Question

【題目】 Pigeons (鴿子) may be considered mice of the sky, but some scientists have found greater value in these urban birds: the blueprint for a new generation of flying machines.

Birds can transform the shape of their wings by fanning out their feathers or moving them closer together. Those adjustments allow birds to cut through the sky more flexibly than rigid drones (無(wú)人機(jī)). Now, using new insights into exactly how pigeons ‘joints control the spread of their wing feathers, researchers have built a robotic pigeon. This research paves the way for creating more light aircraft, says Dario Floreano, a roboticist in Switzerland not involved in the work.

“What’s really cool about this robot is that you can make adjustments in a robotic wing that you could never do when studying flight in a bird”, says David Lentink, an engineer and biologist at Stanford University. A controllable robotic pigeon solves that problem. In flight tests, Lentink’s team observed that bending only the fingers of one wing eased the robot into a banked turn-offering the first evidence that birds may sometimes use just their fingers to direct in flight. In a second study, Lentink’s group used their robotic wing design to confirm another insight into bird flight: how gaps are prevented from forming between feathers on extended wings.

This is the best set of robotic wings yet for testing how birds adjust their flight feathers to move through the air, says Tyson Hedrick, a biomechanist. But “there’s plenty of room for improvement.” For instance, a future flying robot could include a shoulder joint to investigate how waving a bird’s wings up and down influences flight, he says.

【1】What is the newly-found worth of pigeons?

A.They help study other species.

B.They protect other urban birds.

C.They provide proof of mice’s harm.

D.They inspire a new aircraft.

【2】What is Dario Floreano’s attitude to the research?

A.Negative.B.Positive.

C.Neutral.D.Critical.

【3】What do the underlined words “that problem” in paragraph 3 refer to?

A.Pigeons in flight can hardly be observed.

B.People can’t make adjustments in birds’ wings.

C.It is difficult for pigeons to make a banked turn.

D.Pigeons fail to control the spread of their wing feathers.

【4】Where does the text probably come from?

A.A travel journal.

B.A travel brochure.

C.A science fiction.

D.A science magazine.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】D

【2】B

【3】B

【4】D

【解析】

這是一篇說(shuō)明文。文章主要介紹了利用對(duì)鴿子的關(guān)節(jié)如何控制翅膀羽毛伸展的新見解，研究人員已經(jīng)建造了一個(gè)機(jī)器鴿子，這是一套用于測(cè)試?guó)B類如何調(diào)整飛行羽毛在空中移動(dòng)的機(jī)械翅膀，能夠有效幫助科學(xué)家研發(fā)出新一代的飛行器。

【1】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)文章第一段內(nèi)容“Pigeons may be considered mice of the sky, but some scientists have found greater value in these urban birds: the blueprint for a new generation of flying machines.”可知一些科學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)鴿子的價(jià)值在于它們是新一代飛行機(jī)器的藍(lán)圖。故選D項(xiàng)。

【2】推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章第二段末尾句內(nèi)容“This research paves the way for creating more light aircraft, says Dario Floreano, a roboticist in Switzerland not involved in the work.” 可知，在Dario Floreano來(lái)看，這項(xiàng)研究為制造更多的輕型飛機(jī)鋪平了道路，因此可推知他對(duì)這項(xiàng)研究的態(tài)度是支持的。故選B項(xiàng)。

【3】詞義猜測(cè)題。根據(jù)劃線短語(yǔ)“that problem”可知，that為指示代詞，指代前文提及的內(nèi)容。因此that problem 應(yīng)是指代前文：“What’s really cool about this robot is that you can make adjustments in a robotic wing that you could never do when studying flight in a bird”, says David Lentink, an engineer and biologist at Stanford University.( 斯坦福大學(xué)的工程師和生物學(xué)家David Lentink說(shuō)：“這個(gè)機(jī)器人的最酷之處在于，你可以調(diào)整機(jī)器人的翅膀，而這在研究鳥類飛行時(shí)是無(wú)法做到的。”)提到的人類無(wú)法做到的問(wèn)題：人類無(wú)法像機(jī)器人一樣在研究鳥類飛行時(shí)調(diào)整鳥的翅膀。故選B項(xiàng)。

【4】推理判斷題。根據(jù)文章的核心主題為“a robotic pigeon”，因此可知，文章應(yīng)是科普類文章，應(yīng)是刊登在科普雜志上。故選D項(xiàng)。

人物性格、態(tài)度及觀點(diǎn)判斷題：高考閱讀測(cè)試中有些是考查考生對(duì)作者的主導(dǎo)思想、被描寫人物語(yǔ)氣、言談話語(yǔ)中流露的情緒、性格傾向和作者或文中人物態(tài)度、觀點(diǎn)等方面的理解題。做這一類題時(shí)一定要注意：由表及里的準(zhǔn)確把握字里行間的意思，切勿用自己的主觀想法或觀點(diǎn)代替作者的思想觀點(diǎn)；特別注意那些描寫環(huán)境氣氛的語(yǔ)言，以及表達(dá)感情、態(tài)度觀點(diǎn)的詞語(yǔ)。要特別注意作者在文章中的措詞，尤其是表達(dá)感情色彩的形容詞；能結(jié)合自己平時(shí)積累的有關(guān)英語(yǔ)國(guó)家的文化傳統(tǒng)、風(fēng)俗習(xí)慣等背景知識(shí)來(lái)識(shí)別評(píng)價(jià)。比如文章的第2小題：

2. What is Dario Floreano’s attitude to the research?

A. Negative. B. Positive. C. Neutral. D. Critical.

根據(jù)題干可知，應(yīng)是態(tài)度推理判斷題。結(jié)合原文“This research paves the way for creating more light aircraft, says Dario Floreano, a roboticist in Switzerland not involved in the work.”可以看出一些表達(dá)態(tài)度觀點(diǎn)的短語(yǔ)：paves the way(為……作準(zhǔn)備；為……鋪平道路)，應(yīng)是積極的態(tài)度。因此答案為B項(xiàng)。