2019年浙江省中考英语真题（阅读理解）

International Museum Day is coming! Here are some special museums that you must see.

    It was Day 1 of our vacation on Cortes, a beautiful quiet island. "iPhone, iPhone, iPhone," my son kept moaning (呻吟). In front of him was a big window facing the blue ocean. And a cool gentle wind was coming in from the door. Clearly, he saw and felt none of it.

    Back at home, I'd soon give up and hand the phone over to him after five minutes of listening to this kind of moaning.

    But not here. Before we left, I had told my 10-year-old son the rule—no emails, no Facebook, no video games, and no iPhone. We came here to get away from them all. Here we were on our first day and already, he couldn't stand it.

         ▲      I walked down the grass road to the beach and looked out to the sea. My 6-year-old daughter and my husband were drawing on pieces of wood. They were doing just fine.

    On Day 2, we spent the whole morning digging for shells (贝壳). This time, my son joined us. He collected shellfish and other sea treasures. When we got back to our little wood house, I gave my son a book, and put him on the lovely garden chair. It was almost dinner when he looked up.

    The next few days passed in peace.

    On Day 6, my son was lying beside me on the beach, watching the sun going down. He was playing with the sand. And there was something shining in his eyes. I realized how time slowed down for both of us. It was exactly what I wanted. Finally, we were able to sit quietly without thinking about screens, phone calls and e-mail.

    A week away from all the electronics arid Lile is good.

    In the park, you see a group of people, all looking up at the sky. Without thinking about it, you look upwards, too. Why? In the concert, someone begins to clap and suddenly the whole room joins in. You do, too. Why?

    Sometimes we feel we are acting correctly when we do the same as others. The more people follow an idea, the better or truer we think the idea is. It's the social proof (社会认同感) that works.

    The scientist Asch carried out an experiment. It shows how social proof can influence us. In a room, a man is shown Line 1, and next to it are three lines (A, B, C). A is longer, C is shorter and B is as long as Line 1. He must tell which of the three lines is as long as Line 1. When the man is alone, he gives the correct answer B. Then, five other men enter the room, and each of them gives the answer C as they were told to. Now the man changes his idea and gives the answer C. Asch got the same result many times among different subjects (实验对象).

    Why do we act like this? Well, in the past, following others was a way to keep from danger. Suppose that 5000 years ago you were hunting (打猎) with friends. Suddenly, they all ran away. What would you have done? Would you have stayed? No, you would have run, too. We are descendants (后代) of those who copied others' action. It is so deeply planted in our mind that we still use it now.

    Social proof has special power. The advertising industry, for example, often makes use of it. So be capful whenever a company says its product is "the most popular".

    On March 10, 2019, eight-year-old Tani won the New York Chess Championship (纽约象棋冠军赛) of his age group. But the boy, who was homeless at the time, began learning the game less than a year ago.

    Tani and his family arrived in New York City from Africa in 2017. A church helped him enter the primary school, P. S, 116. Here the gifted boy was first introduced to chess by a part-time teacher Makofsky, owner of a chess club. Interested in the game, the seven-year-old asked his mother to allow him to join the club. Not able to afford the chess classes, she emailed Makofsky. To her surprise and joy, Makofsky agreed that Tani could learn it for free.

    Though the chess club helps, it's largely believed that Tani's success lies in his hard work. The boy practices the game for many hours a day on the floor with his board. Every Saturday, Tani goes to a free 3-hour class to improve his game skills.

    Not surprisingly, Tani's story, first reported by The New York Times, has brought him great support from the American public. Soon after the young boy won the New York Championship, Makofsky began a GoFundMe activity for Tani and his family so that he could continue his chess journey. It raised $ 200,000 in just ten days, far more than they expected. And the money keeps coming, But the family donates (捐赠) most of the money to the church and to those poor families.

    Tani has also received offers from three famous private schools in New York. However, the family have politely refused all of them and chosen to continue Tani's education at P. S. 116.

    The young boy's story also caught the eye of Bill Clinton, the 42nd US President. "Tani, you're an example of a winning spirit - in chess and in life. I'd love to meet you," he said on his Facebook.

    While excited about his new life, Tani is ready to meet great challenges (挑战). He is busy preparing for the 2019 National Primary Championships. Winning the competition will bring the chess player closer to his dream of becoming the world's youngest chess grandmaster (大师). The record has been kept for 17 years by the Russian chess player Karjakin, who won the title at the age of 12.

    Every year, more than 26,000 children arrive in Britain. We ask some new arrivals what they like best about their new lives and what's different from home.

    Everyone faces difficulties in their life. Daniel Kish was born with a special eye illness and lost his eyesight before he was only 14 months old.

Soon after, however, he started to do an amazing thing. He learned to make clicks (咔哒声) with his tongue to help him move around. Kish now moves about using sonar (声呐). He is so good at it that he can ride a bicycle by himself on public roads. And he started the organization World Access for the Blind (WAFTB) in 2000, teaching others how to use sonar. In the interview with National Geographic, he explains how the sonar works.

    "When I make a click sound, it produces sound waves. These waves reflect (反射) off surfaces all around and return to my ears. My brain then deals with the sound and turns it into pictures in my mind. Each click is like a camera flash, which helps me make a 3-D picture of my surroundings for hundreds of feet. It's like having a conversation with the environment."

    Kish feels it is exciting to ride a bike using sonar, although he needs to click twice a second, much more than he usually does. "It may sound a bit dangerous to move around the world in this way," he says. "But most people in the world live in fear of things that they imagine. I love hiking and mountain-biking. I go almost everywhere. And I've never had an accident and hurt myself."

    He is happy to be able to help more blind children to improve their life. "We've served over 10, 000 students in nearly 40 countries," he tells the reporter. "Many students are surprised how quickly results come. Seeing isn't in the eyes. It's in the mind."

    Fresh green grass, Hundreds of colorful wild flowers. Water running into little pools. Birds making their homes in boxes. The 9, 500-square-metre Augustenborg Botanical Garden may look just like any other well-organized park but there's a difference. It lies on the roofs (屋顶) of industrial and office buildings in the city of Malmo in Sweden.

    Green roofs are not a new invention. And now they are getting popular again. The common roofs of a modern city have endless black surfaces with no life or water. Perhaps that's why a garden on a roof becomes such a perfect choice for more and more people.

    Green roofs are not just pretty. They also help to moderate the city temperature. The high temperatures on common roofs in the summer can make top floor flats uncomfortably hot. What is more, they play a part in making the cities hotter than the countryside around them, causing the "urban heat-island effect". On a green roof, however, with its plants and water, temperatures change only a little, as they do in a park. This can greatly cut the costs of heating and cooling in the building below.

    Also, a green roof takes in rain water, and protects the city drainage (排水) system.   ▲    And small animals and birds can make their homes on it. Thanks to this, the city may become part of nature, rather than something completely separate from it.

    While the cost of building such a roof can still be higher, it can be cheaper in the long term as a result of energy savings. And wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to walk out into a garden high above the city's noise and traffic, whether you're at school or in an office or just at home in a ten-floor block?

    Mark Zuckerberg, who starts the social network Facebook, often wears jeans and a T-shirt to work, including to important business meetings. Not everyone agrees with him. Some people say he doesn't look serious this way.

    Harvard Business School researcher, Francesca Gino, has a different idea. While most people seem to think that dressing differently from those around you generally has a bad influence, she believes it can actually have a positive (积极的) effect. And she's done experiments to support her idea. When her researchers, wearing sportswear, visited the expensive shops in Italy, they were usually viewed as wealthier and more important people than those who were well-dressed in designer clothes.

    Do people always view less formal (正式的) clothing more positively? Researchers in France took their research out into the street, to the general public. The video they made shows an actor dressed in a well-cut suit and shiny shoes. While walking along the road, he begins to cough badly, stops to catch his breath and falls down. Before he even calls for help, people rush to help him. In another video, the actor appears at the same crowded place and repeats the actions in exactly the same way. But this time, no one comes to help. What's the difference? He's wearing untidy clothes and looks like a homeless person. In a situation like this, the clothes you're wearing could mean the difference between life and death.

    It seems that our clothing doesn't only change the way others view us, but also the way we see ourselves. In an experiment testing students' ability to pay attention to details (细节), the group wearing white lab coats did the best. Why? Researchers told them that they were wearing the doctors' coats. The experiment didn't show whether such influences would last long. More experiments are needed in the future before we decide to make the doctors' coats a must of fashion.

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    A British man has learned the skills needed to perform Beijing Opera, making the audience (观众) enjoy his lively performance of the Monkey King.

    Ghaffar Pourazar, born in Iran, said he has been a big fan of Bruce Lee since he was a child and is full of interest about China. In 1993, he happened to watch Beijing Opera performed in London by professionals from Jingju Theatre Company of Beijing. Ghaffar said he fell in love with the beautiful voices, colorful costumes, excellent shows and so on. So after one year, he arrived in China alone and became a student of Beijing Opera at a Beijing school.

    At the age of 32, he had to learn with teenage students every day, starting from the most basic training of the legs and waist. At the time, he was mostly troubled by the dialogue in Beijing Opera. To him, it was the biggest obstacle. But he never gave up.

    Four years later, he began to learn to perform the Monkey King, a traditional character from the Chinese classic story Journey to the West. He said he arrived in the workroom an hour earlier than other performers and also bought books and CDs to better understand the character.

    Ghaffar today is not only good a speaking Beijing dialect (方言) but has also built a fame for Beijing Opera. He once got a top international prize for performing the Monkey King.

    To help more people enjoy Beijing Opera, Ghaffar often teaches the traditional art form in schools in the United States, Britain and other countries. When he found that the language was difficult to understand, he started to translate Beijing Opera song lyrics. Ghaffar led a group of actors to perform 66 times in a month and a half in the United States. He also led a 48-member team to perform in Malaysia. In the past 10 years, he has performed in more than 400 shows.