Tsunami warning system is tested
If he, the founder of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, were alive, Thomas Jaggar would be proud of the U.S. tsunami warning system after Friday’s devastating earthquake in Japan sent a surge (大浪，汹涌) of ocean water dashing toward the West Coast.
● WASHINGTON — So many people surged to the West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center website that it slowed to a crawl early Friday, unable to provide critical information to the public about the coastal impact in the U.S. of a massive earthquake in Japan.
McClatchy Washington Bureau — Mar 11 06:09 p.m.
● CHICAGO — A tsunami warning has been issued for the central and northern California coast and Oregon, the National Weather Service announced early Friday.
Chicago Tribune— Mar 11 06:07 a.m.
● HONOLULU — A tsunami warning was issued late on Thursday for Hawaii after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific near Japan, prompting state civil defense officials to order all coastal areas evacuated（把…撤出…）by 2 a.m. local time. Tsunami sirens (警报) began sounding at 9:59 p.m. on Thursday. They have sounded every hour since 11:15 p.m.
Alaska Tsunami Warning Center also issued a warning for much of the coasts of Alaska, Washington, Oregon and California.
Reuters via Yahoo! News — Mar 11 01:22 a.m.
● LOMPOC — Tsunami warning ‘a wake-up call’
A tsunami warning that led to evacuations for coastal 
communities and campgrounds in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties Friday served as a successful trial for a more serious emergency, officials said after the danger passed.
The Lompoc Record — Mar 11 11:29 p.m.
● WELLINGTON — The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre issued a warning after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck in the Pacific near Japan, and it said the sea level readings confirm that a tsunami has been generated and was in effect for some Pacific islands — Hawaii, China’s Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia etc.
New Straits Times — Mar 11 07:48 a.m.
— Reproduced by Yahoo Greenwich Meantime.
. A tsunami warning was issued for all the following states in the U.S. except for _____.
| A．Ohio | B．California | C．Oregon | D．Alaska |
.
The underlined word “prompting” (in the fourth paragraph) most probably means _____.
| A．promoting | B．advocating | C．urging | D．appealing |
.
According to the passage, the Pacific Tsunami warning was first reported by _____.
| A．New Straits Times | B．Reuters via Yahoo! News |
| C．McClatchy Washington Bureau | D．Chicago Tribune |
.
In which city did the news agency issue a tsunami affecting for some other places apart from Japan and Hawaii?
A. LOMPOC. B. WASHINGTON. C. HONOLULU. D. WELLINGTON.
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
It was graduation day at the university where I worked a beautiful day quite unlike the first graduation I attended as a young professor. On that cold day years ago，as we watched the students walking into the hall，one of my colleagues turned to me and said，“Graduation will be one of the happiest and one of the saddest times of your life.”At my inquiry，he answered，“Because the students you have gotten to know have to leave.”
As years went by，my previous confusion about my colleague's words no longer existed. When I come across naughty students，I have to rethink why I chose to be a teacher. It obviously isn't the money. Once a former computer science student of mine called me，asking me if I wanted to have a change. He was working at Nintendo Corporation. His salary was higher than my current one，though I have more education and have worked for over a decade. With my programming skills，he said he could get me hired. I thanked him，but declined his kind offer.
A few days before this current graduation，while working on final grades，I found a note a student had slipped in with her homework. She thanked me for being her teacher and said the things she had learned in my class－not about math，but about life－would be things she would remember long after the math skills had faded away. As I finished reading，I remembered why I had become a teacher.
Now，on this sunny graduation day，as I again observed the sea of blue_hats_and_gowns，I did so with renewed dedication(奉献) and a deeper sense of satisfaction－I will always be grateful that I am a teacher.Hearing his colleague's description of graduation for the first time，the author ______.
| A．quite agreed with his colleague |
| B．thought it very funny |
| C．was very puzzled |
| D．was very sad |
The computer science student called up the author because he ________.
| A．wanted to inform the author of his present job |
| B．tried to persuade the author to work with him |
| C．wanted the author to share his joy and satisfaction |
| D．thought the author wasn't fit to be a teacher |
The underlined part “blue hats and gowns” refers to ________.
| A．university colleagues |
| B．life memories |
| C．graduates' clothes |
| D．decorations in the hall |
The author wrote this passage to ________.
| A．express his devotion to being a teacher |
| B．compare two different graduation ceremonies |
| C．talk about the meaning of graduation |
| D．give advice on how to be a good teacher |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
There's no better place to be than beside the seaside in the summer. And even in Britain you can still find beaches away from the crowds with golden sand.
COMPTON BAY，ISLE OF WIGHT
This wide sandy beach is on the south west coast，between Freshwater and Brook and is part of the Tennyson Heritage Coast. There are striking views of the white cliffs further along the coast. A coastal path passes behind the beach，and you can enjoy scenic cliff top walks in either direction.
Accommodation：Sandpipers Hotel (01983 758500，www.sandpipershotel.com) with doubles from ￡10pp.
KINGSGATE BAY，KENT
Around the beach round a bend in the coastal road from Ramsgate is white cliffs with Kingsgate Castle dominating the whole landscape. It is fairly isolated，with few facilities，but is perfect for summer bathing or for bracing winter walks.
Accommodation：Fayreness Hotel (01843868641，www.fayreness.com) with doubles with breakfast from ￡69.15pp.
RINGSTEAD BAY，DORSET
A picturesque 210ft crescent(弦月状的) of pebbles with clean water 
that's a perfect escape from some of the busier beaches around Weymouth. You reach it by passing through the village of Upton，then along a narrow country road. Next to the car park is a well stocked shop. The cliffs behind Ringstead Bay are an excellent place for fossil hunting.
Accommodation：Glenburn Hotel (01305 832318，www.glenburnhotel.com) with doubles from ￡79 including breakfast.
BRANSCOMBE，DEVON
Lying on the East Devon Heritage Coast，Branscombe has good facilities with toilets and a car park close to the beach，as well as a small picnic area. A well stocked shop sells the most attractive dairy ice cream. Next to the shop is the Sea Shanty restaurant－open every day until 5 p．m. during the summer.
Accommodation：The Mason's Arms，Branscombe Village (01297 680300，www.masonsarms.co.uk) with doubles from ￡65 pp with breakfast.Which beach is the best wonderful place for summer bathing?
| A．COMPTON BAY. |
| B．BRANSCOMBE. |
| C．KINGSGATE BAY. |
| D．RINGSTEAD BAY. |
In which of the following beaches will you enjoy ice cream?
| A．COMPTON BAY. |
| B．BRANSCOMBE. |
| C．KINGSGATE BAY. |
| D．RINGSTEAD BAY. |
If you want to know more information about Fayreness Hotel，you'd better refer to the following web site ______.
| A．www.masonsarms.co.uk |
| B．www.fayreness.com |
| C．www.glenburnhotel.com |
| D．www.sandpipershotel.com |
What's the purpose of the passage?
| A．To attract more tourists. |
| B．To describe some beautiful beaches. |
| C．To tell us the most beautiful places in UK are beaches. |
| D．To tell us where to spend summer. |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项(A、B、C和D)中选出最佳选项。
By creating a distinctive username and reusing it on multiple websites，you may be giving online marketers and scammers a simple way to track you. Four researchers from The French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) studied over 10 million usernames－collected from public Google profiles，eBay accounts，and several other sources. They found that about half of the usernames used on one site could be linked to another online profile，potentially allowing marketers and scammers to build a more complex picture of the users.
“These results show that some users can be profiled just from their usernames，” says Claude Castelluccia，research director of the security and privacy research group at INRIA，and one of the authors of a paper on the work.“More specifically，a profiler could use usernames to identify all the profiles that belong to the same user，and then use all the information contained in these sites to profile the victim.”
Those who have more unique usernames are more likely to be attacked. The INRIA researchers have created a tool that can check how unique a username is，and thus how easily an attacker could use it to build a profile of a person.
Researchers are exploring ways that the traces of data that people leave on different websites could be combined and used to track them. A 2010 paper showed that the online groups to which people belonged could be used to infer their real identity in 42 percent of cases.
Building profiles of consumers using online information has already become a major industry for marketers as well as online criminals.What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Look out for online criminals |
| B．Your username may betray you |
| C．Don't leave your traces online |
| D．A unique username is more attractive |
Online marketers may use your username to ________.
| A．get a picture of yours |
| B．steal from your online account |
| C．get useful information about you |
| D．find out your interest or hobbies |
The main purpose of the passage is probably to ________.
| A．warn us of the possible dangers of a unique username |
| B．tell us how to manage our online information |
| C．advise us on how to choose a proper username |
| D．tell us the importance of a username |
We can infer from the passage that ________.
| A．it's hard to build a profile of a person from an online username |
| B．it's better to use a more complex username online |
| C．an online username has little to do with the real person |
| D．we'd better not use the same username on different sites |
The underlined word “scammers” in Paragraph 1 most probably means ________.
| A．friends |
| B．criminals |
| C．victims |
| D．salesmen |
阅读理解
Migrations are one of the animal kingdom’s most widespread phenomena.They are seasonal tests of endurance，collective journeys often taken at great costs by birds，whales，land mammals，insects，and other creatures that are wired to travel.Scientists estimate that onethird to half of all animals—and even some microorganisms—migrate during part of their lives.
According to scientists, human actions are threatening many migrations.Habitat destruction，the creation of obstacles such as dams and fences，overexploitation of natural resources, and climate change are combining to make migrations increasingly difficult for many species.
Global warming，for example，is changing flowering times and other natural cycles，driving many birds and insects to move their ranges or arrive before or after their food sources have appeared. Many of the planet’s great migrations have already disappeared.
By increasing public awareness of the troubles of migratory animals and committing to the preservation not only of individual species but also their way of life，many migrations can still be saved.Migrations should be saved，if not for the absolute fear that seeing millions of animals moving with one purpose elicits，then for their ecological importance.
“What we really want to protect is the natural phenomenon of abundance，”Wilcove said.“If we wait until migrating animals are endangered，then we lose both the ecosystem benefits associated with their abundance and also the wonder and majesty(壮丽)of migrations.”
“It’s like global warming” he said.“You have to alert people，and after a while，the public knows about it and they do something about it.That’s when the big changes will come about.I think there’s absolute hope.”When animals begin to migrate，they will________.
| A．achieve it whatever is needed |
| B．spend half of their lives in migrating |
| C．make the journey in an individual way |
| D．adapt to the season at a fixed place |
Which of the following affects flowering times?
| A．Habitat destruction. |
| B．The building of dams. |
| C．Global warming. |
| D．The use of natural resources. |
Migrations should be saved because________.
| A．it is a pleasure to see millions of animals moving with one purpose |
| B．the way of individual species’ life should be protected |
| C．it is environmentally critical mass movement |
| D．the benefits of the ecosystem are connected with it |
The attitude of Wilcove towards saving migrations is ________.
| A．sympathetic |
| B．negative |
| C．suspicious |
| D．optimistic |
What’s the passage mainly about?
| A．Animals’ migrations need saving. |
| B．Global warming makes animals migrate more frequently. |
| C．Animals’ migrations are affected by their environment. |
| D．Migrating animals are reducing in numbers rapidly. |
阅读理解
Lack of water creates a survival problem for all desert animals.And animals can live only within a relatively narrow temperature range.For four or five months of the year，the daily temperatures in the desert may actually go beyond this range.So survival for desert animals is very difficult.
Fortunately，most desert animals have evolved (进化) to solve the heat and water problems the desert environment creates.
Take Phainopepla, a slim black bird for example. It breeds during the relatively cool spring，then leave the desert for cooler areas.Many birds are active only at dawn and within a few hours of sunset.Some birds，such as the kingbird，continue activity throughout the day，but always fly or sit in the shade.
A few desert animals，such as the Roundtailed Ground Squirrel，sleep away the hottest part of the summer.They also hibernate (冬眠) in winter to avoid the cold season.Some desert animals such as Desert Toads，stay deep under the ground until the summer rains fill ponds. They then come out from under the ground，breed，lay eggs and supply themselves with food and water for another long period.Some smaller desert animals make a hole below the surface of the soil or sand to escape the high temperatures at the desert surface.
Certain desert lizards (蜥蝎) are active during the hottest seasons，and move extremely rapidly over hot surfaces，stopping in cooler “islands” of shade.Even their legs may be longer so they absorb less surface heat while running.How many survival problems are mentioned for desert animals in Paragraph 1 ?
| A．One. |
| B．Two. |
| C．Three. |
| D．Four. |
When can we have the highest chance to see many birds in a desert?
| A．In early afternoon. |
| B．Around midday. |
| C．In early morning. |
| D．In late morning. |
The Roundtailed Ground Squirrel escapes the extreme temperatures by________.
| A．sitting in the shade |
| B．lying in a hole |
| C．stopping its activity |
| D．moving to cool habitats |
According to the passage，which of the following are the most active desert animals?
| A．Lizards. |
| B．Desert Toads. |
| C．Phainopepla. |
| D．Roundtailed Ground Squirrel. |
What would be the best title for the passage?
| A．Survival of Desert Animals. |
| B．Evolution of Desert Animals. |
| C．Dangers of Desert Animals. |
| D．Hibernation of Desert Animals. |