Some 30,000years ago, artists who lived in ca...

Some 30,000years ago, artists who lived in caves in Europe painted pictures of the animals around them: panthers, hyenas, rhinos, cave lions, mammoths and other creatures which have been extinct for a long time. The paintings were highly realistic. Some even showed movement.

The artwork, more than a thousand drawings, is considered the oldest group of human cave drawings which have ever been discovered. They were preserved because the cave was sealed--closed off--for more or less 23,000 years.

Fast forward to December 18, 1994, a group of French cave scientists were exploring caves in southern France. Jean-Marie Chauvet, who led the group then, describes the process of discovering the cave paintings.”At that time I was in the front, Eliette just walked behind me, Christian behind. Eliette said she saw two marks made with red ochre and she said, ‘They came here.’And at this very moment everything began. The drawings and everything linked to the parietal art (壁画). That is where it started.”

Cave art expert Jean Clottes reviewed the paintings. “I was amazed at the number of paintings there were and paintings of their quality and particularly in front of the panel of the horses.”

Scientific analysis confirmed the prehistoric date of the artwork. Studies showed the drawings were created tens of thousands of years ago, before human history was written. The United Nations’cultural agency UNESCO lists the cave as a World Heritage Site. They say that the drawings form a remarkable expression of early human artistic creation of grand excellence and variety.

The Chauvet Cave has been named after the explorer who first entered it. However, its environment and drawings are too fragile to be visited by human beings. So the cave is closed, and only people there for scientific purposes can go inside and see the artwork.

However, French authorities asked experts to create an exact copy of the cave, called Pont d’Arc Cavern. The copy, which we also call replica, cost more than 59million dollars to build. It opened at the end of April in France.

Pascal Terrasse is the president of the cavern. He says everyone will be able to experience the thrill of looking at drawings made by the first humans in Europe. He says the place is magic because it is done so well. Authorities say they think as many as 400,000people will be allowed to visit Pont d’Arc Cavern every year.

1.According to the passage, the first scientist to enter the cave was ________.

A.Christian B.Eliette

C.Clottes D.Chauvet

2.According to Jean Clottes’ words in Paragraph 4, the paintings in the cave were ________.

A.abstract B.superior

C.creative D.inspiring

3.Which of the following statements is TRUE about the Chauvet Cave?

A.It was closed off for more than 30, 000years.

B.It is thought to be the origin of modern parietal art.

C.The environment and artwork there are very easy to damage.

D.The majority of drawings there are about the extinct animals.

4.The purpose of creating Pont d’Arc Cavern is to ________.

A.show admiration for the earliest artists in Europe

B.arouse visitors’awareness of protecting ancient art

C.offer visitors chances to view the wonderful artwork

D.collect money for the perseverance of the Chauvet Cave.

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

阅读理解。

Years ago, when I was a poor artist trying to sell my paintings in local galleries, I_1. (live) in the heart of a city. The rent for my apartment was really cheap 2. it was in the middle of one of the busiest neighborhoods in town. People who visited me used to ask me 3. I could sleep. “Doesn't the sound of the traffic bother you? How can you get used to _4. much noise？” You see, there were also rows and rows of shops and bars playing loud music day and night and my apartment was above a really loud and noisy 5.. But I found it all fascinating. If I were ever short6. cash and couldn't afford to do anything much, which in those days was usually the case, I could　 always go outside and take 7. look around. You see, there were always a great number of tourists visiting the shops, so I could always find someone 8.(interest) to talk with. And Joe, the owner of the bar below me, could always give me a little money to survive on in exchange for _9._ (do) a few odd jobs for him. At the time, I suppose, I thought I was poor. Sometimes, we don't realize how _10. (fortune) we are, do we?

高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析

The arm bones of women who lived 7-000 years ago show a surprising level of strength-even higher than today's professional athletes. That's according to a first-ever study comparing prehistoric(史前的)bones to those of living people. The finding suggests a revision of history — the everyday lives of prehistoric women were filled with hard labor, rather than just sitting at home doing lighter tasks while the men struggled and fought for life.

“Before the study, there are no clear records describing how our ancient ancestors lived. It can be easy to forget that bone is a living tissue, one that responds to the difficulties we put our bodies through,” said lead author Alison Macintosh. “Physical force and muscle activity both put pressure on the bone. The bone reacts by changing in shape, thickness and other aspects over time. ”

Previous studies only compared female bones to contemporary male bones, the researchers said — and that's a problem, because the response of male bones to stress and change is much bigger than that of women. For instance, as humans moved from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle constantly on the move to a more settled agrarian (农耕的)one, changes can be observed in the structure of the shinbone (胫骨) 一 and these changes were much more evident in men.

However, a comparison of the bones of prehistoric women to the bonos of living female athletes can help us work out a more accurate picture of what those prehistoric women were doing. “By analyzing the bones of living people and comparing them to the ancient hones, we can start to explain the kinds of labor our ancestors were performing,” Macintosh said. What they found was that women's leg strength hasn’t changed a great deal, but their arms used to be very powerful. Prehistoric women, the researchers found, had arm strength 11〜16 percent stronger than those of modern rowers, and 30 percent stronger than those of non-athletes.

1.What does the study tell about prehistoric women?

A. They were stronger than men.

B. They had lighter bones than men.

C. They did tough tasks as the men.

D. They spent most time staying at home.

2.What problem did previous studies on prehistoric bones have?

A. They lacked enough comparison.

B. They only studied men's bones.

C. They focused little on bones.

D. They ignored the lifestyles.

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

A. Bones’ structure.

B. Bones' thickness.

C. Bones’ response to stress.

D. Bones’ stress from hard labor.

4.What can we learn from the last paragraph?

A. It’s still hard to explain our ancestors' lifestyle.

B. Prehistoric women went through much suffering.

C. Women's arms have become much stronger over time.

D. Prehistoric women are stronger than contemporary females.

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

When my grandmother, who had Alzheimer’s disease, went to live in the nurses station 5 years ago, I tried many things to keep her occupied. But it was only her word search book that kept her ______. Gradually, she began to think of it as her job and it kept her from ______.

Last night, when I came to her and said hello, she just looked at me ______. I introduced myself and told her I was her granddaughter. She seemed ______ about who I was. Obviously, she tried to find this word in her ______. So I helped her find it with fingers and ______ it for her with a pencil.

Later, I suggested we go outside, and she agreed. Then she was just staring at me as if trying to figure me out. I told her ______ I was her granddaughter. “Oh, okay” she said ______ but still didn’t really know. She just wanted to be kind.

And after we went ______ and I got her ready for and into bed, she told me to come ______ and we kissed and hugged real tight ______ we did for the first time. It wasn’t the first time though and sooner or later there would be a ______ time.

For now, I feel the blessing of the ______ although I have a sinking feeling that our days are numbered. It doesn’t ______ if the word “granddaughter” holds no ______ anymore — we are bound by love not labels.

1.A.time B.interest C.talent D.knowledge

2.A.trembling B.moving C.whispering D.wandering

3.A.curiously B.angrily C.naturally D.proudly

4.A.shocked B.amazed C.puzzled D.worried

5.A.dictionary B.mind C.room D.book

6.A.decorated B.marked C.associated D.tracked

7.A.patiently B.bravely C.regularly D.casually

8.A.joking B.laughing C.smiling D.crying

9.A.along B.ahead C.outside D.inside

10.A.slower B.closer C.straighter D.later

11.A.as if B.so that C.even if D.in case

12.A.perfect B.free C.final D.normal

13.A.event B.break C.gift D.moment

14.A.help B.matter C.work D.exist

15.A.meaning B.change C.design D.advantage

高三英语完形填空中等难度题查看答案及解析

The discovery of a dwarfed (矮个的) “human being” who lived in Flores, Indonesia, up to 18,000 years ago is changing the way we think about the human family. This “Flores Human” was three foot tall and her brain was smaller than that of the average chimp (黑猩猩), yet she and her relatives apparently lived fully human lives. They seem to have made tools, worked together to find food and cook it, and perhaps even buried their dead with ceremony.

It was a major surprise to find tools associated with the new human family member. The tools are like those formerly seen only with European fossils (化石 ) from our own species, Homo sapiens (智人 ), and the oldest of them were made 94,000 years ago. Homo sapiens is thought to have arrived in the island about 40,000 years ago, much too late to be responsible for the tools. If this tiny human made the tools, the inside structure (结构 ) of its brain must have been more like our own than a chimp’s, despite being just a third the size of ours.

This “new human” was suspected to be a dwarfed branch of Homo erectus (直立人 ). When creatures are separated in regions with rare resources but few enemies, being big is a disadvantage, and evolution tends to shrink them, a process known as island dwarfing. Could natural selection make a human smaller while keeping － even improving － mental ability? Quite possibly, believes Christopher Wills of the University of California.

Has the “Flores Human” even shown the ability of language? “I find it difficult to imagine that people could make tools, use fire, and kill large animals without fairly advanced communication,” Wills says. Did “Flores Human” possess the basic components of human culture － such as the burying of the dead with ceremony? Emiliano Bruner of the Italian Institute points out that Indonesia’s hot, wet environment is bad for fossilization. It is reasonable to assume, he says, that the 18,000-year-old bones of the most complete Flores woman were well-preserved because she was buried with special care.

1.According to the passage, “Flores Human” __________.

A. lived a partly human life

B. was a branch of Homo sapiens

C. used tools before Homo sapiens arrived

D. had a brain as large as a common chimp’s

2.The underlined part “this tiny human” in Paragraph 2 refers to __________.

A. a chip       B. Flores Human     C. Homo sapiens     D. Homo erectus

3.This passage mainly talks about __________.

A. the tools made by “Flores Human”

B. the language used by “Flores Human”

C. the evolution of “Flores Human”

D. the major surprising findings about “Flores Human”

4.According to the passage, it is believed that “Flores Human” __________.

A. was dwarfed by its enemies

B. could use language

C. left a lot of fossils in the hot and wet environment

D. reached Flores 40,000 years ago

高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析

The first drawings on walls appeared in caves thousands of years ago. Later the Ancient Romans and Greeks wrote their names and protest poems on buildings. Modern graffiti seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and by the late sixties it had reached New York. The new art form really took off in the 1970s, when people began writing their names, or “tags”, on buildings all over the city. In the mid-seventies it was sometimes hard to see out of a subway car window, because the trains were completely covered in spray paintings known as masterpieces.

In the early days, the “taggers” were part of street crowds who were concerned with marking their territory(领地). They worked in groups called “crews” and called what they did “writing” — the term “graffiti” was first used by The New York Times and the novelist Norman Mailer. Art galleries in New York began buying graffiti in the early seventies. But at the same time that it began to be regarded as an art form, John Lindsay, the then mayor of New York, declared the first war on graffiti. By the 1980s it became much harder to write on subway trains without being caught, and instead many of the more established graffiti artists began using roofs of buildings.

The debate over whether graffiti is art or deliberate damage is still going on. Peter Vallone, a New York city councilor, thinks that graffiti done with permission can be art, but if it is on someone else’s property it becomes a crime. “I have a message for the graffiti destroyers out there,” he said recently, “and your freedom of expression ends where my property begins.” On the other hand, Felix, a member of the Berlin-based group Reclaim Your City, says that artists are reclaiming cities for the public from advertisers, and that graffiti represents freedom and makes cities livelier.

For decades graffiti has been a springboard to international fame for a few. Jean-Michel Basquiat began spraying on the street in the 1970s before becoming a respected artist in the 80s. The Frenchman Blek le Rat and the British artist Banksy have achieved international fame by producing complex works with stencils(模板), often making political or humorous points. Works by Banksy have been sold for over £ 100,000. Graffiti is now sometimes big business.

1.Why was the seventies an important decade in the history of graffiti?

A. That was when modern graffiti first became really popular.

B. That was when modern graffiti first appeared.

C. That was when graffiti first reached New York.

D. That was when graffiti first appeared on subway car windows

2.What does the underlined word “taggers” in the second paragraph mean?

A. Names of people who graffitied.

B. Building where paints were sprayed.

C. People who marked surface with graffiti.

D. People who were interested in graffiti.

3.What can we know from the third paragraph?

A. New Yorkers think graffiti is art.

B. Graffiti was accepted by officials completely.

C. Buildings can be covered with graffiti freely.

D. There were once advertisements on city surface.

4.What is the author’s final opinion about graffiti?

A. Graffiti has now become mainstream and can benefit artists.

B. Graffiti is not a good way to become a respected artist.

C. Some popular graffiti artists end up being ignored by the art world.

D. Some graffiti caused inconvenience to the local environment.

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

The first drawings on walls appeared in caves thousands of years ago. Later the Ancient Romans and Greeks wrote their names and protest poems on buildings. Modern graffiti seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and by the late sixties it had reached New York. The new art form really took off in the 1970s, when people began writing their names, or “tags”, on buildings all over the city. In the mid-seventies it was sometimes hard to see out of a subway car window, because the trains were completely covered in spray paintings known as masterpieces.

In the early days, the “taggers” were part of street crowds who were concerned with marking their territory (领地）. They worked in groups called “crews” and called what they did “writing”-the term “graffiti” was first used by The New York Times and the novelist Norman Mailer. Art galleries in New York began buying graffiti in the early seventies. But at the same time that it began to be regarded as an art form, John Lindsay, the then mayor of New York, declared the first war on graffiti. By the 1980s it became much harder to write on subway trains without being caught, and instead many of the more established graffiti artists began using roofs of buildings.

The debate over whether graffiti is art or deliberate damage is still going on. Peter Vallone, a New York city councilor, thinks that graffiti done with permission can be art, but if it is on someone else’s property it becomes a crime. “I have a message for the graffiti destroyers out there,” he said recently, “and your freedom of expression ends where my property begins.” On the other hand, Felix, a member of the Berlin-based group Reclaim Your City, says that artists are reclaiming cities for the public from advertisers, and that graffiti represents freedom and makes cities livelier.

For decades graffiti has been a springboard to international fame for a few. Jean-Michel Basquiat began spraying on the street in the 1970s before becoming a respected artist in the 80s. The Frenchman Blek le Rat and the British artist Banksy have achieved international fame by producing complex works with stencils (模板), often making political or humorous points. Works by Banksy have been sold for over £ 100,000. Graffiti is now sometimes big business.

1.Why was the seventies an important decade in the history of graffiti?

A. That was when modern graffiti first appeared.

B. That was when modern graffiti first became really popular.

C. That was when graffiti first reached New York.

D. That was when graffiti first appeared on subway car windows

2.What does the underlined word “taggers” in the second paragraph mean?

A. Names of people who graffitied.

B. Building where paints were sprayed.

C. People who marked surface with graffiti.

D. People who were interested in graffiti.

3.What can we know from the third paragraph?

A. New Yorkers think graffiti is art.

B. Graffiti was accepted by officials completely.

C. Buildings can be covered with graffiti freely.

D. There were once advertisements on city surface.

4.What is the author’s final opinion about graffiti?

A. Graffiti has now become mainstream and can benefit artists.

B. Graffiti is not a good way to become a respected artist.

C. Some popular graffiti artists end up being ignored by the art world.

D. Some graffiti caused inconvenience to the local environment.

高三英语阅读理解困难题查看答案及解析

This story_______ in a faraway village in Europe many years ago.

高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析

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

Edmund Halley was an English scientist who lived over 200 years ago. He studied the observations of comets (彗星) which other scientists had made. The orbit（轨道）of one particular comet was a very difficult mathematical problem. He could not figure it out. Neither could other scientists who dealt with such problems.

However, Halley had a friend named Isaac Newton, who was a brilliant mathematician. Newton thought he had already worked out that problem, but he could not find the papers on which he had done it. He told Halley that the orbit of a comet had the shape of an ellipse(椭圆形).

Now Halley set to work. He figured out(解决，计算出)the orbits of some of the comets that had been observed by scientists. He made a surprising discovery. The comets that had appeared in the years 1531, 1607, and 1682 all had the same orbit. Yet their appearance had been 75 to 76 years apart.

This seemed very strange to Halley. Three different comets followed the same orbit. The more Halley thought about it, the more he thought that there had not been three different comets as people thought. He decided that they had simply seen the same comet three times. The comet had gone away and had come back again.

It was an astonishing idea! Halley felt certain to make a prediction(预言)of what would happen in the future. He decided that this would appear in the year 1758. There were 53 years to go before Halley’s prediction could be tested. In 1758 the comet appeared in the sky. Halley did not see it, for he had died some years before. Ever since then that comet had been called Halley’s comet, in his honor.

1.Edmund Halley figured out the orbit of ____.

A. some different comets appearing several times

B. the same comet appearing at different times

C. three different comets appearing at the same time

D. several comets appearing at the same time

2.Halley made his discovery ____.

A. by doing experiments

B. by means of his own careful observation

C. by using the working of other scientists

D. by chance

3.Halley made a surprising, but correct prediction in the year____.

A. 1704　 　　 B. 1705　　　 C. 1706　 　　 D. 1707

4.This passage in general is about ____.

A. Halley and other scientists　 B. the orbit of a comet

C. Newton and Halley　　　　　　　　 D. Halley and his discovery

高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析