题目内容

The War Against Sand

Imagine living on the edge of a vast desert, which is moving quietly closer to your village every day and covering your fields. The desert is on the move. This is called desertification.

Desertification occurs in regions close to an already existing desert.     71     The first is over-use of water in the area. There is not enough water in any case, and if it is not carefully used, disaster can follow. As time goes on, water shortages make farming more and more difficult. In some places, locals can remember local lakes and marshes which were once the homes for all kinds of fish and birds.     72     Farmers leave the land, and fields are replaced by deserts.

The second cause is misuse or over-use of the land.     73     Ploughing(耕) large fields and removing bushes and trees means that the wind will blow away the soil. Once the soil is lost, it is hard to replace, and if there is rain, it has nowhere to go, and brings no benefit.

    74     Every spring, the skies over some of eastern cities, thousands of kilometers away from the deserts, can be darkened by sandstorms. Dust from deserts can have a great effect on weather systems. While desertification is perhaps being partly caused by global warming, these sandstorms can make global warming worse by adding to what is known as the greenhouse effect.

What can be done to slow down or stop the process of desertification? A great deal of work is already under way. Obviously first steps are to find new water sources.     75     Some types of grass also hold the soil together, and stop the wind taking it. Without these efforts, it will be harder and harder to stop the world’s deserts in their tracks, and more and more farmers will give up and head for cities. The lesson to be learnt lies beneath the sand.

A. It generally arises from two related causes.

B. It is not only the farmers and villagers who suffer.

C. They have been completely buried by the sand now.

D. Scientists are doing the research on the cause of desertification.

E. They destroy the land, as the soil dries out and is then blown away.

F. Tree planting can help, by providing barriers between desert and rich field.

G. This means that the wrong crops are planted, and need more water than is available.

71.A  72.C  73.G  74.B  75.F

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  April 6, 2005 BERLIN-It has led to numerous expeditions, several mysterious deaths and plenty of books.But 60 years after Nazi officers hid metal boxes in the depths of Lake Toplitz, a new attempt is being made to recover the Third Reich's fabled(传说中的)lost gold.The Austrian government has given a U.S.team permission to make an underwater expedition to the bottom of the lake.

  Groups of treasure hunters have been racing to Lake Toplitz ever since a group of diehard Nazis escaped to this picturesque part of the Austrian Alps in the final months of the Second World War.With U.S.troops closing in and Germany on the edge of collapse(垮台), they shipped the boxes to the bank of the lake, and sunk them.

  Nobody knows exactly what was inside.Some believe the boxes contained gold stolen by German troops throughout Europe and carried back to Germany.Others think that they contained documents showing where possessions confiscated(没收)from Jewish victims were hidden.The state company that controls the lake, Bundesforste AG, has signed a contract with Norman Scott, an American treasure hunter, who hopes to solve the mystery.

  Later this month, Scott will begin a detailed underwater expedition of the 350-foot-deep lake, though there is official doubt that there is anything left to find.“I really don't know if there is anything down there, but we want to resolve the mystery once and for all,”Irwin Klissenbauer, a director of Bundesforste AG, told the Guardian Tuesday.“The aim at first is to measure the lake.”He added:“This is a beautiful area.You have heard of Loch Ness.For Austrians this has been a bit like Loch Ness.Lots of people come here.And whether there is gold down there or not, the mystery has been very good for tourism.”

  Klissenbauer said that under the terms of the deal--which allows the U.S.team to dive for the next three years-any treasure found will be divided between the Americans and the Austrian state.“Obviously if they recover anything which has a recognizable owner, under Austrian law we have to give it back.”

(1)

Which is the best title of the passage?

[  ]

A.

Unsolved Mystery

B.

Treasure Found

C.

Mysterious Lake

D.

New Discovery

(2)

What can we infer from the passage?

[  ]

A.

Many books about mysterious deaths have been written so far.

B.

Treasure hunters never risked searching the lake for gold until now.

C.

Many books have been written about mysteries hidden in the Lake.

D.

Norman Scott is sure there is nothing left to find in the lake.

(3)

Norman Scott will make the underwater expedition mainly to ________.

[  ]

A.

find evidence proving Nazi Germany's cruelty

B.

help measure the beautiful lake

C.

uncover the mystery in the lake

D.

help people get back their possessions

(4)

According to Austrian law and the deal reached by the Americans and the Austrian government, ________.

[  ]

A.

the U.S.team is to solve the mystery in the next three years

B.

both sides will take part in the underwater expedition

C.

any treasure found will go to either the Americans or the Austrian government

D.

people might get their treasure back if there~ re proofs of their ownership

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