Thousands of people began pouring into Pennsylvania from other states.They wanted to buy lottery tickets.The tickets cost only ﹩0.9 each.But that small spending could bring them a reward of ﹩90 million.That was the second largest lottery jackpot(积累奖金)in history.
More than 87 million tickets were bought for the Pennsylvania lottery drawing.Those who bought tickets had to choose seven numbers from 1 to 80.The chance of winning was one in 9.6 million.But that little chance certainly didn’t affect ticket sales.In the last few days before the drawing, tickets were selling at the unbelievable rate of 500 per second.
Experts say many people buy lottery tickets because they just want to have a piece of the action.Others say the lottery is a stock market for poor people.It allows them to dream about wealth they’ll probably never have.
But many people believe lotteries are no better than legalized(合法化的) gambling.Some critics note that most people who play are poor and may not be able to afford the tickets.There are also many addicts who take the game seriously.They may pour their life savings into lottery tickets.Some clubs have been formed to help them kick the habit.
Politicians like lotteries because they provide money that would otherwise have to come from new taxes.The profits from lotteries are usually used to pay for education or programs for senior citizens.But critics say this arrangement just allows states to legalize vice(恶习), under the name of social progress.No matter whether you regard state lotteries right or not, you cannot refuse to accept their extreme popularity with many Americans.
The main idea of the passage is that .
A.lotteries are of great benefit to everyone who buys them
B.playing a lottery is just like investing in the stock market
C.a lot of people buy lottery tickets, but lotteries cause disagreement
D.lotteries are just legalized vice
Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A.Politicians like lotteries because they don’t have to pay extra tax.
B.The popularity of lotteries in America actually is social progress.
C.Some critics don’t like lotteries because many poor people waste their money on them.
D.People love the lottery because it is a stock market.
In just one hour in the last few days, the Pennsylvania lottery sold tickets totaling .
A.$1.62million B.﹩90million C.﹩9.6million D.﹩87million
People who are addicted to playing lotteries should .
A.join a club B.kick the habitw.
C.win the Pennsylvania D.save every cent
科目:高中英语 来源:2011-2012学年安徽省蚌埠铁路中学高一下学期期中考试英语试卷(带解析) 题型:阅读理解
You might think that “global warming” means nothing more than a rise in the world’s temperature But rising sea levels caused by it have resulted in the first evacuation(撤离)of an island nation—the citizens of Tuvalu will have to leave their homeland.
During the 20th century , sea level rose 8—12 inches. As a result ,Tuvalu has experienced lowland flooding of salt water which has polluted the country’s drinking water.
Paani Laupepa , a Tuvaluan government official ,reported to the Earth Policy Institute that the nation suffered an unusually high number of fierce storms in the past ten years .Many scientists connect higher surface water temperatures resulting from global warming to greater and more damaging storms.
Laupepa expressed dissatisfaction with the United States for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement calling for industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions(导致温室效应的气体排放),which are a main cause of global warming . “By refusing to sign the agreement ,the US has effectively taken away the freedom of future generations of Tuvaluans to live where their forefathers have lived for thousands of years,” Laupepa told the BBC.
Tuvalu has asked Australia and New Zealand to allow the gradual move of its people to both countries .
Tuvalu is not the only country that is vulnerable (易受影响的)to rising sea levels .Maumoon Gayoon ,president of the Maldives ,told the United Nations that global warming has made his country of 311,000 an “endangered nation”.
【小题1】The text is mainly about .
A.rapid changes in earth’s temperature |
B.bad effects of global warming |
C.moving of a country to a new place |
D.reasons for lowland flooding |
A.greenhouse gas emissions in industrialized nations |
B.higher surface water temperatures of the sea |
C.continuous global warming |
D.rising sea levels |
A.agree to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions |
B.sign an agreement with Tuvalu |
C.allow Tuvaluans to move to the US |
D.believe the problems facing Tuvalu were real |
A.Australia | B.New Zealand | C.the Maldives | D.the United States |
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科目:高中英语 来源:2011届湖北省武汉市武昌区高三上学期元月调研测试英语卷 题型:阅读理解
Scientists who try to predict earthquakes have gotten some new helpers recently—animals.
That’s right, animals. Scientists have begun to understand what farmers have known for thousands of years. Animals often seem to know in advance that an earthquake is coming, and they show their fear by acting in strange ways. Before a Chinese quake in 1975, snakes awoke from their winter sleep early only to freeze to death in the cold air. Cows broke their halters (缰绳) and tried to escape. Chickens refused to enter their cage. All of this unusual behavior, as well as physical changes in the earth, warned Chinese scientists of the coming quake. They moved people away from the danger zone and saved thousands of lives.
One task for scientists today is to learn exactly which types of animal behavior predict quakes. It’s not an easy job. First of all not every animal reacts to the danger of an earthquake. Just before a California quake in 1977, for example, an Arabian horse became very nervous and tried to break out of his enclosure. The Australian horse next to him, however, remained perfectly calm. It’s also difficult at times to tell the difference between normal animal restlessness and “earthquake nerves”. A zoo keeper once called earthquake researchers to say that his cougar had been acting strangely. It turned out that the cat had an upset stomach.
A second task for scientists is to find out exactly what kind of warnings the animals receive. They know that animals sense far more of the world than humans do. Many animals can see, hear, and smell things that people do not even notice. Some can sense tiny changes in air pressure, gravity, or the magnetism of Earth. This extra sense probably helps animals predict quakes.
A good example of this occurred with a group of dogs. They were shut in an area that was being shaken by a series of tiny earthquakes. (Several small quakes often come before or after a large one.) Before each quake a low booming sound was heard. Each boom caused the dogs to bark wildly. Then the dogs began to bark during a silent period. A scientist who was recording quakes looked at his machine. It was acting as though there were a loud noise too. The scientist realized that the dogs had reacted to a booming noise. They also sensed the tiny quake that followed it. The machine recorded both, though humans felt and heard nothing.
In this case there was a machine to monitor what the dogs were sensing. Many times, however, our machines record nothing extraordinary, even though animals know a quake is coming. The animals might be sensing something we measure but do not recognize as a warning. Discovering what animals sense, and learning how they know it is a danger signal, is a job for future scientists.
【小题1】Through the passage the writer hopes to explore __________.
A.why animals send a danger signal before an earthquake |
B.how animals know when an earthquake is coming |
C.why animals not men have good sense of danger |
D.how much animals know about an earthquake |
A.chickens refused to go out of their cage |
B.snakes were frozen to death in their caves |
C.snakes awoke from their winter sleep earlier |
D.cows broke their halters and escaped from their sheds |
A.An Arabian horse tried to escape from his enclosure. |
B.A cougar had an upset stomach unexpectedly. |
C.An Australian horse was perfectly calm. |
D.A cat acted very strangely in a zoo. |
A.find out that the machine could record unusual happenings |
B.compare the reactions of animals and those of humans |
C.prove that animals could sense more than humans |
D.find out what exact warnings animals sent |
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科目:高中英语 来源:2011届江苏省姜堰市第二中学高三上学期学情调查(三)英语卷 题型:阅读理解
In the decade(十年)of the 1970s, the United Nations organized several important meetings on the human environment to study a very serious problem.We humans are destroying the world around us.We must learn to protect them, or life will be very bad for our children and grandchildren.
There are several major aspects to this problem.
Population
Most problems of the environment come from population growth.In 1700 there were 635 million people in the world; in 1900 there were 1.6 billion; in 1950, 2.5 billion; and in 1980, 4.4 billion.In the year 2010 there will be 7.3 billion.More people need more water, more food, more wood, and more petroleum.
Distribution
Scientists say there is enough water in the world for everyone, but some countries have a lot of water and some have only a little.Some areas get all rain during one season.The rest of the year is dry.
Petroleum
We are using up the world’s petroleum.We use it in our cars and to heat our buildings in winter.Farmers use petrochemicals to make the soil rich.They use them to kill insects on those plants.These chemicals go into rivers and lakes and kill the fish there.Thousands of people also die from these chemicals every year.Chemicals also go into the air and pollute it.Winds carry this polluted air to other countries and other countries.
Poverty
Poor farmers use the same land over and over.The land needs a rest so it will be better next year.However, the farmer must have food every year.Poor people cut down trees for firewood.In some areas when the trees are gone, the land becomes desert.However, people need wood to cook their food now.Poor people cannot save the environment for the future.
We now have the information and the ability to solve these huge problems.However, this is not a problem for one country or one area of the world.It is a problem for all humans.The people and the nation of the world must work together to protect the world’s resources.No one controls the future, but we all help make it.
【小题1】According to the passage, our world is being destroyed mainly because ______.
A.pollution is getting worse and worse |
B.population are increasing greatly |
C.we humans are using up all of our natural resources |
D.distribution is not reasonable. |
A.having things in the right place at the right time. |
B.cutting down forests and selling them to other countries. |
C.building water systems to carry water to farms. |
D.conserving our natural resources |
A.The World Being Destroyed |
B.A Serious Problem We Should Pay Attention to |
C.Aspects That Destroyed Our World |
D.Conserving the World’s Natural Resources |
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科目:高中英语 来源:全国通用2010年高三备考英语“好题速递”系列(13) 题型:阅读理解
二、阅读理解
阅读下列短文,从每题所给的A、B、C和D项中,选出最佳选项,并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。
Not many years ago, a wealthy and rather strange old man named Johnson lived alone in a village in the south of England. He had made a lot of money in trading with foreign countries. When he was 75, he gave £12,000 to the village school to buy land and equipment for a children’s playground.
As a result of his kindness, many people came to visit him. Among them was a newspaperman. During their talk, Johnson remarked that he was 75 and expected to live to be 100, and the newspaperman asked him how he managed to be healthy at 75. Johnson had a sense of humor. He liked whisky and drank some each day. “I have an injection(注射)in my neck each evening”, he told the newspaperman, thinking of his evening glass of whisky.
The newspaperman did not understand what Johnson meant. In his newspaper he reported that Johnson was 75 and had a daily injection in his neck. Within a week Johnson received thousands of letters from all over Britain, asking him for the secret of his daily injection.
11.Johnson became a rich man through _____.
A.doing business B.making whisky C.cheating D.buying and selling land
12.The gift of money to the school suggests that Johnson ____.
A.had no children B.was a strange man
C.was very warm-hearted and fond of children D.wanted people to know how rich he was
13.Many people wrote to Johnson probably to find out ____.
A.what kind of whisky he drank
B.how to live alone
C.how to become wealthy
D.in which part of the neck he had an injection each day
14.When Johnson said he had an injection in his neck each evening, he really meant that ____
A.he liked drinking a glass of whisky in the evening
B.he needed an injection in the neck
C.a daily injecting in the evening would make him sleep well
D.there was something wrong with his neck
15.From the passage we can infer that Johnson would be very ____ after he read those people’s letters.
A.miserable B.glad C.surprised D.said
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科目:高中英语 来源:2010年山东聊城三中高一下学期期末考试英语卷 题型:阅读理解
Attending a university is an important part of a person’s life. Today, many people go to a university to study and train for a future job in subjects like law, medicine, or education. But the university is not a modern invention. It has a history that is over a thousand years old.
The world’s oldest university, Al-Azhar, is in Cairo, Egypt. It was first built as a mosque in A.D. 972. A few years later, learners and teachers began meeting in the mosque in “tutoring circles”. They read and talked about the subject of law. Around 988, leaders in the city of Cairo decided to create a school for higher learning and the University of Al-Azhar was founded.
At Al-Azhar, there were many university ‘firsts.’ Courses were created. The earliest ones taught at Al-Azhar were in law and religion. In a course, students read and studied with the teacher, but there was also free discussion. Often, students and teachers talked about a topic, and there was no ‘right’ answer. Finally, scholars from around the world came to Al-Azhar to teach and do research. At the university, people studied the past, but it was also a place for sharing new ideas.
Over a thousand years later, Al-Azhar is still an important university in the world. Its library contains more than 250,000 of the world’s oldest and most valuable books. Today, many of the world’s most important universities such as Oxford and Harvard still follow the traditions started at Al-Azhar.
【小题1】What’s this passage mainly about?
A.The history of the world’s oldest university. |
B.The importance of attending a university. |
C.The relationship between university and future job. |
D.The invention of a modern university. |
A.a hundrend | B.hundreds of | C.a thousand | D.thousands of |
A.Oxford | B.Cambridge | C.Harvard | D.Al-Azhar |
A.How many books are in the Al-Azhar’s library. |
B.How valuable the Al-Azhar’s books are. |
C.Why Oxford and Harvard still follow Al-Azhar’s pattern. |
D.How Al-Azhar still holds an important role in the world. |
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