（湖北省黄冈市黄州区一中2010届高三第二次月考）

B

FreeRice.com—For Each Vocabulary Word You Get Right, We Donate Free Rice through the United Nations World Food Program to Help End World Hunger

       1 word = 20 grains;       5 words = 100 grains

       Play and feed hungry people  .                   

       How to play

Click on the answer that best defines the word.

If you get it right, you get a harder word. If wrong, you get an easier word.

For each word you get right, we donate 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

WARNING: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance... (more)

       Frequently Asked Questions

       How does playing the vocabulary game at FreeRice help me?

Learning new vocabulary has tremendous benefits. It can help you:

★Present your ideas better

★Write better papers, emails and business letters

★Speak more accurately and influentially

★Read faster because you understand better

★Get better grades in high school, college and graduate school

★Perform better at job interviews and conferences

★Be more effective and successful at your job…

   After you have done FreeRice for a couple of days, you may notice an odd phenomenon. Words that you have never consciously used before will begin to pop into your head while you are speaking or writing. You will feel yourself using and knowing more words.

       How does the FreeRice vocabulary program work?

   FreeRice has a custom database(数据库) containing thousands of words at varying degrees of difficulty. There are words proper for people just learning English and words that will challenge the most learned professors. In between are thousands of words for students, business people,  doctors, truck drivers… everyone!

   FreeRice adjusts to your level of vocabulary. It starts by giving you words at different levels of difficulty and then, based on how you do, designs a proper starting level for you. When you get a word wrong, you go to an easier level. When you get three words in a row right, you go to a harder level.

   There are 60 levels in all, but it is rare for people to get above level 50.

60. Playing the vocabulary game at Freerice enables you to do the following EXCEPT______.

A. be admitted to a top university            B. perform better in a speech contest

C. help the needy people in the world         D. improve your performance at work

61. People of different levels of learning can surf FreeRice because_______.

A. it offers a large vocabulary

B. it adjusts to the player’s level of vocabulary

C. it is free of charge to play the game

D. it is designed to meet the needs of people in different fields

62. We can infer from the passage that the purpose of designing the game is to______.

A. supply more rice to feed the hungry people in poor countries

B. promote English learning in non-English speaking countries

C. attract more people to learn English to stop hunger

D. combine English learning with helping hungry people

63. Where is the passage likely to appear?

A. In a popular newspaper.   B. In a farming magazine

C. On the website.  D. In a document of the UN.

（湖北省黄冈市黄州区一中2010届高三第二次月考）

E

 "The world's oceans are slowly getting more acidic,”say scientists. The researchers from California report that the change is taking place in response to higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

    The lowering of the waters’pH value is not great at the moment but could cause a serious threat to current ocean life if it continues, they warn. Ken Caldeira and Michael Wickett, from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, report their concerns in the journal Nature.

Increasing use of oil fuels means more carbon dioxide is going into the air, and most of it will eventually be absorbed by seawater. Once in the water, it reacts to form carbonic acid. Scientists believe that the oceans have already become slightly more acidic over the last century.

    These researchers have tried to predict what will happen in the future by combining what we know about the history of the oceans with computer models of climate change．"This level of acidity will get much more extreme in the future if we continue releasing CO₂ into the atmosphere," said Dr Caldeira. "And we predict the amount of future acidity will exceed（超过）anything we have seen over the last several hundred million years, let alone perhaps after rare disastrous events such as asteroid（小行星) impacts．”

    However, it is not absolutely clear what that means for ocean life．Most organisms live near the surface, where the greatest pH change would be expected to occur, but deep-ocean life forms may be more sensitive to pH changes．Coral reefs and other organisms whose shells contain calcium carbonate（小行星) may be particularly affected if the water's acidity levels keep going up, the team predict. They could find it much more difficult to build these structures in water with a lower pH.

    In recent years some people have suggested storing carbon dioxide from power stations in the deep ocean as a way of dealing with global warming．But Dr Caldeira said that such a strategy should now be re-considered. "Previously, most experts had looked at ocean absorption of carbon dioxide as a good thing-because in releasing CO₂ into the atmosphere we warm the planet, and when CO₂, is absorbed by the ocean, it reduces the amount of greenhouse warming.”

72. According to Dr Caldeira,__________ .

   A. ocean absorption of carbon dioxide is a good thing

   B. more oil fuels will be used in the near future

   C. scientists may predict climate changes with computer models

   D. the future situation of the amount of acidity is extremely serious

73. If the water's acidity level keeps rising,_________ .

   A. ocean life whose structures contain calcium carbonate may be affected

   B. the waters’pH value will become higher and higher

   C. organisms living near the surface are more sensitive to pH changes

   D. some disastrous events will occur more often than before

74. Most experts once believed storing carbon dioxide in the ocean would reduce________ .

   A. the CO₂ absorbed by the ocean             B. the amount of greenhouse warming

   C. the acidity of the ocean                   D. the gradual release of CO₂

75. The purpose of this passage is to_________ .

   A. show people the findings of a research team  

B. inform people of how acid the ocean is now

   C. introduce Dr Caldeira and his team's research 

D. warn people of the higher level of CO₂

（湖北省黄冈市黄州区一中2010届高三第二次月考）

A

The Growing Credit Crisis Forces Many Companies to Seek Government Help

On September fifteenth, Lehman Brothers, a one hundred fifty-eight year-old investment bank, sought legal protection from its creditors. It had failed to find a buyer after months of searching. With over six hundred billion dollars in debt, Lehman’s failure was the largest bankruptcv in United States history At the same time，the nation’s biggest insurance company，American International Group, had gotten into trouble selling credit default swaps These are contracts Similar to insurance that protect the holder against credit risk.

Credit rating agencies downgraded A.I.G because of concerns it could not honor its contracts. Unable to get new loans, A.I.G asked for government help The Federal Reserve agreed to loan A .I.G. eighty-five billion dollars in return for eighty percent of the company but it was not enough. By November, the government had extended a total of about one hundred fiftv billion doliars in aid to A .I.G—the most to any single company during the crisis.

As banks refused to lend, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson proposed a plan to loosen credit markets by buylng risky assets. Congress approved the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of Two. Thousand eight on October third The bill provided seven hundred billion dollars to buy hard to-value securltles from banks. But within weeks, the government changed plans. The Treasury moved to invest two handred fifty billion dollars directly in banks to help them lend money again.

Lack of credit not only hurt banks but manufacturers, too. Falling car sales threatened America’s carmakers The big three automakers—General Motors, Ford and Chrysler—told Congress that they needed loans or they faced bankmptcy. In December, President Bush offered G.M and Chrysler over seventeen billion dollars in loans.

As the year ended, the Federal Reserve tried to support economic growth by lowering its main interest rate to nearly zero for the first time. But there was one more bad surprise New York money manager Bernard Madoff admitted he had cheated investors out of fifty billion dollars. The news only added to the sense that two thousand eight was the worst economic year since the nineteen thirties.

56. Which of the following is NOT the problem in the passage Lehman Brothers was faced with?

   A. lt is an Investment bank with more than one and a half centuries history.

   B. It didn’t find a buyer after months of searching.

   C. It has over six hundred billion dollars in debt.

D. Its failure was the largest bankruptcy in United States history.

57. The reason why A.I.G turned to the U.S government for help was that           .

   A. A.I.G would give eighty percent of the company in return for the loan

   B. A.I.G couldn’t get new loans from credit rating agencies

   C. the government extended a total of about one hundred fifty billion dollars in aid to A.I.G

D. the Federal Reserve agreed to loan A.I G eighty-five billion dollars

58. According to the passage, which of the following is probably NOT suffering from the lack of_______ .

   A. Banks．       B. Manufacturers        C. Carmakers          D. Barbers

59. The last sentence of this passage indicates that the author’s attitude towards the U.S economy in 2008 is        

   A.pessimistic      B. optimistic           C. objective            D.subjective