《2025年高考模拟试题汇编高中英语》

C
“THE ANT AND THE ZEBRA” sounds like the title of a Aesop’s fable. Like all good fables, this one has a moral, which is that tinkering with nature has unpredictable consequences. Unlike the Greek originals, though, this fable is real.
The story plays out in Laikipia county, Kenya. The characters include big - headed ants, an invasive (入侵) species, the native acacia ants, these invasive ants have gradually been replacing, the whistling - thorn trees where both sorts of ants live, a cast of elephants, lions, zebras and buffalo, and Douglas Kamaru, a Kenyan biologist in the University of Wyoming. As Mr Kamaru reports this week in Science, the ant invasion has set off a complicated chain of consequences which has helped zebras at the expense of buffalo—thus illustrating a phenomenon called “trophic cascade”.
It works like this. Whistling - thorns have co - evolved with the local ants. The trees provide the ants with shelter and food, in the form of large, hollow (空心的) thorns into which they produce nutritious nectar (蜜汁). The ants, meanwhile, protect the trees by seeing off the chief threat to them, the local elephants, which are not keen to feed on trees crawling with biting insects.
Acacia ants’ habitat are thickly carpeted with whistling - thorns. Big - headed ants, however, are not good at keeping the elephants at bay. The elephants move in and bite the trees, removing much of the area’s cover. That upsets the local lions, which often use this cover to hide when hunting zebra. To compensate, the lions switch to hunting buffalo, which are more dangerous, but less fleet of foot.
Mr Kamaru has put numbers to the process, too. In invaded areas, elephants break trees five to seven times as often as in uninvaded ones. And in those uninvaded places, zebra kills are almost three times as frequent as in the invaded ones. Indeed, between 2003 and 2020, as the big - headed ants have spread, the percentage of local lion kills where the victims was a zebra fell from 67% to 42%. Over the same period, the percentage of kills that were buffalo rose from zero to 42%. Whether the buffalo blame the ants for their misfortune, no one knows.
28.What does the underlined phrase “tinkering with” probably mean in the 1st paragraph?
A. Making changes to.
B. Paying attention to.
C. Finding fault with.
D. Showing respect for.
29.The “trophic cascade” in the passage happened when ________.
A. animal habitat in a specific area was preserved
B. an invasive species suffered a lack of food supply
C. certain plants were affected by human activities
D. a particular species in the food chain was replaced
30.Why did the lions change their targets of attack when hunting?
A. Because it becomes less risky to hunt the buffalo.
B. Because greater visibility makes it hard to hunt zebra.
C. Because they are not good at keeping the elephants away.
D. Because they are upset by the presence of big - headed ants.
31.Which of the following is probably the best title for the passage?
A. How ants and buffalo defeated lions
B. How elephants landed zebra in trouble
C. How trees changed lions’ dinner menu
D. How ants persuaded lions to eat buffalo

答案： C
28.A 词义猜测题
【解析】A 项意为“改变”；B 项意为“注意”；C 项意为“批评”；D 项意为“尊重”。通读第三、四段可知，当地蚂蚁可以通过赶走大象来保护树木，而大头蚁却不擅长赶走大象。大头蚁逐渐取代当地蚂蚁导致大部分树木消失，这导致狮子狩猎时缺少掩护，进而使得其狩猎对象从斑马转向水牛。再结合画线短语所在句中的“has unpredictable consequences”可推知，画线短语所在句表示就像所有好的寓言一样，这个寓言故事有一个寓意，那就是改变自然会产生不可预测的后果。因此，画线短语应意为“修改，改变”，与 A 项意思相近。故选 A。
29.D 推理判断题
【解析】根据第二段第三句中的“the ant invasion has set off a complicated chain of consequences which has helped zebras at the expense of buffalo”可知，这种蚂蚁的入侵引发了一系列复杂的后果，以水牛为代价帮助了斑马。由此可推知，当食物链中有一个特定物种被替换后，“营养级联”现象就会发生。故选 D。
30.B 细节理解题
【定位句】The elephants move in and bite the trees, removing much of the area’s cover. That upsets the local lions, which often use this cover to hide when hunting zebra. To compensate, the lions switch to hunting buffalo, which are more dangerous, but less fleet of foot. (第四段第三至五句)
【解析】该题问的是为什么狮子在狩猎时会改变攻击目标。根据定位句可知，狮子转而捕杀水牛是因为失去植被的掩护不利于捕猎斑马。故选 B。
31.D 标题概括题
【解析】通读全文可知，本文主要介绍了大自然中一种常见的现象：外来蚂蚁的入侵改变了当地动物的食物链，从而引发不可预测的结果——狮子的狩猎对象从斑马转变为水牛。D 项“蚂蚁如何引发狮子吃水牛”可以概括文章大意，是本文的最佳标题。故选 D。