Question

Find Which Direction Is South

Do you have a good sense of direction? If not, please take with you a compass. But if you forget to take a compass, you can still find your way.

It’ s never a good idea to imagine that the family member who was entrusted(委托) with the job of map reading actually knows where the family is. You can tell by the slightly confused look on their faces that nothing on the ground seems to match the map. Never mind. The sun is shining and it’ s still morning. If you don’t know the exact time, you can still find out where south is, but you’ll need to be patient.

①Find a straight stick and put it in the ground in a place where you can mark its shadow.

②Try to position the stick as vertically(垂直) as you can. You can check this by making a simple plumb line (铅锤线)with a piece of string and weight. You haven’ t got any string？OK, use a thread from your clothes with a button tied at the end to act as a weight.

③Mark the end of the shadow cast by the stick.

④Wait approximately half an hour and mark the end of the shadow again.

⑤Keep doing this until you have made several marks.

⑥The mark nearest the stick will represent the shortest shadow, which is cast at midday, when the sun is highest in the sky and pointing to the exact south.

⑦Pick a point in the distance along the line between the shortest shadow and the stick.

⑧That point is south of where you are.

⑨Now you can turn the map, like you did before, and find which way you should be travelling.

1.To find the direction, we ought to be patient probably because________.

A. it is not easy to find a proper stick    B. it is not easy to position the stick

C. it takes hours to make the marks    D. it takes about half an hour to make the marks

2.The passage would probably be most helpful to________.

A. those who draw maps    B. those who get lost

C. those who make compasses    D. those who do experiments

3.Which of the following pictures best shows the way of finding the direction of south?

A.     B.

C.     D.

4.The author presents this passage by________.

A. telling an interesting story    B. describing an activity in a lively way

C. testing an idea by reasoning    D. introducing a practical method

Answer

1.C

2.B

3.A

4.D

【解析】

这是一篇说明文。文章介绍了一种实用的方法，告诉读者如何在没有指南针的情况下，找到南方。

1.推理判断题。根据④Wait approximately half an hour and mark the end of the shadow again. ⑤Keep doing this until you have made several marks.可知做一个标记大约需要半小时，需要做几个标记，所以需要花费几个小时的时间做标记，这正是为了找到方向，我们需要耐心的原因，故选C。

2.推理判断题。答案定位在第一自然段But if you forget to take a compass, you can still find your way.可知但如果你没有带指南针，你仍然能找到路，由此可判断出这篇文章可能对迷路的人有帮助，故选B。

3.推理判断题。根据The mark nearest the stick will represent the shortest shadow, which is cast at midday, when the sun is highest in the sky and pointing to the exact south.可知最短的影子指向北方，故选A。

4.推理判断题。文章第二段If you don’t know the exact time, you can still find out where south is, but you’ll need to be patient.说如果你不知道准确的时间，你也能找到南方，接下来分步骤说明了如何找到南方，所以作者通过介绍一种实用的方法来呈现这篇文章，故选D。