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强化练(十四) 科普知识类说明文 (限时：25 分钟)
A
(2022·安徽“皖南八校”联考)
Every person yawns.So do many other vertebrate(有脊椎的) animals，including snakes，
dogs，cats，sharks，and chimpanzees.While yawning is contagious(会传染的)，not everyone
catches a yawn.Around 60%－70% of people yawn if they see another person yawn in real life or
in a photo or even read about yawning.Contagious yawning also occurs in animals，but it doesn’t
necessarily work the same way as in people.
Scientists have proposed many theories for why we catch yawns.Probably the most popular
theory is that yawning serves as a form of nonverbal communication.Catching a yawn shows
you’re accustomed to a person’s emotions.Scientific evidence comes from a 2010 study at the
University of Connecticut，which concluded yawning does not become contagious until a child is
about four years old when empathy(共情) skills develop.In the study，children with autism，who
may have impaired empathy development，caught yawns less often than their peers.
Studying contagious yawning in other animals may provide clues to how people catch
yawns.Contagious yawning in animals may serve as a means of communication.Siamese fighting
fish yawn when they see their mirror image or another fighting fish，generally just prior to an
attack.
Contagious yawning is linked to temperature，in both animals and people.Most scientists
speculate it is a thermoregulatory behavior ， while some researchers believe it is used to
communicate a potential threat or stressful situation.A 2010 study of budgerigars(虎皮鹦鹉) found
that yawning increased as temperature was raised near body temperature.
People commonly yawn when tired or bored.Similar behavior is seen in animals.One study
found the brain temperature in sleep deprived rats was higher than their core temperature.Yawning
reduced brain temperature，possibly improving brain function.Researchers will do further study on
this.
1．What can we learn about yawning from paragraph 1?
A．All animals yawn.
B．Reading about yawning may make a person yawn.
C．Only vertebrate animals yawn.
D．Yawning works the same for human and animals.
2．Why does the author mention children with autism in paragraph 2?
A．To prove a theory.
B．To define a concept.C．To develop the theme.
D．To provide the background.
3．Siamese fighting fish yawn to .
A．show kindness
B．find a partner
C．give a threat
D．escape from danger
4．What can be inferred from the passage?
A．More research on yawning will be carried out in the future.
B．Temperature is not a factor concerning yawning.
C．The secret to yawning has been worked out.
D．Yawning can improve brain function greatly.
B
Using the power of artificial intelligence(AI)，scientists have revealed new insights into the
creation and destruction of mass extinction.Contrary to conventional knowledge，their study
suggests that larger extinctions are not always a form of “creative destruction” that allows new
organisms(生物体) to radiate and evolve.Instead，it suggests that mass extinction is rarely
associated with new species of radiation.
Dr.Hoyal Cuthill，the lead study author from the University of Essex in the UK and the
Tokyo Institute of Technology，said in a statement，“Some of the most challenging things to
understand the history of life are the vast timelines involved and the number of species.New
machine learning applications can help us understand this information in human-readable form.This
means that we can，so to speak，hold the evolution of half a billion years in the palm of our hand
and gain new insights from what we see.”
They concluded that mass extinction and later radiation were not connected as previously
thought.Within 5 percent of the most significant periods of disruption(中断)，AI detected “big
five” mass extinctions，seven more mass extinctions，two mass extinction-radiation events，
and 15 mass radiations.Most importantly，it discovers that massive radiation and extinction rarely
occurred with each other，changing the view that greater extinction leads to a kind of deep cycle-
like species radiation of nature.It appears that larger extinctions are certainly not the engine of
evolutionary radiation.Take the Cambrian eruption for example and it was about 41 million years
ago when a large group of animals first appeared on the record of the first fossil record and the
dawn of a high mobile animal equipped with modern physical features.
This new study found that a handful of other notable explosions of biodiversity，including the
Cambrian eruption，usually occurred at a time when they were largely isolated(隔离) from
extinction.Dr.Nicholas Guttenberg，a study co-author from the Tokyo Institute of Technology
explained，“Ecosystems are dynamic and you don’t need anything to exist to allow somethingnew to appear.”
5．What does the first paragraph serve as?
A．An explanation of artificial intelligence.
B．A background of researchers’ study.
C．The reasons for creative destruction.
D．The result of researchers’ new study.
6．What can we infer from Dr.Hoyal Cuthill’s words?
A．AI contributes a lot to the study of evolution.
B．Understanding the history of life is very difficult.
C．New AI machines learn applications better.
D．Biological evolution can be controlled easily.
7．What is the researchers’ discovery?
A．Mass extinction is unlikely to cause evolutionary radiation.
B．The first animal with modern features occurred during eruption.
C．The volcanic eruption led to a mass extinction and radiation.
D．The idea of deep cycle-like species radiation has turned out true.
8．What is the text mainly about?
A．New processes of biological evolution.
B．New view of radiation from natural species.
C．New understanding of mass extinction.
D．New outbreaks of biological populations.
C
Midway through The Matrix，Cypher feasts on an enormous steak，well aware that his
reality is not real，part of a digital program telling his brain that the steak is a construction and that
it is “juicy and delicious”．Two decades after the movie made its first appearance，something
unexpected arises：The future of reality will not only be virtual but also synthetic(合成的)．
Cypher’s future meal will be a physical one，synthesized from animal cells.
And the synthesis goes beyond dinner.Starting with components from the natural world，
scientists are learning to engineer microorganisms and build biocomputing systems.However，
biology has a tendency to evolve in unexpected ways.
Synthesized meat is one case in point.The driving forces behind the meat movement are
practical.It has been estimated that cultured(培育的) meat would require 7 to 45 percent less energy
and produce 78 to 96 percent less greenhouse gas than conventional animals farmed for
consumption.But once we’re able to synthesize meat，theoretically，we’ll have the capability
to culture meat from any animal，even those we’d never consider eating today，like dolphins or
chimpanzees，which will pose a new regulatory challenge for us.Using synthetic biology，we can even edit and rewrite life，the technology of which is
already in use.In 2021，scientists in some countries announced they had grown monkey embryos
injected with human stem cells.Here comes the situation worth considering：such a monkey-
human hybrid will demonstrate qualities that are somewhere between humans ， on which
experimentation isn’ t allowed ， and animals ， which are often raised specifically for
research.How will we decide when an animal becomes too human?
Depending on where you stand，the synthetic realities land somewhere between “really
exciting”and “critically concerning”．As individuals，we undertake a shared responsibility to
make good choices about this coming synthetic technology.
9．What do we know about Cypher’s steak in the movie?
A．It is anything but appetizing.
B．It is enjoyed in a virtual world.
C．It is synthesized from animal cell.
D．It is a construction made by himself.
10．What’s the advantage of synthesized meat?
A．It is more nutritious.
B．It is more energy-consuming.
C．It is more environment-friendly.
D．It is more controllable in regulation.
11．What is the author’s attitude to the experiment in paragraph 4?
A．Cautious. B．Favorable.
C．Pessimistic. D．Indifferent.
12．What is the purpose of the text?
A．To popularize synthetic technology.
B．To indicate challenges of synthetic technology.
C．To stress the importance of synthetic technology.
D．To introduce the development of synthetic technology.
