B(2023·盐城市鹿鸣路初级中学一模)
Born in Zhejiang Province, Shen Kuo was an excellent scientist of the Northern Song dynasty. He was a gifted
scholar of literature, physics, chemistry, calendar, medical science and many other fields. In his life, Shen held a number of official positions. He once represented the government to the Liao Kingdom and led soldiers in battle. At one time, he served as the director to watch the stars. So, Shen Kuo was well-known for his amazing talent in ancient China.
Shen Kuo was especially known for the explanations of natural phenomena found in his famous book Mengxi Bitan, or Dream Pool Essays. The book was widely regarded as an important scientific work in ancient China. There is a story about the origin of Mengxi Bitan. While in his thirties, Shen Kuo often dreamed of a place. In the dream, he climbed a hill, the top of which was covered with brightly coloured flowers and trees. A clear stream flowed at the foot of the hill. Later on, when travelling around, he was shocked to find a piece of land that was just the place in his dream. After his retirement, he remained there for the last seven years, naming it "Dream Brook Garden", and wrote down the discoveries he had made in his lifetime.
In Mengxi Bitan, he wrote a lot about the animals and plants he had seen when travelling through the country, such as the giant clam(蛤蜊) in the South Sea, the crocodile in Chaozhou and Chinese wolfberries in the northwest of China. The book also introduced some methods to kill insect pests.
Shen Kuo was the first to discover that the compass does not point directly north, but to the north magnetic pole(北磁极). He also had deep knowledge about fossils. When visiting the Taihang Mountains in Shanxi Province, he found fossilized seashells and noted the egg-shaped stones like those were often found in the area by the sea.
This led him to conclude that at some time in the distant past, Shanxi had been covered by the sea.
Shen Kuo was hundreds of years ahead of Western scientists in many fields. His work Mengxi Bitan was a milestone in the history of Chinese science. Today, this amazing over 900-year-old work has been translated into a number of different languages.
(
B
)5. What do we know about Mengxi Bitan?
A. It described Shen Kuo's dreams.
B. Its name came from the place in his dream.
C. It was one of Shen's 1,000 scientific works.
D. Mengxi Bitan or Dream Pool Essays is about nature.
(
C
)6. Which of the following sayings can best describe Shen Kuo?
A. Like father, like son.
B. Silence is gold.
C. Good at both pen and sword.
D. Practice makes perfect.
(
D
)7. What does the underlined word "This" in Paragraph 4 mean?
A. Shanxi was covered by the sea long ago.
B. The compass points directly to the north.
C. Shen Kuo visited the Taihang Mountains in Shanxi.
D. Egg-shaped fossils were found in Shanxi.
