题目内容
Tsunami(海啸)is a natural disaster, which is a Japanese word that means “sea wave”. A tsunami is a huge sea wave that forms mainly in the Pacific Ocean area. People die and property is destroyed when a tsunami hits land. What causes these dangerous sea waves? Sometimes, tsunamis are caused when earthquakes take place underwater. Then, water begins to move up and down from the top of the ocean right down to the bottom. Waves begin to form, and each wave is called a tsunami.
A tsunami is less than one meter high and can move at a speed of almost 800 kilometers per hour while it is far out in the ocean. But the tsunami rises much higher and moves more slowly as it comes closer to land.
The weather bureau(气象局)warns people over the radio and television when a tsunami is heading for land. These warnings have helped save many lives.
56. The Japanese word tsunami means _________.
A. earthquake B. sea wave
C. ocean water D. tornado
57. According to the passage, a tsunami can be caused by ________.
A. an underwater earthquake B. heavy rains
C. waves hitting land C. tornado
58. As the tsunami moves toward land, it _____________.
A. picks up more speed
B. becomes far less dangerous
C. rises higher and higher
D. rises lower and lower
59. According to this passage, ___________.
A. a tsunami can’t cause lots of trouble
B. people can save their lives when a tsunami is coming
C. the warning from the weather bureau can help people save their lives
D. no one can escape when a tsunami is coming
BACC

The deadly earthquake and tsunami (海啸) that struck Japan on March 11 damaged two nuclear power stations. Officials are now working to prevent dangerous radiation from poisoning the air in the area surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The Japanese government has ordered people living within 12 and a half miles of the plant to evacuate, and asked those living 12 and a half to 20 miles away to stay indoors.
Nuclear power plants create energy using a chemical reaction that produces large amounts of heat. Reactors(反应堆)in Japan have many long, thin rods, called fuel rods(棒), which must be kept cool.
If the reactor’s fuel rods aren’t cooled, the reaction can burn out of control. That’s what happened at the two Japanese plants after the quake caused a power failure and the cooling systems malfunctioned(发生故障). This overheating could cause radiation to escape and sicken many people.
Japan’s 54 nuclear reactors are built to withstand the many small or moderate earthquakes the country faces each year. But Friday’s earthquake was one of the most severe earthquakes ever recorded.
People exposed to unsafe levels of radiation have a higher than normal risk of getting cancer. The Japanese government has been distributing potassium iodide(碘化钾)pills to people in the surrounding areas to protect those who may have come in contact with radiation from the power plant. The pills flood the body with healthy potassium iodide. The potassium iodide works to crowd out “bad” iodine in the body that may have been poisoned by radiation.
On Tuesday morning, 750 workers left the Fukushima Daiichi plant. However, 50 workers stayed behind to use sweater to cool the fuel rods. These dedicated employees are risking their own lives to save many others.
On Thursday, officials used helicopters, fire trucks, and water cannons to spray water on the reactors to cool the fuel rods. But it’s not clear whether these efforts were successful. Officials are now working on a power line to restore electricity to the plant. They hope this will help restart the plant’s cooling system and stop the fuel rods from leaking radiation.
【小题1】The underlined word “evacuate” in Paragraph 1 probably means .
A.help | B.rest | C.stop | D.leave |
A.The local people are scared and ready to run away. |
B.The earthquake led to many deaths and caused damage to roads. |
C.The Japanese government has found a kind of pill that can treat cancer. |
D.The two stations were damaged because their cooling systems didn’t work. |
A.lack of help |
B.international aids |
C.the government’s efforts |
D.the result of the disaster |
A.a research paper |
B.a newspaper report |
C.a class presentation |
D.a chemistry textbook |
The long, lonely voyage of the Japanese ghost ship is over.
A US Coast Guard cutter poured cannon fire into an abandoned Japanese ghost ship that had been drifting since last year’s tsunami (海啸), sinking the vessel into waters more than 305 meters deep in the Gulf of Alaska and removing the danger it posed to shipping and the coastline on Thursday.
The cutter’s guns tore holes in the 164-foot Ryou-Un Maru, and then it began to take on water and lean to one side. In about four hours, the ship disappeared into the sea, said Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow.
The ship had no lights or communications system, and its tank was able to carry more than 7,570 liters of diesel fuel. Officials, however, didn’t know exactly how much fuel was aboard.
“It’s less risky than it would be running into shore or running into other ships,” coast guard spokesman Paul Webb said.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency studied the problem and decided it is safer to sink the ship than let the fuel evaporate and pollute the sea environment.
Ryou-Un Maru was probably among the first wave of the 1.5 million tons of garbage of refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, roofs and fishing nets heading toward North America since last March when a magnitude-9.0 earthquake struck Japan.
As the coast guard was ready to fire on the vessel, a Canadian fishing vessel, the 19-meter Bernice C, claimed the rights to save the ghost ship in international waters.
Plans to sink it were paused so the Canadian crew could have a chance to take the stricken ship. A Canadian official with knowledge of the situation told the Associated Press that the Bernice C was unable to drag it.
Then the Canadian boat left, and once it was about 10 kilometers from the Japanese vessel, the Coast Guard began to fire, first with 25 mm shells, then a few hours later with ammunition (弹药)twice that size.
State officials have been working to test the danger of garbage including materials affected by a damaged nuclear power plant, to see if Alaska residents, seafood or wild animals could be affected.
【小题1】The plan to fire on the Japanese ghost ship was paused because ____________.
A.the ghost ship was beyond the reach of the Coast Guard’s guns |
B.state officials worried the ghost ship might give out radiation |
C.the shells were not powerful enough to sink the ghost ship |
D.a Canadian fishing boat wanted to save the ghost ship |
a. Its long, lonely voyage came to an end.
b. The US Coast Guard sank it into the sea.
c. The ship began to float across the Pacific Ocean.
d. A big tsunami was caused by great earthquakes.
e. Bernice C claimed rights to save the ghost ship.
A.d, c, e, b, a | B.a, b, d, c, e | C.c, e, d, a, b | D.b, a, d, c, e |
A.Japanese ghost ship arriving at US |
B.Tsunami garbage heading to US |
C.Japanese ghost ship polluting the Pacific |
D.Cannon fire sinking Japanese ghost ship |