备战2024年高考英语名校模拟真题速递(新高考九省专用)第一期专题05 阅读理解之说明文10篇（2024江西赣州一模）You laugh out loud when a friend misses a step on the stairs, but soon you feel guilty of laughing at others clumsiness. You may ask yourself “Shouldnt I feel empathetic (共情的) for the person involved?” Dont worry. Your laughter is not provoked by lack of empathy. As a clinical psychologist, Id like to shed light on different aspects of such a situation which can bring our usually well-meaning laughter. The first of these ingredients is surprise. The unexpected situation surprises us and creates a departure from the predictable, from what we expected to see. This incongruous (不一致的) situation highlights our errors of prediction. Laughing at the situation is a way of resolving the incongruity by making a new and comic interpretation of what we witnessed. Besides, we react according to how we interpret the persons facial expression. A study explored this. Participants were asked to view 210 images representing three types of faces: faces expressing a puzzled look, faces expressing pain or anger, and people whose bodies were placed in awkward positions, without the face being visible. At the end of the study, participants rated the images with puzzled faces as funnier than images in which the faces expressed pain or anger, and funnier than images in which bodies were shown in ridiculous positions but no facial expression was seen. So when we perceive puzzlement in the facial expression of the victim of clumsiness, this information creates a context that makes us laugh. On the other hand, if we can read suffering or anger in the facial expression, we will be touched by the pain of the victim of the fall and be empathetic, which will prevent us from laughing. Lets forgive ourselves for laughing at comical situations involving other peoples clumsiness! Having learnt that they are not actually in danger and have not really hurt themselves, we arent laughing at the other persons suffering.1What does the underlined word “provoked” in Paragraph 1 mean?ADetermined.BConfirmed.CCaused.DPrevented.2What makes us laugh at other peoples clumsiness?AUnpredictability.BVisibility.CDignity.DIdentity.3What do we know about the study?AThe faces expressing pain or anger were often ignored.BAwkward positions seemed funnier than puzzled expressions.CPeople laughed at others suffering in unfortunate situations.DParticipants were asked to indicate how funny the images were.4What does the author think of laughing at peoples awkwardness?APraiseworthy.BUnacceptable.CForgivable.DRidiculous.（23-24高三下江西阶段练习）A team of physicists at the University of Edinburgh, working with an infection and immunity specialist, has, via experimentation, validated a theory to explain why paint dries at the same rate regardless of humidity (湿度) levels.Generally, paint should dry faster on an outdoor fence on a dry day than when it is humid because evaporation (蒸发) occurs faster when the air around a liquid source is drier. But evidence suggests this is not the case for paint and some other liquids. Chemist Salmon and his colleagues developed a theory to explain why. They suggested it is because large molecules in the liquid are pulled to the surface during evaporation, forming a “polarization layer” that prevents evaporation, and by extension, drying. In this new effort, the research team worked to test this theory.The researchers drilled five holes into a short cylinder (圆柱体) and inserted glass tubes in a horizontal position each was then sealed in place. They then added a quantity of PVA, a kind of chemical substance, into the cylinder, which they placed on a scale. They poured a thin layer of oil on top of the liquid to prevent surface evaporation. The final touch involved placing an air flow box over the top of the cylinder to allow for controlling humidity levels. The team then ran multiple 17-hour trials to determine evaporation rates, using the scale to measure how much liquid evaporated from the tubes at different humidity levels, ranging from 25% to 90%.The researchers found that as expected, evaporation rates remained constant for approximately three hours. But then, rates plummeted, as was theorized by Salmon, regardless of humidity levels. The evaporation rate didnt decrease as humidity increased during the initial three hours. However, the theory only appeared to hold for humidity levels up to 80% at rates higher than that, evaporation did slow down, which the team suggested was likely due to some other forces.The researchers suggested their work could have medical applications as recent research efforts have shown that respiratory droplets (呼吸道飞沫) tend to form skins similar to those seen in the experimental equipment. 5What is Salmons theory aimed at proving?AThe link between evaporation and drying time. BThe connection between humidity and dryness. CThe structure of the “polariz