Illegal removal of coral(珊瑚) along Sri Lanka’s coastline increased the amount of destruction on the island by last December’s tsunami, say researchers.
Harindra Fernando, a fluid dynamicist (力学家) at Arizona State University in Tempe, made the connection after a visit to his native Sri Lanka earlier this year．While serving as a scientific expert and translator for a BBC-documentary team, he chatted with locals who said they saw the tsunami turn sideways when it hit coral—which would have made it less powerful than in coral-free areas．Fernando linked this to trucks he had seen last year carrying piles of coral away from the sea.
Using the eyewitness reports, estimates (估算) of wave heights, and a series of divers to check the presence or absence of corals, Fernando and his colleagues produced a map of coral gaps and wave flooding along Sri Lanka’s southwest coast.
The tsunami reached significantly farther inland through the gaps: in one instance, the water traveled 1.5 kilometres long and knocked a passenger train off its tracks, killing 1,700．But only a few kilometers away, where the coral was still undamaged, the wave travelled just 50 metres inland and caused no deaths.
There is a similar phenomenon．In Nicaragua in 1992, a tsunami poured through a break in the coral reef made to let boats through．“Within this passage, water went one kilometre inland,” says Fernando．“But nearby, where the coral was undamaged, there were still beach umbrellas standing.”
In Sri Lanka, coral is illegally mined to provide souvenirs for tourists, or to be used in house paint．Coral harvesters sometimes blow it up with dynamite (炸药) in order to collect fish at the same time．Often, the reefs in the best shape are those in front of hotels, as the hotel owners maintain them for the tourists．Fernando hopes that his findings will encourage the Sri Lankan government to enforce(实施) its laws against coral mining.
57．Harindra Fernando did all the following EXCEPT ________.
A．serving as a translator for a BBC-documentary team
B．helping the Sri Lankan government enforce its laws against coral mining
C．producing a map of coral gaps along Sri Lanka’s southwest coast
D．linking the coral removal with the destruction of Tsunami
58．The main idea of Paragraph 5 is that________.
A．undamaged coral can greatly decrease tsunami damage
B．coral-free area is a danger to passenger trains
C．in general, water travels 30 times farther inland in a coral-free area
D．it is urgent to enforce laws against coral mining
59．Which of the following may NOT be the cause of coral gaps?
A．Boat passages．       B．Tourists’ sightseeing．  
C．Fish collecting．       D．Tourists’ souvenirs.
60．Which of the following would be the best title for the passage?
A．Harindra Fernando, a Great Environment Protector
B．Stop Using Coral as Souvenirs
C．Coral Cried “Help! Help!”
D．Coral Mining Enhanced (加剧) Tsunami Damage

A child survivor of the Indian Ocean tsunami and a girl from the United States who offered help met for the first time after the disaster.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami destroyed Nada Luthfiyyah’s small town in Aceh. Her parents and two brothers were among the 160,000 people who died in the disaster. Maggie Hamilton’s classmates in the state of Michigan decided to make and sell bracelets (手镯) to raise money for the victims. Maggie, who was 9 years old at the time, wrote a letter to survivors to offer help. Nada was selected from her class to respond with a letter of thanks.

Three and a half years later, the two girls met for the first time. Their meeting was arranged by the Indonesian government, and was used as a symbol of the two countries’aid relationship. Their letters were quoted by diplomats (外交官)of both countries.

Maggie, visiting the town under reconstruction, said she did not expect that her letter would draw so much attention, but, she said, the experience helped to make her more active in volunteering work. "I’ve been volunteering at a nursing home in Ohio. I just want to help people whenever I can," Maggie said.

Juanda, the spokesman for Indonesia’s tsunami reconstruction agency, says the meeting of the two girls serves as a symbol of their informal relationship. It will represent the international community’s role in Aceh’s future. "I think what we can learn from this experience is that Nada from Aceh and Maggie from the U.S. are able to share their experiences, friendship, knowledge and support," Juanda says.

Maggie says she wants to learn Indonesian and hopes to have Nada visit her home in Michigan sometime, perhaps next year.

1. Nada and Maggie first made contact with each other through ______.

A. letters                              B. visiting the diplomats

C. arrangements by the government         D. informal visits

2. From the text we know that ______.

A. Maggie and Nada’s friendship is a symbol of the two countries’ friendship

B. 16,000 people lost their lives in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami

C. Maggie volunteered to work in the reconstruction after the tsunami

D. Maggie is now a volunteer working in Nada’s hometown

3. The text mainly tells us that ______.

A. Indonesian and American girls build friendship after a tsunami

B. the Indian Ocean tsunami influenced the USA

C. letters are an advantage in building friendships

D. Indonesia is under construction after a tsunami

A powerful earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan at two forty-six p.m. local time on March eleventh.2011. Japan's Meteorological Agency released its first tsunami（海啸） warnings just three minutes later. The country has one of the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.

There are more than four thousand Seismic Intensity Meters in place throughout Japan to measure earthquake activity. These meters provide information within two minutes of an earthquake happening. Information about the strength and the center of the earthquake can be learned within three minutes.

There are also concrete(混凝土) sea walls around much of the Japanese coastline. But these measures proved no match for the powerful earthquake and tsunami.

Costas Synolakis ，a tsunami expert at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles said，"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 expected the size of this event."

He says there are two reasons for this. Japan has not had any event anywhere near as big as this one in the last one hundred fifty years. And scientists had not expected such a large earthquake happening off the coast of Japan.

The nine point zero magnitude earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded worldwide. It was also the worst earthquake ever to hit Japan. The tsunami waves that followed were reported to have reached as high as thirteen meters in some areas.

Costas Synolakis says Japan's concrete sea walls were not built to handle such high waves.

Experts say early warning systems will continue to be limited by these facts until earthquakes and tsunamis can be predicted

1.Where can this passage probably be adapted from?

    A．A magazine on science       B．A fairy Tale 

C．A scientific fantasy book     D．A newspaper  

2.Which of the following statements NOT true ?

    A. A terrible earthquake hit the northeastern coast of Japan

    B. It was also the worst earthquake in Japan

C. The 9.0 earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan

D. Japan's concrete sea walls was unable to handle such high waves.

3.According to Costas Synolakis, why did Japan suffer such a loss?

  A. The country has never experienced any event as big as this one over the past 150 years

B. Japan has the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.

C. There are not concrete sea walls around all of the Japanese coastline

D. The government didn’t announce its first tsunami warnings three minutes earlier.

Animals Can Sense Natural Disasters
Among the dead in South Asia’ s tsunami（海啸）were many tourists at Sri Lanka’ s national wildlife park at Yala. But very few of the park’s animals — elephants, buffaloes, monkeys and wild cats — appear to have died. There are theories that animals can sense natural disasters and run away to safety.
First, it’s possible that the animals may have heard the quake before the tsunami hit. The underwater burst produced sound waves known as infrasound（次声）. Humans can’t hear infrasound, but many animals including dogs, elephants, tigers and pigeons can.
A second early warning sign the animals might have sensed is ground vibration（震动）. The great quake would have produced vibrational waves known as Rayleigh waves. These vibrations move through the ground like waves moving on the surface of the ocean but faster. They travel at ten times the speed of sound. The Rayleigh waves would have reached Sri Lanka hours before the water hit. Mammals, birds, insects and spiders can sense Rayleigh waves. So the animals at Yala might have felt the Rayleigh waves and then run to higher ground.
But what about humans? While we can’t hear infrasound, we can feel it, although we don’t necessarily know we’re feeling it. We also experience Rayleigh waves by special sensors in our joints（关节）, which exist just for that purpose. Sadly, it seems we don’t pay attention to the information when we get it. Maybe we screen it out because there’s so much going on before our eyes and in our ears.
【小题1】Why did few animals at Yala die when the tsunamis that caused a huge number of human deaths hit?

Tilly Smith, the 11-year-old British girl, who was called as “Angle of the Beach”, saved 100 tourists from a Thai beach hit by the tsunami① in 2004 and has been named Child of the Year by readers of a French children’s newspaper.

She came ahead of a South African Aids orphan, a six-year-old girl who survived a kidnapping② and a young Parisian pop singer to win the Mon Quotidien award. Tilly had studied tsunamis with her geography teacher, Andrew Kearney, shortly before flying to Thailand for a holiday with her parents and younger sister last year. As she watched the waves suddenly begin to move back, and the sea was bubbling③, she warned her mother, Penny, that the beach was about to be struck by a tsunami. Mrs Smith and her husband, Colin, warned other holidaymakers and hotel staff and scores of people were cleared from Maikhao beach at Phuket.

Tilly, now 11, and back in Thailand for anniversary commemorations④ of the disaster, said: “It’s really good, just to know about tsunamis or any natural disaster in case you are in one. I’m very glad that I was able to say on the beach that a tsunami was coming. And I’m glad that they listened to me.”

Tilly is unaware of her great popularity among French children. Her picture appears on the front page of Mon Quotidien, which is read by 10 to 14-year-olds.

“Our readers chose Tilly because they could identify with her,” said Francois Dufour. “To be a pop star at 11 seems impossible, and the idea of having Aids or being kidnapped is far from their lives.”

1. The passage mainly wants to tell readers that ______.

  A. a little girl saved 100 tourists out of a tsunami

B. British “Angle of the Beach” was named Child of the Year

  C. many people came for anniversary commemorations

  D. the tsunami was able to be avoided

2. The underlined words “Mon Quotidien” (in Paragraph 4) should be the name of ______.

  A. a magazine      B. a book       C. a novel       D. a newspaper

3. Which of the following about Tilly Smith is TRUE?

  A. She could make full use of her knowledge from books.

  B. She was ever kidnapped by a pop singer.

  C. She visited Thailand by boat with her parents.

  D. She had expected to attract the French children.

4. According to the Tilly Smith’s knowledge, when there is a tsunami, ______.

  A. the sea water will not be clear         B. the sea will be bubbling when moving back

  C. the sea water will make great noise     D. the sea will be bubbling when moving forward