三、阅读理解
The World Health Organization reports that air pollution kills about seven million people around the world each year. However, breathing dirty air does more than hurt our bodies. It can also affect our brains and the ability to think.
A new study shows that air pollution can cause
a reduction in our intelligence (智力). Xi Chen, the researcher of the Yale School of Public Health, led the study. He and his team found that long-term exposure (暴露) to air pollution could affect a person's mental ability in two areas: language and maths. The researchers noted that the effect of pollution on the language ability was even more serious for people over 64 years old, for men and for those who are less educated. "The older people are more affected. And we find, quite interestingly, men are more affected than women. And people working outdoors are more affected than those working indoors."
Besides, they found that air pollution did affect the maths skills, just not as much as the language skills. There are two main kinds of tissue (组织) in the brain: white matter and grey matter. White matter is more connected with a person's language skills, while grey matter is connected to our ability to solve maths problems. Studies have shown that air pollution has a great effect on the white matter in the brain, but not the grey matter.
(
B
) 1. What does the underlined part "a reduction" mean?
A. An increase in amount.
B. A drop in level.
C. An improvement in quality.
D. A development in ability.
(
B
) 2. The effect of breathing polluted air is more serious for
.
A. women
B. men
C. more educated people
D. young people
(
C
) 3. Air pollution affected the language skills
the maths skills.
A. as much as
B. as little as
C. more than
D. less than
(
D
) 4. Which of the following is true according to the passage?
A. Air pollution harms people's bodies but has no effect on brains.
B. The effect of air pollution on language ability is less serious.
C. Air pollution affects maths skills more greatly than language skills.
D. White matter in the brain is linked to people's language abilities.
解析:
【解析】
1. 词义猜测题:根据文中“A new study shows that air pollution can cause a reduction in our intelligence (智力)”可知,空气污染会导致智力下降,“a reduction”意为“水平下降”,对应选项B。
2. 细节理解题:由第二段中“men are more affected than women”可知,男性受空气污染的影响更严重,故选B。
3. 细节理解题:根据第三段“Besides, they found that air pollution did affect the maths skills, just not as much as the language skills.”可知,空气污染对语言能力的影响比对数学能力的影响更大,即more than,故选C。
4. 细节理解题:从第三段“White matter is more connected with a person's language skills”可知,大脑白质与语言能力相关,选项D表述正确;A选项与原文“ It can also affect our brains”不符;B选项与“the effect of pollution on the language ability was even more serious for people over 64 years old...”不符;C选项与原文中语言能力受影响更大相悖。
【答案】
1-4 BBCD
【知识点】
词义猜测题、细节理解题
【点评】
本文围绕空气污染对人类智力的影响展开,题型以词义猜测和细节理解为主,需要学生精准定位原文关键信息,结合语境和细节进行判断,有助于提升学生的信息提取与逻辑判断能力。
【难度系数】
0.6