【原創(chuàng)】《閱讀理解特訓(xùn):3真2模含解析》2014屆高三英語突破39
閱讀理解 (共15小題;每小題2分,滿分30分)
閱讀下列短文,從每題所給的四個(gè)選項(xiàng)A、B、C和D中,選出最佳選項(xiàng),并在答題卡上將該項(xiàng)涂黑。
A
Almost anyone who has read a travel brochure about Africa has heard of elephants getting drunk from the fruit of the marula tree. It is said that elephants can get drunk by eating the fermented (發(fā)酵) fruit rotting on the ground. Books have even been written to prove the truth of the phenomenon.
But a study published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology tells a very different story.
Steve Morris, a biologist at the University of Bristol in England and an author of the study, says there is nothing in the biology of either the African elephant or the marula fruit to support the stories. Morris says, “ people just want to believe in drunken elephants.”
The marula tree, a member of the same family as the mango, grows widely in Africa. Its sweet, yellow fruit is used for making jam, wine and beer. “The first mistake of the drunken-elephant theory is that it’s unlikely that an elephant would eat the fruit if it were rotten, ” Morris says. “Elephants eat the fruit right off the tree, not when it’s rotten on the ground, ” he explains.