题文
Elephants don’t forget—at least,female elephants don’t.Elephant families are matriarchal. And the social knowledge gained by the oldest females is the key to a family group’s survival, according to a study published in April by Karen McComb,a biologist at Sussex University in England.
Elephants announce their presence by making a deep,long sound,a practice referred to as contact calling.An unfamiliar call may mean that an elephant from outside the family group is nearby.A stranger can cause trouble,interrupting feeding or disturbing the young.So an elephant matriarch signals the family to gather around her;then they all lift their trunks in the air to smell the unfamiliar caller.False alarms can disturb the group and take time and energy away from feeding,so survival may depend in part on getting it right. Working with Cynthia Moss,who founded the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in Kenya 30 years ago,McComb tested the social knowledge of 21 Amboseli elephant families with matriarchs 27 to 67 years old.She played recordings of contact calls to each family and found that the oldest matriarchs were much better at picking out unfamiliar calls.In fact,a group with a matriarch in her fifties was several thousand times more likely to form into a group upon hearing an unfamiliar contact call than when hearing a familiar call.However,families with younger matriarchs were less than twice as likely to gather together upon hearing an unfamiliar contact call as compared with a familiar call.And they gathered together a lot.Moreover,the social knowledge of older matriarchs translated into favourable results:Families with older matriarchs produced more baby elephants in each female-reproductive year.
This finding shows how difficult it is to protect the oldest members of elephant families. As elephants age,they continue to grow larger,as do their much wanted tusks .So the older—and wiser—a matriarch is,the greater the chance she will be killed.about 800 000 elephants have been killed by people in the past 20 years.
53.What does the underlined word “matriarch” mean?
A.An old member of an elephant family.
B.A female head of an elephant family.
C.A wise elephant.
D.A large elephant.
54.The research with recordings of contact calls shows _________.
A.how fast elephants form into groups
B.how important the age of a leading elephant is
C.how frightened elephants are when hearing a strange call
D.how frequently old elephants call other members of the family
55.The older a female elephant is,_________.
A.the stronger she will be
B.the poorer memory she will have
C.the more useless her tusks will be
D.the more likely she will be killed
56.We can infer from the passage that elephants may _________.
A.run into other elephant families
B.give wrong warnings to their mothers
C.run away upon hearing a strange sound
D.produce more babies by gathering together more often 题型：未知 难度：其他题型
答案
小题1:B
小题2:B
小题3:D
小题4:A
解析
考点
据考高分专家说，试题“Elephants don’t forg.....”主要考查你对 [政治经济类阅读 ]考点的理解。政治经济类阅读
政治经济类文章的概念：
要做好这类阅读，平时就要注意了解国内外发生的政治经济大事，掌握一定背景知识，对这类文章的叙述特点及内容安排有一定了解，还要扩展这方面的词汇。阅读这类文章，要抓住文章的核心，即文章整体和各段主要在说什么，也要注意段落之间的逻辑关系。
如何备考政治经济类阅读理解题：
【题型说明】政治经济类阅读文章是高考常选材料之一。该类文章时代气息浓郁，语言鲜活，但熟字新义词、超纲词及专业词语多，长句、难句多。政治类文章大多数是同学们感性趣的内容，读起来倒有似曾相识的感觉，经济类文章读起来就像是雾里看花，文章看完，一头雾水。再加之这类文章的命题侧重于词义猜测、推理判断和文章主旨，同学们对这类题材是望而生畏。
【备考策略】建立心理优势。针对不同体裁的文章，我们要采取相应的阅读方法和技巧。政治类文章多采用记叙文形式，我们可采取“顺读法”，以便抓关键语句，领会文章主旨；而经济类文章则多采用说明文形式，我们则可以采取“逆读法”，先读试题，再从文章中查找有用信息。若遇到的确难读的材料。千万不用着急，因为你觉得难，其他人也一定是同感。在高考前，我们就要有这种心理准备，高考试卷肯定有一、两篇难以阅读的材料。不过，我们平时可以有意识地从报刊杂志上找一些较难的阅读材料来阅读，以培养自己迎难而上的心理素质。
【答题方法】
1、寻找主干：
根据英语中五种基本句型结构，把句子中的主语、谓语、宾语、表语等主要成分找出来，其他成分如定语、状语、补语等则易于理解。找到了句子主干，句子的意思至少明白了一半。
2、剔除从句：
在一个长句中可能会出现若干个从句，在理解时，如果把各个从句剔除出来单独理解，然后把大意拼凑起来，整个长句的意思就会明白六、七分。
3、辨别分句：
一个长句如果是由几个并列、转折、递进、对比关系的分句组成，句中往往有表示这些分句关系的连接词，只要能弄清楚分句和分句之间的逻辑关系，再把各层分句的意思加以连贯，整个长句的句意基本上能跃然脑中。
4、寻找关键词：
如果一个句子看完，一点句意的感觉也没有，下下策就是抓住句中的关键词，通过关键词大体弄懂这个长句的意思。
