Since the 1940s,southern California has had a reputation for smog. Things
are not as bad as they once were but, according to the American Lung
Association, Los Angeles is still the worst city in the United States for levels
of 26 .Gazing down on the city from the Getty Center, an art museum in the Santa
Monica Mountains, one would find the view of the Pacific Ocean blurred by the
haze(霾).Nor is the state’s bad air 27 to its south. Fresno, in the central
valley, comes top of the list in America for year-round pollution. Residents’
hearts and lungs are affected as a 28 .
All of which, combined with California’s reputation as the home of
technological 29 ,makes the place ideal for developing and testing systems
designed to monitor pollution in 30 .And that is just what Aclima, a new firm in
San Francisco, has been doing over the past few months. It has been trying out
monitoring that are 31 to yield minute-to-minute maps of 32 air pollution. Such
stations will also be able to keep an eye on what is happening inside buildings,
including offices.
To this end, Aclima has been 33 with Google’s Street View system. Davida
Herzl, Aclima’s boss, says they have revealed pollution highs on days when San
Francisco’s transit workers went on strike and the city’s 34 were forced to use
their cars. Conversely, “cycle to work” days have done their job by 35 pollution
lows.
You probably know about the Titanic, but it was actually just one of three
state-of-the art (最先进的) ocean ships back in the day. The Olympic class ships
were built by the Harland & Wolff ship makers in Northern Ireland for the
White Star Line company. The Olympic class included the Olympic, the Britannic
and the Titanic. What you may not know is that the Titanic wasn’t even the
flagship of this class. 51.All in all, the Olympic class ships were marvels of
sea engineering, but they seemed cursed to suffer disastrous fates.
The Olympic launched first in 1910, followed by the Titanic in 1911, and
lastly the Britannic in 1914. The ships had nine decks, 52.and White Star Line
decided to focus on marking them the most luxurious ships on the water.
Stretching 269.13 meters, the Olympic class ship were wonders of naval
technology, and everyone thought that they would continue to be so for quite
some time. However, all suffered terrible accidents on the open seas. The
Olympic got wrecked before the Titanic did, but it was the only one survive and
maintain a successful career of 24 years. The Titanic was the first to sink
after famously hitting a huge iceberg in 1912. Following this disaster, the
Britannic hit a naval mine in 1916 and subsequently sank as well.
Each ship was coal-powered by several boilers constantly kept running by
exhausted crews below deck. Most recognizable of the ship designs are the ship's
smoke stacks, 53.but the fourth stack was actually just artistic in nature and
served no functional purpose. 54.While two of these ship sank, they were all
designed with double hulls (船体) believed to make them "unsinkable", perhaps a
mistaken idea that led to the Titanic's and the Britannic's tragic end.
The Olympic suffered two crashes with other ships and went on to serve as a
hospital ship and troop transport in World WarⅠ. 55.Eventually, she was taken
out of service in 1935, ending the era of the luxurious Olympic class ocean
liners.
51. What does the passage say about the three Olympic class ships?
A) They performed marvelously on the sea.
B) They could all break the ice in their way.
C) They all experienced terrible misfortunes.
D) They were models of modern engineering.
答案：C
解析：用题干中“three Olympic class
ships”定位到第一段，解题位置在第一段最后一句话的转折词之后，意为“但是他们似乎都被诅咒去遭受…”，所以，通过一些字眼就可以判断出这些船都遭受了一些事情，于是C选项符合文意。A选项中performed的动作并未被提及。B选项ice
无中生有。D选项 models 未被提及以及modern 的修饰也没有出现过。
52. What did White Star line have in mind when it purchased the three
ships?
A) Their capacity of sailing across all waters.
B) The utmost comfort passengers could enjoy.
C)Their ability to survive disasters of any kind.
D)The long voyages they were able to undertake.
答案：B
以题干中的大写字母、have in mind以及当他购买了这三艘船的描述，将解体位置定位到第二段最后，White
Star决定把它们标记为水上最豪华的船，所以这与豪华有关，与航行能力无关，所以A、C、D都可排除，选择B。
53. What is said about the fourth stack of the ships?
54. What might have led to the tragic end of the Titanic and the
Britannic?
Their unscientific designs.
Their captains’ misjudgment.
The assumption that they were built with the latest technology.
The belied that they could never sink with a double-layer body.
答案：D
根据题干里的信息，是什么导致了“the tragic end of the Titanic and the
Britannic”，可定位到第四段最后一句话，可知“mistaken idea”导致了这个悲剧，具体的mistaken
idea与D选项的内容相符。A、B、C均有无中生有的特征。
解析：通过题干中的信息定位到第四段最后一句话。
55. What happened to the ship Olympic in the end?
She was used to carry troops.
She was sunk in World War I.
She was converted in to a hospital ship.
She was retired after her naval service.
答案：D
通过in the end 定位到全文最后一段的“eventually，she was taken out of service in
1935,…”,在这之前它“went on to serve as a hospital ship and troop transport in World
WarⅠ”，所以说D选项她在服务海军之后退休了，符合文意。A、B 无中生有，C并非最后的结果。
46.Living in an urban area with green spaces has a long-lasting positive
impact on people’s mental well-being, a study has suggested, UK researchers
found moving to a green space had a sustained positive effect, unlike pay rises
or promotions, which only provided a short –term boost. Co-author Mathew White,
from the University of Exeter, UK, explained that the study showed people living
in greener urban areas were displaying fewer signs of depression or anxiety.
“There could be a number of reasons.” he said, “for example,47. people do many
things to make themselves happier; they strive for promotion or pay rises, or
they get married. But the trouble with those things is that within six months to
a year, people are back to their original baseline levels of well-being. So,
these things are not sustainable; they don’t make us happy in the long term. We
found that for some lottery (彩票) winners who had won more than £500,000 the
positive effect was definitely there, but after six months to a year, they were
back to the baseline.”
Dr. White said his team wanted 48.to see whether living in greener urban
areas has a lasting positive effect on people’s sense of well-being or whether
the effect also disappeared after a period of time. To do this, the team used
data from the British Household Panel Survey compiled by University of
Essex.
Explaining what the data revealed, he said: “what you see is that even
after three years, mental health is still better, which is unlike many other
things that we think will make us happy.” 49.He observed that people living in
green spaces were less stressed, and less mm sensible decisions and communicated
better.
With a growing body of evidence establishing a link between urban green
spaces and a positive impact on human well-being. Dr. White said, “There’s
growing interest among 50.public policy officials, but the trouble is who funds
it. What we really need at a policy level is to decide where the money will come
from to help support good quality local green spaces.”
46. According to one study, what do green spaces do to people?
A) Improve their work efficiency.
B) Add to their sustained happiness.
C) Help them build a positive attitude towards life.
D) Lesson their concerns about material well-being.
48. What does Dr. White try to find out about living in a greener urban
area?
A) How it affects different people.
C) How long its positive effect lasts.
B) How strong its positive effect is.
D) How it benefits people physically.
答案：C
解析：根据题干中“living in a greener urban
area”定位到第二段第一行到第三行，大致内容是在说人们的幸福感是长期(last-long)还是短期(a period of
time)，所以时候关时间长短的，于是C选项符合文意。其他均为提及。
49. What did Dr. White research reveal about people living in a green
environment?
A) Their stress was more apparent than real.
B) Their decisions required less deliberation.
C) Their memories were greatly strengthened.
D) Their communication with others improved.
答案：D
解析：通过题干中 “research revel”、“people living in a green
environment”,定位到第三段最后一句话，“observe”替换了“reveal”，定位句在说这些人压力小并且交流沟通更好，所以D选项与他人交流得到提升符合文意。A选项与文意相反。B、C均为提及。
50. According to Dr. White, what should the government do to build more
green spaces in cities?
A) Find financial support.
B) Improve urban planning.
C) Involve local residents in the effort.
D) Raise public awareness of the issue.
答案：A
解析：利用题干，定位到全文最后一段第二句话。“the government”被“the public policy
officials”所替换，答案在转折词but之后,困难是谁来资助。于是答案就是A选项寻找资金支持。B、C、D均无关。
Losing your ability to think and remember is pretty scary. We know the risk
of dementia (痴呆) increases with age. 46.But if you have memory slips, you
probably needn’t worry. There are pretty clear differences between signs of
dementia and age-related memory loss.
After age 50, it’s quite common to have trouble remembering the names of
people, places and thing quickly, says Dr. Kirk Daffner of Brigham and Woman’s
Hospital in Boston.
The brain ages just like the rest of the body. 47.Certain parts shrink,
especially areas in the brain that are important to learning, memory and
planning. Changes in brain cells can affect communication between different
regions of the brain. And blood flow can be reduced as blood vessels narrow.
Forgetting the name of an actor in a favorite movie, for example, is
nothing to worry about. But if you forget the plot of the movie or don’t
remember even seeing it, that’s far more concerning, Daffner says.
48.When you forget entire experiences, he says, that’s “a red flag that
something more serious may be involved.” Forgetting how to operate a familiar
object like a microwave oven, or forgetting how to drive to the house of a
friend you’ve visited many times before can also be signs of something going
wrong.
But even then, Daffner says, people shouldn’t panic. There are many things
that can cause confusion and memory loss, including health problems like
temporary stoppage of mmmm… 49.Defense against memory loss is to try to prevent
it by building up your brain’s cognitive (认知的) reserve, Daffner says.
“Read books, go to movies, take on new hobbies or activities that force one
to think in novel ways,” he says. 50.In other words, keep your brain busy and
working. And also get physically active, because exercise is a known brain
booster.
46. Why does the author say that one needn’t be concerned about memory
slips?
A) Not all of them are symptoms of dementia.
B) They occur only among certain groups of people.
发表于 2018-6-30 18:14:32
