19.Andrew Ritchie,inventor of the Brompton folding bicycle,once said that the perfect portable bike would be"like a magic carpet…You could fold it up and put it into your pocket or handbag".Then he paused:"But you'll always be limited by the size of the wheels.And so far no one has invented a folding wheel."
It was a rare-indeed unique-occasion when I was able to put Ritchie right.A 19th-century inventor,William Henry James Grout,did in fact design a folding wheel.His bike,predictably named the Grout Portable,had a frame that split into two and a larger wheel that could be separated into four pieces.All the bits fitted into Grout's Wonderful Bag,a leather case.
Grout's aim:to solve the problems of carrying a bike on a train.Now doesn't that sound familiar?Grout intended to find a way of making a bike small enough for train travel:his bike was a huge beast.And importantly,the design of early bicycles gave him an advantage:in Grout's day,tyres were solid,which made the business of splitting a wheel into four separate parts relatively simple.You couldn't do the same with a wheel fitted with a one-piece inflated (充气的) tyre.
So,in a 21st-century context,is the idea of the folding wheel dead?It is not.A British design engineer,Duncan Fitzsimons,has developed a wheel that can be squashed into something like a slender ellipse (椭圆).Throughout,the tyre remains inflated.
Will the young Fitzsimons's folding wheel make it into production?I haven't the foggiest idea.But his inventiveness shows two things.First,people have been saying for more than a century that bike design has reached its limit,except for gradual advances.It's as silly a concept now as it was 100years ago:there's plenty still to go for.Second,it is in the field of folding bikes that we are seeing the most interesting inventions.You can buy a folding bike for less than£1,000that can be knocked down so small that it can be carried on a plane-minus wheels,of course-as hand baggage.
Folding wheels would make all manner of things possible.Have we yet got the magic carpet of Andrew Ritchie's imagination?No.But it's progress.
69.We can infer from Paragraph 1that the Brompton folding bikeA.
A.was portable
B.had a folding wheel
C.could be put in a pocket
D.looked like a magic carpet
70.We can learn from the text that the wheels of the Grout PortableC.
A.were difficult to separate
B.could be split into 6pieces
C.were fitted with solid tyres
D.were hard to carry on a train
71.We can learn from the text that Fitzsimons's inventionA.
A.kept the tyre as a whole piece
B.was made into production soon
C.left little room for improvement
D.changed our views on bag design
72.Which of the following would be the best title for the text?C
A.Three folding bike inventors
B.The making of a folding bike
C.Progress in folding bike design
D.Ways of separating a bike wheel.
分析 文章大意:本文介绍了折叠自行车的发明者安德鲁里奇布朗普顿发明的完美的便携式自行车,这是为了解决火车上携带自行车的问题.后来,邓肯菲兹蒙斯,一名英国设计工程师,研发了一种能将车轮压扁得像一个细长椭圆.(挤压过程中,)自始至终,充气轮胎依然胀鼓鼓的,这种折叠自行车拆装之后体积非常之小,可以带到飞机上.折叠轮的发明历程表明事物可以各种形式来加以表现是可能的.
解答 69.A 推理判断题.从文章第一段Andrew Ritchie,inventor of the Brompton folding bicycle,once said that the perfect portable bike would be"like a magic carpet…ou could fold it up and put it into your pocket or handbag".可知折叠的自行车是便携式的,因此答案选A.
70.C 细节理解题.从文in Grout's day,tyres were solid,可知便携式的自行车配备的轮胎是坚硬的,因此答案选C.
71.A 细节理解题.从第四段最后一句话Duncan Fitzsimons,has developed a wheel that can be squashed into something like a slender ellipse (椭圆).Throughout,the tyre remains inflated.可知一名英国设计工程师,研发了一种能将车轮压扁得像一个细长椭圆.(挤压过程中,)自始至终,充气轮胎依然胀鼓鼓的,因此答案选A.
72.C 推理判断题.从整篇文章中可以看出是对便携式是自行车的设计的改进,因此答案选C.
点评 本文是人生感悟类阅读理解,这类题材是高考常考内容,它注重考查考生对整体文章的把握能力,做题时考生应该在把握大意的基础上,结合题目要求以及语境做出正确的选择.