题目内容
Canada 4:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.
Canada is a big country with six time zones. In the west, it is four a.m., and everyone is asleep, but in Halifax on the east coast it is eight o'clock and people are having breakfast. It is a cold Friday morning in November, and the temperature is ten degrees below zero Centigrade.
Argentina 9:00 a.m.
In Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, it is nine a.m. on a warm summer morning, and people are starting work or school. November is a summer month in Argentina because it is in the southern hemisphere（南半球）.
Scotland 12:00 noon
Scotland is part of the United Kingdom. The capital of Scotland is Edinburgh, and the capital of the UK is London. It is twelve noon, or midday, in Edinburgh. Children are having lessons, but they are looking forward to the weekend because there is no school on Saturday and Sunday.
Egypt 2:00 p.m.
Friday is already the weekend in Egypt. Friday is a special day for Muslims, so schools, offices and shops are closed in all Arab countries. So now, at two p.m., most people in Egypt are having lunch with their families.
Japan 9:00 p.m.
Japan is seven hours ahead of Egypt, so it is already Friday evening there. The weekend is beginning. Most people are out with friends or watching television or playing computer games.
New Zealand 12:00 midnight
It is late on Friday night, so most people are asleep. Now Saturday morning is arriving. It is morning in Canada too, but that is Friday morning!
【小题1】In eastern Canada, the time is _____ that in western Canada.
| A．four and a half hours behind | B．four hours ahead of |
| C．three hours ahead of | D．the same as |
| A．sleeping | B．going home | C．at school | D．having supper |
| A．Japan | B．Canada | C．New Zealand | D．Scotland |
| A．it’s midnight and most people are asleep |
| B．it’s noon and many people are having lunch |
| C．it’s the morning and many people are working |
| D．it’s the afternoon and most people are playing computer games |
| A．1:15 p.m. | B．2:15 p.m. | C．1:15 a.m. | D．2:15 a.m. |
【小题1】B
【小题2】C
【小题3】D
【小题4】A
【小题5】D
解析
Environmentalists said our planet was doomed to die. Now one man says they are wrong.
"Everyone knows the planet is in bad shape," thundered a magazine article last year. Species are being driven to die out at record rates, and the rivers are so poisonous that fish are floating on the surface, dead.
But there's a growing belief that what everyone takes for granted is wrong: things are actually getting better. A new book is about to overturn our most basic assumptions about the world's environment. Rivers, seas, rain and the atmosphere are all getting cleaner. The total amount of forests in the world is not declining. The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg, professor of statistics at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, is an attack on the misleading claims of environmental groups, and the "bad news" culture that makes people believe everything is getting worse.
Now the attacks are increasingly coming from left-wing environmentalists such as Lomborg, a former member of Greenpeace. The accusation is that, although the environment is improving, green groups — with profits of hundreds of mil-lions of pounds a year — are using scare tactics(谋略)to gain donations. Lomborg's book doesn't deny global warming — probably the biggest environmental threat — but destroys almost every other environmental claim with many official statistics.
The Worldwatch Institute claims that "deforestation(沙漠化) has been accelerating over the last 30 years". But Lomborg says that is simply rubbish. Since the dawn of agriculture the world has lost about 20 per cent of its forest cover, but in recent decades the forest area's depleting has come to a stop. According to UN figures, the area of forests has remained almost steady, at about 30 per cent of total land area, since the 1940s. Forests in countries such as the US, the UK and Canada have actually been expanding over the past 40 years. Despite all the warnings the Amazon rainforest has only shrunk by about 15 per cent.
Nor are all our species dying out. Some campaigners claim that 50 per cent of all species will have died out within 50 years. But other studies show only 0.08 per cent of species are dying out each year. Conservation efforts have been successful. Whales are no longer threatened and the bald eagle is off the endangered list.
Environmental groups claim that many of the improvements are the results of the success of their campaigns. Stephen Tindale, director of Greenpeace UK, said, "There are important examples, such as acid rain and ozone, where things aren't as bad as predicted, and that's because behavior has changed."
【小题1】In his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, what is Lomborg's main argument?
| A．Our planet is in bad shape. |
| B．The world's environment is improving. |
| C．The total amount of forests in the world is not declining. |
| D．Conservation efforts have been successful. |
| A．They scared people into making donations. |
| B．They overturned our basic assumptions about the world's environment. |
| C．They changed their behavior toward the environment. |
| D．They only told people bad news about the environment. |
| A．reducing | B．limiting | C．expanding | D．accelerating |
| A．The total area of forests in the world has increased significantly. |
| B．The effects of global warming are not as bad as first expected. |
| C．It appears that the bald eagle will now survive. |
| D．In the last 50 years the number of whales has increased. |
Against the supposition that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia warm the climate, scientists have discovered that cooling may occur in areas where burnt trees allow more snow to mirror more sunlight into space.
This finding suggests that taking steps to prevent northern forest fires to limit the release of greenhouse gases may warm the climate in northern regions. Usually large fires destroyed forests in these areas over the past decade. Scientists predict that with climate warming, fires may occur more frequently over the next several centuries as a result of a longer fire season. Sunlight taken in by the earth tends to cause warming, while heat mirrored back into space tends to cause cooling.
This is the first study to analyze all aspects of how northern fires influence climate. Earlier studies by other scientists have suggested that fire in northern regions speed up climate warming because greenhouse gases from burning trees and plants are released into the atmosphere and thus trap heat.
Scientists found that right after the fire, large amounts of greenhouse gases entered the atmosphere and caused warming. Ozone（臭氧） levels increased, and ash from the fire fell on far-off sea ice, darkening the surface and causing more radiation from the sun to be taken in. The following spring, however, the land within the area of the fire was brighter than before the fire, because fewer trees covered the ground. Snow on the ground mirrored more sunlight back into space, leading to cooling.
“We need to find out all possible ways to reduce the growth of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.” Scientists tracked the change in the amount of radiation entering and leaving the climate system as a result of the fire, and found a measurement closely related to the global air temperature. Typically, fire in northern regions occurs in the same area every 80 to 150 years. Scientists, however, found that when fire occurs more frequently, more radiation is lost from the earth and cooling results. Specifically, they determined when fire returns 20 years earlier than predicted, 0.5 watts per square meter of area burned are soaked up by the earth from greenhouse gases, but 0.9 watts per square meter will be sent back into space. The net effect is cooling. Watts are used to measure the rate at which energy is gained or lost from the earth.
1.．According to the new findings, taking steps to prevent northern forest fires may __________.
|
A．result in a warming climate |
|
B．cause the forest fires to occur more frequently |
|
C．lead to a longer fire season |
|
D．protect the forests and the environment there |
2.．The following are all the immediate effects after a forest fire EXCEPT __________.
|
A．large amounts of greenhouse gases enter the atmosphere |
|
B．the levels of ozone which is a type of oxygen increase |
|
C．snow on the ground mirrors more sunlight back into space |
|
D．ashes from the fire fall on the ice surface and take in more radiation from the sun |
3.．Earlier studies about northern forest fires __________.
|
A．analyze all aspects of how northern fires influence climate |
|
B．indicate that forest fires will pollute the atmosphere |
|
C．suggest that people should take measures to protect environment |
|
D．suggest that the fires will speed up climate warming |
4.．The underlined phrase “soak up” in the last paragraph most probably means __________.
|
A．released |
B．absorbed |
C．created |
D．distributed |
5.．From the passage we can draw a conclusion that forest fires in Alaska, Canada and Siberia may ____.
|
A．warm the climate as the supposition goes |
|
B．allow more snow to reflect more sunlight into space and thus cool the climate |
|
C．destroy large areas of forests and pollute the far-off sea ice |
|
D．help to gain more energy rather than release more energy |
Environmentalists said our planet was doomed to die. Now one man says they are wrong.
"Everyone knows the planet is in bad shape," thundered a magazine article last year. Species are being driven to die out at record rates, and the rivers are so poisonous that fish are floating on the surface, dead.
But there's a growing belief that what everyone takes for granted is wrong: things are actually getting better. A new book is about to overturn our most basic assumptions about the world's environment. Rivers, seas, rain and the atmosphere are all getting cleaner. The total amount of forests in the world is not declining. The Skeptical Environmentalist by Bjorn Lomborg, professor of statistics at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, is an attack on the misleading claims of environmental groups, and the "bad news" culture that makes people believe everything is getting worse.
Now the attacks are increasingly coming from left-wing environmentalists such as Lomborg, a former member of Greenpeace. The accusation is that, although the environment is improving, green groups — with profits of hundreds of mil-lions of pounds a year — are using scare tactics(谋略)to gain donations. Lomborg's book doesn't deny global warming — probably the biggest environmental threat — but destroys almost every other environmental claim with many official statistics.
The Worldwatch Institute claims that "deforestation(沙漠化) has been accelerating over the last 30 years". But Lomborg says that is simply rubbish. Since the dawn of agriculture the world has lost about 20 per cent of its forest cover, but in recent decades the forest area's depleting has come to a stop. According to UN figures, the area of forests has remained almost steady, at about 30 per cent of total land area, since the 1940s. Forests in countries such as the US, the UK and Canada have actually been expanding over the past 40 years. Despite all the warnings the Amazon rainforest has only shrunk by about 15 per cent.
Nor are all our species dying out. Some campaigners claim that 50 per cent of all species will have died out within 50 years. But other studies show only 0.08 per cent of species are dying out each year. Conservation efforts have been successful. Whales are no longer threatened and the bald eagle is off the endangered list.
Environmental groups claim that many of the improvements are the results of the success of their campaigns. Stephen Tindale, director of Greenpeace UK, said, "There are important examples, such as acid rain and ozone, where things aren't as bad as predicted, and that's because behavior has changed."
1.In his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, what is Lomborg's main argument?
|
A．Our planet is in bad shape. |
|
B．The world's environment is improving. |
|
C．The total amount of forests in the world is not declining. |
|
D．Conservation efforts have been successful. |
2.What is Lomborg's main accusation of environmentalists?
|
A．They scared people into making donations. |
|
B．They overturned our basic assumptions about the world's environment. |
|
C．They changed their behavior toward the environment. |
|
D．They only told people bad news about the environment. |
3.The underlined word "depleting" in Paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to "____".
|
A．reducing |
B．limiting |
C．expanding |
D．accelerating |
4.According to the passage, which of the following statements is true?
|
A．The total area of forests in the world has increased significantly. |
|
B．The effects of global warming are not as bad as first expected. |
|
C．It appears that the bald eagle will now survive. |
|
D．In the last 50 years the number of whales has increased. |