2016郑州二模英语试题及答案(3)

    B. She took some cucumbers mistakenly.
    C. She took something with Sharon’s help.
    D. She harvested a few zucchini by accident.
27. We can infer that the neighbor’s bread would taste ________.
A. soft and sweet                     B. hard and sour
    C. funny and bitter                    D. fragrant and delicious
C
Land Art, sometimes referred to as Earth Art or Earthworks, is a form of art which involves using physical landscapes to create art, taking art out of the museum and into the outside world.  Modern Land Art movement really got going in the 1960s, when American artists began creating Land Art on a large scale. Today, works of modern Land Art can be seen all over the world, sometimes right alongside much older pieces of Land Art created by people who lived thousands of years ago.
    Land Art, which is not necessarily unchangeable, can take a number of forms. For example, in 1970 Robert Smithson created the Spiral Jetty （螺旋状防波堤）, made of a collection of stones and mud, in the Great Salt Lake. The American artist made a large jetty in a spiral shape which sticks out into the waters of the lake.
    Reshaping the landscape is a common characteristic of Land Art, which can be created by moving parts around. People can also add things to the environment to create Land Art, like salt, which is added to the Spiral Jetty.  It is possible to use plants.  In all cases, Land Art is immovable.
    Land Art is designed to gradually form, change, and eventually decay（衰落）. That’s one of the biggest differences between Land Art and most of the art one sees in the museums. Some works of art can exist only for a few hours or days. Others are exposed to rain and wind so that they develop and decay over time, which is part of the attractiveness in the eyes of the artists.
28. What can be learned from the first paragraph?
    A. Land Art was the most popular art in the 1960s.
    B. Land Art aims to get people interested in nature.
    C. American artists were the first to create Land Art.
    D. People have been creating Land Art for thousands of years.
29. What do we know about Robert Smithson?
    A. He is a great creative artist.           B. He lives near the Great Salt Lake.
    C. He made the most famous Land Art.    D. He was a pioneer in creating Land Art.
30. One of the unique characteristics of Land Art lies in ________.
    A. it shows the extreme beauty of nature
    B. it develops and decays gradually over time
    C. it combines the landscapes around completely
    D. it offers the artists a chance to get close to nature
31. What is the passage mainly about?
    A. Works of Land Art.                 B. History of Land Art.
C. Changes of Land Art.               D. Introduction of Land Art.

D
People have been wondering why elephants do not develop cancer even though they have lifespans（寿命）that are similar to humans, living for around 50 to 70 years.
    Now scientists believe they know why. A team at the University of Chicago, US has found that elephants carry a large number of genes that stop tumors（肿瘤）developing. To be precise, they found 20 copies of an anti-tumor gene called TP53 in elephants.  Most other species, including humans, only carry one copy.
    According to the research, the extra copies of the gene improved the animal’s sensitivity to DNA damage, which lets the cells quickly kill themselves when damaged before they can go on to form deadly tumors.
    “An increased risk of developing cancer has stood in the way of the evolution of large body sizes in many animals ,” the study author Dr Vincent Lynch told The Guardian. If every living cell has the same chance of becoming cancerous（癌变的）, large creatures with a long lifespan like whales and elephants should have a greater risk of developing cancer than humans and mice. But across species, the risk of cancer does not show a connection with body mass.
    This phenomenon was found by Oxford University scientist Richard Peto in the 1970s and later named “Peto’s paradox（悖论）”. Biologists believe it results from larger animals using protection that many smaller animals do not.  In the elephant’s case, the making of TP53 is nature’s way of keeping this species alive.
    The study also found that when the same genes were brought to life in mice, they had the same cancer resistance as elephants. This means researchers could use the discovery to develop new treatments that can help stop cancers spreading or even developing in the first place.
    “Nature has already figured out how to prevent cancer,” said Joshua Schiffman, a biologist at the School of Medicine, University of Utah, US. “It’s up to us to learn how different animals deal with the problem so that we can use those strategies to prevent cancer in people.”
32. Why are elephants unlikely to develop cancer?
    A. They have a rather large body size.
    B. Their genes suffer no DNA damage.
    C. Certain genes in their body kill existing tumors.