Question

    The school year has barely started in Denver, and French teacher Tiffany Choi is already worried that her students are suffering from absent-mindedness. The problem isn’t texting, playing video games or passing notes. It’s Denver’s ongoing heat wave.

“Today was a little bit hot, so I noticed kids were very sleepy and they were having to get up to drink water quite often.” said Choi, who works at Denver’s East High School. “If you lose too much water, and you have to keep going to the water fountain, that can take away from their classroom experience.” While nodding off in class on a warm day may seem like a right of passage for the average teen, Choi’s observation carries a bigger consequence than parched (干燥的) lips.

“There’s been quite a few media reports about teachers noticing that students weren’t able to focus on hotter days,” said R Jisung Park, a researcher, “Does a hotter climate during the school year actually affect the rate of learning?” The drops in academic achievement couldn’t be explained by hotter weekends or hotter summers, but the trend was connected to higher temperatures on school days alone.

The connection between lost learning and a greater number of hot days is one more example of how climate change is already affecting our lives-and it’s an alarm bell for what we stand to lose in the future. Humans still have time to lessen the worst consequences of continued global warming. But unless significant changes occur in the next decade-which seem more and more unlikely—the world will be locked into an inescapable period of heat waves unlike our species has ever seen.

1.What may cause students absent-minded according to the text?

A.Video games. B.Text messages.

C.Heat waves. D.Classroom notes.

2.What can be inferred from the second paragraph?

A.Lacking water is vital for kids being sleepy.

B.Extreme heat may lower a kid’s ability to learn.

C.Nodding off in class is a sign of respecting teachers.

D.Kids are more interested in drinking water than sleeping.

3.How does the author feel about dealing with the future global warming?

A.Optimistic. B.Uncertain.

C.Worried. D.Firm.

4.What is the best title for the text?

A.The hotter it grows, the less kids are learning.

B.The consequences of continued global warming.

C.The reasons why kids are absent-minded in class.

D.The hotter it grows, the more focused kids become.

Answer

1.C

2.B

3.C

4.A

【解析】

本文属于议论文。主题：人与环境。文章论述了天气越热，孩子们学得就越少的观点，进而引起人们对天气变暖对人类影响的思考。

1.细节理解题。第根据文章第一段中“It’s Denver’s ongoing heat wave”可知，是热浪影响了孩子们的专注。故正确答案为C项。

2.推理判断题。根据第二段If you lose too much water, and you have to keep going to the water fountain, that can take away from their classroom experience可知，因为热，孩子们就会不断喝水，而不断喝水又会减少孩子上课的体验，进而影响他们的专注力；再结合第一段French teacher Tiffany Choi is already worried that her students are suffering from absent-mindedness.“热浪使孩子们心不在焉”得出结论：热会降低孩子的学习能力。故正确答案为B项。

3.推理判断题。根据最后一段“But unless significant changes occur in the next decade-which seem more and more unlikely—the world will be locked into an inescapable period of heat waves unlike our species has ever seen”可知，除非在未来十年发生重大变化，而这似乎越来越不可能；否则世界将陷入一个不可避免的我们人类从没有遭遇过的热浪时期。即作者认为应对未来的全球变暖问题，人类是担忧的。故正确答案为C项。

4.主旨大意题。从主题段落第一段The school year has barely started in Denver, and French teacher Tiffany Choi is already worried that her students are suffering from absent-mindedness. The problem isn’t texting, playing video games or passing notes. It’s Denver’s ongoing heat wave可知，天气变暖形成的热浪使得孩子们难以专注，所以短文的最佳标题为“气越热，孩子们学得就越少”。故正确答案为A项。