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小初高K12学习教材

科普环保类阅读理解（4）

2016高考英语阅读练习——科普环保类

Humans have been keeping animals as pets for tens of thousands of years, but Dr Jean-Loup Rault, an animal scientist at the University of Melbourne in Australia, believes new companions are coming: robot pets.

“Technology is moving very fast,” Rault told ABC News, “The Tamagotchi in the early 1990s was really the first robotic pet, and now Sony and other big companies have improved them a lot.”

This may not sit well with pet lovers. After all, who would choose a plastic toy over a lovely puppy? But Rault argues that the robotic kind has a lot going for it: “You don’t have to feed it, you don’t have to walk it, it won’t make a mess in your house, and you can go on a holiday without feeling guilty.” The technology also benefits those who are allergic to pets, short on space, or fearful of real animals. It’s not clear whether robot pets can replace real ones. But studies do suggest that we can bond with these smart machines. People give their cars names and kids give their toy animals life stories. It’s the same with robots. When Sony stopped its repair service for its robot dog Aibo in March 2014, owners in Japan held funerals. As an animal welfare researcher, Rault is concerned about how robotic pets could affect our attitudes towards live animals. “If we become used to a robotic companion that doesn’t need food, water or exercises, perhaps it will change how humans care about other living beings,” he said.

So are dogs and cats a thing of the past, as Rault predicts? For those who grew up with living and breathing pets, the mechanical kind might not do. But for our next generation who are in constant touch with smart technology, a future in which lovely pets needn’t have a heartbeat might not be a far-fetched dream. 【小题1】What does the underlined phrase “sit well with” means? A．be refused by C．make a difference to

B．be beneficial to D．receive support from

小初高K12学习教材

小初高K12学习教材

【小题2】What are the advantages of robot pets? a. They are plastic and feel smooth.

b. Owners needn’t worry about them when going out. c. They can help cure allergies（过敏）. d. They save space and costs. A．ab

B．bc

C．bd

D．cd

【小题3】We can learn from the passage that___________. A．Sony is the first company to produce robot pets Aibo.

B．People can develop strong bond（联系、关系） with their robot pets. C．Rault thinks robot pets still have a long way to go. D．Robot toys may help people care more about living beings. 【小题4】The passage mainly tells us___________. A．the advantages of robot toys B．the popularity of robot pets C．living pets are dying out D．robot pets are coming

2016高考英语阅读练习——科普环保类

The extraordinary Eastgate Building in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city, is said to be the only one in the world to use the same cooling and heating principles as the termite mound(白蚁堆).

Architect Mick Pearce used precisely the same strategy when designing the Eastgate Building, which has no air-conditioning and almost no heating. The building—the country’s largest commercial and shopping complex—uses less than 10% of the energy of a conventional building of its size. The Eastgate’s owners saved $3.5 million

小初高K12学习教材

小初高K12学习教材

on a $36 million building because an air-conditioning equipment didn’t have to be imported.

The complex is actually two buildings linked by bridges across a shady, glass-roofed atrium(天井) open to the air. Fans suck fresh air in from the atrium, blow it upstairs through hollow spaces under the floors and from there into each office through baseboard vents(通风口). As it rises and warms, it is drawn out via ceiling vents and finally exists through forty-eight brick chimneys.

During summer’s cool nights, big fans blow air through the building seven times an hour to cool the empty floors. By day, smaller fans blow two changes of air an hour through the building, to circulate the air which has been in contact with the cool floors. For winter days, there are small heaters in the vents.

This is all possible only because Harare is 1600 feet above sea level, has cloudless skies, little dampness and rapid temperature changes—days as warm as 31℃ commonly drop to 14℃ at night. “You couldn’t do this in New York, with its hot summers and cold winters,” Pearce said.

The engineering firm of Ove Arup & Partners monitors daily temperatures. It is found that the temperature of the building has generally stayed between 23℃ and 25℃, with the exception of the annual hot period just before the summer rains in October and three days in November, when a doorkeeper accidentally switched off the fans at night. And the air is fresh—far more so than in air-conditioned buildings, where up to 30% of the air is recycled.

【小题1】Why was Eastgate cheaper to be built than a conventional building? A．It was designed in a smaller size. B．No air conditioners were fixed in. C．Its heating system was less advanced. D．It used rather different building materials. 【小题2】What does “it” refer to in Paragraph 3? A．Hollow space. B．Baseboard vent. C．Fresh air from outside.

小初高K12学习教材