A powerful earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan at 2:46 p.m. local time on March 11th. Japan's Meteorological Agency released its first tsunami warnings just three minutes later. The country has one of the best earthquake early warning systems in the world. More than 4,000 Seismic Intensity Meters provide information within two minutes of an earthquake happening.

There are also concrete sea walls around much of the Japanese coastline. But these measures proved no match for the powerful earthquake and tsunami.

Costas Synolakis is a tsunami expert in the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He says, "Japan is one of those most well-prepared countries on earth in terms of tsunami warning. They had a warning. I think what went wrong is that they had not foreseen the size of this event."

He says there are two reasons for this. First, scientists had not expected such a large earthquake. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake was the 4th most powerful earthquake ever recorded worldwide. It was also the worst ever to hit Japan. The tsunami waves reached as high as 13 meters in some areas.

Second, Japan's concrete sea walls were not built to handle such high waves. "In Sendai, they were about three meters. At least in that area they were not expecting such a sizeable wave because they would have built a higher seawall."

A tsunami wave can travel as fast as 800 kilometers per hour. To get to higher ground people would often have to travel for many kilometers. This can take more time than a fast traveling tsunami will permit. This is especially true in cases like Japan. The tsunami waves followed almost immediately. Experts say early warning systems will continue to be limited by these facts until earthquakes and tsunamis can be predicted.  

72. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?

A. Better equipment should have been used.                 B. A powerful earthquake hit the coast of Japan.

C. Japan can report an earthquake before it happens.          D. Japan has a good earthquake early warning system.

73. According to Costas Synolakis, ________.

A. the Japanese should have built many higher seawalls

B. the Japanese were not really prepared for such a disaster

C. Japan has experienced the worst earthquake worldwide

D. Japan had the best warning of such a serious earthquake  

74. According to the writer, people hadn’t got to higher ground because ________.

A. didn’t know there would be a tsunami                      B. tsunami didn’t leave people much time

C. they thought the seawalls were reliable                     D. higher ground couldn’t be reached at all

75. What can we learn from the last paragraph?      

A. Early warning systems are basically unreliable.  

B. Earthquakes and tsunamis will soon be predicted.

C. We have to accept the imperfect systems for the moment.

D. New warning systems will be designed to predict disasters.

    Crime (罪行) has its own cycles, a magazine reported some years ago. Police records that were studied for five years from over 2 400 cities and towns show a surprising link between changes in the season and crime patterns.

    The pattern (模式) of crime has varied very little over a long period of years. Murder reaches its high point during July and August, as do rape (强奸案) and other violent (猛烈的) attacks. Murder, besides, is more than seasonal: it is a weekend crime. It is also a nighttime crime: 62 percent of murders are committed between 6 p. m. and 6 a. m.

    Unlike the summer high in crimes of bodily harm, burglary (抢劫) has a different cycle. You are most likely to be robbed between 6 p. m. and 2 a. m. on a Saturday night in December, January, or February. The most uncriminal month of all is May except for one strange statistic. More dog bites are reported in this month than in any other month of the year.

    Obviously our intellectual (智力的) seasonal cycles are completely different from out criminal tendencies (倾向). Professor Huntington, of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, made careful studies to discover the seasons when people read serious books, attend scientific meetings, make the highest scores in examinations, and propose the most changes to patents (专利). In all instances, he found a spring peak (高峰) and an autumn peak separated by a summer low. On the other hand, Professor Huntington's studies show that June is the peak month for suicides (自杀) and admissions to mental hospitals. June is also a peak month for marriages!

    Possibly, high temperatures and high humidity (湿度) bring on our strange and terrifying summer actions, but police officials are not sure. “There is of course, no proof of a connection between humidity and murder,” they say. “Why murder's high time should come in the summertime we really don't know.”

(1) The main idea of paragraph 1 is ________.

[　　]

A．there is a link between changes in the seasons and crime patterns.

B．crime is not linked to the changes in season.

C．2400 towns were studied for five years.

D． the crime patterns have no connections with summer.

(2) The subject of paragraph 2 is ________.

[　　]

(3) In Paragraph 3 what is the one strange statistic (数据) of May?

[　　]

A．There are more robberies in May.

B．There are more dog bites in May.

C．There is the most crime in May.

D．There are most marriages in May.

(4) In paragraph 4, a graph for our intellectual cycles might look like this:

W = winter Sp = spring Su = summer A = autumn (见P93上图)

(5) The information in paragraph 5 says: ________.

[　　]

A．There may be a connection between murder and hot weather.

B．There is surely a connection between murder and hot weather.

C．There is no connection between murder and hot weather.

D．There must be a connection between cold weather and murder.

阅读理解　　

  Crime (罪行) has its own cycles, a magazine reported some years ago. Police records that were studied for five years from over 2 400 cities and towns show a surprising link between changes in the season and crime patterns.

    The pattern (模式) of crime has varied very little over a long period of years. Murder reaches its high point during July and August, as do rape (强奸案) and other violent (猛烈的) attacks. Murder, besides, is more than seasonal: it is a weekend crime. It is also a nighttime crime: 62 percent of murders are committed between 6 p. m. and 6 a. m.

    Unlike the summer high in crimes of bodily harm, burglary (抢劫) has a different cycle. You are most likely to be robbed between 6 p. m. and 2 a. m. on a Saturday night in December, January, or February. The most uncriminal month of all is May except for one strange statistic. More dog bites are reported in this month than in any other month of the year.

    Obviously our intellectual (智力的) seasonal cycles are completely different from out criminal tendencies (倾向). Professor Huntington, of the Foundation for the Study of Cycles, made careful studies to discover the seasons when people read serious books, attend scientific meetings, make the highest scores in examinations, and propose the most changes to patents (专利). In all instances, he found a spring peak (高峰) and an autumn peak separated by a summer low. On the other hand, Professor Huntington's studies show that June is the peak month for suicides (自杀) and admissions to mental hospitals. June is also a peak month for marriages!

    Possibly, high temperatures and high humidity (湿度) bring on our strange and terrifying summer actions, but police officials are not sure. “There is of course, no proof of a connection between humidity and murder,” they say. “Why murder's high time should come in the summertime we really don't know.”

(1) The main idea of paragraph 1 is ________.

[　　]

A．there is a link between changes in the seasons and crime patterns.

B．crime is not linked to the changes in season.

C．2400 towns were studied for five years.

D． the crime patterns have no connections with summer.

(2) The subject of paragraph 2 is ________.

[　　]

(3) In Paragraph 3 what is the one strange statistic (数据) of May?

[　　]

A．There are more robberies in May.

B．There are more dog bites in May.

C．There is the most crime in May.

D．There are most marriages in May.

(4) In paragraph 4, a graph for our intellectual cycles might look like this:

W = winter Sp = spring Su = summer A = autumn (见P93上图)

(5) The information in paragraph 5 says: ________.

[　　]

A．There may be a connection between murder and hot weather.

B．There is surely a connection between murder and hot weather.

C．There is no connection between murder and hot weather.

D．There must be a connection between cold weather and murder.

Jewelweeds, or Impatiens, are pretty flowers that grow in wet, shady(多荫的) places all over the Northern Hemisphere. According to a recent experiment, they seem to know their own flower family. www..com

The experiment suggests that these flowers can know each other—or at least, know whether or not they came from the same mother plant. Together with other experiments, these results show that if the plants are able to know their siblings (兄弟姐妹), it’s not through their leaves, it’s through the roots.

Guillermo P. Murphy and Susan Dudley are a pair of botanists, or scientists who study plants, from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada. In this experiment, they planted jewelweeds in pots (罐) with either siblings or strangers. Sibling plants were grown from seeds that came from the same mother plant. Stranger plants were grown from seeds from different plants.

If people were plants, then this experiment would be like showing that a person behaves differently if he grows up next to his brother than if he grows up next to a stranger.

When jewelweeds were planted in pots with strangers, the plants started to grow more leaves than if they had been planted alone. This response（反应）suggests that plants are competing with strangers for sunlight, since a plant with more leaves can receive more light—and make more food. Impatiens normally grow in the shade, where there is not enough sunlight.

When jewelweed seedlings were planted with siblings, they grew a few more branches than they normally would if they were alone — but they did not start growing lots of extra leaves. This behavior suggests the plants are more likely to share resources（资源）, rather than compete.

The plants only responded this way when they shared soil. If stranger seedlings were planted in different pots and placed next to each other, for example, they did not grow more leaves. This difference shows that the plants must use their roots to notice sibling plants in the same soil.  www..com   

64. What is the main idea of the article? 

A. Jewelweeds seem to know their own family.          B. Jewelweeds love their siblings.

C. Jewelweeds share resources with others               D. Jewelweeds grow in wet shady places

65. A plant with more leaves __________.

A. are likely to share more resources                 B. receive more competition

C. are likely to make more food                        D. hardly receive enough sunlight

66. From the passage, we learn that __________.

A. the flowers grow extra leaves when planted alone

B. the flowers know their siblings through their roots

C. the flowers can make friends with stranger plants

D. the flowers grow more branches when planted with strangers