阅读试题

Almost every machine with moving parts has wheels, yet no one knows exactly when the first wheel was invented or what it was used for. We do know, however, that they existed over 5,500 years ago in ancient Asia.

The oldest known transport wheel was discovered in 2002 in Slovenia. It is over 5, 100 years old. Evidencesuggests that wheels for transport didn't become popular for a while, though. This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around.

But it could also be because of a difficult situation. While wheels need to roll on smooth surfaces, roadswith smooth surfaces weren't going to be constructed until there was plenty of demand for them. Eventually,road surfaces did become smoother, but this difficult situation appeared again a few centuries later. There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modern road design.

In the mid-1700s, a Frenchman came up with a new design of road - a base layer (层)of large stones coveredwith a thin layer of smaller atones. A Scotsman improved on this design in the 1820s and a strong, lastingroad surface became a reality. At around the same time, metal hubs (the central part of a wheel) came intobeing, followed by the pneumatic tyre(充气的) in 1864. Alloy wheels were invented in 1967, sixty years after the appearance of tarmacked roads(泊油路). As wheel design took off, vehicles got faster and faster.

阅读试题

64. What might explain why transport wheels didn't become popular for some time?

A. Few knew how to use transport wheels.
B. Humans carried farming tools just as well.
C. Animals were a good means of transport.
D. The existence of transport wheels was not known.

65. What do we know about road design from the passage?

A. It was easier than wheel design.
B. It improved after big changes in vehicle design.
C. It was promoted by fast-moving vehicles.

D.It provided conditions for wheel design to develop.

66. How is the last paragraph mainly developed?

A. By giving examples. 　　　
B. By making comparisons.
C. By following time order. 　
D. By making classifications.

67. What is the passage mainly about?

A. The beginning of road design.
B. The development of transport wheels.
C. The history of public transport.
D. The invention of fast-moving vehicles.

参考译文

几乎所有有运转部件的机器都有轮子，但是没有人确切地知道第一个轮子是何时发明的，也不知道它有什么用途。然而，我们所知道的是早在5500多年前的古代亚洲，它们就已经存在了。

2002年我们在斯洛文尼亚发现了最古老的运输轮子。它有5100多年的历史。然而，证据表明在短时期内车轮运输并不受欢迎。这可能是因为在运输农具和人力方面，动物发挥了重要作用。

但这也有可能是因为条件困难。一方面轮子需要在光滑的表面滚动，另一方面平滑的路面直到有大量需求时才被建造。最终，路面变得平滑了，但这种困难的局面在几个世纪后又再次出现了。并且在现代道路设计尚未出现之前，轮子和汽车设计都没有什么重大变化。

18世纪中期，一个法国人想出了一个新的道路设计方案，那就是用基层的大石块覆盖一层薄薄的小石粒，相互填补。19世纪20年代，苏格兰人改进了这种设计，从而出现一种牢固而耐久的路面。1864年，先是金属中心(轮子中央的一部分)，接着就是充气轮胎，二者几乎同时出现。而在柏油路出现60年后，人们终于在1967年发明了合金车轮。随着车轮设计的出现，车辆的发展也越来越快。

答案解析

64. C 考查细节理解。由第二段第四句“This could be because animals did a perfectly good job of carrying farming tools and humans around.”可知，动物在运载农具和人这一方面起了很重要的作用，这是轮子一时没有流行的原因。

65. D 考查细节理解。由第三段最后一句“There had been no important changes in wheel and vehicle design before the arrival of modem road design.”可知，在现代的道路设计之前，轮子和车辆的设计是没有重大变化的。故D项“道路设计为轮子设计的向发展提供了条件”正确。

66. C 考查文章结构。根据第四段中的“mid-1700s” “1820s” “1846” “1967”可知，整个段落是按时间顺序展开说明的。

67. B 考查主旨大意。由文章全文内容尤其是第一段可知，本文主要介绍了轮子的发展，所以B项正确。