1、高考英语阅读理解训练六高考英语阅读理解训练六Passage 1 Juanito Estrella has been a housekeeping manager on the US-based large passenger ship Carnival Spirit for 18 months and feels he has found the suitable position in his career （职业）. He has always wanted to travel. “I guess I am a really restless spirit. I like travelin
2、g, so when the chance came, I jumped at it,” he says. The chance came in the form of a newspaper advertisement for work on cruise ships （游船）. At the time Estrella was the housekeeping manager at a Melbourne hotel. He applied and, after two interviews, a medical check and police clearance, the job wa
3、s his. Estrella is responsible （负责的） for the cleanliness of the ship, making sure that 160 crew work properly. “I enjoy it because there is no other workyou wake up each day in a different place and a different culture. Its exciting when you go to the next country and you dont understand the languag
4、e,” he says. Estrella likes being busy and getting to know people from all over the world. The 1,000 crew come from 94 countries, and Estrella has learnt Spanish and a little Croatian. But there is a downside. “You cannot get really drunk.because you have safety responsibilities to yourself and othe
5、rs,” he says. “You dont really think about home. You start to think about home only when you get closer to your vacation and wonder what youll be doing.” Life on the ship is anything but cruising. Estrella and his fellows work at least 10 hours a day, seven days a week. He warns the job is not for e
6、verybody. “You have to love being busy and be prepared to work every dayand to give up drinking too much alcohol.” In his spare time, if the ship sails into a port, Estrella explores it, otherwise he works out in the crews gym, goes on the Internet or calls home. 1. What do we know about Estrella? A
7、. He is very fond of traveling. B. He doesnt drink wine now. C. He cannot speak a foreign language. D. He used to be a housekeeping manager. 2. The underlined word “downside” in paragraph 5 probably means _. A. disappointment B. disadvantage C. failure D. loss 3. Which of the following is true? A. E
8、strella doesnt often feel homesick because of his work. B. The work on the ship is not suitable for a married person. C. Estrella can find no other job except the one on the ship. D. The people on the ship are from 94 countries. 4. In the last paragraph, the writer thinks that life on the ship is _.
9、 A. not a tiring journey at all B. just an interesting voyage C. far from a voyage for pleasure D. more than a pleasant travel by seaPassage 2How does an ecosystem （生态系统）work? What makes the populations of different species the way they are? Why are there so many flies and so few wolves? To find an
10、answer, scientists have built mathematical models of food webs, noting who eats whom and how much each one eats. With such models, scientists have found out some key principles operating in food webs. Most food webs, for instance, consist of many weak links rather than a few strong ones. When a pred
11、ator （掠食动物）always eats huge numbers of a single prey （猎物），the two species are strongly linked； when a predator lives on various species, they are weakly linked. Food webs may be dominated by many weak links because that arrangement is more stable over the long term. If a predator can eat several spe
12、cies, it can survive the extinction （灭绝）of one of them. And if a predator can move on to another species that is easier to find when a prey species becomes rare, the switch allows the original prey to recover. The weak links may thus keep species from driving one another to extinction. Mathematical
13、models have also revealed that food webs may be unstable, where small changes of top predators can lead to big effects throughout entire ecosystems. In the 1960s, scientists proposed that predators at the top of a food web had a surprising amount of control over the size of populations of other spec
14、iesincluding species they did not directly attack. And unplanned human activities have proved the idea of topdown control by top predators to be true. In the ocean, we fished for top predators such as cod on an industrial scale, while on land, we killed off large predators such as wolves. These acti
15、ons have greatly affected the ecological balance. Scientists have built an earlywarning system based on mathematical models. Ideally, the system would tell us when to adapt human activities that are pushing an ecosystem toward a breakdown or would even allow us to pull an ecosystem back from the bor
16、derline. Prevention is key, scientists say, because once ecosystems pass their tipping point （临界点），it is remarkably difficult for them to return. 1. What have scientists discovered with the help of mathematical models of food webs？A. The living habits of species in food webs. B. The rules governing
17、food webs of the ecosystems. C. The approaches to studying die species in the ecosystems. D. The differences between weak and strong links in food webs. 2. A strong link is found between two species when a predator_. A. has a wide food choiceB. can easily find new preyC. sticks to one prey speciesD.
18、 can quickly move to another place3. What will happen if the populations of top predators in a food web greatly decline？A. The prey species they directly attack will die out. B. The species they indirectly attack will turn into top predators. C. The living environment of other species will remain un
19、changed. D. The populations of other species will experience unexpected changes. 4 What conclusion can be drawn from the examples in Paragraph 4？ A. Uncontrolled human activities greatly upset ecosystems. B. Rapid economic development threatens animal habitats. C. Species of commercial value dominat
20、e other species. D. Industrial activities help keep food webs stable. 5. How does an earlywarning system help us maintain the ecological balance？ A. By getting illegal practices under control. B. By stopping us from killing large predators. C. By bringing the brokendown ecosystems back to normal. D.
21、 By signaling the urgent need for taking preventive action. Passage 3Four Free Mobile Apps to Help You Learn English FasterHave you realized that you can put your smartphone to really good use for learning English? Here are 4 free mobile apps that will help you do just that.Hello EnglishIt covers al
22、l the aspects of language learning, including vocabulary, translation, grammar, spellings, spoken and reading skills. It uses interactive games to teach different English lessons and offers new audiobooks, latest news, and books. However, you should already understand basic English structures and al
23、phabets, for the app cant help you learn English from scratch(从零开始).DuolingoIf you want to learn English from scratch, then this is the app you are looking for. Duolingo uses interactive games to help you learn English. For beginners, the app focuses on helping you learn verbs, phrases and sentences
24、.LingbeIf you are ready to practice your spoken skills in the real-world, youll need Lingbe. Its a community-based app where people help each other and share their native languages. It connects you with real people on call who are native English speakers.HelloTalkHelloTalk is similar to Lingbe as it
25、 connects you with native speakers to help improve your language skills. However, it adds a few extra functions that might interest you. You can view the information about users to find a match that interests you. Additionally, you can also send text and audio messages, and even do video calls with
26、other people.If you are a beginner, start from Duolingo and then use Hello English to take full command over the language. For fluent spoken English learners, you can try out Lingbe or HelloTalk.1. What should you already understand to use Hello English?A. Good reading and writing skills.B. Basic li
27、stening and speaking tips.C. Different English lessons and books.D. English letters and basic structu. res.2. Which app is the best choice for an English beginner at first?A. Hello English.B. Duolingo.C. Lingbe.D. HelloTalk.3. What can you do on Lingbe?A. Read the latest news.B. Enjoy the interactiv
28、e games.C. Practice your spoken English.D. Talk with native speakers in the flesh.Passage 4 There is no better way to enjoy Scottish traditions than going fishing and tasting a little bit of whisky （威士忌） at a quiet place like the Inverlochy Castle. When Queen Victoria visited the castle in 1873 she
29、wrote in her diary, “I never saw a lovelier spot.” And she didnt even go fishing. Scotland is not easily defined. In certain moments, this quiet land of lakes and grasses and mountains changes before your very eyes. When evening gently sweeps the hillside into orange light, the rivers, teeming with
30、fish, can turn into streams of gold. As you settle down with just a fishing pole and a basket on the bank of River Orchy, near the Inverlochy Castle, any frustration （烦恼） will float away as gently as the circling water. Its just you and purple, pink, white flowers, seeking a perfect harmony. If you
31、are a new comer to fishing, learning the basics from a fishing guide may leave you with a lifetimes fun. For many, fishing is more than a sport; it is an art. Scotland offers interesting places where you can rest after a long days fishing. Set against a wild mountain and hidden behind woodland, the
32、beautiful Inverlochy Castle Hotel below the Nevis is a perfect place to see the beauty of Scotlands mountains. Ben Nevis is the highest of all British mountains, and reaching its 1343-metre top is a challenge. But its not just what goes up that matters; what comes down is unique. More than 900 metres high, on the mountains north face, lies an all-important source of pure water. Its name comes from the Gaelic language “usquebaugh” or “water of life”; and it is
