湖南省五市十校2016高三12月联考英语试题

　　第二部分 阅读理解

　　(共两节，满分40分)

　　第一节 (共15小题;每小题2分，满分30分)

　　阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和 D)中，选出最佳选项。

　　A

　　Washington Sightseeing Guide

　　White House – Public tours of the White House have been offered since Thomas Jefferson was president, but you can’t just drop in. Visits to the White House are in high demand, and you must make your request through your member of Congress(国会) up to six months, and no fewer than 21 days, before your visit. Be sure to check the White House tour-info Web site to make sure about the personal identification you’ll need. And before the day of your visit, call 202-456-7041 to confirm the tour schedule.

　　Lincoln’s Cottage – Lincoln’s Cottage, the hilltop home where President Lincoln lived during part of the Civil War, is simply furnished but features lighting effects and actors’ recordings that reveal Lincoln’s thoughts on slavery and the war. “In the library you can actually see the ghost lines of where the library shelves would have been,” says cottage director Erin Carlson Mast. “We haven’t re-created the bookshelves because that was such an amazing moment of discovery for us that we wanted to preserve that so people can have that moment of discovery themselves.”

　　Library of Congress – The Library of Congress is housed in three buildings: the Thomas Jefferson Building, James Madison Memorial Building and the John Adams Building. Although trying to see all of it in one day is possible, it’s probably best to do a little thinking ahead and figure out which areas you’d really like to explore (i.e. when your feet start to hurt, you won’t feel so bad about not catching everything). The most popular visitor destination is the Thomas Jefferson Building, but there are things worth seeing – murals(壁画), sculptures, performances – elsewhere in the complex.

　　21. Which is true about the White House? www.2abc8.com

　　A. It is a new tourist attraction.

　　B. It is open only to members of Congress.

　　C. A reservation for a visit is required.

　　D. You should call 202-456-7041 during your visit.

　　22. In Lincoln’s Cottage, you can ______.

　　A. see actors giving performances

　　B. see the bookshelves in the study

　　C. hear the recorded voice of Lincoln

　　D. learn about Lincoln’s opinions on slavery

　　23. The paragraph about the Library of Congress implies that ______.

　　A. there is so much to see there

　　B. there are so many visitors there

　　C. you needn’t spend so much time there

　　D. you should drive there instead of walking

　　B

　　Mother’s Day is coming up. Maybe your gift is wrapped and your dinner plans booked for mom, step-mom, grandmother – whoever the person is who fed, cared for, taught and loved you.

　　But there are other people who said their most special Mother’s Day memories rarely dealt with beautifully wrapped objects, but rather, the ways people showed they cared.

　　Mother’s Day 2012 was the last one Jannet Walsh was able to celebrate with her mother, Margaret, who had a stroke (中风) in 2009. In her last few years, Walsh always shot photos and videos of their visits together, and with Walsh’s West Highland White Terrier, Andrew.

　　“My mother had a dog just like him, so I would tell her it was her dog, and she would hold onto his leash, even in bed up to the last few weeks before she passed away,” Walsh said.

　　As Mother’s Day approached, Walsh wanted a way to remember her mother and “best friend”. She decided to build the memories she captured during those last few years into a video memorial – images of her mother with Andrew or quiet moments at her gravesite.

　　“I thought it good to tell the story with few words, just show my mother as she was – happy, and loved till the end,” Walsh said.

　　Mother’s Day was not a light-hearted subject for Wendy Bowers in the past. Her mom had walked out when she was 18, and Bowers had tried for years to become pregnant without success. She had almost convinced herself she wasn’t meant to be a parent.

　　But three years after she gave up on having a baby, Bowers discovered that she was pregnant. Six weeks earlier than expected, little Nathan arrived.

　　That first year, Nathan, only 10 months old, was sick with a stomach bug. Bowers said she spent the day holding him between loads of laundry. “I would not have been anywhere else in the world that day,” she said. “I wouldn’t trade that first Mother’s Day for anything, and I’m pretty sure Mother’s Day will always be a reminder to me of just how lucky I am to even be a mom.”

　　24. What does the underlined word “Andrew” refer to?

　　A. Walsh’s child.

　　B. Walsh’s mother.

　　C. Walsh’s dog.

　　D. Walsh’s mother’s dog.

　　25. The purpose of what Walsh did for her mother before Mother’s Day was to ______.

　　A. bring her mother what she wanted

　　B. show she would be loved till the end

　　C. celebrate her last Mother’s Day

　　D. remember her and share her story

　　26. How does Bowers feel about what happened on her first Mother’s Day as a mother?

　　A. It was worth it.

　　B. It was unlucky.

　　C. It was unexpected.

　　D. It was unbearable.

　　27. What is the text mainly about?

　　A. Painful memories of Mother’s Day.

　　B. Plans for Mother’s Day.

　　C. Tips for a special Mother’s Day.

　　D. Special ideas for Mother’s Day.

　　C

　　Like people, plants experience stress. And also, like people, the response to that stress can determine success.

　　Bad environmental conditions, such as drought, flood, heat and other stresses, affect yields(产量) more than crop pests and diseases. We are trying to find a way to equip plants with the ability to tolerate environmental stress and maintain high yields, said Stephen Howell, a professor of genetics and cell biology.

　　Plant cells produce proteins (蛋白质) and ship them to different parts of the cell. Under normal conditions, these proteins are folded into their normal, healthy structures as they are produced. When a plant is under stress, its cells produce poorly folded or unfolded proteins. Then a built-in system senses this and “sets off an alarm in the cell,” said Howell.

　　In response to the alarm, another protein (IRE1) starts working and creates a different process which activates (激活) the stress response genes whose products bring about defensive measures that help the plant survive.

　　“As it turns out, responses that are activated under stress conditions actually inhibit the growth of plants,” said Howell. “This allows them to preserve their energy to survive the stress conditions.”

　　For plants in the wild, this response is a help for survival, he said. In production of agriculture crops, however, this response reduces yields.

　　“You don’t want crop plants to stop growing,” Howell said. “You want them to continue to grow and produce even though they are under stress.”

　　With the new understanding of this stress response, the next step may be to silence the alarm system, said Howell. “What may be important is to disable some of these stress responses. That may make the plant more productive under stress conditions.”

　　28. According to the text, an alarm in the plant cells is caused by ______.

　　A. the folded proteins

　　B. the changed proteins

　　C. the defensive measures

　　D. the stress response genes

　　29. The energy preserved in the plants under stress conditions ______.

　　A. helps the plants to survive

　　B. helps to maintain high yields

　　C. keeps the plants growing

　　D. helps to produce proteins

　　30. The underlined word “inhibit” in Paragraph 5 can be replaced by “______”.

　　A. prevent B. start

　　C. continue D. promote

　　31. How does Howell intend to make crop plants maintain high yields under stress conditions?

　　A. By making crop plants keep more energy.

　　B. By making crop plants stop growing.

　　C. By making the alarm system stop working.

　　D. By making the alarm system respond quickly.

　　D

　　Sometimes ideas do not appear when you are concentrating your attention and mysteriously appear when you are not. Modern science recognizes this as a result of incubating(酝酿) the problem in your subconscious(潜意识) yet can’t account for why it occurs.

　　When you quit thinking about a subject and decide to forget it, your subconscious mind doesn’t quit working. Your thoughts keep making associations. This is why you’ve experienced suddenly remembering names, getting solutions to problems you’ve forgotten about, and ideas out of the blue when you are relaxing and not thinking about any particular thing.

　　You may try solving a problem with your subconscious mind by writing a letter to it. Now let go of the problem. Don’t work on it. Forget it. Do something else. This is the incubation stage when much of what goes on occurs outside your focused awareness, in your unconscious. Open the letter in two days. The answer might magically pop into your mind.

　　An advertising agency was under pressure to come up with a marketing campaign. Bert, the creative director, wrote the following letter which he addressed to his subconscious mind.

　　Secret Expert，

　　I need to come up with a new marketing program to introduce a new season of television shows. I’m interested in some kind of campaign that will capture the audience’s attention more than one time. Is there something people need that we can advertise on? What kind of products, foods and services should we investigate? I need your idea about a fresh approach to advertising.

　　Thanks, Bert

　　Bert mailed the letter to himself and when he read what he had written, he got his brainstorm, which was to advertise on “eggs”. Somehow an association between “foods”, “need” and “fresh approach” inspired the thought of using “fresh eggs to advertise.” He arranged to put the ad for the television shows on eggs—some thirty million.

　　The consumers look at a single egg at least a few times, when they buy the eggs at the store, when they transfer them to the refrigerator, and when they crack them open. It’s unlike any other ad medium in the world, because you’re looking at it while you are using it.

　　32. You remember names though you are not thinking about them because your subconscious mind

　　______.

　　A. stops working

　　B. is still working

　　C. is full of names

　　D. improves your memory

　　33. During the incubation stage, your focused awareness ______.

　　A. doesn’t work

　　B. controls your thoughts

　　C. waits for an answer

　　D. helps your unconscious

　　34. Which of the following was included in Bert’s letter to his subconscious mind?

　　A. What he wanted it to do.

　　B. When he would need its help.

　　C. What product could be advertised.

　　D. How the solution could be found.

　　35. In what way did the ad put on eggs help?

　　A. It greatly increased the sales of eggs.

　　B. It helped Bert to get a brainstorm.

　　C. It made sure that consumers could get fresh eggs.

　　D. It made the TV shows known to people repeatedly.