阅读提速练(一)
(建议用时：30分钟)
阅读理解(共两节，满分35分)
第一节(共10小题；每小题2.5分，满分25分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
A
(2019·绍兴诊断性考试)The world can be a scary place when you’re young. It can be even scarier when you’re a young little blue penguin(企鹅)—the tiniest of the penguin species. Luckily, there are some humans willing to help. They stepped in to protect Billy, a blue penguin that appeared on a beach in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Spotted on November 29 at the slipway at Moncks Bay, near Sumner, in Christchurch, the little penguin immediately attracted a small crowd. Jeff Mein Smith saw the crowd while he was bicycling that afternoon, and he biked home to get his camera. When he returned to the scene, he found that the penguin had received a little sign, one that read “Hi, I’m waiting for my mum to come back. DOC(Department of Conservation) knows I’m here. Please leave me alone. Keep your dog away. Thanks. Billy—the baby blue penguin.”
Billy didn’t move away from the sign. The DOC arrived later that afternoon to pick up Billy, though they were surprised to see it on the beach. “It’s unusual for a blue penguin to be out in the open on the beach during the day，” Anita Spencer, a DOC senior ranger, told Stuff.
Billy was taken to the Christchurch Penguin Rehabilitation Center after being retrieved from the beach. Volunteers believe the bird may actually be a female penguin, and is around 2 months old. The chick weighs a mere 550 grams, less than a standard basketball. A blue penguin should weigh around 900 grams at this age. Most little penguins grow up to weigh 1 kilogram.
The center will help the little penguin gain some weight by feeding it fish juice, before it’s set free into the ocean.
1．Why can the world be frightening to a young penguin?
A．It is a rare species.
B．It faces potential danger.
C．It is surrounded by the crowd.
D．It is threatened by dogs.
2．Which of the following can replace the underlined word “retrieved” in paragraph 4?
A．Ignored.        B．Cured.
C．Given away.    D．Brought back.
3．What will happen to Billy in the center?
A．It will be reported to Stuff.
B．It will be visited by the locals.
C．It will be taken good care of.
D．It will be fed with fruit juice.
B
You can’t see your sleeping pet’s brain waves, but its behavior can tell you when your cat might be dreaming. If you watch closely, you’ll see that as she falls asleep, her breathing becomes slow and regular with her body still. She has entered the first stage of sleep, called slow­wave sleep. After about 15 minutes you’ll notice a change in her breathing. Her eyes move under her closed lids, her paws twitch(抽动) and she flicks(轻拂) an ear. She has entered dreaming. Although she twitches and makes little grunting noises, messages from her brain to the large muscles in her legs are blocked, so she can’t run about. She is in a state of “sleep paralysis(麻痹)”．
Michel Jouvet, a French scientist, interrupted their sleep paralysis. Even though they were completely asleep, the dreaming cats began to run for balls that Jouvet couldn’t see and arched their backs at unseen enemies. He figured he was watching them act out their dreams! Obviously, the dreaming cats seemed to be practising important cat skills: following, pouncing, and fighting.
vertical怎么读In another study, Matt Wilson recorded rats’ brain waves while they learned mazes. One day, her left the brain­wave­recording machine on while the rats fell asleep. The pattern of brain waves in the sleeping rats matched the pattern from the maze so closely that Wilson could figure out exactly which part of the maze each rat was dreaming about!
Many researchers now think that in both people and animals, one purpose of dreams is to practise important skills and figure out recent learning. This may explain why so many people dream about fighting and escaping, skills that were probably important to our ancestors, and why dreaming affects our ability to learn.
Do all animals dream? From looking at the brain waves of sleeping animals, how often ani
mals dream seems to be tied to body size. Cats dream about every 15 minutes, mice every 9 minutes, and elephants every 2 hours. And though cows and horses usually sleep standing up, they only dream when lying down.
4．What does Michel Jouvet find in his study?
A．The dreaming cats are in a state of body paralysis.
B．The dreaming cats often practise their important skills.
C．The eyes of dreaming cats move while bodies are still.
D．The legs of the dreaming cats can’t move.
5．What can you know about dreaming from the passage?
A．Dreaming a lot can help humans learn more.
B．Learning mazes is the basic skill for cats to learn.
C．Rats often dream to work out their recent learning.
D．Fighting and escaping are not important skills for ancestors.