题文
Recently, an almost literal case of lifeboat ethics(伦理) occurred. On Aug. 4, Graham and Sheryl Anley, while boating off the coast of South Africa, hit a rock. As the boat threatened to sink the husband got off, but his wife was trapped in the boat. Instead of freeing his wife and getting her to shore, Graham grabbed Rosie, their pet dog. With Rosie safe and sound, Graham returned for Sheryl. All are doing fine.It's a great story, but it doesn't strike me as especially newsworthy. News is supposed to be about something fairly unique, and recent research suggests that, in the right circumstances, lots of people also would have grabbed their Rosie first.
We have strange relationships with our pets. We lavish our pets with adoration and better health care than billions of people receive. We speak to pets with the same high-pitched voices that we use for babies. As an extreme example of our feelings about pets, the Nazis had strict laws that guaranteed the humane treatment of the pets of Jews being shipped to death camps.
A recent paper by George Regents University demonstrates this human involvement with pets to an astonishing extent. Participants in the study were told a situation in which a bus is out of control, bearing down on a dog and a human. Which do you save? With responses from more than 500 people, the answer was that it depended: What kind of human and what kind of dog?
Everyone would save a brother, grandparent or close friend rather than a strange dog. But when people considered their own dog versus people less connected with them—a distant cousin or a hometown stranger—votes in favor of saving the dog came rolling in. And an astonishing 40% of respondents, including 46% of women, voted to save their dog over a foreign tourist.
What does a finding like this mean? First, that your odds aren't so good if you find yourself in another country with a bus bearing down on you and a cute dog. But it also points to something deeper: our unprecedented(史无前例的) attitude toward animals, which got its start with the birth of humane societies in the 19th century.
We prison people who abuse animals, put ourselves in harm's way in boats between whales and whalers and show sympathy to Bambi and his mother. We can extend empathy to an animal and feel its pain like no other species. But let's not be too proud of ourselves. As this study and too much of our history show, we're pretty selective about how we extend our humaneness to other human beings.
小题1:What is the function of the first paragraph?A．To create a relaxing mood for readers.B．To present the theme of this essay straightly.C．To lead in the main topic of this essay.D．To raise problems that will be solved later.小题2:The author mentions Nazi laws in the third paragraph _______________. A．to show how cruel the Nazis were to the JewsB．as an example to persuade people not to love petsC．to illustrate the strange relationship between human and petsD．as an example to display the humaneness of the Nazis小题3:Which of the following is true according to the article?A．The story of the Anleys and their dog was too unique to be newsworthy. B．Most people surveyed choose to save their own dog rather than a human.C．It was in the 19th century that human beings started to love their pets.D．Human beings are more and more concerned with animals nowadays.小题4:What does the author mainly argue for?A．Pets are of great significance to us human beings.B．We should rethink about our attitude towards animals and mankind.C．It is kind of human beings to extend humaneness to animals.D．We should be selective when showing attitude toward other human beings. 题型：未知 难度：其他题型
答案
小题1:C
小题2:C
小题3:D
小题4:B
解析
文章通过一个关乎救生艇伦理的真实案例，导入文章的话题，比起人来说现在的人类更关心动物，但是作者认为我们应该重新考虑对动物和人的态度。
小题1:细节题：从第一段的句子：Recently, an almost literal case of lifeboat ethics(伦理) occurred.可知第一段是通过一个关乎救生艇伦理(lifeboat ethics)的真实案例，想导入文章的话题，选C
小题2:细节题：从第三段的句子：We have strange relationships with our pets. We lavish our pets with adoration and better health care than billions of people receive.可知作者提到纳粹的法律是想说明人和宠物的奇怪关系，选C
小题3:细节题：从文章第五段的句子：But when people considered their own dog versus people less connected with them—a distant cousin or a hometown stranger—votes in favor of saving the dog came rolling in. And an astonishing 40% of respondents, including 46% of women, voted to save their dog over a foreign tourist.可知现在的人类更关心动物，选D。
小题4:细节题;从最后一段的句子：As this study and too much of our history show, we're pretty selective about how we extend our humaneness to other human beings.可知作者认为我们应该重新考虑对动物和人的态度。选B。
考点
据考高分专家说，试题“Recently, an almost .....”主要考查你对 [社会现象类阅读 ]考点的理解。社会现象类阅读
社会现象类阅读概念：
这类文章通过写人记事来揭示文章的主题，显示其社会意义，一般采用顺序或倒叙来叙述。题目经常是一些细节问题。考查的方面可以是原因和其中引发的思考。
社会现象类阅读解题技巧：
这类文章通过写人记事来揭示文章的主题，显示其社会意义，一般采用顺序或倒叙来叙述。题目经常是一些细节问题。考查的方面可以是原因和其中引发的思考。阅读这类文章要理清思路。
1、浏览试题，明确要求。
在阅读文章前，最好先浏览一下文章后面的题干和选项。知道了问题后再去看文章，可使思路更敏捷，而且也便于阅读时留意文中出现的与选项有关的信息。
2、通读全文，抓住主要内容。
在不影响理解的前提下，尽可能地阅读以便在尽可能短的时间内理解文章或段落的内容。阅读时，如遇到不熟悉的单词、词组或一时看不懂的句子，不要停下来苦思冥想，继续读下去，通过上下文的词语和句子可能就理解了。
3、抓住中心思想和段落大意。
通读全文时，要特别注意主题句。每篇文章或每个段落都有与文章有关的句子，尤其是科技、政论性文章的主题句一般都在文章的开头或结尾，插在中间的很少。所以，文章的第一段或开头的第一、二个句子往往包含着文章的中心思想、作者的意图或全文的概述，因此要特别注意，彻底理解。
4、有针对性地仔细阅读，找寻所需信息。
在前面的基础上，可进行有针对性地阅读了。把与问题无关的内容一扫而过，而对于和问题有关的内容认真阅读，还可以用笔在下面做出记号。再把这些信息与问题的要求结合起来，逐条分析，综合判断，找出正确答案。
5、进行合理的推理判断。
对文章有了全面的了解之后，可以按照文章要求以及上下文之间的关系，做出推理判断。在进行推理判断的时候，需要综合考虑句型、语法、句子之间的逻辑关系、文化背景等方面的因素。
6、认真复读，验证答案。
要用全文的中心思想统帅各个题目，研究其内在联系和逻辑关系，并依次审核那些还未打上的题目，确保理解无误。
