题目内容
Life is different in Anchorage, Alaska, at the beginning of March. Every year at this time, the downtown streets become crowded with people. But these are not just regular pedestrians. In addition to the people walking through the streets, there are hundreds of dogs. It is time for the Iditarod—the famous dogsled race of Alaska.
The name of the race comes from the name of an Alaska gold rush town, Iditarod. It means “distant” or “distant place.” It comes from one of the languages of native Alaskans.
More than sixty sled teams begin the race in Anchorage. When the teams reach the outskirts of town, they get a taste of Alaska’s wilderness. For about two weeks, they will ?ght the unbearable cold, wind, snow, and ice to ?nish the race. The temperature on the trail is often well below zero degrees.
The Iditarod trail stretches for about a thousand miles. It has many rendezvous points. At these meeting places, race teams “check in” to let of?cials know how they are doing. Some teams get into trouble along the way. Of?cials will stop them on the trail and give them the help they need. For example, of?cials might stop a team’s progress to give ?rst aid or to collect an injured or tired dog. These dogs are cared for and reunited with their owners after the race.
The Iditarod trail is an important part of Alaska’s history. A part of the trail was used by some heroic dogs and humans in 1925. In Nome, Alaska, many people were catching the deadly disease diphtheria. The whole town was in quarantine, or isolation, in order to stop this disease. The only way to get medicine to Nome was by dogsled. About twenty “mushers,” or dogsled drivers, offered to help. They wanted to save the people of Nome from this terrible trouble.
Today the Iditarod race honors this heroic journey and all of the journeys on the famous trail. As the race organizers say, the Iditarod is “the last great race on Earth.”
65. Which of the following is TRUE about the Iditarod race?
A. It is held every year in the downtown streets in Anchorage.
B. It usually lasts about two weeks in freezing cold weather.
C. It is held to honor the gold seekers who once lived in Iditarod.
D. Its trail is totally different from the one used by some heroic dogs
66. In the race, it’s possible for a seriously injured dog _____.
A. to finish the race unnoticed B. to meet its owner again
C. to work for a new owner D. to get timely treatment
67. When a town is in quarantine (in paragraph 4), people in the town _____.
A. can get whatever they want easily
B. have to exchange gold for medicine
C. are not allowed to go out freely
D. will be remembered as heroes
68. The passage is mainly about _____.
A. life in Alaska B. a dogsled race of Alaska
C. a period of Alaska’s history D. heroic dogs and people in Alaska
BDCB
US researchers have found traces of an anc
ient lake on Mars recently, increasing hopes of discovering evidence that billions of years ago the Red planet hosted life.
The lake, which dates back some 3.4 billion years, appears to have covered as much as 80 square miles and was up to 1,500 feet deep, said the team from the U
niversity of Colorado.
“This is the first clear evidence of shorelines on the surface of Mars,”said Boulder’ s research associate, Gaetano Di Achille, in a study published in the latest edition of Geophysical Research Letters.
“The identification of the shorelines and accompanying geological evidence allows us to calculate the size and volume of the lake, which appears to have formed about 3.4 billion years ago.”
Analysi
s of the images has shown the water carved out the canyon (溪谷) in which it was found, which then opened out into a valley depositing (使淤积) sediment (沉积) which formed a delta (三角洲).
“Finding shorelines is a great discovery to us,” said assistant professor Brian Hynek, adding it showed the lake existed at a time when Mars was thought to have been cold and dry.
Scientists believe the oldest surfaces on Mars formed during the wet and warm era known as the Noachan epoch, about 4.1 billion to 3.7 billion years ago.
The newly discovered lake is believed to date from the Hesperian era and postdates the end of the warm and wet period on Mars by 300 million years, according to the study.
Scientists believe deltas next to the lake may well hold secrets about past life on Mars as such places on Earth have become the natural deposits of organic carbon and other markers of life.
【小题1】The size of the lake found on Mars is ______.
| A.80 square miles | B.1,500 square miles |
| C.3.4 billion square miles | D.300 million square miles |
| A.hot and wet | B.wet and warm | C.cold and dry | D.cold and wet |
| A.Because similar places on Earth have become natural deposits of marker |
| B.Because someone has put secrets about past life on Mars there. |
| C.Because past life has been found in other deltas on Mars. |
| D.Because some people are said to have already seen life marks there. |
| A.The Noachan epoch was a wet and warm era. |
| B.The lake might have existed 3.4 billion years. |
| C.The discovery can’ t fully prove that the Mars once hosted life. |
| D.The lake traces prove that there exists life on Mars now. |