2014湖北高考英语专项训练阅读理解7

2014高考英语冲刺阅读理解专项 50-7 A Technology has been an encouragement of historical change. It acted as such a force in England beginning in the eighteenth century, and across the entire Western World in the nineteenth. Rapid advances were made in the use of scientific findings in the manufacture (制造) of goods, which has changed ideas about work. One of the first changes was that other forms of energy have taken the place of human power. Along with this came the increased use of machines to manufacture products in less time. People also developed machines that could produce the same parts for a product: each nail was exactly like every other nail, meaning that each nail could be changed for every other nail. This means that goods could be mass production, although mass production required breaking production down into smaller and smaller tasks. Workers no longer started on the product and labored to complete it. Instead, they might work only one thousandth of it, other workers completing their own parts in certain order. There is nothing strange about this manufacturing work by today's standards. Highly skilled workers were unable to compare with the new production techniques, as mass production allowed goods of high standard to be produced in greater number than could ever be done by hand. But the skilled worker wasn't the only loser, the common workers lost too. Similar changes forced farmer away. The increased mechanization (机械化) of agriculture freed masses of workers from ploughing the land and harvesting its crops. They had little choice but to stream toward the rapidly developing industrial centers. Increasingly, standards were set by machines. Workers no longer owned their own tools, their skill was no longer valued, and pride in their work was no longer possible. Workers fed, looked after and repaired the machines that could work faster than humans at greatly reduced cost. 1. In this passage, which of the following is NOT considered as a change caused by the use of scientific findings in the production of goods? A. Other forms of energy have taken the place of human power. B. The increased exploitation of workers in the 19th century. C. The increased use of machines to make products in less time. D. The use of machines producing parts of the same standard. 答案解析:答案为B。本题为细节题。从文章的第一段“One of the first changes was that other forms of energy have taken the place of human power. Along with this came the increased use of machines to manufacture products in less time. People also developed machines that could produce the s ame parts for a product:” 可知,A、C、D都在文中提到了。故答案为B。 2. According to the writer, highly skilled workers ______ A. completely disappeared with the coming of the factory system B. were dismissed by the boss C. were unable to produce goods of high standard D. were unable to produce fine goods at that same speed as machines 答案解析:答案为D。本题为细节题。从文章第二段“Highly skilled workers were unable to compare with the new production techniques, as mass production allowed goods of high standard to be produced in greater number than could ever be done by hand.”可知,机器批量生产的产品标准高,数量多,这是手工生产无法匹敌的。故 答案为D。 3. According to the passage, what did the farmers have to do with the coming of mechanization of agriculture? A. Many of them had to leave their farmland for industrial centers. B. They stuck to their farm work. C. They refused to use machines. D They did their best to learn how to use the machines. 答案解析:答案为A。本题为细节题。从第二段的倒数第四句话“They had little choice but to stream toward the rapidly developing industrial centers.”可知,答案为A。 B The earth's most rich resource—water has become one of the most precious resources in the United States as rivers, lakes, and freshwater reservoirs are increasingly exploited for human use. Consequently, using precise farming techniques to refine “irrigation scheduling” is a research area of particular interest to Susan Moran, a researcher with the US department of Agriculture. She explains that in the southwest, irrigation is both difficult and expensive. There, she says, farmers have a tendency to over irrigate, spending both more time and money than necessary. “I'm trying to provide new information that could be used by farmers to schedule irrigations to improve their profitability and use less water,” Moran says. “Farmers often look at weather changes and then schedule irrigation based on that information. But if they had better information, they could use scientific models to compute more precisely how much water their crop is using.” Rather than guessing their crop's potential need for water based upon weather changes, farmers can use remote sensors to measure how much water their crop is actually using. This would give them a more accurate measure of how much more water it needs. Moran believes that if farmers are getting good and timely measurements of plant and air temperature, then they can program when and how much water to give each crop through an irrigation system. No more water would be used than needed, thus saving cost and conserving water. Moran introduces one study she conducted in Arizona to investigate the use of remote sensing data for scheduling cotton irrigations. Typically, those farmers irrigate ten times per growing season, but evidence showed that some of those farmers could achieve basically the same harvest with only nine irrigations. “In those cases, one less irrigation saved more than all the cost of remote sensing data,”she states. “Both irrigation and satellite remote sensing data are expensive. But then again many farmers are used to working together as a group. They are used to sharing. I'm hoping they could do the same with remote sensing data—purchase one scene over a large area to cover many farms, which would further reduce the cost.” 1. What does Moran think is the problem with farmers? A. Over-used reservoirs. B. Precision farming. C. Irrigation researches. D. Over-irrigation. 答案解析:答案为D。由第一段最后一句话“… farmers have a tendency to over irrigate, spending both more time and money than necessary.”可知,答案为D。 2. How can farmers get the new information about their crop? A. To reschedule irrigation as required. B. To watch weather changes regularly. C. To use remote sensors as researchers suggest. D. To use scientific models since computing is more reliable. 答案解析:答案为C。本题为细节题。从第三段“…farmers can use remote sensors to measure how much water their crop is actually using.”可知答案为C。本题容易错选D项。题干问的是“农民如何得到关于庄稼的新信息?”从第二段最后一句话“But if they had better information, they could use scientific models to compute more precisely how much water their crop is using.”可知,农民如果有了更好的信息可以使用scientific models。故答案D错误。 3. What do farmers check upon when they decide how much water each crop needs? A. Profitability. B. Remote sensors. C. The cost. D. Air temperature. 答案解析:答案为D。本题为细节理解题。从第四段“Moran believes that if farmers are getting good and timely measurements of plant and air temperature, then they can program when and how much water to give each crop through an irrigation system.”可知,农民依靠准确及时地测量植物和空气温度,来决定给每种庄稼配给相应的水分。故答案为D。 4. What's the purpose of Moran introducing the study she carried out in Arizona? A. To investigate the use of remote sensing data. B. To support her viewpoint in the previous paragraph. C. To show how farmers can reap a harvest. D. To criticize those farmers who used too much water. 答案解析:答案为A。本题为细节题。由倒数第二段首句“Moran intr oduces one study she conducted in Arizona to investigate the use of remote sensing data for scheduling cotton irrigations.”可知,答案为A。 5. What is among the best possible ways to help save farmers' money? A. Changing irrigation. B. Sharing sensing data. C. Buying one computer. D. Extending the farms. 答案解析:答案为B。本题为细节题。由最后一段““Both irrigation and satellite remote sensing data are expensive. But then again many farmers are used to working together as a group. They are used to s haring.”可知,答案为B。