广州市2020年高三第二次模拟考试英语第二部分阅读理解(共两节，满分40分)第一节(共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分)阅读下列短文，从每题所给的A、B、C和D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。

AWe can all think of times when people didn't make remembering easy. Directions given at machine-gun speed. New people introduced in a flood of names and handshakes. Whenever information is passed between people, it’s all too easy for it to go in one ear and straight out of the other. Thankfully, the opposite is also true. Look around you, and you’ll see parents who can get their children to rem ember exactly what they were told; advertisers who know how to imprint their sales messages on our brains.So, how do they do? Their secrets can be summed up in four simple words: focus, imagery, reasons and engagement.FOCUS means ensuring that the person you’re talking to can concentrate on learning. Choose your moment carefully. Check that they can properly hear or see the information. Communicate slowly and clearly enough for their memory to cope.IMAGERY helps information to stick. Do everything your can to make other people “see”the ideas you’re giving them. Add visual details to directions, and illustrate abstract concepts with metaphors.REASONS to remember help people to put in the mental effort. So, make it clear that your words are important, and be explicit about why. Maybe this information will save them time, protectthem from embarrassment, or let them enjoy a particular experience or event.EMGAGEMENT requires you to ask questions. Point out links between new concepts and things listeners already know. Activate their senses, spark their curiosity, get them doing something physical, or simply make them laugh.The next time you’ve got an important message to pass on, put some of these techniques to the test. You’ll discover that there are benefits on both sides when you know how to FIRE people’s memories into action.21. What is the main purpose of the text?A.To report new research.B.To provide some advice.C.To explain a problem.D.To define some terms.22. How can you do to help a listener “focus” on w hat you are saying?A.Select the appropriate time to raise the topic.B.Do something humorous to get their attention.C.Make sure the information provided is correct.D.Speak as slowly and clearly as you possibly can.23. Explaining to listeners why your information is important is an example of ________.A. FOCUSB. IMAGERYC. REASONSD. ENGAGEMENTBSpecial boxes lie at the bottom of my locked filing cabinet. Deposited there are important letters and cards collected throughout my life, from my grandparents, school friends, parents, wife and son. Since the invention of e-mail though, they’ve been few and far between.Tonight is New York’s Eve 2029 and there’s a very special box of letters I want to look at. But first there’s something I have to do – The Ritual(惯例).I go to my trusted computer and start. I begin to type: Dear -- . I leave the name blank for now, anticipating the thrill of typing it in. “I hope you are well and I wonder how this will find you. And you still planning to move to that villa in Portugal? Did your son marry Fiona? Is your mother still alive? Questions surge into my mind.For the next two hours I sit writing. About what I’ve been doing for the last year, my failing health, my increasing wealth and sometime difficult marriage. Then about my goals and ambitions. Will he be interested? Do I climb Mt. Kilimanjaro? Do I get that novel published? the one that’s been rejected more times than I carte to think about.Finally, it’s finished. 11:30 pm. I fill in the recipient’s name, print my letter, sign and address it and then seal it up with tape. I then delete the document and empty the trash folder –to avoid the possibility of temptation. That completes the ritual!I walk over to my “special box”. It contains ten long, white, thick envelopes, a ll with the same handwriting. I place the one I have just written in at the back and take out the one at the front. It’s dated 2019, and labelled “to be opened 31st December 2029”.The cycle is finally complete! I open it, trembling with anticipation. I begin to read, my eyes tearing up a little as I do so. Throughout the last ten long, eventful years, of life, death, joy and heartbreak, it has been waiting patiently in this box for me, though I now have no memory of ever having written it.24. Why does the author receive fewer “important letters” these days ?A. He has moved from his original address.B. He is rarely in contact with his friends and family.C. People communicate with each other less often than before.D. Electronic communication has largely replaced physical letters.25. Who does the underlined word “he” in paragraph 4 refer to?A. The author himself.B. The author’s son.C. The author’s school friend.D. The author’s book publisher.26. Why does the author probably delete the completed letter from his computer?A. So that no one else will be able to read it.B. So that he won’t read it ahead of schedule.C. Because he decides at last not to send it.D. Because he wants forget what has happened.27. How does the author feel as he is about to open his special letter?A. RelievedB. MovedC. ExcitedD. AfraidCTexas rancher(牧场主) Charles Goodnight had a problem. He needed skilled cowboys to drive his herd of two thousand longhorn cattle to New Mexico to be sold. He couldn't offer high wages. He couldn't promise easy jobs or even nice weather. But he decided that decent, warm meals might entice men to work for him.In the mid-to-late 1800s, cattle drives sometimes took three to four months, and once the drive began, there were no stores for hundreds of miles. All the food and supplies needed for the trip were carried on two-wheeled carts. Usually, the cowboy's food was boring and unappetizing.Goodnight went to work and solved the problem. His invention of a mobile kitchen, the chuck wagon(四轮马车), got its name from the cowboy word for food, "chuck."Goodnight took an old army wagon and rebuilt it with Osage orange, a wood so tough that Indians used it to make bows. The wagon's iron axles were stronger than the wooden ones found on standard wagons, and the wider wheels lasted longer. Besides food, coffee sugar and eating utensils, it held everything from first-aid supplies to needles and thread. It even contained cooking stove.The first chuck wagon was an instant success. Eighteen cowhands joined Goodnight and his partner, Oliver Loving, to drive the cattle to New Mexico for a handsome profit. The route they took—later called the Goodnight-Loving Trail—became one of the most heavily used cattle trails in the Southwest.The chuck wagon soon was the backbone of all successful cattle drives. Other ranchers created their own moving kitchens, and eventually the Studebaker Company produced chuck wagons that sold for $75 to $100 apiece, about $1,000 today.The chuck wagon was much more than a mobile kitchen. Sometimes called "the trail drive's mother ship," it was like a magnet that drew the men together.The wagon and the ground around it were the cowboy's home. There he enjoyed hot meals, a warm fire, and good companionship. He could also get a bandage, a haircut, or horse liniment for his sore muscles. And there, under the stars and around the chuck wagon, he crawled into his bedroll each night.28. Who does the underlined word “entice” in paragraph 1 mean?A. InformB. DirectC. EnableD. Attract29. Why were cattle drives in the mid-to-late 1800s so tough ?A.All the cattle were carried on two-wheeled vehicles.B.Fresh food supplies were hard to find on the drive.C.There were not enough cowboys to drive the cattle.D.There was no place to store food and necessary supplies.30. What do we know about Goodnight’s chuck wagon from the text?A. It was stronger than the ordinary wagons.B. It was mainly used to provide first aid.C. It could be changed into a sleeping area.D. It was sold to other ranchers by Goodnight.31. What is the best title for the text?A.The Cowboys’ ProblemB.Goodnight-Loving TrailC.The Cowboys’ Home on WheelsD.Exciting Cattle Drives in the WestDDepending on what language you speak, your eye perceives colours – and the world – differently than someone else.The human eye can physically perceive millions of colours. But we don’t all recognise these colours in the same way.Some people can’t see differences in colours – so called colour blindness – due to a defect or absence of the cells in the retina that are sensitive to high levels of light: the cones. But the distribution and density of these cells also varies across people with ‘normal vision’, causing us all to experience the same colour in slightly different ways.Language affects our colour perception too. Different languages and cultural groups also categorizecolours differently. Some languages like Dani, spoken in Papua New Guinea, and Bassa, spoken in Liberia and Sierra Leone, only have two terms, dark and light. Dark roughly translates as cool in those languages, and light as warm. So colours like black, blue, and green are glossed as cool colours, while lighter colours like white, red, orange and yellow are glossed as warm colours. Other cultural groups have no word for “colours” at all.Remarkably, most of the world’s languages have five basic colour terms. As well as dark, light, and red, these languages typically have a term for yellow, and a term that refers to both blue and green. That is, these languages do not have separate ter ms for “green” and “blue” but use one term to describe both colours. Also, Russian, Greek, Turkish and many other languages have two separate terms for blue –one referring exclusively to darker shades, and one referring to lighter shades.The way we perceive colours can also change during our lifetime. Greek speakers, who have two fundamental colour terms to describe light and dark blue, are more likely to see these two colours as the same after living for long periods of time in the UK. There, these two colours are described in English by the same fundamental colour term: blue.Different languages can influence our perceptions in all areas of life, not only colour. Scientists are nowinvestigating how different languages changes the way we perceive everyday objects. Ultimately, this happens because learning a new language is like giving our brain the ability to interpret the world differently32. What is mainly discussed in paragraph 2?A. The medical causes of people’s colour blindness.B. The different types of colours that people can see.C. The physical causes of variation in people’s vision.D. The cultural reasons for differences in colour perception.33. What colours are commonly referred to using the same word by many language groups?A. Yellow and red.B. Warm and cold.C. Dark and light.D. Blue and green.34. What do we know about the Russian language?A. It classifies colours as either warm or cold.B. It has more than one word for the colour blue.C. It mainly describes objects in terms of their colour.D. It has only five basic terms to describe colours.35. Why does the author mention Greek speakers living in England?A. To illustrate how social context can affect our senses.B. To provide an example of cultural miscommunication.C. To highlight the variation in the words used to describe colour.D. To demonstrate how languages can combine to produce new words.第二节(共5小题;每小题2分，满分10分)根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。