If humans were truly at home under the light of the moon and stars,we would go in darkness happily,the midnight world as visible to us as it is to the vast number of nocturnal(夜间活动的) species on this planet. Instead,we are diurnal(白天的) creatures, with eyes adapted to living in the sun’s light. This is a basic evolutionary fact, even though most of us don’t think of ourselves as diurnal beings. Yet it’s the only way to explain what we’ve done to the night: We’ve engineered it to receive us by filling it with light.

The benefits of this kind of engineering come with consequences 一 called light pollution 一 whose effects scientists are only now beginning to study. Light pollution is largely the result of bad lighting design,which allows artificial light to shine outward and upward into the sky. III-designed lighting washes out the darkness of night and completely changes the light levels 一 and light rhythms — to which many forms of life, including, ourselves, have adapted. Wherever human light spills into the natural world, some aspect or life is affected .

In most cities the sky looks as though it has been emptied of stars, leaving behind a vacant haze(霾) that mirrors our fear of the dark. We’ve grown so used to this orange haze that the original glory of an unlit night, - dark enough for the planet Venus to throw shadow on Earth, is wholly beyond our experience, beyond memory almost.

We’ve lit up the night as if it were an unoccupied country, when nothing could be further form the truth. Among mammals alone, the number of nocturnal species is astonishing, Light is a powerful biological force, and on many species it acts as a magnet(磁铁). The effect is so powerful that scientists speak of songbirds and seabirds being “captured” by searchlights on land or by the light from gas flares on marine oil platforms. Migrating at night, birds tend to collide with brightly lit tall buildings.

Frogs living near brightly lit highways suffer nocturnal light levels that are as much as a million times righter than normal, throwing nearly every aspect of their behavior out of joint including most other creatures ,we do need darkness .Darkness is as essential to our biological welfare, to our internal clockwork, as light itself.

Living in a glare of our making,we have cut ourselves off from our evolutionary and cultural heritage—the light of the stars and the rhythms of day and night .In a very real sense light pollution causes us to lose sight of our true place in the universe, to forget the scale of our being, which is best measured against the dimensions of a deep night with the Milky Way—the edge of our galaxy arching overhead.

1.According to the passage, human being .

A. prefer to live in the darkness

B. are used to living in the day light

C. were curious about the midnight world

D. had to stay at home with the light of the moon

2.What does “it”(Paragraph 1) most probably refer to?

A. The night. B. The moon

C. The sky D. The planet

3.The writer mentions birds and frogs to .

A. provide examples of animal protection

B. show how light pollution affects animals

C. compare the living habits of both species

D. explain why the number of certain species has declined

4.It is implied in the last paragraph that

A. light pollution dose harm to the eyesight of animals

B. light pollution has destroyed some of the world heritages

C. human beings cannot go to the outer space

D. human beings should reflect on their position in the universe

阅读下列短文,从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中,选出最佳选项。

“BANG!” the door caused a reverberation (回声). It was just standing there, with father standing on one side, and I on the other side.

We were both in great anger. “Never set foot in this house again!” stormed father. With tears welling up in my eyes, I rushed out of the flat and ran along the street.

The street lights were shining, causing rather sad-feeling. I wandered aimlessly.

A young father who held a child in his arms walked past me. I felt as if I saw my childhood from another space: happy and carefree.

But now … I don’t know whether it is because I have grown up or because dad is getting old. We differ in our ways of thinking. He always put his opinions and codes of behavior on me. Whenever I do something wrong, he never admits it. We are just like two people coming from two different worlds. It feels like there is an iron door between us that can never be opened.

I wandered the streets, without a destination in mind. My heart was frozen on this hot summer night. As I walked on there were fewer and fewer people on the streets, until I had only the street lights to keep me company. When I finally reached the high-rise apartment block in which I lived ,I saw that the light was still on.

I thought to myself: “Is father waiting for me, or is he still angry with me?”

In fact, it was nothing. Perhaps, dad was throwing away some of his old stamps. Perhaps he thought they were useless. I never had the courage to tell him that I liked collecting stamps. I can’t stand his outrageous(蛮横的)words: “I can’t throw you away, let alone these old papers?”

All the lights were off except father’s.

Dad was always like this. Maybe he didn’t know how to express himself. After shouting at me, he never showed any mercy or any moments of regret. After an argument he has the habit of creeping up in my sleep and then tucking me underneath the covers.

This was how he always was.He has been a leader for so long that telling everyone else what to do has become his second nature.

The light was still on. “Am I wrong?” I whispered, maybe… With the key in hand, I was as nervous as I had ever been. At last, I decided to open the door. As soon as I opened the door tears ran down my cheeks. I suddenly realized that the iron door that I had imagined between us did not exist at all. Love—it second to none.

1.Decide which is the best order of the following according to what happened in the passage.

a. I opened the door and entered the house.

b. Sadly I ran out into the street.

c. I reached the place where I lived and saw my house still brightly lit.

d. I thought of my father’s kindness towards me.

e. I walked about in the street without any aim.

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

C. b, e, a, c, d D. b, e, c, a, d

2.What made the writer think of his childhood ?

A. The sight of the street lights.

B. The sight of the empty street.

C. The sight of a father with a child in his arms.

D. The sight of light in his own house.

3.Why do you think the father often shouts at his son?

A. perhaps the father is getting older and older.

B. perhaps the son has already grown up.

C. perhaps they never agree with each other.

D. perhaps the father has got used to doing that.

4.What conclusion can you come to after reading the passage?

A. The father treats his son in an unfair way.

B. The father is actually kind to his son.

C. The father is neither kind nor cruel to his son.

D. The father is always finding fault with his son.

Imagine your body is like the house you live in. Every day, your family creates rubbish. The rubbish builds up until it is put out for the weekly garbage collection.

Now, say you put three bags of garbage out, but because one of the collectors was away sick, only two bags are collected. You take the leftover bag inside to be put out again next week. The following week you put on another three bags, plus the leftover bag from last week. But again, only two bags are collected. Imagine this cycle is repeated over the following weeks.

This is a simple description of what happens to your body when your kidneys (肾脏) don’t work efficiently. Your body is not thoroughly emptied of waste products. Other areas of the body such as blood pressure and red blood cell production are affected and the insidious process that may lead to kidney failure begins.

It’s not uncommon for people to lose up to 90% of their kidney function before developing any symptoms. There may be no warning signs. This makes early detection (诊查) difficult.

Kidney’s main job is to remove toxins (毒素) and unwanted water from our blood. Every day our kidneys clean an average of 200 litres of blood. Kidney failure may be a gradual and silent process, going unnoticed because there is no apparent pain.

Research shows that more than 25% of the patients requiring dialysis (透析) do not see a kidney specialist before they have to do so. Some risk factors for kidney disease such as age and genetic make up are out of our control; however, some changes in lifestyle may help prevent kidney damage.Two major risk factors for kidney disease, diabetes (糖尿病) and high blood pressure, have been on the rise over the last few decades.Both conditions are chiefly affected by being overweight and not getting enough exercises, which are the potential risk factors for the kidney disease.

1. The author gives the example of the house we live in to indicate that _______.

A. it’s safe and harmless for our body to keep some waste

B. it’s important for our body to empty the waste in time every day

C. our body will not produce any waste if our kidneys work efficiently

D. it doesn’t matter much if the waste in our body is not emptied in time

2.The underlined word “insidious” in the third paragraph means _______.

A. smooth and safe B. obvious and fast

C. gradual and unnoticed D. long and painful

3.We can infer that when we find some symptoms related to our kidneys, _______.

A. the kidney failure begins

B. the kidneys can still work properly

C. we have lost about 10% of kidney function

D. the kidneys may have been seriously damaged

4. Which of the following helps prevent kidney damage most effectively?

A. Go to see a kidney specialist shortly before dialysis starts.

B. Take enough exercise and make early detection of kidney disease.

C. Try to keep low blood pressure and a stable lifestyle.

D. Go to hospital whenever you find any warning signs.

Knowing how much her own children loved presents at Christmas,Ann Sutton always tried to seek help for one or two poor families.With a social worker mother,the Sutton children.had inherited(继承)her commitment to service,and knew never to take their good fortune at Christmas for granted.This year,Kinzie,her seven-year-old daughter was thrilled that Santa Claus would make a special visit to a 22-year-old mother named Ashley who worked in a factory raising her 12-month-old son by herself.

The phone rang on Sunday.A representative from a local organization was calling to say that the aid Ann had requested for Ashley had fallen through.No Santa Claus,no presents,nothing.

Ann saw the cheer fade away from her children's faces at the news.Without a word,Kinzie ran into her bedroom.She returned,her face set with determination.

Opening up her piggy bank,she put all the coins onto the table: $3.30.Everything she had.

“Mom,”she told Ann,“I know it's not much.But maybe this will buy a present for the baby.”

At a breakfast meeting the next day,Ann told her coworkers about her daughter story.To her surprise,staff members began to open their purses.and empty their pockets to help Kinzie.

On Christmas Eve,Ann drove through the pouring rain to the small trailer where the Ashley’s lived.Then she began to unload the gifts from the car,handing them to Ashley one by one.

Ashley was very moved.Reflecting on a little girl's generosity,Ashley says she'll one day be able to do something similar for someone else in need.“Kinzie could have used that money for herself,but she gave it away,”Ashley says.“She's the type of kid I'd like my son to grow up to be.”

1.According to the text,Ann Sutton__________.

A.only cares about poor children

B.has possessed a good fortune

C.is warm-hearted and ready to help others

D.is a single mother with a 12-month-old boy'.

2.When hearing the aid had fallen through,Kinzie__________

A.was not sad but cheerfu1

B.put all her coins away immediately

C.told her mother to ask the coworkers for help

D.decided to buy a present for the baby with all her allowance

3.From the text we can learn that ____________.

A.Ann would act as Santa Claus to hand out the Christmas presents

B.the Sutton children always got lots of presents at Christmas

C.Kinzie's generosity influenced others and they clici something similar

D.Ashley was moved and promised to return the money

4.What does the text mainly talk about?

A.How a warm-hearted mother shows her love to a poor family.

B.How a mother and her young daughter helped a poor family.

C.Many people make contributions to those in need.

D.What happened to a poor family on Christmas Eve.

违法和不良信息举报电话:027-86699610 举报邮箱:58377363@163.com

精英家教网