Today, over six billion people live on the planet. This means that there are very few places on Earth with no people. One place that has very few people is at the bottom of the Earth. In Antarctica, the icy continent surrounding the South Pole, you will not find anyone who lives there all the time.
First, Antarctica is the coldest place on Earth. For example, it can be –l30℃ in the winter. Humans cannot live in this kind of environment. Because it is so cold, very few plants or animals live there. This means there are no farms and no places to find wild plants or animals to eat.
Second, Antarctica can be dangerous. Many people think that it is safe to travel to Antarctica in the summer months when it is warmer. However, Antarctica is mostly ice, so when it’s summer, the ice melts. When the ice melts, the ice can break. So, people cannot travel around Antarctica during the summer. If the ice breaks, they could fall into the water and die.
Another serious problem in Antarctica is the sun. Because Antarctica is mostly ice, there are no trees so there is no shade. Also, the ground is mostly white ice so the sun bounces off (反射) it. The light from the sky and the light from the ground can burn people’s skin and hurt their eyes. People must be very careful in this situation. For example, they must wear sunglasses to protect their eyes. They must also cover their hands and faces all the time.
Although Antarctica is a tough place to live, explorers have discovered coal in Antarctica. This leads them to believe that Antarctica at one time was a land of swam (沼泽) and forests.
【小题1】This text is mainly about _____.

根据短文内容，从短文后的选项中选出能填入空白处的最佳选项。选项中有两项为多余选项。
Without plants, people could not live. We eat plants. ____56____  And we need plants for another reason: we need them because they are beautiful.
___57____  Imagine no flowers with their sweet smell, their beautiful colors and their lovely shapes. Imagine, when the wind blows, we’re not able to hear the leaves in the trees or watch the branches swing from side to side.
___58____  That is why we have parks full of trees and flowers. That is why people always like houses with room for some grass or a garden.
Do you talk to your plants?  ___59____  Peter Tompking and Christopher Bird wrote a book called The Secret Life Of Plants, telling of an experiment in which two seeds were planted in different places. While the plants were growing, one plant was given love and hopeful ideas. The other plant was given only hopeless ideas.  ___60____  Under the earth it had more and longer roots; above the earth, it had a thicker stem and more leaves. While the other one nearly stopped growing.

At Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, the lights are controlled by sensors that measure sunlight. They dim immediately when it’s sunny and brighten when a passing cloud blocks the sun.
A wall of windows at a University of Pennsylvania engineering building has built-in blinds (百叶窗) controlled by a computer program that follows the sun’s path. Buildings are getting smarter and the next generation of building materials is expected to do even more.
Windows could catch the sun’s energy to heat water. Sensors that measure the carbon dioxide breathed out by people in a room could determine whether the air conditioning needs to be turned up.
Many new materials and technology have been designed in the last 15 years. They are now being used in a wave of buildings designed to save as much energy as possible. They include old ideas, like “green roofs”, where a belt of plants on a roof helps the building keep heat in winter and stay cool in summer, and new ideas, like special coating for windows that lets light in, but keeps heat out.
As technologies such as sensors become cheaper, their uses spread.
The elevators at Seven World Trade Center, which is under construction in New York, use a system that groups people traveling to nearby floors into the same elevator, thus saving elevator stops. People who work in the building will enter it by swiping (刷) ID cards that will tell the elevators their floor, readouts will then tell them which elevator to use. The building also has windows with a coating that blocks heat while letting in light.
More new building materials and technology are in development. A Philadelphia building firm is now working on “smart wrap” that uses tiny solar collectors to catch the sun’s energy and transmitters (传输器) as wide as a human hair to move it. They are expected to change the face of the construction industry in the next ten years or so.
【小题1】________ will be developed and used in the construction industry.

Death Valley, one of America’s great national parks, is a place of strange and silent beauty. As beautiful as this place is, its name provides evidence of very real danger. Death Valley is a land of beautiful yet dangerous extremes. There are mountains that reach more than 3,000 meters into the sky. There is a place called Badwater that is the lowest area of land in the Western Hemisphere. If there were water there, it would be 86 meters below the level of the ocean.
Death Valley can be dangerously cold during the winter months. Storms in the mountains can produce sudden flooding on the floor of the Valley. The air temperature during the summer has been as high as 57℃. The sun can heat the ground so that the temperature of the rocks and soil can be as high as 74℃. The extreme heat of Death Valley has killed people in the past. It will continue to kill those who do not honor this extreme climate. Death Valley does not forgive those who are not careful.
Death Valley is a good example of the violence of nature. It contains evidence of several ancient volcanoes that caused huge explosions. Evidence of one of these explosions is called Ubehebe Crater. The explosion left a huge hole in the ground almost a kilometer and a half wide.
In many areas of Death Valley it is easy to see where the ground has been pushed up violently by movement deep in the Earth. This movement has created unusual and beautiful rock formations. Some are red. Others are dark brown, gray, yellow or black. Other areas of rock look as if some huge creature violently broke and twisted the Earth to create unusual, sometimes frightening shapes.
In other parts of Death Valley there are lines in the rock that show clearly that this area was deep under an ocean for many thousands of years. Much of the Valley is flat and extremely dry. In fact, scientists believe it is the driest place in the United States.
Death Valley, part of the Great Mojave Desert, is a huge place. It extends more than 225 kilometers across the southern part of California, and across the border with Nevada.
【小题1】Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?

The house was quiet at 5 am and Tim’s mother was asleep. Only the sound of the big freezer broke the quiet. He’d dreamt of the cave last night. The purring（轻微颤动声）of the freezer had been the sea.                                         
Tim pulled on a sweater and put some apples into his schoolbag. It was too early for breakfast. He’d eat after he’d been through the cave, sitting on the rocks and staring at the sea.
He wished he had a proper pack. His schoolbag would have to do. What else? Sandwiches—but his mother might wake up if he started pulling out bread for sandwiches. She’d want to know why he had to leave so early. He settled for some biscuits, and left a note stuck to the table:
Gone to Michael’s. Back tonight, Tim.
The sky was high and soft and light outside, though the sun still wasn’t up. Even the highway up the hill was quiet as he made his way down the street. The wind from the sea was fresh and sweet.
The sand hills still breathed heat from yesterday’s sun, though the top of the sand was cool. He ran down to the beach impatiently, but there was no one, just dry sand dancing in the early wind and seabirds marching up and down watching the waves.
The light changed suddenly. The first rays of sunlight stretched (延伸) across the sea. The sun was pushing its way over the edge of the world.
Over the first rocks, along to the point, Tim glanced back. The beach was still empty. The sun sailed higher in the sky.
He could see the cave now, even darker in the morning light. The sand turned silver then dark gold as the water flowed away from it. He had to force himself to go closer. Why was it so much more mysterious now? But it would be silly to go back now after so much trouble. He needn’t go in all the way...
【小题1】What did Tim do at the beginning of the story?