高考英语高难度阅读理解15篇1.Almost every day we come across situations in which we have to make decisions one way or another. Choice, we are given to believe, is a right. But for a good many people in the world. In rich and poor countries, choice is a luxury, something wonderful but hard to get, not a right. And for those who think they are exercising their right to make choices, the whole system is merely an illusion, a false idea created by companies and advertiser, hoping to sell their products.The endless choice gives birth to anxiety in people’s lives. Buying something as basic as a coffee pot is not exactly simple. Easy access to a wide range of everyday goods leads to a sense of powerlessness in many people, ending in the shopper giving up and walking away, or just buying an unsuitable item(商品) that is not really wanted. Recent studies in England have shown that many electrical goods bought in almost every family are not really needed. More difficult decision-making is then either avoided or trusted into the hands of the professionals, lifestyle instructors, or advisors.It is not just the availability of the goods that is the problem, but the speed with which new types of products come on the market. Advances in design and production help quicken the process Products also need to have a short lifespan so that the public can be persuaded to replace them within a short time. The typical example is computers, which are almost out-of-date once they are bought. This indeed makes selection a problem. Gone are the days when one could just walk with case into a shop and buy one thing; no choice, no anxiety.72. What does the author try to argue in Paragraph 1?A. The exercise of rights is a luxury.B. The practice of choice is difficult.C. The right of choice is given but at a price.D. Choice and right exist at the same time.73. Why do more choices of goods give rise to anxiety?A. Professionals find it hard to decide on a suitable product.B. People are likely to find themselves overcome by business persuasion.C. Shoppers may find themselves lost in the broad range of items.D. Companies and advertisers are often misleading about the rage of choice.74. By using computers as an example, the author wants to prove that .A. advanced products meet the needs of peopleB. products of the latest design fold the marketC. competitions are fierce in high-tech industryD. everyday goods need to be replaced often75. What is this passage mainly about?A. The variety of choices in modern society.B. The op inions on people’s right in different countriesC. The Problems about the availability of everyday goods.D. The helplessness in purchasing decisions2.I arrived at my mother’s home for our Monday family dinner. The smells of food flew over from the kitchen. Mother was pulling out quilt(被子)after quilt from the boxes, proudly showing me their beauties. She was preparing for a quilt show at the Elmhurst Church. When we began to fold and put them back into the boxes, I noticed something at the bottom of one box. I pulled it out. “What is this?” I asked.“Oh?” Mom said, “That’s Mama’s quilt.”I spread the quilt. It looked at if a group of school children had pieced it together; irregular designs, childish pictures, a crooked line on the right.“Grandmother made this?” I said, surprised. My grandmother was a master at making quilts. This certainly didn’t look like any of the quilts she had made.“Yes, right before she died. I brought it home with me last year and made some changes,” she said. “I’m still working on it. See, this is what I’ve done so far.”I looked at it more closely. She had made straight a crooked line. At the center of the quilt, she had stitched(缝) a piece of cloth with these words: “My mother made many quilts. She didn’t get all lines st raight. But I think this is beautiful. I want to see it finished. Her last quilt.”“Ooh, this is so nice, Mom,” I said. It occurred to me that by completing my grandmother’s quilt, my mother was honoring her own mother. I realized, too, that I held in my hands a family treasure. It started with the loving hands of one woman, and continued with the loving hands of another.56. Why did the author go to mother’s home?A. To see her mother’s quilts.B. To help prepare for a show.C. To get together for the family dinner.D. To discuss her grandmother’s life.57. The author was surprised because .A. the quilt looked very strange.B. her grandmother liked the quilt.C. the quilt was the best she had seen.D. her mother had made some changes58. The underlined wood “crooked” in the passage most probably means .A. unfinishedB. brokenC. bentD. unusual59. Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?A. A Quilt ShowB. Mother’s HomeC. A Monday DinnerD. Grandmother’s Quilt3. While all my classmates seen to be crazy about a one-way ticket to Mars(火星), I’d rather say Mars is totally unsuitab le for human existence. People won’t have enough food supplies there, and the terrible environment would make it impossible for them to live a long life. Besides, the journey won’t be safe. Can anybody explain to me just why people would go to Mars, never to return?Steve Minear, UKHere are the things you can think of: the desire to explore a foreign and unique environment, the excitement of being the first humans to open up a new world, the expectation of fame and glory…For scientists there is another rea son. Their observations and research will probably lead to great scientific achievements.Donal Trollop, CanadaThere are already too many people on the Earth. I think that sometime before the end of the century, there will be a human colony(殖民地)on Mars. It will happen when people finally realize that tow-way trips to the red planet Mars are unnecessary. Most of the danger of space Flight is in the launches(发射) and landings. Cutting the trip home would therefore reduce the danger of accidents, save a lot of money, and open the way to building an everlasting human settlement on another world.Enough supplies can be sent on ahead. And every two years more supplies and more people will needs, and Mars is far more pleasant than the other planets in the outer space.Paul Davies. USA60. The main purpose of Steve Minear’s writing is .A. to report his classmates’ discussionB. to invite an answer to his questionC. to explain the natural state of MarsD. to show his agreement on going to Mars61. Wh ich of the following best states Donal Trollop’s idea?A. There is a plan to send humans to Mars.B. There are many reasons for going to Mars.C. Scientists become famous by doing research on Mars.D. It is possible to build an Earth-like environment on Mars.62. Paul Davies points out that .A. humans need only a one-way ticket to Mars.B. two-way trips to Mars will be made safe soonC. it is easy to reduce the danger and cost of flights to MarsD. it is cheap to build an everlasting human settlement on Mars63. What does Paul Davies think of human existence on Mars?A. Humans will have to bring all they need from the Earth.B. Humans will find Mars totally unsuitable for living.C. Humans can produce everything they need.D. Humans can live longer in the colony on Mars.4.Celebrity(名人) has become one of the most important representatives of popular culture. Fans used to be crazy about s specific film, but now the public tends to base its consumption（消费）on the interest of celebrity attached to any given product. Besides, fashion magazines have almost abandoned the practice of putting models on the cover because they don’t sell nearly as well as famous faces. As a result, celebrities have realized their unbelievably powerful market potential, moving from advertising for others’ products to developing their own.Celebrity clothing lines aren’t a completely new phenomenon, but in the past they were typically aimed at the ordinary consumers, and limited to a few TV actresses. T oday they’re started by first-class stars whose products enjoy equal fame with some world top brands. The most successful start-ups have been those by celebrities with specific personal style. As celebrities become more and more experienced at the market, they expand their production scale rapidly, covering almost all the products of daily life.However, for every success story, there’s a related warning tale of a celebrity who overvalued his consumer appeal. No matter haw famous the product’s origins is, if it fails to impress consumers with its own qualities it begins to resemble an exercise in self-promotional marketing. And once the initial（最初的）attention dies down, consumer interest might fade, loyalty (忠诚) returning to tried-and-true labels.Today, celebrities face ever more severe embarrassment. The pop-cultural circle might be bigger than ever, but its rate of turnover has speeded up as well. Each misstep threatens to reduce a celebrity’s shelf life, and the same newspaper or magazine that once brought him fame has no problem picking him to pieces when the opportunity appears. Still, the ego’s （自我的）potential for expansion is limitless. Having already achieved great wealth and public recognition, many celebrities see fashion as the next frontier to be conquered. As the saying goes, success and failure always go hand in hand. Their success as designers might last only a short time, but fashion-like celebrity – has always been temporary.69. Fashion magazines today ________.A. seldom put models on the coverB. no longer put models on the coverC. need not worry about celebrities’ market potentialD. judge the market potential of every celebrity correctly70. A change in the consumer market can be found today that _______.A. price rather than brand name is more concernedB. producers prefer models to celebrities for achievementsC. producers prefer TV actresses to film stars for advertisementsD. quality rather than the outside of products is more concerned71. The underlined sentence in Paragraph 4 indicates that any wrong step will possibly ______.A. decrease the popularity of a celebrity and the sales of his productsB. damage the image of a celebrity in the eyes of the general publicC. cut short the artistic careen of a celebrity in show businessD. influence the price of a celebrity’s products72. The passage is mainly about _______.A. celebrity and personal styleB. celebrity and market potentialC. celebrity and fashion designD. celebrity and clothing industry5.We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively（被动地）. We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning.We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else. Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers ormagazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it’s not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers.Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem. It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay and rumor(谣言).Did you ever play the game Rumor? It begins when one person writes down a message but doesn’t show it to anyone. Then the person whispers it, word for word, to another person. That person, in turn, whispers it to still another, and so on, through all the people playing the game. The last person writes down the message word for word as he or she hears it. Then the two written statements are compared. Typically, the original message has changed.That’s what happens in daily life. The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story. Then, too, most people listen imperfectly. And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping（打上标记）it with their own personal style. Yet those who hear it think they know.This process is also found among scholars and authors: A statement of opinion by one writer may be re-stated as fact by another, who may in turn be quoted by yet another; and this process may continue, unless it occurs to someone to question the facts on which the original writer based his opinion or to challenge the interpretation he placed upon those facts.48. According to the passage, passive learning may occur in _______.A. doing a medical experimentB. solving a math problemC. visiting an exhibitionD. doing scientific reasoning49. The underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refers to _____.A. active learningB. knowledgeC. communicationD. passive learning50. The author mentions the game Rumor to show that _____.A. a message may be changed when being passed onB. a message should be delivered in different waysC. people may have problems with their sense of hearingD. people tend not to believe in what they know as rumor51. What can we infer from the passage?A. Active learning is less important.B. Passive learning may not be reliable.C. Active learning occurs more frequently.D. Passive learning is not found among scholars.6. The literal meaning of philosophy is “love of wisdom”. But this meaning does not tell us very much. Unlike the other disciplines（学科）, philosophy cannot e defined by what you study ,because it is actually unlimited. Anything can be the subject matter of philosophy: are, history, law, language, literature, mathematics, and in fact, the other academic disciplines are directly related to philosophy. For this reason you get a Doctorate（博士学位）of Philosophy (Ph. D.) in biochemistry, or computer science, or psychology.Two broad sub-fields of philosophy are logic and the history of philosophy. Logic is the science of argument and eritical thinking. It provides sound methods for distinguishing good from bad reasoning .The history of philosophy involves the study of major philosophers and persuade in the development of philosophy.Of what use is philosophy? First it is useful in educational advancement. It is necessary for understanding other disciplines. Only philosophy questions the nature of the concepts used in a discipline, and its relating to other discomposes. And thought the study of philosophy, one develops sound methods of research and analysis that can be applied to any field.There are a number of general uses of philosophy. It strengthens one’s ability to solve problems, to communicate, to organize ideas and issues, to persuade, and to take what is the most important form a large quality of data. These general uses are of great benefit in the career field, not necessarily for obtaining one’s first job after graduation, but for preparing for positions of responsibility, management and leadership later on. It is very short site after all, to take a course of studies only for the purpose of getting one’s first job. The useful skills developed thought the study of philosophy have significant long-term benefits in career advancement. No other discipline systematically follows the ideals of wisdom, leadership, and capacity to resolve human conflict.72. Accprdomg to Paragraph 1. Philosophy can best be described as the study of .A. social sciencesB. natural sciencesC. both social and natural sciencesD. the subject matter of politics73. With the study of philosophy, you can .A. become a great leaderB. succeed in everythingC. find a good job soon after graduationD. make progress in your career development74. According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?A. Philosophy is an independent discipline.B. Logic helps you to become a better thinker.C. The study of philosophy brings you immediate benefits.D. The meaning of philosophy is too limited to define.75.From the passage, we can concludeA. not all the subjects have to do with philosophyB. a person will get a Ph. D. if he/she studies philosophyC. philosophy can be helpful for the study of any other subjectsD. philosophy is the only solution to all the problems the world7.Many animals recognize their food because they see it. So do humans. When you see an apple or a piece of chocolate you know that these are things you can eat. You can also use other senses when you choose your food. You may like it because it smells good or because it tastes good. You may dislike some types of food because they do not look, smell or taste very nice. Different animals use different senses to find and choose their food. A few animals depend on only one of their senses, while most animals use more than one sense.Although there are many different types of food, some animals spend their lives eating only one type. The giant panda（大熊猫）eats only one particular type of bamboo（竹子）. Other animals eat only one type of food even when given the choice. A kind of white butterfly（蝴蝶）will stay on the leaves of a cabbage, even though there are plenty of other vegetables in the garden. However, most animals have a more varied diet（多样化饮食）. The bear eats fruits and fish. The fox eats small animals, birds and fruits. The diet of these animals will be different depending on the season. Humans have a very varied diet. We often eat food because we like it and not because it is good for us. In countries such as France and Britain, people eat foods with too much sugar. This makes them overweight, which is bad for their health. Eating too much red meat and animal products, such as butter, can also be bad for the health. Choosing the right food, therefore, has become an area of study in modern life.60. We can infer from the text that humans and animals _________.A. depend on one sense in choosing foodB. are not satisfied with their foodC. choose food in similar waysD. eat entirely different food61. Which of the following eats only one type of food?A. The white butterfly.B. The small bird.C. The bear.D. The fox.62. Certain animals change their choice of food when ___________.A. the season changesB. the food color changesC. they move to different placesD. they are attracted by different smells63. We can learn from the last paragraph that __________.A. food is chosen for a good reasonB. French and British food is goodC. some people have few choices of foodD. some people care little about healthy diet8.The flag, the most common symbol（象征）of a nation in the modern world, is also one of the most ancient. With a clear symbolic meaning. the flag in the traditional form is still used today to mark buildings, ships and other vehicles related to a country.The national flag as we know it today is in no way a primitive（原始的）artifact. It is , rather, the product of thousands of years’ development. Historians believe that it had two major ancestors, of which the earlier served to show wind direction.Early human beings used very fragile houses and boats. Often strong winds would tear roofs from houses or cause high waves that endangered travelers. People’s food supplies were similarly vulnerable. Even after they had learned how to plant grains, they still needed help from nature to ensure good harvests. Therefore they feared and depended on the power of the wind, which could bring warmth from one direction and cold from another.Using a simple piece of cloth tied to the top of a post to tell the direction of the wind was more dependable than earlier methods, such as watching the rising of smoke from a fire. The connectionof the flag with heavenly power was therefore reasonable. Early human societies began to fix long pieces of cloth to the tops of totems(图腾) before carrying them into battle. They believed that the power of the wind would be added to the good wishes of the gods and ancestors represented by the totems themselves.These flags developed very slowly into modern flags. The first known flag of a nation or a ruler was unmarked: The king of China around 1000 B.C. was known to have a white flag carried ahead of him. This practice might have been learned from Egyptians even further in the past, but it was from China that it spread over trade routs through India, then across Arab lands, and finally to Europe, where it met up with the other ancestor of the national flag.71．The best title for the passage would be .A．Development of the National Flag.B．Power of the National Flag.C．Types of FlagsD．Uses of Flags72．The underlined word “vulnerable” in Paragraph 3 means .A．impossible to make sure ofB．likely to be protectedC．easy to damageD．difficult to find73．The earliest flags were connected with heavenly power because .A．they could tell wind directionB．they could bring good luck to fightersC．they were handed down by the ancestorsD．they were believed to stand for natural forces74．What does the author know of the first national flag?A．He knows when it was sent to Europe.B．He believes it was made in Egypt.C．He thinks it came from China.D．He doubts where it started.75．What will the author most probably talk about next?A．The role of China in the spread of the national flag.B．The second ancestor of the national flagC．The use of modern flags in Europe.D．The importance of modern flags.9.PITTSBURGH –For most people, snakes seem unpleasant or even threatening. But Howie Choset sees in their delicate movements a way to save lives.The 37-year-old Carnegie Mellon University professor has spent years developing snake-like robots he hopes will eventually slide through fallen buildings in search of victims trapped after natural disasters or other emergencies.Dan Kara is president of Robotics Trends, a Northboro, Mass.-based company that publishes an online industry magazine and runs robotics trade shows. He said there are other snake-like robots being developed, mainly at universiti es, but didn’t know of one that could climb pipes.The Carnegie Mellon machines are designed to carry cameras and electronic sensors and can be controlled with a joystick(操纵杆). They move smoothly with the help of small electric motors, or servos, commonly used by hobbyists in model airplanes.Built from lightweight materials, the robots are about the size of a human arm or smaller. They can sense which way is up, but are only as good as their human operators, Choset added.Sam Stover, a search term manager with the Federal Emergency Management Agency based in Indiana, said snake-type robots would offer greater mobility than equipment currently available, such as cameras attached to extendable roles.“It just allows us to do something we’ve been able to do before,” Stover said, “We needed them yesterday.”He said sniffer dogs are still the best search tool for rescue workers, but that they can only be used effectively when workers have access to damaged building.Stover, among the rescue workers who handled the aftermath (后果) of Hurricane Katrina, said snake robots would have helped rescuers search flooded houses in that disaster.Choset said the robots may not be ready for use for another five to ten years, depending on funding.72. Which institution is respon sible for the development of Choset’s robots?A. Robotics Trends.B. Pittsburgh City Council.C. Carnegie Mellon University.D. Federal Emergency Management Agency.73. Choset believes that his invention ______.A. can be attached to an electronic armB. can be used by hobbyists in model airplanesC. can find victims more quickly than a sniffer dogD. can sense its way no better than its operators74. By saying “We needed them yesterday” (paragraph 7), Stover means that snake-like robots _____.A. could help handle the aftermath of Hurricane KatrinaB. would have been put to use in past rescue workC. helped rescuers search flooded houses yesterdayD. were in greater need yesterday than today75. What is the text mainly about?A. Snake-like robots used in industries.B. Snake-like robots made to aid in rescues.C. The development of snake-like robots.D. The working principles of snake-like robots.10.Attitude is an internal(内在的) state that influences the choices of personal action made by the individual(个人). Some researchers consider that attitudes come from differences between beliefs and ideas: others believe that attitudes come from emotional states. Here, we focus on the effects of attitudes upon behavior, that is, upon the choices of action made by the individual.The kinds of actions taken by human beings are obviously influenced greatly by attitudes. Whether one listens to classical music or rock, whether one obeys the speed limit while driving, whether one encourages one’s husband or wife to express his or her own ideas－all are influenced by attitudes. These internal states are acquired(获得) throughout life from situations one is faced with in the home, in the streets, and in the school.Of course, the course of action chosen by an individual in any situation will be largely determined by the particulars of that situation. An individual who has a strong attitude of obeying laws may drive too fast when he is in a hurry and no police cars in sight. A child who has a strong attitude of honesty may steal a penny when she thinks no one will notice. But the internal state which remains unchanged over a period of time, and which makes the individual behave regularly in a variety of situations, is what is meant by an attitude.Attitudes are learned in a variety of ways. They can result from single incidents, as when an attitude toward snakes is acquired by an experience in childhood at the sudden movement of a snake. They can resu lt from the individual’s experiences of success and pleasure, as when someone acquires a positive attitude toward doing crossword puzzles by being able to complete some of them, And frequently, they are learned by copying other people’s able to complete so me of them, And frequently, they are learned by copying other people’s behavior, as when a child learns how to behave toward foreigners by observing the actions of his parents. Regardless of these differences, there is something in common in the learning and modification(修正) of attitudes. 52．According to the passage, attitudes __________.A．come from different situations in one’s lifeB．are largely affected by one’s behaviorC．remain unchanged in one’s daily lifeD．could be chosen according to one’s will53．The author uses the examples in Paragraph 3 to show ______.A．people often make mistakes when they are not noticedB．people with good attitudes may sometimes do bad deedsC．particulars of a si tuation may influence an individual’s actionD．an individual may change his or her attitude fairly easily54．Which of the following is TURE about the learning of attitudes?A．Attitudes are only learned through one’s success.B．Attitudes learned in danger will last longer.C．Copying others’ behavior is not a good idea.D．Attitudes can be learned from one’s parents.55．What would be the best title for the passage?A．Differences of Attitudes.B．Nature of Attitude.C．Choices of Attitudes.D．Modification of Attitude.11. Susan Sontag (1933 -- 2004) was one of the most noticeable figures in the world of literature. For more than 40 years she made it morally necessary to know everything -- to read every book worth reading, to see every movie worth seeing. When she was still in her early 30s, publishing essays in such important magazines as Partisan Review, she appeared as the symbol of American cultural life, trying hard to follow every new development in literature, film and art. With great effort and serious judgment, Sontag walked at the latest edges of world culture.Seriousness was one of Sontag's lifelong watchwords (格言), but at a time when the barriers between the well-educated and the poor-educated were obvious, she argued for a true openness to the pleasures of pop culture. In "Notes on Camp", the 1964 essay that first made her name, she explained what was then a little-known set of difficult understandings, through which she could not have been more famous. "Notes on Camp", she wrote, represents "a victory of 'form' over 'content', 'beauty' over 'morals'".By conviction (信念) she was a sensualist (感觉论者), but by nature she was a moralist (伦理学者), and in the works she published in the 1970s and 1980s, it was the latter side of her that came。
