A tsunami is a series of huge waves that can kill many people and destroy a whole country. A terrible tsunami disaster happened on December 26, 2004.
The word “tsunami” comes from Japanese words. A tsunami can be caused by natural phenomenon such as landslides, volcanic eruptions, large asteroid impacts (小行星撞击地球), and earthquakes occurring underwater or close to a body of water.
A tsunami usually cannot be seen while it travels through deep water.
Since the tsunami of 2004, many people know more about tsunami.
| A．The event forced officials to develop a better tsunami warning system. |
| B．It could also be caused by nuclear weapons that are exploded at sea. |
| C．It travels fast underwater, sometimes up to about 1,000 kilometers per hour. |
| D．The next time a tsunami strikes, hopefully more people will be able to survive. |
| E．Tsunami is a Japanese word for a harmful ocean wave caused by an undersea earthquake. |
| F．As a tsunami gets close to the shore, it becomes a series of waves up to 150 meters high. |
| G．On that day, a huge tsunami swept through the Indian Ocean killing about 300,000 people. |
相似题推荐
【推荐1】For long, Preifer Fall Trail (路线) was a most popular attraction in Big Sur. Annually, thousands of people hiked the trail. Unfortunately, the trail, along with stairs, signs, railings, an observation station and wooden bridges, was destroyed in the 2008 Basin Complex Fire. But now a new trail has risen from the burned land.
With its amazing rocky coastline and mountains, Big Sur, the writer Henry Miller once said, is “the face of the earth as the creator intended it to look.” But the landscape always suffers natural disasters. There have been three major wildfires in Big Sur in the past years. “You can still see the impacts there,” said John Hiles, a state parks repair team leader, pointing to black marks 30 feet up a huge redwood.
Parks planners designed a new track, moving the trail out of the river to reduce its impact on the environment. People from the California protection group, state parks department and the nonprofit organization put in 66,000 hours of work over the past four years. They built 160 redwood stairs and dragged hundreds of 16-foot-long redwood sticks by hand to build railings. They removed 4,150 square feet of old building stuff, enough to cover a basketball court. They used iron cables and pulleys (缆线和滑轮) to build a 70-foot long wooden bridge over the hills. “Nature is probably the best place to learn,” Hiles said. “More than any college or school, you learn so many life lessons out here.”
However, the huge Soberanes Fire s wept through the area in 2016, putting a stop to the work. When they began again in 2017, great river storms flooded the area and damaged part of Highway 1. Everybody gathered around this project. They saw the loss. They missed it. They wanted it to come back. They kept combining efforts. It’s been a long journey, but worth the wait.
1. What can we learn about Preifer Fall Trail?| A．It is an attraction rebuilt in 2008. | B．It met with many natural disasters. |
| C．It features man-made landscape. | D．It is an addition to a previous track. |
| A．By moving the trail off watercourse. | B．By using huge redwood sticks. |
| C．By recycling the old building stuff. | D．By applying iron cables and pulleys. |
| A．Limiting and typical. | B．Adventurous but smooth. |
| C．Mysterious and attractive. | D．Tough but rewarding. |
| A．The rise and fall of a hiking trail. | B．California protection projects. |
| C．The recovery of a lost attraction. | D．Journeys into wilderness. |
【推荐2】Agricultural pests that devour key food crops are advancing northwards in the US and becoming more widespread as the climate hots up, new research reports. The corn ear-worm is considered to be among the most common farm pests in the US, damaging crops such as maize, cotton, soya and other vegetables. It spends winter underground and is not known to survive in states beyond a latitude of 40 degrees north, but that is changing as soils warm and it spreads to new areas, according to research led by north Carolina State University.
Researchers created maps that showed three distinct geographical zones across the US — the “southern range” where corn ear worms survive winter, a “transitional zone” where they may survive winter, and “northern limits”, where they are generally unable to survive winter because soil temperatures drop below freezing.
Researchers already knew that warmer winter soils meant insects that live in the soil are more likely to survive. “As the climate changes, the overwintering zones are likely to shift northward,” said the coauthor Anders Huseth, an entomologist at North Carolina State University. The southern range has grown by 3% since 1981 and is predicted to double in size by the end of the century,as the other zones get smaller, according to the report.
This could result in increased use of pesticides and lower yields. “If intensive maize production does not also shift north with changing climate, we expect that corn ear worm will become a more frequent and important problem in these states,” said Dr. Douglas Lawton, a co-author of the report.
“Organic growers have a major challenge controlling this pest and often accept significant crop losses when infestations are high,” he said. Monitoring soil temperatures could help predict the spread of pests, helping farmers control them more effectively, the report suggests.
Huseth said: “We’d like to come up with a letter forecasting tool for this pest, along with a risk-prediction model, in order to better inform growers of pest spread. Success here could reduce both costs for farmers and pesticide into the environment.”
1. Why does the author mention the corn ear worm in paragraph 1?| A．To show they are harmful. | B．To explain why they are changing. |
| C．To echo the findings of a new research. | D．To complain the change of the climate. |
| A．It will double in size in the future. | B．It has increased to 3% since 1981. |
| C．It is likely to advance southwards. | D．It is larger than other zones. |
| A．Predictable. | B．Beneficial. | C．Risky. | D．Challenging. |
| A．The effect of climate change on pest survival. |
| B．The effect of the prediction model on pest spread. |
| C．The effect of the use of pesticides on food security. |
| D．The effect of global heating on pest spread. |
【推荐3】How can we reduce the risk?
There are four general approaches to dealing with volcanic dangers. We can try to keep the danger from occurring—often an impossible task. We can try to change its path or reduce its impact on existing development. We can take steps to protect future development. We can also do our best to have disaster response plans in place before they are needed.
Removing the Threat
Clearly, there is no way to stop an eruption. We can, however, attempt to reduce the eruption’s effects by strengthening structures, for example, building protective works such as walls to make lava (熔岩) flow away from developed areas. Such efforts can be and have been successful, but are of limited use in a large-scale eruption.
Planning for the Future
Protecting future development from volcanic dangers is a simple task. Before building houses, we should judge the risk. If the risk seems too great, a safer location should be found. This type of planning is very effective, but all too often, people are drawn to the lush(葱郁的)，rolling land of a quiet volcano.
Disaster Preparedness (预案)
When a volcano comes to life, a few weeks may not be enough time to avoid a tragedy. Planning is the key to saving lives. Well before the warning signs occur, people must be educated about volcanic dangers. Escape plans must be in place. Communication between scientists, officials, the media, and the general public should be practiced. Emergency measures must be thought out and agreed upon.
If you doubt the importance of these efforts, take another look at past volcanic tragedies, such as the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz. Communication failures left the town of Armero unprepared for escape. When a deadly mudflow came down the slope (斜坡), 21,000 people—90 percent of the town’s people—died.
1. The passage is intended for ________.| A．the general public | B．architects |
| C．adventurers | D．geographers |
| A．judge volcanic dangers carefully |
| B．take volcanic dangers seriously |
| C．like to live near a quiet volcano |
| D．find a safer place far away from a volcano |
| A．The failure to keep volcanic dangers from happening |
| B．The importance of preparing for a volcanic eruption |
| C．The bravery of the people in Armero Town |
| D．The uncertainty of volcano’s damage |
