1 . In 1803, the United States acquired a huge new piece of land called the Louisiana Territory. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were given the job of leading an expedition to collect data about this uncharted territory. President Thomas Jefferson gave Lewis and Clark three tasks for the journey: Find an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean, make friends with the Native Americans along the way, and gather detailed information about the plants, animals, landforms (地形), and climate of the area.
In order to discover if there was an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean, Lewis and Clark attempted to travel up the Mississippi River by boat. In this way, they hoped that they would eventually reach the Pacific. Ultimately, the explorers discovered the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide, but not the Pacific Ocean. The hope for an all-water route from the East to the Pacific would have to be abandoned.
Lewis and Clark’s second task was to make friends with Native Americans in the area. They packed hundreds of pounds of gifts for the indigenous people, including beads, sewing needles, cloth, yarn, and knives. Their intention was to use these items as offerings of peace and good faith. However, many tribes were hostile. They felt threatened by the Americans’ presence and refused to communicate with them. Other tribes were more welcoming and aided the explorers in finding food and navigating the new region.
The explorers’ final task was extensive and ongoing. Lewis and Clark had to take detailed notes about the landforms and climate of the different areas through which they travelled. President Jefferson also wanted samples of notable plant and animal life. They prepared animal fur and plant samples to send back to the president throughout the trip. They also kept individual journals with detailed descriptions and drawings of the environment and terrain (地势).
Up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, across the Great Plains, over the Rockies, down the Columbia River, and to the Pacific Ocean, Lewis and Clark travelled. After 3 years, Jefferson received a letter from Lewis stating, “It is with great pleasure that I announced to you the safe arrival of myself and my partner. In obedience to your orders, we have penetrated (穿过)the continent of North America to the Pacific Ocean.”
1. Which of the following is Not among the tasks that President Thomas Jefferson gave Lewis and Clark?| A．Find a direct waterway from the U.S. to the Pacific Ocean. |
| B．Collect geographic and ecological information about the unknown area. |
| C．Locate the Rocky Mountains and the Continental Divide. |
| D．Build relationships with the Native Americans on the way. |
| A．Determined not to change their attitudes. |
| B．Very unfriendly or aggressive. |
| C．Not wanting to talk to other people. |
| D．Belonging to a very simple society. |
| A．The task was less challenging than the former two tasks. |
| B．The task required a wide range of knowledge and skills. |
| C．The task focused on collecting data about landforms and climate. |
| D．Lewis and Clark didn’t send back samples until they finished their journey. |
| A．Lewis and Clark had to turn back before completing their tasks. |
| B．Lewis and Clark successfully found an all-water route to the Pacific Ocean. |
| C．Lewis and Clark finished the expedition without the help of Native Americans. |
| D．The expedition covered the area from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. |
2 . Each year, 150,000 people hike Scotland’s Ben Nevis — Britain’s highest mountain. Many choose to take the so-called tourist trail, the rocky path which winds its way to the peak. Few realise that this path was initially carved out in 1883 for a very unique scientific expedition.
In the late 19th century, a key question of science was how depressions, storms and other severe climatic events form in the atmosphere. By 1875 mountain observatories were being established across the US, Mexico, India, France, Germany and Russia. Keen to gather similar data for Britain, the Scottish Meteorological Society decided to build a weather station at the top of Ben Nevis.
And so began a remarkable experiment. From 1883 to 1904, a few hardy individuals lived year-round in a small stone hut, surviving on tinned food and making hourly recordings of everything from atmospheric temperature to humidity (湿度), wind speed to rainfall. In total they made almost 1.5 million observations.
“They were living in very severe weather conditions: 100mph winds were not uncommon, and the temperature would drop to -15°C at times. The main danger they faced was that they were very close to the edge of the cliff (悬崖). If you weren’t careful, you would disappear off the cliff completely,” says Ed Hawkins, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.
However, by 1904, the Scottish Meteorological Society could no longer afford the observatory’s running costs. It was closed down and the data largely has remained hidden in the dusty pages of archives (档案馆) ever since.
Today, plans are underfoot to build a new modern observatory on the ruins on the former site — with automatic measuring devices rather than human data collectors. “We haven’t had any long-term observations up there for a long time now, and this would give us information straight away on how the climate at the top of the mountain has changed,” Hawkins says. “We think that the high altitude regions are some of the places where we’ve seen the largest changes in temperature. This could tell us a lot.”
1. Why was the weather station at the top of Ben Nevis built?| A．To attract visitors to Ben Nevis. |
| B．To study the formation of extreme weather events. |
| C．To provide weather forecasts for the whole Britain. |
| D．To compete with weather stations in other countries. |
| A．The geographical features of Ben Nevis. |
| B．The extreme climate on top of Ben Nevis. |
| C．The achievements made by the weather station. |
| D．The bad working conditions of the station workers. |
| A．It will take a long time to build. |
| B．It will need many human data collectors. |
| C．It will have archives for the old weather station. |
| D．It will detect climate change at Ben Nevis’ peak quickly. |
| A．To argue. | B．To inform. |
| C．To advertise. | D．To appeal. |
