destroy the delicate balance of nature and cause the whole world to suffer, they become disasters, and we  should do all we can to prevent them from happening again.

Bhopal chemical leak, December 1984, Bhopal, India

An explosion in the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India, released a deadly gas called methyl (甲基) isocyanate(异氰盐酸), which is used to make pesticides. The gas formed a cloud that killed 2500 people; another 50000- 100000 people became ill. Trees and plants in the area became yellow and brittle. The explosion was caused by a mechanical failure that was not noticed in time to stop it.

Exxon Valdez oil spill, March 1989, Alaska, U.S.

On March 24, 1989, 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound from the tanker Exxon Valdez when its hull hit a reef and tore open. The oil, which is not yet cleaned up after billions of dollars have been spent and the millions of birds, fish, and other wildlife have died, was caused by human error and could have been avoided.

Chernobyl, April 1986, USSR

At 1:23 A.M. on Saturday, April 26, 1986, the reactor blew at nuclear power plant in Chernobyl, ripping open the core, blowing the roof off the building, starting more than 30 fires, and allowing radioactive material to leak into the air. Some 31 people were killed and 200 people were treated for radiation poisoning. Still at risk are 135000 people from the 179 villages within 20 miles, of the plant who were exposed to the radiation before being evacuated. Glaring violations of safety rules were at the bottom of this tragic event.

Love Canal, 1953, New York, U.S.

Love Canal, a small town in upstate New York near Niagara Falls, was destroyed by waste from chemical plants. Beginning in 1947, chemical companies could legally dump their waste products into the canal. The area developed a foul smell, trees lost their bark, and leaves fell throughout the year. A health survey found that the drinking water contained excessive levels of 82 industrial chemicals, 7 of which were thought to cause cancer. The people of Love Canal had an unusually high rate of cancer and birth defects. Eventually, many of the houses had to be abandoned. Today, the town has been partly cleaned up and some families have moved back to the area.

Three Mile Island, 1979, Pennsylvania, U.S.

On March 28, 1979, the worst accident in U.S. nuclear reactor history occurred at the Three Mile Island power station, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. No one was killed, and very little radioactivity was released into the air when coolant (the fluid that keeps a machine cool) escaped from the reactor core due to a combination of mechanical failure and human error. After 10 years and $ 1 billion in cleanup costs, the lower extremes of the reactor are still so radioactive that workers must use remote - control equipment to remove the remaining fragment of fuel core.

1.This passage mainly discusses_______.

2.You can infer from the passage that the Bhopal Chemical leak_______.

3. It can be inferred from the passage that the people in Love Canal_______.

4.The best title for the article is ________.                                                                       A. Accidents in Some Countries    B. Disasters in Some Countries

C. Our Earth Is Out of Control         D How to Prevent Accidents from Happening Again

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

— Sally, was ________ problem solved?

— We were trying to think of ________ way out, but it was hard to find one.

A. the; a                                     B. a; a                       C. a; the                           D. the; the

高三英语选择题简单题查看答案及解析

--- Sally, was ________ problem solved?

--- We were trying to think of ________ way out, but it was hard to find one.

A. the; a      B. a; a          C. a; the     D. the; the

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

—Was ________ problem solved?

—We were trying to think of ________ way out, but it was difficult to find one.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

.

—Was _________________ problem solved?

—We were trying to think of _________________ way out, but it was difficult to find one.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

Only when our project has been approved of by the committee ______ to carry it out.

A. did we start　　　　　　 B. we started

C. can we start　　　　　　 D. we start

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

Only when our project has been approved of by the committee ______ to carry it out.

A. did we start　　　　　　 B. we started

C. can we start　　　　　　　　　 D. we start

高三英语单项填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

When we know somewhere well，we say we “know it like the back of our hand”. But new research has shown that we don’t actually know as much about our hands as we think we do.

Wider and shorter

Professor Matthew Longo at the University of London and his team did an experiment, covering the left hands of 100 people. Then they asked the people to point to where they thought their fingertips and knuckles (指关节) were. They made some quite big mistakes.

“People think their hand is wider than it actually is,” said Longo. The fingers also seem shorter than they are. This mistake gets worse as you go across the hand from the thumb to the little finger.

Sense of position

“It is connected to our sense of position,” explained Longo. This is our ability to tell where different parts of our bodies are, even when we can’t see them. “It tells us whether a joint is straight, or not” he said. It also tells us whether we are going up or down in an elevator. All this information comes from signs from nerves in real time. It’s like our brain has maps — maps that show the size and shape of our body. “This experiment tried to find those maps,” said Longo.

Strength(强度) of feeling

But these maps make mistakes. These mistakes may be made because of how the brain understands different parts of the skin. “Our brains ‘see’ areas as larger where the skin feels touch strongly,” said Longo. Body parts don’t appear as their true size, but appear bigger or smaller depending on how strongly they feel touch. Our lips, for example, have more nerves than our nose. So brain “sees” lips on its map of the body as being bigger than our nose. The same thing happens for other parts of the body that have lots of nerves.

Longo believes that more research in this area may help us to understand eating problem better, because people suffering from these problems may not know their bodies properly.

1.Which of following statement is TRUE about the experiment according to the article?

A. People think their body parts are larger than they actually are.

B. People made more mistakes about their little fingers length than their thumbs’ length.

C. People’s fingers are actually shorter than they think.

D. People were asked to draw their hands from memory

2.What does the underlined “it” in Paragraph 4 refer to?

A. The new experiment.　　 B. The location information.

C. The mistake people made.　　 D. The sizes of fingers and hands.

3.We can learn from the article that ________.

A. the maps of people’s bodies form before they are born

B. the maps of our body are based on information from nerves

C. our sense of position tells how different parts of the body work

D. how we feel about our body shape is only decided by our sense of position

4.We can infer from the article that ________.

A. the hand feels touch more strongly than fingers do

B. our lips have a weaker sense of touch than our nose

C. there are more nerves in the finger than in the hand

D. our sense of position should not be trusted because it is too often incorrect

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

Every people has its own way of saying things, its own special expressions. Many everyday American expressions are on colors.

Red is a hot color. Americans often use it to express heat. They may say they are red hot about something unfair. When they are red hot they are very angry about something. The small hot tasting peppers found in many Mexican foods are called red hots for their color and their fiery taste. Fast loud music is popular with many people. They may say the music is red hot, especially the kind called Dixieland jazz.

Pink is a lighter kind of red. People sometimes say they are in the pick when they are in good health. The expression was first used in America at the beginning of the twentieth century. It probably comes from the fact that many babies are born with a nice pink color that shows that they are in good health.

Blue is a cool color. The traditional blues music in the United States is the opposite of red hot music. Blues is slow, sad and soulful. Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded a famous song – Mood Indigo – about the deep blue color, indigo. In the words of the song: “You ain’t been blue till you’ve had that Mood Indigo.” Someone who is blue is very sad.

The color green is natural for trees and grass. But it is an unnatural color for humans. A person who has a sick feeling stomach may say she feels a little green. A passenger on a boat who is feeling very sick from high waves may look very green.

Sometimes a person may be upset because he does not have something as nice as a friend has, like a fast new car. That person may say he is green with envy. Some people are green with envy because a friend has more dollars or greenbacks. Dollars are called greenbacks because that is the color of the back side of the paper money.

The color black is used often in expressions. People describe a day in which everything goes wrong as a black day. The date of a major tragedy is remembered as a black day. A blacklist is illegal now. But at one time, some businesses refused to employ people who were on a blacklist for belonging to unpopular organizations.

1.If you had your wallet stolen while doing some shopping, you may call it ________.

2.Suppose a Mr. Brown says he is very happy because his three children are all in the pink, this means all his children are ________.

3.When she got home and found nothing had been done by her husband, Jane was really ________.

4.In the following paragraph, the writer might tell the reader something about ________.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析