2019版高考英语一轮复习第一部分教材重点全程攻略Unit3Inventorsandinventions限时规范特训新人教版选修8

Unit 3 Inventors and inventions

Ⅰ.阅读理解

A

Early one morning, more than a hundred years ago, an American inventor called Elias Howe finally fell asleep. He had been working all night on the design of a sewing machine but he had run into a very difficult problem: It seemed impossible to get the thread to run around the needle without any problems.

Though he was tired, Howe slept badly. He turned and turned. Then he had a dream. He dreamt that he had been caught by terrible savages whose king wanted to kill him and eat him unless he could build a perfect sewing machine. When he tried to do so, Howe ran into the same problem as before. The thread kept getting caught around the needle. The king flew into the cage and ordered his soldiers to kill Howe. They came up towards him with their spears raised. But suddenly the inventor noticed something. There was a hole in the tip of each spear. The inventor awoke from the dream, realizing that he had just found the answer to the problem. Instead of trying to get the thread to run around the needle, he should make it run through a small hole in the center of the needle. This was the simple idea that finally made Howe design and build the first really practical sewing machine.

Elias Howe was not the only one in finding the answer to his problem in this way. Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light, said his best ideas came into him in dreams. So did the great physicist Albert Einstein. Charlotte Bronte also drew in her dreams in writing Jane Eyre.

To know the value of dreams, you have to understand what happens when you are asleep. Even then, a part of your mind is still working. This unconscious (无意识的), but still active part understands your experiences and goes to work on the problems you have had during the day. It stores all sorts of information that you may have forgotten or never have really noticed. It is only when you fall asleep that this part of the brain can send messages to the part you use when you are awake. However, the unconscious part acts in a special way. It uses strange images which the conscious part may not understand at first. This is why dreams are sometimes called “secret messages to us”．

篇章导读：本文是一篇说明文。文章以缝纫机诞生的过程及其他一些著名发明家的类似经历说明了梦境对于发明创造的价值。

1．The problem Howe was trying to solve was ________.

A．what kind of thread to use

B．how to design a needle which would not break

C．where to put the needle

D．how to stop the thread from getting caught around the needle

答案：D 细节理解题。根据第一段第二句及第二段第五、六句中的“Howe ran into the same problem as before. The thread kept getting caught around the needle.”可知，Howe面临的问题是如何避免线被缠绕到针上，所以答案是D。

2．Thomas Edison is spoken of because ________.

A．he also tried to invent a sewing machine

B．he got some of his ideas from dreams

C．he was one of Howe's best friends

D．he also had difficulty in falling asleep

答案：B 细节理解题。根据第三段前两句可知，Howe并不是唯一一个通过这种方式找

到问题答案的人，爱迪生也在梦中得到灵感和创意，故选B项。

3．Dreams are sometimes called “secret messages to ourselves” because ________.

A．strange images are used to communicate ideas

B．images which have no meaning are used

C．we can never understand the real meaning

D．only specially trained people can understand them

答案：A 细节理解题。根据最后一段最后四句可知，大脑的一部分在无意识下工作，

发信息到其他部分，这部分大脑使用的是一种奇怪的图像，所以答案是A。

B

The history of vacuum cleaners (真空吸尘器) in the UK dates back to the early 1900s. Hubert Cecil Booth started the first vacuum cleaner company in the UK, known as the British Vacuum Cleaner Company. It wasn't long, however, before William Henry Hoover, who had already experienced success with his vacuum cleaners in America, made headway in the vacuum cleaner market in the UK and became more successful than Booth.

Hoover's vacuum cleaners in the UK became such a success that “to hoo ver” quickly became equal to vacuuming. Some of the earliest domestic vacuum cleaners in the UK used simple reusable cloth bag designs whereby the vacuum cleaner simply collected dust in the bag. Once the bag was full, you could empty and re­attach it to the vacuum cleaner.

For decades after their introduction, vacuum cleaners in the UK were a luxury item that only the upper class could afford. After World War Ⅱ， however, they became common among the middle class. This was especially true for vacuum cleaners in the UK, because the popularity of carpets means sweeping is not an easy or effective means of carpet cleaning.

Advances to upright and cylinder (汽缸) vacuum cleaners in the UK continued, enabling vacuum cleaners to become more efficient and effective. The