2020高考英语三模前阅读理解专题练18(学生版)三年真题研读专练

三年真题·研读专练

三模前阅读理解专题练18

题组一

A

Item 1

You thought your curved TV was cool? The LG Signature

OLED TV R is a 65-inch 4K TV that is, unlike your lame

and rigid screen, rollable, and can retract(收回)into its base

when you’re not enjoying it. While you can control it using

either Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, the TV R also

supports Apple’s AirPlay 2 and HomeKit.

Item 2

Gaming laptops aren’t new, but they usually lack power

compared to their beefier desktop counterparts. Nvidia’s

latest announcement changes that, and brings the

desktop-class power found in its RTX line of graphics cards

to laptops. More than 40 laptop models will turn up by the

end of the month with RTX graphics cards inside, which can

produce more realistic graphics and boost performance for

the most gamers.

Item 3

If sleeping is harder than it should be, the Dreem band might

be able to help you figure out what you’re doing wrong. The

Dreem band is a fabric-covered headband that wraps around

your head and uses a combination of sensors like the ones in

your Apple Watch to detect various biometrics like your

heart rate and respiration activity. It also uses bone

conduction to communicate audio cues to you privately.

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Item 4

Samsung’s shown off its Micro LED technology in the past,

using it to build The Wall, a 146-inch TV. The company’s

now showing off a smaller Micro LED TV. Using Samsung’s

Micro LED panels, you can create a variety of display sizes

supporting different aspect ratios, going from an ultra-wide

21:9 screen to a perfectly square 1:1 display without losing

image quality.

one likes doing things by himself, which of the items suits him best?

A. Item 1. B. Item 2. C. Item 3. D. Item 4.

of the following technologies appeared for the first time in the show?

A. The TV R User’s controlling the TV by Google Assistant

B. Nvidia’s laptops’ solving the problem of power

C. The Dreem band’s detect your heart rate

D. Samsung’s Micro LED technology making a 146-inch TV possible

B

Reasons Every Teen Should Go To Summer Camp

◆1 Improve Interpersonal Skills & Form Close Friendships

In a world where anyone can look up a fact and where machines are replacing even complex workplace tasks,

employers need employees who can interact effectively with other people. This is one of the most important skills

teens learn at camp. In the non-competitive camp culture, teens build up their “emotional intelligence”(EQ), their

face-to-face communication and relationship skills.

◆2 Experience Character Development and Develop Life Skills

Teens develop other important life skills at camp, including independence, responsibility, and decision-making.

Teens grow considerably in environment away from their parents where they are forced to live on their own and

find their own resources.

◆3 Meet Positive Role Models

Walk into any well-run summer camp and you’ll be surrounded by wholesome, outdoorsy young people.

Camp offers teens the opportunity to be among young adults who are positive role models and to form close

relationships with them. Most camp counselors are hard-working college students who want to serve others. Aren’t

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they just the kind of young adults you want your teen to become?

◆4 Discover Their Best Self

Camp experiences offer teens the chance to step back from the tiring task of academic and competitive sports

and instead think about what’s important to them. Many campers become less self-absorbed after spending a few

weeks at camp, learning to train their focus on others. They discover new hobbies and avenues to pursue in

education and their future careers.

can teens acquire in the camp to meet their future career?

A. Computer competence.

C. Adventurous spirit.

B. Communication skills.

D. Academic quality.

of the following best describes camp counselors?

A. Committed. B. Ambitious. C. Humorous. D. Demanding.

change can camp experiences bring to many campers?

A. Preferring non-competitive culture. B. Becoming positive role models.

D. Finding more suitable future career choices.

C

For as long as there have been gifts, we naturally make choices based on the recipient(接受者). But what if we

have been wrong all along and that we could turn things around, which not only made gift buying easier, but the

recipient happier?

In 2015, psychologists Lauren Human and Lara Aknin conducted an online survey, which suggested that when

people buy gifts, they prefer to choose something based on the recipient’s personality and tastes. Most people also

said that they preferred receiving gifts bought with them in mind: gifts for them.

But Human and Aknin wondered if this approach to giving failed to take advantage of the way we connect as

people. So they sent 78 volunteers into a shopping centre before Mother’s Day. Half were told to buy a card that

“reveals(揭示)your knowledge of the recipient” while the others set out to buy a card that “reveals your true self”.

After the purchase, the givers who had thought partly of themselves reported feeling emotionally closer to their

mothers.

To find out how that approach goes down with recipients, the psychologists did another test, asking more than

100 students to choose a song on iTunes to give to a friend, partner or family member. Each half of the group

received the same instructions as the card buyers. Results revealed that recipients of songs that revealed something

of the givers felt closer to them than those who received gifts bought only with them in mind.

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C. Focusing more on academics competition.

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Human and Aknin suggest it might apply to all gifts. “If building stronger social connections is the

underlying(潜在的)goal” of a gift and surely it should be—then we “may well be advised to offer more

self-reflective gifts”. In short, for a present to be meaningful, you need to give away a bit of yourself, even if there

is a risk that the gift might not so closely suit the recipient’s practical needs or tastes as one acquired purely with

that in mind.

Moreover, giving something of oneself can be a safer act, the psychologists added. Because it reduces the risk

of revealing poor knowledge of a recipient by attempting to buy something that fits their character—and failing.

But a note of caution here: what the research does not examine is the potential risk in repeated, unsympathetic

giver-centered giving, which, according to Human and Aknin “could signal self-obsession” —and nobody wants to

reveal that about themselves.

the Mother’s Day card test, we can conclude that _______.

A. gifts chosen with the giver in mind work well on the giver

B. most people choose gifts with the recipient in mind

C. most people choose gifts based on their personal tastes

D. gifts chosen with the giver in mind work well on the recipient

do the underlined words “them, them” refer to in order of appearance?

A. The recipients; the givers

C. The givers; the givers

B. The givers; the recipients

D. The recipients; the recipients

does the author think is the significance of gift giving?

A. Making the giver’s life happier.

B. Showing one’s knowledge of the recipient.

C. Establishing and strengthening social connections.

D. Meeting the recipient’s practical needs.

of the following is Human and Aknin’s advice on gift giving?

A. Choose gifts that reflect more of yourself.

B. Just focus on your own tastes when choosing gifts.

C. Buy something that fits the recipient’s character most.

D. Be careful not to signal your true personality.

D

Shelly hugged her husband. “Be careful, Billy.”

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“Come on, Shell!” Bill rolled his eyes. “You worry too much, Honey. Me and the boys will be OK. It’s just a

three—day trip. We’ll catch enough halibut to be able to fix up the baby’s room the way you want it.” ‘

“Billy, I love you and worry every time you go to sea, especially in winter.”

“Shell, I promise I’ll be careful. I may be the youngest captain in this port, but I’m the most careful. I learned

at the helm of Daddy’s boat, which I was practically raised on.”

They hugged again. Bill planted a tender kiss on her cheek, rested his open palm on her slightly swollen

stomach, “Besides, I need to be here. Little Billy will need his daddy.” Shelly slapped him on the shoulder. “It’s

Billy Jean and you know it.”

Bill laughed, “Not on my watch, Girl. I gave you a boy to take over as captain.”

Their laughter broke the tension. “I have to go, Shell. See you in a few days?” He turned to leave and then

turned back, reached into the pocket of his heavy coat and pulled out an envelope.” I almost forgot. Here’s my

letter?”

Shelly took the crisp envelope and slipped into the pocket of her dress. “Thanks,Billy.” It had been their

custom since they started dating. Billy gave her a note before he went to sea. She wasn’t allowed to open it until the

next day. He usually wrote of love or sometimes something silly - both made her smile. She wrote a reply and left it

on the kitchen table for him. Reading her reply was the first thing he did when he came home.

She watched as her husband walked the length of the pier to where the forty-five foot “Shelly Girl” and his

crew waited. He gave a final wave and climbed aboard.

Shelly stood by their pickup truck and watched until the boat rounded the point and disappeared from view. “I

love you, Billy.” she whispered. “Be safe.”①

That evening, five hundred miles to the south, a small winter depression moved north along the Atlantic coast

of the USA. Experts found an unexpected change in the jet stream, which would make the small depression become

a raging winter storm.②

Shelly woke in the morning and listened to the weather report on the battered radio sitting on kitchen table.

The phone rang. “Hello.”

“Shelly?”

“Hi, Gail!” She recognized the voice of her friend, who was the wife of one of Billy’s crew. “Have you heard

the weather?”

“Hang on a second. I just turned the radio on.” Shelly’s face paled as she heard the weather person say a major

winter depression had moved into the area. “Oh crap!”

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“That’s what [ said too.”

“They’ll be OK, Gail. They’re experienced fishermen.” Shelly said to Gail It was a attempt to convince herself

that her man would be safe.

③

Off the south shore of Nova Scotia, Bill struggled to control the Shelly Girl in the growing waves. Wind and

water attacked Bill and his crew from all directions. The forty-and fifty-foot walls of water were too much of a

challenge for the young captain.

The force of the water flipped the boat over, tore the wheelhouse off and tossed Bill and his crew into the icy

Atlantic.

The water, only a few degrees above the freezing point, soon overcame Bill’s will to live. “Shelly!

He took a last painful breath of salt water and slipped below the surface.④

The crisp envelope bent beneath her fingers as she laid it on her lap and read. “Shelly, you are my life,, my

love and soon-to-be mother of our son-girl if that is what you really want. I’ll always come home.”

Shelly reached for the pen in her dress pocket. Tears dripped from her face and stained the paper she wrote on,

“________.”

Her note sits on their kitchen table still—never read.

was Shelly worried too much when Billy go to sea this time?

A. Because she and their baby Billy Jean needed Billy’s protection and care.

B. Because she knew from the radio that a major winter depression would come.

C. Because she had a feeling that Billy would never return home.

D. Because she cared about Billy’s safety in the sea, especially in winter.

can we learn from the passage?

A. Billy could read Shelly’s reply letter only when he returned home from the sea.

B. Billy and Shelly wrote letters to each other since they got married.

C. Shelly read Billy’s letter eagerly each time she got his letter.

D. They exchanged their letters with each other every time Billy went out.

word can be filled in the blank in the passage?

A. weak B. strong C. hard D. desperate

can the sentences “Shell sat in her favorite spot on the porch of their weathered beach house, the salty air

sticking to her heavy winter clothes. The oncoming storm blew sand across her winter boots.,” be put in?

A. ① B. ② C. ③ D. ④

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of the following may be Shelly’s reply to Billy’s letter?

A. Billy, you were so brave, I always knew.

C. Billy, I always knew, you would come back.

B. Billy, I always knew the ocean was your home.

D. Billy, I love you, I would always wait for you.

of the following can be the best title of this passage?

A. An unlucky Billy B. A storm in life C. A broken Shelly

题组二

A

Building a company website is one of the most important parts of creating a successful business. But

designing a website can be time consuming and expensive. Web designers are difficult to work with, and even

though you’re paying them. There are cheaper ways to establish your company online, and Wix. com stands out

among them.

Wix. com offers free HTML5 and Flash website design that you can do on your own, without having to pay

for a pricey web designer. With unlimited space for as many pages as you want, customized looks, photo galleries,

and blog platform capabilities, social networking buttons, Wix has everything a business of any size needs to make

an impact online. You get full control over what information fills in the blanks, and you don’t have to know a thing

about HTML to make this work. The way your website looks says a lot about your company. Wix does that, and it

does it for free. Another thing that makes Wix the most affordable option in creating a website is that you don’t

have to pay for a separate web host—every page created on Wix is hosted on Wix, free of charge.

The Internet is the marketplace of ideas: your company needs to share what you think. If you think just

because you don’t sell a product online you don’t need a website, you’re dead wrong. No matter what kind of

business you have, if you want to reach an audience, you want to have a website that speaks to people. Wix lets you

do that as quickly and easily as possible for free.

If you have a bigger budget, Wix has more options than just the free website design. You can choose to

upgrade(升级)to the ad-less version which won’t fill up your customer’s screens when they visit your site. But if

the most important thing to you is getting your company’s name online right now, try Wix. com today.

is Paragraph 2 mainly about?

A. Ways of finding free service.

C. Skills of creating websites.

’s the purpose of the text?

A. To teach a budget lesson.

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D. Never read

B. Advantages of Wix. com.

D. Tricks of running a company.

B. To make an advertisement.

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C. To present a website design. D. To introduce a new business.

B

As New York City parents debate how to give all students fair access to good public schools, some advocates

in Brooklyn want to abolish middle schools’ use of academic criteria to select students.

Some supporters of the proposal for District 15 from its Diversity Plan Working Group are optimistic they will

win, partly because New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza has questioned the principle for accepting

students by ability. Other parents are cautious, saying they want their hard-working children to have the chance to

earn their way into desirable schools.

District 15, which includes low-income immigrant neighborhoods such as Sunset Park and more-affluent(富裕的)areas like Park Slope, is one of the first in the city trying to change its admission system to better integrate(整合)all of its middle schools. Its Diversity Group, which includes parents and city Department of Education officials,

has tried to drum up support by hosting workshops and seeking community input.

Michele Greenberg, a District 15 parent, calls the proposal more fair than the current selective system, which

she said discriminates against students with few resources. “Children shouldn’t be rejected because they don’t

somehow fit,” she said.

Department officials said they will decide on the proposal this summer. If approved, the plan would mark a

huge change from today’s method. Now, students rank the schools they want to attend, and schools rank students

they want to enroll, based on varying criteria such as course grades, test scores, behavior, attendance, punctuality

and auditions. The department makes matches. Many parents complain this complex process brings massive

anxiety.

Alina Rodriguez, a special-education teacher who works and lives in District 15, feels torn. As a mother, she

believes her daughter would get into a strong middle school through selective admissions. But as a teacher, she

worries many of her students aren’t prepared for more severe choices. “I want them to be pushed but don’t want

them to fail,” she said.

Screened(筛选的)admission has led to enrollment disparities(差异)by income and race. About 70% of the

district’s white students clustered at three top-performing, low-poverty middle schools last year, including M.S.51,

Math & Science Exploratory School and New Voices, according to state data. At two lower-performing schools, by

contrast, nearly all students were poor and Hispanic. Andrew Robertson, a District 15 parent, said the proposal

would equalize the playing field. “The people so frightened by the concept are the modern-day version of people

worried about civil rights,” he said.

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ing to the passage, the present selective system of competitive public schools ________.

A. equalizes the playing field for students rich or poor

B. doubts the principle for accepting students by ability

C. abolishes middle schools’ use of academic standards

D. attaches importance to students’ school performance

holds a conflicting attitude towards the proposal?

A. Alina Rodriguez B. Richard Carranza C. Andrew Robertson D. Michele Greenberg

is the best title of the passage?

A. Students get equal access to education

C. School entry plan draws mixed reaction

B. The new proposal gains great currency

D. Screened admission should be canceled

C

The world we live in is becoming increasingly complex and uncertain. And with it, the conventional thinking

of yesterday is no longer sufficient. Creating real breakthrough opportunities requires a fundamental change in our

thinking. As Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created

them.”

There’s no better example of this than the myth of the four-minute mile.

For centuries, runners had been attempting to run a mile in under four minutes. In the 1950s, the attempt to

break the barrier took on renewed importance, and a number of famous runners publicly and unsuccessfully

attempted the challenge. Many of the newspapers of the day began to question whether humans would ever be able

to run a sub-four-minute mile. Then, in 1954, a man named Roger Bannister did the unthinkable. He broke through

the imaginary barrier, running the mile in 3 minutes and 59.4 seconds. It was an amazing achievement.

But here’s what’s really interesting: it was only forty-six days later that another runner broke Bannister’s

record. And the following year, two new runners broke the four-minute mark in the same race. Dozens followed,

and as of this writing, more than 1,400 runners have accomplished the goal, including one runner who ran two

miles in less than eight minutes.

Did something change with respect to human body, track conditions, weather patterns, running shoes, or the

human diet between the start of Bannister’s race and the few years that followed? No. So what explains the sudden

and dramatic explosion of athletic achievement?

The myth’s unimaginable power over runners had lifted. What Bunnister had done was not just break the four

—minute—mile barrier; he shattered(粉碎)the myth that created the barrier in the first place. This paradigm(榜精品资源·战胜高考

三年真题·研读专练

样)had offered a set of actions available for runners to take. Runners were really free to run through the invented

boundary.

Creating breakthroughs requires shattering the myths that limit our imagination and lock us into conventional

thinking. Think about your own situation. What myths are you stuck in? And what would be possible if you had the

courage to challenge the myths?

is needed to create breakthroughs?

A. Conventional thinking.

C. Complex situation.

B. Changes in our thinking.

D. Einstein’s encouragement.

was the real barrier that kept runners succeeding in the four-minute mile?

A. The belief that it was unachievable.

C. The poor track conditions.

B. Lack of professional training.

D. Lack of sufficient diet.

example of Roger Bannister is used to .

A. list a new record in the race

C. show barrier can be broken

B. prove newspapers are wrong

D. call on us to learn from him

does the writer try to explain in Paragraph 6?

A. The power of the myth.

B. The achievements of Bannister.

D. The significance of breaking barriers. C. The importance of running freely.

is the best title of the passage?

A. Creating Breakthroughs

B. Accepting the Myths

D. Becoming the Best Athlete

D

C. Locking Your Imagination

A recent BBC documentary, The Town That Never Refired sought to show the effects of increasing the state

pension age by putting retirees back to work.

Although the documentary was fun, they need not have bothered. Away from the cameras, a great numbers

of older people are staying in work. Since the start of the economy declines that began in 2008. the number of 16-to

24-year-olds in work has fallen by 597,000. Over the same period the number of workers over the age of 65 has

increased by 240.000.

The graying of the British workforce dates back to around 2001 since when the proportion of older people

working has nearly doubled. But it has accelerated since the start of the economy declines. There are several

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reasons why. Happily, people are living longer and healthier lives, which makes staying in work less discouraging

than it was. Less happily, low interest rates, a disappointing stock market and the end of many defined-benefit(固定收益)pension schemes make it a financial necessity. And changing attitudes, inspired by rules against age

discrimination, are making it easier than ever.

Most older workers are simply hanging on at the office: 63% of workers over state pension age have been

with their employer for more than ten years. Over two-thirds of them work part-time, mostly doing jobs that they

once performed full-time. A big advantage is that they need not pay national insurance contributions.

According to Stephen McNair, director of the Centre for Research into the Older Workforce the flexibility

explains why older workers have not suffered so much in the period of economy decline Instead of cutting back on

the workforce, as in previous depression, many firms have stopped taking on new workers and cut working hours.

At small businesses m particular, keeping on older workers is cheaper and less risky than training replacements.

Over half of workers overstate pension age work for

businesses with fewer than 25 employees.

Christopher Nipper, who owns David Nipper, a women’s wear manufacturer based in Derbyshire, prizes his

semi-retired workers, who can be employed at short notice and do not need to work full-time to survive. Retired

machinists can fill in if there is a rise in orders; former sales advisers can work as part-time consultants. As his

competitors have moved production abroad, leaving the pool of trained

labor behind, continuing to have older

workers and their skills has become even more important.

There is a tendency for the older workforce to expand• Workers over the age of 50 who are made unemployed

find it harder to pick up new jobs, which could mean that more of them want to work than are able to. The Office

for Budget Responsibility, the fiscal watchdog, reported on July 12th that an ageing, unproductive population is the

biggest long-term threat to Britain’s economic health.

Data from the OECD, a think-tank, shows that employment rates among workers approaching retirement age

are split in Europe, with old workers hanging on best in the north. Government credit ratings follow a similar

pattern. That Britain’s ageing workforce more closely resembles Germany’s than Italy’s could prove the country’s

being saved from harm.

of the following can be inferred from the BBC documentary The Town That Never Retired?

A. It has received good comments from audience.

B. What it intends to reveal is contrary to the reality.

C. It aims to criticize the poor pension system in the UK.

D. It reflects the current phenomenon of retirees coming back to work.

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三年真题·研读专练

ing to the passage, the underlined word “it” in Para.3 refers to _______.

A. a financial necessity

C. age discrimination

B. staying in work after retiring

D. the changing attitude

ing to Christopher Nieper, why are semi-retired workers favored in hiring?

A. Because the pool of labor in the UK is emptied.

B. Because they can fill in the job vacancy in a brief time.

C. Because their working hours can be as flexible as they want.

D. Because they work harder than the young because of economic pressure.

report from the Office for Budget Responsibility shows the older workforce will play a _______ role in the

country’s economic health

A. steady B. positive C. negative D. fundamental

can be concluded from the last paragraph that _______.

A. Britain’s credit ratings are higher than Italy’s

B. Britain’s ageing workforce is similar to Italy’s

C. Britain’s rescue measure is better than Germany’s

D. Britain’s employment rates of ageing workforce are higher than Germany’s

题组三

A

Why YOUR keyless car could be gone in 23 seconds: It’s a crime wave reaching high proportions and the

gadgets(小装置)used to hack into your car and steal it are being sold to thieves by High Street locksmiths.

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Car thieves are using high-tech gadgets to break into and steal cars in seconds. One thief stands by a house to

pick up a signal from a car key using a relay. The relay broadcasts the signal to the car, where a second thief opens

the door. The scheme, which does not involve breaking windows, steals cars in seconds.

Thousands of cars across Britain are at risk of a new form of high-tech theft which allows thieves to fool

bypass the security systems in keyless cars using a relay system to boost the signal. So-called ‘relay’ theft occurs

when two thieves work together to break into keyless cars. They use equipment to capture electro-magnetic signals

emitted by key fobs. Any vehicle with keyless entry could be easily stolen. These include cars from BMW, Ford,

Audi, Land Rover, Volkswagen and Mercedes.

does the crime wave reach high proportions?

A. The security system in cars couldn’t let off electro-magnetic signals.

B. With high-tech gadgets, car thieves could easily steal keyless cars.

C. High Street locksmiths invented new-style devices against theft.

D. Drivers tended to leave their cars naturally without locking doors.

’s the procedure of the car thieves’ stealing cars?

a. The relay sends a signal to the car.

c. Relay box boosts car key signal.

A. c, a, b, d B. a, c, b, d

b. The car is cheated and unlocks the door.

d. A second thief starts the car and drives it off.

C. b, d, c, a

B

Camp Odayin provides fun, safe and supportive camp experiences and community building opportunities for

young people and their families this year.

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D. d, b, c, a

三年真题·研读专练

Winter Camp February 15—February 17

It is hosted in Amery, a two-hour drive from the Twin Cities and free round trip transportation is provided

from Minneapolis and Madison. This camp is for children who have attended Residential Camp or Day Camp

before. Campers can experience snowshoeing, skiing and snowboarding. Registrations are processed during

December & January.

Moms Retreat May 16—May 17

Scheduled in downtown Stillwater, Moms Retreat will seek to improve the quality of caregivers’ life. It will

include meals, boarding and yoga activities.

Registration will open in April for moms that receive the email invitation from Camp Odayin. If the limit is

reached, we will start a wait list.

Residential Camp July 13—July 18

Campers will have a chance to communicate with other young people sharing the same grade. Hosted in

Lutherdale, it will include swimming, horseback riding and talent show. The approval by the Camp Odayin Director

is necessary.

Registration will open in early March and is due May 1st.

Family Camp October 26—November 1

Hosted in Camp Lake, the camp is a two-night commitment for families with children suffering from heart

diseases, who will benefit from connecting with other families who have similar health, emotional and social

concerns. Activities will include drawing, fancy dress balls and movies.

Families who have a child in 12th grade or younger(no minimum age)can attend. Camper registration is

available online in late August.

camp is intended for previous campers only?

A. Moms Retreat. B. Winter Camp. C. Residential Camp. D. Family Camp.

can you go if you choose to register on August 28?

A. To Amery. B. To Stillwater. C. To Camp Lake. D. To Lutherdale.

is special about Residential Camp?

A. It offers a variety of activities.

B. It provides access to shopping.

D. It requires the camp leader’s approval.

C

Ernest Hemingway was not only a commanding figure in 20th-century literature, but was also a pack rat. He

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C. It allows sick children to participate.

三年真题·研读专练

saved even his old passports and used bullfight tickets, leaving behind one of the longest paper trails of any

author.

“Ernest Hemingway: Between Two Wars”, which opens on Friday at the Morgan Library & Museum, is the

first major museum exhibition devoted to Hemingway and his work. The largest and most interesting section

focuses on the ‘20s, Hemingway’s Paris years, and reveals a writer we might have been in danger of forgetting:

Hemingway before he became Hemingway.

The exhibition does not fail to include pictures of the bearded, manly, Hem. He’s shown posing with some

kudu he has just shot in Africa and on the bridge of his beloved fishing boat, the Pilar, with Carlos Gutiérrez, the

fisherman who became the model for The Old Man and the Sea. But the first photo the viewer sees is a big blowup

of a handsome, clean-shaven, 19-year-old standing on crutches. This is from the summer of 1918, when

Hemingway was recovering from wounds at the Red Cross hospital in Milan and trying to turn his wartime

experiences into fiction.

The evidence at this exhibition suggests that, in the early days, he often wrote in pencil, mostly in cheap

notebooks but sometimes on whatever paper came to hand. The first draft of the short story Soldier’s Home was

written on sheets he appeared to have snatched from a telegraph office. The impression you get is of a young writer

seized by inspiration and sometimes barreling ahead without an entirely clear sense of where he is going.

F. Scott Fitzgerald(some of whose letters with Hemingway is also on view)famously urged him to cut the

first two chapters of The Sun Also Rises, complaining about the “elephantine facetiousness” of the beginning, and

Hemingway obliged, getting rid of a clunky opening that now seems almost “meta”. In 1929, in a nine-page

penciled critique, Fitzgerald also suggested numerous revisions for A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway took some of

these, but less graciously, and soon afterward his friendship with Fitzgerald came to an end.

The papers at the Morgan show a Hemingway who is not always sure of himself. There are running lists of

stories he kept fiddling with, and there are lists and lists of possible titles, including the 45 he considered for

Farewell and 47 different endings for the novel.

In display case after display case, you see Hemingway during his Paris years inventing and reinventing

himself, discovering as he goes along just what kind of writer he wants to be. In a moving 1925 letter to his parents,

who refused to read In Our Time, his second story collection, he writes: “You see I’m trying in all my stories to get

the feeling of the actual life across—not just to describe life—or criticize it—but to actually make it alive. So that

when you have read something by me you actually experience the thing. You can’t do this without putting in the

bad and the ugly as well as what is beautiful. “

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三年真题·研读专练

By the time the Second World War broke out, Hemingway had solidified into the iconic figure we now

remember: Papa. Even J. D. Salinger calls him this. And a blustery, cranky Hemingway appears in 1949 when

aboard the Pilar he grabs an old fishing diary and begins scrawling an angry letter to Harold Ross, the editor of The

New Yorker, complaining about Alfred Kazin’s review of Across the River and into the Trees, not, in truth, a very

good book. But, Hemingway, often drinking and depressed, didn’t know it, his best work was behind him by then.

of the following is closest in meaning to the underlined words “a pack rat” in the passage?

A. A person who doesn’t waste anything.

C. A person who likes to collect rubbish.

B. A person who cannot be relied on.

D. A person who enjoys collecting things.

many of Hemingway’s works are mentioned in this passage?

A. 4. B. 5. C. 6. D. 7.

does the writer truly mean by saying “Hemingway before he became Hemingway.”?

A. Hemingway wrote many masterpieces before he killed himself.

B. Hemingway was once a war correspondent before he became a famous writer.

C. Hemingway devoted all his strengths to writing before he won the Nobel Prize.

D. Hemingway kept exploring the world and adjusting himself before he became a commanding figure in

literature.

ing to the Morgan show, readers are likely to see ________ in Hemingway’s works.

①tough men who can’t be defeated ②anti-war fighters

④love affairs between a man and a woman ③the dark side of the world as well as its beauty

⑤the story of a family business

A. ①③ B. ②④ C. ①⑤

D

D. ③⑤

Light and bright, cheap and cheerful: IKEA’s 400-plus outlets(专营店)in 49 countries all run on the same

central principle. Customers do as much of the work as possible, in the belief they are having fun and saving money.

You drive to a distant warehouse, built on cheap out-of-town land. Inside, you enter a maze(迷宫)—no shortcuts

allowed—where every twist reveals new furniture.

Compared with the prices of other outlets, IKEA’s are much lower. You load up your trolley with impulse(冲动)buys—a clock, storage boxes, tools and more chairs than you will ever use. You drag cardboard boxes,

cupboards and tables into your car and reward yourself for your economy and good taste. Then you drive home and

put your prizes together. You are satisfied with the bargains. IKEA is satisfied with your money.

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三年真题·研读专练

The company’s name was a do-it-yourself job, too. IKEA stands for Ingvar Kamprad, from Elmtaryd—his

family’s farm—in Agunnaryd. That village is in the Smaland region of southern Sweden. Mr Kamprad founded

IKEA aged 17. Well before that, he spotted a principle which would make him one of the richest men in the world:

that customers like buying goods at wholesale prices(批发价). First he bought matches in large quantities and sold

them by the box. Aged ten, he sold pens in the similar way.

Drawbacks inspired him. Facing a price war against his low-cost mail-order furniture business, he defeated

competitors by opening a showroom. Dealers tried to crush Mr Kamprad and banned him from their trade fairs. He

slipped in, hiding in a friend’s car. When they tried to threaten his suppliers, he relied on his own workers, and

secretly sold his production to communist Poland. Decades later, east Europeans freed from the planned economy

drove hundreds of miles to newly opened outlets in Moscow and Warsaw.

His self-discipline was world-famous. As a child, he removed the “off” button from his alarm clock to stop

himself oversleeping. He rarely took a first-class seat. The wine didn’t get you there any earlier, he sniffed; having

lots of money was no reason to waste it. He bought his clothes in second-hand markets, and for years drove an

elderly Volvo until he had to sell it on safety grounds. He had his haircut in poor countries to save money. Visitors

admired the views, but were surprised that his house was so shabby. He worked well into his eighties.

His industry and simple way of life set a good example to his 194,000 “co-workers”. But he was not mean.

The point of cutting costs was to make goods affordable, not to compromise quality. He urged his staff to reflect

constantly on ways of saving money, time and space. An improved design that allows easier piling means shipping

less air—and more profit.

Culture was more important than strategy. He disliked “exaggerated(言过其实的)planning”, along with

financial markets and banks. Better to make mistakes and learn from them. And use time wisely: “You can do so

much in ten minutes. But ten minutes once gone are gone for good.” This did not apply to customers. The longer

they stayed the better.

Mr Kamprad’s impact on modern life can be compared with that of Henry Ford and the mass-produced motor

car. Furniture used to be expensive, dark and heavy. For many people, decorating a home could cost many months’

salary. IKEA made furniture not just affordable and functional, but fun. The mission was civilizational, he felt,

changing how people lived and thought.

His approach drew some fire. The company values struck some as unpleasant. At IKEA’s Corporate Culture

Centre, lots of pictures of Mr Kamprad with his mottos can be seen everywhere. What’s worse, some parts of the

supply chain seemed to have serious problems to overcome.

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三年真题·研读专练

can we learn about IKEA in Paragraph 1?

A. IKEA prefers rural areas for its location. B. IKEA has 400 outlets throughout the world.

D. IKEA provides a lot of work for its customers. C. IKEA likes to store new furniture in a maze.

underlined two sentences in Paragraph 2 imply that ________.

A. IKEA tricks you into spending more money

C. both you and IKEA are pleased with the deal

B. you may buy bargains with impulse in IKEA

D. both you and IKEA are happy with the bargain

mentioning Mr. Kamprad’s experiences before he founded IKEA, the author intends to tell us that Mr.

Kamprad _______.

A. was likely to become a successful businessman

B. preferred selling matches and pens by low prices

C. had been a well-off merchant due to his principle

D. enjoyed doing something promising with discipline

can be inferred from paragraph 5 and 6 about Mr Kamprad?

A. He never overslept due to his alarm clock being set.

B. He was against drinking but for sniffing at the wine.

C. He sold the old Volvo with the purpose of saving money.

D. He didn’t sacrifice the quality of furniture for more profit.

of the following has nothing to do with Mr Kamprad’s success in business?

A. the pictures and mottos of Mr. Kamprad B. the drawbacks Mr. Kamprad experienced

D. Mr. Kamprad’s self-discipline and industry C. Mr. Kamprad’s principles of management

passage is mainly about ________.

A. the factors contributing to the success of IKEA

B. the causes of people buying furniture from IKEA

C. Mr. Kamprad’s road to success in furniture business

D. Mr. Kamprad’s impacts on the development of furniture

题组四

A

Save Kumwenda, 41, Ph.D. student

“The biggest challenge is to get funding, let alone enough funding. Most grants assume that the institutions

where you are applying from have some basic infrastructure, especially related to research involving the lab. But

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三年真题·研读专练

when you get the funding, it is not enough, because most of the equipment is not available and if it is available, it is

outdated. Using it makes your results questionable and difficult to publish in high-impact journals.’’

Jacque Pak Kan Ip, 35, postdoctoral researcher

“We are planning to have kids. I cannot ask my wife to sacrifice her career again. But it has taken me a lot of

time to do my research already. When she is pregnant and might need help, I might need to dial it back to help her.

So we hesitate. A tenure-track position(终生教职)would be much more stable. Maybe at that time, we could plan to

have a child. But then, I am 35; she is 34. The time window is getting narrower for us to have children.’’

Sophia Nasr, 26, second-year Ph.D. student

“The most devastating experience I ever had was applying for an NSF scholarship. I put my whole heart into

it. I think my application was solid, and it just took one reviewer to flush it all down the drain. I found out right in

the middle of my qualifying exams, so it was just crushing to my confidence. I’ve bounced back from that, but as a

theorist, it’s kind of hard to look for other places that will even offer me funding. For me, the NSF was where it was

at, so it was heartbreaking.

Ashley Juavinett, 28, postdoctoral researcher

“So few people within academia talk about it because it’s so expected: ‘Of course, you’ll move across the

country for a postdoc because that’s what everybody does.’ The move definitely took a toll on my relationship. My

partner is in the Bay Area. There was, for a long time, this question of whether she should move to New York

instead.’’

challenge Jacque Pak Kan Ip meets is to ________.

A. balance family life

C. move for jobs frequently

B. compete for funding

D. fight with uncertain futures

passage wants to convey ________.

A. the research work is difficult to do well B. life is tough for early-career researchers

D. academic environments upset researchers

B

The idea that some kids pick up information better when it’s presented visually, and others physically or by

listening, is a myth(错误观念)that could rob children of opportunities to learn and a waste of parents’ money,

according to scientists.

Researchers at the University of Michigan looked at the pervasiveness of myths about so-called learning styles.

They questioned what is known as psychological essentialism(本质主义): The idea that the category something fits

精品资源·战胜高考

C. young researchers suffer discrimination

三年真题·研读专练

into is determined by a biological “truth” with a genetic basis. For instance, girls liking pink, pitbulls being violent,

or visual learners only remembering information when it is presented to them in a specific way.

They thought despite the theory existing for decades, there is no evidence to suggest tailoring a person’s

learning experience to their self-reported learning style helps them to remember information.

The researchers recruited a total of 668 U.S. adults for the study, asking them about their beliefs about

learning styles. Respondents were asked to rate their agreement or disagreement with statements like “People are

born with a tendency to have a certain learning style.” In both surveys, over 90 percent of participants said they

believed in learning styles. And around half of the people tested said they believed that we are born with learning

styles; that they can easily be identified; inherited from our parents; and help to predict what a child will do in life.

Shaylene Nancekivell, a visiting scholar at the University of Michigan and study co-author, told News- week:

“We should be using best practices in our classrooms and at home to teach our children. The popularity of the

learning style myth and commercial products means that it is very easy to spend money and time on programs or

strategies that may not be helping children learn. My biggest concern is that time is being spent teaching young

children maladaptive strategies for learning. It is important that children from a very young age are taught with the

best practices so they will succeed.”

Asked how the study was limited, Nancekivell explained: “We need to reexamine and better understand our

findings with educators. It will be important to dive deeper into educators’ beliefs and reexamine our finding that

educators who work with younger children are more likely to view learning styles in an essentialist light. We also

need to better understand how the differing beliefs we have discovered translate into practice.”

Dr. Paul A. Kirschner also commented: “The study identifies origins of the belief, and thus is possibly

theoretically or philosophically significant, it stops there. The real problem is that THEY rob children of

opportunities to learn by branding or classifying them as belonging to a specific group that cannot do certain things.

It’s also a good excuse for parents to blame teachers and schools for their children’s poor study habits and for

schools and teachers to blame makers of learning materials.”

effects will learning style myth probably cause?

①Robbing children of learning opportunities.

③Acquiring maladaptive learning strategies.

②Wasting children’s time and money.

④Being taught with the best practices.

⑤Believing they are born with a certain learning style.

A. ①②⑤ B. ①③⑤ C. ②③④ D. ①④⑤

does the word “THEY” in last paragraph refer to?

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三年真题·研读专练

A. Different beliefs. B. Both surveys. C. Learning styles. D. Origins of the belief.

does the passage mainly talk about?

A. Children aren’t born with learning styles.

B. Self-reported learning style helps children succeed.

C. What is psychological essentialism and its effect?

D. Experts have different attitudes toward learning styles.

C

Though the spread of good reproduction(复制品)of works of art can be culturally valuable, museums continue

to promote the special status of original work and highlight the authenticity(真实)of its exhibits. Unfortunately, this

seems to place severe limitations on the kind of experience offered to visitors.

One limitation is related to the way the museum presents its exhibits. Art museums are often called “treasure

houses”. We are reminded of this even before we view a collection by the presence of security guards who keep us

away from the exhibits. In addition, a major collection like that of London’s National Gallery is housed in

numerous rooms, where a single piece of work is likely to be worth more than all the average visitor possesses. In a

society that judges the personal status of the individual so much by their material worth, it is therefore difficult not

to be impressed by one’s own relative “worthlessness” in such an environment.

Furthermore, consideration of the “value” of the original work in its treasure house setting impresses upon the

viewer that since these works were originally produced, they have been assigned a huge value in terms of money by

some person or institution more powerful than themselves. Evidently, nothing the viewer thinks about the work is

going to alter that value, and so today’s viewer is discouraged from trying to extend that spontaneous, immediate,

self-reliant kind of interpretation which would originally have met the work.

The visitor may then be struck by the strangeness of seeing such a variety of paintings, drawings and

sculptures brought together in an environment for which they were not originally created. This “displacement

effect” is further heightened by the huge volume of exhibits. In the case of a major collection, there are probably

more works on display than we could realistically view in weeks or even months.

This is particularly distressing because time seems to be a vital factor in the appreciation of all art forms. A

fundamental difference between paintings and other art forms is that there is no prescribed time over which a

painting is viewed. Operas, novels and poems are read in a prescribed time sequence, whereas a picture has no clear

place at which to start viewing, or at which to finish. Thus art works themselves encourage us to view them

superficially, without appreciating the richness of detail and labor that is involved.

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三年真题·研读专练

Consequently, the dominant critical approach becomes that of the art historian, a specialized academic

approach devoted to “discovering the meaning” of art within the cultural context of its time. This is in harmony

with the museum’s function, since the approach is dedicated to seeking out and conserving “authentic”, “original”

readings of the exhibits.

writer mentions London’s National Gallery to illustrate ______.

A. the undesirable cost to a nation of maintaining a huge collection of art

B. the conflict that may arise in society between financial and artistic values

C. the negative effect a museum can have on visitors’ opinion of themselves

D. the need to put individual well-being above large-scale artistic schemes

writer says that today viewers may be unwilling to criticize a work because they _______.

A. lack the knowledge needed

B. fear it may have financial implications

D. feel their personal reaction is of no significance C. have no real concept of the work’s value

writer says that unlike other forms of art, the appreciation of a painting does not _______.

A. involve direct contact with an audience B. require a specific location for performance

D. call for a specific beginning or ending C. need the involvement of other professionals

of the following might be the best title of the passage?

A. Original work: killer of artistic appreciation

C. Original work: substitute for reproduction

B. Original work: reduction to value of art works

D. Original work: art historians’ bread and butter

D

No one knew Prince Edward Street as well as Pierre Dupin. He had delivered milk to the families on the street

for thirty years. For the past fifteen years a large white horse named Joseph pulled his milk wagon. Joseph was a

gentle horse with beautiful spirit shining out of its eyes, so Pierre named him after Saint Joseph.

Every morning at five, Pierre arrived at the milk company’s stables to find Joseph waiting for him, Pierre

would call, “Good morning, my old friend.”, as he climbed into his seat, while Joseph turned his head toward the

driver. And the two would go proudly down the street. Without any order from Pierre, the wagon would roll down

three streets. Then it turned right for two streets, before turning left to Saint Catherine Street. The horse finally

stopped at the first house on Prince Edward Street. There, Joseph would wait perhaps thirty seconds for Pierre to

get down off his seat and put a bottle of milk at the front door.

Pierre knew every one of the forty families that got milk. The cooks knew that Pierre could not read or write;

so, instead of leaving orders in an empty milk bottle, they simply sang out if they needed an extra bottle.

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三年真题·研读专练

Pierre also had a wonderful memory. When he arrived at the stable he always remembered to tell Jacques, the

foreman(领班)of the stables, “The Pacquins took an extra bottle this morning; the Lemoines bought a pint of

cream …” Most of the drivers had to make out the weekly bills and collect the money. But Jacques, liking Pierre,

never asked him to do this.

One day the president of the milk company came to inspect the early morning milk s pointed

to Pierre and said: “See how the horse listens and how he turns his head toward Pierre? See the look in that horse’s

eyes? You know, I think those two share a secret. I have often felt it. He is getting old. Maybe he ought to be given

a rest, and a small pension.”

“But of course,” the president laughed. “He has been on this job now for thirty years. All who know him love

him. Tell him it is time he rested. He will get his pay every week as before.”

But Pierre refused to leave his job. He said his life would be nothing if he could not drive Joseph every day.

“We are two old men,” he said to Jacques. “Let us wear out together. When Joseph is ready to leave, then I too will

do so.”

Then one cold morning Jacques had terrible news for Pierre. Jacques said, “Pierre, your horse, Joseph, didn’t

wake up. He was very old, Pierre.” Jacques said softly. “He is over in his stall, looking very peaceful. Go over and

see him.” Pierre took one step forward, then turned. “No … no … I cannot see Joseph again. You …, you don’t

understand, Jacques.”

For years Pierre had worn a large heavy cap that came down low over his eyes. It kept out the bitter cold wind.

Now, Jacques looked into Pierre’s eyes and he saw something that shocked him. He saw a dead, lifeless look in

them.

“Take the day off, Pierre,” Jacques said. Pierre walked to the corner and stepped into the street. There was a

warning shout from the driver of a big truck … there was the screech(尖锐的刹车声)of rubber tires as the truck

tried to stop. But Pierre heard nothing.

Five minutes later a doctor said, “He’s dead …, killed instantly.”

“I couldn’t help it,” the truck driver said. “He walked in front of my truck. He never saw it, I guess. Why, he

walked as though he were blind.”

The doctor bent down. “Blind? Of course, this man has been blind for five years.” He turned to Jacques,

“Didn’t you know he was blind?”

“No …no …” Jacques said softly. “None of us knew. Only one … only one knew—a friend of his, named

Joseph … It was a secret, I think, just between those two.”

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三年真题·研读专练

65. According to the first three paragraphs, we can know that _______.

A. Joseph was named after an unknown man

B. Pierre knew all the small streets in the city better than anyone else

C. Joseph managed to deliver milk by itself even without Pierres company

D. Pierre and Joseph seemed to understand each other and cooperated very well

66. Why did Pierre refuse to leave his job?

A. He thought he was not old enough to retire. B. The pension was too small to support his life.

C. He was unwilling to be separated from Joseph. D. He wanted to get promoted to foreman.

67. Which of the following can best describe Pierre?

A. well-received and trustworthy

C. sensitive and humorous

B. cruel and greedy

D. creative and enthusiastic

68. The underlined sentences imply that ________．

A. Jacques had known the fact that Pierre was blind for a long time

B. the death of Joseph drove Pierre to despair of life

C. Pierre wanted to commit suicide because of his blindness

D. Jacques was afraid to see Pierre’s empty eyes

69. Which of the following does NOT indicate Pierre’s blindness?

A. Pierre knew every one of the forty families that got milk.

B. You know, I think those two share a secret. I have often felt it.

C. I cannot see Joseph again. You don’t understand, Jacques.

D. For years Pierre had worn a large heavy cap that came down low over his eyes.

70. What is the best title for the passage?

A. A caring friend

B. A caring milk company

D. A secret for two

题组五

A

Supermarket packaging often contains common English words that are oddly confusing. Here’s what you need

to know to safeguard your health.

●Imitation

C. A secret of a horse

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三年真题·研读专练

A food that simulates another food but isn’t made of the same stuff is an imitation, right? Not quite. It should

be labeled imitation only if it has a lower amount of protein or some other essential nutrient than the food it’s

copying.

●Free

Packages bearing the words fat-, sugar-, or sodium-free may still contain trace amounts of those substances.

The FDA evaluates these terms according to a typical portionsize known as an RACC(reference amounts

customarily consumed per eating occasion). An RACC of eggnog, for example, is a half cup, and for croutons, it’s

7 g. To be labeled free of calories, a food should have fewer than 5 calories per RACC; to qualify as fat- or

sugarfree, less than 0.5 g per RACC; and to be labeled sodium-free, fewer than 5 mg per RACC.

●Reduced/Less

Don’t be fooled: Just because a product claims to have reduced fat or to contain less sugar doesn’t mean it’s

low in the stuff you should avoid in excess(过量). Such terms just mean the amount is lower than usual; the food

might not meet the standard for low at all. These phrases indicate a relational claim compared with a reference food.

The reduced substance(for example, total fat, sugar, etc.) should be at least 25 percent less per RACC than the

amount in an appropriate reference food.

ing to the passage, the food should be labeled _______.

A. imitation when it has as much essential nutrient as the copied food

B. sugarfree if the sugar is fewer than 5 mg per RACC

C. reduced fat if it is indeed low in the stuff you should avoid in excess

D. reduced sugar if it is 30 % less per RACC than the amount in the reference food

passage is intended to _______.

A. explain some words on packaging

B. remind us of tricky words on food labels

C. suggest ways to protect your health consciously

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三年真题·研读专练

D. point out mistaken labels requiring to be improved

B

Please take a few seconds and think of your personal biggest goal. Imagine telling someone you meet today

what you’re going to do. Imagine their congratulations and their high image of you. Doesn’t it feel good to say it

out loud? Don’t you feel one step closer already? Well, bad news: you should have kept your mouth shut, because

that good feeling will make you less likely to do it.

Any time you have a goal, there is some work that needs to be done to achieve it. Ideally, you would not be

satisfied until you’d actually done the work. But when you tell someone your goal and he acknowledges(认可)it,

psychologists have found it’s called a “social reality”. The mind is kind of tricked into feeling that it’s already done.

And then, because you’ve felt that satisfaction, you’re less motivated to do the actual hard work necessary. This

goes against the traditional wisdom that we should tell our friends our goals, right?

In 1982, Peter Gollwitzer, a Professor of Psychology, wrote a whole book about this. And in 2009, he did some

new tests that were published. It goes like this: 163 people across four separate tests — everyone wrote down their

personal goal. Then half of them announced their commitment(许诺)to this goal to the room, and half didn’t. Then

everyone was given 45 minutes of work that would directly lead them towards their goal, but they were told that

they could stop at any time. Now those who kept their mouths shut worked the entire 45 minutes on average, and

when asked afterwards, said they felt they had a long way to go to achieve their goal. But those who had announced

it quit after only 33 minutes on average, and when asked afterwards, said that they felt much closer to achieving

their goal.

do the words “social reality” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A. Completion of the goal.

B. Necessary hard work.

D.A sense of satisfaction. C. People’s acknowledgement.

does Peter Gollwitzer try to tell us?

A. Writing down the goal is very helpful.

B. Achieving personal goal needs more time.

C. Keeping the goal secret makes people work harder.

D. Making the goal public makes people less satisfied.

did Peter Gollwitzer prove his idea about people’s goal?

A. By giving figures.

精品资源·战胜高考

B. By giving examples.

三年真题·研读专练

C. By making a survey. D. By making comparison tests.

C

As autumn slides into winter every year, many birds in Europe and Asia pack up and fly south to sun

themselves in the tropical(热带的)African sunshine. When spring rolls around, they return to the temperate

Palearctic zone(古北区,欧亚非北部)to mate and raise their children. Researchers

wanted to know why these long-distance fliers do not get travelers’ flu.

“When we go abroad on holiday, we need all sorts of vaccinations,” says Emily

O’Connor, an ecologist at Lund University in Sweden. “But birds don’t have the option

of drug protection. It puzzled us: How is it they can cope so well with something so

difficult for us to cope with?”

To find out, O’Connor and her colleagues classified more than 1,300 songbird species as migratory(迁徙的),

sedentary(不迁徙的)African or sedentary Palearctic—an example of the last is the meadow pipit. They then

trapped wild birds from a representative group of 32 species, taking blood samples for genetic analysis. The

researchers were looking for genes that encode(把…编码)a class of immune system proteins called MHC-I, which

are involved in recognizing pathogens(病原体). The greater the number of such genes, the more kinds of pathogens

an animal’s immune system can detect, O’Connor says.

By this measure, sedentary African birds had the strongest immune systems. Because most Palearctic birds

first evolved in the tropics and later spread northward, the researchers suspect these species developed less MHC-I

diversity. The results were published in May in Nature & Evolution.

“Migratory birds, because of the lifestyles they have, have to deal with two separate sets of pathogens,”

O’Connor says. “I was expecting them to have the highest gene diversity of all the groups, so I was really surprised

to find it was really similar to that of the European birds.”

Young birds are ripest targets for pathogens just after hatching, and the stress of reproduction makes their

parents more likely to get sick then, too. For both reasons, O’Connor suspects that evolution may have pushed

migratory species to favor genes associated with resistance to pathogens common in the north, where they are born,

at the expense of those that protect against tropical germs(病菌).

Alternatively, migratory species may have invested in other forms of immunity that are not pathogen-specific,

says University of Exeter evolutionary biologist Camille Bonneaud, who was not involved in the study. “We now

need to further explore whether migratory species invest less in fighting pathogens,” Bonneaud says, and “more in

other types of immune processes.”

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三年真题·研读专练

example of humans’ going abroad mentioned in Paragraph 2 is to introduce ________.

A. the issue confusing the researchers

C. the cause of songbirds’ fighting flu

B. the topic on migration of songbirds

D. the difference made in vaccinations

ing to O’Connor’s study, migratory species may ________.

A. sacrifice some immunity to favor another based on reality

B. evolve into the advanced groups with less MHC-I diversity

C. develop best immune systems due to the lifestyles they have

D. contain more genes recognizing pathogens than sedentary ones

purpose of Paragraph 6 is to ________.

A. show how evolution leads to powerful genes B. explain why the result of study is unexpected

C. explore the similarities of birds fighting germs D. analyze the reasons for different gene diversity

’s the possible conclusion made about O’Connor’s study?

A. Birds could handle the flu hard for human beings to deal with.

B. Birds’ ability to fight germs may depend on migration patterns.

C. There is other possibility involved in forming birds’ immunity.

D. MHC-I diversity determines if birds migrate as season changes.

D

The three phases of life are increasingly a thing of the past. Where once working lives fitted neatly into the

model of education, employment and then retirement, the simplicity of that division is being challenged by

changing standards of the workforce.

Increasing numbers of workers, nearing their long-imagined transition into retirement, seem to be actively

postponing the moment at which they down tools. Newly released figures from the Office for National Statistics

(ONS)have shown that there are over a million more over 50s in part-time work than a decade ago. And with nine

out of 10 employers reporting difficulties hiring workers, there’s likely to be a growing market for their talents as

bosses extend their searches to older people, including those who are willing to take on part-time responsibilities.

The ending of the three phases of working life isn’t simply down to people living longer or financial necessity

—though those are certainly important factors — but also to an increasing desire to maintain a purposeful life. One

survey of British retirees over 50 found that 85 per cent of them felt they’d retired too young — stopping working

had left a void that they subsequently regretted.

The 2015 film The Intern conveyed this human need to have value. In it, Robert De Niro plays a 70-year-old

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三年真题·研读专练

widower who finds himself a fish out of water when he joins a trendy internet start-up. In the end, not only does he

find the sense of belonging that he craves but his colleagues come to rely on his experience and different

perspective. It’s a plot we can increasingly expect to play out in real-life offices over the decades to come as people

live ever longer.

Already, we are seeing people in their 50s and 60s looking ahead to a retirement lasting 30 years, choosing

instead to build second careers that they can maintain into their 70s or beyond. Freed from the financial burden of

young children, they can prioritise flexibility, shorter working hours or more rewarding jobs in areas such as charity

work or teaching. Many do it for no money at all, volunteering behind the till in charity shops or showing people

round National Trust properties.

However, it’s the next generation where the effect of living longer will really be felt, and the financial

necessity will start to bite. In the West, more than half of the children born in 2016 have a life expectancy of more

than 100 years. In their book, The 100-Year Life, London Business School professors Lynda Gratton and Andrew

Scott suggest that acquiring sufficient funds to see oneself through a 40- or 50-year retirement will likely be beyond

all but the highest earners.

Then there’s the oft-repeated claim that young people today are the first generation to be poorer than their

parents. Certainly property prices are changing the way they plan for the future. In the mid-Nineties, the average

home cost less than three times the average wage; last year, ONS stats placed that ratio at eight times wages.

The overall effect of these trends is that young people recognise that they will likely have to postpone dreams

of retirement and instead strap on(绑住)more debt spread over longer spans. It’s why 44 per cent of under 30s say

they expect to be working well into their 70s and why data this year from the Bank of England show that 16 per

cent of UK mortgages(按揭贷款)now have terms of 35 years or more — a figure that has tripled in the past decade.

All of these factors look set to contribute to a workforce that has a significantly wider range of ages in the

future. In an era of work when we’ve all learned to be more inclusive, only eight per cent of firms with a diversity

programme have adapted it to go beyond gender, race and sexuality and into age. Incorporating older employees

into the workforce is set to be the next big thing at the office.

If Robert De Niro has anything to teach us, it’s that this can be an enormous force for good for both employees

and businesses.

do the underlined words “down tools” in Paragraph 2 mean?

A. stop working

B. undertake part-time jobs

D. imagine the future life C. learn a new skill

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三年真题·研读专练

following may account for the ending of the three phases of working life EXCEPT _______.

A. a longer life B. financial needs C. a meaningful life D. delayed retirement policy

author introduces the details of the film The Intern in order to _______.

A. tell us Robert De Niro is a helpful retiree

B. indicate that retirees can also benefit society

C. illustrate that retirees desire to live meaningfully

D. share Robert De Niro’s second career with us

trend will the next generation face?

A. Their life expectancy will be longer.

C. They can live within their means.

B. They will be richer than their parents.

D. They will fail to pay off their mortgage.

main reason for young people postponing retirement is _______.

A. longing for a more purposeful life

C. a shorter term of mortgages

B. inability to make their ends meet

D. eagerness for experience from old employees

does the passage mainly talk about?

A. Different attitudes to retirement between the young and old.

B. Financial issues facing both old people and young people.

C. Age being no bar in the modern world of work.

D. The new standards of the workplace.

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