Question

【題目】 Pigeons in London have a bad reputation. Some people call them flying rats. And many blame them for causing pollution with their droppings. But now the birds are being used to fight another kind of pollution in this city of 8.5 million.

“The problem for air pollution is that it’s been largely ignored as an issue for a long time,” says Andrea Lee, who works for the London-based environmental organization Client Earth. “People don’t realize how bad it is, and how it actually affects their health.” London’s poor air quality is linked to nearly 10,000 early deaths a year. Lee says, citing(引用)a report released by the city manager last year. If people were better informed about the pollution they’ re breathing, she says, they could pressure the government to do something about it.

Nearby, on a windy hill in London’s Regent’s Park, an experiment is underway that could help—the first week of flights by the Pigeon Air Patrol. It all began when Pierre Duquesnoy, the director for DigitasLBi, a marketing firm, won a London Design Festival contest last year to show how a world problem could be solved using Twitter. Duquesnoy, from France, chose the problem of air pollution.

“Basically, I realized how important the problem was,” he says. “But also I realized that most of the people around me didn’t know anything about it.” Duquesnoy says he wants to better measure pollution, while at the same time making the results accessible to the public through Twitter.

“So”, he wondered, “how could we go across the city quickly collecting as much data as possible?” Drones were his first thought. But it’s illegal to fly them over London. “But pigeons can fly above London, right?” he says. “They live—actually, they are Londoners as well. So, yeah, I thought about using pigeons equipped with mobile apps. And we can use not just street pigeons, but racing pigeons, because they fly pretty quickly and pretty low.”

So it might be time for Londoners to have more respect for their pigeons. The birds may just be helping to improve the quality of the city’s air.

【1】What can we infer about London’s air quality from Paragraph 2?

A. Londoners are very satisfied with it.

B. The government is trying to improve it.

C. Londoners should pay more attention to it.

D. The government has done a lot to improve it.

【2】Duquesnoy attended the London Design Festival to _________.

A. entertain Londoners.B. solve a world problem.

C. design a product for sale.D. protect animals like pigeons.

【3】Why did Duquesnoy give up using drones to fly across London?

A. Because they are too expensive.B. Because they fly too quickly.

C. Because they are forbidden.D. Because they fly too high.

【4】Which can be the best title for the text?

A. Clean air in London.B. London’s dirty secret.

C. London’s new pollution fighter.D. Causes of air pollution in London.

Answer 1

【答案】

【1】C

【2】B

【3】C

【4】C

【解析】

這是一篇說明文。文章介紹了一個(gè)用鴿子監(jiān)測倫敦的空氣質(zhì)量的創(chuàng)意。

【1】推理判斷題。根據(jù)第二段 “The problem for air pollution is that it’s been largely ignored as an issue for a long time,” （空氣污染的問題是長期以來它基本上被忽視了）以及People don’t realize how bad it is, and how it actually affects their health.（人們沒有意識到它有多糟糕，以及它實(shí)際上如何影響他們的健康。）由此推斷出，倫敦人應(yīng)該更關(guān)注倫敦的空氣質(zhì)量，故選C。

【2】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第三段It all began when Pierre Duquesnoy, the director for DigitasLBi, a marketing firm, won a London Design Festival contest last year to show how a world problem could be solved using Twitter.可知, Duquesnoy參加倫敦設(shè)計(jì)節(jié)是為了解決一個(gè)世界性的問題，故選B。

【3】細(xì)節(jié)理解題。根據(jù)第五段But it’s illegal to fly them over London.由此可知，最初， Duquesnoy想用無人機(jī)飛躍倫敦監(jiān)測空氣質(zhì)量，但是因?yàn)槭袃?nèi)禁止無人機(jī)飛行，所以他放棄了這個(gè)想法，故選C。

【4】主旨大意題。根據(jù)第一段But now the birds are being used to fight another kind ofpollution in this city of 8.5 million. 和最后一段So it might be time for Londoners to have more respect for their pigeons. The birds may justbe helping to improve the quality of the citys air.這些關(guān)鍵句可知， 這篇文章主要講了Duquesnoy用鴿子監(jiān)測空氣質(zhì)量，引起人們關(guān)注空氣污染，鴿子成了倫敦新的環(huán)保戰(zhàn)士，故選C。

細(xì)節(jié)理解題的解題思路：

細(xì)節(jié)理解題就是我們常見的wh-題，它們大多是根據(jù)文章中的具體信息如事實(shí)、例證、原因、過程、論述等進(jìn)行提問的。抓住文段中的事實(shí)和細(xì)節(jié)是做好該題型的關(guān)鍵，也是做好其它類型問題的基礎(chǔ)。該題型幾乎都可以在文章中直接找到與答案有關(guān)的信息，或是其變體。在一篇短文里大部分篇幅都屬于這類圍繞主體展開的細(xì)節(jié)，做這類題一般采用尋讀法，即先讀題，然后帶著問題快速閱讀短文，找出與問題和選項(xiàng)有關(guān)的詞語或句子，再對相關(guān)部分進(jìn)行分析對比，找出答案。例如小題2，根據(jù)第三段It all began when Pierre Duquesnoy, the director for DigitasLBi, a marketing firm, won a London Design Festival contest last year to show how a world problem could be solved using Twitter.可知, Duquesnoy參加倫敦設(shè)計(jì)節(jié)是為了解決一個(gè)世界性的問題，故選B。