Some scientists say that animals in the oceans are increasingly threatened by noise pollution caused by human beings.

The noise that affects sea creatures comes from a number of human activities. It is caused mainly by industrial underwater explosions, ocean drilling, and ship engines. Such noises are added to natural sounds. These sounds include the breaking of ice fields, underwater earthquakes, and sounds made by animals themselves.

Decibels（分贝）measured in water are different from those measured on land. A noise of one hundred and twenty decibels on land causes pain to human ears. In water, a decibel level of one hundred and ninety-five would have the same effect.

Some scientists have proposed setting a noise limit of one hundred and twenty decibels in oceans. They have observed that noises at that level can frighten and confuse whales.

A team of American and Canadian scientists discovered that louder noises can seriously injure some animals. The research team found that powerful underwater explosions were causing whales in the area to lose their hearing. This seriously affected the whales' ability to exchange information and find their way. Some of the whales even died. The explosions had caused their ears to bleed and become infected.

Many researchers whose work depends on ocean sounds object to a limit of one hundred and twenty decibels. They say such a limit would mean an end to important industrial and scientific research.

Scientists do not know how much and what kinds of noises are harmful to ocean animals. However, many scientists suspect that noise is a greater danger than they believed. They want to prevent noises from harming creatures in the ocean.

According to the passage, which of the following is increasingly dangerous to sea creatures?

A. The man-made noises.                B. The noises made by themselves.

C. The sound of earthquakes.             D. The sound of the ice-breaking.

Which of the following is discussed in the third paragraph?

A. Different places with different types of noises.

B. The very human ears sensitive to all types of noises.

C. The ocean animals' reaction to noises.

D. The same noise measured differently on land and in the ocean.

We can know from the passage that many researchers think that the noise limit of one hundred twenty decibels would _____.

A. prevent them from doing their research work

B. benefit them a lot in their research work

C. do good to their health                 

D. increase the industrial output

According to the passage, what will scientists most probably do in the future?

A. They will try their best to decrease noise.

B. They will work hard to cut down noise pollution.

C. They will study the effect of different noises.

D. They will protect animals from harmful noises.

Humans have observed and explored the oceans since ancient times.But it wasn’t until the 19th century that the scientific study of oceans began.The first major scientific expedition,and the one that firmly established the field of oceanography,was the around-the-world voyage of H.M.S.  Challenger.Setting out from England in 1872,the Challenger spent almost three and a half years gathering a wealth of information about seawater,sea life,and the ocean floor.Major oceanographic expeditions since then have included the South Atlantic voyage of the German ship Meteor in 1926 and the Deep-Sea Drilling Project from 1968 to 1983.Many individuals also have played important roles in advancing our understanding of oceans,beginning with Matthew Fontaine Maury in the mid-1800s;his work on oceanography and navigation led to a uniform system of weather reporting at sea.Since Maury’s time,oceanography has progressed rapidly.Early oceanographers had to contend themselves with tossing buckets overboard to see what they might haul in.Today’s oceanographers are equipped with space images,supercomputer models,and deep-sea robots that can crawl along the seafloor.As they set goals for the future,some oceanographers even dream of doing research in permanently manned stations on the bottom of the oceans.

Which of the following statements is true?

A.Humans didn’t explore the oceans until the 19th century.

B.Maury first established the field of oceanography.

C.Maury spent a lot of time in studying seawater,sea life,and the bottom of the ocean.

D.Many individuals also plays a very important part in advancing our understanding of oceans,such as Maury.

How many expeditions are mentioned in this passage?

A.Four.                       B.Three.                            C.Five.                       D.Two.

What can we infer from the passage?

A.The process of the oceanography has stopped at one time.

B.Maury’s work on oceanography contributes a lot to weather reporting at sea.

C.Nowadays the equipment for studying the oceans needs improving,because it is out of date.

D.The expeditions in the past had great difficulty and made a lot of efforts in order to study the oceans.

完形填空  (15%)

请认真阅读下面短文,从短文后各题所给的(A、B、C和D)四个选项中,选出最佳选项，并在答题卡上将该项涂黑。

“Hey, Jenny ! How’s the model?”

    I had just taken a bite of my hot dog  31   I heard a familiar voice yelling at me from across the crowded school yard. I saw a group of popular girls who were all  32  .

“What kind of  33   are you going to do? An ad for a Frankenstein movie?” More laughter. My stomach twisted into a tight knot. How could they humiliate (羞辱) me like this, in front of the entire school? As I walked into the cafeteria, I  34   the dark scars on my right hand.

At 9 months old, I knocked over a tea pot and dumped boiling water all over my hands and stomach. My parents  35   me to the hospital, but I had to have skin graft (移植) operation. I was in so much pain! But what  36  me most were the cruel things people said about how I looked, like that day at lunch.

The girls were being super mean to me because they’d heard I was considering doing some modeling. A close friend had suggested that I shouldn’t let my scars  37  me and that I might make a good model.

But after that  38   at school, I was sure I’d made a huge mistake. Upon arriving home, I covered the mirror with a blanket, fell on my bed and sobbed.

    The next day, I   39  myself to go to school. At lunch my best friend Jesse tried to encourage me: “You can’t  40  forever, Jenny. So what if you have a few scars? Just go outside and show them that you’re just as good as they are.” Although I knew he was right, I couldn’t imagine standing up for myself like that.

However, that night as I sat on the bed, my friend’s words replayed in my mind. I’m  41   hiding from myself, I thought. How stupid! Slowly, I stood up, walked over to the  42 , and tossed the blanket aside. There, in the mirror I saw a slim, dark-haired, blue-eyed girl, looking just fine, 43  with a few scars.

The next day I wore a comfortable T-shirt to school. What’s more, I had lunch outside the cafeteria,

 44  beside those mean girls. They were shocked that I should dare to walk into their territory. I felt different too—free and happy.

Sometimes people still look at me strangely. They whisper and stare, but I don’t let it get to me. I have applied to several modeling companies, and at least one company is considering me for jobs. Maybe I’ll never  45   posing on the runway (T形舞台), but I do know one thing: I’m done.

A. as             B. when                 C. while            D. before

A. nodding        B. cheering             C. laughing         D. quarreling

A. modeling       B. writing         C. drilling         D. acting

A. looked into        B. searched for         C. wondered about   D. glanced at

A. presented     B. guided           C. rushed           D. handed

A. hurt           B. beat                 C. disappointed     D. puzzled

A. impress            B. limit                C. award        D. suspect

A. effect             B. phenomenon       C. movement         D. scene

A. forced          B. expected             C. reminded         D. arranged

A. apologize      B. beg              C. hide             D. complain

A. hardly             B. ever                 C. even             D. gradually

A. blanket        B. bed             C. chair            D. mirror

A. while         B. though           C. and          D. because

A. right           B. still                C. therefore        D. anyhow

A. give up        B. end up           C. put up       D. set up

An annoying problem for humans, who like to boast (夸耀) about all the distant planets and moons we have explored, is that we've never taken a good look right under our noses. The inside of the earth is relatively close, but how can we get there?

The deepest oil well enters a mere six miles into the crust (地壳) (the center of the earth is about 4,000 miles deeper). Russian scientists dug the deepest hole in Siberia, but bottomed out at about 7.5 miles below the surface. The Mohole project, a U.S. plan in the 1950s, called for drilling a hole 25 miles down to the boundary between the hard rocks of the crust and the soft mantle (地幔). Sadly the project involved government supporting.

It gets harder and harder to drill deep into the earth because rocks get softer and softer. Hard but easily broken at the surface, rocks become plastic at depth, and the pressure caused by the weight of the overlaying crust ---  about 52,800 pounds per square inch at a depth of ten miles, makes further drilling impossible.

What little we know about the inside of the earth (like the fact that there's a crust, a mantle, and a core) comes from indirect evidence, such as the analysis of earthquakes.

So maybe it's time for a thorough new method to explore the earth's inside. Scientist David Stevenson says we should forget about drilling holes. Instead, we should open a crack (裂缝).

Stevenson suggests digging a crack about a half mile long, a yard wide, and a half mile deep (not with a shovel) but with an explosion on the scale of a nuclear bomb. Next, he'd pour a few hundred thousand tons of molten (熔化的) iron into the crack, along with a robot. The iron, thicker than the surrounding crust, would move downward at about 16 feet per second, carrying the robot with it and opening the crack deeper and deeper. The iron mass would drop for about a week and 2,000 miles to the outer edge of the earth core, the robot sending out data to the surface.

Stevenson compares his idea to space exploration. "We're going somewhere we haven't been before,"he says. "In all possibility, there will be surprises.”

This idea can probably be put in the drawer marked with Isn't Going To Happen. The robot would have to survive temperatures that would melt pretty much anything. But Stevenson's idea may inspire a new look at an old problem. Great things can come from what seems like impossible ideas.

Going inside the earth is _____ than going into space.

A. more interesting B. more possible C. easier  D. more challenging

How deep have we gone into the earth until now?

A. 6 miles.  B. 4,000 miles. C. 7.5 miles.  D. 25 miles.

Which of the following is TRUE about David Stevenson's idea?

A. It is an inspiring but not practical idea now.

B. It is a practical proposal that has come into use now.

C. It is a good proposal that will soon be put into practice.

D. It is a false theory that cannot be carried out at all.

What might be the most suitable title for the text?

A. An Annoying Problem for Humans

B. To the Center of the Earth

C. The Mohole Project

D. David Stevenson's Proposal

Whale beachings（搁浅）_______ be caused by factors such as illness, or disorientation（迷失方向）caused by extra noise in the oceans, ______ shipping or oil and gas drilling.