Last week, 55-year-old Donald Lynn Cash of Utah collapsed and died just after reaching the Everest peak. Including Cash, at least 11 people have died on Mount Everest this year.
The deaths come among reports of overcrowding on the popular mountain. The Nepali government granted a total of 381 permits to climb Everest this year, a number that doesn’t include guides who are on the mountain as well. For some climbers, that traffic has meant longer wait times — some told the Himalayan Times the wait has exceeded two hours between the last camp and the peak. Mountaineer Vanessa O’Brien, who has also climbed the seven summits, said when there’s a crowd, being a more experienced climber won’t help you. “It doesn’t matter if you’re the best racecar driver in the world. If you’re stuck in traffic, you’re stuck in traffic,” she said in an interview.
When a climber is stuck in that traffic, “their body is starting to deteriorate.” O’Brien, who set a record as the fastest woman to reach the highest peak on every continent, also said the descent is often harder than the climb.
Climbing expert Alan Arnette said there’s no simple explanation for the string of deaths. He said weather that has led to a shorter climbing season is one factor causing overcrowding. He also said the cost to climb Mount Everest has decreased, which means more people are making the journey. He urged the governments in charge of granting permits to limit how many people can be on the mountain at once.
Still, Christopher was no beginner. His family said he’d been mountain climbing for five decades. His brother mentioned that being a lawyer as a “day job” for Christopher, while Climbing was his passion. “He was an zealous climber of peaks in Colorado, the West and the world over,” Mark Kulish said. “He passed away doing what he loved.”
1. What made longer wait times on Mount Everest?A.Lacking guides. |
B.Overcrowding. |
C.Bad weather. |
D.Getting government’s permission. |
a. The less cost attracting more climbers.
b. The more climbers worsening the environment.
c. More permits granted by the government.
d. The governments limiting the climber’s number.
e. The weather leading to a shorter climbing season.
A.a, b, d | B.a, c, e | C.b, c, d | D.b, d, e |
A.Being a racecar driver can get you out of the traffic jam. |
B.Being an experienced climber is always helpful. |
C.Climbers do not need the permits from government. |
D.When stuck in traffic, the climber’s body will fail to function as usual. |
A.Experienced. | B.Famous. | C.Excellent. | D.Keen. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】ON TUESDAY, the Shenzhen team of Blue Sky Rescue, confirmed (确认) that two of its members had died trying to rescue 24 tourists.
According to the official news, it was on Monday that the rescue team received a call from 24 travelers, who were trapped, in a river valley.
The team responded immediately. However, when they helped the travelers, two team members got trapped by the rising river water. The next day, they were confirmed dead.
Who can rescue the rescuers? The question aroused a heated discussion among people. Most of them think we would rather such “heroic deeds” were not required. In the past several years, there have been many cases in which travelers, ignoring the signs saying certain areas are dangerous and off-limits (禁止进入的), ended up needing to be rescued. By so doing, they put not only their own lives at risk but also the lives of those who go to their aid.
Although the majority of travelers behave properly, some attempt challenging tasks that are obviously beyond their abilities.
The law has already made it clear that if a traveler or group gets into difficulties when entering unauthorized (未经许可的) regions, they must bear the costs of the rescue. The rules need strengthening to deter travelers from putting their own lives and the lives of others at risk.
1. How many travellers were trapped in a river valley?A.24. | B.2. | C.42. | D.26. |
A.They lost her way. | B.They were trapped on the mountain. |
C.They died in the rescue work. | D.They were seriously injured. |
A.Caring. | B.Negative. | C.Understanding. | D.Positive. |
A.protect… from | B.stop… from |
C.excuse… from | D.separate… from |
【推荐2】At a school in North Carolina, Monica Mitchell-Giraudo, a French teacher, instructs 19 sixth-graders to gather into a circle.
“Okay, everyone, let's take a few mindful breaths, and think about our gratitude (感激) for Amy, who brought us apples for snack today,” says Monica. “What do you notice?”
“I notice my stomach is already growling (做隆隆声),” laughs Ben.
“My mouth is watering,” says David.
Next, the students hold and examine the apples. They pick up the fruit and feel it. Then they bring the apples to their noses, using their sense of smell to enjoy the flowery smell of their snack before taking the first juicy bites.
“Excellent, class,” says Monica. “Before you eat the apple, ask yourself whether or not you're hungry. Remember, you don't have to eat if your body isn't giving you a hunger signal.”
These students are learning a practice called “Mindful Eating”, which builds the children's awareness (意识) of important physical signals like hunger and fullness.
The positive feedback from the children shows how much these newly learned life skills are helping them.
“Mindful eating helps me think about the food that goes into my body,” says Jamie, a student in Monica's class. “I can make better and healthier food choices.”
Unfortunately, these kinds of courses are in short supply because many educators believe that social and emotional programs are too expensive or time-consuming (耗时的). To save costs and reduce staffing problems, prevention programs like The Body Positive are brought into the schools. The program teaches a series of self-exploration exercises that help educators examine their feelings and attitudes about food so that they can pass on these messages to their students, too.
Kathy Laughlin, director of counseling at San Domenico High School, is a fan of the training. “Since we began the program, I have not seen as many girls with problems related to body hatred,” she says. “Mindful eating practice is one of the best ways to help students develop a healthy mind and body connection — one which will help them for years to come.”
1. What did Monica ask her students to do as soon as they were gathered?A.Express thanks to Amy. |
B.Feel a need for the food. |
C.Share their eating experiences. |
D.Think about the state of hunger. |
A.To stop eating disorders. |
B.To train educators in mindful eating. |
C.To change students' attitudes towards eating. |
D.To create present moment awareness when eating. |
A.It is a waste of time. |
B.It is hardly practical. |
C.It costs a lot of money. |
D.It has long-term significance. |
【推荐3】A Russian spacecraft traveling to the International Space Station Thursday had to make an emergency landing when a rocket engine failed to fire. It was the latest in a recent series of failures for the Russian space program, which is also used by the U.S. to carry its astronauts to the station.
United States astronaut Nick Hague and Russian astronaut Alexei Ovchinin landed safely about 20 kilometers from Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. The city is about 450 kilometers from the Russia’s Baikonur space center, which Russia operates through an agreement with the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Both the U.S. space agency NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos reported that the two were quickly recovered from the landing area by rescue crews. A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said, “Thank God the crew is alive” after they had landed safely.
About two minutes after launching, the three-stage Soyuz booster rocket suffered an unspecified failure of its second stage. Russia’s TASS news agency said the capsule carrying the two men separated from the troubled rocket safely. This caused the capsule to drop very sharply into the Earth’s atmosphere. Parachutes(降落伞)helped slow the returning capsule. Search and rescue teams were sent to recover the crew.
Russia’s RIA news agency reported that Russia has immediately put off all manned space launches after the failure. Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin said he had ordered a state commission to carry out an investigation into what went wrong. He said Russia will share all relevant information with the U.S.
The TASS news agency said that the ISS crew has enough supplies and that the failed launch will not affect operations.
The U.S. and other nations have depended on Russia to carry astronauts to the ISS since the retirement of the Space Shuttle program in 2011. In coming years, American aerospace companies SpaceX, with its Dragon 2, and Boeing, with its Starliner, are expected to return to space.
1. What can be the best title of the text?A.The Rescue of Two Astronauts |
B.The Launch of Russian Spacecraft |
C.Cooperation between Russia and America |
D.Emergency Landing in Failed Space Launch |
A.The problem of the engine. | B.The terrible weather. |
C.The drop of the capsule. | D.The wrong operation. |
A.SpaceX is sure to go back to space soon. |
B.America carried astronauts to the ISS by itself before 2011. |
C.Now only Russia can carry astronauts to space. |
D.the ISS crew lives a very good life in the space station. |
A.The capsule landed safely in Dzhezkazgan, Russia. |
B.Russia had never failed in the space launch before this failure. |
C.The failed launch will have a serious effect on the operations. |
D.At first the capsule dropped very rapidly into the Earth’s atmosphere. |
【推荐1】In the ever-evolving world of robotics, researchers are constantly seeking innovative ways to enhance the capabilities of these machines. One that has captured the attention of scientists is the potential of using legs instead of arms for certain tasks. Four-legged robots normally need an arm attached to their body to open doors or pick up objects, but this can add additional weight and make it harder for the robot to squeeze through narrow spaces.
Philip Smith in Switzerland and his colleagues used a machine-learning model to teach a ready-made robotic dog to use one of its legs to perform tasks while standing still or moving with the other three legs. The robot dog can use a leg to open doors, press buttons and pick up backpacks while balancing on its other three legs.
“We cannot do everything with the legs that we could do with an arm — right now, a hand is far more skillful. But the point is really to make this work for applications where we maybe have mass limits, or we don’t want to have that additional complexity, like for space exploration where every kilogram of such a robot counts,” says Smith.
To train the robot dog, Smith and his team gave the machine-learning model the objective of finding a specific point in space with one of the robot’s legs. The model then worked out by itself how to control the remaining three legs and balance the robot while standing or walking. Smith and his team could then control the robot remotely to carry out movements like picking up a backpack and putting it in a box, or collecting rocks. While the robot can currently only do these tasks while operated by a person, Smith hopes that future improvements will allow the dog to autonomously handle objects with its leg.
1. What is a drawback of four-legged robots with arms?A.Difficulty in control. | B.Lack of flexibility. |
C.Complexity in design. | D.Absence of innovation. |
A.To compare the robot dog with humans. | B.To prove the complexity of the robot dog. |
C.To explain the limitation of the robot dog. | D.To show the potential uses of the robot dog. |
A.By balancing on its other three legs. | B.By using a machine-learning model. |
C.By having an arm attached to its body. | D.By exposing it to diverse environments. |
A.Its leg will be more skillful than its arms. | B.It can be operated more easily by a person. |
C.It can handle objects with its leg on its own. | D.It can carry out machine-learning autonomously. |
【推荐2】Indian scientists plan to add substances to clouds above the capital New Delhi in an effort to produce rain to reduce pollution. The method is called cloud seeding. The process involves adding different chemicals to clouds to cause rain. When rain falls from the sky, water droplets can attach to pollution particles and bring them down to the ground.
New Delhi has been rated the city with the most air pollution in the world. Air quality decreases in the city ahead of winter each year. During this time, cold air can trap many pollutants, including gases from vehicles, industry and agricultural burning.
Scientists expect some clouds over the city around November 20. They hope the clouds will result in heavy rainfall. The project, estimated to cost $120,000 for 100 square kilometers, would involve spraying into clouds a mix of salts that include silver iodine.
“The local government in New Delhi, a city of 20 million people, has already closed all schools and other educational institutions, asked people to work from home, restricted the movement of trucks and other vehicles and ceased all building activities”, said Gufran Beig, head of the Indian government’s air-quality measuring agency SAFAR, adding that “The city needs heavy and widespread rain to wash away the pollutants, and light rain could worsen the situation.”
New Delhi’s pollution has been exacerbated by more than 3,500 fires in Punjab and Haryana, where farmers burned stubble (秸秆) ahead of sowing their winter wheat crop. The smoke has been trapped tightly in the cold winter air, leaving the hospitals filled with children and the elderly.
It is reported that officials in New Delhi now are seeking approval for the project from the Supreme Court. In 2021, a plan to seed clouds over the mountains of New Mexico to increase snowfall was pulled because of the blame that it could poison people and the environment. As a matter of fact, several countries have used this method to produce rain, improve air quality and water crops in times of extreme dryness, including Mexico, the United States, Indonesia and Malaysia.
1. What do you know about cloud seeding?A.A method to let rain fall down together with pollutants. |
B.A method designed to generate rain or snow artificially. |
C.A method created to absorb substances from clouds. |
D.A method used to assess clouds’ quality and quantity. |
A.Most schools have to break up their off line classes. |
B.The roads are closed to trucks and other vehicles. |
C.It is possible that a light rain will visit the city. |
D.A huge pressure from an intense rain will work. |
A.Worsened. | B.Considered. | C.Controlled. | D.Restored. |
A.Cloud seeding has become popular in the world. |
B.Cloud seeding is indeed a threat to living creatures. |
C.Not all the nations and areas support cloud seeding. |
D.It is the second time that India has seeded clouds. |
【推荐3】A cheap printed sensor(传感器) could transmit wildfire warnings. Wildfires have recently destroyed the forests across the world, and their gravity is increasing. Hoping to reduce harm, researchers led by Yapei Wang, a Chinese chemist of Renmin University, say they have developed an inexpensive sensor to detect(监测) such fires earlier with less effort.
Current detection methods rely heavily on human watchfulness, which can delay an effective response. Most wildfires are reported by the general public, and other alarms come from routine foot patrols and watchtower observers. Passing planes and satellites also occasionally spot something, but "the fire first appears on the ground," Wang says. "When you see the fire from the sky, it is too late."
The team says its new sensor can be placed near tree trunks' bases and send a wireless signal to a nearby receiver if there is a quick temperature increase. That heat also powers the sensor itself, without replacing batteries. The team printed the substances onto ordinary paper to create a sensor for just $ 0.40.
But improving coordination among the different companies involved in firefighting is even more important to deal with, says Graham Kent, an earthquake expert at the University of Nevada, Reno, who was not part of the study. Kent is director of ALERT Wildfire, a network that uses cameras and crowd sourcing to watch for fires in California, Nevada and Oregon. "The whole way that you respond to a fire until it's put out is like a ballet," he says. "You'd have to choreograph(设计)it just so, with resources accurately used at the right time and place and in the right order from detection to confirmation to assignment to extinguishment(熄灭). Fire detection is just step one."
Wang says his team's next steps are to extend the device's signal range beyond the current 100 meters, which can limit practical use, and to develop a protective shield(防护罩) for it. The transmitter's effectiveness, he notes, will also need to be examined in the field ahead.
1. What does the underlined word "gravity" in paragraph 1 probably mean?A.Pull. | B.Extinction. | C.Popularity. | D.Seriousness. |
A.Its price remains high. | B.Its batteries are replaceable. |
C.It can detect fires earlier and easier. | D.It can reduce firefighters' pain. |
A.Firefighting is easy but crucial. | B.Fire detection resources are rich. |
C.Putting out a fire is an orderly activity. | D.Technology is the key to extinguishing a fire. |
A.Improving and testing it. | B.Limiting its use and transmission. |
C.Examing and reducing its signal range. | D.Getting it on the market ahead of time. |