题目内容
U.S. airlines are seeing a major interruption because of hundreds of flights canceled due to the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano, but European flight companies will face the biggest losses.
The airline business has been tough: The decline dramatically slowed traffic; February heavy snow forced U.S. airlines to cancel thousands of flights; and now the ashes from the volcano stopped all traffic in and out of northern Europe for days.
"For U.S. flight companies, it'll be a relatively short-term hit," said Michael Boyd, president of Boyd Group International, an aviation (航空学) consulting firm. "We think right now they're down about $80 million in terms of lost income, and they're down domestically about 80,000 passengers that would have been flying domestically but aren't because they can't get here."
Delta announced that volcano-related interruption grounded about 400 flights until Monday at a cost of $20 million in lost revenues. But compare that to the recent snowstorms, when the airline canceled 7,000 flights and lost $65 million in revenue.
The disruption has created uncertainty for customers, but analysts say U.S. airlines won't face as many costs as you might think. They are not flying in extra planes to handle the passengers in trouble because, airline analyst Robert Mann said, companies simply don't have them.
"Airlines run a very lean operation now," Mann said. "So, since there are no spare aircraft or crews, the airlines will attempt to maximize loads on every one of their aircraft that do fly. But it may take days, or in some cases a week or so, to get some of these customers to where they want to go."
46. Which negative consequences mentioned in the passage did the disasters cause?
A. coldness, pollution and airlines’ losses
B. airport damage, pollution and slow traffic
C. passenger delay, coldness and airport damage
D. passenger delay, airlines’ losses and slow traffic
47. Which of the following statements is true according to the passage?
A. The fewest airplanes will fly the trapped passengers to their destinations.
B. All the customers are sure to be sent to their destinations in time.
C. The U.S. and U.K. airlines suffered the same losses in the natural disasters.
D. The volcano eruption reduced the traffic to and from northern Europe.
48. What does the last paragraph mainly tell us?
A. the troubles that the airlines will face after the ash cloud disappears
B. the measures that the airlines will take to maximize their profit
C. the present situation of the airlines and their plan to deliver the passengers
D. the reasons why the airlines run a fine operation
49. Why will it take a long time for airlines to send the passengers to their different destinations?
A. Because the passengers enjoy staying in airports to talk with one another.
B. Because the airlines don’t have spare planes or employees to serve.
C. Because the airlines don't have enough financial support after the disaster.
D. Because the passengers are asking for full refund from the airlines.
50. The passage is most probably from_______.
A．a novel B．a news report
C．a magazine D．a thesis
46—50 DACBB
【解析】略
Millions of Americans return from long-distance trips by air, but their luggage doesn’t always come home with them. Airline identification tags（标签） can come loose, and the bags go who-knows-where. And passengers leave all kinds of things on planes.
The airlines collect the items and, for 90 days, attempt to find their owners. They don’t keep them, since they’re not in the warehouse business. And by law, they cannot sell the bags, because the airlines might be tempted to deliberately misplace luggage.
So once insurance companies have paid for lost bags and their contents, and they no longer belong to passengers, a unique store in the little town of Scottsboro, Alabama, buys them. The “Unclaimed Baggage Center,” is so popular that the building, which is set up like a department store, is the number-one tourist attraction in all of Alabama. More than one million visitors stop in each year and take one of the store’s shopping carts on a hunt for treasures.
Each day, clerks bring out 7,000 new items, and veteran（老练的）shoppers rush to paw over them. You can find everything from precious jewels to hockey sticks, best-selling novels, leather jackets, tape recorders, surfboards, even half -used tubes of toothpaste.
The store’s own laundry washes or cleans all the clothes found in luggage, then sells them. The Unclaimed Baggage Center has found guns, illegal drugs and even a live rattlesnake.
The store has a little museum where some of its most unusual acquisitions（获得物） have been preserved. They include highland bagpipes, a burial mask from an Egyptian pharaoh's tomb, and a medieval suit of armor.
Statistics indicate that less than one-half of one percent of luggage checked on U.S. carriers is permanently lost and available to the store.
【小题1】Paragraph1 shows that many passengers lose their luggage because______.
| A．they are forgetful |
| B．the owners of some luggage can’t be identified |
| C．they are in a hurry |
| D．there is no lost and found office in many airports |
| A．they have to find the owners |
| B．they have to keep the bags as long as possible |
| C．some bags are expensive |
| D．they are likely to make a profit on the bags on purpose |
| A．visitors may purchase something undervalued. |
| B．all thethings there are very cheap. |
| C．there's a large variety of goods. |
| D．visitors will enjoy some amusing activities there. |
| A．A little museum will keep all the precious unclaimed baggage. |
| B．The things in the Unclaimed Baggage Center are articles for daily use. |
| C．The percentage of passengers who lose their baggage for ever is small. |
| D．People are not allowed to buy the illegal things in the store. |
| A．To introduce an attractive place to tourists. |
| B．To remind passengers of taking care of their baggage. |
| C．To advise the airlines to find the owners of the unclaimed baggage. |
| D．To introduce how the unclaimed baggage in the airports is handled in America. |