「原创」结合2018年高考英语真题，分享科技类英文阅读理解的技巧
【原创】从2018年一篇高考英语阅读真题，教你科技类英文阅读理解的几个小妙招
阅读理解一直是高考英语的重头戏，而科技类阅读在每年考卷四篇阅读中更是必须占有一席之地的。科技类阅读生词多，涉及知识背景不熟悉，想必困扰着很多同学。下面就结合2018年北京高考英语真题中一篇科技类文章解析起，谈谈科技英文阅读理解的方法。
Plastic-Eating Worms Could Inspire Waste-Degrading Tools
Humans produce more than 300 million metric tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills, and up to 12 million metric tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no sustainable way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.
Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the larvae of the greater wax moth can efficiently degrade polyethylene, which accounts for 40 percent of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and degraded about 92 milligrams, or roughly 3 percent, of it. To confirm that the larvae's chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers ground some grubs into a paste and applied it to plastic films. Fourteen hours later the films had lost 13 percent of their mass—presumably broken down by enzymes from the worms' stomachs.
When inspecting the degraded plastic films, the team also found traces of ethylene glycol, a product of polyethylene breakdown, signaling true biodegradation. Their findings were published earlier this year in Current Biology.
Study co-author Federica Bertocchini, a biologist at Spain's Institute of Biomedicine & Biotechnology of Cantabria, says the larvae's ability to break down their dietary staple—beeswax—also allows them to degrade plastic. “Wax is a complex mixture of molecules, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well,” she explains. “The wax worm evolved a mechanism to break this bond.”
Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that an organism evolved the capacity to degrade polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of biodegradation in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to pinpoint the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes? Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team's findings might one day help harness the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills, as well as those scattered throughout the ocean. But she envisions using the chemical in some kind of industrial process—not simply “millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.”
43. What can we learn about the worms in the study?
A. They take plastics as their everyday food.
B. They are newly evolved creatures.
C. They can consume plastics.
D. They wind up in landfills.
44. According to Jennifer DeBruyn, the next step of the study is to .
A. identify other means of the breakdown
B. find out the source of the enzyme
C. confirm the research findings
D. increase the breakdown speed
45. It can be inferred from the last paragraph that the chemical might .
A. help to raise worms
B. help make plastic bags
C. be used to clean the oceans
D. be produced in factories in future
46. What is the main purpose of the passage?
A. To explain a study method on worms.
B. To introduce the diet of a special worm.
C. To present a way to break down plastics.
D. To propose new means to keep eco-balance.
一、真题解析
43. C 此题虽然为本篇的第一道题，但需要对全文的把握，对全文理解较好的话，不难得出选C。对于ABD，也可分别用排除法排除：结合FB says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food-beeswax--also allows them to break down plastic，可以排除选项A；选项B明显不符原文，可排除；D选项的核心词wind up出现在第一段中：Almost half of that winds up in landfills,但注意wind up的主语为此句前面那句话中的plastic，而不是本题要问的worms，排除D。
44. B 这是一道细节题，用人名当关键字，可以直接从原文中找答案：The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify thecause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes? 因此应当选： B. find out the source of the enzyme
45. D 题干中指出了last paragraph，把握最后一段中最后一句话的关键词using the chemical in some kind ofindustrial process，从industrial process 工业化生产，得知应当选D. be produced in factories in future。其实选项D为最后一句话的同义转换。
46. C 考察本篇文章的主旨，根据对全文的整体把握，应选 C. To present a way to break down plastics. 同时结合排除法佐证，也可排除其他三个选项。
二、科技类文章通用解题方法
本篇文章选自Scientific America, https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/plastic-eating-worms-could-inspire-waste-degrading-tools1/?redirect=1。乍一看，很多生词，对环保垃圾分解这个主题背景不了解的同学，可能会觉得有些困难。其实只要掌握了方法，科技类阅读其实是最简单的。具体来说，要注意以下三点：
1. 依据逻辑性，把握住文章的结构。科技类文章多数为阐述某个研究成果，而研究成果的得出离不开论证以及数据的支撑，因此此类文章一定是有很强的逻辑性的，文章结构也非常的规范，以本文为例，其结构为：
（1）提出问题；
（2）给出结论；
（3）描述论证的过程，辅以数据支撑；
（4）最后指明下一步研究的方向。
这是非常典型的科技文章的写法，首先要牢牢把握文章逻辑结构，就不会被某一个生词或者一堆数字给吓怕了。
2. 掌握做题技巧，在迅速通读全文的基础上，对细节题，抓住关键词，回文中找答案。还是以本篇为例，中间两道题均为细节题，可以根据人名等关键词，准确定位到原文相关句子，而答案选项往往就是原文的同义转换。这里还是一定再提醒下，第一遍迅速读一下，目的是把握文章主旨、逻辑结构，切记不要追求面面俱到。具体到细节题目时，再详细回到文中找答案。
3. 平时科技类文章背景知识的补充很重要。很多科技类文章，单纯就语言本身而言，其实并不难，很多同学感觉困难的原因是因为对此类话题的题材背景不熟悉，因此，平时还是要多阅读科技类的文章、科普类英语视频，功夫还是要用在平时呀！比如，环保类、新能源类题材等等。也可以关注百家号“英文下午茶“，会定期为大家推出科普类英文小视频，每天几分钟，休息之余，用轻松有趣的方式，提升英文能力：）
三、拓展阅读
下面给大家拓展一篇相似背景的英语科普视频：
《Scientists Have Found Plastic-Eating Bacteria》
09:36结合文章提出以下几个问题，你能回答出来吗？
1.What is plastic-eater? 0:52
2. How much plastic ends up in our oceans every year ? 1:41
3. How long does it take for plastics to biodegrade? 4:03
4. What did it all start with ? 4:37
5. What is Enzyme technology ? 6:55
6. How you can reduce your use of plastic? 7:14
上述每个问题后的时间点对应视频中答案的位置。
没有完全听懂的同学也不要着急，下面给出这个视频的SUMMARY:
- A staggering 19 billion pounds of plastic end up in our oceans every year. Once it’s there, it gets ingested by the animals that humans eat, which means our health gets affected too.
- Plastic can disrupt ecosystems and create more and more areas where nothing can survive.
- Plastic is all around us, and (get this) it’s even inside of us! Plastic is used so extensively that it’s been found in human stool!
- It takes around 400 years for some types of plastic to fully biodegrade, like the ones used in water and soda bottles.
- Japanese researchers discovered a strand of bacteria that’s evolved to eat a particular type of plastic called polyethylene terephthalate, commonly known as PET or PETE.
- According to them, the bacteria could break the plastic down into smaller pieces but not fully eat it away. It took about 6 weeks for the bacteria to eat through a thin layer of plastic.
- Enzyme technology could be used to help humanity’s trash problem, but it’s still in its early stages. The researchers are continuing to tweak the enzyme in hopes that they can improve upon it even further and use it on a larger scale.
- The creation of this super enzyme is a great way to kick off a solution to plastic pollution. But this enzyme, despite its mutant nature, can’t undo all the pollution that’s currently in the world.
- As long as people keep buying and using it, companies will continue to manufacture plastic. The cycle will keep on going until the consumer is willing to break it.
- Don’t give into the lazy convenience of plastic plates and utensils. Use porcelain dinnerware, and just do the dishes afterwards. Just make it fun and turn on some music or your favorite show!
好了，最后的最后，看完了拓展阅读的视频，请大家再回过头去，重新读一下这篇高考阅读理解真题，是不是变得容易了许多呢？
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