2015年高考仿真模拟试卷•新课标卷II（一） 英语
第二部分 阅读理解（共两节，满分40分）
第一节（共15小题；每小题2分，满分40分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项。并在答题卡上将该选项涂黑。
A
（2015年广州一模英语试卷）At the start of the 20th century, a new city was beginning to grow on some flat land near the sea in southern California; its name was Los Angeles. At the same time, a new industry was just being born: the cinema.
America’s movie industry began life in New York; but by 1910, movie-makers were moving to Los Angeles. In New York, everything was too expensive: workers, land, taxes. Moreover, it was difficult to make movies in winter, because it was too cold.
The Los Angeles region, on the other hand, was full of advantages. In California, they could make films all through the year; and everything was cheaper. In particular, there was lots of land for sale, especially in the Los Angeles suburb called Hollywood.
Movies quickly became very popular, and this popularity exploded after “talkies” first appeared in 1925. Nevertheless, movies were expensive to produce, and film companies needed money-lots of it. For this reason, Hollywood rapidly became controlled by a small number of big companies such as MGM, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros. and Paramount.
Since then, the big companies’ fortunes have ebbed and flowed, but most of them are still there. Some old names have disappeared, but some new ones have appeared, companies like Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg’s company Amblin. Today the biggest studios belong to huge international firms. For instance, News Corporation, which now owns Fox, also owns newspapers on three continents, and TV networks in America, Europe and Asia.
It is only huge companies like Fox that can afford to make today’s very expensive films; and for Titanic-at the time the most expensive film ever mad-Fox had to get help from another big company, Paramount!
Once Hollywood mad films just for America; today it makes them for the world. It’s the center of a global dream-machine. Perhaps we dreamed differently in the past. Today, thanks in part to Hollywood, people everywhere have similar dreams.
We now live in the age of global culture. Hollywood did not invent this culture-but for better or for worse, it has become one of the most powerful elements in it. Like it or not, we all now live on planet Hollywood.
21. What attracted the film industry to Los Angeles?
A. Cheaper costs and pleasant weather.
B. More talented actors and mild climate.
C. More skilled workers and plentiful land.
D. Large movie companies and lower wages.
