高一高二高三英语必须掌握的十选九阅读讲解及巩固提升（五）
高考十选九阅读巩固提升练习
Passage 1
Following some small underwater excavations (发掘) of the Mary Rose back in 1836-1840, when some guns, pottery, cloth and several human bones were brought up, the ship -- and even the spot where she was found -- was soon forgotten. She remained 1 for another 125 years.
In the end it was an amateur diver, a journalist called Alexander McKee, who found her -- despite some people's 2 that such an old wreck would certainly have broken into pieces after more than four, centuries. In 1965 he started a project J-- a(n) 3 attempt to find the wrecks of several ships known to have gone down in the Solent. He invited Margaret Rule, an archaeologist (考古学家) to be their non-diving advisor; she shared his belief that wrecks might well have survived in the 4 muddy conditions of the Solent area.
Their second project was to look for the Mary Rose. They knew that she had sunk not far from land and a chart from 1841 showed them where the earlier 5 had been made.
However, in spite of the clues, the Mary Rose was so well buried that to find her required much more good equipment than a diver with only his own eyes. It was another four years before McKee and Margaret Rule, on 1 May 1971, knew they had finally found what they were looking for. Two weeks later Margaret Rule herself got her first 6 of the ship -- she had only just finished her underwater training.
Between them, the Mary Rose Trust underwater archaeological team, under the direction of Margaret Rule, has made some 25,000 dives since 1971. This army of volunteers -- about 500 7 divers in all with a handful of professionals -- have brought to the surface from the wreck of the Mary Rose 17,000 objects. All those objects were immediately recorded and card-indexed, and now 8 the long, patient analysis of the professional scholars. 'It will be at least a year before we have 9 exactly what we've got,' says Margaret Rule.
Passage 2
I wonder if you realize just how many others share your problem. It is so common for people to distort (歪曲) the truth about themselves. Sometimes it's just a (n) 1 excuse when you're late for something or a pretence that you like someone you don't. These white lies don't usually harm anyone and indeed often help 2 over difficult social situations. They certainly are embarrassing if exposed but, on the whole, they're easily 3 .
What you describe is a habit of lying that is more serious than this. I suspect that the lies you tell are ways of 4 an idea you have of your own worth. People who have doubts about their own self-respect often worry that others will judge them as harshly (苛刻) as they feel they 5 because of a secret idea that they are pretty worthless. In other words, they create a false picture of themselves, a picture of someone who meets all the expectations they think others have of them. And as you say, that causes problems -- since they have to keep 6 that image. At the same time, they have to tell further lies to cover the stories they have already told. According to some authorities, this is particularly among women, especially those who have few opportunities to develop an adequate sense of self-worth.
I suggest you give yourself one day during which you stick 7 to the truth about yourself. Give yourself a small treat at the end of the day if you have managed to keep it up. Wait a week and then try it again. Once you have achieved three separate lie-free days, see if you can cope with three days 8 , then extend it to a whole week. Don't make a promise to yourself that you will never lie again because almost certainly you will -- it's too much to take on at once. Try to change things little by little, by setting yourself 9 targets. After a while, you'll wonder why you ever had the problem at all.
Passage 3
Age has its privileges (特权) in America, and one of them is the senior citizen discount. Anyone who has reached a certain age – in some cases as low as 55 -- is automatically 1 to price reductions at nearly every level of commercial life. The right is determined not by one's need but by the date on One's birth certificate. Practically unheard of a generation ago, the discounts have become a(n) 2 part of many businesses -- as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee airliners.
People with gray hair are often given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and are able to pay. Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 3 offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the 4 belief that 'elderly' equals 'needy'. Perhaps that once was 5 , but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity ( 多样性) within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren't.
It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many finns, they are a stimulus to revenue(收入). But in other cases the discounts are given at the 6 , directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct cause in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.
Generational tensions are being 7 by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which most involves a(n) 8 of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Supported by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement 9 in favor of staying on the job -- thus reducing employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.
Passage 4
Ask most people how they define the American Dream and chances are they'll say, 'Success.' The dream of individual opportunity has been 1 in American since Europeans discovered a 'new world '. Early immigrants praised highly the freedom and opportunity to be found in this new land. Their descriptions of a classless society where anyone could achieve success through honesty and hard work 2 the imaginations of many European readers. The 3 of a land where 'the rewards of a man's industry follow with equal steps the progress of his labor' drew poor immigrants from Europe and fueled national expansion into the western territories.
Our national mythology is full of 4 of the American success story. There's Benjamin Franklin, the very model of the self-educated, self-made man, who rose from 5 origins to become a well-known scientist, philosopher, and statesman. In the 19th century, Horatio Alger, a writer of fiction for young boys, became American's 6 author with rags-to-riches tales. The notion of success haunts (萦绕) us: we spend million every year reading about the rich and famous, learning how to 'make a fortune in real estate with no money down', and 'dressing for success'. The myth of success has even 7 our personal relationships: today it's as important to be 'successful' in marriage or parenthoods as it is to come out on top in business.
But dreams easily turn into nightmares. Every American who hopes to 'make it' also knows the fear of failure, because the myth of success inevitably implies 8 between the haves and the have-nots, the stars and the unknown crowd. Under pressure of the myth, we try to live in the 'right' neighborhoods, wear the 'right' clothes, eat 'right' foods. These symbols of distinction assure us and others that we believe strongly in the fundamental equality of all, yet strive as hard as we can to 9ourselves from our fellow citizens.
Passage5
Imagine being asked to spend twelve or so years of your life in a society which consisted only of members of your own sex. How would you react? Unless there was something 1 wrong with you, you wouldn't be too happy about it, to say the least, h is all the more surprising therefore that so many parents in the world choose to 2 such abnormal conditions on their children -- conditions which they themselves wouldn't 3 for one minute.
Any discussion of this topic is certain to 4 the aims of education. Stuffing children's heads full of knowledge is far from being the most important among them. One of the chief aims of education is to 5 future citizens with all they require to take their place in adult society. Now adult society is made up of men and women, so how can a segregated (隔离) school possibly offer the right sort of 6 for it? Anyone entering adult society after years of segregation can only be in for a 7 A co-educational school offers children nothing less than a true version of society in miniature. Boys and girls are given the opportunity to get to know each other, to learn to live together from their earliest years. They are put in a 8 where they can compare themselves with each other in terms of academic ability. What a practical advantage it is to be able to put on a school play in which the male parts will be taken by boys and the female parts by girls! What nonsense co-education makes of the 9 that boys are cleverer than girls or vice versa.
Passage 6
Accidents are caused; they don't just happen. The reason may be easy to see: an overloaded tray, a shelf out of reach, a patch of ice on the road. But very often there is a(n) 1 of events leading up to the calamity (灾祸) -- frustration, tiredness or just bad temper that shows what the accident really is, a sort of 2 on oneself.
Road accidents, for example, happen frequently after a family quarrel, and we all know people who are accident-prone (有倾向),so often at odds with (争吵,) themselves and the world that they seem to cause accidents for themselves and others.
Yet this should not make us think that accidents happen to other people. By definition, an accident is something you cannot 3 or avoid, and the idea which used to be 4 , that the majority of road accidents are caused by a minority of criminally careless drivers, is not 5 by insurance statistics (统计数据). These show that most accidents 6 ordinary motorists in a moment of carelessness or thoughtlessness.
It is not always clear, either, what sort of conditions make people more likely to have an accident. For instance, the law requires all factories to take safety precautions (预防措施) and most companies have safety committees to make sure the regulations are 7 , but still, every day in Britain, some fifty thousand men and women are absent from work due to an accident. These accidents are largely the result of human error or 8 -- noise and fatigue, boredom or worry are possible factors which contribute to this. Doctors who work in factories have found that those who drink too much, usually people who have a high 9 level, run three times the normal risk of accidents at work.
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3 . J A I B C H E G J
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