Question

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

The sun might be 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, if you don't have a clock that shows time, you still know that when the sun shines, it's day, and when it's dark, it's night. The sun can not only tell you whether（是否）it's day or night but also it's morning, noon, or afternoon. When the sun is almost directly（恰好）overhead, it's noon.

People who live near the sea learn from the tides. 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 know 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 clock is an even better clock. If you had fine dry sand in a glass 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 part in one hour. When the hourglass is turned over, the sand will take another hour to go back again.

1.From the passage we can know there are_____ ways to tell time except the clock and watch．

A.3 B.4 C.5 D.7

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 days during summers and long night during winters

3.The underlined word "tides" in the passage means_______.

A.洋流 B.潮汐 C.海啸 D.波浪

4.Which page of the newspaper may this passage be in?

A.News B.Science C.Advertisement. D.Sports.

5.What's the best title for the passage?

A.Different Ways to Tell Time B.How the Clock Was Invented

C.The Development of the Clock D.A Useful Machine to Tell Time

Answer

1.C

2.D

3.B

4.B

5.A

【解析】

这是一篇科普性质的小文章，主要介绍了在没有钟表的情况下，其他方式也可以给人们指示时间。如太阳的转动，大海的潮汐，月亮和星星，风的变化以及沙漏等等。

1.细节理解题。根据文章内容，除了钟表外，还能判断时间的方法依次是“The sun might be the world's first “clock””太阳、“People who live near the sea learn from the tides.”潮汐、“Seamen on a ship know time by looking at the moon and the stars.”月亮和星星、“In these places the wind can be the clock.”风以及“A sand clock is an even better clock.”沙漏五种。故选C。

2.细节理解题。由第二段中的“There, it's dark most of the winter, and light most of the summer.”可知，那儿的冬天几乎都是黑夜，而夏天几乎都是白天，这种情况太阳是派不上用场的。故选D。

3.词义猜测题。根据下文“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.”涨潮6小时，落潮6小时可知，这里指潮汐。故选B。

4.推理判断题。根据文章内容可知，本文主要讲述除了钟表之外人们判断时间的方法，是一篇科普文章，所以最有可能出现在报纸中的科学板块。故选B。

5.标题归纳题。由第一段“How could we tell time if there were no watches or clocks anywhere in the world?”可知，这篇文章主要介绍除了钟表之外人们辨别时间的不同方式。故选A。