A
Putting a dinosaur skeleton(骨架)together is not easy.The skeletons are usually very incomplete.Many dinosaur fossils(化石) are discovered badly damaged.Bones are often found crushed(压碎)or bent by the great weight of the dirt and rock above.Sometimes parts from different creatures are mixed together.This just adds to the confusion.
Unfortunately，some scientists have not been careful enough in their descriptions of dinosaurs.They have told grand stories of how dinosaurs looked and behaved.All of these descriptions are based on guesswork－the imaginations of people who have never seen a living dinosaur.Some scientists have made complete pictures of dinosaurs based on just a single bone or tooth or leg.Such pictures are based on many guesses and very little facts.The scientists' ideas often turn out to be wrong when more facts are discovered.
Dinosaur fossils are not found with labels attached showing what the animals looked like.That is why no pictures of dinosaurs are exactly right.Every dinosaur painting is sure to contain at least some wrong information.No artist in the twentieth century ever saw the living，breathing animals—complete with skin，flesh，and color.
For instance，imagine never having seen or heard of a peacock.One day you find the jumbled bones of it buffed in the ground.You try to put the bones together to form a skeleton.And then you try to draw a picture of what the animal looked like when it was alive.But bones cannot tell the whole story.Even if you are a very good artist，it would be a miracle if you drew a true picture of a peacock just from the bones and your imagination.
【语篇解读】 本文是一篇说明文。由于恐龙化石被发现时是毁坏的，所以拼接恐龙骨架很难，而且科学家在描述恐龙时也是在仅有的几片化石上做猜想，经常被证明是错误的。
1．Which of the following is NOT a reason why putting a dinosaur skeleton together is difficult?
A．No one has seen a living dinosaur.
B．Dinosaur bones are too complicated when found.
C．Dinosaur bones are crushed or bent when found.
D．Dinosaur bones are mixed with other animals' bones when found.
B [细节理解题。根据第一段的内容可知，所发现的恐龙骨骼遭到了严重的破坏，或压碎或变形，有些还和其他动物的骨骼混合到一块，而且根据下文可知现代人谁也没见过活着的恐龙，所以A、C、D三项都是原因。故选B。]
2．According to Paragraph 2，we can infer that ．
A．some scientists are very careful in their descriptions of dinosaurs
B．the descriptions of dinosaurs contain some wrong information
C．some scientists have made complete pictures of dinosaurs based on facts
D．the ideas of scientists are often proved wrong when more facts are discovered
B [推理判断题。根据第二段中的“All of these descriptions are based on guesswork — the imaginations of people who have never seen a living dinosaur.”可推知关于恐龙的描述是建立在人们的想象之上，因此这些描述含有错误信息。故选B。]
3．Taking a peacock as an example，the author shows that ．
A．it is easy to put the peacock bones together to form a skeleton
B．it is not easy to put the peacock bones together to form a skeleton
C．a very good artist can draw a good picture even if he has never seen a peacock
D．it is impossible to draw a correct picture based on the bones and one's imagination
D [细节理解题。根据文章最后一句话“Even if you are a very good artist，it would be a miracle if you drew a true picture of a peacock just from the bones and your imagination.”可知答案为D。]
4．What is the passage mainly about?
A．Why it is difficult for scientists to find dinosaur fossils.
B．Why scientists can't give exact description of dinosaurs.
C．How we can get right information about dinosaurs.
D．How we can put a dinosaur skeleton together.
B [主旨大意题。全文谈论了在没有任何人见过恐龙的情况下，要想准确地描述出来恐龙是什么样子的，这是非常困难的，所以B项内容是文章谈论的中心。]
