1、2013高考英语（阅读理解）考前冲刺训练（1） 及答案解析 (第*篇)Andrew Ritchie, inventor of the Brompton folding bicycle, once said that the perfect portable bike would be“ like a magic carpet.You could fold it up and put it into your pocket or handbag”. Then he paused：“ But youll always be limited by the size of the wheels. An
2、d so far no one has invented a folding wheel.”It was a rareindeed uniqueoccasion when I was able to put Ritchie right. A 19th-century inventor，William Henry James Grout，did in fact design a folding wheel. His bike, predictably named the Grout Portable, had a frame that split into two and a larger wh
3、eel that could be separated into four pieces. All the bits fitted into Grouts Wonderful Bag，a leather case.Grouts aim: to solve the problems of carrying a bike on a train.Now doesnt that sound familiar? Grout intended to find a way of making a bike small enough for train travel: his bike was a huge
4、beast. And importantly, the design of early bicycles gave him an advantage：in Grouts day ，tyres were solid，which made the business of splitting a wheel into four separate parts relatively simple. You couldnt do the same with a wheel fitted with a one-piece inflated(充气的) tyre.So，in a 21st-century con
5、text, is the idea of the folding wheel dead? It is not. A British design engineer, Duncan Fitzsimons, has developed a wheel that can be squashed into something like a slender ellipse(椭圆). Throughout，the tyre remains inflated.Will the young Fitzsimonss folding wheel make it into production? I havent
6、the foggiest idea. But his inventiveness shows two things. First, people have been saying for more than a century that bike design has reached its limit, except for gradual advances. Its as silly a concept now as it was 100-years-ago：theres plenty still to go for. Second, it is in the field of foldi
7、ng bikes that we are seeing the most interesting inventions. You can buy a folding bike for less than 1,000 that can be knocked down so small that it can be carried on a plane minus wheels, of courseas hand baggage.Folding wheels would make all manner of things possible. Have we yet got the magic ca
8、rpet of Andrew Ritchies imagination? No. But its progress.语篇解读一位发明家想要发明折叠自行车的话，最大的困难是如何折叠轮子。其实19世纪的一位发明家在当年已经做到了，令人欣喜的是现在又有人想出了折叠轮子的办法。我们都在期待着。1. We can infer from Paragraph 1 that thc Brompton folding bike_.A. was portableB. had a folding wheelC. could be put in a pocketD. looked like a magic carpe
9、t解析推理判断题。这种自行车的特点是便于携带，而不是呈地毯状或为的是能放进口袋，故不能选C或D。答案A2. We can learn from the text that the wheels of the Grout Portable_.A. were difficult to separateB. could be split into 6 piecesC. were fitted with solid tyresD. were hard to carry on a train解析推理判断题。从文章第三段“And importantly.in Grouts day，tyres were s
10、olid.”可得知答案。他的折叠方法只适合当时的固体轮胎。答案C3. We can learn from the text that Fitzsimonss invention_.A. kept the tyre as a whole pieceB. was made into production soonC. left little room for improvementD. changed our views on bag design解析推理判断题。从文章第四段“squashed into.like a slender ellipse”可得知答案。答案A4. Which of the following would be the best title for the text?A. Three folding bike inventorsB. The making of a folding bikeC. Progress in folding bike designD. Ways of separating a bike wheel解析主旨大意题。全文讲述了不同时期的三位发明家对折叠自行车的探索。故选C。答案C*结束- 2 -
