D

Seeing a volcano erupt (喷发) is a wonderful experience, and you can really feel the beat by climbing to the summit(山顶) of Pacaya for a close-up view. There are guided tours every day up this highly active volcano from Antigua. Giving travelers a chance to see Mother Nature at her most powerful.

Pacaya is an easy drive from Antigua, a beautiful city with many colorful houses along its old streets that are turned into art-works during its Holy Week festival. No matter when you come to Antigua, you won’t miss the Pacaya-tour companies.

But climbing Pacaya is no easy job: it is 2560 metres high, and reaching the summit takes two to three hours of seemingly one-step-forward and two-step-back movements. As you climb, you hear the dull sounds of eruptions high above. Steaming. Hot remains from recent eruptions begin to line the path as you near the active summit; the McKenney Cone(火山锥). Just as though you were going to walk over to the edge of the cone, the road turns to the left and up to the relative safety of the old, inactive summit.

Many tours are timed so that you arrive at the cone of the volcano is plenty of time for sunset and the full contrast between the erupting red lava(熔岩) and the darkening sky. On a good day the view from the summit is extremely exciting. The active mouth boils, sending red lava over its sides, and once in a while shoots hot streams up to 100 metres into the air. There is a strong bad smell in the air even if you take care to be upwind of the cone. As evening turns deeper into the night. the burning lava quietly falls down tae side of the volcano. For you, too, it is time to get down .

What is the main purpose of this passage?

  A. To attract tourists to Pacaya.           B. To describe the beauty of Pacaya.

  C. To introduce guided tours to Pacaya.    D. To explain the power of nature at Pacaya.

Antigua is a city      .

   A. where people can enjoy cultural festivals    B. where the daring Pacaya tour starts

   C. that gives a close-up view of Paraya      D. that is famous for its tour companies

Climbing to the McKenney Cone, people will     .

   A. walk directly to the active summit    B. hear the continuous loud noise from above

   C. make greater efforts than to other summits

   D. see a path lined with remains of earlier eruptions

Many tours are timed for people to      .

   A. get down the mountain in time when night falls

   B. avoid the smell from the upwind direction of the cone

   C. enjoy the fantastic eruption against the darkening sky

   D. appreciate the scenery of the 2560-metre-high mountain

B
Events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions, and tornadoes are all natural disasters. They are mostly related to the weather. Some are predictable ----like a hurricane. Some, like an earthquake, surprise us. It is necessary for us to learn about them, so we can be prepared!
Flooding happens during heavy rains, when rivers overflow, when ocean waves come onshore, when snow melts too fast or when dams or banks break. Flooding is the most common of all natural disasters.
Hurricanes are severe tropical storms that form in the southern Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and in the Pacific Ocean. Hurricanes gather heat and energy through contact with warm ocean waters. Evaporation(蒸发) from the sea water increases their power.
Hurricanes have winds at least 74 miles per hour. When they come onto land, the heavy rain, strong winds and heavy waves can damage buildings, trees and cars.
Tornadoes are nature’s most violent storms. Tornadoes must always be taken seriously. Tornadoes can be very dangerous ---- sometimes even deadly. They come from powerful thunderstorms and appear as moving. Tornado winds can reach 300 miles per hour. They cause damage when they land the ground. They can damage an area one mile wide and 50 miles long.
While thunder won't hurt you ----lightning will! So it's important to pay attention when you hear thunder. Thunderstorms happen mostly in summer and every thunderstorm has lightning. Lightning can strike people and buildings, which is very dangerous.
Thunderstorms affect small areas when compared with hurricanes and winter storms. The typical thunderstorm is 15 miles in diameter and lasts an average of 30 minutes.
A volcano is a mountain with a large opening at the top through which melting rock, steam, gases escape from time to time with violent force from inside the earth. When pressure increases, eruptions occur. Gases and rock shoot up through the opening fill the air with small pieces. Eruptions can cause lava flows, hot ash flows, mudslides, falling ash and floods, which is likely to knock down entire forests, cause floods and earthquakes. Fresh volcanic ash can cause damage to the lungs of older people, babies and people with respiratory problems.
64. From the passage, we know that ______.
A. all natural disasters can be predicted 
B. all natural disasters are connected with the weather.
C. human beings can do nothing with natural disasters
D. the more we know about natural disasters, the less we will suffer.
65. Which of the following is NOT true according to the passage?
A. Flooding is the most common natural disaster. 
B. Hurricanes and tornadoes can land the ground and cause damage.
C. Thunder can strike people and buildings.          
D. Fresh volcanic ash can cause illnesses.

Studying volcanoes is a demanding profession. Hazel Rymer frequently has to struggle through rainforests, climb to the top of mountains, then climb 200 metres into the crater of active volcanoes. But the 38-year-old volcanologist does her best to make it sound less alarming than it is. “Driving to work is more risky,” she insists. “And the deepest I go into the crater of a volcano is about 300 metres,” she adds, trying to make it all sound as ordinary as taking the dog for a walk.

Hazel has been studying volcanoes for a long time, so it’s not surprising she is used to the danger. Her interest in volcanoes began at school. A teacher gave her a book about Pompeii. “I remember reading about the eruption of Vesuvius and the destruction of the city,” she explains. “The thought of all those people just frozen in time had quite an effect on me and I am still excited by their dangerous beauty today.”

Nowadays, volcanoes are getting more and more unpredictable. There have been many changes in sea level caused by global warming and melting ice caps. These have resulted in some dormant volcanoes erupting, so studying them is more dangerous than ever before. Hazel says that although she doesn’t take any unnecessary risk she has had some frightening moments. Her worst experience was on the slopes of Mount Etna in Sicily, when she was slowly surrounded by lava. “I had a choice of walking ten hours to get around the lava flow or just walking across it,” she explains. She chose to pick a path across the cooler rocks in the lava stream. “I guess it was five metres. The flow was 1,000°C, so if you hesitated your boots would begin to melt. It was scary, but it really was a practical decision --- there wasn't time to do anything else.”

And what about the future? “I haven’t been to the volcanoes in Indonesia yet. And I would love to spend some time working in the Antarctic,” she says. “I would also like to know why quiet lava flows erupt from some volcanoes and why other volcanoes go bang.” In other words, Hazel Rymer won’t be exchanging her volcanoes for the relative safety of driving to work just yet.

1.Hazel’s claim that “driving to work is more risky” than exploring volcanoes shows that ______.

A. people have exaggerated the dangers of volcanoes in the past

B. Hazel does not really understand the dangerous situations she puts herself in.

C. there are many bad drivers in the place where Hazel lives

D. Hazel is being modest and understating the dangers she faces

2.When did Hazel first become interested in volcanoes?

A. When she was visiting Italy.

B. When she was at school.

C. When she was twenty.

D. When she saw Vesuvius.

3.The underlined word “these” (in paragraph 3) refers to __________.

A. melting ice-caps         B. volcanic eruptions

C. changes in sea level         D. higher temperatures

4.When Hazel was on Mount Etna she had to ________.

A. take a dangerous route

B. take an unnecessary risk

C. leave her boots behind

D. walk for ten hours around the mountain

5.In the future, Hazel wants to ________.

A. revisit volcanoes she knows

B. go on holiday to the Antarctic

C. find a less dangerous job

D. discover new things about volcanoes

I was late for the school bus and rushing to get ready. My dog, Tippy, got to the front door and lay down in front of it – his way of asking to be petted. I___36___his begging for affection (喜爱), hurdled over him and ran for the waiting bus.

___37___, that afternoon, when I came home, Mom said to me___38___, “Honey, I have some___39___news that I need to tell you. This morning, while you were at school, Tippy was hit by a car and___40___. I’m so sorry.”

“No! It’s not true!” I was___41___. I couldn’t believe her. “Tippy, come here! Come on, boy!” I called and called for him. I waited. He didn’t come. Feeling___42___, I wandered into the living room. I didn’t cry that night. I still couldn’t believe that he was___43___.

When I got off the bus the next day, the___44___at home was deafening. Finally, my sobs (哭泣) bubbled up and erupted (喷发) like lava (熔岩) from a volcano. I couldn’t stop___45___. I hadn’t even petted him when I left.___46___could I have known that was my last chance? I cried until I felt empty inside.

Time passed, and against my will, I started to___47___some things. I realized what little control any of us have over what happens ___48___ a dog. We can do everything right, but___49___things can still happen. But good things can happen too. That’s___50___. The best way to deal with the hard times is to___51___what you need to do to get through them when they come, and to remember that hard times always___52___.

I now deeply understand the “circle of life”. Everyone is born, everyone___53___, and that’s the way it is. If dogs never died, there would be no___54___for others like Belle – my new dog.

Best of all, I realized that Tippy___55___all of my good memories of him. And they come to me every time I call!

French novelist Jules Verne (1828～1905) is often called the father of science fictions.Although he was not a great traveller himself，his characters journeyed to the moon (in From Earth to Moon)，Under the sea (in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea)，into a volcano (in A Journey to the Centre of the Earth)，around the world (in Around the World in Eighty Days) and to many other places.

Jules Verne was born in the French city of Nantes in 1828.When he was a boy he ran away from home to work on a ship.However，his father soon found him and brought him home.After that he decided that any future travel he did would be in books.In 1847，his father sent Jules to Paris to study to be a lawyer.Even though he was busy writing，Verne passed his exams in 1849 with high marks.

When Jules told his father he did not want to be a lawyer，his father was very angry.He stopped sending his son any money，so Jules had to earn a living by his writing.Over the next few years he wrote many stories and plays which brought him only a little money.Then，in 1856，he met Honorine de Viane，a rich，young widow with two children.The couple married the next year and their only child Michel was born in 1862.

After his marriage，Verne worked as a businessman in Paris.However，he was not very successful at his job and spent most of his time writing books and doing research for the next one.In 1863，he published his novel Five Weeks in a Balloon and in the following year he published A Journey to the Centre of the Earth which brought him fame.His books became so popular and earned him so much money that he was able to leave his job and work full time on his writing.

In his lifetime，Jules Verne wrote more than 50 books and he became a rich man.Many of this imaginative novels have been turned into films.

1.Jules Verne became rich because of his________.

A．father? B．marriage

C．business? D．writing

2.When Jules Verne was brought home by his father，he decided that________.

A．he would go on more travels in the future

B．he would do as his father required

C．he would be devoted to writing about future travels

D．he would stop writing about future travels

3.Which book can be considered as a turning point in Jules Verne’s life?

A．Five Weeks in a Balloon.

B．A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

C．From Earth to Moon.

D．Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

4.What can we infer from the passage?

A．Jules Verne was appreciated by film makers.

B．Jules Verne was not clever enough to learn law.

C．Jules Verne’s stories and plays won him big fame in the 1850s.

D．Jules Verne’s wife helped him a lot in his writing career.