《2026年水木金卷高考模拟试卷精编英语》

D
Fish often travel in schools. How and why each fish does what it does is what makes their schooling so puzzling to scientists. Now scientists think they have a clue as to why schooling is so common. It saves the fish energy—lots of energy.
A new study has compared the energy a fish uses as it swims.
And moving in a school reduced the energy a fish used by more than half compared to when it swam alone, it found. “The whole idea of measuring what it costs animals to move is an important one,” says George Lauder, a fish biologist at Harvard University
in Cambridge, MA, and lead author of the new study. Many physiologists have been looking into this for years, he notes. “This is the first paper, I think, that’s really measured that comprehensively.”
Lauder and Zhang, also at Harvard, worked with giant danio, small fish that love to swim. Sometimes the team put eight at a time into a water tank shaped a bit like a racetrack. Other times, they just put in a single fish. The danio didn’t loop(绕圈) around the tank like race cars. Instead, they swam in one spot, like a runner on a treadmill(跑步机), as a motor pushed the tank’s water around, creating a current. As the fish swam, a special device called a respirometer(呼吸器) measured how much oxygen they used. Oxygen helps to fuel muscles. For example, people who sprint(短跑) use a lot of oxygen. Afterward, they often need a few minutes to recover and catch their breath. Here, the researchers used oxygen as a gauge(测量标准) of how much energy the fish used to swim in place.
Researchers filmed giant danio in an experimental flow tank to study their movements and energy use. To make them swim fast—like a sprinter—the researchers increased the speed of the circulating water current. When they slowed the water, the fish slowed too. Schooling fish used less oxygen than when they swam alone. And, they took less time to recover from a sprint. In other words, they had an easier time “catching their breath” after schooling.
By schooling, fish can save their energy for other important things, says Frank Fish. He works at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, where he studies the dynamics of motion in animals. For instance, if fish are young, they can put that energy into growth. As adults, they can use it to reproduce or to avoid predators(捕食者).
51. In writing Paragraph 1, the author aims to .
A. raise a question B. make a comparison
C. propose a definition D. present an argument
52. According to Paragraph 2, what is the key to the study?
A. Reducing the energy a fish uses while swimming.
B. How to force the fish to swim in schools.
C. Measuring the cost of animal movement.
D. How to measure fish swimming habits comprehensively.
53. What can we learn from Paragraph 3?
A. Giant danio loved to swim in circles.
B. There was no way to measure how much oxygen the danio consumed.
C. The danio usually swam in a fixed spot.
D. The danio used little energy while sprinting.
54. What is the author’s purpose in writing Paragraph 4?
A. To stress the necessity of this experiment.
B. To clarify the experimental method and result.
C. To suggest a way to measure the energy used by fish.
D. To emphasize the importance of the experiment.
55. What makes the best title for the passage?
A. An Experiment with Giant Danio
B. Swimming in Schools Lets Fish Save Lots of Energy
C. How Do Giant Danio Swim?
D. Giant Danio Like Travelling in Schools

答案： 51.D 推理判断题。题干意为:作者写第一段的目的是 。通读全文,并根据第一段中“It saves the fish energy—lots of energy.”可知,本文围绕“成群结队地游动可以节省鱼的大量能量”而展开,所以作者写第一段是为了提出该论点。故选D。
52.C 细节理解题。题干意为:根据第二段,研究的关键是什么?根据第二段中“The whole idea of measuring what it costs animals to move is an important one”可知,测量动物移动需要什么是研究的关键。故选C。
53.C 细节理解题。题干意为:我们可以从第三段了解到什么?根据第三段中“The danio didn’t loop(绕圈) around the tank like race cars.Instead,they swam in one spot,like a runner on a treadmill(跑步机),as a motor pushed the tank’s water around,creating a current.”可知,鲐通常在固定地点游泳。故选C。
54.B 段落大意题。题干意为:作者写第四段的目的是什么?根据第四段内容可知,本段主要介绍了观察鲐在水中的运动和能量使用的实验,详细介绍了该实验的方法和结果。故选B。
55.B 标题归纳题。题干意为:本文的最佳标题是什么?通读全文,尤其是第一段“Fish often travel in schools... It saves the fish energy—lots of energy.”可知,文章主要介绍了实验表明,成群游泳可以让鱼节省大量能量。所以,B项“成群游泳让鱼节省大量能量”是本文的最佳标题。故选B。