Antarctica(南极洲) is known for being a vast land of ice and snow, a place too cold for most life. Despite (尽管) this, the continent is slowly starting to turn warm. According to the Guardian, the Antarctic has registered (登记) a new high temperature for the first time on record, prompting fears of climate instability(不稳定性) in the world’s iciest place.
On Feb 9, Brazilian researchers at Seymour Island reported a temperature of 20.75℃ on the icy continent of Antarctica. It was almost a full degree higher than the previous record of 19.8℃, taken on Signy Island in January 1982.
This record-breaking reading was taken at a monitoring (监测) station in the northern part of Antarctica. According to Brazilian soil scientist Carlos Schaefer, the temperature was documented during a 20-year-long research project. The focus of this project is to study the effect that climate change has on the permafrost (永久冻土) within the region. Permafrost is soil that stays frozen for at least two years. Although this is a first record high for Antarctica, Schaefer stressed that “We can’t use this to anticipate (预测) climatic changes in the future. It’s simply a signal that something different is happening in that area.”
But in fact, the last high temperature reading was in the 19℃ range. These higher temperatures can cause ice and glaciers (冰川) in Antarctic regions to melt. The Antarctic peninsula (半岛) —the long finger of land(狭长地带) that stretches towards Argentina（阿根廷）—is most dramatically affected. Scientists saw glaciers that have retreated by more than 100 meters in Discovery Bay where the snow melted in little more than a week, leaving dark exposed rock. This melted ice leads to a rise in sea levels that can threaten the safety of coastal areas. It’s believed to be behind an alarming decline of more than 50 percent in chinstrap penguin (帽带企鹅) colonies, which are dependent on sea ice.
Like American writer Ernest Hemingway once said, “The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.” We should do everything we can to help save our planet. Otherwise, it may become too hot for us to fix.
1. What did Brazilian researchers report on Feb 9?| A．Signy Island is the warmest region in the Antarctic. |
| B．Antarctica hit a record high temperature of 20.75℃. |
| C．The average temperature of Antarctica ranges from 19.8 C to 20.75℃. |
| D．Antarctica’s new record temperature is a full degree higher than the previous decade. |
| A．To predict possible climatic change in the future. |
| B．To monitor Antarctica’s contributions to world climate change. |
| C．To explain why the permafrost may cause glaciers to melt. |
| D．To examine how the permafrost is influenced by climate change. |
| A．Moved backward. | B．Increased in size. |
| C．Covered a certain area | D．Stretched in an opposite direction. |
| A．the pollution of ocean water | B．the release of various viruses |
| C．threats to penguin habitats | D．disappearances of coastal cities |
相似题推荐
Typhoons are some of the worst storms, usually around the Pacific Ocean and the South China Sea.Most happen in July, August and September.
How does a typhoon happen? When lots of sea water gets hot in the summer sun, it evaporates （蒸发）into the air. This makes the air hotter. When the air gets warm enough, it starts to move higher up into sky. Then cooler air around it rushes in. It fills the space that is left. After the air gets warmer, it starts to move quickly, making wind. The wind goes in circles（圆圈）and it keeps moving higher in the sky. The warmer the air gets, the quicker the wind moves. And when the wind moves faster than 30 metres a second, a typhoon begins.
A typhoon has two parts, one is called the “eye”. In the eye, the wind does not move so fast. The other part is the wall of clouds around the eye. Here are the strongest winds and hardest rains.
Typhoons are very dangerous. In November this year, Typhoon Haiyan killed 5500 people in Philippines. More people are missing.
What to do when a typhoon hits?
Stay inside. Close all the windows and stay away from them.
Try to bring all of your things inside. Strong winds could even blow away your bikes!
Listen to the radio or TV for important information.
If you’re told to go to a safer place, do it right now.
1. This passage is most probably from .
| A．an advertisement of a typhoon |
| B．a travel record |
| C．a weather report |
| D．a science magazine |
| A．in the hot season | B．in the cold season |
| C．only in China | D．under the sea |
a. The wind moves fast enough, a typhoon starts.
b. The air moves quickly, making wind.
c. The sun makes sea water hot.
d. The air gets warmer.
| A．d-c-b-a | B．c-d-b-a |
| C．c-d-a-b | D．d-b-a-c |
| A．The warmer the air gets, the slower the wind moves. |
| B．5500 people died because of Typhoon Haiyan around the world. |
| C．The strongest winds and hardest rains are in the wall of clouds. |
| D．A typhoon will not happen before the wind goes faster than 30 km a second. |
When I woke up on Jan.27th, my instincts (直觉) told me something was wrong. As I struggled (挣扎) to get out of bed, the view out of the window surprised me-heavy snow had hit Nanjing.
The sky was grey. The world was lit up by the sunlight reflecting (反射) off the endless snow.
I took the subway to school and things seemed fine. But as I walked out of the subway station, I thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
As my friend said, “We were not playing with the snow——the snow was playing with us.”
| A．I looked around, hoping to find a better area to walk in, but found nothing. |
| B．Icy water was soaking (渗透) my sneakers and socks. |
| C．The streets and sidewalks were totally covered by snow. |
| D．I was frozen from head to toe by the time I got to school, where I discovered that our heating had not yet been turned on. |
| E．It was snowing heavily outside my windows. |
| F．But along with the beautiful view came some challenges. |
Hail is a small round ball of alternating layers(交互层) of snow and clear ice. It forms inside large dark clouds that you can see before or during a storm. There are two ideas about how hailstones from.
One idea shows that hail forms when drops of water freeze in the upper air.
As they fall, they collect more drops of water. They also collect snow. The ice and snow build up in layers. If you cut a hailstone, you can see these alternating layers.
The other idea says that hail starts as a raindrop. The wind carries it higher into the atmosphere(大气层), where it gets covered by snow. It becomes heavy and begins to fall. As it falls, it gets a layer of water, which freezes.
Then the wind carries it back to the snow area, and it gets another layer of snow. This can happen a number of times. Finally the hailstone is too heavy to travel on the wind, and it falls to the ground.
Only a thunderstorm(暴风雨), a storm with loud noises and lightning can produce hail, but very few of them do. Perhaps only one in 400 thunderstorms creates hailstones.
A hailstone is usually less than eight centimeters in diameter. However, hailstones can be much bigger than that. Sometimes they are as big as baseballs. The largest hailstone which people have ever recorded weighed over 680 grams and had a diameter of thirteen centimeters.
Hail can cause the death of plants, especially since hail usually appears in the middle of summer, when the plants are partly grown. If the crops are destroyed, it is too late to plant more, and the farmer has lost everything. In one terrible hailstorm in 1923 in Rostov, in Ukraine, twenty-three people and many farm animals were killed.
1. Which of the following is about HAIL?
| A． | B． | C． | D． |
| A．Hail is formed of snow and ice. | B．Hail can’t be found in desert any more. |
| C．Hail often comes in cold winter. | D．People can see snow more often than hail. |
| A．Noises. | B．Hailstones. | C．Thunderstorms. | D．Deserts. |
| A．Unusual. | B．Common. | C．Useful. | D．Terrible. |
| A．Different ideas about how hail forms. | B．A brief introduction about hail. |
| C．The size and the weight of hailstones. | D．The influence that hail causes. |
Have you ever seen lions dancing in the streets? The lions dance to the beat of a drum. Of course, they are not real lions. They are dancers in lion costumes (服饰). Lion dancing first started in China hundreds of years ago. It means bringing good luck in the coming year.
Usually, a lion is made up of two dancers. One dancer controls the head. The other controls the tail.
“I think of it as a sport.” says Anthony Huang, aged 16. He is a member of the New York Chinese Freemasons Athletic Club (美国华人共济会俱乐部). Anthony performs as the lion’s head. It can weigh 20 pounds. Lion dancing is important to Anthony. “This tradition(传统) really lifts me up,” he says.
In the past, lion dancing was performed mostly by men. But it is different today. Lion Dance Me is a lion dancing group in San Francisco, California. There are boys and girls on its team. They dance together.
“Anyone can take up lion dancing. You have to believe that you can do it,” says Ananda Tang-Lee, a 17-year-old girl.
Lion dancing will continue to evolve. But a team’s spirit (精神) will never change. “We call it a family.” Ananda says. “It’s really great because we always have each other’s backs.”
1. Why do people perform lion dancing?| A．To sell lion-dancing costumes. | B．To wish for a lucky new year. |
| C．To protect the lions in the wild. | D．To show skills of playing the drums. |
| A．The lion’s head. | B．The lion’s tail. | C．The drummer. | D．The dresser. |
| A．perform | B．present | C．hold | D．change |
| A．They bring happiness to the family. | B．They call lion dancing a family game. |
| C．They live together in a big family. | D．They support each other like a family. |
| A．the introduction of lion dancing | B．the importance of a street performance |
| C．the way to perform lion dancing | D．the groups of lion dancing |
【推荐2】
In our dining room was a large painting. I asked two three-year-old guests, “What do you see in my father’s painting?” “It’s water,” said one of the children. The other added, “There are rocks in the water.” In their eyes, water and rocks were the outstanding parts in the painting. But when they saw another large painting of trees in autumn in the kitchen, neither child saw the trees. One said the painting was “lots of colors.” Why did the kids not see the trees? The answer may have to do with the way they looked at the painting.
In 2017, some scientists studied the way children and adults looked at five paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. As the participants (参与者) looked freely at the paintings, their eye movements were recorded. The children in the study were eleven years old. However, there were still differences in their eye movements from those of the adults. The children first looked at the most outstanding parts of the paintings.
In an older paper, psychologists J. S. Bruner and N. H. Mackworth, also studied the way adults and six-year-old children looked at pictures. They reported that adults were better than kids at picking out the informative (提供信息的) parts of a picture. But how do adults do that? Past experience works, as well as the way the adults looked at the pictures. By moving their eyes back and forth across the same areas of the picture, adults could compare and correlate (关联) different parts of the picture with each other.
Whenever my adult friends come to my house, they have no trouble understanding my father’s painting of autumn trees. As they look through the painting, they pick up and follow the long dark lines (线条) that are the trees. But my two three-year-old guests may have fixed their eyes on the bright colors and did not look at the pictures the same way as adults do.
These studies make us realize something important about vision. In order to understand a picture or a real-life scene, we need to pay enough attention to the details (细节) to identify the objects, but we must also take in the wider view to understand the relationship of one object to another. There is no seeing without looking. As we learn to look, we improve our ability to see throughout life.
1. What first caught children’s eyes in paintings according to the passage?| A．The most outstanding parts. | B．The most beautiful parts. |
| C．Light colors in the paintings. | D．Dark lines of the paintings. |
| A．by understanding the ideas of famous painters |
| B．by relating different parts and through experience |
| C．by looking freely at the same parts for a long time |
| D．by moving their eyes to look at the lines and colors |
| A．look at the paintings in children’s way |
| B．see more famous paintings throughout life |
| C．forget past experience while enjoying the art works |
| D．learn to see through things by taking in a wider view |
As the weather gets warmer, there are few things that are better to do than travel. But traveling might not be that fun for everyone, especially for those who have motion sickness (晕动症) .
Motion sickness is also called travel sickness. It is a common experience for many people. Depending on how you travel, it can be called carsickness or seasickness. People with motion sickness feel very uncomfortable while they are in motion. They feel sick and dizzy, like the room around them won’t stop spinning (旋转).
It is generally believed that motion sickness happens when your senses (感觉) become confused (困惑的) with each other, Scientific American reported.
We use different parts of our body to sense movement. Our eyes tell us if we are moving. The inner ears (内耳) contain a special liquid that helps us sense our direction and balance. Our muscles react to movement.
When you move around, these body parts work well together. But when you are in a car or an airplane, they get confused. Your inner ear signals that you’re moving, but your eyes say you’re sitting still (静止的) because you can’t see that you’re moving. This mismatch gives us motion sickness.
But some people are less sensitive (敏感的) to motion sickness. This may be because they have certain genes (基因) that stop mismatching senses, Bethann Hromatka, a genetics expert from the US, told the Atlantic.
Although there are many ways to deal with motion sickness, scientists believe that the key is to simply try to adapt to it. For example, some astronauts do special exercises that give them mild motion sickness. After a week or two, the astronauts become used to it and don’t feel uncomfortable anymore, Sam Puma, a NASA flight doctor, told the BBC.
1. What do we know about motion sickness?| A．It is called carsickness when you travel by car. | B．It happens to only a small number of people. |
| C．It can make traveling more fun. | D．It makes the room go around all the time. |
| A．Worried and angry. | B．Sick and dizzy. | C．Hungry. | D．Sleepy. |
| A．Because their senses stop working. | B．Because they lose their senses of direction. |
| C．Because their eyes can’t see clearly. | D．Because there is a mismatch among their senses. |
| A．提高 | B．适应 | C．变异 | D．筛选 |
| A．it is impossible for others to deal with motion sickness. |
| B．they can easily get used to motion sickness. |
| C．special exercises can help deal with motion sickness. |
| D．motion sickness has something to do with genes. |
【推荐1】Fortune or disaster, we will never know which will happen tomorrow. What we can do is to live every day like it’s your last. Enjoy it and make it meaningful.
Make it your daily habit to show thanks. Show thanks for another day to breathe, to dream and to achieve the goals for your life. Hug and kiss your family and your friends. Write cards. Send positive communications.
Learn to laugh. E.E. Cummings once said, “The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” Laughing and smiling are the best medicine of all illnesses. They keep a life of joy. Never be too busy to laugh, or too serious to smile. Learn to laugh. Laugh when you succeed, face problems and fail. But don’t laugh at others. Stay with fun people and don’t get caught up in your own sense of importance.
Try to improve 1% each day. Big things can result from taking small steps. As Lao Tzu once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” It means tying to get a little bit closer to fulfilling your dreams and goals. As long as you are making progress, you will feel happy and the life meaningful. So try being 1% happier and healthier than yesterday.
1. The article mainly tells us .| A．how to enjoy your life | B．how to get a better future |
| C．why to live a meaningful life | D．the most important things in your life |
①achieving your goals ②kissing your friends
③writing positive emails ④staying with fun people
| A．①②③④ | B．①②③ | C．②③④ | D．②③ |
| A．encourage people to show thanks | B．tell people laughing in important |
| C．advise people to take small steps | D．remind people of a happy life |
| A．we can control every day of our life | B．laughing is good for our health |
| C．it’s necessary to set a big life goal | D．living quality depends on your mood |
【推荐2】Most English people have four meals（餐饭）a day．They are breakfast， lunch， afternoon tea and dinner．
People usually have breakfast at any time from seven to nine in the morning． They'd like to have eggs， bread and milk． English people drink tea or coffee at breakfast．
Lunch comes at 1：00 p．m． Afternoon tea is from four to five in the afternoon and the dinner is about half past seven． First they have soup（汤）， and then they have meat or fish with vegetables． After that they eat some other things such as bananas， apples and oranges． But not all English people eat like that． Some of them have their dinner at noon（正午）．
1. Most English people have meals a day．| A．3 | B．4 | C．5 | D．2 |
| A．eggs | B．bread | C．soup | D．milk |
| A．at 12：00 | B．at 13：00 | C．at any time | D．at 2：00 |
| A．English people drink tea or coffee at breakfast． |
| B．People have breakfast at any time |
| C．In many English homes， people have three meals a day． |
| D．English people eat bananas， apples at breakfast． |
| A．in the morning | B．at noon | C．on Sunday | D．in the afternoon |
Then one day, some visitors from the city arrived. They told the villagers there were some people elsewhere who liked to eat frogs’ legs. However, they did not have enough frogs of their own, and so they wanted to buy frogs from other places.
This seemed like money for nothing. There were millions of frogs in the fields around, and they were no use to the villagers. All they had to do was to catch them. Agreement was reached, and the children were sent to the fields to catch frogs. Every week a truck arrived to collect the catch and hand over the money. For the first time, the people were able to dream of a better future. But the dream didn’t last long.
The change was hardly noticed at first, but it seemed as if (好像) the crops(庄稼) were not doing so well. More worrying was that the children fell ill more often, and there seemed to be more insects around lately.
The villagers decided that they couldn’t just wait to see the crops failing and the children getting weak. They would have to use the money they’d just had to buy pesticides (杀虫剂) and medicine. Soon there was no money left.
Then the people realized that what was happening. It was the frogs. They hadn’t been useless. They had been doing an important job—eating insects. Now with so many frogs killed, soon there were more and more insects. They were doing harm to both crops and people.
Now, the people are still poor. But in the evening they sit in the village square and listen to sounds of insects and frogs.
1. Why did the villagers agree to sell frogs?
| A．They needed money to buy medicine. |
| B．They wanted to please the visitors. |
| C．The frogs were easy money. |
| D．The frogs made too much noise. |
| A．The crops didn’t do well. |
| B．There were too many insects. |
| C．The visitors brought in disease. |
| D．The pesticides were overused. |
| A．Good old days will never be forgotten. |
| B．Health is more important than money. |
| C．The harmony between man and nature is important. |
| D．Happiness comes from peaceful life in the country. |
【推荐1】Dragons are not real animals, but look like a combination（结合体）of many animals such as snakes, fish and deer. They have two horns（角）and a long moustache（胡子）. With fantastic powers, they fly in the sky or swim in the sea. They can make rain, too. The Chinese dragon is a symbol of strength and good luck. The emperors of ancient China loved dragons. Their clothes were covered with pictures of dragons.
We are proud to call ourselves the "descendants（传人）of the dragon". In Chinese, "excellent" people are often called "dragons". A number of Chinese sayings and idioms talk about dragons, for example, "Hoping one's child will become a dragon," which means hoping he or she will be successful.
It is said that people born in the Year of the Dragon have certain characteristics. They are creative, confident, brave and quick-tempered. There are some famous "dragons" who have done excellent things, for example, the great man Deng Xiaoping, the famous businessman Li Jiacheng and the movie star Zhao Wei. They are all very successful.
There are also some traditional festivals about dragons in China, such as the Dragon Head-Raising Day and the Dragon Boat Festival. We have different kinds of activities to celebrate them. These two festivals come every year, but the Year of the Dragon comes every twelve years. 2012 is the Year of the Dragon.
The dragon is very important in Chinese culture. As the "descendants of the dragon", it is necessary for us to know the views on dragons in our culture. It can help us understand why our parents always want us to be "dragons".
1. What does the Chinese dragon symbolize?| A．A combination of many animals. | B．Chinese sayings and idioms. |
| C．Traditional festivals. | D．Strength and good luck. |
| A．龙马精神 | B．龙飞凤舞 | C．望子成龙 | D．龙腾虎跃 |
| A．Creative, confident, patient and powerful. | B．Creative, confident, brave and quick-tempered. |
| C．Lovely, confident, brave and bad-tempered. | D．Lucky, confident, creative and successful. |
| A．1988. | B．1998. | C．2008. | D．2018 |
| A．Dragons are real animals. |
| B．There are many Chinese sayings and idioms about dragons. |
| C．People born in the Year of the Dragon must be successful. |
| D．The "descendants of the dragon" are often called "dragons". |
【推荐2】Listen to your heart
Do you always struggle(努力) to understand others’ feelings? Perhaps you should listen to your heart.
According to a team of scientists at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK, people who are more aware of their own heartbeat are better at understanding others’ emotions.
Researchers have long suspected (怀疑) that this ability is important for understanding others’ thoughts and feelings.
To test this theory, the British team asked 72 volunteers to count their own heartbeats without feeling a pulse. This aimed to see how aware they were of the feelings inside their own bodies.
Then, the volunteers were shown video clips of social interactions (互动), which tested their ability to read the minds of the characters.
During the clips, they were asked questions that required an understanding of the emotions of a certain character – for example, “What is Sandra feeling?” In addition, they were asked questions that did not involve any emotions, such as “What is Michael thinking?” They were also asked non-social questions, like “What was the weather like that evening?”
The results showed that those who had counted their heartbeats most accurately were better at answering questions relating to the characters’ emotions. However, there was no link between the ability to feel what’s going on inside your body and questions that did not involve any emotions.
Punit Shah, lead author of the study, used an example to explain this: If your colleague Michael is rude toward Sandra in public, your body processes (处理) this by increasing your heart rate. This may make you feel anxious and allow you to understand that Sandra is embarrassed (尴尬的).
“If you do not feel your heart rate increase, it may reduce your ability to understand that situation and respond appropriately,” Shah told The Telegraph.
Researchers believed their findings mean it could be possible to make people more empathetic by training them to listen to their hearts.
This also lends support to the argument that feelings are, at the very least, deeply rooted in physical sensations(感觉).
1. What does the new study find?| A．People are better at understanding others’ emotions than thoughts. |
| B．People with quicker heartbeats are more sensitive to others’ feelings. |
| C．The ability to feel your heartbeat is important for understanding others’ thoughts. |
| D．Your ability to feel others’ emotions is related to your ability to feel your own heartbeat. |
| A．The volunteers were asked to count their heartbeats while watching video clips. |
| B．Researchers designed emotional, non-emotional and non-social questions. |
| C．The volunteers were required to describe each other’s thoughts and feelings. |
| D．Researchers trained the volunteers to listen to their hearts and observed them. |
| A．willing to accept ideas that are different from your own |
| B．not influenced in any way by other people or things |
| C．being able to understand others’ feelings |
| D．willing to help those in trouble |
| A．We react to a situation more slowly when our heart rates increase. |
| B．Physical sensations in our bodies are believed to cause emotional changes. |
| C．Our ability to feel emotions is part of us and can’t be changed. |
| D．How we feel has nothing to do with the state of our bodies. |
【推荐3】During my travels through the mountains of Greece I was only ever scared once, it was dusk and as I walked. I came across six large wolves that were feeding on the body of a dead animal. I had heard many stories about wolves as a child and it was this animal that I feared more than any other. The wolves before me were huge, at least 6 feet long and covered with thick grey fur.
As I went near, the wolves left the blood-covered snow that surrounded the body and started walking towards me, one after another. They stopped about 20 meters from me and stared. The lead wolf raised his head into the air and took in a deep breath, as if he was smelling me. The animals looked both beautiful and frightening, but I knew I couldn't show them my fear. As I drew nearer, the lead wolf raised his head once more but this time let out a long, loud cry. The awful cry rang out across the silent valley. I had never heard a more frightening sound. I was almost certain it was a sign to be death.
Every moment I expected to see the pack of wolves’ dash at me. I knew my only hope was to pretend I had no fear. I walked past the line of wolves, like a general moving among his soldiers. They cried out loud again. But when they saw that their cry did not cause me to change my direction or make me run they feared to come after me, so they let me pass and returned to the dead animal.
If I had turned back or tried to run away when they marched out to meet me, I am certain the whole pack would have attacked me in a moment. But my show of false courage intimidated them and kept them back.
1. Why didn't the wolves attack the man？| A．They were no longer hungry when they saw him. |
| B．The man was already known to the wolves. |
| C．They were too far away to catch the man. |
| D．The man showed no fear as he passed by. |
| A．encouraged | B．scared | C．doubted | D．hurt |
| A．To show that mountains can be dangerous places. |
| B．To discuss the habits of mountain wolves. |
| C．To stress the need for courage when in danger. |
| D．To make people aware of the danger of wolves. |
| A．The wolves were friendly to the writer. |
| B．The writer knew wolves were dangerous in childhood. |
| C．The lead wolf asked the other wolves to stand in line. |
| D．The writer wasn't afraid of the wolves at all. |
| A．In Face of Fear | B．My Trip to Greece |
| C．My Mountain Travels | D．A Man without Fear |
