E
In the atmosphere.carbon dioxide.a(chǎn)cts rather like a one-way mirror or the glass in the roof of a greenhouse which allows the sun’s rays to enter but prevents the heat from escaping.
According to a weather expert’s prediction,the atmosphere will be 3°C warmer in the year 2050 than it is today, if man continues to burn fuels at the present rate.If this warming up took place,the ice caps in the poles would begin to melt, thus raising sea level several meters and severely flooding coastal cities.
Also,the increase in atmospheric temperature would lead to great changes in the climate of the northern hemisphere,possibly resulting in an alteration of the earth’s chief food growing zones.
In the past,concern about a man-made warming of the earth has concentrated on the Arctic because the Antarctic is much colder and has a much thicker ice sheet.But the weather experts are now paying more attention to West Antarctic,which may be affected by only a few degrees of warming,in other words,by a warming on the scale that will possibly take place in the next fifty  years from the burning of fuels.
Satellite pictures show that large areas of Antarctic ice are already disappearing.The evidence available suggests that a warming has taken place.This fits the theory that carbon dioxide warms the earth.
However, most of the fuel is burnt in the northern hemisphere,where temperatures seem to be falling.Scientists conclude,therefore,that up to now natural influences on the weather have gone beyond those caused by man.The question is:Which natural cause has most effect on the weather?  
One possibility is the variable behavior of the sun.Astronomers at one research station have studied the hot spots and ‘cold’ spots (that is,the relatively less hot spots)on the sun.As the sun rotates,every 27.5 days,it presents hotter or colder faces to the earth,and different aspects to different parts of the earth.This seems to have a considerable effect on the distribution of the earth’s atmospheric pressure,and consequently on wind circulation.The sun is also changeable over a long term:its heat output goes up and down in cycles,the latest trend being downward.
Scientists are now finding shared relation between models of solar weather interaction and the actual climate over many thousands of years,including the last Ice Age.The problem is that
the models are predicting that the world should be entering a new Ice Age and it is not.One way of solving this theoretical difficulty is to assume a delay of thousands of years while the solar effects overcome the inertia(惰性)of the earth’s climate.If this is right,the warming effect of carbon dioxide might thus be serving as a useful opposed balance to the sun’s fading heat.
72.It can be concluded that a concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would ______.
A.mean a warming-up in the Arctic
B.raise the temperature of the earth’s surface
C.prevent the sun’s rays from reaching the earth’s surface
D.explain the cause of great changes in the climate in the northern hemisphere
73.Although the fuel consumption is greater in the northern hemisphere, temperatures there
seem to be falling.This is _______.
A.mainly because the levels of carbon dioxide are rising
B.partly due to changes in the output of solar energy
C.possibly because the ice caps in the poles are melting  
D.only due to the effect of the inertia of the earth’s climate
74.On the basis of their models , scientists are of the opinion that  ________
A.the climate of the world should be becoming cooler
B.the new Ice Age will be delayed by the greenhouse effect
C.the man.made warming effect helps to increase the solar effects  
D.it will take thousands of years for the inertia of the earth’s climate to take effect
75.If the assumption about the delay of a new Ice Age is correct ,  _________     
A.ice would soon cover the northern hemisphere
B.the greenhouse effect could work in favor of the earth
C.the best way to overcome the cooling effect would be to bum more fuels
D.the increased levels of carbon dioxide could warm up the earth even more quickly

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科目:高中英語 來源:教材全解 高中英語 必修3 冀教版 題型:050

閱讀理解

  It has shined and steamed at the lowest point on Earth since the ancient time.Its silence and curing powers have attracted people from biblical(圣經(jīng)的)mystics to modern tourists.But the Dead Sea has been quietly dying for years.

  And the two states next to its shrinking shoreline, Israel and Jordan, face serious economic and ecological challenges in considering how to save a unique natural wonder of the world.

  They have begun to consider a“Red-Dead”solution-a canal to pump water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.But huge costs, and the risk both of damaging the Red's famous coral reefs and weakening the Dead's medicinal minerals, stand in the way.

  Known as the Dead Sea because nothing can live in it, the world's saltiest body of water has fallen from 390 metres to 417 metres below sea level in the last 50 years.The drop has sped up to a metre a year recently, making a third of its ancient 950 square km size lost.Modern economics are to blame-taking too much Jordan River water that feeds the Dead Sea to rain-starved farmland.

  Hotels and health spas(旅游勝地)built along the beach below desert cliffs, as well as sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, are now a kilometre or more from the water's edge.Retired Swiss couple Jean and Esther Haensenberger have been spending their yearly“Kur”-a Central European tradition of taking medicinal baths to treat skin illness and stress-at Israel's flagship Dead Sea resort of Ein Gedi since the 1980s.At first, they could walk a few paces from the Ein Gedi Spa to the beach for a float in windless waters so floating that one can read a book while lying on one's back.Now visitors board a tractor-drawn trolley that takes them a kilometre to the water.

  “It's over twice the distance out today.It's sad that another rare preserve of nature is disappearing.”said Jean Haensenberger as he and his wife rode to the shore,“If the sea keeps going down, will people like us keep coming?”

(1)

What's the risk the“Red-Dead”solution may have?

[  ]

A.

It may change the nature of the Dead Sea.

B.

It may destroy the famous coral.

C.

It may make the medicinal materials disappear.

D.

It may cost too much money.

(2)

The main problem the Dead Sea faces is ________.

[  ]

A.

it steams too fast

B.

it is getting smaller and smaller

C.

more and more visitors visit it

D.

it is getting dirtier and dirtier

(3)

One of the causes that makes the Dead Sea smaller is ________.

[  ]

A.

hotels built along the beach

B.

the growing tourism

C.

less and less rainfall

D.

too much water was taken to farmland

(4)

What disadvantage has the disappearing Dead Sea brought to the tourists?

[  ]

A.

Tourists won't come to the Dead Sea.

B.

Its nature is changing.

C.

Tourists have to go much farther to the water.

D.

The water in the Dead Sea is becoming saltier and saltier.

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科目:高中英語 來源:湖南省長沙市一中2009-2010學(xué)年度高一下學(xué)期第一次階段性考試 題型:閱讀理解


E
In the old days, children were familiar with birth and death as part of life. Now this is perhaps the first generation of American youngsters who have never been close by during of the birth a baby and have never experienced the death of a family member.
  Nowadays when people grow old, we often send them to nursing homes. When they get sick, we send them to a hospital, where children are forbidden to visit patients— even when those patients are their parents. This deprives(剝奪)the dying patient of family members during the last few days of his life and it deprives the children of an experience of death, which is an important learning experience.
  Some of my colleagues and I once interviewed and followed about 500 in order to find out what they could teach us and how we could be of more benefit, not just to them but to the members of their families as well. We were most impressed by the fact that even those patients who were not told of their serious illness were quite aware of its potential outcome.
  It is important for family members, and doctors and nurses to understand these patients’ communication in order to truly understand their needs, fears and fantasies. Most of our patients welcomed another human being with whom they could talk openly, honestly, and frankly about their trouble. Many of them shared with us their reat need to be informed, to be kept up-to-date on their medical condition and to be told when the end was near. We found out that patients who had been dealt with openly and frankly were better able to deal with the coming of death and finally to reach a true stage of acceptance before death.
82.The elders of today's Americans________ .
  A. are often absent when a family member is born or dying
  B. usually see the birth or death of a family member  
C. are unfamiliar with birth and death
  D. have often experienced the fear of death as part of life
83.Children in America are deprived of the chance to________.
  A. visit a patient at hospital                                 B. visit their family members
  C. look after the patients                                              D. learn how to face death 
84.The need of a dying patient for people to accompany him shows________.
  A. his wish for communication with other people               
B. his fear of death
  C. his unwillingness to die                          
D. he feels very upset about his condition
85.It may be concluded from the passage that________.
  A. dying patients should be truthfully informed of their condition
  B. dying patients are afraid of being told of the coming of death
  C. most patients are unable to accept death until it can’t be avoided
D. dying patients are not likely to be informed about their condition         

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