【文章大意】 来自英国的跨界音乐女高音歌唱家莎拉·布莱曼计划去国际太空站，她将成为第一个去太空唱歌的歌唱家，让我们拭目以待。 1. 答案 B
解析 细节理解题。根据第二段中的句子Brightman, a famed soprano who starred in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera, will pay about $52 million for a 10-day stay aboard the orbital outpost可知，B项正确。 2. 答案 A
解析 细节理解题。根据第四段Her training to fly on a Russian Soyuz capsule is to begin as early as this fall.可知，布莱曼要在今年秋天开始训练。 3. 答案 C
解析 细节理解题。第五段提到But she faces competition from Lady Gaga, who according to media reports late last year intends to be the first when she performs one song in space in early 2015 on a Virgin Galactic flight.由此可知，她是一位歌手。 4. 答案 A
解析 推理判断题。去太空旅行的费用相当高，而查尔斯·西蒙尼去了两次，说明他富有；去太空充满了危险，判断他勇敢。所以选择A项。
About 5,000 children die each day due to preventable diseases such as cholera(霍乱) and dysentery (痢疾), which spread when people use unclean water for drinking or cooking. A lack of water for personal hygiene leads to the spread of totally preventable diseases like trachoma(沙眼), which has blinded some six million people.
Water troubles also trap many low-income families in a cycle of poverty and poor education — and the poorest suffer most from lack of access to water. People who spend much of their time in ill health, caring for sick children or collecting water at a distance averaging 3.75 miles a day are denying educational and economic opportunities to better their lives.
Agriculture is called the lion’s share of freshwater worldwide, soaking up some 70 percent, and industrial uses consume another 22 percent. Water areas have no political borders and nations don’t always work together to share common resources — so water can be a frequent source of international conflicts as well.
The day-by-day demand keeps growing, further draining water sources, from great rivers to groundwater. “We’re going deeper into debt on our groundwater use,” Postel said, “and that has a very significant impact on global water security. The rate of groundwater consumption has doubled since 1960.”
Some of Earth’s groundwater is fossil water, created when Earth’s climate was far different. Today such water is as limited as petroleum. “But we’re pumping much of it out faster than precipitation (降水) is recharging it,” Postel explained. “This is the case underneath the breadbasket of India, underneath the cornfields on the plains of North China. We need to bring withdrawals into balance by recharging.”
Humanity’s growing thirst also causes a major problem about water. “When we take water from rivers, those ecosystems begin to reduce or even disappear,” she said. “And that also creates cost to us, not just to nature, because we also depend upon those ecosystems.”
1. What does the author really want to say in the passage? A. Water has been the most serious challenge.
B. So many children die from polluted water every day. C. Diseases should be properly controlled and treated. D. A shortage of water leads to the unrest of the world. 2. For lack of access to water many people ________. A. will fail to see what has led to trachoma B. will not have confidence in themselves C. will lose chances to improve their life D. will have to live far from their villages
3. What can we know according to what Postel said? A. The groundwater is rich in India and China. B. There is no need to dig deep for groundwater. C. We are consuming our next generation’s water. D. We should plant rice instead of wheat and corn. 4. What can we infer from the passage? A. We shouldn’t use water from rivers. B. We should protect our ecosystems. C. Water should be distributed equally. D. Laws should be passed for groundwater.
5. The underlined word “impact” in Paragraph 4 means “________”. A. effect B. reason C. strike D. knock 答案与解析
【文章大意】 水是生命之源，离开了水就意味着失去了赖以生存的物质基础。但是近几年在很多国家和地区，不安全的饮用水、不安全的环境卫生或个人卫生导致很多人失去了生命。 1. 答案 D
解析 主旨大意题。这篇文章讲述了目前在全世界范围内，水短缺给人们的健康、生活、经济等带来了灾难。故选D项。 2. 答案 C
解析 细节理解题。依据第二段中的第二句People who spend much of their time in ill health, caring for sick children or collecting water at a distance averaging 3.75 miles a day are denying educational and economic opportunities to better their lives可知，健康状况不佳的人花费大部分时间照顾生病的孩子，或一天走平均3.75英里的路去打水，他们拒绝接受改善他们生活的教育和经济机会。故选C项。 3. 答案 C
解析 推理判断题。第四段中的The rate of groundwater consumption has doubled since 1960表明，我们消耗了过多的地下水。再依据第五段中Postel的话But we’re pumping much of it out faster than precipitation is recharging it可知，我们的水资源是有限的，但我们抽水的速度比降水补给的速度要快。故选C项。 4. 答案 B
解析 推理判断题。依据文章尾段的内容可知，当我们从河流中取水时，这些生态系统开始减少甚至消失，因此我们要保护我们的生态系统。故选B项。
5. 答案 A
解析 词义猜测题。结合下一段中的Some of Earth’s groundwater is fossil water以及such water is as limited as petroleum可知，地下水资源很宝贵，过度使用水会对全球用水安全产生很大的影响，故选A项。impact意为“巨大影响；强大作用”，相当于effect, influence等。 Ⅲ.语法填空
Choosing a College Major
In college, you are required to major in a specific academic area. Most colleges require students to ___1___(decision) a major by the end of their sophomore year. Until then, you’ll likely be taking general education courses, ___2___ are courses that every student has to complete in order to graduate.
Choosing your college major can be a ___3___(stress) process. It can be even ___4___ (difficult) if you wait until you step foot on your college to start thinking about your possible ___5___(choose). Instead, take the active approach and start the process now. Start by asking yourself the ___6___(follow)simple question: What Do I Love?
In order to decide what college major would ___7___(well) suit you, you must first examine your interests. What excites you? What type of activities do you look forward ___8___ each week? Understanding what really interests you is very important.
If you think you want to be an accountant, but you can’t wait until pre-calculus class is over because it means that you can head straight to your ___9___(create)writing class, pay attention to this. All in all, you should choose a major that really speaks to you and that really gets you ___10___(excite). 答案与解析
【文章大意】 本文是一篇议论文。对于高中生来说如何选择大学里所学的专业至关重要，本文认为，在作出选择时，要首先考虑自己的兴趣爱好。
1. decide 考查动词。根据空格后面的语境a major可以得知，此处表示“决定所学专业”，故用decision的动词decide。
2. which 考查关系代词。根据空格后面语境可以得知，此处考查定语从句，故答案为which，引导非限制性定语从句。 误解分析：此题考生易误填入they或that。解答此题关键是注意空格前面的逗号。 3. stressful 考查形容词。根据空格后面语境可以得知，此处需要用形容词形式修饰后面的名词process，故答案为stressful“有压力的；令人紧张的”。 4. more difficult 考查比较级。根据空格前面语境even以及空格后面多音节形容词difficult可以得知，此处需要用形容词的比较级形式。
5. choices 考查名词。根据空格前面的形容词possible可以得知，此处表示“可能的选择”，故答案为名词形式choices。
6. following 考查形容词。根据空格后面的名词可以得知，此处需要用形容词形式following“下面的；下述的”，修饰question。 7. best 考查副词。此处表示“最适合你的专业”，故用well的最高级形式best修饰动词suit。
8. to 考查介词。根据空格前面语境look forward 可以得知，此处考查固定搭配look forward to表示“期望；盼望??”之意的用法。
9. creative 考查形容词。根据空格后面语境中的名词writing class可以得知，此处需要用形容词形式creative“有创造力的”，修饰writing class。
10. excited 考查非谓语动词。根据空格前面语境get you可以得知，此处需要用形容词化的-ed分词修饰人，在此处作get的宾语补足语。
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