《2025年红对勾高考一轮复习金卷英语》

Test3(2024.鄂豫皖五十三校高三联考)
It’s one of Hollywood’s favorite bits of pseudoscience(伪科学): human beings use only 10 percent of their brain, and awakening the remaining 90 percent—supposedly dormant—allows otherwise ordinary human beings to display extraordinary mental abilities.
How do we know? For one thing, if we needed only 10 percent of our brain, the majority of brain injuries would have no discernible (明显的) consequences, since the damage would affect parts of the brain that weren’t doing anything to begin with. We also know that natural selection discourages the development of useless structures: early humans who devoted scarce physical resources to growing and maintaining huge amounts of excess brain tissue would have been outcompeted by those who spent those precious resources on things more necessary for survival and reproductive success. Tougher immune systems, stronger muscles, better - looking hair—just about anything would be more useful than having a head full of lazy tissue.
We’ve been able to back up these logical conclusions with hard evidence. Imaging techniques allow doctors and scientists to map brain activity in real time. The data clearly shows that large areas of the brain—far more than 10 percent—are used for all sorts of activity, easy or complex. Scientists have yet to find an area of the brain that doesn’t do anything.
So how did we come to believe that 90 percent of our brain is useless? The myth (错误看法) is often incorrectly attributed to 19th - century psychologist William James, who proposed that most of our mental potential goes untapped. But he never specified a percentage. In reality, the concept most likely came from the American self - help industry. One of the earliest mentions appears in the preface to Dale Carnegie’s 1936 mega best seller, How to Win Friends and Influence People.
Obviously, this is bad news for anyone hoping to find the secret to becoming a genius overnight. The good news, though, is that hard work still works. There is plenty of reason to believe that you can build brainpower by regularly working at challenging mental tasks, such as playing a musical instrument, doing arithmetic, or reading a novel.
9. What does the underlined word “dormant” in the first paragraph probably mean?
A. Inactive.
B. Dead.
C. Dynamic.
D. Sleepy.
★10. How does the second paragraph doubt the idea that human beings use only 10 percent of their brain?
A. By raising a question.
B. By making comparisons.
C. By listing figures.
D. By reasoning logically.
11. Which of the following statements is NOT true according to the last three paragraphs?
A. Completing hard tasks enables you to improve the brainpower.
B. Almost every area of the brain is used more or less.
C. The pseudoscience was created and spread by psychologist William James.
D. Imaging techniques help to reveal how many areas are used for different activities.
12. Which is the best title of the passage?
A. How should we make good use of our brain?
B. Do we really use only 10 percent of our brain?
C. Can making good use of our brain help us be a genius overnight?
D. Do we really need to use every area of our brain in daily lives?

答案： 9. A 10. D 11. C 12. B