Not long ago the movie 2012 came into screen. The people were threatened by those scenes of destroying flood, severe earthquake, terrifying hurricane and constructions representing human civilization being destroyed and even swallowed by disaster.  Luckily, they are just the director' s imagination, but the present situation is not heading a positive direction, either.
Take my own experience in Alaska as an example. Once I took a trip to the glacier. Along the way there stood signposts marking the snow lines of different years.  They started from the foot of the mountain, but it was at the top when I finally saw melting glaciers(融化的冰川). My heart ached seeing the beautiful blue ice melting at every second.
Sad but true, they are the effects of global warming and the result of our human impact. Furthermore, each year the rising sea level will kill 56 million people, and that’s about the population of the entire Italy. According to studies, if the temperature keeps on rising like this, by the year 2050, some islands and coastal cities including New York, Shanghai, Tokyo and Sydney will be drowned in water.
Our fortune is in our own hands. It depends on us to shape our future, to reduce future human impact and find ways to form a peaceful relationship with our environment. Therefore, it's time for actions to be taken right now. Contribute a little to energy saving by using more efficient light bulbs and less hot water. Let recycle become our habit by thinking twice before throwing something away. Let us take public transportation as our first choice when going to a certain place. It might cost more time for now, but it' s to the benefit of a permanent future. Take care of every tree and grass around us by watering them or simply just avoid destroying them.
In a word, small drops of water make a big ocean. The earth does not belong to us. On the contrary, we belong to the earth. Please bear in mind that the earth is our home. It is our responsibility to build a brighter and better future of our planet and prevent what happened in the movie 2012 from becoming reality.
【小题1】 Why does the author talk about the movie 2012 in the passage ?

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Looking for a low-cost path to self-knowledge? A way to mine your subconscious (潜意识的) for clues to your motivations, desires and fears? No need to have years of treatments or analyses. Just look to your dreams.
“You can ignore your dreams, but you are really doing harm to yourself,” says Lauri Quinn Loewenberg. “If so, you're letting red flags pass you by, letting great ideas pass you by.”
Some sleep researchers believe dreams are more directly related to our moods and emotions and can serve as tools to self-understanding. Dreams occur during the REM (rapid eye movements) cycles of sleep each night. For adults, that means about every 90 minutes. The first period of REM sleep may be short, 5 to 10 minutes, followed by longer periods, finally reaching an hour or more in the fourth or fifth period.
When people are dreaming, brain scans show a lot of activities. The brain is online during dreams. The experiences you have during the day are connected during dream sleep. People we know or experiences we've had at different times in our lives may be different in the same dream.
AmyBeth Gilstrap has had the same recurring(再次发生;循环) dream that annoyed her since Hurricane Katrina drove her and her daughter and friends out of New Orleans. Mrs. Gilstrap says, “It is always spies. My job is to get people to some place.” She's certain the dream is related to her efforts in the hurricane to help several families leave. Sometimes her cats also are part of that dream. That's because she went back into New Orleans, before it was allowed, to rescue her cats.
Today, through brain scans scientists have known that the parts of the brain that control emotions and long-term memories are active during the REM sleep.
57. The passage is mainly to tell readers                    .
A. dreams are mainly caused by hard work   B. dreams can offer us key to self-knowledge
C. dreams are only activities of our brains    D. how dreams help us solve our problems
58. According to the words from Lauri Quinn Loewenberg,                    .
A. dreams can make you feel badly ill       B. you often have red flags in your dreams
C. dreams will make your life colorful      D. you may get great help from your dreams
59. According to the passage, the underlined word “It” in Paragraph 5 refers to              .
A. Mrs. Gilstrap's dream                          B. Mrs. Gilstrap's job
C. Hurricane Katrina                            D. New Orleans
60. According to the passage, when you are dreaming at night,                .
A. your dream is connected with your work in the day
B. the dream will generally last about 5 to 10 minutes
C. the longer dream should be in the later part of the sleep
D. your eyes will not move during the time

Many people like the feeling of the gentle wind in spring. Many like to see the falling leaves dancing in the wind in autumn. But sometimes, when the wind becomes a storm, it can be very destructive (毁灭性的).

A series of such storms struck the US last month and caused very serious damage and human pain.

Every year, major storms cause many problems around the world. There is nothing people can do to stop these powerful forces of nature. But new techniques are helping scientists to predict how, when, and where big storms will happen. The more exact scientists’ warnings are, the better people can prepare for the storms.

Predictions are improving. “We’ve gotten better over the years, especially the last few years,” says Phil Klotzback, a scientist at an American university. How is a storm formed? Even if scientists know where a storm will happen, winds can suddenly change, carrying the storm to a new direction. “For a hurricane to happen, conditions have to be just right,” Klotzback says.

    First, the ocean water needs to be warm enough so that it evaporates and rises into the air. As it rises, the air containing drops of water cools and turns back into liquid. This process gives off heat. This produces energy like an engine that causes winds to increase. It drives the formation of a hurricane.

If wind speeds reach 40 miles per hour, the system is called a “ tropical storm”, and it gets a name. At 75 miles per hour, it becomes a hurricane. Hurricanes that hit the US start when a thunderstorm forms off the coast Africa. Storms also develop over tropical waters in other parts of the world.

On average, 60 or 70 storms form off Africa every year. About 10 of them get names. There are usually about six hurricanes. Two tend to be very big, with winds of 115 miles per hour or a bit higher.

The hurricane season lasts from June to November. Ninety percent of all hurricanes hit in August, September and October.

According to the text, hurricanes usually ________.

 A. form off the coast of Africa and America

 B. hit parts of the world in summer and autumn

 C. cause sea winds to rise and blow over the sea

 D. strike the US but cause no damage

The underlined word “evaporates” (in Paragraph 5) probably means “________ .”

   A. begins to move      B. gets lost      C. becomes hot   D. changes into a gas

Which of the following about the information of a hurricane is the correct order?

   a. The ocean water evaporates and goes into the air.

   b. Heat creates energy and causes winds to increase.

   c. The vapor cools.                        

d. The ocean water is warm enough.

   e. The vapor changes back into liquid.       

f. This course gives out heat.

   A. a, d, e, b, c, f       B. a, b, c, f, d, e      C. d, a, c, e, f, b     D. d, a, b, c, e, f

The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is a wake-up call. It is a call for every American to pay attention to the destruction we risk by allowing human-induced(导致的) climate change to continue. It is impossible to prove that Hurricane Katrina was caused by global warming, or even that human activities made the storm more severe. However, a paper published in the scholarly journal Nature reports that the force of dangerous hurricanes has increased by 50% during the last 50 years. It also reports that a global warming-induced rise in temperature near the ocean’s surface has probably contributed to this increase in dangerous storms, and thus to property(财产) damage and human death.
On August 30, the Los Angeles Times summed up(总结) the view of many scientists who agree that if the frequency of hurricanes does not decrease in the next few years, then we will be fairly certain that humans, and not natural storm cycle, are at the root of the problem. I believe there is at least a chance that by reducing U.S. reliance on fossil fuels for energy, we can prevent future tragedies like Hurricane Katrina. Let the change begin now.
There are many ways to reduce the volume of greenhouse gas emissions. My family drives the most fuel-efficient car we can afford, but I prefer to take public transportation whenever possible. My family buys locally grown food instead of produce that was transported thousands of miles on fuel-burning vehicles. We also replaced our incandescent light bulbs（白炽灯泡）with more energy-efficient compact fluorescents（荧光灯）. This might sound like a trivial move, but the Union of Concerned Scientists reports that if every household in the United States replaced one incandescent bulb with a compact fluorescent, it would have the same effect on U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions as removing 7.5 million cars from the roads. Now think if every household replaced not just one but all of their incandescent bulbs!
The United States, with just five percent of the world’s population, is responsible for close to one quarter of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, yet our country is doing far less than most European nations to fight global warming. We don’t have to sacrifice our lifestyles; Europeans enjoy the same standards of living as Americans. So what are we waiting for? It is time to act.
【小题1】 Which of the following is a fact?