Question

Almost every machine with moving parts has wheels, yet no one knows exactly when the first wheel was invented or what it was used for. We do know, however, that they existed over 5,500 years ago in ancient Asia.
The oldest known transport wheel was discovered in 2002 in Slovenia. It is over 5,100 years old. Evidence suggests that wheels for transport didn't become popular for a while, though. This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around.
But it could also be because of a difficult situation. While wheels need to roll on smooth surfaces, roads with smooth surfaces weren't going to be constructed until there was plenty of demand for them. Eventually, road surfaces did become smoother, but this difficult situation appeared again a few centuries later. There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modem road design.
In the mid-1700s, a Frenchman came up with a new design of road—a base layer (层) of large stones covered with a thin layer of smaller stones. A Scotsman improved on this design in the 1820s and a strong, lasting road surface became a reality. At around the same lime, metal hubs (the central part of a wheel) came into being, followed by the pneumatic tyre(充气轮胎) in 1846. Alloy wheels were invented in 1967, sixty years after the appearance of tarmac roads (柏油路). As wheel design took off, vehicles got faster and faster

1. 1.
   What might explain why transport wheels didn't become popular for some time?
   1. A.
      The existence of transport wheels was not known
   2. B.
      Humans carried farming tools just as well
   3. C.
      Animals were a good means of transport
   4. D.
      Few knew how to use transport wheels
2. 2.
   What do we know about road design from the passage?
   1. A.
      It provided conditions for wheel design to develop
   2. B.
      It was easier than wheel design
   3. C.
      It was promoted by fast-moving vehicles
   4. D.
      It improved after big changes in vehicle design
3. 3.
   How is the last paragraph mainly developed?
   1. A.
      By giving examples
   2. B.
      By making comparisons
   3. C.
      By following time order
   4. D.
      By making classifications
4. 4.
   What is the passage mainly about?
   1. A.
      The beginning of road design
   2. B.
      The history of public transport
   3. C.
      His invention of fast-moving vehicles
   4. D.
      The development of transport wheels

Answer 1

CACD
试题分析：本文介绍了车轮的发展历程。第一段是引入话题--车轮的发展。第二段说明车轮发展缓慢的原因；第三段以时间顺序说明车轮的发展历程。
1.考查细节理解。根据第二段第二行“This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around”可知，当时车轮没有流行起来的一种原因是动物充当了很好的交通工具。故选C。
2.推理判断题。难度：较难。根据第3段 There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modem road design.（在现代道路设计之前，轮子和交通工具的设计都没有重大变化）。第4段接着讲述了随着道路设计的进步，各种新型的轮子(包括充气轮胎)随之发展，而且也促进了车辆的发展。由此可知，道路设计的发展促进了车轮的发展。选A。
3.考查写作手法。根据in the mid-1700s；in the 1820s；At around the same time；in 1846；in 1967；sixty years after等时间状语可知，最后一段是按照时间顺序来展开的。故选C。
4.考查文章大意。文章开头点题，提出了世界上第一个车轮是何时发明的这个问题。第二段解释车轮没有很快流行起来的原因；最后一段介绍了随着道路的发展，车轮的不断改良。道路设计的发展只是一个促进车轮发展的因素，排除A；文章没有介绍公共交通；排除B。故选D。
考点：说明文类短文阅读