It’s hard to track the blue whale, which has almost been killed off by commercial whaling. Attaching radio devices to it is difficult and visual sightings are too unreliable to give real insight into its behavior.
So biologists were delighted early this year when, with the help of the US Navy, they are able to track a particular blue whale for 43 days recording its sounds. This was possible because of the Navy’s former top secret system of underwater listening devices across the oceans.
Tracking whales is but one example of an exciting new world just opening to civilian scientists after the cold war as the Navy starts to share and partly uncover its global network of underwater listening system built over the decades to track the ships of potential enemies.
Earth scientists announced at a news conference recently that they had used the system for closely observing a deep-sea volcanic eruption for the first time and that they planned similar studies. Other scientists have proposed to use the network for tracking ocean currents and measuring changes in the ocean and global temperatures. Different layers of ocean water can act as channels for sounds focusing them in the same way a stethoscope(听诊器) does when it carries faint noises from a patient’s chest to a doctor’s ear. This focusing is the main reason that even relatively weak sounds in the ocean, especially low-frequency ones, can often travel thousands of miles.
【小题1】The underwater listening system was originally designed _________________.

Carmen’s mother Maria had just survived a serious heart attack. But without a heart transplant her life was in constant    1  . 
Both the mother and daughter knew that the chances were very small: finding a donor heart that    2  Maria’s blood type could take years. However, Carmen was determined to save her mother. She kept    3  hospitals all over the country.
Days stretched out. By Christmas, Maria had trouble    4   from one end of the room to the other. Carmen lost all hope. She fell into a    5  of the hospital, crying.
“Are you okay?” a man asked.
Carmen sobbed as she told the stranger her story. This middle-aged man was named Frank, whose wife, Cheryl, a tender and devoted mother of four lovely children, had been in hospital with a brain disease and wouldn’t    6  it through the night. Suddenly, an idea came to Frank’s mind. He knew Cheryl had always wanted to    7  something from herself. Could her
8   go to Carmen’s mother?
After reviewing the data, doctors    9  Frank that his wife’s heart was by some miracle a perfect fit for Carmen’s mother. They were able to    10  the transplant.
That cold night, when Cheryl was    11  dead, Frank came to knock at Maria’s door. She was    12  for Frank’s family as she had been doing every day recently. Though Maria had never met Frank before, they both felt a strange bond as they hugged and cried.
On New Year’s Eve, Carmen attended Cheryl’s    13   with Frank’s family, who were singing their favorite song “My heart will go on.”
One day later, on New Year’s Day, Maria    14   with Cheryl’s heart. Yes, Cheryl’s loving heart would go on, for it was    15   in another loving mother’s chest.

Global warming is causing more than 300,000 deaths and about $125 billion in economic losses each year, according to a report by the Global Humanitarian Forum, an organization led by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general.

The report, to be released Friday, analyzed data and existing studies of health, disaster, population and economic trends. It found that human-influenced climate change was raising the global death rates from illnesses including malnutrition and heat-related health problems.

But even before its release, the report drew criticism from some experts on climate and risk, who questioned its methods and conclusions. Along with the deaths, the report said that the lives of 325 million people, primarily in poor countries,were being seriously affected by climate change. It projected that the number would double by 2030.

Roger Pielke Jr., a politicalscientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who studies disaster trends, said the Forum’s report was “a methodological embarrassment” because there was no way to distinguish deaths or economic losses related to human-driven global warming amid（在...中间） the much larger losses resulting from the growth in populations and economic development in vulnerable(易受伤害的) regions. Dr. Pielke said that “climate change is an important problem requiring our utmost attention.” But the report, he said, “will harm the cause for action on both climate change and disasters because it is so deeply flawed(有瑕疵的).”

However, Soren Andreasen, a social scientist at Dalberg Global Development Partners who supervised the writing of the report, defended it, saying that it was clear that the numbers were rough estimates. He said the report was aimed at world leaders, who will meet in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a new international climate treaty.

In a press release describing the report, Mr. Annan stressed the need for the negotiations to focus on increasing the flow of money from rich to poor regions to help reduce their vulnerability to climate hazards while still controling the emissions of the heat-trapping gases. More than 90% of the human and economic losses from climate change are occurring in poor countries, according to the report.

1.What is the finding of the Global Humanitarian Forum?

A. Rates of death from illnesses have risen due to global warming.

B. Global temperatures affect the rate of economic development.

C. Malnutrition has caused serious health problems in poor countries.

D. Economic trends have to do withpopulation and natural disasters.

2. What do we learn about the Forum’s report from the passage?

A. It caused a big stir in developing countries.

B. It was warmly received by environmentalists.

C. It caused a lot of interest in the scientific circles.

D. It was challenged by some climate and risk experts.

3. What is Soren Andreasen’s view of the report?

A. Its conclusions are based on carefully collected data.

B. It is vulnerable to criticism if the statistics are closely examined.

C. It will give rise to heated discussions at the Copenhagen conference.

D. Its rough estimates are meant to draw the attention of world leaders.

4.What does Kofi Annan say should be the focus of the Copenhagen conference?

A. How human and economic losses from climate change can be reduced.

B. How rich countries can better help poor regions reduce climate hazards.

C. How emissions of heat-trapping gases can be reduced on a global scale.

D. How rich and poor regionscan share responsibility in curbing global warming.

Obama Still Smokes in Secret

US President Barack Obama has just made life more difficult for cigarette makers．He has just signed a law that will set tough new rules for the tobacco industry．The new law gives the US Food and Drug Administration the power to strictly limit the making and marketing of tobacco products．

At a White House signing ceremony Monday, Obama said that he was among the nearly 90% of smokers who took up the habit before their 18 th birthday．

Obama, who has publicly struggled to give up smoking, said he still hadn’t completely kicked the habit．Every now and then he still smokes in secret．

“As a former smoker I struggle with it all the time．Do I still smoke sometimes? Yes．Am I a daily smoker, a constant smoker? No．” Obama said at a news conference．

“I don' t do it in front of my lads．I don’t do it in front of my family．I would say that I am 95% cured, but there are times when I mess up, " he said．

"Once you go down this path, it' s something you continually struggle with, which is exactly why the law is so important．The new law is not about me, it' s about the next generation of kids coming up．What we don ' t want is kids going down that path," he said．

Nearly 20% of Americans smoke and tobacco use kills about 440,000 people a year in the United States due to cancer, heart disease, and other serious diseases．

1.The new law makes life difficult for             ．

A．Obama                               B．tobacco industry

C．White House                           D．US Food and Drug Administration

2.What do we know about Obama?

A．He no longer smokes．

B．He still smokes as usual．

C．He began to smoke at eighteen．

D．He is trying hard to give up smoking．

3.According to the passage, Obama is most concerned about           ．

A．children          B．officials           C．his family          D．businessmen

阅读下面短文，掌握其大意，然后从36-55所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项。

While attending a conference, I returned to my motel room late one rainy evening. The overhead light outside my door was 16 and I had difficulty finding the keyhole. When I finally 17 to open the door, I 18 around the wall for a light switch. I found a 19 where a switch was once installed… but no switch.

No discouraged easily, I remembered seeing a 20 by the bed when I put away my luggage 21 in the day. I found the bed in the dark and felt around until I found the lamp, but when I switched it on, 22 happened! Now what?

Though I knew that it was dark outside my window 23 the outdoor light was burned out, I thought that 24 if I opened the curtains I might be able to use the light from the 25 to find another lamp. So I 26 my way slowly across the room to the curtains and… no draw-string!

I finally stumbled（跌跌撞撞） around until I found a desk lamp that actually 27! That evening I discovered in a whole new way just how dark the world can be and how necessary 28 is.

But even more necessary than 29 light is the light that shines from people----the light of love, sympathy and 30. Because, for many people, the world is a dark and 31 place.

It is the shining that is important, for someone today just may be stumbling in discouragement or fear and in 32 of some light.

So let your light shine. Whatever light you 33 may be a beacon（灯塔） of hope and encouragement in someone’s darkness. And if you feel that your light is 34 a candle in a forest, remember this----there isn’t enough darkness in the world to 35 the light of one small candle.

A. burning            B. broken                         C. shining             D. disappeared

A. managed              B. attempted              C. succeeded          D. meant

A. touched              B. turned                   C. felt                  D. looked

A. light                   B. plate                    C. lamp                 D. signal

A. lamp                  B. switch                   C. desk               D. window

A. later                 B. earlier                   C. sooner               D. first

A. something              B. everything                      C. nothing             D. anything

A. when               B. unless                      C. since              D. although

A. certainly           B. surely                   C. absolutely          D. perhaps

A. stars              B. street                    C. room             D. shop

A. forced            B. struggled                C. made                D. pushed

A. worked                B. failed                       C. did                   D. closed

A. love              B. thinking                   C. dream            D. light

A. spiritual               B. physical                C. mental                     D. inner

A. faith               B. soul                      C. help                  D. attention

A. mixed             B. fancy                 C. lonely            D. complicated

A. lack                     B. need                  C. favor             D. face

A. devote              B. receive                  C. offer           D. throw

A. only                 B. event                  C. ever            D. much

A. give out            B. leave out                  C. take out             D. put out