Question

    Putting a dinosaur skeleton（骨架）together is not easy. The skeletons are usually very incomplete. Many dinosaur fossils（化石） are discovered badly damaged. Bones are often found crashed (压碎) or bent by the great weight of the dirt and rock above. Sometimes parts from different creatures are mixed together. This just adds to the confusion.

Unfortunately, some scientists have not been careful enough in their descriptions of dinosaurs. They have told grand stories of how dinosaurs looked and behaved. All of these descriptions are based on guesswork – the imaginations of people who have never seen a living dinosaur. Some scientists have made complete pictures of dinosaurs based on just a single bone or tooth or leg. Such pictures are based on many guesses and very little facts. The scientists' ideas often turn out to be wrong when more facts are discovered.

Dinosaur fossils are not found with labels attached showing what the animals looked like. That is why no pictures of dinosaurs are exactly right. Every dinosaur painting is sure to contain at least some wrong information. No artist in the twentieth century ever saw the living, breathing animals -- complete with skin, flesh, and color.

For instance, imagine never having seen or heard of a peacock. One day you find the jumbled bones of it buffed in the ground. You try to put the bones together to form a skeleton. And then you try to draw a picture of what the animal looked like when it was alive. But bones cannot tell the whole story. Even if you are a very good artist, it would be a miracle if you drew a tree picture of a peacock just from the bones and your imagination.

1.Which of the following is NOT a reason why putting a dinosaur skeleton together is difficult?

A.No one has seen a living dinosaur.

B.Dinosaur bones are too complicated when found.

C.Dinosaur bones are crushed or bent when found.

D.Dinosaur bones are mixed with other animals' bones when found.

2.According to Paragraph 2, we can infer that _______.

A.the descriptions of dinosaurs contain some wrong information

B.some scientists are very careful in their descriptions of dinosaurs

C.some scientists have made complete pictures of dinosaurs based on facts

D.the ideas of scientists are often proved wrong when more facts are discovered

3.Taking a peacock as an example, the author shows that________

A.it is easy to put the peacock bones together to form a skeleton

B.it is not easy to put the peacock bones together to form a skeleton

C.a very good artist can draw a good picture even if he has never seen a peacock

D.it is impossible to draw a correct picture based on the bones and one's imagination

4.What is the passage mainly about?

A.Why it is difficult for scientists to find dinosaur fossils.

B.How we can get right information about dinosaurs.

C.Why scientists can't give exact description of dinosaurs.

D.How we can put a dinosaur skeleton together.

Answer

1.B

2.A

3.D

4.C

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。由于恐龙化石被发现时经常是被毁坏的，所以拼接恐龙骨架很难。而且科学家在描述恐龙时也是在仅有的几片化石上做猜想，经常被证明是错误的。再通过如果没有见过孔雀也很难画出孔雀的样子来举例，说明了为什么科学家无法精确地描述恐龙。

1.细节理解题。文章第一段提出了为什么拼接恐龙骨架很难的物理原因：Many dinosaur fossils（化石） are discovered badly damaged（很多化石被发现时已经被严重毁坏了。）和Sometimes parts from different creatures are mixed together.（不同生物的化石混合在一起）。文章第二段提出了这个问题的人为原因：All of these descriptions are based on guesswork – the imaginations of people who have never seen a living dinosaur.（所有的描述都是没有见过活恐龙的人们的想象）。利用排除法，故B选项正确。

2.推理判断题。从文章第二段中的“All of these descriptions are based on guesswork---the imaginations of people who have never seen a living dinosaur.（所有的描述都是没有见过活恐龙的人们的想象）。”以及“The scientists' ideas often turn out to be wrong when more facts are discovered.（当更多事实被发现时，科学家们的想法经常被证明是错误的）”可以推知，科学家们对恐龙的描述包含错误的信息。题干中有infer，是推断题，而D选项几乎是原文原句，不可以选。故A选项正确。

3.细节理解题。文章第四段提到peacock（孔雀），是为了证明第三段提出的观点：由于不知道恐龙长什么样子，也没有见过恐龙，所以关于恐龙的照片几乎没有一张是完全正确的。也就是说，仅仅依靠化石和想象，很难画出正确的图像。故D选项正确。

4.主旨大意题。本文文章中心在第三段，第三段意思是：恐龙化石被发现时没有附有恐龙照片，所以没有一张恐龙图片是完全正确的，每张图片都包含一些错误的信息20世纪的科学家也没有见过有血有肉的恐龙。这些都是科学家无法正确描述恐龙的原因。故C选项正确。