题目内容
A powerful earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan at 2:46 p.m. local time on March 11th. Japan's Meteorological Agency released its first tsunami warnings just three minutes later. The country has one of the best earthquake early warning systems in the world. More than 4,000 Seismic Intensity Meters provide information within two minutes of an earthquake happening.
There are also concrete sea walls around much of the Japanese coastline. But these measures proved no match for the powerful earthquake and tsunami.
Costas Synolakis is a tsunami expert in the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He says, "Japan is one of those most well-prepared countries on earth in terms of tsunami warning. They had a warning. I think what went wrong is that they had not foreseen the size of this event."
He says there are two reasons for this. First, scientists had not expected such a large earthquake. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake was the 4th most powerful earthquake ever recorded worldwide. It was also the worst ever to hit Japan. The tsunami waves reached as high as 13 meters in some areas.
Second, Japan's concrete sea walls were not built to handle such high waves. "In Sendai, they were about three meters. At least in that area they were not expecting such a sizeable wave because they would have built a higher seawall."
A tsunami wave can travel as fast as 800 kilometers per hour. To get to higher ground people would often have to travel for many kilometers. This can take more time than a fast traveling tsunami will permit. This is especially true in cases like Japan. The tsunami waves followed almost immediately. Experts say early warning systems will continue to be limited by these facts until earthquakes and tsunamis can be predicted.
72. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
A. Better equipment should have been used. B. A powerful earthquake hit the coast of Japan.
C. Japan can report an earthquake before it happens. D. Japan has a good earthquake early warning system.
73. According to Costas Synolakis, ________.
A. the Japanese should have built many higher seawalls
B. the Japanese were not really prepared for such a disaster
C. Japan has experienced the worst earthquake worldwide
D. Japan had the best warning of such a serious earthquake
74. According to the writer, people hadn’t got to higher ground because ________.
A. didn’t know there would be a tsunami B. tsunami didn’t leave people much time
C. they thought the seawalls were reliable D. higher ground couldn’t be reached at all
75. What can we learn from the last paragraph?
A. Early warning systems are basically unreliable.
B. Earthquakes and tsunamis will soon be predicted.
C. We have to accept the imperfect systems for the moment.
D. New warning systems will be designed to predict disasters.
DBBC
Disease, poverty, hate, love－Charles Dickens’ stories opened his readers eyes to the most important themes of his age. Two hundred years on, his stories still speak volumes across the world, proving that Dickens’ legacy（遗产） was far greater that just “great-literature”.
February 7 marks the 200th anniversary of the writer’s birthday. To mark this date, BBC writer Alex Hudson listed six things Dickens gave the modern world. Let’s take a look at two of them.
A White Christmas
Dickens is described as “the man who invented Christmas” － not the religious festival, but the cultural aspects that we associate with the festive season today.
In the early 19th century, Christmas was barely worth mentioning, according to critic and writer Leigh Hunt. The committee which ran the Conservative Party even held ordinary business meetings on Christmas Day－unthinkable in the West nowadays, when everyone but the most necessary workers takes at least three days off.
Many people believe that Dickens’ popular descriptions of the festive period became a blueprint for generations to come. In his classic novel, A Christmas Carol, he not only put forward the idea of snow at Christmas, but also painted a picture of glowing warmth－“home enjoyments, affections and hopes”.
In his biography of Dickens, Peter Ackroyd wrote: “Dickens can be said to have almost single-handedly created the modern idea of Christmas.”
“Dickens” poverty
Dickens was one of the first to take an honest look at the underclass and the poor of Victorian London.
He helped popularize the term “red tape” to describe situations where people in power use needless amounts of bureaucracy(官僚作风) in a way that particularly hurts the weaker and poorer members of society.
“Dickensian” has now become a powerful word for describing an unacceptable level of poverty. In 2009, when the president of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers in the UK wanted to talk about poverty in some areas of Britain, she did not use words like “terrible” or “horrific”, but rather described it as “life mirroring the times of Dickens”.
【小题1】The article is mainly about .
| A．a brief introduction to Charles Dickens’ |
| B．Charles Dickens’ impact on the world |
| C．the characters in Charles Dickens’ stories |
| D．Charles Dickens’ achievements in literature |
| A．Because he created both religious and culture festival. |
| B．Because his novels have something to do with Christmas. |
| C．Because one of his novels helped to shape Christmas celebrations. |
| D．Because he was the first man to have proposed celebrating Christmas. |
| A．Charles Dickens’ novels reflect the true life at his age |
| B．Dickensian is widely used to describe the Christmas |
| C．Every person can take three days off for Christmas |
| D．The theme of Charles Dickens’ stories is about poverty |
| A．regulations that are required to finish a task |
| B．a situation where poor members of society are hurt |
| C．conflict between people in power and weaker people |
| D．agreements made by the underclass of society |
Training
helped him defeat his disease. D. He overcame the shadow of illness
to win.