Ⅳ.阅读理解
主题语境:人与社会 语篇类型:记叙文 词数:332 难度:★★★☆
They asked Katherine Johnson for the moon,and she gave it to them.With little more than a pencil,a slide rule and one of the finest mathematical minds in the country,Mrs.Johnson,who died at 101 on Monday,calculated the precise trajectories(轨道) that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and,after Neil Armstrong’s history-making moonwalk,let it return to Earth.
Yet throughout Mrs.Johnson’s 33 years in NASA and for decades afterward,almost no one knew her name.
Mrs.Johnson was one of several hundred strictly educated,supremely capable yet largely unrecognised women who,well before the modern feminist movement,worked as NASA mathematicians.But it was not only her sex that kept her long unsung.For some years at midcentury,the black women were subjected to a double segregation (隔离):They were kept separate from the much large group of white women who in turn were segregated from the agency’s male mathematicians and engineers.
Mrs.Johnson broke barriers at NASA.In old age,Mrs.Johnson became the most celebrated black women who served as mathematicians for the space agency.Their story was told in the 2016 Hollywood film Hidden Figures,which was nominated for three Oscars,including the best picture.
In 2017,NASA dedicated a building in her honour.That year,The Washington Post described her as “the most high-profile of the computers”—“computers” being the term originally used to describe Mrs.Johnson and her colleagues,much as the word “typewriters” was used in the 19th century to represent professional typists.
She “helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space,”NASA’s administrator,Jim Bridenstine,said in a statement on Monday,“even as she made huge steps that also opened doors for women and people of colour in the universal human quest to explore space.”
As Mrs.Johnson herself was fond of saying,her tenure(任期) at Langley — from 1953 until her retirement in 1986 — was “a time when computers wore skirts”.
【语篇解读】本文是一篇记叙文。文章主要介绍了约翰逊夫人对美国宇航局在数学计算方面所作出的巨大贡献的事情,由于她的黑人身份,她多年后才被社会所认识。
1.What is the function of the first paragraph?
A.To present the Apollo moon mission.
B.To stress Mrs.Johnson’s contributions.
C.To honour Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk.
D To mourn a great woman—Mrs.Johnson.
答案B
解析推理判断题。根据文章第一段中的“Mrs.Johnson,who died at 101 on Monday,calculated the precise trajectories that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and,after Neil Armstrong’s history-making moonwalk,let it return to Earth.”可知,本段的作用就是在强调约翰逊夫人的重要贡献。
2.What does the underlined word “barriers” in paragraph 4 refer to?
A.Gender inequality and color line.
B.Mrs.Johnson’s unrecognised talents.
C.The agency’s male mathematicians and engineers.
D.The hardships before the modern feminist movement.
答案A
解析词义猜测题。根据第三段提到的“……黑人女性受到双重隔离,他们与大量白人女性分开,而这些女性又与该机构的男性数学家和工程师分开”可知,画线单词指的就是上文提到的“性别不平等和种族界限”。
3.Why were Mrs.Johnson and her colleagues described as “computers”?
A.Because they used computers to keep their work secret.
B.Because they were the agency’s human calculators.
C.Because computer systems engaged them deeply.
D.Because they opened a door to outer space.
答案B
解析细节理解题。根据文章第五段中的“That year,The Washington Post described her as ‘the most high-profile of the computers’—‘computers’ being the term originally used to describe Mrs.Johnson and her colleagues,much as the word ‘typewriters’ was used in the 19th century to represent professional typists.”可知,他们都是美国宇航局的活人计算器。
4.What can we learn from Mrs.Johnson’s experience?
A.Try things that may not work.
B.The world awaits our discovery.
C.Use knowledge to wipe out ignorance.
D.Never be limited by the labels attached by others.
答案D
解析推理判断题。通读全文可知,作为黑人,约翰逊夫人对美国的航天事业做出了巨大的贡献。她的经历告诉我们,我们切不可却步于别人给我们所贴的标签。
主题语境:人与社会 语篇类型:记叙文 词数:332 难度:★★★☆
They asked Katherine Johnson for the moon,and she gave it to them.With little more than a pencil,a slide rule and one of the finest mathematical minds in the country,Mrs.Johnson,who died at 101 on Monday,calculated the precise trajectories(轨道) that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and,after Neil Armstrong’s history-making moonwalk,let it return to Earth.
Yet throughout Mrs.Johnson’s 33 years in NASA and for decades afterward,almost no one knew her name.
Mrs.Johnson was one of several hundred strictly educated,supremely capable yet largely unrecognised women who,well before the modern feminist movement,worked as NASA mathematicians.But it was not only her sex that kept her long unsung.For some years at midcentury,the black women were subjected to a double segregation (隔离):They were kept separate from the much large group of white women who in turn were segregated from the agency’s male mathematicians and engineers.
Mrs.Johnson broke barriers at NASA.In old age,Mrs.Johnson became the most celebrated black women who served as mathematicians for the space agency.Their story was told in the 2016 Hollywood film Hidden Figures,which was nominated for three Oscars,including the best picture.
In 2017,NASA dedicated a building in her honour.That year,The Washington Post described her as “the most high-profile of the computers”—“computers” being the term originally used to describe Mrs.Johnson and her colleagues,much as the word “typewriters” was used in the 19th century to represent professional typists.
She “helped our nation enlarge the frontiers of space,”NASA’s administrator,Jim Bridenstine,said in a statement on Monday,“even as she made huge steps that also opened doors for women and people of colour in the universal human quest to explore space.”
As Mrs.Johnson herself was fond of saying,her tenure(任期) at Langley — from 1953 until her retirement in 1986 — was “a time when computers wore skirts”.
【语篇解读】本文是一篇记叙文。文章主要介绍了约翰逊夫人对美国宇航局在数学计算方面所作出的巨大贡献的事情,由于她的黑人身份,她多年后才被社会所认识。
1.What is the function of the first paragraph?
A.To present the Apollo moon mission.
B.To stress Mrs.Johnson’s contributions.
C.To honour Neil Armstrong’s moonwalk.
D To mourn a great woman—Mrs.Johnson.
答案B
解析推理判断题。根据文章第一段中的“Mrs.Johnson,who died at 101 on Monday,calculated the precise trajectories that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and,after Neil Armstrong’s history-making moonwalk,let it return to Earth.”可知,本段的作用就是在强调约翰逊夫人的重要贡献。
2.What does the underlined word “barriers” in paragraph 4 refer to?
A.Gender inequality and color line.
B.Mrs.Johnson’s unrecognised talents.
C.The agency’s male mathematicians and engineers.
D.The hardships before the modern feminist movement.
答案A
解析词义猜测题。根据第三段提到的“……黑人女性受到双重隔离,他们与大量白人女性分开,而这些女性又与该机构的男性数学家和工程师分开”可知,画线单词指的就是上文提到的“性别不平等和种族界限”。
3.Why were Mrs.Johnson and her colleagues described as “computers”?
A.Because they used computers to keep their work secret.
B.Because they were the agency’s human calculators.
C.Because computer systems engaged them deeply.
D.Because they opened a door to outer space.
答案B
解析细节理解题。根据文章第五段中的“That year,The Washington Post described her as ‘the most high-profile of the computers’—‘computers’ being the term originally used to describe Mrs.Johnson and her colleagues,much as the word ‘typewriters’ was used in the 19th century to represent professional typists.”可知,他们都是美国宇航局的活人计算器。
4.What can we learn from Mrs.Johnson’s experience?
A.Try things that may not work.
B.The world awaits our discovery.
C.Use knowledge to wipe out ignorance.
D.Never be limited by the labels attached by others.
答案D
解析推理判断题。通读全文可知,作为黑人,约翰逊夫人对美国的航天事业做出了巨大的贡献。她的经历告诉我们,我们切不可却步于别人给我们所贴的标签。
