高考英语二轮复习方案专题限时集训（新课标 湖南专用）22 史地自

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专题限时训练(二十二) [史地自然型阅读理解]

(限时：25分钟)

(一)

The Pacific island nation of Nauru used to be a beautiful place.Now it is an ecological disaster area.Nauru's heartbreaking story could have one good consequence—other countries might learn from its mistakes.

For thousands of years，Polynesian people lived in the remote island of Nauru，far from western civilization.The first European to arrive was John Fearn in 1798.He was the British captain of the Hunter, a whaling ship.He called the island Pleasant Island.

However, because it was very remote, Nauru had little communication with Europeans at first.The whaling ships and other traders began to visit，bringing guns and alcohol.These elements destroyed the social balance of the twelve family groups on the island.A ten-year civil war started，

which reduced the population from 1，400 to 900.

Nauru's real troubles began in 1899 when a British mining company discovered phosphate(磷酸盐)on the island.In fact，it found that the island of Nauru was nearly all phosphate，which was a very important fertilizer for farming.The company began mining the phosphate.

A phosphate mine was not a hole in the ground；it was a strip mine.When a company strip-mined，it removed the top layer of soil.Then it took away the material it wanted.Strip mining totally destroyed the land.Gradually, the lovely island of Nauru started to look like the moon.

In 1968，Nauru became one of the richest countries in the world.Every year the government received millions and millions of dollars for its phosphate.

Unfortunately, the leaders invested the money unwisely and lost millions of dollars.In addition，they used millions more dollars for personal expenses.Soon people realized that they had a terrible problem—their phosphate was running out.Ninety percent of their island was destroyed and they had nothing.By 2000，Nauru was financially ruined.Experts say that it would take approximately$433，600，000 and more than 20 years to repair the island.This will probably never happen.

1．What might be the author's purpose in writing the text? A．To seek help for Nauru's problems. B．To give a warning to other countries. C．To show the importance of money. D．To tell a heartbreaking story of a war.

2．What was Nauru like before the Europeans came? A．Rich and powerful. B．Modern and open.

C．Peaceful and attractive. D．Greedy and aggressive.

3．The ecological disaster in Nauru resulted from________． A．soil pollution

B．phosphate overmining C．farming activity

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D．whale hunting

4．Which of the following was a cause of Nauru's financial problem? A．Its leaders misused the money.

B．It spent too much repairing the island. C．Its phosphate mining cost much money. D．It lost millions of dollars in the civil war.

5．What can we learn about Nauru from the last paragraph? A．The ecological damage is difficult to repair.

B．The leaders will take the experts' words seriously. C．The island was abandoned by the Nauruans. D．The phosphate mines were destroyed.

(二)

If you are afraid of the dark，it's not a big deal.It's perfectly normal to feel afraid. After all，animals do，too. “Fear matters，”says Karen Warkentin，an ecologist.“It's a good thing，” she adds, “because fear makes you do things that keep you alive.”

Like kids，many animals experience fear and they respond to the feeling in variety of ways.A frightened turtle pulls its head and legs inside its shell.A small fish will swim away when a big，hungry fish approaches.

Some animals respond to fear in ways you might not expect.The first example is that the fear of being eaten can scare some frogs right out of their eggs. Warkentin made the surprising discovery while studying red-eyed tree frogs in Costa Rica.

In this species，female frogs attach jellylike clumps(果冻一样的块状物)of their eggs to the undersides of leaves.The leaves hang on branches that dangle(悬挂)over ponds.After they hatch from the eggs，the tadpoles(蝌蚪)then fall into the water，where they eventually grow into adult frogs.

Tree frog eggs usually grow for 6 days before hatching.If they sense that a hungry snake is about to attack，however，they can hatch up to 2 days ahead of the schedule. As the snakes are unable to swim，by falling into the water early，the tadpoles can escape.

If hatching early helps protect red-eyed tree frogs from snakes，you might wonder why their eggs don't always hatch sooner.It turns out that hatching early brings its own danger.Once tadpoles land in the water，hungry fish and other animals like to eat them, too.Staying in their eggs for 6 days，then，allows frog embryos(胚胎)to grow big and strong.This extra growth improves their chances of surviving in the water.

1．It can be inferred from the passage that fears________． A．help animals grow bigger and stronger B．are less common among young animals

C．help animals move a lot to fit the environment D．are more or less important for animals to survive 2．We are told in the passage that tree frogs________． A．face danger both inside their eggs and in the water B．will grow fast if they fall into the water later C．are surprisingly clever when inside their eggs D．stay in their eggs longer if they are frightened

3．Why do the tadpoles hatch up to 2 days ahead of the schedule？Because________．

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A．they like falling into the water early B．they want to grow into adult frogs

C．they sense a hungry snake is about to attack D．frog embryos can grow strong

4．What is the best title of the passa …… 此处隐藏：7247字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……