2016届高考英语二轮专题检测精品练习：阅读理解（4）_高考复习指南

2016届高考英语二轮专题检测精品练习：阅读理解（4）

　　a．It is born as an egg.

　　b．It emerges as an adult.

　　c．A caterpillar hatches out.

　　d．A caterpillar pupates.

　　A．acdb

　　B．adcb

　　C．dacb

　　D．dcab

　　Australia, the last continent, was discovered by ships belonging to some European nations in the seventeenth century. These nations were less interested in changing it into a colony (殖民地) than in exploring (勘探) it. As in the early history of the United States, it was the English who set up the settlements (新拓居者) in Australia. This history and the geography of these two British colonies have some other things in common as well.

　　Australia and the United States are about the same in size, and their western lands are both not rich in soil. It was the eastern coast of Australia and American that the English first settled, and both colonies soon began to develop towards the west. However, this westward movement took place more because the English were searching for better land than because the population was increasing. Settlements of the western part of both countries developed quickly after gold was discovered in America in 1849 and in Australia two years later.

　　Although the development of these two countries has a lot in common, there are some striking differences as well. The United States gained its independence from England by revolution while Australis won its independence without having to go to war. Australia, unlike the United States, was firstly truned into a colony by English prisoners and its economic development was in wheat growing and sheep raising. By 1922, for example, Australia had fifteen times more sheep than it had people, or almost half as many sheep as there are people today in the United States. Yet, in spite of these and other main differences, Australia and the United States have more in common with each other than either one has with most of the rest of the world.