Question

    It did take me quite a while to start noticing Dr. Yuval Noah Harari’s well-received book: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (人类简史). I bought the book after I heard Dou Wentao (a renowned TV hose) mention it on his podcast, and to be frank, I read the first chapter with little _________. But it turned out to be the best book I read in 2017.

While I was immediately ___________ the book kept evolving as I read it. The book began with a brief introduction of the lives and activities of the earliest proto-humans (原始人)---Neanderthals (尼安德特人), Homoerectus (直立人) and early Homo Sapiens (智人)---and then _________ an examination of why it was the Homo sapiens, after hundreds of thousands of years of surviving but pretty much existing in the middle of the food chain, _________ rocketed to the top of it without any significant genetic changes, conquered multiple climates, and eventually domesticated the world around them from farm animals to crops. And Harari includes an interesting but fairly _________ argument about the true nature of our relationship to our most necessary crop---wheat.

Think for a moment about the _________ Revolution from the viewpoint of wheat. Ten thousand years ago wheat was just a wild grass, one of many, confined to a small range in the Middle East. All of a sudden, within just a few short millennia, it was growing everywhere.

So how did this grass turn from insignificant to ubiquitous (到处存在的)? Wheat did it by manipulating (操纵) Homo sapiens to its advantage. This ape had been living a fairly comfortable life _________ and gathering until about 10,000 years ago, but then began to _________ more and more effort in cultivating wheat. Then, humans in many parts of the world were doing little from dawn to dusk _________ taking care of wheat plants.

However, the body of Homo sapiens had not evolved for cultivating wheat. Therefore human spines, knees, necks and arches paid the price. Moreover, the new agricultural tasks demanded so much time that people were forced to settle __________ next to their wheat fields. This completely changed their way of life. We did not __________ wheat. It’s the other way around. One of the most important and sustained ideas running through the book is that what ultimately __________ Homo sapiens from all other creatures---other mammals, other apes, and even other “humans” like Neanderthals---was not our opposable thumbs or some other __________ standards, but instead it was our ability to generate (生成), believe in and act upon what Yuval Noah Narari calls “myths” or “__________” (essentially ideas and cultural institutions), particularly on a large scale and collective basis, which eventually transformed us from creatures that lived in small, loosely-organized groups (the typical feature of most apes) to our modern status.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a fascinating ambitious and difficult-to-summarize book that is also just highly __________. So as senior high school students, you won’t experience too much difficulty following the author’s train of thoughts. And I strongly recommend you to indulge (纵情于) yourself in this well-written book.

Inspired by Yuval Noah Harari’s mind-blowing book:

Sapiens: A brief history of Humankind

1.A.attention B.evaluation C.illustration D.expectation

2.A.fascinated B.confused C.distracted D.uninterested

3.A.turned to B.gave away C.prepared for D.went after

4.A.naturally B.randomly C.suddenly D.hardly

5.A.annoying B.touching C.embarrassing D.depressing

6.A.Industrial B.Agricultural C.Cultural D.Political

7.A.planting B.hunting C.trading D.wondering

8.A.spare B.resist C.invest D.demand

9.A.regardless of B.contrary to C.together with D.other than

10.A.permanently B.delightfully C.temporarily D.instantly

11.A.consume B.grow C.domesticate D.harvest

12.A.distinguished B.disqualified C.discouraged D.dissatisfied

13.A.intellectual B.physical C.psychological D.moral

14.A.poems B.reports C.documents D.fictions

15.A.complex B.overrated C.readable D.appreciated

Answer

1.D

2.A

3.A

4.C

5.D

6.B

7.B

8.C

9.D

10.A

11.C

12.A

13.B

14.D

15.C

【解析】

本文是一篇说明文，作者介绍了《智人：人类简史》这本书的主要内容并推荐大家阅读。

1.考查名词词义辨析。句意：坦率地说，我读第一章的时候，我没抱太大的期望。A. attention注意力；B. evaluation估价；C. illustration图解；D. expectation期待、期望。根据空后的“But it turned out to be the best book I read in 2017.”可知，但结果它是2017年我读过的最好的一本书，转折连词But表明这个结果与我以前的想法相反，说明刚开始读的时候我对这本书没报太大的期望（没想到它会是一本好书），故D项正确。

2.考查形容词词义辨析。句意：虽然我很快就被吸引住了，但这本书在我读的过程中不断发展（越来越精彩）。A. fascinated着迷的、被深深吸引的；B. confused迷惑的；C. distracted分心的；D. uninterested不感兴趣的。根据上文中的But it turned out to be the best book I read in 2017.”可知，它是2017年我读过的最好的一本书，因此我很快就被它吸引了，故A项正确。

3.转向；B. gave away泄露；C. prepared for为……准备；D. went after追求。根据空前的“The book began with a brief introduction of the lives and activities of the earliest proto-humans (原始人)---Neanderthals (尼安德特人), Homoerectus (直立人) and early Homo Sapiens”可知，这本书首先简要介绍了最早的原始人类——尼安德特人、直立人和早期智人的生活和活动，再结合空后的“n examination of why it was the Homo sapiens”可知，介绍完这些后，这本书开始转向对为什么智人能够攀升到食物顶端并驯养了周围的世界这一问题的研究，故A项正确。

4.考查副词词义辨析。句意同上。A. naturally自然地；B. randomly随便地；C. suddenly突然；D. hardly几乎不。根据空后的“without any significant genetic changes”可知，这种变化是在没有任何显著的基因变化的情况下发生的，因此是突然的，故C项正确。

5.恼人的；B. touching动人的；C. embarrassing令人为难的；D. depressing令人沮丧的。根据空前的“interesting but”可知与“有趣的”相对的自然是“令人沮丧的”，故D项正确。

6.考查形容词词义辨析。句意：让我们从小麦的角度来思考一下农业革命。A. Industrial工业的；B. Agricultural农业的；C. Cultural文化的；D. Political政治的。根据空后的“from the viewpoint of wheat”可知，小麦属于农作物，因此此处指“农业革命”，故B项正确。

7.种植；B. hunting狩猎；C. trading交易；D. wondering想知道。根据下文中的“but then began to ____8____ more and more effort in cultivating wheat.”可知此处讲的是智人在种植小麦以前的活动，再结合空后的“gathering”可知此处指“狩猎和采集”，故B项正确。

8.考查动词词义辨析。句意同上。A. spare分让；B. resist抵抗；C. invest投资；D. demand要求。根据空后的“more and more effort in cultivating wheat”可知，后来它们开始投入越来越多的精力来种植小麦，故C项正确。

9.考查介词短语辨析。句意：那时，世界上许多地方的人类除了照料小麦以外，从早到晚几乎什么也不做。A. regardless of不管；B. contrary to与……相反；C. together with连同；D. other than除了。根据空前的“doing little from dawn to dusk”及空后的“taking care of wheat plants”可知此处指“除了照料小麦以外，从早到晚几乎什么也不做”，故D项正确。

10.考查副词词义辨析。句意：此外，新的农业任务需要如此多的时间，人们被迫永久定居在他们的麦田附近。A. permanently永久地；B. delightfully快乐地；C. temporarily临时地；D. instantly立即地。根据空前的“the new agricultural tasks demanded so much time”可知，新的农业任务需要大量的时间，因此人们被迫永久定居在麦田附近，故A项正确。

11.考查动词词义辨析。句意：我们没有驯养小麦。A. consume挥霍；B. grow种植；C. domesticate驯养；D. harvest收获。根据空后的“It’s the other way around.”可知，这种生活方式和人类以前的生活方式正好相反，这说明人类以前没有驯养小麦，上文中的“domesticated the world around them from farm animals to crops”也是提示，故C项正确。

12.1考查动词词义辨析。句意：贯穿全书的一个最重要和最持久的观点是，最终将智人与所有其他生物——其他哺乳动物、其他类人猿，甚至像尼安德特人这样的其他“人类”区别开来的，不是我们的对生拇指或其他一些身体标准，而是我们创造、信仰和行动的能力，哈拉里称之为“神话”或“小说”（基本上是思想和文化体系）。A. distinguished区别、区分；B. disqualified取消资格；C. discouraged使灰心；D. dissatisfied使不满意。根据空后的“Homo sapiens from all other creatures”可知此处指“将智人与所有其他生物区别开来”，故A项正确。

13.考查形容词词义辨析。句意同上。A. intellectual智力的；B. physical 身体上的；C. psychological心理的； D. moral道德的。根据空前的“opposable thumbs”可知，对生拇指属于身体特征，因此此处指“身体标准”，故B项正确。

14.考查名词词义辨析。句意同上。A. poems诗；B. reports报告；C. documents文档；D. fictions小说。根据空前的“myths”可知此处指“小说”，故D项正确。

15.考查形容词词义辨析。句意：《智人：人类简史》是一本引人入胜、难以概括的书，可读性很强。A. complex复杂的；B. overrated高估的；C. readable读起来津津有味的、可读的；D. appreciated受欢迎的。根据空前的“Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is a fascinating ambitious and difficult-to-summarize book”可知，《智人：人类简史》是一本引人入胜、难以概括的书，可读性很强，故C项正确。