山西省太原五中2014-2015学年高二上学期期中考试 英语试题
第一部分 阅读理解（共两节，满分30分）
第一节 (共10小题；每小题2分，满分20分)
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C 和 D）中选出最佳选项，并将答案涂在答题卡上。
A
Charles Lyell, a great youth, had different ideas. He wrote a book about them called Principles of Geology. The earth, according to Lyell, was not only thousands of years old; it was millions of years old. As to the common belief that changes in the earth’s surface happen suddenly because of a single earthquake or flood, he said that this might happen once in a while, but usually these changes took place very slowly. He believed that the surface of the earth had been changing from the beginning of time. The changes, he said, were caused by the long-term action of the winds and seas, and by forces such as volcanoes breaking out under the earth’s surface. Once in a great while he thought, a mountain might appear for the first time after an earthquake. But usually mountains would experience a slow and steady rise.
A professor named Henslow was interested in Lyell’s ideas, but he did not actually believe them. Charles Darwin could not make up his mind about them. But they set him thinking along lines which would later change the beliefs of thoughtful people under the sun.
At the University of Cambridge, Charles Darwin studied just enough to pass the examination, and received his college degree in 1831. During this time, he had become more and more interested in geology. At the end of the school year, he went to North Wales with one of his teachers to examine the rock formations and to search for fossils. Fossils are the remains of ancient living things. They are usually fixed in rocks in the earth’s crust. Fossils may be of animals, such as fish, insects, birds, or humans. They may be of plants from tiny leaves to huge trees. When a living creature dies, it usually decays or is eaten by animals. However, if it sinks into a riverbed or is quickly covered by the blowing sands of a desert storm, the bones are kept up in the earth. Over many years the soft inner parts of a bone disappear, leaving the inside hollow. Water containing minerals enters into the hollow. Slowly the minerals harden and make the bone hard and heavy like bones over the time.
1. According to Charles Lyell, mountains came into existence ___________.
A. not because of volcanoes but because of seas
B. quickly instead of steadily
C. more on account of an earthquake than of winds
D. at quite a slow rate rather than all of a sudden
2. Charles Lyell probably holds the belief that the earth has been formed like today’s shape _____________.
A. from the very beginning of time
B. over a rather long course of time
C. just due to scores of big earthquakes
D. owing to a very long period of big flood
