Antarctica and Environment
Antarctica has actually become a kind of space station – a unique observation post for detecting important changes in the world’s environment. Remote from major sources of pollution and the complex geological and ecological systems that prevail elsewhere, Antarctica makes possible scientific measurements that are often sharper and easier to interpret than those made in other parts of the world.
Growing numbers of scientists therefore see Antarctica as a distant-early-warning sensor, where potentially dangerous global trends may be spotted before they show up to the north. One promising field of investigation is glaciology. Scholars from the United States, Switzerland, and France are pursuing seven separate but related projects that reflect their concern for the health of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet – a concern they believe the world at large should share.
The Transantarctic Mountain, some of them more than 14,000 feet high, divide the continent into two very different regions. The part of the continent to the “east” of the mountains is a high plateau covered by an ice sheet nearly two miles thick. “West” of the mountain, the half of the continent south of the Americas is also covered by an ice sheet, but there the ice rests on rock that is mostly well below sea level. If the West Antarctic Ice Sheet disappeared, the western part of the continent would be reduced to a sparse cluster of island.
While ice and snow are obviously central to many environmental experiments, others focus on the mysterious “dry valley” of Antarctica, valleys that contain little ice or snow even in the depths of winter. Slashed through the mountains of southern Victoria Land, these valleys once held enormous glaciers that descended 9,000 feet from the polar plateau to the Ross Sea. Now the glaciers are gone, perhaps a casualty of the global warming trend during the 10,000 years since the ice age. Even the snow that falls in the dry valleys is blasted out by vicious winds that roars down from the polar plateau to the sea. Left bare are spectacular gorges, rippled fields of sand dunes, clusters of boulders sculptured into fantastic shapes by 100-mile-an-hour winds, and an aura of extraterrestrial desolation.
Despite the unearthly aspect of the dry valleys, some scientists believe they may carry a message of hope of the verdant parts of the earth. Some scientists believe that in some cases the dry valleys may soak up pollutants faster than pollutants enter them.
What is the best title for this passage?
A Antarctica and environmental Problems.
B Antarctica: Earth’s Early-Warning station.
C Antarctica: a Unique Observation Post.
D Antarctica: a Mysterious Place.
What would the result be if the West Antarctic Ice Sheet disappeared?
A The western part of the continent would be disappeared.
B The western part of the continent would be reduced.
C The western part of the continent would become scattered Islands.
D The western part of the continent would be reduced to a cluster of Islands.
Why are the Dry Valleys left bare?
A Vicious wind blasts the snow away. B It rarely snows.
C Because of the global warming trend and fierce wind. D Sand dunes.
Which of the following is true?
A The “Dry Valleys” have nothing left inside.
B The “Dry Valleys” never held glaciers.
C The “Dry Valleys” may carry a message of hope for the verdant.
D The “Dry Valleys” are useless to scientists.
【小題1】A
【小題2】D
【小題3】C
【小題4】C
這是一篇有關南極洲科研考察的重要性的科普文章。采用因果，點面結合寫法。首先提出：由于南極洲遠離污染，又不同于其它任何地方，普遍存在著復雜的地質和生態環境，所以這塊地方就可能得到更敏銳又易解釋的科學測量結果。它成了監察世界環境變化的觀察哨和空間站，后面幾段就寫了進行考察的方面和結果。
【小題1】南極洲和環境問題。
B. 南極洲：地球最早的報警戰。C.南極洲：獨一無二的觀察哨。D. 南極洲：神秘的地方。三項都是總內容眾的組成部分。
【小題2】 大陸西部成為一群島嶼。第三段“橫斷南極的山脈，有的高達一萬四千多英尺，把這大陸分成情況各異的兩個地區。山脈以東的大陸部分是由差不多兩英里厚的冰層覆蓋的高原；山脈以西，即美洲以南的半個大陸也為冰層所覆蓋。可是，這里冰層覆蓋在大大低于海平面的巖石。如果西南極洲冰層消失，那這大陸西部將成為稀疏的島群。”
A. 大陸西部將小時。B. 大陸西部縮小。 D. 大陸西部將成為分散的島嶼。
【小題3】 因為地球變暖和狂風勁吹。在第四段：“……這些干谷甚至在寒冬季節也很少有冰雪。它們插在南維多利亞陸地的山脈中，一度曾有從極地高原到羅斯海的深度為9000英尺的冰河。現在冰河已不存在，很可能是冰期之后一萬年間地球變暖的結果。即使落入干谷的雪也被從極地高原咆哮入海的邪惡狂風吹散了。留下來的是裸露的壯觀的峽谷，沙丘起伏的原野，被時速一百英里的大風雕刻成奇形怪狀的大礫石，形成與世隔絕的荒涼景象。”
A. 邪惡的狂風吹走了雪。B. 它很少下雪。D.沙丘。這三項只是干谷現象的一部分。
【小題4】他們可能為地球上綠色地區帶來了希望的信息。答案是第五段第一句“盡管干谷具有神秘的一面，科學家卻相信他們可能為地球上蔥綠的地方帶來了希望的信息。”
A.干谷內什么都沒有留下。B. 干谷內從沒有冰河。D. 按照科學家的看法，干谷毫無用處。
科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Lichens (地衣) are difficult to see. They don’t move. They often mix into the living place. You might not even recognize one if you are looking right at it.
Lichens live on rocks, branches, houses, and even metal street signs. You can find these colorful organisms (微生物) almost everywhere — from deserts to rainforests, and from Antarctica to Africa. They’ve traveled in outer space, and some scientists think there might even be lichens on Mars.
What you probably don’t realize is that a lichen is more than a single thing. It includes two different types of living organisms: a fungus (菌類) and an alga (藻類). Neither of these organisms is a plant, so the lichen isn’t a plant either.
Through photosynthesis (光合作用), the alga gets the sun’s energy to make food for the fungus, which is the place for the alga to live in. However, the alga cannot leave the fungus.
Around the world, scientists have found tens of thousands of types of lichens. Many may not even have been discovered yet. As scientists continue to find new kinds of lichens, they are also working to understand how they are connected to one another. By putting together a lichen family tree, they hope to understand why so many different types of lichens have grown in so many places around the world.
Many researchers are trying to understand basic facts about the organisms and their connections. Researchers are also using lichens to examine the health of the environment.
What do we know about lichens according to the passage?
A. They will die if they leave Earth.
B. There are more lichens than plants on Earth.
C. They look similar to the environment around them.
D. They are too small to be easily seen by people.
What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
A. The way lichens live.
B. The natural environment of lichens.
C. The way lichens work as organisms.
D. The family tree of lichens.
Which of the following statements is NOT the scientists’ purposes of studying lichens?
A. To understand basic facts about them.
B. To creat a lichen family tree.
C. To understand how lichens are related to each other.
D. To understand why lichens can live in different places.
We can know from the passage that __________.
A. lichens can be used to better understand the environment
B. lichens don’t have any differences in colors or sizes
C. lichens don’t use photosynthesis like a green plant
D. scientists have discovered every kind of lichen
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Lichens (地衣) are difficult to see. They don’t move. They often mix into the living place. You might not even recognize one if you are looking right at it.
Lichens live on rocks, branches, houses, and even metal street signs. You can find these colorful organisms (微生物) almost everywhere — from deserts to rainforests, and from Antarctica to Africa. They’ve traveled in outer space, and some scientists think there might even be lichens on Mars.
What you probably don’t realize is that a lichen is more than a single thing. It includes two different types of living organisms: a fungus (菌類) and an alga (藻類). Neither of these organisms is a plant, so the lichen isn’t a plant either.
Through photosynthesis (光合作用), the alga gets the sun’s energy to make food for the fungus, which is the place for the alga to live in. However, the alga cannot leave the fungus.
Around the world, scientists have found tens of thousands of types of lichens. Many may not even have been discovered yet. As scientists continue to find new kinds of lichens, they are also working to understand how they are connected to one another. By putting together a lichen family tree, they hope to understand why so many different types of lichens have grown in so many places around the world.
Many researchers are trying to understand basic facts about the organisms and their connections. Researchers are also using lichens to examine the health of the environment.
What do we know about lichens according to the passage?
A. They will die if they leave Earth.
B. There are more lichens than plants on Earth.
C. They look similar to the environment around them.
D. They are too small to be easily seen by people.
What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
A. The way lichens live.
B. The natural environment of lichens.
C. The way lichens work as organisms.
D. The family tree of lichens.
Which of the following statements is NOT the scientists’ purposes of studying lichens?
A. To understand basic facts about them.
B. To creat a lichen family tree.
C. To understand how lichens are related to each other.
D. To understand why lichens can live in different places.
We can know from the passage that __________.
A. lichens can be used to better understand the environment
B. lichens don’t have any differences in colors or sizes
C. lichens don’t use photosynthesis like a green plant
D. scientists have discovered every kind of lichen
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科目：高中英語 來源： 題型：閱讀理解
Some scientists warn that ice near the Earth’s Poles may indeed be melting. This “polar meltdown” may be the first sign that the Earth is heating up. We could be in very serious trouble if this trend continues. It is estimated that a meltdown of as little as 10 percent of Antarctica’s ice would raise sea levels around the globe by 4 to 9 meters. Floods would cover low-lying regions and turn coastal cities like New York and New Orleans into real life underwater world.
Scientists first predicted in the 1970s that heat trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere could cause a polar meltdown. Many now believe that human activities are turning up the heat. When we burn fossil fuels like coal and oil, we add carbon dioxide(CO2) gas to the Earth’s atmosphere. Cutting down trees also makes CO2 levels raise because trees normally soak up CO2 to make food. Scientists say higher CO2 levels strengthen the “greenhouse effect” and could increase the Earth’s temperature. In fact, CO2 levels have risen by 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Over the past three years, satellite measurements have shown a sea level rise of about a quarter inch worldwide. “If nothing is done to reduce fossil-fuel pollution and global warming, sea levels will rise even more.” says geologist Richard Alley.
But even Alley admits that a polar meltdown would take time. The ice in Antarctica and Arctic locks up nearly nine times the volume of water contained in all the world’s rivers and lakes. These are such big “ice cubes” and it would probably take thousands of years to melt them.
Another scientist Charles Bentley doesn’t think a meltdown will happen at all. “Even if warmer temperatures begin to melt polar-ice,” he says, “the excess moisture would most likely be redeposit as snow.” In other words, the melted ice would evaporate into the atmosphere, refreeze, and fall as rain and snow over the Poles.
What consequence of global warming is mentioned in the passage?
A. More tropical storms. B. More tropical diseases.
C. Changes in farm productivity. D. Coastal flooding.
Which of the following statements does the second paragraph support?
A. CO2 in the atmosphere cannot keep the heat from escaping into space.
B. The increase of CO2 gas may warm the planet and help to melt polar ice.
C. Cutting down trees helps to greatly reduce CO2 levels.
D. The end of the short-lived age of fossil fuels is already in sight.
Geologist Richard Alley most likely agrees that _______.
A. the sea-level rise can be prevented by cutting back on energy-consuming activities
B. the recent breaking off of ice blocks from Antarctica is just a natural part of a long-term cycle
C. Antarctica temperatures have significantly changed since the Industrial Revolution
D. the polar meltdown may be an accidental change of climate rather than a sign of global warming
Charles Bentley believes that a polar meltdown will not occur because _______.
A. governments around the world are beginning to reduce CO2 levels in the air
B. a melting of the polar ice cannot be achieved with the present technologies
C. the melted ice in the polar areas would change into snow and rain over the Poles
D. the sun’s heat would have no chance of being absorbed by the polar ice
In which paragraph does the author mention the immense quantities of polar ice?
A. In the second paragraph. B. In the third paragraph.
C. In the fourth paragraph. D. In the fifth paragraph.
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科目：高中英語 來源：2012屆黑龍江省哈六中學高三第三次模擬考試英語試卷（帶解析） 題型：閱讀理解
Have you ever walked outside thinking it was one temperature but quickly discovered it felt colder? That is because of the “wind chill” effect.
Wind chill is how cold people and animals feel when they are outside, not the actual temperature on the thermometer(溫度計). It is based on how quickly your body loses heat when it is exposed to wind and cold. When the wind is strong, your body quickly loses heat, making the temperature of your skin drop.
When scientists first started calculating wind chill, they used research conducted in 1945 by explorers to Antarctica who measured how quickly water froze outside.
But water freezes faster than exposed skin, so the wind chill index based on that data wasn’t accurate.
In 2001, the US government began to measure wind chill more precisely by testing how quickly people’s skin froze.
Twelve volunteers were placed in a chilled wind tunnel. Equipment was stuck to their faces to measure the heat flow from their cheeks, forehead, nose and chin while they walked three miles per hour on a treadmill(跑步機).
The experiment revealed how quickly exposed skin can be damaged, particularly unprotected areas like your fingers, toes, the tip of your nose and your ear lobes. In fact, 40 percent of your body heat can be lost through your head! Signs you might have frostbite(凍瘡) are when the skin turns white or pale and you lose feeling in that area.
The information collected from the volunteers helped scientists work out the math to compute wind chill. It involves wind speed and air temperature.
If, for example, the temperature outside is zero degrees Fahrenheit and the wind is blowing at 15 miles per hour, the wind chill is calculated at 19 degrees below zero. At that wind chill temperature, exposed skin can freeze in 30 minutes.
You can find a calculation table at www.nws.noaa.gov/om/windchill/index.shtml.
Experts advise in cold weather that you wear loose-fitting, lightweight, warm clothing, worn on top of each other. Air caught between the clothes will keep you warm. The best cold-weather coats have head coverings made of woven material that keep out water. So next time the temperature drops and you want to play outside, listen to your parents when they tell you to wrap up warm!
【小題1】 According to the text, wind chill _______.
| A．means how fast exposed skin freezes |
| B．doesn’t affect your head as much as other body parts |
| C．changes according to the temperature on the thermometer |
| D．changes from person to person depending on their health |
| A．When his skin turns red and he loses feeling in that area. |
| B．When he is running faster and he is losing strength quickly. |
| C．When his face is exposed and quickly loses heat even indoors. |
| D．When his skin turns pale and he has no feeling in that area. |
| A．A person’s body temperature and will speed. |
| B．Wind speed and a person’s strength. |
| C．Air temperature and wind speed. |
| D．The location and air temperature. |
| A．It was in 1945 that scientists first began to calculate wind chill. |
| B．Compared with water, people’s exposed skin freezes more slowly. |
| C．The wind chill index based on Antarctica data is considered a standard. |
| D．With the development of technology, many previous researches have been proven wrong. |
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科目：高中英語 來源：2006年高考試題（山東卷）解析版 題型：閱讀理解
Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis Cricket—anything with a round ball, I was useless, “he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England’s rural Devonshire.
It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.
The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man’s cold-water exploits(成就).Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future.
Journeys to the Pole aren’t the usual holidays for British country boys, and many peiole dismissed his dream as fantasy. “John Ridgway was one of the few who didn’t say, ‘You are completely crazy,’”Saunders says.
In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter(遭遇) with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.
Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.
This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.
1.The turning point in Saunders’life came when _____
A. he started to play ball games
B. he got a mountain bike at age 15
C. he ran his first marathon at age 18
D. he started to receive Ridgway’s training
2.We can learn from the text that Ridgway _______.
A. dismissed Saunders’ dream as fantasy
B. built up his body together with Saunders
C. hired Saunders for his cold-water experience
D. won his fame for his voyage across the Atlantic
3.What do we know about Saunders?
A. He once worked at a school in Scotland.
B. He followed Ridgway to explore the North Pole.
C. He was chosen for the school sports team as a kid.
D. He was the first Briton to ski alone to the North Pole.
4.The underlined word “Intrigued” in the third paragraph probably means_____.
A. Excited B. Convinced C. Delighted D. Fascinated
5.It can be inferred tat Saunders’ journey to the North Pole ______.
A. was accompanied by his old playmates
B. set a record in the North Pole expedition
C. was supported by other Arctic explorers
D. made him well-known in the 1960s
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