2021年全国乙卷
A
The Biggest Stadiums in the World
People have been pouring into stadiums since the days of ancient Greece. In around 80 A.D., the Romans built the Colosseum, which remains the world’s best known stadium and continues to inform contemporary design. Rome’s Colosseum was 157 feet tall and had 80 entrances, seating 50,000 people. However, that was small fry compared with the city’s Circus Maximus, which accommodated around 250,000 people.
These days, safety regulations—not to mention the modern sports fan’s desire for a good view and a comfortable seat—tend to keep stadium capacities (容量) slightly lower. Even soccer fans tend to have a seat each; gone are the days of thousands standing to watch the match.
For the biggest stadiums in the world, we have used data supplied by the World Atlas list so far, which ranks them by their stated permanent capacity, as well as updated information from official stadium websites.
All these stadiums are still functional, still open and still hosting the biggest events in world sport.
• Rungrado 1st of May Stadium, Pyongyang, D.P.R.Korea. Capacity: 150,000. Opened: May 1, 1989.
• Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S. Capacity: 107,601. Opened: October 1, 1927.
• Beaver Stadium, state College, Pennsylvania, U.S. Capacity: 106,572. Opened: September 17, 1960.
• Ohio Stadium, Columbus, Ohio, U.S. Capacity: 104,944. Opened: October 7, 1922.
• Kyle Field, College Station, Texas, U.S. Capacity: 102,512. Opened: September 24,1927.
21. How many people could the Circus Maximus hold?
A.104,944. B. 107,601.
C. About 150,000. D. About 250,000.
22. Of the following stadiums, which is the oldest?
A. Michigan Stadium. B. Beaver Stadium.
C. Ohio Stadium. D. Kyle Field.
23. What do the listed stadiums have in common?
A. They host big games.
B. They have become tourist attractions.
C. They were built by Americans.
D. They are favored by architects.
21. How many people could the Circus Maximus hold?
答案及解析：
21.D. About 250,000.
解析：根据文章第二段最后一句“However, that was small fry compared with the city’s Circus Maximus, which accommodated around 250,000 people.”可以得知，Circus Maximus的容量是大约250,000人。
22. C. Ohio Stadium.
解析：通过比较文章中提到的各个体育场的开放日期，Ohio Stadium开放于1922年10月7日，是这几个体育场中最早的。
23.A. They host big games.
解析：文章最后一段提到“All these stadiums are still functional, still open and still hosting the biggest events in world sport.”，说明这些体育场仍然在举办世界上最大的体育赛事。其他选项在文章中没有提及。
B
When almost everyone has a mobile phone, why are more than half of Australian homes still paying for a landline (座机)?
These days you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in Australia over the age of 15 who doesn’t own a mobile phone. In fact plenty of younger kids have one in their pocket. Practically everyone can make and receive calls anywhere, anytime.
Still, 55 percent of Australians have a landline phone at home and only just over a quarter (29%) rely only on their smartphones, according to a survey (调查). Of those Australians who still have a landline, a third concede that it’s not really necessary and they’re keeping it as a security blanket—19 percent say they never use it while a further 13 percent keep it in case of emergencies. I think my home falls into that category.
More than half of Australian homes are still choosing to stick with their home phone. Age is naturally a factor (因素)—only 58 percent of generation Ys still use landlines now and then, compared to 84 percent of Baby Boomers who’ve perhaps had the same home number for 50 years. Age isn’t the only factor; I’d say it’s also to do with the makeup of your household.
Generation Xers with young families, like my wife and I, can still find it convenient to have a home phone rather than providing a mobile phone for every family member. That said, to be honest the only people who ever ring our home phone are our Baby Boomers parents, to the point where we play a game and guess who is calling before we pick up the phone (using Caller ID would take the fun out of it).
How attached are you to your landline? How long until they go the way of gas street lamps and morning milk deliveries?
24. What does paragraph 2 mainly tell us about mobile phones?
A. Their target users.
B. Their wide popularity.
C. Their major functions.
D. Their complex design.
25. What does the underlined word “concede” in paragraph 3 mean?
A. Admit. B. Argue.
C. Remember. D. Remark.
26. What can we say about Baby Boomers?
A. They like smartphone games.
B. They enjoy guessing callers’ identity.
C. They keep using landline phones.
D. They are attached to their family.
27. What can be inferred about the landline from the last paragraph?
A. It remains a family necessity.
B. It will fall out of use some day.
C. It may increase daily expenses.
D. It is as important as the gas light.
答案及解析：
24.B. Their wide popularity.
第二段提到在澳大利亚，几乎每个超过15岁的人都拥有手机，很多更年轻的孩子也有手机，几乎每个人都可以随时随地打电话和接电话，这说明手机在澳大利亚非常普及。
25. A. Admit.
解析：在第三段中，“concede”这个词用在一个承认座机不是真正必要的语境中，因此它的意思是“承认”。
26. C. They keep using landline phones.
解析：根据第四段的内容，与只有58%的Y世代偶尔使用座机相比，84%的婴儿潮一代可能已经使用同一个家庭电话号码50年了，这说明婴儿潮一代仍然坚持使用座机。
27. B. It will fall out of use some day.
解析：最后一段提到，作者想知道人们对于座机的依赖程度，以及座机会不会像煤气路灯和早晨送牛奶的服务一样最终被淘汰。这暗示了座机可能会在未来某一天不再被使用。
C
You’ve heard that plastic is polluting the oceans—between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, forcing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.
At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called “Strawpocalypse,” a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168,000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源) of plastic pollution, but they’ve recently come under fire because most people don’t need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that’s part of Von Wong’s artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.
In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload’s worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled “Truckload of Plastic,” Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10,000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they’d been dumped (倾倒) from a truck all at once.
Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.
28. What are Von Wong’s artworks intended for?
A. Beautifying the city he lives in.
B. Introducing eco-friendly products.
C. drawing public attention to plastic waste.
D. Reducing garbage on the beach.
29. Why does the author discuss plastic straws in paragraph 3?
A. To show the difficulty of their recycling.
B. To explain why they are useful.
C. To voice his views on modern art.
D. To find a substitute for them.
30. What effect would “Truckload of Plastic” have on viewers?
A. Calming. B. Disturbing.
C. Refreshing. D. Challenging.
31. Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
A. Artists’ Opinions on Plastic Safety
B. media Interest in Contemporary Art
C. responsibility Demanded of Big Companies
D. Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures
答案及解析：
28. C. Drawing public attention to plastic waste.
解析：文章第一段提到艺术家Benjamin Von Wong通过用塑料垃圾制作大型雕塑，迫使观众重新审视他们与一次性塑料产品的关系。这表明他的艺术作品的目的是为了吸引公众对塑料垃圾的关注。
29. A. To show the difficulty of their recycling.
解析：第三段中，作者讨论了塑料吸管，指出它们不是塑料污染的最大来源，但由于大多数人不需要它们来饮用，并且由于它们体积小、重量轻，无法回收，因此最近受到了批评。这表明作者讨论塑料吸管是为了展示它们回收的困难。
30. B. Disturbing.
解析：根据第四段的内容，Von Wong的作品“Truckload of Plastic”是为了说明每60秒就有相当于一卡车塑料进入海洋的统计数据。这样的作品很可能会给观众带来不安或困扰的感觉，因为它展示了塑料污染的严重性。
31. D. Ocean Plastics Transformed into Sculptures.
解析：整篇文章讲述了艺术家Benjamin Von Wong如何使用从海洋中收集的塑料垃圾来创作大型雕塑，以此来提高人们对塑料污染问题的意识。因此，最佳标题应该是“海洋塑料变身为雕塑”。其他选项没有涵盖文章的主要内容。
D
During an interview for one of my books, my interviewer said something I still think about often. Annoyed by the level of distraction (干扰) in his open office, he said, “That’s why I have a membership at the coworking space across the street—so I can focus.” His comment struck me as strange. After all, coworking spaces also typically use an open office layout (布局). But I recently came across a study that shows why his approach works.
The researchers examined various levels of noise on participants as they completed tests of creative thinking. They were randomly divided into four groups and exposed to various noise levels in the background, from total silence to 50 decibels (分贝),70 decibels, and 85 decibels. The differences between most of the groups were statistically insignificant; however, the participants in the 70 decibels group—those exposed to a level of noise similar to background chatter in a coffee shop—significantly outperformed the other groups. Since the effects were small, this may suggest that our creative thinking does not differ that much in response to total silence and 85 decibels of background noise.
But since the results at 70 decibels were significant, the study also suggests that the right level of background noise—not too loud and not total silence—may actually improve one’s creative thinking ability. The right level of background noise may interrupt our normal patterns of thinking just enough to allow our imaginations to wander, without making it impossible to focus. This kind of “distracted focus” appears to be the best state for working on creative tasks.
So why do so many of us hate our open offices? The problem may be that, in our offices, we can’t stop ourselves from getting drawn into others’ conversations while we’re trying to focus. Indeed, the researchers found that face-to-face interactions and conversations affect the creative process, and yet a coworking space or a coffee shop provides a certain level of noise while also providing freedom from interruptions.
32. Why does the interviewer prefer a coworking space?
A. It helps him concentrate.
B. It blocks out background noise.
C. It has a pleasant atmosphere.
D. It encourages face-to-face interactions.
33. Which level of background noise may promote creative thinking ability?
A. Total silence. B. 50 decibels.
C. 70 decibels. D. 85 decibels.
34. What makes an open office unwelcome to many people?
A. personal privacy unprotected.
B. Limited working space.
C. Restrictions on group discussion.
D. constant interruptions.
35. What can we infer about the author from the text?
A. He’s a news reporter.
B. He’s an office manager.
C. He’s a professional designer.
D. He’s a published writer.
答案解析：
32. A. It helps him concentrate.
解析：文章第一段提到面试官因为开放式办公室的干扰而感到烦恼，所以他加入了街对面的共享办公空间以集中注意力。这表明他更喜欢共享办公空间是因为它帮助他集中精力。
33. C. 70 decibels.
解析：第二段中提到，70分贝的背景噪音水平(类似于咖啡店的背景闲聊)的参与者显著优于其他组。这表明70分贝的背景噪音可能有助于提高创造性思维能力。
34. D. Constant interruptions.
解析：第四段提到，在开放式办公室中，我们无法阻止自己在试图集中注意力时被别人的对话吸引。研究人员发现面对面交流和对话会影响创造性过程，而在共享办公空间或咖啡店则提供了一定程度的噪音，同时也免于被打扰。这表明不断被打扰是许多人不喜欢开放式办公室的原因。
35. D. He’s a published writer.
解析：文章开头提到，在为作者的一本书进行的采访中，面试官说了些什么，这表明作者是一位出版过的作家。其他选项没有足够的信息支持。
