The dams① aimed at saving Venice from the waves have been backed greatly. After eight years of argument, it plans to build 79 gates across three channels connecting the lagoon around Venice with the Adriatic Sea. The gates would be open most of the time but would be closed if there is a danger to the city.
The project, though, has run into fears that it could worsen Venice’s problems. The city throws waste into the lagoon, and environmentalists fear the dams will cause this pollution to become worse if there is no tide to wash it out regularly. But if there is a tide, the flow can wash away about 550 million cubic meters of the lagoon in a single day, which means that by leaving the dam open for only a few hours, the waste should be cleaned out.
Another piece of good news is that British scientists are confident that the dams will be able to face an expected rise in sea levels caused by global warming. The gates are designed to stand a 22-centimetre rise in sea levels, but many scientists expect a global rise in sea levels of 31cm by 2100.
However, Trevor Davies and Isabel Trigo from University of East Anglia believe the dams are unlikely to broken. Climate change will weaken the local storms in the Adriatic that are the main cause of flood risk. Floodwaters are also a seasonal danger in Venice, usually because of a combination of spring tides and strong winds.
Venice, which rests on wooden piles driven into boggy③ ground, has been sinking for centuries, worsening the encroachment by the sea.
Notes:
① dam n. 大坝
② lagoon n. 泻湖
③ boggy adj. 泥泞的
④ encroachment n. 蚕食
Choose the best answers according to the above:
1. Which of the following is the main idea of the text?
A. Venice will not disappear into the sea.
B. Dams are designed to protect Venice.
C. Venice are facing dangers from the tides.
D. Global warming makes Venice worse and worse.
2. If the project comes into use, the waste in the lagoon ______.
A. will be washed away by the tides B. will be sent to the higher places
C. will be carried away by workers D. will have to be reused by humans
3. According to the idea of Trevor Davies, the dams won’t be broken because ______.
A. the dams are higher than the buildings in Venice
B. there will be no tides or floods in the future
C. the climate all over the world will soon be cold
D. the storms in the Adriatic will be weaker in the future
4. According to the text, we can infer that Venice ______.
A. has been sinking for hundreds of years
B. may suffer from spring tides and strong winds
C. will be under the sea sooner or later
D. will be a city with dams around except 78 gates
请认真阅读下列短文，从短文后各题所给的A、B、C、D四个选项中，选出最佳选项。
| Whatever your age or interests, Buxton has something to see or do to make your visit truly memorable. High energy If you desire physical activities, you can choose activities from swimming to horse riding. Explore the heights with Go Ape, the high wire forest adventure course, or journey beneath the earth at Poole's Cavern. And don't forget: we are surrounded by a natural playground just perfect for walking, caving, climbing and cycling. High minded Buxton is justifiably proud of its cultural life and you'll find much to suit all tastes with art, music, opera and the performing arts at Buxton Opera House & Pavilion Arts Centre and Green Man Gallery. There are plenty of opportunities for the creative person to become involved, including workshops and events. Keeping the kids happy Children love the small train and playgrounds in the Pavilion Gardens and there's plenty more to explore at the Buxton Museum. There's a new indoor play centre, plus the special events and workshops, and others during school holiday periods |
（1）If you want to take an undergounld journey, which place is the best choice?
| A． |
Pole's Caven. |
| B． |
Pavilion Gardens. |
| C． |
Buxton Museum. |
| D． |
Green Man Gallery. |
（2）Buxton Open House & Pavilion Arts Centre is special because it offers ________.
| A． |
rides in small trains |
| B． |
courses in modcm arts |
| C． |
artistic and cultural activities |
| D． |
basic courses in horse riding |
阅读短文，按照题目要求用英语回答问题。
Haze Mabry, who has worked as a school keeper for thirteen years, walks into the school building every day and empties garbage cans, wipes down bathrooms and mops wet messes in the hallways.
Last Friday, after he arrived at the school, instead of finding garbage to clean up, he found almost 800 students lining the hallways with handmade cards, blowing noisemakers and singing a full-throated happy birthday to him. It was his 80th. As he walked the long hallway, some popped out of lime to hug him. They handed him so many cards that they filled several large boxes. Touched by their enthusiastic expression of affection. Mabry thanked them all. "They're like my children," Mabry said.
On a regular day, students at the school sometimes come up to him to say they're not feeling well or other times to tell him about something that happened at break. He knows most of the kids at the school, but can't name each one. Some of them make him know them. Like Faith, who often forgets her backpack in the cafeteria, and Lucy, who just wants a hug.
"He won't brag（夸耀）on himself, but it doesn't matter what he's doing or where he is, he will always stop what he's doing to take care of a child if that child is having a bad day. If a child approaches him, he will pause to give that child his undivided attention. He's the most loved one in this building," said Lori Gilreath, a reading teacher.
Mabry works circles around all the students, cleaning up messes others don't want to touch. He doesn't expect a lot. Mabry said he hadn't planned to do much for his milestone birthday, so he was happy the students had prepared the surprise celebration.
Over the weekend, he worked through the piles of handmade cards at his house. One card from a student stood out to him. It read: "Mr. Haze, you are my sunshine."
（1）What is Mabry's daily work as a school keeper？（no more than 5 words）
（2）How did the students celebrate Mabry's birthday？（no more than 15 words）
（3）What does the underlined word in Paragraph 2 probably mean？（1 word）
（4）Why is Mabry's presence at the school important？（no more than 10 words）
（5）Who is the "sunshine" in your life？Please explain. （no more than 20 words）
Would you BET on the future of this man？He is 53 years old. Most of his adult life has been a losing struggle against debt and misfortune. A war injury has made his left hand stop functioning, and he has often been in prison. Driven by heaven-knows-what motives, he determines to write a book.
The book turns out to be one that has appealed to the world for more than 350 years. That former prisoner was Cervantes, and the book was Don Quixote（《堂吉诃德》）. And the story poses an interesting question: why do some people discover new vitality and creativity to the end of their days, while others go to seed long before？
We've all known people who run out of steambefore they reach life's halfway mark. I'm not talking about those who fail to get to the top. We can't all get there. I'm talking about people who have stopped learning on growing because they have adopted the fixed attitudes and opinions that all too often come with passing years.
Most of us, in fact, progressively narrow the variety of our lives. We succeed in our field of specialization and then become trapped in it. Nothing surprises us. We lose our sense of wonder. But, if we are willing to learn, the opportunities are everywhere.
The things we learn in maturity seldom involve information and skills. We learn to bear with the things we can't change. We learn to avoid self-pity. We learn that however much we try to please, some people are never going to love us-an idea that troubles at first but is eventually relaxing.
With high motivation and enthusiasm, we can keep on learning. Then we will know how important it is to have meaning in our life. However, we can achieve meaning only if we have made a commitment to something larger than our own little egos（自我）, whether to loved ones, to fellow humans, to work, or to some moral concept.
Many of us equate（视……等同于）"commitment" with such "caring" occupations as teaching and nursing. But doing any ordinary job as well as one can is in itself an admirable commitment. People who work toward such excellence whether they are driving a truck, or running a store-make the world better just by being the kind of people they are. They've learned life's most valuable lesson.
（1）The passage starts with the story of Cervantes to show that_________.
| A． |
loss of freedom stimulates one's creativity |
| B． |
age is not a barrier to achieving one's goal |
| C． |
misery inspires a man to fight against his fate |
| D． |
disability cannot stop a man's pursuit of success |
（2）What does the underlined part in Paragraph 3 probably mean？
| A． |
End one's struggle for liberty. |
| B． |
Waste one's energy taking risks. |
| C． |
Miss the opportunity to succeed. |
| D． |
Lose the interest to continue learning. |
（3）What could be inferred from Paragraph 4?
| A． |
Those who dare to try often get themselves trapped. |
| B． |
Those who tend to think back can hardly go ahead. |
| C． |
Opportunity favors those with a curious mind. |
| D． |
Opportunity awaits those with a cautious mind. |
（4）What does the author intend to tell us in Paragraph 5?
| A． |
A tough man can tolerate suffering. |
| B． |
A wise man can live without self-pity. |
| C． |
A man should try to satisfy people around him. |
| D． |
A man should learn suitable ways to deal with life. |
（5）What is the author's purpose in writing the passage?
| A． |
To provide guidance on leading a meaningful adult life. |
| B． |
To stress the need of shouldering responsibilities at work. |
| C． |
To state the importance of generating motivation for learning. |
| D． |
To suggest a way of pursuing excellence in our lifelong career. |
How does an ecosystem（生态系统）work? What makes the populations of different species the way they are? Why are there so many flies and so few wolves? To find an answer, scientists have built mathematical models of food webs, noting who eats whom and how much each one eats.
With such models, scientists have found out some key principles operating in food webs. Most food webs, for instance, consist of many weak links rather than a few strong ones. When a predator（掠食动物）always eats huge numbers of a single prey（猎物）, the two species are strongly linked; when a predator lives on various species, they are weakly linked. Food webs may be dominated by many weak links because that arrangement is more stable over the long term. If a predator can eat several species, it can survive the extinction（灭绝）of one of them. And if a predator can move on to another species that is easier to find when a prey species becomes rare, the switch allows the original prey to recover. The weak links may thus keep species from driving one another to extinction.
Mathematical models have also revealed that food webs may be unstable, where small changes of top predators can lead to big effects throughout entire ecosystems. In the 1960s, scientists proposed that predators at the top of a food web had a surprising amount of control over the size of populations of other species---including species they did not directly attack.
And unplanned human activities have proved the idea of top-down control by top predators to be true. In the ocean, we fished for top predators such as cod on an industrial scale, while on land, we killed off large predators such as wolves. These actions have greatly affected the ecological balance.
Scientists have built an early-warning system based on mathematical models. Ideally, the system would tell us when to adapt human activities that are pushing an ecosystem toward a breakdown or would even allow us to pull an ecosystem back from the borderline. Prevention is key, scientists says because once ecosystems pass their tipping point（临界点）, it is remarkably difficult for them to return.
（1）What have scientists discovered with the help of mathematical models of food webs？
| A． |
The living habits of species in food webs. |
| B． |
The rules governing food webs of the ecosystems. |
| C． |
The approaches to studying the species in the ecosystems. |
| D． |
The differences between weak and strong links in food webs. |
（2）A strong link is found between two species when a predator______.
| A． |
has a wide food choice |
| B． |
can easily find new prey |
| C． |
sticks to one prey species |
| D． |
can quickly move to another place |
（3）What will happen if the populations of top predators in a food web greatly decline？
| A． |
The prey species they directly attack will die out. |
| B． |
The species they indirectly attack will turn into top predators. |
| C． |
The living environment of other species will remain unchanged. |
| D． |
The populations of other species will experience unexpected changes. |
（4）What conclusion can be drawn from the examples in Paragraph 4？
| A． |
Uncontrolled human activities greatly upset ecosystems. |
| B． |
Rapid economic development threatens animal habitats. |
| C． |
Species of commercial value dominate other species. |
| D． |
Industrial activities help keep food webs stable. |
（5）How does an early-warning system help us maintain the ecological balance？
| A． |
By getting illegal practices under control. |
| B． |
By stopping us from killing large predators. |
| C． |
By bringing the broken-down ecosystems back to normal. |
| D． |
By signaling the urgent need for taking preventive action. |
I must have always known reading was very important because the first memories I have as a child deal with books. There was not one night that I don't remember mom reading me a storybook by my bedside. I was extremely inspired by the elegant way the words sounded.
I always wanted to know what my mom was reading. Hearing mom say," I can't believe what's printed in the newspaper this morning," made me want to grab it out of her hands and read it myself. I wanted to be like my mom and know all of the things she knew. So I carried around a book, and each night, just to be like her, I would pretend to be reading.
This is how everyone learned to read. We would start off with sentences, then paragraphs, and then stories. It seemed an unending journey, but even as a six-year-old girl I realized that knowing how to read could open many doors. When mom said," The C-A-N-D-Y is hidden on the top shelf," I knew where the candy was. My progress in reading raised my curiosity, and I wanted to know everything. I often found myself telling my mom to drive more slowly, so that I could read all of the road signs we passed.
Most of my reading through primary, middle and high school was factual reading. I read for knowledge, and to make A's on my tests. Occasionally, I would read a novel that was assigned, but I didn't enjoy this type of reading. I liked facts, things that are concrete. I thought anything abstract left too much room for argument.
Yet, now that I'm growing and the world I once knew as being so simple is becoming more complex, I find myself needing a way to escape. By opening a novel, I can leave behind my burdens and enter into a wonderful and mysterious world where I am now a new character. In these worlds I can become anyone. I don't have to write down what happened or what technique the author was using when he or she wrote this. I just read to relax.
We're taught to read because it's necessary for much of human understanding. Reading is a vital part of my life. Reading satisfies my desire to keep learning. And I've found that the possibilities that lie within books are limitless.
（1）Why did the author want to grab the newspaper out of mom's hands？
| A． |
She wanted mom to read the news to her. |
| B． |
She was anxious to know what had happened. |
| C． |
She couldn't wait to tear the newspaper apart. |
| D． |
She couldn't help but stop mom from reading. |
（2）According to Paragraph 3, the author's reading of road signs indicates___________.
| A． |
her unique way to locate herself |
| B． |
her eagerness to develop her reading ability |
| C． |
her effort to remind mom to obey traffic rules |
| D． |
her growing desire to know the world around her. |
（3）What was the author's view on factual reading?
| A． |
It would help her update test-taking skills. |
| B． |
It would allow much room for free thinking. |
| C． |
It would provide true and objective information. |
| D． |
It would help shape a realistic and serious attitude to life. |
（4）The author takes novel reading as a way to___________.
| A． |
explore a fantasy land |
| B． |
develop a passion for leaning |
| C． |
learn about the adult community |
| D． |
get away from a confusing world |
（5）What could be the best title for the passage？
| A． |
The Magic of Reading |
| B． |
The Pleasure of Reading |
| C． |
Growing Up with Reading |
| D． |
Reading Makes a Full Man |
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