2011考研英语阅读新题型(7选5)习题及答案解析
Directions:You are going to read a list of headings and a text about preparing in the academic community. Choose the most suitable heading from the list A-G for each numbered paragraph (41-45). The first and last paragraphs of the text are not numbered. There is one extra heading which you do not need to use. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEET 1. (10 points)
Long before Man lived on the Earth, there were fishes, reptiles, birds, insects, and some mammals. Although some of these animals were ancestors of kinds living today, others are now extinct, that is, they have no descendants alive now.
41 Very occasionally the rocks show impression of skin, so that, apart from color, we can build up a reasonably accurate picture of an animal that died millions of years ago. That kind of rock in which the remains are found tells us much about the nature of the original land, often of the plants that grew on it, and even of its climate.
42 Nearly all of the fossils that we know were preserved in rocks formed by water action, and most of these are of animals that lived in or near water. Thus it follows that there must be many kinds of mammals, birds, and insects of which we know noting.
43 There were also crablike creatures, whose bodies were covered with a horny substance. The body segments each had two pairs of legs, one pair for walking on the sandy bottom, the other for swimming. The head was a kind of shield with a pair of compound eyes, often with thousands of lenses. They were usually an inch or two long but some were 2 feet.
44 Of these, the ammonites are very interesting and important.They have a shell composed of many chambers , each representing a temporary home of the animal. As the young grew larger it grew a new chamber and sealed off the previous one. Thousands of these can be seen in the rocks on the Dorset Coast.
45 About 75 million years ago the Age of Reptiles was over and most of the groups died out .The mammals quickly developed, and we can trace the evolution of many familiar animals such as the elephant and horse. Many of the later mammals though now extinct, were known to primitive man and were featured by him in cave paintings and on bone carvings.
[A] The shellfish have a long history in the rock and many different kinds are known.
[B] Nevertheless, we know a great deal about many of them because their bones and shells have been preserved in the rocks as fossils, from them we can tell their size and shape, how they walked, the kind of food they ate.
[C] The first animals with true backbones were the fishes, first known in the rocks of 375 million years ago. About 300 million years ago the amphibians, the animals able to live both on land and in water, appeared. They were giant, sometimes 8 feet long, and many of them lived in the swampy pools in which our coal seam, or layer is formed. The amphibians gave rise to the reptiles and for nearly 150 million years these were the principal forms of life on land, in the sea, and in the air.
[D] The best index fossils tend to be marine creatures. These animals evolved rapidly and spread over large over large areas of the world.
[E] The earliest animals whose remains have been found were all very simple kinds and lived in the sea. Later forms are more complex, and among these are the sealilies, relations of the starfishes, which had long arms and were attached by a long stalk to the sea bed, or to rocks.
[F] When an animal dies, the body, its bones, or shell, may often be carried away by streams into lakes or the sea and there get covered up by mud. If the animal lived in the sea its body would probably sink and be covered with mud. More and more mud would fall upon it until the bones or shell become embedded and preserved.
[G] Many factors can influence how fossils are preserved in rocks. Remains of an organism may be replaced by minerals, dissolved by an acidic solution to leave only their impression, or simply reduced to a more stable form.
答案详解
41.【解析】[B]从试题前后的语义逻辑关系来看，试题前面的一段话表明的信息是Although some of these animals were ancestors of kinds living today, others are now extinct, that is, they have no descendants alive now(尽管这些动物是某些活到现在的物种的祖先，但有的动物却灭绝了，也就是说它们现在已经没有子孙后代活在这个世界上)。试题的后面的句子表明的信息是 Very occasionally the rocks show impression of skin, so that, apart from color, we can build up a reasonably accurate picture of an animal that died millions of years ago(有时候这些石头可以将它们的外表展现出来，这样，除了颜色我们就可以对那些数百年前死掉的生物形成一个比较准确的印象)。从语义关系里看，前文中说动物灭绝了，暗含的意思是我们不可能得到这些动物的任何信息，而后面的句子说我们可以对这些动物形成准确的印象，因此，前后文形成了明显的对比关系，四个选项中能够表达这种关系的，只有选项[B]。
本题还可以采用词汇的复现来确定正确答案，从试题后面的句子Very occasionally the rocks show impression of skin来看，rocks的前面使用了定冠词the修饰，这表明rocks在前文中一定出现过，但我们考察第一段时发现，第一段中并没有出现关于rocks的内容，因此可以确定，关于rocks的内容一定出现在要填入的试题中。选项[B] Nevertheless, we know a great deal about many of them because their bones and shells have been preserved in the rocks as fossils. From them we can tell their size and shape, how they walked, the kind of food they ate中出现了动物的骨骼被保存在the rocks中，变成化石的论述，由此可以判断选项[B]是正确答案。
42.【解析】[F]本题出现在一个段落的首句，从答题策略来看，应当重点看后文的叙述，后文中water重复了两遍，说明这一信息是本段落的重点信息。同时这一信息很可能会在下上文中，即我们要填入的信息中出现复现词或同现词。对比选项，选项[F]中出现了lake，stream，river，sea等同类词汇，因此可以判断这一选项为正确答案。本题最大的干扰项为[G]，因为[G]项一开始就有how fossils ate preserved与下文Nearly all of the fossils that we know were preserved in rocks…所表达的内容从形式上来看似乎是吻合的;但是[G]项后面讲的是动物遗体上的有机组织(organism)可能转达化成几种形式而本题空白处后面的内容则告诉人们Nearly all of the fossils that we know were preserved in rocks formed by water action(岩石中几乎所有的化石都是由于水作用而被保存下来)，语义上主要说明泥沙对于化石保存下来所起的作用，因此两者在语义的衔接上是不连贯的。
43.【解析】[E]本题选择的特征词是“also”。“also”表并列关系，语义上对前文进行补充和说明，这就证明本题前面的句子中应当与also后的crablike creatures(类似螃蟹的生物)相并列的内容，或者出现了有关“类似螃蟹的生物”的描述的信息。比较选项可以发现，选项[E]中出现的信息Later forms are more complex, and among these are the sealilies, relations of the starfishes, which had long arms and were attached by a long stalk to the sea bed, or to rocks描述了一些生物具有“类似螃蟹的信息”： had long arms and were attached by a long stalk to the sea bed, or to rock(有长腕且通过长柄附着于海床或岩石上)。因此，选项 [E]是正确答案。
44.【解析】[A] 下文一开始就出现了指示代词these，这说明试题前面的句子表明了一类事物，也就是说，试题部分应该有“some, several, many”或类似的词，对比答案只能是选项[A] The shellfish have a long history in the rock and many different kinds are known.里面出现了many different kinds of，这个短语和后面的指示代词these形成了对应关系。
45.【解析】[C]从文章的整体结构看，这里需要一个内容的“高潮”：前面几段讲的都是动物不断的进化过程，而下文中表示时间的短语“About 75 million years ago the Age of Reptiles was over” 很可能向我们传达了这样一个信息：文章对地球上动物进化过程的描写很有可能是按照时间顺序的，因此本题所在的段落和下面的段落很可能存在时间上的延续关系，即本题所在的段落很可能会提到比75 million years ago更早的时间。通过对比选项可知选项[C]中的两个表示时间的短语375 million years和150 million years和下一个段落中提到的时间状语具有了延续性，是正确答案。
此外，还可以采用词汇复现法解答本题。试题后面一句话About 75 million years ago the Age of Reptiles was over and most of the groups died out中的reptile在本题前的文章中从没有提到，在下文中又没有作为新信息，因而作为正确答案的选项中一定有这个词，只有[C]项中有“The amphibians gave rise to the reptiles for nearly 150 million years these were the principal forms of life on land, in the sea, and in the sea ,and in the air”。所以正确答案只能是[C]。