Icebergs are among nature’s most impressive creations, and yet most people have never seen one. They come into being somewhere in faraway, freezing waters, amid thunderous noise and splashing turbulence （漩涡）, which in most cases no one hears or sees. They exist only a short time and then slowly melt away just as unnoticed.
They have been called objects of complete beauty. Appearing in an endless variety of shapes, they may be dazzlingly white, or they may be glassy blue, green or purple, in light colors or in dark colors. They are graceful, stately, inspiring-in calm, sunlit seas.
But they are also called frightening and dangerous, and that they are-in the night, in the fog, and in storms. Even in clear weather one is wise to stay a safe distance away from them. Most of their main part is hidden below the water, so their underwater parts may extend out far beyond the visible top. Also, they may roll over unexpectedly, stirring the waters around them.
Icebergs are parts of glaciers that break off, drift into the water, float about awhile, and finally melt. Icebergs floating today are made of snows that have fallen over long ages of time. They include snows that drifted down hundreds, or many thousands, or in some cases maybe a million years ago. The snows fell in Polar regions and on cold mountains, where they melted only a little or not at all, and so collected to great depths over the years and centuries.
As each year’s snow accumulation lay on the surface, evaporation and melting caused the snowflakes slowly to become tiny grains of ice. When new snow fell on top of the old, it too turned to icy grains. So blankets of snow and ice grains mounted layer upon layer and were of such great thickness that the weight of the upper layers pressed the lower ones. With time and pressure from above, the many small ice grains joined and changed to larger crystals, and eventually the deeper crystals merged into a solid mass of ice.
1．The underlined word “dazzlingly” in Paragraph 2 probably means “ ”.
A．brilliantly B．abundantly C．beautifully D．approximately
2．The author states that icebergs are rarely seen because they are .
A．broken by waves soon after they are found
B．hidden under the mountains
C．located in remote regions of the world
D．surrounded by fog
3．The underlined phrase “from above” in the last paragraph refers to “ ”.
A．sunlit seas B．polar regions
C．weight of mountains D．layers of ice and snow
4．According to the passage, icebergs are dangerous because they .
A．usually melt quickly B．can turn over suddenly
C．may create large snowdrifts D．may float and hit the ships suddenly
科目：高中英语 来源：英语教研室 题型：050
The world is not only hungry, it is also thirsty for water. This may seemstrange to you, since nearly 75％of the earth's surface is covered with water. But about 97％ of this huge amount is seawater, or salt water. Man can only drink and use the other 3％--the fresh water that comes from rivers, lakes, underground, and other sources. And we cannot even use all of that, because some of it is in the form of icebergs and glaciers. Even worse, some of it has been polluted.
However, as things stand today, this small amount of fresh water, which is constantly being replaced by rainfall is still enough for us. But our need for water is increasing rapidly almost everyday. Only if we take steps to deal with this problem now can we avoid a severe worldwide water shortage later on. A limited water supply would have a bad effect on agriculture and industry. Let me give you just one small example of how necessary water is to industry. Did you know that to produce a single ton of steel, it takes about 91000 litres of water?
We all have to learn how to stop wasting our precious water. One of the first steps we should take is to develop ways of reusing it. Experiments have already been done in this field, but only on small scale. The systems that have been worked out are similar to those used in spacecraft.
(1) “The world...is also thirsty for water.” this means that ________.
[ ]
A．the world has not enough fresh water to meet our future needs
B．people all over the world are thirsty for water now
C．we are now facing a serious problem of world-wide water shortage
D．we cannot make use of all the fresh water on earth
(2) According to the passage, only about ________ of the earth's surface is covered with fresh water that can be used.
[ ]
(3) We may face a severe worldwide water shortage in the future because ________.
[ ]
A．the small amount of fresh water is constantly being replaced by rainfall
B．some of it has been polluted
C．some of it is in the form of icebergs and glaciers
D．our need for fresh water is increasing rapidly
(4) According to the passage, one of the first problems is ________.
[ ]
A．to deal with water problem now
B．to have lectures on the water subject
C．to develop ways of reusing water
D．to work out systems that resemble those used in spacecraft
(5) This passage is mainly about ________.
[ ]
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科目：高中英语 来源：2012届黑龙江省哈尔滨市第三中学高三第四次模拟考试英语试卷（带解析） 题型：阅读理解
"We do look very different; we're older. Leo's 38, I'm 37. We were 21 and 22 when we made that film. You know, he's fatter now -- I'm thinner.". So says Kate Winslet, who is thrilled at the 3-D re-release of Titanic to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the ship's demise. “ It happens every time I get on any boat of any kind." She recalls. There are all the people who want her to walk to the front of the ship and re-create her famous pose, arms flung wide. Most people remember the tragedy: The British passenger ship -- said to be unsinkable -- hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, during its maiden voyage from England to New York City. More than 1,500 people died. But little known is what the world learned from the sinking to prevent future incidents.
Probably the greatest deficiency （不足）of the Titanic was that she was built 40 years before the widespread use of the wonderful invention radar(雷达). Her only defense against icebergs and hidden obstacles was to rely on manned lookouts. On that fateful night the eyesight of trained lookouts only provided 37 seconds of warning before the collision.
Traveling at nearly 30 miles an hour the Titanic was moving far too fast to avoid the huge iceberg. The warning did prevent a head-on collision as the officer on the bridge managed to turn the ship slightly.
The last ship to send a warning was the California. She was within ten miles of the Titanic during the disaster, but her radio operator went to bed at midnight and never received any of the SOS messages from the Titanic. That was one of the important lessons learned from the catastrophe, the need for 24-hour radio operators on all passenger liners.
Another lesson learned was the need for more lifeboats. The Titanic remained afloat(漂浮) for almost three hours and most of the passengers could have been saved with enough lifeboats.
1,500 passengers and workers died in the 28 degree waters of the Atlantic. Out of the tragedy, the sinking did produce some important maritime reforms. The winter travel routes were changed to the south and the Coast Guard began to keep an eye on the location of all icebergs. The new rules for lifeboats were obvious to all. There must be enough lifeboats for everybody on board.
The most important lesson learned was that no one would ever again consider a ship unsinkable- no matter how large or how well constructed. Never again would sailors place their faith in a ship above the power of the sea.
【小题1】The text mainly tells us ______.
| A．the reason why the Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean |
| B．how the unsinkable ship of Titanic sank in the Atlantic Ocean |
| C．the lessons that we could learn from the accident of theTitanic |
| D．the things we should do to protect the lives on the ship |
| A．If the captain had been more careful, he could have had the chance to save the Titanic. |
| B．If radar had existed 40 years ago, the Titanic would have never disappeared from the world. |
| C．If the lookout had had much more experience, he could have had the time to save the Titanic. |
| D．If there had been enough lifeboats on the Titanic, the Titanic would not have sunk in the Atlantic. |
| A．Lessons from the Titanic | B．Technology is Important |
| C．Demands of Passengers | D．Power of Sea |
| A．They think there really exists the unsinkable ship. |
| B．They think ships could eventually defeat the sea. |
| C．They think there is no power that could control the sea. |
| D．They think the bigger the ship is, the safer it is. |
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科目：高中英语 来源：2011-2012学年江苏省淮安中学高一上学期期末考试英语试卷（带解析） 题型：阅读理解
| AVERAGE RESOURCES | |
| 620 m3 water | If we put fresh water and sea water together, we can each have 620 m3 water. But remember, sea water is too salty for us to drink if the factories don’t process it first. So, 620 m3 is little. Saving water in daily use is important. |
| 0.5 hectares of forests | There are 3.869 billion hectares(公顷) of forests on Earth. But we are losing them mainly because we cut trees too much. If we calculate（计算）at the size of a football field, we are losing 343,000 football fields every day, or 1,431 per hour, or 24 per minute! |
| 1.5 centimeters long corals(珊瑚) | All the corals that we have now spread for about 100,000 km in 109 countries. But each of us can only have such a little piece, because seas are getting polluted and corals are dying. |
| 33 stars | According to the latest report, there are 200 billion stars in the Milky Way. Each of us can have 33 of them. Unfortunately, we cannot see most of the 200 billion stars from Earth. We can only see about 6,000 stars. If we don’t use telescopes or we have bad weathers, we can only see about 2,000 stars. |
| 90kg rice | On average, we harvest 0.54 billion tons of rice each year round the world and each of us can have 90 kg. Asia produces and eats 90% of all the rice. How long will it take you to eat up this 90 kg rice? |
| 1 iceberg | Luckily, we still have icebergs to share when Earth gets warmer and warmer. Each of us can have an iceberg of 170m×170m×170m. Up to 10% of Earth surface is covered by ice. There is 31,000,000km3 of ice on Earth in all. |
| A．over 620m3 | B．more than 620m3 | C．far less than 620m3 | D．only 620m3 |
| A．the man-made damage | B．the climate change |
| C．the construction of many football fields | D．the environmental pollution |
| A．all the stars | B．about 2,000 | C．about 200 billion | D．about 6,000 |
| A．less water | B．fewer icebergs | C．fewer corals | D．less rice |
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科目：高中英语 来源：2014届江西赣州市十一县（市）高二上学期期中考英语试卷（解析版） 题型：阅读理解
What doomed the Titanic is well known, at least in outline. On a moonless night of April 15, 1912, the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic ,with 1,500 lives lost.
A century later many people presented new theories to explain the real reason for the disaster. Now two new studies argue that rare states of nature played major roles in the disaster.
The first says Earth’s nearness to the Moon and the Sun — a proximity not matched in more than 1,000 years — resulted in record tides that help explain why the Titanic met with so much ice, including the fatal iceberg.
Recently, a team of researchers found an apparent explanation in the heavens. They discovered that Earth had come unusually close to the Sun and Moon that winter, enhancing their gravitational pulls on the ocean and producing record tides. The rare orbits took place between December 1911 and February 1912 — about two months before the disaster came about. The researchers suggest that the high tides refloated masses of icebergs traditionally stuck along the coastlines of Labrador and Newfoundland and sent them adrift into the North Atlantic shipping lanes.
And a second, put forward by a Titanic historian from Britain, contends that the icy waters created ideal conditions for an unusual type of mirage(海市蜃楼) that hid icebergs from lookouts whose duty was to watch carefully for danger ahead and confused a nearby ship as to the liner’s identity, delaying rescue efforts for hours.
Most people know mirages as natural phenomena caused when hot air near the Earth’s surface bends light rays upward. In a desert, the effect prompts lost travelers to mistake patches of blue sky for pools of water. But another kind of mirage occurs when cold air bends light rays downward. In that case, observers can see objects and settings far over the horizon. The images often undergo quick distortions — not unlike the wavy reflections in a funhouse mirror.
Now, scholars of the Titanic are debating these new theories. Some have different opinions on it. Over all, though, many experts are applauding the fresh perspectives. (words:353)
1.The underlined word "It" in the title probably refers to _______.
A．the Titanic B．the record tide C．the cause of the disaster D．an unusual mirage
2.According to Theory First, what was the right chain of causes leading to the Titanic’s disaster?
① record tides’ forming and icebergs’ being refloated
② icebergs’ being drifted into the North Atlantic shipping lanes
③the Earth’s strange closing to the Sun and the Moon
④increasing of the gravitational force on the ocean
A．①→②→③→④ B．③→④→①→② C．④→③→②→① D．②→③→④→①
3.According to Theory Second, the disaster happened to the Titanic mainly because______.
A．the freezing weather made the watcher not be able to watch clear
B．the mirage on the sea attracted the watcher and made him forget his work
C．the high tides drove the icebergs float so fast that the watcher didn’t respond to them
D．the mirage made the watcher not find icebergs and a nearby ship delay rescuing
4.What is the chief function of the sixth paragraph?
A．to infer the possibility of the mirage appearing
B．to explain to the readers the ways of the mirage forming
C．to summarize the various kinds of the mirage
D．to analyze the conditions of the mirage arising
5.This passage is organized generally in the pattern of________.
A．comparison and contrast B．time and events
C．conclusion and proof D．definition and classification（分类)）
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科目：高中英语 来源：福建省2009-2010学年度高一下学期期中考试（英语） 题型：阅读理解
The Atlantic Ocean is one of the oceans that separate the Old World from the New. For centuries it kept the America from being discovered by the people of Europe.
Many wrong ideas about the Atlantic made early sailors unwilling to sail far out into it. One idea was that it reached out to “the edge of the world” . Sailors were afraid that they might sail off the earth. Another idea was that at the equator(赤道) the ocean would be boiling hot.
The Atlantic Ocean is only half as big as the Pacific, but it is still very large. It is more than 4,000 miles (6,000 km) wide where Columbus crossed it. Even at its narrowest it is about 2,00 miles (3,200 km) wide.
Two things make the Atlantic Ocean rather unusual. For so large an ocean it has few islands. Also, it is the world’s saltiest ocean.
There is so much water in the Atlantic that it is hard to imagine how much there is. But suppose no more rain fell into it and no more water was brought to it by rivers, it would take the ocean about more than 4,000 years to dry up. On the average, the water is a little more than two miles (3.2km) deep, but in some places it is much deeper. The deepest spot is near Puerto Rico. This “deep” measures 30,246 feet---almost six miles (9.6km).
One of the longest mountain ranges of the world rises from the floor of the Atlantic. This mountain range runs north and south down the middle of the ocean. The tops of a few of the mountains reach up above the sea and make islands.
Several hundred miles eastward from Florida there is a part of the ocean called the Sargasso Sea. Here the water is quiet, for there is little wind. In the days of sailing vessels(船) the crew were afraid they would be becalmed (can’t move) here. Sometimes they were.
Today the Atlantic is a great highway. It is, however, not always a smooth and safe one. Storms sweep across it and pile up great waves. Icebergs float down from the far North across the paths of ships.
We now have such fast ways of traveling that this big ocean seems to have grown smaller. Columbus sailed for more than two months to cross it. A fast modern steamship can make the trip in less than four days. Airplanes fly from New York to London in only eight hours and from South America to Africa in four!
61. What caused people to be unwilling to explore the Atlantic?
A. There were no ships big enough to get across the Ocean.
B. Sailors were afraid of being lost in the Ocean.
C. The Atlantic Ocean was very unusual because it has few islands and the saltiest water.
D. Many incorrect ideas such as “the edge of the world”, “the equator with boiling hot water” made people think the Ocean was full of danger.
62. What is the main idea of the fifth paragraph?
A. How deep the water is.
B. How to measure the water in the Atlantic.
C. How much water the ocean holds.
D. How rain affects the Ocean water.
63. What does the underlined word “highway” mean?
A. High road B. Broad way C. Fast road D. Main water way
64. Why does the writer think “this big ocean seems to have grown smaller”?
A. The water in the ocean is becoming less.
B. We have more and more advanced traveling tools now
C. The distance between the ocean and us is shorter.
D. The steamship has a higher speed.
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