Question

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

The sun was probably the world’s first “clock”, except in the far north, where the Eskimos (爱斯基摩人) live. There, it’s dark most of the winter, and light most of the summer. But in most of the world, people used the sun for a clock. Even today, if you don’t have a clock, you still know that when the sun shines, it’s day, and when it’s dark, it’s night. The sun can also tell you if it’s morning, noon, or afternoon.

People near the sea can tell time from the tides(潮汐). 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 24 hours.

Seamen on a ship learn how to tell 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(沙) 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(底部) part in exactly one hour. When people turn over the hourglass, the sand will take another hour to go back again.

1.How many ways does the passage show us to tell time including the watches and clocks?

A. 8              B. 7     C. 5              D. 4

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.The writer thinks ____________.

A. there are no more than two tides in a day

B. a sand clock is a better clock than the tide

C. only the moon is a good “clock” for seamen

D. the wind can be a clock all over the world

4.In which column(栏目) of a newspaper can you most possibly read this passage?

A. Science.        B. News.

C. Advertisements.  D. Sports.

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.B

4.A

【解析】

试题分析：短文大意：这篇短文主要介绍了没有手表和钟表，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。根据短文描述可知太阳的转动，大海的潮汐，月亮和星星，风的变化以及沙漏可以指示时间，所以选C。

2.D细节理解题。根据第二段There, it’s dark most of the winter, and light most of the summer描述可知冬天的夜太长，夏天的日太长，所以选D。

3.B细节理解题。根据最后一段的描述可知作者认为沙时钟是一个更好的时钟。所以选B。

4.推理判断题。根据短文描述可知这是一段科普文章，所以选A。

考点：科普类短文阅读。