Humans have sewn by hand for thousands of years. It was said that the first thread was made from animal muscle and sinew. And the earliest needles were made from bones. Since those early days, many people have been involved in the process of developing a machine that could do the same thing more quickly and with greater efficiency.
Charles Wiesenthal, who was born in Germany, designed and received a patent on a double-pointed needle that eliminated the need to turn the needle around with each stitch(縫合) in England in 1755. Other inventors of that time tried to develop a functional sewing machine, but each design had at least one serious imperfection.
Frenchman Barthelemy Thimonnier finally engineered a machine that really worked. However, he was nearly killed by a group of angry tailors when they burned down his garment factory. They feared that they would lose their jobs to the machine.
American inventor Elias Howe, born on July 9, 1819, was awarded a patent for a method of sewing that used thread from two different sources. Howe’s machine had a needle with an eye at the point, and it used the two threads to make a special stitch called a lockstitch. However, Howe faced difficulty in finding buyers for his machines in America. In frustration, he traveled to England to try to sell his invention there. When he finally returned home, he found that dozens of manufacturers were adapting his discovery for use in their own sewing machines.
Isaac Singer, another American inventor, was also a manufacturer who made improvements to the design of sewing machines. He invented an up-and-down-motion mechanism that replaced the side-to-side machines. He also developed a foot treadle(腳踏板) to power his machine. This improvement left the sewer’s hands free. Undoubtedly, it was a huge improvement of the hand-cranked machine of the past. Soon the Singer sewing machine achieved more fame than the others for it was more practical, it could be adapted to home use and it could be bought on hire-purchase. The Singer sewing machine became the first home appliance, and the Singer company became one of the first American multinationals.
However, Singer used the same method to create a lockstitch that Howe had already patented. As a result, Howe accused him of patent infringement（侵犯）. Of course, Elias Howe won the court case, and Singer was ordered to pay Howe royalties（版稅）. In the end, Howe became a millionaire, not by manufacturing the sewing machine, but by receiving royalty payments for his invention.
【小題1】Barthelemy Thimonnier’s garment factory was burned down because _____________.

A．people did not know how to put out the fire
B．Elias Howe thought Thimonnier had stolen his invention
C．the sewing machines was couldn’t work finally
D．workers who feared the loss of their jobs to a machine set fire
【小題2】Which of the following is NOT TRUE according to the passage?
A．Singer is an American inventor and manufacturer.
B．The Singer sewing company became more practical.
C．The foot treadle helped to make the sewer’s hands free.
D．Singer made improvements to the design of sewing machines.
【小題3】Why did the court force Isaac Singer to pay Elisa Howe a lifetime of royalties?
A．Because the judge was against Singer for his surly attitude.
B．Because Howe had already patented the lockstitch used by Singer.
C．Because Singer had borrowed money from Howe and never repaid it.
D．Because Singer and Howe had both invented the same machine.
【小題4】Which of the following would be the best title for this passage?
A．Stitch in Time Saves Nine
B．The Case between Howe and Singer
C．Patent Laws on the Sewing Machine
D．The Early History of the Sewing Machine


【小題1】D
【小題2】B
【小題3】B
【小題4】D

解析試題分析：文章介紹了縫紉機的萌芽和早期發(fā)展歷程。以前都是手工操作，后來，不斷有人對縫紉機的發(fā)展做出了貢獻。
【小題1】根據(jù)第三段“he was nearly killed by a group of angry tailors when they burned down his garment factory. They feared that they would lose their jobs to the machine.
”可知，一些工人放火燒服裝廠是害怕因為機器的發(fā)明而丟掉工作。故選D。
【小題2】根據(jù)第五段第一句“Isaac Singer, another American inventor...”可知，A、D正確；根據(jù)“This improvement left the sewer’s hands free”可知，C正確；根據(jù)“the Singer sewing machine achieved more fame than the others for it was more practical”可知，B項錯誤；故選B。
【小題3】根據(jù)最后一段的第一句“Singer used the same method to create a lockstitch that Howe had already patented”可知，Singer侵犯了Howe的專利，故選B。
【小題4】考查主旨大意。文章介紹了縫紉機的早期發(fā)展歷史，A、B、C太片面。故選D。
考點：科技類說明文短文閱讀

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

All over the world people enjoy sports, Sports help to keep people healthy and happy, and to live longer.
Many people like to watch others play games. They buy tickets or turn on their TVs to watch the games. Often they get very excited when “their” player or team wins.
Some sports are so interesting that people everywhere go in for(參加) them. Football, for example, has spread(展開)around the world. Swimming is popular in all countries near the sea or in those with many rivers. What fun it is to jump into a pool or lake, whether in China, Egypt or Italy! And think of people in cold countries. Think how many love to skate or ski (滑雪) in Japan, Norway or Canada.
Some sports or games go back thousands of years, like running or jumping. Chinese wushu, for example, has a very long history. But basketball and volleyball are rather new. Neither one is a hundred years old yet. People are inventing new sports or games all the time. Water-skiing is one of the newest in the family of sports.
People from different countries may not be able to understand each other, but after a game together they often become good friends. Sports help to train a person’s character. One learns to fight hard but fight fair, to win without pride and to lose with grace(勝不驕，敗不餒).
【小題1】Why do people all over the world enjoy sports?

A．Because they are healthy.
B．Because they are happy.
C．Because they want to live longer.
D．All the above.
【小題2】Why do some people get excited when they watch a game? Because  ___________. 
A．their favourite team winsB．they win the game
C．they get the good newsD．they can’t help themselves
【小題3】Why do people from different countries often become friends after a game together? Because ____________.
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B．they understand each other
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

As most university students are packing their bags，boarding trains or flying home for the Spring Festival，some will stay behind to spend the holiday on campus．
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A．He feels very lonely on campus． 
B．He will promote close-in culture． 
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D．He will spend the Spring Festival with on-line friends． 
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A．he will miss his parents a little bit 
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D．the speed of the Internet will get faster 
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A．inactive person B．close friend 
C．sociable student D．a(chǎn)ddicted gamer 
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A．To do some traveling． 
B．To stay more with families． 
C．To find empty seats in classrooms． 
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

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Scott wants Wal-Mart to do its part too. He has promised to cut the existing greenhouse-gas emissions（排放）over the next few years and promised to construct new stores that are more efficient. He wants Wal-Mart’s fleet of more than 7, 000 trucks to get twice as many miles per gallon by 2015. Factories that show Wal-Mart they’re cutting air pollution will get preferential treatment in the supply chain. Wal-Mart says it’s working with consumer-product manufacturers to reduce their packaging and will reward them if they do so.
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【小題1】 We can infer from the passage that ______.

A．Lee Scott is Wal-Mart’s CEO
B．there are 5, 200 stores in the world
C．Wal-Mart has a great influence on the world market
D．Wal-Mart has more than 7, 000 trucks all over the world
【小題2】 What does the underlined sentence “This is a business philosophy, not a social philosophy.” mean in the fourth paragraph?
A．Wal-Mart predicts huge profits in its green activity.
B．Wal-Mart’s green activity is just window dressing.
C．Wal-Mart aims to solve its health-insurance practices.
D．Wal-Mart doesn’t have any social responsibility at all.
【小題3】 What will Wal-Mart probably do in the future?
A．Reduce air pollution in its present stores.
B．Give favorable treatment to its consumers.
C．Ask the factories to reduce their packaging.
D．Demand the fleet of trucks to use more fuel than before.
【小題4】 What is the main idea of the last paragraph?
A．Provide the background of the green plan.
B．Stress the purpose of Wal-Mart’s green plan.
C．Present the risk that Wal-Mart is facing nowadays.
D．Analyze the similarity between Bill Gates and Scott.

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

With the popularity of 3D movies over the past several years , there was no doubt that the technology would make its way into our homes, The question is: Is it really a technology that is going to stay with us , thus deserving an upgrade(升級) at this time?
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There is one upside to the 3D television problem: They have beautiful 2D images. Even if 3D goes away, you still have a great –looking screen and beautiful images. If you are in the market for a new TV and you can afford to drop the couple extra hundred dollars to buy one, you can view it as guaranteeing your purchase in case the technology proves to be effective.
【小題1】We know from the text that 3D TV   .

A．is easy to operate
B．has been fully developed
C．has many products attached to it
D．has already replaced normal TV sets
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B．It’s hard for 3D to be commercially successful.
C．Television manufacturers’ only purpose is to make money.
D．It’s impossible to create glasses-free technology at the moment.
【小題3】The examples of the HD DVD player and CD are to show   .
A．they are not necessary
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D．3D technology needs improving
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A．solution B．exception C．character D．benefit
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

Why do men die earlier than women? The latest research makes it known that the reason could be that men’s hearts go into rapid decline when they reach middle age.
The largest study of the effects of ageing on the heart has found that women’s longevity may be linked to the fact that their hearts do not lose their pumping power with age.
“We have found that the power of the male heart falls by 20-25 percent between 18 and 70 years of age,” said the head of the study, David Goldspink of Liverpool John Moores University in the UK.
“Within the heart there are millions of cells that enable it to beat. Between the age of 20 and 70, one-third of those cells die and are not replaced in men,” said Goldspink. “This is part of the ageing process.”
What surprises scientists is that the female heart sees very little loss of these cells. A healthy 70-year-old woman’s heart could perform almost as well as a 20-year-old one’s.
“This gender difference might just explain why women live longer than men”, said Goldspink.
They studied more than 250 healthy men and women between the ages of 18 and 80, focusing on healthy persons to remove the confusing influence of disease.
“The team has yet to find why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart,” said Goldspink.
The good news is that men can improve the health of their heart with regular exercise. Goldspink stressed that women also need regular exercise to prevent their leg muscles becoming smaller and weaker as they age.
【小題1】The underlined word “l(fā)ongevity” in the second paragraph probably refers to ________.

A．healthB．long lifeC．a(chǎn)geingD．effect
【小題2】The text mainly talks about ________.
A．men’s heart cellsB．women’s ageing process
C．the gender differenceD．hearts and long life
【小題3】According to the text, the UK scientists have known that ________.
A．women have more cells than men when they are born
B．women can replace the cells that enable the heart to beat
C．the female heart loses few of the cells with age
D．women never lose their pumping power with age
【小題4】 If you want to live longer, you should ________.
A．enable your heart to beat much fasterB．find out the reason for ageing
C．exercise regularly to keep your heart healthyD．prevent your cells from being lost
【小題5】 We can know from the passage that ________.
A．the reason why ageing takes a greater loss on the male heart has been found out
B．scientists are on the way to finding out why the male heart loses more of the cells
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解



If a diver surfaces too quickly, he may suffer the bends. Nitrogen (氮) dissolved (溶解) in his blood is suddenly liberated by the reduction of pressure. The consequence, if the bubbles (氣泡) accumulate in a joint, is sharp pain and a bent body—thus the name. If the bubbles form in his lungs or
his brain, the consequence can be death.
Other air-breathing animals also suffer this decompression (減壓) sickness if they surface too fast: whales, for example. And so, long ago, did ichthyosaurs (魚龍). That these ancient sea animals got the bends can be seen from their bones. If bubbles of nitrogen form inside the bone they can cut off its blood supply. This kills the cells in the bone, and consequently weakens it, sometimes to the point of collapse. Fossil (化石) bones that have caved in on themselves are thus a sign that the animal once had the bends.
Bruce Rothschild of the University of Kansas knew all this when he began a study of ichthyosaur bones to find out how widespread the problem was in the past. What he particularly wanted to investigate was how ichthyosaurs adapted to the problem of decompression over the 150 million years. To this end, he and his colleagues traveled the world’s natural-history museums, looking at hundreds of ichthyosaurs from the Triassic period and from the later Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
When he started, he assumed that signs of the bends would be rarer in younger fossils, reflecting their gradual evolution of measures to deal with decompression. Instead, he was astonished to discover the opposite. More than 15% of Jurassic and Cretaceous ichthyosaurs had suffered the bends before they died, but not a single Triassic specimen (標(biāo)本) showed evidence of that sort of injury.
If ichthyosaurs did evolve an anti-decompression means, they clearly did so quickly—and, most strangely, they lost it afterwards. But that is not what Dr Rothschild thinks happened. He suspects it was evolution in other animals that caused the change.
Whales that suffer the bends often do so because they have surfaced to escape a predator (捕食動物) such as a large shark. One of the features of Jurassic oceans was an abundance of large sharks and crocodiles, both of which were fond of ichthyosaur lunches. Triassic oceans, by contrast, were mercifully shark- and crocodile-free. In the Triassic, then, ichthyosaurs were top of the food chain. In the Jurassic and Cretaceous, they were prey (獵物) as well as predator—and often had to make a speedy exit as a result.
【小題1】Which of the following is a typical symptom of the bends?

A．A twisted body. B．A gradual decrease in blood supply.
C．A sudden release of nitrogen in blood. D．A drop in blood pressure.
【小題2】The purpose of Rothschild’s study is to see _______.
A．how often ichthyosaurs caught the bends
B．how ichthyosaurs adapted to decompression
C．why ichthyosaurs bent their bodies
D．when ichthyosaurs broke their bones
【小題3】Rothschild’s finding stated in Paragraph 4 _______. 
A．confirmed his assumption B．speeded up his research process
C．disagreed with his assumption D．changed his research objectives
【小題4】Rothschild might have concluded that ichthyosaurs _______.
A．failed to evolve an anti-decompression means
B．gradually developed measures against the bends
C．died out because of large sharks and crocodiles
D．evolved an anti-decompression means but soon lost it

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

Electrical devices（儀器）could soon use power make by human energy, Scientists say they have developed an experimental device that produces electricity from the physical movement of a person walking , British scientist Max Donelan and other scientists in Canada and the United States developed the device.
The device connects to a person’s knee, As the person walks, the device captures energy each time the person slows down, To do this ,the device helps with the slowing sown movement of the leg, The movements of the walking person push parts of a small machine that produces electricity, Using the device, an adult walking quickly could produce thirteen watts of electricity in just a minute, Donelan says walking at that speed could produce enough power to operate a laptop computer for six minutes.
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The experimental version of the device weighs about one and a half kilograms, but it is too costly for most people to buy, But the researchers hope to make a lighter, less costly version.An improved version should be ready in one year.
The developers hope the device will one day help developing countries, Nearly twenty five percent of people around the world live without electric power.
A similar product was invented in 2005 by Larry Rome of the University of Pennsylvania,He created a bag carried on a person’s back that also produces power from walking, The knee device does not produce as much electricity as the bag ,But the bag requires the walker to carry a load of twenty to thirty kilograms.
【小題1】The second paragraph mainly talks about       .

A．who developed the device
B．how the device works
C．several possible uses for the devices
D．how much electricity the device can produce
【小題2】What is the disadvantage of the experimental version of the device?
A．It is too heavy for the walker to bear
B．It is too complex for people to use
C．It is too expensive for most people to afford
D．It will slow down one’s walking speed.
【小題3】Compared with the device designed by Larry Rome ,this new device       .
A．produces power without adding more loads to the walker
B．can produce more power in a much shorter time
C．needs to be equipped with a battery
D．can help the walker walk faster
【小題4】From the passage, we can learn that the electrical device can       .
A．help housewives operate the washing machine
B．make it much easier for us to go online
C．produce more electricity than that invented by Larry Rome
D．be applied in medicine to operate heart pacemakers
【小題5】What would be the best title for the passage?
A．First device powered by walking will soon be on the market
B．Advanced technology brings in a new way to operate heart pacemakers
C．Device gives new meaning to the idea of power walking
D．Human energy will become a main source of electricity

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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解

Beautiful cars surrounded by even more beautiful models—it’s no secret why the 2012 Beijing Auto Show was popular．
The exhibition was held between April 23 and May 2．Although renowned companies showed off their top models，it wasn’t just their expensive sports cars that grabbed people’s attention．
Concept cars are a way for designers to test out their ideas on the public with complete freedom．They can try out cars with special features that could not be massively（批量）produced easily．
Designers don’t have to follow industry rules；they don’t even need to worry about whether their cars would be followed on the roads．
At the Beijing Auto Show，the@Ant by Chery was one concept car to draw a lot of attention．China Daily called it‘‘the very definition of a concept car”．
The vehicle is powered by electricity and is capable of driving itself．But the magic doesn’t end there．
The@Ant was inspired by actual ants．According to Car News China，with the help of automated telemetric systems，@Ants are able to“see” other@Ants and compare  destination information. If two are heading the same way for a while, the vehicles connect, with one car’s rear (后面的)wheels matching up with the front wheels of another car．Up to 10@Ants can be put together and will automatically connect to form a“train"．This  will help save energy while traveling, as well reducing traffic jams.
The car sounds like a great idea．Further research will be needed to turn this concept  car into something for the market，but concepts like Cherry’s  show how carmakers are  working for cleaner and greener vehicles．It’s like what the@Ant motto says，“Exploring future human beings’lifestyles”．
【小題1】The concept car is getting popular because         .

A．it looks like an ant
B．it is beautifully designed
C．it is exhibited as a top model
D．it conveys a new idea for the future
【小題2】How can the@Ants help save energy while travelling according to the passage?
A．By connecting each other and running together
B．By driving themselves without man’s control
C．By comparing their destination information
D．By reducing traffic jams on the roads
【小題3】What the designers of the concept car need to do at the Auto Show is         .
A．to test the safety of the concept car
B．to follow the rules in the car industry
C．to show their unique idea of complete freedom
D．to see if concept cars can be massively produced
【小題4】The best title of the passage is         .
A．Concept Cars Are Driving to the Future
B．The@Ant Draws a Lot of Attention
C．The@Ant Is a Top Model of Concept Cars
D．Concept Cars Are Cleaner and Greener

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