【正文】 ries as a child in the 1950s was a discussion I had with my brother in our tiny bedroom in the family house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. We had heard in school about a planet called Pluto. It was the farthest, coldest, and darkest thing a child could imagine. We guessed how long it would take to die if we stood on the surface of such a frozen place wearing only the clothes we had on. We tried to figure out how much colder Pluto was than Antarctica, or than the coldest day we had ever experienced in Pennsylvania. Pluto, which famously was downgraded from a “major planet” to a “dwarf planet”（矮星） in 2006, captured our imagination because it was a mystery that could plete our picture of what it was like at the most remote corners of our solar system. Pluto39。s underdog discovery story is part of what makes it so attractive. Clyde Tombaugh was a Kansas farm boy who built telescopes out of spare auto parts, old farm equipment and selfground lenses. As an assistant at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, Tombaugh39。s task was to search millions of stars for a moving point of light, a planet that the observatory39。s founder thought existed beyond the orbit of Neptune. On February 18，1930，Tombaugh found it. Pluto was the first planet discovered by an American, and represented a moment of light in the midst of the Great Depression39。s dark encroachment (入侵). Pluto is much more than something that is not a planet. It39。s a reminder that there are many worlds out there beyond our own and that the sky isn39。t the limit at all. We don39。t know what kinds of fantastic variations on a theme nature is capable of making until we get there to look.（1）Why did Pluto bee famous in 2006 according to the passage?A.Because it lost its major planet status.B.Because it disappeared in the sky.C.Because it was discovered by an American.D.Because it was proved to be the coldest planet in the universe.（2）What can be a suitable title for the text?A.An American Scientist: Clyde TombaughB.Pluto was First Discovered by a BoyC.Pluto39。s Strange RomanceD.The Days I Spent with My Brother in Pennsylvania（3）What can we learn from the fourth paragraph?A.Clyde Tombaugh discovered the darkness in the Great Depression.B.Pluto was the only planet that was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh.C.Clyde Tombaugh39。s job was to build telescopes for Lowell Observatory.D.Clyde Tombaugh39。s telescopes used for searching stars were very simple.（4）What does the underlined sentence in the last paragraph most probably mean?A.Pluto is no less than a planet in the solar system.B.Pluto is much more than a planet in the solar system.C.Pluto is more important than any other planet in the sky.D.Pluto is not a planet in the solar system, but it is more than a planet.【答案】 （1）A（2）C（3）D（4）D 【解析】【分析】文章講述了小時候作者對冥王星的認識，以及冥王星被發(fā)現(xiàn)和被從太陽系去除的經(jīng)過，更表現(xiàn)了冥王星的神秘和魅力，這使作者認識到宇宙是無窮的，也是不斷變化的，需要我們不停去探索。( 1 )推理判斷題。根據(jù)第三段Pluto, which famously was downgraded from a “major planet” to a “dwarf planet”（矮星）in 2006, captured our imagination because it was a mystery that could plete our picture of what it was like at the most remote corners of our solar system可知，在2006年冥王星被從太陽系大行星中被去除，失去了其大行星地位，故選A。( 2 )主旨大意題。文章主要講述的是冥王星的被發(fā)現(xiàn)和被從太陽系去除的經(jīng)過，更表現(xiàn)了它的神秘和魅力。C項“冥王星的奇怪浪漫史”概括全文，故選C。( 3 )推理判斷題。根據(jù)第四段Clyde Tombaugh was a Kansas farm boy who built telescopes out of spare auto parts, old farm equipment and selfground February 18，1930，Tombaugh found it. Pluto was the first planet discovered by an American, and represented a moment of light in the midst of the Great Depression39。s dark encroachment (入侵).可知，是Clyde Tombaugh用他簡陋的儀器發(fā)現(xiàn)了冥王星，成了第一個發(fā)現(xiàn)行星的美國人，并且給黑暗的大蕭條時期帶來了一線光明。故選D。( 4 )猜測句意題。此句指冥王星的發(fā)現(xiàn)并不僅僅是一顆行星，它還讓我們知道了宇宙無限大，天空根本不是極限，它們是不斷變化的需要我們?nèi)ヌ剿?。故選D?！军c評】考查科普類短文閱讀。8．閱讀理解 A study showed that the experiences children have in their first few years are important. These experiences affect the development of the brain. When children receive more attention, they often have higher IQs. Babies receive information when they see, hear and feel things, which makes connections between different parts of the brain. There are a hundred trillion(萬億)connections in the brain of a threeyearold child. Researcher Judit Gervain tested how good newborns are at distinguishing different sound patterns. Her researchers produced images of the brains of babies as they heard different sound patterns. For example, one order was mubaba. This is the patternABB. Another order was mubage. This is the pattern “ABC”. The images showed that the part of the brain responsible for speech was more active during the ABB pattern. This shows that babies can tell the difference between different patterns. They also were sensitive to where it occurred in the order. Gervain is excited by these findings because the order of sounds is the building block of words and grammar. Position is key to language, she says. If something is at the beginning or at the end, it makes a big difference: John caught the bear.39。 is very different from 39。The bear caught John.39?！?Researchers led by scientist Patricia Kuhl have found that language delivered by televisions, audio books, the Internet, or smartphones－no matter how educational－doesn39。t appear to be enough for children39。s brain development. They carried out a study of ninemonthold American babies. They expected the first group who39。d watched videos in Chinese to show the same kind of learning as the second group who were brought facetoface with the same sounds. Instead they found a huge difference. The babies in the second group were able to distinguish between similar Chinese sounds as well as native listeners. But the other babies－regardless of whether they had watched the video or listened to the audio－learned nothing.（1）What makes connections in a baby39。s brain? A.Having a higher IQ.B.Experiencing new information.C.The baby39。 early age.D.The connection with other babies.（2）What did Judit Gervain and her team find in the experiment? A.Babies identify different sound patterns.B.