Antarctica is the southernmost place on Earth, and it is larger than the United Sates and 95% of it is covered with ice. The ice is 5 kilometers thick at places and it never melts. At least that is what we thought, but let us keep it that way for now.
The ice seems to be alive as it works its way towards the sea. It forms an ice shelf over the water. The edge breaks away from the shelf and falls into the sea. From here it drifts. Now big pieces of ice become icebergs that can be 160 km long. They now drift north until they finally melt and become part of the ocean. This process is part of a bigger process which in turn forms a cooling system for Earth. This is so important that no country is allowed to control this area. The treaty (agreement) signed by 12 countries at first and later joined by more, was to prevent any country harming the planet with irresponsible behavior.
The treaty basically states that:
Antarctica can be used for peaceful purposes only.
No country may build a military base there.
No country may do a nuclear test there.
No country may dump nuclear waste there.
Scientists working there will share their information.
Some other rules are there to protect the penguins and seals.
No dogs may run loose.
No planes may land near large groups of animals.
No guns, explosives, or tractors may be used near the animals.
Most important is that every member can inspect any of the other bases if he suspects that the treaty rules are being broken.
While the treaty is not foolproof（万无一失的）, it does play a very important part in the protection of Antarctica. The more people realize the effects that pollution has on this continent, the bigger the pressure will be on Governments to change the way they look at pollution.
69. Why was it important to sign a treaty for Antarctica?
A. Because the ice on Antarctica will finally melt into the ocean.
B. Because Antarctica is covered with 5 kilometers thick ice.
C. Because Antarctica balances the temperature of Earth.
D. Because there are many big icebergs in Antarctica.
70. What is the process of the movement of ice in Antarctica?
A. Ice shelf---sea water---iceberg---ice.
B. Sea water---ice---iceberg---ice shelf.
C. Iceberg---ice shelf---ice---sea water.
D. Ice---ice shelf---iceberg---sea water.
71. What is included in the Antarctica treaty?
A. There is no secret research information in Antarctica.
B. Dogs are not allowed to be raised in Antarctica.
C. Waste can’t be thrown away in Antarctica.
D. People can’t bring their guns to Antarctica.
名校课堂系列答案科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Lichens (地衣) are difficult to see. They don’t move. They often mix into the living place. You might not even recognize one if you are looking right at it.
Lichens live on rocks, branches, houses, and even metal street signs. You can find these colorful organisms (微生物) almost everywhere — from deserts to rainforests, and from Antarctica to Africa. They’ve traveled in outer space, and some scientists think there might even be lichens on Mars.
What you probably don’t realize is that a lichen is more than a single thing. It includes two different types of living organisms: a fungus (菌类) and an alga (藻类). Neither of these organisms is a plant, so the lichen isn’t a plant either.
Through photosynthesis (光合作用), the alga gets the sun’s energy to make food for the fungus, which is the place for the alga to live in. However, the alga cannot leave the fungus.
Around the world, scientists have found tens of thousands of types of lichens. Many may not even have been discovered yet. As scientists continue to find new kinds of lichens, they are also working to understand how they are connected to one another. By putting together a lichen family tree, they hope to understand why so many different types of lichens have grown in so many places around the world.
Many researchers are trying to understand basic facts about the organisms and their connections. Researchers are also using lichens to examine the health of the environment.
What do we know about lichens according to the passage?
A. They will die if they leave Earth.
B. There are more lichens than plants on Earth.
C. They look similar to the environment around them.
D. They are too small to be easily seen by people.
What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
A. The way lichens live.
B. The natural environment of lichens.
C. The way lichens work as organisms.
D. The family tree of lichens.
Which of the following statements is NOT the scientists’ purposes of studying lichens?
A. To understand basic facts about them.
B. To creat a lichen family tree.
C. To understand how lichens are related to each other.
D. To understand why lichens can live in different places.
We can know from the passage that __________.
A. lichens can be used to better understand the environment
B. lichens don’t have any differences in colors or sizes
C. lichens don’t use photosynthesis like a green plant
D. scientists have discovered every kind of lichen
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Lichens (地衣) are difficult to see. They don’t move. They often mix into the living place. You might not even recognize one if you are looking right at it.
Lichens live on rocks, branches, houses, and even metal street signs. You can find these colorful organisms (微生物) almost everywhere — from deserts to rainforests, and from Antarctica to Africa. They’ve traveled in outer space, and some scientists think there might even be lichens on Mars.
What you probably don’t realize is that a lichen is more than a single thing. It includes two different types of living organisms: a fungus (菌类) and an alga (藻类). Neither of these organisms is a plant, so the lichen isn’t a plant either.
Through photosynthesis (光合作用), the alga gets the sun’s energy to make food for the fungus, which is the place for the alga to live in. However, the alga cannot leave the fungus.
Around the world, scientists have found tens of thousands of types of lichens. Many may not even have been discovered yet. As scientists continue to find new kinds of lichens, they are also working to understand how they are connected to one another. By putting together a lichen family tree, they hope to understand why so many different types of lichens have grown in so many places around the world.
Many researchers are trying to understand basic facts about the organisms and their connections. Researchers are also using lichens to examine the health of the environment.
What do we know about lichens according to the passage?
A. They will die if they leave Earth.
B. There are more lichens than plants on Earth.
C. They look similar to the environment around them.
D. They are too small to be easily seen by people.
What does the second paragraph mainly talk about?
A. The way lichens live.
B. The natural environment of lichens.
C. The way lichens work as organisms.
D. The family tree of lichens.
Which of the following statements is NOT the scientists’ purposes of studying lichens?
A. To understand basic facts about them.
B. To creat a lichen family tree.
C. To understand how lichens are related to each other.
D. To understand why lichens can live in different places.
We can know from the passage that __________.
A. lichens can be used to better understand the environment
B. lichens don’t have any differences in colors or sizes
C. lichens don’t use photosynthesis like a green plant
D. scientists have discovered every kind of lichen
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科目：高中英语 来源： 题型：阅读理解
Some scientists warn that ice near the Earth’s Poles may indeed be melting. This “polar meltdown” may be the first sign that the Earth is heating up. We could be in very serious trouble if this trend continues. It is estimated that a meltdown of as little as 10 percent of Antarctica’s ice would raise sea levels around the globe by 4 to 9 meters. Floods would cover low-lying regions and turn coastal cities like New York and New Orleans into real life underwater world.
Scientists first predicted in the 1970s that heat trapped in the Earth’s atmosphere could cause a polar meltdown. Many now believe that human activities are turning up the heat. When we burn fossil fuels like coal and oil, we add carbon dioxide(CO2) gas to the Earth’s atmosphere. Cutting down trees also makes CO2 levels raise because trees normally soak up CO2 to make food. Scientists say higher CO2 levels strengthen the “greenhouse effect” and could increase the Earth’s temperature. In fact, CO2 levels have risen by 30 percent since the Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Over the past three years, satellite measurements have shown a sea level rise of about a quarter inch worldwide. “If nothing is done to reduce fossil-fuel pollution and global warming, sea levels will rise even more.” says geologist Richard Alley.
But even Alley admits that a polar meltdown would take time. The ice in Antarctica and Arctic locks up nearly nine times the volume of water contained in all the world’s rivers and lakes. These are such big “ice cubes” and it would probably take thousands of years to melt them.
Another scientist Charles Bentley doesn’t think a meltdown will happen at all. “Even if warmer temperatures begin to melt polar-ice,” he says, “the excess moisture would most likely be redeposit as snow.” In other words, the melted ice would evaporate into the atmosphere, refreeze, and fall as rain and snow over the Poles.
What consequence of global warming is mentioned in the passage?
A. More tropical storms. B. More tropical diseases.
C. Changes in farm productivity. D. Coastal flooding.
Which of the following statements does the second paragraph support?
A. CO2 in the atmosphere cannot keep the heat from escaping into space.
B. The increase of CO2 gas may warm the planet and help to melt polar ice.
C. Cutting down trees helps to greatly reduce CO2 levels.
D. The end of the short-lived age of fossil fuels is already in sight.
Geologist Richard Alley most likely agrees that _______.
A. the sea-level rise can be prevented by cutting back on energy-consuming activities
B. the recent breaking off of ice blocks from Antarctica is just a natural part of a long-term cycle
C. Antarctica temperatures have significantly changed since the Industrial Revolution
D. the polar meltdown may be an accidental change of climate rather than a sign of global warming
Charles Bentley believes that a polar meltdown will not occur because _______.
A. governments around the world are beginning to reduce CO2 levels in the air
B. a melting of the polar ice cannot be achieved with the present technologies
C. the melted ice in the polar areas would change into snow and rain over the Poles
D. the sun’s heat would have no chance of being absorbed by the polar ice
In which paragraph does the author mention the immense quantities of polar ice?
A. In the second paragraph. B. In the third paragraph.
C. In the fourth paragraph. D. In the fifth paragraph.
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科目：高中英语 来源：2012届黑龙江省哈六中学高三第三次模拟考试英语试卷（带解析） 题型：阅读理解
Have you ever walked outside thinking it was one temperature but quickly discovered it felt colder? That is because of the “wind chill” effect.
Wind chill is how cold people and animals feel when they are outside, not the actual temperature on the thermometer(温度计). It is based on how quickly your body loses heat when it is exposed to wind and cold. When the wind is strong, your body quickly loses heat, making the temperature of your skin drop.
When scientists first started calculating wind chill, they used research conducted in 1945 by explorers to Antarctica who measured how quickly water froze outside.
But water freezes faster than exposed skin, so the wind chill index based on that data wasn’t accurate.
In 2001, the US government began to measure wind chill more precisely by testing how quickly people’s skin froze.
Twelve volunteers were placed in a chilled wind tunnel. Equipment was stuck to their faces to measure the heat flow from their cheeks, forehead, nose and chin while they walked three miles per hour on a treadmill(跑步机).
The experiment revealed how quickly exposed skin can be damaged, particularly unprotected areas like your fingers, toes, the tip of your nose and your ear lobes. In fact, 40 percent of your body heat can be lost through your head! Signs you might have frostbite(冻疮) are when the skin turns white or pale and you lose feeling in that area.
The information collected from the volunteers helped scientists work out the math to compute wind chill. It involves wind speed and air temperature.
If, for example, the temperature outside is zero degrees Fahrenheit and the wind is blowing at 15 miles per hour, the wind chill is calculated at 19 degrees below zero. At that wind chill temperature, exposed skin can freeze in 30 minutes.
You can find a calculation table at www.nws.noaa.gov/om/windchill/index.shtml.
Experts advise in cold weather that you wear loose-fitting, lightweight, warm clothing, worn on top of each other. Air caught between the clothes will keep you warm. The best cold-weather coats have head coverings made of woven material that keep out water. So next time the temperature drops and you want to play outside, listen to your parents when they tell you to wrap up warm!
【小题1】 According to the text, wind chill _______.
| A．means how fast exposed skin freezes |
| B．doesn’t affect your head as much as other body parts |
| C．changes according to the temperature on the thermometer |
| D．changes from person to person depending on their health |
| A．When his skin turns red and he loses feeling in that area. |
| B．When he is running faster and he is losing strength quickly. |
| C．When his face is exposed and quickly loses heat even indoors. |
| D．When his skin turns pale and he has no feeling in that area. |
| A．A person’s body temperature and will speed. |
| B．Wind speed and a person’s strength. |
| C．Air temperature and wind speed. |
| D．The location and air temperature. |
| A．It was in 1945 that scientists first began to calculate wind chill. |
| B．Compared with water, people’s exposed skin freezes more slowly. |
| C．The wind chill index based on Antarctica data is considered a standard. |
| D．With the development of technology, many previous researches have been proven wrong. |
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科目：高中英语 来源：2006年高考试题（山东卷）解析版 题型：阅读理解
Short and shy, Ben Saunders was the last kid in his class picked for any sports team. “Football, tennis Cricket—anything with a round ball, I was useless, “he says now with a laugh. But back then he was the object of jokes in school gym classes in England’s rural Devonshire.
It was a mountain bike he received for his 15th birthday that changed him. At first the teen went biking alone in a nearby forest. Then he began to cycle along with a runner friend. Gradually, Saunders set his mind building up his body, increasing his speed, strength and endurance. At age 18, he ran his first marathon.
The following year, he met John Ridgway, who became famous in the 1960s for rowing an open boat across the Atlantic Ocean. Saunders was hired as an instructor at Ridgway’s school of Adventure in Scotland, where he learned about the older man’s cold-water exploits(成就).Intrigued, Saunders read all he could about Arctic explorers and North Pole expeditions, then decided that this would be his future.
Journeys to the Pole aren’t the usual holidays for British country boys, and many peiole dismissed his dream as fantasy. “John Ridgway was one of the few who didn’t say, ‘You are completely crazy,’”Saunders says.
In 2001, after becoming a skilled skier, Saunders started his first long-distance expedition toward the North Pole. He suffered frostbite, had a closer encounter(遭遇) with a polar bear and pushed his body to the limit.
Saunders has since become the youngest person to ski alone to the North Pole, and he’s skied more of the Arctic by himself than any other Briton. His old playmates would not believe the transformation.
This October, Saunders, 27, heads south to explore from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole and back, an 1800-mile journey that has never been completed on skis.
1.The turning point in Saunders’life came when _____
A. he started to play ball games
B. he got a mountain bike at age 15
C. he ran his first marathon at age 18
D. he started to receive Ridgway’s training
2.We can learn from the text that Ridgway _______.
A. dismissed Saunders’ dream as fantasy
B. built up his body together with Saunders
C. hired Saunders for his cold-water experience
D. won his fame for his voyage across the Atlantic
3.What do we know about Saunders?
A. He once worked at a school in Scotland.
B. He followed Ridgway to explore the North Pole.
C. He was chosen for the school sports team as a kid.
D. He was the first Briton to ski alone to the North Pole.
4.The underlined word “Intrigued” in the third paragraph probably means_____.
A. Excited B. Convinced C. Delighted D. Fascinated
5.It can be inferred tat Saunders’ journey to the North Pole ______.
A. was accompanied by his old playmates
B. set a record in the North Pole expedition
C. was supported by other Arctic explorers
D. made him well-known in the 1960s
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