Floods cause billions of dollars worth of property damage （）.

A.speculate

B.evacuate

C.anticipate

D.manifest

Floods cause billions of dollars worth of property damage ________.

A) relatively B) actually C) annually D) comparatively

Floods cause billions of dollars worth of property damage ____________.

A、annually

B、relatively

C、actually

D、comparatively

When there is a heavy rain, trees can help to prevent floods, as they can ______

A. keep rain from falling down to soft ground

B. cause the soil to allow rainwater to sink in

C. make the topsoil stick together

D. prevent the soil from being washed away

A.like B.in C.around D.to E.toward

When it comes _____1 gravity,the larger an object is,the stronger its force is.A person creates gravity but not enough to pull objects ____2 him or cause things to go into orbit ___3 him.On the other hand,a planet has enough gravity to pull objects into orbit around it.A star makes enough gravity that it can pull whole solar systems into its orbit,____4 ours.Our sun's gravity is so strong that it keeps an object-Pluto-that is roughly 3.7 billion miles away____5 orbit.

The Smokey Bear(护林熊) fire prevention program has resulted in a savings of $20 billion on all federal(联邦的), state and private forested land(私有林地). In 1941, 208,000 forest fires burned 30 million acres, while in 1981, fewer than 165,000 fires burned about three million acres. While forest usage has increased, the proportion(比例) of human-caused fires has remained stable; people still cause nine out of ten forest fires. But the biggest cause of fires is arson(纵火), accounting for(引起) 34 percent of forest fires in 1981.

1. According to the passage, use of forested land has ____.

A、stabilized

B、been privatized

C、decreased

D、risen

2. According to the passage, in 1941 forest fires burned ____.

A、less acres than in 1981

B、3 million acres

C、ten times as many acres as in 1981

D、20 million acres more than in 1981

3. According to the passage, the number of human-caused fires ____.

A、has remained the same proportionately

B、has increased

C、is the same as the arson cases

D、accounts for 34 per cent of forest fires

4. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true？

A、Nine out of ten fires are caused by arsonists.

B、The Smokey Bear program has saved the nation a lot of money.

C、There are more forest fires now than before.

D、People do not use the forests as much as they did in the past.

5. It may be inferred from the passage that ____.

A、the majority of fires are caused by humans

B、arson is increasing every year

C、more acres are destroyed by fire each year

D、fewer people are using the forests

flashier, its claim to fame is that, though it had been thought extinct since 1944, a lone kayaker spotted it about two years ago, flying around among the cypress trees in the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge. And that sighting may prove the death-blow to a $319m irrigation project in the Arkansas corner of the Delta.

The Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project seemed, at first, a fine idea. The Grand Prairie is the fourth-largest rice-bowl in the world, with 363,000 acres under paddies. But it is running out of water, with farmers driving wells deeper and deeper into the underlying aquifer. The new project, dreamed up around a decade ago, would tap excess water from the White river when it floods and pumps it, at the rate of about one billion gallons a day, to storage tanks on around 1000 rice farms.

Unfortunately, it would also divert water from the region's huge, swampy wildlife refuges, home to black bears and alligators and the pallid sturgeon. Tiny swamp towns like Clarendon and Brinkley, which are heavily black and almost destitute, rely on nature tourism for the little economic activity they have. In Brinkley, the barber offers an "ivorybill" haircut that makes you look like one.

The project has some powerful local backers. They include Blanche Lincoln, the state's senior senator, who grew up on a rice farm in Helena, and Dale Bumpers, a former four-term senator and governor of Arkansas. Mr. Bumpers, long an icon of the environmental movement and prominent in the efforts to establish the refuges, now believes the water project is important for national security in food and trade, and that it will not damage the forests he has worked to protect.

Opponents worry that the project, apart from its environmental risks, will overwhelm the innovative water conservation methods that rice-farmers are already using, and give the biggest water users an unfair advantage. They also object that it means using subsidised pumps to provide subsidised water for a crop that doesn't pay. Rice is one of the most heavily assisted crops in America; rice payments cost taxpayers almost $10 billion between 1995 and 2004, and rich farmers round Stuttgart in Arkansas County (an efficient and politically shrewd group) took in $21.2m in subsidies in 2004 alone.

It can be inferred from the first paragraph that ______.

A．an ivory-billed woodpecker was shot by a lone kayaker two years ago.

B．the ivory-billed woodpecker was accustomed to living among cypress trees.

C．the irrigation project is probably broken off by the ivory-billed woodpecker.

D．the appearance of the ivory-billed woodpecker may make the irrigation project terminated.

Scientists in California and Virginia will try to decode

genetic makeup of two plant-destroying microbes, including 【M1】______

one blaming for killing tens of thousands of oak trees along the 【M2】______

West Coast.

Backed by ＄4 million in federal grants, the scientists hope

to sequence the genomes of the two species of Phytophthora.

The most notorious of the pair is P. ramorum, that causes sudden【M3】______

oak death syndrome.

With the genomes in hand, scientists expect to develop

the mean to track, detect and, eventually, treat both diseases.【M4】______

P. ramorum has killed tens of thousands of black oak,

coast live oak and tan oak trees in northern California and

southern Oregon as it first appeared in 1995. This year, 【M5】______

scientists invented coast redwoods and Douglas fir also 【M6】______

are susceptible, as is at least 14 other plant species. 【M7】______

At the same time, scientists at the Walnut Creek laboratory

and at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute in Blacksburg will

sequence the genome of P. sojae, a related microbe

responsible soy rot, which is estimated to cause ＄1 billion in 【M8】______

damages to soy Bean crops worldwide. Both sequences will be

free available on the Internet once completed. 【M9】______

The two species of funguslike organisms are closely

related to algae. Among their relatives is P. infestans, the microbe

responsible for the failure of potato crops in Ireland in the

19th century and the resulting famine. The name

Phytophthora means "plant devourer" in Greece. 【M10】______

【M1】

dle, and light bulb, gradually drawing back the curtain of darkness. But a brighter world has its drawbacks.

An estimated 30 percent of outdoor lighting—plus even some indoor lighting—is wasted. Inefficient lighting costs U. S. about ＄10. 4 billion a year, according to Bob Gent of the International Dark-Sky Association, a nonprofit that aims to control light pollution.

Last year in Sydney, an estimated 2. 2 million Australians switched off their lights during “Earth Hour”, briefly reducing that city’s energy use by more than 10 percent. Motivated by such trends, more than two dozen cities worldwide went dim on March 29 this year in an hour-long demonstration.

A number of groups are trying to measure light pollution and assess its effects on the environment in the hope that people will reduce their own contribution to the problem. Scientists are trying to report how many stars we can see. In dark rural areas, about 2, 000 stars are typically visible at night, compared with“maybe five”in a bright city square—and about 5, 000 in centuries past.

People who are working while others are star-gazing may face the greatest risks. Nighttime exposure to white light can cause the growth of tumors (肿瘤) , experiments show. Two decades of research indicate that women who work night shifts have unusually high rates of breast cancer.

The word“drawbacks”in the first paragraph probably means_______.

A．benefits

B．interests

C．effects

D．problems

nce records began to be written down, it has been estimated that earthquake-related fatalities have numbered in the millions, and that earthquake-related destruction has been beyond calculation. The greater part of such damage and loss of life has been due to collapse of buildings and the effects of rockslides, floods, fire, disease, tsunamis (gigantic sea waves), and other observable events resulting from earthquakes, rather than from the quake themselves.

The great majority of all earthquakes occur in two specific geographic areas. One such area covers the Pacific Ocean and its bordering landmasses. The other extends from the East Indians to the Atlas Mountains, including the Himalayas, Iran, Turkey, and the Alpine regions. It is in these two great belts or zones that ninety percent of all earthquakes take place; they may, however, happen anywhere at any time.

This element of the unknown has for centuries added greatly to the dread and horror surrounding earthquakes, but in recent times there have been indications that earthquake forecast may be possible. By analyzing changes in animal behavior, patterns of movements in the earth‟s shell, variations in the earth‟s force of attraction, and the frequency with which minor earth shakes are observed, scientists have shown increasing success in expecting when and where earthquakes will strike. As a result, a worldwide earthquake warning network is already in operation and has helped to prepare for (and thus lessen) the vast destruction that might otherwise have been totally unexpected.

It is doubtful that man will ever be able to control earthquakes and get rid of their destructiveness altogether, but as how and why earthquakes happen become better

understood, man will become more and more able to deal with their possible damage before they occur.

1.Which of the following statements is true according to the passage？

A. Earthquake destruction is declining

B. Earthquake forecast is improving

C. Man is no longer fearful of earthquakes.

D. Man is capable of conquering earthquakes

2.We can infer from the passage that quakes __________.

A. may happen anywhere at any time

B. mostly strike in oceans and mountains

C. are unobservable in masses of land

D. are hardly the direct cause of fatalities

3.The phrase “this element of the unknown” (Paragraph 3) refers to ___________.

A. the extension of earthquake zones

B. the percentage of earthquake occurrences

C. when and where earthquakes may occur

D. what big damage earthquakes may cause

4.Man‟s research on earthquake forecast at present is to ____________.

A. reduce the loss from earthquake disasters

B. lower the frequency of earthquakes

C. release the energy that causes earthquakes

D. analyze the relationship between different earthquakes

5. Which of the following describes the author‟s purpose in writing the passage？

A. Inform. the reader

B. Entertain the reader

C. Disprove a concept

D. Question a concept

请根据短文内容，回答题。

Traffic Jams——No End in Sight

(1) Traffic congestion (拥堵) affects people throughout the world. Traffic jams cause smog in dozens of cities across both the developed and developing world. In the U. S., commuters (通勤人员 ) spend an average of a full working week each year sitting in traffic jams, according to the Texas Transportation Institute. While alternative ways of getting around are available, most people still choose their cars because they are looking for convenience, comfort and privacy.＜br＞

(2) The most promising technique for reducing city traffic is called congestion pricing, whereby cities charge a toll to enter certain parts of town at certain times of day. In theory, if the toll is high enough, some drivers will cancel their trips or go by bus or train. And in practice it seems to work: Singapore, London and Stockholm have reduced traffic and pollution in city centres thanks to congestion pricing.＜br＞

(3) Another way to reduce rush-hour traffic is for employers to implement flextime, which lets employees travel to and from work at off-peak traffic times to avoid the rush hour. Those who have to travel during busy times can do their part by sharing cars. Employers can also allow more staff to telecommute (work from home) so as to keep more cars off the road altogether.＜br＞

(4) Some urban planners still believe that the best way to ease traffic congestion is to build more roads, especially roads that can take drivers around or over crowded city streets. But such techniques do not really keep cars off the road; they only accommodate more of them.＜br＞

(5) Other, more forward-thinking, planners know that more and more drivers and cars are taking to the roads every day, and they are unwilling to encourage more private automobiles when public transport is so much better both for people and the environment. For this reason, the American government has decided to spend some $7 billion on helping to increase capacity on public-transportsystemsandupgradethemwithmoreefficienttechnologies.But＜br＞

environmentalists complain that such funding is tiny compared with the $50 billion being spent on roads and bridges.

Paragraph 1 __________ 查看材料

A.Paying to get in

B.Changing work practice

C.Not doing enough

D.A solution which is no solution

E.Closing city centres to traffic

F.A global problem