Many of the most damaging types of weather begin quickly, strike suddenly, and disappear rapidly, destroying small areas while leaving neighboring areas untouched．Such event as a tornado struck the northeastern part of Edmonton, Alberta, in July 1987．Total damages from the tornado went beyond $250 million, the highest ever for any Canadian storm．
Traditional computer models of the atmosphere have limited value in predicting short-lived local storms like the Edmonton tornado, because the available weather data are generally not detailed enough to allow computers to study carefully the slight atmospheric changes that come before these storms．In most nations, for example, weather-balloon observations are taken just once every twelve hours at places separated by hundreds of miles．With such limited data, traditional forecasting models do a much better job predicting general weather conditions over large areas than they do forecasting specific local events．
Until recently, the observation intensive method needed for exact, very short-range forecasts, or “Nowcasts,” was not possible．The cost of equipping and operating many thousands of conventional weather stations was extremely high, and the difficulties concerned in rapidly collecting and processing the weather data from such a network were hard to overcome．
Fortunately, scientific and technological advances have overcome most of these problems．Radar systems and satellites are all able to make detailed, nearly continuous observation over large areas at a lower cost．Communications satellites can send out data around the world cheaply and immediately, and modern computers can quickly collect and analyze this large amount of weather information．
Meteorologists（气象学者）and computer scientists now work together to design computer programs and video equipment able to change weather data into words and graphic displays that forecasters can understand easily and quickly．As meteorologists have begun using these new technologies in weather forecasting offices, Nowcasting is becoming a reality．
1．Why can’t traditional computer models predict short-lived local storms?
A．The weather data people collect are often wrong．
B．Detailed weather data in some small areas are not available．
C．The computers are not advanced enough to predict them．D．The computers are not used to forecast specific local events．
2．The word “Nowcast” in Paragraph 3 means ________．
A．a network to collect storm data
B．a way of collecting weather data
C．a more advanced system of weather observation
D．a forecast which can predict weather in the small area
3．What can make “Nowcasts” a reality according to the passage?
A．Scientific and technological advances． B．Advanced computer programs．
C．Computer scientists． D．Meteorologists．
4．What does the passage mainly talk about?
A．The advantages of “Nowcasts”． B．A tornado in Edmonton, Alberta．
C．The difficulty in predicting tornado． D．A great development in weather forecast．
Just as the world’s most respected scientific bodies have confirmed that the world is getting hotter, they have also stated that there is strong evidence that humans are driving the warming. Countless recent reports from the world’s leading scientific bodies have said the same thing. For example, a 2010 summary of climate science by the Royal Society stated that: “There is strong evidence that the warming of the Earth over the last half-century has been caused largely by human activity.”
The idea that humans could change the planet’s climate may be counter-intuitive, but the basic science is well understood. Each year, human activity causes billions of tons of greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere. As scientists have known for years, these gases hold heat that would otherwise escape to space, wrapping the planet in an invisible blanket.
Of course, the planet’s climate has always been changing thanks to “natural” factors such as changes in solar or volcanic activity, or cycles relating the Earth’s going around the sun. According to the scientific literature, however, the warming recorded to date matches the pattern of warming we would expect from a build-up of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere – not the warming we would expect from other possible causes.
Even if scientists did discover another reasonable explanation for the warming observed so far, that would beg a difficult question. As Robert Henson puts it in The Rough Guide to Climate Change, “If some newly discovered factor can account for the climate change, then why aren’t carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases producing the warming that basic physics tells us they should be?”
The only way to prove with 100% certainty that humans are responsible for global warming would be to run an experiment with two identical Earths – one with human influence and one without. That obviously isn’t possible, and so most scientists are careful not to state human influence as an absolute certainty. In most scientists’ opinion, the global warming is mainly caused by ________.
| A．human activity |
| B．volcanic activity |
| C．the Earth’s going around the sun |
| D．solar activity |
The text is developed by ________.
| A．giving typical examples |
| B．following the order of space |
| C．comparing and finding differences |
| D．analyzing a theory and arguing it |
The underline word “identical” means ________.
| A．totally different |
| B．exactly the same |
| C．extremely important |
| D．relatively independent |
Which of the following can be the best title?
| A．Are All the Scientists Really Scientific? |
| B．Where Is Global Warming Leading Us to? |
| C．Are Humans Definitely Causing Global Warming? |
| D．What’s Relation of Global Warming and Greenhouse Gases? |
Driving to a friend’s house on a recent evening, I was attracted by the sight of the full moon rising just above my friend’s rooftop. I stopped to watch it for a few moments, thinking about what a pity it is that most city people — myself included — usually miss sights like this because we spend most of our lives indoors.
My friend had also seen it. He grew up living in a forest in Europe, and the moon meant a lot to him then. It had touched much of his life.
I know the feeling. Last December I took my seven-year-old daughter to the mountainous jungle of northern India with some friends. We stayed in a forest rest house with no electricity or running hot water. Our group had campfires outside every night, and indoors when it was too cold outside. The moon grew to its fullest during our trip. Between me and the high mountains lay three or four valleys. Not a light shone in them and not a sound could be heard. It was one of the quietest places I have ever known, a bottomless well of silence. And above me was the full moon, which struck me deeply.
Today our lives are filled with glass, metal, plastic and fiber-glass. We have television, cell phones, electricity, heaters and ovens and air-conditioners, cars, computers.
Struggling through traffic that evening at the end of a tiring day, most of it spent indoors, I thought, “Before long, I would like to live in a small cottage. There I will grow vegetables and read books and walk in the mountains. And perhaps write, but not in anger. I may become an old man there, and wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled and measure out my life in coffee spoons. But I will be able to walk outside on a cold silent night and touched the moon.”The best title for the passage would be _________.
| A．Break away from the Reality |
| B．A Bottomless well of Silence |
| C．Touched by the Moon |
| D．The Pleasures of Modern Life |
The writer felt sorry for himself because __________.
| A．he failed to see the fullest moon. |
| B．there were too many accidents on the road. |
| C．he didn’t adapt to modern inventions |
| D．there was too much pollution. |
Modern things are mentioned mainly to ___________.
| A．show that the writer likes city life very much. |
| B．show that we can also enjoy nature at home through them. |
| C．tell us that people greatly benefit from modern life. |
| D．explain that people have less chances to enjoy nature. |
For many years, I was convinced that my suffering was due to my size. I believed that when the weight disappeared, it would take old wounds, hurts and rejections with it.
Many weight-conscious people also mistakenly believe that changing our bodies will fix everything. Perhaps our worst mistake is believing that being thin equals being loved, being special, and being cherished. We fantasize about what it will be like when we reach the long-awaited goal. We work very hard to realize this dream. Then, at last, we find ourselves there.
But we often gain back what we have lost. Even so, we continue to believe that next time it will be different. Next time, we will keep it off. Next time, being thin will finally fulfill its promise of everlasting happiness, self-worth, and, of course, love.
It took me a long while to realize that there was something more for me to learn about beauty. Beauty standards vary with culture. In Samoa a woman is not considered attractive unless she weighs more than 200 pounds. More importantly, if it’s happiness that we want, why not put our energy there rather than on the size of our body? Why not look inside? Many of us strive hard to change our body, but in vain. We have to find a way to live comfortably inside our body and make friends with and cherish ourselves. When we change our attitudes toward ourselves, the whole world changes.What does the underlined word “everything” in Paragraph 2 mean?
| A．All the problems. | B．All the properties. |
| C．The whole world. | D．The absolute truth. |
What can be inferred about the author?
| A．The author has been troubled by her weight. |
| B．The author succeeded losing weight. |
| C．The author is a Samoan. |
| D．The author probably got wounded in an accident. |
According to the text, those who have lost weight first and gained it back later feel _______.
| A．angry about the regained weight |
| B．indifferent to the regained weight |
| C．they should give up their future plans on weight control |
| D．optimistic about future plans on weight control |
The text tries to stress the importance of ____________.
| A．body size | B．attitudes toward life |
| C．culture difference | D．different beauty standards |
Homeownership has let us down. For generations, Americans believed that owning a home was undoubtedly good. Our political leaders hammered home the point. Franklin Roosevelt held that a country of homeowners was “unconquerable.” Homeownership could even save babies, save children, save families and save America. A house with a lawn and a fence wasn’t just a nice place to live in or a risk-free investment; it was a way to transform a nation. No wonder leaders of all political types wanted to spend more than $100 billion a year on subsidies and tax breaks to encourage people to buy.
But the dark side of homeownership is now all too apparent: Indeed, easy lending stimulated by the cult（热潮）of homeownership may have caused the financial crisis. Housing remains a drag on the economy. Existing-home sales in April dropped 27% from the prior month, worsening fears of a double-drop. And all that is just the obvious tale of a housing bubble and what happened when it popped. The real story is deeper and darker still.
For the better part of a century, politics, industry and culture lined up to create a fetish of the idea of buying a house. Homeownership has done plenty of good over the decades; it has provided stability to tens of millions of families. Yet by idealizing the act of buying a home, we have ignored the downsides. In the bubble years, lending standards slipped dramatically, allowing many Americans to put far too much of their income into paying for their housing. And we ignored longer-term phenomena too. Homeownership contributed to the hollowing out of cities and kept renters out of the best neighborhoods. It fed America’s overuse of energy and oil. It made it more difficult for those who had lost a job to find another. Perhaps worst of all, it helped us become casually self-deceiving: By telling ourselves that homeownership was a pathway to wealth and stable communities and better test scores, we avoided dealing with these frightening issues head-on.
Now, as the U.S. recovers from the biggest housing bust(破产) since the Great Depression, it is time to rethink how realistic our expectations of homeownership are—and how much money we want to spend chasing them. Many argue that homeownership should not be a goal pursued at all costs.Political leaders wanted to spend money encouraging people to buy houses because _______.
| A．owning a home was undoubtedly good | B．homeownership was unconquerable |
| C．houses could save families and America | D．homeownership could shape a country |
The underlined sentence in Para. 2 means _______.
| A．homeownership has quite a lot of bad effects |
| B．the result of homeownership is much worse than it appears |
| C．the existing-home sales will keep decreasing in the U.S |
| D．there might be another housing breakdown in the U.S |
It can be inferred from Para. 3 that _______.
| A．it is hard for Americans to get a home loan |
| B．it is the way to wealth to have one’s own house |
| C．homeownership has made many people out of work |
| D．many Americans choose to live out of urban areas |
What is the author’s attitude towards homeownership?
| A．Cautious. | B．Puzzled. | C．Favorable. | D．Optimistic. |
They like using the Internet．They have lots of pocket money to spend．And they spend a higher proportion of it online than the rest of us．Teenagers are just the sort of people an online seller is interested in, and the things they want to buy－games, CDs and clothing－are easily sold on the Web.
But paying online is a tricky business for consumers who are too young to own credit cards．Most have to use a parent’s card．They want a facility that allows them to spend money.
That may come sooner than they think: new ways to take pocket money into cyber (网络的) space are coming out rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic．If successful, these products can stimulate online sales.
In general, teenagers spend huge amounts: $153bn (billion) in the US last year and ￡20bn annually in the UK．Most teenagers have access to the Internet at home or at school－88 percent in the US, 69 percent in the UK．According to the Jupiter Research, one in eight of those with Internet access has bought something online－mainly CDs and books.
In most cases, parents pay for these purchases with credit cards, an arrangement that is often unsatisfactory for them and their children．Pressing parents to spend online is less productive than pressing on the high street．They are more likely to ask “Why?” if you ask to spend some money online.
One way to help teenagers change notes and coins into cybercash is through prepaid cards such as Internetcash in the US and Smart cards in the UK．Similar to those for pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, they are sold in amounts such as￡20 or $50 with a concealed 14-digit number that can be used to load the cash into an online account.What does the word “They” in paragraph 1 refer to?
| A．Sellers. | B．Parents. | C．Buyers. | D．Teenagers. |
According to the passage, which of the following statements is TRUE?
| A．Teenagers pay for goods online with their own credit cards. |
| B．More than half of the teenagers in the US and the UK have Internet access． |
| C．Most teenagers in the US and the UK have bought something online. |
| D．Teenagers found it easier to persuade parents to buy online than in a shop. |
A new way to help teenagers shop online is to use ______.
| A．a new machine | B．special coins and notes |
| C．prepaid cards | D．pay-as-you-go mobile phones |
What is the passage mainly about?
| A．Online shopping traps. | B．The arrival of cyber pocket money. |
| C．New credit cards for parents. | D．Internet users in the US and the UK. |
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