题目内容
Icebergs are among nature’s most impressive creations, and yet most people have never seen one. They come into being somewhere in faraway, freezing waters, amid thunderous noise and splashing turbulence （漩涡）, which in most cases no one hears or sees. They exist only a short time and then slowly melt away just as unnoticed.
They have been called objects of complete beauty. Appearing in an endless variety of shapes, they may be dazzlingly white, or they may be glassy blue, green or purple, in light colors or in dark colors. They are graceful, stately, inspiring-in calm, sunlit seas.
But they are also called frightening and dangerous, and that they are-in the night, in the fog, and in storms. Even in clear weather one is wise to stay a safe distance away from them. Most of their main part is hidden below the water, so their underwater parts may extend out far beyond the visible top. Also, they may roll over unexpectedly, stirring the waters around them.
Icebergs are parts of glaciers that break off, drift into the water, float about awhile, and finally melt. Icebergs floating today are made of snows that have fallen over long ages of time. They include snows that drifted down hundreds, or many thousands, or in some cases maybe a million years ago. The snows fell in Polar regions and on cold mountains, where they melted only a little or not at all, and so collected to great depths over the years and centuries.
As each year’s snow accumulation lay on the surface, evaporation and melting caused the snowflakes slowly to become tiny grains of ice. When new snow fell on top of the old, it too turned to icy grains. So blankets of snow and ice grains mounted layer upon layer and were of such great thickness that the weight of the upper layers pressed the lower ones. With time and pressure from above, the many small ice grains joined and changed to larger crystals, and eventually the deeper crystals merged into a solid mass of ice.
1．The underlined word “dazzlingly” in Paragraph 2 probably means “ ”.
A．brilliantly B．abundantly C．beautifully D．approximately
2．The author states that icebergs are rarely seen because they are .
A．broken by waves soon after they are found
B．hidden under the mountains
C．located in remote regions of the world
D．surrounded by fog
3．The underlined phrase “from above” in the last paragraph refers to “ ”.
A．sunlit seas B．polar regions
C．weight of mountains D．layers of ice and snow
4．According to the passage, icebergs are dangerous because they .
A．usually melt quickly B．can turn over suddenly
C．may create large snowdrifts D．may float and hit the ships suddenly
ACDB
"We do look very different; we're older. Leo's 38, I'm 37. We were 21 and 22 when we made that film. You know, he's fatter now -- I'm thinner.". So says Kate Winslet, who is thrilled at the 3-D re-release of Titanic to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ship's demise. “ It happens every time I get on any boat of any kind." She recalls. There are all the people who want her to walk to the front of the ship and re-create her famous pose, arms flung wide. Most people remember the tragedy: The British passenger ship -- said to be unsinkable -- hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, during its maiden voyage from England to New York City. More than 1,500 people died. But little known is what the world learned from the sinking to prevent future incidents.
Probably the greatest deficiency （不足）of the Titanic was that she was built 40 years before the widespread use of the wonderful invention radar(雷达). Her only defense against icebergs and hidden obstacles was to rely on manned lookouts. On that fateful night the eyesight of trained lookouts only provided 37 seconds of warning before the collision.
Traveling at nearly 30 miles an hour the Titanic was moving far too fast to avoid the huge iceberg. The warning did prevent a head-on collision as the officer on the bridge managed to turn the ship slightly.
The last ship to send a warning was the California. She was within ten miles of the Titanic during the disaster, but her radio operator went to bed at midnight and never received any of the SOS messages from the Titanic. That was one of the important lessons learned from the catastrophe, the need for 24-hour radio operators on all passenger liners.
Another lesson learned was the need for more lifeboats. The Titanic remained afloat(漂浮) for almost three hours and most of the passengers could have been saved with enough lifeboats.
1,500 passengers and workers died in the 28 degree waters of the Atlantic. Out of the tragedy, the sinking did produce some important maritime reforms. The winter travel routes were changed to the south and the Coast Guard began to keep an eye on the location of all icebergs. The new rules for lifeboats were obvious to all. There must be enough lifeboats for everybody on board.
The most important lesson learned was that no one would ever again consider a ship unsinkable- no matter how large or how well constructed. Never again would sailors place their faith in a ship above the power of the sea.
【小题1】The text mainly tells us ______.
| A．the reason why the Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean |
| B．how the unsinkable ship of Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean |
| C．the lessons that we could learn from the accident of theTitanic |
| D．the things we should do to protect the lives on the ship |
| A．If the captain had been more careful, he could have had the chance to save the Titanic. |
| B．If radar had existed 40 years ago, the Titanic would have never disappeared from the world. |
| C．If the lookout had had much more experience, he could have had the time to save the Titanic. |
| D．If there had been enough lifeboats on the Titanic, the Titanic would not have sunk in the Atlantic. |
| A．Lessons from the Titanic | B．Technology is Important |
| C．Demands of Passengers | D．Power of Sea |
| A．They think there really exists the unsinkable ship. |
| B．They think ships could eventually defeat the sea. |
| C．They think there is no power that could control the sea. |
| D．They think the bigger the ship is, the safer it is. |
| AVERAGE RESOURCES | |
| 620 m3 water | If we put fresh water and sea water together, we can each have 620 m3 water. But remember, sea water is too salty for us to drink if the factories don’t process it first. So, 620 m3 is little. Saving water in daily use is important. |
| 0.5 hectares of forests | There are 3.869 billion hectares(公顷) of forests on Earth. But we are losing them mainly because we cut trees too much. If we calculate（计算）at the size of a football field, we are losing 343,000 football fields every day, or 1,431 per hour, or 24 per minute! |
| 1.5 centimeters long corals(珊瑚) | All the corals that we have now spread for about 100,000 km in 109 countries. But each of us can only have such a little piece, because seas are getting polluted and corals are dying. |
| 33 stars | According to the latest report, there are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way. Each of us can have 33 of them. Unfortunately, we cannot see most of the 200 billion stars from Earth. We can only see about 6,000 stars. If we don’t use telescopes or we have bad weathers, we can only see about 2,000 stars. |
| 90kg rice | On average, we harvest 0.54 billion tons of rice each year round the world and each of us can have 90 kg. Asia produces and eats 90% of all the rice. How long will it take you to eat up this 90 kg rice? |
| 1 iceberg | Luckily, we still have icebergs to share when Earth gets warmer and warmer. Each of us can have an iceberg of 170m×170m×170m. Up to 10% of Earth surface is covered by ice. There is 31,000,000km3 of ice on Earth in all. |
| A．over 620m3 | B．more than 620m3 | C．far less than 620m3 | D．only 620m3 |
| A．the man-made damage | B．the climate change |
| C．the construction of many football fields | D．the environmental pollution |
| A．all the stars | B．about 2,000 | C．about 200 billion | D．about 6,000 |
| A．less water | B．fewer icebergs | C．fewer corals | D．less rice |