2015广州二模英语试题及答案(3)

There was, however, a certain thing James couldn’t ask about. He wasn’t sure how she lost her finger. It was the only unspeakable topic in the relationship. It didn’t bother him very much. He wasn’t a curious person. He’d occasionally slip and begin to ask, but mostly caught himself. When he didn’t, she’d get quiet in company or angry in private. He’d let her storm away and wait for the broken comb of her hand to run through his hair in apology.
They broke up over a mistake. His mistake. Amy started an argument over who should do the dishes, and he lost despite his best effort to point out the number of hours he worked. In his anger, he stabbed a fork into the wall. Amy didn’t say anything; she didn’t even look upset, just confused. When he pulled the fork out, two prongs（叉齿） stayed in the wall, so he threw it into the trash.
She was still staring, and he felt awkward and ashamed. He told her the prongs were in the wall, and the fork was now useless. What good would a two-pronged fork be for anyone?
There wasn’t any talking after that. She simply packed a backpack and went to her mother’s. The next day Amy’s brother and father came by to collect the rest of her clothing and books. Neither of them looked mad, though James couldn’t figure out if they were truly uninterested or if silent anger was a family characteristic.
31. Which of Amy’s fingers was missing?
A. The middle finger of her left hand.
B. The little finger of their left hand.
C. The little finger of her right hand.
D. The middle finger of her right hand.
32. The underlined word “It” in Paragraph 3 refers to __________.
A. Amy’s missing finger B. how Amy lost her finger
C. Amy’s attitude towards her hand D. why Amy never talked about her hand
33. What caused Amy to leave James?
A. Amy was afraid of James’ extreme anger.
B. James repeatedly refused to wash the dishes.
C. Amy felt James disrespected her disability.
D. James continually talked about her missing finger.
34. When Amy’s father came to collect her things, he __________.
A. did not say very much to James.
B. did not know what the fight was about.
C. was clearly very upset and angry with James.
D. asked his daughter to stay with her mother.
35. To Amy, the broken fork symbolized __________.
A. their broken relationship B. her damaged hand
C. a problem that could be solved D. the way she lost her finger
C
Speed reading is a necessary and vital skill in the Internet age. We skim over articles, e-mails and tweets to try to grasp key words and the essential meaning of the text. With so much information available through our electronic devices, it would be impossible to get through everything if we read word by word, line by line.
But a new trend calls on people to unplug and enjoy reading slowly, one which claims to have benefits beyond intellectual stimulation.
A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a cafe and turn off their smartphones. They sink into comfortable chairs and read in silence for an hour. 
Unlike typical book clubs, the point of the slow reading club isn’t to exchange ideas about certain books, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, relaxed environment. According to the story, the Wellington book club is just one example of a movement started by book lovers who miss the traditional way of reading.
Traditional readers, like Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, reduces stress levels and deepens the ability to understand others. Some of these benefits have been backed up by science. For example, a study of 300 elderly people published by the journal Neurology last year showed that mature people who take part in activities that use their brain, such as reading, suffer less memory loss as they get older. Another study published last year in Science showed that reading novels helps people understand others’ mental states and beliefs-a key skill in building relationships.
Yet technology has made us less careful readers. Computer and phone screens have changed our reading patterns from the top-to-bottom, left-to-right reading order we traditionally used, to a wild skimming and skipping pattern as we hunt for important words and information. Reading text online that has many links to other web pages also leads to weaker comprehension than reading plain text. The Internet may have made us stupider, says British journalist Patrick Kingsley, only half joking. Because of the Internet, he claims we have become very good at collecting a wide range of factual tidbits, but we are also gradually forgetting how to sit back, think and relate all these facts to each other.
36. Speed reading is a necessary and vital skill in the Internet age because people __________.
A. have to grasp the meaning faster
B. have much more information to read
C. no longer read word by word, line by line
D. Must use their smartphones more frequently
37. Members of the Wellington book club are expected to __________.
A. read peacefully for an hour B. make coffee for the other members
C. regularly swap ideas about books
D. turn off their smartphones for recharging
38. According to the Neurology study, who is most likely to suffer memory loss?
A. A 65-year-old man who rarely reads.
B. A 79-year-old woman who reads regularly.
C. A 17-year-old middle school student who seldom reads.
D. A healthy 24-year-old university graduate who often plays games.
39. Kingsley believes that the Internet __________.
A. has lowered people’s overall intelligence levels
B. has reduced people’s ability to analyze information
C. has provided people with too much useless knowledge