Question

When you get in your car, you reach for it. When you’re at work, you take a break to have a moment alone with it. When you get into a lift, you play with it.

Cigarettes? Cup of coffee? No, it’s the third most addictive（使人上瘾的） thing in modern life, the cell phone. And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their wishes to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.

With its shiny surface, its smooth and satisfying touch, the cell phone connects us to the world even as it disconnects us from people three feet away. It affects us in ways its inventors in the late 1940s never imagined.

Dr. Chris Knippers, an expert at the Betty Ford Center in Southern California, reports that the overuse of cell phones has become a social problem not much different from other harmful addictions: a barrier to one-on-one personal contact, and an escape from reality.

Sounds extreme, but we’ve all witnessed the evidence: the person at a restaurant who talks on the phone through an entire meal, ignoring his kids around the table; the woman who talks on the phone in the car, ignoring her husband; the teen who texts messages all the way home from school, avoiding contact with kids all around him. Is it just rude, or is it a kind of unhealthiness? And pardon me, but how is this improving the quality of life?

Jim Williams, an industrial sociologist based in Massachusetts, he points to a study by Duke University researchers that found one-quarter of Americans say they have no one to discuss their most important personal business with. Despite the growing use of phones, e-mail and instant messaging, in other words, Williams says studies show that we don’t have as many friends as our parents. “Just as more information has led to less wisdom, more acquaintances(熟人) through the Internet and cell phones have produced fewer friends,” he says.

If the cell phone has truly had these effects, it’s because it has become very widespread. In 1987, there were only 1 million cell phones in use. Today, almost 300 million Americans carry them. The number of cell phones is far more than that of wired phones in the United States.

1.Which of the following could probably best explain the title of the passage?

A. Cell phone users smoke less than they used to.

B. More people use cell phones than smoke cigarettes.

C. Cell phones have become as addictive as cigarettes.

D. Using cell phone is just as cool as smoking cigarettes.

2.The underlined word “curb” in Paragraph 2 means ________.

A. rescueB. controlC. developD. ignore

3.Which idea does the example of a woman talking on the phone in the car support?

A. Women use cell phones more often than men.

B. Talking on the phone while driving is dangerous.

C. Cell phones make one-on-one personal contact easy.

D. Cell phones do not necessarily bring people together.

4.What is most likely to be discussed in the paragraph that follows?

A. How to make people get closer.

B. The advantages of wired phones.

C. How to use cell phones properly.

D. Giving an example to prove the bad effects of cell phones.

Answer

1.C

2.B

3.D

4.C

【解析】

试题分析：文章讲述了现在很多人对手机有瘾，就像对香烟一样，手机也给人们的生活带来负面影响。

1. 主旨大意题。文章讲的是现在很多人对手机有瘾，就像对香烟一样，手机也给人们的生活带来负面影响。第二段Cigarette? Cup of coffee? No, it's the third most addictive thing in modern life, the cell phone.可知，手机和香烟一样，成为上瘾的东西。故选C。

2. 猜测词义题。根据句子And experts say it is becoming more difficult for many people to curb their wishes to hug it more tightly than most of their personal relationships.可知，专家们说控制更近的拥抱它的愿望更困难了，划线词curb“控制”和B项同义。故选B。

3. 推理判断题。根据第三段中notes that cell-phone addiction is part of a set of symptoms in a widening gulf of personal separation.可知，这是为了说明手机把人们分离开。故选D。

4. 推理判断题。文章讲述了很多人对手机有瘾，手机给人们的生活带来负面影响。所以下文应该讲怎样正确使用手机，故选C。

考点：考查社会现象类短文

【名师点睛】

关于词义猜测题

做这种类型的题，要根据词、词组、句子所在的语境上下文来判断其意义。因此熟练掌握一些猜词技巧是做好这类题的关键。命题者在出这类题时惯用常规词义来麻痹考生，我们要特别注意熟词生义，切不可脱离语境主观臆断。

下面结合文本及近几年高考试题，对词义猜测的技巧加以解读。

1.根据定义或上下文解释进行猜测

有时短文中出现一个需要猜测其意义的词或短语，下面接着出现其定义或解释，这就是判断该词或短语意义的主要依据。例如：It will be very hard but also very brittle—that is, it will break easily.从后面that is(也就是说)的解释中我们可以了解到brittle 是“脆”的意思。22小题从句中的their longing to hug it more tightly 可知是控制想拥有它的渴望，划线词curb“控制”和B项同义。故选B.

2.根据同位关系进行猜测

阅读中出现的难词有时后面紧跟一个同位语，对前面的词进行解释，这时可利用同位关系对前面或后面的词义或句意进行猜测。例如：The “Chunnel”, a tunnel(隧道) connecting England and France, is now complete.此句中a tunnel connecting England and France是Chunnel的同位语。因此，The “Chunnel”就是英法之间的海底隧道。

3.根据构词法(前缀、后缀、复合、派生等)进行猜测

在英语中，有很多词可以在前面加前缀，在后面加后缀，从而构成一个词，乍看起来，这个词可能是新词，但掌握了一定的构词知识，就不难猜出它的词义。例如：“Our parties are aimed for children 2 to 10,” Anaclerio said, “and they’re very interactive and creative in that they built a sense of drama based on a subject.”文中interactive是由前缀inter-(相互的)和active(活动的，活跃的)而构成的，同时根据上下文的意思可以判断，该词的含义应是“互动的”。

4.根据转折或对比关系进行猜测

根据上下句的连接词，如but, however, otherwise等就可以看到前后句在意义上的差别，从而依据某一句的含义，来确定另一句的含义。另外，分号也可以表示转折、对比或不相干的意义。例如：A child’s birthday party doesn’t have to be a hassle; it can be a basket of fun.从前后两句的意思可以看出，hassle和a basket of fun肯定是近乎相反的意义。所以不难判断hassle的意思是“困难，麻烦”。