Question

How could we tell time if there were no watches or clocks any where in the world?

The sun was probably the world’s first “clock”, except in the far north, where the Eskimos live. There, it’s dark most of the winter, and light most of the summer. But in most of the world, people have used the sun fully, if you don’t have a clock that shows time, you still know that when the sun shines, it’s day, and when it’s dark, it’s night. The sun can not only tell you whether it’s day or night but also it’s morning, noon, or afternoon. When the sun is almost over your head, it’s noon.

People who live near the sea can tell time from the tides（潮水）. In the daytime, for about six hours, the water rises higher and higher on the beach. And then it goes down and down for about six hours. The same thing happens again at night. There are two high tides and two low tides every twenty-four hours.

Seaman on a ship tells time by looking at the moon and the stars. The whole sky is their clock.

In some places in the world the wind comes up at about the same time every day or changes direction or stops blowing. In these places the wind can be the clock.

A sand clock is an even better clock. If you had fine dry sand in a glass shaped like the one in the picture, you would have what is called an hourglass. The sand in the hourglass goes from the top part to the bottom part in exactly one hour. When the hourglass is turned over the sand will take another hour to go back again.

1. From the passage we can know there are ____ ways to tell time besides the clock and watch.

A. three            B. four             C. five            D. seven

2. The Eskimos in the far north can’t use the sun for a clock because ___________.

A.  they know very little about the sun

B.  the sun there never goes down in winter

C.  It’s too cold for them to go out to watch the sun

D. it has long dark winters and long light summers

3.This passage is probably a kind of ___________.

A. news           B. science

C. advertisement    D. sports

4.What’s the best title for the passage?

A. Different ways to tell time.

B. How the clock was invented.

C. The development of the clock.

D. A useful machine to tell time.

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.B

4.A

【解析】

试题分析：这篇短文中作者主要介绍了在没有手表和钟表的情况下，其他的方式也可以给人们指示时间。如太阳的转动，大海的潮汐，风的变化，以及沙漏等。

1.C细节理解题。通读全文可知，除了钟表以外，短文描述太阳的转动、大海的潮汐、月亮和星星、风的变化、以及沙漏等五种方式可以指示时间。结合选项可知应选C。

2.D细节理解题。根据短文第二段“There, it’s dark most of the winter, and light most of the summer”的描述可知，冬天的夜太长，夏天的日太长。结合选项可知应选D。

3.B判断推理题。根据短文描述，文章详细描述了的转动，大海的潮汐，月亮和星星，风的变化，以及沙漏等五种方式是如何指示时间的，由此可知这是一篇科普文章，结合选项可知应选B。

4.除了钟表以外，太阳的转动、大海的潮汐、月亮和星星、风的变化、以及沙漏等五种方式可以指示时间。结合选项可知应选A。

考点：科普类短文阅读。