The scene in the Hollywood movie The Day After Tomorrow, where global warming could soon turn the global climate (气候) into a new ice age, may never occur, according to new research.
The next ice age could be 15,000 years away, say European scientists who last month announced a continuous record of 7.40,000 years of climate data (数据) obtained from the Antarctic ice.
Scientists from 10 nations have now almost completely drilled through a 3,000-meter.depth of ice high in the Antarctic mainland. They figure out that the area where summer temperatures can fall to –40℃, has at least 900,000 years of snowfalls,, kept as neatly as the growth rings of a tree. And the ice and air caught in each layer(层) have begun to answer questions about the climates in the past..
The results show that there have been eight ice ages in the past 740, 000 years and eight warmer periods. And by comparing the pattern of global conditions today with those of the past, the researchers reported in Nature that the present warm period could last another 15, 000 years.
Research suggests that there is a very close connection between greenhouse gas levels and global average temperatures. It also shows that carbon dioxide (二氧化碳) levels are the highest for at least 440,000 years.
"If people say to you: the greenhouse effect is a good thing because we would go into an ice age otherwise, our data say no, a new ice age is not hanging over our heads,” said Eric Wolff from the British Antarctic Survey. "Now we have eight examples of how the climate goes in and out of ice ages… and you can learn what the rules are that go into the climate models that tell us about the future."
Scientists found that whenever temperatures rose in the frozen record, so did carbon dioxide level. "In 440,000 years we have never seen greenhouse gas get as thick as it is today," said Dr Wolff.
48. In drilling through the ice in Antarctica, scientists, have found that______.
A. the lowest temperature there is －40℃ B. the depth of ice is 3,000 meters
C. the ice has existed for 15,000 years D. snowfalls are kept in certain patterns
49. The information of the global climate conditions in the past can be obtained through______.
A. separating carbon dioxide from the air
B. examining the growth rings of trees
C. comparing temperatures in different areas
D. studying the ice and air caught in each layer
50. We can infer from Eric Wolff's words that_______.
A. there is something wrong with the data B. greenhouse effect is always a bad thing
C. a new ice age will not come in the near future
D. greenhouse gas will get thick in the future
51. What would be the best title for the passage?
A. Research over the Antarctic area. B. Warm period to last about 15, 000 years.
C. Report on the eight ice ages in the past. D. Hollywood movies and the global climate.
第三部分阅读理解（共15小题；每小题2分，满分30分）
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C、D）中，选出最佳选项。
A
Bamboo (竹子) is one of nature’s (自然) most surprising plants. Many people call this plant a tree, but it is a kind of grass.
Like other kinds of grass, a bamboo plant may be cut very low to the ground, but it will grow back very quickly. A Japanese scientist reported one bamboo plant which grew 1.5 metres (4 feet) in 24 hours! Bamboo grows almost everywhere in the world except Europe. There are more than 1, 000 kinds of bamboo.
Not all bamboo looks the same. Some bamboo plants are very thin. They may only grow to be a few centimeters wide while others may grow to more than 30 centimetres (1 foot) across. This plant also comes in different colors, from yellow to black to green.
Bamboo has been used to make many things such as hats and kitchen tools(厨房用具). Because it is strong, bamboo is also used to build buildings.
Many Asian countries have used bamboo for hundreds of years. They often use bamboo for buildings and supporting (支撑) new buildings and bridges while they are being built.
In Africa, poor farmers are taught how to find water using bamboo. These African countries need cheap way to find water because they have no money, and their fields often die from no rain and no water.Bamboo pipes (管子) help poor farmers bring water to their thirsty fields without spending a lot of money.
56. How is bamboo like grass?
A. It grows quickly. B. It’s wood. C. it is easy to cut D.It is very thin
57. Though you can see bamboo everywhere, it doesn’t grow.
A.in China B.in Europe C. on mountains D. in Africa
58. Why is bamboo used by African poor farmers? Because.
A.it is cheap B.it has different colours
C.it is strong D.it has been used by Asians
59. Bamboo pipes can.
A. make money B. be trees C. grow quickly D. carry water
60. In Asia, bamboo has been used for.
A.a short time B.many thousands of years
C. many hundreds of years D. about 100 years
C
Isn't it astonishing how much time we spend talking about food? “Have you ever eaten …?” “What did you have for lunch?” and so on. And yet when you travel from one country to another, you will find that people have quite different feelings about food. People often feel that what they eat is normal (正常) and that what other people eat is strange or silly. In most parts of Asia, for example, no meal is complete without rice. In England, people eat potatoes every day. In the Middle East, bread is the main part of every meal. Eating like so many things we do, becomes a habit which is difficult to change. Americans like to drink a lot of orange juice and coffee. The English drink tea four or five times every day. Australians drink a great deal of beer, and the French drink wine every day.
The sort of meat people like to eat also differs from one country to another. Horse meat is thought to be delicious in France. In Hong Kong, some people enjoy eating snakes. New Zealanders eat sheep, but they never eat goat meat. The Japanese don't like to eat sheep meat because of its smell, but they enjoy eating raw fish (生鱼).
So it seems that although eating is a topic we can talk about for hours, there is very little common sense in what we say it. People everywhere enjoy eating what they have always eaten, and there is very little we can do to change our eating habits.
64. Which of the following is true according to the article?
A. All people have the same feeling about food.
B. In most parts of Asia, people usually have rice for meals.
C. People often consider other people to be strange or silly.
D. The topic people spend time talking about is bread and meat.
65. People in different countries ___.
A. drink the same sort of wine B. have the same eating habit
C. eat different kinds of meat D. have the same tea at different time within a day
66. The Japanese don't like to eat sheep meat __.
A. because they dislike its smell B. because it is too expensive
C. because it is easy to go badD. because they think it will do harm to their health
67. English people drink tea four or five times a day _.
A. because they get thirsty easilyB. because there is plenty of tea in Britain
C. because of their drinking habitD. because they have enough time to do so
B
A beautiful and very successful actress (女演员) was the star for a new musical show. Her home was in the countryside, but she did not want to go back there every night, so she bought an expensive house in the centre of the city, got some beautiful furniture (家具) and got a man to paint the rooms in new colours.
It was very difficult to get tickets for her show, because everybody wanted to see it. So she decided to give the painter two of the best seats. She hoped that this would make him work better for her. He took the tickets without saying anything, and she heard no more about them until the end of the month, when she got the painter’s bill (账单). At the bottom of it were these words: “ Four hours watching Miss Hall sing and dance: 3 pounds,” with this note: “After 5 p.m., I get 15 shillings (先令) an hour instead of 10 shillings.”
60. The actress bought a house in the centre of the city because ______.
A. she liked to live in the busiest place
B. she didn’t like to live in the country
C. her home was far away from where she worked
D. she didn’t want to go back to her hometown any longer
61. In order to make the painter work better for her, the actress ________.
A. gave him two tickets for her show B. sang and danced for him for hours
C. paid him 3 poundsD. decided to pay him 15 shillings an hour
62. The actress got the painter’s bill ________.
A. to ask for the money of his painting work
B. to ask to pay for his watching her show
C. in which he showed his thanks for the tickets
D. in which he expressed his dissatisfaction
63. What kind of man was the painter?
A. He was a careful man. B. He was a poor man.
C. He was not friendly to others. D. He knew little about music and dances.