高考英语二轮复习专题训练：阅读理解(91)

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项A、B、C、D中，选出最佳选项。

A

For a 400-year-old art form, opera had a bad fame: overweight actresses singing the words which were hard to understand in one of those romance languages you were supposed to learn in high school．And with tickets costing as much as $145 a performance, opera goers also had a certain appearance in people's mind: rich, well-dressed and old．

But now opera companies around the country are loosening their ties and kicking off their shoes in an attempt to keep opera alive and take it to a younger and not so wealthy audience．Opera producers have found that to attract this crowd, they need to make the opera closer to common people．Because young people don't or won't come to the opera, companies are bringing the opera to them, giving performances in such unusual places as parks, libraries and public schools．

The Houston Grand Opera's choice is the public library, where it performs “mobile operas” shortened versions（剧本）of child-friendly operas．This summer's production is Hansel ＆Gretel．By performing smaller versions of large productions, producers are able to make people interested while keeping costs at a reasonable level．The San Francisco Opera, which will be celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, is staging Cinderella free of charge, keeping costs down by employing students from its Young Artists' Training Program．

1．Which is the main idea of this passage？

A．Opera is famous for its long history．

B．Opera is only performed for rich people．

C．Opera companies are trying to keep opera alive．

D．Young people are not interested in opera．

2．The underlined phrase in the second paragraph means ______．

A．breaking up the old rules B．changing the dresses

C．making the audience at ease D．advertising themselves

3．Opera companies prefer to perform short versions because ______ ．

A．they can be performed in public libraries

B．short versions are easy to perform

C．it is hard to find long versions

D．they can make more people come to opera

B

Have you ever picked a job based on the fact that you were good at it but later found it made you feel very uncomfortable over time? When you select your career, there's a whole lot more to it than assessing your skills and matching them with a particular position．If you ignore your personality, it will hurt you long-term regardless of your skills or the job's pay．There are several areas of your personality that you need to consider to help you find a good job．Here are a few of those main areas;

1）Do you prefer working alone or with other people?

There are isolating（使孤立）jobs that will drive an outgoing person crazy and also interactive jobs that will make a shy person uneasy．Most people are not extremes in either direction but do have a tendency that they prefer．There are also positions that are sometimes a combination ofthe two, which may be best for someone in the middle who adapts easily to either situation．2）How do you handle change?

Most jobs these days have some elements of change to them, but some are more than others．If you need stability in your life, you may need a job where the changes don't happen so often．Other people would be bored of the same daily routine．

3）Do you enjoy working with computers？

I do see this as a kind of personality characteristic．There are people who are happy to spend more than 40 hours a week on a computer, while there are others who need a lot of human interaction throughout the day．Again, these are extremes and you'll likely find a lot of positions somewhere in the middle as well．

4）What type of work environment do you enjoy？

This can range from being in a large building with a lot of people you won't know immediately to a smaller setting where you'll get to know almost all the people there fairly quickly．

5）How do you like to get paid?

Some people are motivated by the pay they get, while others feel too stressed to be like that．The variety of payment designs in the sales industry is a typical example for this．Anyway, these are a great starting point for you．I've seen it over and over again with people that they make more money over time when they do something they love．It may take you a little longer, but making a move to do what you have a passion for can change the course of your life for the better．

4．What is unnecessary in your job hunting?

A．Assessing your skills

B．Going to different areas

C．Matching your skills with a position

D．taking your personality into consideration

5．Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?

A．Isolating jobs usually drive people mad．

B．Interactive jobs make people shy easily．

C．Extreme people tend to work with others．

D．Almost everyone has a tendency in jobs．

6．What is the missing word about a job search in the following chart?

A．Design．B．Changes．C．Cooperation．D．Hobbies．

7．What is the best title for this passage?A．Lifestyles and Job Pay B．Jobs and Environment

C．Job Skills and Abilities D．Personalities and Jobs

C

As the human brain evolved, humans were able to laugh before they could speak, according to a new study．But here’s the punch line: Laughter and joy are not unique to humans, the study says．Ancestral forms of play and laughter existed in other animals long before humans began laughing．

“Human laughter has its roots in our animation past,” said Jaak Panksepp, a professor of psychobiology at Bowling Green State University in Ohio．Panksepp has studied rats and found that when they “play,” they often chirp （唧唧叫）– an early – stage form of laughter, according to the scientist．In an article to be published tomorrow in the journal Science, he makes the argument that animal laughter is the basis for human joy．

In studying laughter, scientists have focused mostly on related issues – humor, personality, health benefits, social theory – rather than laughter itself．New research, however, shows that “circuits” （电路）for laughter exist in very ancient regions of the human brain．As humans have included language into play, we may have developed new connections to joyous parts of our brains that evolved before the cerebral cortex（大脑皮层）, the outer layer associated with thought and memory．

There is plenty of evidence that many other mammals make play sounds, which are like human laughter．Indeed, animals are capable of many emotional feelings, just like humans, some scientists say．"The recognition by neuroscientists（神经系统科学家）that the brain systems for pain, pleasure, and fear are the same in humans and other mammals underline our similarity to other species and is extremely important," said Tecumseh Fitch, a psychology lecturer at the University of St．Andrews in Scotland．In a 2003 study Panksepp and Bowling Green State University neurobiologist Jeff Burgdorf showed that if rats are tickled （呵痒）in a playful way, they readily chirp．Rats that were tickled developed a relationship with the researchers and became rapidly conditioned to seek tickles．Understanding the chirping of the rats may help scientists better understand human laughter．

Robert Provine, a psychology professor at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, agrees there is an evolutionary continuity of laughter．"Its origin is in tickling play," he says．Provine has studied chimpanzees and found a link between their laughter - like noises and human laughter．"L aughter is actually the sound of play, with the original’ pant –pant’（喘气）- the heavy breathing of physical play - becoming the human ‘ha - ha,’” Provine said．By studying the shift from the panting of chimps to the human ha - ha, he discovered that breath control is the key to the appearance of both human laughter and speech．

8．The 2003 study about rats being tickled are mentioned in paragraph 4 in order to show that ．

A．rats are such smart aromas that they can laugh like humans

B．animals have emotional feelings as human beings do

C．animals' emotional feelings are now widely recognized

D．tickling animals can help animals develop the ability of laughter

9．According to the text, what is the most special about Jaak Panksepp's research?

A．It focuses on animals' influence on human laughter．

B．People's personalities are involved in the research．C．The research studies human brain as well．

D．The research deals with laughter itself．

10．We can infer from the above text that____________．

A．Tecumseh Fitch and Robert Provine disagree with each other on laughter B．rats’ chirping and chimp’s panting are basically the same

C．most animals are able to laugh but need to be trained first

D．human beings have now fully understood animals’ behaviorsCAD BDCD BDB