1 . 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.

2. What do Hawkins’ words in Paragraph 4 mainly focus on?

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.

3. What does Hawkins say about the new observatory?

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.

4. Why does the author write the text?

A．To argue.	B．To inform.
C．To advertise.	D．To appeal.

2 . 阅读下面材料，在空白处填入适当的内容(不多于3个词)或括号内单词的正确形式。

Earth Day, April 22, was founded in 1970     1    a day of education about environmental issues.

The holiday is now a global celebration     2    is sometimes extended into Earth Week, a full seven days of events focused on green living.

By the early 1960s, Americans were becoming aware of the effects of pollution on the environments. Rachel Carson’s 1962 bestseller Silent Spring pointed out the dangerous effects of pesticides(杀虫剂) on     3    American countryside. Later in the decade, a 1969 fire on Cleveland’s Guyahoga River threw light on the problem of chemical waste disposal. Until that time,     4     (protect) the planet’s natural resources was not part of the     5     (nation) political plan. Only a small portion of the American population was familiar with environmental issues.

Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1962, Senator (参议员) Gaylord Nelson was determined     6     (convince) the federal government that the planet was at risk. In the fall of 1969, Nelson,     7     (consider) one of the leaders of the modern environmental movements, announced the Earth Day concept at a conference in Seattle and     8     (invite) the entire nation to get involved. He later recalled: “Telegrams, letters, and telephone     9     (inquire) poured in from across the country.” The American people     10     (final) had an opportunity to express their concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes and air.