Running on Empty
For almost a century, scientists have assumed, tiredness—or exhaustion—in athletes originates(起源于) in the muscles. Precise explanations have varied, but all have been based on the “Limitations Theory”. In other words, muscles tire because they hit a physical limit: they either run out of fuel or oxygen or they drown in harmful by-products(副产品).
In the past few years, however, Timothy Noakes from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, has examined this standard theory. Tiredness, he argues, is caused not by signals springing from overtaxed muscles, but is an emotional response which begins in the brain. The fundamental nature of his new theory is that the brain paces the muscles to keep them well back from the edge of exhaustion. When the brain decides it’s time to quit, it creates unbearable muscle tiredness. This “Central Governor” theory remains controversial, but it does explain many puzzling aspects of athletic performance.
A recent discovery that Noakes calls the “lactic acid paradox” made him start researching this area seriously. Lactic acid is a by-product of exercise, and the increase of it is often mentioned as a cause of tiredness. But when research subjects exercise in certain conditions created artificially, they become tired even though lactic acid levels remain low. Nor has the oxygen content of their blood fallen too low for them to keep going. Obviously, something else was making them tire before they hit either of these physiological limits.
Noakes conducted an experiment with seven cyclists. It has long been known that during exercise, the body never uses 100% of the available muscle fibres(纤维). The amount used varies, but in some tasks such as this cycling test the body calls on about 30%. His team found that as tiredness set in, the electrical activity in cyclist’s legs declined—even when they were making a great effort to cycle as fast as they could.
To Noakes, this was strong evidence that the old theory was wrong. “The cyclists may have felt completely exhausted,” he says, “but their bodies actually had considerable reserves that they could theoretically tap by using a greater amount of the resting fibres.” This, he believes, is the proof that the brain is regulating the pace of the workout to hold the cyclists well back from the point of extreme tiredness.
1.Which of the following is supported by “the Limitations Theory”?
A.Tiredness is caused by signals from brain.
B.Athletes feel tired when they use up all their energy.
C.The body uses 100% of the muscle fibres in exercise.
D.Athletes become tired though lactic acid levels remain low.
2.Noakes has found out that ___________.
A.muscle fibres control athletes’ movements
B.Lactic acid levels remain high in cycling test
C.mental processes control the symptoms of tiredness
D.different exercises use different amount of muscle fibres
3.It is likely that both theories accept that ___________.
A.lactic acid is produced in muscles during exercise
B.the oxygen content in blood may rise after sports
C.tiredness is a harmful by-product of exercise
D.the energy in human bodies can be balanced
4.What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?
A.The description of a new test.
B.The explanation of the theory.
C.The puzzling evidence of a study.
D.The whole process of the research.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题
Running on Empty
For almost a century, scientists have assumed, tiredness—or exhaustion—in athletes originates(起源于) in the muscles. Precise explanations have varied, but all have been based on the “Limitations Theory”. In other words, muscles tire because they hit a physical limit: they either run out of fuel or oxygen or they drown in harmful by-products(副产品).
In the past few years, however, Timothy Noakes from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, has examined this standard theory. Tiredness, he argues, is caused not by signals springing from overtaxed muscles, but is an emotional response which begins in the brain. The fundamental nature of his new theory is that the brain paces the muscles to keep them well back from the edge of exhaustion. When the brain decides it’s time to quit, it creates unbearable muscle tiredness. This “Central Governor” theory remains controversial, but it does explain many puzzling aspects of athletic performance.
A recent discovery that Noakes calls the “lactic acid paradox” made him start researching this area seriously. Lactic acid is a by-product of exercise, and the increase of it is often mentioned as a cause of tiredness. But when research subjects exercise in certain conditions created artificially, they become tired even though lactic acid levels remain low. Nor has the oxygen content of their blood fallen too low for them to keep going. Obviously, something else was making them tire before they hit either of these physiological limits.
Noakes conducted an experiment with seven cyclists. It has long been known that during exercise, the body never uses 100% of the available muscle fibres(纤维). The amount used varies, but in some tasks such as this cycling test the body calls on about 30%. His team found that as tiredness set in, the electrical activity in cyclist’s legs declined—even when they were making a great effort to cycle as fast as they could.
To Noakes, this was strong evidence that the old theory was wrong. “The cyclists may have felt completely exhausted,” he says, “but their bodies actually had considerable reserves that they could theoretically tap by using a greater amount of the resting fibres.” This, he believes, is the proof that the brain is regulating the pace of the workout to hold the cyclists well back from the point of extreme tiredness.
1.Which of the following is supported by “the Limitations Theory”?
A.Tiredness is caused by signals from brain.
B.Athletes feel tired when they use up all their energy.
C.The body uses 100% of the muscle fibres in exercise.
D.Athletes become tired though lactic acid levels remain low.
2.Noakes has found out that ___________.
A.muscle fibres control athletes’ movements
B.Lactic acid levels remain high in cycling test
C.mental processes control the symptoms of tiredness
D.different exercises use different amount of muscle fibres
3.It is likely that both theories accept that ___________.
A.lactic acid is produced in muscles during exercise
B.the oxygen content in blood may rise after sports
C.tiredness is a harmful by-product of exercise
D.the energy in human bodies can be balanced
4.What is Paragraph 3 mainly about?
A.The description of a new test.
B.The explanation of the theory.
C.The puzzling evidence of a study.
D.The whole process of the research.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
London will stage its biggest political funeral in almost half a century on Wednesday when Britain's governing elite join the Queen and global leaders to bid farewell to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, better known as the “ Iron Lady".
In an event comparable to that of Winston Churchill's funeral in 1965, Thatcher's coffin will be carried on a horse-drawn gun carriage through streets lined with admirers from parliament to the city's most famous cathedral.
The bells of London's symbolic Big Ben clock tower will fall silent for the first time since Churchill's funeral and more than 700 men and women from Britain's armed forces will honor a woman who led them to victory in the 1982 Falklands War as foreign politicians from around 170 nations look on.
Surveys have shown that many are unhappy that the estimated l0-million($15 million)pound bill for the funeral is being picked up by the taxpayer, while some left-wing lawmakers say the luxurious funeral is too expensive.
But her admirers, of whom there are many in her party and in southern England, argue that her historical profile deserves such a funeral. She was the country's first and only woman premier, was Britain's longest-serving prime minister of the 20th century, and won three general elections.
More than 2,300 mourners will attend including 11 serving prime ministers from around the world, the British government's entire cabinet, two heads of state and 17 foreign ministers.
But there will be notable absences. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is too ill to attend and Nancy Reagan, the widow of Thatcher's great U·S. ally Ronald Reagan, is also unable to come.
Thatcher struck up a close relationship with Reagan during the Cold War, backed the first President George Bush during the 1991 Gulf War, and was among the first to discover that Gorbachev was a man she could "do business with. ”
Covered in the red, white and blue British flag, Thatcher's coffin lay overnight in a 13th-century church in Britain's parliament, a forum she dominated for years.
1.From the passage we know that Big Ben clock tower will fall silent to________.
A. get repaired for the first time
B. honour the passing away of the great woman
C. tell the specific time to the public
D. welcome the officials from all over the world
2.Who that are still alive will be absent from the funeral?
A. Mikhail Gorbachev and Nancy Reagan.
B. Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan.
C. Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan.
D. George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev.
3.From the passage we can learn that Margaret Thatcher was________.
A. strong and smart B. weak and disappointing
C. aggressive and warlike D. stubborn and luxurious
4.Which of the following might serve as the best title of the passage?
A. The legend of Thatcher, the “Iron Lady".
B. Why Big Ben falls silent for the first time?
C. Who will pay for such a luxurious funeral?
D. London will witness its biggest political funeral.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Almost all of us have been there: A sense of uneasiness strikes us when we see the battery running low on the smartphone. While today’s smartphones enable us to surf the Internet, take pictures and play music, their limited, sometimes annoyingly short battery life has started to make people full of memories of early models. “My favorite phone of all time was a silver Nokia 6310i from the early 2000s. It may be primitive by today’s standards, but it could run for 17 days on a single charge,” wrote Daily Mail columnist David Derbyshire.
But scientists spend no time thinking about the past. They have built an aluminium (铝) battery which could be a cheap, fast-charging alternative to current designs.
You can squeeze, and practically bend it in half without breaking the packet. It is more environmentally friendly than alkaline (碱性的) batteries, and more safe than lithium (锂) batteries – it won’t catch fire “even if you drill through it”, as Hongjie Dai of Stanford University told The Telegraph. The battery is the work of a team led by Dai. And the best part is that it has a recharge time of around one minute.
However, at present, the only problem is that it produces just half the voltage (电压) of a typical lithium battery. But Dai explained they were setting about changing the voltage and energy density(密度)”. “Our battery has everything else you’d dream that a battery should have. I see this as a new battery in its early days,” he told The Telegraph.
1.How many advantages does the aluminium battery have according to the article?
A. 2 B. 3 C.4 D. 5
2.The passage suggests that _________________.
A. the aluminium battery catches fire easily if drilled
B. the aluminium battery still needs improving before it can be widely used
C. the aluminium battery is larger in size than alkaline batteries
D. scientists find it a real challenge to change the voltage of the aluminium battery
3.Which of the following can best summarize the passage?
A. A new battery in its early days.
B. A new trend in the smartphone market.
C. The annoyance short battery life causes
D. The invention of a new smartphone battery.
4.The last paragraph in the passage is probably followed by the paragraph about how to __________.
A. make the aluminium battery cheaper and more environmentally-friendly
B. lengthen the aluminium battery life
C. increase the voltage and energy density of the aluminium battery
D. charge the aluminium battery faster
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Scientists in Canada say big fish have almost disappeared from the world since the start of industrial（产业的） fishing in the 1950s. The scientists found the numbers of some kinds of large fish have dropped by ninety percent in the past fifty years.
The study took ten years. The researchers gathered records from fishing businesses and governments around the world. The magazine Nature published the findings.
The scientists say the common method called long line fishing ravages the populations of large fish. This method involves many fishing lines connected to one boat. These wires can be nearly one hundred kilometers long. They hold thousands of sharp metal hooks to catch fish.
Long line fishing is especially common in the Japanese fishing industry. Records showed that Japanese boats used to catch about ten fish for every one hundred hooks. But long line fishing boats now might only catch one fish per hundred hooks.
The scientists say industrial fishing can destroy groups of fish much faster than in the past. The study suggests that whole populations can disappear almost completely from new fishing areas within ten to fifteen years.
Ransom Myers and Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia led the study with the University of Kiel in Germany. Worm says the destruction could lead to a complete reorganization of ocean life systems. Meyers says the decreased numbers of large fish are not the only worry. He says even populations that are able to reproduce do not get the chance to live long enough to grow as big as their ancestors. He says not only are there fewer big fish, but also they are smaller than those of the past.
It’s the end of this program ,Thank you for your listening.
1.What’s the best title for the passage?
A. Big fish are disappearing B. Long—line fishing in Japan
C. The harm of industrial fishing D. Stop killing big fish
2.Which of the following DOESN’T show that the populations of big fish are smaller than before?
A. Fish can disappear almost completely from new fishing areas.
B. Now long—line fishing boats might catch one fish per hundred hooks.
C. Fish now don’t have the chance to grow big enough.
D. Scientists spent ten years studying the populations of large fish.
3.What can we learn from the passage?
A. The number of big fish started to drop greatly about fifty years ago.
B. The study was started by Boris Worm of Dalhousie alone.
C. There will be no big fish left in fifty years .
D. Japaneses people have stopped catching big fish.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Obviously!
Until Descartes came along in the seventeenth century, everyone assumed that we exited. Obviously. The fact seemed so mind-blowing obvious that it wasn’t really discussed. We could see ourselves in the mirror, we could feel pain and pleasure, we could think thoughts for ourselves and, more importantly, perhaps, all the world’s main religions assumed that we do exist. So we exist.
No you don’t it!
You don’t exist. That’s because it’s impossible to show once and for all that you do. There’s no proof. You might think you exist-that you are sitting at a table reading this book, for instance-but how could you show with 100 percent certainty that this is true? There’s no experiment that could prove it. Although Descartes said just you could prove your own existence by the fact that you are able to think, this isn’t actually, according to the British philosopher A. J. Ayer. Just because we know that we are thinking, this doesn’t mean that there is a “you” doing the thinking. It just shows that the thoughts are happening, not that anyone is having them. Thoughts exists, “You” don’t.
_____________!
What a waste of time this question is. Although you can argue until the end of time whether you exist or not, it doesn’t get you anywhere. Unless you forget about this unanswerable question, you’ll be stuck thinking about it forever, and that isn’t of any use to anyone. Move on. Think about something more important! This very roughly, is the view of almost all philosophers, who prefer to answer other, apparently more useful, questions.
Yes, but…
You exist, but not in the way you might think. According to the great French philosopher Ren Descartes, you can’t show that anything exists—apart from your own self. The existence of the entire world can be doubted in one way or another, but the facts you’re having thoughts shows that there might be something (that’s you) having them. This let Descartes to write the famous philosophical phrase, “ I think before I am”.
1.Which of the following can be the missing heading?
A. Forget about it B. What a ridiculous point
C. Think about it D. What a pointless question
2.This passage is anything but a(n)___________.
A. comment B. discussion
C. argument D. debate
3.The famous answer to the question “Do I exist?” is ___________.
A. No, you don’t exist.
B. I think, therefore, I am.
C. Yes, you do exist.
D. It won’t get you anywhere
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
_____by the running , they went on running after the thief.
| A．Exhausting | B．Having exhausted | C．Exhausted | D．To exhaust |
高三英语单项填空简单题查看答案及解析
Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination(歧视) have been made illegal. But one popular form continues to exist, that is alphabetism (字母排序法). This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames (姓氏) begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.
It has long been known that the cars of a taxi firm called AAAA have a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers look through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbot has in life over Zoe Zysman. English names are fairly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a quite large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.
Thus the American presidents and vice-presidents have surnames starting with B and C separately and 26 of those before George Bush took office (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking, six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chretien and Koizumi ). The world’s three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanese characters. The same case are the world’s five richest men (Gates, Buffet and so on).
Can this merely happen by chance? At the start of the first year in primary school, teachers seat pupils alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. So shortsighted Zysman gets stuck in the back row, and is seldom asked the improving questions by those teachers. At that time the alphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet the result may be worse qualifications, because they get less attention, as well as less confidence in speaking publicly.
The unfairness continues. At university graduation parties, the ABCs proudly get their awards first. However, by the time they reach the Zysmans most people are a little tired. Lists of job interviews and conference speakers and attendees all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their readers lose interest as they plough through them.
1. What does the author intend to show with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?
A. An example of competition of two kinds of cars. B. Some advantages of AAAA cars in the taxi firm.
C. An example of unfairness caused by alphabetism. D. Some disadvantages of Zodiac cars in the taxi firm.
2. What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
A. The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoe Zysman.
B. In both East and West, names are important to success.
C. Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names.
D. The discrimination in alphabetism can be found in many areas.
3. The fourth paragraph suggests that .
A. alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape from class
B. teachers should pay equal attention to all their students
C. questions are often put to the more intelligent students
D. students should be seated according to their eyesight
4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. VIPs in the western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.
B. People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill – treated.
C. Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional unfairness.
D. The movement to get rid of alphabetism still has a long way to go.
高三英语阅读理解简单题查看答案及解析
Over the past century, all kinds of unfairness and discrimination(歧视) have been made illegal. But one popular form continues to exist, that is alphabetism (字母排序法). This, for those as yet unaware of such a disadvantage, refers to discrimination against those whose surnames (姓氏) begin with a letter in the lower half of the alphabet.
It has long been known that the cars of a taxi firm called AAAA have a big advantage over Zodiac cars when customers look through their phone directories. Less well known is the advantage that Adam Abbot has in life over Zoe Zysman. English names are fairly spread between the halves of the alphabet. Yet a quite large number of top people have surnames beginning with letters between A and K.
Thus the American presidents and vice-presidents have surnames starting with B and C separately and 26 of those before George Bush took office (including his father) had surnames in the first half of the alphabet against just 16 in the second half. Even more striking, six of the seven heads of government of the G7 rich countries are alphabetically advantaged (Berlusconi, Blair, Bush, Chirac, Chretien and Koizumi ). The world’s three top central bankers (Greenspan, Duisenberg and Hayami) are all close to the top of the alphabet, even if one of them really uses Japanese characters. The same case are the world’s five richest men (Gates, Buffet and so on).
Can this merely happen by chance? At the start of the first year in primary school, teachers seat pupils alphabetically from the front, to make it easier to remember their names. So shortsighted Zysman gets stuck in the back row, and is seldom asked the improving questions by those teachers. At that time the alphabetically disadvantaged may think they have had a lucky escape. Yet the result may be worse qualifications, because they get less attention, as well as less confidence in speaking publicly.
The unfairness continues. At university graduation parties, the ABCs proudly get their awards first. However, by the time they reach the Zysmans most people are a little tired. Lists of job interviews and conference speakers and attendees all tend to be drawn up alphabetically, and their readers lose interest as they plough through them.
1.What does the author intend to show with AAAA cars and Zodiac cars?
A. An example of competition of two kinds of cars. B. Some advantages of AAAA cars in the taxi firm.
C. An example of unfairness caused by alphabetism. D. Some disadvantages of Zodiac cars in the taxi firm.
2.What can we infer from the first three paragraphs?
A. The alphabet is to blame for the failure of Zoe Zysman.
B. In both East and West, names are important to success.
C. Customers often pay a lot of attention to companies’ names.
D. The discrimination in alphabetism can be found in many areas.
3.The fourth paragraph suggests that .
A. alphabetically disadvantaged students often escape from class
B. teachers should pay equal attention to all their students
C. questions are often put to the more intelligent students
D. students should be seated according to their eyesight
4.Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. VIPs in the western world gain a great deal from alphabetism.
B. People with surnames beginning with N to Z are often ill – treated.
C. Putting things alphabetically may lead to unintentional unfairness.
D. The movement to get rid of alphabetism still has a long way to go.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Police around the world have for almost 100 years relied on lie detectors to help spot criminals. But there has long been much skepticism in the scientific and legal communities about the lie detector’s reliability. Hopefully, it could soon be no longer in use.
Researchers in Britain and the Netherlands have made a breakthrough, developing a more reliable method to help conduct interviews. Rather than just record changes in pulse, blood pressure, sweating and breathing, the new system involves monitoring full-body motions to provide an indicator of signs of guilty feelings.
There is a basic fact that liars tend to keep moving their hands and feet and so an all-body motion suit will pick this up. The suit contains 17 sensors that record movement in 23 joints up to 120 times per second.
“The lie detector has been around since the 1920s and by measuring physiological stress caused by anxiety, you can only get a success rate of about 60%.”, said Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at Cambridge University.
He said the new method, by contrast, achieved a reliability rating of over 70% and he was quite sure that they would be able to do better. In one of their experiments, the team has already achieved more than 80%.
The experiment involved 180 students and employees at Lancaster University, of which half were told to tell the truth and half to lie. They were each paid ￡7.50 for their participation in the 70-minute experiment, involving two test.
Some were interviewed about a computer game “Never End” that they played for seven minutes, while others lied about playing it having only been shown notes about it.
The second test involved a lost wallet containing ￡ 5. Some were asked to bring the wallet to a lost-and-found box while others hid it and lied about it.
“Overall, we correctly classified 82.2% of the interviewees as either being truthful or dishonest.”, the report said.
But the use of all-body suits is expensive — they cost about ￡30,000 — and can be uncomfortable, so Anderson and his colleagues are now looking at low-cost alternatives.
1.The researchers used the all-body motion suit to .
A. discover people’s joint problems
B. record people’s changes in their health
C. help find out interviewees’ mental activities
D. prevent liars from moving their hands and feet
2.What is the main disadvantage of the lie detector?
A. It has a low success rate B. It is very uncomfortable
C. It is too complex to use D. It costs a lot of money
3.How does Anderson feel about the new method?
A. Confused B. Confident
C. Doubtful D. Disappointed
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析
Since English biologist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, scientists have vastly improved their knowledge of natural history. However, a lot of information is still of the speculation, and scientists can still only make educated guesses at certain things.
One subject that they guess about is why some 400 million years ago, animals in the sea developed limbs (肢) that allowed them to move onto and live on land.
Recently, an idea that occurred to the US paleontologist (古生物学家) Alfred Romer a century ago became a hot topic once again.
Romer thought that tidal (潮汐的) pools might have led to fish gaining limbs. Sea animals would have been forced into these pools by strong tides. Then, they would have been made either to adapt to their new environment close to land or die. The fittest among them grew to accomplish the transition (过渡) from sea to land.
Romer called these earliest four-footed animals “tetrapods”. Science has always thought that this was a credible theory, but only recently has there been strong enough evidence to support it.
Hannah Byrne is an oceanographer (海洋学家) at Uppsala University in Sweden. She announced at the 2018 Ocean Sciences Meeting in Oregon, US, that by using computer software, her team had managed to link Homer’s theory to places where fossil deposits (沉积物) of the earliest tetrapods were found.
According to the magazine Science, in 2014, Steven Balbus, a scientist at the University of Oxford in the UK, calculated that 400 million years ago, when the move from land to sea was achieved, tides were stronger than they are today. This is because the planet was 10 percent closer to the moon than it is now.
The creatures stranded in the pools would have been under the pressure of “survival of the fittest”, explained Mattias Green, an ocean scientist at the UK’s University of Bangor. As he told Science, “After a few days in these pools, you become food or you run out of food... the fish that had large limbs had an advantage because they could flip (翻转) themselves back in the water.”
As is often the case, however, there are others who find the theory less convincing. Cambridge University’s paleontologist Jennifer Clark, speaking to Nature magazine, seemed unconvinced. “It’s only one of many ideas for the origin of land-based tetrapods, any or all of which may have been a part of the answer,” she said.
1.Who first proposed the theory that fish might have gained limbs because of tidal pools?
A. Hannah Byrne. B. Charles Darwin.
C. Alfred Romer. D. Steven Balbus.
2.Why were tides stronger 400 million years ago than they are today according to Steven Balbus?
A. There were larger oceans. B. Earth was under greater pressure.
C. The moon gave off more energy. D. Earth was closer to the moon.
3.The underlined word “stranded” in Paragraph 8 probably means “________”.
A. trapped B. settled
C. abandoned D. found
4.What is the focus of the article?
A. The arguments over a scientific theory.
B. Some new evidence to support a previous theory.
C. The proposal of a new scientific theory.
D. A new discovery that questions a previous theory.
高三英语阅读理解中等难度题查看答案及解析