Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are a major cause of climate change, and now a new study has confirmed that atmospheric CO2 is also affecting the ocean chemistry and potentially harming sea life.
Montana State University scientist Robert Dore has been researching the water in the Pacific Ocean for almost two decades.
"We've been going to the same spot in the Pacific Ocean, and we try and characterize long-term change in the open ocean environment. And one of the key things that we measure is CO2 levels. And we've been able to record this increasing quantity of atmospheric CO2 into the ocean."
Scientists expected that as atmospheric CO2 increased, more and more of the carbon dioxide would be absorbed into the ocean, affecting the chemical balance of the sea water, with a potentially harmful impact on shellfish and coral in particular.
"As carbon dioxide dissolves（溶解） in the water, or seawater in this case, it forms a weak acid, carbonic acid," Dore explains. "And therefore, as the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere goes up and that exchanges with the surface seawater, it drives the pH down, and makes it more acidic."
The seawater Dore and his colleagues have analyzed confirms what the theory predicts.
The effect was particular striking at about 250 meters down, and again at 500 meters. Dore and his colleagues came up with two possible explanations. It could be that surface water picked up CO2 and then moved to those depths. Or there could be a biological explanation.
"It's important to realize that the oceans are really becoming acidic. And it can have negative impacts on a whole variety of sea life from fish to coral. It's potentially catastrophic."
53．What can be the best title of the passage?
A．Sea Life Facing Danger B．Climate Change Affecting Seawater
C．Oceans Becoming More Acidic D．Scientist Researching Seawater
54．Which of the following shows the process of the impact of atmospheric CO2 on sea life?
a．Sea life is endangered．
b．CO2 goes into the surface water．
c．The ocean chemistry is affected．
d．CO2decreases the PH and makes the seawater more acidic．
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e．CO2 levels in the atmosphere go up．
Friendship can deeply affect the physical and mental health of both men and women. Studies show that people who have no friends or who are lonely, are more likely to die earlier, get sick more often and suffer greater physical wear and tear（折磨）than those who have a support system of friends.
Sometimes, family members may be more likely to give you advice or tell you what you don’t want to hear. It may not be as good as a friend who will listen to you and guide you, but support your decisions anyway. The most important elements about friendship are those who suffer support and do not judge your decisions based on society.
One reason for the link between social support and good health practice seems to be that people who feel cared for by others are less stress-out and are protected against the symptoms（症状）of depression and loneliness.
Generally, women benefit most because of how they deal with stress. Women are more social in how they deal with stress than men, while men are more likely to have a “fight or flight” reaction. Women also tend to have larger, denser social network, in which more people know each other and help each other, while men typically have smaller groups of friends and will rely on their wives or other important people for more support. While all these affect people psychologically（心理上）, friendship brings comfort that reduces the ill effects of stress, and the sex difference also contributes to the difference in the length of one’s life time.In the author’s opinion, a real friend should _________.
| A．tell you what to do even if you refuse to hear it. |
| B．try to persuade you to change your mind quickly. |
| C．judge your decision according to his/her experience. |
| D．give you advice but respect your own decision. |
Women benefit more from friendship than men because _________.
| A．women are always cared for by more people than men. |
| B．women are usually less stress-out when staying with others. |
| C．women are more likely to solve problems with friends’ help |
| D．women can always keep more long-life friendship than men |
According to the passage we can infer that _______.
| A．it’s good for women to tell men what they should do or not |
| B．friends are always more important than family members |
| C．men don’t want to share their problems with many people |
| D．the trend that women can live longer makes them more relaxed |
This passage mainly talks about _________.
| A．why people should develop friendship |
| B．when friendship affects people’s health |
| C．people’s different attitudes towards friendship |
| D．the friendship which can make people live longer |
Every day we experience one of the wonders of the world around us without even realizing it. It is not the amazing complexity of television, nor the impressive technology of transport. The universal wonder we share and experience is our ability to make noises with our mouths, and so transmit ideas and thoughts to each other’s minds. This ability comes so naturally that we tend to forget what a miracle (奇迹) it is.
Obviously, the ability to talk is something that marks humans off from animals. Of course, some animals have powers just as amazing. Birds can fly thousands of miles by observing pos
itions of the stars in the sky in relation to the time of day and year. In Nature’s talent show, humans are a species of animal that have developed their own special act. If we reduce it to basic terms, it’s an ability for communicating information to others, by varying sounds we make as we breathe out.
Not that we don’t have other powers of communication. Our facial expressions convey our emotions, such as anger, or joy, or disappointment. The way we hold our heads can indicate to others whether we are happy or sad. This is so-called “body language”. Bristling (直立的) fur is an unmistakable warning of attack among many animals. Similarly, the bowed head or drooping tail shows a readiness to take second place in any animal gathering.
Such a means of communication is a basic mechanism that animals, including human beings, instinctively acquire and display. Is the ability to speak just another sort of instinct? If so, how did human beings acquire this amazing skill? Biologists can readily indicate that particular area of our brain where speech mechanisms function, but this doesn’t tell us how that part of our bodies originated in our biological history.According to the passage, the wonder we take for granted is .
| A．our ability to use language | B．the miracle of technology |
| C．our ability to make noises with mouth | D．the amazing power of nature |
What feature of “body language” mentioned in the passage is common to both humans and animals?
| A．Lifting heads when sad. | B．Keeping long faces when angry. |
| C．Bowing heads when willing to obey. | D．Bristling hair when ready to attack. |
What can be inferred from Paragraph 3?
| A．Body language is unique to humans. |
| B．Animals express emotions just as humans do. |
| C．Humans are no different from animals to some degree. |
| D．Humans have other powers of communication. |
This passage is mainly about .
| A．the development of body language |
| B．the special role humans play in nature |
| C．the difference between humans and animals in language use |
| D．the power to convey information to others |
Modern inventions have speeded up people’s lives amazingly. Motor-cars cover a hundred miles in little more than an hour, aircraft cross the world inside a day, while computers operate at lightning speed. Indeed, this love of speed seems never-ending. Every year motor-cars are produced which go even faster and each new computer boasts (吹嘘) of saving precious seconds in handling tasks.
All this saves time, but at a price. When we lose or gain half a day in speeding across the world in an airplane, our bodies tell us so. We get the uncomfortable feeling known as jet-lag; our bodies feel that they have been left behind in another time zone. Again, spending too long at computers results in painful wrists and fingers. Mobile phones also have their dangers, according to some scientists; too much use may transmit harmful radiation into our brains, a consequence we do not like to think about.
However, what do we do with the time we have saved? Certainly not relax, or so it seems. We are so accustomed to constant activity that we find it difficult to sit and do nothing, or even just one thing at a time. Perhaps the days are long gone when we might listen quietly to a story on the radio, letting imagination take us into another world.
There was a time when some people’s lives were devoted simply to the cultivation of the land or the care of cattle. No multi-tasking there; their lives went on at a much gentler pace, and in a familiar pattern. There is much that we might envy about a way of life like this. Yet before we do so, we must think of the hard tasks our ancestors faced: they farmed with bare hands, often lived close to hunger, and had to fashion tools from wood and stone. Modern machinery has freed people from that primitive existence.The new products become more and more time-saving because .
| A．time is limited | B．our love of speed seems never-ending |
| C．the prices are increasingly high | D．the manufacturers boast a lot |
What does “the days” in Paragraph 3 refer to?
| A．Simple life in the past. | B．Imaginary life. |
| C．Times of inventions. | D．Time for constant activity. |
What is the author’s attitude towards the modern technology?
| A．Objective. | B．Critical. | C．Optimistic. | D．Negative. |
What does the passage mainly discuss?
| A．Machinery and human beings. | B．The present and past times. |
| C．Imaginations and inventions. | D．Modern technology and its influence. |
Kong Zi, also called Confucius (551 — 479 B.C.), and Socrates (469 — 399 B.C.) lived only a hundred years apart, and during their lifetimes there was no contact between China and Greece, but it is interesting to look at how the world that each of these great philosophers came from shaped their ideas, and how these ideas in turn, shaped their societies.
Neither philosopher lived in times of peace, though there were more wars in Greece than in China. The Chinese states were very large and feudal, while the Greek city-states were small and urban. The urban environment in which Socrates lived allowed him to be more radical (激进的) than Confucius. Unlike Confucius, Socrates was not asked by rulers how to govern effectively. Thus, Socrates was able to be more idealistic, focusing on issues like freedom, and knowledge for its own sake. Confucius, on the other hand, advised those in government service, and many of his students went on to government service.
Confucius suggested the Golden Rule as a principle for the conduct of life: “Do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you.” He assumed that all men were equal at birth, though some had more potential than others, and that it was knowledge that set men apart. Socrates focused on the individual, and thought that the greatest purpose of man was to seek wisdom. He believed that some had more potential to develop their reason than others did. Like Confucius, he believed that the superior class should rule the inferior (下层的) classes.
For Socrates, the family was of no importance, and the community of little concern. For Confucius, however, the family was the centre of society, with family relations considered much more important than political relations.
Both men are respected much more today than they were in their lifetimes.Which of the following is TRUE according to the first paragraph?
| A．Socrates and Confucius had much in common. |
| B．The societies were influenced by the philosophers’ ideas. |
| C．Confucius had much influence on Socrates’ ideas. |
| D．There were cultural exchanges between China and Greece. |
Socrates shared with Confucius the idea that .
| A．all men were equal when they were born |
| B．the purpose of man was to seek freedom and wisdom |
| C．the lower classes should be ruled by the upper class |
| D．people should not ask others to do what they did not want to |
What made some pe
ople different from others according to Confucius?
| A．Family. | B．Knowledge. | C．Potential. | D．Community. |
This passage is organized in the pattern of .
| A．time and events | B．cause and effect |
| C．comparison and contrast | D．definition and classification |
| CWU The communications union Head of Research Salary: ￡55, 271 We are looking for a Head of Research to manage the CWU Research Department and Information Centre. You would be required to exercise control of all research work of the department and manage a team of three researchers and four support staff. The person appointed would be expected to carry out research work of a strategic nature across the range of businesses in which the CWU has or seeks membership and to contribute to the strategic thinking and direction of the union as a whole. You will need: proven line management skills, especially in managing and motivating a team; good research skills, holding a good degree in a related subject or other similar experience; a high level of mathematical and calculating skills; the ability to produce high quality work under pressure; a commitment to and knowledge of the trade union movement and social democratic politics; and knowledge and/or experience of the postal and/or telecommunications industry. To apply, please request an application pack by emailing hr@ cwu. org or by telephoning HR (Human Resources) on 020 8971 7482. When applying please state your source. Closing Date for Applications: 4th August 2010 Anticipated interview date: 17th August 2010 No agencies please |
In which column of a newspaper could we find this advertisement?
| A．Arts. | B．News. | C．Jobs. | D．Sales. |
One of the duties of the person to be appointed is .
| A．taking charge of research work | B．running a telecommunications company |
| C．managing a team of three or four members | D．seeking membership for the trade union |
If you want to apply for this position, you can do all EXCEPT .
| A．ask an agency for an application form |
| B．send in your application before 4th August 2010 |
| C．email hr@ cwu. org for an application pack |
| D．dial 020 8971 7482 for more information |
Which of the following applicants is most likely to be employed?
A．A school teacher with a master’s degree. |
| B．A clerk from a telecommunications company |
| C．A director from a research centre with a master’s degree. |
| D．A university graduate majoring in computer science. |
