2020年新高考英语二卷阅读理解C篇讲解

In May 1987 the Golden Gate Bridge had a 50th birthday party.
1987年5月，金门大桥举行了一场50岁生日派对。
The bridge was closed to motor traffic so people could enjoy a walk across it.
这座桥禁止机动车通行，所以人们可以在桥上散步。
Organizers expected perhaps 50,000 people to show up.
组织者预计将有5万人参加。
Instead, as many as 800, 000 crowded the roads to the bridge.
相反，多达80万人拥挤在通往大桥的道路上。
By the time 250,000 were on the bridge, engineers noticed something terrible：the roadway was flattening under what turned out to be the heaviest load it had ever been asked to carry.
当25万人在桥上时，工程师们注意到一件可怕的事情:路面被压平了，这是大桥有史以来承受的最大负荷。
Worse, it was beginning to sway(晃动).
更糟糕的是,它开始晃动。

The authorities closed access to the bridge and tens of thousands of people made their way back to land.
当局关闭了通往大桥的通道，成千上万的人返回陆地。
A disaster was avoided.
一场灾难得以避免。
The story is one of scores in To Forgive Design：Understanding Failure, a book that is at once a love letter to engineering and a paean(赞歌)to its breakdowns.
这个故事是这本书《To Forgive Design：Understanding Failure》中的其中一件事:这是一本书,一本致工程学的情书，也是对故障的赞歌。
Its author, Dr. Henry Petroski, has long been writing about disasters.
其作者亨利·彼得罗夫斯基(Henry Petroski)博士长期以来一直在写有关灾难的文章。
In this book, he includes the loss of the space shuttles(航天飞机)Challenger and Columbia, and the sinking of the Titanic.
在这本书中,他包括损失航天飞机(航天飞机),挑战者号和哥伦比亚号和泰坦尼克号的沉没。
Though he acknowledges that engineering works can fail because the person who thought them up or engineered them simply got things wrong, in this book Dr. Petroski widens his view to consider the larger context in which such failures occur.
尽管他承认工程工作可能会失败，因为那些想出或设计它们的人只是把事情搞错了，但在这本书中，Petroski博士拓宽了他的视野，以考虑这些失败发生的更大背景。
Sometimes devices fail because a good design is constructed with low quality materials incompetently applied.
有时候，设备失败是因为好的设计是用劣质材料建造的，而这些材料应用不当。
Or perhaps a design works so well it is adopted elsewhere again and again, with seemingly harmless improvements, until, suddenly, it does not work at all anymore.
或者，一个设计工作得很好，在其他地方被一次又一次地采用，进行了看似无害的改进，直到突然间，它不再工作了。
Readers will encounter not only stories they have heard before, but some new stories and a moving discussion of the responsibility of the engineer to the public and the ways young engineers can be helped to grasp them.
读者不仅会遇到他们以前听过的故事，还会遇到一些新的故事，以及关于工程师对公众的责任以及如何帮助年轻工程师掌握这些责任的方法。
"Success is success but that is all that it is," Dr. Petroski writes.
“成功就是成功，但仅此而已，”彼得罗夫斯基博士写道。
It is failure that brings improvement.
失败才能带来进步。
8. What happened to the Golden Gate Bridge on its 50th birthday?
A. It carried more weight than it could.
B. It swayed violently in a strong wind
C Its roadway was damaged by vehicles
D. Its access was blocked by many people.
9. Which of the following is Dr. Petroski"s idea according to paragraph 3?
A. No design is well received everywhere
B. Construction is more important than design.
C. Not all disasters are caused by engineering design
D. Improvements on engineering works are necessary.
10. What does the last paragraph suggest?
A. Failure can lead to progress. B. Success results in overconfidence
C. Failure should be avoided. D. Success comes from joint efforts.
11. What is the text?
A. A news report B. A short story.
C. A book review D. A research article.
【答案】8. A 9. C 10. A 11. C
【解析】
这是一篇议论文。主要讲述了对彼得罗斯基博士的书《原谅设计：理解失败》的评论，工程设计可能会因为某些原因带来失败，但失败才能带来进步。
【8题详解】
细节理解题。根据文章第一段“In May 1987 the Golden Gate Bridge had a 50th birthday party. The bridge was closed to motor traffic so people could enjoy a walk across it. Organizers expected perhaps 50,000 people to show up. Instead, as many as 800, 000 crowded the roads to the bridge. By the time 250,000 were on the bridge, engineers noticed something terrible：the roadway was flattening under what turned out to be the heaviest load it had ever been asked to carry. Worse, it was beginning to sway”可以看出，1987年5月，金门大桥举行了一个50岁生日聚会。
这座桥禁止机动车通行，人们可以在桥上散步。组织者预计将有5万人到场。相反，多达80万人挤满了通往大桥的道路。当25万人在桥上时，工程师们注意到了一个可怕的现象：路面在被要求承载的最重荷载作用下变得平了。更糟的是，它开始晃动。因此可以看出，金门大桥50岁生日那天，它的重量超过了它的承受能力。故选A。
【9题详解】
推理判断题。根据文章第三段“Though he acknowledges that engineering works can fail because the person who thought them up or engineered them simply got things wrong, in this book Dr. Petroski widens his view to consider the larger context in which such failures occur. Sometimes devices fail because a good design is constructed with low quality materials incompetently applied. Or perhaps a design works so well it is adopted elsewhere again and again, with seemingly harmless improvements, until, suddenly, it does not work at all anymore.”可知，虽然他承认工程设计可能会因为那些想出或设计它们的人只是把事情弄错了失败，但在这本书中，彼得罗斯基博士拓宽了他的视野，考虑了这种失败发生的更大背景。
有时，由于一个好的设计是用不合格的低质量材料建造的，所以装置会失败。或者，一个设计工作得如此好，以至于在其他地方一次又一次地被采用，用似乎是无害的改进，直到突然间，它完全不起作用了。因此可以推测出，根据第三段，不是所有的灾难都是由工程设计引起的是彼得罗斯基博士的想法。故选C。
【10题详解】
细节理解题。根据文章最后一段的 “It is failure that brings improvement.”可知，失败才能带来进步。因此可以看出，A项与此相呼应，即失败能带来进步，故选A。
【11题详解】
推理判断题。根据文章第二段“The story is one of scores in To Forgive Design：Understanding Failure, a book that is at once a love letter to engineering and a paean(赞歌)to its breakdowns.”可知，这个故事是《原谅设计：理解失败》一书中的一个，这本书既是对工程的一封情书，也是对其崩溃的赞歌。并且后面两段都在写这本书里的内容以及评价，再根据倒数第二段的“Readers will encounter not only stories they have heard before, but some new stories and a moving discussion of the responsibility of the engineer to the public and the ways young engineers can be helped to grasp them.”可知，读者不仅会遇到他们以前听过的故事，还会遇到一些新的故事和关于工程师对公众的责任以及如何帮助年轻工程师掌握他们责任的方法。
再结合最后一段“It is failure that brings improvement.”可知，失败才能带来进步。因此可以推测出，这些内容都是关于这本书的评论，因为这篇文章是书评，故选C。