专题05 阅读理解之说明文10篇
（2023下·北京·高二校考期中）Living in a city is a well-known risk factor for developing a mental disorder, while living close to nature is largely beneficial for mental health and the brain. A central brain region, the amygdala (大脑杏仁核)involved in stress processing, has been shown to be less activated during stress in people living in rural areas, compared to those who live in cities, hinting at the potential benefits of nature. “But so far the hen-and-egg problem could not be resolved, namely whether nature actually caused the effects in the brain or whether the particular individuals chose to live in rural or urban regions,” says Sonja Sudimac.
To achieve causal evidence, the researchers from the group examined brain activity in regions involved in stress processing in 63 healthy volunteers before and after a one-hour walk in Grunewald forest or a shopping street with traffic in Berlin. The results revealed that activity in the amygdala decreased after the walk in nature, suggesting that nature elicits beneficial effects on brain regions related to stress.
“The results support the previously assumed positive relationship between nature and brain health, but this is the first study to prove the causal link. Interestingly, the brain activity after the urban walk in these regions remained stable and showed no increases, which argues against a commonly held view that urban exposure causes additional stress,” explains Simone Kühn, head of the group.
The authors show that nature has a positive impact on brain regions involved in stress processing and that it can already be observed after a one-hour walk. This contributes to the understanding of how our physical living environment affects brain and mental health. Even a short exposure to nature decreases amygdala activity, suggesting that a walk in nature could serve as a preventive measure against developing mental health problems and reducing the potentially disadvantageous impact of the city on the brain.
In order to investigate beneficial effects of nature in different populations and age groups, the researchers are currently working on a study examining how a one-hour walk in natural versus urban environments impacts stress in mothers and their babies.
1．What does the hen-and-egg problem mean by Sonja Sudimac
A．Living in rural areas actually affects brain activity.
B．People in cities tend to have a higher risk of mental problems.
C．It’s unnecessary to work out the complex issue of stress and health.
D．It’s hard to clarify the impact of living environment on mental health.
2．How did researchers collect evidence for the study
A．By quoting authoritative experts. B．By interviewing healthy volunteers.
C．By researching on a previous theory. D．By comparing volunteers’ amygdala activities.
3．What does the last paragraph mainly talk about
A．Benefits of a regular walk in nature. B．The focus of the follow-up research.
C．An appeal for living in urban regions. D．Nature’s positive effects on women and children.
【答案】1．D 2．D 3．B
【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章介绍了一项关于自然对人大脑产生的影响的研究结果。研究发现，接近自然环境会使与压力相关的大脑区域杏仁核的活动减少，因此对大脑和心理健康有益。研究人员目前正在进行一项研究，探究自然环境对母亲和婴儿的压力的影响方式。
1．细节理解题。根据第一段“But so far the hen-and-egg problem could not be resolved, namely whether nature actually caused the effects in the brain or whether the particular individuals chose to live in rural or urban regions(但是到目前为止，母鸡和蛋的问题还没有得到解决，也就是说，到底是大自然对大脑产生了影响，还是特定的个体选择生活在农村还是城市地区)”可知，Sonja Sudimac的“母鸡和鸡蛋的问题”意味着生活环境对精神健康的影响很难说清楚。故选D。
2．细节理解题。根据第二段“To achieve causal evidence, the researchers from the group examined brain activity in regions involved in stress processing in 63 healthy volunteers before and after a one-hour walk in Grunewald forest or a shopping street with traffic in Berlin. The results revealed that activity in the amygdala decreased after the walk in nature, suggesting that nature elicits beneficial effects on brain regions related to stress.(为了获得因果证据，该小组的研究人员对63名健康志愿者在格鲁内瓦尔德森林或柏林交通繁忙的购物街散步一小时前后的大脑活动进行了检查。结果显示，在大自然中散步后，杏仁核的活动减少了，这表明大自然对大脑中与压力相关的区域产生了有益的影响)”可知，研究人员通过比较志愿者的杏仁核活动来为这项研究收集证据。故选D。
3．主旨大意题。根据最后一段“In order to investigate beneficial effects of nature in different populations and age groups, the researchers are currently working on a study examining how a one-hour walk in natural versus urban environments impacts stress in mothers and their babies.(为了调查自然对不同人群和年龄组的有益影响，研究人员目前正在进行一项研究，研究在自然环境和城市环境中散步一小时对母亲和婴儿的压力有何影响)”可知，最后一段主要讲的是后续研究的重点。故选B。
（2023下·北京顺义·高二牛栏山一中校考期中）A butterfly’s wings can have many jobs besides keeping the insect high up in the air. They may be used to attract mates, or to warn potential attackers to stay away. All of these roles, though, depend on their unchanging colouration. This plays into the idea that butterfly wings are dead tissue, like a bird’s feathers. In fact, that’s not true. For example, in some species males’ wings have special cells releasing some chemicals which attract females.
Nanfang Yu, a physicist at Columbia University, in New York, has been looking into the matter. Together with Naomi Pierce, a butterfly specialist at Harvard University, he has now shown, in a paper published in Nature Communications in February, 2020, that butterfly wings are, indeed, very much alive.
In their experiments, the two researchers used a laser light to heat up spots on the Wings of dozens of butterfly species. When the temperature of the area under the laser reached 40°C or so, the insects responded within seconds by doing things that stopped their wings heating up further. These actions included a butterfly turning around to minimize the area to the laser, moving its wings up and down or simply walking away.
Butterflies engaged in all of these heat-minimising activities even when the researchers blindfolded them. That suggested the relevant sensors were on the wings themselves. Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce therefore searched those wings for likely looking sensory cells. They found some, in the form of neurons (神经元) that were similar to heat detectors known from other insects. They also uncovered disc-shaped cells that appeared to be similar to pressure-sensitive neurons. They guess that these are there to detect deformation of the wing information an insect could use to control its flight pattern.
The third discovery they made to go against the “dead wing” idea was that some butterfly wings have a heartbeat. A butterfly’ s wings have veins (静脉). These carry a bloodlike liquid which, researchers have now found in males, shows a pulse (脉搏) of several dozen beats per minute. The source of this pulse appears to be the scent (气味) pad, a dark spot on the wings that produces the female-attracting chemicals. Apparently, this “wing heart” acts as a pump that helps bloodlike liquid through the scent pad.
In all their experiments simulating different environmental conditions, Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce consistently found that, different parts of the wing are covered by different sorts of scales. In particular, tubes pass through scales over the scent pads. This improves their ability to spread heat away and helps keep the living parts of a butterfly’s wings alive.
4．What can we learn from Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce’s experiments
A．Butterfly wings have little reaction to external heat.
B．Butterfly wings are complicated living organs.
C．The scent pads on some male butterfly wings are their hearts.
D．Heat-minimising activities help detect deformation of the wings.
5．What is the function of scales over the scent pads
A．Attracting mates. B．Increasing blood flow.
C．Covering powerful tubes. D．Producing the cooling effect.
6．Which of the following would be the best title for the passage
A．Seeing Is Believing B．Nothing Seek, Nothing Find
C．More Than Meets The Eye D．Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds
【答案】4．B 5．D 6．C
【导语】这是一篇说明文。人们普遍认为蝴蝶翅膀是死亡组织，就像鸟的羽毛或哺乳动物的毛发一样。但事实并非如此，经过研究证实蝴蝶的翅膀确实是活的。
4．细节理解题。根据第二段“Nanfang Yu, a physicist at Columbia University, in New York, has been looking into the matter. Together with Naomi Pierce, a butterfly specialist at Harvard University, he has now shown, in a paper published in Nature Communications in February, 2020, that butterfly wings are, indeed, very much alive.(纽约哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)的物理学家Nanfang Yu一直在研究这个问题。他与哈佛大学蝴蝶专家内奥米·皮尔斯(Naomi Pierce)合作，在2020年2月发表在《自然通讯》(Nature Communications)上的一篇论文中表明，蝴蝶的翅膀确实是活的)”可知，我们能从于博士和皮尔斯博士的实验中学到蝴蝶的翅膀是复杂的活体器官。故选B项。
5．细节理解题。根据最后一段“In all their experiments simulating different environmental conditions, Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce consistently found that, different parts of the wing are covered by different sorts of scales. In particular, tubes pass through scales over the scent pads. This improves their ability to spread heat away and helps keep the living parts of a butterfly’s wings alive.(在模拟不同环境条件的所有实验中，Yu博士和Pierce博士一致发现，翅膀的不同部位覆盖着不同种类的鳞片。特别是，管子穿过气味垫上的鳞片。这提高了它们传播热量的能力，并有助于保持蝴蝶翅膀上有生命的部分的活力)”可知，鳞片对气味垫的作用是产生冷却效果。故选D项。
6．主旨大意题。根据第一段“A butterfly’s wings can have many jobs besides keeping the insect high up in the air. They may be used to attract mates, or to warn potential attackers to stay away. All of these roles, though, depend on their unchanging colouration. This plays into the idea that butterfly wings are dead tissue, like a bird’s feathers. In fact, that’s not true. For example, in some species males’ wings have special cells releasing some chemicals which attract females.(蝴蝶的翅膀除了让昆虫飞在空中之外，还有很多作用。它们可能被用来吸引配偶，或者警告潜在的攻击者远离。然而，所有这些角色都依赖于它们不变的颜色。这印证了蝴蝶翅膀是死组织的观点，就像鸟的羽毛一样。事实上，这不是真的。例如，在一些物种中，雄性翅膀上有特殊的细胞，可以释放一些化学物质来吸引雌性)”以及纵观全文可知，本文主要介绍了蝴蝶的翅膀除了能让其在空中飞得很高外，还有许多功能，并文中详细介绍了这些功能。由此可推知，本文主要的目的是告诉我们有些事情并不像看到的那样简单。所以C项“More Than Meets The Eye(比你看到的更多)”是本文最好的标题。故选C项。
（2023下·北京通州·高二统考期中）I’m used to seeing small leaps in technological progress, but occasionally, there are things that will still shock me. At the end of last year, a company called Open AI released a truly jaw-dropping demonstration of a new AI technology that feels almost like technology has skipped ahead by a few generations.
This new AI technology is called ChatGPT, a computer program that can understand and respond to human language. It is trained on a lot of text, so it can understand what people are saying and respond in a way that sounds like a real person. What’s even more amazing is that ChatGPT seems frighteningly human in its ability to understand questions and answer them competently. “Write a story about Leonardo da Vinci in the style of Roald Dahl,” you can ask it, and it’ll spin up a pretty good children’s story.
One area where I’ve found ChatGPT to be enormously useful is its ability to write computer code. This has particularly amazed me as unlike the English language, when you write code it has to be very precise (精确的) and carefully structured — but when I asked it to write me a program that would put some data into a database for me, in a particularly complex way, within seconds it generated something that would have taken me hours to do manually (人工地). ChatGPT isn’t completely human, however. For example, it sometimes generates things that sound true, but are actually just nonsense. This is because of the way the AI learns through pattern recognition. There’s no real intelligence operating there — it is just repeating something based on what it has “read” before. ChatGPT is better at some tasks than others: it can write a brilliant invitation email, but its ability to rhyme leaves a lot to be desired.
And this is why I’m pretty convinced that ChatGPT is going to change the world, sooner rather than later. It’s already hugely impressive, but what exists at the moment is just a demonstration. Once the same AI is built into other apps and can connect to the live internet to learn more, it will become even more advanced. Our computers will no longer be just our word processors, but our writing partners too.
7．Which aspect about ChatGPT especially amazed the author
A．Its structure. B．Its variety. C．Its efficiency. D．Its correction.
8．What can we learn about ChatGPT from the Paragraph 3
A．ChatGPT has some limitations.
B．There’s no real intelligence in the world.
C．ChatGPT is better than other chatbot AI.
D．AI cannot think the same way as humans do.
9．What is the author’s attitude toward ChatGPT
A．Worried. B．Doubtful. C．Optimistic. D．Unconcerned.
【答案】7．C 8．A 9．C
【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章对ChatGPT的优势、缺陷和前景进行了介绍。
7．细节理解题。根据第三段第二句“This has particularly amazed me as unlike the English language, when you write code it has to be very precise (精确的) and carefully structured — but when I asked it to write me a program that would put some data into a database for me, in a particularly complex way, within seconds it generated something that would have taken me hours to do manually (人工地).(这让我特别惊讶，因为不像英语语言，当你写代码时，它必须非常精确和仔细地结构化——但是当我让它为我写一个程序，以一种特别复杂的方式将一些数据输入数据库时，它在几秒钟内生成了一些我手动需要几个小时才能完成的东西。)”可知，ChatGPT的效率让作者特别惊讶。故选C。
8．细节理解题。根据第三段第三句到最后一句“ChatGPT isn’t completely human, however. For example, it sometimes generates things that sound true, but are actually just nonsense. This is because of the way the AI learns through pattern recognition. There’s no real intelligence operating there — it is just repeating something based on what it has “read” before. ChatGPT is better at some tasks than others: it can write a brilliant invitation email, but its ability to rhyme leaves a lot to be desired.(然而，ChatGPT并不完全是人类。例如，它有时生成的东西听起来是真的，但实际上只是无稽之谈。这是因为人工智能通过模式识别学习的方式。那里没有真正的智能在运作——它只是根据之前“读过”的东西重复一些东西。ChatGPT在某些任务上比其他任务要好：它可以写一封出色的邀请电子邮件，但它的押韵能力还有很多需要改进的地方。)”可知，从第三段中可以了解到ChatGPT有一些缺陷。故选A。
9．推理判断题。根据最后一段第一句“And this is why I’m pretty convinced that ChatGPT is going to change the world, sooner rather than later. It’s already hugely impressive, but what exists at the moment is just a demonstration. Once the same AI is built into other apps and can connect to the live internet to learn more, it will become even more advanced. Our computers will no longer be just our word processors, but our writing partners too.(这就是为什么我非常确信ChatGPT迟早会改变世界。它已经非常令人印象深刻，但目前存在的只是一个示范。一旦同样的人工智能被内置到其他应用程序中，并且可以连接到实时互联网以了解更多信息，它将变得更加先进。我们的电脑将不再仅仅是我们的文字处理器，也是我们的写作伙伴)”可知，作者对ChatGPT持乐观态度。故选C。
（2023下·北京·高二人大附中校考期中）Kim Hyo Jin, a shy junior high school student, stood before her American teacher. The smiling teacher held up a green pepper and asked in clear English: “What is this ”
“Peemang!”answered the South Korean teenager, who then covered her mouth with a hand as if to stop—too late—the Korean word that had left her mouth.
Embarrassed, she tried again. Without looking the teacher in the eye, she held both her hands out and asked, this time in English: “May I have green pepper ”
Kim took the vegetable with a bow, and ran back to her classmates, feeling relieved that she had successfully taken a small first step toward overcoming what South Koreans consider one of their biggest weaknesses in global competitiveness. the fear of speaking in English to westerners.
Kim was among 300 junior high school students going through a weeklong training in this new “English Village.” The complex looks like a mini-town transplanted from a European country to this South Korean countryside. It has its own immigration office, city hall, bookstore, cafeteria, gym, a main street with Western storefronts, police officers and a live-in population of 160 native English speakers. All signs are in English, the only language allowed.
Here, on a six-day course that charges each student 80,000 won, or $82, pupils check in to a hotel, shop, take cooking lessons and make music videos—all in English. There are language policemen around, punishing students speaking Korean with a fine in the village currency or red dots on their village passports.
South Korea has become one of the most aggressive countries in Asia at teaching English to its citizens. Outside the school system, parents are paying an estimated 10 trillion won a year to help their children learn English at home or abroad. Nevertheless, many college graduates are afraid of chatting with native speakers. That, linguists say, is a result of a national school system that traditionally stresses reading and memorization of English grammar and vocabulary at the expense of conversation.
10．What was Kim Hyo Jin’s problem
A．She spoke English with a Korean accent.
B．She kept staying with her Korean classmates.
C．She dared not talk with westerners in English.
D．She was afraid of looking at her English teacher.
11．Which of the following is true of the “English Village”
A．Students take turns to serve as language policemen.
B．Students will be punished for not speaking English.
C．It houses 460 Korean students in a week.
D．It is located in a European country.
12．What can be learned about the way that Korean students learn English at school
A．There aren’t enough English classes given to students.
B．Emphasis is placed on students’ ability to communicate.
C．Students don’t have enough chances to practise speaking.
D．Grammar and vocabulary is taught by old-fashioned methods.
【答案】10．C 11．B 12．C
【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章以初中学生Kim Hyo Jin为例，说明了韩国人害怕与西方人说英语。介绍了一个名为“英语村”的培训项目以及韩国的英语教授情况。
10．细节理解题。根据第四段“Kim took the vegetable with a bow, and ran back to her classmates, feeling relieved that she had successfully taken a small first step toward overcoming what South Koreans consider one of their biggest weaknesses in global competitiveness: the fear of speaking in English to westerners.(Kim拿起蔬菜，鞠了一躬，跑回她的同学身边，她感到如释重负，因为她成功地迈出了一小步，克服了韩国人认为的全球竞争力最大弱点之一：害怕与西方人说英语)”可知，Kim Hyo Jin的问题是她不敢用英语和西方人交谈。故选C。
11．细节理解题。根据倒数第二段中“There are language policemen around, punishing students speaking Korean with a fine in the village currency or red dots on their village passports.(周围还有语言警察，对说韩国语的学生处以村币罚款或在他们的村护照上涂上红点)”可知，学生不讲英语将受到惩罚。故选B。
12．推理判断题。根据文章最后一段“Nevertheless, many college graduates are afraid of chatting with native speakers. That, linguists say, is a result of a national school system that traditionally stresses reading and memorization of English grammar and vocabulary at the expense of conversation.(然而，许多大学毕业生害怕与以英语为母语的人交谈。语言学家说，这是国家学校系统传统上强调阅读和记忆英语语法和词汇，而不是对话的结果)”可知，韩国学校系统传统上不强调对话，可得出韩国学生没有足够的机会练习口语。故选C。
（2023下·北京房山·高二统考期中）There is a photo in my collection that I pull out from time to time to remind myself of an old vacation. It’s a picture of me from the late 1970s on a bench in London’s Victoria Station, my head resting against a wall, eyes closed with tiredness, clothes messed up.
I used to love that shot. It was evidence of my leisure time, of travel, of interruption from the office: miles covered, sights seen, train stations raced through, goals achieved.
However, as I leave work to hit the vacation trail this summer, I take along something extra. This traveling companion has a habit of ruining trips with feelings of guilt—the guilt that comes from attempting to vacation while thinking of the job.
The conflict between the time we want off and the guilt we feel when we actually give in to leisure is a long-running battle that has gone too far, driven by an over-scheduling craze. It has made many feel as if their free moments are a form of truancy (玩忽职守).
It’s hard to take it easy when you’ve been programmed not to. We have been taught for generations that work is the only goal.
Time that is unfilled is evil, we are led to believe, and unplanned enjoyment should be avoided. This is reinforced today by a workplace culture that wants you to believe that advancement depends on your staying on the job.
Research now shows, however, that leisure time can do something job advancement and money can’t. Leisure activities increase your desire to work leadership skills, your sense of awareness and your ability to change. Free time also promotes a positive mood and sense of well-being, because it develops self-worth. Deep down, everyone knows we need time off to make our lives better.
On holiday, using your productive output as a measure of yourself doesn’t work. This is because a vacation isn’t about output; it’s about input — exploring, learning, reflecting. The magic of a holiday is in the experience itself. This is the same as life satisfaction; it can’t be measured, only felt.
The best part of a vacation isn’t going somewhere else; it’s being where you are, fully involved in the experience.
13．The author mentions the photo at the beginning because ____.
A．it shows how exhausting leisure travel can be
B．it brings back good memories of a leisurely tour
C．it shows the writer once considered leisure travel as a goal in itself
D．it proves interruptions from the office do not spoil the enjoyment of travel
14．What does the underlined phrase “this traveling companion” in Paragraph 3 refer to
A．Enjoying leisure time.
B．Thinking of one’s goals.
C．Interruptions from the office.
D．The feeling of guilt for not working.
15．What is one of the main benefits of leisure time according to the article
A．It improves your productivity.
B．It is good for personal development.
C．It leads directly to job advancement.
D．It helps you see your goals in life more clearly.
16．According to the author, what should we do while on vacation
A．Avoid much unplanned enjoyment.
B．Ignore job advancement and money.
C．Judge the vacation by productive output.
D．Enjoy the experience of being on vacation.
【答案】13．B 14．D 15．B 16．D
【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章主要说明了作者对于休闲旅行的看法，指出休闲时间对个人发展有好处，度假主要是关于输入——探索、学习、反思，度假的魅力就在于体验本身。
13．推理判断题。根据第二段中“It was evidence of my leisure time, of travel, of interruption from the office: miles covered, sights seen, train stations raced through, goals achieved.(这是我闲暇时间、旅行时间和被办公室打断的证据：走了几英里路，看过风景，匆匆走过火车站，实现了目标)”结合下文讲述现在人们旅行的状态推知，作者在第一段提到那张照片，是因为这让他想起了休闲旅行。故选B。
14．词句猜测题。根据第三段的“This traveling companion has a habit of ruining trips with feelings of guilt—the guilt that comes from attempting to vacation while thinking of the job.(这位旅伴有一个习惯，就是带着内疚感破坏旅行——这种内疚感来自于在考虑工作的同时试图度假)”和第四段的“The conflict between the time we want off and the guilt we feel when we actually give in to leisure is a long-running battle that has gone too far, driven by an over-scheduling craze. It has made many feel as if their free moments are a form of truancy (玩忽职守).(我们想要休息的时间和我们实际上屈服于休闲时的内疚感之间的冲突是一场旷日持久的战斗，在过度安排日程的狂热推动下，这场战斗已经走得太远了。这让许多人觉得他们的空闲时间似乎是玩忽职守)”可知，“This traveling companion”指的是“去旅行而不工作的内疚感”。故选D。
15．细节理解题。根据倒数第三段中“Leisure activities increase your desire to work leadership skills, your sense of awareness and your ability to change.Free time also promotes a positive mood and sense of well-being, because it develops self-worth.(休闲活动会增加你工作的欲望；你的领导技能，你的意识和你的改变能力。空闲时间也能促进积极的情绪和幸福感，因为它能发展自我价值)”可知，休闲时间对个人发展有好处。故选B。
16．细节理解题。根据倒数第二段的“The magic of a holiday is in the experience itself. (度假的魅力就在于体验本身)”以及最后一段“The best part of a vacation isn’t going somewhere else; it’s being where you are, fully involved in the experience.(度假最好的部分不是去别的地方；而是置身其中，全身心地投入到体验中)”可知，作者建议人们度假时享受旅行的体验。故选D。
（2023下·北京房山·高二统考期中）Search engines have changed the way we use the Internet, putting vast sources of information just a few clicks away. But Harvard professor of psychology Line Daniel Wegner’s recent research proves that websites and the Internet are changing the way our memories function. His latest study shows that when people have access to search engines, they remember fewer facts and less information because they know they can rely on“search”as a readily available shortcut.
Wegner believes the new findings show that the Internet has become part of a transactive memory (交互记忆) source, a method by which our brains divide information. Transactive memory exists in many forms, as when a husband relies on his wife to remember a relative’s birthday. You don’t have to remember everything in the world yourself. You just have to remember who knows it. Now computers and technology are becoming virtual extensions of our memory.
Wegner conducted several experiments to demonstrate the phenomenon, using various forms of memory recall to test reliance on computers. In one experiment, participants demonstrated that they were more likely to think of computer terms like “Yahoo” or “Google” after being asked a set of difficult trivia questions. In another experiment, participants typed some statements into a computer and they were told the statements would be saved in specific folders. Next, they were asked to recall the statements. Finally, they were given cues to the wording and asked to name the folders where the statements were stored. The participants proved better able to recall the folder locations than the statements themselves.
Wegner admits that questions remain about whether dependence on computers will affect memories negatively: “Nobody knows now what the effects of these tools are on logical thinking.” Students who have trouble remembering distinct facts, for example, may struggle to employ those facts in critical thinking. But he believes that the situation overall is beneficial, comparing dependence on computers to dependence on a mechanical hand (机械手).
And even though we may not be using our memories to recall distinct facts, we are still using them to consider where the facts are located and how to access them. “We still have to remember things,”Wegner explains. “We’re just remembering a different range of things.”
17．Why does the writer mention “a husband relies on his wife to remember a relative’s birthday” in Paragraph 2
A．To show that people who are closely related tend to have shared memories.
B．To demonstrate how people initially developed external sources of memory.
C．To emphasize the effectiveness and accuracy of transactive memory sources.
D．To illustrate the concept of a transactive memory source using a familiar situation.
18．What do people tend to do in the experiment when asked to provide unfamiliar facts
A．Think of specific information sources.
B．Recall them from their deep memories.
C．Type into computer and remember them.
D．Link the unfamiliar facts to their experiences.
19．What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs
A．Reliance on computers does not necessarily reduce human memory.
B．Computers have helped people to understand the memory system better.
C．Computer dependence affects our thinking capacities in other distinct fields.
D．Researches should be done to reveal the side effect of computer dependence.
【答案】17．D 18．A 19．A
【导语】本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了计算机和技术正在重塑我们大脑的功能，并说明了研究开展的过程及意义。
17．推理判断题。根据第二段中“Wegner believes the new findings show that the Internet has become part of a transactive memory(交互记忆)source, a method by which our brains divide information. Transactive memory exists in many forms, as when a husband relies on his wife to remember a relative’s birthday. ( Wegner认为，新的发现表明互联网已经成为交互式记忆源的一部分，这是我们大脑划分信息的一种方法。交互记忆有多种形式，比如丈夫依靠妻子记住亲戚的生日)”推知，提到丈夫依靠妻子记住一个亲戚生日的例子，是用一个熟悉的情况来说明交互记忆源的概念。故选D。
18．细节理解题。根据第三段中“In one experiment, participants demonstrated that they were more likely to think of computer terms like “Yahoo” or “Google” after being asked a set of difficult trivia questions. In another experiment, participants typed some statements into a computer and they were told the statements would be saved in specific folders. Next, they were asked to recall the statements. Finally, they were given cues to the wording and asked to name the folders where the statements were stored. The participants proved better able to recall the folder locations than the statements themselves.( 在一项实验中，参与者在被问及一系列复杂的琐事问题后，他们更有可能想到“雅虎”或“谷歌”等计算机术语。在另一项实验中，参与者在电脑中输入一些语句，并被告知这些语句将被保存在特定的文件夹中。接下来，他们被要求回忆这些陈述。最后，研究人员给他们提示，并要求他们说出存放这些语句的文件夹名称。事实证明，参与者能够更好地回忆文件夹位置，而不是语句本身)”可知，从实验中我们知道，当被要求提供他们不熟悉的事实时，人们倾向于想到特定的信息源。故选A。
19．推理判断题。根据倒数第二段的““Nobody knows now what the effects of these tools are on logical thinking.” (现在没有人知道这些工具对逻辑思维的影响)”以及“But he believes that the situation overall is beneficial, comparing dependence on computers to dependence on a mechanical hand (机械手).(但他认为，将对电脑的依赖与对机械手的依赖进行比较，总体而言情况是有益的)”和最后一段中“And even though we may not be using our memories to recall distinct facts, we are still using them to consider where the facts are located and how to access them. “We still have to remember things,”Wegner explains. “We’re just remembering a different range of things.”(尽管我们可能没有用记忆来回忆不同的事实，但我们仍然在用它们来考虑事实的位置以及如何获取它们。“我们仍然需要记住一些事情，”韦格纳解释道。“我们只是记住了一系列不同的事情。”)”可推知，对计算机的依赖并不一定会减少人类的记忆。故选A。
（2023下·北京·高二北京市八一中学校考期中）1There are no reported sightings of teenage elephants hesitantly sitting down at the family dinner table with earphones in place, occasionally giving one-word answers to parents’ questions.
But they do exhibit other behaviors many parents of human teens would recognize, said Moss, a researcher who has studied elephants in Kenya’s National Park for nearly five decades.
“They’re na ve (天真的). They have a lot to learn and they make mistakes,” Moss said.
This is particularly true for males. She explained: They ruin crops. They get shot. They die. “It’s just like young human males who drive too fast,” Moss said, “and the insurance companies know very well to make them pay higher insurance rates.”
Barbara Natterson, a Harvard biologist pointed out that adolescent animals frequently put themselves in danger intentionally. This behavior is seen throughout the animal world. The adults of any species may consider some actions of their young low-judgment and high-risk; however, these actions actually serve a purpose.
An example is a practice called “predator (捕食者) inspection” which means adolescent animals approach predators rather than run away. The trade-off for the danger is that they can watch, smell and learn about the predator. They gather all kinds of information that can keep them safer as adults.
The idea that adolescents are hard-wired to take these risks can help people understand human teens’ behavior.
“Teens seem driven to try new things and test boundaries in their own version of ‘predator inspection’,” Natterson said. “They try to have as many experiences as they can before they leave the nest.”
Another key aspect of adolescence is an increase in time spent wandering in groups. Adolescence is marked by high levels of peer pressure as well as near-disaster. Scientists have found that adolescents of all kinds are more likely to make dangerous moves while with peers.
Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor at Temple University, found mice and human group adolescent behavior has something in common. He set up two experiments. One involved mice, half of which were adolescents, drinking ethanol-spiked (添加乙醇的) water. The other involved human teens playing a video game reproducing driving conditions.
“We found that in the presence of peers, adolescent mice drank more than they do when they’re alone,” Steinberg said, “and that the teenagers in the driving study also took more risks when others were around.”
2These findings fit with what Steinberg says is another multi-species adolescent quality: the desire to socialize.
“For the most part, adolescents, human and animal alike, prefer to be with other adolescents,” Steinberg said. “If I say teenagers are social animals, I think the word ‘animal’ is just as important in that sentence as the word ‘social’.”
Both Natterson and Steinberg hope their findings will help people who are raising adolescents.
20．According to Natterson, what is a risky but valuable action for adolescent animals
A．Gathering information with the help of parents.
B．Challenging predators with other adolescents.
C．Observing an adult hunting a large animal.
D．Watching enemies’ behavior up close.
21．Steinberg’s experiments found ________.
A．peer pressure is more common in adolescent animals than in human teens
B．both adolescent animals and human teens are affected by peer pressure
C．adolescent animals are less likely to get drunk while with peers
D．teenagers are not willing to be sociable in the presence of peers
22．What does the underlined sentence mean
A．Adolescent animals long to socialize with teenagers.
B．“Social” is a word that can be interpreted in different ways.
C．Socializing with peers is one quality that adolescents share.
D．The importance of socializing has been realized by teenagers.
【答案】20．D 21．B 22．C
【导语】本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了一项新的研究发现结果，该研究表明，不管是青春期时的人类还是动物，都喜欢和同伴待在一起，也更加愿意冒险。
20．推理判断题。根据文章第五段“Barbara Natterson, a Harvard biologist pointed out that adolescent animals frequently put themselves in danger intentionally. This behavior is seen throughout the animal world. The adults of any species may consider some actions of their young low-judgment and high-risk; however, these actions actually serve a purpose.(哈佛大学生物学家Barbara Natterson指出，青春期的动物经常故意把自己置于危险之中。这种行为在动物界随处可见。任何物种的成虫都可能会考虑后代的一些低判断力和高风险的行为；然而，这些行为实际上是有目的的。)”以及第六段“An example is a practice called “predator (捕食者) inspection” which means adolescent animals approach predators rather than run away. The trade-off for the danger is that they can watch, smell and learn about the predator. They gather all kinds of information that can keep them safer as adults.(一个例子是一种叫做“捕食者检查”的做法，这意味着青春期的动物接近捕食者而不是逃跑。危险的代价是它们可以观察、嗅闻并了解捕食者。它们收集各种各样的信息，这些信息可以让它们成年后更安全。)”可知，对于青春期的动物来说，近距离观察捕食者的行为，是有风险但是有价值的行为，因为它们可以通过近距离观察捕食者来收集各种信息，从而让它们的成年更安全。故选D。
21．细节理解题。根据文章第十段“Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor at Temple University, found mice and human group adolescent behavior has something in common. He set up two experiments. One involved mice, half of which were adolescents, drinking ethanol-spiked (添加乙醇的) water. The other involved human teens playing a video game reproducing driving conditions.(天普大学的心理学教授Laurence Steinberg发现，老鼠和人类群体的青少年行为有一些共同之处。他做了两个实验。其中一项实验涉及老鼠，其中一半是青少年，他们喝了添加了乙醇的水。另一项是让青少年玩一个模拟驾驶条件的视频游戏。)”以及第十一段““We found that in the presence of peers, adolescent mice drank more than they do when they’re alone,” Steinberg said, “and that the teenagers in the driving study also took more risks when others were around.”(Steinberg：“我们发现，有同伴在场时，青春期的老鼠比独处时喝得更多，而且在驾驶研究中的青少年在其他人在场时也更冒险。)”可知，不管是动物还是人类，当处于青春期的时候，都会受到同伴压力的影响。当有同伴在场时，他们的行为都会更加冒险。故选B。
22．词句猜测题。根据划线句子下一段““For the most part, adolescents, human and animal alike, prefer to be with other adolescents,” Steinberg said. “If I say teenagers are social animals, I think the word ‘animal’ is just as important in that sentence as the word ‘social’.”(“大多数情况下，青少年，无论是人类还是动物，都喜欢和其他青少年在一起。” 斯坦伯格说：“如果我说青少年是社会动物，我认为‘动物’这个词在这句话中的重要性不亚于‘社会’这个词。”)”可知，不管是人类还是动物，与同龄人交往是共有的一种品质。故选C。
（2023上·北京·高二北师大实验中学校考期中）Every four years we get to see the best competing to win the Olympic medals. But sometimes the best inspiration comes from those who don’t win-- or even someone who came in dead last.
In 1988, Michael “The Eagle” Edwards became the first competitor since 1928 to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping. How did Eddie do He came in No. 58 out of 58. But it didn’t matter. His fans loved him for other reasons. He had no trainer, no money, no practice facilities--and some called him the great British loser. Eddie says, “I got my letter saying, ‘Congratulations, you can represent Great Britain in the Olympic Games’ when I was in a mental hospital in Finland. I wasn’t a patient. I was there because it was the cheapest place for me to stay.” On getting ready to do his jump, Eddie says, “There were about 85 or 90 thousand people in the ski jump area, and I thought ‘this is going to be really good, I’m really going to go for this,’ The Germans and the Swiss and the Italians were going down jumping, but the crowd were ignoring them and chanting, ‘Eddie! Eddie!’”
“And I got out and sat on the bar and they started cheering and cheering and it was great!”
“When you sit at the top of the ski jump, you look down, and you’re probably about 500 or 600 feet up from where you’re actually going to finish. You can see a million and one different reasons why you shouldn’t really go down. So you do have to be not a little crazy, but probably a lot.”
“You’re travelling at 65 or 75 miles per hour. Within about a second you’ll be 250 feet up from where you’re going to be landing. And you just try to relax and let your skis carry you to the bottom of the hill.”
“It’s the most exciting feeling in the world.”
Eddie’s British record jump of 71 meters landed him in 58th place--out of 58 competitors, 19 meters behind the jumper who was placed 57th. And if you ask anyone in Great Britain, “Who won the Olympic ski jump in 1988 ” Almost no one could tell you. But if you ask, “Who is Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards ” They’ll tell you all about the crazy ski jump guy who they still remember and love to this day. The British people were so proud of him for just trying, that winning didn’t matter a bit. He dares to go where most of us won’t. Yes, he came in dead last, but he will be forever and fondly remembered by his country for doing what no one else had done in 60 years.
So what daring thing are you afraid to do Take Eddie’s example and just go for it.
You might just become a legend.
23．The competitor who was placed 57th kept the record jump of ________meters in 1988.
A．52 B．77 C．90 D．129
24．Which statement is true according to the passage
A．Eddie represented Finland in Olympic ski jumping.
B．Eddie trained himself with good practical facilities.
C．Eddie thought it didn’t matter to be in dead last.
D．Eddie thought himself to be a legend in Britain.
25．How did Eddie win the hearts of British people
A．He became the first British competitor in Olympic ski jumping.
B．He did what no one else had done in 60 years for his country.
C．He could ski jump at the speed of 65 or 75 miles per hour.
D．He has got a great deal of British sport fans.
26．What is the best title of the passage
A．The Eagle B．Getting to the medal
C．The Importance of Failure D．When Last Place is Really First
【答案】23．C 24．C 25．B 26．D
【导语】本文是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了在1988年冬奥会上，英国小伙“飞鹰”艾迪在58人参加的跳台滑雪比赛中名列倒数第一。但他以坚韧不拔、勇于开拓的精神和不畏艰难、与命运抗争的勇气而被人们所铭记。
23．细节理解题。根据第七段“Eddie’s British record jump of 71 meters landed him in 58th place--out of 58 competitors, 19 meters behind the jumper who was placed 57th. (艾迪以71米的成绩打破了英国跳远纪录，在58名参赛选手中排名58位，比排名57位的选手落后19米。)”可知，1988年，排名第57位的选手保持了90米跳远纪录。故选C。
24．细节理解题。根据第二段“On getting ready to do his jump, Eddie says, “There were about 85 or 90 thousand people in the ski jump area, and I thought ‘this is going to be really good, I’m really going to go for this,’ The Germans and the Swiss and the Italians were going down jumping, but the crowd were ignoring them and chanting, ‘Eddie! Eddie!’”(在准备起跳的时候，艾迪说:“跳台滑雪区大约有8万5千到9万人，我想‘这一定会很棒，我一定要去试试。’德国人、瑞士人和意大利人都在跳台，但人群无视他们，高喊‘艾迪!艾迪!’”)”可知，艾迪认为自己一定要去试试，是最后一名不重要。故选C。
25．细节理解题。根据第七段“Yes, he came in dead last, but he will be forever and fondly remembered by his country for doing what no one else had done in 60 years. (是的，他是最后一位，但他的国家将永远怀念他，因为他做了60年来没有人做过的事情。)”可知，艾迪为他的国家做了60年来没有人做过的事情，赢得了英国人的心。故选B。
26．主旨大意题。根据第二段“In1988, Michael “The Eagle” Edwards became the first competitor since 1928 to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping. How did Eddie do He came in No. 58 out of 58. But it didn’t matter. (1988年，“飞鹰”迈克尔·爱德华兹成为自1928年以来首位代表英国参加奥运会跳台滑雪比赛的运动员。艾迪做得怎么样？他在58人中排名第58。但这并不重要。)”及全文可知，文章主要介绍了在1988年冬奥会上，英国小伙“飞鹰”艾迪在58人参加的跳台滑雪比赛中名列倒数第一。但他以坚韧不拔、勇于开拓的精神和不畏艰难、与命运抗争的勇气而被人们所铭记。所以“When Last Place is Really First(当最后一名才是真正的第一名的时候)”作为文章标题最为合适。故选D。
（2022上·北京·高二北京一七一中校考期中）Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight.When he came to analyze their embarrassing lapses (差错) in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings. Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random (随机的).
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got turned around in the programme.” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these programme assembly failures.
Altogether the volunteers noted down 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing—an average of twelve each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours sometime between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work.” Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men probably because they were more reliable reporters.
An unexpected finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a potential risk of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse, even dangerous.
27．Professor Smith discovered that_________.
A．people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness
B．certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents
C．absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness
D．men tend to be more absent-minded than women
28．“Programme assembly failures” (Line 6, Para. 2) refers to the phenomenon that people_________.
A．often fail to programme their routines beforehand
B．tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry
C．unconsciously change the order of doing things
D．are likely to mess things up if they are too tired
29．What can we learn from the third paragraph
A．Absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day.
B．Women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods.
C．Women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness.
D．Men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations.
30．What can be concluded from the passage
A．People should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses.
B．Risks can be avoided when people do things they are good at.
C．Lapses cannot always be connected with lack of concentration.
D．People should be careful when programming their actions.
【答案】27．B 28．C 29．A 30．C
【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章主要介绍了人们在生活中经常出现无意识的过错的原因，并介绍了一天中的哪些时间更容易出现无意识的过错。
27．推理判断题。根据第一段关键句“When he came to analyze their embarrassing lapses (差错) in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings. Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random (随机的).”（当他在一份科学报告中分析他们令人尴尬的差错时，他惊讶地发现几乎所有的差错都属于少数几类。差错也不是完全随机的。）和第二段关键句“About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these programme assembly failures.”（志愿者报告的事件中，约有二十分之一是这些程序组装失败。）可知，史密斯教授在志愿者报告的事件中发现，可以在记录的事件中识别某些模式，几乎所有的差错都属于少数几类，例如约有二十分之一是程序组装失败，由此可知，史密斯教授发现可以在记录的事件中识别某些模式。故选B项。
28．词义猜测题。根据第二段关键句“People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got turned around in the programme.”（人们计划自己定期进行某些活动。女人每天早上的习惯是给她的狗扔两块饼干，然后戴上耳环。但不知怎的，这一行动在程序中调转了顺序。）可知，上文列举的例子是女人在无意识地情况下调转了做事情的顺序，导致了把耳环丢给狗，在耳朵上带饼干的错误，这类错误属于“programme assembly failures”，由此可知，“programme assembly failures”指人们无意识地改变做事顺序的现象。故选C项。
29．细节理解题。根据第三段关键句“There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours sometime between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m.”（关于我们最荒谬可笑的时候，一天中似乎有高峰时期。这是上午8点到中午之间的两个小时，下午4点到6点之间，晚上8点到10点之间的高峰较小。）可知，我们心不在焉导致的荒谬可笑行为往往发生在一天中的某些时间，例如上午8点到中午之间的两个小时，下午4点到6点之间，由此可知，心不在焉往往发生在一天中的某些时间。故选A项。
30．推理判断题。根据最后一段关键句“Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse, even dangerous.”（通常情况下，你会认为这种技能可以减少我们犯的错误。但是，通过更多地集中精力来避免愚蠢的失误可能会让事情变得更糟，甚至更危险。）可知，通过更多地集中精力来避免愚蠢的失误可能会让事情变得更糟，甚至更危险，由此可知，即使集中注意力，也会出现过错，换句话说，过错不能总是与注意力不集中有关。故选C项。
（2022上·北京·高二北理工附中校考期中）“While animals can’t pick out precise numbers, they can understand that more is more. Interestingly, we know now that numerical competence is present on almost every branch of the animal tree of life,” says Andreas Nieder, a neurobiologist from the University of Tuebingen. “Different groups of animals obviously developed this trait independently from others and that strongly indicates that it has to be of adaptive value.”
Honeybees, for instance, can remember the number of landmarks they pass when searching for food in order to find their way back to the hive. The last common ancestor between honeybees and primates lived about 600 million years ago. But still, they evolved numerical competence that, in many respects, is comparable to vertebrate numerical competence. Also, for example, male frogs sing “advertisement” calls to attract females. The females, listening for the complexity of their calls, choose the male that sings the most calls.
Wolves are more likely to hunt successfully if they have the right number of wolves in their pack for the size of their prey: With prey like deer, only around six to eight wolves are needed, while hunting wild ox requires a pack of nine to thirteen. Their prey also uses this concept to protect themselves from predators—deer tend to live in large herds to reduce the chance of any individual becoming prey. So obviously they are assessing the number of individuals in their groups for their everyday life situations.
Despite these many examples of numerical competence in animals, this subject has not gotten many first-hand studies. “Many of these behavioral findings in the wild have usually been collected as by-products or accidental findings of other research questions,” says Nieder. He argues that more research needs to be done to fully understand the numerical competence.
31．Animals have their own numerical competence shows that______.
A．all groups of animals can know the exact numbers
B．numerical competence must have a survival benefit
C．animals’ intelligence varies with different environments
D．animals’ numerical competence is determined by their adaptability
32．What role does numerical competence play in wolves’ hunting
A．It helps them form proper hunting groups. B．It gives them more options to hunt.
C．It makes them discover more prey. D．It offers them new skills to hunt.
33．How does the author mainly develop this text
A．By listing figures. B．By asking questions.
C．By giving examples. D．By making comparisons
34．Where is the text probably taken from
A．A biology textbook. B．A health magazine.
C．A travel brochure. D．A science report.
【答案】31．B 32．A 33．C 34．D
【导语】这是一篇说明文。文章主要讲述了动物界中存在的动物的数字能力，通过举例对这种能力在蜜蜂和狼群体中的作用进行了说明，但有专家表示为证实动物的这种特质仍需要更多研究。
31．推理判断题。根据第一段“Different groups of animals obviously developed this trait independently from others and that strongly indicates that it has to be of adaptive value”（显然，不同的动物群体独立地发展了这种特性，这强烈表明它一定具有适应价值）再根据第二段列举的数字以及根据文章第三段“Wolves are more likely to hunt successfully if they have the right number of wolves in their pack for the size of their prey(如果狼群的数量与猎物的大小相匹配，狼更有可能成功捕猎)”和“Their prey also uses this concept to protect themselves from predators(它们的猎物也用这个概念来保护自己不受捕食者的伤害)”可推知，动物有自己的数字能力，说明数字能力肯定对生存有利。故选B项。
32．细节理解题。根据文章第三段“Wolves are more likely to hunt successfully if they have the right number of wolves in their pack for the size of their prey: With prey like deer, only around six to eight wolves are needed, while hunting wild ox requires a pack of nine to thirteen. (如果狼群的数量与猎物的大小相匹配，狼更有可能成功捕猎：像鹿这样的猎物，只需要大约6到8只狼，而捕猎野牛则需要9到13只狼。)”可知，数字能力可以帮助它们组成合适的狩猎群体。故选A项。
33．推理判断题。根据文章第二段“Honeybees, for instance, can remember the number of landmarks they pass when searching for food in order to find their way back to the hive.(例如，蜜蜂可以记住它们在寻找食物时经过的地标的数量，以便找到返回蜂巢的路)”和第三段“Wolves are more likely to hunt successfully if they have the right number of wolves in their pack for the size of their prey(如果狼群的数量与猎物的大小相匹配，狼更有可能成功捕猎)”可知，作者使用了蜜蜂和狼这两个例子进行了论证，所以作者是通过举例论证来开展文章的。故选C项。
34．推理判断题。分析全文内容可知，文章主要讲述了动物界中存在的动物的数字能力，通过举例对这种能力在蜜蜂和狼群体中的作用进行了说明，但有专家表示为证实动物的这种特质仍需要更多研究。所以本文很可能出自一篇科学报告。故选D项。专题05 阅读理解之说明文10篇
（2023下·北京·高二校考期中）Living in a city is a well-known risk factor for developing a mental disorder, while living close to nature is largely beneficial for mental health and the brain. A central brain region, the amygdala (大脑杏仁核)involved in stress processing, has been shown to be less activated during stress in people living in rural areas, compared to those who live in cities, hinting at the potential benefits of nature. “But so far the hen-and-egg problem could not be resolved, namely whether nature actually caused the effects in the brain or whether the particular individuals chose to live in rural or urban regions,” says Sonja Sudimac.
To achieve causal evidence, the researchers from the group examined brain activity in regions involved in stress processing in 63 healthy volunteers before and after a one-hour walk in Grunewald forest or a shopping street with traffic in Berlin. The results revealed that activity in the amygdala decreased after the walk in nature, suggesting that nature elicits beneficial effects on brain regions related to stress.
“The results support the previously assumed positive relationship between nature and brain health, but this is the first study to prove the causal link. Interestingly, the brain activity after the urban walk in these regions remained stable and showed no increases, which argues against a commonly held view that urban exposure causes additional stress,” explains Simone Kühn, head of the group.
The authors show that nature has a positive impact on brain regions involved in stress processing and that it can already be observed after a one-hour walk. This contributes to the understanding of how our physical living environment affects brain and mental health. Even a short exposure to nature decreases amygdala activity, suggesting that a walk in nature could serve as a preventive measure against developing mental health problems and reducing the potentially disadvantageous impact of the city on the brain.
In order to investigate beneficial effects of nature in different populations and age groups, the researchers are currently working on a study examining how a one-hour walk in natural versus urban environments impacts stress in mothers and their babies.
1．What does the hen-and-egg problem mean by Sonja Sudimac
A．Living in rural areas actually affects brain activity.
B．People in cities tend to have a higher risk of mental problems.
C．It’s unnecessary to work out the complex issue of stress and health.
D．It’s hard to clarify the impact of living environment on mental health.
2．How did researchers collect evidence for the study
A．By quoting authoritative experts. B．By interviewing healthy volunteers.
C．By researching on a previous theory. D．By comparing volunteers’ amygdala activities.
3．What does the last paragraph mainly talk about
A．Benefits of a regular walk in nature. B．The focus of the follow-up research.
C．An appeal for living in urban regions. D．Nature’s positive effects on women and children.
（2023下·北京顺义·高二牛栏山一中校考期中）A butterfly’s wings can have many jobs besides keeping the insect high up in the air. They may be used to attract mates, or to warn potential attackers to stay away. All of these roles, though, depend on their unchanging colouration. This plays into the idea that butterfly wings are dead tissue, like a bird’s feathers. In fact, that’s not true. For example, in some species males’ wings have special cells releasing some chemicals which attract females.
Nanfang Yu, a physicist at Columbia University, in New York, has been looking into the matter. Together with Naomi Pierce, a butterfly specialist at Harvard University, he has now shown, in a paper published in Nature Communications in February, 2020, that butterfly wings are, indeed, very much alive.
In their experiments, the two researchers used a laser light to heat up spots on the Wings of dozens of butterfly species. When the temperature of the area under the laser reached 40°C or so, the insects responded within seconds by doing things that stopped their wings heating up further. These actions included a butterfly turning around to minimize the area to the laser, moving its wings up and down or simply walking away.
Butterflies engaged in all of these heat-minimising activities even when the researchers blindfolded them. That suggested the relevant sensors were on the wings themselves. Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce therefore searched those wings for likely looking sensory cells. They found some, in the form of neurons (神经元) that were similar to heat detectors known from other insects. They also uncovered disc-shaped cells that appeared to be similar to pressure-sensitive neurons. They guess that these are there to detect deformation of the wing information an insect could use to control its flight pattern.
The third discovery they made to go against the “dead wing” idea was that some butterfly wings have a heartbeat. A butterfly’ s wings have veins (静脉). These carry a bloodlike liquid which, researchers have now found in males, shows a pulse (脉搏) of several dozen beats per minute. The source of this pulse appears to be the scent (气味) pad, a dark spot on the wings that produces the female-attracting chemicals. Apparently, this “wing heart” acts as a pump that helps bloodlike liquid through the scent pad.
In all their experiments simulating different environmental conditions, Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce consistently found that, different parts of the wing are covered by different sorts of scales. In particular, tubes pass through scales over the scent pads. This improves their ability to spread heat away and helps keep the living parts of a butterfly’s wings alive.
4．What can we learn from Dr. Yu and Dr. Pierce’s experiments
A．Butterfly wings have little reaction to external heat.
B．Butterfly wings are complicated living organs.
C．The scent pads on some male butterfly wings are their hearts.
D．Heat-minimising activities help detect deformation of the wings.
5．What is the function of scales over the scent pads
A．Attracting mates. B．Increasing blood flow.
C．Covering powerful tubes. D．Producing the cooling effect.
6．Which of the following would be the best title for the passage
A．Seeing Is Believing B．Nothing Seek, Nothing Find
C．More Than Meets The Eye D．Fine Feathers Make Fine Birds
（2023下·北京通州·高二统考期中）I’m used to seeing small leaps in technological progress, but occasionally, there are things that will still shock me. At the end of last year, a company called Open AI released a truly jaw-dropping demonstration of a new AI technology that feels almost like technology has skipped ahead by a few generations.
This new AI technology is called ChatGPT, a computer program that can understand and respond to human language. It is trained on a lot of text, so it can understand what people are saying and respond in a way that sounds like a real person. What’s even more amazing is that ChatGPT seems frighteningly human in its ability to understand questions and answer them competently. “Write a story about Leonardo da Vinci in the style of Roald Dahl,” you can ask it, and it’ll spin up a pretty good children’s story.
One area where I’ve found ChatGPT to be enormously useful is its ability to write computer code. This has particularly amazed me as unlike the English language, when you write code it has to be very precise (精确的) and carefully structured — but when I asked it to write me a program that would put some data into a database for me, in a particularly complex way, within seconds it generated something that would have taken me hours to do manually (人工地). ChatGPT isn’t completely human, however. For example, it sometimes generates things that sound true, but are actually just nonsense. This is because of the way the AI learns through pattern recognition. There’s no real intelligence operating there — it is just repeating something based on what it has “read” before. ChatGPT is better at some tasks than others: it can write a brilliant invitation email, but its ability to rhyme leaves a lot to be desired.
And this is why I’m pretty convinced that ChatGPT is going to change the world, sooner rather than later. It’s already hugely impressive, but what exists at the moment is just a demonstration. Once the same AI is built into other apps and can connect to the live internet to learn more, it will become even more advanced. Our computers will no longer be just our word processors, but our writing partners too.
7．Which aspect about ChatGPT especially amazed the author
A．Its structure. B．Its variety. C．Its efficiency. D．Its correction.
8．What can we learn about ChatGPT from the Paragraph 3
A．ChatGPT has some limitations.
B．There’s no real intelligence in the world.
C．ChatGPT is better than other chatbot AI.
D．AI cannot think the same way as humans do.
9．What is the author’s attitude toward ChatGPT
A．Worried. B．Doubtful. C．Optimistic. D．Unconcerned.
（2023下·北京·高二人大附中校考期中）Kim Hyo Jin, a shy junior high school student, stood before her American teacher. The smiling teacher held up a green pepper and asked in clear English: “What is this ”
“Peemang!”answered the South Korean teenager, who then covered her mouth with a hand as if to stop—too late—the Korean word that had left her mouth.
Embarrassed, she tried again. Without looking the teacher in the eye, she held both her hands out and asked, this time in English: “May I have green pepper ”
Kim took the vegetable with a bow, and ran back to her classmates, feeling relieved that she had successfully taken a small first step toward overcoming what South Koreans consider one of their biggest weaknesses in global competitiveness. the fear of speaking in English to westerners.
Kim was among 300 junior high school students going through a weeklong training in this new “English Village.” The complex looks like a mini-town transplanted from a European country to this South Korean countryside. It has its own immigration office, city hall, bookstore, cafeteria, gym, a main street with Western storefronts, police officers and a live-in population of 160 native English speakers. All signs are in English, the only language allowed.
Here, on a six-day course that charges each student 80,000 won, or $82, pupils check in to a hotel, shop, take cooking lessons and make music videos—all in English. There are language policemen around, punishing students speaking Korean with a fine in the village currency or red dots on their village passports.
South Korea has become one of the most aggressive countries in Asia at teaching English to its citizens. Outside the school system, parents are paying an estimated 10 trillion won a year to help their children learn English at home or abroad. Nevertheless, many college graduates are afraid of chatting with native speakers. That, linguists say, is a result of a national school system that traditionally stresses reading and memorization of English grammar and vocabulary at the expense of conversation.
10．What was Kim Hyo Jin’s problem
A．She spoke English with a Korean accent.
B．She kept staying with her Korean classmates.
C．She dared not talk with westerners in English.
D．She was afraid of looking at her English teacher.
11．Which of the following is true of the “English Village”
A．Students take turns to serve as language policemen.
B．Students will be punished for not speaking English.
C．It houses 460 Korean students in a week.
D．It is located in a European country.
12．What can be learned about the way that Korean students learn English at school
A．There aren’t enough English classes given to students.
B．Emphasis is placed on students’ ability to communicate.
C．Students don’t have enough chances to practise speaking.
D．Grammar and vocabulary is taught by old-fashioned methods.
（2023下·北京房山·高二统考期中）There is a photo in my collection that I pull out from time to time to remind myself of an old vacation. It’s a picture of me from the late 1970s on a bench in London’s Victoria Station, my head resting against a wall, eyes closed with tiredness, clothes messed up.
I used to love that shot. It was evidence of my leisure time, of travel, of interruption from the office: miles covered, sights seen, train stations raced through, goals achieved.
However, as I leave work to hit the vacation trail this summer, I take along something extra. This traveling companion has a habit of ruining trips with feelings of guilt—the guilt that comes from attempting to vacation while thinking of the job.
The conflict between the time we want off and the guilt we feel when we actually give in to leisure is a long-running battle that has gone too far, driven by an over-scheduling craze. It has made many feel as if their free moments are a form of truancy (玩忽职守).
It’s hard to take it easy when you’ve been programmed not to. We have been taught for generations that work is the only goal.
Time that is unfilled is evil, we are led to believe, and unplanned enjoyment should be avoided. This is reinforced today by a workplace culture that wants you to believe that advancement depends on your staying on the job.
Research now shows, however, that leisure time can do something job advancement and money can’t. Leisure activities increase your desire to work leadership skills, your sense of awareness and your ability to change. Free time also promotes a positive mood and sense of well-being, because it develops self-worth. Deep down, everyone knows we need time off to make our lives better.
On holiday, using your productive output as a measure of yourself doesn’t work. This is because a vacation isn’t about output; it’s about input — exploring, learning, reflecting. The magic of a holiday is in the experience itself. This is the same as life satisfaction; it can’t be measured, only felt.
The best part of a vacation isn’t going somewhere else; it’s being where you are, fully involved in the experience.
13．The author mentions the photo at the beginning because ____.
A．it shows how exhausting leisure travel can be
B．it brings back good memories of a leisurely tour
C．it shows the writer once considered leisure travel as a goal in itself
D．it proves interruptions from the office do not spoil the enjoyment of travel
14．What does the underlined phrase “this traveling companion” in Paragraph 3 refer to
A．Enjoying leisure time.
B．Thinking of one’s goals.
C．Interruptions from the office.
D．The feeling of guilt for not working.
15．What is one of the main benefits of leisure time according to the article
A．It improves your productivity.
B．It is good for personal development.
C．It leads directly to job advancement.
D．It helps you see your goals in life more clearly.
16．According to the author, what should we do while on vacation
A．Avoid much unplanned enjoyment.
B．Ignore job advancement and money.
C．Judge the vacation by productive output.
D．Enjoy the experience of being on vacation.
（2023下·北京房山·高二统考期中）Search engines have changed the way we use the Internet, putting vast sources of information just a few clicks away. But Harvard professor of psychology Line Daniel Wegner’s recent research proves that websites and the Internet are changing the way our memories function. His latest study shows that when people have access to search engines, they remember fewer facts and less information because they know they can rely on“search”as a readily available shortcut.
Wegner believes the new findings show that the Internet has become part of a transactive memory (交互记忆) source, a method by which our brains divide information. Transactive memory exists in many forms, as when a husband relies on his wife to remember a relative’s birthday. You don’t have to remember everything in the world yourself. You just have to remember who knows it. Now computers and technology are becoming virtual extensions of our memory.
Wegner conducted several experiments to demonstrate the phenomenon, using various forms of memory recall to test reliance on computers. In one experiment, participants demonstrated that they were more likely to think of computer terms like “Yahoo” or “Google” after being asked a set of difficult trivia questions. In another experiment, participants typed some statements into a computer and they were told the statements would be saved in specific folders. Next, they were asked to recall the statements. Finally, they were given cues to the wording and asked to name the folders where the statements were stored. The participants proved better able to recall the folder locations than the statements themselves.
Wegner admits that questions remain about whether dependence on computers will affect memories negatively: “Nobody knows now what the effects of these tools are on logical thinking.” Students who have trouble remembering distinct facts, for example, may struggle to employ those facts in critical thinking. But he believes that the situation overall is beneficial, comparing dependence on computers to dependence on a mechanical hand (机械手).
And even though we may not be using our memories to recall distinct facts, we are still using them to consider where the facts are located and how to access them. “We still have to remember things,”Wegner explains. “We’re just remembering a different range of things.”
17．Why does the writer mention “a husband relies on his wife to remember a relative’s birthday” in Paragraph 2
A．To show that people who are closely related tend to have shared memories.
B．To demonstrate how people initially developed external sources of memory.
C．To emphasize the effectiveness and accuracy of transactive memory sources.
D．To illustrate the concept of a transactive memory source using a familiar situation.
18．What do people tend to do in the experiment when asked to provide unfamiliar facts
A．Think of specific information sources.
B．Recall them from their deep memories.
C．Type into computer and remember them.
D．Link the unfamiliar facts to their experiences.
19．What can be inferred from the last two paragraphs
A．Reliance on computers does not necessarily reduce human memory.
B．Computers have helped people to understand the memory system better.
C．Computer dependence affects our thinking capacities in other distinct fields.
D．Researches should be done to reveal the side effect of computer dependence.
（2023下·北京·高二北京市八一中学校考期中）1There are no reported sightings of teenage elephants hesitantly sitting down at the family dinner table with earphones in place, occasionally giving one-word answers to parents’ questions.
But they do exhibit other behaviors many parents of human teens would recognize, said Moss, a researcher who has studied elephants in Kenya’s National Park for nearly five decades.
“They’re na ve (天真的). They have a lot to learn and they make mistakes,” Moss said.
This is particularly true for males. She explained: They ruin crops. They get shot. They die. “It’s just like young human males who drive too fast,” Moss said, “and the insurance companies know very well to make them pay higher insurance rates.”
Barbara Natterson, a Harvard biologist pointed out that adolescent animals frequently put themselves in danger intentionally. This behavior is seen throughout the animal world. The adults of any species may consider some actions of their young low-judgment and high-risk; however, these actions actually serve a purpose.
An example is a practice called “predator (捕食者) inspection” which means adolescent animals approach predators rather than run away. The trade-off for the danger is that they can watch, smell and learn about the predator. They gather all kinds of information that can keep them safer as adults.
The idea that adolescents are hard-wired to take these risks can help people understand human teens’ behavior.
“Teens seem driven to try new things and test boundaries in their own version of ‘predator inspection’,” Natterson said. “They try to have as many experiences as they can before they leave the nest.”
Another key aspect of adolescence is an increase in time spent wandering in groups. Adolescence is marked by high levels of peer pressure as well as near-disaster. Scientists have found that adolescents of all kinds are more likely to make dangerous moves while with peers.
Laurence Steinberg, a psychology professor at Temple University, found mice and human group adolescent behavior has something in common. He set up two experiments. One involved mice, half of which were adolescents, drinking ethanol-spiked (添加乙醇的) water. The other involved human teens playing a video game reproducing driving conditions.
“We found that in the presence of peers, adolescent mice drank more than they do when they’re alone,” Steinberg said, “and that the teenagers in the driving study also took more risks when others were around.”
2These findings fit with what Steinberg says is another multi-species adolescent quality: the desire to socialize.
“For the most part, adolescents, human and animal alike, prefer to be with other adolescents,” Steinberg said. “If I say teenagers are social animals, I think the word ‘animal’ is just as important in that sentence as the word ‘social’.”
Both Natterson and Steinberg hope their findings will help people who are raising adolescents.
20．According to Natterson, what is a risky but valuable action for adolescent animals
A．Gathering information with the help of parents.
B．Challenging predators with other adolescents.
C．Observing an adult hunting a large animal.
D．Watching enemies’ behavior up close.
21．Steinberg’s experiments found ________.
A．peer pressure is more common in adolescent animals than in human teens
B．both adolescent animals and human teens are affected by peer pressure
C．adolescent animals are less likely to get drunk while with peers
D．teenagers are not willing to be sociable in the presence of peers
22．What does the underlined sentence mean
A．Adolescent animals long to socialize with teenagers.
B．“Social” is a word that can be interpreted in different ways.
C．Socializing with peers is one quality that adolescents share.
D．The importance of socializing has been realized by teenagers.
（2023上·北京·高二北师大实验中学校考期中）Every four years we get to see the best competing to win the Olympic medals. But sometimes the best inspiration comes from those who don’t win-- or even someone who came in dead last.
In 1988, Michael “The Eagle” Edwards became the first competitor since 1928 to represent Great Britain in Olympic ski jumping. How did Eddie do He came in No. 58 out of 58. But it didn’t matter. His fans loved him for other reasons. He had no trainer, no money, no practice facilities--and some called him the great British loser. Eddie says, “I got my letter saying, ‘Congratulations, you can represent Great Britain in the Olympic Games’ when I was in a mental hospital in Finland. I wasn’t a patient. I was there because it was the cheapest place for me to stay.” On getting ready to do his jump, Eddie says, “There were about 85 or 90 thousand people in the ski jump area, and I thought ‘this is going to be really good, I’m really going to go for this,’ The Germans and the Swiss and the Italians were going down jumping, but the crowd were ignoring them and chanting, ‘Eddie! Eddie!’”
“And I got out and sat on the bar and they started cheering and cheering and it was great!”
“When you sit at the top of the ski jump, you look down, and you’re probably about 500 or 600 feet up from where you’re actually going to finish. You can see a million and one different reasons why you shouldn’t really go down. So you do have to be not a little crazy, but probably a lot.”
“You’re travelling at 65 or 75 miles per hour. Within about a second you’ll be 250 feet up from where you’re going to be landing. And you just try to relax and let your skis carry you to the bottom of the hill.”
“It’s the most exciting feeling in the world.”
Eddie’s British record jump of 71 meters landed him in 58th place--out of 58 competitors, 19 meters behind the jumper who was placed 57th. And if you ask anyone in Great Britain, “Who won the Olympic ski jump in 1988 ” Almost no one could tell you. But if you ask, “Who is Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards ” They’ll tell you all about the crazy ski jump guy who they still remember and love to this day. The British people were so proud of him for just trying, that winning didn’t matter a bit. He dares to go where most of us won’t. Yes, he came in dead last, but he will be forever and fondly remembered by his country for doing what no one else had done in 60 years.
So what daring thing are you afraid to do Take Eddie’s example and just go for it.
You might just become a legend.
23．The competitor who was placed 57th kept the record jump of ________meters in 1988.
A．52 B．77 C．90 D．129
24．Which statement is true according to the passage
A．Eddie represented Finland in Olympic ski jumping.
B．Eddie trained himself with good practical facilities.
C．Eddie thought it didn’t matter to be in dead last.
D．Eddie thought himself to be a legend in Britain.
25．How did Eddie win the hearts of British people
A．He became the first British competitor in Olympic ski jumping.
B．He did what no one else had done in 60 years for his country.
C．He could ski jump at the speed of 65 or 75 miles per hour.
D．He has got a great deal of British sport fans.
26．What is the best title of the passage
A．The Eagle B．Getting to the medal
C．The Importance of Failure D．When Last Place is Really First
（2022上·北京·高二北京一七一中校考期中）Professor Smith recently persuaded 35 people, 23 of them women, to keep a diary of all their absent-minded actions for a fortnight.When he came to analyze their embarrassing lapses (差错) in a scientific report, he was surprised to find that nearly all of them fell into a few groupings. Nor did the lapses appear to be entirely random (随机的).
One of the women, for instance, on leaving her house for work one morning threw her dog her earrings and tried to fix a dog biscuit on her ear. “The explanation for this is that the brain is like a computer,” explains the professor. “People programme themselves to do certain activities regularly. It was the woman’s custom every morning to throw her dog two biscuits and then put on her earrings. But somehow the action got turned around in the programme.” About one in twenty of the incidents the volunteers reported were these programme assembly failures.
Altogether the volunteers noted down 433 unintentional actions that they found themselves doing—an average of twelve each. There appear to be peak periods in the day when we are at our zaniest (荒谬可笑的). These are two hours sometime between eight a.m. and noon, between four and six p.m. with a smaller peak between eight and ten p.m. “Among men the peak seems to be when a changeover in brain ‘programmes’ occurs, as for instance between going to and from work.” Women on average reported slightly more lapses—12.5 compared with 10.9 for men probably because they were more reliable reporters.
An unexpected finding of the research is that the absent-minded activity is a potential risk of doing things in which we are skilled. Normally, you would expect that skill reduces the number of errors we make. But trying to avoid silly slips by concentrating more could make things a lot worse, even dangerous.
27．Professor Smith discovered that_________.
A．people were too embarrassed to admit their absent-mindedness
B．certain patterns can be identified in the recorded incidents
C．absent-mindedness is an excusable human weakness
D．men tend to be more absent-minded than women
28．“Programme assembly failures” (Line 6, Para. 2) refers to the phenomenon that people_________.
A．often fail to programme their routines beforehand
B．tend to make mistakes when they are in a hurry
C．unconsciously change the order of doing things
D．are likely to mess things up if they are too tired
29．What can we learn from the third paragraph
A．Absent-mindedness tends to occur during certain hours of the day.
B．Women are very careful to perform actions during peak periods.
C．Women experience more peak periods of absent-mindedness.
D．Men’s absent-mindedness often results in funny situations.
30．What can be concluded from the passage
A．People should avoid doing important things during peak periods of lapses.
B．Risks can be avoided when people do things they are good at.
C．Lapses cannot always be connected with lack of concentration.
D．People should be careful when programming their actions.
（2022上·北京·高二北理工附中校考期中）“While animals can’t pick out precise numbers, they can understand that more is more. Interestingly, we know now that numerical competence is present on almost every branch of the animal tree of life,” says Andreas Nieder, a neurobiologist from the University of Tuebingen. “Different groups of animals obviously developed this trait independently from others and that strongly indicates that it has to be of adaptive value.”
Honeybees, for instance, can remember the number of landmarks they pass when searching for food in order to find their way back to the hive. The last common ancestor between honeybees and primates lived about 600 million years ago. But still, they evolved numerical competence that, in many respects, is comparable to vertebrate numerical competence. Also, for example, male frogs sing “advertisement” calls to attract females. The females, listening for the complexity of their calls, choose the male that sings the most calls.
Wolves are more likely to hunt successfully if they have the right number of wolves in their pack for the size of their prey: With prey like deer, only around six to eight wolves are needed, while hunting wild ox requires a pack of nine to thirteen. Their prey also uses this concept to protect themselves from predators—deer tend to live in large herds to reduce the chance of any individual becoming prey. So obviously they are assessing the number of individuals in their groups for their everyday life situations.
Despite these many examples of numerical competence in animals, this subject has not gotten many first-hand studies. “Many of these behavioral findings in the wild have usually been collected as by-products or accidental findings of other research questions,” says Nieder. He argues that more research needs to be done to fully understand the numerical competence.
31．Animals have their own numerical competence shows that______.
A．all groups of animals can know the exact numbers
B．numerical competence must have a survival benefit
C．animals’ intelligence varies with different environments
D．animals’ numerical competence is determined by their adaptability
32．What role does numerical competence play in wolves’ hunting
A．It helps them form proper hunting groups. B．It gives them more options to hunt.
C．It makes them discover more prey. D．It offers them new skills to hunt.
33．How does the author mainly develop this text
A．By listing figures. B．By asking questions.
C．By giving examples. D．By making comparisons
34．Where is the text probably taken from
A．A biology textbook. B．A health magazine.
C．A travel brochure. D．A science report.
