Question

Flying over a desert in an airplane, two scientists looked down with trained eyes at trees and bushes. After an hour's flight one of the scientists wrote in his notebook, "Look here for probable metal." Walking across hilly ground, four scientists reported, "This ground should be searched for metals." From an airplane over a hilly wasteland a scientist sent back by radio one word "Uranium".

    None of the scientists had X-ray eyes: they had no magic powers for looking down below the earth's surface. They were merely putting to use one of the newest methods of locating minerals in the ground -- using trees and plants as signs that certain minerals may lie under the ground on which the trees and plants are growing.

    This newest method of searching for minerals is based on the fact that minerals deep in the earth may affect the kind of bushes and trees that grow on the surface.

    At Watson Bar Creek, a mineral search group gathered bags of tree seeds. Boxes were filled with small branches from the trees. Roots were dug and put into boxes. Each bag and box was carefully marked. In a scientific laboratory the parts of the forest trees were burned to ashes andtested. Each small part was examined to learn whether there were minerals in it.

    Study of the roots, branches and seeds showed no silver. But there were small amount of gold in the roots and a little less gold in the branches and seeds. The seeds growing nearest to the tree trunk had more gold than those growing on the ends of the branches.

    If the trees indicated that there was no gold in the ground, the scientists wouldn't spare money to pay for digging into the ground.

Scientists were flying over a desert or a hilly wasteland or a mountain region to ________.

A. train their eyes B. study the trees   C. look for gold         D. search for minerals

The study of trees, branches and roots indicated that __________.

A. there were larger amounts of gold in the branches far from the tree trunk than in the seeds

B. there were smaller amounts of gold in the tree roots deep in the ground than in the branches

C. there were larger amounts of gold in the seeds growing closer to the tree trunk than in the seeds farther from it

D. there were larger amounts of gold in the branches than in the leaves on the ends of the branches

Which of the following is NOT mentioned as part of a tree that can help the searchers?

A. Leaves.          B. Roots.            C. Branches.           D. Seeds.

Which of the following might be the best title for this passage?

A. Scientists searching for treasure with special equipment.

  B. New methods of doing geological study.

C. Gold could be found in trees and plants.

D. A new method of searching for minerals.

Answer 1

【小題1】D

【小題2】C

【小題3】A

【小題4】D

解析:

【小題1】 推理判斷題。科學家的最終目的是尋找地下礦物，而且文章中提到的metal，gold，silver，uranium都屬于minerals的范疇，故選D。

【小題2】 推理判斷題。答此題的關鍵在于理解文章第五段最后一句話The seeds growing nearest to the tree trunk had more gold thant those growing on the ends of the branches，這句話指出，長得離樹干最近的種子比長在樹枝末端的種子的含金量高，故可推斷出，種子離樹干越近，含金量就越高，因此選C。

【小題3】 細節理解題。根據文章第四段可知，只有leaves沒有提到，故選A。

【小題4】 主旨大意題。文章主要講述了探測礦藏韻一種新方法，故選D。文章并沒介紹一種特殊的探礦設備，故不選A。